Steve Jobs Unveils the IPad 2!

Steve Jobs made a triumphant return today at the Yerba Buena Vista Arts Center in San Francisco, and revealed an iPad 2 that is faster, has more capabilities, is thinner by 1/3, and weighs 2 ounces less than the original iPad.

The iPad 2 does comes with Apple's first dual core processor in their iOS products, the in-house designed A5, which they claim will allow it to perform twice as fast as it predecessor. The new graphics chip will improve the graphics performance up to 9 times faster. Even though the graphics performance has been improved, the screen resolution remains The device will also be available in black and white, and Steve Jobs joked that it means that the white one will ship on day 1, which is to be March 11^th, 2011. Apple learned from their Verizon iPhone introduction and will not allow pre-sales to be placed online until March 11th, the same day that the device will be made available to the public in Apple retail stores, and other retail outlets. This means that the lines that the media loves to see with the introduction of each brand new Apple device will be in full effect once more.

Power consumption has not been affected. The Apple engineers found a way to continue giving up to one month of standby time, and up to 10 hours while under continuous use.

The graphics improvements that Apple, Inc. made were necessary, of course, if you were going to add a front and rear facing camera; both of which Apple made official today. As you might expect the addition of cameras brought the standard inclusion of Facetime and Photobooth on iPad 2. You can also purchase a new version of iMovie, or Garageband that have been redesigned with the iPad 2 specs in mind. Both will be available for only $4.99 on the App Store.

The front camera provides up to 30 frames per second, and rear camera provides up to 720p, as well as 30 seconds per second. This does make this device certainly more usable as a on-the-fly editor of quick video while in the field.

Apple has also introduced the gyroscope that was added to the iPhone 4 last summer. This allows gaming developers to create games for the iPad that calculate more nuanced movements, allowing for greater creativity in the type of games that can be added to the iPad. With the improved graphics and the gyroscope, this should allow more of the FPS games to be added to the iPad library.

One of the more odd things that Apple, Inc. introduced was a new case, they call a smart cover, because it only covers the screen of the device. It is held on securely with magnets that were installed within the structure of the iPad 2. These smart covers also automatically provide a micro-fiber cleaning of the screen, every time it is placed on the screen. The magnets also auto align the screen, allowing placement to be perfect every single time. The new polyurethane case, which Dan Moren of Macworld noted is the same material that is used in the construction of spacesuits for the astronauts, goes for $39, and comes comes in five colors. There are also five leather versions of the screen that retail for $69.

The low prices that Apple introduced last year will continue for the new iPad 2. The 16GB capacity model, with Wi-fi only will continue to be $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB; and for the iPads that come with Wi-fi and 3G the prices will be $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB.

The rumors that did not come to pass:

With the addition of the Thunderbolt input/output device added to the new Macbook Pros last week, it is interesting to see that the new iPad 2 is still USB 2.0 only.

As I predicted, the iPad 2, did not receive the retina display upgrade that the iPhone 4 received last summer. No surprise there.