New iPad 11” & 12.9”

[TheForce]

Well that sucked! Got there and as usual the Apple store was in total chaos. Must have been over 500 people in there. Finally got to a "Genius" and asked about the class. She looked it up and signed us in. Then went away. Came back and made some excuse that the class was for advanced art students who need help with their project. Typical son-in-law didn't read the fine print and signed us up for the wrong class. But all is not lost because my two grandsons and myself were the only ones who signed up so the instructor left. My wife saw an ad for another class for learning how to draw on the ipad for beginners tomorrow. So the girl signed us all up for that one. Can't believe I'll be entering the Apple Store chaos 2 days in a row.

It was fascinating how many people were buying iphones. On the way over I heard some self proclaimed expert saying how Apple iphone sales have peaked and nobody is buying them. He should go to an Apple store and experience the chaos.

 

[navychop]

Be sure and drink any sweet refreshing beverage they serve!




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[TheForce]

Be sure and drink any sweet refreshing beverage they serve!




Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

I don't care as long as my Apple stock goes back to new all time highs. Many years ago when the store first opened, they served Apple juice for the grand opening.

 

[Foxbat]

We were at my in-Laws for the holiday and I noticed the iPad Air 2 he picked up for $275 last Black Friday had been dropped onto a corner and the screen was a fine series of cracks radiating our from the corner. He has a case on it, but it's one of those that doesn't cover the corners (?) and so it offered no real protection in this particular fall. I pointed out the Target, Walmart, etc. $249 prices but he seems okay with living with it for now. He did check on a replacement screen, $199 was quoted from the computer store he likes.

I am annoyed with my Father-in-Law. He failed to get an iPad at $249 and the prices have returned to the pre-Holidays level. Now his best bet will be a refurbished 32 GB 6th Gen iPad for $279.

Also, the screen has been shedding pieces of glass, so now the camera module is exposed as well as another divot up on the upper-left. Since iOS 12 introduced the swipe-down gestures from the iPhone X on the iPad, this is bad since he needs to run his finger right over the shards of broken glass. He couldn't get the new iOS update installed, either, because as I'm looking this over, I see the power switch (sleep switch?) was smashed in the drop and is now immovable. When I went to update his iPad got into a boot loop which I was able to get past by docking the iPad to his Mac Mini. After an hour of black screen - Apple - black screen - Apple - black screen - Apple - black screen (rinse and repeat, etc.) it finally started the progressive's bar and finally went to his home screen.

We put a piece of clear packing tape across the top of the screen to keep his fingers from dropping into the glass-edged holes in the screen. It's working for him now, but I want him to replace this thing before he hurts himself. Maybe I should have left in endless loopsville...

 

[TheForce]

Well, I jumped on it from Amazon and with my prime account got another 5% off. Bought two of them and the next day they were sold out!

Yesterday's class on beginning with the Apple Pencil had about a dozen attendees. I think my 7 yr old was the youngest but he did very well and learned some good tricks with using the Apple Pencil to draw. Like how to do smudging and shading which were the more advanced techniques. The app being used is called Procreate. He learned how to create alpha channels and import graphics, layers, undo, and redo.

I shot a picture of their doodling to practice each of the techniques with the Apple pencil. They learned the advantages of using a png file over jpeg too.

 

[navychop]

Ok. I gotta ask. Why PNG over JPEG? Not as lossy?


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[TheForce]

Ok. I gotta ask. Why PNG over JPEG? Not as lossy?

jpeg is a lossy compression. PNG is a lossless compression. PNG will retain it's quality with several compression-decompression stages as compared to jpeg. But the real advantage is the PNG file contains additional channel. JPEG is RGB data or 3 channels. PNG contains RGBA, the additional channel is an alpha channel used to denote overall transparency of the image. jpeg is a universal format that is great for exchanging rectangular pictures but PNG can display any shape picture with the background being seen. It can be used as a mask such as the apple logo in the one image added I posted. Had that same image been brought in as a jpeg, it would have blocked everything already drawn. There are other formats that allow for multiple alpha channels or mask layers. PNG has just one so it comes across as a mask or overall translucent image like colored glass, ie you can see through it to the background. Great for creating shadows and glass illusion in a picture.