“The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, these people said,” Kane and Raice report. “It will have at least one camera on the front of the device for features like video-conferencing, but the resolution of the display will be similar to the first iPad, these people said. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, they said.”
Kane and Raice report, “The new iPad will initially be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter… Like many of Apple’s other products, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known by its trade name Foxconn, is assembling the new iPad, the people familiar with the matter said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The iPad’s screen is already gorgeous.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
I hope it has a rear camera as well as a front camera. As a physician that uses the iPad as my only chart in the office, I was hoping for a rear camera to be able to take clinical pictures in the office to add to my charts.
Well, I hope that it is something more then just two cameras being added and I know with apple it always will be but I want something out of the ordinary, something to surprise me. Instead of just adding what they did to the iPhone 4 I want something different! who’s with me?
MacDailyNews Take: The iPad’s screen is already gorgeous.
….until you’ve gazed upon an iPhone 4. If you can forget about how perfect the iPhone 4 screen is, then yes, it’s gorgeous.
People tend to hold the iPhone display much closer to the eyes than the iPad. It wouldn’t take the iPhone’s pixel density to give an iPad the “retina display” effect.
If it gets the Retina Display the price will be higher. I have the iPod touch 4 and I understand some want retina display, but I agree with MDN, the iPad screen is already gorgeus.
I think the rear camera may have flunked the Steve Jobs usability test. But it may still be there…
As I’ve been saying, iPad 2 is a refinement of the original design. Apple invested a huge amount of time, money, and resources to create the original iPad. Apple needs to earn its return on that investment before completely overhauling the iPad after just one year. Apple is magical, but it’s also a business.
With the exception of the camera (or cameras), and maybe a gyroscope (because iPhone and iPod touch have it), all the changes SHOULD be “refinements”… thinner, lighter, faster. Look at the second-gen iPhone (3G) compared to the original; it was faster and used 3G wireless instead of EDGE, with better camera, better battery life, and other refinements. Even the third-gen iPhone (3GS) was a further refinement. And THEN, iPhone 4 was a complete overhaul.
@ ken1w
I get your point about getting the return in investment. But consider that all the modifications in the new iPad are direct transfers from the iPhone. Apple are already reaping the rewards for scale of economy and adding iPad components will only help.
Adding the additional capability to the iPad will drive sales even more. I want to buy one for myself and then probably one for my folks in the UK so we can do Facetime. But I need the camera to buy in.
No, the rear camera on the iPad would not flunk any usability test. The Facetime “flip”, which I can do on my iPod touch, requires a rear camera. It’s a really great feature.
What fails the usability test is this scenario (dude talking to another dude on Facetime: “Dude, they have a great pool here at this resort. Let me clumsily turn this iPad around so you can see it….whoops, oh sh*t, I dropped the iPad in the pool!!”
@PhxDoc
How about something like this? http://deviceknit.com/implementations/91/use-your-iphones-camera-to-take-pictures-on-your-ipad/
You use an iPhone to take your pics instead, the benefit being a much better camera with a much higher resolution than the iPad is very likely going to have (if the new iPod touch camera is any idication as compared to the iPhone4 camera.)
May not be quite as handy, but will probably get much better pics.
want
one
I skipped the 1G iPad in the hope of more Flash storage. So far that’s the only 2G feature that *hasn’t* been rumored!
Apple dividend anyone?
If you’re a long Apple investor, a few shares sold will pay for your new iPad II, while still keep you well ahead of the game.
Compliments of Apple!
@solid
Trying to photograph a check for deposit with the iPod Touch 4G is challenging to say the least.
Photos are marginal as well.
I hope iPad 2 has better front and rear cameras.
cool!! another $500+ i need to spend soon…
Connor Macbook.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> (long story)
I held out on the ipad 1 for a long time… i wanted a front camera for facetime and vowed i’d not buy a ipad till it had one.
2 weeks ago i caved… i should have bought it to start with. granted not being iOS 4.0+ i probably would have not liked it as much.
Granted i picked it up new for less than $300
The bigger question is… will Steve introduce it at an event?
@ solid
I actually think ANY built-in camera on an iPad fails the Steve Jobs usability test. Unlike an iPhone (or iPod touch) which is easy to hold, aim, and keep steady with one hand, an iPad really needs two. You can hold (cradle) it with one hand in normal use (with iPad more or less horizontal), your hand holding it up from below, but for FaceTime use, it needs to be held in vertically; that would be difficult and cramp-inducing with one hand.
It is relatively heavy (compared to iPhone), so for use with FaceTime, that means holding it up using two hands (and arms (and shoulders)), and keeping it steadily aimed at your “face” for however long the video call lasts. If you place the iPad on your lap and prop it up with one hand, then you get “crotch cam” (about the worst possible camera angle for a video call).
As I’ve said before, I say the best way to add a camera to an iPad is to create the Apple Bluetooth Camera accessory. It connects wirelessly to an iPad and can be placed anywhere and aimed in any direction, to provide a steady shot from a good camera angle with no muscle strain. It would also allow first gen iPad owners to do FaceTime (and Mac mini and Mac Pro owners without LED Cinema Display to have an Apple-supplied web cam), so it would be a useful product in any case.
BUT iPad 2 will have one or two cameras, because this is one case where Apple will pay attention to the spec sheet. There are customers who care more about comparing specs than actual user experience, and Apple does not want any of them buying some oversized smartphone Android tablet, just because it has a pair of cameras listed in the specs.
Didn’t Apple win a patent for having the webcam behind (or center of) the display, instead of above it like on MacBooks or iMacs? I want that in an iPad or other computer.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> –> if it is excellent quality of course.
Apple has 60+ billion dollars in bank. Couldn’t they use a fraction of that to give us Retinas for the iPad 2, thus lowering the prices for them on iPad 3 and giving then room for some other Insanely Great thing?
@ ken1w
No man, you got ergonomic and industrial design all wrong. If you need to be looking at the screen to see the person that you are talking to, and a camera is directly pointed at your onlooking face, I don’t see the problem. Calming that you need to hold the device up to chat is a solution looking for a problem, not the other way around. This will work just fine as it works fine but differently with the iPhone.
Doesn’t the iPad stand solve the FaceTime problem?
As for the rear camera, no one will use it to shoot many photos while on the go. iPad is to big for that. However, camera has become a valuable input device – many apps can use photos of reciepts etc.
The author is really a fanboy. The ipad screen is gorgeous, by today’s standards, it isn’t. What will u call the retina display? Gorgorgeous? Lol
What a waste, of course the iPhad-HD is in production. Apple would have to stock up for April release specially since it has been such as a Huge success and I hope Apple will expand availability beyond US market on the opening Friday April 1st.
If the camera(s) aren’t way better than the ones in the iPod Touch 4G I’d rather they not even bother.
iPhad?
Typo or you just oblivious?
And, we don’t know the “HD” version is in production. As the paper, to which you no longer subscribe, stated resolution would be about the same, how do figure HD.
@W.T.Efyall…and you’re basing this on what conclusive market research?