Apple hopes cheap, not powerful, will turn around iPad sales

Apple has been trying to reverse declining iPad sales for several years now, without much success. For the past year and a half, that strategy could be summed up in one word: more. More power, more screen real estate, more accessories. Of course, the iPad Pro also cost more money, so it didn’t help reverse waning interest in Apple’s tablets.

Now Apple is going in the opposite direction. The newest iPad, announced yesterday with little fanfare, is most notable for its affordable price. The 9.7-inch tablet starts at only $329 with 32GB of storage; you can get a spacious 128GB model for $100 more. It replaces the aging iPad Air 2 in Apple’s lineup — but despite the updated processor on the inside, the new tablet makes a number of compromises to hit that low price. But Apple seems to think it’s found the right balance of specs and price to get more people to turn the iPad’s fortunes around.

Despite the fact that the rumor mill indicated a late March event with big updates to the iPad Pro, the new iPad was just one of several announcements Apple made yesterday. New red iPhones, new Watch bands and this new iPad all felt like they would have been good lead-ups to a big new product reveal — but without that, it seems Apple just decided to push everything out in a series of low-key press releases.

Even with this muted introduction, the new iPad says a lot about the company’s intentions in the tablet market. It’s an admission that Apple needs a true budget-priced iPad with the most popular screen and newer hardware than the aging iPad Air 2 offered. The addition of the A9 chip should give the new iPad enough horsepower to work well for several years, even if the processor is already more than a year old.

But the big corner that Apple cut to hit this aggressive price point is the screen. The new iPad’s display is a step backward from the Air 2. It’s not laminated to the glass touch surface and it lacks antireflective coating, two characteristics that were included in the Air 2 as well as the existing iPad Pro. What this means is you’ll see a small but noticeable air gap between the glass and display, something that diminishes the effect of actually touching on-screen elements.

It’s a most unfortunate change, but it’s classic Apple: If you want the best hardware, you’re going to have to put up the cash and get the Pro. Still, it’s surprising to see Apple take a step back in display technology, especially considering how crucial the screen is to the entire iPad experience. This thing is basically a window to the internet, and Apple compromised that window.

In a less crucial change, Apple actually made the new iPad slightly thicker and heavier than the Air 2. Now it has the same dimensions as the original iPad Air from 2013 — but that’s not something to worry about. As someone who’s used that tablet for more than three years, it’s certainly not a heavy or unwieldy device. If these larger dimensions helped Apple get the price down, it’s a trade worth making.

Apple is betting that these differences aren’t going to matter to buyers — and to some respect, I agree with that logic. If you have an iPad older than the Air 2, this new model will likely represent a major upgrade (we’ll have to wait until we test it to pass final judgement, of course). Unless you have an original Air, the form factor will be an immediate improvement, and the A9 chip simply smokes the older models. And you’ll be able to get that upgrade for significantly less money now than ever before.

With this new model, Apple has also finally cleaned up the mess it made of its iPad lineup. Most potential buyers will pick between the new iPad and the single iPad Mini that Apple now offers. The new iPad is now the cheapest iPad you can buy, not coincidentally in its most popular screen size. And if you need more power or a bigger display or want to use Apple’s accessories, the Pro lineup is waiting for you.

The jury is still out on whether or not this will actually turn iPad sales around. New hardware at a lower price is potentially the kind of thing that can get people interested, but the relatively quick rise and fall of iPad sales might indicate that this isn’t a growth category right now, full stop. Apple only sold 13.1 million iPads in the most recent holiday quarter (only about half of the 26 million it sold during the holiday season in 2013), and I don’t know if this new device is enough to turn around that decline.

Apple has often cited high customer satisfaction rates for the iPad, and the upgrade cycle is clearly longer than the two years we see for smartphones. So Apple’s new, cheap iPad might be what it needs to get the many people who bought iPads three or four years ago to upgrade. But even if this latest tactic moves the needle, it seems unlikely that sales will get back to that 2013 peak anytime soon. Apple calls the iPad “the future of personal computing,” but it’s a future that everyone is still not on board with.

Facebook Live makes the overdue jump to desktop

Facebook users have been able to broadcast live videos for over a year now. It’s been mobile-exclusive since it was introduced, but Facebook has been working on bringing the feature to other platforms. Last year, the company revealed that it was rolling out live video to select desktop users. Now, starting today, all computer-bound Facebook users have access to the feature, the company said in a blog post.

This appears to be Facebook positioning itself as a serious competitor to existing streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming. Desktop streamers will be able to broadcast video from external hardware and streaming software, just like those services. This means that live Facebook videos can include gameplay footage and the on-screen graphics and picture-in-picture videos that have become a Twitch necessity.

For more casual users, streaming on desktop is just as easy as it is in your phone. Select Live Video from the posting area on top of your News Feed or Timeline. Then, hit “next” and you’re ready to broadcast from your computer’s webcam.

A major difference between Facebook live videos and Twitch is that Twitch users are able to monetize their efforts. Facebook is working on that, though. The social media giant also has a significantly larger user base than Twitch, but its desktop streaming platform isn’t as feature-rich as Twitch’s. That’s especially true in terms of gaming: Twitch just introduced a new desktop app that adds a lot of gamer-specific functionality that Facebook doesn’t offer, like game downloads. For other purposes, however, Facebook looks like a much easier way to share and watch live video.

Source: Facebook

NYPD filmed hundreds of BLM and Occupy protests without approval

Police are frequently fond of monitoring protesters, and that includes cops in New York — NYPD cameras have been a mainstay at large protests over the past several years. However, it’s now clear that the NYPD has been skirting internal rules in the process. The Verge has obtained documents showing that the force’s video team not only captured over 400 Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street protests between 2011 and 2016, but doesn’t appear to have received authorizations or legal reviews.

The recording was technically legal. Police are allowed to record protests where they suspect crime might take place, even if it’s unlikely or will be limited to a handful of agitators. If there weren’t any approvals or oversight, though, the NYPD would be violating in-house rules meant to preserve transparency and prevent abuse. Officers may have had free rein to film protests for any reason, including malicious purposes like intimidating protesters. Some activists have stopped showing up to demonstrations knowing that they might be targeted if they’re caught on camera.

And there’s evidence that this abuse is happening. Deputy Inspector Andrew Lombardo, for example, requested footage from a 2014 BLM protest despite being part of the NYPD’s protest and counterterrorism unit rather than its legal bureau. He has been accused more than once of singling out law-abiding protesters in a bid to scare them away from future marches, and requests like this suggest he’s using the footage to create individual profiles that aid his strategy.

The findings reinforce calls for tough regulation that would require approvals whenever the police want to record a protest. While this wouldn’t completely deter abuses of authority, officers would have to offer on-the-record justifications for their actions. They might either think twice about a spurious request or face repercussions if they’re caught lying about their reasons.

Source: The Verge

Researchers break efficiency record for consumer-friendly solar panels

Turning sunlight into power is a surprisingly tricky thing. Experiments in academia have created solar arrays that can capture up to 40-percent of the sun’s energy and convert it to electricity, but consumer cells are notably less efficient. At best, silicon-based technology has a theoretical 29-percent efficiency ceiling — meaning any consumer panel in the low 20s is doing pretty well. Still, we’re inching ever closer to the technology’s limit. Researchers at Kaneko corp recently announced that they’ve developed a silicon solar cell with a record-breaking 26.3 percent efficiency rating.

The score is only just barely higher than the previous record of 25.6, but that 0.7 percent gain is no easy feat. Researchers had to analyze what factors in current cell design was keeping the technology from reaching its theoretical limits. The group decided that reducing optical loss was the best path forward, and moved low-resistance electrodes to the rear of the cell to increase the amount of photons that could be captured.

That’s a lot of technical jargon, sure — but the big win here isn’t just that the cell is more efficient, it’s that the more productive silicon cell was produced using the same kind of production process used for consumer sells. In other words, this isn’t just an experiment, it’s something we might actually see on the market soon.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Nature Energy

Discogs expands its marketplace to help you sell used audio gear

Discogs’ vinyl-tracking app and database are handy for vinyl collectors on the hunt for some new goods. However, the company is moving beyond records and into audio gear as a whole with its next big project. In an interview with Thump, Discogs founder and CEO Kevin Lewandowski explained that it already launched a database called Gearogs for synths, drum machines, turntables and more.

“We’ve started Gearogs, because gear is so close to records,” Lewandowski explained to Thump. “We’re launching a marketplace in April.”

While Gearogs is just the directory for now, next month users will be able to buy and sell things like turntables, synthesizers, guitar pedals, speakers, headphones, mixers and more — the item you can look up in the database. “Any equipment that records, amplifies, mixes, or reproduces audio, belongs here,” the site’s homepage says.

Why expand into second-hand audio gear? Discogs COO Chad Dahlstrom said it’s something the site’s users wanted. Dahlstrom explained that Discogs’ method of cataloging vinyl worked well so collectors wanted to apply the same practice to other items. Of course, audio gear was a logical progression.

Discogs just released a big update to its vinyl app in December and the company is working on ways to make the data on your music collection a lot more useful as well. Right now, information on releases and track lists are plain text and aren’t super useful beyond a quick reference. However, Discogs wants to eventually link tracks so users can dive deep into specifics. Eventually you’ll be able to find things details like songwriters, alternate versions, any remastering and more based on the metadata in the music directory. Lewandowski admits there’s still a lot of work to do, but the results should be worth it.

“We haven’t figured it out fully yet, but there will be over a hundred million tracks in our database, so pulling all that information out and then tying it all together is a really big deal,” he said.

Via: Fact, The Vinyl Factory

Source: Thump

Browse Airbnb’s vacation add-ons from your desktop

When Airbnb launched “Experiences” and “Immersions” last year, the company made it clear it was expanding beyond spare room rentals and into more general travel planning. Until now, however, users could only browse and search for those side trips through Airbnb’s official mobile apps. Over the past few weeks, Airbnb has been steadily adding new trips in even more cities around the world, and starting today Experiences are now available on the desktop and mobile web so you can daydream about your next vacation or business trip from the comfort of your work computer.

In total, Airbnb says they have over 800 active Experiences like surfing off the grid in Dana Point, Fascinators and afternoon tea in London or following Hemingway’s footsteps in Havana. Experiences now span more than 73 different countries, with 91% of them receiving five-star ratings. If you’re looking for something to do on your next vacation, Airbnb says Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles are their top destinations for Experiences but LA, London and San Francisco are leading the pack for the most new Experiences being submitted to the platform. On the other hand, it might be a little difficult finding an actual place to stay in San Francisco, now that the site has started complying with local regulations and booting many illegal hosts from its service.

Best Buy Offering $25 Gift Card With Purchase of New iPad

With the purchase of one of Apple’s new iPads, announced yesterday, Best Buy is offering a free $25 Best Buy gift card that can be used towards future Best Buy purchases.

The $25 gift card is a small amount, but it’s the best sale we’ve seen on the as-of-yet unreleased iPad, effectively dropping the price of the entry-level tablet to $305.

In its retail stores, Best Buy is also offering a $150 Best Buy gift card with the trade-in of any working iPad mini 2, mini 3, mini 4, iPad Air, or iPad Pro, with the total able to be put towards the price of the new iPad. Devices must be in working condition with no cracks to be eligible for trade-in.

Customers can’t yet place an order for the new iPad from Best Buy, but can sign up for email notifications. The new iPad will go on sale at 8:01 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, March 24.

Apple’s new iPad is positioned as a low-cost 9.7-inch tablet designed to replace the iPad Air 2. It features an upgraded A9 processor, a brighter display, and a thicker iPad Air-style body.

Prices on the iPad start at $329 for the entry-level 32GB Wi-Fi only model. A 128GB model is available for $429, and Wi-Fi + Cellular models are available for an additional $130.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
Tag: Best Buy
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The New iPad vs. 9.7-inch iPad Pro and iPad Air 2

Apple yesterday announced the newest addition to its iPad lineup, somewhat confusingly called the “iPad” and known officially as the “5th-generation iPad,” following in the footsteps of the fourth-generation model that was released before the iPad Air.

Designed to replace the iPad Air, the iPad comes with a tantalizingly low price tag: $329. It is Apple’s most affordable tablet to date and it’s a competitive price point that will allow the iPad to better compete with lower-priced Android offerings.

What do you get for $329? As it turns out, quite a lot. The iPad is a little bit iPhone 6s, a little bit iPad Air, and a little bit iPad Air 2.

In a nutshell, compared to the iPad Air 2, the iPad has a brighter display and a faster A9 processor (first introduced in the iPhone 6s). Other internal hardware seems to be very similar to what’s included in the iPad Air 2, with the exception of the display and the casing. Camera, battery life, Wi-Fi, LTE, and other sensors are all nearly the same.

The iPad does not include a laminated display, and is thus thicker, much like the original iPad Air. It measures in at 7.5mm thick, compared to the 6.1mm iPad Air 2. The thickness and accompanying weight discrepancy is noticeable and the one downside between the new iPad and its predecessor.

Compared to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, the new iPad is, of course, significantly inferior, which is why it’s priced at $329 and not $599. It does not support the Apple Pencil or the Smart Keyboard (no Smart Connector), and it lacks many of the display improvements, including True Tone color shifting and wide color gamut.

The iPad has a slower processor than the iPad Pro, an inferior camera (8-megapixel vs. 12-megapixel rear and 1.2-megapixel vs. 5-megapixel front), two speakers instead of four, a slower LTE modem, and of course, since the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the same size as the iPad Air 2, the iPad is noticeably thicker and heavier.

If you’re looking for top of the line hardware and accessory support, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the tablet to buy, but if you don’t need the bells and whistles, the iPad is a steal at its price point.

Performance wise, it’s going to run all the latest games and apps, it’ll take decent pictures, it still has a high-quality Retina display, and it features a 10 hour battery life, so it will hold up for several years, especially when doing basic tasks like web browsing and emailing.

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For those looking for a bit more, Apple is rumored to be planning to introduce an updated ~10-inch iPad Pro model that’s going to replace the existing 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The ~10-inch model is said to have smaller bezels and perhaps an edge-to-edge display, allowing it to feature a bigger screen in a 9.7-inch-sized body.

That tablet was originally rumored to be coming in the spring, but now it’s looking like we won’t see it until later in the year. Based on rumors, it may be worth the wait for those willing to shell out more money for the best technology.

Apple plans to start selling the new iPad on Friday, March 24. The entry-level 32GB Wi-Fi only model will be priced at $329, and a 128GB model is available for $429. Wi-Fi + Cellular models are available at a $130 premium, so $459 for 32GB and $559 for 128GB.

For more details on Apple’s new iPad, make sure to check out our official iPad roundup. And for details on the upcoming iPad Pro updates, check out our iPad Pro roundup.

Related Roundups: iPad, iPad Pro
Buyer’s Guide: 9.7″ iPad Pro (Caution), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
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