Apple says new iPad is at a ‘whole new level’

The computer will have higher resolution than ever before, a video recorder and a five mega-pixel camera with auto focus and auto exposure. It will also have “voice dictation”, which allows people to dictate straight to their computer rather than type.

Apple said the “retina display”, which uses 3.1 million pixels would have “the highest resolution display ever on a mobile device”. Another feature is a high-speed 4G wireless network, allowing faster download of pictures and films.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who unveiled the new model in San Francisco, said: “We think that iPad is the poster child of the post-PC world.

Mr Cook said the device was “showing up everywhere in the daily life of people, in their work life, in their play life, all around the world”.

He added: “Everyone’s been wondering who will come out with the product that is more amazing than the iPad2. Well stop wondering. We are.”

Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, said the “retina display” technology would mean users would “see graphics and text sharper than you could imagine. Just beautiful”.

Other improvements include the updating of some of the software on the tablet to take advantage of the new features.

Apple also said it would start letting users store movies in its iCloud remote storage service, so they can be accessed through the internet by Pcs and Apple devices. It already lets users store photos, music and documents in the service.

However, despite speculation that the new version would be called the “iPad HD”, it will remain simply “iPad”, creating the potential for confusion as the current “iPad2” will remain on sale.