The official iPad 3 rumors, speculation, and wants thread

[BD2003]

Your internet connection is slow. My iPhone pulls pages up just as fast as my desktop / laptop

No. YOUR internet is too slow, if it's such a bottleneck that your iPhone can pull up as fast as a laptop. On my 50mb connection, they're not even in the same ballpark. Or, you really need a new laptop.

 

[bearxor]

Actually no. Since I use a smart cover, I rarely ever see the unlock screen. It really just stems from the organization of iOS. iOS works fine on the iphone/ipod, as it was originally designed for the smaller screens. But I don't know about you, but I feel like a hell of a lot of screen space is wasted on the ipad by generously spacing out apps. I'm not saying we need more apps on the screen, but useful realtime info would be nice.

Not only that, the general organization of apps is atrocious. Why should all my games be clumped together with all my other apps? Of course the answer here, is to reorganize, put all games on a page and in folders categorizing them by genre. But here's where I'm going to ask a stupid question. Why doesn't iOS already do that for me? The app store is already laid out by type of app (games, productivity, video/photography, etc) and even by genre of games (platforming, puzzle, board, action, sports, etc). So why are all my apps thrown by default on this blank board for me to reorganize? For a company that is known for making good human UIs, it just seems backward.


And perhaps a lot of what I'm saying might be how android does it. I dunno, I can't say as I've only used android in the little time I installed it on a touchpad. I just know that apple could do a lot more to make the ipad's OS properly use a large screen.

So... Your problem is just with the homescreen then?

 

[BD2003]

So... Your problem is just with the homescreen then?

It def feels like the part of iOS that most needs an overhaul.

 

[alfa147x]

No. YOUR internet is too slow, if it's such a bottleneck that your iPhone can pull up as fast as a laptop. On my 50mb connection, they're not even in the same ballpark. Or, you really need a new laptop.

Yup. That's it.

 

[BD2003]

Yup. That's it.

Think it through, it'll click eventually.

 

[alfa147x]

I think you're trolling. At the office our iPad 2's don't break a sweat trying to load pages. Internal or external.

 

[BD2003]

I think you're trolling. At the office our iPad 2's don't break a sweat trying to load pages. Internal or external.

Take Anand's word for it then:

the iPhone 4S (left) loads the AnandTech front page over WiFi in about 5 seconds compared to 9 seconds on the iPhone 4 (right). That's really the best case scenario, the improvement in the next page load time was only about a second (7s vs 8s).

My desktop can load the front page in under a second, easy. There's a huge performance gap there.

 

[alfa147x]

My desktop can load the front page in under a second, easy.

But can Anand's on that test bench?

Your desktop and those tests are completely different test scenarios

 

[bearxor]

It def feels like the part of iOS that most needs an overhaul.

I don't disagree. God knows I'm tired of looking at the same pages of icons after 4 years. But is that the benchmark for 'iOS isn't optimized for a tablet'? One thing?

 

[BD2003]

But can Anand's on that test bench?

Your desktop and those tests are completely different test scenarios

??

The point you're missing is that it took 9 seconds to load a simple web page. Even if a desktop couldn't do it 5 times faster, that's still too slow!

 

[alfa147x]

??

The point you're missing is that it took 9 seconds to load a simple web page. Even if a desktop couldn't do it 5 times faster, that's still too slow!

But that's highly dependent on their internet connection.

 

[fatpat268]

So... Your problem is just with the homescreen then?

Sure. What else is iOS? The rest of the tablet interface is done by individual apps. What I do see of iOS is the homescreen, and it's abysmal.

I guess appswitching/multitasking could be better, but it works for the most part...

I don't disagree. God knows I'm tired of looking at the same pages of icons after 4 years. But is that the benchmark for 'iOS isn't optimized for a tablet'? One thing?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. It's the main UI you're looking at, and it was designed for a 3.5 inch screen, not a 10 inch one. By definition, that means it's not optimized for a tablet. What else could I mean? The performance has been and continues to be good. It's how I interact with iOS that is the problem.

 

[BD2003]

But that's highly dependent on their internet connection.

Right. If the connection is too slow, it'll be the bottleneck and an iPad/iPhone might not seem so comparatively slow.

What's more likely, that anand has a terrible wifi connection, or that the piddly SoC in a mobile device actually can't crunch the numbers to load a page as fast as a real PC?

 

[alfa147x]

Right. If its too slow, it'll be the bottleneck and an iPad/iPhone might not seem so comparatively slow.

What's more likely, that anand has a terrible wifi connection, or that the piddly SoC in a mobile device actually can't crunch the numbers to load a page as fast as a real PC?

It is just a webpage

 

[BD2003]

It is just a webpage

"Just a web page" contains a ton of code and heavy formatting nowadays. Craigslist blazes on an iPad, normal sites, not so much.

 

[alfa147x]

"Just a web page" contains a ton of code and heavy formatting nowadays. Craigslist blazes on an iPad, normal sites, not so much.

iPad 1 or 2? It might be something wrong with your own iPad. Honestly though. We use a lot of web applications that are on local servers and they are blazing fast.

 

[bearxor]

Sure. What else is iOS? The rest of the tablet interface is done by individual apps. What I do see of iOS is the homescreen, and it's abysmal.

I guess appswitching/multitasking could be better, but it works for the most part...




I'm not sure what you're trying to say. It's the main UI you're looking at, and it was designed for a 3.5 inch screen, not a 10 inch one. By definition, that means it's not optimized for a tablet. What else could I mean? The performance has been and continues to be good. It's how I interact with iOS that is the problem.

I hope Apple throws in a bunch of widgets and stuff to appease you in iOS 6. I honestly can't think of a better way to organize stuff.

Android doesn't do it differently. They just give you a blank home screen and then you drag your favorite apps on to it and to get to everything else, you press a button to launch a screen with a bunch of icons on a grid.

Windows Phone just gives you a straight list instead of a grid.

webOS gives you the blank home screen and the grid of icons.

BlackBerry 7 is more of the same.

Just not sure how you'd go about it. The launcher is still different though. 6 app icons in the dock vs 4 and a grid of 5x4 instead of 4x4. It's done that way, IMO, to provide a seamless transition between portrait/landscape.

Maybe this is content for another thread, like a 'how would you change the iPad's user interface' thread or something.

 

[alfa147x]

For a touch based OS icons are a must. I do think spotlight needs an overhaul

 

[BD2003]

iPad 1 or 2? It might be something wrong with your own iPad. Honestly though. We use a lot of web applications that are on local servers and they are blazing fast.

Both. The iPad 2 is faster, but both are too slow. Its the reason anand even posted those numbers in the first place. You don't see web page loading tests for the core i7 or even i3 because both are so ridiculously fast it's not worth it. Dunno what else to tell you if it's not sinking in.

Anyways, on a more constructive note, I wonder if beyond just simply adding more cores or increasing clock speed, if there's a way to hardware accelerate webpage loading like they do with video?

 

[alfa147x]

Both. The iPad 2 is faster, but both are too slow. Its the reason anand even posted those numbers in the first place. You don't see web page loading tests for the core i7 or even i3 because both are so ridiculously fast it's not worth it. Dunno what else to tell you if it's not sinking in.

Anyways, on a more constructive note, I wonder if beyond just simply adding more cores or increasing clock speed, if there's a way to hardware accelerate webpage loading like they do with video?

GPU acceleration? I'm pretty sure that's happening already. So I wonder where the bottleneck is. CPU?

 

[runawayprisoner]

Take Anand's word for it then:

My desktop can load the front page in under a second, easy. There's a huge performance gap there.

I usually don't say this, but I think Anand has/had a problem with his internet connection.

My iPhone 4 (not S) can load Anandtech front page in 5 seconds on 3G...

Or 4 seconds on my WIFI.

2 if it's already been loaded before.

Don't have a 4S to test, but I'd think it should go even faster. Here are some iPad 2 numbers:

Anandtech front page: 2 seconds
Anandtech front page reload: 1 second
Engadget front page: 4 seconds
Engadget front page reload: 1.5 seconds

Worth noting is that I know for sure my iPad 2 has issues with certain routers. I switched to an Airport Extreme for the house and stopped worrying about network bottlenecks.

 

[BD2003]

My 4s can load the AT home page over wifi in about 4 seconds. This is at 26/9 (just tested via speedtest).

Trying it on my mini (dual core sandy bridge i3), its not even possible to time by hand. Its well under a second.

The network just can't be the bottleneck here.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Then I think something is wrong with your phone. Or it may be that you have Siri on. I have read elsewhere that having Siri enabled can significantly slow the phone down. Otherwise, I don't see how your 4S is just barely faster than my 4. I know for sure the iPad 2 is a lot faster.

On my MacBook (quad-core i7), the page still takes a good 2s for everything to be rendered, and I know it's not network because I saved a local copy on the hard drive. The only way by which it can take less than 1 second is if you never exited out of the browser and the browser still keeps the cache of the page. But that's more a RAM limitation than a processor limitation.

Also I haven't heard of a Mac Mini with a Core i3... are you perhaps referring to an iMac?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Then I think something is wrong with your phone. Or it may be that you have Siri on. I have read elsewhere that having Siri enabled can significantly slow the phone down. Otherwise, I don't see how your 4S is just barely faster than my 4. I know for sure the iPad 2 is a lot faster.

On my MacBook (quad-core i7), the page still takes a good 2s for everything to be rendered, and I know it's not network because I saved a local copy on the hard drive. The only way by which it can take less than 1 second is if you never exited out of the browser and the browser still keeps the cache of the page. But that's more a RAM limitation than a processor limitation.

Also I haven't heard of a Mac Mini with a Core i3... are you perhaps referring to an iMac?

It is tough to make these comparisons across different connections/hardware/software/settings/etc. For me, in Firefox the AT front page loads very quickly (usually less than 1 second) because I have Adblock, Flashblock, etc. and I block most external domains. In the past, I have had page loads hang on simple DNS lookups for the ad farms. (No more, AT -- if you want me to see your ads, serve them all up locally.) iPad/iPhone/etc. obviously don't load Flash. Safari does, so it's noticeably slower than FF for me (2-3 seconds at least). Caching of page elements and DNS will noticeably affect your results -- and some of that might vary depending on your router and ISP.

 

[alfa147x]

I used my DD-WRT, ReadyNAS, PLEX local pages to test.