Live coverage: Apple to launch the next iPad

 

Technology Live is in San Francisco, where we will provide live coverage of Apple's big event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

It's expected that the company will introduce its next generation iPad. What features will make it past the rumor mill into reality? Will we see a sharper display, or 4G connectivity? What other options will Apple reveal?

Follow us as we deliver updates from the event starting at 1 p.m. ET.

It's always tricky to trawl in Apple rumors before a release, but here are a few things that could be on the new iPad, according to an Associated Press roundup:

- A sharper display. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S both have a "retina" display. A whopping 2048 by 1536 pixel screen resolution would make text easier to read, but won't make much of a difference on video resolution.

-A new name. Apple generally sticks to its numbering system (iPad 2, iPhone 3, iPhone 4, etc.) but the Apple rumor mill thinks the company might break with tradition and call the new iPad the "iPad HD."

- Faster processor. This one just makes logical sense. The iPad 2 is fast, but why not make it faster?

- 4G capability. The iPad 2 (and iPhone 4S, for that matter) still use the 3G cellular network, which is slower but uses much less battery. An upgrade to 4G capabilities would make the iPad much faster (when not on Wi-Fi anyway), but would also drain the battery quicker.

-Siri. This was Apple's big addition to the iPhone 4S. Users haven't all taken to Siri, but it would make sense to add superior voice-control capabilities.

-Wildcard. Who knows! The rumor mills have a way of getting things seriously wrong. Everyone thought the iPhone 4S was going to be the iPhone 5. Whoops!

iPad 3 Rumors Continue as Possible Unveiling Looms

With Apple’s iPad-related event March 7, the rumor mill has kicked into its highest gear.

The popular assumption is that Apple will use the event to unveil its next iPad, which the media has dubbed “iPad 3” but could arrive under another name altogether. Because Apple typically refuses to part with details of its upcoming devices ahead of their unveiling, accurate information on the next iPad’s features is virtually non-existent.

However, the rumor mill has proven more than adept at filling that vacuum with all manner of conjecture, some of it plausible. Among the most pervasive ones: that the next iPad will feature a high-resolution “Retina Display,” backed by a more powerful processor and support for 4G LTE. Some news sources have also suggested the device will boast an improved camera and Siri, Apple’s “digital personal assistant.”

Even Apple’s invitation to the event sparked a flurry of speculation. “We have something you really have to see. And touch,” read that missive, which included an image of a finger touching the calendar app on an iPad screen. The respective positions of hand and hardware led the blog Gizmodo to theorize that the iPad 3 would lack a home button.   

Although the iPad has managed to dominate the consumer tablet market, it faces two threats in 2012. The first comes from Microsoft, which intends to challenge Apple in a big way with Windows 8 on tablets. Reportedly due closer to the end of the year, Windows 8 features an interface optimized for touch input; moreover, a variety of developers and manufacturing partners are committed to creating software and hardware for the ecosystem, which could give Microsoft the momentum that other iPad competitors have lacked.

In addition, Google and its own manufacturing partners show no signs of abating their collective quest to make Android a tablet player, despite the anemic performance of many supposed “iPad killers” that hit the marketplace in 2011.

A bevvy of new, high-powered features could help the iPad beat back these threats. But the exact nature of those features will have to wait a few more days: at this late date, Apple has still confirmed exactly nothing about its plans, aside from that it intends to host an event March 7.

iPad rivals catching up: Can iPad 3 keep them at bay?

Apple should be blowing us away with the iPad 3, but it probably won't.

The latest rumors call for a higher resolution screen on par with the iPhone's Retina Display, a possible upgrade to the iOS software, and possibly a few other improvements. That's certainly enough to draw the Apple faithful and sell a ton of iPads. But with the rapid advances that the competition is making, will it be enough to secure the company's continued dominance in the tablet business?

Sure, the iPad has been a blockbuster franchise for Apple. In the fourth quarter alone, Apple sold 15.4 million units--outstripping what the competition sold for the entire year.

But the iPad 2 doesn't represent the pinnacle of all technology. In fact, the iPad 2's specifications fall short versus some of the other devices in the market. Beyond the specs, companies have worked hard to ensure that it offers features, hardware, or services that set it apart from Apple's monster tablet.

We'll find out on Wednesday if the iPad 3 raises the bar again, or merely tacks on a few incremental advances. For now, here's a breakdown of what some of the competition can offer that's lacking in the iPad:

Amazon Kindle Fire 
At first glance, the Fire's biggest advantage is price. It's hard to argue with a $200 tablet. Sure, the specs aren't the greatest, and it feels sluggish at times, but it's not a bad experience for the price. Another key feature is the access to Amazon Prime and its streaming video service. Apple has iTunes, but it doesn't have its own dedicated service for streaming video for a low flat rate.

The Kindle Fire also boasts its own custom Silk Browser, which is supposed to enable faster Web surfing through a cached architecture. It's debatable whether Silk is that much better.

Asus Transformer Prime 
The Prime uses Nvidia's quad-core processor, which on paper means two more cores than the iPad's dual-core chip (Nvidia would argue there's yet another stealth "ninja" core in there as well).

But the Prime's best feature is its detachable keyboard, which makes it a virtual laptop. One of the best parts is that the keyboard actually powers the tablet, giving it some extra juice on those days when you're away from an outlet.

The tablet also has Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest flavor of Android meant to bridge the gap between the smartphone and tablet user interface. Only time will tell if that's a true advantage.

Asus Padfone 
Okay, the Padfone may be more of a gimmick than anything else, but you have to hand it to Asus for going even bolder with its Transformer concept. The phone part of the Padfone docks into the tablet part, giving you a bigger screen. The tablet itself, like the Transformer Prime, can dock into a keyboard, creating a pseudo-laptop.

It also offers a stylus headset that's connected to the tablet/phone combination via Bluetooth, and can be used to answer phone calls while the phone is docked.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 
Say what you will about the 5-inch Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is a tablet that makes sense. Its main advantage, like its 5-inch brother, is the S-Pen stylus, which works extremely well on the larger surface.

The S-Pen this time around has been improved with a clip, "eraser" on top, and is more comfortable to use.

Like the Transformer Prime, it also offers Android's Ice Cream Sandwich variant.

Also like many other competing tablets, it features a higher quality 2-megapixel front-facing camera, something the iPad 2 lacks. Hopefully, Apple addresses this issue, which has been a barrier to high-quality video chatting.

Research in Motion PlayBook 2.0 
I've given the PlayBook a hard time in the past, but the folks at RIM took me through some of the features of the updated software, and I have to say, they are pretty slick. From the deeper integration of the contact and calendar list with social networks, to the visual cues of the calendar--for instance, bigger numbers mean a busier day--the company has shown it is paying attention to the details.

Its recently launched Mobile Fusion service, which finally brings secure e-mail to its PlayBook, is something that may turn some IT managers' heads. Features like the ability to send a "kill command" to wipe just the work data, and not the personal information, are a step in the right direction for RIM.

It's priced at $200 like the Kindle Fire, but that's more a result of market demand than an early intent to create a more affordable competitor.

Of course, these tablets all have their share of weaknesses as well, but that doesn't take away from the fact these features are ones that iPad users would certainly appreciate, and indicate that gap between Apple and its rivals isn't as wide as most people think.

New Japanese Speech-Jamming Gun

Two Japanese researchers recently introduced a prototype for a device they call a SpeechJammer that can literally “jam” someone’s voice — effectively stopping them from talking. Now they’ve released a video of the device in action.

“We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking,” write Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada in their article on the SpeechJammer (PDF). “However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately disrupt other people when it is their turn … rather than achieve more fruitful discussions.”

The researchers released the video after their paper went viral Thursday, to the authors’ apparent surprise. “Do you know why our project is suddenly becoming hot now?” asked Kurihara, a research scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, in an e-mail exchange with Wired.com. (Kurihara’s partner Tsukada is an assistant professor at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo.)

The design of the SpeechJammer is deceptively simple. It consists of a direction-sensitive microphone and a direction-sensitive speaker, a motherboard, a distance sensor and some relatively straightforward code. The concept is simple, too — it operates on the well-studied principle of delayed auditory feedback. By playing someone’s voice back to them, at a slight delay (around 200 milliseconds), you can jam a person’s speech.

Sonic devices have popped up in pop culture in the past. In sci-fi author J.G. Ballard’s short story “The Sound-Sweep,” published in 1960, a vacuum cleaner called a “sonovac” sweeps up the debris of old sounds. The wily German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen had plans for a “sound swallower,” which would cancel unwanted sounds in the environment using the acoustic principle of destructive interference. And in 1984 German film Decoder, special yellow cassette tapes play “anti-Muzak” that destroys the lulling tones of Muzak, stimulating diners at a fast-food restaurant to throw up en masse and start rioting.

But instead of sci-fi, the Japanese researchers behind the SpeechJammer looked to medical devices used to help people with speech problems. Delayed auditory feedback, or DAF, devices have been used to help stutterers for decades. If a stutterer hears his own voice at a slight delay, stuttering often improves. But if a non-stutterer uses a DAF device designed to help stutterers, he can start stuttering — and the effect is more pronounced if the delay is longer, up to a certain point.

“We utilized DAF to develop a device that can jam remote physically unimpaired people’s speech whether they want it or not,” write the researchers. “[The] device possesses one characteristic that is different from the usual medical DAF device; namely, the microphone and speaker are located distant from the target.”

Being at a distance from the target means it’s possible to aim the device at people who are several feet away — sort of like a TV B-Gone, but for people. Bothered by what someone at a meeting is saying? Point the SpeechJammer at him. Can’t stand your nattering in-laws? Time for the SpeechJammer. In the wrong hands — criminals, for instance, or repressive governments — the device could have potentially sinister applications. For now, it remains a prototype.

AT&T Adds Speed Caps for Heavy Data Users

AT&T Inc. (T) will start slowing the data speeds of customers with unlimited wireless plans once they reach a certain threshold, a sign of the industry trying to cope with soaring traffic and limited network capacity.

Customers will experience slower access speeds if their data usage exceeds 3 gigabytes a month, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier said yesterday on its website. For customers with so-called long term evolution, or LTE, devices, the limit is 5 gigabytes a month, the Dallas-based carrier said.

The move means millions of longtime customers may need to deal with reduced speeds at some point in their billing cycle, a nuisance that AT&T is betting will persuade them to switch to its more expensive plans. AT&T is struggling to accommodate rising data traffic as the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers increases, while trying to extract more revenue out of a user base whose growth is slowing.

“The wonderful thing about smartphones is that they are computers in your hand, but they are like cars from the 50s and 60s, real gas guzzlers,” said Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics in Boston.

To expand their limited spectrum capacity, AT&T and bigger rival Verizon Wireless have sought acquisitions and agreements. AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said in December that the failed acquisition of T-Mobile USA -- a deal AT&T abandoned amid regulatory opposition -- would result in capacity constraints and higher prices.

Tiered Plans

AT&T’s new data caps only apply to existing customers with contracts that include unlimited data, plans that the carrier has stopped offering to new subscribers. The new limits represent a change to a previous AT&T policy of reducing speeds to the 5 percent of unlimited users who used the most data.

Instead of offering unlimited data, AT&T now sells so- called tiered plans that include a certain amount of data at various price points. In January, AT&T raised those plans’ prices by $5 a month and increased the capacity allowances.

AT&T’s tiered data plans cost $30 a month for 3 gigabytes and $50 for 5 gigabytes, and $10 for every gigabyte over those limits. The longtime customers with the old unlimited plans typically pay $30 a month.

To reach 3 gigabytes, every day users would have to stream about an hour of video or 3.5 hours of music, or post photos to Facebook about 300 times, according to AT&T’s data calculator.

Sprint Benefiting

AT&T’s caps leave Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) as the only carrier in the top three to offer an unlimited data plan with no caps or speed limits. Sprint’s unlimited data plan costs $79.99 a month.

“This is part of the reason Sprint has been able to turn its subscriber losses to gains with its offer of unlimited data,” Entner said.

AT&T rose 0.3 percent to $30.74 at 10:32 a.m. New York time. Sprint was little changed at $2.50.

Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 mobile carrier, slows the speeds of 5 percent of users who use the most data. Verizon reduces the speed when the phone is in what the company calls a congested area in order to preserve the quality of the network for other users, said Brenda Raney, a company spokeswoman.

AT&T says it’s still honoring the original unlimited plans and not capping usage, only reducing speeds to customers going over the monthly thresholds.

Windows 8 first look -- and first touch

We just got a chance to play with the Consumer Preview of Windows 8, and so far, it's living up to its promise as a touch-friendly "reimagining" of Windows. Don't believe us? Take a look for yourself. Today, Microsoft is rolling out the first beta for non-developers.


But then I realized that it's not a layer of touch interface -- the Metro screen is the interface. The old-style Windows OS, which you can access anytime by launching certain apps or tapping the "Desktop" tile, is really just a legacy protector. The old Windows environment lets people run older Windows software they may rely on, and grants die-hard Windows nerds the administrative power to do the system tweaking that they are used to.Think of an operating system that is equal parts Windows Phone, iPad and traditional desktop Windows. If your head spins, you're not alone. When I first heard about the concept behind Windows 8 -- a full-blown Windows OS with a layer of touchy-feely Metro tile interface on top -- I had doubts. 

As you can see in the above video, most of the apps and actions you will engage in will take place in the Metro interface, especially if you are running Windows 8 on a tablet. That's where the interface comes alive, and that's what will spark the imagination of developers who work to build fun, new apps in time for the fall launch of actual Windows 8 products.

The challenges are great: Microsoft has to convince the world that the old stretchable-window interface is not where it's at. They also have to develop a tablet experience that is not just a full version of Windows, but can promise the long battery life and responsiveness that Apple delivers in an iPad. That's hard to do. 

As we monitor developments on both of those fronts, however, we can at least rest assured that, at this point, Windows 8 holds the kind of promise of progress not seen in a Windows operating system since the launch of XP. 

Apple expected to unveil new iPad

The tech tea leaves have been voraciously read. Now we're about to find out if all those rumors about the iPad 3 are true.

Apple (AAPL) on Tuesday sent out invitations to a "Special Event'' on March 7. In its first major launch since the death last fall of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the company's expected to unveil the third generation of its hugely popular tablet at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

If the consensus predictions of analysts and bloggers are accurate, the new iPad will have a higher-resolution screen, a better camera, 4G LTE wireless capability, a pumped-up processor and a design similar to but a tad thicker than the iPad 2.

"It's arguably one of the world's worst-kept secrets,'' Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said of the new iPad 3. Wu and his colleagues, along with anyone else with even a passing interest in Apple products, have been scouring the blogosphere, dissecting supply-chain movements and poring over online photographs of alleged components of the new tablet. And many of them expect the third iPad to be a show-stopper.

"It'll likely be another 10-inch screen and still have a home button, but it'll have this higher-resolution display, probably be faster, and have a better camera,'' said Andrew Murphy, a research analyst with Piper Jaffray. "We think the new iPad will be priced the same as the iPad 2, starting at $499. And while on the outside it'll look similar to its predecessor, we think that once you turn it on and use it, it will have a lot of the wow factor that people are looking for.''

Much of that wow will literally be in the eye of the person holding the iPad: It's called Retina Display, and this same double-strength dose of pixels that iPhone users currently enjoy could bring astonishing new clarity to the new iPad's screen. Steve Jobs claimed that Apple's "Retina Display'' screen served up an abundance of pixels that when viewed from 12 inches away constitute the maximum amount of detail that the human retina can perceive, while others dispute that.

Tea-leaf-reading fanboys found plenty of tantalizing hints as they studied Apple's e-mail invitation to the event, which featured a picture of an iPad with what looks like a high-resolution screen and the tag line "We have something you really have to see."

In addition to more screen clarity, the new iPad is widely expected to feature 4G LTE, an updated wireless standard that will allow users to download data much faster than they could on previous models of the Apple tablet. Press reports earlier this month, quoting people familiar with the matter, said Verizon and AT&T would sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on these newest fourth-generation wireless networks.

In the past year, other tablet makers, including Samsung and Amazon, have released tablets far more affordable than the iPad in an attempt to catch up with Apple. But analyst Brian Marshall with ISI Group, who's spending this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona sampling the latest offerings, said the iPad 3 will only help Apple get out further ahead of its rivals.

"I've been looking at all the new tablets out there,'' he said by telephone from Spain Tuesday morning, "and while there are some extremely impressive Android-based devices, I don't think any of them have any real advantages over Apple. Their lead is already solidified. The iPad 3 will simply extend it even more.''

A new and more powerful iPad could expand the burgeoning universe of American adults who regularly use tablets to access their news and entertainment, said news industry analyst Ken Doctor, author of "Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get.''

The new iPad, as well as the overall growth in the use of tablets for reading "is changing the business strategies of publishers, media outlets and other content providers in a huge way,'' he said. "Within two years, the tablet will evolve from simply a popular gadget and become a device for the masses to consume entertainment, news and information.''