Apple’s new iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3) packing 1GB of RAM and 1GHz processor, gets early unboxing and benchmark

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  • March 13, 2012 at 1:40 pm

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3rd generation iPad box shot

Although Apple is keeping the new 3rd generation iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3) under lock and key until the official March 16 release date, a pair of Vietnamese tech journalists managed to snatch an early copy.

As normally happens in these cases, the pair has duly unboxed the new iPad, which is a 16GB 4G model by the way, in front of a camera and also ran a quick benchmark. No surprises with the unboxing, the new iPad comes in pretty much the same box as the iPad 2, and you still get a power adapter and a USB to 30 pin connector cable. But anyone anxious for some early retina display action is welcome to the 4 minute video just below, and we’re sure you won’t mind that it’s in Vietnamese.
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The 3rd generation iPad is the first tablet with Bluetooth 4.0, what’s in it for you

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  • March 10, 2012 at 8:09 am

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3rd generation iPad multiplayer

Apple has been progressively bringing Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to its mobile devices and personal computers. The mid-2011 MacBook Air (full review here) and Mac mini were the first to get Bluetooth 4.0 and were followed suit by the iPhone 4S, which was the first smartphone ever to get Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

All the above are Bluetooth Smart Ready devices, i.e. they can connect to every legacy Bluetooth device out there, like Bluetooth mice and keyboards, and new Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready and low power Bluetooth 4.0 Smart devices, like body monitors and watches. Here’s a table below of what can connect with what:
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The new iPad is here: retina display, A5X with quad-core graphics, better cameras and 4G LTE

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  • March 7, 2012 at 1:47 pm

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3rd generation iPad with retina display

So the well published Apple event is under way and the company has finally come clean with its updated tablet. The third-generation iPad is called just that, iPad — Apple chose not to name it iPad 3 or iPad HD as was previously rumored.

The new iPad comes with a very high resolution 2048 x 1536 display, with four times the number of pixels found in the iPad 2. Apple is calling its 264 pixels-per-inch density display, retina worthy.

To drive such a high resolution one needs a powerful graphics unit and the third-generation iPad comes with a new A5X chipset featuring quad-core graphics that’s two times as potent as the one found in the iPad 2. Apple is also claiming that the A5X graphics unit is four times as fast as the quad-core Tegra 3, a pretty bold statement.
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Avid Studio brings advanced video editing to the iPad

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  • February 5, 2012 at 6:16 pm

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Avid Studio for iPad video editing application

The iPad has already demonstrated that it does indeed have the chops for some serious content creation. While a touch interface may not be suited for some tasks, it’s perfect for others, and video editing would be one of them. Avid, a name synonymous with prosumer video and audio production, has just released an iPad version of its Avid Studio application, which will now go head-to-head against Apple’s own iMovie.
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Behringer launches three XENYX iX series mixers with iPad support

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  • January 20, 2012 at 8:07 am

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Behringer iX1642USB iPad mixer

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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High-resolution graphics contained in iBooks 2 may point to a 2048×1536 display in the iPad 3

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  • January 20, 2012 at 6:49 am

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iPad 2 iMovie ~ Selecting the best shots

As we are coming closer to a potential launch of the iPad 3, there’s increasing speculation on the potential specs of Apple’s next tablet. One of longest standing rumors is that the iPad 3 will have a “retina” display with a resolution of 2048×1536 — that is double the 1024×768 resolution of the iPad 2 on each axis or four times the number of pixels.

Well, some developers have dissected the files contained within iBooks 2 and iTunes U that were released yesterday, and found a number of graphics files appended as ‘iPad@2x’. One of these images is the bookmark graphic and as then name suggests it’s double the size of the graphic for the normal iPad.
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The iPad goes to school: iBooks 2 app brings interactive textbooks for $14.99 or less

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  • January 19, 2012 at 3:51 pm

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iBooks 2 Textbooks on iPad

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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iBooks Author hands-on: how anyone can now publish interactive books to the iPad

Reviews

  • January 19, 2012 at 12:45 pm

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iBook Author: template chooser

Apple has just announced the free iBooks Author Mac OS X application, which allows anyone to create and publish eBooks to Apple’s iBooks platform for the iPad. I went ahead and downloaded the free app from the Mac App Store, which only took a couple of minutes, and fired it up to for a first test.

First impressions are really good, the key to the application is simplicity. If you’ve ever used Blurb to publish a book, the experience is similar but faster and more accurate. On launch, you get a choice from six existing templates, or you can start from scratch. The six templates are OK for a start but relatively limited.

After that it’s a matter of putting down the text, either writing it directly or dropping a document on the page (you have full control on the typography and colors of course), and other content. Dropping images works very smoothly and you can easily move, resize, bring to front or send back. Things auto-align nicely and text boxes can snap to the end of other boxes automatically. While you are moving objects, guides pop-up to show you the margins between other objects and the page ends.
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iBooks Author is a free Mac app that brings drag and drop simplicity to publishing books on the iPad

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  • January 19, 2012 at 11:57 am

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Apple iBooks Author Mac OS X app

Apple’s education and iBook related event in now underway at New York City’s Guggenheim museum. The company just unveiled iBooks 2 for the iPad which now includes textbooks, but that’s hardly the only important announcement for today. In a bid to make every person a book publisher, Apple has just unveiled a free Mac OS X application, names iBooks Author, that will allow anyone to design and publish their own books on the iBooks platform.

iBooks Author can be downloaded now from the Mac App Store, as we’ve said for free, and the idea behind it is that it brings drag and drop simplicity to authoring multi-touch eBooks. The application comes with a host of templates to get you started though you can completely customize the look of your book. You can enter your text directly to your book’s pages and you can drag and drop photos, videos and even Pages and Microsoft Word documents directly into your book. You also have the option of making your iBook interactive and for that you have the widgets. Widgets add multi-touch interactivity and include photo galleries, 3D objects, animations and Keynote presentations. You can also add your own Javascript or HTML if you are feeling more adventurous.
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Rumor: Apple preparing for an iPad 3 and iOS 5.1 event in February? What to expect

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  • January 17, 2012 at 12:30 pm

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Apple iBooks on iPad

One of most anticipated hardware launches of the year is none other than the third iteration of the world’s most successful tablet. The iPad, which made tablets relevant, has transformed the way we consume content on the go, and even how we create it. The iPad 2 and iOS 4.3 were announced at a special Apple event on March 2nd 2011 and released on March 11th.

Betting on Apple’s one year update cycle, we would expect the iPad 3 to be announced around the same period this year. But what do we know about the iPad 3? Well, Apple devices have generally been going in one direction. With each iteration, they usually get faster, thinner, with better battery life and a better screen. It’s almost certain that the iPad 3 will feature a faster chipset, probably an Apple A6 quad-core processor and better graphics. One of the longest standing rumors has been that the next generation iPad will have a high resolution display; most rumors point to a 2048 x 1536, which is effectively double that of the current iPad 2 on each axis. The improved A6 graphic processing unit (GPU) is claimed to be able to handle the quadruple pixels.
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Why we love tech: David Hockney’s ‘A Bigger Picture’ is contemporary art done on an iPad

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  • January 16, 2012 at 5:29 pm

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The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire, in 2011. iPad drawing printed on paper by David Hockney

David Hockney is one of the most influential contemporary British artists. Born in 1937, with a career spanning more than 50 years, he has relentlessly acquired mastery in a number of media. David Hockney has made paintings, drawings, lithographic and etching prints, designed stage sets and worked with photography and photocollage. In his long, and successful, career he has also always embraced new technologies. David Hockney’s latest exhibition, titled ‘A Bigger Picture’ and running between January 21st and April 9th 2012 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is a testament to this.

The exhibition is devoted to landscapes and includes more than 150 works by the artist, most of which were created in the last decade while many are massive in size. The vivid works were inspired by Hockney’s native Yorkshire. After Hockney’s 30 year long stay in California and Los Angeles, where he created his famous paintings portraying alluring poolside scenes he returned to his home country and has been based in Bridlington, a small seaside town in east Yorkshire, around 65 miles from Bradford where the artist was born. The exhibition includes oil paintings, watercolors and more than 50 drawings created on an iPad and then printed onto paper. There are also a number of videos created for the exhibition.
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Updated Google Search app for iPad offers new features, design and interactive animations (video)

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  • November 21, 2011 at 5:11 pm

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iPad Google Search app

Google has just updated its Search app for the iPad. The new version offers a complete redesign with much more visual appeal and new features. Interactions are designed to take advantage of the iPad’s large screen and touch interface.

As soon as you start typing in the input box, Google Instant starts to display relevant results so that you will be able to get better prediction of your intended search with fewer keystrokes.

You now have a choice between reviewing the search results as the classic list or switch to a visual slide presentation, navigable by swiping. When doing an image search you are now presented with a default image carousel, where you can swipe left or right between the images.
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iOS 5.0.1 update released: promises to fix your iPhone battery woes, includes new iPad multitasking gestures

News

  • November 10, 2011 at 4:48 pm

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iPhone low battery level

A lot of iOS 5 users have complained of poor battery life, and we’ve reported that Apple has been working hard to fix the issue. Devices that could be affected include the iPhone 4S and any iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS that has been updated to iOS 5.

iOS 5.0.1 has been released today and promises to fix any battery woes that you’ve been facing. The update, also available for both iPads and the iPod Touch, includes security patches and various other fixes, while the original iPad also gets some new multitasking gestures.

If the update hasn’t reached your device yet, check Settings > General > Software Update on your device or connect it to a computer and launch iTunes.
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