[HN Gopher] Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence
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Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence
Author : diwank
Score : 312 points
Date : 2024-10-15 14:35 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
| 234120987654 wrote:
| A17 Pro huh, that's a first for putting a pro chip in a non pro
| iPad, isn't it? I guess it's, as they advertise, to handle Apple
| Intelligence although I don't understand why they are doubling
| down on this _now_ while nothing from the newly announced AI
| stuff is available as of today...
| mcintyre1994 wrote:
| I'm guessing the delays to Apple Intelligence came late in the
| process and it was supposed to release with the new iPhones?
| And then they just left hardware plans as-is when the software
| got delayed.
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| I'm guessing they were aiming for iOS 18 but caved to what
| they perceived was the popular demand at the time
| jsheard wrote:
| It makes sense, the iPad Pros graduated to using full blown M
| series chips so the A Pro chips they used to use can filter
| down the stack.
|
| edit: oops I mixed up A Pro and A X
| JonathonW wrote:
| The A17 Pro (originally in the iPhone 15 Pro; now also in the
| iPad Mini) and A18 Pro (currently only in the iPhone 16 Pro)
| are the only chips Apple has produced with a "Pro" suffix.
|
| Apple used to use the X suffix for bigger versions of their
| phone processors that went into iPads (starting with the
| A5X); that went away when the M-series was introduced.
|
| And the "Pro" suffix itself doesn't seem to denote anything
| in particular-- there was never a non-Pro A17, and the "A17
| Pro" going into the iPad Mini is itself a cut-down version of
| the chip that went into the iPhone 15 Pro (it has one GPU
| core disabled).
| jerojero wrote:
| I wish they had improved the screen a little bit as well.
|
| It makes sense to update the model with apple intelligence but
| that might not be enough for a lot of people to upgrade.
|
| Perhaps we're looking at a device that simply will be out of
| lineup soon (next few years).
|
| I do like this form factor a lot though, well, eventually we'll
| get foldable phones to become mainstream I hope.
| lovethevoid wrote:
| The alleged roadmap leak indicates they're aiming for 2026/2027
| foldable screens (no word on whether it's horizontal or
| vertical) so if all goes according to plan, you would be right
| that this is the last update for the "iPad mini" device.
| sgerenser wrote:
| There was some chatter on Macrumors that they flipped the
| orientation of the controller board so that the Jelly scrolling
| will be gone when used in portrait mode. That was the #1
| display complaint on the outgoing model, so if its true then
| I'd count that as a win on improving the screen.
| seunosewa wrote:
| Wouldn't that cause jelly scrolling in landscape mode?
| matrix2003 wrote:
| I think so, but fewer people use it in that orientation
| when reading.
| bananapub wrote:
| > It makes sense to update the model with apple intelligence
| but that might not be enough for a lot of people to upgrade.
|
| that's fine? it's a very mature segment - medium-price small
| screen tablet. it hasn't even really been updated since 2021,
| and that was basically new case+usb-c.
| volemo wrote:
| I thought the case and USB-C were in iPad mini already?
| rgreekguy wrote:
| Mature segment? Is there any other tablet with a square
| aspect ratio that is smaller than 10"? Two years ago I was on
| the market, I only remember Microsoft's Surfaces, which are
| all 10", no other square tablets.
| hollandheese wrote:
| Well.. technically you could say the Google Pixel Fold.
| Gigachad wrote:
| The iPads are basically appliances. They release a new model
| of fridge every year but I've never once considered
| "Upgrading" my existing one.
|
| My 2014 ipad air 2 is only just starting to feel old.
| chemmail wrote:
| The base models maybe, but the Pros have crazy OLEDs that
| almost have me drooling. The speed hasn't changed much, i
| just got a 11 Pro with M1 and it isn't any faster in normal
| stuff than the A12 on my 12.9". I always get my Apple
| devices from used shops and got my 11 Pro for $250 when it
| was 2 gens old and feel I won't get the OLED one till I
| find one for $300ish.
| tiffanyh wrote:
| > I wish they had improved the screen a little bit as well.
|
| What do you mean, the iPad mini has a higher ppi (326) vs iPad
| Air (264).
|
| I think the issue is that, iPad OS is scaling the display to a
| weird resolution.
|
| https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/
|
| https://www.apple.com/ipad-air/specs/
| fckgw wrote:
| Probably a 120hz screen like the Pro has
| michpoch wrote:
| Then it'd also get the IPad Pro price?
| jsheard wrote:
| 120hz panels are dirt cheap at this point, look beyond
| the Apple ecosystem and they're everywhere at nearly
| every price point. Even barebones office monitors meant
| for doing spreadsheets are often ~100hz now, there's no
| reason to make them 60hz when faster panels are more or
| less the same price.
| heraldgeezer wrote:
| >120hz panels are dirt cheap at this point
|
| So is storage and RAM but every OEM has their added
| vendor tax and so does Apple.
|
| 2TB Samsung pro nvme SSD is 170$, how much is 2TB Apple
| storage...
|
| Same with screens.
| michpoch wrote:
| > now, there's no reason to make them 60hz
|
| Product differentiation.
|
| Promotion is a way to make clients upgrade to iPad Pro.
| One of the very few left.
| hollandheese wrote:
| It's much less bright than the iPad Pro and iPhone in
| daylight. In a bright day it's barely visible.
|
| And adding OLED would make it the great for nighttime
| reading.
| mort96 wrote:
| Who mentioned DPI?
| tommica wrote:
| Looks really nice, wish could afford it, but Apple products are
| so expensive... Commodity products for premium price
| skadamat wrote:
| I usually like to buy these 1-2 years old off Craigslist /
| Marketplace and that's been a sweet spot for price and quality.
|
| Apple has always been about premium price and quality but I
| agree that it's not for everyone and their needs.
| mezeek wrote:
| It's ok, lotsa people have the money for it.
| auc wrote:
| Apple products are not commodity, because there is very little
| fungibility due to network effects.
|
| Maybe their hardware is commodity (arguable), but the product +
| integrations are not.
| meroes wrote:
| Many of these devices aren't actually fungible commodities
| though.I tried to buy a phone in the $200 range and Android
| phones were so much worse than used iPhones. I they would drop
| calls and freeze on the dial pad during long calls where I was
| on hold. Tried two different models and had the same issues. I
| could have tried a used $200 Android but I was not wanting to
| try for a third Android. All I wanted/needed was to make
| important calls.
|
| So I guess I don't see them as commodities which implies
| fungibility.
| II2II wrote:
| I realize that there are bad Androids out there and the
| abundance of choice makes it difficult to sift through the
| good and the bad, but there are good Android phones out there
| in the $200-$300 USD range. My current phone is a bit over
| three years old and it is still very usable.
| dsissitka wrote:
| Especially with companies like Motorola. The 2022 Edge cost
| $400 on release. A bit over a year later it was on sale for
| $140.
| lucb1e wrote:
| > All I wanted/needed was to make important calls.
|
| Can I recommend you a 40EUR _phone_? They 've been making
| models that can do calls for a while now and they needn't
| cost as much as an Apple-branded device to do just that
|
| > they would drop calls and freeze on the dial pad during
| long calls
|
| Never heard that happen to anyone with any phone model. If
| you've ruled out some software-specific issue like a call
| recorder you've installed or so, that sounds borderline
| implausible. Then again, given the number of issues I
| experience with software (of any kind)...
| macintux wrote:
| Smartphones failing to make phone calls is not exactly an
| unknown concept.
|
| https://www.tomsguide.com/news/some-pixel-users-cant-
| dial-91...
|
| https://www.slashgear.com/842545/why-antennagate-was-a-
| compl...
|
| https://www.online-tech-tips.com/android-phone-wont-make-
| cal...
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| What's with the sour grapes? I can't afford a Pagani. Doesn't
| mean I can't appreciate the engineering.
| tommica wrote:
| Not sure why you're calling me "sour grapes"? I only lamented
| the fact that I could not afford the thing
| macintux wrote:
| "Commodity products for premium price" definitely sounds
| like sour grapes.
|
| If the products are actually commodity, just buy something
| else.
| accrual wrote:
| I was curious what was meant by that too too, turns out
| it's a legitimate phrase in the dictionary:
|
| sour grapes, plural noun, disparagement of something that
| has proven unattainable
|
| > his criticisms are just sour grapes
|
| https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sour%20grapes
| geodel wrote:
| Its commodity you can buy from dozens of other vendors for much
| cheaper price.
| skywhopper wrote:
| Uh, where can I buy a cheaper iPad?
| lucb1e wrote:
| And while we're at it, can someone finally tell me where
| people find cheap ferraris? I really want a car but they're
| just too expensive!
| dmitrygr wrote:
| Then buy it there instead of complaining?
| skywhopper wrote:
| They are hardly commodities. The build quality and lifetime of
| iPads is incredible compared to any other tablet I've ever used
| (typing this on a six year old iPad Pro that's still going
| strong).
| macintux wrote:
| I recently traded in my 5-year-old iPad Pro because it was
| badly banged up, and they still offered me ~$400 in trade-in
| value. Great iPads.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| True, but they last long enough that you can get them second
| hand, whereas used products from other vendors tend to be junk
| not worth spending money on even at a cheaper price point.
| lucb1e wrote:
| Also when buying second hand, you pay for that premium brand
| Findecanor wrote:
| There is a definite lack of worthy competitors to the iPad Mini
| in the market. Most other tablets are 10" or larger. The only
| other contemporary tablets I've found in that size have had
| very low-end specs in comparison.
| tommica wrote:
| True - long time ago I had the "new ipad", and it was really,
| really nice - lasted me for years, until I could no longer
| update it.
| hbn wrote:
| The iPad lineup starts at $350, and that's brand new, look used
| or refurbished and it becomes even cheaper. If that's too much
| for you, you'll be pressed to afford any computer.
| bonaldi wrote:
| The mini is the absolute sweet spot for me - enough portability
| that I don't mind the many restrictions of iPad OS. But the
| A-line chips and low-quality screen are problems, and not being
| able to properly dock it at a monitor is a real hinderance. None
| of those are addressed here, unfortunately.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| Considering the bestselling laptops at Walmart for $400-500
| still sometimes have Twisted Nematic displays, I think the
| screen is fine.
|
| I also don't get the complaint about the A-series chip. What
| does an M1 unlock in iPadOS that the A17 doesn't?
| skydhash wrote:
| I think stage manager? And the A1 can get hot sometimes (PDFs
| and Procreate).
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| I can't find any mention of Stage Manager being supported
| on this device - so either it doesn't, or the help pages
| haven't been updated yet.
|
| I will say though the criticism of the A-series getting hot
| doesn't make sense. If the A-series gets hot, the M-series
| is going to be boiling in that tiny chassis.
| 0x457 wrote:
| > I will say though the criticism of the A-series getting
| hot doesn't make sense. If the A-series gets hot, the
| M-series is going to be boiling in that tiny chassis.
|
| Depends on a particular A and M chip, tho.
| rgreekguy wrote:
| The screen has the same pixel density as the iPhones'. Which
| is better than any other iPad model's.
| enragedcacti wrote:
| If were picking random stuff to compare it against, for $250
| Motorola will sell you a phone with a 6.7", 395ppi, 120hz
| OLED screen. It also comes with a stylus and has 256GB
| storage standard.
|
| Obviously these aren't directly comparable products but
| neither are iPads and budget laptops, and Apple asks $750 for
| a model with equivalent storage and a cellular modem. For a
| lot of people the screen probably is perfectly adequate but I
| can also see why some potential buyers would be pretty
| disappointed given the price point, especially since unlike
| the air apple doesn't even offer an upsell option at this
| size.
| ako wrote:
| The M1 allows you to use it like a proper laptop for
| productivity: hook it up to an external display, keyboard and
| mouse, and it's a perfect machine for ms-word, PowerPoint or
| excel. I have my iPad Air connected to a 32 inch monitor for
| video editing with Final Cut Pro.
| labcomputer wrote:
| > and not being able to properly dock it at a monitor is a real
| hinderance
|
| Can you expand on that? It seems to support DisplayPort over
| USB-C, and there are a number of 1st and 3rd party adapters
| that have DP out, power in, and a USB2.0 plug for your other
| devices. What does "properly" docking it look like?
| bonaldi wrote:
| The A-series chips only support screen mirroring; with the
| M-class iPads you can have stage manager and multiple windows
| across two displays; and the main display runs at native
| resolution. It's a far better (though still flawed)
| experience.
| jchulce wrote:
| There are a bunch of UX differences between an iPad and a
| laptop while connected to a docking station that make using
| an iPad in that manner not quite satisfactory. For example,
| the iPad's screen always has to be on - while you can choose
| to either mirror or extend your desktop environment, you
| can't use only the external monitors and shut your case like
| you can with a laptop.
| whiteboardr wrote:
| Was patiently waiting for the mini getting an update - i don't
| care as much for the screen, CPU etc. but not moving the front
| facing camera to the side, hence landscape friendly position is
| beyond me.
| rgreekguy wrote:
| The whole chassis is weak, old... One camera still? Lame...
| The thermals are mediocre, at best. And the iPhone 15 Pro I
| just got makes me look forward to the winter. I expect
| similar experiences with this. When you write/draw _on_ it,
| it does get hot. Same battery life is not bad, but it could
| use some more when you use the Pencil. Touch ID is another
| very _very_ weird thing to keep. I wonder what sort of market
| buys that and they don 't want to upgrade anything... It
| feels so weird...
|
| If you check Apple's comparison, at least on that overview,
| it seems they changed only the processor, networking, that
| HDR thingy on the camera, and... that's all. Everything else
| is the same.
| duskwuff wrote:
| > One camera still? Lame...
|
| It's a tablet, not a phone. No number of cameras is going
| to make it into a good device for taking photos.
| smileybarry wrote:
| Speaking of screens, I wonder if they fixed the jelly scroll.
| It doesn't bother me _that_ much on my mini, but it would be
| ridiculous to keep that flaw as-is in the newer gen.
| NotYourLawyer wrote:
| The what?
| loopdoend wrote:
| They are referring to the screen lagging/tearing while
| scrolling
| formerly_proven wrote:
| I'm guessing Apple is using an IPS panel meant for
| landscape orientation (i.e. the image scans from the
| top/bottom) in a device mostly used in portrait
| orientation. This causes rolling shutter distortion when
| scrolling contents.
| accrual wrote:
| It's basically screen tearing, apparently because the top
| and bottom of the display (or left and right in other
| orientations) refresh at different rates. iFixit suggests
| its a controller issue.
|
| > Update, 9/28/2021: In response to our inquiry, Apple has
| told us that the "jelly scroll" issue on the 6th-generation
| iPad mini is normal behavior for LCD screens.
|
| > Update, 9/30/2021: An iFixit teardown suggests that the
| iPad mini's more noticeable scrolling issue is a byproduct
| of how the display controller is mounted.
|
| https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/2021-ipad-mini-
| suffe...
|
| FWIW, my 5th Gen Mini doesn't have this issue.
| jsheard wrote:
| The real fix would be for them to stop being so stingy with
| 120hz panels, as long as they keep using 60hz ones they're
| going to be prone to jelly scrolling in one orientation or
| the other. With 60hz the best you can hope for is that the
| orientation you use the most often is the good one this time.
| dartos wrote:
| > enough portability that I don't mind the many restrictions of
| iPad OS.
|
| Would it be a sweeter spot without those restrictions?
|
| I hate that I can't code on my iPad Pro.
| rcarmo wrote:
| Get a-Shell, iSH, etc.
| dartos wrote:
| Yeah I mean sure, but they are all extremely limited
| emulators.
| kmeisthax wrote:
| If you meant "not having Stage Manager", I'm genuinely
| surprised the A18 Pro wasn't considered powerful enough to run
| it, given that it outperforms the M1 that was. The only thing I
| could think of is that Apple thinks the smaller screen is too
| small for Stage Manager.
|
| I still think they should support it anyway, even if only for
| three apps at a time on the primary display. iPadOS is weirdly
| bifurcated into two different window management strategies
| (Split View vs. Stage Manager) based on what device you bought,
| which is confusing. They should be expanding Stage Manager to
| as many devices as possible.
| nimar wrote:
| check out: https://github.com/straight-tamago/misakaX
|
| it allows you to enable stage manager on an ipad mini without
| problems and without needing to jailbreak or similar :). the
| only gotcha is, that the ipad mini doesn't support more than
| 1080p output, therefore, if you connect a 4k screen it will
| remain blank.
|
| would love to know if the ipad mini 7 now supports 4k - would
| actually be a meaningful upgrade then.
| kmeisthax wrote:
| That's cool and all, but 18.1 killed the exploit this uses
| to write the MobileGestalt file. Which means if you buy a
| mini 7 _now_ , you're probably not going to be able to
| force-enable Stage Manager like this.
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| It's sad that "ultraportable iPad" marketing works, but
| "ultraportable iPhone" does not make sense for most people.
|
| iPhone 13 mini was the last flagship smartphone with such
| dimensions.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| How long do we have on the 13 mini before it becomes so slow I
| have to get a new phone? I don't know what I'll do at that
| point. On the 12 mini now and can never go to a big phone.
| SllX wrote:
| Probably a couple of more years provided you can keep
| replacing your battery. I'm on a 13 Pro Max which has the
| same SoC as a 13 Mini and while I might want a battery
| replacement within the next year, the phone itself has no
| performance issues. I think the iPhone 12 model line is
| essentially in the same boat, just a little bit older and
| with worse batteries.
| thejsa wrote:
| The battery was the main reason I moved from my 12 mini to
| a 15 (save for USB-C) -- just wasn't holding up, even after
| a replacement. I still hold out for a 17 mini, though.
| zie wrote:
| A few years still. The XR is still supported with iOS 18.
| sdo72 wrote:
| My 3 years old iPhone mini 13 is still very fast, reliable,
| and I love every part of the phone. It's such an amazing
| phone that functions well. The only thing got worsened is the
| battery, now at 87% even though I always charge it to 80-85%,
| now I have to charge it to 100% to use through the day. I
| still have extra power (like 30%) for a whole day. Replacing
| the battery isn't a problem. If Apple does support it like
| other models, it should last another 4-5 years more. I have
| no plan to upgrade to anything as I don't see anything
| comparable on the horizon.
| robin_reala wrote:
| Nothing wrong with continuing to use the iPhone 13 Mini today:
| Apple CPU has been so far ahead of the competition that apart
| from on-device generative AI there's nothing that hugely pushes
| it. For data, search for "single-core" and "multi-core" in
| https://infrequently.org/2024/01/performance-inequality-gap-...
| roughly wrote:
| The typical iPhone Mini product cycle:
|
| Make iPhone Mini -> Mini only accounts for 10% of sales ->
| Cancel iPhone Mini -> Notice that 10% of iPhone customers
| haven't updated for 3 or 4 cycles -> Make iPhone Mini -> Suffer
| crippling corporate amnesia -> <...>
|
| I'm expecting the brain worms to reach step 4 of the corporate
| consciousness cycle around the next generation or so.
| saagarjha wrote:
| One can hope.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I wonder if that was their attempt to make the iPhone SE have
| a legitimate place with the other iPhones? Not sure, but it
| is interesting that no matter what, they always sell the SE.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| only the 12 and 13 had mini sizes, so not really. unless you
| are counting the SE1 as mini
| samatman wrote:
| Dimensions:
|
| SE1: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6
|
| Mini 13: 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.65
|
| Counting the original SE as a mini is perfectly reasonable.
|
| It's also quite clearly what the grandparent comment was
| referring to.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| In that case the first six years of iPhone models were
| also minis. None were cancelled due to low sales. The
| original SE was also not cancelled due to low sales, it
| continued to sell extremely well for years after its
| release. Apart from the 12/13 minis, the only model that
| had low sales was the 5C, which is actually a little
| larger than the 5S.
|
| The rule for the SE is that it always has the design of
| second most recent hardware design, regardless of size.
|
| If Apple re-introduces a mini, that will be the first
| such 'cycle.'
| sroussey wrote:
| A17 Pro and WiFi 6E like the iPhone 15 Pro, not like the iPhone
| 16 series.
| jessekv wrote:
| The lineup sizes are filling in, a bit like A-series paper.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| It is interesting that one of their examples is a "community
| repair fair", they want to market a sheen of social
| responsibility without actually taking part themselves.
| ranunez64 wrote:
| It is interesting that one of their examples is a "Mahjong
| Club", they want to market a sheen of board game enthusiasm
| without actually taking part themselves.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| Lowkey wish their laptops would be as they used to be. Being
| able to swap RAM or hard drives is so basic but so useful.
| talldayo wrote:
| Drives in particular. Let them solder the memory if they
| absolutely have to, but exposing even an empty NVMe slot
| should be standard for laptops. Unfortunately, Apple makes a
| pretty penny off the storage surcharge so I wouldn't really
| anticipate that anytime soon.
| loopdoend wrote:
| I will accept the trade off for the performance boost tbh.
| lucb1e wrote:
| What performance boost? As in, same software running for
| comparison on the hardware of interest, one soldered and
| the other not. I never heard that soldering your SSD on
| makes it faster...
| jsheard wrote:
| It doesn't, Apples SSD performance is fine but
| unremarkable. Their current machines will do around
| ~6GB/sec read and ~5GB/sec write, which isn't even at the
| limit of socketed PCIe4 NVMe drives, nevermind the
| bleeding edge PCIe5 drives which can do up to ~14GB/sec
| read and ~12GB/sec write (albeit with excessive heat and
| power consumption for a laptop).
|
| Soldering the RAM has legitimate performance benefits,
| but soldering the SSD is just to save space and upsell
| overpriced upgrades.
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| It's crazy that some people think it's apple so it must
| be special and better not realizing NVMe is a industry
| standard.
| loopdoend wrote:
| Sorry I was referring to the boost you get from having
| ram integrated into the chip vis-a-vis apple's M-line of
| processors.
|
| Having replaceable ram is not really a marketable feature
| these days.
| angoragoats wrote:
| This might be nitpicking but 1) the ram is not integrated
| into the chip, per se, it's still discrete and soldered
| on a PCB right next to the CPU, and 2) the increased
| speed comes from additional memory channels built into
| the M-series CPUs, not necessarily the fact that the
| memory is closer to the CPU.
|
| It is true that it's not currently feasible to have
| socketed memory in a laptop offering 8+ memory channels
| to enable 200GB/sec+ bandwidth, but you can absolutely
| get the same (or greater!) memory speeds as an M-series
| CPU from an x86 desktop workstation.
|
| If Intel/AMD wanted to prioritize memory bandwidth, they
| could probably work with JEDEC or another industry org to
| develop a new standard for socketed memory with multiple
| channels per socket, to enable the kind of speeds that
| Apple offers. The fact that they haven't (to my
| knowledge) indicates to me that they don't see it as a
| big enough priority or benefit.
| franciscop wrote:
| They no longer even have a "memory" chip anymore, it's all
| part of the same SOC AFAIK, so they cannot "solder" it.
| angoragoats wrote:
| The RAM is still very much bog-standard DDR4/DDR5 chips,
| soldered on a PCB right next to the CPU. Here's an
| example pic of an M3 motherboard. The CPU/GPU is under
| the metal piece with the Apple logo on it, and the memory
| is the two rectangular chips immediately above that.
|
| https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2023/08/M3-Macs....
| delfinom wrote:
| You are thinking of the iPhones.
|
| All the ARM Macs are separate memory chips.
| AlexandrB wrote:
| Even when Apple laptops had removable solid state storage,
| it used a non-standard connector[1]. Very consumer and
| repair hostile. While OWC still made thirds party drives
| for these[2], few (no?) other companies did.
|
| [1] https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-
| ultimate-gu...
|
| [2] https://www.owc.com/solutions/aura-n2
| adolph wrote:
| Hot air rework is more accessible than ever. This video is
| kinda over-the-top breathless, but removing components and
| reballing new ones isn't rocket science.
|
| https://youtu.be/apEKAY11NQs?t=328
| wasabinator wrote:
| It is and will always be rocket science to most people, and
| orders of magnitude more difficult than swapping a drive or
| ram sticks.
| e44858 wrote:
| Apple has been gluing down the NAND on their phones:
| https://youtu.be/KRRNR4HyYaw
|
| If that practice spreads to the MacBooks, you'll also need
| a CNC mill.
| aucisson_masque wrote:
| I have a mac, absolutely love it, hate windows and yet my
| next laptop will be windows because of that.
|
| You don't realize how much it matters until it does, and then
| it changes everything. Always having to carry an external
| drive just because my email takes 150gb of the 256gb MacBook
| storage is even more annoying than windows puting candy crush
| saga on the start menu.
| bschwindHN wrote:
| > just because my email takes 150gb
|
| You have a very different email life than me. Is that like,
| all emails received in your life, or just huge attachments?
| dankwizard wrote:
| He's replaced Github repos with local email archives
| because a Medium article said "One trick to enhance your
| version control"
| aucisson_masque wrote:
| It's only a few years but lot and lot of attachment.
| Unoptimized pdf takes a big chunk.
| myroon5 wrote:
| Could look into email attachment optimization tooling
| like https://unattach.app/
| chemmail wrote:
| Unfortunately with DDR5L speeds, they need to be embedded
| to keep signal stability, so you need to find at least a
| 16GB laptop which is STILL pretty gatekept with a higher
| chip like i7 so you have to pay $300 more for that extra
| 8GB, pulling a page from Apple. Luckily m.2 is still a
| thing and 99% of Windows still use it.
| dijit wrote:
| Why do you need 150G of mail locally? and why did you think
| it sufficient to bug the absolute minimum spec available?
|
| I'm afraid though that the core premise of your comment is
| flawed. Storage and especially memory are increasingly
| soldered to thin and lights. Even professional grade
| laptops such as the Thinkpad X1 Carbon have soldered
| memory.
|
| https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-scourge-of-fully-
| soldered-...
| fsflover wrote:
| Did you consider Linux instead?
| freedomben wrote:
| If you hate Windows, you should really consider Linux
| instead. Gnome is quite enjoyable and can be relatively
| easily made to behave similarly to the macos DE. Fedora
| works pretty well OOTB on most hardware. If you buy as
| Frame.work[1] laptop, Fedora will install and run very
| well.
|
| [1] Dislaimer: I'm a community investor in Framework but
| have three of them because I like them a lot.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| My next self-purchased laptop is also going to be one that is
| not a Mac and buying a 2-3 year extended warranty wouldn't
| cost half or one third of its price. It will also not
| increase its price by 25-30% if I choose to double the RAM
| (and by double I mean 8 to 16, not 32 or so). I asked an
| Apple fan once why Apple still has 8GB RAM even in their pro
| models and I got the response because it's Apple, you don't
| need more than 8GB RAM. And I actually realised why Apple
| gets away with such practises. They are like the 99.978% of
| Apple's customer base. They stand in queues to get the latest
| Apple device and then cry out of joy.
|
| I bought a Dell laptop in 2007 and I was able to "deselect"
| Windows and it actually had reduced the price. I could do
| that in the third world and online and in 2007 (again!). I
| also got home repair in not a tier 1 city of that third world
| country. I think we went degradingly backwards from there.
| duskwuff wrote:
| It's a bit of filler text in a demo. You might be reading a
| little too much into it.
| geon wrote:
| At least the iphone 16 has electrically released adhesive.
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41623251
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| That is actually innovative and a feature. It shows what
| smart engineering can do when the design goal is not user
| hostile.
| illwrks wrote:
| I spotted that too, I got a laugh out of it. Committed non-
| commitment.
| kokada wrote:
| Would be nice if Apple also introduced a new base iPad with at
| least support for a decent Apple Pencil. I want to buy my wife an
| iPad, but she wants to draw and the Apple Pencil USB-C doesn't
| support presure levels, so it is either a base iPad with an old
| Apple Pencil 1st Gen (that still is lightining) or paying extra
| for the iPad Air and Apple Pencil 2nd Gen/Pro. The fact that
| Apple Pencil USB-C doesn't support presure levels at ALL is
| infuriating too.
| ToucanLoucan wrote:
| If she's looking to sketch or just doesn't mind not having
| color, I can't recommend the Kindle Scribe enough. I bought it
| for reading but it's become my combination work
| notes/presentation board/drawing tablet, and I absolutely love
| it. The premium pencil honestly smokes the Apple pencil and it
| feels so nice to use. I just wish it did color too.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| The Air is a significantly better drawing display.
| kokada wrote:
| She basically wants to draw notes and do some doodling, so it
| is not like it would make much difference and the price delta
| is huge between the base iPad and the iPad Air.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| The older generations are still available and cheaper, they
| just don't support the newest Pencil Pro.
| dangus wrote:
| The Wikipedia article for the Apple Pencil has a
| compatiblity matrix that is very helpful in this regard,
| since it's so damn confusing.
|
| I think if I was in the market for a drawing device on a
| budget I'd go with an iPad Air that supports the Apple
| Pencil 2nd generation. Something like the iPad Air 5th or
| 4th would do well.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| It depends on her storage needs. If she's making files
| she'll probably not want the 64GB version. So you'd be
| looking at the 256GB base for $500 or the 128GB 11" Air for
| $600. That's not that big a jump for the added utility.
|
| I agree with the other poster; maybe look at refurb and a
| 2nd gen pencil.
|
| Or just don't get one. But it sounds like this is on the
| short list to buy for you two.
| kokada wrote:
| She lived with an iPhone 64GB up until last week and I
| expect that her tablet storage needs to be even smaller
| (e.g.: no photos). So yes, 64GB is fine.
|
| > Or just don't get one.
|
| This is actually what I am going to do: wait until there
| is a better base iPad version. Unless I can get an older
| iPad Pro for a cheap price, but it is unlikely here in
| EU.
| dangus wrote:
| I would suggest the iPad Air 5th or 4th generation. They
| should be pretty close in price to a base iPad, probably
| less for the 4th generation.
| rvnx wrote:
| Is there somewhere where this Apple Intelligence can be used ?
| zie wrote:
| Some of it is available in the beta's, but no, it's not
| released to stable yet.
| dumbo-octopus wrote:
| Which boggles the mind... did nobody tell the software team
| that a release was coming?
| fshbbdssbbgdd wrote:
| Apple doesn't have a reputation for letting engineers
| slack. I have to guess they are working like dogs to meet
| some standard before they are willing to release.
| dumbo-octopus wrote:
| They don't have a reputation for releasing hardware
| without software to back it either. One way or another,
| an unprecedented process failure has occurred.
| fshbbdssbbgdd wrote:
| Well, the phone's software works great. They just haven't
| released those new AI features - which are supposed to
| come out on some older devices as well. And it's hardly
| the first time Apple delayed a release.
|
| IMO, the only thing weird here is the way the iPhone 16
| demo day kept talking about these unreleased features
| front and center instead of the actual capabilities of
| the new phone. Probably that's because the phone is so
| incremental and there was not much to talk about.
| dumbo-octopus wrote:
| Can you name another time the software team has lagged so
| far behind the hardware release and marketing? Nearly
| every ad I've seen the world over has touted "Apple
| Intelligence" as if it's a thing that exits, not some
| Coming Soon^{TM} pipe dream.
|
| My money is on it being a massive failure if it ever does
| come out, the only thing stopping me from buying options
| is I don't have a clue as to the timeline for when
| they'll give up and ship whatever they have.
| fhd2 wrote:
| Seems like a page from the Tesla playbook. Musk kept
| promising customers that if they buy a Tesla _now_, they
| will have full self driving and can make money having it
| go to work as a robotaxi Next Year (TM). Without these
| promises, a Tesla would just be another car.
|
| Not quite the same Ponzi scheme, but they promise a
| device "built for AI", so that when those features are
| ready, you'll get them. Without these promises, the thing
| would just be another tablet.
|
| Do they have to necessarily keep that promise? Musk seems
| to be doing fine without. What's the alternative, holding
| firm against the hype? Not sure that'd do wonders for
| their stock price. Maybe Jobs' Apple would have done
| that. But I suppose the current Apple doesn't see much
| choice around riding hype cycles.
| zie wrote:
| It clearly wasn't ready. My guess: the powers that be
| decided they had to make a public showing of being an AI
| company, hence the giant marketing push ahead of release.
|
| It's unknown how useful any of this will be in day to day
| use-cases.
| hbn wrote:
| I don't think Apple can simply delay an iPhone. There's
| entire industries relying on there being a new iPhone out
| every September.
| dumbo-octopus wrote:
| Apple of yesteryear would issue a patch update model and
| let this feature cook until it was ready for release.
| Current approach is sloppy in a decidedly un-Apple way.
| nicbou wrote:
| And it's not coming to the European Union.
| bradgessler wrote:
| You can get it in the public betas, but it's very underwhelming
| and not useful. I'm surprised they're talking this up so much
| to be honest.
| marmaduke wrote:
| lol as if teachers have money to buy this to make their lessons
| plans.
| All4All wrote:
| You might be surprised as to how many are willing to make the
| splurge. Anecdotal, but I'm married to a high school teacher.
| She and several of her coworkers have been willing to eat the
| cost personally just to avoid using dated district-provided
| assets, which are often clucky and make the job worse.
| criddell wrote:
| This is the salary schedule for teacher in the district my kids
| were in:
|
| https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BN_Q51d_wUFMs7ajdwI07ESmnmS...
|
| Teachers get $55k-$72k depending on their qualifications. Not
| great, but not poverty levels either. If they want an iPad,
| they can probably get one.
| wslh wrote:
| I love iPad minis, but a keyboard folio for this size would be
| great. I've used this form factor with the iPad Air for writing,
| and it's perfect for carrying in a small bag. I know this is an
| expensive toy, though.
|
| [*] For reference, the iPad Air with the Magic Keyboard is about
| as heavy as a 13" MacBook Air.
| criddell wrote:
| I bought and returned a 13" iPad Pro M4 because I couldn't get
| a Smart Keyboard Folio for it. Only the Magic Keyboard is
| available. I'm still using my 2018 iPad Pro.
| teejmya wrote:
| Same, I actually bought a few of the Smart Keyboard Folios to
| use as they die. Upgraded to the M2 iPad Air, as I think it's
| the last of this form factor...
|
| It is just such a shame they discontinued the keyboard. It
| makes for the perfect iPad with a full keyboard.
| zer0zzz wrote:
| All I want to know is can it do windowed multi tasking with stage
| manager?
| protoman3000 wrote:
| The size of the mini is really the best, but the external monitor
| support is very disappointing. Do jailbreaks etc. allow for
| native monitor resolutions or are we limited to the iPads screen
| resolution by hardware?
| gmokki wrote:
| I think the official specs say it can display 4k screen over DP
| connector. Not sure if jailbreaks allow more resolutions
| preaching5271 wrote:
| So it's useless in Europe
| tomovo wrote:
| Or: more free space and lower CPU usage in the EU.
| poszlem wrote:
| I still remember the Steve Jobs era when people would praise
| Apple for having a simple lineup of devices, in contrast to
| Android, which had some crazy amount of variants of every device.
| How times have changed.
| wslh wrote:
| Regarding variants, it continue to be more complex to buy a
| Microsoft Windows notebook.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| What other large brand has a simpler lineup? Samsung released
| 22 phones just in 2024 with memorable names like C55 and M05.
|
| Although I wouldn't mind if they got rid of one or two iPhone
| variants, or at least gave them more meaningful names. I have
| no idea what the difference between Plus, Pro and Max is. I
| only know that Pro doesn't mean pro, and that doesn't make it
| any easier.
|
| Edit: also Steve Jobs was still alive when you could choose
| between four different iPod variants.
| walterbell wrote:
| Google Pixel has one Tablet.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| Within the first year of release there was also just one
| iPhone and one iPad.
|
| Meanwhile there are 4 variants of the Pixel 9. So clearly
| Google shows the same trend over time.
| walterbell wrote:
| 9 years, 3 tablets, 1 active: Pixel C
| (2015) Pixel Slate (2018) Pixel Tablet (2023)
|
| https://www.androidcentral.com/google-pixel-c-was-best-
| andro...
|
| _> I 'll forever remember a different tablet, the Google
| Pixel C, as the best Android tablet ever made.. The Pixel
| C's design was just overflowing with potential.. like so
| many Google hardware products, few people ever had an
| opportunity to use a Pixel C. It never received a model
| refresh, and its spiritual successor, the Pixel Slate,
| was a total disaster. I felt at the time, as I still do
| today, that the Pixel C deserved a simple update with new
| components to give this hardware design more time to
| shine._
|
| So far, no news on Pixel Tablet 2, other than Pixel
| Tablet being sold standalone without the dock.
| hbn wrote:
| It's mainly just the iPad lineup that's a mess, but it's
| optimized for there always being an iPad available for
| increasing budgets in $100 jumps, give or take. It's confusing
| to try and keep track of them all, but that's not really the
| point. What they have is anyone can walk into a store and say
| "give me an iPad, I'll pay $600" and they'll get a good device.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| When Jobs did that Apple was close to bankruptcy. When the
| first iPhone was introduced in 2007, was less than $25 billion.
| It's now $385 billion.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| Nice choice, always been my favorite size.
|
| Surprised though that they don't have an option with cellular so
| you can have always-on data access (i.e., with a data-only plan).
|
| Updated: my bad, it does come with cellular -- it's just not
| advertised on the main product page
| wiredfool wrote:
| I'm seeing it on the Ireland store, for 170 eur.
| dce wrote:
| Same in US, $150.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| Most carriers offer iPads as far back as I remember? You have
| to get it through their stores though.
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| Do you still need to buy the cellular version to get a GPS
| chip?
| hnburnsy wrote:
| Ugh, that bezel.
|
| Will full coverage screens with a software driven, virtual bezel
| every be a thing?
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| Ugh, my batteries need recharging.
|
| Will nuclear powered phones with built-in fusion reactors that
| never need recharging ever be a thing?
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| An edge to edge screen is entirely technically feasible tho.
| The iPhone has it.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| I don't get why some people get so worked up about bezels. I
| like being able to hold my devices without accidental inputs,
| and to me they look better anyway.
|
| I wouldn't mind 3cm wide bezels and accordingly larger
| batteries.
| hnburnsy wrote:
| Virtual bezels and let the user choosing.
| cut3 wrote:
| Dynamically get larger as battery life decreases
| alpaca128 wrote:
| And pay for a screen size I won't use? No, thanks.
| hnburnsy wrote:
| Could be dynamic, example, watching a movie, no bezels.
| Remove the bezels from the top and/or bottom, that
| changes on the device orientation. Placed in a stand
| remove the bezels, add them back when picked up.
| lucb1e wrote:
| That sounds awesome actually. Makes me wonder how hard it
| would be on a rooted phone to just have it tell the
| software the screen is a few pixels smaller so you can
| touch chose sides safely, and remove the restriction
| again when you're in movie mode
|
| Never heard of anyone making that but this would honestly
| sound like the first innovation in several years, not
| incremental like "GPS now finds a solution 2 seconds
| faster" and "the mobile data now uses 7% less energy" but
| something that is now possible that wasn't a feature
| before
| alpaca128 wrote:
| So what mechanism would you suggest to reliably detect
| when I want to pick it up so it adds the bezels before
| I'm able to cause any accidental input?
| jojobas wrote:
| Imagining that with Apple you're paying for the screen
| size is a bit rich.
| fckgw wrote:
| iPads need to have some sort of bezel, else how are you going
| to hold the thing? iPhones you can grip the sides, iPads not so
| much.
| michpoch wrote:
| iPhone 16 pro max is almost there with the screen size, also
| a two-hands device
| lucb1e wrote:
| This. Phones are already a real trade-off between usability
| and screen size. I've reached (or perhaps slightly gone over)
| the minimum amount of grabbing space I want on a phone and
| mine isn't quite the sleekest model
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| I was just thinking the same thing. Why couldn't they give it a
| tiny bezel, with a software option to put a virtual bezel if
| you want to hold it in a way it matters.
|
| They could even give it only the virtual bezel on the left and
| right sides, in whichever orientation you're holding it, since
| you don't really hold it on the top or bottom.
| pcurve wrote:
| 120hz would've been nice... since they likely won't make pro
| modal in this size.
| volemo wrote:
| I luckily don't care for higher refresh rate, but I'm
| disappointed this model doesn't come with OLED.
| All4All wrote:
| Does anyone here have insight as to the differences between the
| various versions of Apple's "Smart HDR" feature? Interesting to
| see it took the leap from Smart HDR3 (previous model) to Smart
| HDR 4 (new model), and yet the latest iPhones released last month
| apparently use Smart HDR 5.
| turnsout wrote:
| The version is tied to the Image Signal Processor (ISP) of the
| A-series chip. So the A17 has Smart HDR 4, while the A18 has
| Smart HDR 5.
|
| Smart HDR uses neural image segmentation for tone mapping and
| other processing. In my opinion it goes way too far; trying to
| grab a faintly blue sky and make it as blue as possible,
| identifying a face and lightening any hint of a shadow, etc.
|
| When people complain about iPhone photos looking over
| processed, this is why.
| formerly_proven wrote:
| Smart HDR 5 but Auto WB is still stuck in kindergarten.
| Priorities I guess.
| turnsout wrote:
| Great point--the basics like WB and exposure still get
| confused by something as simple as a field of green grass
| or a white wall.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe]
|
| More discussion on official post:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41848298
| dang wrote:
| We'll merge those comments hither.
| zer0zzz wrote:
| Pretty sure theres no stage manager, hard pass. Sticking to my 6.
| rgreekguy wrote:
| Well, they call it stage manager, but in iOS 18 (too) it only
| offers split screen and one window overlaid to the side. There
| is an example in the page somewhere.
| zer0zzz wrote:
| That's not stage manger it's Split View and Slide Over
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-us/102576
| dang wrote:
| We changed the URL from https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/ but
| readers may want to check out both.
| urda wrote:
| thanks dang
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| In many ways (no pun intended :-)) I would relate to having an
| iPad mini and a much much dumber phone which was just text/chat
| and voice. I have gotten there because I'm constantly in this
| weird tension between wanting a bigger screen on my phone because
| the app I'm using and wanting a smaller phone so that it is
| easier to pocket and carry around. A friend of mine did the
| folding screen phone thing and that has its advantages but I
| really like a small phone (and ideally with a long battery life
| so no 1000 nit screens on it). Definitely first world/21st
| century problems :-). I do find engineering tradeoffs in product
| design an interesting thing though.
| osrec wrote:
| What was the pun? Many/mini?
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| Yes.
| imjonse wrote:
| You can safely put 'no pun intended' after actually having no
| puns in the text. It can be disorienting but such is truth
| sometimes.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| Pun intended?
| kibwen wrote:
| typeof(x) y = (typeof(x))x; // no pun intended
| DennisP wrote:
| Back when I was coding for a living, I tried things like
| that almost a dozen times to see if they would make
| anyone laugh, but no pun in ten did.
| vl wrote:
| But why cast to it's own type?
| zoeysmithe wrote:
| For me its a very nice bedside ebook reader, reddit machine,
| and video device. Its a perfect size for all those things,
| perhaps a bit too small for video but good enough. It can fit
| into a large coat pocket or a medium sized purse too.
|
| I keep trying to get into my kindle but just can't for some
| reason. E-ink is nice but being able to get a nice glowing
| black background with white text is really nice and the page
| changes are so much more fluid than e-ink.
| amelius wrote:
| Way more distractions on an iPad, though.
| dankwizard wrote:
| Do not Disturb mode on to disable notifications
|
| Self control to not get distracted
|
| I don't get this whole "Too many distractions" shtick. If
| you don't have the self control to swipe away from your
| book to sneak in a round of Angry Birds, you'll probably
| end up pulling your phone out every 2 minutes to check your
| Reddit feed
| walterbell wrote:
| Assistive Access can limit user interactions to a few apps.
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/assistive-access-
| iphone/set-...
| Syonyk wrote:
| Most of the modern "dumbphones" (or "feature phones") would do
| this just fine for you.
|
| If you want one that can survive anything life will throw at
| it, look at the Sonim devices - the XP3+ (flip) or XP5+
| (candybar). They're Android Go, have exceptionally good (week
| and a half, easily) battery life, hotspot just fine, and handle
| actual use a lot better than the KaiOS toys out there. Maybe
| 3.x is better, but KaiOS 2.x couldn't handle actual use for
| more than a few weeks without starting to lag, requiring you to
| remove texts from it so the interface wasn't glacial, and mine
| eventually just stopped bothering to notify me about incoming
| calls and texts, which is your one job... The Android Go stuff
| seems to actually hold up to sustained moderate use.
| bradfa wrote:
| Do any of these Android Go phones have semi decent cameras?
| That's a big holdup for many people.
| adastra22 wrote:
| In the context of this thread, that's what the iPad mini is
| for.
| Syonyk wrote:
| https://www.sevarg.net/2023/12/30/more-flip-phone-sonim-
| xp3-... has some sample images from mine - it's an 8MP
| camera. Not amazing, but also not a 2MP potato.
| bradfa wrote:
| Thanks! That's exactly the kind of info I was looking
| for! :)
| 0x38B wrote:
| I used a KaiOS device for about 6 months. My expectations
| weren't high, but texting and T9 input were a mess:
|
| A) I had to manually enter captital I, apostrophe, and 'm'
| every time I wanted to write "I'm".
|
| B) New words (like brand and place names) displace common
| words in the built-in wordlist - that is, T9 gets worse the
| more you use it.
|
| It was still an OK digital minimalist/detox device - the
| GMaps web app with voice search was good enough.
|
| The Android Go devices you mentioned sound far better - I'm
| never touching KaiOS again.
| guestbest wrote:
| Funny, but for number one in your list, PalmOS 3 could do
| that in 1998 on a 16mhz 32 bit Motorola processor. It was
| just one of those attention to details that made the
| platform so nice to use.
| WhyNotHugo wrote:
| > Most of the modern "dumbphones" (or "feature phones") would
| do this just fine for you.
|
| Assuming you use something like WhatsApp, Facebook or
| something alike. Modern "feature phones" include built-in
| applications for messaging and calling, and you generally
| can't install anything custom on them.
| jeffbee wrote:
| I was just pitching this yesterday to my friend. My Pixel 8 Pro
| is a great phone, but in many situations I only want a phone
| that can show me my messages and answer my phone calls, and
| it's OK if its interface is my smartwatch and/or earbuds. I
| want it to be able to take over my mobile number on-demand, and
| relinquish it to my Pixel afterward.
| mulderc wrote:
| I am moving away from my phone to just using my Apple
| Watch/AirPods then pulling out the mini when I need something
| it can't cover.
| herpdyderp wrote:
| I wish I could do this but I have yet to find a good Apple
| Watch replacement for owning and syncing music (rather than
| streaming it)
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I wish I could do this but I have yet to find a good Apple
| Watch replacement for owning and syncing music (rather than
| streaming it)_
|
| Is it not possible to sync MP3s to Apple Watches anymore? I
| have a really really old model, and I selected a few
| playlists on my iPhone, and when they change, the songs
| automatically sync to my Apple Watch.
| mulderc wrote:
| That was myexperience also but haven't done that in some
| time.
| pmcjones wrote:
| You can sync your own MP3s using iTunes Match -- it's about
| $25/year. https://support.apple.com/en-us/108935
| infecto wrote:
| Incredible. I never heard of this paid feature before.
| mulderc wrote:
| I use streaming now but historically I had no issues
| syncing music and playlists to my watch.
| hi_hi wrote:
| There's this really old product that Apple use to sell for
| all your music. I think it was the youPod or something...
| rogerkirkness wrote:
| Apparently Steve's posthumous roadmap focused on the idea
| that personal computers get 'smaller and closer to you' as
| time goes on. So the idea that an Apple Watch and AirPods
| could be all you need when travelling, etc. follows that
| premise.
| a9a wrote:
| I would love to do this.. if only there were Uber/Lyft
| options on the watch
| mulderc wrote:
| There were back in the day. Apple really screwed up the
| development story for the watch as the initial watches just
| couldn't really do apps. They should have waiting for
| Series 3 before introducing apps and they still could do a
| lot to make things easier for devs.
| grahamj wrote:
| Lame the Watch still can't be managed with an iPad or else
| you could go all in on this idea.
| mulderc wrote:
| more that is is lame the watch isn't just an fully
| independent device yet.
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| I find it incredible that I can't make calls on my iPad. I
| would just carry an iPad in my back pack if people could call
| me on it.
| walterbell wrote:
| VOIP clients work on iPad.
| doublepg23 wrote:
| If I was approaching the dumb phone thing I'd try something
| similar to this video - "dumbify" Home Screen app for iOS,
| setting as gray scale, screen time limits, etc.
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVb1lLniEw
| xattt wrote:
| Apple keeps a lot of owners addicted to their phones by making
| Watch support exclusive to iPhone.
|
| I'd love to go dumbphone and a Watch synced to an iPad at home,
| but this is not an option.
| thorncorona wrote:
| What keeps them addicted to their watch?
|
| I've never found a compelling use case where I'd willingly
| buy another Apple watch.
| eightysixfour wrote:
| Keeps them addicted to their phone by not allowing them to
| just go watch only.
| Aeolun wrote:
| My best use case for the apple watch is I can keep it on
| _everywhere_. If I constantly have to think of the thing
| it'll get annoying enough I want to get rid of it.
| xattt wrote:
| Exercise tracking is a biggie for me.
|
| Integration with Fitness on Apple TV is extremely slick for
| HIIT and yoga.
|
| Also, the third-party Intervals Pro app has been my go-to
| running app. I started with Apple+Nike since 2010 and a
| Fitbit Charge in 2015, but nothing let me customize my
| workouts as much as the Intervals app.
| dartharva wrote:
| Do you really _need_ it though, or is it some sort of
| placebo effect in place? I can bet most professional
| athletes don 't use such devices.
| tomr75 wrote:
| you'd bet wrong. A lot of them use chest strap/HR
| variability monitors to guide training/track illness +
| fitness
| gcanyon wrote:
| I own a Concept 2 rowing machine; I have detailed stats on
| every workout going back 19 years, and for the last 7 years
| or so I have heart rate info as well.
| theshackleford wrote:
| I have cognitive issues from treatments following an
| incomplete spinal cord injury and autoimmune problems.
| Managing my care is complex, with multiple drugs,
| appointments, symptom tracking, and scans required by a
| large team of specialists. My short-term memory is poor,
| though my long-term memory remains sharp. The drugs and
| chronic pain make it even harder to stay focused and manage
| these responsibilities.
|
| My watch is essential in helping me keep up. It's on my
| wrist from the moment I wake till the moment I sleep,
| ensuring I miss nothing important. I've restricted
| notifications to medical needs and use it to log symptoms
| or adverse effects immediately, preventing forgetfulness
| which was a problem previously.
|
| Outside of my unique use case, many people I know with a
| watch have stopped carrying a phone altogether. They find
| it freeing, as the watch gives them essential tools without
| the distraction of a larger device. Its limitations are a
| benefit, allowing them to focus on the moment and carry
| less.
| grahamj wrote:
| Super cool the Watch can be so beneficial to someone like
| yourself with actual important use cases, unlike most of
| us (read: me) where it's mostly gravy.
|
| RE not carrying a phone, I think what mostly makes them
| something people need to detox from is notifications and
| social media fomo. Take those away and it's just a pocket
| computer.
|
| For that reason I've leaned heavily into Focus modes and
| limiting notifications and have left most social media.
| Those have really helped a lot with being present.
| gxs wrote:
| You can probably get fairly close to do this by using an
| apple watch with a sim card
|
| I used to leave the house with just my watch and it was great
| - I could read and send text messages, email, even take calls
| on my watch and have everything synced up to my phone at
| home. You can even download music to it and pair it to your
| airpods.
|
| The missing piece here is just having a dumb phone - somehow
| I think that with some ingenuity you might be able to
| something that serves 80% of your needs here or something
| like that.
| xattt wrote:
| My closest solution would be to piggyback off my partner's
| iPhone using family watch pairing, and use my own
| dumbphone.
| eightysixfour wrote:
| It is the smallest, most annoying things that keep Apple
| Watch from being an actual phone killer for me - like
| getting an Uber.
| gcanyon wrote:
| I wonder -- does the iPhone have to be on a service plan? Or
| is wifi good enough?
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Wifi is good enough. Actually, might not even need WiFi.
| randmeerkat wrote:
| >...addicted to their phones by making Watch support
| exclusive to iPhone.
|
| Buy a Garmin watch, battery life measured in weeks, and
| you'll never have to re-enter your pin again because it moved
| on your wrist. You'll still get great fitness tracking though
| and also notifications if you choose to sync them.
| wisenull wrote:
| I would love to buy a Garmin watch but Garmin Pay doesn't
| support a lot of banks yet. It's a shame because their
| battery life is on a league of its own.
| eightysixfour wrote:
| > and you'll never have to re-enter your pin again because
| it moved on your wrist.
|
| Is this a problem for others? I've never had it happen to
| me.
| bamboozled wrote:
| You want an Apple Watch imo, I often leave my phone behind now,
| I'm contactable without distractions.
| mouse_ wrote:
| Back in the day when Android was KitKat and full of
| possibilities, I ran a Nexus 7 2nd gen and a cheap phone from
| my carrier. I'm not sure if it was enlightenment but it was
| closer to it than today, where I carry around a smartphone
| that's too big to use comfortably but still too small to use
| frequently for media.
| pyromaker wrote:
| I didn't get the pun......
| j_bum wrote:
| Maybe they pronounce "many" as "mini"?
| devilbunny wrote:
| many/mini are very similar if not identical in casual US
| English pronunciation.
| ein0p wrote:
| A lot of people (myself included) want that, which is exactly
| why it's not going to happen - Apple would much rather see you
| pay twice as much for an iPhone Pro Max
| qnleigh wrote:
| A pro of foldables is that you mostly use the outer screen, but
| the battery is big enough to handle the inner screen. So you
| get excellent battery life for daily use. If you only use the
| inner screen for reading in dark mode the battery life is also
| excellent.
|
| Also at least for the Galaxy Fold, when folded the phone is
| narrow enough to use one-handed and hold securely.
| lnenad wrote:
| I've gotten myself a Honor Magic V3 and I am blown away by
| how good this phone is. Screen quality, battery life, camera.
| For me this is the holy trinity. Unfortunately now I can
| never go back to normal phones. I am waiting for the Huawei
| Mate XT second gen and making the switch.
| blackoil wrote:
| An alternate setup is LTE smartwatch, tws and foldable phones.
| You can do almost all dumbphone tasks and some more from the
| watch. It can be relatively distraction free, and you can leave
| phone at home for swimming/jogging/workouts. Foldable will give
| you decent camera and tablet when you need it and can be kept
| in bag or far enough.
| evrenesat wrote:
| I use the Unihertz Jelly Star alongside my iPhone 14 pro. It's
| a 3" android 14 phone running on a powerful soc with 8gb ram
| and 256gb storage. I have the same sim on both phones but I no
| longer carry the iPhone with me, I use it at home as an iPad
| micro.
|
| The fingerprint reader isn't accurate enough so I use pattern
| lock for NFC payments. Texting on a 3" screen isn't much fun
| either, but I don't like texting anyway. At least it manages to
| run FUTO voice keyboard (whisper based) fast enough.
| c120 wrote:
| The combination of an Iphone Mini and an Ipad Mini really works
| well - alas apple decided that they no longer will make
| reasonably sized phones...
| threetonesun wrote:
| I often feel this way as well, but given the phone has replaced
| GPS in my car and my camera, I end up wanting newer stuff to
| keep those up to date. I've given up on Apple producing a magic
| device just for me, and accept that what we've got is pretty
| amazing considering the alternative is a backpack of devices to
| carry around.
| vjulian wrote:
| I have an older (but not old) Mini, and I find it almost
| unusable, as screen elements don't scale up. For example, Safari
| browser buttons are stupidly small. Is that still an issue with
| the Mini?
| rgreekguy wrote:
| I am not sure I understand what you mean by the scaling issues,
| so, I guess, no? I have the 6th generation. The problem I have
| (and I do not see getting improved, somehow) is that
| applications do not care for it. Many times I have to turn it
| to landscape for some more room to fit everything. Most
| applications feel better on landscape, but then you lose
| vertical space. Affinity Photo 1 is very guilty of that, having
| buttons overlay each other on the left.
| vjulian wrote:
| Elements such as buttons and scroll bars are too small for my
| big fingers and relative to the size of the device.
| dialup_sounds wrote:
| The mini display is 326 PPI vs 264 PPI for larger iPads, but
| the same scale factor so things will always be smaller.
| (iPhones with even higher PPI use a 3x scale.)
|
| That said, you can embiggen things like Safari browser buttons
| under Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Larger
| Text.
| glhaynes wrote:
| I'd also suggest playing with the setting here if you just
| want everything to be scaled up a bit: Settings > Display &
| Brightness > Display Zoom > Larger Text.
| vjulian wrote:
| Thank you. Larger text does just that and in some cases makes
| buttons even more difficult to use. My eyes are fine, and my
| fingers are big...unfortunately rendering the Mini mainly
| useless for me.
| rconti wrote:
| Yes. The mini feels like an abandoned product. In landscape
| mode, the keyboard takes more than half of the screen. UI
| elements are routinely covered up in various apps. For example,
| in Flighty, the flights "drawer" cannot be hidden in the way it
| can on the iPhone. This is probably fine in a larger iPad, but
| on the Mini, it covers more than half the screen, meaning it
| HIDES THE AIRPLANE ICON of the flight you're tracking. Apple
| Maps has a similar behavior with its drawer in portrait mode,
| but, IIRC, at least that one can be hidden.
|
| I've owned 8 or 10 tablets in my life and never gotten along
| with any of them. The Mini6 is my latest experiment, and it's
| my favorite, but I still find myself rarely using it.
| kyleee wrote:
| I wish Steve was still alive to have a rampage through the
| org and humiliate and fire all those responsible for this
| type of BS
| mckn1ght wrote:
| Have you tried using the floating keyboard? I exclusively use
| it on my iPad not only for saving the screen real estate but
| also because I can swype on it (even though I can touch type
| on the big on-screen keyboard just fine; I still find it more
| convenient to swype with one of my thumbs, or the pencil
| https://support.apple.com/en-us/111789
| rconti wrote:
| Thanks! I haven't -- or, at least, not in a long time. Wow,
| the UX is terrible! I accidentally first dragged my
| kyeboard into split mode before reading the instructions.
| Then I've managed to get it into floating but it was hard
| to re-dock, and the first few times i tried to move it
| anywhere, i got some unintended feature enabled. Yikes.
|
| I'll have to remember to use it next time i'm bothered by
| it covering some control. I still haven't made friends with
| swype, but I do use it occasionally.
| mlajtos wrote:
| iPad mini 2024 with Pencil Pro and Math Notes is going to
| revolutionize math education.
| p00dles wrote:
| What is math notes?
| stephanerangaya wrote:
| Math Notes calculator allows users to type or write out
| mathematical expressions and see them solved in their own
| handwriting
|
| https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/16/24194423/math-notes-
| ipad-...
| hggigg wrote:
| Mathematician here. No it's really not. Having used it
| extensively it craps out all the time, fails to parse things
| properly, doesn't understand anything other than a very narrow
| undefined subset of anything that needs to be done and
| generally makes things harder.
|
| It sure _looks_ like it would though.
|
| Noteful and a competent calculator with CAS functionality on
| the other hand might be a different outcome.
| bbor wrote:
| To be fair, "math education" usually refers to the millions
| that learn arithmetic, algebra, and geometry every year, not
| the (tens of?) thousands that take part graduate level
| courses in "real" mathematics. Although I'm curious; do you
| think it would handle basic calculus (aka as taught in Calc
| survey courses up through multivariate)? In other words: does
| it know how to evaluate integrals and derivatives? Because
| I'd guess more people take those classes than all their
| descendants combined.
|
| Either way, and on a more fundamental note: I'm a little
| dubious that "completing equations" is a net benefit for math
| education. It really seems like a small nice-to-have-
| available affordance tacked on to the real game changer: a
| computer that can adaptively challenge a student and
| competently answer clarifying questions without making it too
| easy. Y'know, just AGI stuff lol
|
| As we've all seen from ChatGPT's impact on English courses
| already, this all will require a fundamental rethink of how
| we teach children and adolescents. Homework is a bandaid over
| capitalist failings, and it's beginning to peel...
| hggigg wrote:
| It has no idea about calculus at all. Not only that it's a
| numeric not a symbolic calculator. So taking it even
| further back to basics, if you do sqrt(12) it should really
| crap out 2+sqrt(3) [as a surd] but it just dumps the
| evaluation out. My PS10 Casio can handle that better.
|
| As for education, you don't really need a calculator. We
| don't really use them that much. Pen, paper, ears.
|
| As for computers, programmed randomised questions with
| deterministic answers and documented steps to solve the
| problems are the right way. LLMs can't do that even if they
| look like they can. _some_ universities actually have tools
| which generate those. Those are truly enlightening as you
| can see the reasoning properly.
| rty32 wrote:
| I don't know which bubble you are in, but $499 + $129 for
| devices at MSRP is not going to revolutionize anything,
| especially just for maths.
|
| A $200 Chromebook can do 10x. Guess what, that's exactly why
| schools buy Chromebooks.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| > revolutionize math education
|
| math education is not likely going to be "revolutionized" with
| technology or that would have already happened
| wasabinator wrote:
| Ironic how one demonstrates a questionable grasp on maths if
| they think an expensive iDevice will revolutionise maths
| education for the masses.
| kccqzy wrote:
| That's like saying giving students a better calculator
| revolutionizes math education.
|
| Even giving students full access to Mathematica (which I think
| is worthwhile BTW) won't revolutionize it.
| zitterbewegung wrote:
| Bump up from 64 GB default to 128 GB is nice.
| lucb1e wrote:
| It certainly was, like eight years ago when I got the bigger SD
| card for my phone
|
| At this point, the only word that can be applied to it is
| "overdue" for anything who uses it beyond a thin client for
| server-side storage or a streaming service
| Gigachad wrote:
| Uh, I'd be willing to bet that almost all ipad mini users use
| cloud storage and streaming services. That's an extremely
| common use case.
| RIMR wrote:
| All of this looks good, but if they want to retain trust with
| artists, the last thing they should be doing is integrating
| generative AI tools into their art programs.
|
| Creatives are getting more and more frustrated with the AI tools
| showing up in places like Windows or in Photoshop. For the first
| time ever I am meeting career artists and designers who are
| actively looking to add non-AI alternatives to their usual
| toolchains because they feel betrayed by the addition of
| generative AI.
|
| Apple is asking to lose the trust of a major market segment by
| charging forward with this stuff. You would think that the
| backlash to their "Crush!" commercial would have been an eye-
| opening moment for them about what Artists actually expect from
| them...
| matrix2003 wrote:
| > Creatives are getting more and more frustrated with the AI
| tools showing up in places like Windows or in Photoshop.
|
| I would be careful about bias here. The loudest people are
| often the most unhappy. I have several graphic design friends
| who have fully embraced integrating AI into their workflows.
| WhyNotHugo wrote:
| It's not like artists have a choice. They've been abused by
| Adobe and similar organisations for decades now, and remain
| locked in their siloes.
|
| Sure, in theory they could switch to Linux with Krita and Gimp
| or something, but every time I've heard artists chime in on
| this, they claim that the software is to immature or lacks
| features that they need. I _wish_ they could switch to open
| source software, but they've been putting up with Adobe's abuse
| for a long time now. This new development is unlikely to change
| anything.
|
| And just to be clear: I wish I was wrong here. I wish they
| could and did move to open source tooling.
| metadat wrote:
| Why is the bezel so thick? A 1-2cm bezel around the entire "mini"
| device seems a bit odd, given that the iPad Mini is a relatively
| tiny device and phones these days come with a 1-2mm bezel (10x
| less useless border).
|
| Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what
| might be the motivation?
|
| _Edit:_
|
| Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it
| looks like the bezel could be half as thick and work well. Sorry
| to be such a stickler, I am genuinely curious if Apple is chasing
| better margins, the best feasible UX, or something else.
|
| Could it be that since this device is _only $650 USD_ , it isn't
| expensive enough to warrant a premium display? (Like the iPhone
| SE https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/)
|
| If so, I wish there was a fancier "Pro" model with premium
| components. IIRC, I paid $1000 for my first iPad, it was the
| first super high-resolution one back in 2012. Perhaps there
| aren't enough customers who are sensitive to wasted screen real
| estate on an 8-inch device.. and FWIW I have noticed a constant
| stream of toddlers pacified by iPad Minis whenever I'm at Costco.
| spython wrote:
| I think it's so that the fingers holding the device don't
| obstruct the view/ don't get counted as touch event.
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| I'd be surprised if thumb rejection/palm rejection isn't
| close to perfect by iPadOS 18.
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| Doesn't work well for me. Thumb gets too close to bottom,
| and now scrolling becomes zooming. All the time.
| browningstreet wrote:
| I'm forever triggering the camera app, while locking the
| device, on my iPhone 15 pro max. Every day, regularly.
| tomcam wrote:
| Same.
| dankwizard wrote:
| How small are your hands?
| onion2k wrote:
| Consider the possibility that the person here is not an
| adult Western man.
| happymellon wrote:
| On top of that, just consider that there may be someone
| with a different body shape.
|
| There is a really weird vibe that some folks put out
| trying to body shame over the internet.
| sph wrote:
| "The phone is fine, it's your genetics that are the
| problem here"
| dankwizard wrote:
| I could have phrased it better but I was trying to be
| succinct.
|
| Smaller hands are likely to struggle to one hand control
| the Pro Max.
| happymellon wrote:
| Honestly I'm not sure you could have phrased it worse!
|
| > Smaller hands are likely to struggle to one hand
| control the Pro Max.
|
| Couldn't agree more.
| browningstreet wrote:
| Funny responses, but I'd say my hands are big.
| eastbound wrote:
| I click on ads by mistake on my iPhone 15 pro max. Even
| the iPhone SE was better, with its bottom bezel. Thumb
| detection on iOS is very bad.
| amelius wrote:
| You're holding it wrong.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| How is that possible? The camera icon is in the bottom
| left corner of the screen and you use the physical lock
| button on the side to lock the iPhone.
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| You can also trigger the camera by swiping right-to-left
| on the lock screen or from the notification pull-down.
| xattt wrote:
| Don't shame the man with the extra digit projecting from
| his thenar eminence.
| saagarjha wrote:
| If you reach for the top left corner your thumb will
| naturally come into contact with the bottom right corner
| of the screen, assuming you are holding the device one-
| handed (in your right hand).
| oktoberpaard wrote:
| I'm trying to picture this, but I can't. If I hold and
| lock my iPhone with my right hand, I press the lock
| button with my thumb. If I try to reach the top left
| corner, I either do that with my left thumb (mostly) or
| index finger (sometimes), or with my right thumb (very
| awkward movement on a Pro Max). In none of these cases my
| right thumb comes in contact with the screen or even
| close to it. Maybe because I use the backside of my pinky
| finger to lock the phone in place.
| pests wrote:
| I think he meant your palm hits the screen, which does
| happen to me sometimes.
|
| The right hand large stretch with the thumb into the top
| left area - the pad below your thumb on your palm can
| make contact with the screen.
| corobo wrote:
| I'm always managing to tap the top of the phone resulting
| in either
|
| - opening some app that recently used location services
|
| Or worse
|
| - making whatever app I'm in jump to the top of its page
| with no way to get back to where I was short of doing a
| load of scrolling
| jayd16 wrote:
| Well its not that they couldn't do it but the iPad has
| always had bezels and the apps are expecting bezels not
| thumb rejection. They could be but they're not built with
| an on screen safe area.
| dhosek wrote:
| When I'm on boardgamearena in bed with my iPad pro on my
| belly, I often trigger touch events at the bottom of the
| screen from the folds of my shirt.
| caconym_ wrote:
| somewhere to grab it without putting your fingers on the
| screen?
| arcanemachiner wrote:
| > Why is the bezel so thick?
|
| How else were they supposed to make room for the extra 4GB of
| RAM required to support Apple Intelligence?
| hankman86 wrote:
| So that they can release a successor model with thinner bezels.
|
| In reality this may be to (1) to keep costs down and (2) to
| distance the iPad mini from the more premium iPhone Pro Max.
|
| All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for?
| iPads are mostly used for media consumption, no matter how
| Apple wants to position them. Not sure why this necessitates AI
| hardware, but perhaps people really start using iPads for
| productivity/creativity workloads that can make use of "Apple
| Intelligence" (the silliest moniker since "Spatial Computing"
| and "Retina Display").
|
| The comparatively small difference in screen real estate
| between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini makes the latter
| rather pointless. Perhaps they are targeting people with a
| smaller iPhone who want another device to watch YouTube. What
| could have made a difference is a folding display. I think the
| iPad mini would have been the ideal candidate for that.
| notatoad wrote:
| >Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware
|
| New Siri and iOS notification summaries seem like it should
| be enough of a reason for apple to want to ship an iPad with
| ai hardware.
| troupo wrote:
| > for apple to want to ship an iPad with ai hardware.
|
| You mean the dedicated neural chip they've been gushing
| over for half a decade saying how it's an amazing dedicated
| chip for exactly this kind of work?
| notatoad wrote:
| I mean they've made a product decision that they're going
| to limit new Siri to their new chips and 16GB of ram.
|
| Regardless of how justified that decision is, or how
| truthful the marketing about their old chip was, they
| need an iPad mini that fits their stated requirements.
| davidee wrote:
| Lots of aircraft pilots love the iPad mini. Ideal sized tool
| for having strapped to a yoke, or to one's knee.
| rainsford wrote:
| I plan on buying one for exactly that use-case. I have a
| mini 5 that's showing its age and doesn't have enough
| storage (downloading flying charts takes up a surprising
| amount of space) and I didn't want to upgrade to the mini 6
| considering how long in the tooth it was getting. The mini
| 7 isn't some massive improvement, but it's improvement
| enough in a very good niche for flying.
|
| Edit: For the non-pilots reading this, it's also worth
| noting that the most popular flying app by far for general
| aviation at least, ForeFlight, is iOS only. So your choices
| are generally small iPad or big iPad, and a lot of people
| don't like big iPad in a small airplane cockpit.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Three size options now, the mini at 8.3"; regular, Air,
| and Pro at 11"; Air and Pro at 13"
| SomeHacker44 wrote:
| I hate that ForeFlight does not run on Android. It is is
| keeping me from getting rid of my last overpriced, closed,
| proprietary Apple device. Not that Jeppesen (Boeing) has a
| good record on any of that either.
| d3nj4l wrote:
| > All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is
| for?
|
| You know, you could just read all the other comments on this
| post talking about why they like the mini.
| dmix wrote:
| People like to spend 1 minute looking at a product and
| pretend they've done a market analysis by only looking at
| their own consumption patterns or those of their very close
| group of people around them combined with some stereotypes
| like "people use tablets for media consumption" (and never
| do anything else on them in between).
| wslh wrote:
| > All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is
| for?
|
| I know children who study with their iPad minis and prefer
| them over notebooks. This isn't necessarily a pro-Apple
| statement, but rather a reflection on how different user
| groups may engage with devices in ways that are cognitively
| distinct from what we discuss here on HN.
|
| There are also comments here about specific use cases, like
| pilots using tools such as ForeFlight. While this kind of
| usage may not drive overall demand, it highlights how certain
| groups find unique value in the iPad mini for their
| specialized needs.
| theshackleford wrote:
| > The comparatively small difference in screen real estate
| between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini
|
| Due to the aspect ratios, there are significant differences
| in viewable area. It is not a "small" difference at all. Once
| you add in the ability to deal with specific aspect ratio
| content, the difference becomes even larger.
|
| https://displaywars.com/6,9-inch-d%7B19,5x9%7D-vs-8,3-inch-d.
| ..
|
| > All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is
| for?
|
| Not for everyone I would suggest. But I have people in my
| circle who will be very pleased. As they use a Mini as their
| phone/portable machine out of the house. They have little
| keyboard cases and use VOIP services for communication.
|
| > but perhaps people really start using iPads for
| productivity/creativity workloads
|
| Part of the appeal for most people is the seamless usage of
| features and functionalities across their sweet of products.
| People expect to be able to pick up where they left of, and
| have access to the same functionality as they largely do on
| the rest of the devices.
|
| It's nice even if something is _not_ your primary
| productivity device, to be able to execute or perform things
| on them if that 's what happens to be in front of you at the
| time.
| whynotminot wrote:
| > All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is
| for?
|
| Who is any iPad for? They're nice screens attached to good
| processors.
|
| I bring mine to work to either read or watch videos over my
| lunch break. Don't want the full size of a regular iPad.
| Don't want to use my work laptop with my personal service
| accounts like YouTube, Netflix, kindle, etc.
|
| And while the Mini is small, it's still a substantial screen
| size increase over using my regular sized iPhone for that
| purpose.
| brandonmenc wrote:
| > Perhaps they are targeting people with a smaller iPhone who
| want another device to watch YouTube.
|
| Hi, it me.
|
| I have an iPhone 13 Mini that will have to be pried from my
| cold dead hands because it's about as big a phone as I'm
| willing to carry (I'd still rather have the 5s form factor.)
|
| I also have an iPad Mini that supplements it perfectly.
|
| Really don't want anything larger, because I like to handle
| it with one hand while walking or I'm propping it up in a
| tight space like when I'm watching a how-to video while doing
| a home-improvement project or working on my car.
|
| There is absolutely no way I'd buy a phone as gigantic as a
| Max.
|
| Honestly not sure how people walk around with those things.
| theshackleford wrote:
| > There is absolutely no way I'd buy a phone as gigantic as
| a Max.
|
| It's not gigantic for everyone to be fair. I'm 6'1'' with
| largish hands I suppose and the Max is a single hand device
| for me. Small devices look comical in my hands. I was one
| of those very well served by Apple starting to make larger
| devices, and it's when I shifted over from Android full
| time to iOS devices. (I was very fond of the early
| generation Galaxy Note devices prior to that.)
|
| > Honestly not sure how people walk around with those
| things.
|
| The same way as I do anything of that size. It goes in my
| pocket or i'm holding it?
|
| I get where you are coming from those because my partner
| has a much smaller 13 line device and we've done some basic
| testing and like you, shifting to a Max sized
| device...well, its just not very likely. My phone looks
| absolutely jumbo once you put it in her teeny hands.
| brandonmenc wrote:
| I mean yeah, of course I _know_ how people hold and walk
| around with these devices. I was being silly.
|
| Everything you said about large hands rings true for
| small hands and the mini form factor, but instead of just
| looking silly it's a hinderance.
|
| We need both form factors. What I don't think we need is
| the weird middle size (current regular iPhone size), but
| I'm sure that's probably the one most people actually
| want if they could only pick one.
| lukev wrote:
| I dunno, I'm 6'2" with corresponding hand size and I'm in
| the "won't go larger than a 13 mini" camp.
|
| I think preference probably plays a bigger role than
| size. I see a lot of tiny people manhandling pros and
| maxes too.
| theshackleford wrote:
| For most people, preference likely plays a bigger role,
| but for me, it's all about the size of my hands and
| fingers. I find smaller devices uncomfortable for
| anything beyond basic phone use. As a computing device
| where touch is the primary interaction, I prefer
| something larger, which is why I stuck with Android when
| Apple wasn't making bigger phones. It's also about being
| able to have it further from my face.
|
| At the time, many Apple users claimed no one wanted
| larger phones and that Apple's size was perfect. I
| disagreed and voted with my wallet. For me, there are no
| downsides to a larger device--I can still use it one-
| handed, it fits in my pockets, and going smaller wouldn't
| make it any more portable or usable.
|
| For others, it's the opposite. A smaller phone may be
| easier to handle or fit better in pockets or everyday
| carry. So I agree there should be different sizes to meet
| different needs, including smaller options if the market
| supports them. Among my circle, smaller phones tend to be
| the preference for those who primarily use their device
| for calls and texts. Anything beyond that, like browsing,
| moves to a tablet. These people are generally in their
| mid-30s to mid-40s.
|
| Interestingly, the 'non-techy' people I know with larger
| phones say it's because they use a popsocket or view
| their phone more as a computer than a phone. They're
| willing to trade off size for a bigger screen. Many of
| them don't own another personal computing device, aside
| from maybe a tablet. They're typically in their 20s to
| 30s.
|
| I feel like I'm part of a shrinking group that still uses
| both a laptop and a desktop as my primary computing
| environments.
| thefroh wrote:
| for me, my desktop and laptop are the main go-to. the
| mobile is an extra device with different, more specific
| use cases
|
| and so I've been a little disappointed with how these
| devices keep getting bigger and bigger. I was pretty
| happy with the size of the Pixel 3
|
| I think I like to be able to access the whole screen
| comfortably with one hand, not fumbling it about. easy to
| manipulate, easy to pocket. the Pixel 8 shrunk a bit over
| its predecessors so I nabbed that, and it's probably at
| or just over the limit for me, size wise
| sph wrote:
| There are dozens of us big humans whose ideal form factor
| is the 12/13 mini. Dozens!
|
| Why do I need to carry around a huge screen to text, make
| phone calls and take pictures?
| trwhite wrote:
| I'm 6'7" (with corresponding hand size) and prefer the
| mini too
| hbs18 wrote:
| I'm 5'8" and have no problem at all using a Max one-
| handed (provided it's not in a case). Is it difficult for
| you to shift the grip on your phone while you're holding
| it?
| stevage wrote:
| If I didn't have to spend the $, I'd totally have a small
| phone for when I leave the house, and a bigger device like
| this for when I'm at home.
| 0x6c6f6c wrote:
| I really dislike larger phones. I had tried out iOS with
| the iPhone X and it'd been a few years. Then Apple killed
| the Mini the year I was going to give them a go
| steveBK123 wrote:
| > who this is for?
|
| I dunno, every Boomer guy I know with disposable income seems
| to have settled into Big iPad, iPad mini and iPhone as their
| compute stack.
|
| I think for them it's like desk/table computer (Big iPad),
| sofa computer (iPad mini), out&about computer (iPhone).
|
| I know guys like this who haven't even really owned a
| computer-computer (MacBook or otherwise) for 5+ years.
| Tagbert wrote:
| " The comparatively small difference in screen real estate
| between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini makes the latter
| rather pointless."
|
| While the linear diagonal size of the screens are not so much
| different, the area of the iPad Mini is significantly larger.
| I ran the numbers a month or so on it when someone was making
| the same claim of equivalence. I don't recall the specifics
| now but I think the iPad screen had at least 60% more area.
| That is significant.
|
| " Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware"
|
| It would be hard for Apple to put in a chipset now that
| didn't support AI. All of their SOCs for the past 10 years
| have had neural processors. This A17 Pro has 8GB of RAM. All
| of their recent SOCs have the 8GB of RAM needed to run AI.
| Why not?
| wvenable wrote:
| Screens come in standard sizes. It might simply be that they
| can't fit all the parts inside, including the battery, without
| making the device bigger than the standard screen size and so
| you get bezels. Bigger devices have more room in them and many
| of the parts are just the same size.
| Retr0id wrote:
| Are "standard" screen sizes really something you have to care
| about at Apple-scale?
| wvenable wrote:
| Yes, LCDs are made as giant sheets that are cut into
| panels. They will want to cut those sheets in a way to
| ensure the least amount of waste as possible. They are not
| making them completely arbitrary sizes.
| jdietrich wrote:
| That giant sheet of mother glass is 2940mm x 3370mm.
| Cutting efficiency dictates the size of TVs, but it's
| basically irrelevant for phone or tablet displays.
| wvenable wrote:
| Each block or piece of mother glass can be used for
| dozens or even hundreds of LCDs but it seems obvious that
| there are only so many ways you can effectively slice it.
|
| While manufacturers can theoretically produce custom-
| sized LCD panels, it's more economical and efficient to
| stick to standard sizes that align with their production
| lines. Producing custom-sized panels can involve
| retooling. Choosing a standard size also ensures greater
| availability.
|
| For a low cost product, I don't see why Apple would mess
| around with LCD sizes.
|
| Still, this is just a guess. Only Apple knows for sure.
| nfriedly wrote:
| No. Screen sizes come in whatever size Apple orders them
| in.
| chemmail wrote:
| Ipad Mini is such a good size. My friend lent me his Mini2 when
| he borrowed money from me and used it for a good 6 months i
| think and it was marvelous. I didn't use it all that much but
| later got an Air 2 and used it maybe slightly less. Then I got
| an iPad Pro 11" but only used it for a while and don't really
| touch it too much anymore. I feel maybe an ipad mini I would
| use more. But the jelly scroll really has me urked and I kinda
| want OLED on it, so there is definitely room for a Pro version
| if they wish, but the iPads are overwhelming with 5 sizes
| already.
| 1oooqooq wrote:
| > overwhelming with 5 sizes already.
|
| without jobs it's just a matter of time they go back to being
| "just an expensive dell" like before
| dullcrisp wrote:
| What makes you say that?
| imchillyb wrote:
| Not OP, but...
|
| That very behavior was troublesome for Apple in the past,
| twice.
|
| Two times Steve Jobs swooped in and saved Apple from
| Dell-ifying themselves. Twice.
|
| Since Job's demise, Apple has relentlessly marched toward
| Dellification once more. The immediate revenue is
| tantalizing, it's the dilution of ones own market that
| ends up killing the golden goose, and the eggs they lay.
| fhdsgbbcaA wrote:
| Don't worry, locking you into their services will make it
| impossible to leave!
|
| The one overarching success of the Tim Cook era is
| ruthlessly pursuing consumer lock in at all costs.
| exitb wrote:
| There are a lot of customers locked in the ecosystem,
| sure. The question is whether the ecosystem is still able
| to attract new customers, as it once was.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Not sure. But is it possible that the reason could be for
| such a statement - just open eyes, ears, and more
| importantly an open mind and immunity from iFandom?
|
| I mean please just look at their product pages on
| apple.com.
| JimDabell wrote:
| Steve Jobs has been dead for 13 years. Whatever was going
| to happen without him already has.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| It can take a long time for corporate culture to rot. It
| took Google about 15-20 years to fully reach their
| villain arc.
|
| Currently they have Tim Cook at the helm whi is good at
| continuing Job's vision as the two worked very close for
| a long time, so the big question is what happens after
| Cook leaves.
| pests wrote:
| > It took Google about 15-20 years to fully reach their
| villain arc.
|
| Google has only been around for 26 years, Gmail for 20. I
| agree they have reached the villain arc but I disagree
| with the timeline.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| >Why is the bezel so thick?
|
| So you have somewhere to actually hold the bloody thing.
|
| Bezelless gadgets look great in photos but are impractical as
| fuck to handle.
| 1oooqooq wrote:
| because the target audience of mini ipads are babies.
| askafriend wrote:
| It's likely they're repurposing slightly older display
| inventory to preserve margins, recoup R&D costs and to bring
| overall component costs lower since this is meant to be a
| cheaper device.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| It's about 9mm which is not that thick. It really does make a
| difference in how you can hold it one-handed and without
| accidentally touching the screen. Most phones and thin-bezel
| tablets need to be held very carefully.
| nfriedly wrote:
| Maybe I'm weird, but I don't mind having a bit of bezel around
| the screen. It makes the device easier to grab without extra
| touches or fingerprints on the screen. It's also a good place
| for cameras and front-facing speakers. (Although I don't think
| any iPad has front facing speakers.)
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I only ever saw one tablet with front facing speakers and I
| am to this way still baffled why I only saw one altogether,
| it seems like the most sensible design for a tablet.
| fhdsgbbcaA wrote:
| Honestly with a tablet I prefer some bezel so I can hold it
| without touching the screen. I have both a 9th Gen iPad and an
| M2 iPad Pro, I use the "inferior" one almost exclusively.
| dartharva wrote:
| My thoughts exactly, when I first saw it I thought I had landed
| on a launch article from 2014
| Tagbert wrote:
| Bezels are useful for devices that you can't just hold in the
| flat of your hand. Provides a place to hold on to.
|
| Also, this is an LCD screen. The substrate is rigid. An OLED,
| like on the iPhone is on a flexible substrate and can be bent
| at the edges to connect to the circuit board. That lets you put
| the screen closer to the edge.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| I have had phones and tablets with IPS displays with way
| thinner bezels so that argument is void.
| CraigJPerry wrote:
| Only on 3 sides I think though? You still need an edge
| connector on one side (i think)
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Yeah, but even on the "thicker" side they're stil way
| thinner than the current iPad Minis.
| nsonha wrote:
| Which argument? Pretty obvious the bezel is that way for
| usability (so you can hold the device). That other devices
| exist with thin bezel does not prove anything.
| maven29 wrote:
| The technique you mention is very outdated and not used
| anymore. Current thin-bezel OLED panels (even on flexible
| substrate OLED) use a packaging technique which can be used
| in the exactly same way on rigid LCD panels. Folding the
| substrate with driver bonded is expensive, affects yields,
| and doesn't even get you the thinnest bezels
|
| There are no LCD panels in recent phones that use COG
| packaging (chip-on-glass) for the display driver and run into
| the limitation you mentioned. Almost all current LCD phones
| will utitlize COF (chip-on-film) where the TFT array is
| attached to a flex-pcb which also contains the display
| driver.
|
| You can achieve bezels just as thin or thinner using this
| technique, and Apple has used the technique you mention only
| once, COF is used even on flexible OLED panels.
| simjnd wrote:
| The iPad mini is a second-class product in Apple's lineup. It
| rarely gets updated, and if you use one you will see how poorly
| UI is scaled. I was really hyped up and really wanted one, but
| after using one I gave up on the idea. The 60 Hz LCD screen is
| also among the worst screen of all the products Apple currently
| sells.
| skybrian wrote:
| Wow, so negative! I use mine heavily, including right now.
| Mostly with Chrome and Google apps, though, along with
| Kindle. Also, Genshin Impact to play games with the kid.
|
| Best tablet I've owned. Genshin Impact uses a huge amount of
| space, though.
| Temporary_31337 wrote:
| Why don't you want to use a bigger iPad? I play, read
| graphic novels and watch videos on the larger iPad as more
| screen estate is better.
| arghwhat wrote:
| Why don't you want to use a _bigger_ screen? I play and
| watch videos on a 75" TV as more screen estate is better.
|
| Bigger is not always better, but it's almost always
| costlier and less convenient.
| skybrian wrote:
| My wife has one and it seems too big and heavy for most
| things I do. Good for sheet music, though.
| 2024user wrote:
| I have an iPad mini and it's pretty much perfect as it is for
| my use case. I use it as a device I can pick up and watch
| videos while on the go or doing an activity (cooking etc.),
| show videos to my kid and as a device I can travel with.
|
| The only complaint I have with it is that it only supports
| one profile but I think that applies to all ipads
| gwervc wrote:
| I'm at my second iPad mini, and finally bought a new Apple
| Pencil. I'm still angry about the pencil battery not being
| replaceable, and the iPad is the device I use the least
| among laptop and phone, but there's something really nice
| about the mini form factor.
|
| My single use case is reading research papers. I also do
| that on pc but the ipad mini is great to take a paper and
| read it entirely without distractions and with the ability
| to take handwritten notes. That was a nice combo with the
| lab couch when I was in PhD. Also the fact it can be held
| in one hand, especially nice when presenting or walking.
| torginus wrote:
| that's a pity. I had a regular iPad, I used it for document
| browsing and regular reading. I eventually gave up on it
| because it was just too big and too heavy and required two
| hands to hold it.
|
| I really wanted something that'more Kindle-sized, which the
| iPad mini seems to be, which is the perfect form factor for
| one handed usability.
| tuatoru wrote:
| The device can have a bigger battery with a thick bezel.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Can have or does have?
| donatj wrote:
| I upgraded to an M2 Air from an iPad 7 a couple months ago, My
| biggest complaint apart from the worse battery life is that
| there is no way to safely hold the thing one handed while
| walking while not be interacting with the screen.
|
| Give me somewhere to hold the thing!
| janandonly wrote:
| I recently purchased the M1 iPad Air and was also shocked that
| the bezel was a lot thicker than my much older IPad Air 2.
|
| I don't know why we put up with this regression in technology.
| stetrain wrote:
| > Could it be that since this device is only $650 USD
|
| It's $499 USD. And if it's like the previous gen it will be on
| sale for $399 in a year or so.
| burnte wrote:
| I own it, the bezels can't really be much thinner on the small
| device, they're well sized. They don't look as big on the real
| thing in person.
| soapdog wrote:
| I have it. The bezels make it easier to hold. I like them,
| never understood the appeal of borderless devices to be honest
| tigereyeTO wrote:
| Bezels are good. Bezels are GREAT. They give you something to
| hold without interacting with the screen.
|
| If you've ever used a device with edge-to-edge, you know you
| have to hold it like a diva with 10-inch nails--it is neither
| comfortable nor effective.
|
| In my opinion, the industry's trend towards smaller-and-smaller
| bezels has made it MORE difficult to interact with them than
| the advances gained by having a few millimeters larger screens.
|
| Leave the bezels alone, bud
| rowanG077 wrote:
| What's wrong with virtual bezels? Seems to me to be the best
| of both worlds. People who can't handle an ipad without
| bezels can just configure whatever they want.
| lupusreal wrote:
| I didn't know that was a thing. Granted, I don't own one...
| but my grandmother does and would benefit from this
| feature. I suspect the people who need it the most are the
| least likely to know it's an option. With real bezels they
| don't need to.
| yunohn wrote:
| AFAIK it's not a thing on my iPad. Maybe parent was
| expressing a desired feature?
| tcdent wrote:
| Makes me think of my MacBook Air. The only part of the screen
| with fingerprints on it is over the front facing camera.
| KoolKat23 wrote:
| I have 12 inch Honor Mate Pad 9 and I think the bezels are
| smaller than this thing. The tablet cost EUR250 and is great
| value for money. I never have any issues with the thin bezel
| ever. It's a tablet after all. You don't hold it and control it
| with one hand. Even to do so on an 8 inch tablet would be a
| stretch.
|
| It's probably just that though. If the bezels were smaller, the
| device would be too close to an iPhone size and cannibalize
| sales.
| nathanasmith wrote:
| I don't know but I have a Galaxy Fold and I hate the tiny
| bezels it has in tablet mode. Trying not to touch the screen
| while holding it adds unnecessary cognitive load and just makes
| it feel fiddly. I also have a previous gen iPad mini and I love
| the thicker bezels.
| nicbou wrote:
| Since Apple Intelligence won't be available in the EU, this is a
| very underwhelming refresh.
|
| I do love my iPad Mini to bits though. I use mine purely to read,
| sketch and take notes. It does not receive any notifications. I
| carry it almost everywhere I go.
| jdswain wrote:
| I got an 8" Android tablet instead of an iPad mini. What I
| wanted, was to have something really compact that I could use
| emacs on, mainly for org-roam, notes and writing in general, not
| for writing code. It works well with termux, I don't think there
| is a good way to have a local version of emacs on iOS.
|
| The keyboard is the most important part really (although I did
| want a good screen too). I'm on my second keyboard, they are only
| about $30 each, which is better than iPad prices. The first one
| wasn't so convenient to unfold quickly, the new one is working
| really well.
| Aeolun wrote:
| Can I just get a a flagship iPhone sized like an iPhone SE
| please?
| quesera wrote:
| Rumor has it that the SE 4 will be released in early 2025.
|
| It will have the new flagship A18 processor and adequate RAM
| for Apple Intelligence.
|
| Unfortunately, it will be larger (6.1") than the SE 3 (4.7").
| Probably with a notch and Face ID as well. :(
| grandpoobah wrote:
| Tim Cook here - go fuck yourself.
| Etheryte wrote:
| My theory is that this will only ever happen if battery
| technology improves enough that they can get the same battery
| life as current flagship models, but in that smaller form
| factor. People may say they don't care about battery life or
| charging, but if a year or two in you have to charge every
| night, it is an inconvenience, even if not front and center. I
| suspect this is one of the main reasons they don't want to do
| that right now, they don't want to create this image of oh
| damn, my Apple device is out of battery again.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| That page uses a lot of words to say,
|
| _" We added more RAM because there's no way we could make an LLM
| useful in only 4GB. While we were there, we updated the CPU.
| Might as well.(We grabbed the A17 Pro because we were in a
| rush.)"_
| hankman86 wrote:
| One would think that they avoid the embarrassment of releasing
| another device before their AI features are even available. But
| no.
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| Remember folks, this is a US$3Trillion company and they can't
| get their flagship products shipped.
|
| Something is very wrong at Apple.
| thr0waway001 wrote:
| Never had an iPad but I think I will buy this one.
| ratedgene wrote:
| I'm curious about users who do use something similar. I have an
| iPad pro, but I find either a notebook and pen, or butcher paper
| and pen to be far superior for capturing anything.
|
| Can someone tell me how they're increasing their creative
| productivity with these outside of making illustrations?
|
| I have a ton of ideas that I organize and illustrate, but I can't
| give up my pen/paper as I haven't found the killer combo yet.
| dmix wrote:
| > but I find either a notebook and pen, or butcher paper and
| pen to be far superior for capturing anything.
|
| I have phases where I convince myself this is true, in between
| switching back to a note taking app (TickTick last few yrs) and
| every time I go back it's because it a) has total historical
| recall + a search box when I want to find something and b) I
| already carry my phone everywhere, like the grocery store, or
| I'm on my laptop for work.
|
| Papers only true benefit is focus and "zen" stuff.
| CubsFan1060 wrote:
| Using Goodnotes (because it has pretty good search) and
| https://shop.astropad.com/products/rock-paper-pencil, made it a
| much more enjoyable experience for me.
|
| Of course, I'm also pretty bad at taking notes in general, so I
| don't use it nearly as much as I should.
| DennisP wrote:
| I'm wondering how advanced it can get with the math. If it had
| capabilities like decent symbolic math software, that'd be pretty
| interesting.
| gcanyon wrote:
| If it were possible to do so, I would possibly buy this as my new
| "phone": - I almost never hold my phone to my
| ear - I don't need the dual-lens features of the new
| iPhones - Standby battery life seems up to the challenge
| - Apple doesn't offer the iPhone Mini anymore, which is what I'm
| carrying now. If I'm going bigger, why not actually go BIGger.
|
| Things holding me back: - Not actually sure
| about the battery life - As far as I know you can't
| transfer your actual phone line to a Mini
| deepfriedchokes wrote:
| Google Voice?
| dayvid wrote:
| Samsung has a Galaxy fold which I'm interested in buying as a
| second device. I'd imagine Apple has to have something similar
| as a prototype as it seems like a no brainer
| lannisterstark wrote:
| Problem with current folds is that I want the screen to
| open/extend. I don't want to open YET ANOTHER LARGER screen.
| This makes most sense tbf. You want a phone to extend into a
| tablet, and actually have the first screen still be usable.
| It cuts down cost and waste of always having at least one
| screen always off.
|
| Original Huawei mate x and the new trifold does what I'd
| like. But then again... Huawei so can't in US lol.
| walterbell wrote:
| iPad Mini cellular is data-only. PSTN calls and SMS require a
| VOIP client or separate dumbphone. E2EE audio/video are
| available in several messaging apps, including FaceTime, making
| good use of the larger screen.
|
| TouchID is good for fast and reliable unlock.
| jonpurdy wrote:
| I've been using data-only SIMs (and now eSIMS) since 2015.
| Bria voip client with voip.ms providing DIDs. Works
| wonderfully well and I can highly recommend going voip-only
| if you can.
|
| The thing holding me back from going iPad Mini instead of
| iPhone was Apple Watch needs the iPhone (for some reason you
| can't use an iPad or Mac). Not an issue anymore. But now I
| rely on the amazing 16 Pro camera (with Halide shooting RAW)
| to mostly replace my mirrorless RX1, so yet another reason to
| stay iPhone.
| nsteel wrote:
| Does voip.ms work with 2FA services e.g. those used by
| banks? I have heard it doesn't and that's a dealbreaker for
| me.
| jonpurdy wrote:
| It works for most of them, but not all. And sometimes a
| service originally supports it, but then changes and
| doesn't, which means you need to get in touch with them
| to fix it.
|
| I now have a Tello eSIM ($5/mo) that I use just for the
| 3-4 services that don't support voip.ms. And only turn it
| on when I need it.
| ks2048 wrote:
| Last last point makes me wonder: why have phone numbers at all?
| thrdbndndn wrote:
| There are still lots of services requiring a phone number (at
| registering or using it for 2FA). No one likes it but that's
| the reality.
|
| And no, virtual numbers like Google Voice are often (but not
| always) blocked.
| ks2048 wrote:
| I can see why people want a phone number now. I was
| thinking more about why society doesn't move away from
| phone numbers (for me, it's been a hastle to be linked to a
| carrier and a country)
| joha4270 wrote:
| What better system can you think off? That allows calling
| the doctor, a restaurant, or that friend-of-a-friend who
| is selling a tractor? Without requiring people self-host
| a brunch of infrastructure (I like self-hosting stuff,
| most people wouldn't)
|
| Also, inertia
| cujo wrote:
| i think the problem isn't the phone number, but the
| special hardware/vendor lock in that is required for it.
| if you travel a lot or live in a country where it is just
| easy to cross borders as a part of life, it quickly
| becomes obvious that being tethered to a regional
| provider for your phone number is a problem.
|
| you end up paying ridiculous roaming fees to keep your
| number active in the other country, or you lose any
| ability for people to contact you by phone. it's
| incredibly frustrating when voip is so close, but not the
| 100% solution. couple that with providers still charging
| ridiculous fees to call numbers in other countries and it
| gets even worse.
| L3viathan wrote:
| > if you [] live in a country where it is just easy to
| cross borders as a part of life, [] providers still
| charging ridiculous fees
|
| What places other than the EU does the "easy to cross
| borders as a part of life" apply to?
| cujo wrote:
| why does it matter? but to answer: literally near any
| bordering country.
| initplus wrote:
| You'll likely run into frustrating app availability issues.
| Releasing iPhone apps on iPad is not universally done. (looking
| at you WhatsApp)
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| > dual-lens features of the new iPhones
|
| Dual? I guess some of the iPhone 16 models might have 7-8 of
| them by now. (I have not checked the whole 16 lineup yet, they
| have not bumped up the lens count, or have they?). My old 14
| has 2 though. Yup, just checked - it's two. I guess it must be
| like two plane engines. If one is broken the other will work (I
| also guess/hope that's how plane engines work).
|
| > iPhone Mini anymore, which is what I'm carrying now
|
| I tried. The battery was atrocious. To make the battery last
| till early or kinda late evening I had to actively not use the
| phone, so I finally gave in and moved to the smallest iPhablet
| i.e iPhone 14 at that time (actually there was 15 as well but I
| guess the only difference for me between the two was the price
| difference). It's been said iPhone Mini 13 was the last of the
| small phone lineage and there will be no more.
| wildekek wrote:
| > I almost never hold my phone to my ear
|
| Please tell me why people do this.
| freedomben wrote:
| When you around other people (so speaker phone is
| inappropriate) and don't have earbuds.
| dangoodmanUT wrote:
| BEZEL
| llIIllIIllIIl wrote:
| This Apple Intelligence starts reminding about Tesla Autopilot. I
| hope they will not hire people on the other side of the world to
| click buttons on your phone.
| yreg wrote:
| That's not how Autopilot works.
| paul7986 wrote:
| Apple Intelligence more like Apple Idiotic as ...
|
| - Today the summary it gave to an iMessage was "Going to sleep,
| talk to you tomorrow." The girl and I scheduled a video chat date
| and she said nothing of the sort rather, "Getting ready for
| tomorrow (along with some other stuff), talk to you soon."
|
| - Siri is still stupid especially compared to ChatGPT on the same
| iPhone. I use ChatGPT.. speak to it to count my calories
| throughout the day at the various places i eat at (Chipolte,
| Cava, Panera, etc) which it knows calories for everything,
| calculates and keeps track so i add later add my dinner calorie
| count .. it even knows how many calories i had on Saturday (still
| recalls it and speaks it upon me asking). Siri via Apple
| Intelligence is still the old stupid Siri one pony trick which
| you still can only speak to it once vs. ChatGPT have a
| conversation with.
|
| What was this Apple Intelligence supposed to do and how was it
| supposed to be better? I want a ChatGPT phone and by Microsoft
| sure their Windows Phone was nice!
| jojobas wrote:
| There's intelligence, and there's Apple intelligence.
| mbirth wrote:
| Now turn off the Internet connection and try talking to ChatGPT
| again...
| stanislavb wrote:
| What I want Apple to introduce is a multi-user option for the
| iPad. Then, I'm buying one of them for the family. We just don't
| want (or need) an iPad per person.
| xyz-x wrote:
| Too bad Apple hasn't released Apple AI at all; why bother with
| press releases featuring it? (EU)
| seanvelasco wrote:
| i would've considered this if it had slimmer bezels or a 120 Hz
| display.
|
| the current iPad Mini is laggy compared to other iPads, and i'm
| not sure why. an iPhone with the same processor is not laggy at
| all. it becomes obvious when scrolling or opening and closing
| apps.
| alexellisuk wrote:
| If Apple's listening.. a 120Hz would have sold this for me. I'm
| still on a 2018 iPad Pro because the upgrade isn't worth the
| enormous cost including a basic keyboard and pencil, and the only
| device that has a 120Hz drawing experience is that iPad Pro.
|
| For anyone who thinks the pencil on a 60Hz screen is "great", you
| need to try it on an iPad Pro next time you're in the apple
| store. You'll see the difference between the "ink" trailing and
| lagging, and actually drawing as you move the nib.
| Jiahang wrote:
| i use it like Kindle
| imposter wrote:
| I find it hilarious that Apple is selling the new iphones with AI
| features that only works on the new devices because they
| apparently don't require the cloud, and instead run locally.
|
| Apple's logic:- saving private photos on the cloud is good for
| privacy, while doing AI computation on the cloud is somehow bad
| for it ?
| blahgeek wrote:
| The logic is sound. Storage can be end-to-end encrypted, but it
| cannot be used for computation.
| nox101 wrote:
| I've heard through the grapevine that Apple is having trouble
| making Apple Intelligence not give lots of bad or wrong
| advice/suggestions/etc... (same as most LLMs).
|
| I would be amazing to me (as in "get out the popcorn") if Apple
| decided not to ship Apple Intelligence and came out with a public
| statement saying LLM tech is not ready or is a dead end and
| effectively implying that other LLM companies are selling snake
| oil.
|
| https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/10/llms-cant-perform-genuine...
| BillyTheKing wrote:
| People just have less tolerance for errors using apple
| products.. that doesn't mean that other LLM companies sell
| snake-oil, people just have a higher error tolerance for them
| and are learning to work 'with' those LLMs
| cujo wrote:
| working with llms as part of my day job and i wouldn't fault
| them one bit. the errors and reliability issues are not
| overblown.
| zombot wrote:
| Selling machine learning stuff as "intelligence" raises false
| expectations and is ultimately fraud. I can't wait for this whole
| overblown hype to crash and burn.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| I dunno, it could be construed as a marketing phrase well
| enough, not unlike other technologies they have - True Tone,
| Cinema, etc. I mean the Apple TV isn't a TV.
|
| Autopilot is more henious I think because it was actually
| marketed as autopilot.
| yreg wrote:
| Autopilot literally does what it means
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| That's an Apple thing. They developed this habit (if not
| addiction) after bringing features to their devices very late,
| sometimes a decade later than their competitors. They thought
| it was better to call those basic features with fancy multi
| word names with (tm) symbols at the end and that resonates with
| their fan base in perfect harmony. So I think the habit stuck.
| yreg wrote:
| Oh yes, because the other companies don't call machine
| learning 'intelligence' ;)
| spogbiper wrote:
| high dpi = "Retina"
|
| high refresh rate = "Promotion"
|
| vibrating phone = "Taptic Engine"
|
| there are probably more. and calling AR "spatial computing"
| seems similar though I don't think its completely a made up
| marketing term
| TheDong wrote:
| And the "magic mouse" is actually just powered by electricity.
|
| "Intelligence", like magic, has vague and diffuse enough
| meaning that there's basically no chance of it being actual
| fraud.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| Apple will make smart light bulb and sell it as a revolutionary
| intelligent light control system. If it weren't for their brand
| reputation, they'd look like one of the worst scam companies in
| tech, right down to the spelling mistakes in their descriptions
| (for some reason they don't like to use definite or indefinite
| articles for their products which always make their marketing
| seem like a bad machine translation to me).
| jarsin wrote:
| I just saw an AI ad with Keanu Reeves in it swinging a sword at
| drones. I wonder how much they paid him to be in such a stupid
| commercial?
|
| Gave me the dotcom vibes big time.
| SilverBirch wrote:
| I think that ship has sailed when the "smart" phone category
| was created.
| sbob wrote:
| They call their support personnel "geniuses" - what else would
| you expect :)
| c120 wrote:
| Looks like this is eSIM only - which is a show stopper. I'll have
| to research if they release a SIM mobile option somewhere on
| earth, if not, I'll probably stick with my current Mini 5 a bit
| longer (or pick up a discounted Mini 6 for the wait)
| Etheryte wrote:
| Why would that be a show stopper? eSIM is incredibly widely
| available (see [0] and [1]), you have a number of choices in
| most countries these days.
|
| [0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/101569
|
| [1] https://esim-world.com/
| corywright wrote:
| For me, it's a showstopper because Google Fi does not yet
| support eSIMs for their data-only SIMs.
| freedomben wrote:
| _Someone_ had to have the courage to drop the physical SIM slot
| lynguist wrote:
| I want this but why no OLED? :'(
|
| iPhone went OLED in 2017. And they didn't OLED the poor iPad mini
| (the best iPad) in a newly released model in 2024!? :'(
| stonecharioteer wrote:
| It sucks that Samsung doesn't have a 7 inch Galaxy S10 Tablet. I
| would buy that, and I own a tab S9 Ultra. Samsung, make a 7 inch
| tablet with a Qualcomm chip and AMOLED screen please! I'll take
| even an 8 inch screen.
| janandonly wrote:
| In the EU , I don't see any mentioning of "intelligence". Just a
| "new iPad mini"
| brainzap wrote:
| I bought an ipad mini second hand this year, it is so fun. I use
| it heavily for note taking with pencil, audio notes and watching
| youtube.
| fullstackchris wrote:
| Can they stop with the iPad crap? I just want to see the macbook
| pro M4 stuff!
| eravulgaris wrote:
| Oh nice. Just in time for a barely upgraded Siri!
| styczen wrote:
| stil without terminal , brew and cc
| freedomben wrote:
| Why would you want this on an appliance? Would you expect
| terminal or brew on your toaster?
| gregoriol wrote:
| What is going on with Apple's ratio on the iPads: all the
| original models had 4/3, then iPad Air 4 and iPad 10 got ~4.3/3,
| then iPad mini 6 got ~4.5/3
|
| What could be Apple's rationale on this? why so many slightly
| different formats? and why those, they add black bars or crop to
| most normal content... pictures from the camera for example are
| still in 4/3 so they are cropped in Photos, videos are in 16/9 so
| they still have black bars, ...
| freedomben wrote:
| This is especially amusing to me because back in the day when
| iOS developers would shit on Android, they almost all said
| (verbatim) "fragmentation" as the reason why iOS was great and
| Android sucked. "On Android you have a bunch of different
| screen sizes to deal with so it's hard to make a nice app. On
| iOS it's all standardized and simple. That is the Apple Way and
| the whole ecosystem is consistent like that which makes it a
| joy to develop for and use."
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