This Just In: SA to get iPad 2 on 29 April!

Well this is great news – last year South Africa only got the iPad in November, some six months after the rest of the world. Well it seems Core or Apple have been listening to our complaints of getting the iPad late. It looks like SA does not have to be treated like a second class tech citizens, and we will be getting the Apple iPad 2 very soon!

Bandwidth Blog has already reviewed the iPad 2 (twice), finding it to be a great device which refines on all the features which has made the iPad a success worldwide. If you have been holding off on getting iPad 2, now might be the time to take the jump. Only question now is to see what Core’s interpretation of the official pricing is-if it continues the pricing trend until now, I expect it to be a very popular device in SA. Will this drop the pricing of iPad 1 even more? Will there be a blown out sale?

Update: Official pricing has been released by Core, and it looks pretty good! Have to commend Core for keeping the pricing competitive! So lets see: (more…)

Update: Since this review post went live, Core has announced that iPad 2 will reach SA on 29 April. And the pricing is not half bad! Yeah, we are happy as well.

In March we were lucky enough to show you of what it was like to wait in line at the Apple store in Austin, Texas and get hold of the iPad 2. While we focussed on the entire purchasing experience, we wanted to spend some more time with the device before we gave our full opinion. For the past few weeks we have been dealing with the iPad 2 enough to get a much more informed account if it really deserves our hard earned cash, or if it maybe warrants an update from the iPad 1. So lets dive in…

Physical Features

If you have handled the original iPad, and liked it, you will like the iPad 2. Apple did not steer too much away from it, instead only refining elements of the design. A typical example of evolution, not revolution, the iPad 2 is slightly thinner. While you do not necessarily notice the thinner chassis, you definately notice the new flat back, instead of the rounded back of the original iPad. The iPad 2 also now has tapered edges, instead of the corners previously used. This, combined with the flat back really does make the device more comfortable to hold. The rear sports a new speaker design that had me worried if the sound will be muffled if placed flat on a table, but that is luckily not the case. The only other difference on the back of the device is the new camera – but we will get there.

One of the criticisms of the previous iPad was that the device was too heavy. While it was still very light compared to laptops, it was rather uncomfortable to read with for extended periods of time. The iPad 2 is a little bit lighter, and a person can really feel the difference. It is still not as comfortable to read as with the Amazon Kindle though. (more…)

Yossi Hasson, CEO SYNAQ – passionate entrepreneur and geek. SYNAQ is the leading provider of open source email and collaboration applications for small businesses delivered via the cloud. At SXSW to discover what’s happening in the tech world, and obviously, to buy the iPad 2.

It’s 08:00 AM, freezing cold and my first Day in Austin, Texas for SXSW and while heading to the Austin Convention Center we decide to make a little detour stop visit to a rumoured “Apple Pop-up store” at a discreet location. (Apple was rumoured to be building a temporary store 2 blocks from the convention center just in time for the start of SXSW – this store sold iPad 2′s only). Thinking the store would open at 9 and expecting a long queue, we arrived at the location and found… well, 1 guy. Sweet John (see pic) and a corner store that had been “blacked up”. Sweet John told us that the store would only be opening at 17:00 but that he was here for the long haul (And had been waiting since 6:30 that morning)… so, we decided – what the heck and lets wait it out as well.

And so the Apple iPad 2 journey began. Myself, Justinus Adriaanse and Graham Bradford (all South Africans) decided to camp out the apple store for 10 hours to be one of the first to get an iPad 2. By 08:30, our suspicions that this may be the correct location was confirmed when a large FedEx truck arrived delivering small “iPad sized” boxes in the thousands. Speaking to one of the delivery guys, they commented that they can neither confirm or deny that this may be the Apple store [score].

By 11:00 there was still no more than a handful of people waiting in line but by about 14:00 o’clock the line started developing at a rapid rate, spanning across the building. The general vibe was very festive with people sharing food, making friends and really enjoying their time. Reporters from various websites began coming through interviewing the South African contingent on why in the hell they would travel 30 hours only to camp out the Apple store in the freezing cold. We got interviewed by CNN Money, Mashable, TechCentral, Reuters and a couple of others and featured on the front page of CNN Money.

Minutes before the opening an army of blue T-shirt wearing Apple employees announced themselves on the street putting up blockades and handing out little tickets to each person entitling them to a maximum of 2 iPads. Moments before opening the doors they began cheering, taking pictures and building the crowd up as if one were at a rock concert. When opening the door, we were greeted by 2 lines of Apple employees, cheering, high-fiving and congratulating the “lucky few” who were able to get their hands on the iPad 2.

It was the first time for me to ever experience a product launch of this nature, the hype and build up that goes into it, entering into the store I had an adrenalin rush and never thought i’d ever be one of “those” fan boys caught up in the brilliant artful trickery that makes Apple, well Apple. But there I was, Credit Card in hand happily waiting to spend a small fortune on a small little, for all practical purposes, pretty redundant device.  (more…)

OK – clearly there is a theme this week on BB – but iPad 2 is big news. Now that Steve’s reality distortion field has died down, we can start objectively looking at the iPad, and see how it stacks up against the flood of other competitors recently released. There are a few notable ones – the Motorola Xoom, which is built on Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and HP’s recently announced Touchpad based on the brilliant looking WebOS interface. There is also the Blackberry Playbook which was announced in September 2010, and is also not close to being manufactured yet. Details like release date, storage and cost is still scarce for the Playbook, so I am not seeing it as a competitor as yet.

As of now the iPad still compares favourably if you look purely at hardware specification, except for one glaring ommision. Memory. The previous iPad had 256MB, and then the iPhone4 got released with 512MB, so its pretty safe to assume it would have at least 512MB. Right? Looking at the competitors it might be beneficial if the device arrives with 1GB, especially with iPad’s big push into gaming.

But why is this even important?

Steve Jobs made a few interesting points during his keynote – he claimed these devices now constitute the “Post-PC” era. We are not interested anymore what is on the inside – do you really think the average person who bought an iPad above a Galaxy Tab did so because of what was inside the device? No – they bought it for ease of use, the range of apps, and the overall experience when using the iPad. Not all people bought it for the Apple logo, they bought it for what it enables: anytime simple computing, for people who are tired of computers. Face it – we should not be worrying about things like filesystems, corrupt documents, compatibility, virusses etc. These are all things that should be in history books of computing.

Now sure – there are some of us that would always base our decisions on what inside our hardware. When I buy a PC this is very important. But with post-PC devices it should be all about the experience. Now I realise than Android fans would obviously go for the Xoom tablet, people like the idea that their powerful hardware is capable of something in future. “Think about how great it would be if one day Android apps can use all that horsepower!” But therein lies the rub – the iPad can do amazing things right NOW. Just look at the new Garageband and iMovie software. These apps have taken traditional apps we use on our Macs and made them even better to use on the iPad. Now sure – you can argument that these apps are not possible without adequate horsepower inside. But the thing is people just dont care about that. They see the cool looking app on the iPad, and then go grab it in the appstore. Thats it.

If Apple can keep their price lower than the competitors, users will flock to the iPad in droves. After all – that is what is happening with Android Smartphones.

Curiously I think WebOS looks like a better competitor to the iPad. Sure it will probably take a long time to build the application base, and HP has a massive task to convince developers to get on board. But WebOS is simply stunning – the way multitasking is implemented is so good, that RIM decided to copy it for their upcoming Playbook. The interface is smooth and powerful without intimidating the user – even better than the current “grid of icons” look of iOS.

So do these specs matter? The fans of Android (who are arguably more technical) would still not love the iPad, but everyone else just do not care. They just care if the experience is good, and the price is right. Ask the 15 million who bought them so far.

Source of Grid: Laptop mag

And just like that Apple makes the “magical” iPad first generation feel old, heavy and slow. The new iPad 2 sports a even more minimalistic design with tapered edges, a flat back and some better guts. Here is the rundown:

The bigger news is what is found on the inside however – the new device runs on a latest generation “A5″ dual core processor, which apparently almost doubles application performance, but more importantly gives much, much better gaming performance. The iPad also now gains two cameras – one standard rear facing cam that cam record HD video, but also a front facing camera for use in Facetime and Photobooth (maybe now Skype will make a decent iPad application?). A gyroscope also finds its way into the iPad. All of these new features have not changed the iPad into a power hog – Apple still claims a 10 hour battery life.

The iPad is thinner this time round – only 8.8mm, which makes it even thinner than the iPhone 4, which is still one of the thinnest smartphones around, and weight has dropped by 15%. Doubt that will silence the Kindle fanboys, it is still nowhere near Amazon’s e-book reader. It still retains the steel chassis, but this time round it gets the option of a white bezel around the display, which actually looks quite good.

Apple also showed off its new cover for the iPad dubbed the “Smart Case” – essentially a flap that covers the front of the device that folds into a stand for easy typing or video watching. But somehow they made the case function brilliantly – its contains magnets that automatically aligns itself perfectly with the device, but also attaches using magnets. Opening the cover also switches the iPad on, closing it switches it off – an idea I guess they got from Blackberry right? Now the explanation might not explain exactly how cool this cover works – look at the video:

How cool is that?!!!?

This morning BandwidthBlog posted its predictions for the iPad 2 – so lets see how we did:

Improved form factor: Yes. But not really rocket science eh?

Double the memory: Unknown. We just dont know yet – but knowing iFixit, we will get the teardown soon enough. Competitors now ship with 1 Gigabytes, so lets see if Apple decides to follow suit.

Camera(s): Yes. Both front and rear. Rear records HD video, but no details yet on megapixels. Both front and rear cams record at 30fps.

More speaker power: Well, they did not give it stereo speakers, and we also dont know yet if the speaker is louder this time round.

Dual Core processor: Yup. And graphics is improved.

Support for GSM and CDMA networks: Currently it looks like Verizon iPads will sell seperately, so I do not know if it will sell as one device with an option to just switch between GSM and CDMA.

What we did NOT expect to be announced:

Retina display: Nope, did not happen.

128GB of storage: Did not happen.

A white iPad: I admit defeat. While the overall device is still silver, the bezel now has a white option.

A smaller 7 inch iPad: No go.

We were sketchy about these:

SD Card slot: Boo Apple – still an add on device. Not cool.

Dual Dock connector ports: Nope.

A “Smart Bezel”: Nope, but the display does switch off if it gets covered by the new smart case. Few details still – does it function with a magnetic switch, or is it a standard proximity sensor?

What we also expected:

iOS 4.3: Yeah, it was announced. Expect it on 11 March. Includes new Airplay features, and the new Personal Hotspot feature.

iOS 5 Roadmap: Nope – guess Apple is keeping that for the WWDC conference.

So now the next question is how does one get one of these bad boys? Core will probably take a while to get it, because Apple did not include it in a list of countries which is getting this month already. Hopefully they do not take another 10 months this time round. If you are hasty however – there services that can ship the iPad 2 to you right here in sunny SA.

(Update: iPad 2 has been launched in South Africa)

(Update: iPad 2 has been launched in South Africa)

It is no secret that today Apple will announce its iPad 2 – and needless to say the rumour mill has gone into overdrive. People look at trends in the tablet market and subsequent releases from Apple since the last iPad was announced for clues. However – not every pie in the sky feature can reach the iPad, in many cases it would drive the cost up, or perhaps more likely – Steve just does not like the idea… So here goes Bandwidth Blog’s predictions for what to expect, but also what NOT to expect:

What to expect in the iPad 2:

Improved form factor: While the overall size of the iPad will not change, expect the device to be ever so slightly thinner, but more importantly, get a flat back. The current round back on the iPad makes it wobbly when placed on a surface, but also creates small scratches on the rear when it is not inside a case. A lighter weight would be great as well – a major criticism from the Kindle fans.

Double the memory: The first generation iPad has 256MB of memory, but then the iPhone 4 was launched with 512MB of memory only a few months later. iPad 2 needs to have 512MB of memory as a minimum, and hell, give it even more. Applications are becoming more complex, especially games.

Camera(s): To be honest I never really missed a camera on the iPad, until I used Facetime on the iPhone 4. With Apple’s big push with Facetime (it is now available on OS X as well), its only natural that the front facing camera will reach the iPad as well. A better question is whether a standard rear facing camera will also reach the iPad – I can really see it being useful in conferences to quickly take a snap of a presentation, or that diagram on the white board.

More speaker power: The iPad’s speaker is better than expected, but still weak sauce. With such a great screen, the iPad really needs better sound, and preferably stereo sound when placed in landscape orientation.

Dual Core processor: The iPad’s performance is adequate up until now, but with the recent stream of Android releases at CES, Apple would have to keep up with the processing power of devices like the Xoom. While one might argue that iOS does not need the same horsepower as Honeycomb, the fact of the matter is that applications and especially games would gobble all the power up very quickly. Apple A5 perhaps?

Better gaming performance: Yeah, I am repeating myself. iOS has become a formidable gaming platform, and Apple will continue to push this. Games currently run better on the iPhone 4 because of double the memory and a (slightly) lower resolution. Expect some serious graphics grunt in the next iPad.

Support for GSM and CDMA networks: While not really relevant outside the US, it would make sense that the next version of the iPad and iPhone would contain chipsets that can handle both GSM and CDMA network standards. In fact, the latest Verizon-only iPhone already contains this Qualcomm chip, but just no SIM card tray.

What not to expect:

Retina display: Oh I really hope I am wrong about this one, because a Retina display in the iPad would be brilliant. After using the iPhone 4 a person can already notice that the iPad screen is not so sharp. But I really doubt they can pull it off within the current price ranges. Its pretty simple really: in order for a 9.7-inch iPad to qualify as a Retina Display (300 DPI) the screen would need a resolution of 2560 x 1920 – which is huge. This is more than any other screen that Apple currently manufactures, including the large 27 inch Cinema display.

128GB of storage: While I believe that the lower end iPad’s 16GB of storage is perhaps too little, I do not believe the high end model to jump from 64 to 128GB. While Apple is the world’s largest user of flash memory, I just cannot see them being able to give that amount of memory at the same price as the old one. I can however see a simplification of the range – only 32 and 64 GB storage for example.

A white iPad: Come on – Apple cannot even make a white iPhone 4. And also, what part would they make white? The black bezel around the screen creates a good contrast, and rear is silver. This of course assumes that they will stick with a steel body. I really hope they do not move to a plastic body…

A smaller 7 inch iPad: After using Samsung’s Galaxy Tab I was really impressed by the size of the device, but I did notice that the larger screen of the iPad soon becomes a great thing – the keyboard becomes easier to use, apps look better and the web browsing experience is superior. With Samsung now also announcing a 10 inch version of the Galaxy, you might have to concede that maybe 10 inch displays make more sense.

Who Knows?

SD Card slot: I bought one of the iPad Camera kits with the little SD card dongle, and it works a treat. But why it is not built into the iPad has to come down to cost. There is a lot of free space inside the iPad – just look at the iFixit teardown of the iPad. Come on Apple – do the right thing.

Dual Dock connector ports: One of the criticisms of the current iPad is that the dock connector is only on side, which functions in cradles when the device is in portrait orientation. I would think that many people would prefer to have the device in landscape mode while charging or typing a document using the keyboard dock. It would not be too hard for the next device to just have a dock connector on the right hand side as well? (Image Source: PatentlyApple)

A “Smart Bezel”: Uncovered patent applications also show off a “smart bezel” which is not really explained in any detail. Could it possibly be additional touch sensitive surfaces outside the actual display area. Perhaps a way to scroll without covering a part of the screen? (Source: PatentlyApple)

What also to expect

iOS 4.3: While the featureset for iOS 4.3 is already known, it would make sense for Apple to release it within this week. The big change this time is the addition of a wifi hotspot feature which is already available on the Verizon iPhone in the US. It will basically act exactly like the current tethering feature, but you can connect up to five wifi devices to it to access 3G network data. Also, iPad would not trail iPhone on iOS releases like in the past. Expect all devices to get it on the same day.

iOS 5 Roadmap: Apple might show off what to expect from iOS 5, but they have traditionally used their WWDC conference to entice the developers. But with all the tablet competition popping up, Apple might want to brag a bit about upcoming features. Case in point – the notification system on iOS is seriously lagging compared to Android, but especially WebOS. The current “in your face” notification needs a rethink.

Expect a post tomorrow to see if I was anywhere near the truth – after all, it will be Apple’s job to try and surprise people, and not only give them what they expect…

Update: These images just leaked online – can it be real? I really hope not…