Live Blog: Apple Unveils Hi-Res, Quad-Core, 4G iPad

Posted on by Listify Me

11:23 — No one more thing! Music is back on, lights are up, and folks are heading out the exits. What a ride!

11:23 — That’s it, folks, Tim Cook is walking off stage.

11:22 — “Only apple could deliver this kind of innovation in such a beautiful integrated and easy to use way. it’s what we love to do. it’s what we stand for. and across the year, you’re going to see a lot more of this kind of innovation. we are just getting started.”

11:22 — “It’s the ultimate poster child of the post pc world,” Cook says. “I’d like to thank all those employees of apple and all of those that support apple, for making this possible.”

11:22 — Ad over, very short. Bet we’ll see it on TV soon.

11:21 — It’s showing us photo editing with iLife, a finger flipping pages of an ebook.

11:20 “We have redefined, once again, the category Apple created with the original iPad.” Now we’re checking out a new ad.

11:20 They’re still just referring to it as “The new iPad.”

11:20 — “So many schools can afford to move faster to bring this technology to the classroom.” So the iPad 2 starts at $399 for Wifi, $529 for Wifi and 3G.

11:19 — Along with the new iPad, we are keeping the iPad 2 in the line as well. Starting today, the iPad 2 is getting a price cut: 16 GB for $399. “This is really huge,” Schiller says.

11:19 — Phil Schiller steps back onstage as the audience applauds at the end of the video.

11:18 — “The iPad opened up the world to an entirely new way to experience technology. It’s the ultimate iPad.”

11:17 — Eddie Cue is talking about iLife (Garageband and iPhoto and iMovie) on the iPad in the video.

11:17 — Bob Mansfield is talking about the A5x processor, HD video, and data bands built into the iPad in this video.

11:16 — “This isn’t just the most advanced display you’ve held in your hand, it’s the most advanced display you’ve ever seen.”

11:15 — “Engineering it wasn’t as simple as just jamming in new pixels.” The pixels were elevated onto a different plane and separated from other pixels — that’s how these tiny pixels keep from getting signals crossed, the video explains.

11:14 — We’re going through the new features: A5x, improved camera, new software, Retina display, the highest resolution display ever on a mobile device.

11:14 — “It’s a more personal experience with technology than anyone has ever had.”

11:14 — “It’s just a magical pane of glass, that can become anything you want it to be,” the video says.

11:13 — “We absolutely love this iPad and all the amazing software it can run.” Now we’re checking out a video of the new iPad being used.

11:12 — Now, all of iLife is on the iPad. Schiller is back onstage. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t create on the iPad.”

11:12 — That is iPhoto for iOS. $4.99, available today in the App Store.

11:12 — All of this that is being shown can also be done on the iPhone.

11:12 — You can share this as a link to friends and family, which can be viewed on any web browser.

11:10 — Now we’re looking at a set of photos from a trip to Thailand. We’re adding these to our Journal. In the Thailand journal, you can mark favorite images. You can adjust the arrangement of photos, and favorites show up larger than other images. It’s really easy to move the photos around, just dragging and dropping. You can also add story elements. You can drag in something like a sticky note and add in text. You can also add in a calendar page or a map to pick up the date and location of the photos around them. You can pan the map just how you like. You can also add a weather app image that picks up on the weather for that day — in this case, 84 degrees and partly cloudy.

11:09 — You can slide your finger along a selected effect at the bottom of the screen to adjust the photo.

11:09 — Fifth tool is effects, which pop up in a swatch book style menu (you know, like swatches of paint).

11:08 — “It’s a great set of brushes I can use. It’s all non-destructive, so I can make changes to this any time I like.”

11:08 — If part of an image is dark, you can bring up brushes. You can then use your finger to rub over the image with a lighting brush. They work in a soft way, he goes back and forth a few times on the image, and the face gets a natural looking change to the image.

11:07 — For white balance, there’s a new skin tone white balance. Up pops a loop, an dit live white balances anything within the loop. A greenish cast image gets much warmer thanks to this.

11:07 “It’s really fun and really easy,” he says. “If you just want to adjust a portion of the image, you can do that too.” He adjusts just the sky of an image.

11:06 — Touch the lower lef tof an image, and slide upwards, and up come the shadows, he shows. Wow, that looks easy.

11:06 — When things are too light or too dark, you can adjust the exposure: the shadows highlights brightness and contrast.

11:05 — To make your photos look better, we jump to another album and pick out picture of a sunset. By clicking auto enhance, the image gets brighter and more saturated colors. iPhoto can make an off kilter photo even by straightening the horizon line for you. In two touches, the photo is transformed. You can always compare the orignal to the version you’re working with thanks to a button in the menu bar at the bottom. A dial at the bottom lets you rotate a photo, you can crop a pohto, you can adjust it to standard sizes, including a square.

11:04 — You can flag images, and then just view the photos you flagged. Now we’re looking at a photo of a guy in an orange suit looking at a penguin.

11:03 — You can tap on an image to look at it, or tap and hold to bring up two photos side by side. Or, by double tapping, it will analyze and bring up all the similar photos in a set so you can easily compare them. Swipe down to eliminate photos from your view. Tap to enlarge a photo, swipe to alternate between photos. We’re looking at pictures of a seal on the snow by the way. We’ve pinched to zoom to look at its nose. The image was taken with a Nikon D300S, and you can view all of its megapixels of the image.

11:02 — He launches the app and we see shelves with virtual photo albums. You tap on, and see all the photos you have. That brings up the editing interface. Swipe in from the side to bring up a thumbnail view. You can switch that thumbnail view to either side of the device. Interesting, kind of Windows 8-like there.

11:02 — “With iphoto for ios, we had the opp to reinvent, add multitouch and take it to a whole new level.”

11:01 — Randy Ubillos, chief architect for photo and video applications, is walking onstage to show us how the new iPhoto works.

11:00 — iPhoto lets you use the same photo library on ipad or iphone, gives you great new ways to browse those photos (smart browsing), multi touch editing, professional quality effects, powerful new brushes for applying those effects. You can use multiple devices with photo beaming. You can share photos with friends and tell stories through something called Photo Journals, which use iCloud to share photos.

11:00 — There’s really 3 applications in iLife though, Schiller says. “Today, we’re introducing iPhoto for iPad, and it’s amazing, Schiller says. (Woot, I called it!)

11:00 — iMovie is 4.99 and a free update if you already have it.

10:58 — Now, a sample video of how this works. From High-def Films, it says. It’s a video of a four or five year old, and the video has the feel of a disney trailer. She’s dressed up like a princess and her friends, also dressed up, have joined her. Looks like a birthday party, or a princess party, of some sort. There’s face painting, blowing out of candles, and lots of smiles. The Birthday Princess, the “movie” is called. Very cute.

10:57 — Now iMovie. Now, not only can you create a movie, you can create a movie trailer as well. They brought this to the Mac a while back. On the iPad, you select from different styles and templates and your’e represented with a simple half screen interface to add information. You can fill in the studio name, director, tap out a story board of the piece you’re creating and it helps you figure out the scenes you need to complete it. You can outline and storyboard video, use 1080 p cam to record it, then play it back on the same device.

10:56 — One of the best new things about garageband are the instruments on the retina display, schillers says. I’s 4.99 available today, and is a free update if you’ve purchased it before.

10:56 — Wow, they’re talented. All of my Garageband songs sound like a 3 year old banged them out.

10:55 Now we get a video to check it out. It’s 4 college age-ish looking people around a coffee table jamming on their ipads. One is on drums, one is on guitar, one is on piano.

10:54 — Other apps: iLive applications like Garageband and iMovie. They’re being updated too. GarageBand gets Smart Strings, Note Editor, iCloud and Sharing. Note Editor lets you change your performance after you’ve created it. the best new feature: Jam Session. Up to 4 iOS devices running GarageBand can play together to create a new song over wifi or bluetooth.

10:53 — “When we launched the first ipad, we launched some software applications with it to see how far you could go with creativity software,” Schiller said. That’s iWOrk: Keynote, Pages and Numbers. They’re being updated for the new iPad. 3D charts and animations, new builds and transitions, and all have been updated to take advantage of retina display. They’re $9.99 each, and if you’ve purchased them before, it’s a free update. They’re available today in the App Store.

10:53 — Alright, demo is done. Infinity Blade Dungeons will be coming soon, and Inifinity Blade II is currently in the App Store.

10:52 — The game is incredibly detailed. CRAP MORE SPIDERS.

10:52 — “This new device has more memory and screen resolution than an xbox 360 or ps3.”

10:51 — You can connect enemies for a chain attack, and they’re blasted to smithereens. There’s lava fields, you’re walking on detailed stone walkway. Theres all sorts of details and animations going on in the background of the game. A mechanical monster has just come to live and is swinging a weapon at our hero. “Time for double smash!” They’ve been frozen, and have now been killed. Success.

10:50 No not a spider! The spider queen! AHHHHHH

10:50 — The game uses tone mapping to dynamically adjsut brightness and clolor pallette for bette immersion.

10:50 — Infinity Blade: Dungeons is what the game is called.

10:49 — “Epic’s iOS exclusive infinity blade has been raising the bar of mobile gaming.” They are introducing a game called Dungeons, you’re an apprentice, on a quest to craft the ultimate weapon, the infinity blade.

10:48 — For the third demo, Schiller is introducing Epic Games — they’ve created landmark titles, Schiller says. Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, is stepping onstage. They demoed Infinitely Blade II at the 4S launch.

10:48 — Retina Display is luscious, he says. It takes it to the next level and creates an immersive environment. “By the way dude, that looks pretty amazing,” he says to Lawrence, who’s created a nice little piece of art in abou 90 seconds. It’ll be available April exclusively on iOS.

10:47 — The artist created a piece in Sketchbook pro, and is drawing on it. You’ve got different brush tools you can choose from for the pice. They’ve created a new engine for this ink tool. “This is not an ordinary vector application, it’s not the same tech and it’s not the same interaction. It’s resolution independent, so things tay crisp and smooth when you zoom in, and allows for massive images over 100MP.”

10:46 — They’re introducing a product called Sketchbook Ink, a new drawing app that focuses on line art. It’s complementary with sketchbook Pro.

10:45 — Sketchbook was autodesk’s first breakthrough app on iOS. Today, they have 15 autodesk titles on the app store that have been downloaded more than 20M times. In our 29 year history, autodesk has become a leader in software with over 10M customers. With iOS, we’ve been able to reach 10s of millions of new users in only 2 years.

10:45 — They brought Autocad to the Mac, have created a number of products for iPad. Chris Cheung, A sketchbook product line manager is going to show us a new product they’re working on.

10:45 — Next up, Autodesk.

10:44 — “The only place to truly experience the richness of detail is on the iPad itself.” The game will launch on iOS later this month.

10:43 — There’s waves in the ocean, fluffy clouds in the sky. He’s taking out a carrier sitting on the water with his jet. Uh oh, there’s 50 jets in the air he needs to fight, so the virtual driver of the jet ejects from his jet and parachutes to the water.

10:42 They’re going to show us a new game, I believe it’s called Flight Gamblers. The new ipad helps you lose yourself in the game in three key ways: the detail, the astonishing resolution means no detail goes to waste… The game demo is showing a jet flying through the air, you can see the heat waves from the jet engines.

10:42 The first is from Namco, James Shelton, its Game Design Director is coming up onstage.

10:41 “Developers can do things with their apps that are just mindblowing,” Schiller says. With the A5x chip and retina display. Now we’re going to check out a few examples: 3 demos to see what it can do.

10:41 — Photo app has been totally updated to take advantage of that resolution. Schiller is reminding us how developers didn’t have to do anything to scale their apps to retina display. We’re looking at Flipboard onscreen.

10:40 — Back to the software, Schiller says.

10:40 It’ll be available March 16th in 10 countries, and one week later, Apple’s adding 25 more countries. IT’s the fastest rollout we’ve ever had for a new device, Schiller says.

10:40 — Preorders start today.

10:39 — Available at 16, 32 and 64 GB models, up to $829 for 54GB on Wifi and 4G. It’s available March 16th. That’s the same pricing as iPad 2.

10:39 New ipad comes in black and white. What’s it gonna cost? The new iPad will be priced at $499.

10:38 It remains amazingly thin, 9.4 mm. Amazingly light, at 1.4 pounds.

10:38 Battery life now: The new iPad delivers 10 hours of battery life. That’s the same as the iPad 2. On 4G, that’s 9 hours of battery life.

10:38 What’s it called? What’s it called??? Still no name!

10:37 The new iPad; Retina Display, A5x processor, iSight camera, 1080p HD video, Voice dictation, and 4G LTE.

10:37 The new iPad has 4G LT, Fast 3G, 3G world ready, personal hotspot, most bands ever. This new iPad has the most wireless bands of any device that has ever shipped, Schiller says.

10:37 — In addition, we’ve added personal hotspot software, Schiller says. If your’e carrier supports personal hotspotting, you can share that with up to 5 devices.

10:36 — There are many bands of 4G LTE, so there will be two version of the new iPad in the US: one for ATT’s bands, one for Verizon’s bands. “No matter which ones you pick, both are 3G world ready,” Schiller says.

10:35 Carriers: ATT, Verizon, Rogers, Bell and TElus are the first to work with LTE on the new iPad, but there are others around the world.

10:35 — “That’s what it’s like to use these high speed new networks,” Schiller says.

10:34 Another example: EV-DO vs LTE on Vimeo. “What if you can start to watch right away?” Phil Schiller says, instead of waiting fo rit to buffer. On the right, the LTE video starts playing right away. I believe it’s from Andrew Zuckerman. The video on the left is still buffering. “This fundamentally changes how you experience stuff like video, Schiller says.

10:33 Now we’re seeing a comparison between 3G HSPA and 4G LTE onscreen. They were recorded, and we’re watching a playback, Schiller says. In the video, an email message is selected, and we’re waiting for large photos to load.. ALl 5 photos are loaded on LTE before the first one is completed on HSPA.

10:33 EV-DO supports 3.1 Mbps down, HSPA does 7.2 down, HSPA+ is being added now for 21 down, DC-HSDPA does 42 Mbps. And now LTE, 73 Mbps, trumps them all.

10:32 It’s 4G LTE.

10:31 — You can dictate into the device and it will transcribe it, like in emails. It supports English US English, British Australian French German and Japanese. Not Siri, but Voice dictation.

10:31: Voice dictation.

10:31 — In summary, 1080p HD video recording, video stablizaiton, temporal noise reduction…

10:30 It’s got image stabilization, they’re showing us what it’s like with it turned off, or turned on, for comparison (don’t worry, it will always have it turned on). The difference is pretty incredible.

10:30 Now we’re checking out a home movie clip. It’s kids playing at the beach running away from the waves. The grains of sand are visible, it’s sharp.

10:29 Third feature: HD video recording at 1080p video resolution, full HD resolution.

10:29 It has auto exposure lock and auto focus lock. Cute photo of Debbie, the world’s largest dog, Schiller says. It’s just a regular dog, but the audience chuckles.

10:28 Now we’re checking out a few pictures taken with the new iPad. A purple flower at the ocean, a lady bug on a hand, it has autofocus. The detail is crazy incredible. It has auto face detection.

10:27 That’s the first feature, Schiller says. Now onto the second feature: an Eyesight camera. On the front, there’s a face time camera. On the back theres’ a camera, too. Now it’s called the iSight camera. Optics system from the iphone 4s, 5MP sensor, Backside illumination, 5 element lens, Hybrid IR filter, Apple designed ISP.

10:27 We still don’t know the name of this iPad…

10:27 Specifically designed to drive 4 times the number of pixels. It’s four times the performance of an nvidia tegra 3, schiller says. Twice has powerful as a5 processor.

10:26 We needed more horse power for the new display. We’ve created the Apple A5x chip, it’s quad core.

10:26 The new iPad display has 44% greater color saturation than the iPad 2. An image of a magenta flower pops on the screen, looks almost unreal. “It takes a lot of graphics power…

10:25 This qualifies it as a retina display, Schiller says, and shows the math behind it (2 inverse tangent (2/hd) for you math nerds. That’s enough pixel density you can’t pick out the pixels.

10:25 — The ipad has over 1 million more pixels than an HDTV, 264 pixels per inch.

10:24 Schiller points out this will esp come in handy for character languages. It’s 2048 x 1536 pixels — that’s over 3.1 million pixels on this display, the most ever on a mobile device.

10:24 Everything looks crisper, we’re seeing images of a comparsion between the iPad 2 and iPad 3.

10:23 The new ipad will have graphics text icons sharper than you can imagine. When you read a book you’ll see text that rivals what you see in print. Everything you do is just going to look stunning.

10:23 — We’re taking a look back at the iPhone 4, the first retina display device. They’re bringing it to the ipads 9.7 inch screen. The ipad has a higher display than the entire display behind him, so everything will be scaled down

10:23 Audience applauds. “Until you see it, you can’t imagine how amazing this is.”

10:22 “Do you want to know about the new iPad?” he asks. “First, the retina display.”

10:22 It makes amazing improvements over the most fundamental features of the design of the device while maintaining everything that millions of people have grown to love about it. Phil Schiller is now taking the stage.

10:21 Today we’re announcing the new Ipad and ti is amazing, cook says. We are redefining the category that apple created with the orignal ipad.

10:21 Everyone’s been wondering who will come out with a product thats more amazing with the iPad 2, Cook says.

10:20 — Now we’re looking at Yelp on the Samsung tablet. On iPad, “clearly designed to take advantage of the large canvas,” Cook says. “This is a key reason momentum on iPad continues to build and the competitive tablets arent gaining traction.”

10:20 We’re looking at an image of a Twitter app running on an Android Samsung tablet. “It looks like a blown up smartphone app,” Cook says. “Compare that to Twitter on iPad.” We switch to anew image of Twitter for iPad. Much better.

10:19 “You won’t find these apps on other tablets,” Cook says. There are over 100 tablets that launched in 2011, a slide says.

10:19 “They help you create, learn, do almost anything.” Cook is going through a few examples, like Infinity Blade.

10:18 — “This is incredible when you remember this device has been on the market for less than two years,” Cook says. Part of the reason is the bundled apps, Cook says, and the over 200,000 apps that have been custom built to take advantage of big, beautiful multitouch screen.

10:17 Users tell apple their favorite device for checking email is the ipad, favorite device for browsing the web is iPad, and favorite device for reading books: the iPad. For playing games? The iPad.

10:16 “When we set out to create the ipad, we set out to create not just a new product, but a new category. And we said that in order to do that, the iPad had to be the best device for doing some of the things that you do most often, “ Cook says. Things like browsing the web and checking email.

10:16 “It’s just not about the numbers. iPad is showing up everywhere in the daily lives of people,” Cook says.

10:15 “That brings us to iPad” Cook says.

“We think iPad is the poster child of the post pc world. The momentum behind ipad has been incredible and surprised virtually everyone. we sold almost 15.5 million ipads just last quarter alone (15.4 million). We sold more ipads in 4th quarter of last year than any pc manufacturer sold of entire pc line worldwide. Wow.

10:15 The new Apple tv retains the same very low price of 99$ available next week, can pre-order starting today, Cook says.

10:14 — The video seems to be streaming perfectly in the demo. It buffered for a few minutes, and picked up where the movie had last left off. “I love that scene,” Cue says.

10:13 — You can watch them at any time for no additional cost. Now we’re going to check out a bit of “Extremely Loud Incredibly Close.” I haven’t seen this one yet.

10:13 — Just like we’ve done for music and tv show,s you now have access to movies you prev purchased righ tin icloud.

10:13 — New menu across the top: Purchased, Top Movies, Genius, Genres, Search and Trailers. Apple can recommend movies to you based on what you’ve already watched in ‘Genius.’

10:12: You can also get stuff from Netflix, NBA, Vimeo, FLickr and other sources. Now we’re looking at Photo Stream on the new Apple TV. WHen you take a photo on your iPhone it automatically appears on Apple TV without you doing anything at all. We’re looking at photos of a family having fun.

10:11 — New UI, 1080p resolution. It’s sharper easier to read, movie posters are much larger for purchase and rent TV shows the day after they are, iTunes match gives you access to music library thanks to iCloud. You still get access to content from computer through the Apple TV.

10:11 You can even get news and sports, right on your widescreen tv. Eddie Cue is coming onstage to demo this for us.

10:11 — Announcing a new Apple TV that supports 1080p. It comes with a streamlined new user interface that makes it easier to search. It’s has iOS inspired icons like movies, tv shows music computers and settings. Top Movies is listed across the top.

10:11– You can re-download movies you purchased on any of your devices. Also today, movies and tv shows in iTunes store support 1080p HD.

10:10 — iTunes in the cloud now. It’s for music, tv shows, and new today, it now supports movies.

10:10 “It just works” flashes on screen. There are now 100 million iCloud users.

10:10 Another key part of post PC experience is iCloud, which keeps all your content in sync across your devices, Cook says.

10:10 — A few days ago, a lucky Chinese customer got to download the 25 billionth app. “This is a mind boggling number,” Cook says.

10:10 — 585,000 apps in the app store now. “Great apps lead to more downloads, lead to more great apps, lead to more downloads,” Cook says.

10:09 You can’t talk about the post pc world without the App Store, Cook says.

10:09 — iOS 5.1 is available today and will be rolled out in Japan in the next few weeks.

10:07 — Today Siri is coming to Japan, another female voice. Come on, does an ‘assistant’ really need to be a lady? I kid, I kid.

10:06 — “Many of you have heard what Siri sounds like in the US,” Cook says, and plays a sample. Now we get to hear what Siri sounds like in Australia, another female voice. In France, a french male voice. In Germany, another female voice.

10:06 — One of the most popular features to the update to iOS is Siri, Cook says. Siri is your best friend, your intelligent personal assistant, who gets things done just by asking. It’s a whole new way of interfacing with your phone.

10:06 — We have sold 315 million devices since last year, 62 million just last quarter.

10:05 “Another key element of our post pc success is iOS,” Cook says, calling it the easiest to use mobile OS by far.

10:04 Time lapse video of the store filling up with people, excited employees lined up and cheering customers as they enter the store.

10:03 — We’re about to watch a video about the opening of the Grand Central Station store. Taxi cabs filing into the station, an image xooming through the ceiling and chandeliers of the station.

10:03 — Cook is showing another picture of its Grand Central Station store, completely packed with people. The audience laughs.

10:02 — Audience laughs at picture of people waiting for store open. Apple now has 362 retail stores, 110 million retail customers visited them just last quarter.

10:02 — Cook is showing a picture of Apple’s latest and largest store in Amsterdam. It is gorgeous, it looks like a museum.

10:01 — Tim Cook seems comfortable on stage, more fire in his speech than in past presentations.

10:01 — The things that make a great post pc company are the things apple has been about for many years. It plays to our strengths. It’s what we love to do.

10:01 — Apple has its feet firmly planted in post pc future, Tim says.

10:01: Last year, sold 172 million post PC devices, made up 76% of revenues.

10:01 — “Any company would be thrilled to have just one of these devices. At Apple, we’re fortunate to have all three, and the momentum has been staggering.”

10:00 — “At Apple we have three blockbuster post pc products.” The ipod, the iphone, and the iPad, the revolutionary device that defined a whole category.”

10:00 — In many ways, the iPad is reinventing portable computing, Tim says.

10:00 He’s talking about the “post PC revolution. “Apple is at the forefront of this revolution,” he says. “We’re talking about a world where the pc is not at the center of your world, but rather just a device.”

9:59 — He’s donning a navy button down shirt and dark jeans. Not quite Jobsian, but still that minimalist look.

9:59 a.m. — Tim Cook is onstage, audience bursts into applause!

9:55 Music stopped! Oh, nevermind. More music just came on. They love putting a brief, dramatic pause in between tracks. The audience quiets each time.

9:52 The music this time around is definitely on the more modern end than at the iPhone 4S event. Is this some sort of sign of the times? Or do they just have someone new manning the iTunes playlist set?

9:51 a.m. — Lots of people still trying to squeeze into the few seats left in the auditorium. MacBooks aplenty!

9:48 a.m. — Listening to some Adele Rolling in the Deep, getting our jam on. Where’s the Dylan and Beatles? Post-Jobsian soundtrack, perhaps?

Inside from the Apple event. Photo: Christina Bonnington/Wired

9:40 a.m. — We’re in!

9:30 a.m. — Still in line, but it’s moving now! We’re headed inside.

Outside the Apple event in San Francisco. Photo: Christina Bonnington/Wired

9:10 a.m. — We’re here at the Yerba Buena Center, ready and waiting for Apple to let us inside. It’s a gorgeous sunny day in San Francisco! Perfect for a fresh device release (or two).

A passerby admires Apple’s logo banner at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

SAN FRANCISCO — Ready or not, Apple has another device on deck, and will unveil it for the first time on Wednesday morning. Wired’s Gadget Lab team will be live at the Yerba Buena Center in downtown San Francisco to feed you the news right as it happens. The event starts at 10 a.m. PST, so bookmark this page beforehand, and refresh it during Apple’s announcement for the latest updates.

Gadget Lab senior editor Jon Phillips (@JonPhillipsSF) and staff writer Christina Bonnington (@redgirlsays) will be onsite, while staff writers Mike Isaac (@MikeIsaac) and Roberto Baldwin (@strngwys) will provide support from Wired HQ.

In the tradition of Apple’s past two spring events, we’re expecting the company to show off its third iPad tablet at Wednesday’s unveiling. Amid rampant speculation, we’ve heard every guess under the sun as to what the new device could feature. There’s the possibility of a super-high-resolution, 1536 x 2048 display, and perhaps a beefy, much-improved quad-core processor. Maybe Apple’s voice-powered assistant, Siri, will come to the iPad for the first time. Or maybe the tablet’s camera will get an HD upgrade.

Join us here at 10 a.m. PST for Gadget Lab’s live blog of Apple’s March 7 Media Event, and follow @Gadgetlab or @Wired on Twitter for 140-character highlights of what’s going down.

For Wired’s previous coverage of iPad-related hubbub, check out the links below.

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