The highly anticipated Apple media event set for today March 7th has come and gone and it did not disappoint for the most part, but then again no one is ever really satisfied . The event held in San Francisco was headed by Apple CEO Tim Cook. We first were treated to Apple’s seemingly obligatory rants about their amazing sales on their three post-PC devices (iPod, iPhone, iPad) then it got straight to the good stuff.
First thing announced was a new iOS update 5.1 which finally brings Apples patented voice assistant to Japan among a few other minor improvements and bug fixes.
Then the first big news of the day was a revamped Apple TV which will be available March 16th and will feature a beautiful new user interface and will now support FULL 1080P HD streaming! Pretty exciting news there and as part of the new UI it will now support third party apps and all of your iCloud content, such as Photo stream and your iTunes library.
The last new feature on the third generation Apple Tv is ability to stop watching on one iOS device and pick right back up where you left off on another device which is pretty sweet. The price point has remained the same as the last generation and will come in at the same low price of 99$
Now on to the big enchilada! The “New” iPad!! Before it was introduced Apple boasted about the sales figures and the future potential of the device and how it has become a favorite among users for email and books, and with over 200,000 apps tailor made for the iPad, I whole heartedly agree that the sales numbers reflect the quality and amazingness of this device which is still just under two years old.
The “New” iPad 3rd Generation features a beautiful retina display with a resolution of 2048X1536, which features over 3.1 million total pixels! Approximately 1 million more than HD TV itself. The elegant 9.7 inch screen boasts 44% saturation from its earlier version and features a quad-core A5X graphics chip, which will boost multimedia performance and allow for smooth operation of the iPad’s higher resolution. The 3rd generation iPad also contains an upgraded iSight camera coming in at 5mp backside illuminated and having the same optics as the camera in the iPhone 4s. Siri was one of the biggest features anticipated for the new iPad and when the inclusion of a microphone was shown many including myself were shocked not to see siri technology included, instead voice dictation will be the primary use for this new microphone. Which leaves siri integration something to look forward to in iOS 6.
The best news of all with all of these inclusions is that the starting price points will remain the same and so will the battery life! the new iPad will be capable of operating on 4G LTE and is 3G world ready which makes the 10 hour battery life that much more amazing. pricing is as follows
Wi-Fi only models 499$ 16GB, 599$ 32GB, 699$ 64GB
Wi-Fi & 4G LTE 629$ 16GB, 729$ 32GB, and 829$ 64GB and these are available for pre-order on Apple’s website and will be released March 16th in North America and March 23rd Worldwide.
