Apple IPad

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Edit #2: What's the point of 10-bit H264 with AAC audio? That's like recording an orchestral performance with a Sony Walkman. If you're going to go crazy on video why not use FLAC audio...

I think it's easier for people to obtain screens that can let superior video resolution and encoding shine than it is for people to obtain speakers or headphones that make lossless audio worth it. My personal opinion is that FLAC audio just needlessly ups my file sizes, because to me it sounds the same as AAC-encoded audio. As you could probably guess, I'm using low- to mid-range speakers and headphones.

[DragoZERO]

FLAC is only beneficial if you have a really nice sound system and you are using fiber optic directly from your computer to your receiver.

[chikorita157]

Originally Posted by ImperialX

I just got the new iPad and I have to say that this is a fine device, especially for us anime fans. It will decode MKV like a knife cutting butter.

I always carried a Galaxy S2 because Android supported hardware decoding. I love iOS and its polished apps, but the lack of such a feature practically forced me to carry an Android phone. Now that the new iPad can do this, I finally have a reason to say goodbye to Android!

I demo some latest episodes below such as Kill Me Baby, Guilty Crown and Nisemonogatari. They're all either 8-bit or 10-bit MKV files at 720p, and show them playing unconverted on the new iPad. Hopefully this will help some of you still on the fence to make a decision.

The Retina Display is amazing, btw.

I tried AVPlayer on my iPhone 4S and got the same result for the most part... I suspect the new iPad can play this smoothly because of the extra graphics processing. I suppose that it will work the same on the iPhone 4S since it shares the same processor, except that it only have dual core GPUs. Needless to say, it plays pretty damn decent with no frame drops... Also tried 10bit and works fine. I think the dual core A5 and graphics makes a big difference compared to the Apple A4, which only had one core.

But needless to say, this can come in handy if I go on vacation... I can just watch my stuff from my phone instead of taking out my laptop.
(Not to mention, the VLC port sucked, but the official developers are making a new and probably better port of it)

[Random32]

That display is beautiful. Too bad its paired up with a phone OS and hardware. When can I buy a real computer with one of these...

btw, I don't think its extra graphics hardware. Pretty sure there is no hardware acceleration of Hi10p yet, so its all on the CPU.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Only a matter of time until an Android tablet comes out that will beat it.

Based on empirical evidence, this statement is very likely to be false. Android tablets just haven't done well at all.

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by ImperialX

I just got the new iPad and I have to say that this is a fine device, especially for us anime fans. It will decode MKV like a knife cutting butter.

I always carried a Galaxy S2 because Android supported hardware decoding. I love iOS and its polished apps, but the lack of such a feature practically forced me to carry an Android phone. Now that the new iPad can do this, I finally have a reason to say goodbye to Android!

I demo some latest episodes below such as Kill Me Baby, Guilty Crown and Nisemonogatari. They're all either 8-bit or 10-bit MKV files at 720p, and show them playing unconverted on the new iPad. Hopefully this will help some of you still on the fence to make a decision.

The Retina Display is amazing, btw.

/edit:
Also, what's this?



Is that visible in real life or from youtube?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Based on empirical evidence, this statement is very likely to be false. Android tablets just haven't done well at all.

Not if the hardware spills over. And wait....there are the Windows Tablets where almost every software works on them.

I swear I'll never buy another Apple product until I feel the price is absolutely worth it. Their stuff is always overhyped, and those who buy their stuff tend to use their technology "as is" without any modifications, hacking, engineering, etc. Owning an Apple product seems to be some sort of social status instead of engineering ability.

What is a point of spending so much money on a piece of exotic technology when you don't (or can't) experiment with its limits?

[-KarumA-]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I swear I'll never buy another Apple product until I feel the price is absolutely worth it.

I agree on it, all beside the moral standard that I don't need to be connected or available online where ever I am; buying an Ipad is like buying a beta product because a couple months later a new one comes out and a couple months after that another newer one. This is merely Ipad 0.3 beta.
All that and the specs are just horrible.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Not if the hardware spills over. And wait....there are the Windows Tablets where almost every software works on them.

I've read that because of the way that Google initially implemented Android, it can't make full use of hardware acceleration (or maybe it was that it makes it difficult for developers to tap hardware acceleration? I didn't read the developer's opinion thoroughly). Supposedly they're trying to fix that, but the guy said that it wouldn't happen for at least another year.

Then again, it was a random opinion on the internet. Those were his reasons for why an iPad can outperform an Android tablet with superior hardware.

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I swear I'll never buy another Apple product until I feel the price is absolutely worth it. Their stuff is always overhyped, and those who buy their stuff tend to use their technology "as is" without any modifications, hacking, engineering, etc. Owning an Apple product seems to be some sort of social status instead of engineering ability.

I thought that the "status symbol" line of thought died out a few years ago. I don't have all of this Apple stuff because I think it's cool, I have it because it works well and it's quality. I've been very pleasantly surprised by how long the Apple laptops in my family have lasted. We have some going strong at six years, and any time we needed service, we could just take it to an Apple store. When I think of all the PC laptops I've gone through, and the time I spent in "phone hell" with their support lines for warranty-based fixes, the experience is incomparable.

I switched to using Macs about four years ago. I've used Windows for well over double that amount of time. I still virtualize Windows, but unless Apple royally screws up, I don't ever intend to return to Windows as my primary operating system. I enjoyed tinkering with Windows when I used it (and Windows Mobile, too - that was my first smartphone), but I'm too busy to tinker with things now. I want it to "just work," and the tight integration between Apple's various devices is too good to pass up.

It's not for everyone. Computers are tools - use the one that best fits what you're trying to do and how you like to work. Just recognize that the number of Apple users who chose it simply as a status symbol or because they wanted to be "cool" are in the slim minority at this point. It's anecdotal, but I've never met one, and Macs were all over the place in research and higher education.

[piccahoe]

I'm not bias on this one because I have read some stuff on how both software works. I must say that Apple's software is slightly less buggy and a bit more secured from what I have read . Everything is checked with a signature and you can't run running unsigned code unless it's jail broken which can be done because Apple doesn't have a check on the main boot (Nothing is impossible to crack or hack).
Also, I heard the new ipad was already jail broken.
The Android is a great product if you have 1GB of ram. Personally, I do not know why google used Java. Without it, it could just be as stable as iPhone since it wouldn't have an extra layer for Java under Linux OS, taking up more RAM. Stuff that gets loaded into the ram needs to get collected by the garbage collector so say you have a game and you start the game up.The game will load all it's contents into the RAM and you play level one. When you get to Level two, it does the same as level 1, it loads the contents for level 2, however, level one content has to wait for the garbage collector to pick it up and delete it so you still have all the content from level one . Supposedly, the garage collector is great and picks up resources that isn't in used but again, it HAS to run, slowing down the android. But I think if you have 1GB or maybe 512MB, you will be just as good as the iPad.

[chikorita157]

It's not for everyone. Computers are tools - use the one that best fits what you're trying to do and how you like to work. Just recognize that the number of Apple users who chose it simply as a status symbol or because they wanted to be "cool" are in the slim minority at this point. It's anecdotal, but I've never met one, and Macs were all over the place in research and higher education.

I agree with this statement. Considering that I'm an Information Systems major (specifically MIS), I like how tablets and smartphones in general are getting more powerful, but still being great on power consumption and still being very portable. Of course, some things are still best on a desktop/laptop such as content creation and other applications.

Of course, playing 10bit H264 is no easy feat since there is no hardware acceleration. If an iPad 3rd Generation can play these files decently, it shows that the ARM Cortex A9 is already that powerful. Who knows what lies ahead when smartphones and tablets with quad core ARM processors gets released.

[synaesthetic]

2D hardware acceleration works fine on Android. It's working perfectly on my Galaxy Nexus. No problems at all. Android versions before 4.0 have iffy or nonfunctional acceleration, though.

@Saintess: The WOA tablets will not be able to run applications compiled for x86. They will be just as limited as any other tablet. I think Microsoft needs to change their strategy up a bit before they start releasing things. The average consumer doesn't know the difference between ARM and x86 architectures. They will buy a Windows tablet and expect it to run the same Windows applications that their desktop or laptop runs, and of course it will not. Anger will follow...

[MrTerrorist]

Somewhat related.

Free mobile apps 'drain battery faster'

[Urzu 7]

I once asked about the Crunchyroll app for iPad in this forum, and I was told the Crunchyroll app only allows you to view anime rated 13 and up and below. I brought this up with a friend and he said that he doesn't have that problem with Crunchyroll for his iPhone. Can anyone tell me if Crunchyroll is offered in full on iPad? If you become a premium member, would that carry over to the iPad if you sign in?

[problemedchild]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

I once asked about the Crunchyroll app for iPad in this forum, and I was told the Crunchyroll app only allows you to view anime rated 13 and up and below. I brought this up with a friend and he said that he doesn't have that problem with Crunchyroll for his iPhone. Can anyone tell me if Crunchyroll is offered in full on iPad? If you become a premium member, would that carry over to the iPad if you sign in?

You can watch Crunchyroll's entire library with the iPad app.

[Urzu 7]

Niiiice. The iPad 3 is being unveiled next month. Now, if they were to put micro SD card slots in them, they'd be perfect. I hope they do. I don't expect it that much, but they might since Windows tablets will have them.

[demonix]

Originally Posted by problemedchild

You can watch Crunchyroll's entire library with the iPad app.

No you can't because the app has a 12+ rating and any series over that rating is missing from the listings in the app (Steel angel Kurumi and School days are two examples of what shows on the website and doesn't on the app).

[problemedchild]

Originally Posted by demonix

No you can't because the app has a 12+ rating and any series over that rating is missing from the listings in the app (Steel angel Kurumi and School days are two examples of what shows on the website and doesn't on the app).

This restriction is not there for paying members. I just loaded both of the shows you mentioned on my iPad.

[Urzu 7]

How much do you have to pay a month for Crunchy Rolls premium service? If iPad 3 has a model with 128 GB, I might get that one.

[problemedchild]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

How much do you have to pay a month for Crunchy Rolls premium service? If iPad 3 has a model with 128 GB, I might get that one.

It's 7 bucks a month.

Regarding the iPad 4. You're looking at Q1-Q2 of next year for the next 10" model to be released. Many speculate that the newest addition to the Apple tablet lineup will most likely be a 7" tablet to combat the Fire and Nexus 7.