Seth Weintraub

For those who live outside the US or don’t want to wait in line, but still need to have one ASAP, the iPad 2 on Ebay is now flooded with people who appear ready to sell on March 11th.
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If you are quick and in the US, you get yours on March 11th at 5pm. The Store won’t take our plastic yet no matter how hard we push the buttons. It looks like the lines should start forming any minute now and will be out all day on the 11th for the cameras to see.

Bonus for you cheap bastards, Apple is selling v1 for $100 off.

On March 25th, those in the bolded area below get theirs.
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Those case manufacturers were largely right in what they’ve put out.  Notice the rear speaker and camera (though it looks further from the edge than previously shown).  Oh, and no Thunderbolt:P

For you specs junkies, here’s the spacs page.
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Check them both:

• iPad 2 overview:
• Smartcover

Fun fact: The A5 chip model in the video (339s0100) is actually an A4!

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Might be bigger for iPad than the Mac version…

Touch interface is going to be a gamechanger… For instance, the keyboard, below:

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720P is Airplay. 1080P is this thing.  BTW, it works with iPods and iPhones as well.

I think Apple might have just killed the iPad case manufacturing industry (the same one that leaked all of those iPad mockups!)

Oh leather too?  Might get one just to piss off my lovely veggie friends (just kidding!)

Another (thanks Engadget)look at the hinge below:

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I’d like to take this moment to thank the iPhone repair experts at iFixyouri for that white iPad digitizer.

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Not sure Nvidia (Tegra 2) would agree with that last bit, but we’ve got our reality distortion on!
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Fun fact:

 
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New Belt and Shoes.  How do we notice this stuff?  via Macworld
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We were hoping to find someone streaming the event (and we are still looking) or better yet an Official Apple Stream, but it looks like that isn’t going to be the case.  Therefore, we are going to offer live news/analysis via Twitter @9to5mac and obviously we’ll put up some posts as the news unfolds.

As for Live blogs, we’ll be watching (in this order):

• Engadget
• Macworld
• TheLoop
• CNET

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We’re waiting for some iPad 2 SKUs :D
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For those who can’t wait to get the iPad 2 announcement coverage, here’s the iPad 1 event brought to you by Apple’s YouTube account (they luv Google):

Part 2,3 and 4 (Apple/Google’s choice to split up, not ours!) below:
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After going to[PDF] the Agency Model this week, Random House titles are now appearing on the iBooks Store.  The World’s largest publisher had been a holdout on iBooks but miraculously just two days after changing to the Agency Model for distribution, we are seeing multiple books from Random House in the iBooks Store.  Coincidence?

We have a feeling this might get a mention later on today.
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Silicon Alley Insider says they are hearing some rumors of a social networking app coming from Apple.

We are hearing vague rumors that Apple may launch some sort of “social” mobile app tomorrow at its iPad 2 event. We expect Apple to show off its new iOS 5 software tomorrow, and perhaps this app will be part of that presentation.

The report is riddled with pre-backtracking so it is far from certainty. But, what they might be hearing whispers about is “Places” the social networking idea Apple trademarked recently.

We also detailed clues about MediaStream, a social network-like photo/video/music sharing service with bits we found in iOS 4.3 (which may debut tomorrow as well).  We’ve also found a bit of info on a service called  “Find My Friends” (below)

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Another interesting bit from Lion is the System Preferences can be hidden and turned on in much the same way as you can hide or remove applications in iOS.  Hold the “Show All” button for a second to activate (again, very iOS). Or there is a option in the View menu. The prefs remain Spotlight-able and are just hidden from default view.

Thanks Lucky Lucrețiu
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There are a lot of expectations for iPad 2 hardware out there but ours largely falls in line with AllThingsD:

Aesthetically, the iPad 2 is expected to be slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, with a larger speaker and an improved display designed to deliver a better experience in bright sunlight. It will likely run on a 1.2GHz, dual-core, ARM Cortex-A9 chip and Imagination’s SGX543 GPU architecture–a big improvement over the SGX535 Apple uses today. A Qualcomm multimode chip will allow it to run on both GSM- and CDMA-based networks around the world. And it will have double the RAM–512MB, same as the iPhone 4. Finally, it will feature those front- and back-facing cameras we’ve been hearing about for some time now–one for FaceTime and Photo Booth, the other for POV FaceTime and shooting photos and video.

The star of the show might be iOS 5 preview which will likely showcase new voice navigation features with Siri’s AI, perhaps a new maps application and certainly Cloud/MobileMe/iWork/iLife integration.  And notifications have to be getting updated.

We’re getting pumped.  24 hours to go.
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Italian Apple site Setteb.it claims they have information that Steve Jobs will attend tomorrow’s iPad 2 event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.  They don’t specify if he will just be a spectator of if he’ll be part of the presentation.  They caution however that anything could happen in the next 36 (now 24) hours.

Who will go up on the stage of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco Wednesday, March 2 at 19 (Italian time)? According to information gathered by setteB.IT should be Steve Jobs.

Our expectations are low.  The man is getting some R&R and we’re perfectly happy with a Schiller/Cook/Forstall show (even though the real star will be Mr. 2).

Update: Kara Swisher reports that he’s definitely considering it –which is as wishy washy as you can get.
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The Telegraph writes that Steve Jobs was in the final stages of approval for knighthood until he had the audacity to turn down an offer to speak at Labour’s annual conference.  Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in retaliation, yanked him from the process.  This according to an outgoing Labour Party MP.

The former MP, who left Parliament at the last election, said: “Apple has been the only major global company to create stunning consumer products because it has always taken design as the key component of everything it has produced.

“No other CEO has consistently shown such a commitment.”

Bill Gates was of course Knighted in 2005 and Blackberry salesperson Bono also gets the ‘Sir’ prefix so clearly they have no idea what they are doing over there.
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