The NEW iPad is here. You know that you are dealing with a technology feeding frenzy when there are multiple videos of someone opening the box to get at this treasure. OK that said, what is this all about and what might there be in it for you?
- First Cellular Phone
Thanks to my son Erik, I am the proud owner of an iPad 2. The form factor, sensual feel, awesome performance, and the downright utility of the tablet computer is earth-shaking. Well, maybe, not quite…
The tablet computer, in my opinion is nearly as revolutionary as was the first cellular phone, as compared to the traditional landline phone.
Regular readers will recall that I have written about the tablet computer before. Please see my previous posts on this subject:
- Arthur C. Clark and the iPad 3
- A Humbling Experience and the Crazy Ones
- Luddites Beware = Change is Coming!
- Proof: The iPad Is Affecting Consumer PC Sales
- The iPad Tsunami: Does it Matter? And how is it Used?
- The iPad is becoming The Only ‘PC’ That Matters
- The PC Is Dying A Slow, Painful Death – Or Not?
So, what is the buzz about? Other fine writers with many more resources than I, have written hundreds of reviews, analyzed the technology and forecast the likely acceptance of this new device, and well as (IMHO) its inferior brothers and sisters. Like all technology, a novel device hits the market, spawning literally hundreds of “Me Too” offerings. The consumer votes with his/her Dollars/Yen/Euros, etc. and there is a lot of technology death. Can anyone say Betamax? The market players merge/die/disappear and there are three winners. It is a Good, Better, Best lineup, centered about price points.
I will, for use in this post, briefly list the New iPad features:
- HD Retina Display
- 4G LTE capability
- 5-Megapixel iSight camera
- Dictation
- iPhoto for iPad
- A5X chip
One of my favorite sources, Business Insider, recently published a series of charts centered around:
- High End –vs. – Low End purchase?
- Will this be a second device?
- For what will you use this new device?
In my opinion, they were trying to position the new device into the existing environment of the buyer. They did it pretty well. All is done to get your mind thinking about what you could do with the New iPad, judge whether you should buy the new machine, or go for the less costly iPad 2, buy an Apple product at all, or wait for what is to come, rumored to be as early as 9 months away.
My favorite feature is, of course, the Dictation function. As Apple says, “Write an email. Send a text. Search the web. Or create a note. And do it all with only your voice. Instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard. Then say what you want to say while your iPad listens. Tap Done and, just like that, your spoken words become written words. Dictation also works with third-party apps, so you can do things like update your Facebook status or share a thought on your Twitter feed.”
As a writer, it would be a blessing to speak the words that I want transferred to the iPad. This would allow much less time using the on-screen keys (although you do get used to them). Will that cause me to trade-in my iPad 2? Probably not. The iPad 2 was such a revolutionary happening for me that I wrapped it in a leather case and rarely, except when I am at work, let it out of my sight. Does anyone want to buy my full-screen DELL laptop? With a tablet computer, I have no need for this once-revolutionary device. Therefore, it goes.
With the good comes the bad. As soon as the device hit the streets, the complaining began. The only gripe that I have is Why not SIRI on the device? Part of SIRI is there – in the aforementioned Dictation feature; why not include it all? Depending on how SIRI was written, I would predict that SIRI is indeed on the New iPad. It is just throttled-back to not work, less the functionality for Dictation. It is, I am sure, purely a marketing decision; “Let’s not give them all the goodies at once…”
The complaints include:
1. Holy Cow, where did my Data Plan minutes go?
Well, with the amount of data transmitted to you for your new hi-res display, you transmitted at least four times the data as before. This is not to mention the vastly increased bandwidth of LTE!
2. Wow, this baby runs hotter than my previous iPad!
With a quad-core processor, working with more than four times as much information to drive all those pixels, the processor will heat up. It will never get hotter than your old laptop computer, and that was acceptable to you – right? This is really not a problem at all!
3. Incredible, I’ve installed a couple of new eBooks and Apps, that have been optimized for the Retina Display and they are huge!
Sure they are! Did you think that the data for that new display was going to be the same size?
Thus it goes. Assuming that you can sell your older device for a reasonable price, you will judge features versus benefits. For me, I will do what I usually do; I wait for the new device to become available, and buy the last generation. Given the shortness between product introduction cycles, it is no hardship for me. Is it for you?
Cliff
