Apple iPad and related items (part 2)

[elbows]

Yeah, and Im not saying that particular implementation is going to be any good. But in general I do like the idea that certain equipment that would benefit from a larger display and additional horsepower, but is precluded from having those things because of costs and a low limit to what price that segment of the market can sell hardware for these days, can make use of the ipad. It will take some clever application of these ideas to make really compelling products. If there was a version of the NI Maschine for iPad rather than computer then I think that may work out quite well for example.

Im not a huge fan o little touchscreen faders & knobs myself, great for messing around on the road with some ipad music apps but not so hot for realtime performance. What I think does work really well if using the iPad like a glorified Korg Kaos Pad or 2 (or 4), it works real sweet as an xy controller as we'd expect it should.

Cost wise, I dont think the iPad justifies its price if you are just using it for one or two music apps, but if you use lots of apps and have other hardware that works well with it then it can be a great bit of studio or performance kit.

Returning to the speculation about ipad2 screen resolution, I was thinking more about the 1600x1200 type resolutions and the various pros and cons. Im not really sure if this is the year for it or not, though I do expect it will happen eventually. Then I got to thinking about what it would do to the competition in to 10"-ish tablet market,how if the price is right this high res stuff could really be used by Apple to market their product as superior. But then I started wondering just how many competitors they will really have in the 10ish inch tablet market in 2011, a lot of the cool tablets Ive heard about recently have had quite different screen sizes. I think that Motorola one is a 10 incher, what others are there that Ive forgotten about?

 

[8den]

Anyone use an iPad for any Web Development?

Are there decent text editors for editing css and html? Is ftp possible? This feels like a silly question...but what about databases?

(I know I should buy a new laptop/netbook but I want an iPad to twiddle the knobs on Rebirth and other music apps)

I spent two hours trying to get a ftp client to download to my director's ipad. I wanted to get it to view downloaded QTs and could not get it to view them. It would download them fine, I just could not find a way to view them.

 

[Crispy]

Acer had one I think.

 

[Crispy]

Pass the ketchup, my words taste rather bland without it

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/15/ipad-2-screen-likely-to-have-2048x1536-resolution/

Graphics for a 2048x1536 screen are included in the latest version of iBooks, including a 1536px background image.
That is what the kids these days call sick

 

[editor]

Some web pages are going to look awfully small on a screen res that high, no? And unless the font size is boosted, onscreen text is going to be tiny.

 

[stupid dogbot]

All I want is a purchase date, dammit!

 

[Crispy]

Some web pages are going to look awfully small on a screen res that high, no? And unless the font size is boosted, onscreen text is going to be tiny.

Of course not - they wont' be going for a 1:1 pixel to website ratio - just like they didn't for the iphone 4 screen. Everything will look exactly the same size, just sharper.

 

[editor]

Of course not - they wont' be going for a 1:1 pixel to website ratio - just like they didn't for the iphone 4 screen. Everything will look exactly the same size, just sharper.

So its still only going to effectively be 1024 pixels wide?

 

[Crispy]

So its still only going to effectively be 1024 pixels wide?

No, it's going to be a shade over 8 inches wide. Pixels are just what you display things with. A button for a finger to tap is always going to be a certain physical size, but that button could be 20 pixels wide (massive pixels) or 200 pixels wide (tiny pixels). A higher resolution screen means that everything looks sharper. The PC way of thinking about it (more pixels = more space) is backwards thinking.

HD video and photos (photos imported via the built-in SD slot, if the rumours are true) will look fantastic on such a sharp screen

 

[FridgeMagnet]

This sort of thing - which is definitely coming, not just on mobile devices either, monitors are getting higher pixel density as well - has the added issue that bitmap graphics will look increasingly clunky compared to nice smooth rendered stuff on the rest of the page. Not that the world is suddenly going to start using SVG though.

 

[editor]

No, it's going to be a shade over 8 inches wide. Pixels are just what you display things with. A button for a finger to tap is always going to be a certain physical size, but that button could be 20 pixels wide (massive pixels) or 200 pixels wide (tiny pixels). A higher resolution screen means that everything looks sharper. The PC way of thinking about it (more pixels = more space) is backwards thinking.

I was thinking more about what benefits there might be in viewing web site graphics on such a high res screen seeing as they are all predominately 72dpi JPGs.

 

[Crispy]

Indeed. Although some badly made webpages have long been using the "size" <img> attributes to make large images smaller - those will actually look better on this screen

 

[editor]

Indeed. Although some badly made webpages have long been using the "size" <img> attributes to make large images smaller - those will actually look better on this screen

I've seen some webpages that have resized full size 5MP digital images into tiny 200 pixel wide graphics resulting in bafflingly long loading times for users (and for some users, the browser bombing out).

 

[Crispy]

I was thinking more about what benefits there might be in viewing web site graphics on such a high res screen seeing as they are all predominately 72dpi JPGs.

I think that we're beginning to see the end for 72dpi as the web standard. The ipad2 screen will be ~250dpi. Hopefully PC screens will follow the same trend

 

[elbows]

It is going to seem a tad weird to me if the ipad has a higher resolution than my 17" laptop, but Im not complaining.

 

[editor]

I think that we're beginning to see the end for 72dpi as the web standard. The ipad2 screen will be ~250dpi. Hopefully PC screens will follow the same trend

That'll be bad news for folks on slow connections and capped data plans.

 

[Crispy]

That'll be bad news for folks on slow connections and capped data plans.

Mobile internet gets rammed through proxies anyway - or at least it does on Orange - image quality is noticeably lower on jpgs

 

[editor]

Mobile internet gets rammed through proxies anyway - or at least it does on Orange - image quality is noticeably lower on jpgs

I was referring to people on home connections, although Apple's rumoured big shiny screen isn't going to be quite as much fun when you're looking at websites on the move. O2 - along with all other networks AFAIK - also do the nasty image compression stuff.

 

[Crispy]

Hmm, well home connections are not such a big deal - images don't make up a large proportion of traffic compared to music and video

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Pass the ketchup, my words taste rather bland without it

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/15/ipad-2-screen-likely-to-have-2048x1536-resolution/

Graphics for a 2048x1536 screen are included in the latest version of iBooks, including a 1536px background image.
That is what the kids these days call sick

Nice! Was looking a mate's iPhone 4 the other night have to say the screen is bloody nice, very crisp, very good for photos.

 

[Chairman Meow]

I'm seriously considering getting an Ipad, they are just so pretty. Do I need 3G? I don't think I do as I'll be using it mainly at home, but I don't know much about it TBH.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I would (and did) get 3G. Part of the point of it is the constant, always-on, transparent internet connection - lots of apps rely in this for full functionality. If you can't take it outside of certain areas and use it fully, you're losing out on a large amount of the experience.

 

[Crispy]

I got the 3G version, but I've paid for maybe 20 days of access since launch. I wouldn't miss it, but it's been nice to have.

 

[Kanda]

I use 3G all the time. I always carry it with me.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Can you tether an iPad to an Android phone set up as a wi-fi hotspot?

 

[Crispy]

Can you tether an iPad to an Android phone set up as a wi-fi hotspot?

If your android phone can share its connection via wifi, then anything (including an ipad) can connect to it, yes.

 

[mwgdrwg]

If your android phone can share its connection via wifi, then anything (including an ipad) can connect to it, yes.

Ta, thought it was a silly question but just wanted to check that there wasn't some unseen Apple block on this type of thing to try and tempt me to buy the 3g iPad.

 

[editor]

Can you tether an iPad to an Android phone set up as a wi-fi hotspot?

If your handset is running Android 2.2 you can - rather nattily - set up a Wi-Fi hotspot on it and then let other devices like laptops, iPads etc connect to it just like they would with any regular Wi-Fi network.

It's very very useful and dead easy to set up.

 

[handyman121]

Do you need to set up an account with a phone provider and pay for a 3g connection ?

 

[Crispy]

You do that in the shop. I have an O2 sim in mine, with the option of 1 or 30 day access periods, which you pay as you go on the iPad itself. Very simple, no contract.