iPad 2 is Official- Coming in Just a Little Over a Week

This morning's Apple press conference was hosted, despite a leave of absence, by Steve Jobs- and there was a good reason. The iPad 2 will be launching at retail in the US on March 11th, just 10 days from now- quite a bombshell as we had been hearing end of April at the earliest.

But there was a lot more than release dates announced-

Jobs announced a laundry list of new features and redesigns that make the successor to the most popular tablet of all time all that much better (and more irresistible):

• 33% thinner - this may not sound like much but head over to Apple.com and feast your eyes. The iPad's heft affected it's use as an ereader and was always a drawback, regardless how minor, but that's well over now.
• HDMI output with a $39.99 cable - that's not all that great considering HDMI cables are relatively cheap if you know where to look, but it is optional.
• 9 times faster in the GPU department - games are going to really be something special.
• The processor is a dual core A5 that has identical power drain as the A4. Awesome.
• Gyroscope - they're soooo hot right now.
• Dual cameras - the front one is for Facetime (obviously) and the rear is (also obviously) for photos and video recording (in HD)

There was also a nice little surprise in the pricing- it's going to be the same as it is already. That means $499 all the way up to $829- very nice.

With a March 11th release date Apple is no doubt taking quite a few by surprise, not the least of which is Nintendo whose 3DS launches only a short two weeks later on the 27th. But that's nothing next to what's about to happen in the European theatre- they're both dropping into retail at almost the same time. Decisions, decisions...