Today Apple announced the iPad. Just like last year I’m going to share my thoughts on the iPad 2 today. As usual, there were a lot of rumors before the actual announcement. A camera, a better processor and a better display were all among those rumors. Here’s the actual list what has been updated / improved on the new iPad 2. First I’ll go through the facts, and a bit later in the article you can read about my personal thoughts on the iPad 2
Updated / improved features
1. First of all the iPad 2 has got a new Processor.
The A5-chip is up to 2 times faster and is up to 9 times faster in graphics and it runs on 1GHz.
2. It’s got 2 video camera’s. A rear and a front-facing camera.
3. There’s a built-in gyroscope.
4. A new design. It’s 33% thinner than the original iPad; It’s even thinner than the iPhone 4, and weighs 0.2 pounds less than the original iPad. Also the iPad 2 comes in 2 colors: Black and White
5. Although it’s thinner and lighter it has got the same battery power (which is great on the original iPad). Up to 10 Hours.
The likes of the iPad 2
First when I take a look at the new dual-core processor I like the new speed indication. Although I don’t think the original iPad is slow at all (Looks very fast to me) extra speed is always good. As a side note, I need to say that the extra speed should absolutely not affect the 10 hours of battery life. That’s something I really like on my iPad now and I’m not willing to give up battery-lifetime for some extra speed.
The new design looks very sleek. the iPad 2 is 33% thinner than the original iPad and that’s amazingly thin! I feel like having a Fat iPad now.
The camera was something that I’d actually expected on the original iPad, but now the iPad 2 gets 2 camera’s. 1 front and 1 rear-facing camera. The front-facing camera was something everyone could expect. Apple is placing their bets on Facetime and need to get their product-portfolio on one line to accieve this. The rear-facing camera is a bit of a surprise to me. I didn’t expect to have 2 camera’s on an iPad. The usage of the rear-camera will be very dependent on the usability of iMovie (which also has been announced as iPad application today).
The dislikes of the iPad 2
Yes, I have to admit, I was a bit negative after last year’s announcement of the iPad. Now I’ve been using the iPad since the day it released in the Netherlands and I’m very positive about it. Looking back at the dislikes from last year we see that 2 items have been resolved by Apple. Multitasking and the camera.
The features I missed after last years announcement but don’t actually miss on my iPad after using it for several months now are OSX and the USB-port.
I don’t miss OSX on the iPad, because I frankly use my iPad more than my Macbook Pro. iOS really works great on the iPad and the Apps are the building blocks of the OS. For anyone still asking for an USB-port on the iPad: Apple won’t add an USB-port to the iPad as long as there are different prices for different versions (16GB, 32GB and 64GB). That’s the basic of their business-model on making money from the iPad.
There are however a few things I still miss on the iPad (or the iOS): Flash-support and Wireless Syncing.
Now for both options I know there are solution which aren’t supported by Apple. Flash-video’s can be seen with the Skyfire App and in the Cydia store (for jail-broken iPads) there are solutions for wireless iTunes synchronization.
Sadly I give up on the Flash-support for iOS devices. Wireless synchronization on the other hand would be a feature I (hopefully) see Apple bringing in a next major version of iOS.
Although I don’t think that the display of the original iPad is bad it would be a nice addition to the feature list of the iPad 2 if it featured a retina display.
Concluding thoughts and wrap-up.
The iPad 2 looks better than the original iPad in my opinion. The thinner design and less weight makes my original iPad look like a fat device.
I’m sure the iPad 2 will be as successful as the original iPad and probably more successful. I think users who own an iPad already, wont massively buy the iPad 2 because of the updated features directly. The rumors of the iPad 2 started late 2010 and I think since then there are a lot of people not buying the original version of the iPad, but waiting for the iPad 2 to be released. Therefore the iPad 2 will sell very quickly just like the original iPad.
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