Jew World Order

Apple pulls back the curtain on the eagerly awaited refresh of its blockbuster iPad 2 tablet. New features include better display, faster chip, and 4G LTE.

iPad event invitation
(Credit: Apple)

Apple unveiled a new iPad today, resetting the goal line again even as competitors scramble to catch up in the burgeoning market for tablets.

The new iPad offers a higher resolution ‘Retina Display’ similar to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. It offers a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 — or 3.1 million pixels. It also boasts an updated processor, which the company boasted was four times as fast as the nearest competition, as well as a 4G connection.

The new iPad debuts at a time when rivals have flooded the market with competing tablets — to varying levels of success. A year ago, Apple had essentially lapped most of the competition when it launched the second iteration of its iPad, allowing it to dominate the market.

A year later, and it’s a different scene. While there are still plenty of flops, including Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad and the Motorola Xoom, legitimate competitors such as the Amazon Kindle Fire have emerged, as well as the Asus Transformer Prime. Some offer innovations that Apple’s iPad lacks. Still, with Google still figuring out its tablet strategy with Android, Apple still has a decent amount of breathing room.

The new iPad’s pricing scheme is similar to the iPad 2. In the US it costs $499 for the Wi-Fi 16GB version, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. For 4G, its $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for the 64GB version. LTE compatible versions will come in different flavours to suit different networks, so Australians looking for LTE compatibility should not buy just any overseas version.

Apple plans to launch it in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan on the same day. No word on the delay between their launch and a launch date for Australia. As with the prior versions, the iPads are available in black or white.

The latest version features an A5X processor, upgraded from the A5 chip used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. Apple says that the A5 chip is twice as fast as Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor, while the A5X is four times as fast.

The latest iPad also marks the first Apple device to tap into the super-fast 4G LTE network. Marketing executive Philip Schiller talked up the benefits of a next-generation cellular network. Like many other 4G devices, the 4G-connected iPad will be able to double as a personal hotspot. Schiller said there would be two versions of the iPad compatible with LTE, one for Verizon Wireless and one for ATT. Both will be able to move back down to 3G in areas where 4G isn’t available.

Like the iPhone 4S, the iPad features a backside 5-megapixel camera that allows for 1080p video recording and image stabilization.

Apple said the battery life will remain the same, at roughly 10 hours, although it would drop down to 9 hours when on 4G. The device will weigh 1.4 pounds.

The tablet has emerged as a crucial component to Apple’s revenue stream, standing equal among the iPhone and MacBook businesses. In the fourth quarter alone, the company sold 15.4 million iPad units, placing it head and shoulders above the competition.

CEO Tim Cook, speaking at the event, said its three post-PC devices–the iPhone, the iPod, and iPad, sold 172 million units last year, which made up more than three-fourths of its revenue.

“In many ways the iPad is re-inventing portable computing, and it’s outstripping the wildest of predictions,” he said, noting the iPad sold more units than any other PC maker sold PCs in the fourth quarter.

Perpetuating the lead is the wealth of apps that are custom designed for the iPad, something other tablet manufacturers lack. Cook said there were 200,000 apps designed specifically for its tablet.

More to come.

Via CNET