MacRumors

When the iPad was first introduced there weren't many iPad-specific apps yet available. As a solution, Apple allowed apps designed for the iPhone's smaller screen to run on the iPad in a form of emulation. The apps could be run as if they were on the iPhone, using only a fraction of the iPad's screen. Alternatively, those apps could also be run in a 2x mode, using a technique called pixel doubling to fill the iPad's screen. However, when in 2x mode, both artwork and text would look blocky and pixelated.

Since the original iPad's launch, both the iPhone and iPod Touch has been upgraded to high resolution Retina displays. While Apple could use the Retina graphics from apps that had been upgraded to work with the iPhone 4 and 4S's 960x640 display (nearly all iPhone apps nowadays), so far, they've chosen not to. Instead, the iPad 1 and 2 continue to just pixel double the 480x320 display from the original iPhone's screen. In fact, there is even a jailbreak app called Retinapad that enables the use of iPhone Retina graphics on the original iPad, filling this gap in functionality.

The new iPad, however, now displays the Retina graphics of apps designed for the iPhone in both 1x and 2x mode, resulting in a significantly improved visual experience, as pointed out by a user on the TouchArcade forums. The user experience issue still exists -- in 2x mode, interface elements are twice as large -- but it looks much better .

I just tested this with NBA Jam, which the iphone version looked like crap on my ipad 1, but looked great through retinapad when I had it jailbroken since it was tricked into loading the iphone 4's retina enable graphic assets. Now, on my brand spankin' new ipad third gen, it looks fantastic, without retinapad, just by enabling the 2X option at the bottom right of the screen.

In this image above, the graphics of the iPhone version of Cut the Rope have been compared side-by-side on an iPad 2 (left) and iPad 3 (right). Note that while there is an iPad-native version of the app available, we used the iPhone version to illustrate the differences. The iPad 3 version uses the iPhone Retina graphics found in Cut the Rope for iPhone, resulting in a much sharper image.

In fact, the iPhone version now looks nearly identical to the iPad native version of the game:

Note that Cut the Rope HD has not yet been updated to support the iPad Retina display, so of course, native Retina iPad apps will look even better on the new iPad. In the meanwhile, iPhone apps running on the new iPad will also see a notable visual improvement, approaching previous iPad native apps.

Apple issued a statement regarding the heat complaints about the new iPad. As reported by The Loop:

“The new iPad delivers a stunning Retina display, A5X chip, support for 4G LTE plus 10 hours of battery life, all while operating well within our thermal specifications,” Apple representative Trudy Muller, told The Loop. “If customers have any concerns they should contact AppleCare.”

As we previously reported, the complaints about warmth or heat seem to vary from customer to customer and may be dependent on the mix of apps that are being used.

Several readers have noticed the appearance of 'iTunes Producer 2.6' in their OS X Software Update. iTunes Producer is Apple's submission tool for music (and books) to the Apple iTunes Store.

iTunes Producer: This free software application allows you to prepare your music for direct delivery to iTunes. Use it to encode your music in AAC format; enter album, song, and cover art information; and send your prepared files directly to Apple for consideration.

The appearance has generated some confusion amongst users who are unfamiliar with the software, suggesting it may have been inadvertently pushed to unintended users via Apple's OS X Software Update mechanism.

iTunes Producer is also the publishing software for iBooks Author books, so the update may be detecting users who have simply installed iBooks Author as well. When publishing books from iBooks Author, users are required to register for an iTunes Connect account in order to download the iTunes Producer software.

As noted on SlashGear, availability of the new iPad has improved on Apple's online store with shipment estimates down to 1-2 weeks from 2-3 weeks just yesterday.

Reports have indicated that retail stock of the new iPad has been plentiful in many locations. This seems to reflect a better job by Apple in producing enough iPads as the company announced record sales. If you are still looking for an iPad, trying a local retailer may be quicker than ordering online.

At Macworld 2012, we highlighted the newly announced My Book Thunderbolt Duo drive from WDC. Each drive enclosure held two hard drives in a RAID configuration and offered two Thunderbolt ports. The units could then be daisy chained together over Thunderbolt to create a single high performance logical drive.

WDC has since announced shipping and availability of the new drive systems.

The new My Book Thunderbolt Duo provides professionals and Mac® enthusiasts with five primary areas of performance, double-safe data protection and flexibility; ultra-fast data transfer rates for greater work efficiency; a 4 TB/6 TB large-capacity; customized dual-drive storage system with RAID 0, 1 and JBOD options; customer serviceable drives; and dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining multiple My Book Thunderbolt Duo devices or other peripherals.

Pricing for the new enclosures has been set at $599.99 USD MSRP (4 TB) and $699.99 (6 TB) and are available online.

To compare, the Thunderbolt version seems to carry a $200 premium over their My Book Studio Edition II drive system which provides a similar setup (4TB/$399, 6TB/$499), though without Thunderbolt performance and connectivity.

Both in our forums and Apple's Discussions, there have been observations and complaints that the new iPad runs warmer than the previous generation. The phenomenon was noticed in TechCrunch's review of the new iPad where they said:

One other slight downside which I have to assume is related to either the battery or the LTE functionality is that unlike previous iPad models, the new iPad does get noticeably warm in the lower left corner after prolonged use. It’s never hot, just warm. But again, I never noticed this on other models.

To investigate further, Tweakers.net (via Engadget) took thermal images with an infrared camera of both the iPad 2 and new iPad. After running GLBenchmark for 5 minutes, the hottest point was measured.

The hottest point on the new iPad was the lower right corner which measured a temperature of 33.6° C (or 92.5° F). The iPad 2, meanwhile, topped out at 28.3° C (or 82.9° F). The difference between the two was 5° C (or ~10° F).

There seems to be a mix of responses from end users, with some not noticing any extra warmth at all, while others claim it gets uncomfortably hot to handle. It seems that the use of heavy GPU apps such as games may be a factor. The added heat seems not to affect the functionality of the new iPad.

Update: Apple released a statement to The Loop about the heat complaints.

“The new iPad delivers a stunning Retina display, A5X chip, support for 4G LTE plus 10 hours of battery life, all while operating well within our thermal specifications,” Apple representative Trudy Muller, told The Loop. “If customers have any concerns they should contact AppleCare.”

Apple announced today that it has sold 3 million new iPads in less the four days of availability, calling it the "strongest iPad launch yet."

CUPERTINO, California―March 19, 2012―Apple® today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G supports ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada, and fast networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.**

“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday.”

Apple didn't announce first weekend sales numbers for the iPad 2 as they were in extremely short supply, but the company sold more than 300,000 of the original iPad on its first day, and it took 28 days to move the first million iPads.

The iPhone 4S sold 4 million units in its first weekend, with a much lower (to the customer) price point and wider availability. Considering the tremendous success Apple has seen with the iPhone 4S, the launch of the iPad 3 was very strong indeed.

With the 3rd Generation iPad now out in the wild, we are starting to see more benchmarks comparing the new iPad to the iPad 2 and other devices.

Insanely Great Mac provides this nice overview video comparing both graphics and processor benchmarks between the new iPad, iPad 2 and original iPad.

They found that the extra Quad-Core GPU power found in the new iPad seems to primarily allow the new iPad preserve performance on the new Retina Display rather than providing any significant boost in the experience over previous devices. The new iPad, however, is pushing 4-times the number of pixels as the iPad 2, so you do get a distinct visual improvement, but raw framerates seem to be near identical on the tested benchmarks. Benchmarks, of course, are rather artificial measures of performance, and developers may find other differences between the two devices depending on the circumstance.

Meanwhile, LaptopMag pitted the 3rd Generation iPad against the NVIDIA Tegra 3. Apple specifically claimed that the new iPad's A5X chip had 4x the graphics performance as the Tegra 3. They did find, in at least one graphics benchmark, the iPad 3 did exceed the Tegra 3 by a comparable factor:

CPU (Processor) speed, however, was a different story. The Tegra 3's Quad-Core CPU did beat out the new iPad's Dual-Core CPU:

Apple specifically boosted the new iPad's graphics processing unit (GPU) from Dual-Core to Quad-Core in the A5X chip, but kept the same Dual-Core central processing unit (CPU) as the previous generation. The unreleased A6 chip is believed to be Apple's next generation Quad-Core CPU which is still in the pipeline.

DisplayMate has published an extensive "shoot out" between the new iPad, the iPad 2 and iPhone 4. Aside from the much discussed resolution improvements of the 3rd Generation iPad, DisplayMate also confirms that the new screen also has much better color reproduction than the previous generation model.

Apple has taken the very good display on the iPad 2 and dramatically improved two of its major weak points: sharpness and color saturation – they are now state-of-the-art.
...
But there’s more…the new iPad’s picture quality, color accuracy, and gray scale are not only much better than any other Tablet or Smartphone, it’s also much better than most HDTVs, laptops, and monitors. In fact with some minor calibration tweaks the new iPad would qualify as a studio reference monitor.

Besides the color reproduction, they found the new iPad to be slightly less reflective than the iPad 2, but still felt there could be much improvement in this category.

They suggest that with the accuracy and picture quality, the new iPad could find itself used in many new professional level applications.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is reexamining regulations banning the use of digital devices like the iPad or Amazon Kindle during taxi, takeoff and landing of commercial aircraft. Passengers are banned from using electronics while the aircraft is under 10,000 feet, but pilots and crew are allowed to use their iPads during all phases of flight. This is especially important because many airlines are replacing pilot flight bags with iPads to reduce weight and save money.

Nick Bilton, writing for the New York Times:

When I called the F.A.A. last week to pester them about this regulation — citing experts and research that says these devices could not harm a plane — the F.A.A. responded differently than it usually does. Laura J. Brown, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs for the F.A.A., said that the agency has decided to take a “fresh look” at the use of personal electronics on planes.

Good news for some, but there are some peculiar quirks to the FAA's bureaucratic approval process. Under current guidelines, individual tablet models will need to be tested separately -- on each different aircraft model. The iPad, iPad 2 and iPad 3 will be individually tested, each on a separate flight, on an empty plane, for the Boeing 737, 747, 757, etc. Smartphones are not being considered for approval, which will be good news for those hoping to keep the skies a relatively quiet place.

The F.A.A. said it is exploring how to bring together electronics “manufacturers, consumer electronic associations, aircraft and avionics manufacturers, airlines, pilots, flight attendants and passengers” to figure out how to allow greater use of these electronics on planes. That’s a lot of people, organizations and bureaucracy to juggle. Plus the money to do this testing is going to have to come from somewhere.

We are a long ways off from seeing iPads in use during takeoff and landing, but the fact that the FAA is willing to consider changing the regulations is very promising.

AT&T has issued a brief statement indicating that it set a new single-day record for iPad sales and activations, but stopping short of providing any hard numbers.

On Friday, March 16, AT&T set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations, demonstrating robust demand for the new iPad on the nation's largest 4G network, covering nearly 250 million people.

The announcement comes after Apple also said it saw a "record weekend" for the new iPad, which launched on Friday, March 16th.

Neither company has released the exact number of sales or activations.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sharp Corporation is still trying to ramp up production of displays for Apple's new iPad and expects to start shipments "as soon as possible".

The panels are to be used in Apple Inc.'s new iPad, according to people familiar the matter. The first batch of the U.S. company's newest tablet, released Friday, were not equipped with Sharp's LCD panels after the Japanese company faced difficulty in customizing the screens according to Apple's requirements, one of the people said last week

There has been some debate about Apple's suppliers for the new iPad display. The initial batch seems to be supplied solely by Samsung, but both Sharp and LG are reportedly expected to provide displays as well.

Despite a single display supplier, Apple seems to have been able to produce enough inventory of the new iPad to avoid sell-outs despite what Apple described as a "record weekend".

Since the 3rd Generation iPad's launch, response to the new high resolution Retina display has been quite positive. There have been sporadic reports of defective yellow-tinged displays (see above) that have prompted some replacements. The new iPad screen has been described as slightly "warmer" than the iPad 2 screen, but comparison shots show a much larger difference in what are believed to be defective screens.

During today's financial conference call, one analyst asked if Apple would be issuing a press release about last weekend's launch sales numbers for the iPad. Apple refocused the conversation back on their dividend announcement but did reveal that they had a "record weekend" and were "thrilled with it."

Apple launched the new iPad in 10 countries on Friday, March 16th. The iPad saw long lines in some areas, though Apple was able to retain stock in many U.S. locations. Apple has yet to release actual sales numbers for the initial launch. The initial iPad sold 300,000 units in the first day and went on to sell 1 million units by 28 days. The iPad 2 initial sales numbers were never released, though long lines and sales shortages were common in the weeks after its launch.

Apple has issued a press release indicating that it plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

“We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”

“Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

Apple expects to spend $45 billion over three years with the program..

Apple is providing a live streaming of the conference call to discuss its plans beginning at 6:00 a.m. PDT on Monday, March 19, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/call31912. We'll provide ongoing updates to this article as the conference call takes place.

Conference Call Updates

- iPhone. Eventually all handsets will be smartphones. Enormous potential
- Amazing start with iPad. With launch of new iPad, things just getting better. We believe the tablet market will exceed the PC market eventually.
- We are innovated at an incredible pace. App ecosystem, iCloud, Siri.
- Also investing in distribution around the world, and direct enterprise sales force.
- Substantial amounts of cash, both domestically and abroad.
- Used some for R&D, acquisitions, strategic pre-payments, retail, and building out of infrastructure. You will see more of these in the future.
- Still have plenty of cash to run our business.
- Initiate a Dividend and Share repurchase. Thought very carefully about our cash balance.
- Innovation is our most important objective.
- This decision will not close any doors for us.
- Details dividend and share repurchase program as described above.
- Continue to assess and review program regularly.

Peter Oppenheimer

- Apple's cash has increased for all the right reasons and we've been very disciplined with the use of our cash.
- $98 billion in cash in the Dec quarter. ~$64 billion outside the U.S.
- In thinking about our cash
- Want to maintain flexibility to take advantage of investment opportunities
- 1. Current income for our longterm shareholders
- 2. Increase attractiveness to a broader investment base
- 3. Preserve value from employee equity dilution.
- Repurchase of shares to offset issuing of employee equity grants.
- $45 billion in domestic cash in the first three years of the program
- Remain confident about the future of our business.

Q&A

Q: Any growth of dividend expected?
A: In consultation with the board, we will review our dividend payments regularly.

Q: Last quarter you talked about many more things to come, can you reiterate more about the confidence of the product pipeline.
A: We actually do love to announce new products, we just don't do it in conference calls. Growth speaks for itself and I am extremely confident in our future pipeline. Our customers will be incredibly pleased with what's coming out.

Q: Did board discuss how to put to use the international cash?
A: We've got plenty of u.s. cash to invest and pay dividend and initiate stock buyback. Big tax burden to repatriate the international cash and we've expressed that disincentive to Congress.

Q: Methodology on stock splits?
A: We have looked at, and the current information that we have would suggest that there is very little support that it helps the stock. However, we are in a unique position and at a unique point in time and this is something that we continue to look at. And if we reach the decision that its in the best interest of Apple and its shareholders, then we would do it.

Q: Press release on how the new iPad did?
A: Record weekend. We are thrilled with it, but not the time during this call.

Call over.