Apples Vs . Apple For Road Warriors : MacBook Air or iPad ? - Forbes

Images from Apple -- composite by Larry Magid

One reason I bought an iPad is because of battery life. Until last week, I didn't have a notebook PC that could get me from coast to coast on a single battery charge.  On most cross-country flights, I would start the flight using my 2012 MacBook Air or my Lenovo Yoga and — when the laptop's battery died — I'd switch to the iPad.

It's not just about air travel. I have a friend who bought an iPad mini so she should could take notes at conferences without having to worry about finding a power outlet for her laptop.

New MacBooks keep going and going

But those days are over.  As I pointed out in my review of the new 2013 MacBook Air, the new 13-inch model can easily get though a typical workday without having to be plugged in.  Apple says that it can get up to 12 hours on a charge and some reviewers have confirmed that claim.  PCMag.com's 13-inch Air review unit " lasted an astonishing 15-and-a-half hours on a battery test."  The 11-inch, according to Apple, can run 9 hours on a charge, but CNET got more than 10 hours in its test. 

All three current versions of the iPad (mini, iPad 2 and iPad) are rated for 10 hours according to Apple which means — by Apple's own calculations — the 13-inch Air gets 20% more battery life while the 11-inch lasts 90% as long (with all portable computing devices, actual battery life will vary depending on what radios are turned on and what software you're running).  CNET got 12.1 hours on its test of the iPad mini and 13.1 hours with the 4th gen iPad. BGR calculated 13.5 hour on the iPad with Retina display.

Not just battery life

Of course there are other issues besides battery life. For one thing the iPad is cheaper and there is something to be said for its touch-screen and its slate-like form factor. On the other hand, the MacBook has a real keyboard (you don't have to type on glass) and runs all that great Mac software, including Microsoft Office, Photoshop and websites that use Flash.  But Macs don't run iOS apps and it could be argued that the most exciting new software is now coming out for Androids and iOS devices, not Macs and Windows PCs.

While Apple and some of its iPad fans have pointed out that iPads can be used for productivity, I still contend that the iPad is great for consuming content but — in most cases — a laptop is better for those of us who produce it.

Size and weight

Size and weight are of course an issue but — with the exception of the .68 pound iPad mini — the difference isn't  all that dramatic. A full-sized iPad weighs just under a pound and a half compared to 2.38 pounds for the 11-inch MacBook Air and just under 3 pounds for the 13-inch.  That means that in exchange for less than a pound, you can carry a fully powered PC with an excellent keyboard rather than a tablet.  Even the 13-inch Air is only about a pound and a half heavier than an iPad. I carry a notebook around almost everywhere I go and find the 13-inch Air to be a tolerable weight.

Price

iPads are cheaper than Macs but — you could argue — that Macs are can be cheaper or just a little more expensive when you consider the amount of flash storage per dollar. The closest thing to an "Apple to Apple" comparison would be the $799 Wi-Fi only iPad wtih Retina display for $799 compared to the 128 GB MacBook Air for $999. But if you buy a lower end iPad you'll pay for more per gigabyte of memory than with any MacBook Air model.  Having said that, storage isn't everything but if it does matter you'll get more storage for your money by buying a MacBook Air with 256 or 512 GB.

Not just Apples to Apples: Windows and Android too

Apple haters will probably condemn me for using these two Apple products for my comparison. But I'm far from an Apple fan-boy. I'm an avid user of a Nexus 7 Android tablet for reading and watching video and I love my Lenovo Yoga Windows 8 convertible notebook and spend far more time using my home-built Windows 7 PC than I do my MacBook Air.  However, for now at least, the Air is the best choice for people who want long battery life in a thin and light-weight laptop. That may change as other PC makers start adopting Intel's new power-saving Haswell processors.

Depends on use and budget

What's best for you depends on how you plan to use your device. If it's mostly for browsing the web, reading and watching video, than an iPad or an Android or Windows tablet is way to go. It's at least as good for those functions and cheaper. If do a lot of typing, video production or need software that is only available on Macs or PCs, then you should opt for a laptop whether that's a MacBook or a Windows ultrabook.  But — if like many road warriers — battery life is important to you then you still have a choice of Apples — the iPad and the new MacBook Air are each good for a day's use between charges.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 8: Proof the pen is mightier? - Register

What you need to know about cloud backup

Review Bewildering. That's the best word to describe Samsung's small tablet range. Since the second half of 2010, the Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Tab 7.0 Plus and Tab 7.7 blurred one into the other, much to the confusion of the average customer and me.

Thankfully, the Samsung fondleslab now sat on my desk is a Note, not a Tab, the signature difference between the two being the Wacom digitiser-equipped S-Pen stylus. If a tablet has one, it's a Note. If it hasn't, then it's a Tab.

The stylus and name also makes it easy to see where the Note 8.0 sits in the grand scheme of things: slap bang between the Galaxy Note 2 and the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8: give it a big hand - it'll need one

Externally, the Note 8 looks like a pumped-up Note 2 right down to the curvy hyperglaze plastic body and physical home button. And, like the Note 2 and the Galaxy S4, the plastic body makes the Note 8 feel just a little low rent. It's not as if it pays dividends in the weight department either: at 338g the Note 8 is only 2g lighter than a Google Nexus 7 but 30g heavier than an iPad Mini. But the body doesn't make fingerprints obvious and it feels very pleasant in the hand.

At 8mm deep and 210.8 x 135.9mm in size, Sammy's latest tablet isn't overly portly for an 8-inch device but, again, the iPad Mini is thinner and smaller despite only having a fractionally smaller display. Like the Apple gadget, the Note 8's battery is fixed in place and the tablet is just a bit too wide to comfortably hold in one hand for a prolonged period.

Name and S-Pen aside, the similarities between the Galaxy Note 8.0 and Note 2 include the chipset, the processor speed, the Android build (4.1.2) and - give or take a few pixels - the screen resolution.

Micro USB and stereo speakers at bottom

You could argue that 1280 x 800 pixels doesn't quite cut the 8-inch mustard in this day and age. The resulting pixel density is only 189dpi which while better than the iPad Mini's 162dpi is well short of the Note 2's 267dpi, or the 216dpi of the Nexus 7. It's worth clarifying that unlike the rather uninspiring 8-inch Acer Iconia A1 tablet Reg man Tony tested recently, the Note isn't a 4:3 device but rather a widescreen-friendly 16:10.

In all honesty though, the display looks pretty sharp and crisp, while the screen size and aspect ratio combined with the broadly curved corners and thin top and bottom bezels - well, thinner than the Nexus 7 anyway - make it a very comfortable device to hold in landscape orientation while watching video or playing a game.

As soon as you turn the Note 8 on you'll notice that the screen is a traditional LCD panel rather than Samsung's usual Super AMOLED. This means it lacks the Note 2's eye-catching vividness and super-saturated colours. As tablet screens go, though, it's a decent enough pudding: bright, colourful and with reasonably good levels of contrast, though its performance in broad daylight was not spectacular.

The all-important micro SD card slot

Thanks to sharing the same parts bin as the Note 2, the Note 8 packs an Exynos 4412 quad-core 1.6GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP graphics core, 2GB of RAM, plus GPS and Wi-Fi. Those bits and pieces give it a decent lick of speed, though the Note 8's AnTuTu benchmark scores can't match the Galaxy S4's - 16,800 versus 25,800 - thanks in part to the Mali-400 GPU getting a bit long in the tooth.

That's not something you need worry about though. All the 3D games I tested on the Note 8 - Real Racing 3, ShadowGun:Deadzone, NOVA 3 - ran perfectly at maximum definition so this really is a case of synthetic benchmark scores highlighting a difference that otherwise you won't be able to discern.

The Note 8 runs Android under Samsung's all-pervasive TouchWiz user interface, but that's OK because TouchWiz makes more sense on tablets that it does on smartphones. The extra screen area makes it look less cartoonish and gives features such as multi-window apps and floating video player more room to breathe. If you really can't stomach TouchWiz, all the third-party software launchers I tried worked a treat and didn't mess with any of Samsung's bespoke baked-in functionality.

The webcam and the ambient light sensor

In much the same way, the S-Pen also makes more sense when combined with a larger screen. This may have something to do with my wretched handwriting, but the extra space afforded by an 8-inch screen had me reaching for the stylus far more frequently than when I was using the Note 2. The Note 8's handwriting recognition - toggled directly from the very nice swipe-enabled keyboard - is solid.

As with the Note 2, the oval-profile stylus lives in a slot at the bottom on the device. Slide it out and the Note 8 goes 'beep' - thankfully this can be disabled - and a dedicated context menu and home screen automatically opens. The primary apps for S-Pen are S Note, an all-purpose note pad, and Paper Artist, an art app for mucking about with photos. Both are good examples of the breed.

Cloud based data management

Apple iPad 4 review: is this the best tablet money can buy? - PC Advisor

Apple iPad 4 review updated: 18th June 2013

Apple released the fourth-generation iPad back in November 2012, and a 128GB version went on sale in February 2013. But while we wait for a fifth iPad to be launched, is this the one to buy?

See also: iPad 3 review and iPad 3 vs iPad 4 comparison review.

There's no firm date set for an iPad 5 launch, but a new iPad is extremely likely in September, October or November. Given that Apple hasn't changed the design of the iPad since the iPad 2 in 2011, there's every chance the iPad 5 will be thinner, lighter and adopt the styling of the iPad mini.

If you can wait that long, it's surely worth it as the new tablet is almost certain to be faster and have more features (maybe better-quality cameras, too). If you can't wait, read our iPad 4 review before you flex your credit card.

Apple iPad 4: Design and build quality

The fourth-gen iPad looks no different from the iPad 3 (and even iPad 2) with Apple sticking to the same rectangular shape with rounded corners and chamfered edges.

There's no change in dimensions so it's 186 x 241 x 9.4mm and it weighs 652g (662g for the cellular model). Of course if you don't like the size of the iPad, there's always the iPad mini as a smaller option.

As we've come to expect from the iPad and iPhone, and the Mac range for that matter, the build quality is exceptional. Attention to detail is paramount and the iPad feels as premium as it always has.

So if the iPad 4 look and feels the same as the previous generation what's different? We'll there's only one visual change to the design which comes in the form of the Lightning connector, the rest is all buried inside.

Apple iPad 4: Hardware

As usual Apple has updated the hardware of the tablet. First and foremost is a new processor, the A6X. This dual-core processor with quad-core graphics is supposedly twice as fast as the A5 chip found in the iPad 3 with twice the graphics performance.

Naturally we put these claims to the test. Apple doesn't publish clock speeds and such like but the GeekBench 2 app states the A6X is 1.39GHz and the iPad 4 has 1GB of RAM – 988MB for our exact sample.

The numbers are certainly impressive. In GeekBench 2 we saw a new record of 1769 (the iPad 3 scored in the region of 750) and in the SunSpider JavaScript test the iPad 4 managed a speedy average of 854ms.

While the numbers can amaze and astound, it's the real life user performance which is important. The iPad 4 is a nippy device but the overall impression is that it's not much quicker than the iPad 3, certainly not twice as fast.

We did find graphics performance impressive with a frame rate of 39fps, the iPad 3 managed 22fps. So it's the graphics improvements which are the more noticeable. We could see no difference in general navigation but more noticeable in more demanding tasks. In Apple Maps, for example, pinch zooming is a little bit smoother.

Price and storage options are the same as previous iPads - £399 for 16GB Wi-Fi only ranging all the way up to £739 for 128GB with Wi-Fi and 3G/4G cellular data. If you can afford the price tag, there's an iPad to fit your needs. Be wise with your storage option since, as usual, there's no microSD card slot for expansion.

There's no change when it comes to the screen – it's still 9.7in in size with the stunning 1536 x 2048 Retina quality resolution. There's really no faulting the LED-backlit IPS display.

There are a few important changes when it comes to connectivity. The first, as we mentioned earlier, is the Lightning connector. It's smaller, reversible and means you need to buy an adaptor if you want to plug it into any existing 30-pin accessories.

The other big change is 4G connectivity. The iPad 3 was marketed as 4G capable but didn't suit the UK's 4G frequencies so Apple removed the claim. If you want, and can afford, 4G mobile broadband, then this iPad will cater for your needs. The iPad mini also supports 4G in the UK. See also: What is 4G? A complete guide.

Connectivity like Bluetooth remains the same but Apple has upgraded the Wi-Fi. We not sure sure the channel bonding is going to make much difference but we'll update this review when we've had more time to conduct some tests.

iPad 4: Cameras

There's not a great deal of change when it comes to the iPad's cameras. Those hoping for an 8Mp rear camera will be disappointed to find it's still the same 5Mp iSight camera found on the iPad 3.

It's unsurprising then that results are similar – a useful camera if you don't mind using a device as large as an iPad for taking snaps. The only change is the addition of a back-illuminated sensor which should help in low light situations.

The bigger, and more useful change is the front facing camera which is now a 1.2Mp FaceTime HD shooter capturing up to 720p footage. This offers a much higher quality picture than before making your Photo Booth pictures better and, provided broadband speeds are fast enough, improved Skype and FaceTime calls.

iPad 4 review: Software

There's not a great deal to say about the software on the iPad 4. It comes pre-loaded with iOS 6 including Siri which is also available on the iPad 3. Some recent and notable changes to the operating system include the switch between Google Maps and Apple's own mapping system – the firm's own-brand app has received heavy criticism for its many failings. Luckily there are alternatives out there in app form, or you can use Google Maps in Safari. Apple has also ditched the YouTube app but the service is available via the web browser.

Something to bear in mind is that apps supporting the Retina resolution take up considerably more space than previous ones. You may find yourself filling up 16GB of storage faster than you expected.

For a more in-depth look, check out our iOS 6 review. Don't forget, too, that you'll be able to update the iPad 4 with iOS 7 when it is realeased in the autumn.

iPad 4 reivew: Battery life

Once again Apple touts a double digit battery life of 10 hours for the iPad 4 when browsing the web over Wi-Fi. It's difficult to give you a 'typical' usage figure since everyone will use their iPad for different tasks for various periods of time.

We found that using the iPad 4 heavily meant we needed to charge it at the end of the day. If you predominantly use a smartphone and use the iPad occasionally then it will stretch much further, a few days' worth is likely.

Follow Chris Martin and @PCAdvisor on Twitter.

Microsoft Can't Tell Us If The Xbox One Is Region-Free Or Not - Kotaku

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Microsoft and Apple cosy up with Office for iOS - The Independent

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Office for iOS: Apple and Microsoft join up - The Independent

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Sony and Microsoft go head to head at gaming expo E3 - BBC News

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