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
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!
About time; sheesh! I’ll definitely be utilizing *that* functionality ASAP!
President Obama has an iPad. Our first nerd President?
Screen shot of Infinity Blade for showing the capabilities of the iPad for gaming!
I know you love it … but a tech demo is ultimately how I look at IB – a fun demo, but a demo nonetheless!
That’s cuz you’re a real gamer; I’m just a dilettante.
I keep waiting for them to do Riven for the iPad.
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.
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.
Well, we know that millions of people have been hitting F5 every 30 seconds for the last two hours since the Apple store went down!
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!
Looks like the graphics is much improved! better screen and camera
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.
I knew Dan would be pleased about the voice dictation.
YES!!!!!!!!! 🙂
I’m wincing in anticipation of the price announcements now.
Rumors were right … well, 50% of them. The ones that said higher price were wrong, the ones that said same price … BINGO!