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Thinner, lighter, faster
How much thinner is the new iPad? 33% thinner. The iPad has gone from 13.4 mm to just 8.8 mm. The iPad  2 is now even skinnier than the iPhone 4 which is 9.3 mm thick. Also up to 15 percent lighter claims Apple. This should come as a relief to those who felt the original iPad was too heavy. With the a new dual core processor it is twice as fast as the old one and a nine fold increase in graphic performance; pretty crazy for one generation of improvement.

Cameras

The new iPad comes into line by getting front and rear facing cameras. The front camera is a VGA camera that can be used for face time chats with other iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Mac users. There is also a photo booth app that allows you to take photos of yourself using the front camera. The rear camera can shoot 720p HD videos. The new iPad will come with the newest version of Apple’s mobile operating system iOS 4.3. This update enables better performance while using the Safari Internet browser, iTunes home sharing, Airplay improvements. The iPad 2 also has a gyroscope and will be available in black or white.

The new magnetic Smart Cover, which comes in a great variety of colours, is perhaps the coolest part, if only because it’s so unique (not to mention, totally unexpected.) Thanks to the crazy quick-snap system, it seems just about impossible to pop on incorrectly. All-in-all, putting it on and taking it off takes milliseconds.

With much improved hardware yet the same prices as the last generation, iPad  2 definitely looks like a worthy upgrade over the original iPad. Now we just have to decide which color iPad  2 to buy.