Apple launches new 128 GB iPad, in stores Feb. 5

EH

Sure it’s $1000, but that’s truly some future-now gadge.

http://www.leidentech.com leidentech

That was sarcasm right? Sometimes I have a hard time with that. If it was sarcasm, “Hahaha.”
- timquinn
  
  I got some news for you guys. The thing is not for you. OK?
  
  You need to look for devices marked, “Hobbled for your pleasure.” or “Better, because loving hands at home made it for you for free.”
  - howaboutthisdangit
    
    Well excuuuuuse me!
    
    You can have it, then.
    
    What happened? Get lost on your way to Gizmodo?
    - timquinn
      
      It’s become all too predictable hasn’t it? I am only trying to bring some new variation to the mix, linuxboy.
  - http://www.leidentech.com leidentech
    
    “Hobbled for your pleasure” – sounds like an iDevice. But, to each their own – we should all be able to choose our ecosystem now – and the iDevices sure do look nice.
    
    And, yes, I do like things that have been made at home with loving hands for free.
    - EH
      
      Frankly I have to wonder what iPad haters do with their computers. I can respect the ecosystem argument, which is political and that’s fine. However, as a piece of technology, a high-resolution tablet with which you can take movies and dial 911 (hopefully not at the same time)? I’ve been into computers since the West Coast Computer Faire days, and I get stoked seeing new stuff like this.
      
      Desktop and laptop computers are pretty much the same as they’ve always been (Von Neumann), and very few of them have cellphones in them. I use an Android phone and my car has an almost-10 y.o. iPod in it; I don’t even have a use for a tablet, I just like that it exists.
    - toyg
      
      I personally don’t like that iPad and iPhone stop my MacBook from ever getting an integrated 3G chipset. My 15” MBPr is the sexiest computer ever built, and goddammit it cannot do what a shitty $200 Dell can, just because somebody at Apple is too insecure about self-cannibalization.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=610685370 Michael Ronayne

Why do you need 128Gb storage on an iPad? With the number of video streaming services, this seems an update in search of a problem to solve…

UnderachievingSheep

I know of at least one person who uses her iPad as a laptop replacement (with a keyboard), especially to create documents during presentations and conferences. She is an academia so she also records a lot of these presentations to use for reference later on or to upload to servers to share with her students. On a more personal note, I use mine to record interviews (I have a good microphone that I attach to it) and then I edit the interviews later on. I certainly do not need 128 Gb of storage for this but my point is: there are many people using tablets in different ways for whom the extra capacity might be desirable. Not everyone uses it just to play videos or music.
timquinn

Part of Apple’s game plan is to put pressure on the bandwidth suppliers to catch up with the tech. They decided a long time ago to not let the slow learners dominate the landscape and we have all benefited. If Apple can supply hardware to their customers that can do something those customers are going to ask AT&T to make it possible. Apple, AT&T, and consumers ultimately benefit. Other players have not taken this stand as far as I can tell.

Most of the iPads out there are in the hands of children and act as baby-sitter. Parents will pay a lot to keep the little one occupied, especially if it has bragging right attached and some gloss of education.

You and I, we are not even the market for the thing.
- toyg
  
  Did you copy & paste this from some other post? Your answer has nothing to do with the question.
  
  Q: “Why do we need more space on the device, when streaming services are increasing?”
  A: “Apple wants more streaming services”
  
  If the target was having better streaming services, Apple would have upgraded components involved in, y’know, streaming: graphic processor, CPU, ram. Instead, they increased… local disk space. To help buffering? I really don’t think so.
  
  Occam’s razor says: a SSD “disk” is the simplest thing to upgrade without making any design change to the production line, you just replace one set of chips for another that is more data-dense… and then do a press release to disrupt your competitors’ just-released hot new thing. You don’t need to be a genius or have a master-plan for the next 20 years to do this.
  - timquinn
    
    Most consumers are not as fussy as you and your brethren, They basically want a device that they never have to take anything off of or worry about file systems. I have over 2000 photos on my phone and think that is fine. It is unmanageable, but it doesn’t bother me with messages about my disk filling up. If the kids want all the movies with them on a trip and then decide they need to download something new while on the road then don’t worry about it just do it. Making it as seamless and pain free as possible is good business practice and satisfies the average consumer.
    
    If Apple opens it all up as wide as possible the other players will be forced to catch up eventually.That is what I meant.
    - timquinn
      
      And, yes, I believe it is a policy there and has been for a long time, maybe more than 20 years.
    - toyg
      
      If you don’t work for Apple, you really should.
      
      Note I didn’t say anything critical of Apple, and I’m not “fussy” – I honestly don’t care for tablets of any sort. You’re having a passive-aggressive conversation with an imaginary person that doesn’t exist, and you keep side-tracking the conversation in a way similar to what a surrealist politician would do (“Did you shag your secretary?” “Well, I think that we should concentrate on the low salaries of office workers across the country…”).
      
      I repeat: you don’t need to think about any grandiose master-plan to see why Apple upgraded the disk, like you don’t need a master plan to see why the Surface was announced when it was announced, or why the new Blackberry is being announced today. It’s just tech-business 101: they can’t come out with a new über-fantastic product every six months (nobody can!), so they improve what they can, as quickly as they can, and then time releases to disrupt competitors. I’m not criticising them (I’m actually tempted to buy some stock while it’s low, tbh), I’m just looking at the facts. There is no point in trying to glorify their strategy when it clearly does not fit any “grand vision”: until yesterday they told us the local filesystem didn’t matter, your data should all be in iCloud anyway, etc etc etc… dude, they’re just selling chips like everybody else.
oasisob1

“The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.”
– Bill Gates
Also, 640k ought to be enough for anyone.
TheKaz1969

All those people who believe it is a good idea to take pictures and record little Johnny’s school play with an iPad…
- wrybread
  
  You mean people actually like to use a video camera with a nice large screen and a bunch of tools that make editing and sharing the videos easy? Horrors!
  - TheKaz1969
    
    … and it is so ergonomic, as well!
    
    Well, I guess until someone invents a way to edit video on a device other than the one you record on, we’re stuck with this. *sigh*
Church

People are increasingly using them for CAD. Blueprints at the worksite, I imagine.
- http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
  
  how is that remotely big enough to fill a hundred gigs?
  - timquinn
    
    Do you really want manufacturers carefully fine tuning their products to precisely match your current needs. Leave it to us then. We will look out for you.
    - http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
      
      you’re one step away from arguing with your shoes.
    - timquinn
      
      too oblique. should I google it?
http://darylfritz.com Daryl Fritz

My question to you is, why NOT have all the storage in the world? Kingston is making 256GB USB sticks, I want a 256GB iPad!

Personally, I travel a lot. My iPad is constantly filled with digitalcomic books, movies, music, and pictures. I also use the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. The online world like Dropbox and iCloud just aren’t options to me when I’m on an airplane or in another country without wifi.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_N7ODT5BAUTCLNEOXFB7J4DHYMY samw
  
  Its been one of my biggest irritations about the ipad that they have stuff all storage when its not expensive at all. When a single 1 hr tv show download in HD from the itunes store is 2.5 gig, then a 16 gig ipad is just a laugh isn’t it. I have a 32 gig ipad1 and its *never* had enough room, i’m always deleting things that i’d rather not. Some of those terrible ‘find an object’ games are 500 meg or more. I’m trying to give those up, but since i use a digital camera that takes 5 meg photos it doesn’t take much to fill the storage even with almost no movies on it :( You are always running with the bare minimum of stuff on your tablet. I moved to android cos i could add a microSD. Android sucks though.
  Anyway my point is ITS ABOUT TIME they gave us three sizes of ipad, 128, 256 and 512 gig or even bigger, cos the 16/32/64 is pathetic, it always was.
toyg

Apart from what I say in another comment (disk space is the easiest thing to upgrade without making any major change to production lines), it’s probable that, a few months ago, somebody at Apple got wind of the fact that the Surface 64GB would actually have ~25GB of real free space, and planned to hit MS where it was already hurting. If that’s not the case, as coincidences go, this one was incredibly favourable to Apple.
- timquinn
  
  I don’t think Apple is remotely interested in Microsoft at the moment. Microsoft is currently doing a third rate effort of copying Android and making tablets look like really cheap laptops for our new restricted conditions.
ratcity

Not sure if this is serious, but FWIW Apple has always been one of the largest proponents of downloading rather than streaming and this is something with fairly obvious advantages. Watching video on planes and buses and various non-high bandwidth places is not exactly a fringe case, nor is “adding space” an extremely onerous technical solution.

bo1n6bo1n6

*yawn*

timquinn

it is only a measure of your relevance to Apple. Do you think they are making it for you? Try for some nuance if your going to take up almost 4 square inches of my screen, will ya.
- bo1n6bo1n6
  
  iYawn
- TheKaz1969
  
  if you zoom out, it will take up less space on your screen…
  - http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
    
    stopusingsomanyspacesinyourpost.thattakesupvaluableharddiskspace.
- Cowicide
  
  take up almost 4 square inches of my screen
  
  http://i.imgur.com/UDlyOBf.gif
  - timquinn
    
    It’s too late by then damn it! It’s already wasted.

oasisob1

What we need is a small wireless camera that links to the ipad’s storage.

It’s getting a bit funny to see 20 parents at an event all holding up their ipads to film.

bcsizemo

They can link it to that new eyephone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaHUpWuqNHY
- oasisob1
  
  Now, for the earpiece…
TheKaz1969

they aren’t holding up their iPads to film, they are holding them up to say, “Look! I have an iPad!”
- ratcity
  
  On the left: person taking a picture of their kid.On the right: judgmental assholes.
  
  The whole “you’re an idiot if you take pictures with a tablet” is the lowest form of nerd self-regard and pomposity.
  - TheKaz1969
    
    Surely there must be a lower form.
    
    I would counter with:
    
    In the front: person taking a picture of their kid
    Person in back: attempting to see their kid in the school play, but only seeing an iPad help up in front of them.
freshyill

Apple should make something similar to an iPad, but it should have a 4-inch screen and fit in a pocket. It should have a far superior camera too.

Seriously though, I hate those people. Two years in a row at my kid’s Christmas pageant. Do they think it takes good pictures because it has a big screen? I can’t wrap my head around the thought process that leads to holding an iPad up to record your kid singing Silent Night when you probably have a superior tool in your pocket.
- timquinn
  
  Now really, what is so hard to understand about having a big viewfinder. I predict all cameras will eventually look something like the iPad, especially high end.
  
  Taking pictures instead of paying attention is another thing.
toyg

Google Glasses are the answer.
timquinn

You may have the next billion dollar idea there Daddy-o. I would take that to Kickstarters today.

http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

You do know that the MicroSlug 128GB Microsoft Surface Pro will only have 83GB of usable storage?

oasisob1

I know I’ll draw cries of ‘fanboi’, but is anything from Microsoft ‘usable’? (Aside from XP – that actually worked).
- http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
  
  windows 7, x-box off the top of my head.
- SumAnon
  
  Just replaced my old laptop, and reluctantly chose one with Windows 8. I am constantly astounded at how terrible an interface as this could have made it into production.
- toyg
  
  (Sorry, ranting a bit here)
  XP was a bloated piece of crap, the last gasp of a flawed architecture, trying hard to add a bit of eye-candy over grey Windows 2000 to make it more palatable to the masses, and adding a compatibility layer full of security holes to support the shit written for Win9x. The UI was idiosyncratic and even bizarre at times (Active Desktop etc). People are so fond of XP now just out of sentimentality and familiarity, and because it’s been around for so long, every third-party software or hardware manufacturer knows how to deal with it, making it easy to add stuff to it.(end of rant)
  
  Windows 7 is quite usable. The new ribbon-Office, for people not used to the old gazillion-icons-Office, is quite usable. Windows 8 is very usable on tablets (leaving aside the malice of selling a 64GB drive that is already more than half-full), not so much on desktops. Microsoft mice and keyboards (I know, kinda niche) are often outstanding.
  
  TL;DR: give to Microsoft what belongs to Microsoft.
http://twitter.com/jonthegpi Not Jon Parry

And an expandable memory slot, I wonder if the next model Ipad will have one of them?
- TheKaz1969
  
  I am guessing you posted this already knowing full well what the answer is…
- timquinn
  
  You know, that is what your desk top is for. These things are computer accessories, really.

TheKaz1969

the problem is, it seems like every time Apple ups the maximum storage, they phase out the lowest storage one. So, my daughter who wants an iPod Touch and for whom 8gb would probably be WAY more storage than she would need to store her Taylor Swift and the albums put out by the kids on the Disney Channel, would have to way overpay to get one…

Unless Angry Birds and Temple Run come out with 3000 new versions to take up the extra storage…

toyg

Apple making people overpay for stuff? you don’t say! :)
- timquinn
  
  I don’t see other big tech firms using their profit to push technology forward like Apple. I think Apple users are happy to pay the Apple tax if it means Apple will continue to push higher tech onto the rest of a very slow industry. Apple drives this, everyone else is following. I don’t think it will last, but it is still true right now, as can be seen with the release of the new Blackberry iPhone.
http://twitter.com/TimmoWarner Timmo Warner

When they’ve phased out the lowest storage in the past, hasn’t the price of the next highest dropped to the price of the one phased out?

I could be wrong but I recall that happening with the iPhone at least.
- TheKaz1969
  
  yeah, good question. I want to say that I recall iPod Touches being less than $299 at one time… You can occasionally get a decent price on a refurb. From what I understand, Apple refurbs are usually in quite good shape.

5onthe5

Apple’s genius is their understanding of the average user. This makes their products very frustrating when they overlap with a field in which you are a high-end user, but satisfying for most other things most of the time.
Is reading a comic book on my iPad as good as reading a paper copy? No. But I’m not a collector, I don’t live near a comic shop, and I like the convenience of the Comixology app, so for me it’ll do.
For readers of BoingBoing, it is very important to have an OS that is hackable and open-source. For most users these things are not important.
Now, I *do* like films and music, so the mediocre quality and selection of the films and music available via iTunes DOES frustrate me, and the low storage capacity of my iPad frustrates me. So I guess that’s how the hackable-OS people must feel too.

howaboutthisdangit

Jobs’ genius was to introduce the right product line at the right time. He realized that the tech was finally able to support a convenient, multi-function digital appliance.

I have no use for it. It is just a sealed-up appliance, not a “real” computer, IMO, but that is all the most consumers want or need.

Evolutionary, not revolutionary. Tablets and smartphones would have appeared, with or without Apple.
ratcity

“Is reading a comic book on my iPad as good as reading a paper copy?”

I’d say yes.

http://onlythevaliant.com/2012/06/digital-vs-print-side-by-side-comparison/

Ryan_T_H

Look, Apple sold 23 Million iPads last quarter. This is law of big numbers territory. If even a tiny fraction of those buyers are looking for more space that represents a large absolute demand for this.

http://www.webkarnage.net Webkarnage

We mustn’t forget the number of people who will buy one just to be sure they have the most expensive version, even if they don’t have a need for 32GB.

I might not do that, but I know some who do….

5onthe5

I’m not bothered by the millions of people who buy iPads even though they’re not “real” computers. I’m bothered by the millions of ordinary professional people who spend £1700 on a Mac so that they can browse the internet and use Microsoft Word on it.

toyg

Are they spending your money? Then why are you “bothered”?
I’d be bothered if, say, civil servants were doing that, but everyone else should be free to blow their money to the wind, for what I care.
- ratcity
  
  But… they’re doing it wrong!

Cowicide

Would it really kill Apple to allow their iPad customers to plug in a thin SD card to expand memory? Then again, I guess they would have to make it thicker & heavier…

http://twitter.com/TimmoWarner Timmo Warner

I always assumed they didn’t do that because it would invite easier hacking.

timquinn

Sheee-it, Somebody looked at Rolex watches 25 years ago and said, “We could do more with that market.” and so was born the high end PDA, the titanium mac, and everything with a small i at the beginning of the name. What else has happened? The USA now leads the world in design sophistication. This has not always been the case, youngsters, let me tell you. At least the boom in high end salaries has had some trickle down. That market demands a high level of functionality and a ton of pretentious style. You have to take the coarse with the fine.