Apple announces iPad 2, ships in US next week

Apple has just announced iPad 2 at its special press event in San Francisco.

The device, shown off by Steve Jobs, will come in all-new design, have rear and front-facing cameras, will ship in white, will still feature 10 hour battery life, is 33 percent thinner and has gone down to 8.8mm in thickness. iPad 2 is also thinner than iPhone 4.

It'll also come with HDMI out with 1080p support and works with all apps, although will come in peripheral form.

Spec wise, it'll come with dual-core A5 processors, a CPU up to 2x faster, up to 9x faster graphics, same low power as A4 and is the first dual-core tablet to ship in volume.

It was confirmed at the event, which is actually taking place across the street from GDC, the device will ship in the US beginning next Friday, March 11. It'll ship in 26 other countries on March 25.

It'll also maintain the same price structure as it has before, meaning it'll begin selling from $499.

On the carrier side, models will work with both Verizon and AT&T in the US.

Apple also confirmed that iOS 4.3 will arrive on March 11 for iPad, iPhone and third and fourth-gen iPod Touch.

More over at Engadget and CNET.