Sunlight Readable I Pad - when?

dans2992 said:
2021 iPad Pro has 1000 nits.
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1,600 nits for HDR peaks, and 1,000 nits for full-screen brightness. It’s only for when watching HDR video or looking at HDR photos. In regular app use, Apple restricts the screen to 600 nits, which helps keep the battery life at10 hours.
 
WDD said:
1,600 nits for HDR peaks, and 1,000 nits for full-screen brightness. It’s only for when watching HDR video or looking at HDR photos. In regular app use, Apple restricts the screen to 600 nits, which helps keep the battery life at10 hours.
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interesting. Seems like they’re missing out on a market then….
 
I thought the Aera portables were silly…until I used the one that came in my 170. For VFR flying my iPad now stays in the back seat and I’m doing everything on the Aera. Taxi diagrams, enroute VFR charts, freqs, rwy info, etc. All on a mount in the center of my panel.
 
I wonder if a person could jail break an I pad to remove that Nit restriction? It would have to plugged into a power source as the battery probably couldn’t handle the load.
 
I suspect that anything done to increase the screen brightness will also increase the heat generated...and that's a problem the iPad can ill afford.
 
My ipad suffers from this glare as well. I haven't tried making a cardboard cutout mini glareshield for my mini yet. I've heard it helps.
 
GaryM said:
I suspect that anything done to increase the screen brightness will also increase the heat generated...and that's a problem the iPad can ill afford.
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And……. You’re right - hadn’t thought of that. Options are thinning down to the IFly tablet or the tripltek tablet running the ifly app.
 
Before my next flight I'm going to download the free trial version of iFly to my ipad and give it a shot. If the app seems good I'll likely buy the 740b.
 
Where do you get the free trial of the app?
 
WDD said:
Where do you get the free trial of the app?
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Just download the app and they'll give you a 30 day trial.

They've been taking about a newer, slicker app with more features, including garmin integration, for 6 months, but still haven't seen it. I let my subscription expire yesterday.
 
Half Fast said:
Before my next flight I'm going to download the free trial version of iFly to my ipad and give it a shot. If the app seems good I'll likely buy the 740b.
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Just keep in mind that the iPad version of iFly may or may not be the same as the iFly 740b version. I don't know one way or the other, but for Garmin Pilot (for example), I've heard the iPad and Android versions are most definitely different. So using one won't necessarily give you a good idea of what the other's like.
 
RussR said:
Just keep in mind that the iPad version of iFly may or may not be the same as the iFly 740b version. I don't know one way or the other, ...
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I have the iFly 740b unit and also have the app on my iPhone. I don't see a difference in the functions but admittedly I don't use the iPhone app in flight as there are other apps I use the phone for.

A friend uses the app on his android type phone and reports it to work well. Not sure how altitude would effect the app as relates to GPS signal and traffic & weather. My iFly 740b has built in GPS and updates traffic & weather through the ADSB "in" from my uAvionix Echo unit. Not sure how that works with the app.
 
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RussR said:
Just keep in mind that the iPad version of iFly may or may not be the same as the iFly 740b version. I don't know one way or the other, but for Garmin Pilot (for example), I've heard the iPad and Android versions are most definitely different. So using one won't necessarily give you a good idea of what the other's like.
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As of now Ifly is identical on android and iPad, as well as windows. That's one of its strengths. I have not used their 740 device, but I understand it's the same. The new app they are supposed to be releasing will be nice looking akin to FF/GP, but only work on tablets. The 740 hardware won't be able to run it, so they are saying they will continue to support the old version as well.

GP is significantly different on android vs ios. Mainly in the fact that the ios version works well and the Android version is.... problematic....
 
Daleandee said:
I have the iFly 740b unit and also have the app on my iPhone. I don't see a lot of difference in the functions but admittedly I don't use the iPhone app in flight as there are other apps I use the phone for.

A friend uses the app on his android type phone and reports it to work well. Not sure how altitude would effect the app as relates to GPS signal and traffic & weather. My iFly 740b has built in GPS and updates traffic & weather through the ADSB "in" from my uAvionix Echo unit. Not sure how that works with the app.
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Adsb in on the app works through either Bluetooth or wifi. My stratux broadcasts wifi that the tablet connects to. Works very well. If I forgot the stratux, the nice thing about Android tablets is that most have GPS built in.
 
Jim K said:
Adsb in on the app works through either Bluetooth or wifi. My stratux broadcasts wifi that the tablet connects to. Works very well. If I forgot the stratux, the nice thing about Android tablets is that most have GPS built in.
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Thanks! Appreciate the clarification. :)
 
Great information. Sounds like I should get an Android OS tablet and get the app vs the ifly 740b. Very surprised they wouldn’t update their 740b to the new upcoming app version.
 
WDD said:
Great information. Sounds like I should get an Android OS tablet and get the app vs the ifly 740b. Very surprised they wouldn’t update their 740b to the new upcoming app version.
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The 740 is fairly old and doesn't have the "horsepower" to run the new version as I understand the situation. It was a pretty novel device when it came out, but with tablets being what they are these days, I don't think they sell enough of them to justify designing a new device. The current version is perfectly serviceable and I quite like it, but I would personally have a hard time buying a 740 today. At least with a tablet you can always find a use for it. You'll also have the option of garmin pilot if you don't like ifly.

I'd encourage you to download play with it on your iPad. The only negative again is that they don't talk to garmin. Database concierge, adsb in, and flight plan transfer all through the flightstream 510 was enough to get me to switch to Pilot. Garmin has done an excellent job locking up their ecosystem.
 
Great advice. In my situation the planes in my club all have stratus transponders, so the Android high nit tablet with I fly will work.
 
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dans2992 said:
2021 iPad Pro has 1000 nits.
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That’s good about the Pro. I wish they would do the same thing with the IPad mini.

The iPad mini 5 and 6 only have 500 nits. There isn’t an improvement from the IPad mini 5 to the new iPad mini 6 in terms of brightness.

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I couldn't tell any difference in the iFly app iOS vs android.
 
My ipad seems a little brighter when I turn off true tone. At the time , my 2016 ipad pro claimed 10 hours of normal use....yeah, right :)

2016 ipad pro 9.7 is 511 nits
 
Update: I bit the bullet and got a sun light tablet Triplex 8 Pro, 1100 nits. It is Android based, so yes, I also bit the bullet and got the IFly app.

Took it up today. First impressions:

1) It is brighter, and you can read it in the sunlight. It did make taking information from it much better. Battery life was good at full bright.

2) I Fly turned out to be much better than I thought. It is easier to use it the cockpit than F Flight for me. Plates are easier to bring up, remove, etc. Actually, everything is easier / better human factors engineered. Even switching from day to night screen was very easy.

So I'll keep F Flight for now (subscription won't run out for a while) and probably renew it, but I"ll not be returning the new sun light readable tablet and I Fly.

Here is a side by side of the I Pad and Tripltek 8.
IMG-3420 C.jpg
 
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dans2992 said:
Good luck finding a printed one to buy.
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While I haven't used one in years, and they may be hard to find at local pilot shops anymore, it's not exactly hard to buy one:

https://www.sportys.com/charts-and-maps/sectional-charts.html
https://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/chart/FAA_VFR_Sectional_Charts.asp
etc...

Or you could download the PDF or TIFF directly from the FAA and print it yourself. Even back before iPads, I used to occasionally download them, crop and print onto a regular sheet of paper my local area, or some other small area I would be visiting. If you have access to an 11x17 printer you can cover quite a bit of area with it too, plenty for pancake breakfast runs and such.

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/vfr/
 
Traditional Sectional Chart production

0628C8F6-54B5-4157-9C50-E309F6DFDAD0.jpeg
 
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Slightly OT, but here's my iPhone Xs vs. Aera 660, both at 100% brightness. No problems with either in sunlight.
IMG_1137.jpg
 
GeorgeC said:
Slightly OT, but here's my iPhone Xs vs. Aera 660, both at 100% brightness. No problems with either in sunlight.
View attachment 101678
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I have this same setup (iPhone w/OLED screen and Aera 660). the iPhone with OLED screens are much better than the LCD (“Retina”) screen in sunlight, but the limitation is they look great for the first ~ 2 minutes then dim to prevent overheating and not overdrive the OLED screen. Or it overheats in the Florida sun. That’s my experience with IPhone XS Max before, and iPhone 12 Pro Max now.
But the Aera 660 keeps going strong the whole flight. The difference is the Aera is a hybrid reflective screen, so it doesn’t need to overdrive it’s backlight to be daylight readable (and take the associated heat that generates). It can work _with_ the sunlight, instead of trying to fight against it.
 
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Doug Reid said:
We have come a long way in the last 50 years....to complain about a dim screen on an EFB that has more capability than all the avionics we had in the 1970's.

I am addicted to FF...tried all other EFB platforms...not going to change, but it would be great if someone had a solution to the readability issue on my ipad.
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But all that tech is usless if you cannot read/see it

Apple is in the fashion business, not the aviation business. A 1000nit display would eat batteries and (oh noes!!) Increase the thickness.

But its all moot. The ipad will overheat and shut off before your battery would die.
 
I use the aera660 and 760, and they are far superior displays than the iPad mini I use. The 660 is hardwired to power and the GTX345, so it’s getting all the adsb data from the 345.. I like the iPad mini a lot , but as many have discussed above the screen is a handicap in flight, and the new 6th generation does not improve on the display.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
FWIW - I'm finding the Tripltek 8 tablet with I Fly to continue to be a very big improvement. I still carry the I Pad and F Flight into the cockpit, but I'm finding I'm not using it and keeping it in the map pocket.

The battery seems to have a very large capacity, and if I believe the tablet specs this thing just isn't going to over heat in the summer at full brightness.
 
Update: IFly won’t recognize ADSB from Stratus 2 or a Sentry. Of course the planes in the club all have a Stratus transponder attached to a Stratus 2s for ADSB in. It will work with Stratus 3. Not able to process now needing a $700 Stratus to see traffic and weather.
 
WDD said:
Update: IFly won’t recognize ADSB from Stratus 2 or a Sentry. Of course the planes in the club all have a Stratus transponder attached to a Stratus 2s for ADSB in. It will work with Stratus 3. Not able to process now needing a $700 Stratus to see traffic and weather.
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So get a $200 Stratux.

Have you called iFly’s customer support? I’ve found them very helpful.
 
I did, but didn’t ask about a stratux. The customer service guy recommended Levil AstroLink - which is $600.
 
Try Crew Dog. That’s where I bought my Stratux and they were great.
 
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