I get your point on iOS. But what do you think is 'wrong' with the rMBP, or iMac?
Jony's fetish for anorexic computers.
I don't like the rMBP's use of a unique and exclusive storage format that reduces choice and increases cost just to make it thinner. Fine idea, but not for the Pro. If I want thin, there's an Air for that. I also happen to think the Retina display is total overkill for a computer display, but that's not a hating point, just an observation.
As for the iMac, they went to slower standard storage, offer only Fusion as a faster BTO upgrade, and make it damn near impossible to replace when it fails. The lust for thin also means that GPU. storage and CPU options are limited as much by heat considerations as anything else.
I don't really dislike either, I just think they're examples of form over function. I think chassis skinniness is significantly less important than fast, high-performance internals.
Can't a (Fusion) drive be replaced at an (B&M) Apple Store?
Isn't the MP designed for high performance? The iMac for AIO - one stop PC, and the Mini for light computing?
To me, your points are mood. But I do want to point out: to each his own. I don't see the issues like you do. And that's perfectly fine. Fine to me; you might disagree.
Although we don't know if the ram and battery will go bad in 6 months.
But if you just want it as an HD confidence monitor for that next video shoot; best deal yet.
Awesome hardware, crap software, risky future. It will work for the two weeks the user brags about what a deal they got over an iPad and then in three weeks, will fit comfortably on the shelf next to books of Shakespeare that came with the furniture.
To me, your points are mood. But I do want to point out: to each his own. I don't see the issues like you do. And that's perfectly fine. Fine to me; you might disagree.
I agree. We probably wouldn't choose the same car, either. That variety of preferences and biases is why I think it's a good idea to have more than one size of iPhone.
Sadly, I think Android will, in fact, be "good enough" for most people. Not for me, but other people.
I don't think it is good enough at all. I have a Nexus 7, and it does appear decent, and is nearly a good tablet.
Sadly (or not, for Apple), user experience will mainly serve to push people to something built and designed properly and completely - an iPad.
I got mine to try out using a tablet to replace dragging a laptop around to an offshore oil rig... and i'm quite sure a tablet will be enough... an iPad mini, will be enough.
To be honest, i only got the N7 to tide me over until the retina ipad mini came out... but i might break down and see about a used ipad mini.
N7 with better resolution?
Doesn't fix 2 major design faults.
#1 - it's 7 inches. Should have gone to an 8inch retina screen... the extra inch makes a HUGE difference. Take a N7 and compare a newspaper web page on an ipad mini.
#2 - even if they did 8"... you still have the wasted screen space with a status bar at the top and the soft buttons on the bottom. Dreadful. Haven't they heard of auto-hide?
Just taken a ruler to it, and the two bars take up around 13mm (9mm bottom, 4mm top roughly). Doesn't sound much?
In portrait the screen height is 150mm, so you've just lost %8 1/2 of your display by height... in landscape the waste is criminal - landscape ~ 96mm screen so you're left with 83mm.
ps yes, i've had to root the thing to install some software to allow me to use a gesture to hide these bars at will. It's still too small.
I'd say Android is 'good enough' and 'cheap enough' to introduce people to tablets - and as soon as 'they' can, they'll upgrade to Apple.
I'm not sure I going to be able to wait for the retina version... must resist ;-)
I find this to be pretty interesting and may consider one of these in the future.
My current Internet connection is cellular, because where I live we have unlimited LTE data plans for 30€/month that compete directly with wired Internet access (wired access is still superior in terms of price and quality of service, but cellular is beginning to give them a run for their money by offering the benefit of mobility without significant drawbacks), so my third-generation iPad (which does not support LTE here and is thus limited to 14mbps) is my router. This creates some problems, for example, with software updates, since iOS does not download anything with more than 50MB off the cellular network, forcing me to update through iTunes
I've considered switching back to a dumb phone now that these small tablets are on the market, because these tablets are portable enough to serve as the PDAs of yore without sacrificing too much on the screen real estate department, I don't have to carry them all the time, and they're also cheaper to replace if stolen, lost, or broken.
Finally, while I'm an Apple fan, I'm also a big fan of Google's services; and as an Apple customer I feel like I'm being treated as a second-lclass citizen for making my own choices in terms of Internet service providers. While iOS users can easily use Google's services by downloading their apps, these apps lack the integration that Maps, FaceTime, iMessage, Facebook, and Twitter currently enjoy. Add to it the fact that, unlike Google, Apple's services are not cross-platform and are generally inferior to Google's in terms of reliability, and there is absolutely no incentive to actually stick with Apple's Internet services.
I'm not about to stop buying Apple stuff, but I think I'm in need of a paradigm shift, and this tablet seems to fit my needs perfectly.
How many of those Google will sell until the end of the year? One million, two millions? They will probably be available trough limited distribution channels like many of the Nexus products and won't get a lot of advertising in mainstream media, aside from the free advertising from the tech media.
If Apple wants to ship a retina iPad mini for this holiday season, it will need something like 10 millions of them at least, and unlike Google, they still have to make a significant profit on them to satisfy shareholders.
Nexus devices (and Chromebooks) are a publicity stunt to improve (or maintain) the mindshare about Google and the Android platform, aimed at tech journalists, bloggers and to keep Google fans and investors confident that their platform is superior (or so they think). By making little or no profit on them, Google is essentially indirectly paying tech journalists to say nice things about them and ignore its faults because "it's so affordable!"
By doing that they also create a race to the bottom for competitors (who need to make a profit, unlike Google), bringing down quality and encouraging even worse working conditions for those who make them somewhere else in the world. If you think Foxconn is bad, just imagine the working conditions of Goggle's Android tablet competitor factories trying to match Google's profitless products.
Not sure what happened to my last post, I pressed SUBMIT and... nothing... Let us see if this one gets through.
I've been wanting to go back to the dumb phone + PDA combo for quite some time, for a number of reasons:
1 - I like Google services, but Apple has dictated that my Internet service provider choice should not be blessed with first-class citizenship rights, unlike Facebook, Twitter, Maps, Facetime, and iMessages, plus Ficetime and iMessages aren't even cross-platform, so I can't invite people who are not in the Apple ecosystem to use them;
2 - These tablets are now small enough to carry around when I need them and cheap enough to replace if broken, lost, or stolen without sacrificing too much on the screen real estate department;
3 - Currently, my iPad is my Internet connection, thanks to competitive cellular data plans where I live (30€/month for 15GB at 44mbps, unlimited at 128kbps), but it's way too big to carry around, and iOS is too unstable to be used as an Internet router (a natural habitat for Linux).
All the above make this tablet extremely appealing, especially if its hardware is also considered.
I don't understand what that means. Would you please elaborate?
Sure!
For starters, there are the small issues: you need a Wi-Fi connection to download updates over 50MB, because iOS will simply refuse to do that off the cellular network (not even an option), either that or you have to update through iTunes and then sync. This isn't a stability issue, just an annoyance.
Secondly, iOS has had a few bugs that truly annoy me since Personal Hotspot first appeared on the iPhone:
The first is that if the data call hangs up unexpectedly, the data counter rests to the values that it had before the last call was terminated, meaning you can never know for sure whether the values you're reading are accurate because iOS re-establishes the connection as soon as possible;
The second is that under some conditions (which I am yet to determine), the LAN created by iOS when Personal hotspot is enable simply stops responding through either Wi-Fi or USB; the only way I know to address this is to simply reboot iOS;
The third is that the Wi-Fi access point created by Personal Hotspot is only visible for a short amount of time after enabling the setting, even when plugged to power, making it useless for most purposes (my Mac connects to it through USB, but my iPhone has to use its own data connection, because I can't be bothered to restart Personal Hotspot every time my iPhone is within my iPad's range).
EDIT: Forgot to mention an annoyance: you can't read (and much less send) SMSes on an iPad (unless it's jailbroken), which is an issue because many carriers us SMSes to send service notifications.
For starters, there are the small issues: you need a Wi-Fi connection to download updates over 50MB, because iOS will simply refuse to do that off the cellular network (not even an option), either that or you have to update through iTunes and then sync. This isn't a stability issue, just an annoyance.
Secondly, iOS has had a few bugs that truly annoy me since Personal Hotspot first appeared on the iPhone:
The first is that if the data call hangs up unexpectedly, the data counter rests to the values that it had before the last call was terminated, meaning you can never know for sure whether the values you're reading are accurate because iOS re-establishes the connection as soon as possible;
The second is that under some conditions (which I am yet to determine), the LAN created by iOS when Personal hotspot is enable simply stops responding through either Wi-Fi or USB; the only way I know to address this is to simply reboot iOS;
The third is that the Wi-Fi access point created by Personal Hotspot is only visible for a short amount of time after enabling the setting, even when plugged to power, making it useless for most purposes (my Mac connects to it through USB, but my iPhone has to use its own data connection, because I can't be bothered to restart Personal Hotspot every time my iPhone is within my iPad's range).
EDIT: Forgot to mention an annoyance: you can't read (and much less send) SMSes on an iPad (unless it's jailbroken), which is an issue because many carriers us SMSes to send service notifications.
Not sure how your usage is relevant to many people. What's the point of posting?
Google is clearly looking to pre-empt the low end of the tablet market with a small screen and low price, and little if any profit margin. this will devastate the other Android OEM's, but plainly Google doesn't care about them anymore (and the MS Surface RT - hah, hah, hah, hah ...can't stop laughing!). talk about a race to the bottom! Google is going for establishing a mass market installed base at any cost - a classic loss leader strategy. same as Amazon with the Fire that, no doubt, will match the Nexus 7 ASAP in specs and price. all the rest, eat dirt.
to say this is a "very aggressive move" by Google is an understatement. there's going to be an Android bloodbath. Google may have decided to take over the weak Android tablet OEM market for itself permanently - otherwise its costly Motorola purchase will be a total dud. but this V.2. mode is still made by Asus ... for now.
Apple was certainly going to drop the iPad Mini price at least $100 anyway when its new retina model is released at presumably the same prices as today's models (Apple charges "what the market will bear"). obviously now the sooner the better, and the price drop might be more now. Apple will undoubtedly highlight that the Mini gives you 40% more screen area to view/work with than the Nexus 7 - which really matters for many. right now the weight of both is the same at 11 oz., another key factor for consumers, and we will see if the new Mini is any less (probably not). the last key factor is battery life, and here Apple's custom chips + iOS 7 may result in a dramatic improvement for the new Mini (the new MacBook Air is blowing away the competition thanks to its near doubling of practical battery life) - while i can't find any real-use reports about the Nexus battery life yet.
a retina display + much longer battery life + iOS 7 will maintain a new Mini's market leadership at premium prices, but the current model will need real discounting. actually, the most pressure from the Nexus 7 may fall on the iPod touch which is comparable to it in many ways but offers a much smaller screen. the 16G models of both are now priced at the same $229. i already thought Apple should not have raised its price last year anyway, and now it will need to drop it back to at least $199.
Google is clearly looking to pre-empt the low end of the tablet market with a small screen and low price, and little if any profit margin. this will devastate the other Android OEM's, but plainly Google doesn't care about them anymore (and the MS Surface RT - hah, hah, hah, hah ...can't stop laughing!). talk about a race to the bottom! Google is going for establishing a mass market installed base at any cost - a classic loss leader strategy. same as Amazon with the Fire that, no doubt, will match the Nexus 7 ASAP in specs and price. all the rest, eat dirt.
to say this is a "very aggressive move" by Google is an understatement. there's going to be an Android bloodbath. Google may have decided to take over the weak Android tablet OEM market for itself permanently - otherwise its costly Motorola purchase will be a total dud.
Apple was certainly going to drop the iPad Mini price at least $100 anyway when its new retina model is released at presumably the same prices as today's models (Apple charges "what the market will bear"). obviously now the sooner the better, and the price drop might be more now. Apple will undoubtedly highlight that the Mini gives you 40% more screen area to view/work with than the Nexus 7 - which really matters for many. right now the weight of both is the same at 11 oz., another key factor for consumers, and we will see if the new Mini is any less (probably not). the last key factor is battery life, and here Apple's custom chips + iOS 7 may result in a dramatic improvement for the new Mini (the new MacBook Air is blowing away the competition thanks to its near doubling of practical battery life) - while i can't find any real-use reports about the Nexus battery life yet.
a retina display + much longer battery life + iOS 7 will maintain a new Mini's market leadership at premium prices, but the current model will need real discounting. actually, the most pressure from the Nexus 7 may fall on the iPod touch which is comparable to it in many ways but offers a much smaller screen. the 16G models of both are now priced at the same $229. i already thought Apple should not have raised its price last year anyway, and now it will need to drop it back to at least $199.
You might have well made this post a year ago. Everything you said is nothing new and was basically said about the first nexus 7.
Everyone who mocked those of us who said Tim was making up excuses when he said one can't make a screen with good color saturation and resolution and white point in that size:
Nyah nyah! Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of Elderberries!
You may now begin coming up with lame claims of how this is totally different than what Apple uses...
Whether or not Apple CHOOSES to make a larger iPhone or a higher res iPad mini is totally up to them and until I'm in Tim's chair I got nothing to say (besides "I want one"). The only point I'm making is that people argued when it was suggested that Tim was just blowing smoke and his excuses were pure hooey. I think we can now declare that argument settled.
No we can't, and you're not thinking deep enough. Apple has clearly committed to a new screen technology that will obsolesce all other LCD approaches for years to come. Difficulties unknown to us have delayed its going into mass production, but it gets nearer and nearer, when it happens even you will know what he means by "trade offs." They do involve weight, battery life and thickness, the last of which is wasted on you because you are the tactile equivalent of tone deaf.
Apple would never resort to an interim compromise on something as basic to the device as the display, if the trade off kludged it in some way, just to keep up with the likes of Google's plastic 16:9 slab.
Why am I being so hostile? I pisses me off when you call TC a liar without the slightest idea of what you are talking about. And without thinking of their basic strategy, or their attention to the kind of detail that no one else even sees, let alone cares about.
I was LG… You were looking at Samsung or Sharp The rumors hit the streets And my vote: I'm gonna get left behind (yeah, yeah) It was like a dream, ghosting LCDs Oh, no, IGZO, IGZO…
Comments
Can't a (Fusion) drive be replaced at an (B&M) Apple Store?
Isn't the MP designed for high performance? The iMac for AIO - one stop PC, and the Mini for light computing?
To me, your points are mood. But I do want to point out: to each his own. I don't see the issues like you do. And that's perfectly fine. Fine to me; you might disagree.
This is a great value in hardware -- hands down.
Although we don't know if the ram and battery will go bad in 6 months.
But if you just want it as an HD confidence monitor for that next video shoot; best deal yet.
Awesome hardware, crap software, risky future. It will work for the two weeks the user brags about what a deal they got over an iPad and then in three weeks, will fit comfortably on the shelf next to books of Shakespeare that came with the furniture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
The design. It's "too thin".
Maybe it's 'Too Fast'? or the screen is a little too 'Amazing'
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBoogie
To me, your points are mood. But I do want to point out: to each his own. I don't see the issues like you do. And that's perfectly fine. Fine to me; you might disagree.
I agree. We probably wouldn't choose the same car, either. That variety of preferences and biases is why I think it's a good idea to have more than one size of iPhone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dillio
Sadly, I think Android will, in fact, be "good enough" for most people. Not for me, but other people.
I don't think it is good enough at all. I have a Nexus 7, and it does appear decent, and is nearly a good tablet.
Sadly (or not, for Apple), user experience will mainly serve to push people to something built and designed properly and completely - an iPad.
I got mine to try out using a tablet to replace dragging a laptop around to an offshore oil rig... and i'm quite sure a tablet will be enough... an iPad mini, will be enough.
To be honest, i only got the N7 to tide me over until the retina ipad mini came out... but i might break down and see about a used ipad mini.
N7 with better resolution?
Doesn't fix 2 major design faults.
#1 - it's 7 inches. Should have gone to an 8inch retina screen... the extra inch makes a HUGE difference. Take a N7 and compare a newspaper web page on an ipad mini.
#2 - even if they did 8"... you still have the wasted screen space with a status bar at the top and the soft buttons on the bottom. Dreadful. Haven't they heard of auto-hide?
Just taken a ruler to it, and the two bars take up around 13mm (9mm bottom, 4mm top roughly). Doesn't sound much?
In portrait the screen height is 150mm, so you've just lost %8 1/2 of your display by height... in landscape the waste is criminal - landscape ~ 96mm screen so you're left with 83mm.
ps yes, i've had to root the thing to install some software to allow me to use a gesture to hide these bars at will. It's still too small.
I'd say Android is 'good enough' and 'cheap enough' to introduce people to tablets - and as soon as 'they' can, they'll upgrade to Apple.
I'm not sure I going to be able to wait for the retina version... must resist ;-)
This new Nexus looks like a pretty cool piece of hardware. Is there a way to jailbreak it and install iOS?
I find this to be pretty interesting and may consider one of these in the future.
My current Internet connection is cellular, because where I live we have unlimited LTE data plans for 30€/month that compete directly with wired Internet access (wired access is still superior in terms of price and quality of service, but cellular is beginning to give them a run for their money by offering the benefit of mobility without significant drawbacks), so my third-generation iPad (which does not support LTE here and is thus limited to 14mbps) is my router. This creates some problems, for example, with software updates, since iOS does not download anything with more than 50MB off the cellular network, forcing me to update through iTunes
I've considered switching back to a dumb phone now that these small tablets are on the market, because these tablets are portable enough to serve as the PDAs of yore without sacrificing too much on the screen real estate department, I don't have to carry them all the time, and they're also cheaper to replace if stolen, lost, or broken.
Finally, while I'm an Apple fan, I'm also a big fan of Google's services; and as an Apple customer I feel like I'm being treated as a second-lclass citizen for making my own choices in terms of Internet service providers. While iOS users can easily use Google's services by downloading their apps, these apps lack the integration that Maps, FaceTime, iMessage, Facebook, and Twitter currently enjoy. Add to it the fact that, unlike Google, Apple's services are not cross-platform and are generally inferior to Google's in terms of reliability, and there is absolutely no incentive to actually stick with Apple's Internet services.
I'm not about to stop buying Apple stuff, but I think I'm in need of a paradigm shift, and this tablet seems to fit my needs perfectly.
How many of those Google will sell until the end of the year? One million, two millions? They will probably be available trough limited distribution channels like many of the Nexus products and won't get a lot of advertising in mainstream media, aside from the free advertising from the tech media.
If Apple wants to ship a retina iPad mini for this holiday season, it will need something like 10 millions of them at least, and unlike Google, they still have to make a significant profit on them to satisfy shareholders.
Nexus devices (and Chromebooks) are a publicity stunt to improve (or maintain) the mindshare about Google and the Android platform, aimed at tech journalists, bloggers and to keep Google fans and investors confident that their platform is superior (or so they think). By making little or no profit on them, Google is essentially indirectly paying tech journalists to say nice things about them and ignore its faults because "it's so affordable!"
By doing that they also create a race to the bottom for competitors (who need to make a profit, unlike Google), bringing down quality and encouraging even worse working conditions for those who make them somewhere else in the world. If you think Foxconn is bad, just imagine the working conditions of Goggle's Android tablet competitor factories trying to match Google's profitless products.
I have to say, this article read like a frothy, fandroid advertisement...
Lauding the Nexus 7 and all it's wonderfulness?
APPLE Insider… wut?
Not sure what happened to my last post, I pressed SUBMIT and... nothing... Let us see if this one gets through.
I've been wanting to go back to the dumb phone + PDA combo for quite some time, for a number of reasons:
1 - I like Google services, but Apple has dictated that my Internet service provider choice should not be blessed with first-class citizenship rights, unlike Facebook, Twitter, Maps, Facetime, and iMessages, plus Ficetime and iMessages aren't even cross-platform, so I can't invite people who are not in the Apple ecosystem to use them;
2 - These tablets are now small enough to carry around when I need them and cheap enough to replace if broken, lost, or stolen without sacrificing too much on the screen real estate department;
3 - Currently, my iPad is my Internet connection, thanks to competitive cellular data plans where I live (30€/month for 15GB at 44mbps, unlimited at 128kbps), but it's way too big to carry around, and iOS is too unstable to be used as an Internet router (a natural habitat for Linux).
All the above make this tablet extremely appealing, especially if its hardware is also considered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Epsico
[...] iOS is too unstable to be used as an Internet router
I don't understand what that means. Would you please elaborate?
Quote:
Originally Posted by v5v
I don't understand what that means. Would you please elaborate?
Sure!
For starters, there are the small issues: you need a Wi-Fi connection to download updates over 50MB, because iOS will simply refuse to do that off the cellular network (not even an option), either that or you have to update through iTunes and then sync. This isn't a stability issue, just an annoyance.
Secondly, iOS has had a few bugs that truly annoy me since Personal Hotspot first appeared on the iPhone:
The first is that if the data call hangs up unexpectedly, the data counter rests to the values that it had before the last call was terminated, meaning you can never know for sure whether the values you're reading are accurate because iOS re-establishes the connection as soon as possible;
The second is that under some conditions (which I am yet to determine), the LAN created by iOS when Personal hotspot is enable simply stops responding through either Wi-Fi or USB; the only way I know to address this is to simply reboot iOS;
The third is that the Wi-Fi access point created by Personal Hotspot is only visible for a short amount of time after enabling the setting, even when plugged to power, making it useless for most purposes (my Mac connects to it through USB, but my iPhone has to use its own data connection, because I can't be bothered to restart Personal Hotspot every time my iPhone is within my iPad's range).
EDIT: Forgot to mention an annoyance: you can't read (and much less send) SMSes on an iPad (unless it's jailbroken), which is an issue because many carriers us SMSes to send service notifications.
"It's Too Magical" "Too Amazing"
Not sure how your usage is relevant to many people. What's the point of posting?
Google is clearly looking to pre-empt the low end of the tablet market with a small screen and low price, and little if any profit margin. this will devastate the other Android OEM's, but plainly Google doesn't care about them anymore (and the MS Surface RT - hah, hah, hah, hah ...can't stop laughing!). talk about a race to the bottom! Google is going for establishing a mass market installed base at any cost - a classic loss leader strategy. same as Amazon with the Fire that, no doubt, will match the Nexus 7 ASAP in specs and price. all the rest, eat dirt.
to say this is a "very aggressive move" by Google is an understatement. there's going to be an Android bloodbath. Google may have decided to take over the weak Android tablet OEM market for itself permanently - otherwise its costly Motorola purchase will be a total dud. but this V.2. mode is still made by Asus ... for now.
Apple was certainly going to drop the iPad Mini price at least $100 anyway when its new retina model is released at presumably the same prices as today's models (Apple charges "what the market will bear"). obviously now the sooner the better, and the price drop might be more now. Apple will undoubtedly highlight that the Mini gives you 40% more screen area to view/work with than the Nexus 7 - which really matters for many. right now the weight of both is the same at 11 oz., another key factor for consumers, and we will see if the new Mini is any less (probably not). the last key factor is battery life, and here Apple's custom chips + iOS 7 may result in a dramatic improvement for the new Mini (the new MacBook Air is blowing away the competition thanks to its near doubling of practical battery life) - while i can't find any real-use reports about the Nexus battery life yet.
a retina display + much longer battery life + iOS 7 will maintain a new Mini's market leadership at premium prices, but the current model will need real discounting. actually, the most pressure from the Nexus 7 may fall on the iPod touch which is comparable to it in many ways but offers a much smaller screen. the 16G models of both are now priced at the same $229. i already thought Apple should not have raised its price last year anyway, and now it will need to drop it back to at least $199.
> Not sure how your usage is relevant to many people. What's the point of posting?
To answer another poster's comment, which I also quoted in my reply.
Samsung will love this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfiejr
Google is clearly looking to pre-empt the low end of the tablet market with a small screen and low price, and little if any profit margin. this will devastate the other Android OEM's, but plainly Google doesn't care about them anymore (and the MS Surface RT - hah, hah, hah, hah ...can't stop laughing!). talk about a race to the bottom! Google is going for establishing a mass market installed base at any cost - a classic loss leader strategy. same as Amazon with the Fire that, no doubt, will match the Nexus 7 ASAP in specs and price. all the rest, eat dirt.
to say this is a "very aggressive move" by Google is an understatement. there's going to be an Android bloodbath. Google may have decided to take over the weak Android tablet OEM market for itself permanently - otherwise its costly Motorola purchase will be a total dud.
Apple was certainly going to drop the iPad Mini price at least $100 anyway when its new retina model is released at presumably the same prices as today's models (Apple charges "what the market will bear"). obviously now the sooner the better, and the price drop might be more now. Apple will undoubtedly highlight that the Mini gives you 40% more screen area to view/work with than the Nexus 7 - which really matters for many. right now the weight of both is the same at 11 oz., another key factor for consumers, and we will see if the new Mini is any less (probably not). the last key factor is battery life, and here Apple's custom chips + iOS 7 may result in a dramatic improvement for the new Mini (the new MacBook Air is blowing away the competition thanks to its near doubling of practical battery life) - while i can't find any real-use reports about the Nexus battery life yet.
a retina display + much longer battery life + iOS 7 will maintain a new Mini's market leadership at premium prices, but the current model will need real discounting. actually, the most pressure from the Nexus 7 may fall on the iPod touch which is comparable to it in many ways but offers a much smaller screen. the 16G models of both are now priced at the same $229. i already thought Apple should not have raised its price last year anyway, and now it will need to drop it back to at least $199.
You might have well made this post a year ago. Everything you said is nothing new and was basically said about the first nexus 7.
No we can't, and you're not thinking deep enough. Apple has clearly committed to a new screen technology that will obsolesce all other LCD approaches for years to come. Difficulties unknown to us have delayed its going into mass production, but it gets nearer and nearer, when it happens even you will know what he means by "trade offs." They do involve weight, battery life and thickness, the last of which is wasted on you because you are the tactile equivalent of tone deaf.
Apple would never resort to an interim compromise on something as basic to the device as the display, if the trade off kludged it in some way, just to keep up with the likes of Google's plastic 16:9 slab.
Why am I being so hostile? I pisses me off when you call TC a liar without the slightest idea of what you are talking about. And without thinking of their basic strategy, or their attention to the kind of detail that no one else even sees, let alone cares about.
You were looking at Samsung or Sharp
The rumors hit the streets
And my vote: I'm gonna get left behind (yeah, yeah)
It was like a dream, ghosting LCDs
Oh, no, IGZO, IGZO…