Apple’s ‘Come See What 2011 Will Be the Year Of’ event should be underway shortly (10:00 AM Pacific Time or 1:00 PM Eastern Time).
Apple is widely expected to unveil the 2nd generation iPad. Apple’s special event is being held at the Yerba Buena Centre for Arts in San Francisco.
It remains to be seen if Apple will be live video streaming the event like it has done previously. We’ll keep you posted.
Updates will be posted from top to bottom (bottom newest) so stay tuned (hit refresh to get the latest).
You can find our roundup of all the rumors and speculations about iPad 2 that we’ve reported so far leading up to the event.
The purported photos of Apple’s iPad that we had posted earlier are fake.
As some of our readers have pointed out, Apple’s online stores are currently down around the world, most definitely getting updated for the product/s launched at today’s event.
Less than 10 minutes to go, are you excited? What’s on your wish list?
We’re hearing some last minute rumors that iPad 2 will have ‘Dueling Operating Systems so you can do more.’ – courtesy CNN.
Steve Jobs has just come on stage. Great news!
Steve Jobs: “Something great to announce today”
First some updates from Jobs. Published Random House is brings its books to the iBookstore.
Apple has paid out $2 billion to the developers so far. Amazing!
Another milestone: Apple recently shipped the 100 millionth iPhone.
15 million iPad were sold in the first nine months of 2010, generating $9.5 billion in revenues.
Jobs is taking a dig at some of the competitors trying to compete with iPad.
App Store has over 350,000 apps out of which 65,000 apps are for the iPad.
Jobs showing a video for 2010 being the year of the iPad.
iPad 2 is an all new design, not tweaked, not marginal improvements. Awesome!
First: It’s faster thanks to the new A5 chip, which includes a Dual-core processor, up to 2x faster CPU. All out on graphics performance: up to 9x faster graphics.
Second: iPad 2 comes with built-in rear and front facing cameras.
It also gets a gyroscope like the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G.
iPad 2 is dramatically thinner, 33% thinner than the original iPad.
It will come in two colors: black and white and the white will be shipping on day one 🙂
Here are some photos courtesy Engadget:
iPad 2 gets the same 10 hours of battery life.
It comes with the same storage capacity: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
It will cost the same: iPad Wi-Fi only models 16GB – $499, 32 GB – $599 and 64 GB – $699 while iPad Wi-Fi+3G models: 16GB – $629, 32 GB – $729 and 64 GB – $829.
iPad 2 release date is March 11th in the US and March 25th for 25 countries.
iPad 2 will also support HDMI video and Apple will be selling a cable for it for $39.
Apple has designed a cover instead of a cover for iPad 2, it’s pretty cool.
Along with iPad 2 comes iOS 4.3 and it brings enhancements and new features.
iOS 4.3 will improvement the performance of Safari mobile browser as Apple has used the Nitro Javascript engine. It will run Javascripts 2x faster.
iOS 4.3 also bring iTunes sharing so you get at all of your music, movies, TV shows that are store in iTunes on your computer, directly from your iOS device. Wirelessly stream over home Wi-Fi to device.
iOS 4.3 includes AirPlay improvements such as built-in slideshow transitions from Apple TV right on your iOS device, and more importantly, apps from the App Store and websites can now AirPlay video in addition to audio.
Toggle for iPad’s side switch so that users can use it either as an orientation switch or a mute switch.
Personal Hotspot feature for iPhone 4 users only.
iPad 2 also gets some new apps like Photo Booth and FaceTime – Apple’s video calling feature.
iOS 4.3 will be released on March 11th.
Apple will also release iMovie for iPad on March 11th and will be available for $5.
Steve Jobs announces GarageBand for iPad. Demo going on.
Note: Apple has updated its website with the new iPad 2 – follow this link.
Demo of GarageBand for iPad is still going on.
It looks like the resolution of the screen is the same as the original iPad – 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi).
Steve Jobs recaps: iPad 2 – Faster, lighter, thinner. Cameras and gyro. iOS 4.3 and FaceTime. iMovie and GaragrBand. 3G on AT&T and Verizon. Same battery life. Same prices. Black and white. Smart Covers.
Steve Jobs: We think 2011 is clearly the year of iPad 2
Now, Steve Jobs is showing the video made for iPad 2. You can check it out here.
Note: Based on the iPad 2 tech specs, it looks like it will need iTunes 10.2, the current version is iTunes 10.1.2.
Steve Jobs: It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.
Steve Jobs: A lot of folks in tablet market are looking at this as the next PC, hardware and software done by different companies, and their talking about speeds and feeds, just as they did with PCs. Apple’s experience says that that’s not the right approach; these are post-PC devices that need to more intuitive.
Steve Jobs: Software, hardware, apps need to intertwine in a more seamless way than they do on a PC. We think we’re on the right track with this.
Steve Jobs: I think we stand a pretty good chance of being competitive in this market.
That’s it, folks!
Let us know what you think about iPad 2. Are you planning to buy one?
Update:
