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A customer holds a first-generation iPad outside an Apple store. Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Apple is preparing to introduce the second-generation iPad in a special event next week, according to a report.

Multiple sources close to the situation say Apple is set to unveil the upgrade for the popular tablet on March 2 in San Francisco, according to the well-sourced Kara Swisher of All Things Digital.

“The Wednesday date in a little more than a week is firm and will take place in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events,” Swisher writes.

Apple does not comment on rumors or speculation, but small clues hint at the possibility of the iPad 2 gaining front and rear-facing cameras (similar to the iPhone 4) and a more powerful graphics processor. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported a rumor that the resolution of the iPad 2 would not be significantly improved, which could come as a disappointment to customers.

If the March 2 launch date turns out to be true, the iPad 2’s debut will come just days after Motorola’s first tablet, the Xoom, is set to hit stores on Feb. 24.

See Also:

• Rumor: Apple’s iPad 2 Lands April 2011
• Photos: Are These iPad 2 Cases?
• Rumor: iPad 2 Has Bigger Speaker, Flat Back, Smaller Body
• Photos: iPad 2 Display Leaked
• Rumor: Apple Starts Production of iPad 2

We’re all hotly expecting new MacBook Pros on Thursday, but it sounds like Apple might have an even bigger announcement soon: Kara Swisher at All Things Digital says the iPad 2 will be revealed on March 2 in San Francisco. That lines up with some of the rumblings we’ve heard, but we haven’t gotten an official invite yet, so things could change — we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything definite.

Apple holding iPad 2 event next week? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad 2 is real. We sort of new that already, right? That we’ve seen the countless rumors and confirmations, coupled with the fact that Apple likes to keeps its devices on a more or less yearly schedule, leads us to feel pretty confident that the thing is coming pretty soon.

Hardware parts, leaked video, and stray sightings have been cropping up everywhere lately, including, memorably, CES and a recent launch for New Corps’s The Daily iPad newspaper. Also, that weird Elton John thing….

The latest word is that the upcoming version of the popular tablet has apparently just gone into production, according to the proverbial “people familiar with the matter,” says The Wall Street Journal.

According to the paper, the iPad 2 will be thinner and later than its predecessor all will feature better graphics, more memory, and “at least one camera on the front of the device for features like video-conferencing.” No real revelations there. Oh well.

Oh look, what’s this? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPad 2 has entered production — which exactly lines up previously rumored manufacturing schedules. According to the WSJ, the new edition of Apple’s tablet will have a faster processor with a better GPU and more memory in a thinner, lighter package. There’s also said to be a front-facing camera for video conferencing, but the much-discussed display resolution will remain “similar” to the current iPad — which actually goes along with the most recent information we’ve gotten from our sources, who say that the next iPad will indeed stay at the current resolution, and that the higher-res display we’d heard about earlier may have actually been for a future model. As for availability, the WSJ says the new iPad will be on Verizon and AT&T, which certainly makes sense — although it’ll be interesting to see how Verizon handles positioning it against the upcoming Xoom, which Motorola is marketing in an aggressively anti-iPad manner. In any event, between the iPad 2, the Xoom, and whatever Palm has to offer tomorrow, this spring is about to get very, very interesting.

WSJ: iPad 2 in production, features FaceTime camera, faster processor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I take it back! Contrary to what I suggested, yesterday’s event for “The Daily” in Manhattan was a big deal–not because of the content of the publication, so much as the fact that there was apparently an iPad 2 in the house. Reuters is reporting that, for some strange reason, someone brought a prototype of the forthcoming Apple tablet to the event.

The tablet, according to the newswire service, had that front-facing camera that we’re all expecting. The existence of the device has apparently been confirmed by an anonymous source. Apple, shockingly, opted not to comment on this round.