New iPad made official by Apple with Retina Display

All of the rumors and speculation can when all is said and done come to an end, as Apple today announced the new iPad at its event in San Francisco. The new iPad features the same 9.7-inch display as its predecessors, however this new model features a Retina display that packs in a resolution of 2048x1536 and has 264 pixels per inch. In accordance with the hood, the new iPad packs a dual-core A5X chip that's capable of quad-core graphics performance. Moving around back, the new iPad includes a 5-megapixel camera with 1080p video capture, and there's as well a VGA Facetime camera on the new iPad's frontside. The new iPad's software keyboard will include voice dictation.

As for connectivity, the new iPad packs in 3G/HSPA+ connectivity as so then as 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) support for both AT&T and Verizon in the U.S. Like the iPhone previously it, the new iPad will be able to function as a mobile hotspot as long as your particular carrier supports it. Apple says that users can expect around 9 hours of battery life on 4G, during sticking with Wi-Fi will get you 10 hours of usage. All of these features are crammed into a body that measures 9.4mm thick and weighs 1.5 pounds.

The new iPad

Along with the new iPad, Apple introduced iPhoto for its new slate. iPhoto for iPad will allow users to tweak their photos with multi-touch editing and effects. The software will be able to work with images up to 19 megapixels in size. iPhoto will be available in the App Store starting today for $4.99. Additionally, Apple has updated its various iWork apps as so then as both GarageBand and iMovie.

So there's the new iPad. Some of the rumors, like a high-res display and LTE connectivity, came true during others, like a quad-core processor, didn't. Overall the new iPad looks like a respectable entrant into the ever-growing tablet arena, and it's good to see Apple keep the iPad 2 around at $399 so that folks can for all that get in on the iOS tablet fun if they're unable to pick up one of the new iPads. What do you all make of Apple's new iPad? Anyone pre-order but?

SAN FRANCISCO-March 7, 2012-Apple® today introduced the new iPad®, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, featuring a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G connects to fast networks worldwide, including AT&T’s and Verizon’s 4G LTE networks, and all in all delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* during remaining amazingly thin and light. Beginning today, iPad 2 will be offered at an furthermore affordable price starting at just $399.

"The new iPad redefines the category Apple created less than two years ago, delivering the most amazing experience people have ever had with research," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The new iPad now has the highest resolution display ever seen on a mobile device with 3.1 million pixels, delivering razor sharp text and unbelievable detail in photos and videos."

The powerful new A5X chip with quad-core graphics

The powerful new A5X chip with quad-core graphics was exactly designed by Apple to deliver a fast, responsive user experience during supporting the incredible Retina display. With double the graphics performance of the A5 chip, the A5X provides a superb balance between performance and power efficiency so users can enjoy all the benefits of the stunning new display during experiencing a smooth Multi-Touch™ interface, immersive gameplay, incredible visual depth and all-day battery life that iPad is known for delivering.

iPad Wi-Fi + 4G with built-in then and there generation 4G LTE has the most comprehensive support for fast networks worldwide including HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, and now both CDMA and GSM iPad users have the ability to easily roam internationally. The world-ready iPad delivers blazing download and upload speeds so web pages load incredibly quickly and email with large attachments can be sent and received easily. Personal Hotspot can be used to share the fast network connection on your iPad with up to 5 other devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB**.

With iOS 5.1, the latest update to the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, the new iPad has a number of new features and enhancements including: a redesigned Camera app with video stabilization innovation; the ability to delete photos from Photo Stream; support for dictation in English, French, German and Japanese; and Personal Hotspot. iOS 5.1 as well works seamlessly with iCloud®, a breakthrough set of free cloud services including iTunes® in the Cloud, Photo Stream and Documents in the Cloud, that works seamlessly with your iPhone®, iPad, iPod touch®, Mac® or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content and push it to your devices. When content changes on one of your devices, your other devices are updated automatically.

The new iPad as well supports dictation

The new iPad as well supports dictation, another amazing way to get things done just using your voice. Instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, at the time say what you want to say and the new iPad listens. Tap done, and iPad converts your words into text. You can use dictation to write messages, take notes, search the web and more. Dictation as well works with third-party apps, so you can update your Facebook status, tweet, or write Instagram captions.

Apple as well introduced the iPhoto® app, along with major updates to iMovie® and GarageBand®, completing its suite of iLife® apps for iOS. iLife and the iWork® apps, Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers®, have all been updated to take advantage of the new iPad Retina display. iPhoto includes breakthrough Multi-Touch features so you can use simple gestures to sort through hundreds of photos and find your best shots, enhance and retouch your images using fingertip brushes and share stunning photo journals with iCloud. iMovie now gives you the ability to create amazing Hollywood-style trailers as you record HD video, and GarageBand introduces Jam Session, an innovative and fun new feature that allows a group of friends to wirelessly connect to play instruments and record music at the same time live on their iOS devices.

The over 585,000 apps available on the App Store™

iPad runs nearly all of the over 585,000 apps available on the App Store™, including more than 200,000 native iPad apps, from a wide range of categories, including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The iTunes Store® puts the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store at your fingertips with a catalog of over 20 million songs, over 90,000 TV episodes and over 15,000 movies. The new iBooks® 2 app for iPad lets users experience an in every way new kind of ebook that’s dynamic, engaging and really interactive. iBooks created with Apple’s new iBooks Author offer gorgeous, fullscreen ebooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more.

The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white on Friday, March 16 for a recommended retail price of $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model and $699 for the 64GB model. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for either AT&T or Verizon will be available for a recommended retail price of $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store®, Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPad will as well be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16. Clients can begin pre-ordering their new iPad today, and the incredible iPad 2 is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.