Review roundup: Apple's iPad 2 is best tablet yet, but cameras disappoint

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 117
    realisticrealistic Posts: 1,154member
    I think i'll wait until the iPad2 is actually in the field before I believe any reviewer's review.
  • Reply 42 of 117
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GQB View Post


    I don't get what part of 'the back camera is for AR and chat, not photography' these guys (especially mossberg) don't get.



    Exactly!!!!

    why in the world would you use a tablet to take high quality stills??? I have an SLR for that!

    I prefer they keep the price low than have a useless feature like an 8 MP camera that raises the cost by $40
  • Reply 43 of 117
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    I can tell you it seems stupid now to us elitist f&cks but by the end of 2011 no average consumer will consider a tablet without a front and back camera. And they will not feel "dumb" taking pictures with a tablet... Think of it as holding a photo frame... With a live photo in it.
  • Reply 44 of 117
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc View Post


    I was pondering my own question re: camera quality and Apple's decision to go with the lo-res cams on the iPad2, and a thought came to me:



    ...what if you'll be able to do wireless wifi-syncing with your camera rolls between devices... or even immediate "shoot and send" with all iDevices... and possibly Canon.




    If only iPad 2 has NFC..
  • Reply 45 of 117
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    Sold... to the Fandroids!



    I love it
  • Reply 46 of 117
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,631member
    Charlie Sheen did a review if the new iPad2.



    Winning.





    (well, ok. He didn't. )
  • Reply 47 of 117
    d-ranged-range Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Andykemp View Post


    You seem to know nothing about Operating Systems in general. I guess they ones you use don't need any RAM. Don't give me that crap that iOS is "Special" and manages its RAM differently. It still needs RAM and the more the better in my book. I've seen to many spinning beachballs / circles to know iOS runs out of memory.



    The way iOS implements multitasking there are few reasons to have more than one full application resident in RAM at the same time, and it makes it completely and utterly useless to keep around background tasks in whole. Which is why multitasked applications in iOS register for background services and only keep those running, instead of keeping their whole UI and everything related to it in RAM. Also, the NAND memory in an iPad is many many more times faster than a PC hard drive, and has almost zero random access latency. Which makes paging to NAND fast enough to prefer it over keeping stuff in RAM as long as possible. Everything in iOS that deals with application and process management is built around this principle, where applications are either active, inactive in the background (RAM) or frozen to NAND by the OS, and every application is written in a way that going from background/RAM to frozen/NAND can happen automatically on request of the OS, so it can always free up all the RAM and make it available to the active application.



    Any comparison to desktop OS's is useless because they don't use a modal user interface where 1 application is always taking up the whole system, they don't have crazy fast NAND for swapping, and, in general, the applications running on them are often very wasteful with memory, simply because RAM is so abundant on PC's. Just to put things into perspective: an Xbox 360 or a PS3 also have only 512 MB RAM, but they still manage to pull out some pretty impressive stuff out of them.



    Also, iOS does not have the beach ball, and when you see the spinner icon, 9 out of 10 times it means an application is trying to access the network or is doing some kind of computation, not that it has run out of memory. If that happens and no other applications can be unloaded from RAM, you'll get a low-memory popup first and if the application will go on eating more RAM, it will simply terminate eventually.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Andykemp View Post


    I'm saying its not hard to design something this size with a minimum of 1GB of RAM. If a phone can hold it this hunk of plastic can. Apple just wants to wait till iPad3 so you will buy that also. Its their modus operandi to release very small incremental improvements so you will buy another one in 6mos to a year.



    I agree that it would be dead-easy and cheap to put 1 GB in. Then again, 2 GB would be just as easy and only a little bit more expensive, because RAM is dirt cheap. Point is that it is simply not necessary, since no iOS programs use more than 512 MB RAM. Even on PC's a single application using over 512 MB RAM are rare, and they are typically not the kind of programs you would use on a tablet anyway.
  • Reply 48 of 117
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    As for the cameras, they're fine in my opinion.



    If the cameras are widely regarded as crap, then they are crap. I won't be using them, personally. The only reason I'd like to see "great" cameras on iPad 2 is so when I go to resell it down the line it won't be an embarrassment camera-wise to iPad 3 or 4.
  • Reply 49 of 117
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by city View Post


    Maybe the magnets for the peel back cover could be used for a peel back keyboard.



    This is a fantastic idea ... I wouldn't be a bit surprised that third part accessory manufacturers aren't already working on this one. If not they should IMHO.
  • Reply 50 of 117
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    It's not perfect? No shit, Sherlock.



    If it was perfect the battery would last forever, the OS would out-think you, its power would be Christ-like and the price would be FREE. In fact it would have an app that lets you print dollars out the dock-connector slot. And another to help make every wish come true.
  • Reply 51 of 117
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eriamjh View Post


    Charlie Sheen did a review if the new iPad2.



    Winning.



    You'd have to feel sorry for Charlie. All those people making fun of him can f themselves. Here he's having a very public nervous break-down. Poor fellow. He's so deluded he's rejecting help offered to him by his family. This may not have a happy ending.
  • Reply 52 of 117
    Video cameras take lousy stills. Heck, 1080p HD is only a little over 2MP and 720p a little less then 1.
  • Reply 53 of 117
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Asst. Prof. View Post


    That's because the iPad doesn't run programs in the background. The multitasking is the best in the business!



    Looks like the troll formerly known as iLuv is back.
  • Reply 54 of 117
    hdtveehdtvee Posts: 6member
    Has anyone heard or seen anything in reference to a non reflective screen coating or similar?
  • Reply 55 of 117
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    If the cameras are widely regarded as crap, then they are crap. I won't be using them, personally.



    I never claimed that they're great and I won't be using them either, at least not for taking any still photos. They might see some use if some cool virtual reality apps gets released and maybe for a video chat every once in a while.



    The thing I don't get with people complaining about the cameras is this - - - Anybody who is even vaguely interested in taking good quality pictures already has a camera! What kind of cheap bum doesn't already own a good camera, if they claim that pictures are so important to them?



    People already have cameras in their phones and anybody interested in photography has at least one digital camera, if not more. If I need to take pictures of something, a tablet (any tablet) would be my very last option. Apple stated themselves that the cameras are not minted towards still photos. People who care about pictures already have cameras. I care about pictures and I have a few digital cameras and that's what I'll use when I take real pictures. No tablet beats a real camera.



    Regardless of what some people might claim, I don't think that the cameras are a big issue at all, and Apple doesn't think so either.
  • Reply 56 of 117
    sennensennen Posts: 1,472member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc View Post


    I was pondering my own question re: camera quality and Apple's decision to go with the lo-res cams on the iPad2, and a thought came to me:



    ...what if you'll be able to do wireless wifi-syncing with your camera rolls between devices... or even immediate "shoot and send" with all iDevices... and possibly Canon.



    Considering that there is now wifi Personal Hotspot with 4.3, this would seem to be a natural extension of that.



    Could be related to the AI article with Canon hooking up with Apple. Apple helps them integrate wifi and the necessary stacks into their point-n-shoots.



    Apple has shown iMovie, Garageband now... but the big killer App for a lot of people would be iPhoto/Aperture editing, and synced edits, keywords, categorizing, etc. between devices.



    So... could this be something? Or is there something already out there that does this that I don't know about?



    Good musings, Pixel Doc. Plus we need to get video footage off iPhones or other devices for editing on the iPad.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GQB View Post


    I don't get what part of 'the back camera is for AR and chat, not photography' these guys (especially mossberg) don't get.



    Quoted for truth! Once I've upgraded from 3GS to 5, that will become my permanent quick and easy point-and-shoot. I really couldn't care less if the iPad 2's camera doesn't match the iPhone's.
  • Reply 57 of 117
    I'm debating whether to buy now or wait to see if the next generation incorporates a higher display resolution. The 1st Generation, IMHO, didn't render video all that great.



    The cameras aren't a big deal to me; I take the occasional picture with my iPhone 4.
  • Reply 58 of 117
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hamiltonrrwatch View Post


    I'm debating whether to buy now or wait to see if the next generation incorporates a higher display resolution.



    It may or it may not. Either way, it's almost certainly going to be a year long wait.
  • Reply 59 of 117
    tipootipoo Posts: 1,141member
    Count me among the disappointed with the cameras. With the photo editing app I thought I could do some neat day to day things without carrying around my real camera all the time, but if the camera sucks worse than my phone theres no point.





    Anyways, I think its a good time to buy a first gen used, with Apple's price drop on the old ones the resale value took an immediate hit.
  • Reply 60 of 117
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    It may or it may not. Either way, it's almost certainly going to be a year long wait.



    Well, being an old man, I'm used to waiting



    And as my eyes aren't what they used to be, that whole "display" thing gets a little more important as you age. That's why I bought an iPhone 4; easier to see than an iPod Touch
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