iSource Pick of the Week   This was a very exciting week for Apple and its countless fans around the world.  The highly anticipated announcement of the newest iteration of the iPad was showcased in front of a captive audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Here at iSource we thought […]
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The New iPad, the iSource Pick of the Week

Mar 8th 2012 by

 

iSource Pick of the Week

 

This was a very exciting week for Apple and its countless fans around the world.  The highly anticipated announcement of the newest iteration of the iPad was showcased in front of a captive audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Here at iSource we thought that for this week, it would be a great idea to name the new iPad as our collective Pick of the Week.  To that end, we wanted to share with our readers our thoughts on the many announcements of the day, and what they mean to us.  Hopefully we might be able to provide some constructive commentary that you will enjoy along the way.  Please feel free to chime in with your comments after the post.  We really enjoy interacting with our readers, and we would love to hear what you thought of the new iPad.

 

Brandon K

As a potential new iPad owner, I was anxiously awaiting Wednesday’s event to see what, exactly, they had up their Cupertino-based sleeve.  It turns out it was more of the same, which isn’t a bad thing, as Apple has proved time and time again.

Tim Cook’s assertion that they were reinventing the market they invented was a bit of an overstatement.  Apple isn’t one to shy away from lofty proclamations.  But the new device packs enough of a punch to get the base riled up yet again.

I know that I’m not the first to make this comparison, but the iPad 2 to “new iPad” jump reminds of the iPhone 3GS to 4:  a processor and screen upgrade that has to be seen to be fully appreciated.  Granted, I’m making this assumption based on the select few who have had a hands-on with the new tablet.  But I believe it’s a safe bet.

I personally am even more excited than the “average” consumer because this will be my first iPad.  We’ve flirted before, sure.  But the timing was never right.

Now?

It just feels right.

 

Alicia B

Here are my thoughts iPhoto for iOS, unfortunately in the Dislike column.

After leaving the reality distortion field of the Keynote and upon entering the harsh reality of the real world, I have found that the iPhoto for iOS experience more confusing than intuitive.

First off a few thoughts about what Apple is giving us with both Photos and iPhoto. I can’t wrap my head around how photo management is supposed to work. To begin with, why didn’t go the whole mile and combine Photos with iPhoto? Just because it’s a payable, thus optional app?

In Photos, I took picture, it entered the Camera roll and Photo Stream. I opened iPhoto, it’s also there in the Camera Roll and Photo Stream. Is it stored in 2 places or is iPhoto accessing the same file? If that were so then why is it that when I deleted a photo in Photo Stream in iPhoto, it didn’t delete in the Photo Stream in Photos? in Photos, I moved photos to albums, erasing them from Camera Roll, which was a problem – because they then were erased from the album. But let’s say I don’t erase the photo in the album. What is the sense of having same photos in Albums, Camera Roll AND in Photo Stream?

There must be something really simple I’m missing here. Shall I give up completely and manage photos in albums in iPhoto on desktop?

On the Plus side: the app makes cool sound effects when you actually get down to editing. It is simply LOADED with possibilities for photo editing and adding effects. The brushes look very sleek, the tools are impressive and the UI is to-die-for.

But it is far from easy to grasp. The learning curve is quite steep for a casual user. I’ve managed to try just a few things

Here’s to hoping I’ll find answers to my question soon. Hope never dies!

P.S. If there is really something that I am missing, please break it to me gently – I must be showing my age.

 

Brandon S

Yesterday like everyone else who could, I was glued to my TV … wait no … I was glued to Engadget (who’s live update stream was fantabulous) and Twitter. I watched and waited for something, anything that the blog-o-sphere hadn’t already ruined for us. And what did I get for all that waiting? iPhoto. Quite possibly the worst Mac iLife app is now available for the iPad.  (See Alicia’s breakdown which I agree with completely). iPhoto was the only real spoiler from yesterday. The rest of it followed the standard Apple launch protocol. But the fact that iPhoto was the only really eventful part of yesterday’s announcement for me says how very much Apple’s pressers are just getting “standard” right down to Epic announcing a new version of Infinity Blade. So, I walked away from Apple’s event yesterday wondering when the next time I would actually be excited about an Apple event is going to be. I guess the only way that’s going to happen is if I totally ignore the Internet for a few months before the event. But then… how the heck would I find out when the event is?

Anyway, “the new iPad” screen (I imagine) is absolutely incredible, the graphical power seems outstanding but the rest of it is a point upgrade (or downgrade since its heavier and thicker). I’d love to get one, but budget is going to prevent that for a while. As it stands I’m just not feeling that “OMFG I GOTTA HAVE IT” feeling. Maybe it was Jobs who somehow hypnotized all of us, but I didn’t sit back from my computer yesterday and instantly start figuring out how I could come up with the money to pre-order. I think the new screen will be a game changer. I don’t think LTE (on the iPad) will be – unless you’re insanely wealthy and can afford Broadband at home ($50), broadband on your phone ($30) and broadband on your iPad ($30). Sorry but Twitter just isn’t that important to me. I will say however I can’t wait for AT&T to bring LTE to Denver and Apple to bring on the iPhone 5 (if it has a bigger screen).

So, Apple just reset the standard in tablets and specifically tablet screens. Acer, Samsung and all the other players in the market need to take note that the bar has been offically raised. But it’s only been raised for those of us who actually care about the bar. For everyone else… well the bar remains at $199 and comes from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

 

Thomas R

I really don’t need to upgrade to the new iPad from my iPad 2 and I outlined those thoughts in a post about in January. However, I recently learned that I may have someone to sell my iPad 2 to (I only sell to friends/family, not to strangers), and that has made me think about one major advantage of picking a new iPad up: the chance to increase the amount of storage on my device.

I picked up a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 last year and have tried all sorts of workarounds, including subscribing to iTunes Match, to preserve access to music, apps, and videos without running out of space. This has worked out for the most part, but now that I can re-download movies from iTunes in the Cloud and movie editing on the iPad is becoming more viable and fun, free space on the tablet has become a lot more valuable. Simply put, the iPad is capable of a lot more in 2012 than in 2011, and the extra space would be lovely to have…

 

Alex J

I rather enjoyed yesterday’s announcements. The new Apple TV was a nice, albeit very minor upgrade. If we upgrade our household TV as I suspect we will in the near future, I will be purchasing a new Apple TV, which will be a first for our household. The announcement that movies would now work with iCloud winched the deal for me.

As for the new iPad, it will be an awesome upgrade to my first-generation iPad. But that’s the thing, Apple isn’t trying to pick up customers who just received an iPad 2 for Christmas, but rather customers who own an original iPad, or better yet, people who have never owned an iPad. It’s a great time to jump in.

I ordered my iPad as soon as I could get through Apple’e besieged online store yesterday. I can only imagine what the new screen and faster graphics will look like- it has to run better than my 1st-generation iPad with 5.1 installed, which feels increasingly sluggish with each passing update.

I was thrilled with the Retina display announcement, surprised by the lack of Siri (I have a hypothesis that I will share at a later date), and mildly disappointed with the lackluster cameras Apple built into the new iPad. To be honest, I was even pleasantly surprised (even though I have no use for it) with the 4G LTE announcement.

I will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of mine in a week’s time.

 

Joe T

I want to be excited about the new iPad.  I really do.   But I’m not.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s plenty to like.   In particular, the Retina display and LTE capabilities are very attractive.  However, since I already have a Verizon LTE hotspot for my laptop and iPad 2 (and the iPhone gets to ride along for a speed boost), the only real upgrade for me is the display, and that’s not sufficient reason to upgrade from an iPad 2.

As for the rest of the new features, well, I don’t use the iPad 2 as a camera (and really can’t ever see doing so), so the new camera and video recording don’t interest me.   Voice dictation is more suited to the iPhone due to the much smaller keyboard; I don’t see using it much on the iPad.   The graphics are plenty fast enough for what I do, so the value of the new A5x graphics chip is lost on me as well — and that about covers it.

…Of course, if someone wants to buy my iPad 2 for, say $200 less than the new iPad…  I could be tempted.   But otherwise, no.

 

Brad G

I am very excited about the new iPad and pre-ordered one right away after the Keynote. The retina display looks amazing. Though some are calling the new iPad just an incremental upgrade, for a device that is really all about the screen, I feel that this is a very big step forward for the iPad. I did previously own the iPad 2, but when compared with my iPhone’s retina screen, the screen on the iPad 2 seemed to be of low quality. It is crazy how far in device screen quality Apple is ahead of its competitors. No one has quite matched the iPhone’s retina screen quality and I think it will be a long time before any of Apple’s competitors can come close to matching the quality of the new iPad’s screen with a tablet. Once you have one retina screen device, it ruins all other screens for you.

There was just one thing that disappointed me about Wednesday’s iPad Keynote, however. I was hoping that the iPad 2 would stick around for awhile at a lower price point and was glad to see that Apple followed this path. However, I was really hoping that the iPad 2 would drop to the $299 price point. To me, that is the price that an iPad would need to be at for the majority of schools to seriously consider adopting the iPad for their classrooms. As a school principal looking to adopt the iPad at my school by next school year, it will be just a bit more difficult at $399 to truly reach the goal of having one iPad per student. Apple really intrigued me as an educator when they announced textbooks for iPads and the iBooks Author app for Mac not so long ago. I truly think that Apple dropped the ball on what could have been an amazing opportunity to really continue that positive educational momentum they had going. I feel a $299 iPad would have generated that final push of excitement needed for many schools to get iPads into their classrooms. Instead, I still think many schools will still be reluctant to go with the iPad at this point. I’m not thrilled to be considering purchasing last year’s iPad model for my school at just a $100 discount, and yet at the same time I’m not sure my school can afford to purchase the new iPad. I have to wonder how many other school administrators are having the same thoughts.

 

James R

Well, I have to admit I was left wanting a little more than I got yesterday. The only real disappointment for me was the absence of full on Siri, but I will probably use dictation more on my iPad anyway, so that eased the blow. Other than that omission, I am pretty happy with the upgrade, and preordered as soon as I could get online yesterday.

To me, that screen and the added resolution is key. I use my iPad all the time for work to do “secondary display” work. I have an app that lets me literally use it as a secondary display, which beats the pants off carrying a monitor with me when I travel. I also use Dropbox, Docs To Go, and Evernote to view documents that I need while I am programming. I also have found myself doing more and more remote desktop work, as well. All of these tasks will greatly benefit from the higher resolution, and crisper display.

The other element of this equation is the iPad 2, and the fact that it can now be had as low as $349 with a 1 year Apple warranty. This is an important (albeit expected) development that will increase pressure on the “loss leader” tablets from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Also, with Apple’s push into education, having a less expensive offering is key to getting school systems to seriously consider digital textbooks.

When the iPhone 4S was first announced, I sounded a lot like other here at iSource do now. I still got it, and actually ended up happier than I expected thanks to Siri. Despite a tiny bit of disappointment, I am pretty sure that I will be likewise be just as happy with my big, beautiful new screen.

 

 

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