Yesterday, Apple held a special media event in San Francisco. Now, we have the event covered in one article – read on, and find out everything you need to know about yesterday’s event.
Alright, so where do we begin? First off, despite reports of ill health, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs presented today’s event – even though the event itself was not streamed live. (We wondered whether this had anything to do with Jobs’ appearance in video, or just the mere “live” aspect of streaming the event. So far, we haven’t heard any reports of Jobs looking particularly unwell – we’re thinking this is a good sign.)
On stage, Steve announced that Random House is now dealing within the iBookstore – something we told you about yesterday. Following this, Steve announces some Apple related figures. As AppAdvice reports:
According to Jobs, 200 million people now use the iBooks service, which now has 2500 publishers.
Random House, which had shunned iBooks, is now joining the party. They will bring 17,000 new books to the iBooks store beginning today.
Since its debut in 2010, 100 million books have been downloaded.
Another milestone is the amount of money paid out to developers from the App Store. Apple has paid out over $2 billion to date.
Finally, Jobs [said] that 100 million iPhones 4s have been sold.
After this, Steve Jobs announced the iPad 2. Here’s the breakdown:
- Two versions: white and black
- Released March 11 (U.S.), March 26 (everywhere else)
- Same price as original iPad
- Two cameras: front and back
- FaceTime and Photo Booth apps
- 33% Thinner
- 2 pounds lighter (1.3 pounds total)
- Dual core A5 processor (2x faster and 9x graphics performance)
- Built in gyroscope
- HDMI video out up to 1080p! – with $30 adapter
- Supports AT&T and Verizon
- Complete redesign
After announcing the iPad 2, Steve Jobs announced an iPad 2 specific accessory – “Smart Covers.” These clever covers protect the front of your second generation iPad, and magnetically attach to the device – which looks great. Furthermore, when “connected” the Smart Cover puts your iPad in Sleep mode. Removing the cover wakes the iPad up. (see the video at the end of this article)
Next, Steve confirmed that iOS 4.3 is indeed coming – and that the software update will launch on March 11. The update brings Personal Hotspot and support for in app subscriptions to iDevices – furthermore, the iPad 2 will ship with iOS 4.3 installed.
Two new applications will be available for the iPad 2 – iMovie and GarageBand. They look pretty good, and will sell for $4.99 each.
Lastly, “one more thing” that didn’t come (Steve Jobs actually didn’t make the iconic announcement) is a refreshed MobileMe service. For some time, we’ve been expecting Apple to offer MobileMe for free, and “revamp” the service – offering bigger cloud storage, and possibly an online music service (“iTunes Cloud”) for Apple fans. However, this was not announced – perhaps Apple will announce this soon? – and Steve left the stage without giving his audience “one more thing.”
But, I don’t mind – Steve Jobs looks well, the iPad 2 looks awesome, and iOS 4.3 is coming soon. All in all, a great event.
If you want to watch the keynote video for yourself, head over to Apple’s website or download it on iTunes by clicking here.
If you don’t want to watch the full keynote, see the video about the iPad 2 here, and check out the smart cases video here.
