Apple Reveals New Game-Changer iPad With High-Res Screen And 4G, Starting At $499

Apple's new iPad is physically a lot like the iPad 2, there's still a home button (quashing some wild rumors about it going) and yes -- it has a fabulous 2,048 by 1,536 pixel screen. That earns it the "retina display" title, and means it's likely to trounce 99% of all other tablet offerings.

To power that new screen, which includes 40% better color saturation than before and clever pixel-level tech to reduce interference, the new iPad has "quad core graphics" enabled by its updated A5X chip. That's more than twice as fast as the previous A5 unit inside the iPhone 4S. Apps designed for the current iPads will simply up-scale to fill the bigger screen (as Apple's cleverly chosen to simply double the number of pixels in each direction). And to demonstrate its game-changing prowess Apple showed off a new game from Epic -- Infinity Blade Dungeons -- which is a hugely updated version of the original game Apple used to demonstrate the first iPad. The team even suggested the graphical power of the tablet beats competitors like the Xbox 360.

The new camera now enables the iPad to shoot video in 1080p full HD resolution, and thanks to the fact its sensor is much larger and the graphics chips are so powerful, it can carry out real-time dynamic image stabilization. That places the iPad as a slightly awkward but potent competitor to many a digital camera on the market.

Despite the significant upgrades, the device is still on sale at a starting price of $499 for the 16GB model, stretching up to $699 for the 64GB model--the same price as it's always had. 4G units go from $629 to $829, just as before, and will also support 3G in a global mode.