The Loop:

“Demand for the next generation iPad 2 has been amazing,” Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller, told The Loop. “We are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”

While Apple would not say how many units sold over the weekend.  Some are saying there is not an iPad to be found in the country.

Reuters on the other hand is reporting Apple sold close to 1 million units of the iPad 2 during its debut weekend.

By comparison, the original version of the iPad, which launched in April of 2010, crossed the one-million mark 28 days after its launch.

However, when you look at the history of Apple and its fall releases of new iPod models, one can only speculate as to whether there might be an iPad 3 this fall.

Apple iPad 3 speculation

Now, it doesn’t make smart marketing sense for Jobs to stand up on the stage during the unveiling of the iPad 2 and state there will be an iPad 3 this fall.  However, it has been stated that the iPad does fit nicely into the same release schedule as the iPod.  And, new hardware like the iPod is usually announced and shipped in September.

When you look at what a massive hit the iPad was this past holiday shopping season, it is easy for one to speculate another new version of the iPad will be announced and released this fall.

Furthermore, if September is a natural fit for the iPad, why would Apple want to wait a full year and a half to move the iPad to the fall product launch schedule?  That simply does not make sense.

Apple iPad 3 components

Based on an Apple Insider report from February 19th, one possible component difference will be a Retina Display with resolution doubling to 2048×1536.  Plus talks of an iPad mini or big iPod touch.

Regardless of Apple’s timing and our own wish list, iPad developments and speculations will be fun to watch over the next few months.

Further information may be obtained at Apple Insider.

The biggest tech news today has to be the live event where Apple showed the world the new iPad 2 and Steve Jobs made an appearance too.  I watched the event via the live blogs on both Engadget and Gizmodo.

Below is a recap and summary of the new features and design of the new iPad 2.

Apple iPad 2 – All new design

Not only is the iPad 2 thirty-three percent thinner it us up to 15 percent lighter. Part of the new look of the iPad 2 is that it now comes in a color for AT&T and one for Verizon.  The new white one goes with Verizon.   AT&T gets the black one.

Included in the new design is also a powerful dual-core A5 chip.  Apple claims this will make surfing the web, watching movies, making FactTime video calls, gaming, and going from app to app to app faster and smoother.

Along with the dual-core A5, you will get superfast graphics performance.  Apple states that graphics will be 9x faster with the iPad 2.

To sum this up:

• Dual-core processors
• Up to 2X faster CUP
• Up to 9X faster graphics
• Same low power as A4
• First dual core tablet to ship in volumn

Apple iPad 2 – Video cameras

Apple didn’t just add one camera.  They added two cameras.  Which means we will be able to not only use our iPhone for FaceTime, we will now be able to use our iPad 2 for FaceTime.  There is a camera on the front and one on the back of the new iPad 2.

Apple iPad 2 – Battery life

Apple made the iPad 2 thinner and lighter.  They gave it more speed.  And they gave it faster graphics than the first iPad.  Once again, Apple is telling us to expect 10 hours of battery life.  ”That’s enough juice for one flight across the ocean, or one movie-watching all-nighter, or a week’s commute across town.”  What it really means is someone using the iPad 2 for work or play can expect a full days worth.

Apple iPad 2 – Price

The base price for wifi only will be $499.  And the price for wifi + 3G will be $629.  This gets you the16 GB model.

Apple iPad 2 – Available on March 11th

You can order your own iPad 2 from the Apple online store starting on March 11th.

There is a lot more one can learn about the new iPad 2 directly from the Apple site.  It will be interesting to watch over the next few days and weeks how the competition reacts to the new iPad 2.

Photo credit – Engadget

iPad 2: In 3 different versions?

Originally reported in digitimes.com, the Apple iPad 2, as some have taken to calling it, will apparently come with a choice of 3 variations of Wi-Fi, CDMA and UMTS.

Apple are also alleged to be investing in improving the screens, to make them less susceptible to background glare and smudging.

These improvements to the original iPad, along with the widely expected addition of 2 cameras, would combine to make the market leader in tablet devices even stronger in 2011.  Let’s see!

There’s more detail on the latest speculation here.

Fast forward to last week and the news is different.  This time, it’s all about the fact that he launched into a 6 minute rant against Google and their android platform.  Some of what Jobs said was accurate, some was just plain incorrect (such as Windows being “open”, for example).  However, there was no mention anywhere that he gave such an energetic speech; which was reminiscent of Jobs at his best.

Whatever you think about Jobs’, the tech space would be a lot more dull without him.  It’s good to see him at his ranting best!

So, a legal and easy way to reliably jailbreak your devices and free them from the bullshit DRM that has driven users nuts for years – right?

Err, no, not exactly!

Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad with jailbreakme 2.0

A new app called jailbreakme 2.0 has just been released, promising users of iOS4 devices the chance to easily jailbreak them.  Easily?  Yep, unlike previous jailbreak apps, which required you to hook your device up to a computer, jailbreakme runs from mobile Safari.  At the time of writing this, their servers are down due to high traffic, hardly surprising with all the coverage jailbreakme is getting right now.

The perfect way to jailbreak your iPhone?

Unfortunately, there are widespread media reports today, saying that users are reporting various faults after liberating their iPhones and iPads with jailbreakme.  FaceTime problems and faults to MMS services seem to be the most common issues.  That said, I would be extremely surprised if a fix was not in the mix very soon.

I fully expect we shall see a surge in apps like jailbreakme, over the coming weeks/months.  Maybe, just maybe, this will see enough users running non-DRM’ed iOS4 devices that Apple will reconsider their approach to DRM?

OK, OK – I only said MAYBE!

Photo: Myuibe

I think you “might” be disappointed!

See, I have a hunch that what we are about to see is essentially a bigger iPod touch; with a few bells and whistles because of the extra space and horsepower.  In other words, a slim, multi-touch tablet, with a beautiful display and some sweet software. Software and user experience is where I believe the magic will be.

Here’s what I think the BIG Apple story will be

I’m expecting the BIG part of the announcement to be less about the actual Apple hardware and MORE about how this new, bigger multi-touch device will encourage people to use computers in a different way.  The form factor ‘should’ be about right for a multi-user device, which would be used by the whole family to watch video, read the papers, surf and connect with the whole social media / social networking world.

It’s no secret (any more) that Apple have been speaking with newspaper / magazine publishers.  Equally, Kindle owners seem to love reading on a tablet size device – but are often frustrated at the lack of functionality.  The new Apple device will, I predict, solve that problem and offer a ton of great software features.

It’s a no-brainer that the device will look great and be slim (it’s Apple after all.)  But I genuinely feel that those just looking for the kind of amazing game-changing hardware advances made by the first iPhone will be disappointed. I think the game changing part will be the user experience.

Let’s see!

What do you think?

Get your prediction in before the big announcement and show what a total smart-ass you are!

Image: The Pug Father

Clearly, the BIGGEST story in tech news during that time, was that I got to name the title of last week’s Windows Weekly podcast with Leo Laporte “bing is my back end“. Yeah, I’m a big fan of the show (thanks Leo.)

What else did I miss?

Well, Gmail was offline for a couple of hours. It seems this caused many people to believe this now means cloud computing is dead and that the ultra-reliable Gmail service is now a hunk of crap. (Dudes, it was down for 2 fricking hours!!)

Skype has been sold by eBay – interestingly, not sold ON eBay though.

Sony has decided to ship notebooks with the Chrome browser pre-installed. I love Chrome and think that with some decent add-ons, it could tempt me away from my beloved FireFox.

Microsoft are STILL trying to do something in the smartphone market, with the release of another version of Windows Mobile (6.5).  It seems the marketplace is not desperate to dump their Symbian-based phones or iPhone’s for it just yet though.

iPhones have started to explode in people’s pockets (at least in France), though NOT according to Apple.  Apple claims that the French iPhones it has seen with cracked screens, were all caused by external force.

YouTube has decided to unblock UK users from viewing ‘official’ music videos, after banning us from accessing them for the past 6-months.  It seems a deal has been cut and everyone’s happy again. Great news for all lovers of sub-standard audio/video.

What tech stories are YOU following right now?

Let me know what’s grabbing your attention in the world of tech, with a comment below.

During the commercial, Lauren goes into the Apple Store and quickly leaves again, saying ; “There’s nothing in there for under $2000 and that’s before you add anything!”

When Lauren’s mother asks her why would she pay twice the price for a Mac, Lauren tells her; “I wouldn’t!”

Well, according to Advertising Age, Apple has forced Microsoft to change the ad and remove the “twice the price” remark. The original ads have now been pulled from YouTube and replaced, with a more Apple-friendly version.  In the new ad, Lauren simply says; “it seems you are paying a lot for the brand.”

Advertising Age quotes the following Microsoft statement;

“We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. “This does not change the focus of the campaign, which is to showcase the value and choice of the PC.”

You can see the revised Laptop Hunter ad on YouTube.

However, there’s one statistic that’s been almost overlooked by many, who have covered this story!

Apple Mac sales up too – not that you would notice though

Most of the news coverage surrounding these impressive figures are focused on how well the iPhone range is doing.  However, Mac sales have also increased by 4% on the same period last year.

As we reported recently, PC sales dropped by around 5%  last year.  The primary reason given for this drop in sales has been the recession; yet Macs are typically more expensive to buy than similar spec PC’s.  This would suggest that once again, Apple’s ability to design, market and deliver computers that inspire the market is what’s leading their recession-busting performance.

Apple iPod sales down

The only area where sales were down, was with Apple’s iPod range. However, with over 5 million iPhone’s sold last month, it’s probably fair to assume that many iPhone users are now using their iPhone as their primary portable media player too.  This would have an impact on sales.

Overall, it seems 2009 is going to be a great year for Apple Inc. As well as these sales figures, Steve Jobs is back at the helm and there are growing rumours that an Apple Tablet computer will hit the market later this year too.

Image credit: Apple Inc.