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Apple iPad Air/iPad mini
£399/£319 (on sale Nov) ★★★★★
When the young Sir Jonathan Ive designed a toilet, he sat musing in the V&A museum, and came up with a creation that an upcoming biography claims 'looked like a Greek god'.
I like to think it was Poseidon, with the trident as a flush. Ideal Standard took one look, and said 'Nope'.
The latest crop of iPads mark out Ive's place as this century's biggest designer. He has found the Zen end point of his minimalist beliefs: he's designed his own product out of existence.
HOT CHIP: Apple keeps mentioning that the new iPads are 64-bit – a phrase so meaningless to most people that it may as well be saying, 'Contains special ingredient X2.' But its new, much faster A7 chip could herald a new dawn for tablets, allowing for apps that match PC ones
SNAPS AND SKYPE: The full-size iPad now looks like a giant iPad mini – a good thing – but little else has changed. The camera's still a paltry five megapixels, but you look like a fool taking photos on a big iPad anyway, so we'll give Apple a pass. Dual mics on the front mean you can now Skype in stereo
NON-APPLE RIVALS: Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX is cheap, easy to use and has a tech-support genie, but is still limited. Google's Nexus and Samsung's Note 3 lack the iPad's style, but can match it on function – and typing is still faster on Androids thanks to apps such as SwiftKey
The iPad Air is gorgeous – so thin it barely even exists.
It weighs a pound. Has Ive been working nights at the Large Hadron Collider to lose those last few bosons?
The iPad Air is gorgeous – so thin it barely even exists
This is perfectionism in product form – the product to end all iPads, all Macs.
From here on in, the product barely exists – it's just the software. Ive's software.
With iOS 7 on the big screen, it feels like the iPad's finally hit its stride.
I've spent my life saying, Charlton Heston-style, that you'd have to pry my Windows PC from my cold dead hands.
I'm coming round to the idea of just, you know, handing it over, from my still-alive, warm hands, and using tablets instead.
Apple's been smart here – the £399 Air and £319 mini corner the Rolls-Royce end of the market once again.
Nothing else matches their effortless, annoying cool. I rather suspect, though, that cheap, small tablets will be where the real battle is this Christmas – but I still haven't worked out if it's insulting to buy someone a Tesco or Argos tablet. Couldn't M&S do one?
Additional reporting by Chris Hall
Is less more with the Apple iPad Air?
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APPLE’S IOS 7: OUT WITH THE OLD?
The new look of iOS 7 is very welcome.
The earlier 'retro' feel, with wood, paper notebooks and tape reels everywhere, was daft. It's a computer, for God's sake. It's not like your car goes 'clip-clop' as you drive it.
But while iOS 7 is a superb upgrade, owners of old iPads such as myself – pestered into downloading it by their own machines – have found it isn't very kind to the aged.
My iPad now runs like Jony Ive has come round and poured wood glue into its crevices.
Owners of iPhone 4s have fared worse, with devices overheating and generally refusing to work.
Apple's forums have witnessed the sort of fury normally only seen in YouTube comments.
We recommend visiting an Apple Store – they know there are problems, and can offer help or refunds. For a DIY fix, move as many photos, songs and videos off the device as you can to free up space.
Then visit Settings and turn off the whizzy visual effects (Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion). Your device won't be as fast as the iPad Air, but it shouldn't be wheezing on its deathbed.
POKEMON X AND Y
£32.99 each, nintendo 3DS
These new Pokémon games are the best in a decade – though underneath it all, the gameplay is the same as it was back in 1997
Much like the Twilight films, the cute Pokémon monster-hunting games make no sense to non-fans. These new ones are the best in a decade – though underneath it all, the gameplay is the same as it was back in 1997. ★★★★★
Click here to purchase Pokemon X
Click here to purchase Pokemon Y
HERO BEARS
£1.99, iphone/ipad, Android
Half the cost of Hero Bears goes to Help for Heroes, so even if it were dull, I’d still give it five stars
Half the cost of this game goes to Help for Heroes, so even if it were dull, I'd still give it five stars. Thankfully, it's a pacy little (bear) army game which educates little ones about the charity as they play. ★★★★★
Click here to purchase
APPS
MICROSOFT REMOTE DESKTOP
FREE, iPHONE/iPAD, ANDROID
Need to access a Word file on your home PC? Now you can have control of your desktop from anywhere. Scary but useful.
Click here to purchase
50 YEARS OF THE NATIONAL THEATRE
FREE, IPAD
Celebrating five decades of the NT, this offers a glorious library of posters, plus annotated scripts and video interviews.
Click here to purchase
UK BUS CHECKER
£2.99, iPHONE/iPAD, ANDROID
This won't make the 345 arrive any earlier, but it offers times and route maps for every bus stop in the mainland UK, plus live GPS tracking in 40 cities.
Click here to purchase
- Pokemon X
- Pokemon Y
- Microsoft Remote Desktop
- ipad – Google News
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