Apple held a special event yesterday to introduce its latest inventions: the new iPad the new Apple TV.
Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple held his first “Apple Event” after the death of former CEO Steve Jobs last fall. Cook and his staff stuck with a tried and true formula to add a few upgrades to an already existing product, keep it at the same price point, then call it new — and that’s exactly what the new devices are about.
Here are the new additions:
HIGH-RESOLUTION SCREEN/FASTER GRAPHICS PROCESSOR –
This graphics upgrade was done with gamers in mind. Namco and Epic Games were on hand to show off new games in which players fight off multiple enemies simultaneously.
LTE CONNECTIVITY –
Offering users faster data speeds means faster-loading Web pages and streaming video that starts nearly instantaneously.
HIGHER RESOLUTION CAMERA –
The new iPad will now come with a 5-megapixel camera and 1080p video resolution. Apple also included the same optics that it built into the iPhone 4S, which will provide sharper and better low-light shots. The only failure here was not including a flash with the camera.
NEW iOS iPHOTO APP –
Unfortunately, this isn’t a built-in feature, but rather a $5 add-on that brings Apple’s photo editing program to its mobile devices for the first time. The good news is the controls are completely redesigned for the touch interface for users to create interesting photo tricks.
VOICE DICTATION –
Now typing long email or documents just got a lot easier. However, Apple failed to make this feature an instant speech-to-text translation, but instead chose to do this in sequential batches.
Here’s what it’s missing:
NO SIRI –
The popular voice assistant feature on the iPhone 4S was not included on the new iPad, which is a huge negative. Siri would have allowed users to access information without first having to locate the correct app. But it also would have just been a killer addition to boost sales. For now, Siri remains iPhone 4 only.
NO iPAD MINI –
Many consumers were hopeful Apple would introduce an iPad Mini — something smaller than the current iPad yet larger than an iPhone. No go! Apple doesn’t believe there is a large market need (yet) for such a device. Perhaps in the future, though.
NO HANDWRITING RECOGNITION –
Some consumers were also hoping the new iPad would allow them to throw away their pen and notebook. Also a no go! Although some apps already offer handwriting recognition and although you can already use a stylus with the iPad, the device doesn’t translate handwritten notes into text.
Apple also introduced a new Apple TV with a big hardware change inside. Instead of the Apple A4 chip found in the previous Apple TV and the iPad 2, the new model hosts a single-core A5 chip. The increased power will finally allow the Apple TV to support 1080p video output.
On the software side, there’s a new user interface with large, iOS-like buttons instead of textual menus for the major content categories. There’s also a new Genius feature to suggest movie choices based on films you’ve already watched. Photo Stream images will also be pushed to your Apple TV without any manual intervention.
