Tag Archives: iPad

Rant, Technology

iPad Debacle : 2023 edition

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I couldn’t end 2023 without another iPad debacle. I already went through how I bought an iPad Pro 12.9 and iPad Pro 11 back in 2022. After the 2022 debacle, I ended up without an iPad, but reasonably satisfied. Then 2023 came around and things went wrong.

As part of my New Years’ resolution, I started reading again. The only problem was, English books are very expensive in Thailand. On top of that, English Indian books are very hard to find. To solve this problem, I bought a Kindle. All was good for a few months, till I felt like I wanted to read comic books & magazines. Of course you cannot do that on a kindle. So what does one do?

iPad debacle
NASA Visualization Explorer (iPad app) by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

iPad Air (5th Gen) 64Gb

One day while walking through the mall, I saw a good deal on an iPad Air (5th Gen) & bought it. Things were OK for a while, I read both books and magazines on it, no problem. However, the poorly storage space (64Gb) and the 60Hz screen started nagging me. Especially when I switched from using my iPhone to the iPad, it felt really bad. I decided that it won’t do. My daughter’s 4 year old iPad was acting up, so I gave her my Air and started looking around.

iPad Pro 11 (4th Gen) 512Gb

The iPad Pro 11 was seemingly perfect. It addressed the storage and display refresh rate limitations of the Air. Weeks went by, with me oblivious to what’s coming next. And then I made a mistake of checking out iPads at the mall. Once I compared the iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 displays, it was game over for this iPad, too.

I hadn’t done my homework before buying this iPad. If I had, I would know that the iPad Pro 11 had a regular LCD screen which goes up to 600 nits. The iPad Pro 12.9 on the other hand, has a Mini LED display and the difference is mind blowing. The contrast and brightness were incomparable. And once I saw this, I couldn’t go back to the iPad Pro 11. It was outside the return window, so I sold it on Facebook Marketplace at a slight loss. I was lucky I got such a good deal.

iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 512Gb

The next logical step was to buy the iPad Pro 12.9. I chose to forget what happened last time and bought one from the Apple Store. The good news was, I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. I even went a long way towards getting used to its huge size and weight. Then I saw a deal on Studio 7 and I returned the iPad to Apple (The process took less than 10 mins).

iPad Pro 12.9 (5th Gen) 512Gb

The deal I saw was for an iPad Pro 12.9 (5th Gen) for less than what I paid for the last one. The kicker is, this was a 2Tb model. I couldn’t ever use the 2Tb, but the 1Tb/2Tb models do come with 16Gb RAM, too and appealed to me no end. I ended up saving money with the last transition, but didn’t lose much because the 5th Gen to 6th Gen upgrade was minor at best. I had second thoughts after buying this one, too and even contacted customer care to return it, but eventually slapped myself hard twice and stopped it. But after the holidays came and went and it didn’t even ship, I cancelled the order.

iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 512Gb

Eventually, I gave up and went back to the Apple Store and bought the same iPad I bought before the last one, but this time in Silver colour.

Analysis

After the dust settled, I tried to think about why this happens to me and why specifically only with iPads. Why did I go through 7 iPads in a span of 10 months? My iPhone is more than a year old and I felt no yearning to upgrade when the iPhone 15 Pro came out. My AirPods Pro lasted 4 years before I had to change them because they died. My Apple Watch is 2 generations old and the last one lasted 4 generations. I have never wanted a Mac or a MacBook. This literally doesn’t happen to me for anything except the iPad.

Eventually, I realised it is because I am looking for a single device to do all of the below

  1. Read books
  2. Read comics, magazines & newspapers
  3. Use as a PC for blogging & budgeting on Buxfer
  4. Making FaceTime calls
  5. Watching TV shows when the TV is occupied or when I am out

The fact is, there’s no one device which fulfils all the above criteria perfectly.

  • The Kindle is good for 1 but not any of the others.
  • The iPad Air and Pro 11 are good for 1 & 4 but not for 2, 3 or 5.
  • The iPad Pro 12.9 is good for 2, 3, 4 & 5, but too big and heavy for 1.
  • A MacBook is good for 3 & 4, but not 1, 2 or 5.

Eventually, I decided to compromise and use a Kindle to read books and an iPad Pro 12.9 to do everything else.

Rant

My Worst Purchases-iPad Pro 11”

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Continuing with my series, the next entry in the list is the iPad Pro 11”.

iPad Pro 11″, PC: Wikipedia

So it had been only a few days since my last folly and the palms of my hands started itching already. So I decided to buy the iPad Pro 11″. I justified it by telling myself I deserved it for my birthday.

This time I didn’t get the Smart Folio Keyboard. I again got the 512Gb version with cellular. Like before, I ran out of money so I couldn’t justify buying the Apple Pencil.

I got into a feverish rage on my birthday and woke up early to stand outside the still-closed store to buy one.

This one was just the right size and OK for one handed use. Like before, the device was gorgeous in every way. The body was awesome and the display was mind blowing.

By the second day, I started having serious misgivings about what I had done. All day, I tried coming up with use-cases for the iPad, but came up empty. This time, I even considered buying a Mirrorless camera to use the iPad as an image processor. Luckily, that moment passed without more expenses.

On the third day I bought the Apple Pencil but it failed to spark any creativity from within me.

By the fourth day, I realized that the device was more suited to professionals and people with creative hobbies and I could do nothing with it. I promptly listed it for sale and sold it the next day to someone at a significant loss. After that I slapped myself on the face 13 times.

Rant

My Worst Purchases-iPad Pro 12.9”

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Continuing with my series, the next entry in the list is the iPad Pro 12.9”.

iPad Pro 12.9"
iPad Pro, PC: Wikipedia

So it had been a few months that I had bought a new gadget and the palms of my hands started itching. Lately I had not been truly happy with my iPhone (declining battery, low storage). So I decided to get an iPad to supplement the iPhone.

I wanted to read magazines on it, so I got the biggest one at 12.9”. Also wanted to blog on it, so I got the Smart Folio Keyboard. I wanted all my cloud content available offline, so I got the 512Gb version. Ran out of money so I couldn’t justify buying the Apple Pencil.

I got into a feverish rage last Sunday and woke up early to stand outside the still-closed store to buy one.

My first impression of the iPad was that it was huge. And heavy. Bigger than my wife’s MacBook Air, and with the smart folio, heavier, too. But I found it awkward to back out at the store so I handed them all my money and took the iPad.

My second impression was that the device was gorgeous in every way. The body is awesome and the display is mind blowing.

At home after setting everything up, I decided to read a magazine. Far from the experience I imagined, I had to hold the iPad with both hands and it still felt too heavy. I tried blogging on it and it felt weird, switching between the touch screen and the keyboard.

By the second day, I started having serious misgivings about what I had done. All day, I tried coming up with use-cases for the iPad, but came up empty.

By the third day, I realised that the device was more suited to professionals and people with creative hobbies and I could do nothing with it. I promptly listed it for sale and sold it the next day to someone at a significant loss. After that I slapped myself on the face 3 times.

Hate, Rant

Die Intel!

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My first PC came with an Intel Celeron 400 processor. Back then, I had no idea what I was getting; I was not aware of various PC parts & technologies. All I knew was that a friend of mine had a Pentium III computer and it was better than mine.

Dominance/Monopoly of Intel

Slowly, as I started to explore the world of PCs (with help from Chip and Digit magazines), I became aware of various components inside PCs and different technologies & brands. The market leader for computer processors even back then was Intel. AMD, Via and Cyrix were alternative brands. Over time, I began to hate Intel. I started looking at Intel as a company which made technically good but overpriced processors & indulged in false/misleading advertising.

Intel is Evil
Evil Inside, PC: LogoDix

AMD processors always fascinated me. When the Athlon series launched, I read about its performance with awe. However, AMD, VIA or Cyrix processors were very rarely seen in the real world, outside reviews. Cyrix & Via soon died completely and AMD remained elusive, plagued by overheating issues and solely in the realm of gamers & enthusiasts. When I did my first major PC upgrade, I had to get a Pentium IV because no one would assemble an AMD for me.

In the laptop space, AMD was even rarer. In fact, the first time I saw an AMD laptop was during my college days when Nihit (technically his girlfriend) bought a laptop with an AMD Turion processor.

I remember inheriting a Compaq laptop (which I still have today) from my father and it had an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. When Windows Vista came out, Intel released a beta WDDM driver for the GPU on this laptop, but later discontinued it. Consequently, the laptop couldn’t use Vista’s Aero Glass effect for themes even though the hardware was compatible. My hatred intensified and I swore never to use Intel again.

In 2000, Intel was forced to abandon its IA-64 platform for 64-bit computing and forced to license AMD’s AMD64 technology. They called it x86-64 and had to pay licensing fee to AMD for every processor sold.

My First AMD

In 2006, briefly, for the first time, Intel and AMD both had nearly equal market shares for Desktop CPU shipments. AMD would maintain the neck-neck competition till date, Intel was no more a monopoly. In fact, in 2021, AMD is arguably ahead of Intel.

When I moved to Gurgaon, I decided to assemble a new gaming PC myself, from scratch. I got the AMD FX 6300 and a Radeon GPU, shunning Intel completely. It cost me half of what an equivalent Intel platform would have cost and performed better. There were no heat issues to speak of.

Eventually I bought an Xbox and sold my gaming PC, never to buy a PC again.

Last Tryst with Intel – Surface Pro 3

I was re-introduced to the world of Intel, when my fiend gifted me a Surface Pro 3. To me, the Surface Pro 3 showcased the very worst of Intel. The external hardware, touch screen, keyboard and OS were all amazing. It was the Intel innards which sucked balls.

The Core i7 processor always ran hot, no matter how light the workload. Consequently the fan was always whirring loudly. It was so loud, you couldn’t sleep in the same room with the Surface if it was doing something. Still, the fan was not enough to efficiently cool the Surface and the CPU was throttled <50% most of the time. I had to install an external USB fan to keep it cool; which was ridiculous.

On top of that, it had issues with Sleep which remained unresolved even after many firmware updates over many years. You closed the Surface and put it in your bag expecting it to sleep. It, however kept on running at full throttle and when you got it out to use it later, you saw that the battery was dead. Microsoft blamed Intel drivers and they twiddled their thumbs, as usual.

Eventually, I sold it and got myself an iPad.

ARM and Apple M1

For those who haven’t been keeping track, Apple transitioned their MacBooks from Intel CPUs to in-house ARM based processors in 2020. We (technically, my wife) bought a MacBook with an M1 chip. After using sluggish/hot/battery sucking laptops over the years, the MacBook blew my mind away.

It is as snappy as an iPad, the battery lasts all day (My wife uses it 8-9 hours off the charger) and there’s no fan and no heat to speak of. On top of all this, existing apps made for x86 work flawlessly and with minimum performance penalty. On the other hand, my work laptop (Intel Core i5) doesn’t last more than 2 hours off the charger and any computational effort make its fans sound like a jet plane.

I would not be wrong to say that the M1 is a generational leap ahead in computing from the old/shitty X86 laptops.

The Future

All mobile phones already used ARM processors. Same for all embedded devices and IOT devices. Apple would probably transition their Macs to ARM completely within the next few years. Many custom-made servers operated by the likes of Facebook/Amazon/Google use ARM already, too. In fact, the current world’s most powerful supercomputer also runs on ARM.

Once Microsoft get their x86-64 on ARM emulation to work properly, we should see a significant chunk of Windows ultraportables and laptops move to ARM. I hope AMD embraces the ARM architecture soon, too.

That being said, x86-64 isn’t going away anytime soon. Gaming PCs, Enterprise workstations, legacy applications requiring native x86-64 and most servers would continue to be x86-64 based for the foreseeable future and Intel would probably continue to dominate this space. I just hope they are reduced to shells of their former selves soon and then eventually die.