The new iPad is official, with Retina display and A5X CPU

[Boodaddy]

cooper83, I would go with the new iPad. Once you own it you probably will find other uses for it and find the updated specs to be of benefit. If you don't use as much as you hoped it will have a higher resale value. ;-)

[TorontoColin]

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[TorontoColin]

If you’re investing in a new 4G iPad, complete with 9 hours of LTE goodness, get ready to switch to WiFi on a dime if necessary. Due to the 3.1 million pixels packed tightly into the gorgeous Retina display, existing assets such as apps, photos, magazines and web pages are going to be updated to take advantage of the 4x resolution. But that means four times the bandwidth for the same photo.

Hadn't even considered this. I don't think it's actually going to be four times the bandwidth most of the time though, especially with things like web pages.

[Arthur Dent]

Originally Posted by TorontoColin

I don't think it's actually going to be four times the bandwidth most of the time though, especially with things like web pages.

The increase is always going to be exactly zero. I have rarely seen more incorrect statement in an article.
The actual increase in data consumption will be due solely to the higher LTE speeds which will encourage more browsing and downloading, not because of any miraculous increase of the size of the same old web content.
As for the larger size of future high-resolution apps like games, that is a non-issue as well. No high resolution game, even for the current iPad fits into the new cellular download limit of 50MB.

[james99]

If Apple exclusive content is being created with larger file sizes for photos / videos, etc. then one would be using more bandwidth.

The same content is the same size.

[audacity]

No high resolution game, even for the current iPad fits into the new cellular download limit of 50MB.

Of course the higher resolution content/images will increase the size of apps, so while it may not make much of a difference to your cellular plan, you may want to consider the 32GB or 64GB models.

[Arthur Dent]

I'm thinking the same thing, audacity. This year I think it will be the 64GB version for me. It was 32 for v.1 and 16 for v.2.

[NeilN]

Some stats from http://www.cultofmac.com/153076/reti...le-their-size/

App         iPad 2  Retina iPad
Keynote     110MB   327MB
Numbers     104MB   375MB
Pages       89MB    331MB
iMovie      82MB    404MB
iPhoto       N/A    129MB

[Arthur Dent]

NeilN, since all numbers are over 50MB, there will be zero increase in cellular data usage for downloading them - neither the iPad2, nor the iPad retina display version can be downloaded via LTE. More storage might be required down the road, though.

[NeilN]

Yeah, I got that. Just put the numbers up to show the percentage increase in size that Retina apps are going to undergo. And the 50MB limit does *not* apply for content. I just downloaded an 82MB and a 86MB magazine in Zinio over cellular. The app warned me I was downloading a large amount but let me do it.

[jshel101]

How come you didn't add anything for iPhoto in your chart? The size for iPhoto for iPad 2 is 106 MB.

[TorontoColin]

Originally Posted by NeilN

And the 50MB limit does *not* apply for content.

I think that's primarily what they were referring to in the article. Obviously this only applies to content that has been changed to take advantage of the new iPad's higher resolution.

Also, wouldn't any photos taken with the new iPad's higher resolution camera be larger files? Assuming that's the case, I would presume that uploading your photos to iCloud would use more data than before. I don't own an Apple device though, so I could be wrong on how this works.

[Arthur Dent]

Originally Posted by TorontoColin

Also, wouldn't any photos taken with the new iPad's higher resolution camera be larger files? Assuming that's the case, I would presume that uploading your photos to iCloud would use more data than before. I don't own an Apple device though, so I could be wrong on how this works.

If you are talking about Photo Stream, which automatically puts every picture taken on iCloud, that's not an issue, because it is currently restricted to wifi. The larger picture sizes are nothing new, though - the same size are the pictures taken by the iPhone 4S, and in general iPad is very unlikely to be used for picture taking anyway.
I also do not expect increase in the size of downloadable magazines. They are OK as they are now, just need to be displayed in their full glory, where the new iPad comes in.

[NeilN]

Originally Posted by jshel101

How come you didn't add anything for iPhoto in your chart? The size for iPhoto for iPad 2 is 106 MB.

There was never a non-Retina version of iPhoto, at least that's what I believe the article writer thought.. The "iPad 2" column in the chart would be better labelled as "non-Retina".

[Arthur Dent]

My first impression is that browsing is absolutely beautiful, no sign of blurring or pixels on the text. It's incredible how much information in small text from this and other sites are clearly legible. Lower res photos are still the same, though.