Apple Announces iPad 2: A5 Dual Core, 2 Cameras, Thinner

[Mr. Savage]

Or, they could start working nights and weekends, and get some work done on the actual Mac computer side of the house. Final Cut update? Yes, please!

Oh, I'm with you on that. I'm far more interested in the Mac side of things too. I meant the team that worked on the iPad can rest now—unless they are the same folks responsible for updating the Macs. If so, time to get to work on getting the backlit keyboard into my next MBA! (Among other things.)

 

[farmboy]

- Still way overpriced for what it does
- Essentially its caught up to the iPod Touch in terms of features
- No Capacity Updates
-/+ Thinner? Really? When is apple going to stop this thinner garbage their products are thin enough.
+ Updated processor, which is nice

It isn't sending any competitor back to the drawing board, LOL.

So iPad is overpriced but none of the other ones, which are more expensive by far, are overpriced? Fairly selective standard I guess.
I have a 64GB and I still have 40GB free after a year. How much capacity do you think you need?

 

[swagi]

EVEN THINNER! WOW! Color me surprised - a thinner updated product by Apple.

No back to the real news: This is the beginning of the post-PC era. Thanx for confirming that.

Time to jump ship and learn Linux. Oh - can't use iTunes and therefore iToys with Linux. Too bad - no toys for me...

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Who else thinks the Smart Cover is ingenious?

 

[chrmjenkins]

So iPad is overpriced but none of the other ones, which are more expensive by far, are overpriced? Fairly selective standard I guess.
I have a 64GB and I still have 40GB free after a year. How much capacity do you think you need?

Yeah, unless he values Flash support at $300

Also, I don't get the storage update thing. No other tablet even has more than 32 GB built in that I know of.

 

[nerdo]

You do know VGA = 640X480 which is the same resolution as NTSC TV Something nobody had a problem with even on 30 inch TV's for years.

VGA is not the problem, compression / anti aliasing is, and that is a software / CPU power issue.

SUCKS!
And facetime! Give me a break. With the VGA camera, if you facetime with someone, their face will literally appear as a bunch of blobs.

This is why they only spoke of the cameras and facetime, and didn't demonstrate them. They would have seriously embarassed themselves.

 

[Lintrix]

You do know VGA = 640X480 which is the same resolution as NTSC TV Something nobody had a problem with even on 30 inch TV's for years.

VGA is not the problem, compression / anti aliasing is, and that is a software / CPU power issue.

I don't know about you, but if i had to chose between watching tv on non-HD channels on a 30-inch and not watching TV, i'd chose the latter.

Technology has spoiled me.

 

[Mr. Savage]

What he said is valid. 3rd party case manufacturers don't have the ability to modify the case so that a cover with magnets would work.

Okay, I see. I didn't realize there were magnets inside the iPad. I just thought they attached to the outer housing (which is aluminum which doesn't attract magnets, which is why no-one did this type of thing before on the original iPad.) I know, I know. My mistake.

 

[stark4]

Can someone tell me real quick where i can view the stream of the event?

or is it not out yet?

Thanks

 

[farmboy]

You forgot to mention the Local Gravity Field Cancellation (LGFC) module that activates when the accelerometer detects free fall. You don't want something expensive like that to obey the Law of Gravity when you drop it.

Gravity is not cancelled, just suspended until the cloaking is complete.

 

[Thunderhawks]

Wah, wah, wah ...it doesn't do this.... it doesn't do that.......... Android Xoom... wah!

A great product defining the market and will be copied again and again
at higher prices!

Why do people want this to be an MBP in an ipad body?

Another million pieces sale of an EPIC FAIL product.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Can someone tell me real quick where i can view the stream of the event?

or is it not out yet?

Thanks

It's not up yet. More than likely Apple will have it up in a few hours.

 

[ArchaicRevival]

Why is everyone missing the point?

Point being is that a white iPad means a white iPhone 5 this June

Can't wait for iPhone 5!

 

[CooKieMoNs7eR]

The iPad 2 is more for the people that never bought the first iPad, you know, it's worth it to get it now because of all the upgrades for the same price, but if you already own an iPad, I'd say wait for the iPad 3.

 

[Mattsasa]

Who else thinks the Smart Cover is ingenious?

overrated.

if you open a laptop cover 15 years ago it automatically wakes, and when you close the cover it automatically goes to sleep.

 

[farmboy]

Since when is criticism trolling? I was mega-dissapointed.

I'm not allowed to be dissapointed? I own every other iOS device in existence, and I'm now not allowed to criticise one of them?

Not being a fanboy means I have no life? How does that even compute. I'm sorry, it was a major dissapointment. You can't shame me into liking the iPad 2 and the decisions they made on it.

A freaking VGA camera for a 10 inch display is just going to look terrible. I know, coz that VGA camera is barely good enough for my 3inch iPod's facetime... How can it a VGA not look terrible stretched on 10 inches?

Why not dial back your outrage until you can go see it at the Apple Store, upon which you can confirm your bias or realize it's pretty nice and you should buy one?

 

[DrJohnnyN]

overrated.

if you open a laptop cover 15 years ago it automatically wakes, and when you close the cover it automatically goes to sleep.

But the magnets are cool!

 

[JGowan]

I think I'm gonna get a $499 model and keep it for 9 months and try and get $350-375 for it just before Christmas. I think someone would pay that for a pristine iPad 2... Yes? No?

If I get $375, that's like renting it for $12 a month!

 

[bradkrischel]

Notice how they say twice as fast and 9x faster gfx but compared to *?????*

You conclude that it might be compared to the ipad 1 's processor but maybe and surely not. ( might be compared to another processor they tryed or something. To be a valid argument, they must explicitly compared these statements to something. They did not, for a reason, its not a coincidence)

Good marketing.

33% thinner... ok cool brah.

When comparing the iPad2 to the iPad1, it is actually 34.3% thinner. Apple was just being modest. Also, your logic, argument, and grammar are flawed.

 

[Pnut13]

Time to jump ship and learn Linux. Oh - can't use iTunes and therefore iToys with Linux. Too bad - no toys for me...

I don't know what Linux has to so with iOS or the iPad? Is this your way of feeling better that you are somehow better than the rest of us that dont use Linux? So if you like Linux, and it is so great, the issue of it not having iTunes should be moot.......but yet you have to announce it on a Apple fanboy website?!?!? You are just looking to pick fights. This would be like someone coming on my hockey message board and talking about how great the NFL is. You never know maybe some of us are using Linux right now or fans of the NFL too!

Poor me typing this on my iMac that has windows installed through VMware. Whoa whoa is me


Pnut

 

[ivan2002]

No... real GPS means you don't need to go through a wireless phone company to use it. It's even listed "assisted GPS" for a reason as to differentiate it's usability. Assisted is handicapped... The Tom Tom dock lets the iPhone work as an un-assited, uncrippled GPS, but for the price of the dock, you can just get a Tom Tom and be done with it. I will never rely on assisted GPS again. You're arguing schematics. No one thinks it's imaginary GPS. We know it exists, but it still is crippled.

I think you should Google some of this stuff. You'd be surprised at all the info on the Internet completely and thoroughly refuting everything you just said. iPhone needs a Tom Tom dock? Wow. Do you work for Tom Tom?

 

[notabadname]

Smart cover is so-so for me. Doesn't seem like the thing for road warriors. You will scratch up the bottom since it only protects the screen. And I could imaging the magnetic metal clips scraping up the side of your iPad if enough force makes them slide out of position. Looks like metal-on-metal contact. Pass. And if you dropped your iPad, there is no kind of edge protection with this either.

Nice for around the house, if you drop a fork on it while at the kitchen island, but not great travel protection.

 

[jimglidewell]

No... real GPS means you don't need to go through a wireless phone company to use it. It's even listed "assisted GPS" for a reason as to differentiate it's usability. Assisted is handicapped... The Tom Tom dock lets the iPhone work as an un-assited, uncrippled GPS, but for the price of the dock, you can just get a Tom Tom and be done with it. I will never rely on assisted GPS again. You're arguing schematics. No one thinks it's imaginary GPS. We know it exists, but it still is crippled.

Apple has never shipped a portable device with a "crippled" GPS, AFAIK. Assisted GPS means that it will take advantage of data provided by a cell tower if available, but every assisted GPS device Apple has ever sold is capable of determining your coordinates without a cell tower.

Last summer, my iPad had no trouble tracking my position in central Oregon, where there was no cell phone coverage whatsoever. It is trivially easy to test this - disable your cellular data in the preference panel, then run an app that uses location services (such as Offline Maps or one of the MotionX apps). It will typically take a few moments longer to lock on, as the GPS will need to get the ephemeris data from the GPS satellites, but it will determine your position just as accurately as a stand-alone unit.

I just did this very test - with no Wifi, and no cellular data, MotionX's GPS HD was able to determine my location. Took a little over one minute to lock on when standing by a window in a fairly radio-unfriendly building (metallic coating on the windows).

The fact that the "Maps" app can't download a map view of your current location has nothing to do with whether the 3G iPad (or iPhone 3g or 3gs or 4) has a "real" GPS.

The GPS in the 3G iPads is "real" and is not crippled in any way.

 

[John Dillinger]

Get a clue man!!

Seems as though you were watching a different presentation. Here, let me help you out.

So you admit that it's lighter than it was before.

Please share with us the thinner (there aren't any) and lighter (there aren't any) and cheaper (there aren't any) options. Please highlight the ones that get 10 hours of battery life also. I'd also like notations next to the ones that have rear HD cameras. Please don't include tablets that you can't actually purchase (no vaporware!). Xoom is thicker than the iPad (.5 to .34 inches) and weighs more (1.6 to 1.3 lbs).

I think what you mean to say is we can have access to it, or have a usable battery. You'll notice that the Xoom didn't even ship with flash (although it's entire campaign was based on that). They can't get it optimized to have decent battery life. See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26574892@N07/5475257624/

Um, yeah. He has a point. Take RIM for example, which has upgraded the Playbook THREE times and hasn't shipped a single version.

Yep. They've had so much success!



The good news is that nobody is buying the Android tablets, so there should be plenty of those for you. Their battery life is terrible (3 hours on one!), and they have minimal apps available for them. The funny thing about all of the competing tablets is that they are at the top of their games. It just doesn't get any better from here for them. They have NO clue where a tablet fits in the market.

Not sure if this is already pointed out... but the 5MP HD shooting w/dual LED flash shipping SINCE LAST THURSDAY.. as opposed to the still vaporware iPad 2 ie. NOT SHIPPING

gets 9.48 hours browsing on Wifi... vs 9.78 on iPad... hardly an epic win.. we're in 2011! http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-honeycomb-tablet-arrives/14

Further the Xoom actually gets 9.52 hours on 3g browsing, vs whats that??? 7.77 on iPad??! WTF Xoom actually got BETTER battery life/ Despite the verticle integration? Oh. my. days

P.S the Xoom has 149 PPI vs 131 PPI and is actual widescreen.. cry about it

Oh and I since were talking about iPad 2 weight.. which isnt shipping, look up the Galaxy Tab 10.1's weight

 

[farmboy]

FaceTime, especially for :

- families (let grandma see the kids playing)
- business conferencing (quick shot of the white board with dodgy sketches)

it's purely a convenience thing, but something that you can get used to having real fast.

The more time I've considered the back camera, the more uses I can see for it in our business. QA-QC can have a fillable inspection form on the device and can verify observations with the camera, video or stills (not sure how the photos are filed, moved or integrated yet, don't have an iP4). Review, airprint and sign. Good deal.