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So... a dual core processor, two cameras, and... that's it? I was honestly expecting a LOT more considering how much competition they're getting this year. The

So... a dual core processor, two cameras, and... that's it? I was honestly expecting a LOT more considering how much competition they're getting this year. The new cover is neat, and it seems like they did a great job with the Movie and Garage Band apps, but the new iPad 2 is pretty underwhelming. Same old low resolution, no USB ports, and no desperately needed UI changes (I'm guessing iOS 5 wasn't ready yet and you'll have to wait for the new iPhone announcement). The only good thing still going for it is the price, and if the past few years of the smartphone market has taught us anything, we'll soon see a flood of a variety of cheap tablets on all the service providers using Android. Can the iPad 2 compete with that? We'll see.

marknutter 16y ago
USB Ports? Really?
ary 16y ago
I suspect that when iOS 5 is announced there will be more to say about the iPad 2's abilities. We'll see I guess.
- potatolicious 16y ago
  They really need to fix the notification system and the multitasking model. Now that we have a CPU that screams while sipping power, there's not a large case against it. The constant waiting (IM apps in particular) when task-switching is aggravating, and the one point where Android can really whip the hell out of the iPad.
  - ary 16y ago
    Agreed. Judging from banter on the web the iOS notification system is approaching "Fix The F Finder" levels of frustration.
vyrotek 16y ago
They needed to give you reasons to buy the iPad 3 of course.
- rbarooah 16y ago
  Does anyone seriously think they are deliberately holding back?
  - SandB0x 16y ago
    Well, they don't have any serious competition at the moment. Why push prices up or profit margins down with a high res screen when they can introduce one at a later (and cheaper) date?
    - rbarooah 16y ago
      Pushing prices up or margins down would make them less competitive. More importantly, they have to be able to manufacture with quality in increasingly gigantic volume. Sure they're making choices, but that's not the same as holding back.
    - jokermatt999 16y ago
      It's also a nice trump card to pull out if a nice shiny new tablet looks like it will begin eating into Apple's marketshare. If they think the iPad 2 can already comfortably take on the Xoom (etc), why would they try to add too much now?
  - ghshephard 16y ago
    Apple is well known for coming up with ten prototypes, bringing it down to three potential shipping products, and then selecting just one. You can be certain that somewhere in mid 2010, there was a higher resolution version of the iPad 2 that was either in the first group of ten, or possibly even down selected to the final group of three. For reasons of cost, power consumption, or, perhaps competitive pressure (Nobody else was coming out with a tablet with a high resolution, so they could hold off until the iPad 3, or possibly 4) that was not the product you saw today.
gfodor 16y ago
Did you really expect Apple to add USB ports to the iPad? Also, new iOS wasn't part of this announcement. All in all it's a pretty solid hardware refresh (the thinner case being the highlight.) The screen probably will be in v3, since the cost is probably still too high.
- billmcneale 16y ago
  > Did you really expect Apple to add USB ports to the iPad? Doesn't seem unreasonable coming from the company that claims to have popularized USB: http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/ http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/
  - mattparcher 16y ago
    Thunderbolt is actually based on the Mini DisplayPort specification. If anything, Apple will add this to the iPad, but it will look quite different than USB. The next iPad, rumored for September of this year, is more likely to include major new features, including a higher-resolution display and more connectivity (i.e. Thunderbolt).
    - danilocampos 16y ago
      It's doubtful that the iPad is going to refresh that dramatically by September. It's even more doubtful that Thunderbolt would be in such a refresh – they would have to add PCIe support to their ARM SOC and that doesn't seem trivial. (Though it's entirely possible it's in the new A5 and they said nothing about it)
      - rtc 16y ago
        I think Apple went out of their way to make it seem like iPad2 is a long-running product: - end of video, Ive saying "iPad2 will define the category for years to come" - 2011: the year of iPad2 Both of these are, I believe, explicit attempts to make people NOT think a new iPad3 is coming soon (so people won't wait, and will buy now instead), but in reality these two things perhaps support the iPad3 in September rumors...
catch23 16y ago
USB would add a huge power drain to the ipad. plus I'm not sure if most people would need it. What's wrong with bluetooth add-ons? Also, where are these cheap tablets running honeycomb? The only one I've seen available so far is the Xoom and that's $800 for their starter model.
- citrik 16y ago
  Seems like a lot of people are overlooking the Camera Connection Kit which gives the iPad USB. Works with MIDI too.
- Pewpewarrows 16y ago
  The Xoom is $600, not $800, and my comment said soon. Android smartphones started out slow as well as you may or may not remember. Apple Fanboys were all too eager to laugh at the first model or two of phone running on Android, and now look who's running the market just a short time later. If you don't see any correlation between what happened then and what's happening now I honestly don't know what to tell you.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
    - cryptoz 16y ago
      NO! The WiFi model is $600, the 3G model is $800. The 3G model was released last week, the WiFi model is coming out soon. The Xoom is $600! Really, it honestly is. Here, I'll cite the CEO of Motorola as proof! http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=motorola+ceo+600+xoom http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#38...
  - achompas 16y ago
    > and now look who's running the market just a short time later. Can we stop with the "market share" talk? No one is "running" the smartphone market. What is this, Engadget? Android benefits from mass adoption, since Google makes money on ads. So they license their OS for free to a bunch of manufacturers. They're doing pretty well. Apple benefits from a simple, walled-off platform because that's their design philosophy. So they update a few products a year. They, too, are doing pretty well.
danilocampos 16y ago
Sounds a lot like... "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." This kind of thinking is what has allowed Apple to sweep up so much damn money, along with ownership of the DAP and tablet markets. Give people what they actually need instead of filling out spec lists to appeal to the nerds.
- spamizbad 16y ago
  But that statement was a fair (albeit glib) criticism of the original iPod. It never really had it's breakthrough moment until the 3rd generation.
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    Those original iPods were amazingly well made. Lots of them are still going strong, modulo a replaced switch, headphone jack, or battery.
  - lurch_mojoff 16y ago
    But that was not because the iPod had no wireless, neither because it had less space than Nomad. I hope we can all agree, with the benefit of hindsight, that the reason for the slow uptake of the iPod was a combination of it being Firewire only, it being Mac only, Apple not being the brand they are now, and the fact that people were not really familiar with and didn't quite understand the concept of digital music.
    - spamizbad 16y ago
      I think we're both making the same point here - the original iPod had a lot of friction holding it back with consumers. What I was attempting to elude to was this: until the iPod had better connectivity options (USB and PC support) in addition to reaching storage parity (40gb by gen 3) it finally blossomed and took over the market. It's not that the 1st gen iPod was garbage - it wasn't - it just lacked some crucial components before it could conquer the market.
  - danilocampos 16y ago
marklabedz 16y ago
What competitors are shipping their tablets by March 11? Last I saw for RIM was April. Loaded question perhaps, but the "iPad killers" based on Honeycomb aren't out en masse yet.
- Pewpewarrows 16y ago
  This is a tablet that has to stand against the next entire year of competitors, at Apple's current release schedule. It's not even caught up to the Xoom in terms of hardware specs. Like the iPhone before it, it'll be tough competition against the wave of competitors that have faster release schedules.
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    What hardware specs? Battery life? Gyroscope? Graphics Performance?
  - zyb09 16y ago
    well Gruber said they're releasing another one in fall ;)
  - marklabedz 16y ago
    For the general public, it doesn't have to keep up with hardware specs when the experience already out-paces it.
    - Pewpewarrows 16y ago
      The general public doesn't buy Apple products by way of rational decision-making. They buy it because it's Apple and to be part of the community and culture of Apple fans.
      - stcredzero 16y ago
        Buying on specs over usability is not rational decision making from the point of view of most users. http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672316498 http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/06723164... Highly skilled techies are largely immune to usability problems, so buying on specs may be rational for us.
afterburner 16y ago
35% thinner, 15% lighter, HDMI out, plus the improvements you mentioned... it's not revolutionary, but it's a strong second showing I think. It'd be nice if it was a lot lighter, but that's battery tech and the 10 hour choice speaking.
kenjackson 16y ago
The only good thing still going for it is the price Price + Quality. Plus the existing app store. Honeycomb has no apps and it seems really really buggy. Feels like Google rushed it out. iOS on the iPad feels polished and refined. Two things need to happen for Android in 2011. Honeycomb needs to get stabilized. No more crashing or freezes. AND we need to see a $350 high quality tablet. Until then Apple will continue to clean up.
niallsmart 16y ago
USB? What, exactly, do you want to plug into it? It will run iOS 5 when it's ready (good luck getting the latest Android releases on non-Google hardware).
- Pewpewarrows 16y ago
  Nearly every Android device has been made to run up to almost the latest version of the OS. Good luck with iOS 5 practically bricking the all but the latest hardware coming out of Apple because the phone slows to a crawl.

marknutter 16y ago

USB Ports? Really?

ary 16y ago

I suspect that when iOS 5 is announced there will be more to say about the iPad 2's abilities. We'll see I guess.

potatolicious 16y ago
They really need to fix the notification system and the multitasking model. Now that we have a CPU that screams while sipping power, there's not a large case against it. The constant waiting (IM apps in particular) when task-switching is aggravating, and the one point where Android can really whip the hell out of the iPad.
- ary 16y ago
  Agreed. Judging from banter on the web the iOS notification system is approaching "Fix The F Finder" levels of frustration.

vyrotek 16y ago

They needed to give you reasons to buy the iPad 3 of course.

rbarooah 16y ago
Does anyone seriously think they are deliberately holding back?
- SandB0x 16y ago
  Well, they don't have any serious competition at the moment. Why push prices up or profit margins down with a high res screen when they can introduce one at a later (and cheaper) date?
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    Pushing prices up or margins down would make them less competitive. More importantly, they have to be able to manufacture with quality in increasingly gigantic volume. Sure they're making choices, but that's not the same as holding back.
  - jokermatt999 16y ago
    It's also a nice trump card to pull out if a nice shiny new tablet looks like it will begin eating into Apple's marketshare. If they think the iPad 2 can already comfortably take on the Xoom (etc), why would they try to add too much now?
- ghshephard 16y ago
  Apple is well known for coming up with ten prototypes, bringing it down to three potential shipping products, and then selecting just one. You can be certain that somewhere in mid 2010, there was a higher resolution version of the iPad 2 that was either in the first group of ten, or possibly even down selected to the final group of three. For reasons of cost, power consumption, or, perhaps competitive pressure (Nobody else was coming out with a tablet with a high resolution, so they could hold off until the iPad 3, or possibly 4) that was not the product you saw today.

gfodor 16y ago

Did you really expect Apple to add USB ports to the iPad? Also, new iOS wasn't part of this announcement. All in all it's a pretty solid hardware refresh (the thinner case being the highlight.) The screen probably will be in v3, since the cost is probably still too high.

billmcneale 16y ago
> Did you really expect Apple to add USB ports to the iPad? Doesn't seem unreasonable coming from the company that claims to have popularized USB: http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/ http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/
- mattparcher 16y ago
  Thunderbolt is actually based on the Mini DisplayPort specification. If anything, Apple will add this to the iPad, but it will look quite different than USB. The next iPad, rumored for September of this year, is more likely to include major new features, including a higher-resolution display and more connectivity (i.e. Thunderbolt).
  - danilocampos 16y ago
    It's doubtful that the iPad is going to refresh that dramatically by September. It's even more doubtful that Thunderbolt would be in such a refresh – they would have to add PCIe support to their ARM SOC and that doesn't seem trivial. (Though it's entirely possible it's in the new A5 and they said nothing about it)
    - rtc 16y ago
      I think Apple went out of their way to make it seem like iPad2 is a long-running product: - end of video, Ive saying "iPad2 will define the category for years to come" - 2011: the year of iPad2 Both of these are, I believe, explicit attempts to make people NOT think a new iPad3 is coming soon (so people won't wait, and will buy now instead), but in reality these two things perhaps support the iPad3 in September rumors...

catch23 16y ago

USB would add a huge power drain to the ipad. plus I'm not sure if most people would need it. What's wrong with bluetooth add-ons? Also, where are these cheap tablets running honeycomb? The only one I've seen available so far is the Xoom and that's $800 for their starter model.

citrik 16y ago
Seems like a lot of people are overlooking the Camera Connection Kit which gives the iPad USB. Works with MIDI too.
Pewpewarrows 16y ago
The Xoom is $600, not $800, and my comment said soon. Android smartphones started out slow as well as you may or may not remember. Apple Fanboys were all too eager to laugh at the first model or two of phone running on Android, and now look who's running the market just a short time later. If you don't see any correlation between what happened then and what's happening now I honestly don't know what to tell you.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
  - cryptoz 16y ago
    NO! The WiFi model is $600, the 3G model is $800. The 3G model was released last week, the WiFi model is coming out soon. The Xoom is $600! Really, it honestly is. Here, I'll cite the CEO of Motorola as proof! http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=motorola+ceo+600+xoom http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#38...
- achompas 16y ago
  > and now look who's running the market just a short time later. Can we stop with the "market share" talk? No one is "running" the smartphone market. What is this, Engadget? Android benefits from mass adoption, since Google makes money on ads. So they license their OS for free to a bunch of manufacturers. They're doing pretty well. Apple benefits from a simple, walled-off platform because that's their design philosophy. So they update a few products a year. They, too, are doing pretty well.

danilocampos 16y ago

Sounds a lot like... "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." This kind of thinking is what has allowed Apple to sweep up so much damn money, along with ownership of the DAP and tablet markets. Give people what they actually need instead of filling out spec lists to appeal to the nerds.

spamizbad 16y ago
But that statement was a fair (albeit glib) criticism of the original iPod. It never really had it's breakthrough moment until the 3rd generation.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  Those original iPods were amazingly well made. Lots of them are still going strong, modulo a replaced switch, headphone jack, or battery.
- lurch_mojoff 16y ago
  But that was not because the iPod had no wireless, neither because it had less space than Nomad. I hope we can all agree, with the benefit of hindsight, that the reason for the slow uptake of the iPod was a combination of it being Firewire only, it being Mac only, Apple not being the brand they are now, and the fact that people were not really familiar with and didn't quite understand the concept of digital music.
  - spamizbad 16y ago
    I think we're both making the same point here - the original iPod had a lot of friction holding it back with consumers. What I was attempting to elude to was this: until the iPod had better connectivity options (USB and PC support) in addition to reaching storage parity (40gb by gen 3) it finally blossomed and took over the market. It's not that the 1st gen iPod was garbage - it wasn't - it just lacked some crucial components before it could conquer the market.
- danilocampos 16y ago

marklabedz 16y ago

What competitors are shipping their tablets by March 11? Last I saw for RIM was April. Loaded question perhaps, but the "iPad killers" based on Honeycomb aren't out en masse yet.

Pewpewarrows 16y ago
This is a tablet that has to stand against the next entire year of competitors, at Apple's current release schedule. It's not even caught up to the Xoom in terms of hardware specs. Like the iPhone before it, it'll be tough competition against the wave of competitors that have faster release schedules.
- rbarooah 16y ago
  What hardware specs? Battery life? Gyroscope? Graphics Performance?
- zyb09 16y ago
  well Gruber said they're releasing another one in fall ;)
- marklabedz 16y ago
  For the general public, it doesn't have to keep up with hardware specs when the experience already out-paces it.
  - Pewpewarrows 16y ago
    The general public doesn't buy Apple products by way of rational decision-making. They buy it because it's Apple and to be part of the community and culture of Apple fans.
    - stcredzero 16y ago
      Buying on specs over usability is not rational decision making from the point of view of most users. http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672316498 http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/06723164... Highly skilled techies are largely immune to usability problems, so buying on specs may be rational for us.

afterburner 16y ago

35% thinner, 15% lighter, HDMI out, plus the improvements you mentioned... it's not revolutionary, but it's a strong second showing I think. It'd be nice if it was a lot lighter, but that's battery tech and the 10 hour choice speaking.

kenjackson 16y ago

The only good thing still going for it is the price Price + Quality. Plus the existing app store. Honeycomb has no apps and it seems really really buggy. Feels like Google rushed it out. iOS on the iPad feels polished and refined. Two things need to happen for Android in 2011. Honeycomb needs to get stabilized. No more crashing or freezes. AND we need to see a $350 high quality tablet. Until then Apple will continue to clean up.

niallsmart 16y ago

USB? What, exactly, do you want to plug into it? It will run iOS 5 when it's ready (good luck getting the latest Android releases on non-Google hardware).

Pewpewarrows 16y ago
Nearly every Android device has been made to run up to almost the latest version of the OS. Good luck with iOS 5 practically bricking the all but the latest hardware coming out of Apple because the phone slows to a crawl.