Apple iPad 2 new features

Taiwanese component suppliers have reportedly informed a Wall Street analyst that the upcoming product overhaul to Apple’s market leading iPad tablet device will add a high-resolution 7-inch Retina Display, at least one camera and a storage capacity increased to 128GB.

Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities has claimed that sources close to Apple have informed him that the revamped iPad, expected to follow Apple’s annual product cycles and launch during the first quarter of 2011, will be replacing the current 9.7-inch model adding a “micro of mini USB” port in the process.

White, who predicts the new iPad could sell in excess of 45 million units during 2011, made no reference to an updated large screen iPad unlike recent reports from Goldman Sachs who declared that Apple was preparing two variably sized iPads for launch next year. White, who made reference to the inclusion of a camera on the next-generation Apple tablet failed to mention if the iPad 2 will feature the fruity tech company’s FaceTime video calling technologies as suggested by a spate of recent rumours.

Whilst the addition of increased storage, camera, USB port and Apple’s stunning Retina display would appease many of the company’s tablet users, the potential loss of the device’s 9.7-inch screen would disappoint many and leave the iPad 2 lined up to compete directly against the likes of the recently announced Samsung GalaxyTab, due for launch on November 1st.

iPad 2 patent shows possible future features

Detailed schematics that potentially show features of the next version of the iPad have been uncovered in China by Patently Apple, a website that tracks Apple patent applications.

The new designs, which are unconfirmed at present, describe two supposedly new features; the first is the addition of a second dock connector on the side of the iPad to allow for landscape as well as portrait docking, while the second illustrates a feature the site is calling a “smart bezel”.

According to the site, it first came across the term “smart bezel” in February 2010 in a separate Apple patent for a future iPad.

“The feature, whatever it is, is found in three distinct graphics to impress upon us that it is a distinct feature consistently found in the left bottom corner of the iPad”, the site reports.

The patent could be connected to another that was awarded to Apple earlier in the year by the US Patent Office. It talks about a new technology that remembers who you are simply from the way you hold the device.

Once the unit recognises who is holding it, buttons can be moved and settings personalised to reflect the way the person using the handheld product likes to have things set up.

While another patent, also held by Apple, hints at one that features disappearing buttons, suggesting that a smart bezel could be used for bookmarks or flicking through pages.

Whatever it is, it’s a distinct move away from the one button design current found in the iPad and the company’s iPhone and iPod models.