Apple has officially announced the next generation iPad at their special event in San Francisco. The iPad 2 packs in a new dual processor called the A5, and Apple says it is up to two times faster than the original iPad but uses the same low power.

It also has faster graphics, up to nine times faster than the graphics of the original iPad, and it is also 33 percent thinner than the original iPad. It also comes with a built in gyrospcope and two cameras, and will be available in two colors, black and white. Both models will be available from AT&T and Verizon.

We’ve seen iPads being offered on planes and in hotels, and now they are hitting schools. A pilot project in four California school districts will replace 400 students’ eighth-grade algebra textbooks with Apple iPads in an attempt to prove the advantages of interactive digital technologies over traditional teaching methods. He should help to correct their spines as well, since an iPad in the backpack weighs a lot less than a book.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has teamed up with California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss for the pilot, which will take place at Long Beach Unified School District, Riverside Unified School District, Fresno Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School District.

A gorilla at the San Diego zoo recently came by his own Nintendo DS portable game console. The DS appeared in the gorilla habitat when a boy visiting the zoo dropped it inside.

The gorilla picked the DS up and proceeded to mess with it to try and figure out exactly what it was. I wonder what he would have done if the thing was tuned on when he picked it up.

We know what happens when a radioactive spider bites you. You become spiderman. But what happens when you get too much cell phone radiation? Nothing good, that’s for sure. And so the people of San Francisco will soon have a new cellphone radiation law to help.

The law requires retailers to post notices on how much radiation is emitted by the cellphones they sell. This is the first law of it’s kind in the United States. The cellphone industry claims that this law could hurt sales and make consumers believe that some phones are safer than others. No one can agree on just how harmful cell radiation is.

Sony is planning to introduce its new TVs, which are powered by Intel chips and Google software next month. Sony and Google will be talking about the new products at a conference in San Francisco on May 19th and 20th.

Logitech has even been given the assignment of designing the remote control for the new set-top box, which will include a keyboard for navigation. The set-top-box will be powered by the Android operating system, and of course require an Internet connection. In this market, Google will be competing with the likes of looks likes of Cisco, Motorola, Microsoft, Apple, and TiVo.

There are lots of smartphones and PMPs out there that offer storage expansion via microSDHC slots. None of the popular Apple devices do though. If you have a device with a microSDHC slot and you want a massive capacity card SanDisk has your fix.

SanDisk has announced that it will be the first maker to ship a 32GB microSDHC card. The new card uses 32nm X3 technology allowing the storage of 3-bits of data per cell. This tech is key to the massive storage capacity of the card.

That’s right. Apple is holding an event on January 27th to show off what the company is calling their “latest creation.” The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, and will start at 10AM Pacific. Gee, I wonder what they have to show.

The splattered paint might be a giveaway as well as the use of the word “creation”. Both suggest that we will be seeing the long-rumored Tablet, and tips on how you can get creative with it.

The debate continues as to whether or not cell phones can harm us, but one state may be ready take the next step in warning consumers about the dangers. If she has her way, a Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, even though there is no consensus among scientists that they do.

Cell phones carry these warnings in some countries, but right now no U.S. states require them. A similar effort is underway in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom would like his city to be the nation’s first to require such warnings. These measures seem premature, given the fact that there is no hard data to support the claims.

Apple has put out an official announcement that Steve Jobs and a number of other suits from Apple will be kicking off the Worldwide Developers Conference this year in San Francisco. The press release says that this years conference will showcase both the OS X Leopard and the OS X iPhone, but we’re thinking there will be a new iPhone announcement, too.

The event meets the expected timeline for the launch of the 3G iPhone, the UK has run out of iPhone stock and we wouldn’t believe that Jobs would launch the 3G version overseas before launching it stateside first. WWDC 2008 runs for five days from June 9th to June 13th with the keynote from Jobs and crew on the 9th starting at 10am; we’ll be listening.

iPhone users and iPhone developers alike jumped for joy yesterday when Apple announced the iPhone SDK. Apple also previewed its iPhone 2.0 software that is scheduled to release this June. Enterprise customers can register for the iPhone 2.0 software beta right now as well.

According to Apple the iPhone 2.0 software adds some significant features for enterprise users including support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync that provides secure over-the-air push email, contacts, and calendars. Several mail features will be added to the iPhone with the 2.0 update including the ability to view PowerPoint attachments along with Word and Excel. One feature that I have longed for is on the feature list as well, the ability to mass delete and move emails. Too bad Apple didn’t add the ability to mark emails as read in mass.

XtremeMac just announced from MacWorld today another iPod speaker system. This time around it is the Tango X2, priced at around $150.

The XtremeMac Tango X2 is described as “a full range speaker system with a subwoofer and AM/FM radio wrapped in an elegant design that delivers big sound from a deceptively compact unit.” Having had hands on experience with the first Tango we have to imagine this will be even a better system.

Basic features include an AM/FM radio with hidden display, a smaller footprint from the previous model and an integrated iPod dock. Get the full details on the XtremeMac Tango X2 after the jump.

G-Technology is showcasing at MacWorld a 1TB external hard drive which offers RAID 0 configuration. It is called the G-Tech G-RAID mini and it should be available in March.

G-Technology said the G-Tech G-RAID mini is a full sized RAID 0 solution set into a portable solution. It features a triple FireWire 400/800/USB 2.0 interface and is designed to work right out of the box with Mac OS X systems.

Get more details on the new G-Tech G-RAID mini after the jump.

It looks like those MacBook Air rumors were really not too far off. Today Steve Jobs announced the latest addition to the MacBook lineup at MacWorld in San Francisco, touting it as the thinnest notebook in the world. The MacBook Air measures a mere 0.16 inches at its thinnest point, and it only gets as thick as 0.76 inches at the hinged end.

The Air Mac will start shipping in about two weeks with a retail price of $1,799, and comes with the following features:

Macally has four new mice it’s launching this week at the annual MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. The new mice have a range of designs and uses all targeting Apple’s Mac computers but can be used with either a Mac or a PC with prices ranging from $19.99 to $29.99. The new mouse lineup from Macally include the Accuglide, Pebble, Pebble Wireless and the Turtle.

The Accuglide has a flat, low-profile design with Opto-mechanical technology giving it a combination of laser sensor and optical sensore advantages. It has 800 dpi and connects via USB, retailing for $19.99. The Pebble is a 5-button USB mouse with a 4-way scroll button and an adjustable laser resolution giving you the option of setting it to 400, 800 or 1600 dpi. The Pebble also retails for $19.99. The Pebble Wireless has the same features as the Pebble but loses the wire in favor of a wireless 2.4GHz RF connection and an additional $10. Lastly, the Turtle seems to get its name from its features. It’s not the most flashy mouse on the market and has a retractable cord that tucks inside the mouse while packed away. The Turtle mouse connects via USB, has 800 dpi and goes for $19.99.

Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, Steve Jobs is going to deliver the keynote speech for MacWorld 2008 today in San Francisco at 9am PST/12pm EST. Apple usually reserves this time to make its biggest announcements of the year in which they usually do a pretty good job of keeping under wraps until this time. As usual there are a number of rumors floating around with the more prominent that we know of being an SDK for the iPhone, movie rentals on iTunes and some type of super-portable MacBook. None of this we know for sure but we’re going to find out shortly after 9 this morning and pass it on.