Award-winning web development since 1995
Written: September 6, 2013
Every day I use my Apple iPad and Google Nexus 7 tablets, side by side, mostly for email, calendar and social media like:
The Apple iPad uses an operating system called iOS, while the Google Nexus 7 has the Android operating system. Both tablets are useful, reliable and have plenty of Apps to make my work and play life more productive.
Beware that you think that either table is perfect. As an example, when I upgraded the Nexus 7 operating system to Android 4.3 it suddenly became so sluggish, like 20 seconds to do anything, that it was unusable. A quick Google search revealed that many other Nexus 7 owners had the identical experience. The fix for me was quick and simple – reset the device. The down side of reseting a tablet is that you have to:
I’ve owned the iPad for a couple of years and also had to reset it after an OS upgrade, so it was the same issues that took my precious time to get the tablet back working again.
Yes, I’d buy another iPad or Nexus tablet again. Just beware that you will have to reset the device to fix an upgrade, sooner or later.
Tags: iPad, Nexus 7Being a web developer I often want my client web sites to look good on tablets and specifically the iPad. When the New iPad was available for sale yesterday I bought one and wanted to test out the claim about the 4X improvement in graphics as being Resolutionary.
My first test was to view a landscape photograph of the Tualatin River with an image sized at 2272 x 1704 pixels and 300 ppi.
I looked at this image on both the iPad and a MacBook Pro 17″ and to my amazement there was NO difference. Color gamut was similar, sharpness was similar, they looked the same.
OK, let’s be scientific and try a second photo, one that I’m very familiar with, my own portrait:
Once again comparing them side by side, iPad versus MacBook Pro I see very little difference. In fact I see more detail in the fine hairs when viewed on my MacBook Pro, not the higher resolution iPad.
A5X Not Faster than Tegra 3
Recent benchmarks by Gizmodo yesterday also prove that Apple’s claim to be 4X faster than the Tegra 3 are false.
iTunes Legality
During the setup process of the iPad you go through a handful of screens and what struck me as overly-zealous was the screen for iTune terms and conditions. Can you believe that Apple presented 42 pages worth of terms and conditions? I didn’t have that many T&C with my home mortgage. Perhaps the legal department at Apple has too much time on their hands in writing such an extensive T&C.
Vocabulary Builder
While reading the iPad documentation there’s a new phrase introduced, oloephobic coating. According to the Miriam Webster dictionary olephobic means: having or relating to a lack of strong affinity for oils. OK, don’t use solvents on your iPad screen, just use a slightly damp cloth.
Where’s the Documentation?
Imagine my surprise to open up the iPad packaging to find zero written documentation, other than a small card showing me where the On button was. Searching on Google I did find the PDF user documentation, a well-written 144 page guide. In this regards Apple should take a cue from Amazon, because on their Kindle series of tablets when you first turn the power on you are presented with the online user guide. Amazon makes learning the Kindle intuitive, Apple guesses that you will somehow find their PDF documentation.
Reading about Cloud storage I found a humorous typo where the word “But” was incorrectly used instead of “Buy”:
Multiple User Accounts
Having used an iMac and MacBook Pro for years I kind of assumed that the iOS used on the iPad would support multiple users, especially since I wanted my 10 year old son to have his own account separate from mine. Oddly enough Apple doesn’t support multiple user accounts on the iPad, so I’m unsure of how to keep my son and other family members from accidentally harming my Apps and documents. Apple, give us User Accounts in iOS 6.0!
WordPress App
I downloaded the official WordPress App from Automattic expecting to be able to view and edit Posts and Pages. Wrong. You can view but only in HTML mode, there is no WYSIWYG editor which makes the whole point of editing easily meaningless. Automattic, what were you thinking? I will not be using this App at all because it’s like getting into a car only to find out there is no steering wheel to use.
Summary
There you have it folks, my conclusion is that the marketing department at Apple have created Resolutionary and cannot prove the value of it and their speed claims are patently false.
Do I like my New iPad? Yes, but I am not drinking the cool aid that Apple is now serving up.
Tags: 3rd generation, iPad, Resolutionary
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Thanks for the review. Yeah, Apple’s certainly known for their hyperbole. For what it’s worth, the 4x resolution jump is quite noticeable when compared with the 2nd generation iPad and with other tablets.
Matthew,
I haven’t compared the resolution versus the 2nd generation, good point. Text looks great, although when I scroll the text goes blurry and then when I stop scrolling it snaps to sharp again, it takes awhile to get used to that visual artifact. On a desktop browser the text stays sharp while scrolling or staying still.
I’m still amazed that people are selling these New iPads for above retail on Craigslist.