Don't attack people!
Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
PLEASE IGNORE THEM!!!
Consumers Reports blows it again Ping!
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Posted on 03/15/2011 9:43:24 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Many stores reportedly sold out of the Apple iPad 2 during its first weekend of availability, but given the demand, more of Apple's new tablets are sure to be available soon. Based on Consumer Reports' preliminary tests with iPad 2 samples in our labs, we found the new version to be an improvement over the original iPad—without any increase in price.
One major difference in tech specs is that the iPad 2 has a new processor that's supposed to make it far speedier than the original. While performing routine tasks such as Web browsing and e-mail in our tests, we didn't notice any significant speed improvement, as CR Senior Program Leader Dean Gallea notes in our video (right). The biggest speed boost, a 9x improvement in graphics processing, should be apparent when you run demanding 3D games, but it's not clear whether any games that take advantage of that higher speed are yet available. Surely some are in the pipeline for the coming months.
The iPad 2's display appears to match the quality of the first iPad's fine display. Also, besides being thinner and lighter than the original, the iPad 2 has a webcam for videoconferencing and a rear-facing camera for shooting photos and videos. In our tests, videoconferencing worked well for face-to-face conversations; either party can surf the Web or run other iPad 2 apps without interrupting the call.
The iPad 2's rear camera, with just 0.7 megapixels of resolution and no flash or manual controls, is far more limited for shooting stills than the Motorola Xoom's 5-megapixel camera, which has a flash and controls for picture size (resolution), white balance, picture quality, color effects, scene modes, exposure level, and focus mode.
One more new feature is the iPad 2's Smart Cover, which attaches to the tablet magnetically; when you close the cover, your iPad 2 goes into sleep mode, and when you open the cover, the iPad wakes up. (You can see just how that works in our video.)
Bottom line: By keeping iPad 2 prices the same as those of the original iPad, Apple has kept its market-leading tablet more than competitive with the small-but-growing field of Android-based tablets. The Motorola Xoom seems to be the iPad 2's chief rival for now, but it's pricier than a comparably configured iPad 2, and it's thicker and heavier as well.
As Dean Gallea notes in our video, the iPad 2 is a very good choice in the tablet market. Still, many more tablets are expected to reach market this year. The tablet race is far from over.
We'll continue our lab tests, including battery-life testing, and expect to add the Apple iPad 2 to our Ratings (available to subscribers) within a week or so.
—Jeff Fox
IBAH (In Before Apple Haters)
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But with the iPod, iPhone and iPad, apple and its people have shown outside of the box thinking. They learned the lesson: don't compete, create new markets and that's just what they've done. I'd have one of these in a second, if I could afford one. *sigh*
I hate them all micros for killing the great minis, DEC, Sun, Prime, others. The other day I read that Facebook was establishing a data center over 150 acres in North Carolina. 150 acres? That’s because the “modern” data center, instead of having a mainframe or a row of a bunch of minis, consists of thousands of racks of goddamn 8086 PCs!
I just want something to release me from the ball and chain that my computer represents now. I got a quad-core. Nice system. terabyte drive. 6 months old. Optical mouse and kb, but I’m still tied down to it.
I’ve got a year old Intel i5 laptop and it’s a beaut, no complaints. Would buy Apple toys too, they’re cool.
Sorry to burst your bubble, Heartland, but that "expensive" Mac will run MORE software than will your Windows PC. Not only will the Mac run all OSX software, all UNIX software natively (OSX is one of the four fully certified, registered and Trademarked UNIX brands), all LINUX software, and all WINDOWS and DOS software either natively or in a virtual machine in a sandboxed window under OSX. Plus with readily available emulators, it can run AmigaOS, C64, Atari OS, and several other esoteric operating systems. Pn top of all that, with the SDK, the Mac runs all 350,000 plus iOS apps for the iPad and iPhones. that really trumps the number of software for the PC.
You can also install a virtual machine under Windows, Linux, etc. and do the exact same thing (like run OSX or any other OS targeted for x86 platforms) ... plus emulators of “classic systems” have been around for over a decade now (I helped develop a few on PCs and create them in FPGAs when I am bored). These are not exclusive Mac features you know.
If I were a resident Mac salesperson on a political discussion forum, I would hype up the desktop features any Mac has out of the box vs. the (pathetic) MS PC counterparts and why people should pay a premium for them.
Also, the ability to run 350K apps targeted to portable devices isn’t exactly worth bragging about. Running a relatively low res iPhone/iPad app on your desktop is hardly worth it when there are usually better desktop versions available. Given the desktop rendering capabilities of the Mac, why would this be a selling point? I mean, would you really want someone to run, say, Safari for iPad on their Mac?
Can you clarify/elaborate on the exact Unix software OSX runs? I’m not saying you are wrong ... just curious, that’s all.
I should point out that it is forbidden (by Apple) for a user to install OSX on ANY machine that is not Apple hardware ... even if you purchased OSX, you are NOT allowed to install it on hardware of your choosing. This is not a dig against Apple either ... it’s their product, their rules. I just don’t want to come off as someone who endorses the violation of end user agreements :-).
WTF? why would they do this?
Ok, it’s a lot faster when you are surfing sites with photos. A lot faster!
Come on, who is going to take their iPad for use as a camera, really? Other than the face time thing. Who’s going to take out this big tablet and snap photos of the taj mahal?
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