There is no doubt Apple understands how to market and make beautiful and innovative products.  The development of tablet technology has been pushed along at a fast pace by Apple’s understanding of their consumers and how people like to interact with technology.  There are other tablets on the market and they are getting better but the consistent remarks about the Android platform and marketplace is that it fails to reach the depth and consistency Apple’s software and hardware does.

The iPad 2 leapt forward with some interesting hardware features and new ways to stay in touch with your friends and colleagues.  The same cannot be said about the iPad 3, which looks and feels pretty much the same from the outside but what it does have to offer is incredible and if the promise of full 4G comes into force, this will be a piece of technology superior to everything else in competition with it.  Here are the features you can expect with this new roll out

Retina Display:  This is probably the most outstanding difference; with a screen resolution of 3.1 million pixels, which equates to more than a million more pixels than your current high definition television, this is one impressive display.  Not only have the clever people at Apple introduced a multitude of pixels into the screen, they have also completely changed the way the pixels are positioned.  In previous models, the pixels and signals are on the same plane and as a consequence, there can be a degradation of picture quality as the signals become lost and confused.  Apple has created an elevated position for the pixels to sit on, allowing the signals and pixels to flow freely and therefore create an eye-popping display.  The clarity is superb and there is a feeling of being totally submerged in text, graphics and photographs.  After years of our brains literally filling in the gaps between pixels subconsciously, we are now given this treat of fantastic colour saturated and smooth detail – just like real life.

4G (LTE): In the USA, both AT+T and Verizon networks are able to offer the new 4G service to their customers.  Unfortunately in the UK, even though this country was one of the first to offer 3G, the availability of true 4G is unlikely to hit our airwaves until 2013.  The current issues stem around squabbles over who should own parts of the 4G network and although their have been trials in London and other parts of the UK, it is still not hitting the 4G status with it being one gigabit per second short of the 4G target.  For those areas that are able to receive 4G LTE, the speeds are still impressive over standard 3G, with speeds reaching around 3 times faster.  Once genuine 4G is fully available, this should increase to 10 – 15 times faster.

A5X Processor:  The addition of this Quad Core graphics chip, not only helps to create the visually pixel high output but also paves the way for the tablet to be considered for high end gaming and HD films and content.  Several major computer games producers are in talks about developing top rated games for the iPad, including Epic Games, who have developed Infinity Blade.

Enhanced Rear Facing Camera: Video in 1080p and a 5 mega pixel camera with a larger aperture and a backside illumination sensor on the back than the iPad 3, may not sound as impressive as expected with camera phones offering 8Mp and upwards.  Apple is quick to demonstrate it is not all about mega pixels and they have tweaked the actual hardware, image processor and software to make it better at capturing the image you see on the screen.  Light and colour capture in a multitude of tricky light possibilities are automatically adjusted, giving you the image you want every time.

Finally, several applications are now even better including upgraded functionality in the ever popular Garage Band and printing is also easier, with both HP and Xerox providing applications to allow you to print remotely from your device.  This means you can still keep buying supplies of HP toner cartridges and Xerox ink cartridges for your trusted machines, without having to purchase new hardware.  There are also graphical applications such as Save The Pencil HD, F1 2012 Timing, who are taking full advantage of the new Retina Display.  The iPad 3 offers the same functionality with free iCloud and App Store access, so experienced users will understand straight away how to operate this machine and giving newbies features not found on any other tablets, leaving us impressed with the new iPad overall.

Tags: Apple, iPad 3, Tablets, Technology

Categories: Technology