iPad 2 Launch brings App Sale for Limited Time

There is a limited time sale this weekend for many titles to celebrate the launch of iPad 2.

iPad 2 (or iPad 1.5 as some say) Announcement

The iPad 2 was announced last Wednesday in a surprise appearance by Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave from Apple.

There is a good summary and commentary  by Richard Gaywood.

The iPad 2 is what the first iPad should have been-- a light, sleek device with dual cameras and FaceTime video conferencing (not necessarily with dual CPUs as the iPad 2). I won't be buying the iPad 2 for myself. I will be getting one as a birthday gift for my sister, whose kids have been in love with my parent's iPad.

I have held-off upgrading the iPad to iOS4 but will definitely will upgrade to iOS 4.3 as it provides a performance boost to the Safari Javascript engine.

Reverting to an Older App

If you upgraded an App and found that you preferred the older version, you can revert to the older app (as long as you have a copy of it via TimeMachine, etc.).

iPhone (iDevice) Explorer

iPhone Explorer is a utility that allows you to use your iDevice as a USB drive.

HP Touchpad

The HP Touchpad running WebOS is the first real competition I have seen for the iPad. The tablets won't be available until the summer (Wifi model first then 3G). The iPad2 will be out by then...

My reluctance for buying HP is that they are famous for making craptacular hardware.

If they started building hardware like my old HP engineering calculator, then I would be more inclined to buy one.

WSJ Cofirms iPad2 Features

In general terms the iPad2 features:

• thinner and lighter 
• faster CPU & GPU
• more memory (I assume this is system memory)
• front-facing camera (for Facetime)

The iPad, Circa 1970

The scifi show Tomorrow People featured a tablet that looked remarkably similar to the Apple iPad: a silver back, a black bezel and approximately 9 inches in size.