Are you a musician? Have you ever wanted to be a musician?GarageBand for the iPad gives seasoned musicians and those with rock star dreams an opportunity to create music.
Apple gave GarageBand a substantial update after the release of iOS 5.1 – in preparation for the new iPad. The graphics have been bumped up in quality and the options for creating music have been enhanced by the inclusion of iCloud integration, multiple users over Bluetooth and new instruments.
The premise of GarageBand is just as the name implies – amateur musicians and musician wannabees can play, record and share music they create using instruments on the iPad.
The new iPad includes a tethering feature called Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot which lets you share your iPad's 4G LTE or HSPA+ Internet connection with your laptop or any other device that can connect to a Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot depends on your carrier, however, so while some carriers like Verizon and Rogers offer it, AT&T currently does not. (Insert pitchforks and torches here.) Even when it's offered, however, Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot may not be enabled by default and it's not obvious how to turn it on.
While the new iPad doesn't include full on Siri support, probably for a number of reasons, it does include the speech-to-text Dictation. However, Dictation may not be enabled by default, and if it's not, it's not at all obvious where to go looking for it.
My original iPad and iPad 2 have always been remarkably cool, even when playing graphically intensive games or high definition video, but my new iPad is getting a little warm to the touch.
Did it blow you away and make you think you were finally holding the future in your hands? Was it better than you expected your eyes not believing the quality of the Retina display or LTE speeds? Was it just what you expected, no more, no less? Did it disappoint you in some way? Or was it just simply the worst thing Apple ever spat from their cauldron?
The new iPad has a dual core Apple A5X processor with quad core graphics, compared to a dual core Apple A5 processor with only dual core graphics in the older iPad 2. The new iPad also has twice the RAM as the old iPad 2. However, the new iPad also needs to throw around 4 times as many pixels as the old iPad 2 -- 2048 x 1536 as opposed to 1024 x 768.
This is an oldie but a goodie. Scratch that, greatie! Since your new iPad's keyboard is multitouch and not physical like a laptops, it can change and transform beneath your very fingertips. That means it can also do a bunch of really cool things to speed up your typing, like letting you more rapidly switch from letters to numbers or punctuation and back without hunting and pecking for the ABC and 123 buttons.
Tell me the first thing you did when you got your new iPad was to load up [SpeedTest.net(http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedtest.net-mobile-speed/id300704847?mt=8&at=10l3Vy&ct=d_im) and see just how fast that new, theoretically 72mbps, 4G LTE radio is? Or if you're outside the U.S. and Canada, that new, theoretically 42mbps HSPA+ radio?
Yours truly and Mobile Nations' own Kevin Michaluk, pinch hitting for iMore in Miami during the massive new iPad launch, procured our own glass and aluminum possessions at the local Walmart at the stroke of midnight, and did what any self respecting gadget enthusiasts in our position would do -- we ran over and showed them off and answered questions in front of the Miami Apple Store!
