Apple Issues Invitations for iPad 3 Event on March 7

On Tuesday, Apple issued invites for the long awaited iPad 3. The invite showed the iPad in use and has the following line across the bottom, “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern. Rumors prior to this invitation suggested that Apple was planning to hold the event on March 7th, in line with other reports from top sources, including The Wall Street Journal. Apple is expected to introduce the new iPad 3 with a higher resolution display (likely Retina), a new A6 chip, possibly a more tapered (albeit thicker, 0.81 mm to be exact) design, and a better camera (likely in line with the iPhone 4S).

Apple Releases iPad 2 at Wednesday’s Event

Early Wednesday morning, Steve Jobs hit sneaker to stage and introduced Apple’s second iteration of the iPad (dubbed iPad 2). Steve Jobs constantly touted 2010, “The Year of the iPad” and said they were ready to make 2011 the year of iPad 2. It seems to be going accordingly to Steve’s wishes.

The iPad 2 introduced the Apple A5 chip, adding 512MB RAM and 9x the graphics performance as the last model. It also has an all new aluminum curved back and edge to edge glass, similiar to iPod touch 4 and the iPhone 4. iPad 2 also sports 2 cameras, the front facing for FaceTime and the new Photobooth app. The rear facing camera is an interesting piece as it is said to take 720p video but takes anemic stills at 0.92MP.

This low megapixel camera was rumoured previous to the event and was said to be “similiar to the iPod touch”. Apple also introduced something called SmartCovers. SmartCovers are simply magnetized, foldable pieces of polyeutherane that can automatically put the iPad to sleep when put on and can turn it back on when taken off (almost instantly). SmartCovers use two magnets that are also inside the corners of the iPad itself. It can autoalign so that there is no mistake in quickly covering the screen.  There are 9 different colors and some leather ones.

Apple has introduced what seems like yet another successful device and there will be more to come for sure as the year moves on.

** There are now 3 versions of the iPad.There is a regular WiFi version, a GSM AT&T version and a CDMA Verizon version (Prices for the new iPad, both 3G and WiFi are the same as before, while the original iPad has now dropped $100 in price)**

Apple Issues Invitations For March 2nd Event to Introduce 2nd Gen iPad

Apple has just issued invitations for it’s March 2nd event to be held at the Yerba Buena Arts center where the iPad was originally introduced. This is defientely the introduction of the 2nd Gen iPad, rumored to be revised with a FaceTime camera and other goodies. The tagline on the invite reads, “Come see what 2011 will be the year of”. The event is to be held at 10:00AM PST, as all other Apple events were previously held.