new iPad?

Twitter is my friend now… now that i post much to twitter, but i read a lot from there… like news snippets from straits times or today… i read a lot of articles from Time too...

Like now… I'm following tweets from cnntech and techland abt the apple iPad event…

EDIT: Here's a nice summary article about the new iPad

Here's my commentary on the event/tweets… credits to cnntech, techland, macworld live blog and Time live blog.

"Tim Cook is saying that people love the iPad more for email than their desktop, laptop, or phone. Same for Web browsing. They like it better than e-readers" - totally agree… my dad LOVES reading his mails on the iPad so much… its like the main reason why he actually bought an iPad 2 last year… nowadays he pretty much lazes in the lazy chair or seats at the dining table reading his mails or surfing the web on his iPad… like say reading tech reviews about cameras etc...

"New iPad resolution: 2048 X 1536. That's 3.1 million pixels on the device. 264 pixels per inch." - i think that's pretty much what most ppl expected already? Its rather expected after all - the iPhone 4s has such a nice screen but the iPad 2 screen is still pretty… lousy. so all's good here.

Bumped up iPad camera… again its pretty expected. the current iPad 2 camera is again, rather lousy. 5 mega pixel back camera… not bad… records in 1080p video… ok… isight camera on the front.

voice dictation is here on iPad… is siri on the iPad too??? dictation works in eng (US, british, australian - it still won't understand singlish), french, germany and japanese… neat… that's more languages than what siri can handle (i heard that siri is coming to japan soon tho)

still no name for the new iPad...

oh and it'll have a quad core chip AND 4g LTE connection. wow neat… that's everything that the most ambitious of rumors were talking about.

Now talking abt the 4g and LTE stuff… all i care about it is that things will load faster… IF you have a 4g device and a 4g connection.

"Additionally, software to make it a personal hotspot. If your carrier supports it, you can share the high speed network from your new iPad with up to 5 devices." - that's good…

Schiller: "This new ipad has the most wireless bands of any device that has ever shipped, and it is truly revolutionary." - yeah indeed… i don't even know what all those short forms stand for...

Dan Moren: The new iPad delivers the same: 10 hours of battery life, and on 4G it gives 9 hours. Team has worked incredibly hard to let you use it all day along. Amazingly thin at 9.4mm and 1.4 lbs. - oh cool.. the battery life is as good as before

oh and the prices! it’s the same as iPad 2 prices omg… my dad is so gonna regret buying his iPad 2 a while back… ok.. that was like 3 months ago already… but still…. :X

Release will be on 16th march… ooo apparently singapore is on the list of 1st release launches together with hong kong and japan… not bad. they are rolling it out even faster than ever… 25 more countries will get it the week after.

Now they are showing off some apps on the new iPad...

iWork gets a revamp to make better use of the retina graphics… still same price and it’s a free upgrade for those who purchased it already. update available today…. grrr… now u're tempting me again… (but wait, i don't have an iPad!)

Garage band and iMove got an update as well… like u can now have a jam session with 3 others using wifi or bluetooth. Garage band update available today too, $5. iMove - now u can also make a movie trailer, not just movies (what's the diff??? :S) "Select from styles and templates, and you get a simple interface for creating your trailer. Fill out your outline, your movie studio name, director, etc., and tap on your Storyboard, and shows you exactly which shots you need. Then you can use the 1080p camera to record the video." oh ok… i'll just pretend i understand. Once again i don't have any of the iLife apps on iOS. iMovie is also 5bucks.

oh wow, iPhoto is coming to iPad… watt's it gonna do?

ah so it'll let you edit photos… just like photoshop, snap seed etc… but it probably has a much slicker user interface. Its an apple app after all. "Double tapping the thumbnails finds similar photos, puts the up side by side for you so you can compare them. Swipe down to make one disappear." wow… that's something i've not seen any of my iOS photo editing software do. (but than again, I'm on the iPhone)

"Once you've got photos, tap share and you can email, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook." just like in my mac iPhoto…

"Once you've chosen them, you can make them look even better. Auto-enhance button to alter contrast color. Tap on crop tool and iPhoto will analyze and find horizon line. Touch button and it straightens horizon line." "You can always compare the original with the one you're working with." - sounds advanced and all good to me.

"Crop tool has multitouch. Pinch to zoom, rotate with fingers. Grab corner to change cropping or tap gear to bring up common sizes." - seems like everything is well thought out to make it work GREAT with the iPad.

"Too light or too dark? Exposure tool with unified tool that lets you adjust shadow, highlights, brightness, and contrast. Shadows in lower left corner are too dark. Touch finger at that point, brings up control. Touch and slide up and adjusts the level." "Sometimes you want to adjust just a portion. Touch in the sky and slide to the left and you can darken or lighten the sky." -  holy !$#@$@#$$! this is COOL! the bad thing for me though… is that i hardly have time/be bothered to edit photos these days… hmm...

meh… but iPhoto on the iOS sounds really great… like for normal, simple editing, it'll be easier, more convenient and faster to do it on the iPad than on photoshop

"It automatically lays them out onto pages, one for each day of the trip. They all get laid out in this beautiful layout. If you mark them with a caption or as a favorite, they will be moved to the larger spaces. But you can adjust it by tapping Edit and you can pick up and move around photos." - the journal feature sounds really good too… great if you're traveling and taking pics with your phone or iPad… wait can i get iPhoto on my phone too? my nub, old, dying 3g. ok, its not dying, its just running out of space. that journal feature can easily publish pics to share online too...

(wait, watt's the name of the new iPad again???)

hmm so with that, all of iLife is on the iPad… iPhoto at 5 bucks… seems really worth it IMO… available today! (ok, available today, but not NOW. at least its now in the sg iTunes store yet… yeah, garage band etc haven been updated yet too)

 

 

old iPad 2 will still be sold, prices dropped by 100bucks. (i wonder how my dad will feel about this…)

 

wait… that's the end??? eh… seems like the new iPad will just be called… erm… the new iPad…?

hmm no siri for the new iPad either… they really wanna keep it iPhone exclusive eh?

EDIT: Apple's PR says the new iPad will just be called the iPad… hmm… so they are kind of making it like the MacBooks… same name, but specs are very different… ok...

 

Summary of the new iPad

Release date: 16th March in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and more. One week later, 25 more countries.

Price: New iPad is priced at just $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. And $629, $729, and $829 (all USD) for 4G. Same prices as iPad 2.

0.37 inches and 1.4 pounds (slightly thicker and heavier than the old iPad 2 at .34 inches and 1.33 pounds)

Specs

2048 by 1536 pixels, 264 pixels per inch, over 3.1million pixels in total. Breaks the record for the most number of pixels available in a mobile device.

A5X chip quad core

iSight camera

5 megapixel back camera

1080p video recording, video stabilization, temporal noise reduction for low light. Great edge-to-edge sharpness. Auto face detection. Auto exposure lock and auto focus lock.

4G LTE, fast 3G HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA networking, 3G world ready, Personal hotspot, most bands ever.

Voice Dictation in US, British and Australian English, Japanese, French and German.

 

Other things…:

They announce a new apple TV

iOS software update - Everything in the iWork and iLife suite will get an update, and iPhoto will join the iLife iOS ranks… and it'll be priced at 5USD.

 

Since the chances of me owning the new iPad is close to zero… what' most excites me is the iPhoto on the iOS… it could turn out to be really useful… erm… if i make use of it… :X but considering and amy i've already spent on iPhone apps… another 5bucks isn't a big deal… like i'll just have to refrain from buying some sushi for supper and I'd save enough for the app… :X now but that's if i use it… if i don't use it much, it'll still be 5bucks wasted :X we'll see… as for now it's not in the iTunes store yet so… if i do get it though, my dad can use it on his phone and iPad too so its not too bad i guess… we'll see.