Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has just made its second-generation iPad official! It features a 1GHz dual-core A5 chip and, finally, cameras, both on the front and rear. The new CPU is said to be up to twice as fast, with graphics performance up to nine times better than on the original iPad, while power requirements have been kept the same. Battery life is, consequently, unaltered, with Apple promising 10 hours. Pricing, too, has been left unchanged, starting at $499 for a 16GB WiFi-only iPad 2 and stretching up to $829 for a WiFi + 3G SKU with 64GB of storage. The new tablet will come with an HDMI output capable of 1080p — which will set you back $39 for the requisite dongle, called an Apple Digital AV Adapter — but there will sadly be no rumblings of Thunderbolt connectivity here. What you will get is an enlarged speaker grille on the back, as expected, and the same 1024 x 768 resolution and IPS LCD screen technology as on the original iPad.

Update: We’ve gotten our first hands-on with the iPad 2 and, boy oh boy, it’s fast!

720p video recording at 30fps will be on tap from the rear-facing camera, which can also do a 5x digital zoom if you’re into that kind of thing, whereas the front-facing imager will record at a more modest VGA resolution, also at 30fps.

There’s a new cover for the device, which is best defined by Steve Jobs himself: “We designed the case right alongside the product. It’s not a case — it’s a cover.” Basically, it’s a magnetic flap that protects the front and automatically wakes and puts the device to sleep according to whether it’s open or closed. Guess we know what that proximity sensor was about now. These Smart Covers will cost $39 in plastic or $69 if you opt for leather.

The iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner than its predecessor, at a mind-melting 8.8mm, and a little lighter at just over 600g, while paintjob options have been expanded: you’ll get a choice between white and black. It’ll be available on both AT&T and Verizon, and all variants start shipping on March 11th. Apple Retail Stores will start sales at the unusual hour of 5PM, which will probably make online pre-orders the fastest way to get yours.

In terms of new software, Apple’s launching iOS 4.3 alongside the new iPad and bringing with it much improved Safari performance as well as FaceTime, Photo Booth, iMovie and GarageBand (the latter two costing $4.99 a piece) apps specifically for the newly camera-enriched iPad. Personal Hotspot capabilities are also arriving in the latest version of the OS, but they’ll be exclusive to the iPhone 4, so you won’t be able to share your 3G iPad’s connection. The minimum compatible version of iTunes for the new iPad 2 will be the freshly released 10.2.

You’ll find Apple’s official PR and some slick promo videos below, or you can keep your mouse clicking and check out our first hands-on with the iPad 2.

Continue reading The iPad 2

The iPad 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

When it launched the Incredible S at MWC a couple of weeks ago, HTC promised the new 4-inch device would be quick to get a Gingerbread update and now it’s giving us a definitive schedule for it by saying that Android 2.3 will be distributed to its new flagship phone by the end of Q2 2011. We’re not sure four months of sitting by the window waiting for the OTA update to float in necessarily matches up to our definition of “quick,” but there are much better news for owners of HTC’s older devices. The Desire HD and Desire Z — both released in September 2010 — will also be leaping away from Froyo and up to Gingerbread and will be joined by the original Desire, which was announced way back at last year’s MWC. That handset was essentially HTC’s own-brand Nexus One, so we already knew it was capable of running Gingerbread, but it’s still rare to see a device go through two significant Android updates (the Desire began life with Android 2.1). All these old Desires are placed on the same update schedule as the Incredible S, whereas the newly announced Desire S and Wildfire S will ship with Gingerbread preloaded.

[Thanks, Johannes]

HTC Incredible S, Desire HD, Desire Z and original Desire will all be eating Gingerbread by the end of June originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  SlashGear  | Email this | Comments

You know the routine by now: Apple’s online Store goes down, the Engadget tips inbox explodes with caring netizens informing us of that fact, and a few hours later it sprouts back up with Cupertino’s latest hardware up for sale. We don’t know for a fact that today’s downtime is due to a MacBook Pro refresh, but then we also don’t know for certain that the sun will rise tomorrow. Call it highly informed guesswork.

Apple shutters online store to fill it up with new MacBook Pros originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Apple Store  | Email this | Comments

When will the Motorola Xoom, ahem, justify its price point with a dose of Verizon’s speedy LTE? According to an allegedly leaked Verizon document at Droid-Life, it seems we’ll see it by the end of May. You can read the rest for yourself immediately above, but if you have an aversion to JPEG images we’ll also spell out the salient points here: the upgrade will reportedly be completely free, including shipping; both hardware and software tweaks will be carried out by Motorola; and the whole process will take up to six business days. If these facts are all correct (and we don’t honestly doubt a one), you should see them mirrored at our more coverage link in the days to come.

Update: The official Xoom LTE upgrade site is now live confirming that the process will take six business days to complete after shipping it off to Verizon in a FedEx box, free of charge. Unfortunately, VZW won’t say exactly when the upgrade will be available, going only so far as to say “shortly after launch.”

Motorola Xoom will get LTE in ‘approximately 90 days,’ requires one week for hardware upgrade (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  Droid-Life  | Email this | Comments

The rumor gears are really starting to churn with regard Apple’s upcoming MacBook Pro refresh and now we have a purported leak of the upcoming spec sheet for the new 13-inch model. The highlight is a note (and image, above) seemingly confirming that Apple will implement Intel’s Light Peak high-speed interconnect, renaming it the Thunderbolt. Yes, we know there’s an HTC handset headed to Verizon with that very same name — and we’ve checked the USPTO archives, Verizon’s the only tech company with any trademark claim filed for “Thunderbolt” — but Apple has done weirder things before. Also notable are the apparent inclusion of an SDXC card reader and the absence of a discrete GPU chip, indicating that perhaps the new Core i5 integrated graphics from Intel are finally good enough to convince Cupertino to rely on them full time. Jump past the break to see the full data sheet.

Update: We now have an image claiming to show the new Thunderbolt port, which happens to look exactly like the Mini DisplayPort but has a tidy little lightning logo next to it. That’s extremely easy to Photoshop, as is the accompanying photo displaying a broader trackpad on the MBP, but we’ll let you judge the validity of those images for yourself. Check them out after the break.

Update 2: One more image of the spec sheet, this time in English, provided by MacRumors along with the note that it’s for the “low-end” 13-inch MacBook Pro. The doc states that the Thunderbolt port supports “high-speed I/O and Mini DisplayPort devices,” which would explain why it looks the way it does.

[Thanks, Leon and Rodney]

Continue reading Apple’s Light Peak implementation called Thunderbolt, coming in new MacBook Pros?

Apple’s Light Peak implementation called Thunderbolt, coming in new MacBook Pros? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  fscklog, Mac4Ever  | Email this | Comments