The Apple iPad 2 Review
by Brian Klug, Anand Lal Shimpi & Vivek Gowri on March 19, 2011 8:01 PM ESTCamera Connection Kit
We’ve had a few requests to double check and see whether the iPad’s original camera connection kit works, and sure enough it still does. We put together a simple yet representative benchmark comparing how fast it took an iPad 1 and iPad 2 to import 40 NEF (Nikon RAW, lossless compression enabled) photos shot using a Nikon D300s.
The iPad 2 bests the iPad 1 by a considerable margin at import speed, it's 47 percent faster. Subjectively, initial image previews also rendered much, much quicker on the iPad 2.
I always felt like speed was honestly what kept me from using the camera connection kit more than once in a blue moon on the original iPad, coupled with the relatively limited 16 GB of storage on the WiFi model I opted for. Though this time around I still went with 16 GB, it’s now fast enough to import a substantial number of photos even from the most competent of cameras very quickly.
The other gems that are enabled by the USB Host port bundled with the camera connector kit also still work. You can still connect a keyboard and use it as an input device wherever text fields are, mice still don’t work (not a huge surprise there), and 16-bit USB audio class devices work.
I connected my Logitech USB headset and microphone combo to the iPad through the camera connector kit. Audio played back through the headsets from all applications. In apps that use recording, the microphone also worked.
The interesting caveat is that you apparently can’t use both at the same time, at least not this pair. I fired up FaceTime in the hopes that I’d be able to use the headsets in their entirety - callers could hear me through the microphone (and noted I sounded excellent), however audio played back through the iPad’s internal speaker instead of the headphones. I connected through a powered hub and experienced the same thing. There are anecdotal accounts that other devices which support simultaneous audio input and output do work, but I lack more hardware to test with. Additionally, I can’t test whether devices with higher power budgets (like the Blue Yeti microphone for example) work.
There’s definitely potential for the iPad 2 to be a shockingly competent mobile podcasting platform, especially coupled with some built-in Garage Band editing.
You can already record audio through a USB source natively in Garage Band with the camera connector kit. We tested it and it sounds excellent.
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jalexoid - Saturday, March 19, 2011 - link
The movie editing app on Honeycomb is there. And it's similar to iMovie.The Office look alike apps on iPad are still not good.
Honeycomb struggles on the apps side, because the developer hardware was not there, when it was needed.
But saying "So far only iOS has the most real apps" is a bit incorrect.
WaltFrench - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
“The movie editing app on Honeycomb is … similar to iMovie.”Yes, except for one thing: the YouTube of it shows it unable to show thumbnails properly and balky, rough animations. This wouldn't even get bronze at a beer-fueled coding contest.
The two are exactly as similar as night and day: they live on the same planet.
Zoomer - Saturday, March 19, 2011 - link
>>Also, when you take it out in front of a client during a lunch meeting, it tends to impress them.That's probably why most buy it.
Azethoth - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
I bought my iPad to turn my daily NY Times habit at Starbucks paperless. So Wi-Fi only and one year = it paid for itself.Acting as an awesome controller for my home stereo setup is a total bonus. Same with reading books again via iBooks and Kindle.
Yes, the underlying thing is I use it to consume and not to create. Unless you find an application that uses its strength in that regard it will just frustrate you as you try to do your pad-inappropriate netbook / laptop / PC / mini / mainframe or whatever apps on it.
For me its a perfect way to avoid the netbooks / laptops which I have always loathed but get a little mobility. But then I only create on a desktop with 2560 x 1600 resolution so laptops will never cut it anyway.
synaesthetic - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
It's pretty refreshing to see someone who has actually found a usable niche for these things.It's just not too useful to a lot of folks. I carry my laptop to class already--yeah, this big, heavy MSI gaming laptop--because I need it. If I could carry something as light as the iPad and have it do what I need... I'd be sold.
But it can't. And LCDs suck for long reading sessions. I'd rather have an ereader.
doobydoo - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
what is it you can't do on an ipad?LaughingTarget - Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - link
Quite a bit, really. It's a lousy drafting platform. Don't try doing anything remotely related to engineering on it. Want to create a proprietary program to tie into your own business systems at work? Don't bother, you're not putting that thing on your iPad without Apple's permission. Don't bother trying to type anything lengthy up on the thing, you'll be operating, at best, on about 1/4 speed as a keyboard. It's a useless tool for accountants, field technicians needing to keep track of customer data, worthless for engineers trying to troubleshoot a power plant turbine on-site. Hell, it's even a horrible method of ringing up orders at a fast food joint.Go down the list of what people do for a living, the meat of the modern global economy, and you pretty much found everything the iPad can't do.
kevith - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
Use it as an E-reader?Well, only for books, that the the censors at Macintosh find good, clean and familyfriendly enough, that is.
"When You start burning books, You will eventually end up burning people."
That fact does not change over time...
WaltFrench - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
Let's be a bit more honest here: Heine was talking about government-sanctioned political violence, not commercial decisions. In fact, the considerations are almost exactly opposite.Commercial decisions have dozens of considerations, including authors' willingness to grant rights (e.g., Nabokov's Pale Butterfly not in any e-form), format (the wonderful Visualizing Information, also MIA) and a host of others. Freedom of speech implies the speaker's right to choose when and how he speaks; that means Apple's right to make commercial decisions about what it offers and what it does not.
E.g., Apple no longer sells a camera, but they don't in any way restrict your ability to buy them or use them. Re books: if you like Kindle, for example, read them on the iPad. (As long as Amazon chooses to carry the work.) This is just like say, the B&N store across from my office: they don't carry titles they don't want, whether for expected lousy sales, or to keep the local Bigots United chapter from waving pitchforks at them. This freedom of Apple, which is NOT an arm of the US Government, to have its own voice, is just as important as preventing governments from banning speech.
Maybe there is somebody at Apple who wants to treat you like a child. But about a hundred times more likely is that they simply want to do the stuff they think they do best, and some people act (childlishly!) as if Apple should run by different principles.
PS: “Macintosh” is not the company you're talking about.
vision33r - Saturday, March 19, 2011 - link
The last thing you want is bring that $899 device in front of people and have app crashes and App drawer that doesn't work when you press it like a zillion times.People at work will just say you blow $899 on a netbook.
Yes, the LCD on the Xoom is the typical 10.1" you found on Acer Netbook parts bin.
How dare Motorola try to pass off a netbook for $899. How about the ASUS EEE Slate for $999 instead.