Apple today announced the new iPad, a slimmed down version of its big brother. However it seems to have a lot in common with the iPhone, for example the processor is the Apple A5 dual-core which is the same chip that was in the iPhone 4S, it will also have the tiny lightning dock connector introduced with the iPhone 5 and there will be versions that allow you to connect to cellular 4g data connections.
Obviously it will have the IOS operating system that comes on all iPhones and iPads. The screen will be a healthy 7.9 inches, but will not be the cool retina screen that it big brother comes with, its maximum resolution will be 1024 x 768, which will help the developers as this will mean their apps will run and display as they would have done on the iPad 2, which had the same screen resolution.
It will come in corporate black, but also Apple cool white, with 16gb, 32gb and 64gb versions. It has WIFI and a 5mp front and rear camera that will shoot HD video, all in a tiny package that is only 7.2mm thick and weighs 315 grams.
Prices start in the UK at £269 and the US at $329, with shipping dates before Xmas, what a surprise. It will be still more expensive than Amazons Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7 from Google, likely to be the direct competition.
Smaller than the iPad, larger than iPhone but not much newer, or cooler, I still think the Surface is purdie.