5 ms·

Daring Fireball: iPad (3)

58 points by rkudeshi 15y ago

esusatyo 15y ago
It's amazing how many of my friends dismisses the retina display, saying either it's not important or it's just a marketing hype. I guess it's really hard to put into words how good those displays are, it's really something they'd have to see.
- baddox 15y ago
  Around the office, when discussing the new iPad, many people have said "but it's just a higher resolution display," to which I replay "exactly, and it's a darn fine $500 display."
- latch 15y ago
  It's pretty genius of Apple to dominate the most tangible spec: the display. And not just dominate it, but by all accounts, practically own the world-wide inventory. All of the other devices which continue to try [and fail] to out-RAM/CPU/GPU/battery the iPad just don't get it. When you are holding the device and just looking at it, maybe trying a few apps - whether at the store, or trying out your friends - the display is the only constant that'll matter and it's the only thing that you can definitively and objectively compare.
  - ghshephard 15y ago
    Apple's choice of the display is a good/bad situation. They are getting some positive press around their so called "retina display" - but I suspect that Apple will have supply shortages that will negatively impact them for a significant portion of the quarter. The 2048x1536 display is a fairly new component, the yields are probably suboptimal, and the manufacturing lines are probably not up to speed. Don't be too surprise if you are unable to purchase the "new iPad" for several months while Apple (and it's component vendors) try and crank out enough supply for the foxconn factories. And yes - I do agree with you - Apple and their bundles of cash have likely hamstrung world-wide inventories of this display for a minimum of 60, if not 90 days. No other electronics vendor will be shipping the 2048x1536 form factor in large volumes until June/July at the very earliest.
    - latch 15y ago
      Doesn't Apple have a history of successfully using/inventing new components? The unibody aluminium, the original retina display, glass trackpads..even the "hidden" LED on Macbooks. The only major supply failure that I'm aware of is the white iPhone. Also, Apple says they'll have enough screen for 12-15 million devices this quarter, and claim there's no supply issue at all. [1] That aside, shortage isn't bad for in-demand items. It just causes more hype. A year after the Wii shortage, they were still one of the hotest electronic devices you could get your hands on. [1] http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-apple-idUKBRE82C0O720120313 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-apple-idUKBRE82C...
- cobychapple 15y ago
  Thus the perfectly worded event invitation: "We have something you really have to see." (... "And touch.")
- ryanwhitney 15y ago
  Damnit, I accidentally downvoted you. Your old links just got some extra love to make up for it. Anyways, I was attempting to upvote your comment because I've noticed the same. I'm sure it will change once they see the display in person, and then see an iPad 1 or 2 again. I stare at pixels all day and it was an incredible upgrade to go from a standard Dell to a MBP with a high res display a few years back. Looking forward to this next step as well.
- nealyoung 15y ago
  I think that this is an area where Apple's retail presence is a big strength for them. The benefits of the new display are hard to get across in marketing, especially to consumers who are not tech-savvy and don't understand how a higher resolution display would improve the iPad. Apple Stores let people experience the product firsthand, and I expect a lot of these people will be very impressed after they see the screen with their own eyes.
- bryanlarsen 15y ago
  My big question is: Is 2K by 1K5 actually an improvement over the best of the competition (1920x1200)? Obviously 1024x768 is way too low. Bumping to exactly 4 times the number of pixels made the transition seamless, but is there a significant visual difference between the 3 megapixel screen of the new iPad versus the 2 megapixel screen of the ASUS Transformer Infinity? At some point you are going to hit the limit of what the human eye can distinguish. Perhaps a different way of phrasing the question is: at what distance do you have to hold the tablet from your eyes to notice a significant difference?
  - Xuzz 15y ago
    One difference is that the ASUS tablet isn't out yet. And, as far as I know (which, admittedly, isn't much), it doesn't even have a release date. Once it is out, it should be definitely comparable, but this tablet is out now. Which is pretty impressive.
smacktoward 15y ago
Hey everybody! Guess what! John Gruber loves a new Apple product! (Now let's all take a moment to recover from the shock of hearing this.)
- jsnk 15y ago
  Does anyone know how and why Gruber became an authoritative voice for Apple community?
  - notatoad 15y ago
    I think it's probably because he just kept trying so hard. There are other apple blogs, but nobody is quite as fanatical as gruber is. Also, despite the crazy amount of apple stuff he finds to post about, he actually does have a filter for crap - he doesn't bother with most of the more wild rumours or non-news like obscure patents apple filed for 5 years ago. He's a blatant apple fanboy, but unlike most others he's not a stupid fanboy.
    - cobychapple 15y ago
      Exactly. If I read a review of an Apple product there, I know I'm going to be reading a positive one, but it's the clear details he goes into, the fact that they're reasonably well-written, and the interesting and relevant observations he makes along the way that I enjoy reading (and that I believe is noticeably lacking in many other sources of writing online, especially relating to technology).
    - cooldeal 15y ago
      The real reason that is there is a fanatical fanbase, especially among sites like HN, who not only make sure his posts get top billing but also flag posts by Windows enthusiasts and insiders like Paul Thurrott are flagged to death, so much so that that http://winsupersite.com http://winsupersite.com is hellbanned from HN. Haven't notice an actual big Microsoft announcement get far less votes than Gruber's snide and often factually wrong take on it? It's the community of fanboys and worshippers he has created.
darrenkopp 15y ago
My biggest problem with the iPad has always been the 4:3 ratio when it comes to watching widescreen movies. It seems a waste to watch a movie on the ipad when most of your screen is black bars (and the zoom to fill is just a slap in the face because it cuts off a lot of video).
- notatoad 15y ago
  It is a waste, but why are you watching movies on an iPad? That's what a tv is for. When you're surfing the Internet, a vertical 4:3 screen is awesome. The reason I sold my android tablet and bought an iPad was because the 16:9 screen sucked for anything other than movies.
  - samstave 15y ago
    Why do you have a tv when the computer meets and exceeds such functionality? I havent had any form of cable for about 6 years now, I do have a screen which i watch some netflix on, but watch 98% of everything on laptop or ipad. TV is dead to me.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - batista 15y ago
      Why do you have a tv when the computer meets and exceeds such functionality? Well, I don't see many 50"+ computer monitors lying around.
  - JS_startup 15y ago
    Have you ever left your house? Lots of people enjoy watching movies outside of their homes too.
    - notatoad 15y ago
      I understand that, but what I'm saying is that movies is one use case. The iPad has many use cases for which 16:9 is less ideal.
badhairday 15y ago
As per footnote #2, the text on the Kindle application is not rendered by iOS and, as a result, the text is not rendered at a retina resolution for free.
- sosuke 15y ago
  damn I was actually thinking about how awesome the Kindle app would look on PDFs, do you know if Adobe Reader or any other PDF reader will use the new retina resolution right off the bat?
  - lreeves 15y ago
    iBooks has already been updated and supports PDFs.
tikhonj 15y ago
I'm really annoyed with ad hominems like "Anyone who thinks Apple only makes high-priced products has completely lost sense of reality." Statements like this basically amount to "everybody who disagrees with me is an idiot" and add nothing. All they do is annoy the reader. I really wish people would avoid them both in blog posts and comments. I've been seeing some here on HN as well and really wish they would go away.
- siglesias 15y ago
  It's just his dressed up version of saying "is wrong," by point of fact. And he is addressing a viewpoint that pundits have historically harbored.
- seiji 15y ago
  Platform matters. It's his own website. Should he really not say what he thinks? If you get annoyed by words online, you have a very unhappy life ahead of you.
- Cushman 15y ago
  It's not an ad hominem, it's a statement of fact. Apple has a reputation for producing expensive products which are distinguished mostly by industrial design and software rather than specs. It remains absolutely true of their peripherals and accessories, and true, though to a lesser extent, of their computers; however, in smartphones and tablets, Apple is the company that releases best-of-class hardware year after year at retail prices that their competitors have a hard time matching, let alone beating. And anyone who can't admit that is ignoring reality, yeah.
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    Its accuracy or lack of accuracy doesn't really matter. Even if you are an idiot, my calling you an idiot is unwarranted.
    - catshirt 15y ago
      no one called anyone an idiot
phzbOx 15y ago
"The retina display is amazing, everything in the UI feels faster, and the price points remain the same. What’s not to love? It’s that simple." Sadly, it's not enough for me to switch from the ipad1 to the ipad3. If there was a way to have a reduced prize by trading it with your ipad1, then maybe.. :) Still, I wish there was something more to it..
- derefr 15y ago
  Why shouldn't you love that? It means you don't have to spend money.
- baddox 15y ago
  It turns out that people aren't all te same. I happily upgraded from my iPad 2 solely because of the display. People upgrade their computer monitors all the time, so why shouldn't I upgrade the display on a device I use for at least an hour every day (with some days topping 3 hours)?
Archio 15y ago
I think the key thing to take away from this post is how many lightyears ahead the third generation iPad is from its competitors, or current consumer technology in general. > Going back to the iPad 2 after reading for a few hours on the iPad 3 is jarring. > ...most graphics and images on the web are behind the curve, as of today > The iPad display is so good that it shows, like no device before it, just how crummy most images on the web are. It's like using a product from the future. Except Apple has engineered it now, and everyone can have one for a (relatively) decent price: $500. The new iPad is the poster child of everything that Apple does really well, and why it has been so successful over the past couple of years.
- Jimmie 15y ago
  I was about to go "Yeah but the prices in Australia are so much higher than in America, rah rah rah" but the base price is $539 here. Honestly I'm shocked.
- hahainternet 15y ago
  I think you meant to comment on Gruber's site. Pointless inaccurate fawning belongs there, not here.
zem 15y ago
that sounds like a really exciting direction. can't wait for the retina display to catch on in other tablets.
- philwelch 15y ago
  Why do I have the odd feeling that Apple has cornered the market on retina displays?
  - Jimmie 15y ago
    Because that's what happened. They've bought up all the current stock afaik. The other tablet makers will be behind the curve by at least 6 months, maybe a year.
  - wmf 15y ago
    It wouldn't surprise me, but in that case competitors have no one but themselves to blame. They've known a retina iPad was coming since June 2010, so they should have booked capacity then.
    - philwelch 15y ago
      Apple's procurement is far beyond "booking capacity". They effectively provide the economy-of-scale for something like an iPad retina display to be economically produced in the first place. No one else has that kind of power.
      - wmf 15y ago
        So you're saying Apple can order millions of retinas from Samsung, but Samsung cannot order millions from themselves? Like I said, if they're not willing to take the financial risk (as HP did with the TouchPad, for example) then they deserve what they get.
        philwelch 15y ago
        It goes something like this--Samsung can't ship enough units by itself to justify setting up production, but Apple can. So Apple preorders an entire production run, and since Apple's already spoken for all the displays they can produce, Samsung doesn't get any. Samsung could take the risk, but then they'd have an entire production run of Samsung tablets that no one wants to buy and they will have wasted their entire capital investment.
JS_startup 15y ago
I'm in the market for a tablet right now and I wanted to choose the new iPad for its superior resolution, high quality app store and great pedigree. But I can't. When I put aside any internal biases I realize that I want a tablet whose memory I can expand with SD cards. I want one that I can throw ripped movies onto without jailbreaking or going through time-consuming video conversions. I want one that lets me use it as a simple removable drive, free of the Apple ecosystem and its bloated iTunes client. The iPad would be a great device for someone like my mom, but I can tell I'd forever regret its limitations and barriers.
- emehrkay 15y ago
  This wont change your mind, but there are a few apps that you can throw any format video at. The downside is that you're limited to the internal storage and you have to manage it through iTunes (however, there is one that I have that will allow you to wirelessly manage your files).
  - JS_startup 15y ago
    I saw some of those and, while they would help, it's still a bitter pill to swallow. I really just wish there was a tablet with the app quality and build quality of Apple devices but the openness and options of Android devices. Currently I'm forced to either work around Apple's simplicity/limitations or Android's mediocrity/obsolescence.
  - fossuser 15y ago
    Could you name the apps you use?
    - charlietran 15y ago
      CineXPlayer is a good one: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cinexplayer-best-way-to-enjoy/id384098375?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cinexplayer-best-way-to-enjoy...
    - emehrkay 15y ago
      Sorry, I didnt have the ipad in front of me when I wrote the first post. The workhorse is AVPlayerHD, it can play just about anything we throw at it. I dont even bother with conversions. For car rides I just load up a bunch of movies that my son would watch and we're set. I only have the 16gb ipad 1, but opted for the 32 "the new ipad" for this reason alone.
qwe123_troll 15y ago
Why is an advertising shill posting on a site that's purportedly for 'hacker news'?? Also, pro tip: if you're going to post sockpuppet astroturfing articles, make sure they aren't insipid vapid crap that sounds like it was written by some 'media studies' flunky out of Apple headquarters.
AllenShi 15y ago
The guy in the daringfireball.net is a "bad" guy. Every time after I read his review, I always buy the stuff, then love the stuff. ;-)
bryanlarsen 15y ago
Why was Gruber's review of the iPad the one chosen by the Hacker News mob? There are lots of other reviews out there, all pretty much as glowingly positive as Gruber's was, but most of them have two significant advantages: 1) some semblance of impartiality 2) the comments will be about the iPad rather than about Gruber

58 points by rkudeshi 15y ago

It's amazing how many of my friends dismisses the retina display, saying either it's not important or it's just a marketing hype. I guess it's really hard to put into words how good those displays are, it's really something they'd have to see.

baddox 15y ago
Around the office, when discussing the new iPad, many people have said "but it's just a higher resolution display," to which I replay "exactly, and it's a darn fine $500 display."
latch 15y ago
It's pretty genius of Apple to dominate the most tangible spec: the display. And not just dominate it, but by all accounts, practically own the world-wide inventory. All of the other devices which continue to try [and fail] to out-RAM/CPU/GPU/battery the iPad just don't get it. When you are holding the device and just looking at it, maybe trying a few apps - whether at the store, or trying out your friends - the display is the only constant that'll matter and it's the only thing that you can definitively and objectively compare.
- ghshephard 15y ago
  Apple's choice of the display is a good/bad situation. They are getting some positive press around their so called "retina display" - but I suspect that Apple will have supply shortages that will negatively impact them for a significant portion of the quarter. The 2048x1536 display is a fairly new component, the yields are probably suboptimal, and the manufacturing lines are probably not up to speed. Don't be too surprise if you are unable to purchase the "new iPad" for several months while Apple (and it's component vendors) try and crank out enough supply for the foxconn factories. And yes - I do agree with you - Apple and their bundles of cash have likely hamstrung world-wide inventories of this display for a minimum of 60, if not 90 days. No other electronics vendor will be shipping the 2048x1536 form factor in large volumes until June/July at the very earliest.
  - latch 15y ago
    Doesn't Apple have a history of successfully using/inventing new components? The unibody aluminium, the original retina display, glass trackpads..even the "hidden" LED on Macbooks. The only major supply failure that I'm aware of is the white iPhone. Also, Apple says they'll have enough screen for 12-15 million devices this quarter, and claim there's no supply issue at all. [1] That aside, shortage isn't bad for in-demand items. It just causes more hype. A year after the Wii shortage, they were still one of the hotest electronic devices you could get your hands on. [1] http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-apple-idUKBRE82C0O720120313 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-apple-idUKBRE82C...
cobychapple 15y ago
Thus the perfectly worded event invitation: "We have something you really have to see." (... "And touch.")
ryanwhitney 15y ago
Damnit, I accidentally downvoted you. Your old links just got some extra love to make up for it. Anyways, I was attempting to upvote your comment because I've noticed the same. I'm sure it will change once they see the display in person, and then see an iPad 1 or 2 again. I stare at pixels all day and it was an incredible upgrade to go from a standard Dell to a MBP with a high res display a few years back. Looking forward to this next step as well.
nealyoung 15y ago
I think that this is an area where Apple's retail presence is a big strength for them. The benefits of the new display are hard to get across in marketing, especially to consumers who are not tech-savvy and don't understand how a higher resolution display would improve the iPad. Apple Stores let people experience the product firsthand, and I expect a lot of these people will be very impressed after they see the screen with their own eyes.
bryanlarsen 15y ago
My big question is: Is 2K by 1K5 actually an improvement over the best of the competition (1920x1200)? Obviously 1024x768 is way too low. Bumping to exactly 4 times the number of pixels made the transition seamless, but is there a significant visual difference between the 3 megapixel screen of the new iPad versus the 2 megapixel screen of the ASUS Transformer Infinity? At some point you are going to hit the limit of what the human eye can distinguish. Perhaps a different way of phrasing the question is: at what distance do you have to hold the tablet from your eyes to notice a significant difference?
- Xuzz 15y ago
  One difference is that the ASUS tablet isn't out yet. And, as far as I know (which, admittedly, isn't much), it doesn't even have a release date. Once it is out, it should be definitely comparable, but this tablet is out now. Which is pretty impressive.

smacktoward 15y ago

Hey everybody! Guess what! John Gruber loves a new Apple product! (Now let's all take a moment to recover from the shock of hearing this.)

jsnk 15y ago
Does anyone know how and why Gruber became an authoritative voice for Apple community?
- notatoad 15y ago
  I think it's probably because he just kept trying so hard. There are other apple blogs, but nobody is quite as fanatical as gruber is. Also, despite the crazy amount of apple stuff he finds to post about, he actually does have a filter for crap - he doesn't bother with most of the more wild rumours or non-news like obscure patents apple filed for 5 years ago. He's a blatant apple fanboy, but unlike most others he's not a stupid fanboy.
  - cobychapple 15y ago
    Exactly. If I read a review of an Apple product there, I know I'm going to be reading a positive one, but it's the clear details he goes into, the fact that they're reasonably well-written, and the interesting and relevant observations he makes along the way that I enjoy reading (and that I believe is noticeably lacking in many other sources of writing online, especially relating to technology).
  - cooldeal 15y ago
    The real reason that is there is a fanatical fanbase, especially among sites like HN, who not only make sure his posts get top billing but also flag posts by Windows enthusiasts and insiders like Paul Thurrott are flagged to death, so much so that that http://winsupersite.com http://winsupersite.com is hellbanned from HN. Haven't notice an actual big Microsoft announcement get far less votes than Gruber's snide and often factually wrong take on it? It's the community of fanboys and worshippers he has created.

darrenkopp 15y ago

My biggest problem with the iPad has always been the 4:3 ratio when it comes to watching widescreen movies. It seems a waste to watch a movie on the ipad when most of your screen is black bars (and the zoom to fill is just a slap in the face because it cuts off a lot of video).

notatoad 15y ago
It is a waste, but why are you watching movies on an iPad? That's what a tv is for. When you're surfing the Internet, a vertical 4:3 screen is awesome. The reason I sold my android tablet and bought an iPad was because the 16:9 screen sucked for anything other than movies.
- samstave 15y ago
  Why do you have a tv when the computer meets and exceeds such functionality? I havent had any form of cable for about 6 years now, I do have a screen which i watch some netflix on, but watch 98% of everything on laptop or ipad. TV is dead to me.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - batista 15y ago
    Why do you have a tv when the computer meets and exceeds such functionality? Well, I don't see many 50"+ computer monitors lying around.
- JS_startup 15y ago
  Have you ever left your house? Lots of people enjoy watching movies outside of their homes too.
  - notatoad 15y ago
    I understand that, but what I'm saying is that movies is one use case. The iPad has many use cases for which 16:9 is less ideal.

badhairday 15y ago

As per footnote #2, the text on the Kindle application is not rendered by iOS and, as a result, the text is not rendered at a retina resolution for free.

sosuke 15y ago
damn I was actually thinking about how awesome the Kindle app would look on PDFs, do you know if Adobe Reader or any other PDF reader will use the new retina resolution right off the bat?
- lreeves 15y ago
  iBooks has already been updated and supports PDFs.

tikhonj 15y ago

I'm really annoyed with ad hominems like "Anyone who thinks Apple only makes high-priced products has completely lost sense of reality." Statements like this basically amount to "everybody who disagrees with me is an idiot" and add nothing. All they do is annoy the reader. I really wish people would avoid them both in blog posts and comments. I've been seeing some here on HN as well and really wish they would go away.

siglesias 15y ago
It's just his dressed up version of saying "is wrong," by point of fact. And he is addressing a viewpoint that pundits have historically harbored.
seiji 15y ago
Platform matters. It's his own website. Should he really not say what he thinks? If you get annoyed by words online, you have a very unhappy life ahead of you.
Cushman 15y ago
It's not an ad hominem, it's a statement of fact. Apple has a reputation for producing expensive products which are distinguished mostly by industrial design and software rather than specs. It remains absolutely true of their peripherals and accessories, and true, though to a lesser extent, of their computers; however, in smartphones and tablets, Apple is the company that releases best-of-class hardware year after year at retail prices that their competitors have a hard time matching, let alone beating. And anyone who can't admit that is ignoring reality, yeah.
- tikhonj 15y ago
  Its accuracy or lack of accuracy doesn't really matter. Even if you are an idiot, my calling you an idiot is unwarranted.
  - catshirt 15y ago
    no one called anyone an idiot

phzbOx 15y ago

"The retina display is amazing, everything in the UI feels faster, and the price points remain the same. What’s not to love? It’s that simple." Sadly, it's not enough for me to switch from the ipad1 to the ipad3. If there was a way to have a reduced prize by trading it with your ipad1, then maybe.. :) Still, I wish there was something more to it..

derefr 15y ago
Why shouldn't you love that? It means you don't have to spend money.
baddox 15y ago
It turns out that people aren't all te same. I happily upgraded from my iPad 2 solely because of the display. People upgrade their computer monitors all the time, so why shouldn't I upgrade the display on a device I use for at least an hour every day (with some days topping 3 hours)?

Archio 15y ago

I think the key thing to take away from this post is how many lightyears ahead the third generation iPad is from its competitors, or current consumer technology in general. > Going back to the iPad 2 after reading for a few hours on the iPad 3 is jarring. > ...most graphics and images on the web are behind the curve, as of today > The iPad display is so good that it shows, like no device before it, just how crummy most images on the web are. It's like using a product from the future. Except Apple has engineered it now, and everyone can have one for a (relatively) decent price: $500. The new iPad is the poster child of everything that Apple does really well, and why it has been so successful over the past couple of years.

Jimmie 15y ago
I was about to go "Yeah but the prices in Australia are so much higher than in America, rah rah rah" but the base price is $539 here. Honestly I'm shocked.
hahainternet 15y ago
I think you meant to comment on Gruber's site. Pointless inaccurate fawning belongs there, not here.

zem 15y ago

that sounds like a really exciting direction. can't wait for the retina display to catch on in other tablets.

philwelch 15y ago
Why do I have the odd feeling that Apple has cornered the market on retina displays?
- Jimmie 15y ago
  Because that's what happened. They've bought up all the current stock afaik. The other tablet makers will be behind the curve by at least 6 months, maybe a year.
- wmf 15y ago
  It wouldn't surprise me, but in that case competitors have no one but themselves to blame. They've known a retina iPad was coming since June 2010, so they should have booked capacity then.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    Apple's procurement is far beyond "booking capacity". They effectively provide the economy-of-scale for something like an iPad retina display to be economically produced in the first place. No one else has that kind of power.
    - wmf 15y ago
      So you're saying Apple can order millions of retinas from Samsung, but Samsung cannot order millions from themselves? Like I said, if they're not willing to take the financial risk (as HP did with the TouchPad, for example) then they deserve what they get.
      - philwelch 15y ago
        It goes something like this--Samsung can't ship enough units by itself to justify setting up production, but Apple can. So Apple preorders an entire production run, and since Apple's already spoken for all the displays they can produce, Samsung doesn't get any. Samsung could take the risk, but then they'd have an entire production run of Samsung tablets that no one wants to buy and they will have wasted their entire capital investment.

JS_startup 15y ago

I'm in the market for a tablet right now and I wanted to choose the new iPad for its superior resolution, high quality app store and great pedigree. But I can't. When I put aside any internal biases I realize that I want a tablet whose memory I can expand with SD cards. I want one that I can throw ripped movies onto without jailbreaking or going through time-consuming video conversions. I want one that lets me use it as a simple removable drive, free of the Apple ecosystem and its bloated iTunes client. The iPad would be a great device for someone like my mom, but I can tell I'd forever regret its limitations and barriers.

emehrkay 15y ago
This wont change your mind, but there are a few apps that you can throw any format video at. The downside is that you're limited to the internal storage and you have to manage it through iTunes (however, there is one that I have that will allow you to wirelessly manage your files).
- JS_startup 15y ago
  I saw some of those and, while they would help, it's still a bitter pill to swallow. I really just wish there was a tablet with the app quality and build quality of Apple devices but the openness and options of Android devices. Currently I'm forced to either work around Apple's simplicity/limitations or Android's mediocrity/obsolescence.
- fossuser 15y ago
  Could you name the apps you use?
  - charlietran 15y ago
    CineXPlayer is a good one: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cinexplayer-best-way-to-enjoy/id384098375?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cinexplayer-best-way-to-enjoy...
  - emehrkay 15y ago
    Sorry, I didnt have the ipad in front of me when I wrote the first post. The workhorse is AVPlayerHD, it can play just about anything we throw at it. I dont even bother with conversions. For car rides I just load up a bunch of movies that my son would watch and we're set. I only have the 16gb ipad 1, but opted for the 32 "the new ipad" for this reason alone.

qwe123_troll 15y ago

Why is an advertising shill posting on a site that's purportedly for 'hacker news'?? Also, pro tip: if you're going to post sockpuppet astroturfing articles, make sure they aren't insipid vapid crap that sounds like it was written by some 'media studies' flunky out of Apple headquarters.

AllenShi 15y ago

The guy in the daringfireball.net is a "bad" guy. Every time after I read his review, I always buy the stuff, then love the stuff. ;-)

bryanlarsen 15y ago

Why was Gruber's review of the iPad the one chosen by the Hacker News mob? There are lots of other reviews out there, all pretty much as glowingly positive as Gruber's was, but most of them have two significant advantages: 1) some semblance of impartiality 2) the comments will be about the iPad rather than about Gruber