White iPad 2

According to 9-to-5-Mac, citing a source within an Apple Store, everyone’s favorite fruit company is recalling a batch of iPad 2′s, some of which are in the hands of consumers as we speak.  Others are being stopped mid-shipment.  The first store to give notice had over 100 units to be sent back.  The issue seems to only affect Verizon iPad 2′s right now, a similar situation to earlier in the year when customers visited the Apple forums to complain of Verizon iPad 2′s they had ordered being stopped and sent back.  The forums are ablaze with angry customers again, who ordered units back in May and finally saw them shipped, only to be stopped and returned.  Numerous posts confirm that this is happening to those who ordered iPad 2′s with engravings, but at this point Apple is being tight-lipped about what exactly the problem is.  Fortunately, it doesn’t appear to be a wide-spread problem, as only a certain batch number is being recalled.  From reports, we’d estimate around 1000 devices or less have been affected thus far.  As the day progresses and people roll out of bed this might change.  If you got a return to sender notice, let us know in the comments!

Apple’s exceptionally popular iPad 2 has been hard to get your hands on since its release.  Popularity for the tablet has soared, leading to people really gouging the price on sites like Ebay and Amazon.  Most stores have had the device on backorder for weeks, but now we’re getting reports from Yahoo Finance that Best Buy is sitting on a stock of iPad 2′s for sale on Sunday.  That’s welcome news for those waiting their chance to get one of these.

Recent Best Buy Ads in my area, and others have plastered the tablet on the front page, and I know from my time working for Best Buy that they don’t put things on ads if they don’t have a few to sell.  Few, though, may be the key word.  Given recent events in Japan, many electronics manufacturers are having some trouble getting necessary components for many devices.  That said, there may be a very limited stock of iPad 2′s available this Sunday.  Time to start lining up now!

Apple’s latest iPad went on sale on March 11th, and features a few improvements over the original model, including front and rear-facing cameras.  Many stores reported that the device and all the accessories had sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale.  The supply of iPad 2′s world-wide was exhausted within 24 hours.

Update:

There is also a new Toys-R-Us employee training guide that says they will have iPad 2′s for sale on Sunday, as well.  Link here.

iPad 2 Vs XOOM

iPad 2 isn’t out yet but CNET UK folks apparently got a chance to run a benchmark test on the gadget. The results they got are pretty much interesting as the iPad 2 running iOS 4.3 beat all the other devices listed by the Sunspider JavaScript bechmark include iPhone 4 and the first generation iPad running iOS 4.2 and 4.3 betas, Nexus S and the Galaxy Tab.

iPad 2 Javascript Benchmark

iPad 2 Javascript Benchmarks

Yes, iPad 2 had to beat ‘em all as it packs a 1GHz dual core CPU which none of them has. But Anandtech has got a pretty much longer list of devices bechmarked on Sunspider 0.9. The test was carried out on Motorola XOOM so we have got something to compare with. This test result doesn’t enlist the iPad 2 running iOS 4.3 but we’ve got the performance in miliseconds.

Motorola Xoom Javascript Benchmark

iPad 2 on iOS 4.3 had a performance result of 2097ms according to CNET’s test and Motorola XOOM has a performance result of 2164.4ms according to Anandtech’s test. So iPad 2 beats XOOM by a sharp margin of 67.4 ms. This is a tiny little margin but you take such things into account when you’ve got some intense performance competition.

One thing that makes this performance lead a little skeptical is that CNET’s results were done on Sunspider 0.9.1 unlike Anandtech’s test which was carried out on version 0.9. The results might be affected because of the difference in the version of the benchmark on the two devices.

iPad 2 contains an A5 chip designed and released by Apple and manufactured by Samsung. It has got a 1GHz dual core ARM Cortext A9 (or possibly A8) processor whereas the XOOM has got Tegra 2 manufactured and released by NVIDIA which also contains a dual core 1 GHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU. The only technical difference in both the chips is the RAM. A5 has got 512MB of RAM whereas NVIDIA Tegra 2 in XOOM has got 1GB of RAM. Haven’t you notice that XOOM has got more RAM but the iPad 2 beats it in performace? Surprised!? No, this is not something surprising as Apple is able to achieve noticeably better performance with technically lower level hardware in many cases. Take iPhone 4 for example, it has got a clock speed of 800MHz to 1GHz on Apple A4 chip with 512MB of RAM but it performs way faster than the rival Android phones with 1GB of RAM and 1GHz CPU like HTC Desire. The difference isn’t nominal, you’d experience it in everyday use. Apple achieves this performance lead by the better software efficiency and may be a better hardware design as well.

Honeycomb has got a lot of tablet specific optimizations which mainly include the UI stuff. Apple on the other hand has not released a tablet specific UI with iOS 4.3 but has optimized the performance of already well performing OS specially the web browsing in Safari.

[Found on twitter]

We are not alone to be disappointed with Apple’s tablet announcement. Here are a few posts depicting world’s reaction for the iPad:

1. Gizmodo: 8 Things That Suck About the iPad
2. We, gggadgets.com: iPad Won’t Be An iPhone Like Success
3. Engadget: Apple’s iPad keeping Adobe Flash away from your couch
4. TechCrunch: The iPad: our take. We need to hear from Micheal Arrington yet.
5. CNN: With iPad, will size matter?
6. Twitter: iDon’t Care is a trending topic right now.

People were more excited about Apple’s tablet announcement than state of the union address, they are no more! What do you think?

MLB.com has also redone their base ball game. You can play live video within the app. Video can be played in full screen too. Here are some snapshots:

But that’s not what will make iPad a success. The whole world is already slamming it.

iPad

iPad might not be such a huge success like the iPhone. First of all, it didn’t meet our expectations, we wanted something all new from Apple but it is not! It is just a huge iPhone. No, in fact a huge iPod touch. You cannot make calls from it.

The second most annoying thing is its storage capability. It can play HD movies and iPad basically an entertainment device but has at most 64GB worth of storage. Being a computer user, you’d definitely agree to the fact that even 250GB of storage seems low when you talk of entertainment. You won’t be able to store all of your favorite movies on the device.

Another week point is its price, yeah price! Steve Jobs has mentioned it as a strongest point but I see it the other way round. Would you like to pay $800 for a device with only 64GBs of storage?

I expected video calling over 3G and there’s no camera even! I can’t even have a full skype experience. Sad!

Topping on the ice, there’s no flash! Battery isn’t replaceable and iPad can’t multitask! So like 90s.

The last and the most important one is that it does not feature a standard CPU. Well, it’s right that Apple has been manufacturing CPUs for years but they had to move to Intel because Intel is doing that better. This time Apple has tried its own built CPU that might not be able to meet our expectations.

Steve, take it as a signal, iDon’t Care is a trending topic on twitter right now!

Steve Jobs has just officially announced the rumored Apple tablet. As we have already reported that it is just like a huge iPhone or iPod touch. Full specifications are coming step by step and we are updating this post live. Please press “F5″ on your keyboard to refresh this page.

Here are the iPad specifications:

1. Safari is the web browser, obviously and is pretty responsive!
2. Flash doesn’t seem to be supported because the Safari gave a missing plugin error on a website
3. It has a big on-screen QWERTY.
4. Google maps are pretty sleek and have photo tagging capability.
5. Has built-in iTunes and iTunes store
6. Email app has a drop down list for new emails. While browsing emails, you get a left side column to choose from the emails and the email body is displayed on the right.

7. It has an apps icon screen similar to iPhone but with an OS X like dock at the bottom
8. Youtube and youtube HD is supported
9. You can play HD movies
10. Contacts app looks like an open book
11. Same slide-to-unlock screen as iPhone
12. Photos app is similar to iPhoto and can be synced with iPhoto
13. Viewing Google Maps’ street view is a pleasure
14. There’s a different keyboard for different tasks, like the numpad for entering numbers and a dedicated date and time keyboard
15. iPad syncs over a USB just like iPhone

Hardware Specifications:

1. 0.5 inches thick
2. 1.5 pounds heavy
3. 9.7 inch IPS display
4. Capacitive touchscreen
5. Multitouch supported
6. Processor is developed by Apple itself!  1GHz Apple A4 chip
7. Available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage
8. Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
9. Wifi 802.11n
10. Accelerometer
11. Compass
12. 10 hours battery life time even with video playback!
13. Over one month standby time
14. Battery seems to be un-removable, not confirmed though.
15. Every iPad has wi-fi but there are specific models with 3G

Software And Apps

1. Can run all iPhone apps without any modifications!
3. iPhone apps can run in iPhone-sized display mode and full screen!
4. Seems to lack multitasking
5. Has app store on it. Obviously.
6. Has “iBooks” app to rival kindle
7. Apple has created a new app store for books called “iBook Store”.
8. iWork is completely redone for the iPad. It’s a pleasure using it.

Pricing and Money Matters
1.  Apps are paid, obviously.
2. iWork apps are $10 each.
3. $15 for 250MB data plan per month
4. Unlimited data plan for $30 per month. Way less than current US data plans.
5. iPad pricing starts at $499
6. iPad 16GB: $499
iPad 32GB: $599
iPad 64Gb: $799

Network & Coverage

1. Free wi-fi at all AT&T hotspots
2. iPads ship unlocked!
3. You cannot make phone calls, seems so.

That’s it from us, iPad specs are now live at Apple’s site as well.

I here predict that most of the leaked info is not correct and Apple is about to surprise us with something all new, having no resemblance with the iPhone.

[via iSpazio]