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| Apple unveils iPad mini |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-10-23 19:12:55 |
| It's one of those days again: Apple held a product announcement today, announcing several new products. The most important of which was rumoured about for a long time now: a smaller iPad. It's called the iPad mini, and has the potential to become the best-selling iPad - and thus, the best selling tablet. |
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| RE[3]: plastic is not crap |
| By MOS6510 on 2012-10-24 06:29:30 |
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So you're saying we shouldn't use an iPad mini for arial combat? If a near future article states "the iPad mini hasn't taken off" I now know the deeper meaning behind it. |
 - Score: 3 |
| RE: Took 3 versions of the iPad to get the display right |
| By Kroc on 2012-10-24 06:33:39 |
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> For that extortionate price ... Because it's "extortionate" for Apple to make a profit, _any_ profit? The Nexus is being sold at cost. If Apple sold the iPad mini at cost, I'm fairly sure it would be cheaper than the Nexus simply because of their _much_ tighter engineering and manufacturing that's pumping these things out by the millions. |
| - Score: 0 |
| Too late ! |
| By Kochise on 2012-10-24 06:52:04 |
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Bought an "SUSV" Nexus 7 one week ago :p Jelly Bean 4.1.2 is a breeze, coding is a pleasure ! 249 €/$ for a 16 GB device, 7" impressive 1280x800 IPS, 1.3 GHZ quad-core Tegra 3, wifi+bt+gps+nfc, it just lack rear cam (not that important for a tablet) and a microSD slot. 350 g ! Last more than 9 hours 1080p playback. Updates are immediately available (unlike many many Android devices) and the PlayStore is full open. No needs to root the device, you can install anything and code as you wish (just download the Nexus 7 ADB driver from ASUS). iPad ? No ways... Kochise Edited 2012-10-24 06:58 UTC |
| - Score: 6 |
| yawn |
| By unclefester on 2012-10-24 08:38:41 |
| The Blackberry Playbook was released in 2010 with overall better hardware than the iPad mini. The Playbook is also around half the price. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE: resolution variability |
| By wocowboy on 2012-10-24 09:53:47 |
| You are exactly right, but it was an opportunity for Thom to get in a dig at Apple in the article, pure and simple. The same thing applies to Android and the dozens of screen resolutions of all the various phones and tablets that exist. That's great for choice, but horrible for developers, who have to try and support all those resolutions. Sadly it doesn't happen, and some apps work on some phones and tablets and others don't. Combine that with the fact that most of the Android devices out there are running an OS that is 4-5 versions back from the latest one, and you have a true mess. Apple is avoiding this mess by making the iPad mini's screen resolution a complete non-issue for developers. Existing apps all WORK. |
| - Score: 0 |
| RE[2]: resolution variability |
| By wocowboy on 2012-10-24 09:56:06 |
| That's fine, and I hope people gripe on here as much about the resultant black bars from letterboxing with Windows 8 as they did about the black bars on the iPhone 5's bigger screen, but somehow I doubt that will happen. |
| - Score: -1 |
| RE[2]: Interesting |
| By MollyC on 2012-10-24 10:18:29 |
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Will you be splurging on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro for its "retina display"? I hope not, because resolution aside, that is a p.o.s. device considering its $1700 price tag. One thing I don't get about "retina display" fanboys, if "retina display" is so great, how come you guys don't demand it on your 27-inch monitors, where it would REALLY shine? Seems a waste on a small screen, if you ask me. I admit that my aging eyes aren't sharp enough to see individual pixels on a phone or tablet at 720p so using a higher resolution would make no difference to me on such small screens. But you young-uns claim to be able to see individual pixels on those small screens, and therefore do back flips over "retina display"; but it seems that on a big 23-inch or 27-inch monitor, you'd be able to see individual pixels even more, yet you're satisfied with 1080p on those big monitors. It makes no sense, and seems to me to be a good bit of brainwashing by Apple's superb marketing machine, an outfit which could successfully convice folks that a new Apple-branded abacus is a newly invented revolutionary "game changing" computing device. When I see "retina display" fanboys condemn Apple's retina-display-less laptops and iMacs for lack of such a display AND when I see those same "retina display" fanboys open their wallets for Apple's retina display $1700 dual-core laptops and $2200 quad-core laptops for the sole purpose of getting a "retina display", then I'll believe that they really do think that "retina display" is all that and a bag of chips. But until then, I'll continue to maintain that "retina display" serves only two purposes: as a talking point for Apple's marketing machine as they run out of ideas, and as ammo for Apple's fanboys to use in the fanboy wars. :) |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: yawn |
| By MollyC on 2012-10-24 10:27:02 |
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Maybe, but it's from RIM, who is one of the companies the tech media loves to piss on and root against. Apple is on the other extreme, where they get praised for even mediocre crap, like the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. That people are actually going to praise and buy that thing for $1700 just because it has "retina" display, despite being mediocre in all other aspects, is a joke, but is also a credit to Apple's marketing machine, and is also an illustration of the tech media allowing Apple to get away murder (figuratively speaking, of course). |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE[2]: resolution variability |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-10-24 10:44:30 |
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It's still a trade-off. Apple's choices have made it more difficult to let iOS and its applications support multiple resolutions - but they did so to make it easier on developer. However, the downside is that resolution has become a constraining factor in designing iOS hardware. Android made a different choice, with different tradeoffs. Pointing that out is not a dig at Apple - it's a simple and cold fact. |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE[3]: plastic is not crap |
| By acobar on 2012-10-24 11:42:53 |
| From a materials engineering perspective you are right. Problem is, people or lacks the knowledge, in which case they just throw all kind of plastics in the same trashcan, or go for what they see as beautiful, what can be disputed as wise but is a valid argument, or do not give a damn and sheep follows whatever is trend. |
| - Score: 2 |
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