iPad3

NoHeat

NoHeat

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Apple is expected to announce its new iPad3 tomorrow. The MacRumors site predicts it will have a higher resolution display. I'm wondering what else will distinguish it from the iPad2.

I wanted to start this thread as a place to discuss whether the iPad3 is really an improvement, for pilots. That's because I don't yet own an iPad -- I've been waiting for this new one to come out, so that I can either get the latest thing, or get a better price on a used iPad2.
 
Until Apple announces it, everything's just a speculation. But honestly, I do not believe this would be a huge improvement for pilots. Higher resolution screen is always good for increasing detail and sharpness on smaller objects. But you can always zoom in on a detail you are looking at while using Foreflight, WingX, etc, so it shouldn't be an issue.
 
'Have to agree... watching with great interest, but I doubt it will affect aviation use to any degree. I still use an iPad one and haven't lusted for a Two at all. The only practical difference is cpu speed/screen refresh...
Some folks in tight cockpits say the iPad is just too large, especially as a kneepad. Maybe the mythical 7-8inch iPad would help there...
 
Comes out in a week or two. Not much will change for new things really, just a faster, lighter, better battery/camera kind of thing. With some new things to introduce I assume
 
I'd take it just for the faster processor. iPad 1 feels a bit sluggish on recent Foreflight updates. It's not going to be able to keep up forever with its faster siblings.
 
The new iPad was announced. The specs are here

Regarding what it will do in the cockpit, it looks like:

  • some of the new features are nice (better screen resolution and faster processor)
  • some are irrelevant (better camera and 4G networking)
  • none are game changers
The digital compass and GPS features are still provided only if you buy the more expensive model with cellular network capability.

Accelerometer and gyroscope are included with both models, as on the iPad2. I don't know if they are improved or the same.

Any thoughts?
 
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I think the faster processor is a game-changer for heavy hitter Apps like ForeFlight, but that's just MHO. You can really see the lag on iPad 1 these days.

Karen has been making squawky noises about wanting an iPad... so there may be a hand-me-down upgrade happening in this household soon... she just wants to sit in the living room and read e-mails and what-not, and I'm mainly using mine for FF, so the quad-core could be a boon for my purposes.

The big question is whether or not they've properly managed CPU throttling in the iPad 3 to not chew through the battery at a horrendous rate. It's a *requirement* for me that the thing run all day without a charge in the cockpit.

If the quad-core burns through battery life like a drunken sailor on shore leave downs beers, I'll be looking for a used 64 GB iPad 2 instead.
 
specs for the battery are 42.5 watt-hour capacity for the new iPad, up from 25 watt-hours for the iPad 2.

Claims of how long this battery holds its charge remain unchanged:

  • Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
  • Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using cellular data network
If the specs are right, they've increased the load on the battery but made the battery larger to exactly offset that increased load.
 
4G is pretty big for quickly downloading new WX or charts when away from WiFi. While 3G was capable of that, it did lag a bit.
 
NoHeat said:
If the specs are right, they've increased the load on the battery but made the battery larger to exactly offset that increased load.
Click to expand...

Wow... double the watt-hours, same battery life.

So these things will also run HOT? Can't break those laws of physics, after all...

This is why I'm always gun-shy about pre-ordering anything like this. We've already seen iPad 1/2 issues with heat load in cockpits when they get left in the sunshine, and shutting down... not a lot, but it's fairly easy to do...

Adding a bunch more heat isn't going to help that problem...
 
denverpilot said:
So these things will also run HOT? Can't break those laws of physics, after all...
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. 70% more power consumption will mean 70% more heat generation. The overall package is essentially the same size, and still no fan, so it seems that it has to be hotter.

Good point about overheating in the sun. It seems that would be more likely now.
 
I had a friends iPad 1 overheat once after leaving it on the dash for 10 minutes while we refueled at self serve. Reset it a few minutes later and it fired right back up.
 
I see where the iOS update now allows Apps up to 50 MB to be updated over cellular. That and the ability to fire up the camera without unlocking the device first are both nice.

After one day of operating on iOS 5.1 I haven't seen any benefit from the claimed fixes for battery life on either the iPhone 4 or iPad 1. Hard to say if those were hardware specific.

That would have been nice w/ earlier versions of Foreflight, but I see the latest version grew to exactly 50 MB for the App, so the next version probably won't update over 3G either. :)

Oh well.
 
denverpilot said:
I think the faster processor is a game-changer for heavy hitter Apps like ForeFlight, but that's just MHO. You can really see the lag on iPad 1 these days.

Karen has been making squawky noises about wanting an iPad... so there may be a hand-me-down upgrade happening in this household soon... she just wants to sit in the living room and read e-mails and what-not, and I'm mainly using mine for FF, so the quad-core could be a boon for my purposes.

The big question is whether or not they've properly managed CPU throttling in the iPad 3 to not chew through the battery at a horrendous rate. It's a *requirement* for me that the thing run all day without a charge in the cockpit.

If the quad-core burns through battery life like a drunken sailor on shore leave downs beers, I'll be looking for a used 64 GB iPad 2 instead.
Click to expand...

From the looks of it, A5X SoC powering new iPad is same as iPad 2, but with beefier graphics. Which will be offset by 4 times the pixels on the old one. I would not expect any performance change from iPad 2. All of the new iPad improvements are basically done to drive the new screen and LTE modems.
 
Mike5250 said:
I had a friends iPad 1 overheat once after leaving it on the dash for 10 minutes while we refueled at self serve. Reset it a few minutes later and it fired right back up.
Click to expand...

My iPad 1 would overheat but my iPad 2 never has. Also, the GPS in the 2 seems better than the 1.

The 3 should have same battery life as 1. There was a big difference between the 1 and 2. From the specs the 2 to 3 move seems less extreme unless the higher resolution display wows you. The cameras aren't a big deal to me. Size change from 1 tob2 was. 3 is very slightly bigger. 2 has 9X better graphics speed than 1 so 3 should be about 18X faster but have a lot more pixels it has to process. Oops, almost forgot. Move from single core on 1 to dual core on 2 allowed turning on multiprocessing jest urges without bogging unit down.

My advice would be to stay with the 2 if you have one but the 1 to 3 upgrade would be very worthwhile. For the $100 difference I would get the 3 over a new 2. Besides, for aviation I would get 32 or 64GB and one with cellular (don't have to sign up) so you have the GPS. All versions lack GPS on non-cellular versions.
 
News this morning says if you didn't pre-order, delivery dates are being pushed back. Looks like the 3 is popular.
 
Mine is supposed to arrive on March 16th (I pre-ordered). I think it will make a big difference to Foreflight. I misplaced my iPad2 for one of my trips, and had to "borrow" my son's iPad 1, and install Foreflight there. It was staggering how slow the iPad 1 felt in comparison to the iPad 2. So if we get a similar improvement in speed for the third iteration, then that can only be a good thing. The higher resolution sounds very good too. That can only help for looking at maps.
 
Gubbins said:
Mine is supposed to arrive on March 16th (I pre-ordered). I think it will make a big difference to Foreflight. I misplaced my iPad2 for one of my trips, and had to "borrow" my son's iPad 1, and install Foreflight there. It was staggering how slow the iPad 1 felt in comparison to the iPad 2. So if we get a similar improvement in speed for the third iteration, then that can only be a good thing. The higher resolution sounds very good too. That can only help for looking at maps.
Click to expand...

Mine should show up then, too... already have the FedEx tracking number!
 
I've watched computer hardware and software upgrades and users reactions to them for 38 years now. The first real computer I ever had my hands on was a DEC PDP8 in 1974. I wrote some assembly code on this machine. It was a 12 bit machine with 4KBytes of core memory and a HUMONGOUS 6.2MByte hard drive.

The reaction to newer hardware, unless there was a significant shortcoming in what was being replaced has always been based on the attitude and personality of the user.

There is a bell curve with early adopters on the leading edge and the "I won't change until everyone else has" on the other edge. From my 38 years of observation, the early adopters USUALLY are of a mindset that feels that they must have the latest and greatest so that they are ahead of everyone else. They are willing to take the chances involved with a X.0 release so that they can have the latest and newest. Sometimes for ego related reasons, and sometimes because there is a particular feature or performance improvement that they truly need.

The early adopters serve a fabulous service to the rest of us, regardless of how much further along on the curve we might be. They are usually astute and have an experimental nature. They will hammer on the newest product and provide lots of data back to the developers that help them drive out the bugs and validate new feature usefulness.

The ones on the late edge of the curve are those who just don't want to be bothered with the risk of upgrade as well as the security of knowing that everyone else has driven out all of the problems. They obviously don't have a need for a new feature or higher performance or such needs would have driven them to upgrade sooner.

There are a few of the early adopters that insist on the latest and greatest because it drives them crazy to see someone else with something newer.

Please don't read any of this as if I am saying anything good or bad about people based on where they fall on the curve. People are just different and watching people is some of the best entertainment on Earth.
 
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Apps & the iPad3

Let's expand this discussion just a bit. For those of us who will be new to the iPad Universe (yes, some of us are of the 'unwashed'...), which 'functional' (not game) apps not already in the iOS have shown themselves to be especially useful?As one example, I'm looking forward to putting a number of pdf-formatted Grumman- and aviation-related references on my iPad...and so I need a good .pdf reader for that (and perhaps a file management app, as well?). Goodreader comes well recommended...but it would be useful to hear what you iPad vets find are irreplaceable aps (vs. just 'initially nifty') when it comes to flying and to being 'on the road'.

Jack
32G & 4G
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Mine should show up then, too... already have the FedEx tracking number!
Click to expand...

Interestingly, FedEx has already picked up my package, and it's in Nashville, TN... but is being held for "delivery at a future date". I wonder why Apple does that? If they have them in stock, why not deliver? Maybe other support mechanisms need to be in place first, or is it just about creating marketing tension?
 
Troy,

They must have found out it is going to one of those crazy pilots, so they held off.:D
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Interestingly, FedEx has already picked up my package, and it's in Nashville, TN... but is being held for "delivery at a future date". I wonder why Apple does that? If they have them in stock, why not deliver? Maybe other support mechanisms need to be in place first, or is it just about creating marketing tension?
Click to expand...

Apple LOVES manipulating the market. They asked FedEx not to deliver before 16th.

Reminds me of iPad 2 launch. before that, iPhone 4 was launched on Verizon, and Apple expected crowds. However, in Verizon stores, with all their iPhone props, you could hear crickets. So, Apple announced that iPad will be released on Friday, at 5pm. They took no pre-orders, no online reservations, nothing. They wanted lines. They wanted something to show to the press/stock holders. So, it's not surprising at all that your iPad will be sitting in a box until street date.
 
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