4G LTE

But perhaps the most anticipated feature was 4G LTE. The new iPad now features 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, and 4G LTE at a resounding 73Mbps. It becomes the first Apple device to be officially 4G LTE. The use of LTE will make it much easier for users to send all of the new high-performance photos and video quicker. The fact that both AT&T and Verizon will feature the 4G LTE service will make this new feature widely available. And because the new iPad will work as a hotspot, it will be able to power other devices as well.

New, Improved Software

Already popular Apple software is all getting upgraded as well. Garageband will see an impressive upgrade, allowing musicians to share and work together on the same projects, Smart Strings, a Note editor, and the ability to push audio content through iCloud. This is particularly impressive, since raw audio files tend to be big and hard to transfer/move.

iMovie is also getting a sorely-needed update, and will include better clip editing and storyboarding, taking it to a more pro level. Also, the improved iMove will work seamlessly with the improved video quality, allowing users to shoot, edit, and produce really high-quality movies all on the new iPad.

Joining these two upgrades is iPhoto for iPad, something completely new from the iPhoto app that looks simply amazing. The new app allows an incredibly fluid, intuitive interface that lets users browse, compare, and edit personal photos with ease, and even let the iPhoto engine find comparable photos in your library. It even features a kind of “smart bezel” built into the software portion of the frame. It also facilitates social sharing of all photos.

ipad 3 retina displaySame Price Tag!

“When we set out to create the iPad, we set out to create not just a new product but a new category,” said Cook. “In order to do that, the iPad had to be the best device for doing some of the things that you do most often.” The new iPad certainly appears to be delivering on that promise, with the best part being that it will feature the same prices as current iPad, with pre-orders starting today, and available in stores on March 16th.

Apple TV Upgrade

The upgraded Apple TV appears to be delivering new features and services as per some of Tim Cook’s recent candid comments about where he saw Apple’s investment into television was headed. The improved Apple TV essentially looks the same as the original, but offers some major upgrades: 1080p, a new user interface will now feature big billboard-like images for thumbnails, TV shows will be added the day after they air, full integration with movies stores in iCloud, and there’s iTunes Match support, recommending movies for you based on what you’ve already watched. Most impressively, it will retain its $99 price tag and be available for pre-order today, with a delivery date in a few weeks.

Tim cook with iPad 3iOS 5.1

The long-awaited iOS 5.1 iteration will also be warmly received, which has been heavily speculated on for the past few months, with hopes that it would deliver improved battery function on the iPhone 4S, as well as several new, innovative features for the mobile operating system. iOS 5.1 will include new multi-language Siri support, with Japanese being a big focus of the new rollout.

The release of the iPad 3 will also impact and fuel further speculation about the highly anticipated iPhone 5, which is expected to be released sometime between June and October this year. Analysts believe that the appearance of 4G LTE, a new A5X processor, and new software features could all be harbingers of a completely overhauled iPhone 5 design that will once again launch Apple’s flagship smartphone into a new strata of success.

but for now, the iPad 3 will reign supreme as Apple enthusiasts’ newest obsession.

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New Processor — and all the bells and whistles that come with it

The new iPad also comes with the rumored A5X processor, which at times was assumed to be a refreshed, dual-core version of the A5. However, the A5X will deliver quad-core graphics and power a 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor, 5-element autofocus lens, IR filter, and ISP. Plus, 1080p video recording, which will make the new iPad a pretty serious video device. Another nifty feature will be a voice dictation app, which will support multiple languages and allow users hands-free composition.

But what’s really impressive is that all of this new processing power will still serve up 10 hours of battery life, a not-so-sexy but appreciated feature, especially considering the battery issues on the iPhone 4S.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook Unveils iPad 3, Apple TV, iOS 5.1

ipad 3 front retina displayAfter a great deal of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals the highly anticipated iPad 3, together with an impressive array of new features that are bound to make it a massive success in 2012.

Apple delivers, again.

At Apple’s new product launch  Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the new iPad 3 to a packed house of enthusiastic tech journalists and enthusiasts. While the tech community has pondered at length whether or not Apple and its ever-popular gadgets could continue to deliver on coolness and excitement in the wake of Steve Jobs’ death, the iPad 3 appears to be poised for yet another landmark success.

Leading off with staggering sales numbers from last year – Apple sold 315 million iOS devices through last year, and 62 million in Q4 alone — Cook steadily rolled out virtually everything that Apple enthusiasts were wishing for: an improved iOS 5.1, an upgraded Apple TV, and of course the piece de résistance, the iPad 3.

Retina Display

The iPad delivered on the high-definition Retina display that has been rumored for almost a year, with the resolution being so crisp that Cook could not even properly demonstrate on the screen behind him.The new display comes in at the expected 2048 x 1536 resolution, which works out to 3.1 million pixels. “The most ever in a mobile device,” Cook reminds us, and 40 percent better color saturation.

The Retina display is going to greatly enhance the overall user experience, and become the driving force behind SketchBook Ink from Autodesk, which is an incredible, new drawing app that focuses on line art, and leverages the new display to bring an impressive level of artistry to the new iPad. This new app promises to give users a new digital medium for creating art and graphics, and can export images greater than 100 megapixels.

The Cupertino crew are also boasting of how the new iPad will really ratchet up the gaming experience, claiming that it eclipses the memory and screen resolution experience that you get with even the Xbox 360 or the PS3.

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iPad 3 Latest Reports Say Screen Sharpness is Nearly as Good as Billed

Apple's enhanced display on its yet-to-be-unveiled iPad 3 appears to be the worst kept secret, judging by all the eyes that are reportedly able to see it.

MacRumors owner Arnold Kim says anyone can buy the next iteration of the popular tablet at the Chinese website TrueSupplier. The skinny: The screen measures 9.7 inches in diagonal, the same size display as used in the iPad and iPad 2, but the resolution is four times as sharp.

Apple is reportedly expected to take the ribbon off the iPad 3 on March 7. Experts say it could include support for 4G LTE, more internal memory, and perhaps Apple's first quad core processor. For now, a lot of the speculation is focused on the display.

"When comparing the iPad 3 display to one from an iPad 2 under a microscope, the difference in resolutions becomes readily apparent, with the iPad 3 display's pixels appearing to be one-quarter the size of those on the iPad 2," reports MacRumors, which says it got its hands on one and used its measurements to extrapolate what the iPad 3 screen resolution should be: 2048 by 1536. That's four times the resolution of Apple's current and first-generation tablets.

PCWorld’s Matt Peckham has made the interesting point, however, that the "retina" description that's been applied to the next iPad is simply a marketing term Apple uses to refer to displays with greater than 300 ppi (pixels per inch), which is the maximum number the average human retina can discern. The iPhone 4 and 4S, running at 960 by 640 pixels across 3.5 inches diagonal, meet this requirement, but the iPad 2, running at 1024 by 768 pixels across 9.7 inches diagonal, doesn't.

When you compute a 2048 by 1536 pixel density across a 9.7-inch screen, it comes out to about 264 ppi, short of the generally accepted 300 ppi threshold. But, as the pundits point out, that's still a big improvement from the iPad 2's pixel density.

As for where MacRumors got the display, Kim said it wasn't stolen, but rather is readily available, much to Apple's chagrin. He says the TrueSupplier site sells an "OEM Apple iPad 3 LCD Screen Display Replacement" for $122.99.

On its website, Truesupplier says it serves more than 65 percent of the U.S. market and is a global provider of mobile data products, software and consulting services, headquartered in Shenzhen, China, with branches in Hong Kong. Apple iPads are made in China, and Apple is currently embroiled in a spat with a Chinese company that claims it holds the rights to the iPad name in China.

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See And Touch: Apple Revealing iTV And iPad 3 On March

It’s amazing how nine words and two periods can fuel so much speculation. Not even two complete sentences — “We have something you have to see. and touch” is just a sentence and a fragment. And yet, embedded in those lines lies the secret in store for us all (assuming that Tim Cook has decided to make Apple much less interesting in these teaser photos, and we just didn’t get the memo.”

A picture is worth a thousand words, which is why the first impressions of Apple press invitations was visual: the orientation of the iPad photo, together with what appears to be the lack of a home button, spurred people on to analyze the accompanying lines of text and match meaning with the home button-less speculation. Does “And touch” refer to the fact that you’ll have to touch the iPad 3's screen to get back to the home screen? Recent rumored photos of iPad 3 parts deny that notion, but then again, how reliable have these part photos been in predicting new Apple form factors in the past? Not so much.

But since we’re just about 24 hours out from the big March 7th announcement, let’s crunch the words one more time: what if Apple is attributing “see” to iTV — or at least some upgrade to the current Apple TV — and “touch” refers to the new iPad 3?

Maybe you’ve already thought about that possibility in passing — or maybe you haven’t dared to. But others has already taken the plunge. check this out:

The Guardian had this to say about the prospect of iTV debuting tomorrow in their prognostication poll: “An iPad 3? A smaller version? One with LTE/4G? Retina display? And what about Apple TV?”

There’s more.

Mac Rumors has a trending article from yesterday, pointing out that the current Apple TV is all but sold out in stores, indicating that the supply chain has been cut off, ostensibly in anticipation of a new device: “With Apple’s iPad 3 media event now roughly 36 hours away and Apple also expected to unveil an updated Apple TV at the event, we’ve been watching as more and more Apple retail stores are running dry of the current model. By our most recent count, 98% of Apple’s 246 U.S. stores are currently out of stock…” So, Mac Rumors is arguing that this piece of circumstantial evidence might be a clue that iTV — or at least an uptade to the current Apple TV, could be on its way.

Semantically speaking, Apple’s teaser scrawl doesn’t really add up to a dual release: The use of the word “something” throws a wrench into the theory that the are talking about two things, since “something” is singular.” And the sentence fragment “And touch” makes reference to this one thing. Also, Apple has yet to deliver on a big dual release, in spite of the rumor mills trying to will it into reality: last fall, we heard rumors of both an iPhone 4S and 5 release, as well as the dual iPhone 5/iPad 2 Plus release, none of which ever came even remotely true. But given Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent comments about what sounded a lot like iTV, he clearly has something in works, and it would appear to be coming sooner rather than later.

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New iTV Concept Photos Come On The Eve Of Apple Product Launch

The assumption is that Apple will be revealing the iPad 3 tomorrow, though some wonder if iTV or an updated Apple TV could also be revealed. Here are some great, new iTV concept photos to check out while we ponder the possibilities.

We wrote in an earlier article today that there is always the chance — albeit an outside one — that the “one last thing” at tomorrow’s Apple product launch event be not the iPad 3, but rather “iTV,” the long-rumored Apple television. It would stand to reason that the rumor mill would have picked up some more hints about iTV’s production by this point, but given the fact that Apple is probably using slightly different production and assembly channels for a television than they would a smartphone, iTV production could manage to go under the radar.

Another possibility is that we’ll see an updated Apple TV instead.

In the meantime, the iPhone 5 News Blog is proud to once again feature some new concept renderings from reader Justin Quinn. Justin took a crack at iTV around the same time as his new iPhone 5 concept photos, but we decided to break up the two collections, since they are pretty different products in and of themselves. However, you will notice that Justin’s iPhone 5 concept does make a few cameo appearances in some of the photos.

Enjoy!

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June iPhone 5 Release Date May Force Apple, Carriers Into Upgrade Waivers

There’s more to making a June release date for the iPhone 5 possible than just production considerations. Apple and its mobile carriers would have to offer iPhone 4S subscribers upgrade waivers — and that may not be fiscally possible.

The iPhone 5 release date still remains a contentious issue, with the tech community still deliberating over whether Apple will choose to release the new iPhone at this year’s WWDC in June, or wait until the fall in order to put it on track with a 12-month release window from the date of the iPhone 4S release. The iPhone 5 News Blog‘s sources in Asia point to a June release, while the majority of the tech media have now shifted away from that belief, looking towards October or November for the iPhone 5 release.

Whether or not the iPhone 5 is released in June or in November, Apple will have to deal with some blowback from iPhone 4S users, who will be frustrated by the fact that the top U.S. carriers will not allow 4S users to upgrade, unless they offer a waiver to their upgrade policies.

According to Insane Planet, “AT&T subscribers have the right to an upgrade if they bought their phones in the last 12 to 18 months,” while “Verizon Network customers could be the ones affected the most because they can only upgrade their phones after one year and eight months.” Sprint also a similar policy to AT&T: premier account holders can upgrade their devices every twelve months, but basic subscribers have to wait up to 22 months before they can upgrade.

From a customer service standpoint, it would seem like a no-brainer for Apple and its mobile partners to simply offer iPhone 4S subscribers a waiver for these limiting upgrade policies and allow them to purchase the iPhone 5 subsidized prices, once it is released. After all, Apple would want nothing more than to have iPhone 4S users spend even more money to upgrade to the iPhone 5 after only 12 months (or even less if the new iPhone is released in June).

Unfortunately, it may not be that easy.

When it comes to subsidized promotional offers, it is the mobile carrier that eats the cost of that subsidy — not Apple. For carriers like AT&T and Verizon, they are defraying the loss of profit from the same of the new device in order to lock subscribers into a longer contract, as well as the prospect of more data usage. Sprint’s revenue model is a bit less predicated on data usage, thanks to its unlimited dat plan, but the overall model is still the same. It may be prohibitive for the big U.S. mobile carriers to simply “give away” the iPhone 5 to 4S users after only 9 to 12 months of use. This would mean that Apple would have meet carriers halfway on the subsidized iPhone 5 price.

Or not.

Another consideration is that Apple might be content to leave iPhone 4S users out in the cold once the iPhone 5 is released, assuming that its release would herald an avalanche of new sales from legacy iPhone users as well as Android converts that would eclipse the loss of the potential sales that instead went to the iPhone 4S. Apple has sold more than 54 million iPhones since the release of the 4S, and assuming that the vast majority of these sales have been the 4S, that’s a lot of potential subscribers to leave off the table. But the fact is, there are plenty more people to sell to in the smartphone market in any given year. According to statistics I found on Wikipedia, there were over 300 million smartphone sales in 2010 alone (the 2011 numbers are still being crunched). But considering that the smartphone market segment is expanding exponentially, it goes without saying that those numbers will be massively higher in 2012.

Given these facts, Apple might be happy to cede 4S users in order to get the iPhone 5 out into the market. In fact, considering what’s at stake here, it might even be more of an incentive for Apple to release the iPhone 5 in June in order to minimize 4S sales in 2012, since, as we now know, the more people who buy the 4S, the less people will be able to afford the 5.

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