What's Not To Like About New iPad?

Hugh Pickens writes "With 3 million sold over the last week what's not to like about the new iPad? Michelle Maltais at the LA Times does a good job of putting together a compendium of gripes about the new device, justified or otherwise. Most people thought that Siri on the new iPad was a gimme; instead it has a scaled back version — dictation. 'If you want Siri, buy an iPhone. Plain and simple.' The new iPad is a little heavier than the iPad 2, thanks to the better graphics processor and more powerful battery. At one-tenth of a pound heavier that really doesn't sound like much, but it can start to matter if you hold your iPad in one hand for long periods or have any kind of repetitive stress injury. Apps designed for Retina display can be up to five times bigger and it's not just a problem for owners of the new iPad. Legacy owners of the original and iPad 2 who have these apps get to feel the pain too, since updates aren't device specific." The list continues, below.

"The hot-selling device can reach up to 116 degrees during intensive use, according to a test by the Consumer Reports. PCWorld tested 43 tablets and found that the third-gen iPad takes the longest — almost six hours — to fully recharge its battery. You'll love the blistering speed of the 4G iPad, you won't love blowing through your monthly data allotment in just 24 hours if you use streaming video. A number of customers have been complaining on the Apple Support page about a weaker Wi-Fi connection that in some cases will hold a connection for only a few minutes. And last, whatever you do, don't drop the new iPad. From waist height, the damage to the third-gen iPad is fairly extensive. 'Only a small portion of the screen survived.'"

"1/10 of a pound"

[DogDude]

At one-tenth of a pound heavier that really doesn't sound like much, but it can start to matter if you hold your iPad in one hand for long periods or have any kind of repetitive stress injury.

I'm shocked at how physically inept modern people are becoming. The gnashing of teeth over ounces when it comes to gadgets is truly shocking to me. How does one become so incapacitated that an ounce or two is really worth mentioning?

Par for the course?

[swb]

It strikes me that this is just par for the course for most Apple releases.

iPhone 3GS, iPad 1 -- both of mine had wifi problems until software updates came out.

iPhone 4 -- antennagate -- appeared totally fine by the time I got my 4 in March of 2011.

iPhone 4s -- batterygate -- greatly improved in 5.01 and mostly fixed by 5.1.

Overall, it seems like there's about 6 months after a device's release that Apple releases a serious of fixes to fix or mitigate some deficiency and that by that time the device is largely as good as it will get.

I just wish they would add bluetooth profiles to the iPad for microphone headsets and mice, although the latter I only want with RDP apps, although I think it might be handy if you were using a full-screen editor, too.

It kind of makes me wonder why no one has made a BT mouse adapter that plugs into the microphone port or the dock connector. With an open SDK, vendors who wanted mouse capabilities could add support for the hardware.

I expect it has some bugs too

[YesIAmAScript]

I know it has bugs in the LTE connection. It's conked out before, and I even had the WiFi connection disappear after I turned LTE off (to save power). Going to airplane mode and back fixed all the problems, at least for now.

Also, the bars in LTE mode don't make much sense, or at least aren't what you're used to. With 5 bars I get 30mbps down, with 1 I get 24mpbs down. We've been trained from 3G that 1 bar is a lot slower than 5, so they should rescale the bars so that when you are at half speed or less you get 1 bar.

As if Apple products alone have "problems"

[Cheech Wizard]

It is so rare that I buy any device (or even furniture, for that matter) which is perfect that I'm surprised when I buy something, anything, which I have absolutely no "Had they...", or "They should have..." comments. I read the article before it was posted here. It's just another bit of "journalism" to fill some space. As I look around my home, there are few things I can not come up with some complaint about, no matter how small. I bought an iPad 2 but read about the "next" iPad a day later and the prediction of a better display. So - I called Apple and cancelled the order. It was too late. BUT - They paid for return shipping and refunded my money. When this iPad came out I pre-ordered. So many of my friends with an iPad liked them so much I was pretty convinced I'd like it and I do. The stuff in the article is what it is. You can't please everyone all of the time. Me? No problems. WiFi - Works fine. Charges up fine. It does everything I *expect* it to do, and does it well. It may not be *perfect*, but there are few things in my life which I have bought that were *perfect*, and being in my 60's that's saying something.

Re:Best Part is..

[Anonymous Coward]

$350 for a refurbished unit? Sorry... it isn't THAT good. Not even NEW is that good.

Over-hyped, copycat devices by Apple are seriously overpriced and completely underwhelming.

I'll wait until someone makes a cheaper, better performing Linux tablet computer that I know is rock solid. Fuck Apple.

Made by Samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

Display, Processor, Chips, Battery, ...But hey, It has an Apple logo!

Re:Fragmentation

[mikael]

There is a sales term called the (Adam) Osborne effect. Based in the era of "luggage" computer where a CRY screen, twin floppy Fisk drives and a transformer could fit into something as small as a suitcase, Adam Osborne proudly announced at one new product exhibition that the next model that they were going to be selling in there months time was going to have even more features. The end result was that no-one was interested in buying or developing for the current model.

Re:Everything Is Amazing And Nobody Is Happy

[FudRucker]

that sure brings back memories, when i was a kid i had a brother and two sisters and mom was a stay at home mom and dad worked, there was one dial phone for everybody, you know what it is like trying to get to use the phone with that many siblings (especially sisters), cellphones have not been invented, the personal computer not invented, the family car was a 1958 Chrysler Imperial and for fun there was board games or i could go outside and ride my bicycle or skateboard which was dangerous because a pebble could lock up a wheel and off you go flying like a bird without wings so the first lap down the sidewalk was slow so i could brush aside any pebbles, and in an empty lot there was a rust hood of an old car we used as a jump for our BMX style bikes,

Re:News...

[trolman]

Last time I posted and mentioned that Slashdot was going down hill my karma took a hit. So what the hell. Here is the said story. [current.com]

Since I lost my original TXH1138 account and wasn't allowed to have it back, I guess someone figured out the significance and didn't want to upset George, I have seen things drop to the lowest common denominator. I don't have an axe to grind here and am not holding a grudge. It is a legitimate gripe. The slashdot is so far behind the curve that I would rather spend my effort on Spiceworks and Reddit helping people.

Of course I am old and you should all stay the hell off my lawn etc. If anyone has a replacement for this site please do tell. I will read at -1.

Re:Fragmentation

[Shaterri]

Compared to Windows as of 15 years ago, maybe. The Windows APIs the last few years have been mature enough that while diverse hardware testing can still improve the user experience, it's gotten substantially less necessary for game developers. That just isn't the case for Android games.