Live Blogging the iPad 2 Announcement

Time for another video.

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief designer is speaking onscreen about the iPad2’s design. But basically it’s just a recap of what we’ve seen today.

Here’s a question, though: Why doesn’t Mr. Ive ever show up at events? Maybe it enhances his mystery.

There is now an image onscreen of two street signs: “Technology” crossed with “Liberal Arts,” an image Apple has shown at other events. Mr. Jobs is saying that the competition is thinking of tablets as the next PCs — worrying about specs, performance — but Apple, he says, is different. He says Apple not only has the technological firepower, but an innate understanding of what you can do with that technology.

He asks all the people who worked on iPad 2 who are in the room to stand up and receive applause. He’s also thanking people’s families for letting the staff work so hard.

No “one more thing.” That’s it.

Mr. Jobs exits stage right. Lights up. Cue, “A Hard Days Night.”

It’s over.

The musical effects of this app seem uncanny. If you cover the strings of a guitar with one hand and then play with the other, the sound is muted, as you would expect. You can record your musical stylings within the app as well. Garage Band lets you lay down multiple tracks using the virtual instruments on the app.

Mr. Soren is now going to play a demo song, created on the iPad. It sounds pretty good, in a Smashing Pumpkins kind of way.

Songs created can be emailed to friends and sent to your iTunes library.

Garage Band costs $4.99.

Mr. Jobs has returned to stage and is acting astonished at what Garage Band has done, as if he’s never heard it before. “I’m just blown away by this stuff,” he says.

And now he’s recapping the presentation.

Next up is Garage Band for iPad, which has touch instruments, so you can play right on the iPad. Xander Soren, head of music apps is doing a demo.

You can play a piano on the iPad, as well as a whole mess of other instruments. There’s a button for a sustain pedal, and the virtual keys are touch sensitive. Play a key softly, the sound is soft. Play it hard, and the sound changes. The iPad uses its accelerometer to measure the force with which the keys are struck.

If you switch from, say, a grand piano to a Hammond B3 organ, the surrounding features and details change. Sliding your finger up a key introduces vibrato. There’s a virtual drum kit. As you move across a cymbal, say, the sound changes. You can also plug your guitar into the iPad for various effects. And there’s “Smart Instruments,” for people who have never played a guitar before; it mimics the instruments onscreen.

This part of an Apple presentation is kind of like the technical awards at the Academy Awards. Mr. Ubillos is doing a fine job demonstrating iMovie, but the air has left the room.

Meanwhile, the competitive tone here today seems noteworthy. Part of being in a post-PC era, as Mr. Jobs is calling it, is that Apple’s competitors have multiplied, which may account for the aggressiveness. It used to be Apple vs. Microsoft. Then it was Apple vs. Google. Now it’s Apple vs. Everyone, since devices and services could come from anywhere.

Mr. Jobs is back and is recapping iMovie features. It will cost $4.99, available March 11.

Mr. Jobs is back. He says he’ll introduce two more apps.

First is iMovie for iPad. It features a precision editor, multitrack audio recording and the ability to share videos in HD. Randy Ubillos, chief architect of video apps, has come on stage to talk about this. The iMovie app’s home screen is an old-time movie marquee. Cute. He’s now editing a home movie from Hawaii. (What is the travel budget for Apple’s film crews? Oh wait, they have $60 billion in cold, hard cash — never mind.)

Now Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS software, is now on stage. He’s talking about the new operating system, iOS 4.3. He says this will make Safari run faster.

He also says iTunes home sharing will let your iOS device stream iTunes content right to your device..

Now he’s talking about AirPlay, which lets you stream, say, video from your iPad to your TV via Apple TV. There are some minor tweaks to AirPlay. Video from apps or Web sites can be streamed to a TV via Apple TV.

He’s also announcing some other tweaks to the iPad itself. The physical switch on the side of the tablet can now be assigned either to mute or rotation-lock functions. And to accompany the new cameras on the iPad, Apple’s PhotoBooth software is now included.

FaceTime will also be included, naturally.

Monica M. Davey/European Pressphoto Agency Mr. Jobs explains the Smart Cover, a new iPad accessory.

Mr. Jobs is now talking about Smart Covers, which is an extra you can buy with the new iPad. It’s a bendable panel that covers the screen. You fold it to prop the iPad up. The cover is magnetic. It “grasps” the iPad and “auto-aligns” it. Mr. Jobs seems really impressed with this. It comes in polyurethane, “which is used to make space suits!” he says, and leather.

It wakes the iPad when you open it. Puts it to sleep when you close it.

The polyurethane cases are $39. The leather cases are $69. They come in many colors.

And now, accessories.

There is an accessory cable for HDMI out, for connecting the iPad to displays. It supports 1080p. It works with all apps, and supports rotation. The cable has an additional connection to support charging. It costs $39 more.

Models are available in 16, 32, and 64 GB versions, wireless and non-wireless. It ships beginning on March 11 in the United States, and March 25 to 26 to more countries.

“And that,” he says, “is iPad 2.”

The new iPad will be available with data plans from AT&T and Verizon.

It has the same 10-hour battery life, and one month of standby.

It will cost the same, starting at $499.

There’s also a gyroscope, which the iPhone and iPod Touch also have. Mr. Jobs says the iPad 2 will have the same battery life as the first version, but will be 33 percent thinner. It is 13 mm thick to 8.8 mm thick, which is .5 mm thinner than an iPhone4.

It’s lighter too than the original iPad — 1.3 pounds, down from 1.5.

The new iPad is a little rounder. And it comes in two colors. “We’ll be shipping white from day one,” he says, referring to the elusive white iPhone.

Mr. Jobs is back on stage. “What about 2011?” he says. “Is it going to be the year of the copycats?”

Apple is really coming out swinging.

And now it’s time to talk about the iPad 2. It’s an all-new design, he says. “It’s dramatically faster. It has a new chip called A5. It’s dual-core, so we get twice as fast performance on the cpu and nine times better graphics performance.”

Competitors like Motorola have a dual-core processor, so this evens the playing field for Apple.

There are now rear and front cameras.

Mr. Jobs is really going after the competition, losing no opportunity to draw comparisons to Google, Samsung and other companies that show the iPad’s dominance.

He also praises the apps, especially business and medical apps. And now they are showing a video, “2010: The Year of the iPad,” which treats the unveiling of the tablet as a historic moment.

The company has also shipped its 100 millionth iPhone, Mr. Jobs says.

He now is talking about the post-PC era — first iPod, then iPhone, now iPad. “The majority of our revenues come from these post-PC products,” he says. “People laughed at us when we described the iPad as ‘magical’, but it is.”

He makes a dig at competitors being unable to match Apple on tablet pricing. In nine months in 2010, Apple sold 15 million ipads. “That’s more than every Tablet PC ever sold ever,” referring to Microsoft’s effort. “Tablet PC crashed and burned.”

In the list of accomplishments projected on the screen, one of the points is “competitors flummoxed.”

There are 65,000 apps that take “full advantage” of the iPad, he says.

Mr. Jobs says Apple has more credit card accounts with one-click purchasing than anywhere on the Internet, including Amazon. He says the App Store has paid out $2 billion to developers cumulatively. “Lot of people have tried to copy this,” he says. “I think we’re way ahead.”

Mr. Jobs looks about the same as he did the last time he showed up at an Apple event. He says, “We’ve been working on this product for a while and I didn’t want to miss it.” He starts talking about iBooks. He says that 100 million books have been downloaded from the service in less than a year, and that Random House books will now be available in the service. They were a notable holdout when iBooks started. Mr. Jobs now is talking about the three stores: iBooks, iTunes, the App Store — and says there are 200 million accounts with credit card numbers registered.

Steve Jobs has just walked onto the stage.  Standing ovation.

We’re in our seats here at the Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts waiting for the presentation to begin. People are still filing in as music from The Beatles (“Here Comes the Sun”) is playing over the public address system. My colleague Miguel Helft, who is here with me, notes that seated in the front are Timothy D. Cook, Phil Schiller and other Apple executives. But if they are in the stands, who is going to be on stage? There’s been speculation that Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive who is on medical leave, will appear. We’ll just have to wait a few minutes to find out.