Apple iPad 2 Review Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Posted on 11/05/2014 11:19:24 PM PST by Swordmaker
When modern tablet computers first arrived to market, many people thought they would be primarily used to consume, rather than create, content. And who could argue? Without a keyboard or mouse, and only a stubby finger to flick, creation seemed like it would be troublesome at best.
My, how things change. My Apple iPad has quickly become an indispensable tool for work. For the last two years I’ve worked from an iPad on a daily basis. I often tout it as my favorite computer even when I’m asked to compare it to my iMac, a full-fledged desktop, or MacBook Air, a featherweight laptop. The iPad’s portability, day-long battery life, and built-in cellular connection—not to mention the broad selection of apps—only help.
As the winter holiday season approaches each year, I find myself more excited for Apple’s iPad event than I am for its iPhone event, which typically precedes it. This year was no different: right on schedule in October, Apple introduced an updated iPad lineup.
The improved iPad line comes at a time when Apple AAPL 0.24% has seen a decline in that product’s sales for three consecutive quarters. The decline itself coincides with a trend in which smartphones, including Apple’s own iPhone, are growing in size. The shift blurs the line between phone and tablet, and prompts the question: where should the iPad fit in our lives?
The new iPad Air 2 (the most notable model of the new crop) offers a display with improved color and contrast, a slimmer profile, and Apple’s fingerprint scanning technology. It also has a faster processor and more storage.
I spent two weeks testing the iPad Air 2, and at the end of my time with the device, I found myself equally impressed and disappointed. The tablet is impressively responsive and smooth when it comes to scrolling through documents or web pages and launching applications. Yet when I set aside the physical keyboard that I used with the device and attempted to use it strictly as a mobile device, I often felt as if the iPad was nothing more than an extra screen offering bigger pictures and larger text than my phone.
(It should come as no surprise that I have been using Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus in recent weeks, which I’m sure helped contribute to the feeling.)
Instead of picking up my iPad to read an article or watch a video on YouTube, I would find myself remaining with the iPhone, the experience just as pleasant. Anecdotally, friends have told me similar scenarios: since upgrading to the iPhone 6 Plus, their iPad sits on a shelf, collecting dust.
The similarities are underscored by the fact that the latest version of iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, is exceedingly similar between the iPad, iPad mini and iPhone 6 Plus. For example, there is now enough room on the iPhone for two column-views in landscape mode, something only the larger iPad previously enjoyed.
But that’s alright. If the tablet is the new laptop, the blurred line between it and the phone matters less, and there may be room for growth at the other end—certainly from a productivity standpoint. I would love to see Apple release a physical keyboard built specifically for the iPad and with software support for custom interactions and auto-correct. I would love the ability to run two apps in a split-screen arrangement, for example. And going out on limb that’s sure to fall, I’d love to see Apple bring more information to the home screen using widgets. Yes, widgets.
Despite these shortcomings, I developed an appreciation for the iPad Air 2. I found the addition of the tablet’s fingerprint sensor for secure access convenient (it works with the handy password manager 1Password) and a productivity boost. The recently released Pixelmator for iPad, an image editor, combined with the new model’s improved graphics performance has helped reaffirm it as a PC replacement for me.
But let’s be honest: My use case is far from the norm. I’ve spent countless hours and dollars researching apps and accessories in order to make the iPad work for me. I have forced the iPad to fit into my life. The average person is less likely to invest that kind of time. For those people, that burden lies at Apple’s feet.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
If it can’t play the same games I play on my pc with same mods, which include extremely high resolution texture pacs, then it will never replace my pc.
What resolution do you like? What kind of games? The iPhone and iPad are becoming the pre-emininent mobile game platform. The iPad Retina 2's screen resolution is 2048 x 1536, beyond most computer screens. The graphic capability is phenomenal. Here is an example of an iPad Retina image from a game. . .
Skyrim at 1920 with a Haswell on Win764, 8 gigs of ram, Asus 7900 series card Damn near photorealism with 4K textures and other mods and 60 FPS rock steady.
Under $2000 with monitor and best of all, no apple tax, cheap replacement parts available anywhere and upgrades at a fraction of the cost.
Yeah that looks like The Witcher 2 or possibly The Witcher 3.
It looks excellent. If that is what hey are capable of then it would be a replacement.
I would say that the most demanding game I play is modified Skyrim where I use extremely high resolution texture replacements instead of the vanilla textures.
Right now my monitor only goes to 1920 1080, but those individual textures are like 6000 x 4000 just estimating.
They are very nice looking and really make the game come to life, but seeing this image tells me that they could likely handle them, and if not now, then very soon no doubt.
The iPad Air 2 uses Apple’s A8X which has 3 billion transistors, and comes with Imagination Technologies’ new PowerVR GX6650 GPU with six clusters (up from the four-cluster GX6450 on the A7). To get the greatest graphics performance out of the A8X chip and iOS 8, we created Metal — a new technology that lets developers design highly immersive console-style games. Apple also created Metal, which is a new set of APIs optimized to allow the CPU and GPU to work together to deliver detailed graphics and complex visual effects.
Take a look at these frame rates produced at their native resolutions. Keep in mind these are for portable devices that are less than 1/4 inch thick.
Pretty damned expensive. Apple uses standard parts for most upgrades to. Standard RAM and standard Hard Drives work just fine. You can plug in any monitor too. . .
Try playing with your rig in the middle of a park at a picnic.
“Try playing with your rig in the middle of a park at a picnic. “
****
I think one would end up as a registered sex offender for following your suggestion.
Please. Give a guy some warning! Sputter and spit, not to mention Diet Pepsi, are hard to clean off a keyboard and screen when one is laughing!
LOL!
The key point of this article is that the author says once he removed his Bluetooth keyboard from his iPad Air 2, its usefulness as a productivity tool stopped. This fact undermines the premise of the headline.
when you buy apple products you are supporting the sodomite activist ceo.
no thanks!
Not till I can plug in an external drive, or at least an SDXC card.
When you buy Msoft you’re supporting the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”. Which is why I “non-buy” Linux.
You can’t upgrade a ipad.
OK Apple fanbois——
How many Firefox tabs can you open up on the most advanced iPad? Give me a number. This will dwarfed by what a legitimate computer can do such as a Microsoft Surface Pro onto more conventional laptops and computers
Tablets are useful when you want to be mobile, but I still don't see them replacing the beast of a desktop I use as my daily worker. They simply don't have enough ram or power to run a multi VM environment. They definitely have a place in the world, and for many folks they could easily replace everything a desktop would do for them, but I suspect power users will be depending upon desktops for a while yet.
Of course, even within the desktop paradigm there are options. I have a friend who has a beefy server in a closet, and KVM type hookups elsewhere in his house for access. VNC/rdesktop protocols can give you desktop access even over wireless connections. Lots of options for folks out there no matter how you use a computer.
When I was maybe 8 or 9 back in the pre internet 70s, I got a pair of K2 skis for Christmas. I used to think those skis were the greatest thing ever. We;d get a couple magazines delivered and I used to pour over them, my young mind associating the great skiers of the day with the brand, as many used them. you know, like lots of kids do.
I’d cut out the ads and put them up on my wall like posters because I had a pair of skis like those. I’d tell my friends how great they were and about my heroes in the sport that used them. Pretty much like other kids did with their baseball gloves and their baseball heroes. Typical kid stuff. Looking back it seems kind of embarrassing now, but to a kid, its things like that that seem like their whole world at the time. But you know, you get older and things like that just fade into memory, a childhood memory now gone in a world of grown up concerns.
I don’t know what made me think of that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.