One small step for Apple. One not-so giant leap for tablet technology

Now I hate to say I told you so but…well, you get it!

San Francisco yesterday was host to the next phase in the evolution of Apple's tablet technology and with the announcement of the ludicrously titled New iPad the guys and gals down at Cupertino officially put yet another stamp on the market whilst of course simultaneously attempting to belittle and undermine the progress of their competitors.

Now at first glance you may look at the new iPad and think to yourself that not much has changed. But take another look and…well…you'll probably still think the same thing. The chassis is similar enough to it's predecessor but let's face it, there was never going to be a radical redesign in that department. Where the true change lies (at least according to Apple) is inside the beast.

The new iPad introduces Apple's A5X dual-core chip which is said to have a greater knack for graphical output with Apple stating that it's on par with quad-core chips. I'm expecting the new iPad to fall in line with its predecessors and sport the same Imagination Technologies Power VR SGX-based chip.

Now here's where it gets interesting! Apple believe their new A5X chip to be, and I quote "twice as fast" as NVIDIA’s coveted Tergra 3 chip and say it will boast for times the graphics performance. Now if you know anything about this stuff you will know that the Tegra 3 chip GPU with it's 12GeForce graphic cores is an absolute monster when it comes to performance which leads me to believe that Apple are starting to believe their own hyperbolic marketing bullshit. I doubt it's even possible that their dual-core chip exceeds NVIDIA’s own at all let alone by such an epic margin. Hey, if I'm wrong and they have indeed invented the superchip then fair dues but it's crap like this that really winds me up about Apple in general.

I'll admit that a significant leap forward has been made in regards to the New iPad’s screen technology. Apple have moved away from the previous iPad’s 1024 x 768 LED-backlit display and upgraded to a 2058 x 1536 resolution display that incorporates 264 pixels per inch. This is pretty awesome regardless of how you look at it and it's something I can't wait to lay my peepers on. I think Tim Cook said something about it having like a million more pixels than the HDTV in your home but I'll chalk this up to the usual Apple hyperbole/bullshit.

The new iPad does also have 4G LTE connectivity for you lucky guys out in the states which apparently isn't too much a drain on the devices battery. It also sports a 5MP camera with something called iSight (sigh) and 1080p recording with video stabilization. It sports the same height and width as it's predecessor but comes in a tad thicker at 9.4mm as opposed to the iPad 2's 8.8mm.

So that's it really. I'm guessing they stayed away from calling this thing the iPad 3 because it really isn't that much of a leap forward over the iPad 2. It's conventional fare and is exactly what everybody who is familiar with this industry expected. Better screen. Faster processor. Siri (Which apparently isn't as vocal as it's iPhone cousin.) Better Camera and whatever else.

In this blogger’s opinion, there's nothing to suggest that the average consumer need purchase this above the more than adequate iPad 2. This is a device for tech junkies and elitist douchebags. Unfortunately, more so for the latter.