IPad 2 33% Thinner, 2x Faster, iOS 4.3

Steve Jobs was on hand today deliver a speech at Apple's iPad 2 event. The new iPad will feature dual-core processors, 2x faster CPU, and 9X faster graphics, front and rear cameras. And it's 33% thinner. Prices range from $499 to $829 depending on if you want 3G and 64 gigs, and it ships March 11. iOS 4.3 will ship at the same time.

The only thing that hasn't changed

[ticketswapz]

The iPad is still assembled by cheap Chinese labor who sometimes get suicidal and jump off the Foxconn factory roof so they installed nets. But hey, it's 33% thinner!!!!!

Sooo...

[Stenchwarrior]

It's a thinner, faster, more expensive iPhone - sans the phone?

Re:Not bad

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Kept you from buying anything else, didn't it?

No. The copycat nature and ho-hum'ness of 'anything else' is what kept me from buying it.

Re:So how do I get iOS 4.3?

[schnikies79]

Nope. The 2nd gen ipod touch and 3g iphone can run iOS4 but won't get this upgrade.

Re:No SDHC reader!

[mr100percent]

Just use Apple's Camera Connection Kit [apple.com], it plugs in to the dock connector.

Why would you not prefer external power pack?

[SuperKendall]

In all of the iOS devices I have ever had, I have not once had to replace a battery. And even if you need to Apple can do that for you, which is something like once every three years at worst, probably longer (since as I said I have not had to replace a battery in a device yet).

In any device if I wanted longer use time (for instance on an international flight) I always found an external power pack preferable, as they can be smaller than a second battery for a real device - I mean think of how an iPad extra battery would have to be shaped, all by itself it would be pretty bulky and large, where an external battery can opt to be much thicker but also far less higher and wider to provide more battery life in a more compact package.

Apple has made the right choice by making the devices as small as possible, and moving the occasional need to longer use into an external form that can be customized into many shapes and sizes and capacities instead of just one monolithic replacement battery.

Re:Same here. No retina == no buy.

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Same here. Funny how they say they got 9x faster graphics and 2x faster CPU, but didn't bother implementing retina display, which, at it's worst-case point, would take a 4x higher toll on the device (assuming quadrupling total pixel count).

I think the manufacturing of the higher-res displays was the problem. Either they ended up being too expensive or there were too many defects.

I need a tablet to read stuff. I want to do it in a way that would match the visual experience of reading a book.

I work in the art departments of various movies. Lots of reference images and paintings floating around. I would reaaaaally like to go paperless. I'm not the only one, the iPad is popping up all over Hollywood. It may even finally convince the big-wigs that wireless internet should be part of every facility. I also know a couple of photographers that would love to have a high-res iPad for reviewing photos.

Mas pixels por favor.

Open Spec

[SuperKendall]

Actually Facetime is an open spec, anyone can implement a device that supports it...

Now how you find them from an iOS to non-IOS device, that part I'm not sure how easy it is to implement.

Re:So thin you could break it in half...

[node 3]

Apple's batteries are among the longest-lasting on the market. 10 hour iPad, 7 hour laptops. Even their smallest, thinest laptop gets 5 hours. Apple's battery numbers are also far more accurate than those listed by other manufacturers.

That's a lot less of a dig than it probably appears. Apple does what it does very well.

Sure, you just called Apple users locked-in, superficial cultists. Not a dig at all...

Re:User replaceable? why?

[vlm]

After a year or 2 your Ipad2 is going to have a battery life of an hour or two and you're not going to be able to replace the battery. Throw-away society I guess.

21 steps to battery replacement. Actually not bad. My 1st gen Mac Mini hard drive upgrade was something like 43 steps. And unlike the ipods, the ipad doesn't require soldering.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iPad-Wi-Fi-Battery-Replacement/2198/1 [ifixit.com]

If you refuse to do it, thats OK, give me your "throw away" device with a dead battery, I'll replace the battery and either use it myself or sell it / give it away.

Apple hardware is generally superior to other consumer devices. The batteries do tend to last quite awhile. A year or two, only if you drain and charge the battery daily.

Re:9x 'faster' Graphics

[ultramk]

I would disagree. The iOS APIs specifically allow for graceful degradation of framerate in 3d rendering. To give a concrete example, when I switched from the iPhone 3GS to the 4, framerates for 3d games and augmented reality apps shot through the roof.

As far as adding adjustable graphics settings, it's completely unnecessary. With only a handful of devices to support, standard practice to to pre-select optimized settings for each device, which are transparently loaded without user involvement. Very elegant and very very easy for developers to implement.

Re:9x 'faster' Graphics

[dingen]

Most games for iOS include high-resolution textures which are loaded when you run it on an iPhone4 or an iPad and lower-resolution textures when the game runs on an iPhone 3G(S) or iPod Touch. New games will surely make use of the power of the new iPad2 and will simply scale down to run on the iPad1 or any other iOS device.

Re:The only thing that hasn't changed

[stewbacca]

How hard would it be to find the number of suicides in the US, the number of people in the US, the number of people in China and then (the only hard one) number of suicides by Foxconn employees?

Turns out not hard at all. Foxconn = 400,000 employees, with 12 suicide attempts. US suicide rate is 11 per 100,000.

Google is hard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/business/global/07suicide.html [nytimes.com]
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/21/science/sci-suicide21 [latimes.com]

Re:Not bad

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

God, you made me laugh so hard. Copycat nature of everything else? You mean the ones who did these things way before Apple did?

I stand corrected. The massive success of all these other tablets proves just how run-of-the-mill the iPad is. You win.

Re:GPS?

[jo_ham]

The GPS chip is part of the 3G board, which is missing from all the WiFi only models.

Re:User replaceable? why?

[Boycott BMG]

I dunno where you get your information, but Li Ion degrades slower than LiPo. The reason LiPo is used is not because of capacity or extended life, but because the polymer can be made into small thin shapes for use in handheld consumer electronics. Basically anything smaller than a laptop is probably using LiPo.

Re:Apple brings out the crazy in people

[shutdown -p now]

The iPad 2 is coming in at the same price points and is way cheaper than the competition. The Xoom 32GB goes for £499 in the UK.

I dunno how it is in UK, but in US, no-contract Xoom is $799, while iPad with comparable specs (3G 32Gb) is $729. So the actual difference is $70, and Xoom is exactly 10% more expensive than iPad. "Way cheaper"? Not really.

But Xoom has a slightly larger screen (10.1" vs 9.7") and higher resolution (1280x800 160ppi vs 1024x768 130ppi), and smaller physical dimensions. Then there's the SD slot. Compared to iPad 2 specifically, a much better camera. For geeks, there's also openness, even if you don't unlock/root - you have proper filesystem shared between apps, full support for background processes (I run an FTP server on mine so that I don't have to muck around with cables to sync it with PC), and much more. Is that all worth the extra $70? It certainly did for me, but it is, of course, subjective.

Oh, and it doesn't need iTunes to sync. That alone is priceless.