iPad 2 Rumor Roundup

The next version of the iPad is, if timing and supply line rumors are to be believed, just around the corner. Although unexpected delays may follow in the wake of Jobs’ medical leave, the design must be finalized, and the factories in China are at this moment preparing to pump out five or six million of these things over the next few months.
There have been a few purported leaks, but Apple security has been competent this time around and the actual feature set of the new iPad is still somewhat of a mystery. That said, there are a number of rumors that have gained traction (or failed to), and here we attempt to bring them all together for your convenience, along with arguments for and against.

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More compact form factor
Argument:

• Case makers have received measurements differing from current iPad by small, but noticeable amounts, mainly in depth
• Nearly every Apple product gets thinner generation by generation
• iPhone 5 rumored to be getting full redesign; iPad presaged iPhone 4 design and would likely do so for iPhone 5

Objection:

• Old cases won’t fit

Judgment: A thinner, perhaps more easily gripped form factor is almost guaranteed. Apple doesn’t want the old cases to fit.

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New size and/or aspect ratio
Argument:

• Many media-centric tablets are adopting a widescreen format
• A 7″ iPad would be more portable, have a sharper screen, and be more conducive to video calling
• Most other Apple products come in small, medium, and large sizes

Objection:

• Steve himself ridiculed 7″ tablets as “tweeners”
• Too many iPad applications are already formatted for 4:3
• The hardware metaphor for the iPad isn’t a “tiny computer screen” but a “magical notepad,” and the 4:3 size more closely resembles that metaphor
• No other iOS devices come in multiple aspect ratios or sizes

Judgment: Extremely unlikely. Apple will keep their product simple and familiar while the rest of the industry experiments with relatively unproven sizes and form factors.

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SD card slot
Argument:

• Mockups show a mysterious port that is SD-card sized
• Major customer demand
• New market for white, Apple-branded SD media

Objection:

• No other iOS device has an SD slot
• SD would interrupt storage-based price tiering on the device (why pay for SSD?)
• Opening door to upgrading to SDXC would exacerbate the previous poiint
• Disruptive to Apple’s PC-centric hub system of managing media (iTunes, iPhoto)
• Arbitrary limitations to SD card capabilities may baffle users

Judgment: I personally have a lot of trouble believing Apple would do something so calculated to disrupt their device ecosystem, but Engadget says their source is “near certain,” so maybe old dog Apple can learn new tricks.

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New multi-core “A5″ processor based on Cortex A9
Argument:

• iPhone 5 and other new Apple mobile devices moving to this new chipset
• Move from Infineon to Qualcomm
• Unification of CDMA and GSM signal operation
• Necessary to support new graphics and on-device media management (following from SD card)
• Year-over year improvements to iOS devices have always improved CPU
• New graphics core known, CPU and chipset will upgrade with

Objection:

• None, sounds pretty solid

Judgment: Almost guaranteed.

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Dual cameras with flash
Argument:

• Code shipped with original iPad suggests camera was close to being integrated even then
• Newer code refers to flash and front and rear cameras
• Case mockups already show holes for cameras
• Apple wants to integrate Facetime with their entire lineup from iPod touch up to Mac Pros

Objection:

• Who wants to take a picture with their iPad?

Judgment: Very likely.

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Very high-resolution display (2048×1536)
Argument:

• Leaked developer assets suggest a second resolution increase like that from the iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4
• Apple has successfully kept a similarly high-profile display technology under wraps for a year or more with the original retina display for iPhone 4
• It’s the logical next step for iPad resolution
• 2x stretching wouldn’t be very destructive at such a high resolution
• Hypothetically a major selling point against competing tablets, none of which are even close to this resolution

Objection:

• Some say this quality of display simply doesn’t exist yet
• There’s no content built to fit such a resolution; even 1080p content would be “windowed”
• Significant increases in RAM or GPU power would be required to drive display
• Could be extremely costly

Judgment: Likely. I think they’re going to go for it. The objections are easily surmountable and if Apple is pushing media and photography, a high-quality screen like this will be a key advantage.

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Marginally increased resolution (1280×960)
Argument:

• Would enable 720p content to be played back at native resolution
• Much more in line with existing display tech

Objection:

• Resizing 1024×768 assets to this resolution would be awkward
• Not much of a functional advantage other than the movie playback, and the iPad is already only a marginal movie machine due to its 4:3 form factor

Judgment: Very unlikely; I just don’t see this “evolutionary” step happening. Either Apple will stay with 1024×768 or they’ll quadruple the pixel count, but anything in between would be seen as a pointless compromise.

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Secondary port on side
Argument:

• Side port allows for docking while in landscape mode
• Able to use accessories while charging

Objection:

• Apple would never, ever do this
• Give me a break

Judgment: No chance. Superfluous design elements are anathema to Apple.

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Improved speakers
Argument:

• The iPad speaker is just awful
• Improving it is cheap and a no-brainer

Objection:

• There’s very little space for speakers in there
• You’re supposed to use headphones anyway

Judgment: Almost certain. That tinny speaker is one of the iPad’s most easily-mockable weak points.

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iLife for iPad
Argument:

• Improved processor, storage, and so on make real iPad iLife no longer an impossibility
• New iLife and Lion-based apps have fullscreen interfaces that could more easily be transferred to iPad (or be indirectly controlled by one)

Objection:

• iLife apps, like many mouse-and-keyboard apps, simply aren’t built for tablets
• Potential fragmentation of the iLife platform, backup complications, and so on
• Storage issues (potentially mitigated by SD storage)

Judgment: Good chance. Apple’s bringing of iOS to OS X is likely a two-way street, but the original iPad just didn’t have the guts for full-featured movie and photo editing, or at the very least it wasn’t up to Apple’s standards. That could be about to change.

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Intelligent bezel/hot-pants device
Argument:

• Patent for touch-sensitive bezel that would let you control this and that without interacting with screen
• Another patent suggests rear-panel “hot pants” input

Objection:

• Apple wants you to touch the screen, that’s the whole point of the iPad
• This will likely be included in another, lower-profile product first
• Don’t you hold it by the bezel?
• Many cases obscure rear and corners of bezel

Judgment: Not likely. It’d be gilding the lily this year. Maybe next time around.

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The final tally seems to give an iPad with two cameras, a vastly improved screen and graphics processor, a thinner form factor at the same aspect ratio, better speakers, and possibly an SD card slot. My own guess would be that the original iPad will stick around at $399, and the new iPad (iPad Pro?) will start at $599.
Timing seems to be creeping away from the January announcement/March shipment guesses, though. Perhaps the delay is similar to that holding back the Daily, and Apple is getting the software infrastructure in place to support the new subscription models and media capabilities (involving the SD card and possibly iLife cloud syncing). I’d guess an early-February launch, pre-orders in the 1.5-2 million range, and shipment in late March or early April (once they’ve pressed enough new iPads to support a simultaneous shipping and retail debut).
New rumors will doubtless be swirling around the net right up until the day of the announcement, and we’ll cover those separately. Did we miss any, or do you find our reasoning defective? Let us know in the comments.

The future of the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and Apple TV, and why Apple is shifting its mobile line to Qualcomm chipsets

We've been hearing a ton of rumors about what direction Apple's next set of products will take and when they'll be available -- but now we've got some concrete information from reliable sources which should make the path a little clearer. And that includes info on the next iPad, the iPhone 5, the second iteration of the new Apple TV, and a big change coming for all of the company's mobile products. Want to know the scoop? Read along after the break to get the goods.

Right now, everyone is obviously buzzing about the Verizon iPhone 4. What people aren't talking about (yet) is the fact the device will be using a Qualcomm chipset for its CDMA radio (with no GSM capabilities) as opposed to the Infineon versions seen in the GSM iPhone 4. This isn't much of a surprise by itself, but it paves the way for a major shift from Apple. But first, a little bit of a timeline.

Just before the Verizon iPhone 4 launch, we'd heard from multiple sources -- sources like the ones which gave us all that extremely accurate Apple TV info last time around -- that the iPad 2 isn't nearly as close to launch as some have speculated. Apparently, those case and hardware mockups we've seen are rather early versions, which means we're still months out from a proper introduction. It seems likely that the device will land around April (perfectly timed with the 12-month product cycle Apple enjoys). And what about that device? From what we've been told, the thinner, sleeker tablet will sport a new screen technology that is akin to (though not the same as) the iPhone 4's Retina Display and will be "super high resolution" (unlike reports to the contrary). The device will remain at 10 inches but will now feature both front and rear cameras (not a huge surprise), and... there's an SD slot. That's right -- our sources say with near certainty that the device will have a dedicated SD slot built in (with no traditional USB slot). In fact, see that weird notch in the photo below? That's where the SD part will be located. What's most interesting, however, is what's happening under the hood.

The new iPad will feature a dual GSM / CDMA chipset produced by Qualcomm and will mark Apple's shift away from Infineon as its chipset maker to Qualcomm for all of its mobile devices. It's not clear if the chipset being used will be based on the company's EV-DO / HSPA Gobi variety or an entirely new design. Presumably, the strength of the new dual-mode chipset is that it will allow both Verizon and AT&T to offer the iPad simultaneously.

But all of these moves are leading up to the iPhone 5 -- a completely redesigned handset -- which our sources say is on track for a summer launch. Right now, the device is being tested discreetly by senior staff at Apple (strictly on campus only). We don't have much info on the phone at this point, but our understanding is that the new device will be a total rethink from a design standpoint and will be running atop Apple's new A5 CPU (a Cortex A9-based, multi-core chip). This device, like the iPad 2, will feature a Qualcomm chipset that does triple duty as the CDMA / GSM / UMTS baseband processor -- from what we hear there's no LTE in the mix at this point.

One other interesting tidbit: Apple is at work on the second generation of its redesigned Apple TV, which will include that new A5 processor. The CPU is said to be blazingly fast, cranking out 1080p video "like running water." It's likely that the A5 will make it into the iPad 2 as well, but we have yet to confirm that.

So what does this all mean? Besides the surprise of an SD slot on the iPad, it all sounds fairly routine. It's the complete move away from Infineon to Qualcomm that's truly notable -- marking one of the biggest shifts in suppliers and technology since the advent of the original iPhone. We're working on getting more detail on all of these devices, and as soon as we do, you guys will be the first to know

iPad 2 appears set for April with iPod Touch cameras

Expect to see Apple’s iPad 2 in April — a year after the original iPad hit store shelves — according to a report by Digitimes, which points out that Apple has also added five new printed circuit board (PCB) suppliers for the tablet.
Additionally, there’s a chance that the iPad 2 will sport the same cameras being used in the most recent iPod Touch, 9to5 Mac reports.
Digitimes says that the new PCB suppliers will begin shipping “any-layer HDI” PCBs — a technique that leads to finer circuit patterns, which are ideal for phones and tablets — in small amounts between late February and early March, with mass shipments set to begin in April. The news fits in with a previous Digitimes report that said Apple would begin shipping iPad 2s in February and have the device available for sale in April.
As for the camera news, all signs are pointing to the iPad 2 having front and rear cameras, the real question now is what their resolution will be. If 9to5Mac’s information — which was dug up from an Apple developer kit — is to be believed, the iPad 2 will sport a VGA quality front-facing camera and a 1 megapixel rear camera. Those specs are about the same as what the current iPod Touch supports.
News of a front-facing VGA camera isn’t a huge surprise, but it’s disappointing. The iPhone 4 features a similar VGA-quality front camera, but other tablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab feature higher quality 1 megapixel shooter. A rear 1 megapixel camera definitely seems too low — the Galaxy Tab offers a 3 megapixel rear camera.
I wouldn’t get too upset yet, though, as there’s a very good chance the information 9to5Mac pulled hasn’t yet been updated with correct specifications for the iPad 2

New Ipad iOS 4.2 Software

Multitasking on iPad

iOS 4.2 brings multitasking from iPhone and iPod touch to iPad. So you can be more productive as you work, have more fun as you play, or do a little of both. Everything happens smoothly and efficiently — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.²

Folders on iPad

Now your iPad has more room for more apps. Move apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity to declutter your Home screens and keep your apps organized for fast access to your favorites.

AirPrint

AirPrint makes it simple to print email, photos, web pages, and documents right from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. A few taps is all it takes to go from viewing it onscreen to holding a printed copy. There’s no software to download, no drivers to install, and no cables to connect.

AirPlay

AirPlay lets you stream digital media wirelessly from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to the new Apple TV or any AirPlay-enabled speakers.³ So you can watch movies and photos on your widescreen TV and play music through the best speakers in the house.

See AirPlay in action

Find My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Find My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch — the MobileMe feature that helps you locate your missing device and protect its data — is now free on any iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-generation iPod touch running iOS 4.2.⁴ Once you set it up, you can find your lost device on a map, display a message on its screen, remotely set a passcode lock, and initiate a remote wipe to delete your data. And if you eventually find your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can restore everything from your last backup.

Once you download iOS 4.2, it's easy to activate this new feature. You do it right on your device. Learn how to set up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

See Find My iPhone in action

More features available in iOS 4.2

Game Center

Be more social with your gaming. Find friends or use auto-match to play multiplayer games against new opponents. Track achievements and compare high scores.⁵

iTunes TV show rentals

Rent TV shows commercial free in HD for just 99¢ an episode and start watching them in minutes.

Even better Mail

See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox, organize messages by threads, and open attachments in third-party apps.

Find text on web pages

In Safari, you can do a quick text search to find and highlight specific words and phrases on even the longest web pages.

Notes with fonts

Customize your notes using different fonts — Marker Felt, Helvetica, and Chalkboard.

Reply to calendar invitations

Reply to event invitations from friends using calendar services like Yahoo! and Microsoft Exchange — right from the built-in Calendar app.

Keyboard and dictionary enhancements

iOS 4.2 includes support for over 50 languages and dialects, with more than 30 new international keyboards and dictionaries for iPad.

Accessibility enhancements

Control VoiceOver using a wireless keyboard. Output in braille to over 30 supported wireless Bluetooth refreshable braille displays in more than 25 languages.

Enhanced enterprise support

Businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities, and improved enterprise integration.

Messaging with text tones

Know who’s texting without looking at your screen. Choose from 17 new alerts and assign custom tones for people in your contact list.

iPhone only.

Rumor: iPad 2 Design Similar to iPod Touch

 

New details have surfaced in regards to the 2nd generation iPad.
ZoomAn unnamed source has revealed a few new details surrounding the upcoming 2nd generation iPad, reporting that it will measure 3-mm (0.11-inches) smaller than the original model while retaining the same 9.7-inch screen dimensions. Overall the new iPad is expected to measure 9.41-inches (h) x 7.32-inches (w).
According to the report, the new iPad's backing will have a shape similar to the iPod Touch. A hole located in the back plate--as previously seen in leaked photos--was originally speculated to be for a USB port or an SD card slot. However the unnamed Chinese source said it's actually for a large, wide-ranged speaker unit that will be covered with metal mesh.
The source also claimed that the Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) has been relocated to the upper center quadrant on the rear panel and will have a new 0.12-inch slim hole. The antennas for 3G however have not been moved, residing in the same spot as seen on the original iPad. Other details provided by the source were old: the front-facing camera for FaceTime and a rear-facing camera for video.
Earlier reports have indicated that production has already started, with assembly shipments due to arrive at Apple in late January. There have also been rumors that the LCD screen will provide a higher resolution, and that the tablet will use a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 chip.
If Apple head-honcho Steve Jobs keeps to the one-year schedule, then consumers should expect to see the 2nd generation iPad make its grand appearance next month in a special Apple press event.

When iPad 2 Hits, Will iPad 1 Go Cheap Or Extinct?

With iOS 4.2 finally out in the wild, the iPad has effectively been rejuvenated. And there’s no question that Apple is going to sell a massive amount of them during the Holiday shopping season. But what comes next? Well, the iPad 2, of course.
You don’t need to be an analyst looking for inside information to know that Apple has a pretty standard policy of refreshing their product lines about once a year. And with iOS devices, it’s more or less clockwork. Since the iPad was released in early April last year, that’s the most obvious target for when the iPad 2 will hit. But there’s a side question that will go along with that launch: what will happen to the iPad 1? Will it go cheap? Or will it go extinct?
Essentially, the question is whether Apple will follow the iPhone model, or whether they’ll follow the iPod touch model. The iPhone is updated each year, and since the launch of the iPhone 3GS 18 months ago, Apple has been deeply discounting the previous generation model while keeping it available for sale. With the iPod touch, they don’t do that. Once it’s updated, the old inventory runs dry and isn’t replenished; the new one takes its place.
Now, there’s a good reason for Apple to do that for the iPhone. The idea of a sub-$100 smartphone is very sexy to a lot of consumers — especially if it’s an iPhone, which carries the allure of an Apple product. All indications are that the newer models (which sell for $199 and $299) easily outsell the $99 version, but it helps Apple to more fully cover the market. And given Apple’s huge margins, they still likely make a pretty penny on the $99 iPhone.
Of course, a huge reason for that is the subsidy paid to them by AT&T (in the U.S., anyway) on the device. The iPad is different. There is a 3G version, but it’s not subsidized by any carrier. In fact, it’s more expensive to the consumer — both in initial price, and the need to pay a monthly cellular fee. In other words, any cost eaten on selling a cheaper iPad, would be Apple’s alone.
And the iPad is already an interesting product for Apple in the sense that it has a lower margin than they’re typically used to. Apple very aggressively priced the iPad out of the gate with prices starting at $499, which was much less than many people had been anticipating. Of course, most accounts still have Apple making close to a 50 percent margin on the device. And with costs presumably coming down over time, they probably have some room to sell a cheaper version if they wanted to.
But how cheap?
$100 off is the obvious choice. But would a $399 iPad really be all that more enticing than a $499 iPad? It might not seem so, but those type of price cuts have long worked in the video game console business. And, if looked at a certain way, the iPad is already one hell of a video game console. One that can do about 100 other things too.
But initial video game console cuts usually come before the follow-up product is on the market. A $199 Xbox looks awesome compared to a $299 Xbox. But if it were a $199 Xbox versus a $299 Xbox 360, it might not look so hot. That’s what Apple would have to contend with. A $399 iPad versus a $499 iPad 2.

What if they shaved $200 off the price? Given what the margins are currently thought to be, that would seem to be impossible for Apple. But remember that 2011 is likely to see an onslaught of competition in the tablet space. Rivals RIM and Microsoft are both slated to make major pushes into the tablet space. And, of course, Android will be coming full charge.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is quick to point out now that no one can match their tablet prices. But next year, some of these competitors likely will — and some will even go below them. Apple could blow them out of the water with a $299 iPad 1. While at the same time, keeping the watermark very high with the $499 iPad 2.
As we all know, Apple is a company that has always favored profits over marketshare. So maybe the $299 iPad is completely out of the question. But again, with the iPad, they’ve taken a little bit different approach, and shaved margins down. It’s something which has caused a few jitters amongst Wall Street analysts. Even with component prices coming way down, a $299 iPad would probably have razor-thin margins. And that just doesn’t sound like Apple.

Apple iPad 2: Rumors Don't Involve Much in the Way of Facts

Newsflash! It's pretty easy to predict when new Apple products, like the next iPad (codename: iPad 2) will be announced and available for sale. A quick perusal of the Sci/Tech page of Google News shows that stories based on rumors surrounding the next iPad are amongst the most popular current stories.

There are two factors here: Apple's very predictable, or at least fairly consistent, schedule for announcements and press events over the course of any given year and the desire for tech news outlets (this one included) and blogs to drive gobs of traffic to their websites. Apple products and apps are among the most searched online terms in the tech world, thus it's easy to see why rumors about a new iPad would be covered endlessly, even though—I promise—there's nothing to cover yet. It's just easy to place bets when there's nothing at stake.

First off, what if I told you Apple wasn't working on a new iPad? Think about that for a second. That's probably how long it would take you to form the sentence "You're full of it" and say it out loud. Of course it's working on a new iPad! It's a successful product. Apple releases new versions of its popular products on a yearly basis, so it's not even worth dubbing this a "rumor"—I would call it "obvious."

So, now comes the question: what do my friends and colleagues in the media know about the upcoming iPad? When will it be announced? I'll bet you that probably even Apple has not decided the exact date or week yet, but a good guess would be the end of January. Why? Because that's when they announced the first iPad, about eleven months ago.

Another good guess is that the new iPad will be available sometime in early Spring. Why? Because that's what happened this year. Starting to notice a trend? Yeah, past performance does not predict future results, but with Apple, it often does, and the press knows it and likes to act as if this is some kind of inside scoop.

Do you think Steve Jobs—or anyone at Apple—is calling tech journalists up, saying in a hushed whisper "iPad 2, January 26th, you didn't hear it from me" and then hanging up? Likewise, do you think that partnered manufacturers—from the companies that make the internal parts to the companies that make accessories timed for release the day of the announcement—are leaking any info? They sign non-disclosure agreements with Apple in order to be exclusive or semi-exclusive accessory partners. It means mountains of money to them, and if they breach the contract, it could mean mountains of money owed to Apple, and the probable loss of future contracts. In other words, the people who do know what is next often only know tidbits (meaning, case manufacturers will know there's a camera, but nothing about, say, internal storage), and they definitely know not to share the tiny bits of information they know with people like me. After all, they like to make money.

So how are all of these stories surfacing of a new iPad with a camera built-in for FaceTime and a higher resolution screen, etc? Because it's obvious, right? I would be shocked if Apple didn't release a new iPad early next year, and if it didn't have a camera for FaceTime, and if it didn't have other typical improvements, like perhaps better screen resolution, or more storage, different screen sizes, or enhanced wireless capabilities.

Once in a blue moon, there is a true leak of information—who can forget the Gizmodo-fueled iPhone 4 story from last Spring? Certainly not the poor Apple employee who accidentally left it at a bar. But this a very rare thing in the realm of Apple products. In the days leading up to an Apple event, real facts do leak—the new Apple TV, for instance, was a poorly kept secret, and often online retailers screw up the timing of accessories for new devices. But with a new iPad, what secret is there to keep? You know it's coming!

Who knows, maybe Apple will wait until early Spring when the new iPad is ready to ship that day, like it does with iPods every September? (Newsflash: I predict there will be an entire new generation of iPods in September 2011. You heard it here first.) Perhaps the new iPad will be ready for purchase the day of the January announcement. Until the media invites go out, likely in late January, however, and unless it's coming from the virtual desk of Julian Assange, I wouldn't put much stock in the hype you read. Most stories have a lot more to do with web traffic and educated guessing based on a fairly consistent product cycle than with anyone having an inside scoop from one of the most tightly lipped companies on the planet.