Apple iPad 1 & 2

iPad Firstgeneration

SteveJobs, Apple's former CEO, introducing the iPad

Applebegan taking pre-orders for the iPad from U.S. customers on March 12, 2010. Theonly major change to the device between its announcement and being available topre-order was the change of the behavior of the side switch from sound mutingto that of a screen rotation lock. The Wi-Fi version of the iPad went on salein the United States on April 3, 2010. The Wi-Fi + 3G version was released onApril 30. 3G service in the United States is provided by AT&T and wasinitially sold with two prepaid contract-free data plan options: one forunlimited data and the other for 250 MB per month at half the price. On June 2,2010, AT&T announced that effective June 7 the unlimited plan would bereplaced for new customers with a 2 GB plan at slightly lower cost; existingcustomers would have the option to keep the unlimited plan. The plans areactivated on the iPad itself and can be canceled at any time.

TheiPad was initially only available online at The Apple Store as well as thecompany's retail locations. The iPad has since been available for purchasethrough many retailers including Amazon, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Verizon, andAT&T. The iPad was launched in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on May 28. Online pre-ordersin those countries began on May 10. Apple released the iPad in Austria,Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealandand Singapore on July 23, 2010. Israel briefly prohibited importation of theiPad because of concerns that its Wi-Fi might interfere with other devices. OnSeptember 17, 2010, the iPad officially launched in China.

Thedevice was initially popular with 300,000 iPads being sold on their first dayof availability. By May 3, 2010, Apple had sold a million iPads, this was inhalf the time it took Apple to sell the same number of original iPhones. Duringthe October 18, 2010, Financial Conference Call, Steve Jobs announced thatApple had sold more iPads than Macs for the Fiscal Quarter. In total, Applesold more than 15 million first generation iPads prior to the launch of theiPad 2.

TheiPad 2 is the second and current generation of the iPad, a tablet computerdesigned, developed and marketed by Apple. It serves primarily as a platformfor audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games,presentations and web content, and is available in black or white. The FoxconnChina-manufactured iPad 2 has a lithium-ion polymer battery that lasts up to 10hours, a new dual core Apple A5 processor and VGA front-facing and 720prear-facing cameras designed for FaceTime video calling.

Appleunveiled the device on March 2, 2011 began selling it by website and retailstores on March 11and released it in 25 other countries on March 26, includingAustralia, Britain and CanadaApple announced that the iPad 2 would be releasedin Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and other countries on April 29, 2011

Applesent invitations to journalists on February 23, 2011 for a media event on March2. Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed the device at the Yerba Buena Center for theArts on March 2, 2011, despite being on medical leave.

Applebegan selling the iPad 2 on its website on 

March 11,

andin its U.S. retail stores at 5 pm local time on that date. Many stores in majorcities, such as New York, sold out within hours.

Onlineshipping delays had increased to three to four weeks on Sunday and four to fiveweeks by Tuesday. One analyst predicted that Apple would sell 35 million iPad2s in 2011.

TheiPad 2 was released internationally in 25 other countries on March 25, 2011.The countries included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Hungary,Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain,Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Apple announced that the iPad 2will be released in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia andother countries in April 2011.

TheMarch 25 release date for Japan was postponed due to the earthquake and tsunamiwhich struck the entire nation on March 11, 2011. The iPads may be delayed dueto the NAND flash storage chip used in the iPads being created by Toshiba,which has been affected by the earthquake and tsunami and has closed indefinitely.The slowdown caused analysts to downgrade Apple's stock.

 iOS

TheiPad 2 uses the iOS 5 software that was released on October 12, 2011 and issupposed to bring over 200 new user features including Notification Center,iMessage, and an updated notifications system, using a new "banner"style instead of the originally used pop-up "alert" style. The iPad 2comes with Photo Booth, an application in which users can take photos andeffects on them. The iPad 2 also adds to capability to support GarageBand,iMovie, and the iWork apps Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. These applications donot come with the iPad but are instead official applications from Apple soldwithin the App Store.

iPad Hardware

TheiPad 2 includes a new A5 processor, front and rear cameras plus a 6 axisgyroscope. Several components were made smaller to fit the new iPad.

 Screen and input

Bothoriginal iPad and iPad 2 have four physical switches, including a home buttonnear the display that returns the user to the main menu, and three plasticphysical switches on the sides: wake/sleep, volume up/down, and a third switchfor either screen rotation lock or mute. The home button on the iPad 2 is"easier to double tap" than the previous generation of the iPad.

Applereduced the size of the iPad by eliminating the stamped sheet metal frame fromthe display, integrating new thinner glass technology for the touch screenoverlay, and slightly reducing the space between the display and battery. TheiPad 2's screen is thinner, lighter, and yet stronger than the original iPad's.The iPad 2 also supports screen mirroring via the digital AV adapter., andthrough AirPlay as of iOS 5.

Airplay

Airplayis a feature built in to iOS. It allows the iPad to stream videos, photos oraudio from any Airplay enabled app to Apple TV, an Airport Express unit or tosome third party speakers. Some built in apps such as Photos, Videos and iPodare AirPlay compatible.

 Power

TheiPad has a 25 w·h rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery that lasts 10 hours,like the original iPad. It is charged via USB or included 10 W, 2 A poweradapter. The battery is 2.5 mm thick, 59% smaller than the original and hasthree cells instead of two. The improvements allowed the injection-moldedplastic support frame to be omitted. The 10 W USB power adapter provides 4x thepower of a conventional USB port.

 Cameras

Therevised tablet adds front- and rear-facing cameras, which allow FaceTime videocalls with the iPhone 4, fourth-generation iPod Touch and Macintosh computers(running Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later with a webcam). The 0.3 MP front camera shootsVGA-quality 30 frame/s video and VGA-quality still photos. The 0.7 MP backcamera can shoot 720p HD video at 30 frame/s and has a 5x digital zoom. Bothshoot photo in a 4:3 fullscreen aspect ratio. The rear camera shoots video in16:9 widescreen to match the 720p standard, although only the central 4:3 partof the recording is shown on the screen during recording. The forward facingcamera shoots in 4:3.

 Apple A5 processor

TheiPad 2 added a dual core Apple A5 processor that Apple claims doublesprocessing speed and has graphics processing that is up to nine times fasterthan the previous iPad.

iPadwith 3G + Wi-Fi     

3Gversions of the iPad 2 offer CDMA2000 support for customers using the device ona CDMA network (e.g. Verizon Wireless in the United States) or GSM/UMTS supportfor customers using the device on a GSM/UMTS network (e.g., AT&T Mobilityin the United States or Orange in Europe).

TheiPad Wi-Fi + 3G model includes an A-GPS receiver for tracking the user'slocation given permission. Also, the iPad 2 3G model includes a plasticcap-like band at the top on the back for the 3G antenna. The metallic grillefor the microphone is replaced with a matching plastic black grille on the 3Gmodel.

 Size and weight

Thedevice is 15% lighter and 33% thinner than the original iPad, it is thinner thanthe iPhone 4 by 0.5 mm.

TheWi-Fi version is 1.33 lb (600 g). Both the GSM and CDMA versions (knownrespectively as the AT&T and Verizon versions in the US) differ in weightslightly due to the mass difference between the GSM and CDMA cellular radios,with the GSM model at 1.35 lb (612 g) and the CDMA model at 1.34 lb (608 g).The size of the iPad 2 is also less than the original iPad at only 9.50×7.31×0.34in (241.2×185.7×8.8 mm), compared to the original iPad's size at 9.56×7.47×0.5in (242.8×189.7×13.4 mm).