New Apple 4G iPad launched

CALIFORNIA: Computer products giant Apple unveiled the latest version of its tablet computer, the iPad at its headquarters in Cuppertino, California on Wednesday.

The new tablet, the first after company founder and industry legend Steve Jobs passed away last year, boasts a lot of interesting features that improve on its previous models.


The Guardian live blog from California reported that the new model has a retina screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, a million pixels more than HD Tv. Phil Schiller, who conducted the launch presentation, said that the device is powered by the new A5X quad-core propriety graphics chip, which is four times faster than the A5 installed in its previous model, the iPad2.

Other features include a five megapixel camera with HD video recording and image stabilisation.

The iPad (no new annotation revealed) will function on the 4G or LTE networks, where dual-carrier HSDPA will allow it to achieve internet streaming speeds of up to 42 megabits per second; and up to 73Mbps on LTE.

For those who are fans of the Siri personal helper, which debuted on the iPhone 4S launched in October 2011, a voice dictation system, will come pre-installed. It can decipher English, French, German, and Japanese.

It will also support iCloud.

Despite earlier speculation that the tablet may push $600, Schiller announced that prices will start from $499 in three models of 16, 32, and 64Gb. The models though will be carrier specific.

A $99 HD Apple TV was also launched at the event.