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