The biggest surprise at today’s Apple iPad 2 event was the fact that Steve Jobs was there to present it. Jobs walked out to a thunderous standing ovation and stated, “We’ve been working on this product for awhile, and I didn’t want to miss it.”
The iPad 2 is very much a video device. The resolution is the same, the price is the same and the battery life is the same. The new feature is a front and back facing camera which was not available on the original iPad.
The new device can also wirelessly stream video from any app to an Apple TV device (and vice versa), which makes the iPad an even more powerful convergence device than Apple TV.
Additionally, iMovie is now available on the iPad 2, and is specially designed to make it easy to edit videos on a tablet format. Facetime, which has been available since the launch of the iPhone 4, is now available on the iPad 2, too, and can perform videoconferencing between both iPhone and iPad 4 devices. Garageband for the new iPad will allow you to plug in instruments, add effects and record up to 8 tracks.
The device itself is 1/3 thinner, available in white — they promise white will be available on day one (remember when the promised white iPhone never surfaced?) — and boasts a much faster 1 ghz A5 dual core processor. Apple claims the CPU is twice as fast and graphics are nine times faster and with all of that the battery life is still miraculously the same.
Apple also unveiled a new cover that snaps onto the device using built-in magnets on the iPad2. The cover rolls back and acts as a stand for watching video and to allow for easier tapping. The cover also has a microfiber surface on the inside that helps keep the iPad 2 surface cleaner.
The iPad 2 will be available on March 11th, the same day South by Southwest, spring break for tech geeks, begins so expect the Apple store in Austin to be a mob scene.
Well, being different can be good and it can be bad. My new television just happens to be Internet enabled. As far as I can make out from all the available documentation, the list of computers that can’t be DLNA servers consists of entirely of Macs and nothing else, and the list of other devices that can’t be DLNA clients consists of all Apple products, plus a colleciton of low-end featurephones.
Either Mr Jobs is marching out of step on video, or the rest of the world is. It’s just possible that Apple have missed the standards boat on this one.