If you’re getting an iPad 2, you’re getting a tablet with hardware that opens up a whole new world of app possibilities. Apple’s second-gen tablet integrates a speedier dual-core CPU, a pair of cameras, and a gyroscope—none of which were on the original iPad.
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The iPad 2 has only been available for little more than a week, but you can already find apps that take advantage of these hardware upgrades. Take the iPad’s new processor: Apple claims the dual-core A5 chip offers more than nine times the graphics power over the single-core CPU in the original iPad. Greater processing power and speed along with richer graphics means good news for game developers—and, of course, gamers. Couple this with the iPad’s new three-axis gyroscope, which can sense the iPad’s every twist and turn, and you get some truly compelling games.
Adding front- and rear-facing cameras that capture stills will surely result in innovative apps for both work and play. Right now, there aren’t too many camera-centric apps; we were only able to find a couple of interesting picks. Apple’s own FaceTime, which is preinstalled on the iPad 2, is a blast to use, and it looks great, but you can only video chat with other iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac users, so it can be somewhat limiting. But once Skype releases its iPad app, you’ll be able to video chat on the go with anyone who has a Skype account without paying a dime. We did test the Skype iPhone app on the iPad 2 (just because we could), and found that, while it works just fine, video quality was seriously degraded when you doubled the size of the window to fill the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen. You could, however, simply use the smaller, iPhone-screen-size window, which centers itself on the iPad’s display. In fact, you can use many camera-centric iPhone apps on your iPad; they’ll just look smaller.
Again, developers are just getting started developing for a tablet that’s barely over a week old. The App Store has amassed more than 65,000 tablet-specific apps in the year since the first iPad went on sale, so the coming months are sure to bring some very cool iPad-2-specific apps. But for now, check out the apps you can get today that make the best use of the iPad’s new hardware.
