IPhone/ITouch/IPad Game App Thread

[TheTruth]

Fairway Solitaire is pretty fun. You can upgrade to the full version within the game. Bill Harris has said good things about this as well.

[dbdynsty25]

Fairway Solitaire is pretty fun. You can upgrade to the full version within the game. Bill Harris has said good things about this as well.

Yeah the PC/Mac version is fantastic...by far the best time wasting card game I've ever played. Went through both the first version and the collectors edition in the past few years and it's been the best 20 bucks I've spent.

[Naples39]

This didn't take long--Reckless Racing 2 on sale for $1.

[dbdynsty25]

The iPad version of fairway is a VERY good port of the game. Definitely one of the best games available on the iPad.

[Diablo25]

Picked up the Photoshop Touch app last night for the iPad and it's pretty cool. It's a $9.99 app so it's not exactly cheap but I'm having a cool time playing with the tutorials. It's a pretty deep photo app. The fact that I picked up a stylus over the weekend on a whim really helped. Check out the video below to see it in action.

[Rodster]

Looks like March 7th is the announcement for the iPad 3. Some are saying it could be a quad core iPad. If so I may take the plunge and pick one up.

[Diablo25]

Looks like March 7th is the announcement for the iPad 3. Some are saying it could be a quad core iPad. If so I may take the plunge and pick one up.

I'll be snagging one. I'll sell my current iPad on EBay. The Verge (link below) has a story via CNBC that it will have LTE, Quad Core, Retina Display, etc. etc. the pic on the invite from Apple hints at a high res display and (possibly) no more home button.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/28/28306 ... in/2550811

[wco81]

Quad core is hype at this point. It's not clear there is software on a smart phone or tablet which could use that.

They would certainly be using ARM A9 CPUs, the same as last year.

Next year, ARM A15 CPUs will be available and a dual-core A15 is expected to outperform a quad-core A9. In fact, for most types of tasks, a higher clocked dual core A9 may be better than a quad-core A9 running at a lower clock speed.

The GPU may be quad-core though, which would be the same SGX544 MP4 in the Vita.

At this point, more RAM may be as useful as more/faster CPU and GPU cores.

Big thing is going to be that screen, which the official invitation seems to hint at, with both the picture and the tag line about "something to see and touch."

[Naples39]

Tech sites seem to think the shot released today essentially confirms the hi-res screen, though this has been all but confirmed for a long time.

I've heard mixed things about quad-core, with the latest being a likely no.

I also heard a nasty rumor that the basic model may go from $500 to $580, but I have my doubts on that one.

[10spro]

Quad or not, I read that the price will be up mainly because of the retina display which at 2048x1536 is twice the resolution of the ipad 2.

[dbdynsty25]

I'm not sure they can go up to Quad Core w/ LTE...there aren't any processor SOCs on the market at this time that can do both. Qualcomm makes the dual core versions at this point, but I guess anything is possible in Apple's secret dungeons. I'd just be surprised if they go Quad. There's really no reason to. Can anyone bog down an iphone or an ipad with it's dual core processor now? The way they have them dialed in pretty much negates the necessity for more cores. On Android tablets...sure...most of them are dogs and can use the cores. But not on Apple's device.

If I had to bet:

Dual Core
LTE
Retina display
higher cost
Bigger battery - bigger form factor (thicker mostly)

Mark it down.

[Diablo25]

I'm not sure they can go up to Quad Core w/ LTE...there aren't any processor SOCs on the market at this time that can do both. Qualcomm makes the dual core versions at this point, but I guess anything is possible in Apple's secret dungeons. I'd just be surprised if they go Quad. There's really no reason to. Can anyone bog down an iphone or an ipad with it's dual core processor now? The way they have them dialed in pretty much negates the necessity for more cores. On Android tablets...sure...most of them are dogs and can use the cores. But not on Apple's device.

If I had to bet:

Dual Core
LTE
Retina display
higher cost
Bigger battery - bigger form factor (thicker mostly)

Mark it down.

I'm guessing you are spot on. I also read somewhere that it'll probably not be Quad Core but Dual Core.

As far as the realease... rumors are it will be released shortly after this "Apple Event".

[wco81]

Tricky thing is that once they announce it's available for online ordering, the servers could be hammered. So you try to get your order in as soon as possible but this could mean you order before seeing any reviews.

Would be useful to know about battery life, especially if it has LTE. And then you have to see whether there are two different SKUs for AT&T or Verizon LTE and what types of 3G that they support. If Verizon supports only EVDO 3G, then you can only use the thing on Verizon, not on any GSM/HSPA network.

[Murph]

2 reasons why an LTE iPad does nothing for me (yet):

There is no LTE in my neck of the woods yet (from any carrier) and no carrier (yet) offers any kind of 'shared data plan across multiple devices'.

[dbdynsty25]

Tricky thing is that once they announce it's available for online ordering, the servers could be hammered. So you try to get your order in as soon as possible but this could mean you order before seeing any reviews.

Would be useful to know about battery life, especially if it has LTE. And then you have to see whether there are two different SKUs for AT&T or Verizon LTE and what types of 3G that they support. If Verizon supports only EVDO 3G, then you can only use the thing on Verizon, not on any GSM/HSPA network.

It's gonna be just like it is currently w/ two models for the two carriers (unless they add more carriers like Sprint of course). AT&T model that supports LTE/HSPA and the Verizon model that supports LTE/CDMA. The two LTE networks are completely different, so there's nothing stopping them from keeping the iPads AS-IS with the two companies supported and their older 3G technologies as well.

[wco81]

Supposedly, the Qualcomm modems coming out this year supports both EVDO and HSPA as fallback from LTE.

So it might be technically possible to support both networks with one SKU, though both carriers probably don't want interoperable devices.

LTE runs on more bands than 3G so it might be more difficult to produce a "world" phone or tablet. However, certain countries or regions like the EU are expected to require interoperable devices so that you can use the same device on several competing networks. Of course, they're not building out LTE networks as quickly as Verizon and AT&T.

[Murph]

What was the point of the Qualcom dual-mode baseband chips if they were never going to be fully utilized?

[dbdynsty25]

What was the point of the Qualcom dual-mode baseband chips if they were never going to be fully utilized?

They took too long. Quad core chips are now all the rage. Why go dual when you can go quad? With Samsung and NVidia already releasing quads...Qualcomm is just behind the times (and it's a poor architecture anyway with it's poor battery optimization).

[ScoopBrady]

Isn't this a game and app thread?

[dbdynsty25]

Pretty much as expected.

LTE, Retina Display, Quad Core graphics, Dual core processor...yada yada. I'll get one through work, so no biggie. Love having a job where I can just expense random electronics.

[sportdan30]

Pretty much as expected.

LTE, Retina Display, Quad Core graphics, Dual core processor...yada yada. I'll get one through work, so no biggie. Love having a job where I can just expense random electronics.

Lucky bastard!

[Rodster]

Prices? No ones mention them yet and the Apple store is being updated.

[dbdynsty25]

Prices? No ones mention them yet and the Apple store is being updated.

Same as last model. And somewhat shockingly, it's not called iPad 3 or iPad HD...it's called, The New iPad. At least that's what all of the slides are showing.

[Rodster]

Thanks !

[WillHunting]

Prices? No ones mention them yet and the Apple store is being updated.

It is the same price as current lineup ($499-699 for the wireless, etc).

I am in for iPad 3, not sure if I should get 32 or 64.

Speaking of games, everyone should get Gridrunner. Been playing it for a week, it is like a brand new 80's arcade game made today. It plays similar to Centipede with the exception that you can move around in the whole grid. It is very addictive (make sure you switch to expert control) and definitely worth the $0.99 (if you like Jeff Minter games....)