The iPad 2 doesn’t officially exist. Still, every Apple watcher in the world knows that somewhere in Cupertino, under the kind of security that makes Mi5’s London HQ Thames House look like a nursery school, the iPad 2 is waiting to be unveiled. And while Steve Jobs will keep his lips sealed until January/February time when we expect iPad 2 to make its public debut, there are a few things we know already…
Likely: new materials
The iPad 2 is likely to see a new design for the externals of the iPad with various options being suggested. A recent patent pointed to a possible carbon fiber iPad 2 but Apple also got a stake in a radical new materials company called Liquid Metal which could mean a more unusual shell for iPad 2.
Likely: wireless synching
One of the big asks from almost all iPad owners is wireless synching. We predict that it’ll be one of the big new elements included with iPad 2, particularly with increased WiFi smarts hitting Android with Android Gingerbread and Android Honeycomb.
Likely: Garage Band mobile!
iOS 4.2 adds MIDI support for the current iPad and that suggests that iPad 2 will deliver the long-awaited mobile incarnation of Garage Band. The iPad is already being used by musicians onstage and we suspect Apple would love to see more of that.
Likely: new connector
Design patents for the iPad 2 additional connector suggest it’ll allow the device to dock horizontally as well as vertically. This looks like a certainty.
Rumoured: glove-friendly screen
With this cold-snap, we can’t help but hope for the recent patents that Apple nailed for screens that will work with gloved fingers to come to fruition. Doing that would also make iPad 2 even more appealing in lots of industrial and commercial settings.
Rumoured: USB
There’s a lot of discussion about the potential inclusion of USB on the iPad 2. That would be great but we do wonder whether Steve Jobs would take that step. Consumers would love it but for Apple it might seem like a retrograde step.
Likely: dual cameras
FaceTime has hit the Mac after debuting on the iPhone 4 and spreading to the iPod touch. The next logical step would be the iPad 2 and that means the inclusion of at least one camera for those calls. We’d expect to see a second camera for taking snaps too.
Hit the comments and let us know what you expect from iPad 2 and what you’re hoping for.
Out TBC | £TBC | Apple
