The nice thing about a 7" tablet vs a full size one is that, at least for me, I was able to pop my Asus Nexus into my pocket if I wanted to move rooms and had to carry other stuff. It's much more portable than the bigger variants.

I'm a little miffed about the iPad4 though. Faster processor is nice, but why not bother waiting until their usual date and add a few new bells and whistles to it? Or are they thinking something along the lines of, "If we release it, people will buy it, even if they just bought an iPad3 a couple months ago." The only real reason why I can see them releasing this is to justify the new lightning connector and better compatability throughout their entire product range.

Oh, and once again, the one Apple product I'm even half tempted to buy, the Mac Pro, gets shafted.

So will the iPad 5 come out a year from now, or in like 5 months when it's actually a year from when the 3 was released. Maybe they just want to cash in even more with Xmas coming up who knows.

Either way i'm still not sold on tablets until I can do everything I can with a laptop on it.

They're not laptops. People that want their tablet to do the same thing as their laptop don't understand the tablet market as it is now. What you're thinking wont happen until laptops are gone altogether and there's just tablets. Tablets are by far superior for media consumption and regular browsing. They're just fun toys, not for productivity unless you're a teacher or a doctor. People need to stop thinking "I can't do this thing I can do on my laptop on my tablet."

Tablets are big smartphones, NOT laptops without keyboards.
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Ronin, while I agree that's pretty much how they started (at least recently), the introduction of Win8 is starting to blur that line. Hell, I know a few people that use various tablets with keyboard docking stations in place of laptops for taking notes during lectures. I think within a couple years, you'll see units like that start replacing laptops more and more.

I used to own a tablet (the Asus Nexus, as I mentioned earlier), but sold it a few weeks later. It's a neat toy, but that's exactly all it was: a toy. It did nothing that my phone couldn't do, and not enough to replace my laptop. It was the perfect size to hold and browse the internet, but I just couldn't justify keeping it. My friend's kids used it to play games more than I used it for everything else combined. Don't get me wrong; I realize there are plenty of professional uses for a tablet, but as they currently stand -- pre Win8, at least -- I just don't see a need for them.

The problem with Android tablets is that theres not enough support for them in the dev world

Win8 tablets look very good and I can't wait to try it. The desktop version tho, rather... odd

I think you're wrong. That might be all that they are right now but within a few years if they aren't doing most tasks that a laptop can do then i'd be very surprised.
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i wonder if the shortage of screens has anything to do with these releases (samsung isnt selling screens anymore to apple) or wonder if they will affect the releases

The iPad mini is a shrunk iPad2.

But the specs at today's standard is laughable. 1024x768?!? and they dare to claim it got 35% more viewing area than a Nexus7?!? LOL. Last time I checked, 1280x800>1024x768.

I was thinking of buying an iPad mini for my mom, but I guess I'm gonna get a refurb iPad3 instead.

^ it's cause it's 0.9" larger...still hard to believe 35% though

I think they're going by 7.9" diagonal > 7" diagonal.

Because area is defined as physical dimension, not number of pixels.

Omg new iMacs.
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Lol, because Apple says it?

This is what Apple use to represent retina.

http://images.apple.com/macbook-pro/..._screen_2x.jpg

Now, shouldn't apple make one for iPad mini showing that they display less than Nexus? :fullofwin:

You sound like someone still clinging to their clamshell phone, saying "a phone is just a phone, you don't need it to do anything else."

It's time to move away from the uselessness of tablets.

Try next week

Surface by Microsoft, Pre-Order the New Windows Tablet

Also, if you're wondering why Apple put the A6 in the ipad early, there's your answer.

If people want their tablets to do more, then they can't complain when they're expensive. You can't have it both ways. The reason tablets don't do as much is because they're cheap.

The $999 (I think) Surface works like a laptop but I believe the RT just does tablet apps, not full Windows stuff. THAT MAKES SENSE...because it's a grand. People that want their $300 device to do the same things as their laptops are dreaming.

That was a rumor. Samsung released an official statement saying so.

The Nexus is 16:9 while the iPad is 4:3. This is why the area (in square inches) is 35% larger.

No, Surface is powered by Tegra 3 (T30) which blows compared to the A5X. Hell, a T30 is only slightly faster than an A5 in CPU and gets beat in GPU. The Surface is also using a "normal" screen instead of a high-PPI one like the iPad. They're not even in the same category of tablet.

More likely it's to go against the Google Nexus 10 with the 2560x1600 display (rumored). Samsung will probably put the Exynos 5 in that tablet as the Mali-604 could drive that many pixels. That would be a device comparable to the iPad 4 moreso than a Surface.


Still, the most interesting thing is what they did to the A6X to get double the graphics performance. A5X already has 4 cores. Simply over-clocking the A5X cores is not enough to get double the performance. So the question is, what GPU is the A6X using?

RT tablets will also work like a laptop and will run Windows Apps. MS made it so that if you develop for Metro then you can target your App to both ARM and x86 versions of Win 8 and it will run the same on both.

So RT doesn't just run tablet Apps.

The problem is RT will not run existing x86 software, so you're going to have to wait for developers to make versions for RT. This is easy to do from scratch, but not easy to take an existing program and port it over.

i think the asus transformer prime and the Sony Vaio Duo 11 are the closest thing to a hybrid laptop/tablet right now

Surface is.

its not out yet.

the thing about surface is that i find it to be a little weird... imagine sitting in those big lecture halls at school with a tiny ass table... and you are trying to take notes with the surface. The keyboard won't have enough space to full extend... and it'll be so easy to knock over the screen part.. an upside-down laptop

Tablet computing is on the rise and it chokes me up to say that Google and all the Android devs need to step up their game to optimize apps for tablet use.

regardless, most people that buy tablets for the sake of having one probably uses it the most in the washroom at home and/or just before going to bed

take a look at the reviews on Surface.... Gizmodo just made one and they pretty much hate it.

Windows RT is like iOS theres a lot of stuff that doesn't work. Why iOS works is people know its different the OSX while RT looks similar thus is its downfall

The Gizmodo review is terrible. They don't even test booth keyboards that you can get and most of the complaints are about the apps and the touch cover keyboard. Home many apps do you expect for a brand new OS? Other sites like Anandtech and engadget like the keyboards.


engadget

The Anandtech review is much more professional.

AnandTech - Microsoft Surface Review



Engadget review

Microsoft Surface with Windows RT review -- Engadget

gizmodo h8 it because gizmodo is still hanging off of apples nutsacks as they always have been

verge gave it a 7/10
it was a rumor that samsung was stopping sales out of spite and samsung released a statement saying "no it was because the margins aren't there"

that's the last i read unless they released another

:fulloffuck:

In the automobile sense, that's like saying you're not sold on crossover SUV's / CUV's until it can do everything a "traditional" SUV can.

Does everyone need SUV like a Hummer or Jeep where you can roam through forests seamlessly? No.
Is the additional of 4WD/AWD and raised ground clearance enough for some people? Yes.
Is the additional trunk space of a BMW X3/X5 enough for a Richmond C-Lai to store her groceries, as opposed to a sedan? Yes.

Does every tablet owner buy a tablet intended for serious gaming? No.
Do some tablet owners prefer the portability of a tablet for social media / light email and web browsing? Yes.

The current tablets that's on the market is not intended to replace your 17" gaming laptop. At least not within the next few years. It's suitable for some people, and not so suitable for some. Just like how not everyone needs a Hummer H2 or Cadillac Escalade in their garage....and prefer an entry level SUV like the X3, CR-V, Tiguan, Explorer, etc.