Ipad Air (aka Ipad 5), Ipad Mini Retina Thread

[cronos]

^^^ Actually, the non-Retina MBP is still available new for purchase, but only in the 13" size.

Heh you're right! I just glanced over the 'macbook pro' page at apple.com earlier and they're only showing the two new retina options (13" and 15"), but if I go through as if I'm actually buying something, then I get the non-retina all the way to the left like a red headed step child

It's also an Ivy Bridge, and with an extra $100 you'll get the 2013 rMBP with Haswell. Not going to be worth the trade-off for most people. Maybe if you can get a refurb unit with more discount.

 

[MrX8503]

Of course they could have. There's plenty of space. Right before it curves down, they could of added a port. But i guess they make more $$$ selling it back to you.

Maybe they can, maybe they can't. There's nothing wrong with Apple making money especially when their rMBP line is unrivaled. Too many people want a free meal for nothing. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

 

[gorcorps]

As openwheel says, it's a gimmick.

Jk, I understand that it's a useful feature, and I wish they included that. It's unusual for Apple not to integrate this feature. You'd think they'd roll out services across the board like Siri, Facetime, etc.

Actually it's becoming less unusual which is what's troubling. Just like the ipad mini didn't get a retina display, these ipads aren't getting the TouchID feature. I know they sound like little things and maybe not everybody cares about them, but it shows me that there seems to be more of a disconnect in development throughout Apple than there has been previous.

 

[Eug]

This is not a disconnect, this is Apple intentionally holding back features for various reasons, not the least of which is market positioning. This has been true for a decade, so it's not a huge surprise it was true for this launch too.

 

[Red Storm]

Touch ID is a non-issue to me so I wouldn't mind even if it got held back forever. I like that they made the regular iPad look more like the Mini, it has a much better form. The low storage and very high price are deal killers though.

 

[foghorn67]

I'm kind of curious what people expect at this point? All of the low hanging fruit has been plucked. Everything is mostly just incremental upgrades at this point. The next big breakthrough in my mind will be a battery that can last for several days or a device that uses flexible screens really well as either of those will have a big impact on the design of these devices.



Why does Apple need to make a stylus? There are already loads of third party styli out there.

I expect a stylus at this point. And those linked are not the same. I expect a real stylus with accuracy and levels of pressures.

How about starting with that? I really don't think people realize what the impact would be if Apple did this. It will be huge.

 

[openwheel]

Actually it's becoming less unusual which is what's troubling. Just like the ipad mini didn't get a retina display, these ipads aren't getting the TouchID feature. I know they sound like little things and maybe not everybody cares about them, but it shows me that there seems to be more of a disconnect in development throughout Apple than there has been previous.

they can run into supply issues with the sensor. Why bother with TouchID when iPads will fly off the shelf anyway? Luxury brands are not known to include more standard features in my experience. They want you to wait and pay!!!

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Touch ID is a non-issue to me so I wouldn't mind even if it got held back forever. I like that they made the regular iPad look more like the Mini, it has a much better form. The low storage and very high price are deal killers though.

same here, why would you want to be fingerprinted by a corporation?

 

[Ravynmagi]

same here, why would you want to be fingerprinted by a corporation?

The fingerprint isn't sent to Apple.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5949

 

[Mopetar]

Actually it's becoming less unusual which is what's troubling. Just like the ipad mini didn't get a retina display, these ipads aren't getting the TouchID feature. I know they sound like little things and maybe not everybody cares about them, but it shows me that there seems to be more of a disconnect in development throughout Apple than there has been previous.

This makes the assumption that there were a sufficient quantity of parts for Apple to include in these products. Given that the upcoming quarter is contains Christmas and it's usually the best quarter for most hardware companies, it's possible that there were not enough TouchID sensors available to include in all of the product lines. Keep in mind that this is a company that is expected to sell tens of millions of these devices.

Last year they sold slightly more than 20 million iPads and nearly 50 million phones. Although not all of those are the most recent model, it's suspected that many are. If they were to include the TouchID on all of their devices, they would probably need at least 60 million sensors. That's a lot of anything to produce, especially when the first product to use them just started shipping a month ago.

I'm sure that they probably wanted to include this feature on their iPad line, but realized that it wasn't going to be possible to do so, at least not without limiting their production. At the end of the day they need to keep the stock price up, and that means having another blow-out quarter, which means they need to ship as much product as possible.

 

[Geekbabe]

I'm really interested in why Apple has renamed the iPad to iPad Air. That announcement had me kinda wondering if Apple was going to announced another 9.7 inch or larger iPad. That didn't happen, but with rumors of Apple looking at larger sizes, I wonder if a larger iPad is imminent?

I'm okay with the iPad Mini pricing. $400 seems reasonable for something that now has the same specs as their $500 tablet. Same screen resolution (and higher DPI), same A7 processor. So the iPad mini at $400 kinda seems like a pretty nice deal.

Still disappointed with the $100 increments for storage capacities or 16GB being the base model. 16GB is no longer sufficient for me and it pains me to pay an extra $100 for 16GB more storage. But Apple knows they can still get away with that, so they do.

So I'll have to end up spending $500 on my iPad mini, which I'm not quite as enthused about. I'm debating between this and $430 on a Fire HDX 8.9 32GB. I have Amazon Prime, so it's a kinda compelling alternative.

I was considering the 8.9 inch HDX, reports of blue light bleed on the 7 inch hdx has me concerned though.

 

[Joe1987]

I was considering the 8.9 inch HDX, reports of blue light bleed on the 7 inch hdx has me concerned though.

I really hate the Amazon app store, some of what they carry are really bad, and some are a generation or 2 behind what's in Google Play, if they're in the app store at all.

I also don't like that they haven't ported over Amazon Movies to Google Play, sort of short sighted IMHO.

 

[Geekbabe]

I really hate the Amazon app store, some of what they carry are really bad, and some are a generation or 2 behind what's in Google Play, if they're in the app store at all.

I also don't like that they haven't ported over Amazon Movies to Google Play, sort of short sighted IMHO.

Yeah but sideloading apps from sites like 1mobile cures a lot of ills, if you're an Amazon Prime member there is much good in kindle tablets.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I was considering the 8.9 inch HDX, reports of blue light bleed on the 7 inch hdx has me concerned though.

Seems like almost every tablet had some backlight bleeding. The Fire HDX has bluish backlighting instead of white, so it's a slightly different color. As long as the bleed isn't too bad, I don't think it'll be an issue. And Amazon is very good and quick with replacements if you get one that does have a problem.

PS. My previous Kindle Fire tablets have been pretty good about having minimal backlight bleeding. Hope that luck continues.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Disappointment from the price increase for the good Mini inspired me to buy the 16GB Nexus 7 tonight.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

the 32gb Nexus 7 was $249 on eBay tonight....

 

[jpeyton]

I got a 32GB Nexus 7 Gen2 w/ LTE for $300 off the classifieds; already running TMo LTE on it.

Up/down speeds are faster than my Comcast cable internet.

 

[kaerflog]

The nexus 7 is a great deal indeed but I like the 8" factor a lot more. It gives me more real estate while I can still palm it with one hand.
I still would have bought the nexus 7 but all that extra bezels is a big turnoff.
I said it last year had apple made the mini the exact spec as the regular I would have paid the same $499.
The way I look at it now is that its the same as the regular with with the form factor I want for $100 less.
I do agree that at this day and age 32gb should be the minimum given the price point.

 

[poofyhairguy]

the 32gb Nexus 7 was $249 on eBay tonight....

I thought about it and I really don't need 32gb on what is the fourth tablet in my house- it will never hold a full HD movie. Plus I want to try and use the cloud more.

Glad I did, I have random write scores better than any review I have seen (above 1).

 

[Harry_Wild]

Before the Mini was just a miniaturized iPad2 so it was cheap. The new Retina Mini seems to be a shrunk down iPad Air, so it's almost surprising it's still cheaper than the Air.

Ah...... I think it is the Mini design that became the Air(a big Mini). LOL!