Apple’s March Event News (Updated As It Happened)

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Apple is about to hold its March announcement. We will have the news as it comes in…

12:59 PM Tim Cook is on stage.

12:59 PM Starting with “This is the post-pc era” and Apple is the leader of it.

“Devices need to be more portable”

post-PC Devices- iPod, iPhone and iPad

1:01 PM iPad created a category. 172 Post-OC devices last year, 75% of Apple revenue from them.

1:02 PM Apple Retail Stores are the place for people to expereicne and use them

Numbers

362 Retail Stores now and growing. (Having been at the Grand Central Store with Judie it is clear they are more than just stores.)

Video Rolling so let’s frame this- over 75% of Apple revenue last year was from these devices. That is huge. And it is why this event immediately is focusing on this area.The momentum and revenue is huge!

315 million iOS devices sold through last year with over 60 million in Q4 alone.

Demoing Siri in languages other than English

iOS 5.1 Available today

Apps- over 585,000 in the iTunes App Store

25 billion apps downloaded.

More numbers- over 100 million iCloud users and iTunes “in the cloud” now supports movies. AND, 1080p movie support.

Apple TV

Apple TV with a new streamlined interface. Even lets you get iTunes playlists from iCloud to the Apple TV

Photo Stream support.

New interface via remote- short tap brings up a pop-up menu while a long press takes you back to home.

New Apple TV is $99 and avaiable next week. You can order today (the Apple Store and app are now down obviously)

 

 iPad

The Poster-child of the post-PC world.

Over 15 million sold last quarter

More iPads were sold than any PC company sold in that quarter. WOW

Talking about iPad being the device of choice for many tasks and many people. (It sure is for me)

over 200K apps for the iPad specifically.

Bear in mind- the device is less than two years old. THAT is remarkable.

Going after other tablets through a comparison of the app experience. (Opinion- you don’t need to do that. It lacks a bit of class and is unneccessary.)

iPad 2 about to be one-upped… by Apple of course

“It is amazing”

via Engadget

Retina display

1080p is 1920 by 1080

this is 2048 by 1536 3.1 million pixels

Processor is an A5X processor quad-core graphics

44% greater color saturation

iSight Camera-

5mp on back5-element lens, IR filter, ISP built into chip

1080p video recording

(I want to know what this all does to battery life)

Stabilization built into the camera- WOW

VOICE DICTATION!!!!!!!!!!!! (YES! This alone now makes this the best device ever imo)

No Siri just the voice recognition (Me- I’m fine with that.)

4G LTE- (The rumors were right)

(So what does this do to battery life????)

iPad  21 Mbps HSPA+, DC-HSDPA 42Mbps and on LTE it is 73 Mbps

LTE On both AT&T and Verizon (Bell, Telus, and Rogers too)

Different bands but all iPads will be World 3G ready AND

iPad can serve as a personal hotspot (just like the iPhone now)

iPad 2 was getting 10 hours of battery life (MAYBE)

the New iPad gets 10 hours and 9 on LTE (WOW)

Slightly heavier and 9.4mm

 

Price- 16GB for $499

32GB %599, 64GB $699

Available March 16

No 128 🙁

4G adds $130 (So the same pricing structure.)

Pre-Orders start today

All Apple apps are updated for the new display

 

So is the iPad 2 DONE or is there a last item with is being discounted???

Or maybe something smaller????

(Comment: No surprises here are all and Siri missing in its fullest form but still, this is a great update to a device that was already fantastic.)

iPhoto for iPad– (COOL, hope it works better than iPhoto for OS X)

Tons of cool functionality that we will run down later. (Def. will buy as I love editing photos on the iPad)

“Swipe in…” (the new iPad may have some of the gestures that work so well with the PlayBook’s bezel)

Double-tap a picture and iPhoto finds similar ones (THAT is neat)

App supports up to 19MP photos (So none of the 41MP photos from that Nokia Judie)

(This is super powerful!!)

$4.99 and available today

(ADVICE: with a 5MP camera and HD Video you are going to use up more space than ever on the device. Buy the largest capacity you can afford!!! You will fill up 16GB pretty quickly.)

iPad is simple being called the iPad or the “3rd Generation iPad”

iPad 2 WILL Continue- $399 for the 16GB WiFi

“We’ve redefined yet again the category Apple created just two years ago” (Sorry but… no!! This is a nice incremental update but FAR from a redefinition.)

via Apple

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.

65 Comments on "Apple’s March Event News (Updated As It Happened)"

  1. Glad to hear that iTunes in the Cloud now supports movies … there have been reports of much wrangling with movie studios.  Glad it worked out!

  2. President Obama has an iPad.  Our first nerd President?

  3. Screen shot of Infinity Blade for showing the capabilities of the iPad for gaming!

  4. Tim Cook seems to be doing pretty well; no one quite like Apple at doing an “event”, is there?  Reminds me of what I read about things like the Detroit Auto Show in the 50s and 60s.

  5. I can feel IT people all over the country wincing in advance at the load that’s going to hit the networks as soon as Apple opens its online stores back up after the event.  Francis is probably hiding out right now.

  6. 2048 by 1536?  Man; now I’m going to have to re-rip all my (legally purchased on DVD and/or Blu-ray) movies!  Time to fire up Handbrake!

  7. Looks like the graphics is much improved! better screen and camera

  8. Funny how many rumors are both right AND wrong … like the A5X.  Folks said it was the A5X and others said Quad Core.  Both right!

    LOVE the new camera!

    • Maybe I have to try it, first, but I can’t imagine hefting around a 10″ device to take pictures with.  But maybe that’s just me.

      • Anyone taking pictures with a tablet looks like a tool.  😛

        • Well, that’s what I always thought, but who am I to judge–I wear socks and Birkenstocks.

        • Maybe so but it comes in quite handy and now with a decent camera… happy to look silly if i can get the shot

          • And photographers have a saying….the best camera is the one you have with you.  

            Cameras in tablets are nice to have as a nice backup.  🙂

        • I see it more and more … I watched someone capture the whole High School music comcert on an iPad last night … but felt really bad for the person with the ‘obstructed view’ sitting behind them!

          • Parents at concerts can be a pain.  Which is why I try not to be and bring a decent camera with a nice telephoto.  🙂

    •  LOL, you were right, Mike…I should have waited on the iPad purchase a couple months ago. 😉 Better graphics, CPU, voice dictation, oh my! Say, anyone in the market for an iPad 2??? 😉

      • Price just dropped on your used one by $100-200– sorry Bryan

        •  Eh, that’s okay. I knew that would happen, but I’m happy with my iPad. I’ll just vicariously enjoy yours and Judie’s (and others’) thoughts on the matter once you are all rocking with the latest and greatest.

    • Is it real quad core or quad graphics cores??  As in dual core with 4 graphics processors?  Engadget wasn’t very clear.

      • The image said “Graphics”

        • Which is what I thought it said.  I don’t care about benchmarks.  I am SURE the iPad is probably faster, but the OS is different.  Less stuff in the background on iOS plus we already know what Google said about thier interface(it’s not graphically accelerated).  If this was out when I bought my EeePad I probably would have opted for it.

      • Apple is slick and clever – I am sure it is a dual core CPU with quad core GPU and some awesome bridging on the SOC.  That way they get reduced power consumption and cost, graphics that will shut everyone up, and the ability to put quad core on a slide 🙂

        • DING!  Michael gets a gold star!

          • If you check every tech site out there it says ‘Retina display, quad core, etc’.  Given the coverage out there on this … it has become truth regardless of technical accuracy.  Like I said, performance will already be stellar (heck, my iPad 2 is amazingly fast), so reality doesn’t matter.

  9. I knew Dan would be pleased about the voice dictation.

  10. I’m wincing in anticipation of the price announcements now.

  11. Nice screen.  Don’t need 4G LTE.  Just wifi for me thanks.

  12. Doug Want!  *Very* glad there’s not a multi-month delay between the announcement and the availability. Good work on that, Apple.

    • That is the problem with CES and MWC … half the big announcements there aren’t close to shipping.  We’ll all have filled our new iPads with stuff and be getting ready for iPhone 5 announcements before half that stuff hits!

      I just don’t get why these guys don’t learn?

  13. If you’re a game developer, how stoked do you have to be when Apple calls you up and says, “We want to demo your game at our product launch”?

  14. Autodesk Sketchbook is COOL.  Have it on my EeePad and it works well….except nothing I have stylus wise feels right.  Drawing with a stylus or my finger feels like drawing with a crayon.

  15. Ooh; Epic games!  Doug gets excited!  (You can tell, because he’s speaking of himself in the third person.)

  16. One of these days I’m going to have to attend one of these things in person.

  17. Definitely agree with Dan’s advice: “(ADVICE: with a 5MP camera and HD Video you are going to use up more space than ever on the device. Buy the largest capacity you can afford!!! You will fill up 16GB pretty quickly.)”

    Apps WILL be larger, your images and video are going to be huge – and suddenly you will WANT to use the iPad with these things due to better camera!

  18. Best comment ever from Dan: “We’ve redefined yet again the category Apple created just two years ago” (Sorry but… no!! This is a nice incremental update but FAR from a redefinition.)

    • Best EVER?!?!?! I’m hurt 😉

      • Ok maybe not EVER….but it’s showing that you are not completely sucked into the RDF.

        If I saw the word amazing one more time in this announcement I thought I was going to puke.  🙂

        Oh yeah it’s a great device, but it’s an evolution.  It was GOING to happen.

    • It is more polite than saying ‘you know how no one has caught up with the iPad 2 and most folks are still dealing with the original iPad and failing? … eat THIS dust, suckers!’ 😉

      Seriously, while capability-wise most Android tablets are still stuck in 2010 ‘oversized smartphone’ world (mostly due to slow OS evolution) but with some decent hardware (except Samsung’s reductive recent announcements), Apple just keeps plowing along.  My iPad is already my single most used device … and now that will just increase. 

      • You already know I disagree on that because most iPad apps are kind of the same.  Apple just hides it better. 🙂
        The only thing I see that really really leaves Android in the dust is the screen…and some features of the OS.  iOS simplicity really works for a lot of people.  For me, it CAN work….but only if I jailbreak! 🙂

        • Not really – more and more apps are iPad-specific and optimized.  Even so-called universal apps can – and do – function differently based on the device.  You simply don’t get that with Android.  Which makes sense – you have very little market penetration, and Android users notoriously are non-payers (either demanding free stuff or simply ‘liberating’ apps).  There is simply no reason to invest in creating an Android tablet app at this point.  Unless it is for the Kindle Fire.

          But I have already gone into how the music stuff that is totally absent on Android.

          iMovie is all about content creation – and the iPad version is definitely different and more functional than the dinky iPhone one.  Now with updates it is even more true.

          iPhoto will make that even more true – I am reviewing Photoshop Touch on iPad, which blows away the Android version … and iPhoto looks to run rings around that.

          And iOS ‘simplicity’ is very dismissive – it is more than that.  It is ‘efficiency’.  The iPad works amazingly well as a laptop replacement – we have seen articles showing it again and again.  The combination of the design (I’ll say it again, 16:9 is just plain WRONG as a productivity screen for a tablet), OS and software, and accessories make it just a great solution. 

          And seriously, the only way anyone talks about using an Android tablet as a ‘laptop replacement’ … is when they talk about what I call ‘Android netbooks’ (i.e. ASUS Transformer & Prime). 

  19. Great specs and a nice, if aging OS.

    If it weren’t for the walled-garden software model I’d be tempted. But as things stand, I’ll pass.

    • I’ll take a so-called ‘aging’ OS over the worst mobile tablet OS ever (Honeycomb) or one that demonstrates Google’s continues cluelessness on tablets (ICS).  I love Android on my smartphones, but it is still not even as good as iPad 1 yet.  Best Android tablet remains the Kindle Fire – because it is NOT all about the hardware.

      Also, ‘walled garden’ is a philosophical debate – it has no bearing in discussions of practicality, utility or productivity.  Personally I actually *do stuff*  with my devices, Android or iOS.

  20. David Min | March 7, 2012 at 5:34 pm |

    The best part of any Apple launch? Flame Wars on tech websites!

    All of the latent Fandroid vs. iSheep hostility comes to the forefront. Honestly, it’s hilarious.

Comments are closed.