I disagree with ya both in the fact that iPads are super easy to break its not at all a thing of strength....the proud announcement that their devices are made of aluminum is laughable.....you know soda cans are made of the same material and they crush with ease. Aluminum is not strong at all especially in the thickness we have on an iPad. And the screens placed on these things are super easy to break too. As a matter of fact if you don't get an iPad and immediately put it in a military grade protective case. You're throwing your money away. And they cost near 100 bucks for it too then you are insane...and are asking for it to get broken the first time you drop it on accident. For the amount of money that one of these things cost I would have much rather have it be a slightly bit more bulky then to wrap it in an expensive case......that makes it more bulky. They should make them more durable.
But...
Behndy is right that there should be a 64 gig version and that's it. It costs so little for the actual hardware that it the 64gigs of flash memory compared to price and size of a 16 gig card. I and my wife both have an iPad 2.....hers is the 16gig mine is the 32 gig.....you know what they look exactly the same. But mine cost a hundred more than hers. That's a hundred dollars worth of 16 more gigs on a card that probably costs about ten bucks more from the supplier.
Ahh, finally we are digging into mechanics, my field of expertise!!
(Steve now you can finally relax a bit as usually we bug you with questions regarding electronics).
Yes Adan, iPads are easy to break, but so does all the iPad copies out there. Lets see what the iPad is all about:
Construction: Aluminum alloy which is in addition anodized or painted. My guess regarding the alloy is that Apple use a 6000 or 7000 series which typically gives us yield strength of approx 200-270MPa and ultimate strength of usually above 300MPa (see Al 6061 T6 or Al 7005). The case is most likely forged which gives excellent physical properties and good surface/ finish quality. Young modulus is usually E=70GPa.
Density for most alloys is usually 2700-2800 kg/m^3.
So, the iPad with its glass is a construction with rather high stiffness (the case thickness is about 1mm thick maybe a tad more) due to this monocoque form. The case itself has high strength. The problem of the iPad is not strength or stiffness. Due to the fact that the iPads mass is quite high and the fact that the outer case is very hard, its weaknesses are shock absorption and impact strength.
Using the Apple smart case is a simple way of protecting the iPad sufficiently in MOST situations.
Buckling of the case due to a large force/ bending moment is not a real problem as I see it. Apple didn't design the iPad for this kind of "abuse". One can always buy the correct type of case in order to protect the iPad in a certain environment.
The iPad copies (I've not really studied them) used to be made out of polymer/ plastic case, but now many switch to Aluminium in order to come closer to the Apple design.
The typical plastic (PA, PC etc) has yield strength which is about 40MPa and ultimate strength about 60-80MPa is no fibers is added to the blend. Addition of GF or CF can boost the strength of the plastic up to above 200MPa! But the Young module remains rather low. The result will be a construction which will be far less stiff but somewhat more resilient to impacts.
Tooling for manufacturing a construction made out of Aluminium is much higher then a construction made out of plastic.
So, my view on the iPad is that the basic version is not overpriced.
regarding the memory/ price issue, well, the price of doubling the memory is about the same for each upgrade. I'm not sure if the memory in various memory cards is the same quality/ speed as in the memory used in the iPad. My guess is that the memory in the iPad is faster. Steve might have a better knowledge here.
