applestore

Shiny new iPad

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iPad Mini with Retina Display

As I mentioned on Sunday, my birthday present from my parents was a shiny new iPad Mini with Retina Display. We bought it from the Apple Store in Trinity Leeds, since we were going to Leeds for a birthday meal anyway.

This is to replace my old iPad, a first generation model. Although I’ve only had it for a year, it’s now over three years old and no longer supported by Apple. It won’t even run iOS 6, never mind iOS 7. Many apps either won’t install at all, or can only run as an older version. Plus, it’s rather slow and some apps, including Apple’s own like Safari, crash a lot. Whilst the larger screen means it’s better to use than my iPhone for some things, for others it was slow and frustrating – I’d avoid browsing sites like Buzzfeed or Lifehacker because of the risk of crashing it.

Choosing an iPad

I’d narrowed the choice down to the iPad Air or the iPad Mini with Retina Display. I ruled out the older models – the iPad with Retina Display and the iPad Mini (without Retina Display) – because they came with older processors which are much more likely to be deprecated by Apple within a few years. I didn’t want to be in the same situation again with my iPad in a couple of years’ time.

The two models are basically identical inside – same processor, battery life and features. The only difference is the size of the screen (the resolution is the same), the weight and the price. At £80 cheaper, we decided to go for the iPad Mini.

Personal setup

When you buy a product at the Apple Store, a ‘Personal Setup’ service is offered to get you up and running with the device. As we had some time to spare, I decided to take them up on the offer. This turned out to be a good thing. Because myself, and the member of staff who sold me the iPad, learned the hard way what happens when you try to restore an iCloud backup from an iPad 1 running iOS 5, to an iPad Mini running iOS 7. Suffice to say, it got stuck in a soft reboot loop and was completely unusable.

To their credit, the staff at the store were really good about it, and took responsibility for the problem. I should have been advised that this wouldn’t work. Instead, I should set the new iPad up as a new device, rather than using a backup from an iOS 5 device as a starting point. So the iPad Mini, now essentially bricked, will be sent back to Apple, and I was given another iPad Mini to take away. I decided not to go through the Personal Setup this time, instead waiting to get home so that I could do it at my own pace. It’s working fine, as shown in the above photo.

I’m glad that the reboot problem happened in the Apple Store and not at home, as I’m not even sure that I’d have been able to force a factory reset on the device. But perhaps Apple should have coded this into the iPad setup program, and displayed a warning that restoring a backup from such an old device to a new one is a bad idea.

Anyway, my new iPad Mini is great. It’s so much lighter than my old one, and the screen is only a bit smaller. It’s not quite so good for reading magazines, as the text is a bit small, but at least when I zoom in the text doesn’t become so pixelated as it did on my old iPad. And apps like Facebook, YouTube and 1Password are actually usable now, and others, like Pocket, are much, much faster.

Things are a little quiet around here

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The Stray

Apart from last week’s eulogy to Google Reader, it’s been the best part of a month since I’ve last posted on here. This is not due to a lack of things happening but more because I’ve been very busy, and/or too tired. Today is actually the first day that I haven’t been at work since Sunday 10th March, having worked both days last weekend. As it happens, I’ve picked quite a good day to take annual leave as there’s quite heavy snow outside. As well as having a well-deserved lie-in, I’m trying to tackle all of the unread items in Google Reader (which I’m kind-of still using) and Pocket that I’ve amassed over the past three weeks or so. Christine is working this weekend so I basically have three days in which to do basically nothing, which for once I’m looking forward to.

Things are progressing with the wedding, which is about six weeks away; we have all of the RSVPs now, and have organised a few of the major outstanding things like the mens’ suits and flowers. And we’ve booked a honeymoon – five nights in Paris. It’s only a short break but we may go on a more substantial holiday next year. What with the wedding, we didn’t want two really large purchases this year.

Having missed it when it was on TV, I’ve bought the DVD of the first two series of The IT Crowd (also on iTunes) which we’re both enjoying immensely. I may have to buy the other two series as well.

Two more of my user accounts have two-factor authentication – app.net and Apple ID. I’m now waiting for Twitter to catch up and enable it on their site.

Trinity Leeds opened yesterday (see my blog post about it). I didn’t go, despite the possibility of a free t-shirt at the new Apple Store there. Yes, at last, Leeds has an official Apple Store there; I’ve been waiting for at least 7 years for one, after Manchester and Sheffield got theirs.