iPad3 LTE?!

[SuperAdventurer]

There's a link on the order page where you can pre-sign for delivery, then you print the page and tape it to your door. Depends how much you trust your neighbors not to steal your new iPad and/or how desperate you are to get it today.

[tmastern]

Yes, that's what I mean. It got about 2 pages of apps after the iCloud restore. After syncing, I got them all.

Exactly the same thing for me....I thought the back up and restore went awfully fast for 153 apps.

[Ephraim]

There's a link on the order page where you can pre-sign for delivery, then you print the page and tape it to your door. Depends how much you trust your neighbors not to steal your new iPad and/or how desperate you are to get it today.

I trust them fine, I even trust them to accept the package for me. The problem is that this link doesn't exist on my order page, likely because all of those fancy UPS My Choice options aren't available outside of the US.

[SuperAdventurer]

Ok maybe it's US only. Or maybe it's only if it's being delivered FedEx as mine is, not UPS (but that might also be based on different arrangements for US vs Canada deliveries).

[Ephraim]

Ok maybe it's US only. Or maybe it's only if it's being delivered FedEx as mine is, not UPS (but that might also be based on different arrangements for US vs Canada deliveries).

Good suggestion, though. It led me to a Google search which revealed some fairly official looking UPS pre-sign form that someone posted (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1248750) on an Apple forum. It won't hurt to print it out and put it on my door if I have to go.

Thanks!

[SuperAdventurer]

Happy to help. Not my fault if neighborhood thief gets your iPad. (Roaming the streets of reasonably nice neighborhoods looking for appropriately sized packages seems like it might be profitable this afternoon.)

[Ephraim]

Happy to help. Not my fault if neighborhood thief gets your iPad. (Roaming the streets of reasonably nice neighborhoods looking for appropriately sized packages seems like it might be profitable this afternoon.)

Nah, it's fine. I'll have them deliver it to my immediate neighbour, who's very trustworthy. It's one of the options on the form.

[Mike Cathcart]

So, fuzzyslug, what do you mean by you needed to sync? Sync to iTunes on a computer? On top of the iCloud restore? Ugh. I thought we were past those days.
He could also have gone to the App Store on the iPad, clicked on the Purchased link and just downloaded anything that was missing from there. Sometimes it's more convenient to do the sync with the computer, especially if you're going to sync hundreds or thousands of songs and/or apps to a new iPad.

You do need to connect physically to the computer one time to set up wireless syncing, although I don't even care about wireless syncing for the iPad. The only reason you might want to sync with a computer regularly is if you wanted to keep podcasts on the iPad since the Music app doesn't manage subscriptions for you. But I use Downcast to do that so it's not a problem. Plus, Downcast allowed me to delete my podcasts from the computer which was nice since I hadn't paid attention to them and allowed them to eat up 7GB of space.

[DennyA]

Anyone here familiar with Verizon iPad plans? Noticed they have a $30 fee for 2GB, and it looks like the $10/GB if you go over that only applies if you sign up for monthly service.

So if you're just buying months a la carte, I guess you can't get the extra GB for $10 if you burn through the 2GB, and you'd need to buy another package?

[nKoan]

Anyone here familiar with Verizon iPad plans? Noticed they have a $30 fee for 2GB, and it looks like the $10/GB if you go over that only applies if you sign up for monthly service.

So if you're just buying months a la carte, I guess you can't get the extra GB for $10 if you burn through the 2GB, and you'd need to buy another package?

Technically I don't think you buy months a la carte. You have to remember to cancel before the next billing cycle if you truly want to go month to month.

[DennyA]

Technically I don't think you buy months a la carte. You have to remember to cancel before the next billing cycle if you truly want to go month to month.
Yeah, that's what I meant. But as I understand it, you can buy a month, then cancel right away, and you'll still get the month of service but it will cut off at the end of the 30-day period.

However, from reading their website, it seems if you do it that way you can only buy in the package chunks, and you can't get the $10/GB additional data if you end up needing it.

[Gendal]

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/03/verizon-ipad-found-to-be-compatible-with-atts-3g-network.ars

Argh. More annoying news for those of us who purchased the AT&T version.

PS. East coast sucks

[Mike Cathcart]

Really? I get great voice and data service from AT&T on the east coast. Not quite as great in NYC as it is in Philly but definitely better than in LA. Or were you being sarcastical.

[KWhit]

Got one. Went to the local Walmart at about noon and they had one 32gb left. It was black, but my wife will have to deal with it. Now I have to wait til her birthday to open it and play with it. I mean for her to open it and play with it.

:)

[SuperAdventurer]

It was black, but my wife will have to deal with it.

- angry redneck at the maternity ward

[ydejin]

Got one. Went to the local Walmart at about noon and they had one 32gb left. It was black, but my wife will have to deal with it. Now I have to wait til her birthday to open it and play with it. I mean for her to open it and play with it.

:)

Congratz!!!

[Gendal]

Or were you being sarcastical.
I was more bitching how people on the east coast already have theirs because of the earlier time zone. I have no knowledge of east coast reception!

[espressojim]

Got mine a little before 11AM today, then ran off to work with it still in the box. I've got it synched up and charging (it said it had 83% battery life when I first turned it on?), and will see about loading some movies up, etc for the commute home.

On the movie front: Handbrake is your friend - you can encode videos to different resolutions, etc, and that controls the space they take up. If you want to pack on more movies, you can always encode movies at "standard" definition (480p) if you want to and value variety over quality.

[Ephraim]

To all those who are following my slight drama: my neighbour is now in possession of my iPad. I guess the note on the door worked!

[ioticus]

Got my iPad today but can't connect to my wireless connection :( My iPod touch can connect fine and I'm entering the correct info but it says it can't find it :( What do I do?

[ARogan]

For those of you looking to transfer save games around (or back them up) without doing a full restore this might come in handy. No jailbreak needed:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/41631/how-to-backup-and-copy-data-between-ios-devices/

I personally hate hate hate iexplorer and instead use:
http://www.i-funbox.com/

[MattN]

I feel like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't have one yet. I know they technically have till 3 to deliver my ipad but fedex is pissing me off right now. It's the house arrest that's getting to me. Rushing through a shower for example because "what if" is annoying.

[ioticus]

My router is set to broadcast invisible and when I changed it to visible the iPad was able to connect. However, it can't find my connection when it is set to invisible. Anyone know what's going on? I never had this problem connecting with other devices and I would really like to leave my router set to invisible.

[Gendal]

Just set the SSID to be visible unless you really want to track down the issue.

The prevailing wisdom these days is that there is little to no security benefit from hiding it, assuming you did enable an encryption format, preferably WPA2.

[Justin Fletcher]

It's not really the money; it's the hassle of getting a new one. I'm not going to wait in line and online orders don't ship for 2-3 weeks. Meanwhile, the 16GB is being delivered directly to me by 3pm.

*sigh*

Maybe I'll drop by a couple of places this morning and afternoon and see if I get lucky.
Well, son of a bitch. I stopped by the AT&T near my work at 8:30 a.m. and they had one black LTE version left. 64GB, though, not 32GB.

So now I'm the proud owner of the top-of-the-line model. Those Retina apps had better be HUGE.

[MattN]

Oh my god this screen. Like, holy shit.

Grats Justin, for what its worth I regretted going 32 gig the first time around, better to take the extra step and never have to worry about space at all (unless you want to store a lot of hd movies)

[stusser]

It looks the jailbreak will come out much quicker than expected. (http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-ipad-3-5.1-ios-untethered-achieved-by-iphone-dev-team-screenshots/) Very good news, although it'll probably be tethered.

[DennyA]

Mine arrived, but I have 6 more minutes of file restores before I can truly enjoy it.

I guess that "Restore in Progress" screen is sharper, though.... :)

[Edit: Oh, wait, plus another half-hour for all my apps and data to sync back... Oh well.]

I do have to say the full-resolution wallpaper (http://www.datkin.net/pics/sts135-ipad.jpg) I made from a shot I took at the Space Shuttle launch looks AMAZING on the lock screen, though! :)

[nKoan]

Picked mine up at lunch too. Looks fantastic. Looking at it side by side with my iPad 1 just blows my mind.

[Gendal]

God damn Apple broke Fedex in Orange County. After the 834th refresh I got a delivery exception 20 minutes before for the 3:00pm deadline. Now it says 7PM.

Haha. While typing this they walked up to my front door. All that angst for nothing!

[Case]

Mine arrived noon-ish, and I'm just starting the sync now. (I had an article deadline.)

The Fedex guy told me they were on the road at 5:30 AM to deliver iPads, and most of his load today are new iPads. He looked pretty damned tired.

[Mookee]

Yeah, my buddy is a fedex driver and had to go in early and work OT. Delivered iPads all day. He delivered one to Steve Strickers house!

[pyjamarama]

So just a question on first impression a month from now will you guys say:

The screen is fantastic, but continue to use the new IPad as the old IPad is just more pleasant to look at.

Or the new IPad as ruined my eyes I cannot look at my PC and not see all the pixels I use the Ipad every time I can.

I'm sure the screen will overshadow every other tablet device just curious if it will impact the actual use

[peterb]

Or the new IPad as ruined my eyes I cannot look at my PC and not see all the pixels I use the Ipad every time I can.

I heard a guy say this today. Basically he now thinks his 30" monitor looks like crap.

[fuzzyslug]

So just a question on first impression a month from now will you guys say:

The screen is fantastic, but continue to use the new IPad as the old IPad is just more pleasant to look at.

Or the new IPad as ruined my eyes I cannot look at my PC and not see all the pixels I use the Ipad every time I can.

I'm sure the screen will overshadow every other tablet device just curious if it will impact the actual use

I'm going with this is screen is ruining my monitor. My comment to my wife while looking through pictures was, "this looks as good as any actual photograph, maybe better." My old iPad looks bad and dark in comparison. You can see the lines between the pixels.

Web browsing on this thing does two things:

1) It makes my monitor look bad, sometimes terrible in comparison. Don't compare the two side by side. Just don't do it.

2) It shows me how lame and small most web photography and imagery is in reality (I now want high res everything)

[Ephraim]

All I've got to say is:

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[pogozorro]

All I've got to say is:

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

My thoughts exactly. My eyes had to adjust to not seeing the pixels - I figured it would be just a nice, decent upgrade just like the iPhone retina displays.

Negative! It is almost bizarre, now.

[Angrycoder]

I heard a guy say this today. Basically he now thinks his 30" monitor looks like crap.

The rumor for a while has been that apple is working on retina displays for the MacBook. At this point, I think its more of a software issue for all operating systems because they all generally suck at dpi scaling.

[bigdruid]

This screen is damned amazing. And the iCloud backup/restore was mostly smooth although my kindle app is confused about my having two iPads and won't let me download anything new to the new device.

Just wish I had some good retina games to play now :)

[ARogan]

Setting up my black 64gb verizon now.

Yup, the first thing I noticed is how gorgeous the screen is.
The second thing I noticed is how heavy it is.

[Ephraim]

Setting up my black 64gb verizon now.

Yup, the first thing I noticed is how gorgeous the screen is.
The second thing I noticed is how heavy it is.

Yeah. It's always been an issue with me when in comes to the iPad. I keep comparing it to the Kindle, as unfair as that might be. This is no ebook reader. It's the thinnest, lightest computer I've ever owned.

[ydejin]

This screen is damned amazing. And the iCloud backup/restore was mostly smooth although my kindle app is confused about my having two iPads and won't let me download anything new to the new device.

Just wish I had some good retina games to play now :)

I had the same problem with the Kindle app. I deleting the copy on my new iPad and re-downloading it and that fixed it.

[rei]

4G 64GB black one reporting in.

[bigdruid]

This screen is damned amazing. And the iCloud backup/restore was mostly smooth although my kindle app is confused about my having two iPads and won't let me download anything new to the new device.


Actually, I think the problem may be that I'm apparently *still* doing an icloud restore after several hours (downloading a bunch of videos) and that's blocking other downloads. I deleted the kindle app, and now I can't even re-download it because it's stuck in "Waiting" until the restore finishes.

[Gendal]

Haha. Oh man. This screen. Reading comics is so much nicer. If the screen was still readable in sunlight I would say paper is dead.

[mono]

I got a Verizon 4G model from work today. Screen is quite awesome, but I wouldn't say it's changed my life. No I don't prefer it to my 30" 2560x1600 panel. It's still only 10". Not particularly great for 2-page comic splashes. Heavy. I don't think it will supplant my Kindle for books due to the weight. Still, it's a lovely piece of hardware. I can definitely see picking up one of those Zagg Folio bluetooth keyboard cases and eschewing the laptop more often.

[ydejin]

Actually, I think the problem may be that I'm apparently *still* doing an icloud restore after several hours (downloading a bunch of videos) and that's blocking other downloads. I deleted the kindle app, and now I can't even re-download it because it's stuck in "Waiting" until the restore finishes.

The Kindle App seemed to have an issue where it didn't actually transfer the data for the books that I'd had downloaded on my original iPad, but they wouldn't show up in the Cloud library because it assumed that they'd already been downloaded. So anything that I had actually downloaded to my original iPad wasn't showing up on the new iPad as either available in the online archive or on the iPad itself.

Also in general Amazon seemed pretty unhappy with my having both Kindle apps running. At some point it kicked me off of the Kindle app running on my original iPad. Which seems a bit strange, since I've certainly run on both the Kindle app and my physical Kindle.

Anyway, not entirely sure what's up with the Kindle app, seems to be working now, but definitely one of the more problematic transfers.

[rei]

HOLEE SHIT. it's like a glowing piece of paper.

[TheRock]

Have had mine on for 30-45 minutes and the left side, more so near the bottom, is VERY warm. I have not played any games or anything yet but I really dont like holding the thing when it's this warm. I'm wondering how warm or hot it's going to get once I put it in a case....a bit disconcerting.

[rei]

18.34 mbps down 3.98 mbps up on Canadian fake 4G (3G HSPA+) 43 ms ping.

4G cell plans are just stupid. if it is technically capable of 75mbps, you could eat up an entire 1GB data plan in 2min.

[Angrycoder]

Have had mine on for 30-45 minutes and the left side, more so near the bottom, is VERY warm. I have not played any games or anything yet but I really dont like holding the thing when it's this warm. I'm wondering how warm or hot it's going to get once I put it in a case....a bit disconcerting.

It should not be doing that. I've used mine for 4 hours today, games and all, and it didn't even get warm. I'd take it to an apple store and get a replacement.

[TheRock]

I've got a support call set up for tomorrow...bought it at a Best buy but will see what they say to do. I've read about some warmth issues on MacRumors but if I am holding it without a case and it's so warm it's uncomfortable to hold, somethings amiss.

[TheRock]

Just ran 5 or so laps in Real Racing 2 HD and the darn ipad is HOT..not ouch hot but it's past the warm stage. I'll just use it as much as I can till I can get a replacement.

[ydejin]

Have had mine on for 30-45 minutes and the left side, more so near the bottom, is VERY warm. I have not played any games or anything yet but I really dont like holding the thing when it's this warm. I'm wondering how warm or hot it's going to get once I put it in a case....a bit disconcerting.


It should not be doing that. I've used mine for 4 hours today, games and all, and it didn't even get warm. I'd take it to an apple store and get a replacement.

Yeah that doesn't sound right. I've been running mine for about the past 30 minutes including a bit over 20 minutes of video and no real warm spots at all.

[Destarius]

Mine got pretty warm as it was running wifi to update/backup for a few hours. But normal use it was pretty alright.

[ARogan]

verizon 4G LTE:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff240/ragemisc/2daa1c15.jpg

So does my plan auto renew after 30 days? If I just want to pay for the months I will use it I should cancel the plan, and I get to keep my remaining GB and time?

[Alan Dunkin]

Yeah it auto-renews every month.

--- Alan

[Michael Fortson]

http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/225658945.png

AT&T LTE, in SF.

[rei]

Looks like I have to get a new SIM card to get full LTE speeds on mine.

[bigdruid]

Re:weight - I have yet to discern any noticeable difference between the new iPad and my original iPad. They are both the same weight and thickness to my hands.

[ydejin]

Re:weight - I have yet to discern any noticeable difference between the new iPad and my original iPad. They are both the same weight and thickness to my hands.

vs. the iPad1? The new iPad does not feel as light as I would've anticipated from the actual weight difference but it's clearly thinner. To be honest though I found the iPad1 bit more comfortable to hold because of it's shape. The new iPad has sharper edges.

[Justin Fletcher]

Mine got really warm last night, too, after about 2 hours of constant use. I turned the LTE antenna off since I haven't yet activated service and that appears to be the issue. Although I'm still noting a little warmth after a similar period today.

[ydejin]

Mine got really warm last night, too, after about 2 hours of constant use. I turned the LTE antenna off since I haven't yet activated service and that appears to be the issue. Although I'm still noting a little warmth after a similar period today.

Good point. My no warm spots results was on WiFi. I've got LTE explicitly turned off.

[Mike Cathcart]

This screen is really nice but I wish iPad Safari had swipies for navigation.

[Justin Fletcher]

Good point. My no warm spots results was on WiFi. I've got LTE explicitly turned off.
Angrycoder, is that true for you, too? Not that I don't think there might be a problem.

TheRock, make sure to post what the Best Buy folks say. If this is uncommon (which I kind of hope it is), I might need to take mine in as well.

[Exodor]

Good point. My no warm spots results was on WiFi. I've got LTE explicitly turned off.

I noticed mine getting warm after playing RealReacing2 for about 30 minutes.

It's a WiFi-only model.

[triggercut]

Every review I've seen mentions that they get warm when under heavy or CPU/GPU-heavy use.

So what?

[noun]

I ordered mine 1 hour after the press conference and received it yesterday. I got a white 64GB model with Verizon 4G. I'm very happy with it. It does anything I might need to use a laptop for while on the road and it's more convenient. Looks and works great. I haven't experienced any heat issues; my iPad has been on for the last two hours and it's still quite cool.

[triggercut]

They get warm in the corner when you run GPU/CPU-intensive apps.

[noun]

(shrug) Either I don't have any GPU intensive apps or I'm too used to having my nuts scalded by Dell laptops to notice.

[nKoan]

I played Infinity Blade 2 for about an hour today. It was noticeably warm after that.

It was not hot after restoring my apps over WiFi for 6 hours though.

[triggercut]

Yep, Infinity Blade 2 will definitely warm her up.

These things happen. 5 cents please.

[Justin Fletcher]

Every review I've seen mentions that they get warm when under heavy or CPU/GPU-heavy use.

So what?
Like web browsing? I doubt I'm really taxing the quad core graphics. As I said, it appears to be related to the LTE radio.

[triggercut]

Tech Crunch Review:


One other slight downside which I have to assume is related to either the battery or the LTE functionality is that unlike previous iPad models, the new iPad does get noticeably warm in the lower left corner after prolonged use. It’s never hot, just warm. But again, I never noticed this on other models.

Put a proper cover on it and stop worrying.

[DennyA]

Yeah, I've got a warm spot on mine too (wait, that sounds bad), and it's the VZW LTE version. My WiFi iPad 2 was always cool to the touch.

Not sure it's the LTE functionality, though, as I have that turned off at home.

[DennyA]

Anyone found a retina PDF reader that doesn't show watermarks? GoodReader's not working right on the new iPad.

[rei]

Just wait for it to be updated. They've been responsive to me in the past--send them an email about what's not working?

[Angrycoder]

Anyone found a retina PDF reader that doesn't show watermarks? GoodReader's not working right on the new iPad.

been just using iBooks until goodreader is updated.

[TheRock]

Well..I guess I over-reacted. I took the Ipad back to the Ipad Store and they switched out my Ipad. I get home, downloaded apps, set up my settings..and it's back to being pretty warm. I'm sure If I play Real Racing again, it'll warm up pretty hardcore.

I do get nervous shoving it in a case which would really make it hot while I'm playing any 3D games....BUT, guess I'll live with it and hope if it dies, it does so within warranty.

Just used to my other two ipads with no heat problems.

My Dell laptop, that's another story.

[triggercut]

I'm a case luddite. I use the smart cover for the front and a clear belkin plastic snap-over for the back. Still notice some heat coming through the back part of the protective case, but nothing major.

I figure if the things are dangerously overheating to the point of hardware failure that the fallout will be huge enough that Apple will have to do a 360-like make-good on it all.

[WarrenM]

Tech Crunch Review:



Put a proper cover on it and stop worrying.

Spend more money on it and stop asking questions!

[Periastron]

I haven't noticed any heating issues, but then, I haven't run any demanding apps that would engage the flux capacitor yet.

My iPad 2 (which is now my son's property) ran for nearly a year with just the smart cover and a vinyl skin from Gelaskins. That worked very well for me, so I'm getting one for my new iPad. I'm always worried that the back will get scratched, or that the back will scratch something; the skin solves both problems, and nicely customizes my tablet. (I only apply the piece on the back, and don't bother with the rather distracting bezel piece and matching home screen wallpaper.)

[espressojim]

I've had my first iPad/tablet for a few days now, and here's what I've learned....when I'm commuting, it's amazing. When I'm home though, I tend to just use my laptop and desktop. I've purchased some games for my iPad (WELDER, Kingdom Rush HD, Pirates, Tower Madness HD, PvZ), but I haven't had an urge to play them over League of Legends, or BF3, or a strategy game like Sins of a Solar Empire. I'm just not sure why I have trouble getting into mobile gaming - the only game that ever hooked me at all was Dungeon Raid.

My wife however, has picked up the slack, and has been enjoying the iPad constantly to watch Netflix, read, play with iPhoto, etc.

[rei]

Anyone found a retina PDF reader that doesn't show watermarks? GoodReader's not working right on the new iPad.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1341270

Readdle's PDF Expert uses the native rendering and isn't affected by the change. Papers is also updated for Retina.

[Nellie]

How well does iPad iPhoto player with an aperture library on the Mac? I switched the mac to Aperture from iPhoto a little while back. Can I browse my aperture library on the sofa using iPhoto on the iPad?

[Mike Cathcart]

You can't browse your Aperture library over the network from the iPad but you can sync the iPad and have those pictures copied to it. I believe it's the same if you use iPhoto or Aperture (I might be wrong but I don't think you ever use iOS iPhoto to browse a library on the network, you're always copying images to the device and viewing those). I set it up so that my iPad gets all of my one star or better photos plus anything added in the past month.

[Syzygy]

I'm having a hard time finding a good comparison of the merits of AT&T vs. Verizon new iPads from a feature perspective. I have an Apple Store nearby, and was going to buy a Verizon LTE 64GB version. But when I told an employee I have lots of trips abroad and would like to use it in Japan, he told me I should wait for the AT&T version, as the Verizon doesn't do global roaming.

It's hard doing research over the bad signal to noise ratio and tons of stories about the same thing, but it appears he was wrong and while the Verizon model doesn't roam on the GSM network in the US, it does abroad.

[Fishbreath]

From the Apple forum:



Looking at the specs page, it seems both AT&T and Verizon share these network capabilities:
LTE 700, UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

Only AT&T model can connect on this network:
LTE (2100 MHz)


Only verizon can connect to this:
CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)

[rei]

Not that I would ever buy them from the iBook Store, does anyone know if the Marvel comics on there are high-rez or just 1024x768?

[rei]

Full resolution I guess, after checking out a sample.

[DennyA]

Readdle's PDF Expert uses the native rendering and isn't affected by the change. Papers is also updated for Retina.
Anything that uses the native rendering is going to drop a big "MARVEL" watermark over the rendered page when reading the DVD PDF comics. GoodReader uses a custom rendering engine, and eliminates the watermark. I haven't been able to determine if any other PDF readers also get rid of it.


I'm having a hard time finding a good comparison of the merits of AT&T vs. Verizon new iPads from a feature perspective. I have an Apple Store nearby, and was going to buy a Verizon LTE 64GB version. But when I told an employee I have lots of trips abroad and would like to use it in Japan, he told me I should wait for the AT&T version, as the Verizon doesn't do global roaming.

It's hard doing research over the bad signal to noise ratio and tons of stories about the same thing, but it appears he was wrong and while the Verizon model doesn't roam on the GSM network in the US, it does abroad.
The "Genius" at the Apple Store was completely wrong. When roaming internationally, both iPads are identical, supporting GSM/HSPA frequencies. (In fact, you can throw an AT&T sim into the Verizon version and use it at 3G speeds in the US, even.) The only difference is when using it domestically, where they have different LTE frequences, and Verizon falls back to its CDMA network, while AT&T falls back to its GSM network.

If you sometimes travel with a laptop as well, go for Verizon, as they've enabled the Hotspot feature that turns the iPad into an access point for other devices. Tried it with my MacBook and it was significantly faster than my home DSL.

[mono]

Not an iPad specific criticism, but now that I actually have a tablet of my own that I can commute with (kids took my iPad 1 on day 1)... I really miss multitasking. I had some video podcast running, and I wouldn't have minded popping it into a corner of the screen while I wrote an email or checked twitter. I doubt most tablet users care about that sort of thing, but I'd like to see true multitasking come down the pike in a future tablet OS iteration.

[baren]

Not an iPad specific criticism, but now that I actually have a tablet of my own that I can commute with (kids took my iPad 1 on day 1)... I really miss multitasking. I had some video podcast running, and I wouldn't have minded popping it into a corner of the screen while I wrote an email or checked twitter. I doubt most tablet users care about that sort of thing, but I'd like to see true multitasking come down the pike in a future tablet OS iteration.

I agree. And it's an advantage Windows 8 will have over iOS later this year. I'm hoping Apple adopts the 2 apps metaphor more quickly than it took them to appropriate Android's notification scheme.

[mono]

Will Win 8 really support that? Tablet Win 8 will be ARM - Metro apps only. I know you can pin one Metro app as a sidebar (if your screen resolution is high enough) but Metro is obviously not Windows, so I suspect it'll have the same one-foreground-app-at-a-time limitation.

[DennyA]

If you use your iPad to read or watch... videos... in bed, you need this innovative accessory! (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bookup-iPad-3rd-stand-accessories-lying-in-bed-iPad-2-3-case-new-cover-holder-/180839928472?pt=US_Tablet_Accessories&hash=item2a1ae65298#ht_5048wt_922)

(Be sure to watch the video. The video rules.)

[stusser]

Yes, you can vertically tile win8 metro apps. It remains to be seen how useful this actually is, but theoretically you could indeed have a podcast taking up a quarter of your screen with another program in the remaining space.

[baren]

2 metro apps at a time, sure. I've heard nothing to suggest that ARM would have an additional app limit. And I'm not clear what distinction you're drawing between Windows 8 and Metro.

[nKoan]

If you use your iPad to read or watch... videos... in bed, you need this innovative accessory! (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bookup-iPad-3rd-stand-accessories-lying-in-bed-iPad-2-3-case-new-cover-holder-/180839928472?pt=US_Tablet_Accessories&hash=item2a1ae65298#ht_5048wt_922)

(Be sure to watch the video. The video rules.)

Damnit, not compatible with the iPad 3.

[Marcus]

Damnit, not compatible with the iPad 3.

Haha I want one.

[rei]

Mmm. In landscape mode with PDFs/magazines/Zinio, things are still readable when it displays 2 pages at once. This is awesome.

[Ephraim]

If you use your iPad to read or watch... videos... in bed, you need this innovative accessory! (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bookup-iPad-3rd-stand-accessories-lying-in-bed-iPad-2-3-case-new-cover-holder-/180839928472?pt=US_Tablet_Accessories&hash=item2a1ae65298#ht_5048wt_922)

(Be sure to watch the video. The video rules.)

I showed this to my wife and we decided we would order two, for side-by-side viewing. We've only got the one iPad, but we figure we can pass it back and forth. OK. Not really. But the sweatpants... the sweatpants. And the extraneous tilde.

[tmastern]

Anybody else noticing any unevenness in the screen brightness?
It looks to me like one corner of my ipad is slightly darker than the other corners, mostly noticeable on white backgrounds (and kindle app).

[mono]

2 metro apps at a time, sure. I've heard nothing to suggest that ARM would have an additional app limit. And I'm not clear what distinction you're drawing between Windows 8 and Metro.


Skinny Win 8 tablets (not heftier convertiable laptops) will run ARM chips, and can't run Windows 8 desktop or desktop apps. They can only run Metro apps.

[stusser]

That is technically also false. ARM win8 tablets can run the windows desktop and desktop apps-- but the only desktop apps available will be MS Office. It's bizarre.

[Mike Cathcart]

Anybody else noticing any unevenness in the screen brightness?
It looks to me like one corner of my ipad is slightly darker than the other corners, mostly noticeable on white backgrounds (and kindle app).
I haven't noticed that and I did use the Kindle app a lot over the weekend.

[baren]

Skinny Win 8 tablets (not heftier convertiable laptops) will run ARM chips, and can't run Windows 8 desktop or desktop apps. They can only run Metro apps.

Well, in any case, what I'm referring to is running 2 Metro apps at once. They dock together in a 1/3 and 2/3 model. You can stretch them so that either one is the dominant app at a time.

[Syzygy]

The "Genius" at the Apple Store was completely wrong. When roaming internationally, both iPads are identical, supporting GSM/HSPA frequencies. (In fact, you can throw an AT&T sim into the Verizon version and use it at 3G speeds in the US, even.) The only difference is when using it domestically, where they have different LTE frequences, and Verizon falls back to its CDMA network, while AT&T falls back to its GSM network.

Thanks for the confirmation, Denny. It's infuriating as I could have had a new iPad already, and based on his poor advice put in an order online for the AT&T LTE 64GB version. Now I'll need to cancel that order.

[Gendal]

Ars posted their review:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2012/03/pixel-pumping-prowess-ars-reviews-the-third-generation-ipad.ars


But among mobile devices, the iPad 3's screen is on the high end.
What? No. It took the high end and made it it's bitch. The lack of proper obeisance to this fact is disturbing.

Coding Horror: Welcome to the Post PC Era (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/03/welcome-to-the-post-pc-era.html)
Much better.

Now that Apple has pushed the bar so high everybody else will follow suite, in both the laptop and desktop monitor markets as well I bet (though the OS issues with DPI are a long way from being solved). This is great, because I hated the limited choice for laptops with decent resolutions.

[rei]

Plus there is content with apps on the iOS ecosystem. Android tablets halfassedly have their version at 3.x with barely any tablet-specific apps and there are no Android OS 4.x tablets. Some shitty Chinese tablets even are on 1-2.x still.

[DennyA]

And the GoodReader developer posts that the updated app is now in Apple's hands for approval.

Why did I waste 2 or 3 hours researching alternate PDF apps and figuring out how to convert ComicZeal comics to remove the watermark this weekend when, deep down I know this would happen?

[Nellie]

Fine! I wasn't aware I had a problem reading PDF files but i'll try out good reader!

I'm still in experimentation mode and if I don't look too hard I can convince myself I've spent less than £20 buying apps for a gadget I just shelled out £500 on :)

[rei]

GoodReader used its own optimized rendering engine which made for faster loading when iPhones/iPads had fewer resources.

[rei]

OOO Gameprom's Pinball HD Collection has been updated for Retina.

[ChrisPal]

So i got home this weekend and started messing around with it. Ive been out of town and the device was sitting since the 16th. Its been torture not getting to use it knowing it was there!

It's a glorious new toy, and I'm already in love. I picked up Zen Pinball which I adore on the 360, is this the best pinball out there or is there something better?

My four year old is completely taken in and almost all the games on there are his.

Does anything that indicates HD when buying/browsing mean it takes advantage of the new screen, or do I need to look for something else, some other text?

[ydejin]

Does anything that indicates HD when buying/browsing mean it takes advantage of the new screen, or do I need to look for something else, some other text?

Unfortunately unless you're looking at blogs or other external information sources there's no real way of telling whether not something supports the higher resolution screen. Generally speaking Apps on iTunes marked HD refer to applications which support the iPad rather than apps which only supports iPhone screen sizes.

[mono]

I'm pretty fond of the new iPad, but it's too heavy. Not that great to drop it on your face as you're reading a book at night and about to doze off.

[ydejin]

I'm pretty fond of the new iPad, but it's too heavy. Not that great to drop it on your face as you're reading a book at night and about to doze off.

It really depends on what you compare it to. I compare it to my Kindle, and it sounds like you're doing something similar. And compared to a Kindle it is very heavy. OTOH I have friends who think it's very light because they compare the weight to their laptops.

I would love for the iPad to be lighter, but I wouldn't be willing to reduce the battery life to do it -- which really is the tradeoff Apple is faced with.

[bigdruid]

I'm pretty fond of the new iPad, but it's too heavy. Not that great to drop it on your face as you're reading a book at night and about to doze off.

You hold it above your face?

But, yeah, it's not a Kindle. On the bright side, the resolution is finally on par with e-ink, and it's back lit (I can read the kindle app set to "night time mode" while my wife sleeps, whereas I never was able to find a book light that let me do that with my Kindle or dead-tree book without annoying her).

Has anyone found a case they like yet? I don't need my ipad to look like a book (and it's bulky enough already, thank you). I want something more than the smart cover, but I don't ever throw my ipad into a messenger bag and slam it into the ground repeatedly so I don't need it encased in bamboo. I'm just surprised that nobody seems to have built a case just like the original Apple ipad case yet.

[Marcus]

I have done that and it hurts like a bitch. I prop it up on my chest when I lay down so if I start to fall asleep it can fall.

[Derek Meister]

Has anyone found a case they like yet?

I went with one of these $8 leather cases (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004T0EQP2/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details). Seems to work reasonably well enough, and vaguely reminds me of the original Apple iPad cases.

[DennyA]

I went with the Incipio Smart Feather (frost) and my old Smart Cover. It's thin, looks great, and protects the back. Plus it secures the Smart Cover so that it can't come off.

[rei]

Thanks for the recommendation Denny. I had something similar for the 2 from Speck or Griffin and it doesn't have the openings for the buttons on the side--it pressed the power button due to the snugger fit. This has openings so I'll look for this.

[DennyA]

It's not cheap, but when I compare it to the cheap generic model I had on my iPad 2, it's sooo much better made. Thinner (but still solid) plastic, good gripping texture, and the corners don't pop off like they do on the $10 versions.

[stusser]

I had an incipio feather for my iphone, and loved it. The cover shattered when I dropped my phone, but that is, after all, what it's for. The phone was fine.

I replaced it with the incipio "NGP", a much thicker, heavier, and durable material. This one isn't going to shatter, and it's still relatively lightweight compared to many other covers.

Thing is, the iphone really needs a full cover, since the rear is glass, and not even gorilla glass. The rear of the ipad is aluminum. It might scratch, but it's not going to break. Rear covers are only necessary for superior grip or to prevent scratches. The smart cover is useful primarily to prop it up.

[Michael Fortson]

Rear covers are only necessary for superior grip or to prevent scratches. The smart cover is useful primarily to prop it up.

The rear cover ought to help protect against stress fractures, too, of the kind my iPad 2 suffered awhile back when it was dinged near the edge of the back, causing a spiderweb fracture all along the front of the same side.

[stusser]

Yikes, I wasn't aware that was a problem!

[Michael Fortson]

Yikes, I wasn't aware that was a problem!

I don't know how common it is, but my cousin managed it while we were passing it around playing Risk. He let his arm droop a bit and banged the top of a fire grill (it didn't look like it had hit all that hard, but you could definitely hear the impact). He was mortified, but the situation was rescued by the folks at the genius bar, who replaced it for free under their (old?) one-time courtesy replacement program when I took it in to get it repaired.

[Canuck]

I'm probably going to get it for saying this but I finally got my hands on an iPad 3 yesterday and I wasn't blown away. I think this is more due to some people's hyperbolic statements than any failure of the iPad. Did the screen look nice? Yes, it absolutely did. It looked like a very nice screen. Was I sure I was holding an iPad 3 in my hands? No, I wasn't. I couldn't find any way of confirming that it was a new iPad and if someone had come along and told me that I was holding an iPad 2 I would have believed them. I'm sure that if they had had an iPad2 and an iPad3 lined up next to each other then the difference would be immediately obvious but the fact that I can't tell them apart on their own means that for me, it's not a must buy feature. What bothers me more is the same old home screen filled with rows and rows of boring app icons-something that really hasn't changed at all since 2007.

[rei]

Who cares what the OS is like if the apps are wonderful? As opposed to an infinitely customizeable Android tablet that has poor (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401676,00.asp) tablet apps?

[ydejin]

I'm probably going to get it for saying this but I finally got my hands on an iPad 3 yesterday and I wasn't blown away. I think this is more due to some people's hyperbolic statements than any failure of the iPad. Did the screen look nice? Yes, it absolutely did. It looked like a very nice screen. Was I sure I was holding an iPad 3 in my hands? No, I wasn't. I couldn't find any way of confirming that it was a new iPad and if someone had come along and told me that I was holding an iPad 2 I would have believed them. I'm sure that if they had had an iPad2 and an iPad3 lined up next to each other then the difference would be immediately obvious but the fact that I can't tell them apart on their own means that for me, it's not a must buy feature. What bothers me more is the same old home screen filled with rows and rows of boring app icons-something that really hasn't changed at all since 2007.

As an official iPad3 fan, I don't think you're all that far off. The screen is very nice, but it's more that the older iPad screens now look bad rather than that the new screen is just so amazing when you're looking at it that you must buy one. Perhaps I'll feel differently when more Apps come out that actually take advantage of it. But for now mostly it's just that the text looks nice (which is good, but I could read just fine on my old iPad) and iPhone apps do look much better running at 2x than they used to.

If I was upgrading from an iPad2, I'd probably be a bit less excited about it, but it really is a huge upgrade from an iPad1 mostly because of what's under the hood. The increased main memory and processing speed is very obvious when running apps.

[ydejin]

Who cares what the OS is like if the apps are wonderful? As opposed to an infinitely customizeable Android tablet that has poor (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401676,00.asp) tablet apps?

Good lord, I don't know if his slideshow of iPad apps vs. Android apps is representative or if he's cherry picking, but the difference is stunning.

[fuzzyslug]

Good lord, I don't know if his slideshow of iPad apps vs. Android apps is representative or if he's cherry picking, but the difference is stunning.

I suspect it is pretty representative. The truth is there isn't really a tablet market right now. There's an iPad market. That means that the iPad is going to get your best team and the Android tablet market, which is much smaller than the Android phone market, is going to get the second team (or the first team when they finish with the iPad version).

It's also harder to make an Android tablet app. There's no clear delineation and there's a ton of different devices to support (as opposed to 1, and one that is 2x bigger). All those assumptions you can make about size for the iPad don't apply at all in the Android world. All that before you get to the fact that the iOS tools are better for fancy UI stuff.

[stusser]

Who cares what the OS is like if the apps are wonderful? As opposed to an infinitely customizeable Android tablet that has poor (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401676,00.asp) tablet apps?
All that is true and all, but the only apps I use on my android tablet on a regular basis are chrome, gmail, and google reader. Chrome is better than mobile safari, gmail is hugely better than the iOS mail app, and google reader is a pretty good app, although admittedly nowhere close to Reeder (which I covet). I also use the slingplayer and youtube apps from time to time, which are comparable on iOS.

I know lots of people play games and use custom apps for various sites like CNN and ESPN on these things, and I downloaded a bunch of them to play around, but I don't actually use it for that stuff.

[Canuck]

Who cares what the OS is like if the apps are wonderful? As opposed to an infinitely customizeable Android tablet that has poor (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401676,00.asp) tablet apps?


I make one comment about how the iPad has a very nice screen but it would take the two being right next together in order to really see the difference clearly and the Apple Defense Force shows up. Really, rei, really?? Hasn't RIM done something to piss you off recently? I think that thread has dropped off the front page.

[rei]

This happens to be the iPad thread so don't get butt-hurt when you make a lame complaint about the lack of change with the "springboard/dock" interface (which I happen to agree with) being some sort of flimsy detractor from the iPad "not being innovative enough."

You don't see me thread-crapping (recently) the "Most useful Android app" thread (recently).

Just pointing out that it's the apps that matter (for most people) who aren't tinkerers and stusser. If you're getting it for a generic Google-services/apps surfing tablet like he is, it's perfectly adequate.

Sure, you are entitled to your opinion and that you remain not impressed by the minor changes from last year's model but don't poo-poo the screen as "nothing special" when the iPad's apps and spectacular screen making it usable for a wide variety of tasks in the post-pc (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/03/welcome-to-the-post-pc-era.html) era something that matters in terms of usability for non-geeks.

Oh no, the spring-board/dock UI hasn't changed. It doesn't have widgets (yet?) etc etc.

As for RIM, they're too easy a target now with news of their delaying financial analyst meeting until after BBX launch.

Yeah, nothing's changed like 4x resolution, 2x battery to maintain the 10 hour battery life, double the RAM, improved back camera, faster CPU, faster GPU.

Just the screen, right.

[Canuck]

Your definition of thread crapping is way out of whack. The only person who mentioned Android was you. I was referring to the screen. The apps are not the issue so what the fuck are you talking about, Walter?

[JM]

Who cares what the OS is like if the apps are wonderful? As opposed to an infinitely customizeable Android tablet that has poor (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401676,00.asp) tablet apps?

As someone who only reads the various phone + tablet threads for information and doesn't really participate, I'd just like to point out that your rabid desire to make everything a partisan issue between Apple and Android is seriously fucking annoying.

We get it. You think Apple's the best. Great.

[DennyA]

Back to the subject at hand, if you read magazines or comics on your iPad, the difference in apps that have been updated to support the iPad 3 is extremely evident. Text in both is fuzzy zoomed out on a 1024x768. At 2048x1536, it's like reading on paper.

I've had every iPad model, but it's going to take quite a bit to convince me to upgrade again in the future. The only things I'd like on my iPad at this point are things that aren't going to happen (SD slot, USB).

[MattN]

Back to the subject at hand, if you read magazines or comics on your iPad, the difference in apps that have been updated to support the iPad 3 is extremely evident. Text in both is fuzzy zoomed out on a 1024x768. At 2048x1536, it's like reading on paper.

I've had every iPad model, but it's going to take quite a bit to convince me to upgrade again in the future. The only things I'd like on my iPad at this point are things that aren't going to happen (SD slot, USB).

I agree. An hd front camera would be nice, but not nice enough to warrant an upgrade. I think the only thing that would get me to upgrade is some sort of haptic feedback. Even then I would need to test it out first.

[ydejin]

Back to the subject at hand, if you read magazines or comics on your iPad, the difference in apps that have been updated to support the iPad 3 is extremely evident. Text in both is fuzzy zoomed out on a 1024x768. At 2048x1536, it's like reading on paper.

I've had every iPad model, but it's going to take quite a bit to convince me to upgrade again in the future. The only things I'd like on my iPad at this point are things that aren't going to happen (SD slot, USB).

I agree it's a pretty big improvement for comics. With the iPad1 there were times when I simply couldn't read a comic without zooming in, particularly ones with odd, non-standard fonts that ended up all jaggy. With the iPad 3 pretty much everything is readable without zooming in.

[stusser]

The 2012 iPad uses all 40nm components, exactly the same as the ipad2, and manages to maintain its excellent battery life by including a truly enormous battery, as large as many ultrabooks. That's why it's thicker and heavier than last year's ipad2. Next year's ipad will use 28nm components, so it could theoretically be much thinner and lighter with the same 10 hour battery life.

[ydejin]

The 2012 iPad uses all 40nm components, exactly the same as the ipad2, and manages to maintain its excellent battery life by including a truly enormous battery, as large as many ultrabooks. That's why it's thicker and heavier than last year's ipad2. Next year's ipad will use 28nm components, so it could theoretically be much thinner and lighter with the same 10 hour battery life.

Any idea how much of the battery life is chewed up by the processor vs. the screen itself? I'd assumed that the screen itself is largely responsible for the necessary 70% increase in battery power from iPad2 to iPad3, and I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that that won't be improved by switching to 28nm components (I suppose the memory associated with the screen and the graphic processing would use a bit less power, but not the screen itself).

[stusser]

If you read anand's excellent review (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/apple-ipad-2012-review), you get some idea of how much power the 2012 ipad SoC uses-- the A5X SoC alone, just the chip, uses more power than an entire iphone4s playing infinity blade, including its screen, backlight, wifi, speakers, etc. The A5X SoC is actually a gigantic pig. I'd reasonably anticipate a significant improvement in weight in the next ipad.

[ydejin]

If you read anand's excellent review (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/apple-ipad-2012-review), you get some idea of how much power the 2012 ipad SoC uses-- the A5X SoC alone, just the chip, uses more power than an entire iphone4s playing infinity blade, including its screen, backlight, wifi, speakers, etc. The A5X SoC is actually a gigantic pig. I'd reasonably anticipate a significant improvement in weight in the next ipad.

Thanks for the link stusser, a very thorough article.

[stusser]

Yeah he goes really in-depth into the highly unusual tradeoffs apple made with the 2012 ipad.

[Canuck]

The 2012 iPad uses all 40nm components, exactly the same as the ipad2, and manages to maintain its excellent battery life by including a truly enormous battery, as large as many ultrabooks. That's why it's thicker and heavier than last year's ipad2. Next year's ipad will use 28nm components, so it could theoretically be much thinner and lighter with the same 10 hour battery life.

Ahh then that's the one I'll wait for. :)

[LMN8R]

Anandtech's article was fantastic as usual. It really is incredible how Apple has pushed their SoC designs in risky/weird ways that even NVIDIA wouldn't dare touch.

[pyjamarama]

Anandtech's article was fantastic as usual. It really is incredible how Apple has pushed their SoC designs in risky/weird ways that even NVIDIA wouldn't dare touch.

What were the weird/risky choices? granted didn't do in depth reading but seems that they went with safe choices, tested and reliable manufacturing at 45nm, the almost universal ARM9 dual core CPU, and doubled the GPU from 2 cores to 4 but same architecture as before that I believe is also used in the PSVita with the same 4 core configuration. Also find it curious that the Tegra 3 although underperforms the A5X is half the die size, and the gaming performance in current games was no that different, Tegra 3 chip must be much cheaper expect it to make is way to cheap tablets even this year.

Given the time frame and the number of units Apple needed to produce they were the best choices for Apple. Question now is if the A6 is going to 28nm or 32nm and are the manufactures ready to supply Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Samsung this Fall/Winter or is someone going to be left out.

[stusser]

Well, read the article. He goes into detail. It's just an enormous, power-hungry SoC.

[ReptileHouse]

the almost universal ARM9 dual core CPU,
Nitpick. ARM9 and ARM Cortex-A9 are very different things. Yes, ARM's naming scheme is horrible.

ARM9 is either an ARMv4t or ARMv5e (ARM9TDMI vs. ARM9E cores). The Cortex-A9 core is a much more modern ARMv7a architecture.

[LMN8R]

Well, read the article. He goes into detail. It's just an enormous, power-hungry SoC.

Right. I'm not saying it was brilliant engineering, but rather risky and unusual moves that NVIDIA would never do:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/apple-ipad-2012-review/12


Apple acted no differently than a GPU company would in this case. When faced with the challenge of rendering to a 3.14MP display, Apple increased compute horsepower and memory bandwidth. What's surprising about Apple's move is that the A5X isn't a $600 desktop GPU, it's a sub 4W mobile SoC. And did I mention that Apple isn't a GPU company?

That's quite possibly the most impressive part of all of this. Apple isn't a GPU company. It's a customer of GPU companies like AMD and NVIDIA, yet Apple has done what even NVIDIA would not do: commit to building an SoC with an insanely powerful GPU.

Later on:


Most mobile SoCs are equipped with either a single or dual-channel LP-DDR2 memory controller. Unlike in the desktop/notebook space where a single DDR2/DDR3 channel refers to a 64-bit wide interface, in the mobile SoC world a single channel is 32-bits wide. Both Qualcomm and NVIDIA use single-channel interfaces, with Snapdragon S4 finally making the jump to dual-channel this year. Apple, Samsung and TI have used dual-channel LP-DDR2 interfaces instead.

With the A5X Apple did the unthinkable and outfitted the chip with four 32-bit wide LP-DDR2 memory controllers. The confirmation comes from two separate sources.
Much more in the article. Read it completely when you have some time.

[pyjamarama]

Read some more of the article good stuff.

I think the question Apple pushing the GPU over NVidia a GPU company is not that strange.
According to isupply the A5X costs 23$ and the A5 costs 14$, we may debate how correct there numbers are but that is a big jump and only possible for Apple that knows exactly the price of the tablet , they know they will sell about 50M of them and they had a big margin so they can take a hit. So they can push the GPU so they can push games even more on the platform, they are after all the most popular paid application, I think the memory controller falls under the same explanation they can afford to make the die bigger and it makes performance better for them, also the A5X is an tablet exclusive chip so it can be bigger.

I wouldn't say NVIDIA would never do that because what they did in the 500 series GPU bigger die to have they same power as AMD. Now the ARM market is different they are still a small player they have to compete with Qualcomm on price so Tegra had to be cheap and powerfull, Tegra 3 seems to do that. It's no like the user can go and install an 50$ GPU in is tablet they have to play the price and power equation carefully and also Tegra 3 will be on phones because the tablet Android market is so small in comparison with the phone market they have to put all there resources on a chip for both.

Now for the future Windows 8 may make the tablet market big enough that NVIDIA and others will have chips for tablets and chips for phones, I think the rumor is that Tegra 4 is 28nm and there are two version and high performance and a low power.
Will Apple continue to push the GPU with new A6 taking advantage of 28nm or will they use the new process to maintain performance and improve power and cost making the next Iphone for cheaper and with more battery life and the next Ipad light with a similar performance. Exciting times in the SoC field.

[rei]

Got my Incipio Feather back for New iPad today, black and it's -very- nice. Much better made than the Griffin Smart-cover compatible one I had for my iPad 2.

[rei]

so this (markshangout.com/blog/2012/3/17/ipad-3-smart-cover-sleepwake-feature-not-working.html) happened with all 3 of the new 'for new ipad' incipio lexington cases we got.

tldr: magnetic cover doesn't work.

[JetLagger]

I picked up a new iPad today and my wow that display screen is ridiculous moment was watching the SF-A's game on the MLB atBat app. So sweet.

-Tim

[mono]

Got my Incipio Feather back for New iPad today, black and it's -very- nice. Much better made than the Griffin Smart-cover compatible one I had for my iPad 2.

I picked up an Incipio NGP, and took a blade to cut out a notch along the side to accommodate a Smart cover. Works great. I could've saved a bit of trouble and bought the Feather, but the NGP is tougher, and I can be a bit rough on my gadgets.

[Michael Fortson]

Well, read the article. He goes into detail. It's just an enormous, power-hungry SoC.

+1. I read the response that followed, so yes, I know it was eventually read, but it's worth reinforcing: lazy arguments based on obvious willful ignorance waste everyone's time. It's a quick way to get yourself ignored.

[rei]

Holy crap. LTE speed in Edmonton on TELUS: 37ms latency, 34.45mbps down, 18.23mbps up

[Armiger]

That's good enough for counterstrike! Let's go mobile (games) Steam!

[stusser]

That'll use up a GB in 4 minutes. What's your data cap?

[rei]

Paltry 1GB. It's for a work iPhone. Just upgraded to an LTE SIM to test in the iPad.

[stusser]

Yep, 4 minutes.

[Canuck]

I don't get this "it'll use up your cap in ~minutes" bit. What difference does it make how fast it downloads? If I browse 10 different webpages it won't make a difference how much of my cap I use if the page loads faster on LTE. If I stream a 500 mb movie that movie doesn't become larger just because I can stream faster.

[stusser]

3G is plenty fast for web browsing and email. You only need more speed for streaming high-def video and file downloads, both of which will use up your data cap in literally minutes. LTE is basically a big smokescreen due to data caps-- its only real justification is that it allows the cellular carriers to manage their bandwidth more efficiently. Nothing on the consumer side.

[ARogan]

I don't know. Surfing in my LTE verizon iPad is a heck of a lot more enjoyable than when I did it on 3G. Pages just pop up much like if I was at home. Maybe it's just less crowded on LTE, or it's the carrier (previously was using a virgin mobile mifi - basically sprint 3g network). Still, the end result is a much more enjoyable browsing experience.

[ARogan]

So I usually only use
http://www.powersupportusa.com/
screen protectors on my apple products. They really are great but very expensive. They are taking too long on getting out the new ipad 3 screen protectors (Yes, I know the ipad 2 one will work just fine). I decided to give monoprice a try. It's dirt cheap at $1.47 each. It's cheap enough to buy a couple just in case you screw up. Shipping will run you around $6 though. I installed using my standard clean room technique:
http://blog.arogan.com/2012/02/arogans-clean-room-technique.html
Alignment went fine with 2 very minor dust imperfections that are hardly noticeable when off (zero air bubbles) and not noticeable at all when on. The feel of the protector is almost like glass and is very good (feels very similar to power support crystal). The look though isn't quite as good. With the iPad on it looks pretty good. With it off and all along the bezel you can see a very slight splotchy rainbow effect. It's slightly distracting, and I can't help but think it's slightly degrading the look of the beautiful retina display. Oh well, for < $1.50 (vs $30 for powersupport) it's not half bad but not up to power support level of quality.

I also tried and iPhone 4 screen protector for 65 cents (vs $15 for power support):
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10831&cs_id=1083105&p_id=7094&seq=1&format=2
My old power support crystal was getting worn out (had a crease and a few small scratches in it so It was doing its job) so I decided to replace it. Installation went perfect. It looks and feels just as good as the power support one at a fraction of the cost. I'm happy to report it's completely clear even when off. There is NO rainbow effect like the ipad screen protector.

[Charlatan]

Why do you feel the need to use screen protectors? I've had an original iPad since they came out, use it every day (light use at this point) and I've never felt like I wanted a screen protector. I mean, that glass is pretty tough, and with a cover that has a flap that protects the screen, when I'm not using the iPad, it's covered. So screen protectors just never seemed worth it to me.

[DennyA]

As far as screen protectors for the new iPad go, I’d suggest Denny’s InvisiProtect MicroArmor(tm). Utilizing a fine coat of nitrogen and oxygen molecules* that’s replenished though a proprietary method called AirCirculation(R), the InvisiProtect MicroArmor sits atop the screen whenever you’re using the iPad.**

I used this on my original iPad screen for two years, and it never received any scratches despite having been transported, and extensively used by a seven-year-old. The year-plus-old iPad 2 screen also remains pristine thanks to its InvisiProtect MicroArmor(tm) coating. I plan to continue to use the product with my new iPad, as I’ve had great success with it so far. Because InvisiProtect MicroArmor(tm) ‘s nitrogen/oxygen molecular coating is completely transparent***, when using it you’d almost think that your iPad’s screen is made of a very strong, extremely scratch-resistant hard glass that doesn’t actually require or really benefit from a screen cover.

InvisiProtect MicroArmor(tm) is available now for the low price of just $2.99 + $14.99 shipping and handling. Act now and for a limited time we’ll throw in two free InvisiProtect MicroArmor Mini(tm) covers for your iPhone, Windows Phone, or Droid for just $7.99 additional shipping and handling.

* Product may also contain trace amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, and other gases

** Note: InvisiProtect MicroArmor(tm) is not water resistant. Immersing your iPad will disrupt the flow of nitrogen and oxygen molecules across the screen.

*** Transparency not guaranteed in the greater Los Angeles or Newark metropolitan areas

[Fishbreath]

I'll take three!

[Michael Fortson]

LOL Denny.

confession: I broke my iPad 3 last week. I had it in a case, and it slid off my lap, striking a foot rest on the adjacent chair on the way down. The case had exactly one exposed, vulnerable edge (along the top wifi window), so of course that's the part that made contact, with the edge of the iPad valiantly saving the edges of the case on either side of it from marring.

The screen shattered. I paid for the replacement (not cheap), and added the AppleCare Plus insurance this time for an additional $50. I should note that this is the first time I have ever dropped any of my iPads.

Blargh...

[Ephraim]

LOL Denny.

confession: I broke my iPad 3 last week. I had it in a case, and it slid off my lap, striking a foot rest on the adjacent chair on the way down. The case had exactly one exposed, vulnerable edge (along the top wifi window), so of course that's the part that made contact, with the edge of the iPad valiantly saving the edges of the case on either side of it from marring.

The screen shattered. I paid for the replacement (not cheap), and added the AppleCare Plus insurance this time for an additional $50. I should note that this is the first time I have ever dropped any of my iPads.

Blargh...

Your nightmare scenario makes me happy that I opted for AppleCare+ two days after I got my iPad 3. I was sitting in the kitchen reading on it when my almost-two year old daughter tried to grab it out of my hands (she's used to using one at the grandparents' place). It bobbled for a moment, heading for the hard kitchen-floor, and I caught it. The Genius Bar appointment was made to get my post-purchase AppleCare+ about ten minutes later. Now I float around in confidence, carefree knowing that my precious iPad is protected by a Smart Cover and irony.