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Live from Apple's iPad 2 event (update: it's over!)

Joshua Topolsky
Editor-in-chief
Updated ·19 min read

We're going to be liveblogging Apple's iPad 2 announcement (and whatever else they have in store). Check back at the times below, and get ready to make history together!

08:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
01:00PM - Eastern
06:00PM - London
07:00PM - Paris
09:00PM - Moscow
11:30PM - Mumbai
03:00AM - Tokyo (March 3rd)
05:00AM - Sydney (March 3rd)

Update: Phew! The event's just finished. Now here's a list of all our posts from this event:

Oh, and here's a list of all our posts from this event:



11:14AM Thanks for reading!


11:14AM Okay, hands-on time!



11:13AM "I'd like the teams that worked on this to stand up -- give them a round of applause. And as always, I'd like to thank everyone's families. They support us and let us do what we need to do. They make it possible for us to work our tails off."


11:13AM "The hardware and software need to intertwine more than they do on a PC. We think we're on the right path with this."


11:12AM "This is worth repeating. It's in Apple's DNA that technology is not enough. It's tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it's the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are pos-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive."




11:11AM Looks like we're wrapping up...


11:11AM Steve is back!


11:11AM "This will define the category for years to come."


11:10AM "This really is a giant leap forward."

















11:08AM Scott Forstall and Michael Tchao also making some quality appearances in this video.










11:06AM Okay Apple, you've convinced us to buy an iPad 2. Many iPad 2s.







11:05AM Florence and the Machine -- Dog Days Are Over provides the soundtrack here. Perfectly matches Jony Ive's silky smooth lauding of this product.



11:05AM Video time.


11:05AM "Now we made a video that I'd love to show you."


11:04AM "We think 2011 is clearly the year of iPad 2..." Big cheers for that.


11:04AM "So iPad 2 -- amazing product. Faster, lighter, thinner. Cameras and gyro. iOS 4.3 and FaceTime. iMovie and GaragrBand. 3G on AT&T and Verizon. Same battery life. Same prices. Black and white. Smart Covers."





11:03AM "So, GarageBand for iPad. This is no toy. You can use this for real work. I cannot tell you how many hours teenagers are going to spend making music with this." Wow, $4.99. That's kind of insane.


11:03AM Steve is out. "I'm blown away with this stuff. You know, playing your own instruments. Or using the Smart Instruments. Anyone can make music now."


11:02AM "We can't wait to hear all the creative things people will do when they get this in their hands."


11:02AM This will be a dream come true for a lot of bands looking to do fast and cheap demos.




11:01AM The editing of multiple tracks looks really intuitive.


11:00AM "This can record up to 8 tracks. Let's put that in perspective -- back when the Beatles did Sgt. Peppers, you could only do four tracks, and the machine was the size of a washing machine."



10:59AM "Once you've laid down one recording, that's the first step to writing a song. That's where the track view comes in."



10:59AM "They make it so you can't play a bad note." Described as training wheels... really more like a taxi cab.



10:58AM Oh, it will strum for you as well.


10:58AM Goodbye need for talent!


10:58AM This is weird. Compatible chords are selected, and you can strum down each line to "play" the guitar.



10:57AM "We've got great guitar amps and effects... but you know there are a lot of people who don't play guitar. So we created Smart Instruments. Here you see an acoustic guitar, but one that anyone can play..."




10:56AM "Another great feature of these drums is that your kids can play them... with headphones on."




10:56AM If you hit the rim of the snare you get rim sounds, you can move from bell outward on the cymbals and the sounds change accordingly.


10:55AM Demo'ing drums now. Ha! It looks like a drum kit from the dummer's view.


10:55AM "Let's bring up 50's scifi... here's something you can do on the iPad that you can't on a real keyboard." Wow, you can slide your note up along the keys, but also tweak vibrato as you slide your finger along individual keys.





10:54AM "Some great sounds here. Let's bring up the classic rock organ. The look changes to match a real B3 organ." Ooh, sounds good too! And drawbars... and speaker rotation. Sounds very good.




10:53AM "Now we're only seeing some of the keys because this is only a window into a much larger piano." You can toggle octaves.



10:53AM There's a toggle for the sustain pedal. "Another thing about a piano is that you can play with dynamics... the sound is different when you tap softly or with force. How do we do that? With the accelerometer."




10:52AM "The first thing you see is an instrument browser. They turn the iPad into a musical instrument that you can play where ever you go. Here's a grand piano... and it's not just a grand piano. Clavinet, some great synths... let's stick with piano."






10:51AM Xander Soren is coming out to demo.



10:50AM "Touch instruments, you can plug in a guitar if you want, but it's got touch instruments. Guitar amps and effects, 8 track recording and mixing, 250+ loops..."



10:50AM "Next up... GarageBand for iPad."


10:50AM "Precision editing, sending HD video around with one tap. A lot of great features in an app we're going to price at just $4.99. Available on March 11th."



10:49AM Steve is back. "It's awesome. 1.3 lbs... it blows my mind, this stuff."



10:49AM "And that is the new version of iMovie on the iPad 2."







10:48AM New sharing options... YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and more.


10:48AM They've got a new "neon" theme -- think Miami Vice.


10:48AM Music automatically switches with themes...






10:46AM Over 50 sound effects come with iMovie. I hope they have the Wilhelm Scream.



10:45AM Editing does look pretty handy on that bigger screen. "We've also done a lot of work in the audio area."




10:44AM Randy is doing some iMovie editing.







10:43AM "This looks really great on the Retina Display of the iPhone and iPod touch too."




10:43AM Ha, homescreen looks like an old theatre.


10:43AM "Today we've got a new version that takes advantage of the iPad 2 and its extra horsepower. I'd like to show it to you."


10:42AM Randy Ubillos is out to demo iMovie for the iPad.



10:42AM "We have a long history of video editing, and iMovie for iPad is in that vein." Precision editor, multitrack audio, new themes...



10:42AM "The first one is iMovie for iPad."


10:42AM Steve is out. "In addition to these two apps being built into iOS 4.3, we have two other new apps. And we like doing apps. It can set the bar. It sets the bar high for developers."







10:41AM "So these are just a few features in iOS 4.3, and this will be out March 11th..."





10:40AM "From day one, you can FaceTime from your iPad 2 to all the iPhone 4 customers out there."


10:40AM Demo'ing the flip feature to get to the back camera. "If Michael had children or something, this might be interesting to look at." Ha!




10:39AM And... a FaceTime call is happening.



10:39AM "Next is FaceTime. It's the best and easiest way to video conference. We're bringing it to the iPad. You can FaceTime between two iPads, between an iPad and an iPhone, or between an iPad and a Mac." Demo time for this.


10:38AM "That's Photo Booth." Hmm.


10:38AM You can manipulate effects by touching. Pretty nifty.



10:37AM "Here I have an iPad 2 which is mirrored up there. Let me launch Photo Booth. The iPad 2 is so powerful that we're looking at 9 live video streams at once." Real time effect demos, like on a desktop. Scott is cycling though them to great hilarity.





10:36AM "Next, the iPad 2 comes with these new cameras. And we've built in some new software -- starting with Photo Booth. Let me give you a demo."


10:36AM 4.3 will add personal hotspot for the iPhone 4.



10:36AM You can now select which mode it's in.


10:35AM "Next, this is something we heard from customers. Some customers have said they want to use the switch on the device to quickly mute the device, others have asked for a switch to change the orientation lock." Ooh, backpedal!



10:35AM "When you tap on the AirPlay icon, it looks around and finds your Apple TV. It's that easy. We're making it even better in iOS 4.3. If you're sharing photos, you can use all of the built in slide show options. And now in 4.3, apps from the Store and even websites can do video or audio."




10:33AM "Along with the iPad 2, we're releasing the next release of iOS 4.3. It starts with significantly increased Safari performance. We took the Nitro JavaScript engine. Next, iTunes home sharing. It lets you get at all of your content directly over WiFi. Next, AirPlay improvements."





10:32AM Scott Forstall is out.


10:32AM "So those are the two accessories. Now let's go back into the iPad 2, because we have a new release of iOS -- iOS 4.3."



10:32AM Poly cases are $39, leather $69


10:31AM Steve is pretty stoked about this cover. "There are magnets in the hinge and the cover. And what would these cases be if they didn't come in colors. 5 poly, 5 leather."









10:31AM "That kind of reminds me of a Pixar short."



10:31AM Hard to describe, but let's say there was a lot of snapping this cover onto iPads.



10:30AM This is cute.


10:30AM "They come in polyurethane or leather. Here's a video."



10:30AM "It's really easy to remove or change the cover."


10:29AM "They grasp it, and auto-align it. I'll show you a little video. It's so cool. You can remove it in a second. It adds minimal weight and thickness. It's got a microfiber cloth that cleans the screen."



10:29AM "It automatically wakes the iPad when you open it, and puts it to sleep when it closes it. Now how is this held on? Do we have screws? No -- we use magnets."









10:28AM It's a flap that covers the front of the device. Interesting.


10:28AM "We designed the case right along side the product. It's not a case -- it's a cover."



10:28AM "We did a case for the original iPad. It worked pretty well, but we went to all the trouble to make this beautiful design, but then covered it up with the case. We thought we could do better than this with the iPad 2."


10:27AM "Something that's going to be even more popular, we call Smart Covers."




10:27AM $39



10:27AM "Here's what it looks like."


10:27AM You can charge while using.


10:26AM Provides output up to 1080p. Works with all apps.


10:26AM "Mirrored video output."


10:26AM "Some other new features. HDMI out. We have a cable that does just that."




10:25AM "26 countries or more on March 25th. And that is iPad 2."



10:25AM "Just a beautiful product... so when are we going to ship it? April, May, June? No. March 11th."




10:25AM "When you add this together with over 65,000 apps... we think 2011 is going to be the year of iPad 2." Big cheers from the crowd.


10:24AM "Now some folks are out there saying they're only a little bit more expensive than us. When you look at this matrix, five of these six are less than $799." Burn Moto.





10:24AM "In addition to preserving the battery life, we've also preserved the price. The same exact prices."


10:23AM "This has been tried and tested... iPads get 10 hours of battery life."



10:23AM "Over a month of standby."



10:23AM "Now here we are adding stuff into the iPad. Cameras, faster CPUs, gyroscope and all this stuff. We've made it way thinner. Something's gotta give. You would think we'd have to give up battery life. But we found a way... the same battery life as the original iPad."





10:22AM "In addition to having both colors, we have models that work with both AT&T and Verizon."







10:22AM Big cheers for that.


10:22AM "It's really thin... and it comes in two colors. And we're shipping white from day one!"



10:21AM "All new design. This is what it looks like."


10:21AM "In addition to thicker (he meant thinner), it's lighter too."


10:21AM "Nothing approaches this."




10:21AM "When you get your hands on one, it feels totally different."


10:21AM "The new iPad 2 is thinner than your iPhone 4."



10:21AM 13.4mm to 8.8mm


10:20AM "Having built in all this stuff, one of the striking things about the iPad 2 is that's dramatically thinner. 33% thinner."


10:20AM 'We've also built in the gyroscope we have in the iPhone and iPod touch."




10:20AM "Second, we've built in some cameras for video. We've got a rear and front facing. More on that in a few minutes."


10:19AM "The first iPad was no slouch... so a lot faster."


10:19AM "We go all out on the graphics performance. Up to 9 times faster. Same low power as A4. This will be the first dual core tablet to ship in volume."




10:19AM Boom. Dual core CPU.



10:19AM "What is iPad 2. What have we learned? It is an all new design. It's a completely new design. And it's dramatically faster. We have a new chip we call A5."




10:18AM "But we haven't been resting on our laurels. Today we're going to introduce iPad 2."


10:18AM "We've gotten off to an exceptional first year. We'd like to build on that. What about 2011? Everyone's got a tablet. Will 2011 be the year of the copycat? If we did nothing, maybe a little bit... probably not."













10:17AM Steve is back.


10:17AM Phil: This is just the beginning.


10:17AM Damn you Apple for making everyone here cry about the iPad.


10:17AM Man this is actually really emotional...



10:16AM iPads are being used to work with Autistic children. This is pretty cool. "We're not curing Autism, but it's helping."










10:15AM Doctors are using the iPad... and spending more time with patients. Also, the iPad has been performing brain surgery.



10:14AM Chicago schools... using the iPad, seeing huge gains.




10:13AM Yes, Apple.


10:13AM Phil: Some people call this a post-PC device.


10:13AM Gist of the video -- the iPad is magical. Sales were through the roof. Stuff is amazing.




10:12AM Phil Schiller: No one predicted this would be as successful as it's been.


10:11AM Hmm... screen just says... Video. Oh there we go.


10:11AM "We made a video about 2010, the year of the iPad..." Video time!


10:11AM "One of the things that's helped us roll this out so fast is our retail stores. They were built for moments like this. We have hundreds of Apple stores now. Without them, we wouldn't have been successful."




10:10AM Ouch -- Honeycomb logo... 100 apps.


10:10AM "There's never been anything like this for photography... 65,000 apps specifically for the iPad."



10:10AM "They're taking advantage of this incredible, magical UI."


10:10AM "Fantastic games, a lot of apps for business and vertical markets. The things people are doing here are amazing."


10:09AM Steve is showing off some of the iPad app selection.



10:09AM "Samsung put one out last year. They said 'our sell-in was quite aggressive, 2m, but our sell out was quite small'." Zing!




10:09AM "Many have said this is the most successful consumer product ever launched. Over 90% market share... our competitors were flummoxed."



10:08AM "We sold 15m iPads... that's more than every tablet PC ever sold."



10:08AM "When we said the iPad was magical, people laughed at us. But it's turned out to be magical. And people questioned whether it was an 'unbelievable' price -- well ask our competitors."



10:07AM "We're in a position where most of our revenue comes from these products."



10:07AM "Today we're here to talk about Apple's third post-PC blockbuster product. That's how we think about these things. We started with the iPod, then we added the iPhone, and then the iPad. Every one has been a blockbuster."



10:06AM "Lastly -- we recently shipped our 100 millionth iPhone."




10:06AM "A lot of people have tried to copy this."


10:05AM "Another milestone... let's look at the App Store. We recently paid out over $2b to devs in total. Devs have earned over $2b from selling their apps on the App Store."



10:05AM "Now Amazon doesn't publish their numbers, but it's likely this is the most accounts with credit cards anywhere on the internet."



10:05AM "That's iBooks. As you know, that's one of our three stores. They all use the same Apple ID to access them. Recently, we just crossed 200m accounts."





10:04AM "We have over 2500 publishers in the iBookstore."


10:04AM "Users have downloaded over 100m books in less than a year. Today we're announcing that Random House is bringing over 17k books."


10:03AM "We've got something great to announce today, but first some updates. First iBooks."


10:03AM "We've been working on this product for awhile, and I didn't want to miss it."



10:03AM Standing ovation for Steve Jobs. People are flipping out. He looks good!


10:02AM Whoa! Steve is out!


10:02AM The lights are going down... we're about to begin!


9:59AM "Ladies and gentlemen, our presentation will begin shortly. Please switch devices to silent mode."


9:58AM As you can by the photo, the chair / table setup is here... just like when Steve showed off the first iPad.


9:58AM Did we mention that they're playing a lot of Beatles right now?



9:56AM For those wondering -- no sign of Steve here, but Jony Ive is in the front row.


9:54AM If you're seeing any trouble with comments, don't panic. It looks like Disqus might be experiencing the Apple effect right now.


9:52AM It's all Beatles all the time here.


9:51AM Joz is also in the house, just being Joz.


9:50AM Packed house today -- we can see Tim Cook and Phil Schiller near the stage right now. Expect to see more of them.


9:46AM Okay, we're in our seats and... the Beatles are on the sound system.


09:31AM We're inside and waiting to sit down! All the usual suspects are here -- and we've heard that Pixar's John Lasseter is somewhere in the mix as well.