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Apple Unveils New iPad

adeelarshad82 writes "As expected, Apple announced the new iPad complete with a Retina Display, quad-core processor, 4G LTE, and an improved camera. The new iPad will run the rumored A5X processor, which according to Apple will provide four times the performance of the Tegra 3. The revamped tablet will also include a 2048-by-1536 display, apparently the most in any mobile device. And finally with 4G LTE, the new iPad will provide up to 73 Mbps download speeds; partners for which include Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus, and AT&T."

49 of 989 comments (clear)

  1. Still don't want one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    I want a keyboard.

    1. Re:Still don't want one by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I want a keyboard.

      Meh, content creation is sooooo passé. All the cool kids today are consuming content provided by others, such as large media conglomerates desperate to get you to download their app. Don't you want to be cool?

    2. Re:Still don't want one by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So don't buy one. Geez. I don't have a need for a dump truck, a B-52 or a complete set of Star Wars action figures, but I don't particularly care if other people find them interesting or useful.

      Do you log into the American Dolls website to say you don't want one of those either?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:Still don't want one by thomasw_lrd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because you aren't the target market. The target market is people who want to read email, watch youtube, check facebook and surf the web. Tablets are for consuming on.

      I own an iPad 1. Its more convenient to sit on my couch, read a magazine that was delievered wirelessly, play a quick game that I either got for free (or paid $.99 for). It's nice at work to listen to music, and the battery life is amazing. Lasts from 8 in the morning until I go to bed. No need to lug around a cord for my laptop. No I can't create on it, wouldn't want to. I have a desktop and a laptop to do "real" computing on.

    4. Re:Still don't want one by SimplyGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They have those. They're called "laptops".

    5. Re:Still don't want one by Baloroth · · Score: 1, Insightful

      So I can't type on my iPad at all? Shit. What the hell does this virtual keyboard thingie do then?

      Idiot.

      The simple truth is that most people don't do any "content creation" above blog entries, tweets, etc on their full-sized computers. So why single out the iPad? Or do you just have a hard-on for bashing Apple?

      Did he mention Apple in his post? Or did you miss the "large media conglomerate" part, or that it applies equally well to Android (or WP7, if you prefer that route).

      I'm thinking the only person with a hard-on here is you, and for Apple.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    6. Re:Still don't want one by Isaac-Lew · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I already have that - the Asus Transformer Prime.

    7. Re:Still don't want one by rhook · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can easily get two laptops for the price of one iPad.

    8. Re:Still don't want one by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's see...what apps did Apple cover in the keynote? Autodesk Sketchbook, GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto, the iWork suite and a couple games. Yeah, no content creation at all.

      It doesn't surprise me that you were modded up, as Slashdot is full of geeks that spend their lives in front of keyboards. However, it might surprise you to discover that the world managed to create a great many things before keyboards were ever invented. It's hardly a requirement for creativity, and in many tasks is even a hindrance.

      Demanding that the iPad come with a built-in keyboard to suit your needs is like musicians demanding the iPad come with guitar strings or artists demanding it come with stylus support and a set of digitizer pens. The iPad is generic. If you have specific needs, buy a damn accessory.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    9. Re:Still don't want one by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Ummm, an iPad in a cover with a built in bluetooth keyboard, how is that different from say a netbook at 1/3 the cost?

    10. Re:Still don't want one by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But I bet they feel more prestigious.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    11. Re:Still don't want one by afidel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Available apps, 3G connection, touch interface, weight. Also you don't have to use the keyboard, it's just there in case you happen to have a need to enter a large amount of text. They're probably not used very often but since they cost about the same as a month of data service it was a very small part of the TCO calculation and potentially added a large amount of value.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    12. Re:Still don't want one by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You will be pressed to find a laptop the performs as well as an iPad at the $200 range. Even the $600 laptop for a decent net-book doesn't have all the same bells and whistles.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. 73mbps... by Professr3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow! You'll be able to reach your 3GB cap in 5.19 minutes! What'll you do for the rest of the month? :D

  3. Finally, someone is innovating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    They managed to pack a 5 megapixel camera, into that tiny tablet! Wow, we wouldn't have dreamed that was possible back when the iPad 2 came out. It's amazing how far we have come in a year.

    Yes, I bought an iPad 2 nearly 3 months ago and yes, I am bitterly disappointed that I didn't think to consider how shitty the camera was before making my decision. Hindsight is 20/20, even if the camera on my piece of shit iPad 2 isn't.

  4. Re:yawn by willie3204 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I saw somewhere that there are about 1300 of said Chinese co-eds at the gates every day trying to apply for a job at the plant

  5. siri by Demoknight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am pretty surprised that siri is not fully implemented on this device. it is only being used for dictation

    1. Re:siri by Grizzley9 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If it's like dictation on the iPhone then its almost the same thing. It uses the same voice and has all the dictation abilities of Siri. Using the handicap accessibility feature to add "speak" to the copy menu, it can even read to you any highlighted text at varying speeds (great for listening in the car to emails, notes, or reviews).

      My guess is they are artificially holding back on that small switch for the next iPhone release or iOS 6.0. Siri is much more useful on an iPhone than on a tablet in it's current state. Until they allow Siri to (officially) start interacting more with some 3rd party apps and controlling settings in iOS then there isn't as much of a point by putting it on a tablet. They aren't as mobile as phones.

    2. Re:siri by wanzeo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mobile computing companies are all deathly afraid that their customers will wake up one day and realize that a tablet and a phone are the same device, just in different sizes. That is why you can't get cellular voice service on a tablet, and probably why you can't get siri as well.

      God forbid, users might choose between tablet or phone, instead of having both.

  6. Re:Someone take that awesome display... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hell, I hate everything Apple but I'm still going to buy one just to read technical papers on. I've been waiting for a near-300 dpi reader device for ages.

  7. the new ipad by Twillerror · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is literally the new name. Am I the only one that thinks this is lame. Would Steve have ever okay this?

  8. Hopefully this will usher in higher-res monitors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm just hoping I'll finally be able to get a monitor with a similar resolution for a reasonable price. If Apple can make a 10" display with that many pixels, plus other computer guts, for $500, I don't think a 22-24" monitor with that resolution for $500 is too much to ask.

  9. Re:lol by White+Flame · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The same resolution as my old CRTs, which I absolutely, wholeheartedly welcome back.

  10. Re:Nice upgrade, but no big surprises in the new i by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's OK. iPad is still in the rapid growth phase. They need to appeal to people who don't yet have an iPad, not people who already have a slightly older model.

  11. Re:Nice upgrade, but no big surprises in the new i by rampant+mac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Without Steve Jobs doing the dramatics, watching the Live Blog was almost as exciting as Watching Grass Grow."

    Tim Cook may be as wooden as a door, but that man knows distribution. Jobs may have had the charisma, but Cook deserves a lot of the credit getting Apple to where it is today.

    --
    I like big butts and I cannot lie.
  12. Which is an... odd way to talk about graphics by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Graphics is so highly parallel that the concept of a core doesn't really apply to graphics processors, at least ones I've seen. You talk about them in terms of shaders, ROPs, TMUs and so on.

    1. Re:Which is an... odd way to talk about graphics by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The concept of cores absolutely does apply – the term "it has 2000 fragment shaders" is a misnomer – in reality, it should be "it can run 2000 fragment shaders on its 2000 shader cores".

  13. Re:73mbps != 4G by wickedskaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's what the standards body thought too, but the telcos started marketing 3.5G as 4G and the standards body did the worst possible thing and accepted the money.

    FTFY :)

    --
    Sand's overrated... it's just tiny little rocks.
  14. Re:New iPad by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If by "quality" you mean a tablet that many reviewers called rushed and incomplete, after a year, finally got the features everyone expected at launch, and has very few applications to this day, I'd hate to see what you call "poor".

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  15. Re:Hopefully this will usher in higher-res monitor by __aarzwb9394 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fingers crossed also that it might prompt a return to a more useful aspect ratio in affordable monitors.

  16. Re:Hipsters ASSEMBLE by Ihmhi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it's actually spelled "manna" in this context, but hell - there could be something there trading Greater Mana Potions, sure.

  17. waiting for the competition by Skapare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... which will hopefully have an open platform version somewhere so I can run my own stuff on it.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  18. Good luck with that... by l00sr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Judging from the history of these things, Apple probably has the entire supply tied up for the next 18 months.

  19. Re:Nice upgrade, but no big surprises in the new i by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The best camera is the one you have with you. The iPad in your backpack is better than the DSLR in your closet at home.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  20. Re:Queue the stupid by thoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't get the Apple hate... well, I get part of it. It must feel good to trash some product/company, makes you feel superior (I guess). Since their success defies geek sensibilities (?) their customers must all be sheep or something.

    But isn't this just the free market at work? It isn't as if they are like Microsoft* in the 90's, using their monopoly to rake users and customers over the proverbial barrel. They are selling into a very competitive market, doing the best thing of inventing stuff people want (not just pulling a Microsoft* and hanging out for ~4 years working on their copy), and raking in the money as stuff flies off the shelf to happy customers in record numbers. Selling the number of items they do, week after month after month after year, and maybe just maybe they've figured out the key component of the market: selling stuff customers want to buy.

    If the only way you can rationalize their success is claiming the bulk of their sales is to fashion conscious wealthy hipsters chasing status symbols, you are deluded worse than the customer base that exists in your imagination. That explanation might fly for low numbers over a few quarters, but this is the same crap critics have been leveling for nearly 10 years of their gizmo selling. Time to grow up and deal with it. Or even better, do the "free market competition" thing and create better (better as in defined by the market) alternatives. Or, hang in the shadows crying about how the market isn't obeying your carefully constructed world view.

    They're working constantly to keep ahead of Google/Android... customers and the industry benefit, right?

    *Not trying to throw Microsoft under that bus, but that's just how its turned out over the last ~12 years or so.

  21. Re:The one downside... by itsdapead · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Even if FaceTime is bandwidth-limited or someting, it'd be nice to take pictures of, say, yourself and your kids in greater than 0.3MP.

    That's why its got a 5MP camera on the back. Or you could use a proper camera with decent ergonomics and a lens bigger than a bead. Capturing your fizz for a video call is about the only practical use of the front camera.

    Oh, and the name--iPad, iPad 2, The new iPad.

    Well, every new iMac since 1998 has been "The new iMac" and that seems to have gone OK.

    Of course, Apple should really take a tip from proper, grown-up consumer electronics manufacturers like Sony or Samsung and give its products proper, grown-up names like the "IPD2048-16B2(W)/A" :-)

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  22. Re:The Screen by labnet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure why the media is playing down this as non event upgrade. I agree with the parent that the new screen is incredible.
    5 years ago I could get 1920x1200 in a 17" laptop. Now they are all gone with 1920 x 1080 the highest offer (which are even hard to get with 1600x900 being more common), which is a sucky resolution for CAD & programming work.
    Maybe with windows non vectorness the PC comapnies had too many returns when people with poor eyesight returned hi res offerings?, but man I would love a 2560x1600 17"/19" laptop.

    --
    46137
  23. Re:Nice upgrade, but no big surprises in the new i by Skadet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just what I'm looking for -- a distribution professional to do my PR.

  24. Re:Hipsters ASSEMBLE by White+Flame · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This thing is a $500 compact 2048x1536 LCD monitor for all I'm concerned, and to me that's a very welcome product. I don't give a rat's whisker about Apple's ecosystem otherwise.

    (Now, to wait for sanely available purchases and software support to allow that use...)

    However, to be fair to your stated point, the iPad line really is the first time that Apple has made an inexpensive product relative to the market. Pre-iPad, tablet PCs were slabs that were more expensive than laptops, typically starting in the $1500-2000 range. The iPad came out far cheaper than any competitor could have hoped to (due to price lock-ins from suppliers as prices were increasing), and pulled off a good form factor. Things have normalized more nowadays, but Apple actually had an undercutting product.

  25. Re:The Screen by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason for it is not to push the resolution beyond 1080p, which is fairly pointless on a screen that size. They did it because they have to double the previous generation 1024x768 screen so that all the old apps can scale exactly 2:1. The decision not to make apps resolution independent like most other systems is forcing Apple's hand.

    It's actually not so good for web browsing. Images at 1:1 scale are too small and 2:1 is too large like 1024 is. 1280 pixels is the sweet spot for browsing which is an awkward 2:3 that is exactly what they tried to avoid with apps.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  26. Because so many applications suck in DPI by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do all notebook displays suck in dpi?

    Because so many applications suck in DPI. Vertical market applications may not have been tested at any DPI other than the Windows default of 96. So if you set your window system's DPI so that text remains readable, your applications are likely to become ugly at best or unusable at worst. This has caused a lack of demand for laptop-sized high-DPI panels.

  27. But it will task switch better by brokeninside · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I spent about a year with a first generation iPad as my primary computing device. I'd purchased a blue tooth keyboard and it worked fine for what I needed it to do, most write term papers.

    What I found is that it was a royal pain to switch back and forth between my text editor and my web browser (or PDF viewer). This was the largest draw back for me.

    I also found Mobile Safari to be less than stellar. Now that I've switched to a Mac Book Air, I tend to have 20 to 30 Chrome tabs open at once. Good luck with that on Mobile Safari. And, worse, it would tend to refresh the page and lose its position when I switched to the text editor and then back. That makes it difficult to write term papers.

    Lastly, my preferred text editing solution (LaTeX) was unavailable (and will always be unavailable) for iOS. This meant that I'd have to borrow my kids computer for a half hour to an hour to finish up my term papers. In the grand scheme of writing 10 or 15 thousand words from start to finish, that's not so bad.

    I still miss the iPad. Gestures on the touch screen were a thing of brilliance. Lion makes up for some of that with the track pad. But it just isn't the same. I also miss the battery life and the ability to take it somewhere without the keyboard.

    For many people, an iPad is probably all the computer they really need. For me, not so much. But the hardware limitations weren't what I bumping into. The problem was policy. Apple does not want apps that can run turing machines. LaTeX with its macro language is right out. Apple hasn't made a way to task switch back and forth between programs in an intuitive fashion. Maybe by the time it comes to replace my Mac Book, they'll finally be there. They aren't there yet.

  28. Re:Hipsters ASSEMBLE by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember all the rampant rumors and speculation leading up to the iPad. The lowest price guessed was $800. When it was announced at $499, Apple's competitors must have crapped in their pants. The main problem with the speculation was that everyone was expecting Apple to make a tablet like MS made tablets: a laptop with a touchscreen. Apple instead offered a larger version of an iPod Touch. While it doesn't offer the computing solution a laptop offers, Apple correctly gambled that most consumers didn't want that solution. They wanted a larger iPod Touch.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  29. Re:yawn by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Naw, it's the "best and brightest" execs that are the real expense. Foxconn workers get $0.35 an hour while the execs get $100 million bonuses.

    Which is fine. You should be paid according to what it costs to replace you.

    Just imagine if they had shitty third rate execs who only got $90 million in bonuses.

    They might have to pay the workers 40 cents an hour! The sky would fall in.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  30. Re:Quad core by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    no. It's like you paid for the critical operation that kept me alive. IT didn't matter how much it was, if you didn't do it, I would have died.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  31. Re:Quad core by Americano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not to get too Apple fan boy-y, but Microsoft's investment wasn't *that* big.

    In dollar terms, perhaps not. In crowd-psychology terms? It was huge. It was Apple being able to allay investors' fears: "Look, we have this commitment from a hugely successful hugely profitable company like Microsoft. Do you really think they'd give us this money and make this commitment if they thought we were circling the drain and about to fold?"

    There's a reason why their stock went up about 33% that day, added ~800 million to their market cap, and effectively doubled their stock price from the time Gil Amelio left. When you're a publicly traded company that needs money to keep operating, having a big, wealthy company say "These guys are doing great things and we want to work with them," is a pretty helpful vote of confidence.

  32. Re:Queue the stupid by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's the fact that this was the worst point in your crappy post. Apple makes a tiny profit off the App Store but they treat it as a loss leader. Most of the money goes first to developers, then to credit card companies, then to store maintenance, then a tiny profit left over for them.

    But, Apple Haterz gotta Hate. By any means necessary.

  33. Re:Pay More Do Less by geekoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    not true. It does different stuff.
    And it doesn't cost more then an Apple Laptop; which is the only valid comparison. Well, any laptop you cna buy running iOS or OSX.
    And, of course, there are a lot MORE laptops that cost more money.

    1) I can't easily carry a loptop around and enter data as I walk.
    2) A laptop doesn't fit on a music stand
    3) a laptop is less intuitive to children
    4) a lop top is more difficult to keep clean in hospitals.
    5) A medical professional can walk from patient to patient and read and enter data
    6) magazine/comic books are FAR easier to read using the iPad over a laptop.

    Any where where a laptop is hard to use on the fly, the table is superior.

    I'm not saying it's replacing the laptop, just that there are areas where it is far more convenient and handy then a laptop.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  34. A laptop costs more than a desktop and does less. by Brannon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your move, Einstein.