Digg founder Kevin Rose claims he has it on good authority that iPad 2 will be announced in 3-4 weeks, possibly February 1, and include dual cameras as well as a “higher dpi”, but not technically a retina display.
Dual cameras seem almost certain given how Apple is pushing FaceTime (and given our video hands-on with the dummy iPad 2 at CES). Retina Display though? We’ve been over that before but just to recap…
The current iPad is 1024 x 768. Apple needs to double that in both directions to go Retina, which would make 2048 x 1536. At 9.7-inches. That’s more pixels than Apple’s 27-inch LED cinema display at a fraction of the size. Even if LG or whomever could crank out those panels, the cost would almost certainly be prohibitive. And if Apple tries to do anything other than double the resolution, current apps would either look terrible when stretched or would have UI elements shrunken below the point of usability by boxing.