I’m sad to report that I am not as off-the-wall impressed with the new iPad as most of the other reviews I have read (except maybe David Pogue’s). It is absolutely a top-notch Apple product and easily the best tablet on the market, but not all will appreciate its tradeoffs.

The Retina display is by far the biggest new feature—and it is certainly impressive. However, it is not a life-changing experience that some have described, and it isn’t a big enough differentiator to warrant an almost double-sized battery in my opinion. The new Retina apps are really great, but the extra weight is noticeable. The marginal extra thickness does not bother me, but the heat generated by the new processor on the left side does. Reading books on the new Kindle app is certainly extra pleasurable with the Retina update, but the warmth and the weight more than offset the improved screen after about 15 minutes to 20 minutes. The new iPad also takes almost twice as long to charge; although, you can still expect it to run for almost 10 hours like all the other iPads.

In the weeks and months before Apple’s media events, the newswires are stormed by tons of reports about Apple’s upcoming announcements. Due to the frenzy, it is hard to keep track of who said what and when. Therefore, we are putting together the more notable calls and how those reports turned out:

We did this for the iPhone 4S in October 2011, and this is our Apple iPad and Apple TV media event rumor wrap-up:

Way back in November, CBS Chief Executive Officer Les Moonves told investors on an earnings call:

..the media company turned down a partnership with Apple for a streaming deal on the Apple TV. Moonves says that the deal was turned down because of the ad-split revenue that Apple was trying to reach an agreement over.

Fast forward to this weekend when the Hollywood Reporter caught up to Moonves at a FUCLA conference:

For those of you wondering whether or not Apple keeps close tabs on the jailbreak community, well, you can stop wondering. The company directly refers to jailbreakers on its new iOS 5.1 security content page.

As most of you know, Apple patched the exploits used in both the Corona and Absinthe jailbreak tools in the software update. And apparently, it’s aware of exactly who is responsible for creating them…

Apple credits the “2012 iOS Jailbreak Dream Team” with finding a kernel exploit that is patched in iOS 5.1. Here’s a full breakdown of the bug:

“Available for: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iPad, iPad 2

Impact: a malicious program could bypass sandbox restrictions

Description: A logic issue existed in the handling of debug system calls. This may allow a malicious program to gain code  execution in other programs with the same user privilages.

CVE-ID

CVE-2012-0643 : 2012 iOS Jailbreak Dream Team”

In a rare Q&A with the Evening Standard‘s Mark Prigg from the firm’s headquarters, Apple’s design guru talks about Apple’s design process and of course the competition.

When asked what made design different at Apple, Ive responded:

A: We struggle with the right words to describe the design process at Apple, but it is very much about designing and prototyping and making. When you separate those, I think the final result suffers. If something is going to be better, it is new, and if it’s new you are confronting problems and challenges you don’t have references for. To solve and address those requires a remarkable focus. There’s a sense of being inquisitive and optimistic, and you don’t see those in combination very often.

On the genesis of new products:

According to a post over on melablog.it, Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently responded to a customer email regarding Italian language support in Siri. Apple’s website already lists Italian, alongside Chinese, Korean, and Spanish as languages to be supported sometime in 2012, but Tim’s email confirms the feature is still on track for release this year. It also confirms Tim will be keeping up the tradition of answering customer emails. The customer asked Cook why Italy wasn’t a focus at the launch of products, pointing to Siri and the fact Italy isn’t typically included in the list of initial launch countries:

Michele,

I love Italy.

We will support Italian in SIRI this year.

Tim

Apple has increased the 20 MB app download limit to 50 MB when connected to a cellular network. This comes as a surprise, as it was not announced during today’s event alongside the new iPad.

Previously, when connected to a 3G network, if you attempted to download an app the was over 20 MB, a popup would appear instructing you to connect to a Wi-Fi network in order to download. Now, that warning only appears when the app is over 50 MB — which is a hugeapp. Or it used to be. Soon we’ll be seeing before Retina display iPad graphics included in universal apps, which could easily make even rather modest apps reach 50 – 60 MB.

Since the new iPad will be available with 4G LTE connectivity, the size increase makes perfect sense — for LTE. Including 3G with the size increase is the cherry on top. Let’s just hope it’s enough.

Source: AppAdvice

Wow, that was fast. Hit this link!

UPDATE: Aw, snap! Although the page on this link advertises the March 7 Apple Special Event, the clip streamed is from the previous event. Plus, this page is not yet linked to on the Apple Events section of Apple’s web site. Either these things take time to propagate or someone is having their last day at Apple, Inc.