Steve Jobs launches Apple's iPad 2

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today took a San Francisco stage to introduce his company's newest iPad.


The new iPad 2 -- the name wags had stuck on the new device, and the one Apple confirmed today -- is faster, thinner and lighter, said Jobs.


But it's not cheaper: Apple will retain the prices of 2010's iPad. The Wi-Fi versions start at $499 for a 16GB model and climb to $699 for a 64GB configuration, while the 3G iPads are priced at $629 to $829.

The iPad 2 will ship March 11 in the U.S., and on March 25 in at least 26 other countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.


Jobs boasted of the iPad 2's new features and components, with the latter including a new dual-core processor -- an Apple-designed chip dubbed the A5 -- that he said doubled the speed of the tablet. Graphics processing, he added, is up to nine times faster.


As most pundits expected, the iPad 2 includes a pair of cameras, one facing the front of the device. The new tablet is 33% thinner, and tips the scales at 1.3 lbs., said Jobs.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com