June 28, 2010

Thoughts on next generation iPad

With the iPhone 4 ushering in so many new features, it seems safe to say that the iPad II will inherit many of it's little brother's features.

Here is what I'm betting on:

Retina Display - it's far too sharp with text to NOT put it in the second gen iPad

Front Facing Camera - this will likely be in there because supposedly there is room for it and all iPads are WiFi compatible - the avenue used by FaceTime.

More RAM - I believe  the iPad has 256 MB of RAM while the iPhone 4 has 512 MB.

Faster Chip - duh, newer units are always faster, but maybe not by a lot.

SD Card Slot - this might be pushing it, but it'd be cool to see an SD slot on an iPad. It would make for faster image uploading and you could use it for extra storage.

Possible Redesign - we MIGHT see a redesign based on the iPhone 4. Maybe not a glass back, but I wouldn't put it passed them. If not, it may look similar, but with an aluminum back.

No Camera or HD video - it is really nonsensical to add this feature to such a big product. Forward facing camera is likely as mentioned. If there IS one on the back it will be fore FaceTime purposes and likely lower resolution.

I think we could see this as soon as January, but it could be further out and late in 2011. Apple seems to want to make it's products uniform. Just look at the Macbook Pro line. 13-17" are identical except for size. Same with iMacs and even the new Mac Mini has taken on the design characteristics of the iMac. The only odd ball in the group is the regular MacBook. I wont be surprised if this one goes away eventually to make room for a pad between the iPad and the Macbook pro? Why? Because for like $200 more than the Macbook, the lowest end Macbook Pro is way more than $200 worth the hardware in my opinion.

We'll see. It's always fun to see that they're gonna do.

- R

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