Today is one of those days that us geeks geeks who like Apple look forward too. As announced last week, Apple held an press event at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts today. As expected, we were introduced to the latest revision of the iPad. There were a few other announcements in there, so here is what we found out today:

Apple TV: We were introduced to a new Apple TV today. It looks exactly the same as the last revision and is still the size of a hockey puck, but it has a few new features. Firstly, it streams in 720p AND 1080p resolution. Secondly, it is running on a single core A5 chip rather than the A4 processor. Lastly, it has a brand new UI that is much more intuitive than the current revision. It has more of a “iOS-esque” look and feel to it. It still has the $99 price point and is available for pre-order. It will be available with the iPad on March 16th.
The New iPad: Next up is the star of the show, the 3rd generation iPad. A lot of people have been complaining about the simplicity of the name, which to be honest is quite astounding. Anyways, the first new feature of the new iPad is a retina display at 2048 x 1536 resolution. It features the Apple A5X processor which has quad core graphics capabilities. Next up, the back camera of the iPad is now equivalent to the iPhone 4S, except it is 5MP rather than 8MP. The front camera is still VGA, but has improved quality. Another big feature is 4G LTE support. All of the non-WiFi models are 3G ready, but will also support AT&T and Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Unfortunately, due to the different antenna bands, there are separate models for the AT&T and Verizon iPads. All that aside, the only other news left is that it has Voice Dictation (Note: It’s just voice dictation from the keyboard, not full blown Siri). It is slightly thicker at 9.4mm and less than an ounce heavier at 1.4 lbs. The price points and capacities remain the same and are available for pre-order now. It will be available on March 16th.
iOS 5.1: Available today, iOS 5 has released a major updated containing some bug fixes, but also some new features. Firstly, Siri now supports Japanese. Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream (finally). The camera app icon is now always visible on the lock screen. Re-designed camera app for the iPad. There are some AT&T users who are reporting that their 3G indicator changed to 4G after the update, which we all know can’t happen that easily. You can get the update right now for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch for free. More patch notes are included with the update.
After the event was over, Apple also released iTunes 10.6. Those are the three big announcements from today’s event. They did show off some apps that take advantage of the new retina display and quad-core graphics, one of them being Infinity Blade: Dungeons. They also talked extensively about updates to the iWork and iLife suites which are also available today.
All in all, it was a pretty good event and I am personally happy with the news we received. One thing I do have to acknowledge is the response some of the people after the event. I don’t usually link to other blogs, but MG Siegler’s post on Tech Crunch is so true. Speculation about what could come before an event is fine, everyone does it. However, it is getting to a point where people “think” they know everything about what is going to happen and once the event comes, they are disappointed because they didn’t see what they were “knew” they were going to see. A new trend I’m seeing now is people complaining about the name. So, Apple didn’t give the iPad a special name this time around. Does it really matter?
Anyway, enough of my ranting. What are your thoughts on Apple’s announcement today? Will you be pre-ordering an Apple TV and iPad? Please post in the comments below.