Soon after I bought my iPad 2 I had already decided I'd by the next model Apple released with a higher resolution display, and even mentioned that decision here. So when I heard the new iPad used a higher resolution display, I couldn't help myself.

I guess I'm different than others, though. Discussions about the high resolution display are usually in the context of better photo and video viewing/editing and games. The resolution suited my needs just fine in that regard. My primary interest was text--I find reading much easier on my eyes when the text is very clear and sharp. I noticed almost immediately that I preferred the text on my iPhone 4 with "retina" display over the iPad.

Well, my pre-ordered iPad came in today, and so far so great on the resolution front. The text in SmartGo Books is crystal clear! This really improves my enjoyment. The stones still appear the way they were, which is just fine.

No other dramatic observations so far--I didn't really care much about anything except the screen resolution anyway . Oh, I will mention that the size difference is imperceptible to me (the new iPad is very slightly thicker than the iPad 2 - by 0.3 in./0.6mm). Even when I lay them next to each other on a flat table, it is hard to see the difference (both models are wifi-only).

EDIT: Text in some other apps looks just aweful though. Ewwww. Surely the better-maintained apps will issue an update soon to account for the resolution.

Shush now! I've been desperately trying to convince myself that I don't need to upgrade from the iPad 1 (which my son now monopolises)...

No problem! This is not an upgrade situation. Clearly your son "needs" your iPad 1 and you would just be doing your parental duty by buying a new one for your own use.

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Dave Sigaty
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
- George Carlin

I am more concerned with what the iPad does not have so can you share your experience, please?

1) Screen surface: Is it like using a mirror? Is it necessary to hold it in an angle so that it does not look like a mirror? Is mirrored indoor light annoying? Is it well possible to use it outdoors a) not in the sun or b) in the sun or is it not bright enough and / or mirroring the sun too much?

2) How to get data from the iPad to a Windows PC? With which Dock - USB cable does that work and how? Does the iPad come with such a cable? Which software is needed to transfer the, uh, files? iTunes? How does one get iTunes? Is it preinstalled? Does one need to get some Apple ID and sign some conditions to get it? Does it have access to all applications' files (I mean the texts, pictures, videos, sgfs)?

3) Can an iPad simply be used? I have heard that to start using it one first needs to connect it to some PC. Is that right? Does a Windows PC (using only a standard user) work for that purpose? How?

4) Is it possible to improve security without jailbreaking and without using a blacklisting (anti-virus app) approach?

No. But you don't need to. iPad security is excellent, thanks to sandboxing, app store review, etc. iPad malware is basically limited to jailbreaking.

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When you think your opponent has made a mistake, that's when you should be the most cautious.

Sandboxing is very nice for sure. I have, however, read opinions from security experts that it was insufficient (presumably because of iOS zero-day exploits) and that the app store review does not prevent some apps from being malware. For the latter, I do not know yet though whether they rely on jailbreaking.

So as the minimal precaution, I would wish to make a system image. Does the iPad have a tool for that?

I also got the new iPad. it's awesome. I love the sharp text. Comparing it to the iPad 2 seems like considering the difference between my wearing glasses or not.

I also like the speech input. Though, when I tried the Japanese input, saying, "私の名前はブライアンです," it thought I had said, "私の名前は寒いです."

Still, I have no regrets about buying the device.

Thanks for this thread. I do not own an iPad, but was seriously considering buying one before reading this. Now, I know I will buy one. I am excited to check out all the go stuff.

I’d recommend checking out some Mac-specific sites for this.

AFAIK there’s been amazingly few mal-/spyware, though. Anyway much less than for Android or others, and it seems the appstore people industriously try to keep up with what comes in.

(Perhaps I should add that I’ve been an avid Mac user for the past 25 years, so my view may be somewhat biased, but I’ve also always used Windows on a relatively high level, too, training media professionals on both OS.)

Since you have to use iTunes for download and installation of apps, you just use it to make your complete backups, too. This happens automatically. And since you also regularly backup your machine’s volumes (you do, right?) nothing bad should happen.

For all: I’m willing to bet that you’ll love your iPads, especially using them with the LOTS of Go-related apps! I certainly love my iPad 2, and I have roundabout 30 Go apps on it …

Greetings from Germany,

Tom

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Let me set a lower bound: no one I know has ever had their iPad compromised by a zero-day exploit, except for people intentionally jailbreaking their app. I assume some malware must have made it into the App Store, but it has never accompanied any app that I had heard of or been interested in using. On top of that, software updates can be pushed out quite rapidly, limiting the impact of zero-day exploits.

There is a large market for malware on Android, there is essentially none on iOS, except for jailbreakers (does anyone know about Windows Phone? I suspect the smaller base of devices is disincentive).

But if that's not good enough for you, then it's not good enough.

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When you think your opponent has made a mistake, that's when you should be the most cautious.

I upgraded from an iPad 2. I'm loving the improved screen resolution and the 64 gigs of storage (up from 16 gigs). As a major bonus my iPad 2 goes home with my son after his visit next month. He lives on the other side of the planet and now we'll be able to do video chats. Maybe I'll give him a Go app and lure him into playing.

As for the questions about how the iPad functions, consider visiting the iPad forum where those questions are discussed in great detail (some would say too much detail). I believe that with ios 5 you don't need iTunes on a pc or mac if you've got wifi. Anything you buy from the app store, iTunes or amazon kindle is downloadable via wi-fi and you can store other materials in the iCloud. But if you do want to connect to iTunes on your computer the iPad comes with a USB cable.

Oh, on my PC? Can't the Windows Explorer be used and is the iPad not recognised like a USB storage device then?



I would not feel secure enough for doing banking with the iPad. Also my concern is the tremendous popularity of the iPad, which surely must lead to greater interest of malware writers.



Considering that the iPad 3 is 2 years ahead of other companies' tablets and now even has a reasonable price / quality ratio, your bet has some justification. I love matt screens though, want to use a tablet outdoors and hate reflections on the screen, so this is a killer criterion for me. Apple and currently 90% of the other companies (most of which seem to assume that all users would always watch videos) need to learn that there is more than one type of consumer in the world.

If you don't care about the higher resolution display (i.e., you were generally satisfied with iPad 1 resolution), and you don't care about having a very high quality rear-facing camera (which I have never used myself), then you have an excellent excuse to get the iPad 2 at the reduced price. Then you have your toy and can report how deal-minded you are to your significant other (if necessary).

The screen is reflective, but I've never really noticed a problem with glare indoors. I rarely use it outdoors, but I don't think it is fantastic in direct sunlight.

Also, although this is a different issue from glare, the viewing angles are fantastic.

This is one thing I don't love about iThings--I wish transfers could be as simple as (for example) sticking in a USB stick and copying files over. You can transfer data wirelessly now (and some apps have had that function for awhile). For documents, I've adapted by using online storage services that are supported by most apps.

Starting with one of the recent iOS releases, you don't need a computer at all.

No clue. You can encrypt backups, many apps support encryption of files, etc. I've never heard of anyone getting a virus or malware on an iPad that wasn't jailbroken.

There should be no problem indoor. Outdoor in the beach you have to hold it in such a way sun is not in your face, but in normal situations (waiting for the train, etc) it's not a big deal. Raising the screen lightness also solves it in case of need. In 3 years with iDevices I've had no problems.



The iPad comes with the needed cable (and a wall mounted charger, since some computers can't give enough power for it to charge well). For a Windows PC, you need iTunes and an iTunes account (free, although to get one you need to give Apple a valid credit card OR a valid iTunes gift card, this latter case is used with minors, usually). Before having my iTouch and iPad I had an iPod using Windows and followed this route without any problems. I've also used the iPod Touch with Windows, also no problems. Of course to get an ID you say "yes" to something like 64 pages of legalese. If you are using Windows though, this should not be a problem, you are already liable for many, many things. Itunes has access to everything, but Apple (AFAIK) has access to just troubleshooting data, some location data related to application crashes and what applications you have downloaded, since this is tied with your Apple ID.



It can be used without a PC since iOS 5 (i.e. since a few months ago). You'll create your Apple ID and all other things using just the iPad.



There are almost no security breaches in an iPad or iOS device (unless you jailbreak, since then well, it's like running Linux without proper security in place...). Of course if you visit problematic sites, they can exploit an iPad (after all, jailbreaking is a security exploit), but then I see this more like a problem with the user and not the device, i.e. if you walk in a lonely, bad lighted street at night waving 50€ bills around, you're likely not going to get out of it. Apps can't do it: in addition to all the sandboxing (an app only has physical access to their data), they have the Apple Store checks (humans and machines check the code and program, they are quite thorough).

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Unfortunately, no. It won't do this on a mac either. This is one of my complaints about iThings. Certain apps will let you share files over a wifi connection--almost like having the USB storage ability, but not quite.

Yeah, we all have our comfort level. My impression is that, if you're comfortable banking on your windows PC, you should be fine on your iPad--especially if you use your bank's apps.

I hear you, and I stay away from glossy screens on my notebooks. Maybe one of those matte screen protector things would do the trick? I don't know. I can just say it hasn't been a huge problem for me. Probably best to look at some reviews of them.

Thank you and everybody for the detailed explanations!



Ah. So in principle I could first become a linux security expert, then jailbreak, then install my preferred security concept on the iPad (or Android, where it seems more urgent), then connect to the Internet. But... judging from a similar path under Windows, I might need 2 years of learning advanced security details:(

Are you sure?:)
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/windows_sec ... ncept.html



Of course, I do not trust any bank to create secure PC software...



1) It loses the point of a tablet: to be a simple device with great design.

2) c't has tested that and it was at best an improvement but not a real substitute.

Usually, no. It's only paranoia if you are not really being followed. If you are on a Windows computer, you are more or less a sitting duck in the fair waiting for the shot. Almost all malware is pointing at you. In a Linux computer, an exploit is *very* hard to get along, since you need a serious breakage of some fundamental piece of code. That's what root users are for: only root can do damage to a linux or Mac system, as I said, without something very basic broken.

Think of it like giving your home's keys to an stranger. For an exploit to get along, you'd have to have your door open... and no-one in your neighbourhood care to tell you. In an Android, you can install almost whatever you'd like (and there's a lot of things in the Android market), and almost all these apps can get these (or close) privileges *by asking you* (I'm getting in messy areas here because I'm not sure how the Android market and Android apps go, but if it worked like Apple's this should not happen, so I'm just guessing). This is what Android advocates tell you about freedom: you can tell your app what you allow them to do. But if you don't like that, you can't install it. In an iPad you are in "a walled garden". There's no way an app can do it, period.

This pisses off many people, but for me (been using Linux, Windows and Mac for a while already) just means I don't need to give much thought to security and just do my business. I've done banking with my iPad (well, checking my accounts and similar, or some Paypal stuff) without much concern. If something has gone so deep in my iPad to be able to hijack https connections, and are really interested in doing so with my accounting data, there's probably little I can do to secure all my computer systems... But that would be paranoia

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This is where I find my Android tablet to be much much simpler than trying to use my family's ipad. Transferring data and working with it is much easier. I don't really feel like I lose anything on Android to Ipad and save a lot more money. The only app I want that is iOS only currently is Nihon Kiin magazines, but they're working on the Android version now.

Holy detritus! Then I'd bet you can't use an iPad Seriously, this is why I stopped using Windows. Having an antivirus on all day. Checking for malware each week, upgrading antiviri and malware databases, double checking everything I downloaded, cleaning cookies, removing permissions to Internet Explorer stuff... All that time was better spent just working with my MacBook (or my Linux system for that matter, but I also have ranted about the "just do it from scratch" approach of linux systems in the past...). Of course I know enough about Unix/Linux permissions, execution, security levels and whatnot to be quite sure about what I should and should not do, but most of what you advocate for Windows is more or less "automatic" in *nix systems. As an example, if you download some executable thing from the internet and try to open it in a Mac, you'll get a nice alert "hey that was downloaded from the internet" giving you an option to re-check the page, cancel or keep opening the program. Nothing gets executed by default.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net