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I have to say, the quality of the review is technically poor. Gee, users can really notice the difference in thickness:

“For all of my raving about the display, I have to note that Apple broke with tradition and didn't make this iPad thinner and lighter than its predecessor. The new iPad is slightly thicker (0.37 inch) than the iPad 2 (0.34 inch), the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (0.34 inch), and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime (0.33 inch). The Toshiba Excite 10 LE, which currently holds the crown as the slimmest tablet available, measures just 0.3 inch.”

That .03 difference is EXTREMELY noticeable, isn't it? Instead of drooling over the display (and I recommend to users that they go to a retail store which sells both Apple products and other brands, and “see for themselves” how meaningful the display difference is to them, do not rely on a drooling review), concentrate on important technical facts:

I can't fathom why Apple didn't include external ports:

“So you might want to consider springing for more storage, since the iPad doesn't offer any on-board expansion  slots as Android tablets typically do.”

The only explanation that immediately comes to mind, since the cost of adding a USB port might be a whopping $5 per unit, is that Apple doesn't want anyone installing anything which isn't downloaded from Apple's store...which also means you can't copy your DATA, e.g., documents, or anything else, to USB drive, to transfer it to another PC, such as an Apple laptop. You'd have to email everything as an attachment, or store it in the “cloud” on someone's server.

That's another whopping problem in itself...whether everyone is willing to put all of their data (for example, the company's H.R. Records, medical reports of a hospital, SSN's of a credit bureau, credit card info of a retail store, you get the idea, in “the cloud”.

Admittedly, 57 GB of docs is a lot of docs, but considering a high-definition movie can take between 4 GB and 20 GB of space depending on the amount and method of compression (try converting a Blu-Ray to .MKV format in 1080p quality), how you're going to download that movie is a question, you'd better get that higher speed cable Internet connection, like 50 Mbps.

I didn't read enough of the article to determine whether 802.11n was even mentioned, but I assume, being the most recent version of Apple's tablet, that it has 802.11n wireless at 300 Mbps, not 802.11g at 54 Mbps (which could limit the speed, when Time Warner cable now has 100 Mbps download speed
available).

So, if you don't like my comment, go ahead and delete it right away. I'll try to check every so often and re-post it, or post it on another website. Hopefully CNET can stand a few derogatory comments, or maybe not.....we'll see......

MikeBradley, on 17 March 2012 - 09:29 AM, said:

If I had to guess, I'd say it was because there's little use for them these days, and they take up physical space that is at a premium when you need to grow your battery by 70% while maintaining—as far as possible—the same size and weight as the previous model.

MikeBradley said:

This is untrue. There are several file management apps that allow you to transfer files between your iPad and PC/Mac, either via a local wifi network, or in some cases from anywhere on the Internet (and I'm not talking about cloud services here: actual physical machine to iPad). I use them regularly.

But it's quite common for people to leap to the conclusion that whatever Apple does it is in the interest of screwing their customers. Usually it turns out to have a perfectly reasonable explanation.

MikeBradley said:

PC World don't delete negative comments, only those that break forum rules, such as personal attacks.

This post has been edited by crosswordbob: 17 March 2012 - 10:49 AM

crosswordbob, on 17 March 2012 - 10:42 AM, said:

Why even reply to that? Leave the fool alone.

"The 64GB iPad I tried had only 57.17GB available to me before I even downloaded a thing." Yes, that's because storage manufacturers count things base 1000 and OSes count things base 1024. That adds up perfectly. 64x1000^3*1024*-3=59.61GB.

I think this move by Apple to use high resolution screens will actually be a good thing for the tablet market overall. The use of these high resolution screens will have the effect of causing prices of lower resolution screens to fall and increase the availability of these screens, now that Apple is no longer hoarding screens in that part of the market.

Screens are the most expensive component in every tablet from high end to low end, so a significant fall in price will improve the quality of tablets at the low end of the market by making today's higher end screens available to lower end tablets at a fraction of the cost. The end result will be even more effective competition for Apple's iPad from the lower end tablets and this will allow the emerging markets and developing world to finally take part in generating sales volume.

For me personally, the move towards high definition displays in tablets just underscores my insistence on only buying tablets with SD card slots. When I travel, for instance, I carry no less than 10-15 movies on my laptop drive or portable drive so that I can have a choice of content. The iPad's severely limited storage capacity and its inability to access external devices becomes an even bigger sore point when you start to consider carrying HD video around. Then when you factor in the current GB limitations of mobile broadband, it makes even less sense to spend based on DPI.

When I look at my own tablet use so far, I can safely say that I don't spend the kind of time on a tablet that would justify buying one with such a high DPI. After all, why would you need a higher resolution screen to watch a lower resolution web video? In fact, this screen would only turn the barely noticeable lower resolution content from the web, such as videos and web pages, into a major distraction. I've done enough monitor upgrades over the years to know that greatly increasing the gap between the screen resolution and the resolution of the content being accessed through the monitor only serves to create annoyance and frustration by increasing the awareness of the lower resolution. As good as a higher resolution screen sounds on paper, I really don't want the downsides that it inevitably brings. I'll wait until content (especially web content) and HD screen are in sync. By that time, I expect there'll be Android tablets with similar or better screen DPI available at lower prices and with the SD card and USB slots I'll need to properly take advantage of the screen quality.

This post has been edited by eMJay: 18 March 2012 - 10:37 AM

I think weight is very important in any tablet. After all, if the thing needs to be sat on a desk then you're better off with a small laptop. Just typing this comment here would be way easier on a proper keyboard rather than this screen. With this in mind I think the one to beat is the galaxy tab 7.7 or maybe the galaxy note.

eMJay, on 18 March 2012 - 10:35 AM, said:

I don't think this will have much impact on the price of the lower DPI screens, since Apple is still selling the iPad 2, but it will be interesting to see if the price of 10" Android tablets drop.

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Apple certainly makes it more difficult, but you can use SD or CF cards as external storage devices for pictures and movies. You need a SD or CF card reader, either from Apple or a 3rd party, like this one. You then have to have the same folder structure that a digital camera woul create - like DCIM » 100DICAM - the easiest way to do this is put the card in a digital camera a snap a picture. Now all you do is copy the movie files into the same folder as the newly taken picture. When you put this card into the card reader, you will be asked which files you'd like to import. There are also external drives with built-in wifi and I think those can be used the same way, except via the iPad wifi sync. Clearly not as easy as just plugging in an SD card and copying files, but it can be done.

MikeBradley, on 17 March 2012 - 09:29 AM, said:

Even if Apple had included a USB port, I very much doubt they would make any change to their file exchange methodology, making the inclusion of the USB port a moot point. Additionally, using the USB port as a standardized charging point would be of little use seeing that most USB chargers delivered with mobile devices can't provide the charging current the iPad requires.

There are some benefits to the "walled garden" which I'm certain Apple and the business and educational segments will capitalize on during the soon to be realized massive deployment of iPads in those markets.

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Well, you obviously don't use an iDevice of any sort. I have no trouble moving documents, spreadsheets, and .pdf files between my iDevices and my Windows and Apple computers, wirelessly, on my local network using DocsToGo. I'm sure there are plenty of other apps out there that will allow doing the same.

As for moving photos, songs and movies between devices, iCloud services do the job without any user intervention other than the initial setup. It doesn't get much simpler than that. It's just different way of doing things, like the move from "sneakernet" to ethernet which, back then, caused many a critic to claim the world would come to an end as a result.

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... and how, pray tell, do you get a 20G movie from a computer onto a memory card other than by physically connecting it to the computer?

You can do the same using iTunes. Yes, I know, I know, everybody says iTunes is [fill in derogatory term] and most of those people have never used iTunes, preferring to repeat what others have said. I use iTunes when necessary and it gets the job done. Period.

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There's nothing wrong with your comment. It just appears that you are mis-informed and hopefully, replies to your comment will clarify some of the oft-repeated misconceptions you shared with us.

This post has been edited by 42n81: 19 March 2012 - 06:55 AM

Nuke61, on 18 March 2012 - 05:56 PM, said:

Good point. I had forgotten about that card reader adapter.

Here's a video that goes through the steps. (I know it's not a great video, but it demonstrates the functionality.)




I noticed a while back that, with my iDevice plugged into my Win7 box there is a directly accessible DCIM folder, but I can't add files directly to it.

There have been other downsides to the media avail to the new device.The 1080P videos are not at the quality expected, as you see with BluRay.While its being hyped that the iPad resolution is milliosn of pixels higher than an HDTv, what they don't tell you is the media you see on the iPad doesn't look as good either.http://www.tested.com/news/news/articles/3734-on-the-big-screen-itunes-1080p-holds-its-own-against-blu-ray/If you take Apple's video and pause it and then compare it to a a BluRay video paused, there are some very distinct differences.

For the person who says its so easiy to move files from your iDevice to your PC using WiFi endabled apps, need to think outside the box.This may be fine at home where you have access to your own WiFi for such, even tho the process is sill kinda slow if you're moving huge files or lots of them.Suppose I am out at a cafe where I don't have access to the wifi...then what? Suppos eI am at school? Or in a car? Those who say Apple makes changes for there own benefit are right in thinking so. Even tho the file system is locked, you can still have direct access to whats YOURS. There are plenty of platforms where the system files can be locked and placed on a partition the user can't access ad allow full access to the empty space. Those partitions are designed to grow if the system needs more space. BT has a NATIVE built-in benefit. It can be used for file transfer. Just saying Apple turned it off and they had a good reason to do so, is not enough. This is a native feature we have come to expect of bluetooth since the standard was first made. Apple went and changed it to serve THEM. The only way to turn back on the native capability of BT is to jailbreak. Since not many do such yet they could need the feature is bad. No one has to compalin about the feature being therre. Many likely will NEVER use it. But whether someone will or won't shouldn't be a factor. It is native capability that should have been left as is. Apple as anyone ele coudl have worked around the capability without disabling it. Espectially on a device where you ahve no ports. I don't think you need any ports if the other features of the hardware can provide similar usage. But there is no USB access to your files other than pictures. Yet the devic eis designed to hold all my files? What good woudl a PC be if you didn't have access to the 250GB of space left on your HDD that the OS didn't use? With all OS', the system partition can be locked completely from the user for acesss, and still allow access to the non-system partition. iOS is no different. The native benfit of flash drives is access to them for storage for my person stuff.

I would advise anyone concerned about image quality to read the article above— here is the link not broken by bad spacing: http://www.tested.co...gainst-blu-ray/

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QUADICON, on 19 March 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

If you're referring to my post about moving files, you should read it again, as I did not only mention Wifi.

QUADICON said:

How do you know? Note: I am not asking for examples of why you think this, I am asking if/how you know it to be a fact, given that you present it as such.

QUADICON said:

The absence of a common file system is unlikely to be anything to do with protecting system files, but rather part of the sandboxing of apps. Not everyone wants their apps to be sandboxed like this, of course, but for them, Android is a fine alternative. However, bringing a common file system to iOS would be detrimental to those who prefer sandboxed apps.

QUADICON, on 19 March 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

I get it. You don't like Apple or anything Apple does. That's OK, you're allowed to.

Whether or not you or I think Apple is on the right track is of little consequence since they are the only ones to date who have been successful to the extent Apple has been. And the benefit of all that, is that many, many people get to enjoy the devices and technology Apple offers.

If the most popular devices on the market today don't work like you want them to, don't blame Apple. Blame the manufacturers who make devices exactly the way you want them to be made, there must be a couple, but are unable to get them to catch on.

So maybe Apple's success didn't come DESPITE the fact that its devices don't comply with your wishes, but BECAUSE they don't do all the things you find essential.

You have implied many, many times that the device you want is a workstation class laptop with a touch screen, minus the keyboard running a full desktop OS, full desktop programs, masquerading as a tablet. The iPad is NOT such a device. We all know that. You seem to be the only one who doesn't, so stop complaining that the iPad isn't the device of your dreams.

This post has been edited by 42n81: 19 March 2012 - 09:20 AM

42n81, on 19 March 2012 - 06:53 AM, said:

Another, more direct option is to use DiskAid. Like the CF/SD adapter, it's about $30. I've never used it, since I haven't found the limitations of iOS to be an issue, but I might buy it to check it out. Windows and Mac versions available: http://www.digidna.n...roducts/diskaid

The thing that seems to be annoying more people about this new iPad is the significant increase to the recharging time, this seems to be the biggest issue with what is likely otherwise a superb device. I dislike how the author did not mention the fact that recharge times have nearly (for some people exceeding) twice as long...

AnonymousPC, on 19 March 2012 - 12:25 PM, said:

Charging can indeed be very slow. I find that using the one that came with it it's not too bad, but you have to be sure you're using a decent 10W adaptor (rated at 2A), or you will struggle. That means that many of Apple's own chargers won't do the trick, as they were only rated for 1A for a long time. Also, cheap e-bay jobs will quite possibly/probably not be up to it, since even if they are sold as putting out 2A they often don't achieve it.

QUADICON, on 19 March 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

What's your point? Are you suggesting that you should be able to transfer files from a laptop to an iPad while you're at a cafe or at school or in a car? If you have a laptop, why would have have an iPad or other tablet with you? O.K., whatever, I'll play your game... here you go: DiskAid

QUADICON, on 19 March 2012 - 07:01 AM, said:

Quad, on a technical level, I agree with you. On a practical level, your argument is meaningless. The differences in quality are negligible. The differences between the Blu-Ray and the iTunes 1080p downloads are difficult to spot on still images and only possible when zoomed in at extreme magnification. That's not how people watch movies. People watch movies as motion pictures where these differences can't even be detected with the human eye. I realize you're searching hard to try to take the wind out of Apple's sails here... but honestly, this argument is weak.