Apple unveils iPad 2

Apple unveils iPad 2

Apple unveils iPad 2

The iPad made the once unpopular tablet computer a worldwide success, and left Apple's competitors scrambling to release their own. The ipad2officially announced today by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at a press conference in San Francisco, is unlikely to do the same. Apple's dominance is clear. Watching the conference at the BBC's Television Centre in London, I was surrounded by journalists sporting Macbooks, iPhones and iPads, eager to hear about the latest iProduct. It turns out that the iPad 2 is a necessary update to secure Apple's place as market leader, but if the original iPad didn't grab you, its new, slimmer sibling probably won't make you reach for your credit card.

It's not that there aren't some welcome new upgrades. The iPad 2 has a faster processor, front and rear cameras and a gyroscope sensor, while still retaining the 10 hour battery life of the original. A magnetic protective cover that both switches off and cleans the screen is also a neat idea, even if the Apple employee who demonstrated it to me struggled to actually attach the thing.

The problem with the new iPad is that it is entirely predictable, lacking the "wow" factor of the first device. In fact, the only real surprise of the day was seeing Steve Jobs - who is officially on medical leave from Apple - take the stage. He describes the iPad as the third "post-PC" device, after the iPod and iPhone, while criticising his competitors for trying tosqueeze PCfunctionality in to tablet form. But is iPad really the future of computing? Dedicated desktop PCs are certainly on the way out, but we're still wrangling with the form our devices will eventually take. Will we be using dumb terminals connected to the all-pervasive cloud, ever-present mobile phones, slimmed-down tablets, or a combination of all three? Despite Apple's video presentation celebrating teachers, doctors and everyone else using the iPad, it just isn't a full replacement for our everyday computers. "Was it everything you hoped?" asked another Apple employee as I left Television Centre. Not quite, I'm afraid.Despite Apple's video presentation celebrating teachers, doctors and everyone else using the iPad, it just isn't a full replacement for our everydaycomputers

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