iPad 2 Screen Thinner, Anti-Reflective, 1.2GHz Dual Core CPU?

[Bregalad]

Now if only they do the antiglare coating on EVERYTHING they have, that would be nice.

Exactly. Art galleries have anti glare glass and Apple seems to consider their products works of art yet their top displays are 27" mirrors.

I don't think Apple expects iPad 2 to sell to many iPad 1 owners except for couples/families where the old iPad is going to be handed down. I think Apple counts on people holding onto their stuff for 2 years and then moving up. iPad 2 will be just enough better to grab another huge chunk of people who currently don't own a tablet. iPad 3 will get all the early adopters to upgrade.

 

[TilWink]

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I'm glad it will be dual core.. but I think that, like most Apple updates, it will be disappointing & outdated on day 1 (but great for business)...

If iPad 2 comes with those specs, it won't be great for business! You could not get a reasonable scan of a single page with the low-res camera featured on the iPod touch. I have tested it for my professional purposes and it fails miserably: It can't decode barcodes on letters, only on cereal boxes etc. And forget about OCR already! The lack of cameras has held me back. This time it would be the quality.

I'm not asking for ultra high resolution, just 3 megapixel would do, approx. quadruple the screen resolution.

 

[macbook123]

Screen resolution too low

The iPad's screen resolution is too low. I need this mainly to browse the web and read. It's a shame because the IPS display is so nice in every other respect. But with the same blotchy look as the current gen, I wouldn't be getting one. Hope the competition will come up with something before spring of 2012, when Apple will have to upgrade to higher res. If there will a tablet with higher resolution, no matter the OS, I will be getting it.

 

[Stetrain]

i'm hoping that camera rumor is a fake planted by apple.

planning to get a tablet for skype and if the ipad 2 has terrible cameras i definitely wont get one.

So, exactly how many megapixels do you think Skype transmits?

 

[TilWink]

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I don't think watching video content is the problem people are talking about, but rather the aesthetic appeal like the smoothness of text as seen on the iPhone 4, especially when apple is placing emphasis on reading ebooks, emails, web browsing etc.

I see, but I disagree. I use my ipad several hours a day for web and email. and it is more than I could ask for.

I guess most people on this forum are spoiled with high resolution iphones Macbooks and other Macs

Spoiled? Possibly. They might just be used to it! And the resolution is not good enough for scanned documents.

 

[benspratling]

Fiddling with computer settings is not my goal in life

Oh , and if you think that the main reason people look at Mac is Software and not Mac Hardware like the Uni-body and so forth....Well,...you are giving Apple buyers too much credit. Most people get Mac's because Mac's are pretty and shiny and they are too dumb to figure out how to use a real Computer....that's why Ubuntu isn't the one on top...

Or... we're smart enough to realize computers are supposed to make our lives easier, not harder, and therefore we don't want to waste it memorizing pedantic commands, fiddling with every little adjustment or rolling our own software from free (read useless) open sources, while stuck in a fantasy world where 80's DOS junkies reign supreme. So you've graduated to UNIX, congratufricilations. Out here in the real world, nobody's goal is to hand roll our software, it's to get something else done.

 

[k995]

I think this well be as much as anyone can hope for the ipad2 , its right in line with apple normal upgrades and prety much what I predicted a while ago.

 

[jacobj]

I love the iPad and have been looking forward to getting a second. However, until we get better screen resolution and 128GB option, then it's not an option for me. Having the facetime cameras may be cool, but they are not enough of a reason to buy one in themselves.

I may change my mind as apps start turning up that say "iPad 2 only".

 

[Snowy_River]

An iMac is certainly a real computer. An iPad isn't.

Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given. Today, however, the term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use. When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" technically only refers to the computer itself -- not the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Still, it is acceptable to refer to everything together as the computer. If you want to be really technical, the box that holds the computer is called the "system unit."

Some of the major parts of a personal computer (or PC) include the motherboard, CPU, memory (or RAM), hard drive, and video card. While personal computers are by far the most common type of computers today, there are several other types of computers. For example, a "minicomputer" is a powerful computer that can support many users at once. A "mainframe" is a large, high-powered computer that can perform billions of calculations from multiple sources at one time. Finally, a "supercomputer" is a machine that can process billions of instructions a second and is used to calculate extremely complex calculations.

Uh, yes, an iPad is a "real" computer. It may not be a personal computer in the same sense that a desktop computer like an iMac is, but that doesn't make it any less a "real" machine that can "execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given".

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I'm thinking we're going to see a higher res screen but double the current res (not 4x like iPhone)...

Are you aware that resolution is defined in dpi? So, while the iPhone 4 has 4x the number of pixels of the previous iPhones, it has double the resolution, not 4x. So, saying that we'll see double the resolution is the same as saying we'll see 4x the pixel count...

I'll explain:

The iPad and iPhone 4 both currently use the SGX535; if the iPad 2 was to have a retina display they'd need the SGX543MP2 which offers roughly 4x the performance of the SGX535.
....

This brings up a question that's been bugging me, which no one seems to be asking about, though you've come close. Why would the iPad 2 need a new GPU with 4x the power if the screen res isn't changing? Sure, I will grant that there are a few apps that can push the current iPad to it's limits, but is there really enough need for greater graphics processing power to warrant that kind of a jump without a jump in screen resolution?

 

[204353]

oh shoot , does thinner glass mean more prone to cracking/shatter?

I've always thought that it's better to refer to the 'screen' as the glass covering the 'display', the thing that 'screens' the LCD from the outside.

It seems safe to think that they're referring to the display being thinner, not the glass. Unless they're using the same chemically-strengthened glass as in the iPhone 4, I doubt they'd make the glass thinner.

 

[mosx]

Theres no reason to expect a "Retina" display this coming generation. The GPU power for that sort of resolution just isn't there.

So everyone still hoping for it or demanding it or whatever really need to stop. It's not going to happen this generation.

All of the rumors generally point to the iPad 2G being what the first iPad should have been. FaceTime, 512MB of RAM, etc. All features that were held out of the iPad 1G in favor of debuting them with the more profitable and more likely to sell iPhone 4, and in favor of selling more iPhone 3GS until the iPhone 4 launched.

Not worth buying if you already have an iPad.

Arguably not worth buying even if you don't. It's been two weeks since I last used my iPad. Since I've gotten my iPhone 4, my iPad has spent more time collecting dust than anything else. I use it off and on every couple of weeks and for the occasional eBook. Thats it. Once the novelty wears off, iPad really isn't good for much unless you're addicted to apps or extremely slow web browsing. But iPad app support is "meh" at best and its frustrating that Apple and app developers try to sell you separate "HD" versions of the same app that only run at a slightly higher resolution. But at least you can jailbreak and install RetinaPad now, so you can just have your "Retina" iPhone apps run at full resolution.

 

[chimpboy74]

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oh shoot , does thinner glass mean more prone to cracking/shatter?

Of course.

I wish that Apple would start making computers again. Real computers.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

It's Itoys from here on.....

iwhateverpeoplewillspendmostmoneyon

 

[MythicFrost]

That's a very interesting and true take on things. However, I think SGX543MP2 for the Apple A5 while maintaining iPad resolution is reasonable once you take into account future process improvements and clock speed changes to not require going to all the way to a SGX543MP8 when they introduce Retina Display with the iPad 3.

Apple tends to stick to similar architectures for 2 generations like ARM11 + MBX Lite lasted for 2 generations over 2 processes (90nm and 65nm) and now Cortex A8 + SGX535 also lasted for 2 generations over 2 processes (65nm and 45nm). My guess is the same will happen again. I don't believe Samsung's 32nm process is ready for production in the volumes that Apple needs yet so they'll probably stick to the 45nm process and rely on it's maturity to improve things. I believe both the Cortex A9 and SGX543 were designed for 65nm and 45nm processes in mind anyways so it's not unexpected.

So this year the Apple A5 can be dual core Cortex A9 with SGX543MP2 on a 45nm process. Next year, in line with Apple keeping the same architecture for 2 years, the Apple A6 can then be a dual core Cortex A9 with SGX543MP4 on a 32nm process. The clock speeds for both the CPU and GPU will be increased to take advantage of the 32nm process and along with increased cache sizes and faster memory can give the A6 enough performance headroom over the A5 to implement a Retina Display in the iPad 3 without taking a big hit to performance per pixel. I really don't see Apple going with a quad core Cortex A9 in the Apple A6 since it's hard to see mobile apps being able to utilize that level of parallelization especially considering Apple prefers limiting multitasking and background processes to save power and most other heavy number crunching tasks like audio/video decoding and encoding can use dedicated accelerators or otherwise use OpenCL on the GPU. As such a high clock speed dual core Cortex A9 could sense for a future Apple A6. Of course, that's a while away yet so it's really in the limit of speculation.

Yeah, I'm aware that they'll be improvements and so forth and that an SGX543MP8 won't actually be necessary, but for simplicity I left that out.

I'm excited either way, I would love an SGX543MP2 as that would allow games like Infinity Blade to further improve graphics, it'd be amazing!

This brings up a question that's been bugging me, which no one seems to be asking about, though you've come close. Why would the iPad 2 need a new GPU with 4x the power if the screen res isn't changing? Sure, I will grant that there are a few apps that can push the current iPad to it's limits, but is there really enough need for greater graphics processing power to warrant that kind of a jump without a jump in screen resolution?

Well, I don't think it is. My monies on it being just a single SGX543 which is twice as powerful; why is it necessary though? whether the SGX543 or MP2, it allows more powerful graphics to be used. Infinity Blade is amazing, imagine it with even better graphics!

 

[lars666]

I see, but I disagree. I use my ipad several hours a day for web and email. and it is more than I could ask for.

I guess most people on this forum are spoiled with high resolution iphones Macbooks and other Macs

Thanks like saying: People are spoiled by better technology, the old one is enough!

 

[vvebsta]

yeah right... Apple will definitely put in the retina display. they want their products to be superior and that would be a key selling point

 

[kevingaffney]

Astounding news. Like we couldn't have predicted any of that.

 

[Slurpy2k8]

I wish that Apple would start making computers again. Real computers.

I know, eh? If only they hadn't completely ceased production of their Macbook, Macbook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro lines. Imagine how wonderful it would be if we could actually still buy those computers.

In all seriousness, I don't even think you could explain your comment if you tried, so I won't ask.

 

[Padraig]

Hope this starts a thread away from glossy displays.

Given the issues with having 256mb Ram in the current iPad, you think they'd stump up for more than a meager 512mb in the next version.

 

[Celtic-moniker]

Have you tried reading a book on it?

Have you tried reading a scanned legal or A4 sheet of paper on it?

Devices like the iPad promise a lot in reducing reliance on paper. At the moment it's just too low resolution to do this though.

I read on mine frequently. Often spending up to 10 hours. Bloody fantastic when I'm with a patient at work, during nights.

Sure, a higher res would be nice. But honestly, being critical of the current display in such a way is just... well... puritanical nonsense.

 

[benedetti]

These specs are logical.

IMHO everything depends on when Apple announces iPad2.
It's still a hot product and they don't want to kill it with 2-gen.
If there is going to be a retina iPad, then they must show it to devs at least 6 weeks before its availability, like beginning of march. If there is no change in resolution, then Apple can announce it in April with immediate availability and all apps will be compatible at Day-1.

 

[richbass79]

As far as I'm concerned, Apple can keep all their cameras and anti-reflective screen tech. Weight and screen resolution are the only things I really care about for the iPad 2.

Totally agree with you on this, if that really is the new spec i won't be upgrading

 

[holmesf]

The SGX 543 is a welcome change. The iPad's graphics were underpowered from the start. Both the iPhone and the iPad use a PowerVR SGX 535 chip: the problem is that on the iPhone 4 you can get away with rendering at 480x320 with 4x anti-aliasing (instead of rendering at 960x640), but on the iPad there is no alternative but to render at 1024x768. The end result is that you end up pushing 4x as many pixels on the iPad, but you don't have any extra horsepower to do it.

Because the iPad's underpowered GPU, games like Infinity Blade actually turn down the graphics (look closely, on iPad certain effects related to normal mapping are disabled). In my own tests I am able to get 60 frames per second when using certain shaders on the iPhone 4 (rendering at 480x320 with 4x multisampling) but only 15 frames per second when rendering on the iPad at full resolution. The iPad needs more oomph!

 

[k995]

This brings up a question that's been bugging me, which no one seems to be asking about, though you've come close. Why would the iPad 2 need a new GPU with 4x the power if the screen res isn't changing? Sure, I will grant that there are a few apps that can push the current iPad to it's limits, but is there really enough need for greater graphics processing power to warrant that kind of a jump without a jump in screen resolution?

Its even less then the jump from iphone 1/3g to 3gs (wich was the biggest increase btw). Why did the 3gs need a that powerfull gpu?

Apple is trying to tap into the handheld game market, seeing the GPU the psp 2 is rumored to get this is the leadt apple could do.

 

[inlovewithi]

My phone has 512Mb of ram. Oh well, 256mb of ram didn't stop people from buying the 1st one. Apple truly takes advantage of its position to cut cost to maximize profit.

 

[webman2k]

The iPad's screen resolution is too low. I need this mainly to browse the web and read. It's a shame because the IPS display is so nice in every other respect. But with the same blotchy look as the current gen, I wouldn't be getting one. Hope the competition will come up with something before spring of 2012, when Apple will have to upgrade to higher res. If there will a tablet with higher resolution, no matter the OS, I will be getting it.

I think Apple shot themselves in the foot on this one a little bit. The resolution is a bit small, but in order to maintain compatibility with all of the apps out there, the only way up is double, as they did with the retina display. Problem is, 2048 is HUGE - needs a ton of processing power, would kill the battery, and is way too large for a 10" display for web browsing - everything would have to be zoomed in to read.

Time will tell what they'll do here. My guess is that they'll have to go a bit larger in the future, and letterbox current apps.