“So Apple let the tablet out of the bag and showed off its new iPad this week. With all the hoopla of a presidential inauguration, the covers were pulled back to reveal…a fairly modest tablet computer,” John Breeden II writes for Government Computer News. “Nothing from the iPad specs that I’ve seen really shows any great cause for celebration. It looks like a nice product, but it’s not exactly earth-shattering. The one thing that was surprising was the inclusion of an IPS display.”
MacDailyNews Take: The guy who runs the lab for Government Computer News, “the online authority for government IT professionals,” has no vision or imaginiation? Shocking.
Breeden continues, “There are drawbacks to IPS, which make me wonder why Apple would put it in the iPad. The first is that TFT displays require only one transistor, which twists the crystal to create an image. With IPS, you need two transistors for every single pixel, one for each end. Right there you are doubling the power consumption of your monitor. But it goes beyond that. Because more of the surface area of the screen is ‘covered’ by images, it also means you need a much more powerful backlight to shine through. And that means either more florescent tubes or much brighter ones. Either way, you are talking about more power.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iPad features a 9.7-inch LED-backlit display.
Breeden continues, “I’ve been covering and reviewing notebooks and battery technology for the past decade, and I know what the current technology is capable of. There is no way that a 1.5-pound computer is going to be able to drive an IPS display for ten hours as Steve Jobs claims. It just can’t happen. Perhaps if you let the iPad lapse into standby mode, you could squeeze it. But if you are actually using the device, my estimate would be less than three hours of power, and that’s being generous. The display would look amazing, but be quite a power hog.”
Apple’s iPad features a built-in 25 Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Apple claims “up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music.” Testing conducted by Apple in January 2010 using preproduction iPad units and software. Testing consisted of full battery discharge while performing each of the following tasks: video playback, audio playback, and Internet browsing using Wi-Fi. Video content was a repeated 2-hour 23-minute movie purchased from the iTunes Store. Audio content was a playlist of 358 unique songs, consisting of a combination of songs imported from CDs using iTunes (128-Kbps AAC encoding) and songs purchased from the iTunes Store (256-Kbps AAC encoding). Internet over Wi-Fi tests were conducted using a closed network and dedicated web and mail servers, browsing snapshot versions of 20 popular web pages, and receiving mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on device settings, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPad units; actual results may vary. Source: Apple Inc.
Breeden continues, “Unless Apple has also developed some new type of power source, such as nuclear cells or magical hamsters on tiny spinning wheels for the iPad, don’t expect the claims about battery life to hold true.”
Full article (which is ludicrously titled, “FAQ on the Apple iPad’s IPS display”) – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s painfully obvious that Breeden has failed to factor in his complete, utter, and absolute lack of knowledge about Apple’s “A4” SoC that powers the iPad. It is also unclear whether Breeden has any experience whatsoever with the battery technology Apple is using in the iPad or if he understands that Apple is routinely among the most conservative of tech companies with their battery life claims; routinely offering products that outperform their stated battery life specs. For not only being unable to grasp the significance of the iPad itself and for seemingly not realizing that Apple’s iPad features an LED-backlit display, but for basically calling Steve Jobs a liar by asserting that iPad would be lucky to get 30% of the battery life that Apple’s CEO publicly stated, Breeden has been iCal’ed for future use.
Contact info:
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “KingMel” and “MDMac” for the heads up.]
@joe
That’s quite a leap to associate healthcare, technology, and liberalism…
By the way I hear Glenn Beck is hiring some moron to post random conservative political statements on unrelated blog post. Know anybody who meets those requirements?
Send resumes to iamabigconservativedouche@loserville.com
GCN will be lucky if they get 30% of the readership of soccerisgreat.com
This guy isn’t a government employee. His place in the food chain is to provide “Independent” cover for government IT shops who will resist the new device. The image “seedy hack” comes to mind.
@ lurker,
The image I get when I read seedy hack is a picture of Rob Enderlie.
Actually, MDN, he deserves future abuse, not use.
The smell of fear emanates from the man’s writings, and he is right to be afraid, very afraid.
It is true that the ips LCD uses 2 transistors per subpixel but it does not use twice the power. In fact the overwhelming lions share of power used by a color LCD is used by the backlighting.
Even this expert has a very limited understanding of LCD technology.
All the “pile on the gubmint” posts are by dweebs who have done as much homework on GCN as Breeden has on the iPad.
They are as full of crap as he is.
Good thing MDN isn’t defensive about everything. Your responses are more biased than Fox News. I love the mac too but everything Apple does is not the epitome of technology. Remember when Apple said the 40gb iPod could hold 10,000 song? I rest my case.
@jdog
uh, a 40gb iPod can hold 10,000 songs… What point are you trying to make?