Kim reports, “We have since heard that the upcoming iPhone 4’s RAM has again been upgraded. This will bring it to a total of 512MB of RAM, twice as much as the 3GS and iPad.”
“The added RAM should help overall performance and multi-tasking on the new iPhone 4,” Kim reports. “It could also explain why the iMovie App that Apple introduced at WWDC will only run on the iPhone 4. Apple has said iMovie will only run on the iPhone 4 and not the 3GS or even the iPad.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Andrew W.” for the heads up.]
@ken1w
I know they are what they are. I do worry about initial specs NOW that the iPad is out. I worry because yeah it’s not upgradable, I am fine with that, original iPhone lasted me for 2 years before 3GS, it made my work more efficient with the speed.
But now knowing why apple excludes certain features and soon programs on iOS products now due to specs, is something to scratch your head on. I understand technology moves on, but come on the products launched 2 months from each other.
iMovie on iPad would of been great. can you imagine taking great movies on your camera, jumping in the car ride home and have a mini movie ready to show everyone. but you can’t use iMovie for another year on iPad. This is one of those very few Apple fails.
Cameras on the iPad. Ugh.
Sure, with Facetime there is reason for a forward facing cam. But I can personally see limited use for a rear facing cam. The iPad is big and awkward for aiming and taking photos. But a case can be made. For instance there is appraisal software out now. It would be useful to attach photos as you are taking down room specs and attach them to that room. Just one example. You’re certainly not going to be at a parade holding up your iPad to take a photo.
@ Tetrachloride
> So, why doesn’t the iPad have 512 MB ?
Probably because Apple wanted all the iPad models to have consistent specifications; developers can count on all the 2010 iPads having the same capabilities, except for the obvious differences such as 3G (versus WiFi-only) and storage space.
Apple needed to sell the low-end model for $499, to take as much share of the tablet market as possible before the competition could produce something that was even remotely worthy of being called an alternative to iPad. The profit margin on an iPad is already much lower than typical for Apple. Increasing the RAM and other specs would have made the situation worse.
Unlike iPhone, which could almost be given away for free and still have good margins because of the large upfront subsidy payment from the wireless carrier, the profit from iPad comes from the sale of the device. Apple can easily justify putting more RAM in an iPhone, but not an iPad.
But iPad users should not worry so much about specs. Apple engineers and third-party developers know what the exact specs are, and they are not upgradeable by the user. They will design software with these known capabilities (and limitations) in mind.
@ blah blah blah…
> iMovie on iPad would of been great.
iMovie on the current iPad makes no sense because it has no camera. You’d have to import the raw video from another source, and while that may be possible, most users will not have the desire or capability to do so.
@ Here we go again
The camera for an iPad needs to be a separate accessory device. Preferably, it should be connected wirelessly using Bluetooth. Then, you can point the camera in any direction (maybe even attach it to a headband and use your head to point) and hold the iPad in any position or orientation. Or place the camera on a your desktop for some “FaceTime” while not worrying about how you are holding and aiming the iPad. Plus, do you really want the upward camera angle from your lap to be what the other person sees?
You could also connect the camera to the Dock Connector; that would be less convenient, but it would allow higher resolution for the video. But in any case, I don’t think iPad will get a camera because it would fail the Steve Jobs usability test.
Someone smarter than me, tell me why apple couldn’t implement a “virtual-memory” scheme to use some of the Flash memory as ram. They used to do it in OSX, Photoshop does it, and flash memory is faster than any hard disk. Seems very doable to me. A4 probably doesn’t have bus access to flash as ram, but it could.
MDN Word “behind”, as in “only 2 months old, and already behind the times”
It is interesting to think that.. I remember Mac updates were quite often… now… well when did they last update the mac pro?
@t-bone
Because implementing virtual memory would degrade the Life of the Flash memory much faster.
Flash memory has a limited amount of write cycles, using it as a part of the Memory would literally kill the Flash Memory after about 1.5 to 2 Years of use.
There are already Tools like this available for Jailbroken iDevices, and they help greatly with the Safari Tab issue, however every developer who makes these tools states that it will definitely kill Flash Memory over time.
Main Memory (RAM) however is not having this issue and is much faster, however much more expensive.
@MAC_kid
im guessing next april the new iPad should have retina display, 512 ram and a camera hopefully i will get a decent price for my wifi 32 gig
You’re probably right. But expect the update this fall, in time for the Christmas buying season.
@ Deus Ex Technica
Apple is NOT going to upgrade the iPad before the holidays. Apple has not even completed ramping up production for the current model to meet demand. And right now, Apple is virtually alone on the tablet playing field, with no real challengers. There is no reason to put out an upgraded iPad so quickly, just to incur additional development costs and the wrath of the early adopters. The next iPad version will probably come about one year from the original model.
Also, the next version will not have a 326 DPI “Retina Display.” The screen resolution of 326 DPI on a 10-inch diagonal screen exceeds the resolution of 30-inch Cinema Display. That’s crazy talk. And since you hold an iPad farther from your eyes, you don’t need such small pixels anyways. If you hold it twice as far away, it would only need to be about 160 DPI for the “retina” effect, and the current one is already about 135 DPI. Apple kept the same screen resolution for three generations of iPhone before upping it on iPhone 4. I expect the next version of iPad to have the same screen.
I don’t think future iPads will have a built-in camera, for usability reasons, unless Apple comes up with some solution for pointing the camera. If it just pointed straight forward and straight back, like on an iPhone, it would never get passed Steve Jobs.
Why would I buy the Ipad if iPhone has more ram? Gonna wait for ipad 2!
Is anyone else a little disappointed that the iPad specs are what they are? I understand that they made design decision tradeoffs, but how awesome would the device have been if it had the resolution of the iPhone 4, a front and rear camera, and a faster processor… Oh, well. At least we generally buy upgrades from Apple to get new features vs upgrades from MS to fix stuff we’ve already paid for.
@ Ml
> Why would I buy the Ipad if iPhone has more ram?
Because you’ll probably be waiting about nine months for a new version of iPad…
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ken1w
You make some good points. The iPad won’t be upgraded until next year likely. Remember everyone, Apple starts basic and builds from there. Adding more power would drain the battery. Everything they have done with this first iPad is a tradeoff. Now, by next year, with Flash memory getting smaller, and some good progression on the battery front, they could shrink some components down, increase the battery density, and use a thinner touchscreen panel. If they can shave off about .25 lbs, the iPad will be a god device.
Ad for the Retina Display on the iPad, I think that will happen. ken1w: you state that a Retina Display on the iPad is crazy, that it would be equivalent to a 30 inch Cinema display in density. Well, the iPhone has 70% of the pixels that the iPad screen has…
I think Apple will increase pixel density on the iPad: this Retina Display (nice marketing Apple!) really brings LCDs much closer to eInk displays. That the Retina display closes the gap between eInk displays and standard LCDs, even ones with IPS technology.
It’s important that the iPad have this screen, because one of its most useful features is as an eReader…
@ U
> you state that a Retina Display on the iPad is crazy, that it would be equivalent to a 30 inch Cinema display in density.
No, not “density.” I’m talking about RESOLUTION. To get to the density of the new iPhone’s display, 326 DPI (dots per inch), a 10-inch diagonal display would need to be 2400×1800 pixels (exactly 300 DPI). The pixel density of a 30-inch Cinema display is only about 100 DPI, with a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels. If you multiple it out, this “super-retina-iPad” would need to push around more pixels than a current Mac connected with a dual-link DVI port to a 30-inch Cinema Display. Maybe that’s not impossible, but it would be difficult to put that much graphics processing power into a device the size of an iPad, not have it melt, not run down the battery in 30 minutes, and have it cost less than $500 (at least not very soon).
I think the new iPhone’s graphics and processing power is remarkable, but 960×640 is less than a typical PowerBook’s capability TEN+ years ago (1024×768), so that’s not “crazy talk.” The A4 is much more powerful than a 500 MHz G3 with an 8mb graphics card. What is remarkable in both the new iPhone and iPad is the combination of power and efficiency.
Also, there is no need for Apple to get the pixel density up to the 300 DPI range on an iPad. If you hold it 18 inches from your eyes (compared to 12 inches for an iPhone), you only need to get it up to about 200 DPI for it to be a “retina display” for an iPad. That would be 1600×1200 at 10-inch diagonal. That seems doable in the next few years, maybe by the time iPad is three.
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Any thoughts or technical arguments for or against having the capability to tether an iPhone 4 to an iPad so you could have a FaceTime video chat with another iPhone 4 or iPad similarly connected?
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Big deal if it has 512MB RAM onboard if it can’t multitask properly.
From now on bing and decide. http://www.bing.com