Apple iPad HD / iPad 3

[Nintendo]

I've never had an iPad 1 or 2, but I'm tempted to get this 3rd iteration.


Apple Will Release The Next iPad, A ‘Graphics Powerhouse,’ On March 16

The new iPad is here. Apple's new tablet computer has arrived and its ultra-sharp 2048 x 1536 pixel Retina display is enough to set it apart from anyone else. It's almost like looking at a glossy magazine page.

It also has much more powerful guts, with a much faster processor, graphics and more memory. And it's 4G ready.


Retina display


The Retina display looks gorgeous. The screen has a 264 pixels per inch. That's a total 3.1 million pixels in a full color IPS screen. The image color seems a lot better too. They say it has 44 percent more saturation than the IPS technology they were using previously.


Apple claims that it is still a Retina display because, when you held it at a normal distance, you just can't see the pixels. That distance is 15 inches. For the iPhone, which has a smaller screen, it is 10 inches. I can't wait to test this thing with all my comics (I wonder if Marvel will have to upload them all again).


They demonstrated it running a new version of Autodesk Sketchbook Ink, a new painting app that is vector-based and resolution independent. It actually seems like you are painting on a real page.

http://gizmodo.com/5891158/new-ipad-hd-the-third-generation

The above is just a fan-made concept art.

 

[-Tj-]

If the rumored specs are true, then the hardware is certainly appealing, but I simply don't buy anything in Apple's ecosystem. Also, no game controls! :lol:

 

[gadgetoid]

Pretty much a sure-buy for me. Thanks to the Pandora I can survive without a jailbroken iPad.


All iPads in the family then get shuffled down one place, and my wife moans about not getting the newest one... because Dinner Dash obviously needs a quad-core CPU and Retina display....

 

[DaMummy]

wth? when did the 2nd one come out? jeez....

 

[EvilDragon]

Oh boy... I'm getting tired of texts like these:


"More processing power could help the new tablet compete with Nintendo's 3DS and Sony's recently-released PlayStation Vita in the realm of portable gaming."


Casual gaming (probably more profitable these days, as so many people just buy a cheap quick game on their phones) has nothing to do at all with handheld-gaming (you could probably call it hardcore-gaming).


The normal customer of a Vita or 3DS expects games like Zelda, Mario, Uncharted, or whatever and wants real gaming controls, while most tablet and smartphone gamers expect casual games that can be picked up and played for a few minutes. There are not many "serious" games on tablets on smartphones... there've been a few, but checking the internet, you can see a lot of guys actually moaning that most of them can't be played without proper gaming controls.


More and more of my friends who started playing games on the tables are now going back to the classic stuff as well, as they want to have proper controls.


In my opinion, there will be two markets in portable gaming:


Gaming handhelds with proper controls for serious games and / or hardcore-gamers.


And tables / smartphones for casual gamers (unless they get proper controls AND most of the games start to support these controls).


Both markets can live happily together, though the casual gaming market will probably be more profitable as the potential customer base (everyone who owns a smartphone) is way bigger and the casual games are way cheaper to produce.

 

[elwing]

they could have over 9000 core, I still wouldn't touch them...

 

[TDT]

I have an ipad 2. I've also had an ipad 1 (which I gave to my father). I do like the ipads, but at this point I don't see a reason to upgrade to anything newer, regardless of how much their specs improve. There's just so much that these on-screen controls can do.


I will say the ipads are nice though. I use mine, mostly, for reading research paper and technical material. The PDF annotation is, by far, one of the best features. While on the bus, reading and annotating without the need for a full laptop (yeah...I have mac laptops too...) is helpful. At this point, I'm trying to pull myself away from using the ipad so much (and thus sell it), as I can do plenty of the reading on my computer...and can use bus time for gaming.

 

[Nintendo]

^ Pandora gaming

 

[TDT]

^ Pandora gaming

Exactly! for now it's GP2X gaming though but...soon, oh so soon!

 

[gunrock]

In my opinion, there will be two markets in portable gaming:


Gaming handhelds with proper controls for serious games and / or hardcore-gamers.


And tables / smartphones for casual gamers (unless they get proper controls AND most of the games start to support these controls).


Both markets can live happily together, though the casual gaming market will probably be more profitable as the potential customer base (everyone who owns a smartphone) is way bigger and the casual games are way cheaper to produce.

Up until last weekend, that was my opinion too. But I think the market for the dedicated gaming console is shrinking due to two reasons:

• Seasoned gamers getting older/time constrained so the convergence aspect, coupled with the immediate, casual style of gaming of these devices is appealing.
  
• Children of non-gamers and the above whose first and maybe only experience of gaming is from the tablet devices. Thus they never graduate to dedicated gaming consoles or core gaming.
  

It's interesting that the convergence that the Xbox 360 / PS3 with their "media-hub" pretensions were supposed to offer are usurped by the likes of the 2nd and 3rd generation tablets; video streaming, internet browsing on the high-quality screens are far superior to the consoles. Given a pad is hand-held, the resolution is effectively as good as a 1080p screen several feet away and soon higher resolution tablets will exceed HD televisions in resolution.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, I didn't say the market wasn't SHRINKING.


But the customers ARE still there, and from talking with other guys that have been using tablets for a while, more of them want to come back to play games.


A shrinking market doesn't mean that tablets or smartphones are really competitors.


My guess is most current smartphone gamers that only play casually won't buy a dedicated gaming console anyways, and everyone who wants to play serious games will buy a dedicated gaming console.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

I personally prefer dedicated gaming systems and have no interest in casual gaming.Even if the market is shrinking there will always be a market for at least one dedicated games system for the hardcore gamers.There's rumours of apple releasing a games console but id doubt it.The ipad is nice im sure but i don't need/can't afford one anyways.

 

[Exophase]

Ha, could help it compete with 3DS. The original iPad has more capability than 3DS (save the 3D and controls, of course).


I don't think iPad 3 will be quad core, although I guess we'll see. I'm expecting a shrink of A5 with the same basic capabilities but faster and/or lower power consumption. Paired with more RAM, grossly high resolution display, etc.

 

[craigix]

Whatever it is will almost certainly be a stepping stone to Apple going 100% ARM in the next 5-8 years.


(And the industry following).

 

[Batou456]

The rumor mill on this seems to be a little too enthusiastic.


2048×1536 resolution Retina Display


There is not really an appropriate GPU able to drive things at that resolution. Particularly if we're talking videogame terms. There's not really even an appropriate GPU within console power thresholds if one focuses on videogames.


The basis of this particular rumor seems to be based around a statement from LG Display CEO revealing they would be vending Retina Displays to all customers, in which he is supposed to have referenced them being in the iPhone and iPad. That seems more like a simple error of speech then some kind of subtle deliberate breech of contract about an eventual iPad 3.


a quad-core A6 processor


They could, but the existing A5 is already involves a rather large die at a relatively low clock. Doing this and trying to drive that display would pretty much demands they focus on 28nm parts. It's a little early in the game for the kind of volume they want on that process, and while they could certainly pay the premium to do so that's not how Apple tends to operate.


I would tend to expect them to target 32nm, and increase the clock rate CPU and bulk up the GPU section if they really intend to announce on March 7th and launch soon after.

 

[gadgetoid]

The rumor mill on this seems to be a little too enthusiastic.

2048×1536 resolution Retina Display


There is not really an appropriate GPU able to drive things at that resolution.

"Retina" is all about text readability, for everything else there's pixel doubling.


That said, a clever developer could surely render the game in 1024*768 and then do an anti-aliasing pass at 2048*1536.


And most 2d games would probably run fine at 2048*1536 anyway, even with the iPads current GPU.


What else are they going to put in an iPad 3 to make it a worthy upgrade, anyway?

 

[kojack]

What else are they going to put in an iPad 3 to make it a worthy upgrade, anyway?

Android?

 

[Batou456]

"Retina" is all about text readability, for everything else there's pixel doubling.

Are you trying to imply the pixel density LG associates with their Retina brand is required to for readable text? I'm sorry, but no it's not.

You may have forgotten but rumors of a Retina Display also showed associated with the iPad 2 prior to launch with a similarly non-existant basis. And no Retina display was to be found at launch.


Show me something other then wishful thinking based around a rather bizarre interpretation of a single line out of context by LG, and maybe alluding to the Tegra 3 having that resolution as it's max for a LCD. Otherwise this is just people stacking up a "I want" list with no grounding in the actual implimentation, again. Particularly as noted associated with the last time, that resolution is not actually high enough to meet LG's "Retina" criterion.


And honestly the idea they should bolt such a screen on, and then try to use a basic upscaling algorithm from the rather anemic resolution of 1024x768 is more diabolically evil marketing mind screwery then I'm willing to attribute to them. They might be evil, but they tend to know enough to setup their gimmicks so they do sell themselves, within the associated pitch, rather then turning it into a blatant farce.

 

[gadgetoid]

Reputable tech sites have already got their hands on "Retina" displays identical in size and specification to those that would be required of an iPad, and have verified them as retina under a microscope. What more to you need?


http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/17/confirmed-ipad-3-has-a-2048x1536-retina-display/


http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/23/ifixit-takes-a-closer-look-at-the-ipad-3-retina-display/


This represents slightly more than rumor, speculation or wishful thinking. Don't you think?


These displays are already being leaked and sold as replacements: http://www.truesupplier.com/oem-apple-ipad-3-lcd-screen-display-replacement-pr-29884.html


Do you think some random chinese company is hedging their bets and manufacturing these things on a whim?


Putting a "Retina" part into an iPhone would have once been considered unthinkable due to cost/technology limitations... but could you imagine an iPhone being shipped now without one? Furthermore, a Retina iPad display would actually have less pixel density than that of the iPhone and would most likely be less costly per pixel to manufacture; particularly when manufacturers have so much experience producing compact, high-resolution displays for the mobile market.


And, no, I'm not implying that Retina is required for text readability, I'm implying that it's not required for gaming. Don't twist my words into a straw man so you can have fun tearing apart arguments that don't exist.


And to think Apple wouldn't put a "Retina" display in for their primary touted benefits of smoother text and UI display, whilst leaving game developers out in the cold dark world of pixel doubling is to ignore an entire history of Apple moving swiftly forward and sticking their middle fingers in the air at everyone else. Of course they'd do it, if they thought it was worth while.

 

[craigix]

I used to have a handed down (From a CGI company) laptop with an awesome ~2400*1800 LCD.


I'm a big fan of high resolutions screens so I really hope it does have a resolution to blow away all other tablets.


Apple are very good at producing the 'impossible' so I'd not worry about there not being a GPU on the market about


to drive this suggested beast.