News - Apple iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 rumours heat up

[Barakka]

Getting back to the music apps - I'd heard that the reason that it's the iPad that gets all these sequencers, effects pedals, etc is that iOS is (far?) better at doing low latency apps than Android is. Not sure how much truth there is in that, since the days when I'd go digging into the guts of my devices are long past <sigh>. Presumably Google/Cyanogen are aware of this and must surely be addressing it?

I think it's also probably the same situation as why Apple are so prevalent in the sound recording industry, the ease of dealing with the consistency of a closed architecture, in a setting where cost is not a consideration for the people driving the adoption.

[3dcandy]

Android latency is all over the shop - my SGS3 is pretty poor latency wise but the actual audio is really good. Having a standard dock also helps and because the audio subsystem hasn't changed from day 1 really apps work on all the iDevices. However, unless you really want an audio system on the go, the lower cost etc. far outweighs it. The HUDL is pretty well built for £120 and the screen is fine. New Nexus IS better but also £80 more and you get a MicroSD slot for extra storage. To be really honest the HUDL is a steal at that price....it WILL sell like hotcakes. At this rate Apple will lose a real ton of marketshare in the UK - the price difference is getting stupid now...

[crossy]

Android latency is all over the shop - my SGS3 is pretty poor latency wise but the actual audio is really good. Having a standard dock also helps and because the audio subsystem hasn't changed from day 1 really apps work on all the iDevices. However, unless you really want an audio system on the go, the lower cost etc. far outweighs it.

I thought the comment about the wealth of iOS music apps was referring to content generation, rather than music players et al. Got the official dock for the SGS3 hooked up to my Audica desk speakers and the performance (especially with Poweramp) is actually pretty reasonable. You're right in that if you couple the GS3 with decent speakers or headphones it does impress. Certainly well ahead of the first gen iPod Touch I used to own.

[3dcandy]

Oh yeah, I like the choices made by Samsung in that respect. Yup content creation is mainly where it's at with the iDevice setup and Android is not going to come anywhere near it in it's current form. Fruity Loops for example is unwieldy and rubbish on Android compared to the iOS version. However I've seen it said a few times now that even that advantage is kinda disappearing with cheaper laptops having better battery life and meatier processors, and a few people I know have moved back to laptops AND iOS devices to make their music on rather than just going iOS like they were planning to