Ars reviews the iPad 2: big performance gains in a slimmer package

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The iPad 2 is an iteration on the original iPad in order to optimize the user experience, both inside and outside. Ars put the device through its paces to see how different it really is in our latest review.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/apple/reviews/2011/03/ipad-2-the-ars-review.ars'>Read the whole story</a>
 
Kethinov":2xhkq408 said:
**RTS**":2xhkq408 said:
They already have a jailbreak for it. So, yes, you can.
Jailbreaking is not an option. We've been over this dozens of times on this forum. Voiding your warranty with third party hacks is not an acceptable solution. Apple needs to provide a supported opt-in for folks who want to install apps from outside the App Store. You know, like Android. It isn't hard.
How is that any different than how I had to root my ATT Android phone to install apps that weren't from the Android Market? (BTW, Voiding my Warranty)
P.S. I bet you cant name more than 5 applications that you have currently installed on your phone that aren't available on the Android Market.
 
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Sulis

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Kethinov":2zbecnxr said:
**RTS**":2zbecnxr said:
They already have a jailbreak for it. So, yes, you can.
Jailbreaking is not an option. We've been over this dozens of times on this forum. Voiding your warranty with third party hacks is not an acceptable solution. Apple needs to provide a supported opt-in for folks who want to install apps from outside the App Store. You know, like Android. It isn't hard.
Don't be silly - of course it's an option. It's just one you don't particularly like.

Having said that, Apple does seem to be making life a bit harder for jailbreakers - iBooks now doesn't work properly with JB'd devices, and I've encountered a few other instances of the same behaviour in other Apps.

Me, I haven't bothered JBing my iPad. I couldn't imagine using my iPhone without LockInfo and Activator, but the way I use my iPad means I don't miss 'em at all.
 
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Kethinov

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**RTS**":2wlfqdx5 said:
Kethinov":2wlfqdx5 said:
You don't have to root your Android phone to install non-Market apps. Settings -> Applications -> Unknown sources.

I've heard some carriers cripple this though. :(
Which is why I specifically mentioned it was an ATT android phone.

Which is not at all relevant to my gripe that Apple should allow users to opt-in to installing apps from non App Store sources, like Android. Android has the option. iOS doesn't. What carriers cripple because carriers suck is not in the scope of this discussion.
 
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Kethinov

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Sulis":1k3ahsno said:
Kethinov":1k3ahsno said:
**RTS**":1k3ahsno said:
They already have a jailbreak for it. So, yes, you can.
Jailbreaking is not an option. We've been over this dozens of times on this forum. Voiding your warranty with third party hacks is not an acceptable solution. Apple needs to provide a supported opt-in for folks who want to install apps from outside the App Store. You know, like Android. It isn't hard.
Don't be silly - of course it's an option. It's just one you don't particularly like.

Having said that, Apple does seem to be making life a bit harder for jailbreakers - iBooks now doesn't work properly with JB'd devices, and I've encountered a few other instances of the same behaviour in other Apps.

Which is precisely why it's not an option. A company that will actively goes out of its way to restrict what I can do with my device doesn't deserve my business. I'm just glad Apple has not extended this Orwellian behavior to OSX. Hopefully they never will.
 
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Sulis

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Kethinov":1sy66gse said:
Which is precisely why it's not an option. A company that will actively goes out of its way to restrict what I can do with my device doesn't deserve my business. I'm just glad Apple has not extended this Orwellian behavior to OSX. Hopefully they never will.
OK, I get that you're making a principled stand here, supporting the beleagured rebel forces of freedom and democracy against the evil dictator keeping his people in the walled garden of tyranny. I don't particularly relish the lack of an approved alternative to the app store, but neither do I find I care that much in practice. Count me in with the "I know he's a dictator, but he's our dictator" section of the populace, I suppose.
 
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DeltaOP

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jimlynch":1r16sp92 said:
I am not impressed with this derivative release and will not be upgrading. I had expected much more than this, particularly an updated display. It's not even a good deal for new iPad customers who don't own the first iPad, they can buy an original iPad for a huge discount and still get a very usable tablet without the lame cameras.

My full thoughts here:

5 Reasons Why the iPad 2 Sucks
http://jimlynch.com/index.php/2011/03/1 ... ad-2-sucks

I'll consider getting an iPad 3 or 4 or 5 or w
hatever version actually has some significant improvements.

You do realize it's not as simple as throwing a Retina display in the thing.

1. Apple needs to get someone to build a display that would have over 3 million pixels in a less than 10" screen size.

2. The current A5 would not have the power to drive that many pixels in any real significant way.

I think something like a A6 quad core chip and a SGX543mp4 GPU would be needed and more like 1GBnof ram.

3. Battery concerns. Apple fix good with keeping the same battery life in. Faster and thinner product. Can they keep that up for iPad 3?

I think Apple did a pretty good upgrade.

We were not boing to see SD card slots or USB and HDMI ports. Apple Just has no interest in this.
 
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schnee

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I remember there were a few cool apps that appeared on jailbreak stores that didn't appear on iPhones, but most of them fell into the area of 'not compelling enough to switch to another platform to have' or 'unlocking capabilities I just don't need' so I just did without.

How restricting is it when there are 350k apps? I've never had an idea that an app didn't exist for. I've never felt restricted. I've been inundated with innovative ones. I feel like I barely scratching the surface of the phone's capabilities, only because my life is somewhat boring.
 
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D

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I have a laptop and a smartphone, so I don't really see a need for a tablet personally, but if I were getting one, I'd probably get the iPad 2. I had high hopes for Honeycomb and I hope Google polishes it up soon. That and I hope we see more apps for it. I may be up for a tablet in the future. I primarily use my laptop around the house. When I do travel, I mostly use it for checking email and such. So I could see myself going back to a more powerful desktop and getting a tablet for portability. I'll probably wind up ditching the smartphone mostly because I don't use it enough to justify the cost of the service plan.

Other than not allowing duplication of built-in apps, I don't see Apple's terms as being overly unreasonable. Most apps are rejected because they're unstable. If you want to look at dirty movies, the provider can build a capable web app. Actually, that's one thing about the App Store I don't care for - instead of building good web apps, we get lots of specialized apps when they're not really needed.

In any case, the market is still new. I suppose it would be cool if HP could graft the webOS UI on top of Android so there wouldn't be yet another OS out there. I wanted to like the Pre because I really liked webOS, but the hardware let it down. Consequently, there's few apps for it. But to each their own. I honestly don't see why people hate Apple so much. If they were the only alternative perhaps, but they aren't. Though one could argue that for tablets, they're currently the only viable one - until Honeycomb and Android Market catch up, which should hopefully happen soon).
 
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zChan

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Kethinov":2wf54dlb said:
Um, why did DeltaOP make the same post 15 times?
Moonsharks

Personally, I wish that apple would come up with a better fastening mechanism for the dock port. I have to be careful to not accidentally knock off the USB connector when I'm using it on my current iPad. After that, sometimes my iPad won't recognize the USB gadget until reset.
I also wish that there was version of the USB connector that has a power port like the HDMI connector.

edit: horrible grammar.
 
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Glass is thinner than before; be cautious of easier breakage

The ugly

Display is the same old resolution as the original

These 2 are the main flaws ...

Especially the first one. 1 slip of hand and bye bye glass. It happens on the iphone that has a smaller area, I can only imagine how fragile new ipads can be.

Anyway my father wants one so I'll judge first person .... knowing my father (2 glasses broken on his iphone in less than 2 y) I wonder how much it will last ....
 
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Most people's WiFi is too slow for high resolution video chat. Hence, the rear camera is more than sufficient for showing others what you are looking at via FaceTime. Whilst it would have been nice to have more pixels on the screen, they wouldn't have been used by FaceTime and it would have pushed the cost up too much.

Get an iPhone 4 for one-device photography, indeed, don't bother with the 3G iPad 2 because it would be daft to take it out onto the street.
 
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economics

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The SoC in the iPad 1 is near identical to the one in the Samsung Tab, since both were designed and manufactured by Samsung. The big difference is that the Tab has a *better* GPU and more memory. So if you're running benchmarks between the two devices and seeing differences that suggest the Tab has worse performance, you would be wise to attribute any difference to a) Android vs. iOS or b) issues with the benchmark.

Doing otherwise makes you look a bit silly, like a wine taster that's given the same wine in a cheap and expensive bottle and gets all excited because of the label on one of them.
 
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Johnpauljj":yj64hjqn said:
"[insert other multi-billion dollar company here] is going to win the tablet space just as soon as they ship/fix one."

McDonald's is going to win the tablet space just as soon as they ship one.
Mmm... McTablet with Cheese, special sauce, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.
 
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THX138

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The bad
The new cameras are better than no cameras, though they're not particularly great
"Real" GPS only comes with the 3G models
Glass is thinner than before; be cautious of easier breakage
The ugly

Display is the same old resolution as the original
Still no Flash support, probably never will be

Most of them fine points but you do realise that attempting to solve any of these would raise the price?
Right now the iPads price is a really big advantage, mainly because it has a much lower starting point than any of its rivals (released or unreleased).
Fix these points and you'll start whining about price; sacrifices have to be made that's what most competitors don't get.

The screen is still better than anything out there for a while and again falls into the price argument.
The Xoom (and other upcoming devices) for example may have a slightly higher resolution but doesn't have IPS technology, resulting in a much weaker package.

As for Flash, judging by the preview of it working on the Xoom, it's good that it's not on the iPad because it sucks. Choppy video, hogs cpu, ram and battery and not having it on the device is better than having it at all because those "extended family members" that you mention in your article wouldn't know that it's Flash that's degrading their experience and even how to turn it off.
 
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Oh for gods sake, could someone at the Ars development team please implement some simple bit of code on the comments?

Either something which looks at all the previous posts in a thread and if the one trying to be posted is exactly the same, discard it or - if that is too complicated - then at least put something in which compares the last time you posted against the current time and prevents it is it is less than a couple of minutes? Both of these would start to solve the problem of all these multiple posts.

Back on topic, I'd agree that the iPad 2 seems to be a fairly minor upgrade but that is probably because the software updates have been so small. My gut feel that that the next version of iOS will make this upgrade feel significantly more meaty.
 
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