Ipad 2 come out at Nov?

iPad 2 is coming out April 2010.

April. /thread


This did NOT happen.


Don't worry about it; it's an unnecessarily conflagrated language.

I reckon it's too close to the iPhone releases. They'd be better off making the iPad in January/February.

I think they need to focus on making the iPad lighter. Instead of flat metal, they can perhaps make the metal very thin with a cross-hatch shape inside to keep it strong.

They may also be able to laminate a thinner sheet of glass to the screen to make it just as durable but much lighter.

Dual-core 1GHz, 512MB RAM, double the NAND memory for the same price, built-in SD slot and micro-usb port (discontinue camera kit), front-facing camera only, iOS 4 obviously but transitioning to master-device status.

Would a LiquidMetal solution be lighter?


Do you have any idea how upset people (read: me) would be about that, given that there's enough empty space to have put them in the current model?

Cross-hatching would add weight, they don't need 'extra' strength. The obvious way to reduce weight is going to carbon-fibre, but the real issue is the bulk of the weight of the iPad isn't actually the aluminum, but rather the battery and glass.

I don't see this happening, but personally I would love them to simply reduce the size of the iPad itself to 9" exactly. As opposed to 9.7". Right away that would make the iPad a little lighter, and I'd argue, the weight-change would be noticeable. The iPad would be even more manageable with slightly smaller everything.


I don't see dual-core proc. happening. Apple likes to do things slowly. That seems too big of a jump. 512MB RAM at least, is certain. SD-card slot would be interesting, if even surprising, I think. Micro-USB as part of the Euro charging standards is a possibility. FaceTime camera is an absolute certainty.

And Apple worries about upsetting it's customers? Haha.

I have often wondered about this as well. But if an new iPad comes out before February, I think there will be an outcry because they would have felt taking advantage of since a lot of Apple loyalists anticipate only one major update per year.

As Ireland alluded, Apple has never shown they give a crap about recent purchasers feeling "shafted." In the instances where this occurs, a familiar formula is followed: 1) Apple releases an unexpected/earlier than usual hardware upgrade. 2) Various message boards get an influx of new members, and much wailing and gnashing of teeth is had. 3) Within two or three weeks everyone has forgotten about it, because 99% of the population doesn't give a shit.

It probably would because it will be stronger for a given mass so they can make it thinner and achieve the same strength. They only paid off Liquidmetal's $11m debt in the last couple of months so it'll probably be next year when we see the results of the deal.


I don't mean add cross-hatching to the current case but remove metal from the current design in a cross-hatch style to maintain strength. But the glass and battery do need the most attention.

The liquidmetal mentioned is probably going to be the way forward as they won't mill the metal any more, they will mould it like they would plastic. They should be able to get some pretty thin designs out of it but I wonder if the colour will change to a different shade of grey.

I think not before September 2011, but definitely before December 2011.
For all the reasons stated above, plus they will want to milk iPad 1 as long as they can to recoup investments, plus they'll want iPad 2 to be really innovative again relative to iPad 1. That's more probable if they plan for a little longer between successive models.
Obviously Apple will want to benefit fully from the 2011 Xmas season.

The only experience I have with metals is in zinc die casting, with this material being totally different I can't say with authority but castings are not light. The problem with zinc and aluminum is flow the material in a die through small cross sections. Thus thin walls that are required for a large iPad case are difficult. Nothing has indicated that these metals overcome all of these issues in the die casting context, but again there may be more to this than is public.

Apparently this material can be blow molded which has potential as blow molding is what gives us all those plastic bottles and jugs. The problem with blow molding is that it is much harder to mold in special features.

I really don't know what Apples intentions for this metal are, nor do I know all of the potential processes they might employ but I suspect that that might have plans for the material in smaller sub components. Or possibly the iPhone and iPod lines as these ought to be moldable to some extent.

That is unjustified. Everybody and their brother knows that iPad is very much a rev one device.

As to the empty space hopefully that does get used for something in the future. Some of the better uses for that space: Another location for a flash component, this for an immediate doubling of storage. Build in the GPS chip on all models (there is the issue of an antenna but that is resolvable. A high performance SD slot as mentioned because it makes real sense on the platform.

In any event did you expect the new model to come out without improvements? Seriously, I'm actually expecting a massive overhaul that is greater than what we normally see from Apple. It isn't just about competition either. Rather it is the issue of Apple having a vision of where iPad will go and this current model doesn't even come close to delivering on those visions.

Apple has said nothing for this thought to even be considered!


So should the notebook users feel the same way when they get rev'ed almost twice a year?

Considering other upgrades Apple has made to hot selling hardware there is absolutely no justification for this anticipation.

Sadly you have gotten me hot under the collar. I see things like this in print and really have to wonder what in the hell is wrong with people these days. Apple doesn't publish update calendars nor should they.

I can't speak for the other poster but I suspect what he is thinking about is approaches used in the aerospace industry to lighten structures. Sometimes the resulting structure looks like a honeycomb.

A pict would really help here but I'm not about to go looking.

While I agree with you the primary weight issues are else where, every little bit helps. Honestly though they have been pretty aggressive with the current techniques. The problem is; even at China rates it has to be expensive to CNC machine everyone of these housings.

Nope, keep the current one as is and seriously reconsider a sub 7" device for the weaker sex. Or simply for people that value the small size.

Nope here too. Why? Because Apple has already invested in the technology that would directly leverage those cores. Apple will want to move in this direction quickly because it will enable many interesting things that they want to do with iPad that are currently an issue due to poor CPU performance.

Oh and before people start to whine about the comment about poor CPU performance you better be able to backup your claims. This isn't a comment about iPads performance as a system but rather the specific issue of bringing new functionality to the platform that needs more CPU power.

On the flip side the competition is a real issue too. There are many SoC platforms coming to market that will make dual core handheld devices very popular.

I suspect that in November we might see a memory bump to iPad to allow it to work better with iOS 4.2. I'm almost thinking it will be a minimal requirement for new hardware.

While a memory bump might be minimal, they may have a bigger bump ready for November. This of course is a bigger stretch but with all the new Cortex A9 hardware on the market Apple will be left behind if they wait for late spring to update. Further it would explode the demand during the Christmas holidays.

In any event I'm not sure why people are so convinced that iPad will always be updated around its release time. Honestly folks Apple has been releasing new hardware in the spring for years, that has never kept them from moving release schedules about. For a very consumer oriented device an update in November makes a lot of sense. Just like it makes a lot of sense for Apple to run Back to School with bumped hardware in the summer.

Obviously only Apple knows what it is up to but it is a little to early into iPads life time to think that a pattern has formed already. Apple has the ability to keep this market to themselves if they are aggressive and frequent with updates.