Nice idea from Instapaper. Their web parser must be really impressive. I very rarely come across a website that it can’t parse for reading, and I save a lot of articles. Web design has moved on a lot in the last decade and the number of different languages and frameworks has grown to an almost comical number, making this task harder and harder. When I was writing my final year project I wrote a fairly basic parser (link) which targeted a small number of websites for news and information on the Phoenix Park in Dublin. The headaches I had trying to parse relevant information even from these relatively simple websites were..painful. It makes sense from Instapapers perspective and everyone elses if they don’t have to write their own.

I’ll eventually get around to fixing these issues with the site, but that day is not today:

• 'Older' and 'Newer' links between pages should be either side of the page, not together
• Favicon needs updating to make it less crap
• Support for Bigfoot footnotes
• Support for Safari Reader
• Fix issue where RSS entries are duplicating
• Unified font between different OS’s
• Responsivness fix for small tablet sizes`

It’s times like this that I’m glad I didn’t write the engine myself!

Fraser Speirs on choosing between the new iPad Pro 9.7-inch and the iPad Air 2 for the classroom:

I have to be honest and say I don’t find this an easy call. My future-proofing paranoia says iPad Pro. My budgeting spreadsheet says that the iPad Air 2 is good enough for the next 3 years.

My problem is that, processor performance aside, many of the Pro features just aren’t that important to us.

While my needs are a lot different to Fraser’s, there is still a lot to take from his analysis here. As I mentioned previously, I am on the market for a new 9.7-inch iPad. After Apples Monday event, I was left with two choices:

• 128Gb iPad Pro 9.7-inch
• 64Gb iPad Air 2

The advantages of the Pro over the Air 2 are obvious: Pencil support, better speakers, True Tone display, upgraded processor and Smart Connector. Of those five features, only one of them is important to me - the upgraded processor.

The iPad Air 2 carries an A8X chip which delivers 1,800 Geekbench points in the single-core test and 4,500 in multi-core. The Pro carries a A9X chip which delivers 3,000 Geekbench points for single-core and 5,100 in multi-core. Both tablets have 2Gb RAM which surprised me. If the Pro had 4Gb like its bigger brother it would make this choice a lot easier.

For me an iPad is mainly an entertainment device. Something I can use to browse the web, social media, play games and watch movies. I don’t particularly need or want to get any work done on it. That pushes me closer to the Air 2. The price difference is also significant. €879 for a 128Gb Pro and a 64Gb Air 2 for €549. That’s a huge difference. I don’t think it makes sense to spend that kind of money on a Pro unless you plan on using it to get work done.

The one thing putting me off the Air 2 is the fact that it is a 2014 device. It goes against everything I’ve learned about buying tech to get a device that is a year and a half old. By the time September comes, it’ll already be onto its second major iOS update, iOS 10. That’s not good news when I plan on keeping this tablet for at least three years. But I think the Air 2 is unique in the fact that when it was released it was notably overpowered. Many reviewers at the time were scratching their heads over why Apple would create such strong hardware, but not make use of it with the software. iOS 9, which brought true multitasking, answered that question. That gives me some comfort that it should still have at least two years of good life in it. As Fraser concludes:

After Writing all this, I’m still not that sure. What I do think, though, is that I’m a lot more comfortable now with the option of going to the iPad Air 2 instead of the 9.7” iPad Pro. If we have the budget, we’ll go Pro. If not, I don’t think the Air 2 will be a bad choice at all. It’s still a great iPad.

Now that the dust has settled on the announcements, I want to give my opinion on what we saw today. There was a lot packed into the hour long event, so I’ll just mention what I found most interesting - the product announcements.

iPhone SE

A lot of people still buy 4-inch iPhones so it’s nice to see Apple recognising this. For the last two years, people who wanted a smaller iPhone had to settle for the ‘cheap’ model with older internals. The iPhone SE is very much a current generation smartphone, with internals comparable to the flagship 6s. This makes it a real option for people looking for a something more than just a cheap option, and as mentioned in the event it will probably become a popular option for people who are new to iOS. Going for the cheap option has previously come with a big asterisk in terms or performance and shelf life. For the first time in a long time there is now a solid line of iPhones which I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending to someone new to the platform.

While I like the design, I do find it strange that it is basically an exact copy of the iPhone 5s (which was released as far back as 2013). I expected it to look like a 6/6s except in a smaller form factor. This probably won’t put people off, but it’s still a strange move. It might be that it’s cheaper to manufacture with that design.

Jason Snell of Six Colors posted this picture after the event. The SE (on the right) and the 5s are basically identical:

iPad Pro 9.7-inch

This was what I was most excited about, and I wasn’t let down. The new iPad Pro is packed with some great features and is a real solid update to the 9.7-inch line.

Coming in at just under a pound, this iPad retains its portable size which packing in ‘pro’ features. In fact it’s got all of the features of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, along with some of its own. A better 12-megapixel camera capable of 4K video recording (complete with camera bump 🙄), a 5-megapixel FaceTime camera and ‘True Tone’ display, which adjusts white balance to match the light around you. In other words, makes the display a whole lot better in outside conditions. These updates make it significantly better than the 12.9-inch version, so it’s good to see that we didn’t just get a shrunken iPad Pro.

The pricing also reflects the Pro marketing. Starting at €699 for a 32Gb all the way up to €1059 for a 256Gb version (256!), this is not a cheap device..not that Apple products are known for their budget prices. However this has to be seen as more of a computer than a tablet. It will replace laptops for a lot of people, and I’m guessing iOS 10 will only further strengthen that argument. I think 32Gb will very quickly become the new 16Gb, so I don’t think that would be a good buy for most people.

The iPad Air 2 has dropped by €100. That’s not bad for a device which is still very capable despite marching towards being two years old. It’s still a very good media consumption device.

The Rest

As well as adding some new band options, the Apple Watch Sport Edition was dropped by €100. This seems good on the surface, but there’s no getting away from the fact the what the Apple Watch really needs is new hardware. I think it’s probably a bad time to buy one, as Apple will probably release new hardware later in the year.

iOS 9.3 was also released this evening. Turns out Night Shift is pretty useful, but takes a bit of getting used to. I talked in more detail about 9.3 here.

These days pretty much everything about these events get leaked beforehand so it was nice to see that there were a few surprises here, and some genuinely great products.

Apple announces its March event. I’ll be very interested in seeing what’s in store for the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

Really interesting minute by minute perspective on the Challenger disaster from people who were there on the day, or who knew the people involved. This has been sitting in my Instapaper for a few weeks but I found it worth sharing again.

This serves as a nice follow up to my post from last month. This is a great example of what could be done in a future version of Control Center.

9to5Mac are reporting that Apple are no longer set to launch and iPad Air 3, but instead a smaller version of the iPad Pro next month. This raises a few questions over what will become of the iPad line. If the new iPad does become the ‘iPad Pro 9.7-inch’, then the iPad lineup will be: iPad Pro 12.9-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. Not exactly catchy names.

Regardless of this, I’d be happy to see the 9.7-inch version become part of the Pro line. With the release of the iPad Pro last year there was a sense that the 9.7-inch iPad was becoming forgotten, and seen more as a ‘lite’ version of the Pro. Hopefully there is a revival with this model. I plan on upgrading from my iPad 3 to this new 9.7-inch iPad this year so the more pro hardware that they can cram into it the better. If I can get four years of good work out of it like my previous iPad I’ll be happy.

Another interesting point is storage space. If this is going to be a ‘Pro’ model it’s highly unlikely that there will be a 16Gb model (surely?). Benjamin Mayo had a good post about this, where he predicts that the new iPad will come with 32Gb of storage in the base model. While this would be a welcome change, it would possibly make this new model more expensive than the previous 9.7-inch models, each of which have generally stayed at the same price as before. This can only be justified if this new 9.7-inch version is substantially better than the previous models in terms of hardware, which I expect it will be as it should inherit the upgraded speakers and Apple Pencil support along with ‘Pro’ standard internals.

I imagine that the iPad Air 2 might continue to fill the old price point of the 9.7-inch line, with a drop in price. That makes it a tempting option as it still has very strong internals and a 64Gb model could be picked up for cheaper than a new 9.7-inch iPad Pro with 32Gb of storage. It’ll be interesting to see what’s in store in the March event.

Tim Cook:

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand. 

When you think of the amount of information we store on our smartphones it makes no sense to allow any organisation access to personal information. It’s good to see this action being taken by Apple, and to see support from so many other big companies.

Another surprise announcement from Top Gear! We were expecting just one more new presenter to be announced to complete the trio, but now there’s seven (including The Stig)!

I expected to see Sabine Schmitz in the lineup, and I think she’s a good choice. As a former racing driver herself she knows probably more about performance cars than anyone else in this lineup. Her other appearances on Top Gear were entertaining and she comes across as a very likeable person.

Eddie Jordan is an instantly recognizable face in Formula One. His knowledge can’t be questioned, but I am not sure how he will fare as a presenter.

As for Chris Harris and Rory Reid, I can honestly say I have never heard of either of them. I can’t imagine that the BBC would hire people randomly for it’s biggest show, so I’ve no worries about these guys.

One thing is for sure - Top Gear as we know it is gone. The show looks like it will be a completely different breed than it was before. I can’t understand how people are getting so worked up about how they refuse to watch the new show as Clarkson, Hammond and May are not in it. The last two seasons of Top Gear showed that the producers were running out of ideas. It was a definite drop in quality from the previous years.

I think the ‘fracas’ might end up being a good thing for everyone.