The iPad 2 is here. It costs the same, but the latest version is thinner, comes in black or white and now rocks FaceTime, rear and front facing webcams plus a gyroscope for your gaming pleasure.
The hotter sibling of the original iPad starts shipping March 11th.
The Apple Store is back online and updated with the new iPad 2. Apple won’t start selling the iPad in stores until 5pm on March 11th. Tragically, as our colleague John Brownlee noticed, there isn’t an ability to pre-order the iPad 2, as orders aren’t going to be taken until March 11th. Guess if you want an iPad on March 11th you’ll have to wait in line at the store with all the other crazy and deranged fans.
iMovie’s not the only iLife staple coming to iOS this month, though. Apple’s now announcing Garage Band for iOS.
Featuring touch instruments including grand piano, organs, and guitars, guitar amps and effects, 8-track recording and mixing, 250+ loops and compatibility with the Mac version, Garage Band for iOS turns your iPad into a musical instrument.
When you load up the app, the first thing you see is an instrument browser. Tap one and it brings up the instrument to fill the display. Apple showed off the grand piano as an example: keys were tappable like a real piano, with a button for pedaling, and the accelerometer is used to measure the force with which your fingers are striking the display to determine dynamics and volume.
Each instrument is different, but uses a similar loyal approach. The drums and organs are simularly amazing. It’s breathtaking. On the organ, you can not only slide your note up along the keys, but also tweak the vibrato as you go. On the drums, you can get rim sounds if you hit the rim of the snare, or change the sound of the cymbal.
The music that is going to come out of the iPad thanks to Garage Band is going to defy belief. You don’t even need to know how to play: just load up the Smart Guitar and start strumming.
Recording is simple, toggled by a bright red button at the top of every display. To toggle tracks, you just hit the tracks button, allowing you to overlay multiple instruments, with support for up to 8 tracks. You can trim your recordings, shift them around, etc.
Once you’re done, you can email your song from right within GarageBand, or just send to your iTunes library.
GarageBand for iPad will be available on March 11th for $4.99 in the App Store.
With the announcement of the iPad 2, Apple has refreshed the iPad 2 page on their website to reflect the new product, complete with videos and lots of information on the new iPad 2. Click over on the link for all the action. More
The big news today for me is that Steve Jobs looks as healthy as ever. Yes he’s thin, but he looks good and his voice is strong. See for yourself. Watch the 30-second video below, taken from CNN’s live stream of this morning’s event.
This is NOT a man with six weeks to live. Long live Steve!
Now that the iPad has a video camera, you’ll need something to edit videos together. Enter iMovie for iOS, which Apple is announcing today.
Features of iMovie for iOS include a precision editor, multitrack audio recording, new themes, AirPlay to Apple TV, and the ability to share your videos in HD.
A universal app, iMovie for iOS will also run on the iPhone. When you start up the app, there’s a new home screen which shows thumbnails of your movies in poster format.
Click through, and the iMovie interface is up top with the timeline below. A camera button on the right lets you use your device’s camera to record in realtime, or pull in from your video bin.
Tap on a clip and you get two handles to choose the segment you want to include: a reverse pinch triggers the precision editor for a more precise edit.
In iMovie for iOS you have full control over transitions: press and hold on top dot to choose the point within the video that you want to end. You can also add and subtract frames from both sides of a clip simultaneously, and view the audiowave forms of all your clips. There’s also a new voiceover recording system.
For music, you can choose songs from your iPod library, or choose another theme’s music. A Share button lets you send to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, CNN iReport, and to iTunes.
iMovie will be available on the App Store on March 11th for $5.
Since the iPad 2 is getting FaceTime cameras, Apple is bringing PhotoBooth to iOS.
Noting that the iPad 2 is so powerful that it can deal with nine live video streams at once, Apple demonstrates the real-time effect demos, which work similarly in iOS PhotoBooth as they do on the desktop.
With multitouch, you can now manipulate photo effects just by touching the screen, which is pretty nifty.
It doesn’t look radically different from PhotoBooth on the desktop, but it doesn’t need to be. Either way, a million loitering teenagers at your local Apple store have one more gadget to pout in front of.
Now that the iPad 2 is out of the way, Apple wants people to know what’s coming with iOS, starting with iOS 4.3, which will ship on the iPad 2.
First of all, Safari performance is getting a major boost, thanks to Apple’s new Nitro JavaScript engine.
Next up, iTunes home sharing, which will allow you to stream all of your content directly over WiFi.
Alongside iTunes homesharing, AirPlay is going to get some much needed improvements, including the ability to allow apps and even websites to play AirPlay Video.
iOS 4.3 also adds a preference for the iPad switch: either mute, or rotation lock.
iPhone 4 customers will get personal hotspot, a la the Verizon iPhone.
It’s a small bump, but no one expected more for a point iteration. I wonder if they’ll next talk about iOS 5. That’s where the big changes will happen.
With the iPad, Apple released an official case, but while it was pretty cool, the problem with it was that Apple had gone through all this trouble to make the iPad as gorgeous as possible, and now they were covering it up.
Well, with the iPad 2, there won’t be an official Apple case: there’ll be a cover. As noted earlier today, it’ll use magnets to attach to the iPad 2, protecting the screen and locking and unlocking the iPad automatically accordingly. Fold it back and it’ll function as a prop for typing.
“They grasp it, and auto-align it. I’ll show you a little video. It’s so cool. You can remove it in a second. It adds minimal weight and thickness. It’s got a microfiber cloth that cleans the screen,” Steve enthused.
The new iPad cover will come in either polyurethane or leather. The Polyurethane cases will cost $39, the leather cases $69. They come in a whole rainbow of colors.
Along with the iPad 2, Apple will soon start shipping some cool new iPad accessories.
First of all, there’s a new dock connector that allows HDMI mirrored video output at up to 1080p. Apple says it’ll work with all apps and be perfect for teachers, lecturers, businessmen and presenters. No setup or configuration, supports rotation, and you can charge your iPad while using it.
It’ll cost $39 and should be available this month.
The iPad 2 isn’t just a speed bump, though.
As rumored, the iPad 2 is getting FaceTime, courtesy of both rear and front facing webcams. This rounds off FaceTime as a ubiquitous feature on all of Apple’s mobile prodiucts.
The iPad 2 is also inheriting the iPhone 4’s gyroscope, allowing for some neat new augmented reality and gaming functions.
The most noticeable change though? Apple has made the iPad a lot thinner. It’s now just 8.8 mm thin, compared to 13.44mm thin last generation. It’s now thinner than the iPhone 4.
As rumored, the iPad 2 will come in both black and white.
Also as rumored, the 3G version will work on both AT&T and Verizon, although you’ll need a different model for both GSM and CDMA.
Prices are also remaining the same: starting at $499 for the 16 GB WiFi version, and ending at $829 for the 64GB 3G version!
The iPad 2 will begin shipping with March 11th, with preorders available starting today.
We start the day with more deals on iPhone applications, including “Dr. Seuss Senders,” a collection of 100 cheery quotes to share. We also take a look at a free iPhone and iPad app, “Mad Skill, Motocross.” Finally, if you (or your significant female other) are an iPhone (or even iPad) owner, why not check out this “Slide to Unlock” women’s babydoll t-shirt?
Along the way, we take a look at more iPhone cases, as well as a desktop iPod dock and radio from Yamaha. As usual, details on these and many other items follow the jump.
Noting that Apple has had an exceptional first year, Steve Jobs says that in 2011, Apple wants to build off the iPad’s success. Today they’re announcing the iPad 2.
So what’s new? Apple says, first of all, an all-new design. Not tweaked, brand spanking new and redesigned from the ground up.
First of all, as rumored, it’s faster. The iPad 2 will boast a dual-core A5 CPU running at 1.2GHZ.
Second, Apple has gone all out on the graphics, and are now offering up to 9x faster graphics performance.
At the same time, power efficiency remains the same, so you’ll get the same battery life.
All in all? Apple expects the iPad 2 to be the first dual core tablet to ship in volume.
While talking about the iPad’s success, Steve Jobs was happy to trash talk the competition, specifically those of Android makers.
Quoting Samsung VP Lee Young-hee,Jobs noted that the Galaxy Tab, the iPad’s most notable competition, only sold a small number of actual devices to end users.
As for the App Store, it’s currently got over 65,000 iPad-specific apps up for download. Android Honeycomb? Only 100.
Sure, it’s not a fair comparison: Honeycomb is barely out yet. Still, the message is clear: Apple is dominating.
Steve Jobs has started addressing the crowd about the iPad 2.
“Today we’re here to talk about Apple’s third post-PC blockbuster product. That’s how we think about these things. We started with the iPod, then we added the iPhone, and then the iPad. Every one has been a blockbuster,” he said.”
“When we said the iPad was magical, people laughed at us. But it’s turned out to be magical. And people questioned whether it was an ‘unbelievable’ price — well ask our competitors.”
Noting that the iPad has over 90% market share and has generated $9.5 billion in the nine months of 2010, the iPad is Apple’s biggest product to date, and maybe the most successful consumer product ever launched.
“We’ve just never had a product get off to this fast of a start,” Jobs said.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has just taken the stage at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco to kick off Apple’s March 2nd Event, which is rumored to see the introduction of a faster, lighter iPad 2 with FaceTime, the latest version of iOS, an overhaul of MobileMe and more.
It’s been rumored that Steve Jobs might make an appearance, but given his recent medical leave, the Apple boss’ distinctive presence at the show was far from a certainty. Although the man earned himself a break, his presence — ushered in with The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun” — is a delight.
“We’ve been working on this product for a while and I didn’t want to miss today,” said Steve, garnering a standing ovation from the audience.
First up? iBooks.
I love my iPhone, but absolutely hate the headphones that came with it. To me they sound horrible and always fall out of my ear. I suppose if you had ears like Dr. Spock or a massive cranium with ear caverns to match they’d work fine. But if you a) Love music b) Prefer the feel of a customized fit opposed to a one size fits all approach and c) Demand a functional call/music control button, then the Thinksound TS02 + Mic are a must have accessory.
Why they’re good: Great sound, four different sized flexible silicon ear inserts for a secure fit and smart eco-friendly packaging.
Why they’re not so good: I was hard pressed to find something constructive… I’ve had my share of earphones over the years and these are by far my favs. A high-end sound at $89.99 MSRP
Check out the tech specs:
Before writing this review, I spent about six weeks taking these headphones through the ringer in a variety of situations. They made the San Francisco Bay Area Transit and CALTrain actually enjoyable. On the phone in the car, they were clear and filtered out a lot of the road noise. While exercising on my indoor cycling trainer, the fit was comfortable and the inserts didn’t slide out of my ear once I got a little sweaty. And even while working remote at my home office or in a coffee shop, the mic and passive noise isolation worked perfectly. I also listened to a variety to music genres from Rock, Jazz, Pop (no Justin Beiber) and Classical and was very satisfied with the how well they were balanced across the frequency spectrum.
Rating: 
This is a very tiny rumor, but in the silence before the storm, we have a few minutes to consider it: apparently, one still unpublicized hardware change in the iPad 2 is a new magnetic latch.
Way back in January, a reference to PAD_CASE_LOCK was found in the beta version of iOS 4.3, apparently a function that allows the iPad to automatically lock and unlock when you close the iPad cover. That seems pretty useful, except for the fact that the iPad seemingly doesn’t have any hardware that could make that feature work.
Now iLounge is reporting that the new iPad will be able of magnetically gripping the front flaps of folio-style cases. Not only will that make iPad cases more elegant, but iOS would know that when a lid was secured in the right position, the iPad would lock itself up tight.
Staggering genius? Not really, but it is one of those nice little touches that Apple is just so good at.
Excited for the iPad 2 today? Don’t be too excited, says iLounge: a well-informed source says not to expect the next iPad to ship for a minimum of two weeks, and more likely four.
The issue? Inventory: Apple just doesn’t have enough iPads to go around yet. A four week delay in delivering the iPad would put the launch date of the second-gen tablet at the very beginning of April… almost a year to the date of the original iPad.
In other words, a delay in releasing the iPad 2 will conform to Apple’s historic iOS upgrade cycle. At the very least, though, we should all be able to pre-order an iPad 2 today. I know I’ll certainly be. Who’ll be there pre-ordering with me?
The Apple Store just went offline. New goodies coming soon!
Does it mean the iPad 2 will be available to order today?
You’re sitting there waiting for the iPad 2 to be announced. After waiting for months you’re chomping at the bit and know that you’re going to buy one even if you’re not totally sure what all of it’s features are gonna be. One thing to consider is how you’re going to pay for the upgrade. While you can certainly deal with the hassle of selling your old iPad on Craigslist or Ebay, you might want to consider using NextWorth.com to trade in your iPad for cash.
NextWorth, is offering high trade-in values for the first generation iPad to help subsidize the cost of an upgrade. Apple products tend to retain value more than other brands, and the iPad is no exception. Current trade-in values on NextWorth for iPads with Light Wear (as of 2/23/11) are:
iPad 16G Wifi: $255
iPad 32GB Wifi: $285
iPad 64GB Wifi: $310
iPad 16G Wifi + 3G: $298
iPad 32G wifi + 3G: $350
iPad 64GB Wifi + 3G: $390
One of the nice things about NextWorth is that they’re partnered with Target to offer an in-store trade-in option. With over 900 participating Target stores (and 500 being added in the next three months), consumers receive either credit toward a purchase, or a prepaid Target card for the value of the trade-in that can be used for any item sold at Target. Via the NextWorth.com website customers are given the options of cash or a giftcard when they trade-in. NextWorth also provides free, fully-insured UPS shipping service to all online customers.
If you’re looking for a quick way to come up with the cash for an iPad 2 their service is definitely worth a look. It’s a lot quicker than coordinating a sell yourself online, and in some cases they’re offering about 65% of the original value for the iPad during trade-in.
Ever wonder how blogs and websites decide whether to publish a juicy Apple rumor? Have you ever published a piece of gossip yourself? To help understand this delicate decision making process, Joy of Tech has published some helpful Apple Rumor Publishing Guidelines in the form of a easy-to-follow flowchart.
Gave me a good laugh – classic wisdom finely honed among rumorologists for decades! :)
[via Joy Of Tech]
Just ahead of Apple’s upcoming iPad 2 announcement, Random House has begun populating the iBooks Store with such titles as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. The news comes just after the larger publisher announced it had agreed to the Cupertino, Calif. company’s “agency model” for pricing e-books sold to iPad and iPhone owners.
Earlier this week, Random House said it had adopted Apple’s pricing method for e-books partially at the request of book stores hoping to sell more electronic books to support lagging sales of physical titles. The tech giant has required publishers to adopt the “agency model,” where booksellers receive a 30 percent cut. Some publishers had objected, instead preferring Amazon’s tactic of selling e-books at a loss, hoping the increased demand for electronic reading material would boost its Kindle e-reader.
As everyone awaits Apple’s announcement about the next-generation iPad, the Cupertino, Calif. company reportedly is gearing up to sell 6.5 million of both the new tablet and the initial product during the first quarter of 2011. The tech giant could ship 40 million of the popular devices during the full calendar year, the Wednesday report adds.
Possibly preparing for heavy demand and hoping to not repeat shortages seen for the first iPad, Apple has between 300,000 to 400,000 iPad 2 units for the initial San Francisco, Calif. launch, slated for today at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. The company has reportedly already ordered between 1.7 million and 2 million iPads during the first two months of the year. Apple in March is expected to order more than 2 million of the iPad 2 devices.
The Griffin Survivor case for iPhone 4, which retails for $49.99 and works on all iPhone 4 models, is the latest rugged case leaping out of the gate running neck and neck for top dog with the likes of the Ballistic HC and many others. I was surprised to see another new case this late after the release of the iPhone 4 with the iPhone 5 just around the corner. However, it may be that the vendors know something we don’t. Perhaps the iPhone 5 will share the same dimensions as the iPhone 4 just like the iPhone 3G and 3GS.
Griffin labels the Survivor as “Armored Ready for Anything. ” I don’t think so and I’d like to explain why I say that.
