Significantly thinner, a wee bit lighter, the iPad 2 offers double the speed, 9x the graphics, and two cameras for video/video chatting. Same battery life and low price. 3G available for either AT&T or Verizon (for the other 25 nations in which it will initially ship, check your local providers; I only know my own country). March 11.
In many ways, the coolest stuff is in the software. It can now send true HDMI (hi-def TV) signal out at a full 1080p (blu-ray) resolution. FaceTime chatting with other iPads, Macs, and iPhones. Use your iPhone 4 as a mobile hotspot. Two amazing Apple applications, iMovie and GarageBand, will be released on March 11 as well. And $5 each. Yowza.
If you’re interested in a full tech breakdown, there are lots of high tech blogs and personal blogs from developers that will go into that. I’m going to give just a few impressions of mine:
- It’s too bad there isn’t a Retina Display, but I wasn’t expecting one—right now, it would be too expensive and too slow.
- The thinness is fantastic; I was hoping it would be even lighter, however.
- That new “smart cover” (check out Apple’s micro-site if you haven’t) looks pretty damn cool, if you ask me.
- I’m excited about the new apps.
- One of my few complaints about the iPad is how when I scroll fast, all often end up on the blank “checkerboard” view while the graphics catch up; if this is fast enough to get rid of that, I’ll be happy.
The question is then, since I already have an iPad, is it worth it to have two, one for each of us? Then again, if I have to travel, being able to FaceTime chat on an iPad sounds amazingly fantastic. Not sure if I’ll run out and buy one, but if I didn’t have one, I’d leap at this. And if my work or travel schedule makes one advantageous, I still might.
Good ‘un, Apple.
Sod the iPad, what have you heard about the iPhone 5? Will be coming out just in time for me to get one as a free upgrade on my contract.
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