Apple CEO Steve Jobs briefly emerged from his medical leave and walked on stage to a standing ovation Wednesday to unveil the second generation of the popular iPad. It comes with two cameras and will go on sale March 11 in the U.S. Jobs looked frail as he appeared in his signature black mock turtleneck, blue jeans and wire-rimmed glasses.
The iPad 2 comes with dual core A5 processor along with front and rear cameras. The thickness has been slashed down to 8.8 mm thick from 13.4 mm thickness, that is it is 33% thinner than the first iPad.
The iPad 2 will also be avaialble in white color and it will be starting to ship from day one, supporting both Verizon and At &T! The iPad 2 price starts at Wi-Fi model 16 GB with a price of $499.
Specs and Features:
1) The screen size is the same as that of the original iPad, at 9.7”
2) Is 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter than the original iPad
3) Dual-Core processor, that makes iPad2 faster than iPad1, up to nine times faster graphics rendering and faster everything.
4) Has two cameras – one for video calling and other for recording video. Original iPad had no cameras.
5) Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity
6) Has HDMI-out port. But no USB ports. USB ports were absent in iPad1 as well.
Jobs gave an update on the company’s iBook business, saying people downloaded more than 100 million books since the e-book business launched last year. He also said Random House became the last major publisher to agree to sell its titles in the iBookstore.
Jobs announced in January that he would take a third leave of absence to focus on his health. In the last decade, Jobs, 56, has survived a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant.
Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook has been running day-to-day operations.
In 2009, Jobs said in advance that he would take a six-month medical leave; this time, the company did not specify when he would return. The last time Jobs went on medical leave, marketing chief Phil Schiller was the main presenter at product launch events.
