Posted on 09/13/2015 3:35:48 AM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple new big screen iPad Pro has been anticipated for some time, and bears some similarities to existing products on the market. However, Apple's implementation of a large tabletalong with its new "Apple Pencil" for precision drawing inputincorporate a series of unique features, too.

iPad Pro: a MacBook-sized iPad
The most obvious characteristic of the new iPad Pro is its 12.9 inch (32.8 cm) diagonal Retina display, featuring a 2732x2048 resolution at 264 pixels per inch. That's just 0.4 inches (1 cm) smaller than Apple's 13 inch Retina MacBook Pro, but it packs a million and a half more pixels (5.6M vs 4.1M).
The new iPad Pro even packs more pixels than Apple's larger 15 inch MacBook Pro (with a resolution of 2880x1800, or nearly 5.2M), albeit arranging its pixels in a document-oriented 4:3 screen aspect ratio like other iPads, rather than the desktop-oriented widescreen 16:10 aspect ratio of the Macbook Pros.
(Excerpt) Read more at appleinsider.com ...
Apple Pencil: $99 not included!!!!
lol lol lulzzzzzz....Tim Kook has you lobotomized bots and serfs craving ever more abuse from your Cupertino overlords. STAND AND DELIVER!!!!
Wow - took all the way to post #10 before you chimed in with your homosexual reference - you are slipping, dennisw. Your fingers must be tired and stressed from all that porno-dialing you’ve been doing...
As it stands right now, the Apple Pencil is dependent on hardware in the iPad Pro and cannot be even used in the lesser iPads. . . much less iPhones or Macs. It requires a multi-touch screen capable of doubling the touch senses of the screen under the tip of the Pencil when the Pencil is activated. . . AND turning off the touch sensitivity to other touches that are NOT the Apple Pencil or in the specific areas of the screen that are controls for the Pencil so the user can actually rest his or her hands or fingers on the screen while drawing.
None of the other Apple devices have this capability or are apparently planned to incorporate that functionality in the future.
You have a point, but the Apple Pencil is actually thicker than the iPad Pro, so having a Pencil storage/charging station garage in the iPad is a non-starter. I would be willing to bet that within a month, third party company will be selling sticky gadgets that will attach to the iPad Pro that will hold the Pencil. I can picture one in my mind right now. Maybe I should patent it. . .
The Apple Pencil can be fully charged in under 15 minutes. Not too much of a risk, I think.
I don't think it looks like a "weak copy of other devices" at all. In fact, dila, it looks like it is much stronger than the leaders in the field, lacking the latency the leaders suffer from and is completely divorced from the crippling tethering to a desktop or even a laptop required to use them. The Apple Pencil is far more sophisticated than any other stylus type device I can think of. . . then add that the combination of Apple Pencil with a stand-alone iPad Pro with it that can go anywhere to do work, that is a game changer.
It doesn’t look like the keyboard has a touchpad does it?
The iPads have been accepted and are in use in 95% of the Enterprise businesses. . . 98% of the Fortune 500.At my last job (a large retailer) we used iPads throughout the warehouse, but they were used exclusively to access remote Windows sessions, using Citrix. When I left, they were evaluating switching over to Surface devices.
I'm no Microsoft fan, but for a lot of businesses, especially those developing in-house software, the Surface makes a lot more sense than the iPad.
You have a point, but the Apple Pencil is actually thicker than the iPad Pro, so having a Pencil storage/charging station garage in the iPad is a non-starter. I would be willing to bet that within a month, third party company will be selling sticky gadgets that will attach to the iPad Pro that will hold the Pencil. I can picture one in my mind right now. Maybe I should patent it. . .The fact you anticipate the need for a 3rd-party "sticky gadget" shows just how inadequate the existing design really is.
And to your point about the stylus recharging "quickly" doesn't matter when the provided method of recharging is so rediculously awkward.
No doubt there will be 3rd-party "fixes" to the shortcomings of the designs of both the keyboard and stylus, but the fact you are counting on that shows how poorly thought the Apple design really is.
When you've made the engineering decision necessary to bring two products to market that work together, then you can criticize, but I don't see you running a multi-billion dollar business. Perhaps they DID think of the solutions you are talking about but implementing them added too much compromise in cost, weight, or size to include them the in the design? Remember, the Apple IPad Pro is thinner than the Apple Pencil.
Adding an internal charging dock adds unnecessary expense, thickness and weight for an accessory that only an unknown subset of iPad Pro buyers will purchase. Why make ALL buyers pay for the minority's decision to buy the Pencil by forcing them to pay for provisions to dock an accessory they'll never require? This is the same philosophy that eschewed SD card reader ports and other extras that could be handled by inexpensive adapters on the iPads and MacBooks. Those who wanted or needed those ports, could buy them. It turns out Apple was correct. Fewer than 5% of users ever bought the adapters!
Where is your better design at the same price points, Johnny B?
Yeah, it does. You're missing it. It's huge, and it's right in plain sight. In fact it's a 12.9" touch pad right above the keyboard. . . It's called the iPad Pro! SHEESH!
When you've made the engineering decision necessary to bring two products to market that work together, then you can criticize, but I don't see you running a multi-billion dollar business.Sorry, I didn't realize that you were just a rabid fanboy.
Actually, I have designed and developed systems used every day by multi-billion dollar companies. Among my work, I invented a system that is generating a half-million dollars per day for the company that bought the Patent from me. I also designed all of the software, including the user interface, for a satellite-based communications system (voice and data).
Adding an internal charging dock adds unnecessary expense, thickness and weight for an accessoryIt doesn't take a engineer to see how silly the "stick out like an erect penis" charging scheme for the stylus really is.
Off the top of my head, here's a better solution than the ridiculous system spit out by Apple:
Cut a narrow, right-angle groove along the length of the stylus, so that the stylus fits horizontally along the bottom edge of the iPad without extending below the back surface. Insert magnets in the stylus to match the charging dock already on the iPad to power and hold the keyboard in place. Use the already-existing keyboard power "buttons" to charge the stylus.
Since you want to be able to both hold/charge the stylus and use the keyboard, duplicate the magnet/power buttons on the top of the iPad, so you can "clip" the stylus horizontally along the top of the iPad while still connecting the keyboard to the bottom.
This solution would require no changes to the iPad (unless they decided to offer multiple charging points, which would be a trivial change), it accommodates the fact that the stylus is thicker than the iPad, and it makes better use of the new charging "port".
Now, aside from all that, please explain how to successfully use the iPad Pro (other than carefully laying it on a stable horizontal surface) while the stylus is being charged. If you cradle it in one arm right-side up, you'll be stabbing yourself. If you hold it in any other orientation, you're likely to stab anyone or anything close to you.
Worst of all, with that long lever, connected by something as fragile as the Lightning connector, even a relatively small pressure on the end of the stylus will produce enough torque to damage the pen, the iPad or both.
As people start actually using the stylus in real life, expect to hear a lot of stories about busted iPads because someone bumped the stylus into something (even just setting it down while charging the stylus could do it).
This will be my last posting on this thread or to you, since I long ago ran out of enthusiasm for arguing with rabid fanboys. Have a nice day.
SHEESH!? Lighten up Francis. I don’t come on your threads raggin on Apple. The Surface Pro does have a touchpad on the keyboard. I’m not saying whether that is better or worse it just does...
Note 4 & 5?
The question should be is why does the Surface Pro have a touchpad at all when it has a 10.2" touch screen sitting right there? It's redundant. Adding a Touch Pad to the iPad Pro's Smart Keyboard would have required adding unnecessary weight, size, and cost for little gain and duplicate a better one-on-one direct function that is sitting right in front of the user for one that is merely analogous. That is the difference between the engineering that Apple does and everyone else. As Steve Jobs once put it, "Perfection sometimes lies in what you take out."
Thanks for putting some effort in it, but I can foresee many problems with your scenario. One of the primary benefits of the Apple Pencil is the feel of the Pencil. You'd lose that by cutting a groove in it. A flat surface or groove on the Pencil is not going to provide the smooth feel needed in a drawing instrument. Magnets in the iPad may already be in use for the Smart Key board. The magnets are not a good answer for storing the Apple Pencil. Contacts on the Pencil will pick up oils from the fingers and create problems for charging. Such contacts do not carry the power densities that a six minute charge to twelve hour full charge requires. Finally, again, the Apple Pencil is still thicker than the iPad Pro and will not sit down on the ground properly while seated centered on the magnets which are centered on the edge of the magnets. All of these are potential failure points of your design. Perhaps it would work, perhaps not. It still is not a full solution. However, it does have the benefit of using what the iPad Pro already has.
After years of using the Lightening Connector, I have found they are not fragile at all but quite robust in both the male and female connections. I doubt they would be a problem unless the iPad were to be dropped while the Pencil was being charged.

Are seriously suggesting that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 or 5, 5.7 inch phones with limited function stylus, are competition to a 12.9 inch tablet and the Apple Pencil?
Yes, have you tried it?
It’s awesome, you can even draw in the air without touching the screen.
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