Live Coverage of Apple’s iPad 2 Event

Posted on March 2, 2011 by

Apple’s press conference, titled “Come See What 2011 Will Be the Year Of,” will be starting at 10AM Pacific Time  / 1PM Eastern Time.  Apple will not be providing live video or audio coverage of the event, but we will try and keep you informed with updates in this article and on our Twitter account.

Apple Press Conference:

11:15AM That’s it. Thanks for joining us at MacDaddyNews.com. Check out our site later for a roundup of todays announcements.
11:13AM “I’d like the teams that worked on this to stand up — give them a round of applause. And as always, I’d like to thank everyone’s families. They support us and let us do what we need to do. They make it possible for us to work our tails off.”
11:13AM “The hardware and software need to intertwine more than they do on a PC. We think we’re on the right path with this.”
11:12AM “This is worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough. It’s tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it’s the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are pos-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive.”
11:11AM Steve is back
10:11AM Video is over
11:05AM Video time
11:05AM “Now we made a video that I’d love to show you.”
11:04AM “We think 2011 is clearly the year of iPad 2…” Big cheers for that.
11:04AM “So iPad 2 — amazing product. Faster, lighter, thinner. Cameras and gyro. iOS 4.3 and FaceTime. iMovie and GaragrBand. 3G on AT&T and Verizon. Same battery life. Same prices. Black and white. Smart Covers.”
11:03AM “So, GarageBand for iPad. This is no toy. You can use this for real work. I cannot tell you how many hours teenagers are going to spend making music with this.” Wow, $4.99. That’s kind of insane.
11:03AM Steve is out. “I’m blown away with this stuff. You know, playing your own instruments. Or using the Smart Instruments. Anyone can make music now.”
11:02AM “We can’t wait to hear all the creative things people will do when they get this in their hands.”
11:01AM The editing of multiple tracks looks really intuitive.
11:00AM “This can record up to 8 tracks. Let’s put that in perspective — back when the Beatles did Sgt. Peppers, you could only do four tracks, and the machine was the size of a washing machine.”
10:59AM “Once you’ve laid down one recording, that’s the first step to writing a song. That’s where the track view comes in.”
10:59AM “They make it so you can’t play a bad note.” Described as training wheels… really more like a taxi cab.
10:57AM “We’ve got great guitar amps and effects… but you know there are a lot of people who don’t play guitar. So we created Smart Instruments. Here you see an acoustic guitar, but one that anyone can play…”
10:56AM “Another great feature of these drums is that your kids can play them… with headphones on.”
10:55AM Demoing drums
10:53AM “Now we’re only seeing some of the keys because this is only a window into a much larger piano.” You can toggle octaves.
10:53AM There’s a toggle for the sustain pedal. “Another thing about a piano is that you can play with dynamics… the sound is different when you tap softly or with force. How do we do that? With the accelerometer.”
10:52AM “The first thing you see is an instrument browser. They turn the iPad into a musical instrument that you can play where ever you go. Here’s a grand piano… and it’s not just a grand piano. Clavinet, some great synths… let’s stick with piano.”
10:51AM Xander Soren is coming out to demo.
10:50AM “Touch instruments, you can plug in a guitar if you want, but it’s got touch instruments. Guitar amps and effects, 8 track recording and mixing, 250+ loops…”
10:50AM “Next up… GarageBand for iPad.”
10:50AM “Precision editing, sending HD video around with one tap. A lot of great features in an app we’re going to price at just $4.99. Available on March 11th.”
10:49AM Steve is back. “It’s awesome. 1.3 lbs… it blows my mind, this stuff.”
10:49AM “And that is the new version of iMovie on the iPad 2.”
10:48AM New sharing options… YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and more.
10:48AM They’ve got a new “neon” theme — think Miami Vice.
10:48AM Music automatically switches with themes…
10:44AM Randy is doing some iMovie editing.
10:43AM “Today we’ve got a new version that takes advantage of the iPad 2 and its extra horsepower. I’d like to show it to you.”
10:42AM Randy Ubillos is out to demo iMovie for the iPad.
10:42AM “The first one is iMovie for iPad.”
10:42AM Steve is out. “In addition to these two apps being built into iOS 4.3, we have two other new apps. And we like doing apps. It can set the bar. It sets the bar high for developers.”
10:41AM “So these are just a few features in iOS 4.3, and this will be out March 11th…”
10:40AM “From day one, you can FaceTime from your iPad 2 to all the iPhone 4 customers out there.”
10:40AM Demo’ing the flip feature to get to the back camera. “If Michael had children or something, this might be interesting to look at.”
10:39AM “Next is FaceTime. It’s the best and easiest way to video conference. We’re bringing it to the iPad. You can FaceTime between two iPads, between an iPad and an iPhone, or between an iPad and a Mac.” Demo time for this.
10:37AM “Here I have an iPad 2 which is mirrored up there. Let me launch Photo Booth. The iPad 2 is so powerful that we’re looking at 9 live video streams at once.” Real time effect demos, like on a desktop. Scott is cycling though them to great hilarity.
10:36AM “Next, the iPad 2 comes with these new cameras. And we’ve built in some new software — starting with Photo Booth. Let me give you a demo.”
10:36AM 4.3 will add personal hotspot for the iPhone 4.
10:36AM You can now select which mode it’s in.
10:35AM “Next, this is something we heard from customers. Some customers have said they want to use the switch on the device to quickly mute the device, others have asked for a switch to change the orientation lock.” Ooh, backpedal!
10:35AM “When you tap on the AirPlay icon, it looks around and finds your Apple TV. It’s that easy. We’re making it even better in iOS 4.3. If you’re sharing photos, you can use all of the built in slide show options. And now in 4.3, apps from the Store and even websites can do video or audio.”
10:33AM “Along with the iPad 2, we’re releasing the next release of iOS 4.3. It starts with significantly increased Safari performance. We took the Nitro JavaScript engine. Next, iTunes home sharing. It lets you get at all of your content directly over WiFi. Next, AirPlay improvements.”
10:32AM Scott Forstall is out.
10:32AM “So those are the two accessories. Now let’s go back into the iPad 2, because we have a new release of iOS — iOS 4.3.”
10:32AM Poly cases are $39, leather $69
10:31AM Steve is pretty stoked about this cover. “There are magnets in the hinge and the cover. And what would these cases be if they didn’t come in colors. 5 poly, 5 leather.”
10:31AM Hard to describe, but let’s say there was a lot of snapping this cover onto iPads.
10:30AM This is cute.
10:30AM “They come in polyurethane or leather. Here’s a video.”
10:30AM “It’s really easy to remove or change the cover.”
10:29AM “They grasp it, and auto-align it. I’ll show you a little video. It’s so cool. You can remove it in a second. It adds minimal weight and thickness. It’s got a microfiber cloth that cleans the screen.”
10:29AM “It automatically wakes the iPad when you open it, and puts it to sleep when it closes it. Now how is this held on? Do we have screws? No — we use magnets.”
10:28AM It’s a flap that covers the front of the device. Interesting.
10:28AM “We designed the case right along side the product. It’s not a case — it’s a cover.”
10:28AM “We did a case for the original iPad. It worked pretty well, but we went to all the trouble to make this beautiful design, but then covered it up with the case. We thought we could do better than this with the iPad 2.”
10:27AM “Something that’s going to be even more popular, we call Smart Covers.”
10:27AM “Here’s what it looks like.”
10:27AM You can charge while using.
10:26AM Provides output up to 1080p. Works with all apps.
10:26AM “Mirrored video output.”
10:26AM “Some other new features. HDMI out. We have a cable that does just that.”
10:25AM ”When you add this together with over 65,000 apps… we think 2011 is going to be the year of iPad 2.” Big cheers from the crowd.
10:24AM “Now some folks are out there saying they’re only a little bit more expensive than us. When you look at this matrix, five of these six are less than $799.”
10:24AM “In addition to preserving the battery life, we’ve also preserved the price. The same exact prices.”
10:23AM “This has been tried and tested… iPads get 10 hours of battery life.”
10:23AM “Over a month of standby.”
10:23AM “Now here we are adding stuff into the iPad. Cameras, faster CPUs, gyroscope and all this stuff. We’ve made it way thinner. Something’s gotta give. You would think we’d have to give up battery life. But we found a way… the same battery life as the original iPad.”
10:22AM “In addition to having both colors, we have models that work with both AT&T and Verizon.”
10:21AM “All new design. This is what it looks like.”
10:21AM “In addition to thicker (he meant thinner), it’s lighter too.”
10:21AM “Nothing approaches this.”
10:21AM “When you get your hands on one, it feels totally different.”
10:21AM “The new iPad 2 is thinner than your iPhone 4.”
10:21AM 13.4mm to 8.8mm
10:20AM “Having built in all this stuff, one of the striking things about the iPad 2 is that’s dramatically thinner. 33% thinner.”
10:20AM ‘We’ve also built in the gyroscope we have in the iPhone and iPod touch.”
10:20AM “Second, we’ve built in some cameras for video. We’ve got a rear and front facing. More on that in a few minutes.”
10:19AM “The first iPad was no slouch… so a lot faster.”
10:19AM “We go all out on the graphics performance. Up to 9 times faster. Same low power as A4. This will be the first dual core tablet to ship in volume.”
10:19AM Dual Core CPU
10:19AM “What is iPad 2. What have we learned? It is an all new design. It’s a completely new design. And it’s dramatically faster. We have a new chip we call A5.”
10:18AM “But we haven’t been resting on our laurels. Today we’re going to introduce iPad 2.”
10:18AM “We’ve gotten off to an exceptional first year. We’d like to build on that. What about 2011? Everyone’s got a tablet. Will 2011 be the year of the copycat? If we did nothing, maybe a little bit… probably not.”
10:15AM Video still playing. Show iPad being used in school, hospitals and many other places.
10:11AM “We made a video about 2010, the year of the iPad…” Video time!
10:10AM “There’s never been anything like this for photography… 65,000 apps specifically for the iPad.”
10:10AM “They’re taking advantage of this incredible, magical UI.”
10:10AM “Fantastic games, a lot of apps for business and vertical markets. The things people are doing here are amazing.”
10:09AM Steve is showing off some of the iPad app selection.
10:09AM “Many have said this is the most successful consumer product ever launched. Over 90% market share… our competitors were flummoxed.”
10:08AM “We sold 15m iPads… that’s more than every tablet PC ever sold.”
10:07AM “Today we’re here to talk about Apple’s third post-PC blockbuster product. That’s how we think about these things. We started with the iPod, then we added the iPhone, and then the iPad. Every one has been a blockbuster.”
10:06AM “Lastly — we recently shipped our 100 millionth iPhone.”
10:06AM “A lot of people have tried to copy this.”
10:05AM “Another milestone… let’s look at the App Store. We recently paid out over $2b to devs in total. Devs have earned over $2b from selling their apps on the App Store.”

10:05AM “Now Amazon doesn’t publish their numbers, but it’s likely this is the most accounts with credit cards anywhere on the internet.”

10:05AM “That’s iBooks. As you know, that’s one of our three stores. They all use the same Apple ID to access them. Recently, we just crossed 200m accounts.”

10:04AM “We have over 2500 publishers in the iBookstore.”
10:04AM “Users have downloaded over 100m books in less than a year. Today we’re announcing that Random House is bringing over 17k books.”
10:03AM “We’ve got something great to announce today, but first some updates. First iBooks.”

10:03AM “We’ve been working on this product for awhile, and I didn’t want to miss it.”

10:03AM Steve Jobs walks out to a standing ovation

9:59AM “Ladies and gentlemen, our presentation will begin shortly. Please switch devices to silent mode.”

9:56AM The event will be starting any minute now. The Beatles are playing on the sound system.