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iPad What's Actually New in the iPad Air?
- Thread starter John55455
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Totally agree. To add to this, I'm sure many people will upgrade to the Air from their 3 or 4 just for the weight cut. My brother has an iPad 4, and it is heavy when you pay attention to the weight. Your wrist can get tired holding it for an extended period. Other than that, if people REALLY need better camera, CPU power, Wi-Fi power that MIMO will provide...that would be the only reason to upgrade. Unless ofcourse, you just want to keep up with the latest & greatest.
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Thinner and lighter is a big deal for the big iPad. The performance (both CPU and GPU) is doubled compared to iPad 4th generation + of course the M7 coprocessor. Besides that there are some improvements in wifi and ff camera. The only thing it doesn't have is touch ID (which has caused low supplies of the iPhone 5s around the world). Now imagine if they'd included it in the new iPads.
Exactly
I apologize but I do not really see the weight cut as that of a big deal. Is less than 200 grams that big of a deal weight wise for a device that is mostly laying down flat or on someones lap? It is not like people are using iPads while holding them above their heads for hours on and on or by their ears trying to make a phone call?
Most people will slap a big, heavy and ugly case on the iPad air and will end up with 2-3 pounds devices defeating the weight cut gains in the first place anyway.
Most people will slap a big, heavy and ugly case on the iPad air and will end up with 2-3 pounds devices defeating the weight cut gains in the first place anyway.
We've seen all of these in previous devices... (iPhone 5s, iPad Mini)
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Actually only 5 minutes was given to the iPad Air at the event...
Only if your bottleneck is wifi (e.g. syncing iTunes content from wired computer to iPad). Most of the time, your bottleneck is the internet connection unless you've got 100+Mbps internet.
Isn't it making thinner, smaller, lighter with higher performance and with the same battery life (not proven yet I admit) enough? Do we really know how hard (or easy) it is to make it smaller? Maybe Apple makes it sounds like it is some monumental task to squeeze it into an ever-shrinking pkg so we feel it is a massive achievement. OTOH, maybe it really took a lot of engineering chops to accomplish it, and most of us can't appreciate what really goes into it.
Can't speak for other people, but *I* want lighter so it's easier to tote it around in my bag drying the day. Ever since the mini came out, I've been carrying around the mini with me when I go out, but I miss the larger screen. At home, I've been using the 3, because like you say, I rest it on my lap, so the weight difference isn't that crucial.
As for slapping on a case, I always use cases with my iPads, not only for drop / scratch protection, but also because I find that cases make the iPads easier to grip. Thus, an iPad Air with case will be lighter than my current iPad 3 with case. I am, of course, looking to get as light a case as possible for the Air. I'll probably give Apple's new Smart Case a try, but if I find something lighter, I'll go for that.
Do you get more speed testing normally say on those internet speedtests?
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They are saving the upgraded camera and Touch ID for a release 6 months down the line. Do I care and are those things deal breakers for me? No, will still get the Air then a next gen a couple cycles down the line.
I seriously doubt Apple would go back to releasing major products in the Spring. They went through a great deal of trouble to move all their product releases to the Fall to take advantage of the holiday shopping season, they would have to be crazy to go back to Sring product releases.
That's why I'm coming over from a 3 to the Air. And I'll be getting the bigger screen iPhone 6 coming from the 5.
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I wonder if these will be actually listenable for more than a song or two. I'm not expecting them to be great but if they don't give me a headache that'd be nice.Don't forget the better speakers
Improved camera, too, I believe. Oh, and availability of 128GB model in early 2013.
The only big thing about the move from iPad 2 to iPad 3 is retina display. CPU was the same and GPU got a 2x bump to support 4x the pixels. RAM was also upgraded but that was pretty much a necessity to support the higher resolution.
Apple updates tend to be incremental. They just refine and fine-tune with every iteration. It's really up to the buyer to determine what value he/she places on the new features and refinements.
The 4 also got the hd facetime camera....the 3's are terrible. They gave the 4 the 12w charger too.
Depends on how fast your internet is. I have 100Mbps/5Mbps internet. On the 5GHz band, I get 70Mbps/5Mbps on the iPad 4 and 100Mbps/5Mbps on a laptop with Intel 7260HMW wifi adapter (N300). Alas, I only get those speeds when I'm in the same room as the router. If I move away, I'd have to switch to 2.4GHz and given how congested 2.4GHz is where I live, can't really use 40MHz mode here.
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Shame on you for mentioning that
Just don't be tempted to use it that way and you will be fine. 
Do you think that they just glue an A7 into a iPad 4 ? You may not need a replacement but it's a total new internal redesign.
Nice Upgrade
I myself do plan on upgrading from an iPad 4th generation to the iPad Air. I view this as a nice design change and I'm sure I will notice the weight, size and speed difference since I always have the iPad near when away from my iMac.
Yes, the older generations of the iPads will still work great for many years, but as we notice with new features and Apps, sooner or later the previous generations start to seem dated.
I remember configuring a PC for a friend in 1995 and telling him that a 14.4 modem will be fine and he would never need the added speed of a 28.8!
I myself do plan on upgrading from an iPad 4th generation to the iPad Air. I view this as a nice design change and I'm sure I will notice the weight, size and speed difference since I always have the iPad near when away from my iMac.
Yes, the older generations of the iPads will still work great for many years, but as we notice with new features and Apps, sooner or later the previous generations start to seem dated.
I remember configuring a PC for a friend in 1995 and telling him that a 14.4 modem will be fine and he would never need the added speed of a 28.8!
Gone are days when Apple wowed us with their new products.
Thinner, thinner and thinner. How much more do you think these products can be slimmed down? Didn't they introduce an iPod Nano? Couldn't they make it anymore smaller and thinner? Apparently not. So they decided to discontinue it and produce something different.
At some point, no one will be able to produce a thinner product because it would be physically impossible.
Yes, they will make new incremental improvements, but this whole lighter and thinner hype is beginning to sound silly to me.
Who, exactly, has ever been wowed with something Apple produced except the original iPhone?
The iPad was bashed by critics as just a large iPhone.
The iPod was bashed by critics as a really expensive MP3 player.
Every iPhone/iPod/iPad update has been incremental.
I don't get where you're coming from. What exact version changes were you wowed by?