Fourth Generation iPad Strikes With Lightning And Then Some

The Internet is buzzing with Apple activity today, with just about everything Apple trending on Twitter. At the California Theatre in San Jose, CA, Tim Cook and his team announced a plethora of brand new products including the much anticipated iPad mini, that will leave a good number of us in a heap of credit card debt. The iPad 3 was "resolutionary" with its Retina display, but Apple wasn't satisfied with that just yet. They announced a number of upgrades that will be going into the new Big Daddy of iPads now dubbed the iPad 4, which is the 4th generation iPad Apple has released.

Getting rid of the old 30-pin connector, Apple is equipping the updated iPad 4 with the new Lightning connector that we first saw debut with the iPhone 5. Some people have been complaining about the responsiveness of their iPad and how the A5X processor just wasn't enough. If you're one of those people, there is good news coming. Apple's brand new A6X processor will give deliver twice as much CPU and graphics performance than its predecessor. Despite the huge boost in power, Apple claims to have maintained its amazing 10 hour battery life. To sweeten the deal, Apple has finally upgraded the front facing camera to the iSight camera, which is capable of 720p HD quality video chats. As for the back camera, it has not changed, but you shouldn't even be using it anyways... 

This new iPad was more of a "S" upgrade, which involved mainly updates to the internal specs. The 4th-generation iPad will be available in black and white with the same size configurations as the older iPad models, starting at $499 for the 16GB WiFi model and $629 for the 16GB cellular model. The new iPad is also compatible with international LTE carriers now as well. 

Get your credit cards ready on the 26th to preorder and expect the WiFi models to ship beginning November 2nd and the cellular models two weeks after. 

Apple Releases The New iPad With Retina Display, 4G LTE, A5X Chip

Apple has announced the third generation iPad today and simply named it iPad. The new iPad is faster, better and has the same good looks as its predecessor. One of the biggest and most anticipated upgrades that Apple has implemented is a 9.7-inch IPS retina display featuring 44% greater eye-popping saturated colors and a mind blowing 2048x1536 resolution at 264ppi. That's one million more pixels than your full 1080p HDTV. That's insanely sharp! The iPad 2's 1024x768 resolution at 132ppi looks pixelated up close by comparison. In order to power the new iPad's beautiful retina display, Apple's new dual-core A5X chip has a built-in quad-core GPU for better graphics and faster, more responsive user experience.

Other notable new features and improvements the new iPad sports is a 5-megapixel back facing camera capable of shooting full 1080p HD videos with a backside-illuminated sensor and a 5-element glass lens with an infrared filter. The new iPad's back facing camera is as good as the one found on the iPhone 4S minus a few megalpixels and has been given the iSight name. On the front, the iPad's FaceTime front facing camera hasn't been improved and is still of VGA quality. 

4G LTE is now available to serve you with fast internet speeds of up to 42Mbp on DC-HSDPA and up to 21.1Mbps with HSPA+ networks on the new iPad 4G LTE model available on AT&T and Verizon. Despite the upgrades in hardware, the new iPad still boasts incredible 10 hours battery life as past generations did.

Apple's third generation iPad still looks the same as the iPad 2, but it's 0.03 of an inch thicker at 0.37 inch (9.4mm). As a result, we'll be seeing new cases come out in order to fit the new iPad. iPad 2 sleeves, skins and screen protectors should still be compatible with the new iPad.

The new iPad comes in the same old familiar storage capacities, black and white colors and even the price remains unchanged starting at $499 for the WiFi only version and starting at $629 for the 4G LTE version. The new iPad will officially launch on March 16, and you can pre-orders yours starting today.