The iPad 2!

Apple has just made its second-generation iPad official! It features a 1GHz dual-core A5 chip and,finally, cameras, both on the front and rear. The new CPU is said to be up to twice as fast, with graphics performance up to nine times better than on the original iPad, while power requirements have been kept the same. Battery life is, consequently, unaltered, with Apple promising 10 hours. Pricing, too, has been left unchanged, starting at $499 for a 16GB WiFi-only iPad 2 and stretching up to $829 for a WiFi + 3G SKU with 64GB of storage. The new tablet will come with an HDMI output capable of 1080p -- which will set you back $39 for the requisite dongle, called an Apple Digital AV Adapter -- but there will sadly be no rumblings of Thunderbolt connectivity here. What you will get is an enlarged speaker grille on the back, as expected, and the same 1024 x 768 resolution and IPS LCD screen technology as on the original iPad.

iPad 2 press shots

720p video recording at 30fps will be on tap from the rear-facing camera, which can also do a 5x digital zoom if you're into that kind of thing, whereas the front-facing imager will record at a more modest VGA resolution, also at 30fps.

There's a new cover for the device, which is best defined by Steve Jobs himself: "We designed the case right alongside the product. It's not a case -- it's a cover." Basically, it's a magnetic flap that protects the front and automatically wakes and puts the device to sleep according to whether it's open or closed. Guess we know what that proximity sensor was about now. These Smart Covers will cost $39 in plastic or $69 if you opt for leather.

The iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner than its predecessor, at a mind-melting 8.8mm, and a little lighter at just over 600g, while paintjob options have been expanded: you'll get a choice between white and black. It'll be available on both AT&T and Verizon, and all variants start shipping on March 11th. Apple Retail Stores will start sales at the unusual hour of 5PM, which will probably make online pre-orders the fastest way to get yours.

Apple iPad 2

In terms of new software, Apple's launching iOS 4.3 alongside the new iPad and bringing with it much improved Safari performance as well as FaceTime, Photo Booth, iMovie and GarageBand (the latter two costing $4.99 a piece) apps specifically for the newly camera-enriched iPad. Personal Hotspot capabilities are also arriving in the latest version of the OS, but they'll be exclusive to the iPhone 4, so you won't be able to share your 3G iPad's connection. The minimum compatible version of iTunes for the new iPad 2 will be the freshly released 10.2.

iPad 2 FaceTime and Photo Booth apps

You'll find Apple's official PR and some slick promo videos below, or you can keep your mouse clicking and check out our first hands-on with the iPad 2.

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Another Beta from Mozilla

Mozilla has begun to wind down work on the next generation of its Firefox browser. In today's release of Firefox 4 beta 12, there are few improvements that will be instantly noticed by most users. Available for Windows, Mac, andLinux, what has changed are under-the-hood improvements to how Firefox 4 handles Flash and more stable overall performance.

One visual change has been to move hover-over links to the bottom of the window, rather than place them in the location bar as was done in the previous beta. Along with the changes to Flash handling and stability, Mozilla said in its release notes for Firefox 4 beta 12 that the browser now has better integration of add-ons with hardware acceleration support.

The company hopes that this beta will be the last, according to an updated roadmap. The release of the twelfth beta indicates that all the hard-blocker bugs, the highest-priority problems with the in-development browser, have been fixed. Barring major problems with the remaining bugs, users can expect a release candidate soon.

Intel's Thunderbolt: What you need to know

Intel's long-awaited Light Peak technology, now known formally as Thunderbolt, is finally available on its first consumer device, and the company today unveiled more details about when we'll be seeing it in consumer PCs and gadgets.

First unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum back in 2009, the data transfer tech promises to replace a handful of ports with one that can do more things, and do them faster.

Its first inclusion in a computer is in Apple's MacBook Pro line, which refreshed earlier todaywith Thunderbolt ports across the line . Intel followed up a few hours later withˇa press conference about the technology, as well as its plans to bring it to computers and devices over the next year or so.

To help readers better understand what the technology is and why it matters, Here is are some frequently asked questions.

What is Thunderbolt?
Thunderbolt is Intel's new input/output technology that promises to bring transfer speeds that exceed what is currently available with USB 3.0, as well as extending that speed across several devices at once. In terms of where you'll see it, Thunderbolt will appear as a new port on laptops and PCs, as well as on devices that support it.

Intel Unveils Thunderbolt

The technology itself makes use of existing DisplayPort and PCI-Express data protocols to open up what you can do with a single port into multiple uses and at high speeds. This includes "daisy chaining" up to seven Thunderbolt-equipped devices together, while retaining full speed across all of them at once.

How fast is it?
Thunderbolt currently runs with a top speed of 10Gbps. Since there are two wire pairs, and the system is bidirectional, a single cable can have up to 40Gbps coursing through it at its maximum theoretical capacity (20Gbps upstream and 20Gbps downstream). Intel says that those speeds will one day top 100Gbps in data throughput when it moves from a copper wire to optical fiber. In the interim, copper wire has both speed and cable length limits, keeping cable length at 3 meters or less. The data transfer is also bidirectional, meaning it can both transmit and receive data at the same time, and at its top speed.

During Intel's press conference about the technology this morning, the company demonstrated it working on a MacBook Pro, pulling four raw, uncompressed 1080p video streams through a Thunderbolt storage array, and feeding into a Thunderbolt-attached display, all the while topping more than 600MBps in its transfer speeds. An earlier test of just file transferring had gotten it up to 800MBps.

To put this in perspective of what's been available up to this point, that's twice as fast as the theoretical limit of USB 3.0, 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and 12 times faster than FireWire 800.

When can I get it?

The long and the short of it is that you can get Thunderbolt today, so long as you buy Apple's MacBook Pro, which is the first laptop to ship with a Thunderbolt port as a standard port across its entire line.

As far as it arriving on PC laptop and desktop machines, the company today estimated that we wouldn't see it there until early next year given OEM design cycles. In the interim, there will be a slew of Thunderbolt-ready devices like hard drives and displays that will take advantage of the technology arriving in the spring. One of the first will be a LaCie external hard drive called the Little Big Disk that packs multiple solid state drives in a single enclosure that works with Thunderbolt.

Will I be able to add it to my old PC or laptop?
If your old machine is a PC you built, replacing its motherboard with one that will carry Thunderbolt will do the trick. During Intel's press conference today, the company stayed mum on offering it as an expansion to PCs through PCI Express slots, or laptops through ExpressCard technology.

Thunderbolt cables, which look just like Mini-DisplayPort cables.

(Credit: Intel)

Does this replace USB?
Intel is positioning Thunderbolt as an "adjacent" technology, one that will compliment it. That said, USB's ubiquity means it's not going anywhere just yet. Intel has also said it plans to support USB 3.0 in future chipsets alongside Thunderbolt.

How much will it cost?
Intel has stayed mum on cost besides saying that it was competitive with other high performance I/O solutions. As far as its inclusion in the new MacBook Pros, it's been added as a standard feature across the entire line, versus being a paid add-on at the time of configuration.

The same cost principle goes for Thunderbolt's cables too. Because Thunderbolt is not an open specification, that means companies cannot simply make their own through a license, though that could change once we're into the lifespan of the product.