iPad Mini Reviews

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

If you think it's difficult to set up your email on Android, you're missing out.

If he thinks he has to justify his gadget choices because he's not using an ordained Android device, then people are asking him to stop being an Apple "sheep" so that he can be a sheep for a different OS. He just bought a tablet and a smartphone. What's his payoff for suddenly switching and spending more money -- mailbox icon customization?

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by vxf

I don't understand the negativity. I am the farthest thing from an Apple fan. Well, maybe not the farthest... I don't have any negative feeling. But I am not a fan either.

I was sorta middlin' on Apple. Then I got stuck with iTunes. I am now a supernova of rage.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

I was sorta middlin' on Apple. Then I got stuck with iTunes. I am now a supernova of rage.

I just hope the stock goes up this week (on the great 'reviews' and publicity blitz).

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

A Trademark, I believe.
Note that patents (typically) expire 17 years after filing but trademarks are quasi-eternal.

It could be the word of the gods ....oh wait, it is.....and I'd still hate it.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

I believe that all professional blogs (run by publishing companies) engage in a bit of positive spin on their reviews... for a variety of reasons. That is why I dismiss most of those reviews and look to sites like this for the real scoop (and why I ignore anyone who simply parrots what they read on those blogs)

Truth!

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

I was sorta middlin' on Apple. Then I got stuck with iTunes. I am now a supernova of rage.

Which is odd, because no one ever has to be "stuck with iTunes." There are definite walls around certain parts of the Apple garden, but people can still use the media players, stores and library organizers of their choice.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Which is odd, because no one ever has to be "stuck with iTunes." There are definite walls around certain parts of the Apple garden, but people can still use the media players, stores and library organizers of their choice.

That is technically true, but when it comes right down to it, there is nothing else that syncs media with iOS devices as reliably as iTunes.

[Tacty]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Which is odd, because no one ever has to be "stuck with iTunes." There are definite walls around certain parts of the Apple garden, but people can still use the media players, stores and library organizers of their choice.

yes, but none of them media players and such could be set as default program for respective media formats...

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Which is odd, because no one ever has to be "stuck with iTunes." There are definite walls around certain parts of the Apple garden, but people can still use the media players, stores and library organizers of their choice.

Why am I stuck with iTunes? iTunes U. A bunch of universities release this content only on iTunes.

Why are these universities helping Apple torture cripples? I can't even bear to eat apples anymore. I can't even type the word "apple". John Cleese tried to warn me about the dangers of fresh fruit.

[Scarpad]

4th Gen and Mini's sold 3 million this weekend , so yet another apple success. I looked at the mini this weekend, the screen not being retina is a Huge overblown issue, it looks very nice, the hardware is very solid and well built.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

Why am I stuck with iTunes? iTunes U. A bunch of universities release this content only on iTunes.

Why are these universities helping Apple torture cripples? I can't even bear to eat apples anymore. I can't even type the word "apple". John Cleese tried to warn me about the dangers of fresh fruit.

The irony of calling Apple users sheep.

Assuming you're not making a completely arbitrary case based on your own assumptions and being another simpering conformist on an Apple thread (Apple being another company that made make-believe nonconformity a marketing strategy, which means that people who notice this but privilege other brands representing mass-produced consumer devices as being less conformist are also make-believe nonconformists), let's say for the sake of argument that you really are in a class that uses iTunes U. Then you seem to be complaining about access to free content from an Apple service, content which can be played on any device from an Apple service once it's downloaded. Apparently this bothers you because you can't separate the service from the brand name that happens to be attached to it. To those of us who went to college in the days of note-taking and tape recorders, that really does sound like incontinent whining.

Everyone who looks at an Apple thread as an excuse to take out their aggression on random Apple users has the same neurological disorder that compulsive Apple users do: they're victims of BIS (Brand Identification Syndrome). "My brand is better because the specs speak for themselves and I bought it after careful comparisons. That means it's real tech, whereas yours is illusory tech. My choices make me important."

Not exactly -- all consumers scry their tea-leaf choices based on whatever Pavlovian enticements make them privilege one product over another. None of these companies care about you or anyone else and none is particularly special or egregious.

Brand wars are a Roman arena to distract you from your true condition. Reality TV shows work the same way when they valorize or vilify ordinary people on a ludicrous scale.

Doesn't the relentless pursuit of easy targets ever make people feel a tad Fox-News obvious? No matter how good specs or features might be, every post gloating about them at someone else's expense makes the same tired Dawn of the Dead analogy directed at shambling consumer herds -- the shambling masses to which, amazingly, the authors of those posts imagine they themselves do not belong.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Tacty

yes, but none of them media players and such could be set as default program for respective media formats...

Actually, other applications can be set as the default. Command-I gives you the option to choose which program will be used to open a given file type from that point on. No one need use any Apple application as the default unless a particular file type can't be recognized in any other way (in which case perhaps it's better to use a non-proprietary filetype, hence the absence of iBooks in my library).

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

The irony of calling Apple users sheep.

That's a fairly old post, but still quite relevant. Some of the comments posted about the reviews are still valid in the face of this though (if somewhat exaggerated).

Reviewers are in a weird situation. There is a bit of positive spin in all reviews. Ars Technica did an interesting report on the reasons why this is. But it is also the case that if a product was pure crap, the odds are good that you won't be able to get it reviewed in the first place for various reasons. Or you just wouldn't bother releasing it. So there's a bias of sorts that if a review is fairly low, you have to wonder what the hell happened. It isn't that hard to at least be average in the market.

So we get into these heated brand wars over what? The 20% of the product that makes it different from other products. Look at the eInk readers: the Nook, the Kobo, the Kindle, the Sony Reader, etc... these products by and large are pretty much all the same thing. They are made different by tweaks and changes that "differentiate" them. Sony's ease of accessing 3rd party book sources. Amazon's strong eco-system. Kobo's customizability. B&N's ergonomics. We fight over silly stuff like which one of these is "the best" when they are all pretty darn good for different reasons.

But as the devil is in the details, so are the debates and arguments. And we humans do love to dip our toes into the pool of hyperbole so often it becomes a joke.

[holymadness]

I had a chance to play with a mini for about 15 minutes today. It is a really nice device. It's so much lighter and thinner than the full-size iPad that I wouldn't be surprised if it soon becomes Apple's most popular model.

When placed side-by-side with the iPad 4 it becomes clear that the screen is not as sharp, but its pixelation is really not obvious at a normal viewing distance. You have to look for it with your nose pressed up against the glass, staring at the ascenders of individual letters. To worried readers: text rendered very well. I don't think people are going to notice or care about the ppi. Rather, the people around me were impressed with the screen. That being so, I wouldn't bet on seeing a retina display in a mini before 2014.

A lot of people are going to put the mini on their Christmas lists this year.

[Tacty]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Actually, other applications can be set as the default. Command-I gives you the option to choose which program will be used to open a given file type from that point on. No one need use any Apple application as the default unless a particular file type can't be recognized in any other way (in which case perhaps it's better to use a non-proprietary filetype, hence the absence of iBooks in my library).

no you cant in any ios devices...if you click any link it will be open in safari for example and there is no way to put chrome to do this job. since ios devices doesnt have any file strukture, you cant browse trough your music and open it in any third party music player by default...and the list goes on, i dont know what you are talking about?