The world's leading technology journalists were assembled in San Francisco today as Apple finally officially unveiled its all new iPad 2, Steve Jobs surprisingly took to the stage and pronounced that 2011 is the year of the iPad 2 starting March 25 - let's dive in and see what's changed.
The iPad 2 is much faster - it's going to be the first tablet to come with a dual-core A5 processor and the graphics power is said to be 9 times faster that the current generation.
Impressively the iPad 2 is much faster, lighter, and slimmer. Couple that with a load more features you’d think the battery life would be deminished. But no, they’ve managed to keep the same battery length with 10 hours play time and over a month of standby time.
In addition to preserving the battery life, they've also preserved the price. The same exact prices across the range from 499 to 899.
Along with the iPad 2, Apple announced the release of their next version of the iOS 4.3 which will be available from March 11. It comes with significantly increased Safari performance. As they've taken the Nitro JavaScript engine to gain substantial increases in performance. iTunes also gets improved home sharing. It lets you get at all of your content directly over WiFi.
A feature we weren't expecting was an Apple version of a HDMI out – of course it not an actual HDMI out - they going to make you use a special dongle, it’s not all bad news as it supports 1080p playback and will charge the iPad too. It works across all apps and supports mirrored output too – cost $39.
Great news for those of you who want it in White – you’ll be able to get the iPad 2 in Black or White from day one -take than iPhone 4
As we suspected FaceTime is a new feature with a front and rear facing camera. You can FaceTime between two iPads, between an iPad and an iPhone, or between an iPad and a Mac.
Steve Jobs said: "It’s the best and easiest way to video conference call. From day one, you can FaceTime from your iPad 2 to all the iPhone 4 customers. In addition to these two apps being built into iOS 4.3, we have two other new apps. And we like doing apps. It can set the bar. It sets the bar high for developers.”
Steve Jobs stated: “We have a long history of video editing, and iMovie for iPad is in that vein.” iMovie is an impressive fully functional precision video editing tool. It allows you to send HD video with one tap. Their are loads of great features in the app and it’s going to be priced at just $4.99. Which will also be available on March 11.
Steve jobs unveiled a clever new cover for the iPad 2. Rather than case they have devised a folding cover that attached to the screen to protect it, clean it or you can fold it to allow you make it into a picture frame - the covers come in Polyurethane or Leather - there are 10 colours with Polyurethane cases at $39, and leather $69.
The case is very clever as it automatically wakes the iPad when you open it, and puts it to sleep when it closes it. Now, how is this held on? Do they use screws? No – they use magnets.
The second app to come with iOS is Garage Band, it comes with a multitude of Touch instruments, you can plug a guitar if you want, but it’s got touch instruments too, pianos, synths, drums, guitar amps and effects, it also comes with 8 track recording and mixing, 250+ loops – the possibilities are endless.
The first thing you see is an instrument browser. They turn the iPad into a musical instrument that you can play where ever you go. The sound is different when you tap softly or with force using the accelerometer.
They’ve got great guitar amps and effects. But if you don’t play the guitar or piano fear not. They’ve created Smart Instruments.
They’ve made it so you can’t play a bad note Apple are calling it music training wheels. GarageBand can record up to 8 tracks. Let’s put that in perspective — back when the Beatles did Sgt. Peppers, you could only do four tracks, and the machine was the size of a washing machine. Apple stated that “it will be a dream come true for a lot of bands looking to do fast and cheap demos.”
So there you have it – a lot better than we thought, the iPad 2 is an amazing product. Faster, lighter, thinner. Cameras and gyro. iOS 4.3 and FaceTime. iMovie and GaragrBand. 3G on AT&T and Verizon. Same battery life. Same prices. Black and white. Smart Covers. What more could you want ?
Pics Via http://www.engadget.com/
As ever let us know what you think of the new iPad 2 – better or worse that you were hoping for.
2 thoughts on “iPad 2 Unveiled By Steve Jobs: March 25th Release, Dual-Core, Same Price, FaceTime, iMovie, HDMI Out, Gargage Band And More”
What I love Ipad2 is it has many color to choose not just black and white. regarding features, I think dual core cpu should do the job as many people use ipad for facebook, surfing the net, nothing more. :)
The Gen1 iPad was a must buy. The Gen2 iPad is a must buy if you don’t own the Gen1 iPad. However, if you own the iPad 1, I don’t really see the advantage of upgrading.
I’m a massive Apple fan but even I’ll be waiting to see what iPad3 has to offer in March 2012.
I didn’t feel the Gen1 iPad was thick or heavy so the reduced thickness and weight aren’t a selling point for me.
The front facing camera is only 0.3mp and the rear facing camera is about 0.7mp which is criminal for a device like this. I have 10 year old phones with better cameras on than that.
The dual core processor is nice and may speed things up but I never had a problem with Gen1 being slow and the games will all run at the same speed.
Up to 9x faster graphics. Again nice but considering the games will be compatible with Gen1 anyway, I’ll survive without the Gen2.
Magnetic covers, nice gimmick but that’s all it is.
No SD, no display port, no resolution increase.
I think Apple dropped the ball on this one, it’s hardly new and improved, it’s more of a slight upgrade. Other companies are gonna spend the year catching up with the iPad2 and I can see Apple losing a big whack of market share over it.
I realise that they are leaving their best stuff off it so it’s easy for them to upgrade next year but it would have been nice to be given something worth upgrading to.
Gen1 and iOS 4.3 will see me through to iPad3 with no problems.
If they had just put a 5mp front facing camera and an SD slot so I can get my pictures off easily, I would be the 1st in line to get one as I was with the Gen1.
It wouldn’t take much to get people to upgrade but it’ll take more than that Apple. I hope the iPad3 isn’t as lazy an update as this one was.