Apple Phasing out iPad Mini

asicer said:
Funny, I'd figure you for a Gentoo or LSF guy.
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BTDT. Haha. Too much work. And too much waiting for crap to compile. But hard not to know exactly how Linux really works if you've blasted through beating a machine into life from LSF instructions the hard way, bootstrapping and all. :) It's a great "boot camp" on "How does this crap REALLY work?"

With Gentoo I'd spend hours deciding on compiler optimizations only to find that defaults were good enough even many many years ago. LOL. Ooh lookie, I got it to boot .001 of a second faster with...
-OYouBoughtAVeryOddProcessor

LOL.
 
MBP's have become a joke among power users and system builders. I have assemble several systems for my own personal use, obviously PC based. I can put a mid high system together for $1200. Apple uses the same processors, SSD's, GPU's, etc as everyone else, you are paying for the Apple OS and their supposed form factor superiority. The simple fact is they are giving you the exact same components that PC's are using at an additional 30 to 40% markup. Now that is truly ripping consumers off.

With that said I do kinda prefer iPads to other tablets I have tried, but I could be convinced somewhat easily to switch. I just need Foreflight to go evil and go Android. That is the only reason I am sticking with Apple at this time.
 
drotto said:
MBP's have become a joke among power users and system builders. I have assemble several systems for my own personal use, obviously PC based. I can put a mid high system together for $1200. Apple uses the same processors, SSD's, GPU's, etc as everyone else, you are paying for the Apple OS and their supposed form factor superiority. The simple fact is they are giving you the exact same components that PC's are using at an additional 30 to 40% markup. Now that is truly ripping consumers off.

With that said I do kinda prefer iPads to other tablets I have tried, but I could be convinced somewhat easily to switch. I just need Foreflight to go evil and go Android. That is the only reason I am sticking with Apple at this time.
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Might be hard to believe - but those of us that buy Mac hardware are fully aware that we are overpaying for the physical components. But, we don't give a ****, because we make our living on that machine, and it just ****ing works. If we build things on it we know it has a good chance of working in production.

So to you - perhaps the value isn't there - but for some of us it is. Apple could multiply the price of a MacBook Pro by 2 or 3 X and I would still buy one. My employer would still buy one for every employee, even if they just answered the phone. Why? Many X more value to our company than any PC running windows or Linux can offer.

Bleeding edge physical hardware is low priority in the enterprise world (for 99 percent of the loads). For many of us in the cloud world, your sever is way slower than your laptop (by design). All about asynchronous operations, worker, queues, pipelines, etc.
 
jesse said:
Might be hard to believe - but those of us that buy Mac hardware are fully aware that we are overpaying for the physical components. But, we don't give a ****, because we make our living on that machine, and it just ****ing works. If we build things on it we know it has a good chance of working in production.

So to you - perhaps the value isn't there - but for some of us it is. Apple could multiply the price of a MacBook Pro by 2 or 3 X and I would still buy one. My employer would still buy one for every employee, even if they just answered the phone. Why? Many X more value to our company than any PC running windows or Linux can offer.

Bleeding edge physical hardware is low priority in the enterprise world (for 99 percent of the loads). For many of us in the cloud world, your sever is way slower than your laptop (by design). All about asynchronous operations, worker, queues, pipelines, etc.
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I agreed with you around 2011. Not anymore. We really don't see failures of PC hardware much at all, nor do the Devs who code for the cloud seem to need the Macs anymore, for the exact reason you mentioned. They're not building locally anymore. If they are, it's on a Linux VM and anything can run one of those. They're running three things most days... Slack, their favorite tabbed terminal emulator, and their favorite text editor. They only bother needing speed or RAM if they decide to fire up VM images for testing. They've all moved to VirtualBox for that.

It took us so long and so much effort to even get the company to buy Apples for them, and now it's already a moot point most of the time. About the only reason they need/want them is they got used to their favorite text editor on them.

Those who know command line for git and use a cross platform editor, they don't really care at all what machine we get them. Their tools are timeless. Especially the vim guys. Heh. There's one older former DoD coder who just left for greener pastures who launched vim in the morning on his single screen Linux laptop and never exited it all day for anything other than Slack. He was GOOD. Almost zero bugs. We're going to miss him.

The guy with four monitors with two of them turned vertically who's entire desktop setup cost $1000 less than anyone with the cheapest Apple, is also easily double the productivity level of everyone else, but he's completely machine and OS agnostic. The reason he uses Windows is it has better keystroke control of window placement than Mac (still... embarrassing, Apple) and he never reaches for a mouse. His hands rarely leave the keyboard. The two vertical monitors cost $110 each and they have two terminal sessions up on them 24/7 as far as I've seen. Full screen windows. When/if he has to reboot it's two or three keystrokes to set those back up.
 
I like the Mini form factor for the limited space in my Sky Arrow.

Mine is the first "Retina" Mini (2nd Generation?) and it seems just a bit sluggish compared to the iPad Air2 I use around the house.

I did a short flight yesterday using just my iPhone 6+ running WingXPro7. Serviceable, but really makes me appreciate the extra screen real estate of the Mini.

If they do discontinue it, I may scoop up the last version. Should work for 4 or 5 years until technology renders it obsolete.
 
Skyrys62 said:
I'm sort of the opposite. I had a blackberry... got an iphone. Hated that thing. Got an android and never looked back.
With that said, I'd probably get an iPad 9.7 for the cockpit and try to dash mount or right seat secure somehow.. Mini seems small (except on the yoke or knee) and 12" seems too big.
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Same here, but came from Android, then started working for a company with iPhones for work cell. I much prefer the Android system over iOS. Obviously it's not that difficult to switch back and forth, but the customization is what I miss most about the Android. I don't think the MacBooks earn their value at all for 90% of those who buy them over a PC. Those that do the intensive graphics-related work with them are the few wo actually need that capability. Most people with the MBP are just doing basic stuff and have no need for anything more than the generic sub-$1000 laptop.

As for the "it just works" line . . . I have been working on or owned a few Dell and HP desktops (personal) and laptops (work) for over a decade and never had a problem with the computer "just working". The computers have always performed as they were supposed to. Now independent software has sometimes had its quirks (like add-ons in excel), but that usually has nothing to do with the computer or OS itself. Same stuff happens on Macs or iPhones in my limited experience. I can't speak to the server environments or security patchwork.
 
denverpilot said:
Those two in one laptop like things aren't good. We have a couple of users on really nice new ones. They crap out opening three spreadsheets and their email. LOL. The really sad one is the guy who hooked up two external monitors when his is docked. That thing slows to a crawl.
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I use a Surface Pro at work and it's a workhorse. Can't speak for the Apple iPad Pro but I've not been impressed running desktop applications on Apple products.
 
I think the important question is: what does "phasing out" mean? Will they remotely shut off my miniPad in flight because somebody arbitrarily decided that they don't like it anymore? I don't think so.

Just use it until it breaks or cannot support new apps anymore, get your money's worth out of it. Don't throw it in the trash just yet ... because some marketing genius asked you to.

Sheesh, people, gather, analyze, evaluate options. Basic ADM. :)
Now forget the miniPad and go fly, it is a gorgeous VFR day out there!
 
BigBadLou said:
I think the important question is: what does "phasing out" mean? Will they remotely shut off my miniPad in flight because somebody arbitrarily decided that they don't like it anymore? I don't think so.

Just use it until it breaks or cannot support new apps anymore, get your money's worth out of it. Don't throw it in the trash just yet ... because some marketing genius asked you to.

Sheesh, people, gather, analyze, evaluate options. Basic ADM. :)
Now forget the miniPad and go fly, it is a gorgeous VFR day out there!
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Apple will continue to support the product for 3 to 4 years. Expect around iOS 13 (roughly 2020) that you will not be able to update and that will be the end of it.

The device will still work at that point, but you will find newer apps that require the latest iOS will not be usable. Depending on how fast Foreflight requires the latest and greatest iOS you may get a little more time out of it. I just had this happen with my 3rd Gen iPad which is about 5 years old.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
^This.

My iPad 2 (2012) still works, sorta, still loping along on iOS 7.1.2. I use it at home for mail, surfing and iBooks, when my other devices are charging or otherwise unavailable. Foreflight still works on it, too (v. 6.7), but I only use it at home, for flight planning (it syncs the routes with the newer devices) and flight simming with X-Plane.
 
That really sucks. I currently have a Samsung running Garmin Pilot, but was planning to upgrade to a Mini this year due to the 135 operation I'm likely to start operating with. I had been waiting to pull the trigger since the Mini 4 is getting long in the tooth and figured an upgrade was around the corner.
 
I was holding out with my Mini 2 to upgrade but now I'm thinking of a dedicated aviation GPS unit. Thinking maybe the iFly 740. Thoughts?
 
drotto said:
Honestly, the whole tablet market is dying as phones get bigger and 2 in 1 laptops get smaller and more capable. While they are great for flying, the public is much more fascinated with their phones. Personally, I can not stand to watch videos or read on something that is only 5 or so inches, but the masses have spoken.
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I don;t know why they call them "phones". Voice Telephony quality is so crappy it's like an afterthought.
 
Palmpilot said:
I have trouble with yolk mounts: How do you keep the yolk from dripping on the floor? Do you have to cook it first?
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I truly hate these kinds of posts. That exchange often occurs because of spell correct. It is a pity that some have to be grammar Nazis to feel better about themselves.
 
steingar said:
I truly hate these kinds of posts. That exchange often occurs because of spell correct. It is a pity that some have to be grammar Nazis to feel better about themselves.
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I truly hate when people speculate about others' motives without foundation. Believe it or not, there are people who think that good spelling and grammar are important enough in their own right to push back occasionally against the rampant carelessness with it. Amateur psychoanalysis is neither needed nor justified.
 
Everyone has their hot buttons, LOL!
 
nauga said:
I'm just surprised to find out that yours is speculation ;)

Nauga,
who learned something from it :p
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Speculating about something that involves a dead person is not the same as speculating about something that involves a live person who is available to be asked about it! :p
 
Palmpilot said:
I truly hate when people speculate about others' motives without foundation. Believe it or not, there are people who think that good spelling and grammar are important enough in their own right to push back occasionally against the rampant carelessness with it. Amateur psychoanalysis is neither needed nor justified.
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Many of these posts are made on tablets and cell phones, which haven't the most obliging of keypads. The ancient machine on which I'm typing this missive (the device is from the Clinton administration and is currently located in the highlands of Guatemala) doesn't even display the letters as I type them. And not everyone plies their living with the written word.

This is neither University nor anything meaningful in any way. Just a bunch of people chatting about airplanes.
 
steingar said:
This is neither University nor anything meaningful in any way. Just a bunch of people chatting about airplanes.
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