Apple Updates Laptops and Mobile Software

Apple Updates Laptops and Mobile Software




By BRIAN X. CHEN and NICK WINGFIELD

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple on Monday introduced a new version of its mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads that will bring a host of new features, including maps that let users soar over a three-dimensional rendering of a city.
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Apple aficionados with the new MacBook Pro, which is one-quarter thinner than the older model.
The new map software replaces Google data with Apple’s own mapping system, a sign that Apple is further distancing itself from the company that it once considered a close partner. Apple also overhauled its line of Mac computers.
“We are so proud of these products, as they’re perfect examples of what Apple does best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, introducing the products on the opening day of the company’s developer conference here —a yearly event where Apple shows off its works-in-progress to entice software developers to continue creating software for its devices. This was the first developer conference that Apple has held since the death of its co-founder and former chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, last October.
Apple updated its ultralight MacBook Air laptop with a faster microprocessor and an improved camera. But it made the boldest changes in its computer line to its high-end laptop computer, the MacBook Pro, which is now one-quarter thinner than the older model and has a high-resolution “retina display” akin to the one on new iPads and iPhones. Apple was able to slim down the laptop, which will start at $2,200 for a model with a 15.4-inch screen, by eliminating its DVD drive and getting rid of its hard drive in favor of a faster kind of storage called flash.
Apple’s move to drop the DVD drive echoes past moves by the company to drop technologies in its machines, like floppy-disk drives, that it viewed as outmoded, even though some consumers initially grumbled about the changes.
The new mapping system for Apple’s mobile devices will provide drivers with turn-by-turn directions, a feature that has long been available free in smartphones running the competing Android operating system from Google. Apple created the 3-D view in its maps service, called Flyover, by shooting aerial photographs.
Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple has relied on Google’s data to drive its maps software. Its abandonment of Google Maps underscores the heightening tension between the two companies. Though they were once collaborators, their relationship gradually eroded after Google released Android. Now Android is the top mobile operating system in the world, and the two companies compete directly in several markets.
To catch up with Google, Apple acquired three mapping companies over the last three years: Placebase, Poly9 and C3 Technologies. It is also using map data from TomTom, a Dutch manufacturer of navigation systems.
Google has been building up its mapping service since 2005. Just last week it held an event to show it was adding 3-D maps to Google Earth, its service that shows satellite imagery. It also said it would allow Android users to download and store maps on their devices so they are viewable without an Internet connection — a feature that Apple’s mapping software still lacks.
Apple can use the leverage of its millions of customers to help it catch up. The company said that its iPhone customers will be anonymously collecting traffic information for its database. “That should give them tens of millions of iPhones that are going to act as traffic probes in the field,” said Ross Rubin, an analyst with the NPD Group who attended Apple’s presentation. “They have the scale to be competitive and make that work.” Google makes use of similar data from Android phones.
Other features in the new mobile operating system, iOS 6, include improvements to Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant in the latest iPhone. While Siri initially worked with a limited set of Internet services — allowing users to, say, search for restaurants through Yelp — it will now let them use voice commands to search for sports statistics, make restaurant reservations using OpenTable and look up showtimes for movies. In some ways, Apple is using Siri to sidestep Google by reducing the need to consult Google’s search engine.
Siri also has a new function, Eyes Free, that will allow car drivers to communicate with it by pushing a button on their car steering wheels. General Motors, BMW and Toyota are among the auto manufacturers that have agreed to put such a button in their vehicles.
Apple also said it had reached an agreement with Facebook that more deeply weaves the social network into Apple’s devices, allowing people to share photos on Facebook, for example, without having to open a separate Facebook app. The new features in the operating system will become available for iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch when iOS 6 is released this fall.
The Mac operating system Apple first unveiled in February, OS X Mountain Lion, borrows some features from Apple’s mobile products. A new feature in Mountain Lion, which will be released in July as a $20 download, is Power Nap; it will allow computers to fetch software updates, e-mails and other data from the Internet while the machines are in low-power “sleep” mode.
Apple highlighted features in Mountain Lion for Chinese customers, signaling its growing interest in China, where its iPhones have sold especially well. The new Mac operating system will be easier to set up with Chinese e-mail services and improve Chinese character recognition, among other advances.

Apple Macbook

Apple discontinues 17-inch MacBook Pro

by Dan Moren, Macworld.com   Jun 13, 2012 5:10 am

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Like many of us, the 17-inch MacBook Pro has learned that it can be dangerous to one’s health to carry around too much bulk. Apple has discontinued the largest member of its laptop line in the wake of its WWDC announcements.

If you’re looking to pick up one of Apple’s behemoth laptops, they’re still available—but Apple confirmed to Macworld that it’s only while supplies last. At present you can pick one up in the refurbished section of the online Apple Store, and you may also be able to grab a remaining model by calling the online store or by visiting your local Apple Store.

First introduced in 2003 as part of the PowerBook line, Apple’s 17-inch notebook computer has long been the choice for users who needed the power and capability of a desktop without completely sacrificing portability. The 17-inch Intel-based MacBook Pro debuted in 2006, just a few months after the 15-inch model.

With the 17-inch model gone, it may seem as though Apple has lost some versatility in its portable lineup. The leviathan of Apple’s laptops usually featured the most powerful processors and graphics cards available, and only it and the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro offered the optional antiglare option.

But if you’re looking for a reason why Apple offed the 17-inch now, you need go no further than the 15-inch Retina display MacBook Pro. Not only does it offer the most cutting edge technology of any Apple laptop to date, but its 2880-by-1800 pixel display outstrips the 17-inch’s 1920-by-1200 resolution with room to spare. Add in the fact that the new MacBook Pro is thinner and lighter—to the tune of more than 2 pounds—and it seems pretty clear that the Retina display model is the new target for what a powerhouse portable should be.

Apple announces next-generation MacBook Pro

Apple announces next-generation MacBook Pro: Retina display, 0.71-inches thin, shipping today for $2,199

By Donald Melanson 

Apple announced some new MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros early in its WWDC keynote today, but it had another surprise in store for its big hardware announcement: the next-generation MacBook Pro. It packs a Retina display with a 2880 x 1800 resolution (or 220ppi), and a casing that measures just 0.71-inch thin and weighs 4.46 pounds. In addition to that high resolution, Apple is also promising higher contrast ratios, better viewing angles and reduced glare compared to other laptop displays, and it's updated all of its stock apps to take advantage of those extra pixels, not to mention Aperture and Final Cut Pro -- "reading your mail is like reading fine print," according to Apple's Phil Schiller. As for the other specs, you'll get up to 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA Kepler GT 650M graphics, up to a quad-core 2.7GHz Core i7 processor, a maximum 768GB of storage (SSD, naturally), and a promised seven hours of battery life with 30 days standby. One spec nowhere to be seen: an optical drive.

Also on the outs are Ethernet and FireWire 800 ports, which you'll now need an optional Thunderbolt adapter to use, but you do now get two USB 3.0 ports in addition to a pair of Thunderbolt inputs (plus one HDMI). Making its debut on the laptop is a new, thinner MagSafe 2 connector, as well as a new fan that's said to be "nearly imperceptible" to the user. Pricing starts at $2,199 for a 2.3GHz unit with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it's shipping today. Just how big a deal is it for Apple? "It's without doubt the very best computer that we've ever built," says Schiller.

Update: Check out our hands-on look at the laptop right here.

For more coverage of WWDC 2012, please visit our event hub.

Apple announces next generation MacBook Pro

Next generation Macbook Pro press images

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iPhone 5 release date, price, specs, news & rumours

Apple iPhone 5 News & Rumours: Release date, specs, price & features. Read on for all the latest on Apple's next-gen smartphone, constantly updated

• Apple iPhone 4S Problems
• Apple iPhone 4S review
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• Apple iPad 2 review

 

Update: Latest iPhone 5 rumours have suggested that the eagerly awaited Apple iPhone 5 release date will be confirmed during a special launch event on September 12th

Rumours surrounding the iPhone 5’s release date, potential specs and features, and price have fuelled reports that Apple is gearing up to launch its next-gen smartphone around summer time.

The handset, which is rumoured to be named the new iPhone, is reportedly under construction – and the rumour mill has been busy speculating about what we can expect to see from the device, if and when it lands.

While none of the below have been confirmed by Apple – the company is notoriously good at keeping secrets – we’ve rounded up all the speculation dished out by sources, experts & fanboys to get some clue on what to expect from the iPhone 5.

Apple iPhone 5: Release Date

New reports from The Verge and others have suggested that Apple will in fact stay traditional and have a September 12th release for the next Apple iPhone. AllThingsD believes Apple will go one step further officially releasing the rumoured iPad Mini during the same event.

Handset blog Know Your Mobile has cited a 'reliable industry source' in suggesting that Apple will hold a special keynote speech on August 7 to officially confirm the long awaited iPhone 5 release date, a date that is expected to follow later the same month. It is said that Apple has brought the unveiling of its next-gen handset from the widely rumoured October release in order to quell the rise of the rival Android powered Samsung Galaxy S3.

Previously, respected Japanese Apple blog Macotakara had alleged it had received word from "Asian sources" who claim that Apple will launch the device in September or October 2012 which would fit with last year’s arrival of the iPhone 4S.

"According to Asian reliable source, next iPhone will be released in September or October, and this cycle seems to be kept for years," read a translated portion of the report.

If the article proves to be accurate, it would mean the company is returning to the 12-month launch cycles we saw for the first four versions of the beloved device.

Last year's October iPhone 4S launch was the only time Apple has verged from the summer cycle, making users wait 15 months instead of the usual 12 for a new handset.

While the iPhone 4S was more of an evolutionary upgrade, with a faster processor an improved camera and the addition of the Siri voice control app, the iPhone 5 is likely to bring a more revolutionary approach, perhaps with the addition of a 4G LTE internet and a larger screen size.

Watch: iPhone 5 concepts video

Apple iPhone 5: Price

The 16GB iPhone 4S lines up in retailers with a hefty £499 price tag. Prices continue up all the way to £699 for the 64GB edition.

Ahead of the iPhone 4S successor’s announcement, it is believed that the sixth-gen model will simply replace the iPhone 4s in terms of price points and range of models with any 128GB storage option likely to hit the £799 price mark.

Apple iPhone 5: Name

Following the March launch of the new iPad, eports have suggested that Apple is to cease the numbered naming convention of its pocket blowers and move the market leading iPhone range in line with its Mac offerings which see multiple product overhauls occur whilst maintaining the same base name.

“About two weeks ago we got a tip from a reliable source that Apple was going to call the iPhone 5 the new “iPhone,” according to Apple blog 9to5Mac.

 “That seemed a little nuts at the time but what a difference a Keynote makes. Apple chopped the suffix off if the iPad as part of a branding makeover that will likely expand.  

The report added: “Just like iMac is not called iMac 1,2,3 it looks like Apple won’t be doing the numbering on iOS devices (though it never did with the iPod touch).”

Apple iPhone 5: Display

Update: Apple has reportedly begun manufacturing on its rumoured iPhone 5 handsets. Reports suggest Sony has been working on display components for the Californian company’s next-gen smartphone since February – and will ramp up production on the panels at the end of this month.

According to AppleInsider, the consumer electronics manufacturer is working in conjunction with other firms, such as Toshiba Mobile Display and LG Display Co, to roll out enough panels for the heavily rumoured device, expected to launch later this year.

Stone Wu, a senior analyst at IHS Displaybank, said: “Even for those companies that start mass production in May, they can only reach an average yield of 65 to 70 per cent at present.”

In a recent survey by VoucherCodesPro.co.uk the most asked for feature on the iPhone 5 was a stronger display, with the iPhone 4's screen being notoriously easy to crack users are now hoping that Apple will use a much stronger display.

Although there has been no official word on the iPhone 5’s screen size, rumours suggest growing competition and market pressures will see Apple introduce a new plus 4-inch model.

These rumours have been backed up by a selection of industry analysts that have suggested Apple will be forced into the screen size overhaul as competition from rival handsets, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, intensify.

Speaking with T3, industry specialist Daniel Ashdown from tech analysis company Juniper Research suggested Apple may opt for a larger screen for the iPhone 5.

He said: "It will be particularly interesting to see what the size of the display will be given that it has not changed thus far since the iPhone was launched with a 3.5-inch screen.

"Competitors have increased their devices to up to 4.3". We would be surprised if they [Apple] didn't break from tradition this time and increase the size of the next model."

Contrary to these claims, other reports have suggested Apple will retain its 3.5-inch iPhone display for future handsets as a larger screen could disturb the iOS platform’s offering of apps.

The shortlist for the T3 Gadget Awards is now live – vote for your hottest gadget of 2012 here and be in with a chance to win a new iPad!

Apple's new iPad 3 – review

The voice dictation isn't much good, and those who want to plug in a USB hub will be disappointed. Everyone else will find the retina display and better graphics a delight

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The new iPad with its high definition screen. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

In answer to your first question: yes, there is a difference. In answer to your second: yes, you can actually see the difference. It's subtle, and yet it's definitely there.

I'm talking, of course, of the "Retina Display" on the new iPad (which is what Apple seems to be calling it – no marketing niceties such as "iPad 3" or "iPad HD"). With much fanfare, Tim Cook unveiled it last week and the world said "wow!" or "is that all?", depending on the viewer's disposition. Expectations had been cranked high (about touch displays – ahem), but after so many had wrongly forecast the coming of the retina display last year (overplaying Moore's Law), expectations were about right this time. But the incremental updates that Apple is making – having established this sector – don't satisfy those who would like more, all at once.

So the key question is whether the new iPad is "wow!" or "huh".

CONTENTS

The screen is the computer
Cameras? Why?
Take some dictayshun, Siri
Inside: the processor
Storage
What's in the battery?
4G, LTE, 3.5G, or so
What's missing
Conclusion

The screen is the computer

The essential thing about a tablet – particularly a "slate" like the iPad – is that the screen is pretty much all there is. Sure, there's all the stuff around the back, such as the processor, the graphics processor, the storage, the battery and the wireless connectivity. But on its own, the screen is what you deal with. So if that's better, you should benefit.

So, in specifications, the iPad 2 has 1024x768 pixels on a 4:3 9.7in screen, giving it 132 dots per inch (DPI). The new iPad has 2048x1536, giving it four times as many pixels (3.1m, Apple points out; more than the typical HD TV set) and a resolution of 264dpi, which when held at a distance of about 40cm (15in) means that the average eye can't discern adjacent pixels. With the old iPad, you could … perhaps. Actually, even last year at least one expert was suggesting that the iPad 2 was "almost identical" to the iPhone 4's retina display.

In fact, the difference between the visible screen quality of the iPad 2 (still available, but at a reduced price) and the "new iPad" isn't immediately obvious. I tried putting the two side by side and looking at the icons: even for Apple's icons, which you would expect would have been optimised for the new super-ultra-hi-res screen, it was hard to tell that anything had changed. (I also enlisted an 11-year-old just to make sure it wasn't my eyes at fault. He didn't spot the difference immediately either.)

But there is a difference. The clearest example comes from looking at two covers from the Newsstand app, where the difference between the covers of the Economist and New Yorker was clearly visible: on the iPad 2 the covers were pixellated, while on the new iPad they were sharper.

Here's the iPad 2:

Newsstand on the iPad 2: note pixellation

And now the iPad 3:

Newsstand on the iPad 3: note less pixellation

The screenshot shows the difference when you magnify it to the pixel level, first on the iPad 2:

Detail of Newsstand cover on iPad 2

And now the iPad 3:

Detail of Newsstand cover on iPad 3

That difference is small, but it's real. And while it's close enough to be almost subliminal, the extra tidiness of the letters – possibly better than you can get with physical print – and icons gives this experience a tidiness, a cleanliness that you rarely experience on electronic devices.

It also exists at system-level facilities such as the keyboard, which gains extra sharpness – and the letters on the keys really do get an extra helping of precision. Again, it's not a dramatically obvious difference (and most computer screens can't show the difference natively), but when you bring up the keyboards on the two devices side-by-side there is a faint furriness to the iPad 2 that isn't there on the new one.

This is the iPad 3 keyboard detail:

Detail: Q and W on iPad 3 keyboard

Notice how the anti-aliasing works around the circle of the Q; this is one of the hardest shapes to do well.
And now the iPad 2:

Detail: Q and W on iPad 2 keyboard

And finally for comparison, because I had it to hand, the BlackBerry PlayBook (which is a 7in, 1024 x 600 pixel screen, with a resolution of 169 dpi) running the PlayBook 2.0 software. The PlayBook used to be ahead of the iPad 2 in dpi (169 v 132):

Detail: BlackBerry Playbook keyboard detail

You can see that the keyboard's Q isn't as clean in the anti-aliasing.

Update: @lollygagging points out in the comments that the PlayBook by default seems to use about 60% compression on screenshots, so that picture above will include some artefacts from the lossy JPEG compression. The question of the Playbook screen remains moot - though its given DPI is lower than the iPad 3 (but still ahead of the iPad 2).

So the screen is better: more detailed, especially down at the system level. Now the question is: does that difference make a enough of a difference for it to be worth your money to either upgrade or buy?

Part of the problem in answering that is that although the retina display on the iPad has been expected for ages, there don't seem to be developers around who have taken advantage of it. That in turn means that it's only Apple's apps which have been updated to take advantage of the new high-definition display. So apps like Newsstand do show it – when it comes to covers. But on comparing the same article from the New Yorker under high magnification (a screenshot that is then enlarged), there's actually no difference, because the articles are PDFs graphics, and don't have any extra resolution; the processor can't create resolution that isn't there. All it can do is faithfully fill in the places that are already filled.

Update: corrected: those aren't PDFs, which would scale perfectly, but images, which don't scale.

That is going to cause some problems for magazine publishers who ship their products as PDFs images (I'm looking at you, Conde Nast), because they will either have to ship PDFs images with four times as many pixels – which means four times as many bits to ship, which in the case of the New Yorker would mean about 2.8GB per issue for benefits that most people won't either notice or benefit from initially – or they're going to have to start figuring out how to generate their output in formats such as SVG which will be as precise as the screen allows. Or, of course, they might just ignore it on the basis that the PDFs images look pretty good already. (I'm not sure this would be a good idea.)

But for experiences such as games and other apps, the level of detail is going to offer developers thrilling chances. Apple showed off some games that are under development for the new iPad, which take full advantage of the pixel detail on offer; if you need to get the feeling that there really are rivers of molten lava flowing under the bridge on which you're standing, that's the place to see it.

The downside? Those apps are going to get bigger. It's hard at present to foresee quite how much of a problem that's going to be: will app writers shift over to scalable vectors (it would be wise)? Will people just resort to Wi-Fi? I don't know, but with forecasts that apps could grow in size fivefold to accommodate that detailed screen.

Of course other content will benefit too – particularly high-definition content. I watched the first episode of the BBC's series Orbit, which is available in standard definition (boo) or high definition (yay!), which is a 1.7GB download (gulp).

Left is the iPad 3; right the iPad 2 – both showing a scene from the BBC programme Orbit (the HD version) with the screens of both on full brightness

And again, you can see the difference. The detail seems minor, but if the camera has captured it then the iPad 3 will show it. I compared Orbit on an iPad 3, iPad 2 and new 1080p Apple TV on an HD TV. (The nice thing being I only had to buy it once.) On the iPad 2, some of the fine detail was lost on an early shot around clifftops. On the HD TV, the colours were richer, I thought; but on the iPad 3, as much as anything because you're closer, you can pick out detail that simply isn't visible across a room on a TV.

So what we might call That Screen definitely does make a difference. Expect that other companies will try to match it (there's no point exceeding it) in short order; by the end of the year it's likely that only Apple (with the iPad 2) and the low-end Android tablets will be offering non-retina displays. (And Apple will probably be making the better profit out of it.) In fact, as Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis put it recently in a tweet you can read as ironic or factual, "a baby born today will never see a pixel".

The rest of the iPad experience is much the same. Apple says that the screen now has enhanced colour reproduction; that's quite hard to discern, though again the comparison of the iPad 3 against the iPad 2 (in the picture, the newer is on the left) with both turned to maximum brightness shows that yes, the bright is brighter and the dark seems just as dark – so a greater brightness range.

Cameras

The back camera gets an upgrade, to 5 megapixels, and the same assembly as the iPhone 4S. There's also HD video, which gets video stabilisation (through the processor; so only the new iPad gets it). What's the use, you ask, in having 5MP and HD video on a tablet? You don't take photos or video with them.

But actually I suspect that, given this facility, people will start shooting video with iPads – especially now that Apple has iMovie for the iPad which offers all sorts of built-in functions. For taking a film, quickly cutting it together and uploading it, this could be – well, not ideal, but a lot better than trying to do it on a camera, and simpler than filming it and transferring it to a computer to cut it there (even if you'll do it better). Expect to see plenty more iPads reflected in mirrors and so on in YouTube, and the words "this is my first video, and …".

And even if you don't have any use at all for a camera, even a 5MP one, or HD filming – you're effectively getting it for nothing.

Voice dictation

Siri hasn't come to the new iPad; instead, there's what you might call "Siri lite". That is, whenever the keyboard pops up, you also get the option of hitting the microphone button and dictating instead. Hands-free input! What could be better?

I have to say that it's not great. To be honest, it's not even good. With Siri, there's the advantage that you tend to speak in short bursts, which makes the speech-to-text part of the process easier. With dictation, especially for long notes, you tend to talk in longer sentence-ish clauses, which the back end is much less good at handling. I tried it over a 3G connection, using a mic built into a pair of Skullcandy headphones. Here's what I said, and what it offered back:

I said: "The new iPad has voice dictation which should mean that you can speak to input text directly."
It offered: New iPad has voice dictation shipmen speak text input directory (It was 8am, so I wasn't slurring – or not more than usual.)

I said: "However, in my tests I found that it wasn't very accurate."
It offered: However in my tests I've found that it wasn't very accurate.(OK.)

I said: "You have to use short sentences and speak very clearly."
It offered: You have to use short sentences speak very clearly. (Note that it missed "and".)

I said: "But even then it will miss occasional words such as 'the'."
It offered: Even though it warmness occasional searches. (Huh?)

I tried it on Wi-Fi, in a quieter environment. The results weren't much better. Short sentences it's good with – so "yeah that's great I'll see you later" came out perfectly three times in a row. But "I don't think you've ever seen one of those ever before" came out as "I don't did you see monomers and before". Conclusion: don't throw away the touch keypad. (Well, you can't.) Or the spare keyboard, if you have one. This barely counts as a feature at present until it gets much, much better. (Dragon Dictation is a free app and does much the same job using the same back-end technology.)

Update: some people have asked me whether the Voice Dictation just isn't attuned to British accents. The answer: I don't know. Siri does OK, generally, with my voice.

Processor

Although Apple says that this device is using an A5X processor – which sounds like the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 4, compared to last year's A5 processor – benchmarks suggest that there's no difference in the standard compute power (though the RAM is up to 1GB - that's half what you get on the lowest-spec MacBook Air; all the improvement is in the graphics processor. Those pixels won't shift themselves, you know.

Storage

Nothing's changed here: it still comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavours. So much for the rumours about 128GB. The point to realise about Apple's strategy is that it's increasingly about the cloud: giving you devices on which you can store loads of content makes you less likely to put it on multiple devices. Also, if you buy something like a TV episode, then you can play it on any number of iPads, iPhones, Apple TVs and Apple Macs if they're all using the same account. This is actually pretty neat – and makes the storage point moot. Bill Gates said in 2005 that Blu-ray DVD would be the last physical format. He was right.

Battery

The new iPad has a 42.5 watt-hour capacity, compared to 25Wh for the iPad 2 (so 70% more). Some new technology? Apple wouldn't say, though clearly the fact that the device is barely any thicker suggests it has done something radical. But it's still claiming the same 10-hour life between charges, and my side-by-side tests suggest that this is true: even if you were to turn off the connectivity, you wouldn't magically get 17 hours' capacity. What seems likely is that those extra pixels, while smaller, are using up more energy overall; somewhere in the mix between four times more pixels in the same screen space, and 70% more power, you get equality. (If each new pixel uses 42% as much energy as each old one, then that would make sense.)

For all this, the new iPad barely weighs any more. That's remarkable.

Wireless connectivity

When rumours surfaced that the iPad 3 would have LTE (long-term evolution) networking, there was surprise. LTE is thought of on phones as a battery killer, because it demands so many radio frequencies at once. This is where that upsized battery comes in. But the implication seems to be that much of that is upped in order to drive the pixels, rather than for LTE. Apple says that using LTE will only reduce the battery life by one hour, from ten hours to nine.

I didn't get any chance to test the 4G/LTE connectivity, and it's unlikely anyone in Europe will be able to. The US, for which the 4G iPad is designed, uses 700MHz spectrum for LTE; but in the UK we're on 800MHz, and other countries have similar incompatibilities. Equally, we're not really expecting 4G/LTE to be widespread until late 2013 at least, which is at least one more generation of iPads away. That gives Apple the chance to introduce a "European" 4G iPad, if it thinks it's worth it. But for the most part, European buyers – unless they're going to travel to the US – should expect that the LTE circuits will stay dark.

However there is HSPA (high speed packet access) and DC-HSPA (dual-cell HSPA) connectivity, which some networks in the UK are rolling out. Those offer faster connections than 3G – and faster than the average fixed broadband too – so Orange/T-Mobile is happy to describe it as "3.5G". It'll do. The key thing is that it's faster, and it isn't going to put a dent in your battery life. And 3G will work. So again, it's a feature you'll get little use out of – but as the price is the same as a year ago, you're getting the screen for free.

What's missing?

There still isn't an SD slot, or a USB connection, or direct HDMI out. Nor is there the ability to play .AVI or Flash files, and the iPad won't pick up files on a network (such as a network attached storage drive running the DLNA protocol, which gives you plug-and-play on desktop computers and lots of home devices). You can't install alternative virtual keyboards (such as Swype, offered on devices such as the Motorola Xoom). You can't browse the file system as you can on, say, an Android tablet. You can't add extra storage via an SD slot.

If the iPad were a desktop computer, those absences would be a terrible loss, and it would be a flop. But rather as the iPod survived not having an FM tuner (something other manufacturers insisted for years wasessential to an MP3 player) or Wi-Fi, the iPad doesn't have those things because they're not seen – by Apple, and buyers – as core to its function. Sometimes they're inconvenient (you can pick from the list which is the most egregious loss) but none actually prevents you doing stuff with the device. If you need to load SD content, there's a camera adaptor. If you want HDMI out, there's an adaptor for that – but also AirPlay for video.

The key thing that Apple has latched onto is that those things aren't necessary for the essential experience of a tablet. It's generally self-contained, rather like the iPod before it: you load it up and you go. The extras that you now get in the cloud (such as films and music) are great, and extend the iPad hugely – but the hardware extension isn't, in the end, what it's about. The experience is what it's about.

Conclusion

The iPad has had a really strong content ecosystem since its start. It's remarkable to think that two years ago we were still adjusting to the idea of this device, with plenty of people saying "it's just a big iPhone". Since then, the iPad has burrowed into western consciousness, Microsoft has veered off its normal Intel-hugging course to embrace the ARM architecture for Windows, and even while Windows 8's development predates the iPad, the direction that Microsoft is taking with its tablet offerings indicates that the two companies that defined desktopcomputing agree really closely about tablet computing too. Not in every detail – Microsoft is trying to make Windows 8 cover more bases – but in the essence.

The iPad 3 puts Apple a mile ahead of anything we've seen from Android tablets. The interface is unchanged. But all sorts of incremental details – especially the screen, but also the camera capability and so the graphics heft, and the mobile broadband capability – have been ratcheted up. It's hard to see anyone catching this product because it offers what people want: access to computing wherever you are. Not every sort of computing, and there are still rough edges (notably the dictation) and incompatibilities (LTE). But for function and form, nothing else gets close.

Of course, if you don't think you'll be able to tell the difference in the screen, and if you think LTE is not going to happen in time, good news: the iPad 2 is now cheaper than before. Win-win.