First, I disagree. The benchmarks show that the 543MP3 is fast enough if the memory design is altered to be more like the A6X.
Second, the A6+ I listed has a 32nm A6+ with a SGX 554MP2 which is faster than the current 543MP3 in the A6 or the 543MP4 in the A5X.
We go round and round but frankly you never accepted what is plain truth...the GPU in the A6 or half the GPU in the A6X is fast enough with a lot less silicon than is required in the A6X. The restructuring of the memory pipeline is already done for the A6X and packaging it with either half the cores (554MP2) or the existing GPU (543MP3) will work.
There was NOT paragraph after paragraph...there was one comment followed by a bunch of benchmarks and comments that showed the 543MP3 in the A6 was within a few percentage points of performance with the 543MP4 in the A5X. The one objection of memory bandwidth is a solved problem.
Moving the half the cores greatly reduces the footprint and power consumption and the iPad mini currently has a lot of headroom in terms of battery life.
I don't know how mine and Anand's comments on it can make it any more clear so good luck with Apple shoehorning a 2048x1536 into the iPad mini and using an unmodified A6 to do the job.
Why would they do this now and not do it back in October with the holiday season looming and Amazon and Google's budget offerings just arriving? Sure, they want to dominate but they already do so what motivation is there to gain in unit share but lose in profit share? Did Apple make a profitless iPod in order to win the PMP market or did they do it with well made, well marketed, and well organized pricing, features and releases?
Because a retina iPad Mini did not exist in October and there was no legacy iPad mini to drop to $299.
They do not lose in profit share because at my suggested price points the Retina iPad Mini costs more and the legacy mini has another 6 months worth of component price reductions. Plus Apple is very good at upsell. A 16GB iPad Mini for $249/$299 is a great deal but a lot of folks will buy the $399 iPad Mini retina instead...especially if the base retina comes with 32GB storage.
I don't know how mine and Anand's comments on it can make it any more clear so good luck with Apple shoehorning a 2048x1536 into the iPad mini and using an unmodified A6 to do the job.
The fact that you refuse to read my comments does not give you the right to change them. Where did I say unmodified here? Nowhere. Even so, I suspect that an unmodified A6 should be fast enough for most things but suffer at gaming.
And I have both benchmarks and Anand comments to show that the 543MP3 as a GPU is about as fast as the 543MP4.
I don't care if they purposely designed that way it's stupid. What's wrong with having user accounts where when you login with your Apple ID it brings up your personal home screen, wallpaper, apps, etc. This would be great for families that probably can't afford to buy every member of the family an iPad. You can do this on the Nexus 7/10 and I believe the Fire HD has something similar.
No, they wouldn't.
I know a number of people who didn't upgrade iOS specifically because of maps. I guarantee you outside of United States if people had a choice their default maps app would not be Apple's. And probably the same goes for for a fair number of people in the United States as well.
This has nothing to do with Apple at all. This has everything to do with website creators being fools.
Then how come when I use non-Apple browsers it doesn't redirect me to a mobile or tablet version of a site? I only have this problem when using Safari.
Can this not be done right now? I just did this…
You can do what's in those screenshots without jailbreaking your device?
iPhoto (they want you to pay for it; I thought you'd pick that up).
So they create a crappy stock app to force you to have to pay for something better and that's good how exactly?
Well, that's your opinion. That's also the rating for Apple's chargers on their website, but would any one of you honestly tell someone to buy anything but a genuine Apple charger? No. It's that low because morons mistreat their possessions.
You can't go by "user reviews". Particularly on the App Store where they can be faked so easily.
Maybe not always but I haven't come across anyone who likes the podcast app. Thankfully there are much better ones in the App Store. But I have to believe Apple designers can do much better than that app.
Because a retina iPad Mini did not exist in October and there was no legacy iPad mini to drop to $299.
They do not lose in profit share because at my suggested price points the Retina iPad Mini costs more and the legacy mini has another 6 months worth of component price reductions. Plus Apple is very good at upsell. A 16GB iPad Mini for $249/$299 is a great deal but a lot of folks will buy the $399 iPad Mini retina instead...especially if the base retina comes with 32GB storage.
If it were me I'd go:
16GB iPad Mini $249 WiFi Only
16GB iPad Mini Retina $399 WiFi/$539 4G
32GB iPad Mini Retina $499 WiFi/$629 4G
64GB iPad Mini Retina $599 WiFi/$729 4G
ASPs would go up, not down.
I understand that Apple doesn't sell it's hardware at cost. I get the premium for design, build quality, ecosystem, user experience etc. But does that really make a retina mini worth $200 more than the Nexus 7?
I don't care if they purposely designed that way it's stupid. What's wrong with having user accounts where when you login with your Apple ID it brings up your personal home screen, wallpaper, apps, etc. This would be great for families that probably can't afford to buy every member of the family an iPad.
I don't know that there's anything wrong with it; Apple wants you to buy a device for each person.
I know a number of people who didn't upgrade iOS specifically because of maps. I guarantee you outside of United States if people had a choice their default maps app would not be Apple's. And probably the same goes for for a fair number of people in the United States as well.
I'm not sure about that.
Then how come when I use non-Apple browsers it doesn't redirect me to a mobile or tablet version of a site? I only have this problem when using Safari.
The website reads the browser string and acts accordingly. Accordingly is just wrong half the time; mobile Safari has its own string, and apparently those don't?
You can do what's in those screenshots without jailbreaking your device?
Yeah! Just a day or two ago, I was able to swipe down a notification bar from the lock screen on a 5th gen iPod touch. If I have access to it again, I'll take a screenshot and show you. It came down from below the time bar with standard little nub (with the three horizontal lines), but the nub was translucent, like the above.
So they create a crappy stock app to force you to have to pay for something better and that's good how exactly?
Didn't say anything about being good. I'm not against any improvements to any app, but that's the state of things right now.
But I have to believe Apple designers can do much better than that app.
Well, we have Ive to handle that now. If any changes are desired, iOS 7 should bring them.
The fact that you refuse to read my comments does not give you the right to change them. Where did I say unmodified here? Nowhere. Even so, I suspect that an unmodified A6 should be fast enough for most things but suffer at gaming.
And I have both benchmarks and Anand comments to show that the 543MP3 as a GPU is about as fast as the 543MP4.
Stop being a prick.
A6X is a modified A6 with the faster memory bandwidth and all other changes that make it suitable to feasibly push over 3 million pixels to the display. As previously noted by myself and AnandTech this will not be feasible in a standard Apple ASIC designed for a a quart or less pixels and making the GPU faster will not solve the other issues.
AnandTech had an entire page in their review addressing the issues with Retina on the iPad mini. It simply can't be any more clear unless you don't understand all the parts involved are are choosing not to listen to reason. I get that you want this but that doesn't mean you have to will it into existent without consideration for reality, facts or physics.
That would be the same resolution as the iPad 3/4, but in a much smaller display giving it a pixel density of 326 PPI (vs ~263 for the iPad 3/4). Apple could do this, but it would then need to make all of the same changes it made in going to the iPad with Retina Display, primarily the introduction of a larger battery and much larger SoC. The bigger battery is needed to drive the more powerful backlight, and the X-series of SoCs is needed to actually render the UI and games at such a high resolution. Both of these things would increase the size and cost of the mini, which would make it distinctly un-mini.
[...]
If you're expecting next year's mini to have a Retina Display, I wouldn't hold your breath.
Personally I think having toggles in NC would be better.
something like this would be cool:
I guess it would be nice to view weather from the lock screen but everything else would be too cluttered.
Apple should strive for simplicity and practicality.
There are more foundational changes Apple could make to iOS, but I guess more utilization of the notification center would be nice.
And the stocks app is fine. Be happy that now we actually have the option of downloading a better app from the App Store unlike 4 years ago when all that was available were web apps.
Apple should allow users to delete apps like the stocks and weather apps that they don't use. Or maybe Apple should get rid of both apps altogether and just keep the widgets.
I guess it would be nice to view weather from the lock screen but everything else would be too cluttered.
Apple should strive for simplicity and practicality.
There are more foundational changes Apple could make to iOS, but I guess more utilization of the notification center would be nice.
And the stocks app is fine. Be happy that now we actually have the option of downloading a better app from the App Store unlike 4 years ago when all that was available were web apps.
Apple should allow users to delete apps like the stocks and weather apps that they don't use. Or maybe Apple should get rid of both apps altogether and just keep the widgets.
I mostly agree. I agree Apple needs to make sure that it's simple and practical. I oft seen comments that because some developers wrote a jailbreak hack/app to do some function that Apple should be able to add it too, but that is line of reasoning is predicated on a false notion that Apple hasn't done it because they haven't figured out how or don't think they could figure out how instead of for other objections.
I think we are used to the left/right swipe in iOS that they could put the weather as a swipe of the clock in the lock screen. If not, they could put some subtle left/right arrows or those top/bottom bars as seen on the camera to indicate the action. If they do that then a 3rd (or more) swipe window could be added for stocks. The most complex the less likely I think it will be.
I'm not a big fan of Notification Center. I use it so rarely so it's just filled with old notifications. Be nice to have some Fast Access Settings in there.
As for deleting system apps that simply won't happen but I would like the option to disable the icon from showing up on the Home Screen but most important would be to change the default app to a 3rd-party option. I think this will come eventually as iOS evolves but I'm really not expecting it soon.
Three other things 'I' would like are:
Setting a passcode lock for Settings
Having the hard shutdown of the device actual force a reboot so that a thief can't simply turn off the device to bypass Find My iPhone. The way to turn off the device would be the slider but that could be locked with the system passcode.
A non-intuitive, circular finger motion to change the brightness of the display quickly from the lock screen without the rigamarole of going through setting when entering a dark area with a bright iPhone or the difficultly trying to navigate to the proper settings when entering a bright area with a dimmed display. My solution is to do a circular sweep with a finger on the lock screen. Right for bright, left for dim.
Does it really make sense to bring out a new version of a product when the previous version still has six months left on the warranty? Customers with a defective product that has to be replaced will end up with the next generation of the product for free.
Seems weird to me.
That fact does not interest or concern at Apple at all. People buying products. Oh No.
A6X is a modified A6 with the faster memory bandwidth and all other changes that make it suitable to feasibly push over 3 million pixels to the display. As previously noted by myself and AnandTech this will not be feasible in a standard Apple ASIC designed for a a quart or less pixels and making the GPU faster will not solve the other issues.
AnandTech had an entire page in their review addressing the issues with Retina on the iPad mini. It simply can't be any more clear unless you don't understand all the parts involved are are choosing not to listen to reason. I get that you want this but that doesn't mean you have to will it into existent without consideration for reality, facts or physics.
That would be the same resolution as the iPad 3/4, but in a much smaller display giving it a pixel density of 326 PPI (vs ~263 for the iPad 3/4). Apple could do this, but it would then need to make all of the same changes it made in going to the iPad with Retina Display, primarily the introduction of a larger battery and much larger SoC. The bigger battery is needed to drive the more powerful backlight, and the X-series of SoCs is needed to actually render the UI and games at such a high resolution. Both of these things would increase the size and cost of the mini, which would make it distinctly un-mini.
[...]
If you're expecting next year's mini to have a Retina Display, I wouldn't hold your breath.
You write this as if 3M pixels is such a huge deal when the 45nm A5X can handle it. Not as well as the A6X but well enough. At no point did they say that the 554MP2 or the 543MP3 could not handle the resolution if you provided the 128bit wide memory bandwidth.
A 32nm A6 is 95mm^2. The A6X is 123mm^2. Each A6X GPU core is 8.72mm^2 while the A6 GPU cores are 5.4mm^2 and so the GPUs occupy about double the space on the A6X as on the A6 BUT if you drop back to the 554MP2 you drop two of those cores and you're back around 100-110mm^2...i.e. not THAT much bigger than a stock A6.
If you use the A5 panel the backlight may not be as big an issue as the iPad 3...AND Apple lists a 10 hour battery life for the mini but the mini lasts around 13 hours in battery tests. That's 30% battery margin. Note that the iPad 2 only gets 9.8 hours of battery life.
A 2013 iPad Mini Retina with 10 hours battery life is certainly possible with just the technology shown thus far. Rogue is NOT required.
Besides, IF you bothered reading my original post you would have seen that I had said that the current iPad Mini updated to A6 in spring is a worthwhile spec bump. Even without retina a stock A6 is a HUGE update for buyers. From a gaming perspective it would be on par with the iPad 4 with the GPU speed increase and because of the additional RAM it would be far more future proof than the current mini.
A spring update to the A6 would give make the iPad Mini 2 among the first A15 class 7" tablets.
A fall update with iPad Mini Retina with a 28nm A6X/554MP2 would slam the door on Android for 2013 XMas.
But I can also see just a straight jump to retina in the fall but the iPad mini is currently a lot like the iPad 3 was. Stopgap and ripe for faster updates:
Spring 2013 - A6 update
Fall 2013 - A6X/554MP2 Retina update (iPad 3_ performance) - 9.8 hours battery life
2014 - A6X/Rogue (iPad 4 performance)
The mini would remain about six months to a year behind the iPad in performance using the last gen chip. The iPad would get the A7X in fall 2013.
I don't know that there's anything wrong with it; Apple wants you to buy a device for each person.
I think there is something wrong with it if it could be easily accomplished by software and not forcing people to spend hundreds of dollars on extra devices.
The website reads the browser string and acts accordingly. Accordingly is just wrong half the time; mobile Safari has its own string, and apparently those don't?
The user agent is telling the server it's Safari mobile (iPhone or iPad). Some people prefer mobile versions of websites. I don't. Perhaps this was implemented by Apple because of the lack of flash. A mobile site wasn't going to give you an error message about needing to install Adobe Flash.
Didn't say anything about being good. I'm not against any improvements to any app, but that's the state of things right now.
Hopefully with Ive and Federighi that won't be the state too much longer.
Well, we have Ive to handle that now. If any changes are desired, iOS 7 should bring them.
I hope so. Doesn't have to be a major overhaul but perception can often become reality and right now the perception in the media is that iOS is stale/dated, that Android has surpassed it and Windows 8 is new and fresh. I think Apple needs to do something to keep that perception from becoming reality in consumer's mind. Obviously Cook recognizes if hence the re-org.
I guess it would be nice to view weather from the lock screen but everything else would be too cluttered.
Apple should strive for simplicity and practicality.
There are more foundational changes Apple could make to iOS, but I guess more utilization of the notification center would be nice.
And the stocks app is fine. Be happy that now we actually have the option of downloading a better app from the App Store unlike 4 years ago when all that was available were web apps.
Apple should allow users to delete apps like the stocks and weather apps that they don't use. Or maybe Apple should get rid of both apps altogether and just keep the widgets.
I agree some of that is on the busy side. But it's just an idea of things Apple could do. Right now the lock screen doesn't do much of anything.
I mostly agree. I agree Apple needs to make sure that it's simple and practical. I oft seen comments that because some developers wrote a jailbreak hack/app to do some function that Apple should be able to add it too, but that is line of reasoning is predicated on a false notion that Apple hasn't done it because they haven't figured out how or don't think they could figure out how instead of for other objections.
I think we are used to the left/right swipe in iOS that they could put the weather as a swipe of the clock in the lock screen. If not, they could put some subtle left/right arrows or those top/bottom bars as seen on the camera to indicate the action. If they do that then a 3rd (or more) swipe window could be added for stocks. The most complex the less likely I think it will be.
I'm not a big fan of Notification Center. I use it so rarely so it's just filled with old notifications. Be nice to have some Fast Access Settings in there.
As for deleting system apps that simply won't happen but I would like the option to disable the icon from showing up on the Home Screen but most important would be to change the default app to a 3rd-party option. I think this will come eventually as iOS evolves but I'm really not expecting it soon.
Three other things 'I' would like are:
Setting a passcode lock for Settings
Having the hard shutdown of the device actual force a reboot so that a thief can't simply turn off the device to bypass Find My iPhone. The way to turn off the device would be the slider but that could be locked with the system passcode.
A non-intuitive, circular finger motion to change the brightness of the display quickly from the lock screen without the rigamarole of going through setting when entering a dark area with a bright iPhone or the difficultly trying to navigate to the proper settings when entering a bright area with a dimmed display. My solution is to do a circular sweep with a finger on the lock screen. Right for bright, left for dim.
These are all really, really good ideas. Especially Passcode Lock for Power Down. It's painful knowing that Find My iPhone is immediately rendered useless if a thief simply shuts off the device.
These are all really, really good ideas. Especially Passcode Lock for Power Down. It's painful knowing that Find My iPhone is immediately rendered useless if a thief simply shuts off the device.
I'm not completely sure that is possible but I do feel I spent a lot of trying conceiving of a method that would allow for the device to be powered down if needed, and to be hard booted if the touchscreen was not working properly. Since you can set any OS to restart rather than simply shutdown I am assuming that could also be triggered as a hard restart that didn't allow for a hard shutdown, even if was from additional HW. If anyone has anything that can disprove, better, or clarify my conception I'd appreciate the feedback.
I think there is something wrong with it if it could be easily accomplished by software and not forcing people to spend hundreds of dollars on extra devices.
Selling more devices is a much better idea. No one is forcing you to do anything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nht
A fall update with iPad Mini Retina with a 28nm A6X/554MP2 would slam the door on Android for 2013 XMas.
Uh, no. People that buy Android devices are not motivated by such important technical considerations. Price alone, combined with ignorance, result in every purchase of every Android device.
I understand that Apple doesn't sell it's hardware at cost. I get the premium for design, build quality, ecosystem, user experience etc. But does that really make a retina mini worth $200 more than the Nexus 7?
Heh...$250 more...since the Nexus 7 is $250 for 32GB and my pricing has it at $499. Apple could make the base model 32GB to offset this. It would be worth it to me but I'm moderately price insensitive.
Folks that are price sensitive would be looking at the difference between $199 and $249/$299. Yah, Apple's worth that price premium. $149 and $249/$299? Apple is still worth the premium but it's a harder call.
$99 vs $249/$299? I think that as apps become more and more powerful, especially games, these tablets are going to be the netbooks of the tablet world. Cheap but poor performing even though they are as powerful as 2-3 year old premium tablets.
The original Kindle Fire I can see hitting $99 by XMas 2013. I'd rather get a Nexus 7 for $150 which is what they probably will be end of 2013.
These are all really, really good ideas. Especially Passcode Lock for Power Down. It's painful knowing that Find My iPhone is immediately rendered useless if a thief simply shuts off the device.
Doesn't matter that much...just stick it in a box that is covered in metal in a bad coverage area until it runs out of battery. Even if the box isn't a perfect shield the probability is that the phone will be trying very hard to get a good signal and run itself out of battery reasonably quickly. A plastic tupperware box and few layers of aluminum foil should work in a pinch.
To test the effectiveness of your box, put your own phone inside and call it.
Comments
I don't know how mine and Anand's comments on it can make it any more clear so good luck with Apple shoehorning a 2048x1536 into the iPad mini and using an unmodified A6 to do the job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Why would they do this now and not do it back in October with the holiday season looming and Amazon and Google's budget offerings just arriving? Sure, they want to dominate but they already do so what motivation is there to gain in unit share but lose in profit share? Did Apple make a profitless iPod in order to win the PMP market or did they do it with well made, well marketed, and well organized pricing, features and releases?
Because a retina iPad Mini did not exist in October and there was no legacy iPad mini to drop to $299.
They do not lose in profit share because at my suggested price points the Retina iPad Mini costs more and the legacy mini has another 6 months worth of component price reductions. Plus Apple is very good at upsell. A 16GB iPad Mini for $249/$299 is a great deal but a lot of folks will buy the $399 iPad Mini retina instead...especially if the base retina comes with 32GB storage.
If it were me I'd go:
16GB iPad Mini $249 WiFi Only
16GB iPad Mini Retina $399 WiFi/$539 4G
32GB iPad Mini Retina $499 WiFi/$629 4G
64GB iPad Mini Retina $599 WiFi/$729 4G
ASPs would go up, not down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I don't know how mine and Anand's comments on it can make it any more clear so good luck with Apple shoehorning a 2048x1536 into the iPad mini and using an unmodified A6 to do the job.
The fact that you refuse to read my comments does not give you the right to change them. Where did I say unmodified here? Nowhere. Even so, I suspect that an unmodified A6 should be fast enough for most things but suffer at gaming.
And I have both benchmarks and Anand comments to show that the 543MP3 as a GPU is about as fast as the 543MP4.
Stop being a prick.
I know a number of people who didn't upgrade iOS specifically because of maps. I guarantee you outside of United States if people had a choice their default maps app would not be Apple's. And probably the same goes for for a fair number of people in the United States as well.
Then how come when I use non-Apple browsers it doesn't redirect me to a mobile or tablet version of a site? I only have this problem when using Safari.
You can do what's in those screenshots without jailbreaking your device?
So they create a crappy stock app to force you to have to pay for something better and that's good how exactly?
Maybe not always but I haven't come across anyone who likes the podcast app. Thankfully there are much better ones in the App Store. But I have to believe Apple designers can do much better than that app.
Do you think Apple should've put Siri on the 4th iPhone, only because it seemed to work ok on jailbroken iPhones - same hardware?
Originally Posted by Rogifan
I don't care if they purposely designed that way it's stupid. What's wrong with having user accounts where when you login with your Apple ID it brings up your personal home screen, wallpaper, apps, etc. This would be great for families that probably can't afford to buy every member of the family an iPad.
I don't know that there's anything wrong with it; Apple wants you to buy a device for each person.
I know a number of people who didn't upgrade iOS specifically because of maps. I guarantee you outside of United States if people had a choice their default maps app would not be Apple's. And probably the same goes for for a fair number of people in the United States as well.
I'm not sure about that.
Then how come when I use non-Apple browsers it doesn't redirect me to a mobile or tablet version of a site? I only have this problem when using Safari.
The website reads the browser string and acts accordingly. Accordingly is just wrong half the time; mobile Safari has its own string, and apparently those don't?
You can do what's in those screenshots without jailbreaking your device?
Yeah! Just a day or two ago, I was able to swipe down a notification bar from the lock screen on a 5th gen iPod touch. If I have access to it again, I'll take a screenshot and show you. It came down from below the time bar with standard little nub (with the three horizontal lines), but the nub was translucent, like the above.
So they create a crappy stock app to force you to have to pay for something better and that's good how exactly?
Didn't say anything about being good. I'm not against any improvements to any app, but that's the state of things right now.
But I have to believe Apple designers can do much better than that app.
Well, we have Ive to handle that now. If any changes are desired, iOS 7 should bring them.
A6X is a modified A6 with the faster memory bandwidth and all other changes that make it suitable to feasibly push over 3 million pixels to the display. As previously noted by myself and AnandTech this will not be feasible in a standard Apple ASIC designed for a a quart or less pixels and making the GPU faster will not solve the other issues.
AnandTech had an entire page in their review addressing the issues with Retina on the iPad mini. It simply can't be any more clear unless you don't understand all the parts involved are are choosing not to listen to reason. I get that you want this but that doesn't mean you have to will it into existent without consideration for reality, facts or physics.
Here is a segment of what I quoted last time...
[...]
If you're expecting next year's mini to have a Retina Display, I wouldn't hold your breath.
I guess it would be nice to view weather from the lock screen but everything else would be too cluttered.
Apple should strive for simplicity and practicality.
There are more foundational changes Apple could make to iOS, but I guess more utilization of the notification center would be nice.
And the stocks app is fine. Be happy that now we actually have the option of downloading a better app from the App Store unlike 4 years ago when all that was available were web apps.
Apple should allow users to delete apps like the stocks and weather apps that they don't use. Or maybe Apple should get rid of both apps altogether and just keep the widgets.
I would hope, but what I really want is for Apple to make iOS more like OS X. Not sure when or if that will happen this time around.
I mostly agree. I agree Apple needs to make sure that it's simple and practical. I oft seen comments that because some developers wrote a jailbreak hack/app to do some function that Apple should be able to add it too, but that is line of reasoning is predicated on a false notion that Apple hasn't done it because they haven't figured out how or don't think they could figure out how instead of for other objections.
I think we are used to the left/right swipe in iOS that they could put the weather as a swipe of the clock in the lock screen. If not, they could put some subtle left/right arrows or those top/bottom bars as seen on the camera to indicate the action. If they do that then a 3rd (or more) swipe window could be added for stocks. The most complex the less likely I think it will be.
I'm not a big fan of Notification Center. I use it so rarely so it's just filled with old notifications. Be nice to have some Fast Access Settings in there.
As for deleting system apps that simply won't happen but I would like the option to disable the icon from showing up on the Home Screen but most important would be to change the default app to a 3rd-party option. I think this will come eventually as iOS evolves but I'm really not expecting it soon.
Three other things 'I' would like are:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
I'm not sure of these rumours at all.
Does it really make sense to bring out a new version of a product when the previous version still has six months left on the warranty? Customers with a defective product that has to be replaced will end up with the next generation of the product for free.
Seems weird to me.
That fact does not interest or concern at Apple at all. People buying products. Oh No.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
A6X is a modified A6 with the faster memory bandwidth and all other changes that make it suitable to feasibly push over 3 million pixels to the display. As previously noted by myself and AnandTech this will not be feasible in a standard Apple ASIC designed for a a quart or less pixels and making the GPU faster will not solve the other issues.
AnandTech had an entire page in their review addressing the issues with Retina on the iPad mini. It simply can't be any more clear unless you don't understand all the parts involved are are choosing not to listen to reason. I get that you want this but that doesn't mean you have to will it into existent without consideration for reality, facts or physics.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6429/ipad-mini-review/5
Here is a segment of what I quoted last time...
That would be the same resolution as the iPad 3/4, but in a much smaller display giving it a pixel density of 326 PPI (vs ~263 for the iPad 3/4). Apple could do this, but it would then need to make all of the same changes it made in going to the iPad with Retina Display, primarily the introduction of a larger battery and much larger SoC. The bigger battery is needed to drive the more powerful backlight, and the X-series of SoCs is needed to actually render the UI and games at such a high resolution. Both of these things would increase the size and cost of the mini, which would make it distinctly un-mini.
[...]
If you're expecting next year's mini to have a Retina Display, I wouldn't hold your breath.
You write this as if 3M pixels is such a huge deal when the 45nm A5X can handle it. Not as well as the A6X but well enough. At no point did they say that the 554MP2 or the 543MP3 could not handle the resolution if you provided the 128bit wide memory bandwidth.
A 32nm A6 is 95mm^2. The A6X is 123mm^2. Each A6X GPU core is 8.72mm^2 while the A6 GPU cores are 5.4mm^2 and so the GPUs occupy about double the space on the A6X as on the A6 BUT if you drop back to the 554MP2 you drop two of those cores and you're back around 100-110mm^2...i.e. not THAT much bigger than a stock A6.
If you use the A5 panel the backlight may not be as big an issue as the iPad 3...AND Apple lists a 10 hour battery life for the mini but the mini lasts around 13 hours in battery tests. That's 30% battery margin. Note that the iPad 2 only gets 9.8 hours of battery life.
A 2013 iPad Mini Retina with 10 hours battery life is certainly possible with just the technology shown thus far. Rogue is NOT required.
Besides, IF you bothered reading my original post you would have seen that I had said that the current iPad Mini updated to A6 in spring is a worthwhile spec bump. Even without retina a stock A6 is a HUGE update for buyers. From a gaming perspective it would be on par with the iPad 4 with the GPU speed increase and because of the additional RAM it would be far more future proof than the current mini.
A spring update to the A6 would give make the iPad Mini 2 among the first A15 class 7" tablets.
A fall update with iPad Mini Retina with a 28nm A6X/554MP2 would slam the door on Android for 2013 XMas.
But I can also see just a straight jump to retina in the fall but the iPad mini is currently a lot like the iPad 3 was. Stopgap and ripe for faster updates:
Spring 2013 - A6 update
Fall 2013 - A6X/554MP2 Retina update (iPad 3_ performance) - 9.8 hours battery life
2014 - A6X/Rogue (iPad 4 performance)
The mini would remain about six months to a year behind the iPad in performance using the last gen chip. The iPad would get the A7X in fall 2013.
The user agent is telling the server it's Safari mobile (iPhone or iPad). Some people prefer mobile versions of websites. I don't. Perhaps this was implemented by Apple because of the lack of flash. A mobile site wasn't going to give you an error message about needing to install Adobe Flash.
Hopefully with Ive and Federighi that won't be the state too much longer.
I hope so. Doesn't have to be a major overhaul but perception can often become reality and right now the perception in the media is that iOS is stale/dated, that Android has surpassed it and Windows 8 is new and fresh. I think Apple needs to do something to keep that perception from becoming reality in consumer's mind. Obviously Cook recognizes if hence the re-org.
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Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I mostly agree. I agree Apple needs to make sure that it's simple and practical. I oft seen comments that because some developers wrote a jailbreak hack/app to do some function that Apple should be able to add it too, but that is line of reasoning is predicated on a false notion that Apple hasn't done it because they haven't figured out how or don't think they could figure out how instead of for other objections.
I think we are used to the left/right swipe in iOS that they could put the weather as a swipe of the clock in the lock screen. If not, they could put some subtle left/right arrows or those top/bottom bars as seen on the camera to indicate the action. If they do that then a 3rd (or more) swipe window could be added for stocks. The most complex the less likely I think it will be.
I'm not a big fan of Notification Center. I use it so rarely so it's just filled with old notifications. Be nice to have some Fast Access Settings in there.
As for deleting system apps that simply won't happen but I would like the option to disable the icon from showing up on the Home Screen but most important would be to change the default app to a 3rd-party option. I think this will come eventually as iOS evolves but I'm really not expecting it soon.
Three other things 'I' would like are:
Setting a passcode lock for Settings
Having the hard shutdown of the device actual force a reboot so that a thief can't simply turn off the device to bypass Find My iPhone. The way to turn off the device would be the slider but that could be locked with the system passcode.
A non-intuitive, circular finger motion to change the brightness of the display quickly from the lock screen without the rigamarole of going through setting when entering a dark area with a bright iPhone or the difficultly trying to navigate to the proper settings when entering a bright area with a dimmed display. My solution is to do a circular sweep with a finger on the lock screen. Right for bright, left for dim.
These are all really, really good ideas. Especially Passcode Lock for Power Down. It's painful knowing that Find My iPhone is immediately rendered useless if a thief simply shuts off the device.
I'm not completely sure that is possible but I do feel I spent a lot of trying conceiving of a method that would allow for the device to be powered down if needed, and to be hard booted if the touchscreen was not working properly. Since you can set any OS to restart rather than simply shutdown I am assuming that could also be triggered as a hard restart that didn't allow for a hard shutdown, even if was from additional HW. If anyone has anything that can disprove, better, or clarify my conception I'd appreciate the feedback.
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Originally Posted by Rogifan
I think there is something wrong with it if it could be easily accomplished by software and not forcing people to spend hundreds of dollars on extra devices.
Selling more devices is a much better idea. No one is forcing you to do anything.
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Originally Posted by nht
A fall update with iPad Mini Retina with a 28nm A6X/554MP2 would slam the door on Android for 2013 XMas.
Uh, no. People that buy Android devices are not motivated by such important technical considerations. Price alone, combined with ignorance, result in every purchase of every Android device.
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Originally Posted by Rogifan
I understand that Apple doesn't sell it's hardware at cost. I get the premium for design, build quality, ecosystem, user experience etc. But does that really make a retina mini worth $200 more than the Nexus 7?
Heh...$250 more...since the Nexus 7 is $250 for 32GB and my pricing has it at $499. Apple could make the base model 32GB to offset this. It would be worth it to me but I'm moderately price insensitive.
Folks that are price sensitive would be looking at the difference between $199 and $249/$299. Yah, Apple's worth that price premium. $149 and $249/$299? Apple is still worth the premium but it's a harder call.
$99 vs $249/$299? I think that as apps become more and more powerful, especially games, these tablets are going to be the netbooks of the tablet world. Cheap but poor performing even though they are as powerful as 2-3 year old premium tablets.
The original Kindle Fire I can see hitting $99 by XMas 2013. I'd rather get a Nexus 7 for $150 which is what they probably will be end of 2013.
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Originally Posted by pmz
These are all really, really good ideas. Especially Passcode Lock for Power Down. It's painful knowing that Find My iPhone is immediately rendered useless if a thief simply shuts off the device.
Doesn't matter that much...just stick it in a box that is covered in metal in a bad coverage area until it runs out of battery. Even if the box isn't a perfect shield the probability is that the phone will be trying very hard to get a good signal and run itself out of battery reasonably quickly. A plastic tupperware box and few layers of aluminum foil should work in a pinch.
To test the effectiveness of your box, put your own phone inside and call it.
Or get some pro made faraday bags.
http://edecdf.com/products.php?iProdId=1
Pricey at $60: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-Faraday-Bag-Isolation/dp/B0091WILY0
http://techprotectbag.com/products-page/product-category/8x8-small
-40dB should be good enough for $6. Stick in bag, toss in metal locker somewhere, come back in a day.