Apple Launches New iPad

[Cristian_25H]

Apple today introduced the new iPad, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, featuring a stunning new Retina display, Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G connects to fast networks worldwide, including AT&T's and Verizon's 4G LTE networks, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life while remaining amazingly thin and light. Beginning today, iPad 2 will be offered at an even more affordable price starting at just $399.

"The new iPad redefines the category Apple created less than two years ago, delivering the most amazing experience people have ever had with technology," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The new iPad now has the highest resolution display ever seen on a mobile device with 3.1 million pixels, delivering razor sharp text and unbelievable detail in photos and videos."





The new iPad's Retina display delivers four times the number of pixels of iPad 2, so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when held at a normal distance, making web pages, text, images and video look incredibly sharp and realistic. The 3.1 million pixels in the Retina display are more than one million more pixels than an HD TV, and with 44 percent increased color saturation the new iPad displays colors that are unbelievably richer, deeper and more vivid. Movies are now capable of playing at full 1080p HD-resolution, delivering an incomparable viewing experience on a mobile device.

The powerful new A5X chip with quad-core graphics was specifically designed by Apple to deliver a fast, responsive user experience while supporting the incredible Retina display. With double the graphics performance of the A5 chip, the A5X provides a superb balance between performance and power efficiency so users can enjoy all the benefits of the stunning new display while experiencing a smooth Multi-Touch interface, immersive gameplay, incredible visual depth and all-day battery life that iPad is known for delivering.

The 5 megapixel iSight camera features advanced optics for taking stunning pictures and recording full HD video. Backside illumination allows you to take great photos in low-light conditions and a new video image stabilization feature removes the bumps and shakes typically seen when filming with a hand-held device. Images can be enjoyed on the large Retina display, then edited, enhanced and easily shared with friends and family using the built-in Photos app on iPad.

iPad Wi-Fi + 4G with built-in next generation 4G LTE has the most comprehensive support for fast networks worldwide including HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, and now both CDMA and GSM iPad users have the ability to easily roam internationally. The world-ready iPad delivers blazing download and upload speeds so web pages load incredibly quickly and email with large attachments can be sent and received easily. Personal Hotspot can be used to share the fast network connection on your iPad with up to 5 other devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB.

With iOS 5.1, the latest update to the world's most advanced mobile operating system, the new iPad has a number of new features and enhancements including: a redesigned Camera app with video stabilization technology; the ability to delete photos from Photo Stream; support for dictation in English, French, German and Japanese; and Personal Hotspot. iOS 5.1 also works seamlessly with iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services including iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream and Documents in the Cloud, that works seamlessly with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content and push it to your devices. When content changes on one of your devices, your other devices are updated automatically.

The new iPad also supports dictation, another amazing way to get things done just using your voice. Instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, then say what you want to say and the new iPad listens. Tap done, and iPad converts your words into text. You can use dictation to write messages, take notes, search the web and more. Dictation also works with third-party apps, so you can update your Facebook status, tweet, or write Instagram captions.

Apple also introduced the iPhoto app, along with major updates to iMovie and GarageBand, completing its suite of iLife apps for iOS. iLife and the iWork apps, Pages, Keynote and Numbers, have all been updated to take advantage of the new iPad Retina display. iPhoto includes breakthrough Multi-Touch features so you can use simple gestures to sort through hundreds of photos and find your best shots, enhance and retouch your images using fingertip brushes and share stunning photo journals with iCloud. iMovie now gives you the ability to create amazing Hollywood-style trailers as you record HD video, and GarageBand introduces Jam Session, an innovative and fun new feature that allows a group of friends to wirelessly connect to play instruments and record music together live on their iOS devices.

iPad runs almost all of the over 585,000 apps available on the App Store, including more than 200,000 native iPad apps, from a wide range of categories, including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The iTunes Store puts the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store at your fingertips with a catalog of over 20 million songs, over 90,000 TV episodes and over 15,000 movies. The new iBooks 2 app for iPad lets users experience an entirely new kind of ebook that's dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks created with Apple's new iBooks Author offer gorgeous, fullscreen ebooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more.

Pricing & Availability

The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white on Friday, March 16 for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16 GB model, $599 (US) for the 32 GB model and $699 (US) for the 64 GB model. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for either AT&T or Verizon will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16 GB model, $729 (US) for the 32 GB model and $829 (US) for the 64 GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPad will also be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16. Customers can begin pre-ordering their new iPad today, and the incredible iPad 2 is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 (US) for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 (US) for the 16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

iOS 5.1 and iTunes 10.6 are available today as free software updates. iPhoto, iMovie 1.3 and GarageBand 1.2 are available today for $4.99 (US) each from the App Store (www.itunes.com/appstore). Keynote 1.6, Pages 1.6 and Numbers 1.6 are available today for $9.99 (US) each from the App Store. Updates are available for free to existing customers. By the end of March iPad will be available in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

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[Frick]

I actually want this, but it's too much money.

 

[Andrei23]

Good for apple, maybe by 2013 they will hit the one trillion dollar valuation.

 

[Kantastic]

I can honestly see myself paying $500 for this...

 

[Cristian_25H]

Apple doesn't mention it in the press release but that Retina display has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. I think it's worth a highlight since it may/should push for higher resolutions on other devices (ahem - PC monitors and notebooks).

 

[option350z]

ZOMG! "Shut up and take my money!" says the mindless drones.
Never the less it doesn't surprise me that I have heard nothing of the newest iPad. I've been hearing more about Android things more frequently...When are companies finally going to switch over to Lipo? That's the only reason why apple devices get a long battery life. Other than the ARM Arch...

 

[phanbuey]

ZOMG! "Shut up and take my money!" says the mindless drones.
Never the less it doesn't surprise me that I have heard nothing of the newest iPad. I've been hearing more about Android things more frequently...When are companies finally going to switch over to Lipo? That's the only reason why apple devices get a long battery life. Other than the ARM Arch...

Yes, the mindless drones that buy the superior hardware. Maybe in two years the Android makers will come out with a device with similar battery life and screen quality. Hopefully they will ditch the cheap-o plastic builds and stop looking like toys before that.

 

[newtekie1]

Apple doesn't mention it in the press release but that Retina display has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. I think it's worth a highlight since it may/should push for higher resolutions on other devices (ahem - PC monitors and notebooks).

Screw that, resolutions on PC monitors are just fine the way they are. Apple can get away with the higher resolutions because everything is the same size relative to the screen size, resolution doesn't matter. So a button that is 1"x1" will be 1"x1" at 1024x768 or 2048x1536, but button will just be sharper at the higher resolution because more pixels make it up. PCs don't work that way, if you increase the resolution, things get smaller and harder to read, you can fit more on the screen, but everything is smaller. Until PCs can manage a systems of increasing the DPI to scale with resolution better, and a system where increasing the DPI actually works and doesn't break things, high resolutions in small monitors isn't something the majority of the public would like.

 

[deleted]

I hate Apple as much as the next guy, but that 2048x1536 IPS panel is worth the price all by itself. I wonder how long it will be until we see a 1440p PLS or SAMOLED screen for a reasonable price.

 

[phanbuey]

Screw that, resolutions on PC monitors are just fine the way they are. Apple can get away with the higher resolutions because everything is the same size relative to the screen size, resolution doesn't matter. So a button that is 1"x1" will be 1"x1" at 1024x768 or 2048x1536, but button will just be sharper at the higher resolution because more pixels make it up. PCs don't work that way, if you increase the resolution, things get smaller and harder to read, you can fit more on the screen, but everything is smaller. Until PCs can manage a systems of increasing the DPI to scale with resolution better, and a system where increasing the DPI actually works and doesn't break things, high resolutions in small monitors isn't something the majority of the public would like.

yup...

also the $$ we will have to spend for more vram that we will need to push those pixels in games.

 

[Fourstaff]

PCs don't work that way, if you increase the resolution, things get smaller and harder to read, you can fit more on the screen, but everything is smaller.

I thought you can just change the settings to "grandma mode" and then increase the sizes of all the words/icons etc?

I am perfectly fine with my 15.6" 1366x768, thank you very much. More pixels = more graphics power needed to drive it = more money spent for same screen size. Don't really have that luxury.

 

[Delta6326]

Hahahahahahaha Seriously 16GB!!? Thats just sad, there should not be a $100 price jump from 16Gb to 32GB You can buy 16GB flash for less than $20 These should have SSD's.

 

[f22a4bandit]

I'm pleasantly surprised. The price point is the same, but instead of just wi-fi @ $499, they're going to go ahead and include 3g capability. Honestly, there really isn't a tablet out there right now that will compete with the newest iPad when it's launched. Well played, Apple, well played.

Hahahahahahaha Seriously 16GB!!? Thats just sad, there should not be a $100 price jump from 16Gb to 32GB You can buy 16GB flash for less than $20 These should have SSD's.

It's always been that way with the iPad. Yes, it's a jump in price; however, it's all about the bottom line, and these will sell like crazy no matter what. It's really not a surprise at all.

 

[btarunr]

I think this is a worthy successor. I only wish they upped storage, such as 32 GB starting $499. They could have even tried something like a 16 GB MLC SSD holding the OS and apps, and a fixed class-10 slow-flash based SSD handling data storage. With that, I think Apple would have dealt a severe blow to all the random metoopadlets out there.

 

[Depth]

Apple doesn't mention it in the press release but that Retina display has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. I think it's worth a highlight since it may/should push for higher resolutions on other devices (ahem - PC monitors and notebooks).

1m² = 1m x 1m
2m² = 2m x 2m
Surface area in this case increases by 4. The power needed to render and process increased surface/pixels is simply way too much to justify squeezing it into a 24 inch monitor.

To put it bluntly, tell me how the hell this image would benefit from more pixels

 

[newtekie1]

I thought you can just change the settings to "grandma mode" and then increase the sizes of all the words/icons etc?

I am perfectly fine with my 15.6" 1366x768, thank you very much. More pixels = more graphics power needed to drive it = more money spent for same screen size. Don't really have that luxury.

Yeah, that is what I mentioned with the DPI settings. Windows 7 handles them decently, but a lot of things still break and end up not looking right. Apple doesn't have this issue because they control the software and hardware, so they can say "this device uses this DPI, so everything you create for it must use that DPI and look good at that DPI", while PCs don't have that luxury.

I've got a 21.5" 1080p screen that sits at the back of my desk, and I find it hard to read long text documents, simply because the text is so small.

 

[option350z]

Yes, the mindless drones that buy the superior hardware. Maybe in two years the Android makers will come out with a device with similar battery life and screen quality. Hopefully they will ditch the cheap-o plastic builds and stop looking like toys before that.

Yay for upgrading to the next version of hardware that will get thrown out or recycled a year later...Are these things that disposable?

 

[f22a4bandit]

Yay for upgrading to the next version of hardware that will get thrown out or recycled a year later...Are these things that disposable?

People seem to think that they are disposable. Then again, it's the same thing with processors/video cards with people like ourselves. Some people do it just for the epeen.

 

[option350z]

I think mainly it was the Epeen thing...I remember back in high school if you got the brand new iPod, then everyone would get one. I was rocking an old third gen ipod until 2010. Now I have a 4th gen nano of which I don't use that often..didn't have the same crackable firmware as that old ipod 3rd gen.

 

[sparkyar]

nice piece of hardware but too pricy... hands up! this is a robbery!

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

Good for them but don't want / need. Also don't want to hear endless raves about it from people at work who will think it's be the best thing since beer and tits. Beer and tits > tech .... always!

I also have to mention about being proud of rocking the old iPod generations, I was sporting my Diamond Rio PMP300 way after it was cool (and way before anyone I knew had any clue what an mp3 file was).

 

[dom99]

It looks amazing! I'm going to buy one!

 

[Athlon2K15]

yay another apple product we can on get our knees paying tribute to the next ibrick that will lock up, not run shit right and cost too much money even though it is made by slaves

 

[Depth]

yay another apple product we can on get our knees paying tribute to the next ibrick that will lock up, not run shit right and cost too much money even though it is made by slaves

Nonsense!! It's 4 times the size of an iPhone and thus brilliant

 

[v12dock]

I have little use for the tablet I currently have