GadgetReport.TV #7
The new iPad isn’t iPad HD or iPad 3. It’s just iPad and it’s possibly the most desirable gadget ever made. To pack in Apple’s latest innovation, it’s a little thicker than iPad 2. It’s 9.4 mm. iPad 2 is 8.6. It’s also slightly heavier at 1.5 pounds.
A new iSight 5-megapixel camera has a 2.4 aperture, five-element lens with technology you typically only get with a digital SLR camera. It shoots 1080p video. I love the way Apples sells it. Imagine you’re reading a book in a park and see a street performer, or you’re curled up on your sofa when your dog comes in the room dressed up by your daughter in a tutu. A great camera is there ready to capture the moment to be shared with friends on Facebook or the world on YouTube.
I was surprised that Apple isn’t including Siri. It could be because iPads don’t always have Internet connections or it could be that Apple’s Siri servers aren’t able to serve all the users yet. Still Apple brings Nuance voice recognition technology to the new iPad by including Dictation. A microphone button on the keyboard lets you say it rather than type it.
If you live in an area that has access, the new iPad includes 4G LTE so you can connect to the Internet with speeds up to 42 Megabits per second. If your carrier allows it iPad can be used as a mobile hotspot. At the time I’m recording this, Verizon is supporting it and we haven’t heard about AT&T.
iPhone introduced us to Apple’s Retina display. iPad will now have one of the best, highest resolution displays you can buy, especially starting at $500. The resolution is 2048 x 1536. It’s exactly twice the resolution of previous iPads which is important because it means Apps designed for the lower resolution will look great upscaled for the Retina display. The display has 44% greater color saturation with 3.1 million pixels.
All the numbers are important to geeks, but the thing that matters most about the new display, is it compares to the quality you’d see in a printed art book. When you hold the display 15-inches from your eyes, you can’t see the individual pixels. The new iPad will be an excellent way to read, enjoy photos, watch movies, and play games. We’ve wondered when we’d start to see the end of paper.
