Some Keynote iPad Tidbits And Speculations

Steve Jobs started yesterday’s keynote with telling a little bit about the success of the iPad. The so called “Magical” device is now available in 10 countries, 9 more will follow next month. In just 59 days, 2 million iPads have been sold. That’s 1 every 3 seconds.

iBooks Update

Steve continued to talk about the iPad in an update of iBooks. Although he says they’re updating it today (read yesterday) I think he just means he is going to show you what kind of update they have in store for us and then release it later this month.

This is from the WWDC10 June 7th keynote:

Now you can make notes. In addition, we’ve added a control to just tap and bookmark a page — under ToC you’ll see all the notes, highlights, and bookmarks

We’ve added another big enhancement — the ability to view and read PDFs. So we’ve built that in. You can now view PDFs. We’ve put a little selector at the top — books and PDFs. You get a whole new bookshelf just for PDFs, they just look gorgeous.

Magical iPad

There was a lot of fun during the keynote, with one part in particular. Steve wanted to emphasize the fact the iPad is really a magical device. So he showed a message he got from someone with an iPad claiming the following:

So this chick magnet is really a magical device. “I have proof”, Steve says.

Let Your Fantasy Go. Again.

One of the first posts on iPadFreakz was one called “Let Your Fantasy Go“. It showed a not very Apple-ish concept of a tablet that could be inserted into a newly manufactured iMac. I stated that battery is one of the key things of such a device. And it turns out it is. With 10 hours (some say the iPad can last even up to 12 hours) of battery life the iPad is a long lasting device.

I think it’s time to let my fantasy go once more. With the iPhone 4 we get a couple of new things: Retina Display, 5MP Camera, iMovie, Dual-mic and the Gyroscope. Now I was thinking what will be in the new iPad. I know, it may be too early to start speculating about the second iPad version, but I’m just very excited about the new iPhone features.

I think it’s fair to say that the next iPad will have a camera in the next version. It’s not a prediction, it’s a fact (as well as better GPU, better CPU, more Flash storage and better battery). Having a camera on the iPad or not is not a big deal for me personally. I’ll still buy one if the next doesn’t include a camera, but I know many people want it so Apple will likely put one in. And it should be a 5 MP camera.

Now one of the most unexpected and weirdest additions to the new iPhone, I think, is the iMovie application for iPhone 4. We have Keynote [App Store], Numbers [App Store] and Pages [App Store] for the iPad. We also have Photos on the iPad. The next logical step would be to add an iMovie app for iPad. iMovie on Mac is one magnificent piece of ones en zeros and really is a heavy duty app. Such an application is cool on a phone ofcourse, but I don’t think it’s that practical (even though I haven’t held it in my hands yet). Steve said the iPad is especially good for productivity apps because of its larger screen. Something the iPhone can’t offer. That’s why I think we either get an iPad version of iMovie later this year or next year at the introduction of iPad 2.

The iPhone is ofcourse Apple’s baby and flagship at the same time. It’s the most profitable product in their entire repertoire. But in comparison the iPhone has more pixels than the iPad. This Retina Display sounds and looks stunning, but wouldn’t it be a much smarter step to implement it in the iPad? I do think so. A stunning 326ppi on a 9.7-inch display will provide an even better experience of browsing the web, watching movies and playing games. Therefor I think the Retina Display can be another one of the new features of the second iPad.

Dual-mic is very good for a phone but not really necessary on the iPad. The only thing I can think of the dual-mic being useful, is for apps like Skype. For those of us in possession of an iPad 3G it could be handier, since they can make VoIP calls while in the bus or train. Still I think most of us will just grab their iPhone to make a phone call. So dual-mic in the next gen iPad? No.

But take a look at the Gyroscope. That’s an interesting piece of hardware. It provides much more accuracy when using apps like Zen Bound [App Store]. It adds 3 more axis to the already wide range of sensors inside the iPhone. Together with the accelerometer, the compass and GPS, these sensors become a very powerful tool. Playing Need for Speed Shift [App Store] for instance can become much more realistic. Steering the iPad slowly could result in turning left in a big bow. But steering the iPad fast can result in a sharp turn. That’s what the Gyroscope can offer. Games can become more realistic and I’m sure there are some brilliant developers out there being able to come up with something nobody thought of before. So to add a last thing to the next iPad, the Gyroscope is a definite YES.

I think that’s enough fantasizing about the iPad for today. What do YOU want in the next iPad?