The iPad2 -- BYTE Mobile Radio Weighs In

I tried to wait, but I couldn't. Today, while tweeting alongside my colleague Fritz Nelson's live blog on the Apple iPad2 announcement, I knew it was time to unveil something of our own.

I'm talking about BYTE Mobile Radio, a regular podcast I'm hosting with IT expert Craig Johnston. It'll officially launch with BYTE this spring. But today, we decided to just do it. We grabbed Fritz and asked him to join in a BMR discussion about the newly announced Apple iPad2. In a kind of post-game analysis, we're talking about what Apple announced and how it'll fare in the tablet wars. Overhyped upgrade or a significant improvement? We're talking it out.

The new tablet, scheduled to ship March 11, was unveiled today by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center. There are lots of improvements. The new device is a third thinner than the original iPad, weighs slightly less and, says Jobs, is twice as fast. That's due to its new A5 dual-core processor, which also lends speed for applications like live video chatting via Facetime. Available in both black and white -- that announcement actually got applause -- the new iPad will be priced the same as the original and will be the first Apple device to run the latest iOS 4.3.

But where are the enterprise features? There's not even a USB connection for hardwiring. Are iPad fans going to break down the door trying to sneak these devices in? Or is the iPad2 just an also-ran in what Jobs wryly called "the year of the copycat"? Apple started it. Who's going to finish it?

Apple, for the first time, faces real tablet competition this year from HP, Samsung, and RIM, among others. How does the new iPad compare for professionals? At the announcement, Jobs insisted that the device is for work, not just a toy. But the iPad2 doesn't talk the enterprise walk.

So we're talking about it. Click here to listen to a preview edition of BYTE Mobile Radio, weeks before BYTE.com even launches, to find out what Fritz Nelson, Gina Smith, and Craig Johnston have to say about it. Comments welcome.

For the upcoming BYTE.com, I'm Gina Smith.