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

By: TheKaz1969

TheKaz1969 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 02:32:00 +0000

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.

By: TheKaz1969

TheKaz1969 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 02:29:00 +0000

… 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*

By: wrybread

wrybread — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 02:22:00 +0000

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!

By: Timmo Warner

Timmo Warner — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:46:00 +0000

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

By: Timmo Warner

Timmo Warner — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:38:00 +0000

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.

By: toyg

toyg — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:02:00 +0000

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.

By: toyg

toyg — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:53:00 +0000

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.

By: samw

samw — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:21:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:01:00 +0000

too oblique. should I google it?

By: TheKaz1969

TheKaz1969 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:57:00 +0000

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.

By: ratcity

ratcity — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:55:00 +0000

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.

By: ratcity

ratcity — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:47:00 +0000

But… they’re doing it wrong!

By: ratcity

ratcity — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:42:00 +0000

“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/

By: ratcity

ratcity — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:41:00 +0000

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.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:37:00 +0000

you’re one step away from arguing with your shoes.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:35:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:28:00 +0000

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

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:25:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:23:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:21:00 +0000

And, yes, I believe it is a policy there and has been for a long time, maybe more than 20 years.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:18:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:10:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:06:00 +0000

You know, that is what your desk top is for. These things are computer accessories, really.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:04:00 +0000

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.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:01:00 +0000

It’s too late by then damn it! It’s already wasted.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:22:00 +0000

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…

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:19:00 +0000

take up almost 4 square inches of my screen

http://i.imgur.com/UDlyOBf.gif

By: EH

EH — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:49:00 +0000

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.

By: toyg

toyg — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:25:00 +0000

(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.

By: SumAnon

SumAnon — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:21:00 +0000

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.