iPad 3/HD

[Blackjack]

"The new iPad" is now hogging Apple's main site, including video from the event:
http://www.apple.com/
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
etc.

Apple on Wednesday plans to take the wraps of its third-generation iPad during a media event in San Francisco. ....the event, which begins at 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00PM Eastern.

I'll post LiveBlog links I know of here (from past experience, live blogs often crash or get gagged during popular events, so you might need to switch now and then  ):

Live Blog Links
ABCNews
AppleInsider
C|Net
Endgadget
IGN
Mac|Life
Tech Radar
The Telegraph (UK)
Wired.com

[compilation list, a bit of overlap w/ above]
International Business Times [scroll to end there for several live blog links]

*Sorry, I fixed the botched up Cnet link.  

*I assume Apple will post a video of the announcement as soon as the event's over. I didn't see anything on the site about this as of yet? They don't usually live blog their own stuff.

[PR_GMR]

(PR rubs his hands)

I'm very much looking forward to this announcement.

[Shinjin]

*OK, I need CeeKay or someone to remind me how to "code" hyperlinks here (so you don't see the URLs, and this doesn't take so much space )?

Take this one:

Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/03/live-blog-apple-ipad3-event/

Format it like this:

Code:

[url=http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/03/live-blog-apple-ipad3-event/][b]Wired.com[b][/url]

To get this:

Wired.com

[ravenvii]

Unfortunately I have class during the announcement, so I'll come in and digest it after all is done.

[Exodor]

Here, Apple, just take my money now and give me one of these things already.

I've never tried to order an Apple product on launch day - do they typically take orders on their website as soon as the press announcement is over?

[leo8877]

Can't wait!!

[PR_GMR]

Dies minutos!

[Shinjin]

Dies minutos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFwZ4a5fZYE&feature=fvst

[Blackjack]

The early minutes are usually Apple just updating on general stuff (so far it's just Tim Cook doing just that). I'm finding some of these live blog links aren't loading or are crashing. fwiw, the ABC News and Wired ones are working for me at the moment.

At the 12 minute mark, no iPad3 mention yet. This info might be of interest to some folks though (from ABCNews live blog):

10:12AM: Apple’s Eddy Cue is now up demoing the new Apple TV interface. He is showing the full screen 1080p photo app on the new Apple TV. There’s also a new movies interface. Looks pretty sleek.

10:10AM: Now 1080p movies and TV shows in iTunes. Now a new Apple TV that supports 1080p.

10:09AM: Tim’s now chatting about iCloud and how you can keep all your photos, files, etc. in the Cloud. It now supports movies too!

At the 15-16 minute mark, started talking about iPad generally (stats, etc.).

[Exodor]

endGadget's live blog is working well for me.  The cnet blog has been down for about 5 minutes.

[Blackjack]

The Endgadget liveblog has photos from the event:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/07/apple-ipad-3-liveblog/

It's 2048 x 1536, sure enough. That's 3.1 million pixels. "The most ever in a mobile device."

We're looking at 264ppi "and that is enough to call it a retina display."

44 percent better color saturation than before, too.

In case you're wondering, there is most certainly a physical home button here.

A5X processor is confirmed, quad-core graphics!

Comparing to a Tegra 3, Apple says the A5 is "twice as fast" and the A5X offers "four times the​ performance." Not sure of the benchmark here, folks.

Yeah I know, live blogging a live blog is silly. Just sharing in case anyone has trouble getting it to display.  

Upgraded Camera

Next feature: iSight camera.

5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor on the back, 5-element lens, IR filter, and ISP built into ​the A5X chip.

Auto-exposure, auto-focus, we're looking at pictures from the beach.

Third feature: 1080p video recording.

Also a mic and dictation abilities.

Now tell me again why they can't put a less shitty still-camera in my iPod Touch?  

4G LTE:

Fifth feature: 4G LTE! [Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&T will be the LTE partners in North America, seems to indicate additional partners internationally]

New iPad nwo has 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, with LTE taking the cake at 73Mbps.

iPad 2 has 3.1Mbps on EV-DO, 7.2 on HSPA.

Phil is talking about the various bands of LTE, meaning we'll have separate devices for AT&T and Verizon.

The iPad can now be a personal hotspot too -- if the carrier supports it.

But, all will be 3G world-ready, which is good news. "Whichever one you pick you can roam anywhere​ around the world."

10 hours of battery life still! 9 hours on 4G!

it's 9.4mm thin, weighing 1.4lbs. [iPad 2 weighs about 1.33 lbs., according to Apple-bj]

We're talking $499 for 16GB. 32GB is $599 and 64GB for $699. [NOT 4G model]

Same prices as current iPad, available on March 16th.

If you want 4G it's $629, $729 and $829.

"If you want one as badly as I do you'll be happy to know that the pre-orders start today."

All launching on the same day. Apple's biggest rollout ever.
US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan.

Don't ask me what any of this alphabet soup means.  

[PR_GMR]

I'm following the Gizmodo liveblog and they're snarking Garageband and Imovie to death. A bit too much:

Sweet, I am totally going to suck down some high grade molly and make terrible music

That's what I love about the iPad: it frees all of us up to collaborate and create terrible, unlistenable things together

Now it's time for a GarageBand video, which will I'm guessing feature hipster music?

And a new iMovie too, so you can also make boring videos to bore your friend with!

Reminder: Creating these things involves taking copious video with your iPad. Which, again, is silly, no matter how good the camera is.

Someone should remind these guys that those two programs are great for everyday video/music production. They're not meant to make 'Avatar 2'. And even so, there's a dude right now that's about to premiere a movie at SXSW made with Iphones. So, there.

[Blackjack]

Don't forget that Gizmodo is presumably still barred from Apple events due to that whole brouhaha over their paying for an iPhone 4 prototype that was left at a bar. I suspect they'd claim it doesn't color their view of Apple.

A bud of mine at another board was complaining that this A5X is not a "real" quad-core CPU like the one in the current iPhone, something like that. I guess he means maybe it's got quad-core graphics processing power but not "program-running" quad-core power?

I think that's the only thing I can think of that hard-core techno enthusiasts might complain about here in terms of the upgraded hardware. Doing all this and keeping the price points where they have been with the iPad 2 sounds impressive to me.

Event's still going. I'm curious if they'll pull a Steve Jobs-like "...and just one more thing" addition at the end. 

[Crusis]

I wonder how much of a cluster this launch is going to be. I remember last year's nightmare of stores getting 5 iPad 2's and having 50 people waiting in line for them. Why can't they just get Amazon a few million of these babies. They have the most organized ordering system around especially if you have prime.

[Blackjack]

Still from Endgadget:

[Apple's Phil Schiller] Confirmed that the iPad 2 will continue.

Price drops by $100, $399 for a 16GB WiFi model.

I dunno, think they'd have to discount it a bit more heavily for folks not to just say "heck with it" and spend $100 for the latest.

Sounds like the name reveal is coming...
iPad Mucous?
iPad Maxy Waxy?

Weird. They don't seem to have ever bothered giving it a name other than "the new iPad."

Cnet has some rambling impressions from brief hands-on time at the event:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57390836-37/apples-new-ipad-first-take/

[Crusis]

That's the name? "The New Ipad?" 

[Blackjack]

That's the name? "The New Ipad?"  

Sure! And in about a year, it'll become... the Old iPad!  

It's now hogging Apple's main site, including video from the event:
http://www.apple.com/
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

[Crusis]

That's the name? "The New Ipad?" 

Sure! And in about a year, it'll become... the Old iPad! 

LOL! They should just keep up with this trend. You know, make it easier on consumers. You could just walk into a store and always be able to say "I want The New i(device)" and your wish would be fulfilled.

[PR_GMR]

That's the name? "The New Ipad?"  

Sure! And in about a year, it'll become... the Old iPad!  

It's now hogging Apple's main site, including video from the event:
http://www.apple.com/

lol at 'Old Ipad'. I'm perplexed at the lack of a proper nomenclature, but did like what I saw. Just a nice, new souped-up Ipad. Apple will have my money, and soon.  

[leo8877]

IN!

[PR_GMR]

IN!

  

[Blackjack]

It's fully up on the Apple site (figured these links would be of most interest):
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Video:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video
TV video ad:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/videos/#video-thisgood

I dunno about the naming thing. I would worry about customers getting confused that if they just call this 'iPad,' they're going to think the cheaper lone iPad 2 model (16GB wi-fi) is a better product.   But I guess because they no longer make the "original" iPad, this is maybe an attempt to simplify the brand rather than append numbers or letters to it?

Perhaps they can license The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" for marketing and re-word it:
"Meet the new iPad!
Same as the old iPad!"
*Townshend guitar riffs*  

[The Grue]

How much faster is this one supposed to be over iPad 2?

[PR_GMR]

It's fully up on the Apple site (figured these links would be of most interest):
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Video:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video
TV video ad:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/videos/#video-thisgood

I dunno about the naming thing. I would worry about customers getting confused that if they just call this 'iPad,' they're going to think the cheaper lone iPad 2 model (16GB wi-fi) is a better product.   But I guess because they no longer make the "original" iPad, this is maybe an attempt to simplify the brand rather than append numbers or letters to it?

Perhaps they can license The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" for marketing and re-word it:
"Meet the new iPad!
Same as the old iPad!"
*Townshend guitar riffs*  

Yes, that's what Im thinking too. They're just trying to simplify and perhaps even, icon-ofy, the Ipad; that way it'll stand apart from all the competing tablets.

[Blackjack]

How much faster is this one supposed to be over iPad 2?

It's so fast you can travel through time!  

Honestly, my impression is the new processor is more about speeding up graphics (so it should make a difference in graphics-heavy games, and perhaps stuff like mapping programs?). I haven't read anything yet that would suggest it'll launch programs at the speed of sound, or if it'll let you do day-to-day stuff at blinding speed.

Apple's just not keen on talking about benchmarks or numbers, so it'd probably be up to one of these tech sites, one they get some real hands-on time at their own offices, to measure actual performance gains in some way. They seem more comfortable just saying something to the effect that "it's faster and you'll notice it," rather than saying it'll be 1.3924134 times faster than an iPad 2 at doing so-and-so. I'm not saying I agree with it, only, that's how they seem to talk about processors.  
================

Hey I have a wimpy question: If you order something from Apple, does it come in a box festooned with "Apple" and the iconic logos on it? Not that I don't trust my condo building neighbors but... I don't trust them if I have an iPad-sized box that screams "Apple" on it laying in front of my door all day. 

[The Grue]

How much faster is this one supposed to be over iPad 2?

It's so fast you can travel through time! 

Honestly, my impression is the new processor is more about speeding up graphics (so it should make a difference in graphics-heavy games, and perhaps stuff like mapping programs?). I haven't read anything yet that would suggest it'll launch programs at the speed of sound, or if it'll let you do day-to-day stuff at blinding speed.

Apple's just not keen on talking about benchmarks or numbers, so it'd probably be up to one of these tech sites, one they get some real hands-on time at their own offices, to measure actual performance gains in some way. They seem more comfortable just saying something to the effect that "it's faster and you'll notice it," rather than saying it'll be 1.3924134 times faster than an iPad 2 at doing so-and-so. I'm not saying I agree with it, only, that's how they seem to talk about processors. 

Yeah, that is the impression that I am getting as well, that it is just the graphics that are improved.  Usually if there is a speed increase, Apple will at least mention it and I don't see them talk about it, so must not be a general processor increase.

[Mr. Fed]

Seen from Andy Levy on Twitter:  "Newt Gingrich would totally understand how I feel about my iPad 1 right now."

[Blackjack]

How much faster is this one supposed to be over iPad 2?

Oh, from the specs page for... "the new iPad":

Dual-core Apple A5X custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip with quad-core graphics

[Lee]

Still can't into the store to order one. Don't think I ever seen the Apple store crash. Ordered everything else right away.

[CeeKay]

hmmm... maybe it's because I slept through most of the event but now that it's official I'm not excited about this as I thought I'd be.

[Lee]

hmmm... maybe it's because I slept through most of the event but now that it's official I'm not excited about this as I thought I'd be.

I'm not excited, it's an iPad and will do what my first generation one will do. It will just do it faster and look better doing it. Which at this point I desperately want because iOS5 is way too slow on the first gen.

Just like the Apple TV, ordering one because I use the last one all the time and would like 1080p. Not exciting though.

[hepcat]

i think my iPad 2 will hold me over until the iPad 4.

[Lee]

i think my iPad 2 will hold me over until the iPad 4.

I think you mean "The Newer iPad".

[CeeKay]

iP4d.

[ydejin]

I wonder how much of a cluster this launch is going to be. I remember last year's nightmare of stores getting 5 iPad 2's and having 50 people waiting in line for them. Why can't they just get Amazon a few million of these babies. They have the most organized ordering system around especially if you have prime.

Wasn't the iPad2 launch partly messed up by the Japanese Tsunami situation messing with shipments coming in from the Pacific Rim?  That's my remembrance anyway.  I realize that iPad's come from China, not Japan, but I still recall general shipping issues.  

[Blackjack]

My take is what devs DO with all this GPU processing power, HD rez, and to some extent the 4G LTE connections (does the latter really let you DO something special or does it just mean loading web pages faster and downloading/uploading faster?) will determine whether it's worth upgrading to this.

Me I don't have one, and I want one. I certainly don't Need one, and that's why I've resisted tablets to this point even though I've very much enjoyed trying them in stores (including Android models too).

[ydejin]

hmmm... maybe it's because I slept through most of the event but now that it's official I'm not excited about this as I thought I'd be.

I'm not excited, it's an iPad and will do what my first generation one will do. It will just do it faster and look better doing it. Which at this point I desperately want because iOS5 is way too slow on the first gen.

Just like the Apple TV, ordering one because I use the last one all the time and would like 1080p. Not exciting though.

Me too.  I didn't upgrade from iPad1 to iPad2, but this is clearly the right time for iPad1 owners to upgrade.  Both the combination of Retina Screen and just the fact that some apps just don't work that well on iPad1.  

I haven't seen any mention of iPad3 main memory.  Does anyone know if it got upgraded to 1GB?

[ydejin]

Me I don't have one, and I want one. I certainly don't Need one, and that's why I've resisted tablets to this point even though I've very much enjoyed trying them in stores (including Android models too).

If you do a lot of reading online, which given your industry seems likely, I've found that reading is much more comfortable with a tablet.  Just being able to move about, shift sitting postures and such with a tablet means it would be very, very difficult for me to go back to doing my online reading on a laptop or a desktop.

[rickfc]

i think my iPad 2 will hold me over until the iPad 4.

I think you mean "The Newer iPad".

It'll be the iPad Harder.

Also, store was up for like 10 min and now it's back down. I keep throwing my wallet at the screen but nothing's happening.

[Devil]

OUT!

My Original iPad is still good enough.

Who's going to use that thing to record movies?