iPad unveiled

[J OGorman]

apple's processors are about 2 years behind Samsungs. Apple have an unreal marketing department as they arent in the same ball park re performance

2 years? anything to back that up?

yes...some techie guy on the matt cooper show 2 weeks ago. Said there are 2 super phones on the market, 1 is the samsung galaxy s3 and the other is the  htc one x. The quad core processor of the galaxy s3 is 2 years ahead of any tech Apple have.
On a personal note, I support over 100 mobiles @ work. Most are BB's, but theres a splattering HTC titans, desires, iPhone 4s / 5, and 2 x Samsung galaxy s3's that we got a few weeks ago. I moved onto the S3 and have never used a phone anywhere near in terms of speed and performance. Graphics, screen, it really is some tool. I work in IT, but wouldnt be a gadget freak, but the Galaxy is immense

You have the iPhone nifan?

[thebigfella]

Could someone please explain to me [who hasnt a clue about this things] what cant an ipad do that can be done on a laptop? I only use my laptop for internet,e-mails,itunes and have things like family photos all stored on it.

maybe it's just me but the ipad seems to be more or less a fashion accessory.

give me a good laptop over an ipad any day. sure the ipad doesn't even support flash.

anyway here's a feature on the poor workers who make the ipad in china:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V3YFGixp9Jw

Adobe don't even support a mobile version of Flash anymore. Flash is dead and has been for a long time; the flash argument for IOS was settled a long long time ago and anyone arguing different is completely out of touch of the changing landscape in web technologies or just doesn't really understand the point they are trying to argue.

Regarding the second point, Foxconn's customers include Microsoft, Samsung, Nintendo, Intel, Dell, Amazon, Sony, Nokia........ I don't see these customers ever mentioned when people get on their high horses about Apple  To give credit to Apple, they have went a good bit further to ensure fair and safe working conditions (I'm not saying they have done enough) than any other of Foxconn's clients. At the end of the day it's down to the governments in the regions Foxconn's factories are located to ensure fair employment practices.

[J OGorman]

apple's processors are about 2 years behind Samsungs. Apple have an unreal marketing department as they arent in the same ball park re performance

What's the apps like J? I have an IPOD Touch, and I love it, but I'm thinking of getting an IPAD mini if they are any good. The real use I get out of my iPOD touch is the Radio Apps, listening to American Sports, etc. I don't really use it to browse t'internet, but I do use a lot of apps, from Banking Online to Train Timetables, to Twitter and Facebook apps, as well as things like online magazines (SPorts Illustrated), Sky Go, etc etc.

Would I be an eejit to jump horses now, or should I make the switch to an Android Tablet?

i wouldnt be an ipad expert. the wife has hers and uses it primarily to look at holidays we cant afford and read books on the kindle app. The eldest girl has the latest, well not the very latest ipad and she has a tonne of apps. Uses it quite a bit for school.

On the android side of things, I'm only a convert of a few weeks, having had BB's for 10 years and RIM discontinuing the Torch. Apps so far have been class. Have vlc downloaded for movies / boxsets. The phone has 32GB of space, so you can drag and drop any type of media file into the movie folder and vlc will play it. No converting to mp4, no syncing with iTunes. I downloaded a GPS tape measuring tape the other day to measure lengths of d-rails for a new fence..marvelous. a guitar tuner called 'gstring's, great job. A super app called Video Cam Illusion which allows you to video (a hem 8mp) using 8mm, pencil, monchrome effects etc...gimmick but great craic.
Watched the celtic match last night on Sky Go, crystal clear.

Signing off now as I sound like a tool

[J OGorman]

Could someone please explain to me [who hasnt a clue about this things] what cant an ipad do that can be done on a laptop? I only use my laptop for internet,e-mails,itunes and have things like family photos all stored on it.

maybe it's just me but the ipad seems to be more or less a fashion accessory.

give me a good laptop over an ipad any day. sure the ipad doesn't even support flash.

anyway here's a feature on the poor workers who make the ipad in china:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V3YFGixp9Jw

Adobe don't even support a mobile version of Flash anymore. Flash is dead and has been for a long time; the flash argument for IOS was settled a long long time ago and anyone arguing different is completely out of touch of the changing landscape in web technologies or just doesn't really understand the point they are trying to argue.

Regarding the second point, Foxconn's customers include Microsoft, Samsung, Nintendo, Intel, Dell, Amazon, Sony, Nokia........ I don't see these customers ever mentioned when people get on their high horses about Apple  To give credit to Apple, they have went a good bit further to ensure fair and safe working conditions (I'm not saying they have done enough) than any other of Foxconn's clients. At the end of the day it's down to the governments in the regions Foxconn's factories are located to ensure fair employment practices.

thats all well and good. the google conversion of youtube continues and will do for a good while yet. But thats of absolutely zero use to folk hear and now, and in the past have have been really restricted on what they could watch on youtube for example. Its still a vary valid argument for someone purchasing an ipad today as literally 10s of millions of youtube videos are still on flash format

[nifan]

yes...some techie guy on the matt cooper show 2 weeks ago. Said there are 2 super phones on the market, 1 is the samsung galaxy s3 and the other is the  htc one x. The quad core processor of the galaxy s3 is 2 years ahead of any tech Apple have.
On a personal note, I support over 100 mobiles @ work. Most are BB's, but theres a splattering HTC titans, desires, iPhone 4s / 5, and 2 x Samsung galaxy s3's that we got a few weeks ago. I moved onto the S3 and have never used a phone anywhere near in terms of speed and performance. Graphics, screen, it really is some tool. I work in IT, but wouldnt be a gadget freak, but the Galaxy is immense

You have the iPhone nifan?

Nope I have an htc one x - with the quad core tegra, and also a nexus 7 with tegra also. Not an apple fan particularly even - had an iphone a few years ago and it was dead on, but android since its come out .

If the techie guy said that apple are 2 years behind with their chips he is a mug. The a6 isnt as powerful as the other chips in raw numbers, but it is far from 2 years behind.

[Main Street]

apple's processors are about 2 years behind Samsungs. Apple have an unreal marketing department as they arent in the same ball park re performance

2 years? anything to back that up?

yes...some techie guy on the matt cooper show 2 weeks ago. Said there are 2 super phones on the market, 1 is the samsung galaxy s3 and the other is the  htc one x. The quad core processor of the galaxy s3 is 2 years ahead of any tech Apple have.

I heard a guy who said that .....   so it must be true
Have you actually seen any benchmark figures or what?

Here is one graphics performance benchmark done by Anandtech in this review
http://www.phonearena.com/news/AnandTech-reviews-the-iPhone-5-A6s-Swift-processor-clocked-at-1.3GHz-taken-through-paces_id35636#1-Apple-chips-size-comparison:-the-A6-is-smaller-than-the-A5X

I fail to see where that lightyear claim is coming from.

[nifan]

Also note that these guys are all manufacturing chips from the same core design - arm cortex.
In fact i belive apples chips have started using the newest version, cotrtex-a15.

Dont forget that a chip may be made slower than possible for various reasons - battery life/heat being major ones.

Finally you also have to consider things like the gpu as well as the cpu in terms of the overall power of the thing, and how well the cpu and gpu are integrated. Main streets benchmark posted is probably very gpu dependent in fact,

[thebigfella]

Could someone please explain to me [who hasnt a clue about this things] what cant an ipad do that can be done on a laptop? I only use my laptop for internet,e-mails,itunes and have things like family photos all stored on it.

maybe it's just me but the ipad seems to be more or less a fashion accessory.

give me a good laptop over an ipad any day. sure the ipad doesn't even support flash.

anyway here's a feature on the poor workers who make the ipad in china:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V3YFGixp9Jw

Adobe don't even support a mobile version of Flash anymore. Flash is dead and has been for a long time; the flash argument for IOS was settled a long long time ago and anyone arguing different is completely out of touch of the changing landscape in web technologies or just doesn't really understand the point they are trying to argue.

Regarding the second point, Foxconn's customers include Microsoft, Samsung, Nintendo, Intel, Dell, Amazon, Sony, Nokia........ I don't see these customers ever mentioned when people get on their high horses about Apple  To give credit to Apple, they have went a good bit further to ensure fair and safe working conditions (I'm not saying they have done enough) than any other of Foxconn's clients. At the end of the day it's down to the governments in the regions Foxconn's factories are located to ensure fair employment practices.

thats all well and good. the google conversion of youtube continues and will do for a good while yet. But thats of absolutely zero use to folk hear and now, and in the past have have been really restricted on what they could watch on youtube for example. Its still a vary valid argument for someone purchasing an ipad today as literally 10s of millions of youtube videos are still on flash format

Have you source for the numbers? I can't remember the last time there was video on YouTube only supported by flash player or not an alternative at least.

Adobe, Google and YouTube all are saying mobile Flash is dead. Android 4.1 does not support flash and nor does Windows Mobile 8; so it's not just iOS devices that do not support flash video playback. It's not a valid argument considering no new mobile device will support it.
Media formats and technologies are replaced; I'd say quite a few people have tapes lying around the house but none would stipulate their new cars need to have a tape deck based on this.

[Main Street]

The A6 graphic capabilities are well ahead of the competition.
The Apple designed A6 used in the iPhone is under clocked.  The Geekbench figures probably give a better overview of cpu performance.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/136291-iphone-5-benchmarks-slower-than-the-galaxy-s3-faster-than-the-nexus-7

[J OGorman]

The A6 graphic capabilities are well ahead of the competition.
The Apple designed A6 used in the iPhone is under clocked.  The Geekbench figures probably give a better overview of cpu performance.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/136291-iphone-5-benchmarks-slower-than-the-galaxy-s3-faster-than-the-nexus-7

the A6 is manufactured by the competition for Apple so Id say safely say it doesnt perform better than the competition

[nifan]

the A6 is manufactured by the competition for Apple so Id say safely say it doesnt perform better than the competition

Samsung only manufacture it from apples design - I dont see how that has any impact on the relative performance, unless you think samsung is stealing the designs and somehow improving on them

[Main Street]

That's right, the A6 is an inhouse Apple design from start to finish.

I remember there were benchmarks where the headline screamed Samsung wipes Apple,  comparing the souped up processor used in Samsung's Chromebook versus the under clocked A6 in iPhone5 and naturally they forgot to mention that 'minor' detail  and also  that Samsung's battery has early exhaustion.
It will be interesting to see how the A6 in iPad 4 performs,

[gallsman]

That's right, the A6 is an inhouse Apple design from start to finish.

I remember there were benchmarks where the headline screamed Samsung wipes Apple,  comparing the souped up processor used in Samsung's Chromebook versus the under clocked A6 in iPhone5 and naturally they forgot to mention that 'minor' detail  and also  that Samsung's battery has early exhaustion.
It will be interesting to see how the A6 in iPad 4 performs,

You're suggesting that people care more about the potential performance of a lump of silicon that the actual performance of something they forked out hundreds of dollars for. Ludicrous.

Interesting week for tablets alright. The iPad mini will surely do well purely on the basis of the loyal Apple fan base but is pricy enough for a smaller tablet. Surface out on Friday - have read mixed reviews to date. Windows Phone 8 announcement on Monday too. Microdoft currently suffering from a shortage of apps similar to Android a few years ago. They'll no doubt pick up in time but may need to use the likes of Samsung and LG more than Nokia to get people going for it.

Interestingly, Google are set to announce a Nexus 10 on Monday as well. Given how well the Nexus 7 has done (great piece of kit, very reasonably priced and will give the iPad mini a run for its money), a premium Nexus-branded tablet could really put it up to the the full-blown iPad. The Android OS gets better and more polished with each successive release. The Nexus 10 is going to be made by Samsung (Asus made the Nexus 7) and you'd expect it to be a few hundred dollars cheaper than the iPad. If they can transition the success of the Nexus 7 to a full size tablet it might be a winner and one I'll definitely look at. The latest Nexus phone (this time made by LG after two from Samsung and the first from HTC) is also set to be announced - it's always at this time of year. Upgraded Nexus 7 apparently too.

[J OGorman]

Guys I have no major love for any gadget manufacturer.apple folk get very defensive re their ipads and phones.

A couple of questions that I haven't  a notion about.  Why don't apple manufacture their own? And for nifan, why would Samsung steal the design when apple give it to them to make for them?

I've used both the s3 and 5, both great machines but the s3 is streets ahead imo

[J OGorman]

On the mini tablets , if anyone is looking one, the blackberry playbook 32.GB is selling for 135 sterling's. Cheap and great for movies and browsing . Square wee gift from Santa