
Daring Fireball: iPad (3) - rkudeshi
http://daringfireball.net/2012/03/ipad_3
======
esusatyo
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.

~~~
latch
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
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
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-
idUKBRE82C...](http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-apple-
idUKBRE82C0O720120313)

------
JS_startup
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
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).

~~~
fossuser
Could you name the apps you use?

~~~
emehrkay
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.

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badhairday
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
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
iBooks has already been updated and supports PDFs.

------
Archio
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
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.

------
darrenkopp
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
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
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.

~~~
batista
_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.

------
tikhonj
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.

~~~
recoiledsnake
>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

Agreed, and most of the people who say that live in Silicon Valley sipping a
$5 latte in a Starbucks with a Macbook in tow.

Whereas, in countries like India, you could be working a great job, have all
luxuries, even have a housemaid and the iPhone will easily set you back a
months salary. Whereas, in the US, you can buy around 7 unlocked iphones with
a month's salary. People's perspective is screwed up when they don't
understand why everyone doesn't rush to buy Apple products. How many in the US
or Europe would buy the iPhone if it was $5000 ?

I am not implying Apple should lower the prices but I think the people making
that claim about them not being high priced products have completely lost
their sense of reality.

~~~
seanmcd
I really hate the uninformed India/China argument when it comes to
exemplifying overpriced Apple products. Turns out, there are a lot of iPhones
in New Delhi and Beijing used by a rising middle class...they even pay full
unsubsidized high-tax prices for them. FYI, its not $5000, its $820 for a
iPhone 4s in Beijing.

Apple is already making a lot of money in China, and I'm sure they will
eventually make money in India after they open up a few stores and get people
off the gray market (where iPhones are sourced now). I'm dreading when the
next iPad comes out in China, there will probably be yellow cow riots again.

~~~
recoiledsnake
>I really hate the uninformed India/China argument when it comes to
exemplifying overpriced Apple products

Really?

>FYI, its not $5000, its $820 for a iPhone 4s in Beijing.

I said, IMAGINE if you had pay $5000 for an iPhone in the US or Europe. It is
that expensive _comparatively_ to someone in China or India.

I did not say or imply that they aren't making money, I was saying people who
say they're overpriced havent "lost all touch with reality" as much the person
making such an argument.

~~~
seanmcd
The point is that yes, they are overpriced for farmers and migrant workers in
these countries, but they are definitely not overpriced for the middle class.
The middle class in China is already 200 million people, think a similar
number for India. These are huge markets for Apple, and they are doing just
fine.

In fact, I think Apple is a bit cheaper in China compared to the luxury
alternatives. Apple is very aggressive in China, and their markup is probably
just totally due to taxes. This is compared to Samsung or even Lenovo, whose
markup is much higher. Apple is actually cheaper than the alternatives, which
is why the Chinese are buying their products up.

------
bryanlarsen
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

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

~~~
philwelch
Why do I have the odd feeling that Apple has cornered the market on retina
displays?

~~~
wmf
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
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
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
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.

------
AllenShi
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. ;-)

------
smacktoward
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
Does anyone know how and why Gruber became an authoritative voice for Apple
community?

~~~
notatoad
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.

~~~
baddox
Are you using "fanboy" to mean something other than "a male who is a fan?"
Usually, "fanboy" is used pejoratively to refer to someone that claims fandom
without thinking critically, or refuses to recognize flaws. On occasion,
Gruber has arguably been guilty of that, but this article sounds perfectly
fair and reasonable.

~~~
notatoad
This article is reasonable because the new iPad actually is good. Gruber is
the very definition of a fanboy.

------
phzbOx
"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..

~~~
baddox
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)?

