OtterBox has ruggedized our lives yet again with the announcement and availability of two tablet protection offerings; the iPad 2 and BlackBerry PlayBook Defender Series Cases.

Both cases are made of a hardshell hi-impact polycarbonate with a one piece silicon jacket that surrounds your tablet for increased shock protection. The PlayBook case has a clear screen protector built-in to the shell which adds protection all around from dust, water drops, you name it. The iPad 2 version does not, but OtterBox is still including a stand-alone screen protector for you to apply for protection. Pricing is $69.95 for the BlackBerry PlayBook version and $89.95 for the iPad 2.

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The announcement a couple days ago of the new Apple iPad 2 did two very important things. First, it allowed Steve Jobs to appear in public, taking the stage despite his medical leave. Second, it laid to rest all the rumored specs about the second-generation tablet by showing off what it really was. Unfortunately for Apple, “what it really was” was lacking.

Chris Taylor of Mashable has a special article up on CNN that points out the things that “Apple hopes you didn’t notice about iPad 2.” The article doesn’t go quite as far as the Conan O’Brien roast last night (seriously, you need to watch that vid), but it does confirm that the iPad 2 isn’t nearly as groundbreaking as Cupertino would lead you to believe.

First, despite selling its “seamless” interface, the iPad 2 still needs you to use that sync cable to sync your music and videos via iTunes. Could they have not made it sync to the cloud a little easier? Second, while there’s a faster A5 processor in the second iPad, it still has the same 256MB of RAM as the original. That’s not exactly a performance boost. Remember that both the Xoom and HP TouchPad have 1GB of RAM each.

Other shortcomings? No improvement in the screen resolution, no mention of megapixels for the rear camera, and mono speakers. I’m not saying that the iPad 2 is a bad product, per se, but it only represents some really tiny baby steps compared to the first one. Bring on the Android army, I say.

The post The Significant Apple iPad 2 Shortcomings appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Every time that Apple announces something new, we are usually fed a sense of scarcity. The iPhone 4, for instance, had people lining up in the wee hours of the night, even several months after its launch. We could soon be facing a similar scenario with the second-gen iPad.

There’s word going around that the new iPad 2 expected to be released tomorrow, will be in short supply, mostly because the supply chain for the super-thin glass screen isn’t exactly keeping up with demand. This comes by way of Bill Shope, an analyst with Goldman Sachs.

Along with predictions of scarcity, Shope also puts in a few choice words about what we can expect from the new tablet when it gets revealed. He’s expecting a front-facing HD cam for FaceTime, faster processor, more RAM, and GSM/CDMA support (but no 4G).

You know, Apple could be feeding out this false sense of scarcity to help ramp up demand. You always want what you can’t get, right? Surely you remember the EyePhone, don’t you?

[via SlashGear]

Photo Credit: AppAdvice

The post Apple iPad 2 Expected to Be in Short Supply (Surprise!) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Despite earlier rumors that the iPad 2 would be offered in two sizes, it now seems much more likely that it’ll be only one size: the current one, only more resolute, thinner, and lighter.

This is in line with the current round of rumors and it is supported by the recent set of photos from 9to5Mac. The new display is still 9.7-inches, but the LCD is over a millimeter thinner and we can expect to see a smaller surrounding frame. It’s hard to tell if the resolution is improved, but we’re hearing that Apple could go as much as 4x the pixel density, offering a tablet-sized Retina display.

Is this enough to fend off the efforts of Honeycomb? What else does Cupertino have in store for us for the second-gen iPad? Seeing how we’re fully expecting a Spring launch, it won’t be long before we find out about that “one more thing.”

[9to5Mac]

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