Back in the era of Steve Jobs, the Apple iPad was always touted as a post-PC device, but aside from partially replacing the traditional desktop / notebook as we know it, the Cupertino's slate is also changing the way we take notes and organize our lives. In no situation is this fact more apparent than in the day-to-day life of Bollywood choreographer Feroz Khan, who now utilizes a single iPad Air for most of his work when, not so long ago, he would have to drag several items around with him in order to do his job properly.
The annual Mobile World Congress gathering, organized by the GSM Association, has been taking place in Barcelona for the last couple of days. Tech giants such as Sony, Samsung and LG use the event to introduce and showcase their latest tech in front of the world's press, but MWC also hosts the Global Mobile Awards that rip through various categories to filter out and award the best-of-the-best of the last 12 months. The awards may be packed full of random and obscure categories that don't necessarily appeal to the average technology enthusiast, but there was some great news for Apple and HTC, with both companies receiving a best in class award for one of their products.
Apple's iPad Air may well be revered as the sleekest, lightest, thinnest, most powerful and indeed the most elegant full-sized tablet so far from the Cupertino giant, but even looking at more practical aspects, such as the battery life, the new iPad Air is peerless. Which looked at battery retention rates for a range of top-level tablets, testing common activities such as video playback and Web use to determine which slab could hold out the longest, and on both counts, the iPad Air came out on top.
Apple chose today to out a new iPad ad that will probably go down as one of our favorites, with an ad break during the NFL Playoffs chosen as the perfect time to show the new ad.
The iPad continues to hold the number one spot in the tablet market almost four years after its inception, and although the market is now awash with devices offering 'proper' processors and ultrabook-esque form factors, it would seem that nothing can stop the Apple iPad. Many, especially Microsoft, have suggested that the limited nature of the ecosystem is to the detriment of the user, besetting iPad owners with restrictions to which they cannot get the most out of their slate. But whatever this may be, it doesn't appear to be affecting the work or skills of Kyle Lambert, who has created a true masterpiece of a finger painting using nothing more than his iPad Air.
Consumers living in all initial release countries have been frantically descending on Apple Retail Stores to get their hands on the iPad mini 2 with Retina display. The smaller form-factor tablet has proven to be extremely popular in the time that has followed its first-generation launch with the recent introduction of the Retina display and A7 processor only extending that popularity. The limited inventory in online and physical retail outlets show just how popular the new iPad mini has become, but those owners who also have the larger iPad Air may just find themselves comparing color output on the Retina display and finding themselves a little confused.
With the announcement of the iPhone 5s last month, the feature many were talking about was the new gold color configuration on offer. Naturally, some held out hope that the iPad range would follow suit, but while both the Retina iPad mini and iPad Air both got such niceties as the A7 processor and M7 motion coprocessor, the lovely goldness seems to have been reserved for the company's flagship smartphone at this point in time.
Whenever a new device is released to market, the benchmark tests begin almost instantaneously. Today, the iPad mini with Retina display made its long-awaited debut, and although it still appears in very short supply, it has already been put through its paces and compared with some of the other marquee devices in the iOS product line. As it transpires, it's almost identical to the iPhone 5s in terms of speed, although both the iPad mini 2 with Retina display and the Touch ID-enabled handset fall slightly behind the iPad Air, which is faster than both.
The iPad Air is the hottest topic in the mobile world right now, and since its predecessor, the iPad 4, was rather far from overwhelming, the prospect of a thinner, lighter and altogether more stylish model has certainly been a long time in coming. The tablet has been cost analyzed by none other than IHS Suppli, which has released its estimated component cost of the new and improved iPad Air. In short, it is reckoned that the total component cost is somewhere in the region of $274 for the bare-bones model, which works out at about 13% cheaper than the iPad 3.
Apple's iPad Air is currently being lauded as the best thing since sliced bread, but as DisplayMate's Dr. Raymond Soneira points out, numerous aspects of the just-released slate fall short when compared to Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX. There's no doubt that a new iPad was always going to make a little more noise upon announcement and subsequent release than the retail giant's latest export, but as Soneira's in-depth comparison shows, the Retina panel is noticeably outperformed by that of the new Amazon slate.
