Everyone is getting super excited about the third generation iPad. We might not be able to call it the iPad 3, but there is little doubting that this is fast becoming the most anticipated iPad release to date. With that huge Retina Display forming the centerpiece of what is sure to be a popular device, Apple has already seen unprecedented demand for the tablet.
If you've been hankering after some new iPad benchmarks, then today is your lucky day after one of the tablets found its way into the hands of someone who just had to do the right thing - run some benchmarks on it.
Apple iPad fans are currently sitting in that uncomfortable period which inevitably comes in the aftermath of the company teasing us with the details and specifications of the new device, then making us wait a whole nine days before we can get our hands on it. As is usually the case, millions of people around the world tuned in to the media event last Wednesday to get a glimpse of what Apple were bringing to the market with the new iPad, and judging by the social chatter as well as the fact that the pre-order system continually crashed, it seems that the reaction is overwhelmingly positive.
Despite arriving in a blaze of glory back in October, it's fair to say the Siri voice-recognition software is not what you'd consider to be the finished article.
Every time Apple drops a new product - particularly when it's a and iPhone or iPad - the inevitable pilgrimage towards those iconic Stores ensues, with consumers willing to withstand lengthy queues in all weathers to get their hands on the Cupertino's next big thing.
When we think and talk about Apple and their products, we generally focus on two key aspects, form and function, both of which make devices like the iPhone, iPod and iPad stand out in the marketplace above all competition. The iPod portable music player revolutionized the way we think about and listen to music. The iPhone was one of the first smartphones to fuse together advanced features with an almost flawless design and the iPad brought about what Apple is calling the "Post-PC" era, and looks set to go from strength to strength.
Although I am relatively still youthful and full of vitality and zest, I am old enough to remember the good old days of yester-year when technology was nowhere near as advanced or feature packed as it is now, but we were still blown away by being able to play block based games on the latest Motorola flip phone or set polyphonic ringtones on our Nokia. I will always remember bounding through the school gates on a Monday morning with my Nokia 3310 in hand, excited about showing classmates the 'Snake' game which came built in with it, feeling a sense of pride that I was one of the few to have a mobile telephone at school.
Some of the most useful applications on the Mac and iOS devices are ones that seem to be simplistic in form, but ultimately end up offering a service or solution to users which can be used time and time again. A lot of people purchase or download an application which offers a one time solution to a problem and then delete it from their machine or device, but the apps which offer a consistent feature set are generally the ones that are used repetitively.
With the public release of the the new iPad drawing ever closer, the gadget and Apple loving population are rightly becoming more excited as the days countdown until they can get their hands on the brand new tablet. Email inboxes around the globe are also starting to receive notifications that Apple have already sent their new shiny iPad out for shipping, prompting speculation that in some case it may even arrive before the March 16th official release date. I received my email this morning saying my two new iPads had been shipped, so fingers crossed that they get here promptly.
Ever since that media event on Wednesday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, consumers, bloggers, analysts - in fact everybody in and around the greater gadget-sphere has been talking about Apple's "new iPad" with scarcely any relent.
