Move over Helen of Troy.
I have never seen a single feature in a product create such a flurry of activity
The wow factor in the new iPad is the new retina display which
“…features a 2048-by-1536 resolution, 44 percent greater color saturation, and an astounding 3.1 million pixels — in the same 9.7-inch space. That’s four times the number of pixels in iPad 2 and a million more than an HDTV. Those pixels are so close together, your eyes can’t discern individual ones at a normal viewing distance. When you can’t see the pixels, you see the whole picture.”
What’s striking is the projects within Apple, its carriers, competitors and community
Within Apple
At least 4 projects in and around the feature:
Sub-Pixel Structures
“From the traditional red, green, and blue slabs found in the previous two generations of iPad along with every other PC or mobile device ever produced, Apple engineers multiplied the slabs by four. This brings the total RGB slabs to 12, which is indeed a breakthrough technology that disables the naked human eye from depicting even a single pixel on the screen.”
Faster Processor
Incorporating the A5X chip which “drives power to every one of the 3.1 million pixels in the display. And its quad-core graphics processing makes everything you do on iPad feel incredibly responsive. From the little things like swiping, scrolling, and pinching to the big things like editing photos in the new iPhoto, applying titles and transitions in iMovie, and, of course, playing games.”
Battery optimization
The new iPad continues to offer 10 hours of battery life in spite of the more powerful processor. Teardowns show “a total volume of approximately 98cm3 taken by the three battery cells in the new iPad against 55cm3 in the iPad 2, or an 77% increase.” OK, so that makes it heavier and it takes longer to charge – but guess what? That will spur much more battery innovation.
The 5 megapixel still and 1080p video iSight camera
Could not have a product with an amazing display but a laggard camera. “The iSight camera uses advanced optics to give you the best picture possible. With an ƒ/2.4 aperture and a five-element lens, it captures light efficiently to produce a sharper overall image.”
At Carriers
Plans for 4G/LTE rollouts are being accelerated around the world to accommodate the much larger downloads the better/larger graphics/videos the iPad can display
At Competitors
How long will Samsung keep making retina displays for others but not for its own tablets? And every other device maker?
In the community
Hundreds of developers are frantically redoing games and applications to manage gorgeous cosmetics for users with the potential bloat in file sizes as this CNET article describes.
Photo Credit: Apple
It's the camera that I've heard more about from people (after the initial impact of the display wears off).
Posted by: Charlie Bess | April 05, 2012 at 10:08 AM