iPad Pro Review Roundup: Powerful Creative Canvas, but Not Quite a PC Replacement
Apple released the iPad Pro online and in stores earlier today, and the embargo has now lifted for hands-on reviews of the new 12.9-inch tablet.
The consensus opinion is that the iPad Pro is an excellent device for content creation, with powerful hardware for intensive apps and multitasking, but not quite a PC replacement due to its iOS limitations. The tablet’s experience will be better realized once more developers update their apps to take advantage of the larger canvas.
From left to right: iPad mini 2, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro (Image: WSJ)
iPad Pro reviews praised its large display, which at 2,732×2,048 pixels has a higher resolution than the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, and most early adopters claim the tablet meets or exceeds its advertised 10-hour battery life. The new Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard also received positive reviews.
Ars Technica – Andrew Cunningham
It’s best to think of the iPad Pro as a starting point, especially for iOS 9. These multitasking features are still brand-new, and there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit to pick in future iOS 9 revisions and into iOS 10. My biggest gripes with the iPad Pro are with the software rather than the hardware, and that means that most of them can be fixed given enough time and enough feature requests. It took Microsoft three tries to really nail down the Surface Pro concept, and given a couple of iOS updates the iPad Pro has room to grow into a more versatile laptop replacement without necessarily giving up the things that people like about iOS.
For the rest of us, there’s still the Mac.
CNET – Scott Stein
I want the iPad to eat the Mac, the way the iPhone ate the iPod. This iPad has already crept up to become as large as a Mac. But iOS needs to fully change with it. I need to connect to my old files and Web tools better, because that’s what I need as a pro. I want it to become as flexible as a computer should be. The iPad needs to bridge the gap.
The iPad Pro feels like the top half of a new futuristic superpowered laptop. I want the bottom half, too.
MacStories – Federico Viticci
The iPad Pro is positioned as a more productive take on the iPad for those who need to get work done on it. My recommendation couldn’t be more straightforward: if iOS is your main computing platform, or if you plan to turn an iPad into your primary computer, you’ll want an iPad Pro. Its powerful hardware, multitasking interface, and extensible nature are superior to every other iPad. I don’t see myself using a Mac as my primary computer ever again.
Mashable – Lance Ulanoff
It certainly has some impressive benchmark numbers. Its Geekbench single-core (3,218) and multi-core (5,455) numbers blew away virtually everything else (in the mobile space), including the A9 chip in the iPhone 6S/6S Plus. It even outperforms the new MacBook’s Intel Core M processor (2,367 and 4,489 for single-core and multi-core, respectively). What’s more, the iPad Pro’s single-core score rivaled desktop performance on the Microsoft Surface Book (beating the sixth-gen Intel Core i5 and coming close to a sixth-gen Intel Core i7). The multi-core scores lagged behind both systems, but not by the margin you might expect.
TechCrunch – Matthew Panzarino
…iPad Pro absolutely, 100% could be the central computing device for a home. […] But there is a certain (sorry) norm-core computing demographic that could very well end up with an iPad Pro as the ’enhanced’ component to their smartphone, which is their real computer. Somewhere on the same level as other use-case-based devices like wearables and an interconnected home.
The Verge – Lauren Goode
But even this split-screen mode isn’t enough for lots of the “laptop” things I need to do on a daily basis. This is still a mobile OS we’re talking about. It’s nice that it’s at least familiar feeling, unlike the foreign hybrid OS that Microsoft introduced with the first Surfaces. But I can’t manipulate more than two app windows at a time on the iPad Pro. I can’t control things with a trackpad. I can’t run Final Cut Pro on the iPad Pro. Entering data into cells in the Google Sheets app on the iPad Pro is still onerous. There’s no way to hand over the iPad to someone else and let them quickly log in as a “guest” user.
The Verge – Walt Mossberg
You can get a lot more done with iPad apps than with the paltry selection of tablet / touch-first apps available for the Surface. But, because Apple hasn’t made a great keyboard, the iPad Pro isn’t a complete replacement for a great laptop like the MacBook Air — even for a tablet guy like me.
The iPad Pro will no doubt make a lot of Apple users happy, especially if they use it for graphics. But I won’t be buying one, and I don’t recommend that average users do so either.
The Wall Street Journal – Joanna Stern
The Pro may seem wedged between iPads and MacBooks, but it will be your main computer in the future. As our phablets push smaller tablets into retirement, the big tablet and its accessories will do the same for our traditional computers. For now, however, it may be easiest to step back and see the Pro as a… really good, really big iPad.
More Reviews: Bloomberg, Daring Fireball, Fast Company, TechRadar, The Telegraph, Wired
Tags: reviews, Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard
Buyer’s Guide: iPad Pro (Buy Now)
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Try out FireFox OS with this simple launcher APK
Have you been wondering what the deal is with Firefox OS, but can’t get around to trying out some hardware or flashing a custom ROM? Well good news, you can now try out the a little bit of what Firefox OS has to offer with minimum hassle, thanks to this ‘Developer Preview’ app.
The Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview is essentially a launcher than you can install with a simple APK. The file is available to download directly from Mozilla, as there isn’t a Google Play option. The APK weighs in at 88MB, so it’s a modest download but there’s plenty to it. The launcher also comes with several system level applications; such as calls, messaging, email and even an app store; to give you a more complete feel for what Firefox OS 2.5 is like. Don’t worry about having to make a major commitment though, all of your other apps will continue to work as before.
Personally, I find the home screen UI to be a bit oversized on my 5.5-inch handset, but in terms of features there are some interesting ideas. You can pin websites directly to the home screen and the ability to quickly hop to the address bar from anywhere is handy. There are a few little slowdowns in the UI, particularly with the animations, and the back button doesn’t seem to do anything, but it’s quite stable for software labelled as a developer preview. That said, there’s still a bit of work left to do before this preview app is likely to win many people over to Firefox OS.
If you have taken the launcher for a spin, let us know what you thought in the comments below, or drop us a line through our forum. If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can always flash the full OS to your device by heading to this link.
Amazon plans big Black Friday discounts for its Kindle, Fire TV Stick and tablet
Amazon has already kicked off its Black Friday deals early this year and the company has even more planned come the week of Thanksgiving. The retailer is preparing to drop some major discounts on its own range of hardware, including the Kindle, Fire TV Stick and Fire tablet.
Amazon will be knocking the price of its basic 6-inch Kindle down to just $49.99 (list price $79.99) on November 22nd, followed by a discount on its Fire TV Stick on November 26th. The little stick will see its price drop from $39.99 to $24.99.
See also: Amazon Fire HD 10 hands-on impressions
The final part of the hardware deal applies to the new 7-inch Amazon Fire tablet on Black Friday itself, cutting the price down from $49.99 to $34.99. The Fire tablet comes with a 1024×600 IPS display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 8GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot for storage, which should be enough for all your basic web browsing and media needs.
The company no doubt has a lot more planned for Black Friday too, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled for any additional great gadget bargains. Pencil in those dates.
Samsung has begun developing firmware for the Galaxy S7
As we head deeper into November, it’s customary for rumours and leaks about Samsung’s next big thing to start making the rounds. This year, it is the Galaxy S7, which some believe will launch earlier than usual, possibly in February or even January. Today’s news that Samsung has begun firmware development for the next edition in the Galaxy S series may lend some credence to the belief.
According to SamMobile, Samsung has begun developing two firmware variants, G930FXXU0AOK6 and G935FXXU0AOK6, which lends weight to the rumour that there will be two Galaxy S7 variants, one with a flat display and one with a curved display ala the Galaxy S6 edge. Regardless of when the Galaxy S7 is eventually launched, you can be sure that the onslaught of leaks and rumours will only intensify in the weeks ahead.
Source: SamMobile
Come comment on this article: Samsung has begun developing firmware for the Galaxy S7
Logitech’s iPad Pro keyboard case is relatively affordable
Apple’s iPad Pro is pricey even before you add in the $169 official keyboard case, but Logitech may have a way to make the whole package a little more palatable. It’s now shipping its promised Create Keyboard Case for the gigantic tablet, and the add-on will sell for a slightly more frugal $150. It only works at two angles, but you’ll get perks like backlit keys, automatic pairing (thanks to the Smart Connector) and a raft of iOS shortcuts. And if you don’t want to turn your iPad into a makeshift laptop, there’s an $80 Create Protective case that ditches the keyboard in return for a more flexible stand. Either shell is available in black, blue or red, so you’re not stuck with somber colors on your giant slate. Slideshow-340125
Source: Logitech
The Alpha2 robot will dance its way into your house and your heart
The field of human-like household robots got a little more crowded today as Ubtech Robotics launched a crowdfunding campaign for its new Alpha2 humanoid companion-bot. This diminutive domestic drone is designed on the same premise as today’s smartphones — that is, it offers a responsive, intuitive and attractive platform on which to build intelligent and useful functionality. As such, the Alpha2 is fully programmable, operates on an open-source OS and offers cutting-edge sensory inputs including ultrasonic, touch and pressure sensors. And unlike Pepper and Buddy, Alpha2 actually has legs. In fact, with more than 20 servos packed into its joints, this robot is surprisingly spry.
China smashes sales records during its version of Black Friday
In the US there’s Black Friday, but in China, they get all their big online shopping discounts on November 11 aka “Singles Day” instead. As of 4:28am ET today, Alibaba’s Tmall, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, has already made over $11 billion which broke last year’s record of $8.97 billion. As reminded by our friends over at TechCrunch, both numbers from that platform alone beat the entire US’ online sales of last year’s Thanksgiving and Black Friday combined. It’s no wonder Alibaba could afford to hire Frank Underwood Kevin Spacey and James Bond Daniel Craig to kick off this year’s party.
Source: Tmall (Weibo)
Get the Blackberry Priv wallpapers and APK files to transform your current device
The Blackberry Priv is turning heads everywhere for smartphone users. With this Blackberry’s first foray into Android, while keeping the physical keyboard that many of us loved or at least used, back in the day, it’s an interesting device to consider if you’re in the market. Now, there are those of us out there who like the concept of what Blackberry’s doing, but don’t want to shell out the dough, or use a Jump! to get this device.
So instead of having to jump to another device, an awesome user on the XDA Forums has extracted all the APK files you would need to transform your current Android device. The thread that can be found here, has all the files you need, from the keyboard, to the launcher, and Blackberry Hub. Also included when you download Blackberry’s new Android launcher, are all the wallpapers that will be pre-packaged with the Priv, and we all love new wallpapers.
Personally, I have a little bit of experience with Blackberry OS from my days with the Blackberry Z10, so there’s some familiarity there. The keyboard, is awesome, and while we haven’t completely jumped into the Launcher yet, it seems pretty intuitive for the most part.
The Blackberry keyboard is a fairly different from most, if not all, third-party keyboards that you’ll find on the market. The keyboard that can be compared to Blackberry’s rendition is Fleksy, and there are a few reasons why. The first being that there’s no swype gestures, so you can’t just slide your fingers from letter to letter. Instead you’ll have to use your keyboard in the archaic fashion, typing each letter you want.
This is where the next similarity to Fleksy comes into play. The gestures. As you type, there will be words that hover over the various keys on your keyboard. For example, if you start typing “Hello”, the keyboard will recognize what you’re typing, and a simple swipe up on the “L”, will complete the word for you. As the Blackberry keyboard learns more about you r tendencies, the more accurate the predictions will become.
When you first take a glance at Blackberry’s keyboard, you’ll think that you can just hit that “?123” key to switch to your symbols and such. However, there’s another gesture that can be used to navigate the keyboard quickly. Swipe down on the keyboard and you’ll transition to the three different screens available within the keyboard; the main keyboard, numbers and basic symbols, and more symbols.
Holding down the keys across the top row, won’t bring up the option to enter a number, instead, you’ll have to switch the keyboard. However, in lieu of entering the numbers, you are able to enter special characters or capitalized letters, if need be.
There’s nothing really revolutionary about what Blackberry is bringing to the Priv, but it’s more of making the device a familiar friend for those coming from Blackberry OS. We’ll be sure to jump into the Blackberry launcher more in-depth here in the next few days, but the first indications are that it seems to be a pretty functional launcher-replacement, with some unexpected features that aren’t found in stock launchers.
If you’re interested in jumping on the Blackberry train, head over to XDA and download the files that you’ll need. Just as a reminder, there are APK’s that cannot be installed without root access, so be careful when attempting to give yourself the true Blackberry experience on your device of choice.
Additionally, these files will NOT work if your device is running anything below Android 5.0. So if you’re on Android KitKat, you’ll be out of luck and will run into errors when trying to install these files on your devices.
Source: XDA-Developers
The post Get the Blackberry Priv wallpapers and APK files to transform your current device appeared first on AndroidGuys.
More signs point to early arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S7
One of the first rumors we heard about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 was that it may be heading to market a little earlier than expected and the latest mutterings add some more weight to this expectation. According to an anonymous industry insider, Samsung has already begun developing its firmware for the Galaxy S7, a whole month earlier than the company started work for the Galaxy S6. If we expect a similar development time, this would put the Galaxy S7 on course for a February 2016 release.
Given that Samsung released its Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ outside and ahead of a major industry event, IFA in Berlin this September, the company may be planning to make its announcement ahead of the Mobile World Congress in March.
It is also possible that Samsung may be starting this process early in order to accommodate for the additional hardware variants this time around. There are rumored to be two SoC versions of Samsung’s next flagship handset, one with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 and one with Samsung’s own Exynos chip.
See also: Contradictory Samsung Galaxy S7 camera rumors surface
Speaking of the custom Samsung chip, separate sources from Korea state that Samsung has now begun mass production of its custom processor, which again suggests that we could be closer to a product release than previously expected.
We don’t know a whole lot about Samsung’s new chip, which is rumored to be called the Exynos 8890, but it is said to feature an in house ARMV8 based CPU core design from Samsung called the M1, a first for the company. This custom core has apparently been in development for the past two years and will stack together to form an octa-core SoC. The processor will also be manufactured on Samsung’s 14nm FinFET process and will be the company’s first chip to feature an integrated modem, which is rumored to match the Catgegory 12 LTE modem announced to be inside the Snapdragon 820.
See also: Qualcomm officially unveils the Snapdragon 820
With mobile revenue in a tough spot and an increasingly competitive release schedule from its rivals, perhaps Samsung has good cause to step up the release of the Galaxy S7? What do you think about the early S7 rumors?
Google is considering building its own phone. But why?
Google is discussing internally about building its own smartphone, according to The Information, which cites people working at Google.
The recently promoted head of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, is said to be part of the talks, but other details are scarce. It’s not clear who is the proponent of the idea or when a decision will be made.
It’s possible that The Information caught wind of one of the many ideas that are thrown around inside Google on a daily basis. But given the report from last week about Google’s work on standardizing phone components, it’s likely that the “Google phone” is more than idle talk.
Why?
Why would Google want to make its own smartphone? Presumably, to exert more control over a sprawling, occasionally unruly ecosystem, and to address the biggest issues holding Android back right now: fragmentation, poor update support, and security vulnerabilities. But Google already has deep control, if not complete, over the Nexus smartphones. So how would a true Google phone help advance these goals?
The Google phone could be a platform for showcasing and promoting the standardized components Google is reportedly working on.
According to The Information’s report from last week, Google is looking at improving camera capabilities so phones can capture information from the environment, that Google can use to create new, valuable features; adding more memory to processors to improve performance; improving sensor hubs that can survey the world at all times without draining a lot of power; and adding new sensors.
Sure, Google could work with chipmakers like Qualcomm and MediaTek to put these features on their roadmaps, and just hope that Android OEMs will pick them up. The alternative is to create a compelling smartphone that really showcases Google’s advanced features, and sell it directly to consumers. That could pressure Android OEMs into adopting Google’s standardized hardware.
The Chromebook Pixel and the Pixel C Android tablet have set a precedent for this. Google used the former to lead the adoption of USB Type C, while the Pixel C appears to be designed with a more PC-friendly version of Android in mind.
Taking Android to the next level
The problem for Google is that we’ve hit a plateau in terms of what features Android can offer based on software alone. For more advanced features, like better voice control or machine vision, specialized hardware is needed. Google needs to make sure its wish-list of components and features is adopted by chipmakers and OEMs, so that most new phones and tablets can support these advanced features. The risk, if Google fails, is to have a divided Android ecosystem, with an elite tier of devices with advanced functionality, and everyone else.
Google needs to take initiative because the current Android ecosystem is so cutthroat. Samsung is still making a lot of money, but it’s mostly from components that it sells in high volume. Almost everyone else is feeling the heat: Qualcomm, LG, Motorola, even Xiaomi, not to mention HTC or Sony. These embattled companies can’t be expected to act in Google’s interest or even in the interest of the Android ecosystem. So, in a way, Google has to make its own phone. It has to take the lead.
Whenever people talk about Google’s Android business model, Apple comes up, and rightfully so. Apple has consistently huge profits, even if its market share is relatively low. More importantly, Apple can decide exactly what hardware and software to put in its devices this year, and next year, and the year after. Google doesn’t have that luxury, but if the rumors are correct, it’s trying to change that.
Let us know your thoughts. Do you see Google making its own phone from the ground up?
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