There was much hope that a jailbreak for A5 and A5X devices, that’s the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the 3rd generation iPad, running iOS 5.1 would materialize soon after the new iPad’s release. After all, just a few hours following the official release of the new iPad three different jailbreak methods were demonstrated and confirmed.

Two weeks later and there haven’t been any updates on a public release of a jailbreak yet. Now it would seem that we might still be weeks away from a usable public jailbreak for iOS 5.1 and that’s unfortunate news for new iPad (3) owners itching to install Cydia and 3rd party apps on their retina-touting tablet.
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Do you remember that amazing interactive (and multitouch) version of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” by Petros Vrellis? Well it has now become an iPad app, so that you can literally interact with the paintings brushstrokes and watch them flow and whirl around.

The app is compatible with the iPad 2 and the new 3rd generation iPad. It’s $1.99 from the App Store and was created using openframeworks, similar to the original PC version that was demonstrated earlier. The app allows you to change the music and the animation speed and touching the painting not only affects the particle animation but also the music.
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The incredible retina display of the 3rd generation iPad deserves some incredible wallpaper and we think we just stumbled on them. This set of seven colorful geometric designs was created by graphic designer Simon C Page specifically for the new iPad. They are each 2,048×2,048 at 264dpi so they work both in portrait and landscape.

We’ve loaded them up on our iPad and they look absolutely awesome, fan and playful with an air of sophistication. The easiest way to get them on your 3rd generation iPad is to click each download link from Safari on the iPad and then press-and-hold to save.
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The 3rd generation iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3) has been announced and we’re sure you are itching to find out if it’s a worthy upgrade from an earlier device. Also given that the iPad 2 has just received a $100 price drop, you might want to consider it as a budget, but still very capable option.

In the table below we will be comparing the new iPad to the iPad 2. The key new feature in the 3rd generation iPad is the inclusion of a higher resolution display, a faster graphics unit necessary to push the extra 2.4 million pixels in the new display and a new 5MP iSight rear camera. You also get a few other nice features like Bluetooth 4.0 and 4G LTE connectivity options. Performance-wise the new iPad should be equivalent to the iPad 2.

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Apple follows a once a year update cycle for most of its main products. The company has, like clockwork, updated the iPhone and the iPad every year since their release, personal computers like the MacBook Air, have also enjoyed regular yearly updates.

We’ve been hearing of the iPad 3 for quite a while now, as with many Apple products, rumors started practically as soon as the current generation iPad 2 hit the market. However, now we’re seemingly getting close to the actual announcement of the iPad 3 that should come within the next few weeks. Initially we reported on the possibility of an Apple event this month, now the word on the street is that Apple may hold a new iPad event on the first week of March.
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Behringer is a big name when it comes to audio and particularly mixers. The German company has announced three new small format mixers that can use the iPad as their brains. The XENYX series iX1642USB, iX2442USB, and iX3242USB mixers can also draw music from the iPad and record to it. You can also connect the mixers directly to a Mac or Windows computer via USB to record audio digitally.

The three mixers only vary in the number of input channels, 16, 24 and 32. All feature 32 editable presets, such as reverb, chorus, flange, delay and pitch shifter. Using the iPad to control the mixers’ FX Processor gives the user a full spectrum analyser and deep control of the EQ — of course turning virtual knobs can never beat the satisfaction of real ones. The mixers feature 130 dB dynamic range mic preamps and using the iPad’s video out capability, you can also sync performances to video.
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Apple has just vowed to reinvent textbooks, and of course the perfect delivery vehicle is the iPad. The big unveiling at today’s education and eBook related event in New York City was iBooks 2 for iOS. The latest version of the app now gives access to interactive textbooks. iBooks textbooks make things more exciting than you typical paperback with interactive 3D models, video and audio. You now also have the ability to pinch for the table of contents, and of course you still have all the typical multitouch navigation gestures.

Besides saving you from lugging big blocks of wood, electronic iBooks textbooks allow you to quickly search for content, highlight text, take notes and even turn them to virtual study cards. Textbooks are rather competitively priced at $14.99 or less, and publishers on-board for the launch include McGraw Hill, Pearson, DK Publishing and Mifflin Harcourt.
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We’ve been expecting this day to come and you can now finally update your iOS devices — iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, all iPads, 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch — to iOS 5. This is a major update to iOS with over 200 new features, including Notifications (at last), iMessage, Newsstand, Reminder and of course iCloud integration.

As we warned you yesterday, you will need to be running iTunes 10.5 to update your devices. So if you haven’t done already, check out our coverage.
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So you were already sporting the original iPad but you just had to have the latest and greatest, so you already picked up the iPad 2. Now you want to have all your data and settings copied over to your new iPad 2 so you can just continue where you left off.

Transferring your data is actually a pretty simple process and should take you only a few minutes, depending on the amount of information you have. Just follow this simple guide and you should have your iPad 2 all setup:
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With only a day away until the official launch of the iPad 2, Apple has just made available a number of guided tours covering almost everything you might need to know to get you started with the new tablet. There are videos on the new suspects, FaceTime, GarageBand, iMovie, AirPlay; and the typical culprits e.g. Safari, Maps, iTunes etc. No Photo Booth video tour for the moment unfortunately.
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One of the new additions to the iPad 2 is the inclusion of a gyroscope, something which has been inherited from the iPhone 4.

Simply, the gyroscope together with the device’s accelerometer improves motion sensing accuracy and allows the iPad to measure in which direction you are moving/rotating it in space (roll, pitch and yaw), how much and how fast.

In technical terms, a gyroscope is a device used to measure or maintain orientation, and it’s the former that’s of interest to us here.
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When the original iPad was launched the heaviest criticism it received was that it was principally a content consumption device, suited for web browsing, reading, listening to music, playing games and watching videos. The iPad was not suited for serious work; you were more or less limited to just writing emails and short documents.

Smart applications, such as Brushes and SketchBook, pushed the envelope and allowed creative individuals to produce amazing works of art on the iPad but offerings were still limited.
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You can count pretty much all the rumors we’ve reported as verified. The iPad 2 is now a reality and shipping on March 11th to the US and on March 25th to more than 26 other countries.

The next generation, iPad 2 will have:

• New faster A5 chip: Dual-core processors, up to 2x faster CPU, up to 9x faster graphics
• Dual cameras (front and back) and new software supporting the cameras (Photo Booth and FaceTime with some pretty heavy conferencing power, 9 live video streams at once!).
• Gyroscope, as in the latest iPhone and iPod Touch.
• 34% thinner at just 8.8mm thick (from 13.4mm). It’s thinner than the iPhone 4 (9.3mm).
• 13% lighter at 1.3lbs (from 1.5lbs).
• Same 10 hour battery life.
• Same starting price, $499 for the 16GB WiFi only model.

It will be shipping in two colors, black and white, from day one, and there will be models available for both AT&T and Verizon.
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The Apple Store, like clockwork, has just gone down; which means one thing: ‘something’ new is coming out today. The online store becomes unavailable whenever Apple is going to release new products and the hotly awaited iPad 2 is the main candidate for today.

We don’t expect the store to come back-up until today’s event has finished. Stay tuned for updates!

Update: Apple Store now back up, iPad 2 added starting from $499.

[Apple iPad]

With only a few hours to go until the official Apple event, a number of photos have appeared on a Chinese tech site of a mock-up posing as the iPad 2. It’s claimed that the mock-up is based on specification given by Apple to case manufacturers so if it is to be believed it should give you an idea of the size of the device and placement of features such as speaker, cameras etc.

Although the basic features of the expected update are there, see front-facing camera, larger speaker and a slimmer profile we’ll go ahead and say that the actual device should look much better and that speaker port does sure look tacky. In any case, the real thing should be arriving any moment now and in the mean time more pictures of the would be iPad 2 below.
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Apple’s special media event is just one day away, taking place at 10AM Pacific time on Wednesday March 2nd. Although the event invitation doesn’t explicitly detail what the event is about, however as you can see from the image above, there’s a very apparent hint, which has re-affirm the rumor mill for an iPad refresh.

Many sources have been unofficially reporting that during tomorrow’s event, Apple will introduce the next generation of the iPad (a.k.a. iPad 2) while it’s also speculated that the next major version of its operating system, iOS 5, will also be previewed during the event. The timing of the event is in line with past events by Apple done during the same period in previous years for iOS updates. The iPad was introduced by Apple in January 2010 and was available for sale in early April. There are also reports that Apple has now stopped production of the original iPad and that it has halted new shipments to retailers.
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