The New iPad

As expected, Tim Cook, yesterday unveiled “The New iPad.” I won’t go too much into all the little details, but basically it has upgraded specs, which include: faster processor, quad core graphics, better camera, 4G LTE on the cellular data model, and voice dictation. However, the biggest visual improvement is the new “Retina Display”. The iPad now has a resolution of 2048×1536 with 264 pixels crammed in every inch as opposed to 1024×768 with 132 pixels per inch like the iPad 1 and 2.

Like with the iPhone, they are using the term “Retina Display” which by their definition, means that a user should not be able to discern the individual pixels in the screen from normal reading distance. This should make the screen easier to read and photos appear sharper. Also, the new display can playback 1080p HD video at full resolution which the previous iPad could not do. In my opinion this display is the “killer feature” of the new iPad and is certainly the area that competitors will need to catch up with if they want to compete.

The other major new feature, which I mentioned above. is the inclusion of 4G LTE in the cellular model. This is the first true 4G device that Apple has released and I think this is a good indication that it means the next iPhone will have it too. Verizon right now has the larger 4G coverage, but based on tests, AT&T appears to be faster. I’m an AT&T user, so I’m curious to see how quickly they can expand their 4G network this year. I believe right now they are in about 25 cities with the service and right now Utah isn’t included in any of those.

The last new announcement on the software side, was a version of iPhoto now available for the iPhone and iPad. The demo of this looked great and it is available now for $4.99. I will most likely be buying it soon. Basically, you can make all kinds of photo adjustments with simple gestures and swipes. There’s been photo apps that do these things before, but I would say this appears to be the easiest and most intuitive one I’ve ever seen to date.

The last question is, am I going to get one? 🙂 More so over the 2, I feel that it is well worth the upgrade just for the display alone. I managed to sell my 2 model last week for a decent price and am getting the new one. After a few hours in wrestling with Apple’s website, I was able to get my preorder in.

I did decide to make a little change in my model choice though. For the past two models, I’ve gone with the cellular version. I love being able to use the iPad wherever I am even if wifi isn’t available. I’ve used the AT&T 200mb plan which was $15 a month and that has been adequate for basic web browsing when out and about. However, with AT&T recently announcing that they cap unlimited iPhone users at 3GB and me never having gone over that anyway, I decided to look into their tethering plans. I found out that for $20 more than what I was currently paying, I get 5GB of data and the ability to tether. I figured that getting 5gb of data to share between my iPhone and iPad was worth giving up the “unlimited data,” which I do realize is what AT&T wants too. 🙂 When I’m out and about, I will have to do the extra step of enabling the hot spot feature on my iPhone, but I think it will work out okay.