Apple to Launch 'iPad HD' This Fall Alongside Pro Apps?

[nickdelvecchio]

I could maybe see the whole "PRO" iPad thing.... MAYBE..... but not a smaller/less iPhone. i don't think they would do that.... the 3GS is 50 bucks right now. if people want an iPhone but don't want to drop 200 on a contract thats their option. not as good specs, but they know it works.

I highly doubt apple would cheapen a product like that.

 

[swarmster]

If you've got almost the same resolution, going to the slightly higher one shouldn't be that challenging, and they should remake interface elements as necessary anyway. I think "we want companies to have the option to sell stuff twice" is a LOT more plausible of an explanation personally.

What you're suggesting is no more or less a "conspiracy theory"...

Everything Apple has done, from developing a way to create Universal apps at launch, to making all their apps Universal, to encouraging Universal development at their conferences, to iCloud has pointed at them not wanting the store clogged with two versions of every app with only resolution between them. The only thing to suggest otherwise is one's personal belief that Apple is actively hostile towards their customers, which given that they are a company selling consumer goods prized for their user experience, seems pretty conspiratorial to me.

 

[palmerc2]

Stop trying to make the damned thing thinner and lighter!! Pack it with amazing hardware! What do they want? A piece of paper with the capability of an IBM circa 1987? Jeez

 

[DrRadon]

Apple is moving away from "Pro" werever they can (no more servers, no new Final Cut that deserves to be called pro)... Apple is releasing every iOS device once a year, not more not less, same with the chip updates... BUT NOW! THEY WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING!

You really know your reading from the wrong sources if the iPad 3 was rumored to be released "next month" before the iPad 2 was even out... dos anyone even know since wen the iPad 2 had been released? November? Or earlyer?

It baffels me that this stuff is even considert news.

 

[Justinf79]

Smaller and lighter iPhone? Ugh.. if anything the iPhone needs a slightly larger display.

 

[toddybody]

Just shoot me...too many iPad 2 HD rumors

 

[Sackvillenb]

I like this

This could be a great idea. An iPad HD!

It would also provide options for consumers, since they could get a basic iPad, or get a better one! I'm sure higher resolution / retina display iPads will eventually comprise the whole line, but this is a smart way for them to introduce them... I suspect that right now, making an "iPad HD" type of screen is very expensive, so upgrading the whole iPad line to this improved screen might bump up the price points of all models more then Apple (and the customers) would want... so this seems like a great compromise. Can't wait to see what happens!

 

[erawsd]

I don't believe it, especially when all signs point to Apple abandoning the "Pro" market. It also starts to put iOS in an "Android-like" fragmented space -- which is already annoying enough with iphone, iPad, and iPad 2 apps out there. Adding an "iPad+" does no one any good.

 

[trims]

(iPhone 4) fallen "out of favor" with Apple executives... fallen out of their pockets and smashed too many times...

A Liquidmetal jacket and toughened glass screen. With the entire jacket an aerial. Might make the '5' a really practical 'phone . . . .

 

[DJinTX]

I know right now. I'm annoyed. Does anyone believe that these iPad rumors are really a smoke-screen to divert our FULL attention from the iPhone 5? According to the rumors on this website it seems to be working.

Let's wish for something outlandish......iPhone 5 with a 10 hour battery!

This would be amazing. I can't tell you how sick I am of the battery in my 3Gs.

 

[Wolfpup]

Everything Apple has done, from developing a way to create Universal apps at launch, to making all their apps Universal, to encouraging Universal development at their conferences, to iCloud has pointed at them not wanting the store clogged with two versions of every app with only resolution between them. The only thing to suggest otherwise is one's personal belief that Apple is actively hostile towards their customers, which given that they are a company selling consumer goods prized for their user experience, seems pretty conspiratorial to me.

Either way it's no more a "conspiracy theory".

 

[mdelvecchio]

One of the best thing I like about apple (or more specifically iDevices) is that they have a fixed update cycle. Now iPhone 5 is not on schedule,

how do you figure it's not on schedule? Apple never committed to *your* expected product development cycle...

 

[tekker]

"The iPad Pro, now with iVNC, the ability to fully use OS X Lion on your iPad."

 

[rumplestiltskin]

HiDef Screen? Not really needed...

I'm sure a hidef screen will be beautiful. However, the current screen is fine but just a bit small. How about a 14" or 15" screen so "full-page" PDFs can be read without zooming in?

Remember all the things that weren't practical on the iPhone became practical with the iPad simply due to the screen size. Imagine what could be done with an even larger screen.

 

[RalfTheDog]

It could be a pro device, but not a standalone pro device. It would be great for things like the Photoshop iPad apps.

This is all getting extremely confusing. One of the best thing I like about apple (or more specifically iDevices) is that they have a fixed update cycle. Now iPhone 5 is not on schedule, there are talks about high resolution iPad showing up within 6 months of last refresh, and there are rumors that apple will kill iPod touch (some dumb blog suggested it a few weeks ago but I of course dont believe it).

Apple may be pushing for a fast update cycle to kill off Android.

I wonder what the price tag will be on a iPad HD?

If you need to ask...

This boggles my mind. I have an iPhone 4, which I love. I bought an iPad 2 recently, and I can't tell the difference in screen resolutions. Is it because I hold the devices at difference distances from my eyes? Likely. But never once, not for a second, have the words "low res" entered my thoughts in regard to the iPad.

You might need reading glasses.

...
The new iPhone won't be called anything but iPhone 5 (I prefer iPhone V). The iPhone 4 had all the bad press with the antenna and Apple wants to move beyond that.
...

iPad X/II

Give the damn thing a real camera, I am close to selling my iPad2 simply because the built in camera ruins the experience. There are so many opportunities that are wasted because of that POS camera.

Just keep a DSLR with you.

 

[THX1139]

Well, I'm a video editor and motion graphic designer and I can't ever see myself editing on a tablet. For viewing, yes... but not for creating content.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Well, I'm a video editor and motion graphic designer and I can't ever see myself editing on a tablet. For viewing, yes... but not for creating content.

How about using it for auxiliary functions? Selecting timelines, applying filters and stuff?

 

[neutrino23]

A double resolution screen would be fantastic in electron microscopy, x-ray spectroscopy, engineering, geology, medicine, and on and on. Science, engineering and medicine are replete with images, graphs and charts that cry out for a high-resolution display. I already see lots of iPads at scientific conferences. This would accelerate the adoption rate in universities and industry.

 

[Sensamic]

I totally believe this.

MacBook vs MacBook Pro.

iPad vs iPad Pro. I believe it will be called this way. iPad HD means it only has a better resolution, but I think Apple will include other enhancements on the iPad Pro, if there is one.

Thunderbolt connection to copy huge video files over the iPad and Mac, plus higher screen resolution and more RAM.

I think it would be brilliant to have two different lines of iPads. I love the idea. Apple is starting to realize there is ENORMOUS potential on the iPad for business people.

iPad Pro is coming, sooner or later.

Thank God I didnt bought the iPad 2........................ Kidding!!

 

[CLWelch]

And what's with "3D" toothpaste? I'm going to go find the marketing team of Crest and kick them all in the face.

What's the problem? I've been using it for awhile, and my teeth are definitely more 3D than they used to be.

 

[Glideslope]

A double resolution screen would be fantastic in electron microscopy, x-ray spectroscopy, engineering, geology, medicine, and on and on. Science, engineering and medicine are replete with images, graphs and charts that cry out for a high-resolution display. I already see lots of iPads at scientific conferences. This would accelerate the adoption rate in universities and industry.

Well, now we are getting somewhere. There is some merchandising DNA in here after all. Bravo.

 

[miamialley]

Despite popular belief, my iPad 2 WILL stop functioning the minute a better iPad is released. It's the dam*edest thing.

 

[blackpond]

The iPad HD or whatever they call it, will be $100 more than the current lineup. The current lineup will then see a price drop and be $100 less than it currently is. Resulting in a $200 difference between "HD" and standard devices in the lineup.

 

[smiddlehurst]

Josh Topolski is the one guy right now I believe more often than not when it comes to any rumors regarding tech these days.

Don't wish to be rude but why? His track record on Apple in the last year has been verging on 100% wrong. The recent debacle on iCloud web apps notwithstanding his iPad 2 predictions were wrong in virtually every way (aside from the obvious thinner and lighter stuff):

From what we've been told, the thinner, sleeker tablet will sport a new screen technology that is akin to (though not the same as) the iPhone 4's Retina Display and will be "super high resolution" (unlike reports to the contrary). The device will remain at 10 inches but will now feature both front and rear cameras (not a huge surprise), and... there's an SD slot.

The new iPad will feature a dual GSM / CDMA chipset produced by Qualcomm and will mark Apple's shift away from Infineon as its chipset maker to Qualcomm for all of its mobile devices. It's not clear if the chipset being used will be based on the company's EV-DO / HSPA Gobi variety or an entirely new design. Presumably, the strength of the new dual-mode chipset is that it will allow both Verizon and AT&T to offer the iPad simultaneously.

A follow up article a week before the iPad 2 launch tried to weasel out of this with vague 'last minute engineering changes' that never rang true. And that, really, is the problem. Josh tends to get information that he considers credible and casts it in a MUCH more certain light than it is. Sadly it's a trait that you can see in a lot of his work (listen to the podcast and see how long he'll take an argument that's factually wrong despite being told, repeatedly, that he's wrong) and it really is a shame because there's a lot to admire about what he does. It's a very real blindspot though and should be taken into account when considering his scoops.

 

[Ubele]

Why are people having a problem with Apple making iPad more of a prosumer product?

They tried it with iWorks first; then iMovie and Garageband. There's going to be a time when Xcode would be fully functional on a machine like that and we'd be creating apps for iPad and iPad like devices using those devices themselves.
2 years - 4 years - 10 years? Who knows but there has to be a beginning and Apple shouldn't be shy in experimenting these things on iDevices. They are the future for most people.

I agree. I do my professional work on a Windows PC (my company's choice, not mine), but I like prosumer products for my hobbies. I have a 2008 MBP that I usually keep tethered to a larger monitor, keyboard, mouse, scanner, large hard drives, etc., and that I disconnect when I need to go portable. Since I got an iPad, my MBP rarely goes portable. I'm amazed by the capabilities of so many low-priced apps running on a first-generation product. True, GarageBand for the iPad isn't GarageBand for the Mac, which in turn isn't Logic. But again, for a first-generation app that costs $4.99, it's incredible. For photo processing, I use Aperture and Photoshop Elements on my Mac, but some of the iPad apps I'm seeing do a large percentage of what I need to do.

My dream device would be an iPad that could do the things I do now, and that would hook up to my peripherals via Thunderbolt, with at least a 256 GB SSD, a GPU to drive an external monitor at a higher resolution, a faster processor, and more-powerful apps than we have currently. I'd be willing to pay what I'd currently pay for a MB or low-end MBP, if the iPad were my only computer. It doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that, say, the 2015 model iPad could fit the bill.

My 2008 MBP still does everything I need to do, and it doesn't seem sluggish to me. I've been buying computers since 1983 (my first one was a KayPro II), and every computer I ever owned previously was feeling sluggish at the 3-year mark, and all but unusable at 4 years. For most prosumer and consumer applications, today's hardware is more than powerful enough. It's not like the olden days, when software developers kept adding features that taxed the power of computer processors.

That's why a prosumer iPad make sense to me, as does the idea of an iPad 2 HD, for those people who are willing to pay extra in 2011 for features that probably will be standard on the iPad 3 in 2012. I'm not saying I believe that the rumor is true, but it makes more sense than the iPad 3 coming out this September and replacing the iPad 2.

I don't believe that the Mac or OS X is going away any time soon. But I'm curious: how many of you would like to own an iPad as your only computer, if it could connect to your peripherals and do all the tasks you need to do?