If the retina display doesn't do it for you, then chances are you may never been WOWed by a new iPad... at least not many years to come.
These exact same arguments have been made with every release of the IPhone and, so far, with every new iPad. Apple will never satisfy the entire collective. The first iPads hardware got a lot of flack for its lack of cameras. Apple responded with a thinner, lighter, faster iPad with cameras -- but it got a lot of "who cares? I want retina" type reviews. Apple then turbo charges the 3rd iPad and manages a retina display with virtually no loss of performance. -- and now people cry that they want beta Siri and hd FaceTime.
Yeah, I was just expecting a little bit more. The iPad 3 could have been so much bigger with some new functionality (software).I like your comment about IOS 5.1 it was a bit boring this year also the new apps too. I enjoyed Garage band and yes it got the update but Iphoto is boring. I was hoping for Real Racing 3 HD.
I agree with you that it is great that they have managed to give the iPad 3 such a great display, improve the GPU, improve the rear-facing camera and add LTE support while adding minimum weight and thickness for the same price.the ipad 3 did not make me weep for joy, but it is a solid improvement and hands-down the best tablet out there, probably the best one we will see again this year. the second best might be the asus transformer prime, but it is pretty close in performance to the ipad 2, so i think it is fair to say apple has the number 1 and number 2 models on the market.
so, while it may not strike some people as impressive that the ipad 3 has managed to bring us a retina display in a unit that weighs about the same as the ipad 2, i think it says something that no one else in the world can even come close to producing a competitor. we need to take a step back and consider what we have: easily one of the best displays in the world, on one of the fastest tablets in the world, at a cost about the same or less than competing models. wow. just amazing.
Yeah, I feel like the $499-model should be 32 GB next year, but I think they didn't want to do that this year because of the higher costs of the new battery, LEDs (backlight) and the display itself.GOod post op, the die shrink is the only thing you missed, that's what's missing from this gen of the iPad, that and better storage options, 16gb is a joke, anyone will fill it up with a couple of textbooks apps and games, and have no space left. iOS 5.1 is also very dated as well, it's stable, it's pretty fast (not on iPad 1 of course) but that's about it.
I completely understand what you mean, but Apple simply doesn't focus on the group you belong to. They focus on people who like new technology (so with the third-gen iPad, for example, that was a 2048 x 1536 display which 'wow-ed' "techies"), and they focus on people who have little knowledge of how technology works. Especially that second group is considered important.I sold my iPad because it ended up collecting dust. I felt as if Apple just "added" on features to the last model. Once you get past the retina display it became boring to me and it's size became a burden. I did not have any performance issues but iOS is old, the App store is too "rich" and the OS/hardware is locked down.
So instead I bought a Nexus 7. It's exactly opposite what the iPad was. I can hold it with one hand, game play feels comfortable, you can customize the crap out of it, overclock the cpu/gpu, built in gps, cheaper apps, add usb memory sticks, keyboards, mice, gamepads; everything that the iPad couldn't do for over half the cost.
And funny as this may sound I might end up getting a new iPhone only because it's something different and I will not need anything larger than 4 inches since the Nexus 7 does a good job of filling that roll. For the last 9 months I really pushed my Samsung Nexus hard but after getting the Nexus 7 my usage dropped over 50%. The iPhone should be good for basic use, have excellent choices for battery cases and because it will be a Verizon upgrade it will have included tethering. But then again HTC my release a 1920x1080p 5 inch pen based beast that will put both the iPhone and the Nexus 7 to shame.