Apple had their event today and announced a new iPad.
It has a screen with four times the current resolution, qualifying it as a retina display. There's a faster processor to handle all those extra pixels. A game demo'er said "This new device has more memory and higher screen resolution than an Xbox 360 or PS3" which is pretty impressive, but not that interesting to me. I've been more drawn to board games on the iPad. They beefed up the rear camera, including 1080p video, but I don't see that being a big win as it's still an awkward device to hold as a camera. There's voice dictation but not full Siri.
Also it now supports 4G LTE networks (you still have to pick an AT&T or Verizon model). This supports speeds of up to 72 Mbps. I'm not sure how that works since that can max out a 3GB plan in under 6 minutes. I'm not sure that the added speed would mean anything to me. It's a new network and at least Verizon says Boston is well covered but I'd want to see for myself.
The memory configurations and prices (and colors) are the same. So for the same money you get a much nicer device. But I'm not seeing much to make me want to upgrade an iPad 2. The retina display is the most compelling piece but I can't complain about the iPad 2. If the wireless coverage were much better than that would be another consideration but that's more important to me on my iPhone. At this point I'm still sticking with my iPad 2 and looking to upgrade my iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5 later in the year.
They also announced updates to iWork, Garage Band, iMovie and a new iPhoto for iPad app that looks very nice if you're into that sort of thing. I could easily see using it at night on vacation after moving photos from a camera's SD card to the iPad. It's crazy that it's only $5 and I'm curious to see comparisons with Adobe's $10 Photoshop Touch announced a few days ago.
Apparently the new device is called "The new iPad" so after the "iPad 2" it's now back to "iPad". Which is a little odd since they are still keeping an iPad model in the lineup. There's only a 16GB model (black or white) but it's only $399 for wifi only and $529 for wifi+3G. So they're dealing with the lower end of the market but not making a smaller screen version. This makes a lot of sense to me.
This is a cute question: Better Buy: An iPad or One Share of Apple?
1 comment:
Personally, I'm more excited by the new ATV. We're just about to relegate our 720p TV to the newly refurbished guest room and buy a 1080p to replace it in the main room. Our current ATV will go with the old one, and we will get a new one mated with the TV.
As for the buying a share of apple....I just happened to have an old eTrade account with about $570 in cash just sitting there. so I decided screw it...buy a share. $540.68. Let's see where we are in 6 months.
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