ANNOUNCED
Greetings from rainy San Francisco, where Apple’s long-anticipated launch of the iPad 2 is about to get underway at the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts Theater. We’ll be bringing you the important details as they come in — no need to scroll down pages of breathless liveblogging. And check out our gallery of the event at the bottom to see all the photos you need in one place.
Security is high for the event, which is surrounded by police and guarded at multiple checkpoints. Can the product live up to the hype? We’ll find out in less than an hour. Check back for updates.
Ladies and gentlemen: Steve Jobs is in the house. He has “something great to announce today,” he says, but as ever, begins with a recap of how well other Apple products have done. This, folks, is how you make a reality bubble. “We’ve been working on this product for a while, and I didn’t want to miss today.”
To pump the buying temperature some more, Jobs shows a video explaining how 2010 was the “year of the iPad.”
It’s official: the new device is called the iPad 2. The design hasn’t just been tweaked, Jobs says. It’s all new from the bottom up.
Firstly, there are a couple of new processors. The main CPU is a Samsung A5 dual core processor. That will be up to nine times faster than the original iPad. Secondly, there’s a new graphics processor that’s two times faster than that of the iPad 1.
Secondly, it’s thinner — 33% thinner. Thinner than the iPhone 4. Thinner than a supermodel on a diet. 8.8 mm, as opposed to 13.4 mm for the original iPad.
It will also come in white, and the 3G version will be available on Verizon and AT&T from day one. And when is day one? March 11 in the US, March 25 in other countries.
iPad 2 is 33% thinner
iPad2 front view
iPad2 specifications
iPad2 inivation
