As for your fatter and fatter comment... my child does use an iPad... just like a book. Would you argue that books are making kids fatter then? My child is three and is very athletic and eats a great diet. He watches some TV and plays his games on the iPad. I've found the iPad has increased his level of learning in reading and coordination. He even plays piano on it!
Good for you J.
I've said it before, everything I've read, iPads increase learning from autistic children to Medical students and everyone in between.
I thought the best ad was the one where PC has the security guy standing so close behind in dark glasses interrupting him at every other word. The look of exasperation on PC's face was hilarious! It was my favorite. The other one was the cheerleader, "We're number two, we're number two!" Just brilliant!
the one with Gisele Bundchen was near perfect too (PC home movie)
I have an iPad (4th gen) and overall I am very happy with it. I have never once thought I needed that hands free option with gestures but I suppose it could be useful to some people on rare occasions. User profiles is also not a feature I really need since I use my iPad 98% of the time but for those rare occasions where I let someone use it I would be more comfortable if I could let them use a guest user account so they would not have full access to my email, Facebook, settings, and any other sensitive data. An iPad or iPhone after all have a lot of info on there that is very private that you may not want to share with others. But again this is not a major feature I have been clamoring for though I could see it as being very useful for many.
If I had to choose among features I really want to see on the next iPad or iOS the top of the list for me would be to continue to improve upon Siri. I use Siri a lot and it is still a little bit hit or miss especially on the iPad. Maybe my iPhone has a better microphone but it does seem to do a better job with voice recognition than my iPad. I hope Apple will keep improving Siri and will eventually allow some commands to be local and not require internet access to speed things up. Asking it to set a timer for 30 minutes for example should not require internet and can be frustrating if the server is busy and requires you to say it 4 times before it takes. Some voice training to improve accuracy would also be nice.
Other than an improved Siri I have no real complaints about my iPad. I suppose running 2 apps at once could come in handy but not a feature I would use a great deal. I do think Apple should allow for than 5x6 app grid instead of the current 4x5 which seems to waste a lot of space. It also seems they could easily fit 5 or even 6 apps in the dock. Having some OS X finder like power would also be nice if we could sort apps alphabetically for example, or by date installed, or by categories. The folders are a poor substitute but I would like to be able to quickly access only social networking apps, or games, or any other category and see only those apps. If you have over 300 apps like me installed the current system is pretty unwieldy.
But none of my minor quibbles make me want to consider a Windows or Android tablet. I trust Apple to continue to slowly improve both the hardware and iOS and still think it is a far superior tablet experience than the competition.
First, iPad's only came out three and a half years ago, although I agree that Apple would be well suited to offer user profiles so I could quickly switch to one of my child's apps. I don't have a problem with them accessing my email and never had an issue there, but it's mostly the problem of "child is screaming at a restaurant, hurry get them the iPad/iPhone... oh where are all his apps... argh!!!". So we use folders now...
I think TouchID is the perfect use case for this. You see, picking the child's apps quickly is the important part. If I need to sign in with a passcode, then switch a folder, then give the kid the iPad... well, that's a bit of a pain. But if the child can just turn it on and play. Magic!
I don't think it's a case of Apple wanting to sell millions of devices, because people will just buy a bigger iPad and use profiles and Apple makes more profit on higher spec'd iPads. The issue is simply "you can't share an iPad". Do you have kids? OK, get them to share an iPad... I don't care what kind of quick profile switching you have... it's going to be a screaming fest. The best case scenario are games they can play together. Also, I like the ability as a parent to not allow the child to have immediate access to the iPad without asking permission. I think these are things Apple are considering when coming up with their proper solution.
I sometimes am fearful for the future of our society. I have managed to raise four kids who all behave very well in restaurants and have never given them my iPhone or iPad in a restaurant. Its called parenting. I do allow my kids to use these devices at appropriate times, but the dinner table, whether at a restaurant or at home, is not the appropriate time or place for tablet/phone useage.
The number of Apple apologists in this thread is quite sad. Defending Apple on user profiles is embarrasing. Buy your kids their own iPad? Sorry, but we all aren't rolling in $$$.
I received my iPad as a gift. I share it with my wife and two young schoolage children. They have a lot of educational games on there, and the wife and I have a few games and apps for ourselves.
Netflix has profiles! My kids have their shows, my wife and I have ours. Why can't the iPad? It's not a technological issue. It's a feature that I'm sure someone at Apple has looked at and considered low priority.
The number of Apple apologists in this thread is quite sad. Defending Apple on user profiles is embarrasing. Buy your kids their own iPad? Sorry, but we all aren't rolling in $$$.
I received my iPad as a gift. I share it with my wife and two young schoolage children. They have a lot of educational games on there, and the wife and I have a few games and apps for ourselves.
Netflix has profiles! My kids have their shows, my wife and I have ours. Why can't the iPad? It's not a technological issue. It's a feature that I'm sure someone at Apple has looked at and considered low priority.
How do you know it is not a technological hurdle? iOS has a game center that as far as I know an equivalent feature is not available on Android or Windows. Perhaps there is something also about having your Apple ID/ iCloud account account tied to one device that makes it harder for Apple to add multiple user profiles. We really do not know all the facts and can only speculate. How would games for example like Modern War that do not even use Apple's game center handle multiple profiles. Would it require two downloads of the data which could add up to a lot more data being stored on an iPad? That game also ties your account to your hardware ID which also might cause issues. Don't be so quick to dismiss this as simple Apple wanting you to buy multiple iPads when in fact multiple users accounts on an iPad with very limited storage could very well be a huge technological challenge. You have no idea why multiple user accounts have not been included yet and what challenges Apple would face if they decide to add this feature.
How do you know it is not a technological hurdle? iOS has a game center that as far as I know an equivalent feature is not available on Android or Windows...
Unless it has improved since this review it appears that is just a game launch pad and does not easily allow you to challenge friends like Apple's game center.
That also does not address the main issue I brought up about games that do not rely on game center or the Google equivalent like Modern War. That game stores a huge amount of data on your iPad so if you had 2 or 3 copies of that app how does an Android tablet handle that? That would be a tremendous amount of duplicated files taking up space. Is it even possible since Modern War associates your game ID with your hardware ID as do many other apps. My point is that people are too quick to jump the gun and don't realize there may be a host of technological hurdles we may not even be aware of that is preventing Apple from adding multiple accounts.
That's like grumbling that a motorcycle can't fit 4 people on it.
Gosh dang it, I just got a picture in my head of three “Amish haulers” (as we call them around here) going down the road, full to bursting with stereotypical gruff, muscly, bearded bikers. You know, instead of 20-30 bikes.
Unless it has improved since this review it appears that is just a game launch pad and does not easily allow you to challenge friends like Apple's game center.
That also does not address the main issue I brought up about games that do not rely on game center or the Google equivalent like Modern War. That game stores a huge amount of data on your iPad so if you had 2 or 3 copies of that app how does an Android tablet handle that? That would be a tremendous amount of duplicated files taking up space. Is it even possible since Modern War associates your game ID with your hardware ID as do many other apps. My point is that people are too quick to jump the gun and don't realize there may be a host of technological hurdles we may not even be aware of that is preventing Apple from adding multiple accounts.
I'm not at all discounting the possibility that Apple doesn't offer multi-user profiles due to technical issues they've been unable to overcome.
I'm not at all discounting the possibility that Apple doesn't offer multi-user profiles due to technical issues they've been unable to overcome.
And I I'm not discounting the possibility that Microsoft or Google released multiple user profiles even though they offer less than an ideal solution and are not ready for prime time. If you don't mind a beta quality experience that won't matter. Apple are perfectionists so I expect if and when they decide to add that feature it will not suffer from the same problems and limitations I have seen with the Android implementation.
In my view, the second ad has teeth. I too would very much like to have profiles and more robust monitoring. I have given my 3 y/o my old iPhone 4 (sans sim card) and my old iPad 3 which we do share when I need it. While I have setup restrictions... overall its not implemented in a way to provide either the level of assurance or the level of practicality that I would expect.
And I I'm not discounting the possibility that Microsoft or Google released multiple user profiles even though they offer less than an ideal solution and are not ready for prime time. If you don't mind a beta quality experience that won't matter. Apple are perfectionists so I expect if and when they decide to add that feature it will not suffer from the same problems and limitations I have seen with the Android implementation.
I couldn't let this go. The level of ignorance is just too high. Google's multi-user support is still developing - and is indeed a beta quality experience - but, that is not the case with the Surface RT/2/Pro. All of these run Windows 8 (and yes, Windows RT is Windows - despite what ignorant tech journalists might say) - a system that is inherently multi-user.
Your examples of games/applications being downloaded multiple times is not the case on a surface device. An application is only downloaded once - by the first user that installs it. Any subsequent user that "installs" the app, simply has it added to their profile along with any user specific data - global data and settings are not duplicated.
Also, I noticed a comment earlier about Windows not having something like game center... It's called xbox games. Look it up - it integrates into Microsoft's Xbox live service.
And I I'm not discounting the possibility that Microsoft or Google released multiple user profiles even though they offer less than an ideal solution and are not ready for prime time. If you don't mind a beta quality experience that won't matter. Apple are perfectionists so I expect if and when they decide to add that feature it will not suffer from the same problems and limitations I have seen with the Android implementation.
I couldn't let this go. The level of ignorance is just too high. Google's multi-user support is still developing - and is indeed a beta quality experience - but, that is not the case with the Surface RT/2/Pro. All of these run Windows 8 (and yes, Windows RT is Windows - despite what ignorant tech journalists might say) - a system that is inherently multi-user.
Your examples of games/applications being downloaded multiple times is not the case on a surface device. An application is only downloaded once - by the first user that installs it. Any subsequent user that "installs" the app, simply has it added to their profile along with any user specific data - global data and settings are not duplicated.
Also, I noticed a comment earlier about Windows not having something like game center... It's called xbox games. Look it up - it integrates into Microsoft's Xbox live service.
I think this is probably a fundamental difference between the tablet philosophies rather than a reflection of technical hurdles.
The iPad seems to have been conceived and designed as a single-user device - similar to a smartphone - with an always on, continuously logged-in use model, and I suspect that it may be felt that it would dilute that model to provide explicit multi-user support. Microsoft, on the other hand, has continued to look for ways to make the Surface experience more, rather than less, like using a conventional computer.
Neither approach is necessarily wrong, but they are clearly different.
Having some OS X finder like power would also be nice if we could sort apps alphabetically for example, or by date installed, or by categories. The folders are a poor substitute but I would like to be able to quickly access only social networking apps, or games, or any other category and see only those apps. If you have over 300 apps like me installed the current system is pretty unwieldy.
I don't know if they still call it Spotlight but either on an iPhone or iPad under iOS 7, just rest a finger anywhere on the screen and slowly pull down. You'll see a search box come up and there you can type what you're looking for.
For example, typing the word "face" on my iPhone immediately yields the application facebook and facetime, along with songs "The face", "the face of the nation", "god put a smile upon your face" etc. Very elegant way of searching for an application or any other object in general, without flipping through screens.
On the other hand you can categorize your apps into folders. Example my "Social" folder contains facebook, twitter, linkedin, flipboard. My folders are all on my 2nd iPad screen and they are all ordered alphabetically. A bit of work, I agree but once done, very easy to maintain.
Comments
As for your fatter and fatter comment... my child does use an iPad... just like a book. Would you argue that books are making kids fatter then? My child is three and is very athletic and eats a great diet. He watches some TV and plays his games on the iPad. I've found the iPad has increased his level of learning in reading and coordination. He even plays piano on it!
Good for you J.
I've said it before, everything I've read, iPads increase learning from autistic children to Medical students and everyone in between.
Actually, Mac vs PC was against Windows, not any OS.
Check for yourself:
Thanks for that, daniel. I'd forgotten the last line, "You are coming to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?" "Allooow."
Very funny!
I thought the best ad was the one where PC has the security guy standing so close behind in dark glasses interrupting him at every other word. The look of exasperation on PC's face was hilarious! It was my favorite. The other one was the cheerleader, "We're number two, we're number two!" Just brilliant!
the one with Gisele Bundchen was near perfect too (PC home movie)
I have an iPad (4th gen) and overall I am very happy with it. I have never once thought I needed that hands free option with gestures but I suppose it could be useful to some people on rare occasions. User profiles is also not a feature I really need since I use my iPad 98% of the time but for those rare occasions where I let someone use it I would be more comfortable if I could let them use a guest user account so they would not have full access to my email, Facebook, settings, and any other sensitive data. An iPad or iPhone after all have a lot of info on there that is very private that you may not want to share with others. But again this is not a major feature I have been clamoring for though I could see it as being very useful for many.
If I had to choose among features I really want to see on the next iPad or iOS the top of the list for me would be to continue to improve upon Siri. I use Siri a lot and it is still a little bit hit or miss especially on the iPad. Maybe my iPhone has a better microphone but it does seem to do a better job with voice recognition than my iPad. I hope Apple will keep improving Siri and will eventually allow some commands to be local and not require internet access to speed things up. Asking it to set a timer for 30 minutes for example should not require internet and can be frustrating if the server is busy and requires you to say it 4 times before it takes. Some voice training to improve accuracy would also be nice.
Other than an improved Siri I have no real complaints about my iPad. I suppose running 2 apps at once could come in handy but not a feature I would use a great deal. I do think Apple should allow for than 5x6 app grid instead of the current 4x5 which seems to waste a lot of space. It also seems they could easily fit 5 or even 6 apps in the dock. Having some OS X finder like power would also be nice if we could sort apps alphabetically for example, or by date installed, or by categories. The folders are a poor substitute but I would like to be able to quickly access only social networking apps, or games, or any other category and see only those apps. If you have over 300 apps like me installed the current system is pretty unwieldy.
But none of my minor quibbles make me want to consider a Windows or Android tablet. I trust Apple to continue to slowly improve both the hardware and iOS and still think it is a far superior tablet experience than the competition.
the one with Gisele Bundchen was near perfect too (PC home movie)
Yep, very funny!
First, iPad's only came out three and a half years ago, although I agree that Apple would be well suited to offer user profiles so I could quickly switch to one of my child's apps. I don't have a problem with them accessing my email and never had an issue there, but it's mostly the problem of "child is screaming at a restaurant, hurry get them the iPad/iPhone... oh where are all his apps... argh!!!". So we use folders now...
I think TouchID is the perfect use case for this. You see, picking the child's apps quickly is the important part. If I need to sign in with a passcode, then switch a folder, then give the kid the iPad... well, that's a bit of a pain. But if the child can just turn it on and play. Magic!
I don't think it's a case of Apple wanting to sell millions of devices, because people will just buy a bigger iPad and use profiles and Apple makes more profit on higher spec'd iPads. The issue is simply "you can't share an iPad". Do you have kids? OK, get them to share an iPad... I don't care what kind of quick profile switching you have... it's going to be a screaming fest. The best case scenario are games they can play together. Also, I like the ability as a parent to not allow the child to have immediate access to the iPad without asking permission. I think these are things Apple are considering when coming up with their proper solution.
I sometimes am fearful for the future of our society. I have managed to raise four kids who all behave very well in restaurants and have never given them my iPhone or iPad in a restaurant. Its called parenting. I do allow my kids to use these devices at appropriate times, but the dinner table, whether at a restaurant or at home, is not the appropriate time or place for tablet/phone useage....I trust Apple to continue to slowly improve both the hardware and iOS and still think it is a far superior tablet experience than the competition.
My thoughts exactly, GW.
I received my iPad as a gift. I share it with my wife and two young schoolage children. They have a lot of educational games on there, and the wife and I have a few games and apps for ourselves.
Netflix has profiles! My kids have their shows, my wife and I have ours. Why can't the iPad? It's not a technological issue. It's a feature that I'm sure someone at Apple has looked at and considered low priority.
The number of Apple apologists in this thread is quite sad. Defending Apple on user profiles is embarrasing. Buy your kids their own iPad? Sorry, but we all aren't rolling in $$$.
I received my iPad as a gift. I share it with my wife and two young schoolage children. They have a lot of educational games on there, and the wife and I have a few games and apps for ourselves.
Netflix has profiles! My kids have their shows, my wife and I have ours. Why can't the iPad? It's not a technological issue. It's a feature that I'm sure someone at Apple has looked at and considered low priority.
How do you know it is not a technological hurdle? iOS has a game center that as far as I know an equivalent feature is not available on Android or Windows. Perhaps there is something also about having your Apple ID/ iCloud account account tied to one device that makes it harder for Apple to add multiple user profiles. We really do not know all the facts and can only speculate. How would games for example like Modern War that do not even use Apple's game center handle multiple profiles. Would it require two downloads of the data which could add up to a lot more data being stored on an iPad? That game also ties your account to your hardware ID which also might cause issues. Don't be so quick to dismiss this as simple Apple wanting you to buy multiple iPads when in fact multiple users accounts on an iPad with very limited storage could very well be a huge technological challenge. You have no idea why multiple user accounts have not been included yet and what challenges Apple would face if they decide to add this feature.
And on an Apple website? What are the odds!
Or common sense.
So be intelligent about your sharing and use thereof. So actually parent your children. Educate them. Must be a real trial, huh.
Because the iPad isn’t an Internet service.
Search up Google Play Games. Essentially serves the same purpose as Apple's Game Center.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.play.games
Search up Google Play Games. Essentially serves the same purpose as Apple's Game Center.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.play.games
Unless it has improved since this review it appears that is just a game launch pad and does not easily allow you to challenge friends like Apple's game center.
http://www.techhive.com/article/2045145/the-google-play-games-hub-could-learn-something-from-apple-s-game-center.html
That also does not address the main issue I brought up about games that do not rely on game center or the Google equivalent like Modern War. That game stores a huge amount of data on your iPad so if you had 2 or 3 copies of that app how does an Android tablet handle that? That would be a tremendous amount of duplicated files taking up space. Is it even possible since Modern War associates your game ID with your hardware ID as do many other apps. My point is that people are too quick to jump the gun and don't realize there may be a host of technological hurdles we may not even be aware of that is preventing Apple from adding multiple accounts.
That's like grumbling that a motorcycle can't fit 4 people on it.
Gosh dang it, I just got a picture in my head of three “Amish haulers” (as we call them around here) going down the road, full to bursting with stereotypical gruff, muscly, bearded bikers. You know, instead of 20-30 bikes.
I'm not at all discounting the possibility that Apple doesn't offer multi-user profiles due to technical issues they've been unable to overcome.
I'm not at all discounting the possibility that Apple doesn't offer multi-user profiles due to technical issues they've been unable to overcome.
And I I'm not discounting the possibility that Microsoft or Google released multiple user profiles even though they offer less than an ideal solution and are not ready for prime time. If you don't mind a beta quality experience that won't matter. Apple are perfectionists so I expect if and when they decide to add that feature it will not suffer from the same problems and limitations I have seen with the Android implementation.
In my view, the second ad has teeth. I too would very much like to have profiles and more robust monitoring. I have given my 3 y/o my old iPhone 4 (sans sim card) and my old iPad 3 which we do share when I need it. While I have setup restrictions... overall its not implemented in a way to provide either the level of assurance or the level of practicality that I would expect.
And I I'm not discounting the possibility that Microsoft or Google released multiple user profiles even though they offer less than an ideal solution and are not ready for prime time. If you don't mind a beta quality experience that won't matter. Apple are perfectionists so I expect if and when they decide to add that feature it will not suffer from the same problems and limitations I have seen with the Android implementation.
I couldn't let this go. The level of ignorance is just too high. Google's multi-user support is still developing - and is indeed a beta quality experience - but, that is not the case with the Surface RT/2/Pro. All of these run Windows 8 (and yes, Windows RT is Windows - despite what ignorant tech journalists might say) - a system that is inherently multi-user.
Your examples of games/applications being downloaded multiple times is not the case on a surface device. An application is only downloaded once - by the first user that installs it. Any subsequent user that "installs" the app, simply has it added to their profile along with any user specific data - global data and settings are not duplicated.
Also, I noticed a comment earlier about Windows not having something like game center... It's called xbox games. Look it up - it integrates into Microsoft's Xbox live service.
And I I'm not discounting the possibility that Microsoft or Google released multiple user profiles even though they offer less than an ideal solution and are not ready for prime time. If you don't mind a beta quality experience that won't matter. Apple are perfectionists so I expect if and when they decide to add that feature it will not suffer from the same problems and limitations I have seen with the Android implementation.
I couldn't let this go. The level of ignorance is just too high. Google's multi-user support is still developing - and is indeed a beta quality experience - but, that is not the case with the Surface RT/2/Pro. All of these run Windows 8 (and yes, Windows RT is Windows - despite what ignorant tech journalists might say) - a system that is inherently multi-user.
Your examples of games/applications being downloaded multiple times is not the case on a surface device. An application is only downloaded once - by the first user that installs it. Any subsequent user that "installs" the app, simply has it added to their profile along with any user specific data - global data and settings are not duplicated.
Also, I noticed a comment earlier about Windows not having something like game center... It's called xbox games. Look it up - it integrates into Microsoft's Xbox live service.
I think this is probably a fundamental difference between the tablet philosophies rather than a reflection of technical hurdles.
The iPad seems to have been conceived and designed as a single-user device - similar to a smartphone - with an always on, continuously logged-in use model, and I suspect that it may be felt that it would dilute that model to provide explicit multi-user support. Microsoft, on the other hand, has continued to look for ways to make the Surface experience more, rather than less, like using a conventional computer.
Neither approach is necessarily wrong, but they are clearly different.
Originally Posted by gwmac
Having some OS X finder like power would also be nice if we could sort apps alphabetically for example, or by date installed, or by categories. The folders are a poor substitute but I would like to be able to quickly access only social networking apps, or games, or any other category and see only those apps. If you have over 300 apps like me installed the current system is pretty unwieldy.
I don't know if they still call it Spotlight but either on an iPhone or iPad under iOS 7, just rest a finger anywhere on the screen and slowly pull down. You'll see a search box come up and there you can type what you're looking for.
For example, typing the word "face" on my iPhone immediately yields the application facebook and facetime, along with songs "The face", "the face of the nation", "god put a smile upon your face" etc. Very elegant way of searching for an application or any other object in general, without flipping through screens.
On the other hand you can categorize your apps into folders. Example my "Social" folder contains facebook, twitter, linkedin, flipboard. My folders are all on my 2nd iPad screen and they are all ordered alphabetically. A bit of work, I agree but once done, very easy to maintain.