Apple's A5 CPU in iPad 2 has 512MB of RAM, same as iPhone 4 - report - Page 5

Not sure if people are taking it personally or not. But it is clear that everything Apple does triggers an emotional reaction among many people who follow technology. And that's a good thing for Apple because coolness and mindshare are intangible emotional quantities.

Human males have been conditioned over millions of years to belong to groups. Because a group of people has a better chance of surviving and breeding than each one would alone. Tribes, fiefdoms, sports teams, armies, nations, whatever. Now that many of us don't need to fight for our lives every day, that need to join a group and compete against other groups for resources has been watered down to rooting for sports teams, technology companies, etc. The sometimes irrational "my group is better" instinct is still there.

If you had no emotional reaction to the iPad 2 or to people's replies to your post, you wouldn't have typed a 50+ line response. Would you?

Nvidia and Apple's motivations are entirely different.

Your whole rational for the iPad being rushed is based upon them not demoing games. Is that really what you want to go with?

Could they not wait to show new software abilities when they introduce iOS 5?

Yes, that must be it --- when the Playbook has 948mb of freemem, when their entire UI is flash.

Exactly. This is why Apple doesn't play the spec game. Apple wants to impress you with how the product works. In your hands. Not with a list of numbers.

And that seems to be an extremely successful concept.

Not demo'ing ANY third-party app that uses the increased CPU/GPU speed.

I don't understand how this proves that the "Memory per Core" thingy is anything but utter bullshit. My 1st gen iPod Touch has 128Mb of memory and can run 3rd party apps, therefore, iOS should be as light as light as the Playbook's OS... and memory hasn't got anything to do with the number of cores...

That's kind of saying that my MBP would be just as fine with a Core Solo CPU and 2GB of RAM

If your news is in flash, you will not see it on ipad2

You must not understand the milestone in being able to edit HD video with iMovie. They type of hardware that was previously necessary to handle that task.

More than likely they will have new software tricks to demo with the intro of iOS 5.

Interesting post:

Apple: Analysts See iPad 2 A Compelling Case

AAPL up 2.02%

MMI (MotoMobile) down 6.03%

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I think none of us is saying that 1GB would be nice... but 512MB is pretty good as well, and I'd rather have the 512MB of RAM and the super-duper GPU than have 1 GB and get a meagre improvement on the GPU side (I'm not talking about the CPU as we all knew the iPad was just going to double the cores)

I think I was able to grasp what you stated from your first post, and more important the simplification done to explain what would oherwise be an esoteric and complex concept.

We do that all the time, to explain the basic concepts in physics and chemistry. The nuances and exceptions are discussed in the Q&A, or further discussions.

What you stated above gives further insight as to why Apple does not simply port its Applications to the iPad, even if they work in OSX.

There was a time, when the G3 Desktop Mac was considered too powerful that the government required clearance before it could be shipped to China.

The CPUs and disk storage in many computers have become more powerful since then, but it seems, the bloat in Applications have kept up.

I remember when Apple first simplified the OSX, and it was able to delete so much without sacrificing its capabilities. It was the direction it has taken with the iOS and I hope, if as you say is true, it will continue to be strict in implementing RAM usage economy for all Apps that are accepted.

If I remember correctly, the earlier PCs had more memory and power in them that the four computers that controlled the spaceships in the Appolo program. So, why does a simple mobile device necessarily require more RAM, and be upgraded so often to run what would be considered "simpler tasks".

CGC

I'm not sure which you're referring to, but I think it's one of the following:

In OS 9 and earlier, you could Rebuild the Desktop Database, by holding down command-option on startup. That went away with OS X. Doing this could fix a variety of problems, usually associated with applications being able to be run, or associated with file types. It could also decrease the size of the database making things more efficient, but you'd have to have a lot of files and apps on an old system that hadn't had its database rebuilt in a while to notice much of a difference. Still, it was a good habit to do this periodically. Pre-System 7, the Desktop Database was a huge vector for viruses, so rebuilding often could help prevent that as well (although there was Disinfectant as the most awesomest antivirus application ever).

In OS X there is Prebinding. Prior to 10.2 you could manually update prebinding and it would increase the launch time of a new application. As a result, it may be worth updating prebinding whenever a new app was installed. In 10.2 and later, prebinding was done automatically whenever a new app is launched.

How can the Xoom play back 1080p? Isn't that physically impossible considering it has a resolution of 1280x800???

Except your assertion is based at a single frame of a demo video -- with no idea of what was going on at the time or, what the number represented, or even if the number displayed was accurate.

My hands-on experience is based of years of usage of Flash (dating from dealing with Macromedia Flash experts) to personal experience (as recently as yesterday) where Flash hangs/crashes the browser.

I have iPads -- I know how they perform!.

I have read/watched everything I can about the PlayBook -- and everything points to throwing hardware at a poor OS/UI implementation.


When the PlayBook becomes available, we will be able to experience how well or poorly the device performs (including battery).

Of course, time will prove which is the right or wrong assessment.

I am not sure you are advocating for the consumer or the stockholder.. At least, one thing I got was that there is a dichotomy in the interest of the two.

If you think that those who argue here in favor of Apple's high profit margin are because they are stockholders, that may or may not be true. However, I doubt very much that Steve Jobs or the company priced their products simply to satisfy their stockholders. Judging from their responses, Apple does not even give much consideration to attempts of stockholders or more accurately, the big financial management firms to distribute that $60 billion cash reserve. [I don't know how many Apple shares I own but there would be some indirectly from the multual funds I invest in.]

If your complaint is that consumers are being shafted by Apple for the perceived "charging" too much for a product, from what I read, among long time Apple users or even new ones, that is not the case. From those I know alone, they buy Apple products because they found it useful or better experience than the others they have used before. I have a friend for example who must have used all types of phones before, very loyal. Then, one day, she just bought an iPhone. I thought it would be too small for her to do most of her computer work (she has bad eyes and kind of older already) but she told me that she did most of her daily stuff now with her iPhone (banking, internet, emailing, etc.). She is very sociable, most of her group were devout RIM, Nokia, Windows users. The last time we talked she told me that many of them have converted to the iPhone, even the person who only bought an iPod touch initially because he could not part with his Blackberry because it has all his business contacts. These are people who even know less about RAMS, or multitasking, etc. Even more amazing, another friend who did not want her daughter to have an iPad (tye daughter wanted the iPad), and bought what she thought was a more useful "Dell computer", eventually bought an iPad herfself, when she went back to school, and after she bought and got so hooked up with her iPhone4 *with unlimited usage" -- data, phone text messaging. You might think she is rick, but she was not.

And this was in a place in Louisiana, where it was even more rate to know anyone who used a Mac. The friend who was persuaded by her son to buy a Dell computer, she had a pink iMac before that, was fed up with her Dell computer after it got infected with a virus twice. The repairs alone plus the cost of the external disk would be more than the cost had she bought the latest iMac or notebook, two years ago. After her very productive experience with the iPhone, she vowed never to buy any PC again. She is not saving for either the MacBook Air or an iPad.

As a long time Apple user myself, I do not consider Apple products overpriced. Sure I would want the devices I buy to be cheaper, and I would hunt for bargains (like tax free days). I do not have the computer expertise to be tinkering with my computer. If I want something installed that would require opening the body, I pay a technician to do it. If there is anything I do not understand, I want to talk to someone who knows something about it. Being able to do this got even easier when the Apple Stores came to Boston. So, I consider all these when I choose a computer, as part of the total cost.

As to support, consider this issue. I have not bought an iPhone yet because, I have a very good deal with Sprint. During one of my travels, the phone I had just stopped working (dropped too many times), I had to get a replacement. It took too much time. Then, I eventually replaced it with supposedly a long-lasting battery phone from Samsung. I was supposed to get a $50 rebate from Samsung, but it never arrived. After notying the local branch of Sprint in Boston, they just told me to write to Samsung again? i never got the money.

After a few months, the supposed long lasting battery cell phone gets discharged faster than claimed. I had it checked by Sprint, and they claim nothing is wrong with it. Just so frustrating, but there is no recourse because I have no direct contact with the phone manufacturer. This would not have been an issue, if my phone was an iPhone. I could have gone to the local Apple Store to deal with the matter.

I have used the iPhone, and liked it a lot. I would want one but I could not justify the monthly costs over and above what I pay now with Sprint. I could buy a good iPad yearly for the extra cost of current iPhone usage charges.

However, when my contract with Sprint next yearwould be over, I am likely to bite the bullet, and reconsider holding up not getting an iPhone.

CGC

Whoa! Are you saying all the posters here are male? So there's no chance of getting lucky with a girl here?

Damn!

When I consider an iPad I don't think about whether it can run Flash, if I want Flash I'd just consider some other tablets. The RAM size issue to me is about hoping iPad2 to be on par with iPhone 5 in terms of the running similar new apps smoothly and using iOS5 new features smoothly.

It's what you described first, I had hundreds of thousands of created texts files, created through the years. These do not included those of the applications. I used to "rebuild" then, supposedly as a good practice to avoid fragmentation.

I do not even know how many mmore text, images and all sorts of files I have now, a lot of them are also stored in the internet. I am now in my second external disk drive (more than 1 Terrabyte) on top of the internal drive. I don't even do systematic backup because it could easily increase the size by several fold.

So, I am not sure if the issue of random storage still happens in the OSX.

CGC

The question for me is, will iOS 4.3 do to the ipad 1 what 4.2 did to the 3gs?

I really hope not, I don;t want to have to upgrade, I have no interest in cameras on a mobile device other then the odd phone snap. None whatsoever.

Oh, samab, I don't expect much of you, but this is lame even by that standard. You missed the iMovie and GarageBand demos? Why would they need a third-party app to demonstrate that when they had their own? Of all the shills who come here to AI, and there are plenty of them, you are the saddest of them.

I've been running the 4.3 beta for quite some time -- works fine!

I believe it was designed more for the iPad 1 than for the iPad 2.

That said, the 4.3 GM is available to developers today -- iPad 2 - specifics, shown yesterday, could be included in that.

Developers are under NDA, so you are unlikely to hear many details until 4.3 is released on 3/11.

QNX with Flash UI has been in 20 million automobiles --- with CPU and memory a lot less than tablets and smartphones.

With regard to performance and battery, you talked in the past about how poorly it would be --- based on engadget's screen shot of the battery life. Guess what --- that playbook had ONLY one of the core enabled in that demo. Freeze-frame the video at 29 seconds.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/b...ybook-preview/

Very different than the video I cited earlier today --- when the freeze-frame of the video clearly stated processor1 and processor2. Huge battery life improvement just by enabling the second core on.

A single 1GHz Cortex A9 core is 25% faster than a single 1GHz Cortex A8 core that the original ipad1 has. That's the performance we are talking about. People screamed that the CES videos on the playbook --- the flash website (often shown was tbs.com) was slow and stutterly. Well, the Playbook was operating on a single core --- with HD video playing in the background, quake 3 demo running in the background, the photo app playing a slideshow in the background, and the tbs.com website was stutterly in the foreground.

No, I didn't say that Apple needed to bring out third party developers on stage to demo third party apps that take advantage of improved speed in CPU/GPU --- just to prove that the new hardware rocks.

I said that Apple was rushing to launch the ipad2 because of the zillion of android tablets --- and because of that rush, no outside developers had the tools nor the time to actually make third party apps that took advantage of the new hardware. This is rather like the Motorola Xoom launching with 16 tablet apps in the app store.

Actually except the Xoom, nothing significant has come out yet, so there's actually no need to rush because of the 'zillion of android tablets' in your dream. Besides, end of March was the time iPad1 launched, iPad2 is only 2-3 weeks sooner which should not be considered a 'rush' by any standard.

How is that likely? And what the hell do you mean more RAM isn't always better? Do you mean when somebody other than Apple includes more memory, as in diehard apple fanboy-speak?


Slow down and read the posts! We're talking about output via the video connector ie connecting to an external screen or projector.

It has video output... you can plug it into a screen or projector... read the posts before replying...

That's a matter of opinion and I can live with people disagreeing with me.

But Apple is selling an ipad2 with enough horses in both the 2x faster CPU and 9x faster GPU to decode 1080p videos. They expect you to pay $35 for that cable and I think it is fair for the consumer to expect that they can actually decode 1080p video.

I didn't make that statement out of thin air, there are numerous factors that are at least supporting my argument.

It's not really like it at all.

It's fair for consumers to expect the iPad can do what Apple claims it can do. Expecting it to do something it wasn't advertised to do is pretty dumb.

That's a completely false premise. I'd wager that the iPad 2 was in development before any Android tablets were even seriously though about.

The Android tablets are working around the success of the iPad. Currently Android tablets have had no appreciable success that Apple needs to compete against.

Welcome to the twisted logic of internet forums.

Because iOS software is fine tuned specifically to the iPad hardware in away that Android is not fine tuned the Xoom.

That fact has nothing to do with fanboism, its simply a fact.


Seeing as we actually have not seen how well the Xoom can do this. I'd hold out my wide sweeping judgements. It might another coming soon in the near future type feature.

It is also expected that consumers don't have to read the fine print to actually find out that they pay $35 for that cable because Steve Jobs said it can output to a 1080 hdtv and then find out at home they can't actually play those videos. Some how that's twisted logic?


It is clear that Apple started ipad2 development as soon as they launched the original ipad.

I said that the TOOLS that third party developers needed weren't available earlier --- and that no third party developers had time to develop third party apps that took advantage of the new hardware to be launched at the same time as the actual ipad2 launch.

Hmm, all of your recent comments are worthless. Thanks for sharing.

The iPad has never been able to play 1080P before. Why would someone suddenly assume that it does? Why would someone need to look through the fine print to find out that the iPad does not have a functionality that it has never had?



What makes this a false premise is the fact that Apple did not present the iPad 2 to developers for them to do anything with it. You are inventing an entire premise in your mind and coming up with an entire conclusion to something that never happened in reality.

It is also simply a fact that the Playbook uses an embedded OS that will have a smaller memory footprint than the ipad --- and they come with a gig of memory.

Apple also never sold a HDMI cable before.

Third party developers don't need Apple to present them with an actual ipad2 in order for the developers to start coding. What they need is the development TOOLS.

The Playbook is an entirely different story from the Xoom. At least the Xoom has a launch date, when are they actually going to ship the Playbook?

And an interesting take on developing apps for the Playbook.

You win. I concede defeat. I no longer want to attempt developing an app for the Playbook.

What development tools are you talking about? The HDMI out simply mirrors whats on the screen. Developers don't need to do anything for that.

They are ALL rushing to get the tablets launched. Apple has the luxury of dropping features from the initial launch to a later date.