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
Nice screen. Don’t need 4G LTE. Just wifi for me thanks.
Now that I’m not traveling, I’m thinking the same thing. $829 for 64GB is . . . a lot.
All I need is tethering on my phone. I am near wifi most often anyway.
Good point; I’ve had 3G on my iPad so long, I forget about the tethering option.
I’m debating it based on just how much I use my iPad.
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?
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”?
Depends. If you’re a software tester like me, that could get awfully stressful. 😉
Try to think of it as job security, Bryan!
As Epic just said “This new device has more memory and higher screen resolution than an Xbox 360 or PS3.”
Consoles are totally on notice … I would love to see a major REAL game launch (i.e. $40 – $60) on the iPad
Mass Effect 3-level launch, you mean?
Except it SUCKS to play games on a tablet unless the game is programmed for touch. 3D shooters don’t work for me on any tablet.
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.
Ooh; Epic games! Doug gets excited! (You can tell, because he’s speaking of himself in the third person.)
IB Dungeons. Doug just fainted.
“Coming soon”? Aw, maaaaaaaan!
One of these days I’m going to have to attend one of these things in person.
I think we would ALL love to get to one … wrong coast 😉
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!
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.
The word “unleash” is also criminally over-used.
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).
I think the distinction of “simplicity” vs. “efficiency” is a worthy one.
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.
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.
Glad we keep you amused, David; we aim to please!