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Live from the Apple Event


Mar 7, 2012 12:47 PM EDT by Mark Spoonauer, LAPTOP Editor in Chief  

The day has come. We just sat down inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for Apple’s iPad event. We’re expecting a new tablet, of course, but a new Apple TV is probably on the way too, and perhaps a sneak peek of iOS 6. Stay tuned for all the details on the iPad 3 (or iPad HD).

10:00 AM: Tim Cook just took the stage. Says that Apple is leading the post PC revolution. Apple has three post PC devices in the iPod touch, iPad, and iPad. Cook said Apple sold 172 million iOS devices, making up for 76 percent of revenue.

10:01: Cooks says Apple provides the best shopping experience anywhere, which is really important for the buyer of an iPad or an iPhone. That’s because these devices are new to many people.

10:03: Cook excited about the opening of the Grand Central store in New York City. 110 million people visited Apple stores last quarter. Apple now showing video of the Grand Central opening. “We Are Young” playing in the backround. We’re not sick of the song yet. Are you?

10:06: Apple has sold 315 million iOS devives, including 62 million in the last quarter. Cook now talking about Siri, which is one of the most popular features of the new iOS. Customers tell us that they love it. Today Siri is coming to Japan, which is part of iOS 5.1.

10:08: There are now 585,000 apps in the App store, and there have been 25 billion apps downloaded overall. iCloud is another key piece of the post PC experience. Apple has now gone over 100 million customers for iCloud. Today iCloud supports movies.

Movies and TV Shows now support 1080p HD.

Apple has announced a new Apple TV that supports 1080p. Comes with streamlined interface. Demo time coming up.

10:14 am: The Apple TV is coming for $99 on March 16th. Cook said get your pre-orders in early.

10:20: Cook taking shots at Android tablets for running what are essentially blown up smartphone or stretched out smartphone apps. Lots of white space and tiny text. This is part of the reason why the competition isn’t gaining traction.

10:22: Announcing the new iPad. Makes “amazing improvements.” Phil Schiller coming on stage to show it off.

First up, the new iPad will have a Retina display. Text will rival what you see in print. Reading emails. Photos. Everything should look sharper.The screen is 2048 x 1536 pixels, which is over a million more pixels than your typical 1080p displays. That’s 264 pixels per inch.

10:26: The new iPad has the 44 percent better color saturation. To drive the graphics power for this display Apple has introduced the A5X chip.

10:28: The device has a 5-MP sensor with backside illumination, a 5-element lens, and hybrid IR filter and Apple-designed ISP.

10:31 AM: Apple is showing off the 1080p video recording on the new iPad. The A5X chip enables video stabilization in combination with software.

The device also has built in voice dictation. There’s a little microphone icon on the keyboard. During a quick demo it seemed very fast and accurate, but we’ll want to really test this feature out.

10:33: On the wireless front, the new iPad supports HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA, and 4G LTE. Phil Schiller showed off how much faster you can load images in an email, as well as the ability to start loading videos much faster. This is a feature that other tablets have had for a while, but the speed boost is certainly welcome here.

10:36: Carrier support includes AT&T and Verizon but not Sprint or T-Mobile. Both the AT&T and Verizon version will let you roam on 3G throughout the world. Your iPad will also double as a personal hotspot, if the carrier allows it.

10:40: The new iPad is coming March 16th but can be pre-ordered today.

10:43: Namco is on stage showing of a dazzling new flight fighting game, complete with fantastic water effects.

10:50: Now Epic is up showing off the new Infinity Blade Dungeons game, which lets you fight multiple enemies at once and has more of a top-down view. The graphics are pretty stunning, thanks to the Unreal Engine. iPad 3 more powerful than Xbox 360.

10:55: New version of iWork is coming that suports Retina Display. In GarageBand a new Jam Session feature lets four people collaborate at once.

11:02: Apple is introducing a new version of iPhoto for the iPad, which lets you easily browse by photos for events. You can swipe in from the side to launch a thumbnail view.

11:06: Using multitouch gestures you can easily crop or rotate images while editing. The exposure tool lets you brighten those dark shadows. You can also control color saturation with multi-touch controls. You can darken or lighten the sky with a single touch. This app puts iPhoto on the Mac to shame.

11:10 AM: iPhoto for the iPad has all sorts of filters, and you can create a journal of your apps. It kind of looks like Flipboard for photos. The Journal feature has a note feature for adding sticky-like notes, a calendar feature for showing when your pics were taken and even the ability show the weather for that day. iPhoto is available today for $4.99.

11:19: The iPad 2′s price has been reduced to $399. That’s a big deal for consumers but also Apple’s competitors.

11:23 AM: Tim Cooks says we’re just getting started and that there’s a lot to look forward to. That’s all folks.


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