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.

Update: We've gotten our first hands-on with the iPad 2 and, boy oh boy, it's fast!

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.

A legacy from the Flip side

Last week's Switched On discussed some of the challenges the Flip camcorder faced trying to grow in the marketplace, an effort abruptly scuttled by an indifferent Cisco. But while Kodak, Sony and others are now poised to fill the Flip void, no competitor exactly matched Flip's combination of simplicity and sharing. With point and shoot cameras, camcorders, traditional MP3 players and standalone GPS units in decline, the jury remains out on how long portable electronics can fight the smartphone, but Flip's success taught the industry some valuable lessons that may have relevance going forward.

Smooth sharing. Even before the Flip was the Flip, Pure Digital would host video on its own Web service, transcoding it on the fly. This was in the days before widespread Flash video, so the files would end up formatted for Windows Media or QuickTime. With the rise of YouTube and other social networks, video sharing is second-nature now and videos are often targeted at the world at large as opposed to just friends and family, but Flip led the way in tying sharing behavior to a traditional consumer electronics device.

Grandparents and growth. We've seen several technology products and services over the years that, by design or default, have nestled into the market of the tech-disenfranchised but failed to resonate with the mass market. Examples include WebTV, the Ceiva digital photo frame, the Presto Internet printer, and the Jitterbug cell phone. But the Flip, despite requiring a PC, brought nearly everyone into its wide net, appealing to grandparents, moms and anyone who wanted a fun, easy camcorder. It was somewhat less popular with younger tech enthusiasts more comfortable with shooting video with their digital cameras or cell phones, but this didn't stop the segment's rapid growth.

The Flip tried to make the case for "everyday video," something between the ephemeral food pictures that litter Twitter and life's major milestones.

Subcategory carveouts. The most enduring legacy of the Flip was its ability to enter a mature category and legitimize a different use case. Whereas the iPod clearly sought to be a Walkman-slayer, the Flip tried to make its case for "everyday video" -- something between the ephemeral food pictures that litter Twitter and the major milestones of weddings, graduations and other major life events -- in other words, the use case of the point-and-shoot camera. Indeed, coming full circle, General Imaging eventually partnered with designer John Wu to launch a digital camera with integrated flash memory and a USB connector -- the Flip camcorder of cameras.

But the subcategory carveout -- often facilitated by software and Web services -- has become the key play of many hardware startups with varying levels of success. Peek founder Amol Sarva invoked the Flip often when he talked about how he sought to create a focused wireless messaging product targeted at busy moms, but he eventually found that the product was embraced by businesses looking for an inexpensive messaging platform for field workers, network administrators and the like -- more of a modern-day incarnation of the original BlackBerry.

Avaak, a company that produces a low-powered home surveillance system, has averted the industry's main security message and focused more on being able to check in for shorter periods of time for what it calls a "personal video network." And PogoPlug, calling its system a "personal cloud," broke with the expensive and complex NAS category focused on backups to create a small adapter that allows easy Internet sharing and remote access for hard drives.

And far higher up the food chain, even Apple has played the card with the iPad -- rewriting the usage case for the sleepy "tablet PC" category of yore by optimizing for a different set of tasks and usage scenarios -- and leading many to debate whether it and its Android-based competitors are even PCs to begin with.

The Flip is history, but the way it shook up and ultimately became the focal point for a mature category is part of what's driving a revolution in consumer electronics. It was a milestone in a future that increasingly demands a combination of thoughtfully designed hardware, elegant software, and powerful yet approachable Internet services.