The new iPad: awesome
March 7, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica
The new iPad, introduced today, has a 264 pixels/inch “retina” display with 2048 x 1536 pixels (3.1 million), compared to 1920 x 1080 with HDTV; 5 megapixels camera with 1080P HD video (and new version of iMovie) with autofocus and face detection in still images; new A5X quad-core processor that is “four times as fast as the nearest competition”; and next-gen 4G (up to LTE) connection. Unbelievable.
Available March 16. I’m pre-ordering now.
Amara D. Angelica is editor of KurzweilAI and a former aerospace engineer.
Comments (18)
by Scott
It’s been a few weeks, what are your continuing thoughts on the device? Has its use become integrated into your daily patterns?
by Snake Oil Baron
The most interesting parts of the iPad/iPhone/iPod story (and I include competitors in this) has not changed. Firstly, there are markets now for software that costs 99¢. A company or individual can come up with an idea for an app, give it out for free or for pennies and end up altering the behavior of vast numbers of people. Individuals can think of something it might be nice to have an app for and there is a good chance it exists. Secondly, a vicious circle has been broken. It used to be that companies would build a device without enough reasons to use it and developers were limited as to what they could enable people to do because they didn’t have a large enough market who owned any given machine. Not to mention the distribution system being virtually nonexistent. I remember a few years ago searching for interesting software for the Pocket PC; not easy.
These days you see employers and managers coming up with ways that tablets and smart phones/Touches can be used in their business rather than tech companies trying to convince them they might be useful.
Laptops are good but the App model combined with these newer portable handheld device has really opened up a new field of potential innovation that is just starting to rise.
by GatorALLin
…..Have to agree with you the ability for anyone to make an App…sell it world wide….charge almost nothing for it, but also they could get rich at $.99/e if just one million people loved it… If we are going to actually reach the singularity then we need a massive ability for faster/better ideas….so the old routes of companies providing them has switched to allowing the individuals to now make it happen. Kinda cool to think that everyone in the world is now connected via cell phones and iPods and that now unlimited knowledge is almost free… and that ideas or the ability to share them and crowdsource things is even easier….. Seems like it is all about levels of complexity and making it easier for ideas (memes) to win (not just companies or people with power, but anyone with a good idea). Skynet and the Borg seem closer now…. (grin).
by Think
Is there anyone who can see beyond the sparkling material of new technology like the “iPad”, (it isn’t as advanced as YOU) and see the slaves who are mass producing it? China is the model for the US and Europe, wake up!! .Ron Paul is the future.
-Giant Sucking Sound
by mg
higher screen resolution doesn’t strike me as being that huge a leap forward. 1024×768 is plenty high for that size screen. If you’re going to double it, why not triple or quadruple it. Other than games, I don’t see higher res as being such a huge game-changer, if anything, it’ll just add to extra costs for the industry to develop alternate high-res content for consumers, and higher bandwidth costs.
by Editor
mg: I’ve seen comments that photographers are excited with the higher res. I’ll comment further after my iPad arrives tomorrow!
by Peter
Ipad 2 works with 1024×768 and its font renderization is not good for reading, it’s necessary to do manual zoom for improve the quality. So retina display is a great improvement. Other expected resource in future would be a reflexive screen for reading, because led or led screens tire the eyes.
by MisterK
I think it’s fantastic and if my previous work hadn’t given the entire 100+ person staff iPad2s then I would have gotten the new iPad. I can see why it’s on this website… the iPad really has been a transformative computing device. It’s heralded a slew of (unsuccessful) competitors and Apple sold more iPads than any other PC maker sold PCs… That is a huge deal. We’re all walking around Star Trek style with these connected touch-screen computers. To put this into perspective, watch the 2006 TED Talk from Jeff Hahn; he showed off pinch to zoom on a surface-styled table and the audience GASPED. Now this is common place on the top selling computers and smart phones. The resolution increase is also a big deal… the screen is the biggest deal on a tablet.
All that said, I’d love to see a wider rollout of SIRI, and I’d love if Apple put some serious work behind it and just blew everyone away. Maybe they can team up with IBM’s Watson. I’d also like to see Apple make a million little deals with credit card, media, and tourism companies and do a massive rollout of NFC. People will complain that Apple didn’t do it first, but no one else can make these kinds of partner deals and make this ubiquitous.
by NakedApe
Geez, what a bunch of nay-sayers. I think this technology is mind-boggling. It wasn’t so long ago when you had to read printed text off a page of, GASP, paper! Kudos to all the great and smart people who are bringing us these wonderful technological gadgets.
by e
what the F**** are these articles?!?! kruzwell’s newletter is losing it’s value fast.
by tori
amazing, how can buy this expensive toy when by half of the price you can buy other devices by far more interesting?. Only Fan boys who loves obsolescent products.
by Kevin
The new ipad is not quad core. It has a dual core CPU and a quad core GPU. Compare that with last year’s ASUS Transformer Prime, which had a quad +1 cpu and a 12 core GPU, and you can see that this isn’t really a leap forward in anything other than pixel density, which I doubt most eyes can actually distinguish.
Apple is calling the A5X quad core with the intent to decieve the public. This is very similar to AT&T and T-mobile refering to their updated 3G services as 4G when it wasn’t. Its marketing spin.
by Your Mobile Site
I don’t know what the big deal is. Sure, they’ve increased the pixels. But people who have actually used the thing already are saying it’s performance is slower than that of the iPad 2.
On top of that… the iPad 2 can’t even handle Flash. And it never will, since Apple and Adobe hate each other’s guts.
Do you realize how many sites use flash? Grooveshark would be a no-no with the iPad.
I’d always go for a Samsung Android tablet myself. Cheaper and better.
by Tab Cocovillea
No, no one has said it’s slower than the iPad 2. QFT.
by Singme
Bummer, no SIRI.
by RalfLippold
Excellent – time to get one soon. Unfortunately to my Twitter followers no LTE in Germany for it :-( #SiliconSaxony
by andmar74
It’s interesting to consider the criticism of the new ipad. If you read the press reports, many had hoped for more.
If you look at what has happened in just a year, from Ipad2 to this, it’s amazing. You get so much more for the same price.
Are people getting used to the fast pace of new products ? The consumers are really pushing the technology forward now.
by Spikosauropod
I once had a vision of the future. In my vision everyone walked around in a flowing toga with a magic scroll tucked under one arm. With their magic scroll, they could access any information in the world at any moment.
The scroll is about right—a bit flatter than I imagined—but we all need to start dressing a lot better!