Tech & Tribulations - iPad HD and Apple TV

Apple CEO Tim Cook unveils the iPad 3 during a special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Photo courtesy of MCT Campus.

Early Wednesday morning, hundreds of tech journalists crammed into the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco salivating for the latest announcement from tech behemoth, Apple Inc.

After countless rumors, leaks and speculation, it was all but confirmed that this event was regarding the next generation of Apple’s insanely popular tablet, the iPad. Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO, took the stage at 1 p.m. EST and in a way uncharacteristic for Apple events, had announced a new product by 1:14 p.m., the new Apple TV.

The new model of the Apple TV keeps the same small, hockey puck form factor of its predecessor, but features improvements under the hood. The new model now supports 1080p streaming on movies rented through iTunes and Netflix. In addition, the user interface got a face lift, bringing it closer to the eye candy gorgeousness of Apple’s iOS.

Cook transitioned away from the Apple TV details to the reason every last journalist was clamoring in their seats: the newest iPad. And in traditional Apple fashion, Tim Cook and his large slideshow behind him, built the excitement for the new device by slowly showing statistics regarding the growth of the iPad and Apple’s App Store. For good reason too, as Apple sold more iPads in the last quarter of 2011 than any manufacturer of PCs.

Slowly but surely, Cook got to the meat and potatoes: the iPad HD. The name makes perfect sense as the biggest draw to this new device is the screen. Using the same Retina Display technology in the iPhone 4S, Apple was able to create a 9.7” screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536, or roughly 3.1 million pixels an 1 million more pixels than an HDTV with a 1080p screen.

The iPad HD also features Apple’s new dual-core A5X processor that features a quad-core design for graphics. Apple also upgrade the camera to the same camera used in the iPhone 4S, 5 megapixels, auto-exposure, auto-focus and 1080p video recording. The battery life of the iPad HD stays similar to the iPad 2: roughly 10 hours.

The iPad HD also features embedded 4G connectivity from AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The pricing of these models, and the WiFi only models, will follow the same structure as the iPad 2. And speaking of which, the iPad 2 will continue to be produced in the 16GB WiFi only model and will sell for $399.

The iPad HD and new Apple TV will be released Friday, March 16. Pre-orders for both products are available now at www.apple.com.