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Apple iPad Pro |OT|

F

freenudemacusers

Member
Lol so uh AppleCare is a good idea for these. My daughter knocked mine off the table while packing, leaving a nice crack across the diagonal.. and it looks like I'll just be out $50.... Vs $600. 😭😫🙌🏻👧🏼👎🏻
 
Z

Zeyphersan

Banned
freenudemacusers said:
Lol so uh AppleCare is a good idea for these. My daughter knocked mine off the table while packing, leaving a nice crack across the diagonal.. and it looks like I'll just be out $50.... Vs $600. 😭😫🙌🏻👧🏼👎🏻
Click to expand...

Exactly what I said before!!!
 
D

Doc Holliday

SPOILER: Columbus finds America
RedSonja said:
I wouldn't bother purchasing an Ipad Pro if I was you. Clearly, it will be obsolete in a single season due to the lack of 3D Touch. If iOS 9 is built to support 3D Touch, and developers are encouraged to support it, and all new devices are supporting it, then people are going to get used to it being there. Using apps on your new phone, whenever you are eligible to get one, and then using the same apps on your iPad Pro and having none of your context sensitive shortcuts available is BIG deal breaker for me!
I've had 2 iPads so far and neither have I felt tempted to upgrade to the very next iteration. I'm not inclined to buy one that I know I will want to discard in a year lol
Other than that I would consider it if I see a substantial price cut, lol. Not because it's the best deal in tablets, but because it's the best iPad and I don't mind iPads.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't apps just use the pencil pressure sensitivity instead of force touch?
 
V

Vyer

Member
Finally got to see one in person. It is damn impressive. I didn't think I'd want to trade a weight increase over my Air 2 but they must have done a great job distributing it because it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. The whole device is really nice.

Still can't justify the price with a perfectly good Air 2 sitting here (and I'm no artist, so I wouldn't be utilizing the pencil features much), but if I do come into a little extra I might have to seriously consider it, whereas I hadn't really given it much of a thought.
 
N

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
Vyer said:
Finally got to see one in person. It is damn impressive. I didn't think I'd want to trade a weight increase over my Air 2 but they must have done a great job distributing it because it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. The whole device is really nice.

Still can't justify the price with a perfectly good Air 2 sitting here (and I'm no artist, so I wouldn't be utilizing the pencil features much), but if I do come into a little extra I might have to seriously consider it, whereas I hadn't really given it much of a thought.
Click to expand...

I just ordered a 64GB Gold iPad Air 2 the other night for $500 from Best Buy. The Pro seems cool, but it's expensive for what it is. To get the most/best out of it you have to at least spend $1000, now I can easily save that up in a few months and get one, but it's hard to justify. I think I will ride it out with my Air 2 when it arrives sometime next week for a year and see what the iPad Pro 2 and iPad Air 3 offer and go from there.
 
N

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
freenudemacusers said:
Lol so uh AppleCare is a good idea for these. My daughter knocked mine off the table while packing, leaving a nice crack across the diagonal.. and it looks like I'll just be out $50.... Vs $600. 😭😫🙌🏻👧🏼👎🏻
Click to expand...

If you don't have Apple Care, Apple won't fix your device ? If so then damn. I have my 2015 13" MacBook Pro, my iPhone 6s+, and iPad Air 2 which is on the way from Best Buy. And none of them have Apple care. I rock my iPhone careless and same will go for my Air 2, so if I crack those things, I guess I'm out of luck then ?
 
Z

Zeyphersan

Banned
d0hv said:
If you don't have Apple Care, Apple won't fix your device ? If so then damn. I have my 2015 13" MacBook Pro, my iPhone 6s+, and iPad Air 2 which is on the way from Best Buy. And none of them have Apple care. I rock my iPhone careless and same will go for my Air 2, so if I crack those things, I guess I'm out of luck then ?
Click to expand...

They'll still fix it, it's just an out of warranty repair. For iPads, they don't repair just the screens so if you drop it they swap the whole unit. Usually a couple hundred dollars or in the case of the iPad Pro $600.
 
N

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
Zeyphersan said:
They'll still fix it, it's just an out of warranty repair. For iPads, they don't repair just the screens so if you drop it they swap the whole unit. Usually a couple hundred dollars or in the case of the iPad Pro $600.
Click to expand...

Sheesh ! That's something you don't want to break without Apple Care.
 
V

Vyer

Member
d0hv said:
I just ordered a 64GB Gold iPad Air 2 the other night for $500 from Best Buy. The Pro seems cool, but it's expensive for what it is. To get the most/best out of it you have to at least spend $1000, now I can easily save that up in a few months and get one, but it's hard to justify. I think I will ride it out with my Air 2 when it arrives sometime next week for a year and see what the iPad Pro 2 and iPad Air 3 offer and go from there.
Click to expand...

Pretty much how I feel. But I got to admit, when I was holding it I was thinking about how awesome it would be to be laying around on the couch reading comics and browsing on that screen and it's probably good I didn't have an extra grand around.

Air 2 has been fabulous though, I use the hell out of it. Next year I'll be at 2 years and it'll probably still be solid but I'll probably be ready to upgrade.
 
A

AmyS

Member
So, a teardown of the A9X SoC in the iPad Pro has been done thanks to Chipworks. apparently revealing it has 12 GPUs clusters and no L3 cache.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/apple-a9x-soc.57386/page-4

2ru1JVU.png


http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/27/inside-the-apple-inc-a9x-chip.aspx

Chipworks' Dick James tells me that he sees a 12-cluster GPU, two CPU cores, and an absence of the level-three cache memory found inside the A9 chip (I'll explain why I think Apple didn't include it later in this article). I agree with his assessment. The two CPU cores can be seen in the green box, and I believe that inside of each blue box are two GPU clusters, for a total of 12 clusters.

One thing worth noting is that Imagination Technologies Apple's GPU IP supplier -- only lists variants of its Series 7XT graphics IP with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 16 "shading clusters." The 12-cluster design points to a semi-custom implementation by Apple of the Series 7XT, similar to what Apple did with the Series 6XT-based graphics IP in last year's A8X chip.

How big is this beast?
According to Chipworks, the chip measures in at approximately 147 square millimeters, a whopping 40% larger than the size of the TSMC-built variant of the A9 chip inside of the iPhone 6s/6s Plus. This is an absolutely huge increase in area (and by extension transistor count) from the A9, which no doubt means that this monster of a chip is far more difficult to manufacture, especially on a relatively new manufacturing technology.

Connecting the lack of cache with die size
Remember how I said that it doesn't look like the A9X features the 8 megabytes of on-die cache memory that the A9 does? Well, I think I have an explanation for that.

The A9X features a memory interface that's twice as wide as the one on the A9, allowing the chip to pass data to and from memory at twice the rate that the A9 can.

I believe that this is enabled by the fact that a chip like the A9X, which powers a relatively large device such as the iPad Pro, has both more thermal headroom than the A9 (since the iPad Pro is a larger device that can handle a more power hungry chip) and can take up a larger area footprint than a phone chip (the memory inside of the iPhone 6s/6s is stacked on-top of the A9 package; the memory in the iPad Pro sits on the logic board).

Finally, note that the A9X is already a very large chip, which means that it's probably much more difficult (and expensive) to manufacture than the A9. Adding the additional level three cache may not have brought enough of a performance improvement (particularly in light of the much wider memory interface) to justify the increased chip manufacturing costs.

The A9X is a great technical achievement
I believe that the A9X is easily the most advanced mobile system-on-a-chip available today. It has best-in-class CPU/graphics performance and it is an extremely large chip built on a bleeding-edge foundry manufacturing process.

It is little wonder that the chip performs as well as it does in the various performance tests available online, and I believe that the engineering teams at Apple should be quite proud of themselves for building and deploying a chip like the A9X in 2015.

I look forward to seeing more from Apple's chip teams in the coming years; I have a feeling that investors and customers alike will continue to be impressed.
Click to expand...


So....

zIPiIjJ.jpg
 
S

sarcastor

Member
here's a growing list of apps that support PiP and splitview.

http://forums.imore.com/ios-9/340612-list-ios-9-apps-support-split-view-ipad.html

1Password: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight
1Writer - Slide over/split view and Spotlight search
Adobe Comp CC: Slide Over / Split View
Adobe Creative Cloud: Slide Over / Split View
BeWeather 2 (only paid version) - also has Slide over / Split View support so it seems (wasn't mentioned in update)
Booklover: Slide Over / Split View,
Box: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight,
Calculator for iPad Free: Slide Over / Split View
Calendar Z - Slide over/split view, Spotlight search
Chrome: Slide Over / Split View, Picture in Picture (PiP)
Clips - Slide over/split view
Crossy Road: Slide Over, Split View
Dailymotion: Picture in Picture, Spotlight, Deeplinks
Davka Hebrew Writer: Slide Over / Split View
Digg - also has Slide over / Split View support so it seems (wasn't mentioned in update)
Disney Movies Anywhere - Picture in Picture (PiP)
Evernote: Slide Over / Split View
Feedly: Slide Over / Split View,
File Manager by Mousavian - Slide over/split view and Spotlight search
FileBrowser: Slide Over / Split View, Picture in Picture (PiP) *
FileBrowserLite - PiP only (not yet the paid version probably still in process at Apple)
FileMaker Go 14 - Slide over/split view
Flipp: Slide Over / Split View
HBO NOW: Picture in Picture (PIP), Spotlight
Heapo - Slide over/split view
Instashare Air Drop - Slide Over / Split View,
jetAudio Music Player: Slide Over / Split View
MacID: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight, App Thinning,
MeisterTask: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight, (Quick Actions, Peek and Pop)
Messenger (by Facebook) - Slide over/split view
MindMeister: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight, (Quick Actions, Peek and Pop)
MindNode - Slide over/split view and Spotlight search
Music Launcher: Slide Over / Split View
myMail - Slide over/split view, Spotlight search,
Newsify - Slide over/split view
nPlayer: Picture in Picture (PiP) - Quick Time videos only
Onefootball: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight
OnePad Pocket Notebook: Slide Over / Split View
Overcast: Slide Over / Split View,
Pingpad: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight,
Pixelmator - Slide over/split view
Plex - Picture in Picture (PiP)
Pocket - Picture in Picture (PiP)
Pocket Informant: Slide Over / Split View, (Quick Actions, Peek and Pop)
ProTube for YouTube: Picture in Picture (PIP), Slide Over / Split View,
Screenshot++ - Slide over/split view and Spotlight search
Skype for iPad - Slide over/split view
Slack: Slide Over / Split View
SLPRO: Slide Over / Split View
SnipNotes: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight,
Soundrocket for SoundCloud - Slide over/split view
SwiftKey Keyboard: Slide Over / Split View
Telegram - Slide over/split view, Quick Reply
Trello: Slide Over / Split View, Spotlight,
Tweetbot 4 for Twitter - Slide over/split view, Spotlight search, Quick Reply,
WatchBeam: Slide over / Split View / Picture in Picture (PiP)
WatchESPN: Picture in Picture (PiP)
WhatsApp: (Peek and Pop, Quick Actions), Quick Reply (only works in iOS9.1 - currently in beta)
WWDC: Picture in Picture (PiP)
You Doodle: Slide Over / Split View
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
My first drawing with the Pencil was just a quick doodle for a GAF thread. The Pencil itself feels really great. I never had a Cintiq, but it blows my Wacom out of the water in precision and feel. And it's so nice to draw directly on the surface. The biggest hurdle so far is the available software. I did the above in Procreate, which I find pretty good, but the UI is a bit odd compared to Photoshop. It also really needs better clone and smudge tools. Here's hoping we see improvements and more competition in this space over the next year. The other problem I had was sharing. iCloud Drive would not update on my Mac until I added a folder, which I guess prodded the sync service to update. Apple has got to get this sorted.
 
U

Union Carbine

Member
eyeball_kid said:
...The Pencil itself feels really great. I never had a Cintiq, but it blows my Wacom out of the water in precision and feel. And it's so nice to draw directly on the surface. The biggest hurdle so far is the available software. I did the above in Procreate, which I find pretty good, but the UI is a bit odd compared to Photoshop. It also really needs better clone and smudge tools. Here's hoping we see improvements and more competition in this space over the next year. The other problem I had was sharing. iCloud Drive would not update on my Mac until I added a folder, which I guess prodded the sync service to update. Apple has got to get this sorted.
Click to expand...
Try Adobe Sketch. I've been playing around with it and like it.
 
M

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
I got this $14 case on amazon:
3gna4JV.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W4ZM098/?tag=neogaf0e-20

It's pretty incredible for the price, I couldn't be more pleased with the materials. I'm using my Mac Mini Keyboard with it.

I'm in love with the iPad Pro, the screen, the reactivity. And it's so versatile. Switching from Monument Valley to Outline, Comic Zeal to Newsify, while watching a soccer game on Canal+ with PIP... That's 10% of my usage and it's already awesome.

Yesterday we watched Netflix in bed, I didn't even need to connect to my TV soundbar in Bluetooth, the speakers are largely good enough.

I'm still waiting for the Pencil though, now that's a frustration.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
I finally got a chance to try one hands on at the Apple store today and the size still astounded me, even though I was expecting it to be larger. I checked it out first, then went and looked at the regular iPads and minis and they looked tiny in comparison. And I still felt like I could comfortable hold it in both hands. Probably going to go Pro + keyboard over a new macbook if I upgrade next year.
 
L

LosDaddie

Banned
Figured this would be the best place to ask:

What's a good case for the iPad Air 2? Nothing too expensive, but something sturdy and has the feature where the iPad sits up.

Thanks!
 
X

Xun

Member
It'll never happen, but I really hope Apple will someday allow the iPad Pro to be used as a second monitor for OSX simply so I could use it like a Cintiq.

I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

The Apple Pencil (from the little I've used of it) really is fantastic.
 
M

MercuryLS

Banned
Vyer said:
Finally got to see one in person. It is damn impressive. I didn't think I'd want to trade a weight increase over my Air 2 but they must have done a great job distributing it because it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. The whole device is really nice.

Still can't justify the price with a perfectly good Air 2 sitting here (and I'm no artist, so I wouldn't be utilizing the pencil features much), but if I do come into a little extra I might have to seriously consider it, whereas I hadn't really given it much of a thought.
Click to expand...

I would personally wait for 3D Touch. It's going to be far more useful on a massive screen device like that. Peaking and popping as well as edge pressure swipe for multitasking and a 3D Touch enabled keyboard will be amazing.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
MercuryLS said:
I would personally wait for 3D Touch. It's going to be far more useful on a massive screen device like that. Peaking and popping as well as edge pressure swipe for multitasking and a 3D Touch enabled keyboard will be amazing.
Click to expand...

Naw. Honestly I barely use 3D Touch even on my 6S. Part of that is I forget it's there, part is that most of the OS and apps don't use it effectively, and part is that gestures like the edge pressure swipe just don't work reliably. But regardless of whether 3D Touch is awesome or not, the things that make the iPad Pro a great device are there with or without 3D Touch. And for me, those are the Pencil, Split View, the great performance, and the full-size virtual keyboard in landscape. And there's no guarantee that 3D Touch will even be on the next revision; it might take Apple a couple years to even get the weight of components down enough to consider adding the 3D Touch layer to the screen. If you're excited about the features of the iPad Pro, get it for those features, not because you're waiting in the assumption Apple will add feature X in a timely fashion. My guess is we won't even see a revised iPad Pro until 2017, given the re-purchase rate of iPads historically.
 
N

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
Hatchtag said:
i loaned out $300 to family over the weekend because I didn't expect this to go on sale, and now only have $500 in my bank account. God dammit. Goddddd dammit.
Click to expand...

Even if you didn't loan the money to someone, it wouldn't have been wise for you to buy something for 700 dollars with 800 dollars in your bank account.
 
J

japtor

Member
LosDaddie said:
Figured this would be the best place to ask:

What's a good case for the iPad Air 2? Nothing too expensive, but something sturdy and has the feature where the iPad sits up.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
For "not too expensive" just look on Amazon, if the reviews are solid it should be sturdy enough. There's a bunch in the $10-20 range, like this one which is pretty much a Smart Cover with rear shell attached...can't vouch for it myself but there's enough reviews to check out for yourself. There's a bunch of other case types too if you want something else.
Xun said:
It'll never happen, but I really hope Apple will someday allow the iPad Pro to be used as a second monitor for OSX simply so I could use it like a Cintiq.

I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

The Apple Pencil (from the little I've used of it) really is fantastic.
Click to expand...
For now there's AstroPad, but yeah official support would be good. Kinda surprised the AstroPad guys haven't done a virtual screen driver (like Duet or AirDisplay or whatever) to provide a second screen function while they're at it.
 
M

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
I got my pencil today and it's glorious.

I won't draw with it (my kids will), just annotate pdfs, take notes in meetings and use it to select text (edits, copy/paste) with pinpoint accuracy.

A week after, it's still the 2nd best Apple thing I've owned in 15 years. The 6S Plus tops it, being ridisculously good.

I'll post later on usage habits, workflows I have with this iPad, as a power user.
 
X

xXJonoXx

Member
Any one order from Verizon's website for the cellular model? My estimated delivery date is 12/15 (on backorder) from my order today. What's the chances it will ship sooner than that?
 
T

thescience

Member
Anyone with the Pencil care to give their impressions after a while using it? I'm surprised at the lack of posting in this thread. Either everyone is busy using their pros, next to no one got a pro, or it really just is a big iPad.
 
W

Weevilone

Member
xXJonoXx said:
Any one order from Verizon's website for the cellular model? My estimated delivery date is 12/15 (on backorder) from my order today. What's the chances it will ship sooner than that?
Click to expand...

LOL, hope you have better luck than me. I ordered an iPad Air 2 from Verizon on September 27 and they still haven't shipped it. After speaking with a half dozen reps who couldn't get it done, I finally canceled it and now I can't get a refund.
 
M

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
thescience said:
Anyone with the Pencil care to give their impressions after a while using it? I'm surprised at the lack of posting in this thread. Either everyone is busy using their pros, next to no one got a pro, or it really just is a big iPad.
Click to expand...
It's as good as you read. It's a bit noisy when it touches the screen, that's the only negative I have with it.

Otherwise taking notes with it in Evernote or Penultimate is a thing of wonder, science fiction stuff. Even building a powerpoint presentation with it feels like a game. It adds so much precision, ie to select an angle and resize a text box, or select a mispelled word/letter.

It also shines with pictures edition. I retouched few pictures I shot with my A77 ii in PhotoShop Fix and Pixelmator, its super natural to do so compared to my magic mouse. So much so I bought PhotoRaw to edit my Raw pictures there first, before applying retouch on correctly exposed jpeg copies.

Overall it's precise and fun, I love using it.

Did I say I love how fast and endurant the iPad Pro is?
 
L

LyleLanley

Banned
thescience said:
Anyone with the Pencil care to give their impressions after a while using it? I'm surprised at the lack of posting in this thread. Either everyone is busy using their pros, next to no one got a pro, or it really just is a big iPad.
Click to expand...

What's there to really talk about? I imagine this thread will get some more action if/when big pro apps make their way to the App Store.
 
J

Jugendstil

Member
thescience said:
Anyone with the Pencil care to give their impressions after a while using it? I'm surprised at the lack of posting in this thread. Either everyone is busy using their pros, next to no one got a pro, or it really just is a big iPad.
Click to expand...

It's fantastic and transforms the utility of the device. I'm a designer and artist, so I'm using it to take notes in meetings at work, to sketch and draw, and as tablet for my computer via Astropad. My favorite thing is being able to sit in bed and sketch in Adobe Draw or Procreate. Honestly, I'm glad I bit the bullet and just paid the markup for a Pencil on ebay because its allowed me to actually use the Pro for what I bought it for. It sucks that they are still in such limited supply and I think it stinks that Apple didn't include it outright with the Pro because its so important to the device's functionality, but it is what it is. It's definitely worth the wait for one, but if you have the means to obtain one faster, do it.
 
T

thescience

Member
Jugendstil said:
It's fantastic and transforms the utility of the device. I'm a designer and artist, so I'm using it to take notes in meetings at work, to sketch and draw, and as tablet for my computer via Astropad. My favorite thing is being able to sit in bed and sketch in Adobe Draw or Procreate. Honestly, I'm glad I bit the bullet and just paid the markup for a Pencil on ebay because its allowed me to actually use the Pro for what I bought it for. It sucks that they are still in such limited supply and I think it stinks that Apple didn't include it outright with the Pro because its so important to the device's functionality, but it is what it is. It's definitely worth the wait for one, but if you have the means to obtain one faster, do it.
Click to expand...

This is what I was looking for. Thank you. Really stoked to try it out myself, I'm about 80% sold on one. I think this and an iMac is probably the ultimate setup.
 
J

Jugendstil

Member
thescience said:
This is what I was looking for. Thank you. Really stoked to try it out myself, I'm about 80% sold on one. I think this and an iMac is probably the ultimate setup.
Click to expand...

Yes! I think it's a misconception that its a laptop replacement. It's much more of a tool to use alongside your existing setup, especially as a creative. I think if you keep that in mind, you'll be happy with it.
 
T

thescience

Member
Jugendstil said:
Yes! I think it's a misconception that its a laptop replacement. It's much more of a tool to use alongside your existing setup, especially as a creative. I think if you keep that in mind, you'll be happy with it.
Click to expand...

Agreed. We are probably a few years off of having a true desktop replacement. My hope is having one central processing device that can beam video signals to one or more high resolution screens. Both portable and stationary if you want it to be. To me it is farcical to want a machine to be one or the other, it should be able to adapt to the users needs. /rant
 
S

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
thescience said:
Agreed. We are probably a few years off of having a true desktop replacement. My hope is having one central processing device that can beam video signals to one or more high resolution screens. Both portable and stationary if you want it to be. To me it is farcical to want a machine to be one or the other, it should be able to adapt to the users needs. /rant
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what the Surface Pro is. Unless you're a heavy gamer it's good enough to be a desktop replacement which is also a tablet. Also comes with a pen.
 
C

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
StudioTan said:
That's pretty much what the Surface Pro is. Unless you're a heavy gamer it's good enough to be a desktop replacement which is also a tablet. Also comes with a pen.
Click to expand...

Pretty much, and even with the games, it's not too bad and actually plays probably 90% of my current steam library. But the problem with the SP (and I speak as an owner) is that it's not as good a tablet as you want it to be, mostly because of the ecosystem for touch based apps. That said, it can replace your laptop for 99.9% of tasks.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
Jugendstil said:
It's fantastic and transforms the utility of the device. I'm a designer and artist, so I'm using it to take notes in meetings at work, to sketch and draw, and as tablet for my computer via Astropad.
Click to expand...

How's the latency on Astropad compared with a Wacom tablet? $20 is just out of my impulse buy range. Apple really really needs to allow product demos if they want the pro app market to succeed.
 
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