The new iPad (3rd-gen) has arrived

[spuppy]

In my experience, app switching is extremely laggy - moving from one app to another results in 3-5 seconds of lag where you are unable to do anything. And if you try, it just delays the lag longer.

Honestly sounds to me like a very different experience than my iPad 2 has been. Perhaps other iPad 2 users can back me up here. App switching has always been pretty snappy for me, and the whole experience improved (especially web browsing, with multiple tabs) with the iOS 5 upgrade.

Makes me wonder if your iPad 2 didn't have a software or hardware issue of some sort. Was it running iOS 5? Had it been jailbroken? Any funny widgets or anything running? Rebooted recently? Hrmm.

Nope, always been this way. I think I am just sensitive to it, because I always run into this discussion (which often turns into an argument when the other party is a "fan" of a company). I even made a video of the exact instance I am talking about, and you can clearly see a 3 second lag when switching to the Mail app, where the cursor is not blinking and the app is non responsive. There is a 1-2 second lag switching to the iBooks app, where the PDF is re-loading itself, and is unresponsive.

Edit and these are first party Apple apps, latest versions, so the old version software theory doesn't apply here (or in any of the other instances I can recall)

Not to say this happens ALL THE TIME, but enough for me to say that in my personal opinion, the ipad is not useful as a productivity device. I guess it depends on the task, but I have tried enough tasks only to be frustrated and wishing I was using a laptop instead. Another one is data entry.. You should try using it as your spreadsheet application for an upcoming video card review or something. See that works out for you.. I can just about guarantee you'll hate it. I know you typed up an article on it, and that was bad enough right? It gets much worse.

But like I say every time I bring this up, since people invest themselves emotionally into the product and become insulted and confrontational, I still think the ipad is an awesome device for certain things. It is very fun to play around with, and a fantastic travel companion.

Regarding 4-5 finger gestures, I think it's the BEST thing about iOS 5, and I find myself wishing my Android phone had such a feature (actually I think I saw a hack for it on XDA a few days ago, so I might just check that out)

[ChronoReverse]

Regarding 4-5 finger gestures, I think it's the BEST thing about iOS 5, and I find myself wishing my Android phone had such a feature (actually I think I saw a hack for it on XDA a few days ago, so I might just check that out)

It's not the same but I use Task Changer Pro to add "swipe zones" on the edges which let me either alt-tab, bring up the task list or other actions. I use it to simulate the "swipe from bottom" technique from WebOS as well as have alt-tab functionality. (To me, holding Home is just as terrible as double-tapping Home).

[PerfectCr]

In my experience, app switching is extremely laggy - moving from one app to another results in 3-5 seconds of lag where you are unable to do anything. And if you try, it just delays the lag longer.

Honestly sounds to me like a very different experience than my iPad 2 has been. Perhaps other iPad 2 users can back me up here. App switching has always been pretty snappy for me, and the whole experience improved (especially web browsing, with multiple tabs) with the iOS 5 upgrade.

Makes me wonder if your iPad 2 didn't have a software or hardware issue of some sort. Was it running iOS 5? Had it been jailbroken? Any funny widgets or anything running? Rebooted recently? Hrmm.

Edit: Another possibility is that you were using older apps that weren't backgrounding-aware. If so, the app would launch itself again each time you switched to it. Could be the source of pain. Newer apps, man, just four-finger swipe left and right to move between them almost instantly.

Regarding your edit, it's most likely that. iOS apps are not multitasking enabled by default, they have to be coded/updated for it. Most are now. Obviously depending on the type of app and if you haven't used it for a while it may have to restart from stratch versus leaving you where you left off. The iPad 2 is certainly not slow by any means with a dual core CPU and great graphics.

[trackerben]

Processing power and battery efficiency still has room to improve though but I don't think there's any reason not to get the iPad3 if you're in the market for a high-end tablet.

For the last 3 years it seemed like I was always about to get a new Win7 ultraportable but always ended up buying yet another iOS mobile. So yes, am probably getting one. If only Apple had optimized the new iPad towards at least 30% less weight, even at the cost of some performance and battery life.

I was considering hard-mounting the old iPad on my Toyota's console and also buying a used iPad2 for my kid. But the new generation represents such a huge leap forward in desirability that it makes less sense to stick with old plans, knowing that developers' focus will eventually migrate to newer standards.

[trackerben]

...Whenever I find myself having to do anything other than goofing around with facebook or browsing web pages (1 at a time), it ends up being extremely frustrating. For instance just a few weeks ago I was on the road and a friend needed me to proofread a PDF presentation for them. Switching back and forth between the email app and ibooks was incredibly laggy, and made the task more cumbersome than using even the cheapest netbook would have been. Part of it was the OS' lack of multitasking, also I assume the low amount of RAM (1GB probably would have brute-forced the lag to go away) and part was the interface itself. Tablets are fun and intuitive for some things, but it's just not the right interface for actual work yet...

On an iPad1, iBooks can slow down with dozens of ebooks loaded, particularly in the library screen upon first view. Apparently some tasks grind slowly in the background when sorting and listing files. I believe this issue is partly a cause of the perceived UI lag when switching away from iBooks. Although not towards it, at least in my experience. Certain large PDFs render slowly on GoodReader. When performing drag-and-drop to GoodReader's Apps/File Sharing/Documents silo in iTunes, file transfers can be quite slow especially on an iPadv1.

Apart from these specific issues, most popular apps are fun. The problem with spreadsheets is that finger-pointing is not precise enough for the current tablet method of tagging cells. And too many operations require moving one's hand from keyboard to touchscreen and back too many times. Voice commands for cell manipulation may solve the first, UI refinement the second.

I can agree that tablets like the iPad are best for handy, nontraditional and on-the-go media consumption and situational awareness.

[End User]

Wow. What a difference. The new display is lovely.

Interesting info on how close various displays are to "retina": http://goo.gl/CLihk

[dragmor]

I picked up a 64GB wifi model on Saturday afternoon. Took 5 stores to get that model, every store had heaps of 16GB wifi and 64GB 4G models left, 2 stores had 5% off. There seems to be a glut of iPad this time round at least in Australia.

A few downsides
- Recharging takes forever. 70% bigger battery = 70% longer recharge times.
- Sync takes a long time. This thing needs USB3 or wifi sync.
- 4 finger app switch and the notification center mess with my 3yr toddler's head. I wish there was a way to disable those features.

I'm hoping they bring profiles into iOS 6. It would be nice to have different screens for myself, the wife and the kids.

I'm yet to try icloud but does it sync games, awards, etc? or just apple apps and content?

[PerfectCr]

^^^^^ 1. There is Wi-Fi sync. You can enable it in the settings or in iTunes settings. 2. You can also disable the multi-finger gestures in the settings under General.

iCloud does many many things. I would encourage you to read the website where it tells you everything that it does. But generally it is a free service that syncs all your contacts data photos etc. in the cloud so in case you lose all your information or you have multiple iOS devices the data can be synced appropriately across all devices including your mac.

[dragmor]

See they think of everything (almost, user profiles please).

[PerfectCr]

See they think of everything (almost, user profiles please).

Yeah that could be interesting. I just gave my iPad 2 to the kids and they could definitely use multiple profiles.

[leor]

Honestly sounds to me like a very different experience than my iPad 2 has been. Perhaps other iPad 2 users can back me up here. App switching has always been pretty snappy for me, and the whole experience improved (especially web browsing, with multiple tabs) with the iOS 5 upgrade.

Makes me wonder if your iPad 2 didn't have a software or hardware issue of some sort. Was it running iOS 5? Had it been jailbroken? Any funny widgets or anything running? Rebooted recently? Hrmm.

Edit: Another possibility is that you were using older apps that weren't backgrounding-aware. If so, the app would launch itself again each time you switched to it. Could be the source of pain. Newer apps, man, just four-finger swipe left and right to move between them almost instantly.

Yeah app switching has been pretty much instant, and the tabbed browsing is very nice. I just wish they would keep your loaded pages in memory so you didn't have to reload a page when you switch from the browser to another app and back again.

[dragmor]

However, the iPad 3rd-gen's display has a bit of a yellowish cast to it

I don't have an iPad2 to compare against, but compared with the original iPad, an iPhone4 and my spyder calibrated monitors the new iPad does not have a yellow tinge. Did you get a bad iPad? Is apple having the same screen / glue problems they had with the iPhone 4?

Anyone else want to weigh in on the yellow screen issue?

[ChronoReverse]

Might be similar to the iPhone 4 issue with the glue that holds the screen. IF it's the same issue, it should fade over a little time.

[Damage]

However, the iPad 3rd-gen's display has a bit of a yellowish cast to it

I don't have an iPad2 to compare against, but compared with the original iPad, an iPhone4 and my spyder calibrated monitors the new iPad does not have a yellow tinge. Did you get a bad iPad? Is apple having the same screen / glue problems they had with the iPhone 4?

Anyone else want to weigh in on the yellow screen issue?

After looking at my iPad 2 and 3 side by side a little longer, I am, er, warming to the iPad 3's color temperature and color reproduction. The iPad 2's whites are almost tinged with blue, not necessarily a good thing, and the various shades of blue on the TR top nab section in the main site look much deeper and more proper on the iPad 3, with no purple and green tinting like the 2 has. So... No big deal overall. Mine is not drastically yellow.

[Buub]

See they think of everything (almost, user profiles please).

I know they're coming. I just don't know when. I remember seeing something about a patent for face recognition via the forward facing camera for profile distinction.