About a year ago I did a “Biggs On” post about the iPad and I think I was pretty harsh. I gave it a pretty average review and I probably wasn’t very fair. Over this past year I have tinkered with the iPad in the stores and played with the ones my co-workers have bought and I actually started to enjoy them more.
Then, in an astonishing turn of events, I became very excited about the announcement of the iPad 2 on March 2nd.The announcement came as no surprise to the community; actually the bigger surprise was Steve Jobs was there to make the announcement. By this point there are probably a hundred different websites and blogs that will tell you about all the new iPad 2 features or you can simply go to the apple website (http://www.apple.com/ipad). I will quickly review those features but I’m not going to spend any time delving into their importance or their meaning, just the features about the iPad 2 (and iOS 4.3) that I found most interesting.
- A5 processor (dual core) and 9 times the graphics speed – Steve Jobs said it’s “Dramatically Faster”
- Front and Rear camera (no surprise there, everyone knew that was coming)
- gyroscope (this will make for some nifty games)
- 33% thinner then the iPhone 4 (approx 8.8mm)
- same battery life, same pricing structure
- personal wi-fi hotspot (iOS 4.3 – SWEET – assuming AT&T doesn’t frack it up, which they will)
Considering Apple has paid out billions to app developers, the new features in iPad 2 will create several new opportunities for more apps, bigger apps, hopefully more intellectual apps (I don’t want to see a new Fart app that responds to pictures of your bum!). Opportunities that I think will make the iPad more enjoyable, more useful and more practical.
So, with all this said, you might be wondering, what is my opinion of the iPad now that we are into version 2.
I think I will save that for after I pick one up on March 11th (by the way, there is free shipping and free engraving if you order from Apple’s website on the 11th).