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New iPad revolutionary in its subtlety of change
Overall, the new iPad impresses me as a new draft of a book that I already enjoyed. All of the elements of the previous versions are right there and in many ways, the new work is hard to distinguish from the previous one.
But it’s much, much better. The point of this thing is more clear. Its elements do their jobs better, more efficiently . . . and with a great deal more panache and style. The process of making the new iPad was one of examining every element and figuring out how to improve it in place.
It’s a far more refined expression of the original idea, is what I’m getting at. Even just a year ago, it might have seemed remarkable -- or maybe just a stunt -- that I’d be researching, writing, and editing something as big as a 3000 word product review exclusively on an iPad.
This week, it just seemed like the natural way to do this project. I started writing it on the new iPad simply because it’s part of the process of testing (and because I’ve found a 24 hour donut shop with incredibly good free WiFi). But as I went along, I felt no motivation to move it to my MacBook. The screen was crisp and comfortable. The 4G-speed mobile broadband gave me greater freedom of movement. I had 10 hours of battery, so I never needed to rush through my work and I never needed to hip-check that guy who seemed to be headed towards the table that adjoins the donut place’s lone open power outlet.
Am I angling towards the conclusion that the third-generation iPad represents the device’s bar mitzvah? The moment when we officially consider it a grownup computer, instead of something that we keep tethered to something larger and more stable?
Well, I was raised Catholic so I’m not properly licensed for such allegories. Suffice to say that the new iPad is a strong upgrade that will probably make many holdouts -- both those who’ve been ogling iPads since day one, and early adopters who chose not to upgrade to the iPad 2 -- very happy indeed.
Form, Feel, Battery, and Speed
The new iPad is a close physical match to the old one. It’ll even probably fit into your iPad 2 case, provided that the case wasn’t engineered to spacecraft-precise tolerances. It even slides into the tightly formfitting ZAGG Folio iPad 2 keyboard case; the camera and switches line up with the cutouts perfectly. It’s such a snug fit that pulling it back out again requires patience, actually, so using old cases for the new iPad is probably a bad idea. But it underscores the point that Apple stuck to the existing form instead of restyling just for the sake of fashion.
The new iPad is a smidge thicker and a smidge heavier, not that you can tell when you’re holding it. I did notice a little extra heat in the corner to the left of the Home button after using it for an hour. That’s new; with the previous two iPads, the flow of heat was always from my hands to the device and not the other way around.
Uh-oh. When the new iPad was announced, I immediately had two concerns about the new ultra-high-definition display. Would quadrupling the number of pixels sorely tax the CPU and the battery? Indeed, iFixit’s teardown of the new iPad’s hardware locates the CPU in that very corner.
I bravely sat in a comfortable chair and watched the JJ Abrams version of “Star Trek” and the Neil Gaiman-penned episode of “Doctor Who” in HD, back to back, just to see what would happen.
No worries. Even with the CPU under such hard stress for almost three hours, the temperature of that corner never rose above “barely noticeably higher.”
And the three-hour test only knocked the battery down by about 35%. The new iPad’s overall battery life was exactly the same as what I expect from either of the previous models: roughly ten hours. I used the new iPad rather intensively for two days before it required a recharge.
Speaking of the CPU: despite the processor’s obligation to support this new tyrant by the name of Pixels Maximus, the new iPad feels no different from its predecessors. Scrolling, zooming, navigation and gameplay on the new iPad is a liquid experience.
4G - And not the fake kind, either
Oh, I shouldn’t be snarky about the latest iOS update. AT&T and Apple chose to redefine the iPhone 4S’ HSPA+ connection as “4G” even though the devices transacts exclusively over a 3G network. Tens of millions of 4S owners applied last week’s iOS update and magically started seeing a 4G symbol as their devices’ network status.
Marketing? Sure. But it’s a credible choice. Yes, HSPA+ runs over AT&T’s 3G network instead of the network that fits the classical 4G definition. But HSPA+’s top realized speeds are well within the zone you’d expect from LTE.
(The speed of a data network is the result of many different protocols and network conditions working together. It’s like talking about the speed of a horse. He’s a thoroughbred. But how fast he runs in any given race will also depend on the jockey, the condition of the track, and what’s running alongside him egging him on.)
I’m OK with the new quasi-4G network symbol on my iPhone and on this new iPad. The situation is only worth mentioning because I’m testing out the AT&T version of the new iPad here, and I’m seeing a bunch of different dinguses up there in the upper-left corner designating my network speed.
Clearly, the new 4G LTE chip is a screamer. The 3G in my original iPad is pulling down data at about 400Kbps today. In “4G” mode, the new iPad is downloading at 2 to 3 megabits per second and when I can find an LTE (aka “real, no-argument 4G”) signal, it zips at 9 to 10. That’s a little more than half the speed the new iPad gets when connected to my home WiFi network (where it sees a reliable 17 Mbps).
Tipard iPad Transfer
But it’s much, much better. The point of this thing is more clear. Its elements do their jobs better, more efficiently . . . and with a great deal more panache and style. The process of making the new iPad was one of examining every element and figuring out how to improve it in place.
It’s a far more refined expression of the original idea, is what I’m getting at. Even just a year ago, it might have seemed remarkable -- or maybe just a stunt -- that I’d be researching, writing, and editing something as big as a 3000 word product review exclusively on an iPad.
This week, it just seemed like the natural way to do this project. I started writing it on the new iPad simply because it’s part of the process of testing (and because I’ve found a 24 hour donut shop with incredibly good free WiFi). But as I went along, I felt no motivation to move it to my MacBook. The screen was crisp and comfortable. The 4G-speed mobile broadband gave me greater freedom of movement. I had 10 hours of battery, so I never needed to rush through my work and I never needed to hip-check that guy who seemed to be headed towards the table that adjoins the donut place’s lone open power outlet.
Am I angling towards the conclusion that the third-generation iPad represents the device’s bar mitzvah? The moment when we officially consider it a grownup computer, instead of something that we keep tethered to something larger and more stable?
Well, I was raised Catholic so I’m not properly licensed for such allegories. Suffice to say that the new iPad is a strong upgrade that will probably make many holdouts -- both those who’ve been ogling iPads since day one, and early adopters who chose not to upgrade to the iPad 2 -- very happy indeed.
Form, Feel, Battery, and Speed
The new iPad is a close physical match to the old one. It’ll even probably fit into your iPad 2 case, provided that the case wasn’t engineered to spacecraft-precise tolerances. It even slides into the tightly formfitting ZAGG Folio iPad 2 keyboard case; the camera and switches line up with the cutouts perfectly. It’s such a snug fit that pulling it back out again requires patience, actually, so using old cases for the new iPad is probably a bad idea. But it underscores the point that Apple stuck to the existing form instead of restyling just for the sake of fashion.
The new iPad is a smidge thicker and a smidge heavier, not that you can tell when you’re holding it. I did notice a little extra heat in the corner to the left of the Home button after using it for an hour. That’s new; with the previous two iPads, the flow of heat was always from my hands to the device and not the other way around.
Uh-oh. When the new iPad was announced, I immediately had two concerns about the new ultra-high-definition display. Would quadrupling the number of pixels sorely tax the CPU and the battery? Indeed, iFixit’s teardown of the new iPad’s hardware locates the CPU in that very corner.
I bravely sat in a comfortable chair and watched the JJ Abrams version of “Star Trek” and the Neil Gaiman-penned episode of “Doctor Who” in HD, back to back, just to see what would happen.
No worries. Even with the CPU under such hard stress for almost three hours, the temperature of that corner never rose above “barely noticeably higher.”
And the three-hour test only knocked the battery down by about 35%. The new iPad’s overall battery life was exactly the same as what I expect from either of the previous models: roughly ten hours. I used the new iPad rather intensively for two days before it required a recharge.
Speaking of the CPU: despite the processor’s obligation to support this new tyrant by the name of Pixels Maximus, the new iPad feels no different from its predecessors. Scrolling, zooming, navigation and gameplay on the new iPad is a liquid experience.
4G - And not the fake kind, either
Oh, I shouldn’t be snarky about the latest iOS update. AT&T and Apple chose to redefine the iPhone 4S’ HSPA+ connection as “4G” even though the devices transacts exclusively over a 3G network. Tens of millions of 4S owners applied last week’s iOS update and magically started seeing a 4G symbol as their devices’ network status.
Marketing? Sure. But it’s a credible choice. Yes, HSPA+ runs over AT&T’s 3G network instead of the network that fits the classical 4G definition. But HSPA+’s top realized speeds are well within the zone you’d expect from LTE.
(The speed of a data network is the result of many different protocols and network conditions working together. It’s like talking about the speed of a horse. He’s a thoroughbred. But how fast he runs in any given race will also depend on the jockey, the condition of the track, and what’s running alongside him egging him on.)
I’m OK with the new quasi-4G network symbol on my iPhone and on this new iPad. The situation is only worth mentioning because I’m testing out the AT&T version of the new iPad here, and I’m seeing a bunch of different dinguses up there in the upper-left corner designating my network speed.
Clearly, the new 4G LTE chip is a screamer. The 3G in my original iPad is pulling down data at about 400Kbps today. In “4G” mode, the new iPad is downloading at 2 to 3 megabits per second and when I can find an LTE (aka “real, no-argument 4G”) signal, it zips at 9 to 10. That’s a little more than half the speed the new iPad gets when connected to my home WiFi network (where it sees a reliable 17 Mbps).
Tipard iPad Transfer
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