Which iPad Should I Buy?

• BY EUGENE KIM

When the original Apple iPad launched in 2010, it was basically the only game in town for mainstream tablet shoppers. In fact, the whole category of consumer tablets didn't take off until Apple's first slate took the world by storm. Each year brought a new and improved model, but the decision was still pretty straightforward?if you wanted the best consumer tablet, you got the latest iPad.

Then, in 2012, Apple made things a bit more interesting with the introduction of the shrunken down iPad mini. And that brings us to today. With five models of iPad currently sold by Apple, which one is right for you? We'll break down some of the differences to help you choose.

Just a quick note: This story is not about the heated Apple-versus-Android debate that's sure to rage on in the comments section below. Android tablets have grown in numbers and quality, but the majority of casual tablet users will ultimately be better served by Apple's iPad and iOS ecosystem.

The first question to answer is: Just how big of a tablet do you want? If you subscribe to the bigger-is-better school of thought, you'll want to go with the larger iPad Air. It's got a roomier 9.7-inch display that's well suited for Web browsing and binge watching on Netflix. And despite its larger size, the Air and Air 2 are still incredibly thin and light, making them easier to hold than most large tablets. But which Air should you grab? If you're particular about app load times and get antsy about obsolescence, the choice is clear: Get the iPad Air 2. It's got the latest A8X chip and will be the best performer of all the iPads. If all you're looking to do is play Candy Crush and catch up on your stories, then original iPad Air should suffice?the Touch ID sensor and extra millimeter of thinness are not going to be worth the $100.

Now if you want a smaller tablet, the choice is easier: Get the iPad mini 2, formerly known as the iPad mini with Retina Display. It will deliver the same performance and nearly identical app experience as the newer iPad mini 3, which only differs in its Touch ID sensor, gold color choice, and optional Apple SIM?not worth the $100 premium for the majority of shoppers. If slower performance and screen resolution don't matter at all to you, you can also save some money by grabbing the original iPad mini, which Apple now sells for $249. If you can stretch your budget, though, I highly recommend getting the mini 2 for $50 more.

That brings us to our final point to consider. If you're big on cellular data and like to shop around, only the iPad mini 3 and iPad Air 2 have Apple SIM. That allows you to jump around from carrier to carrier and data plan to data plan without ever having to go to a carrier's store or swap SIM cards.

Before you make your choice, be sure to check out our full iPad reviews, listed below. They'll give you a better idea of the nitty-gritty details for each iPad and help you narrow your choice down further.

FEATURED IN THIS ROUNDUP

Apple iPad Air 2 

 

$499 (16GB, Wi-Fi)

$499.99 at Best Buy

The iPad Air 2 balances seamless ease of use, app abundance, and raw power in its ever-so-slender frame, continuing Apple's reign atop the tablet heap. Read the full review >>

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Apple iPad Air 

 

$399 (16GB, Wi-Fi)

$399.99 at Toys R Us

The iPad Air is an unusually slim, well-built platform for the best array of apps in the business. It doesn't have the latest A8X processor or Touch ID, but it's still a solid performer in its own right and that $100 savings over the Air 2 is significant. Read the full review >>

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Apple iPad mini 3 

 

$399 (16GB, Wi-Fi)

The Apple iPad mini 3 is a superb small-screen tablet, but you can get essentially the same experience from its predecessor for $100 less. If you do a lot of online shopping or frequently switch cellular data plans, it could be worth the premium.Read the full review >>

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Apple iPad mini 2 

$299 (16GB, Wi-Fi)

$321.98 at Amazon

The iPad mini 2 has a super-sharp Retina display and packs all of the power of the iPad Air into a more portable package. At $100 less than the iPad mini 3, with no hit to performance or essential features, it's the best value of all iPads. Read the full review >>

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Apple iPad mini 

 

$249 (16GB, Wi-Fi)

A$299.00 at Apple Official Store

The iPad mini lets you run the best library of apps in the biz on a portable tablet. It's missing the Retina Display, though, and its processor is pretty long in the tooth at this point.Read the full review >>

New Apple tablets impress, but aren’t must-haves

By FARHAD MANJOO

The New York Times

Apple’s new iPads, the iPaid Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3, are the best tablets on the market today. Expensive, too.

Let’s get this out of the way first: Apple’s new iPads are the best tablets on the market today.

The iPad Air 2, the company’s new top-of-the-line device, is substantially faster than its predecessor, which was already more powerful than just about every rival. It sports a terrific minimalist design, almost 1½ millimeters thinner than last year’s pretty skinny iPad Air.

And both the new Air and the iPad Mini 3, Apple’s latest small tablet, include TouchID and Apple Pay, Apple’s fingerprint scanner and payment system, handy innovations that make signing into apps and shopping for goods online much easier than in the past.

So these are fantastic tablets. The question is: Do you need a fantastic tablet?

Apple’s new machines are expensive. The iPad Air 2 starts at $499, and the iPad Mini 3 starts at $399, but both entry-level models have only 16 gigabytes of storage space. To get the most out of either device you really should pay the $100 upgrade to 64 gigabytes.

But is it wise to spend $500 or $600 or more for a tablet, or can you get by with a marginal device that costs hundreds of dollars less?

For all types of device users, then, the iPad presents a quandary. Are Apple’s premium tablets worth their lofty prices?

After using the iPad Air 2 for the past few days, my answer is: Yes, with reservations.

Whether you should take a leap on Apple’s new Air depends entirely on how you use your other devices.

If you’re not a big fan of personal computers and you don’t really like having your nose stuck in your phone all day, the iPad Air 2 might be for you.

The iPad Air 2 is powerful enough to use as your main or secondary computer, after your phone, especially if you use your tablet as a replacement PC on the go, and if you’re looking to play processor-intensive games or run media-editing software.

If you’re mainly interested in a tablet for surfing the Web or watching movies — for “consuming media,” as the techies say — then the iPad Air 2 is probably overkill. Go instead with last year’s iPad Air, which is slightly slower, thicker and lacks TouchID, but starts at $399 and will prove pretty capable for many users.

As for the iPad Mini 3, Apple’s other new tablet, I’d advocate skipping it.

Unlike the Air 2, the new Mini has not been upgraded with Apple’s latest processor. This means that internally, it is almost identical to last year’s iPad Mini 2, which Apple is still selling for $299 and up.

The primary difference is that the iPad Mini 3 has a TouchID fingerprint scanner and has one more color option, gold. (The 2 comes in silver and black.)

Unless you’re going to be doing a lot of Apple Pay shopping or you’re gaga for gold, it’s best to save the $100 and go with the Mini 2.

The iPad Air 2, by comparison, has been given some hefty internal upgrades. It now has a rear-facing camera that takes pretty good shots, though not nearly as stunning as the pictures you’ll get from the latest iPhones.

It also has an iPad-specific version of the A8 chip found in Apple’s new iPhones, and that makes for off-the-charts performance. I noticed the speed immediately.

Everything I did — from loading and switching between apps to surfing the Web to playing games — was more fluid and responsive than anything I’ve experienced on another tablet.

I performed a test of tech benchmarks — Geekbench 3 — and the result is that the iPad Air 2 is faster than any other iOS or Android device ever sold.

This gets to what is perhaps the main reason to choose an iPad Air 2. All that power will last a long while; you could get four or five years of use out of this tablet before you’ll need to upgrade. Of course, you’ll pay a pretty penny for that longevity.

Microsoft to continue using Nokia brand on entry-level phones

By John Ribeiro

Microsoft will continue to sell low-end phones with the Nokia brand and has licensed the brand for these type of devices.

The company is meanwhile preparing to roll out its new Microsoft Lumia brand, Tuula Rytilä, senior vice president of marketing for phones at Microsoft, said in an interview posted late Thursday on the Conversations blog, which will also move to the Microsoft website.

“Our global and local websites are going through a transition as we speak and in the coming days our social channels will get a new name too—they will be called Microsoft Lumia,” Rytilä said. “This work continues across our devices, packaging and retail, to name a few.”

Microsoft completed in April this year the acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business for over US$7 billion.

Besides continuing to offer Nokia-branded entry-level phones like the Nokia 130, the company will continue to also sell and support Nokia Lumia smartphones that are in the market, such as the recently announced Lumia 830 and Lumia 730/735, Rytilä said. Nokia 130, a mobile phone that does not have an Internet connection or apps, was unveiled in August.

The executive said that Microsoft was looking forward to unveiling a Microsoft Lumia device soon, without giving a specific date. She described the change in brand as “a natural progression” as all devices that once came from Nokia now come from Microsoft.

The new Microsoft Lumia brand is likely to be aimed at clearing the confusion that arose from the continued use of the Nokia brand even as a company by the same name continues to operate, after the sale of the devices business to Microsoft. Nokia in Espoo, Finland, is now focused on networking gear, its Here navigation service and a technology development and licensing business.

Microsoft is likely to have decided to retain the Nokia brand for the low-end market as it “resonates with this segment of users,” said Vishal Tripathi, a principal research analyst at Gartner.

The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

The transition to the new Microsoft Lumia brand was first announced on Nokia France’s Facebook page.

1976 Apple 1 Computer Sells for $905,000

By Belinda Lanks

The Henry Ford bought the 1976 Apple 1 computer at Bonhams’s History of Science auction for $905,000 ($750,000 before fees)—well above the estimated value of $300,000 to $500,000 and the previous high price paid of more than $671,000. The motherboard will eventually go on permanent display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

“Similar to what Henry Ford did with the Model T, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs put technology directly in the hands of the people with the creation of the Apple-1, completely altering the way we work and live,” Patricia Mooradian, the Henry Ford’s president, said in the institution’s press release. The Apple 1 was the first pre-assembled computer to come to market.

The Henry Ford’s acquisition is believed to be from the initial run of 50 Apple computers ever produced—soldered together in the Jobs family’s garage—and one of 15 in working condition.

VIDEO: The Five Most Expensive Comic Books Sold at Auction

“The likelihood that a unit as complete as this will come up for auction is slender,” says Kristen Gallerneaux, one of the museum’s curators, in a statement. “The Henry Ford would have been remiss in holding off much longer in acquiring one for our collection.”

Yes, Twitter is putting tweets in your timeline from people you don't follow

Stuart Dredge

It is no secret that Twitter has been experimenting with adding tweets into people’s timelines from accounts that they don’t follow. Now the social network has confirmed that it’s no longer an experiment: it’s a standard feature.

In a blog post, Trevor O’Brien from Twitter’s product team explained the rationale for moving beyond the company’s historic focus on timelines populated by followed accounts and – more recently – promoted tweets from advertisers.

“Choosing who to follow is a great first step – in many cases, the best Tweets come from people you already know, or know of. But there are times when you might miss out on tweets we think you’d enjoy,” wrote O’Brien.

“To help you keep up with what’s happening, we’ve been testing ways to include these tweets in your timeline — ones we think you’ll find interesting or entertaining.”

In August, some Twitter users noticed that tweets were appearing in their timelines from accounts that they didn’t follow, simply because they’d been favourited by someone they did follow.

It was a controversial experiment, because there’s already a feature for doing this manually – retweeting – with many people using the “favourite” option to mark tweets for later reference, or simply to approve something a friend had tweeted, without intending that to push it out to a wider audience.

In his blog post this week, O’Brien confirmed that Twitter had been running other experiments to tweak its timeline. “We recently ran experiments that showed different types of content in your timeline: recommended Tweets, accounts and topics,” he wrote.

“Testing indicated that most people enjoy seeing Tweets from accounts they may not follow, based on signals such as activity from accounts youdo follow, the popularity of the Tweets, and how people in your network interact with them. These experiments now inform the timeline you see today.”

His post directed Twitter users to this article on Twitter’s Help Centerexplaining how the Home timeline now works:

“When we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline. This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.”

For people new to Twitter, this kind of feature may be a good thing, helping them to build up an interesting timeline based on their first few follows. For example, if they follow a few footballers, they might see more tweets from players they don’t follow, or from football news sites.

That would also play in to one of Twitter’s main aims in 2014: to attractand retain more mainstream internet users: the kind of people who in the past, might have signed up, not known who to follow or what to tweet, then drifted away again.

Twitter averaged 271m monthly active users in the second quarter of this year, but it wants to get even bigger: and finding a way to make the initial weeks less intimidating for newcomers may be the key to that.

For experienced “power” users who like the fact that (ads aside) their Home timeline is entirely curated by them, the changes are more controversial – especially for those who have compared Twitter positively with Facebook, whose news feed algorithm determines what to show and what not to show when people log in.

The difference between the two social networks is that Facebook is taking stories out of its news feed – it prioritises around 300 a day out of a possible 1,500 for the average user – while Twitter is only adding tweets in. For now, at least.

If that policy were to change, it would be hugely controversial for the power users. Many of whom are already expressing their dissatisfaction with the latest change, judging by the replies to Twitter’s own 

“dont”; “Please don’t”; “please don’t, I just want to see the tweets of people I follow. Thanks.”; “no thank you.”; “no no no”; “Noooooooooo! Change is bad!”; “nah man keep that.”; “Try not to do that”; “Here’s an idea: Don’t.”; “please don’t. Don’t be Facebook” being the first 10 replies.

Wondering what iPad to buy? We have the answer(s)

by Charles Moore on October 18, 2014 at 11:59 pm

Apple has given us an embarrassment of choice in iPads with the upgrade and changes to the lineup announced on Thursday. There are now five distinct iPad families available: two full-sized iPad Air models and three iPad minis, leaving many to wonder exactly what iPad to by.

The briefly resuscitated fourth-generation iPad—known recently as simply “iPad with Retina Display” (which isn’t that informative, since all of the other iPads save for the still available original iPad mini have Retina displays)—is dead again, but few will mourn its ultimate passing because its market slot and price point in the iPad spectrum has been filled by last year’s formidable first generation iPad Air, whose 64 bit A7 system-on-chip is still one of the most powerful in the product category, and which represents a much better value.

There has also been a substantial realignment in the iPad mini category, with significant price cuts for the still available older two models. There are some serious bargains to be had.

That said, the new iPad Air 2 is now distinctively top dog, and the one to get if your wallet can stand it, since Apple has evidently decided the best strategy is to restrict updates on version 3 of the recently slow-selling iPad mini to just a few of the items on the iPad Air 2′s upgrade feature inventory. You can get a gold colored case that would be my slam-dunk choice, and the mini 3 comes with Touch ID, but it sticks with the A7 SoC (see comments above), and you don’t get the higher resolution rear-facing iSight camera that’s in the Air 2 and has been in iPhones since more than a year ago. That one puzzled me a bit, because the iPad mini makes a more logical photo shooting device then the full-sized iPad Air, and an eight megapixel camera can’t be that much more expensive then the five megapixel unit that’s being carried over, especially since neither is exactly cutting edge anymore. Some Android tablets have 12 megapixel or even higher resolution cameras.

The iPad Air 2 uniquely gets 802.11 ac faster Wi-Fi, and the difference in physical dimensions between the Air and the mini has diminished again. All of this makes the new iPad Air 2 decidedly the most attractive iPad available for anyone who doesn’t require the mini’s more compact dimensions for practical reasons. You get Apple’s latest 64-bit A8X SoC, the eight megapixel camera, and an antiglare display made using cutting edge fully-laminated panel technology.

However, the iPad Air 2 will set you back between $499 and $829 depending on configuration. In practical,terms, that should be $599 to $829, because buying a 16 GB iPad Air 2 is definitely not a wise purchase, what with operating system and application files experiencing creeping bloat. I was disappointed that Apple didn’t make 32 GB storage memory the base standard, but they instead dropped that option entirely for the iPad Air 2, with the first step-up being a long one to 64 GB, albeit at the former 32 GB config’s price point. You can still get 32 GB on some of the lesser models.

Speaking of which, let’s take a look at what’s available starting at the other end of the range. Apple has kept the 2011 era technology original iPad mini around as its iPad price-leader at $249, but when I said above that there are bargains to be had, this definitely isn’t one of them.

For your $249, you get a puny A5 SoC and 512 MB of system RAM. The only available storage memory configuration is a paltry 16 GB; the display panel is 1,024 x 768 resolution, and there is no motion coprocessor. If you are set on getting a low upfront price iPad, I strongly recommend going for theiPad mini 2, formerly known as the iPad mini with Retina Display. You get the eponymous high-resolution screen, and an A7 64 bit processor with M7 motion coprocessor. A 32 MB flash drive step-up option (also recommended) is available. The mini 2 now sells for $299. It’s hard to imagine that almost anyone could not manage to scrape together another 50 bucks for such a large increase in value and performance, and in my estimation this model is the sleeper bargain of the lot. If one can live happily without Touch ID and a 64 GB or greater storage capacity, which I can, and without a gold case, which I could, albeit less-happily, then you can get basically state of iPad mini art specs at a 25% discount off what you would have paid for same hardware earlier in the week.

Or, to turn that around, the latest iPad mini 3 is a questionable value for the money by comparison. And while the original iPad Air is also now offered at the same price point as the mini 3, that’s just a 20% discount from its earlier-in-the-week price for a machine (16 GB WiFi) with significantly fewer or less powerful features. It’s a rip-roaring bargain compared with the 4th-gen iPad at that price point, but the Air 2 has way more value-added relatively than the mini 3 does compared with its predecessor model.

So, my picks for bargain standouts among the new array of iPads available are the new iPad Air 2 (make mine gold!), and the holdover iPad mini 2, bumped to 32 GB and 64 GB respectively.

Google goes after ISPs with Youtube video quality report

YouTube recently released the Google Video Quality Report, which ranks Internet service providers in each area.

YouTube recently released the Google Video Quality Report, showing users how well their Internet service providers perform compared to others in different cities around the U.S.

The Video Quality Report has made its way to the U.S. after being available in Canada for a few months, and it essentially puts each ISP into one of three categories: HD Verified, Standard Definition and Lower Definition.

HD Verified ISPs are able to constantly play back video without interruption at 720p or more. Standard Definition ISPs are able to do the same for videos of at least 360p. Lastly, Lower Definition ISPs show slow loading times and consistent buffering for videos, including those at 360p.

While the Google Video Quality Report shows how well your Internet service provider performs, it also shows how many people are watching YouTube videos for each ISP in any given area, including information about how YouTube gets videos to its users.

Furthermore, suggestions on how users can improve the quality of the videos that they watch on YouTube are also given. There are seven suggestions that are given: Users can check their ISPs quality report, make sure others aren’t using too much bandwidth, keep their Internet browser updated, keep their browser’s plugins updated, clear browser cache and cookies, check if performance improves when they move closer to the Wi-Fi router, and restart the router and computer.

There are a number of other services that provide video quality reports to their users. One other service that does it is Netflix, which collects data and tracks ISPs from 20 different countries. Netflix has given the title of the fastest ISP in the U.S. to Cablevision, which has an average surfing speed of 3 Mbps. In fact, Cablevision has also gotten great ratings from the Google Video Quality Report.

https://news.google.com