To take advantage of its fancy new retina display, higher res camera, and boosted processor, the iWork and iLife apps for iOS have all been updated today. And since that new display will make working with photos a treat, Apple also introduced an iOS version of iPhoto.
While they weren't demo'd at today's event, the iWork apps, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, have all been updated to take advantage of the new iPad's high-res display, and will continue to sell for $10 each with free updates.
Garage Band now has something called Smart Strings, a touch-friendly chorded instrument, and a note editor with heavy integration to iCloud allowing you to save your creations to the cloud and easily share them.
The app has also gained the ability for up to three musicians to collaborate and play with other musicians in real-time over a wireless connection, which should make for some heart-tugging videos at Apple's next event. The update is available now, and the app is still $5 if you haven't started rocking out yet.
iMovie will also take advantage of the new iPad's ability to finally record videos in 1080P. In addition to being able to automatically generate trailers, filmmakers will be able to mock up and plan out storyboards before they start shooting.
But, you should be warned, if you haven't been a fan of Apple's recent UI adventures which make everything look like a pocket day-planner, you might be disappointed by iMovie's gratuitous use of binder rings when flipping through your storyboards. I mean isn't this the same company that makes the profesional-looking Final Cut Pro? You can also download the iMovie update today, or buy the app for $5.
And as Jesus eerily predicted almost a year ago, today Apple also introduced iPhoto for iOS, available for both the iPad and the iPhone. Like Garage Band and iMovie it's just $5, available today, and it gives you a more capable replacement for the standard iOS Photos app.
It's not unlike a mobile version of Photoshop Elements, letting you use your iOS device's multi-touch capabilities for basic photo editing duties like easy one-tap white balance, red-eye removal, exposure adjustments, cropping, straightening and even blemish removal with a magical sparkling brush.
Navigating your galleries is made easier too with intuitive gestures and the ability to compare images side-by-side, a great use of an iOS device's retina display. For professional photographers the new iPad can handle and process images up to 19MP in size, slightly behind the max resolution of the current crop of DSLRs. But if you're on the road it makes for a handy way to preview and perform quick adjustments to an image before sending it off to an editor. Or, just share it on Twitter and Flickr.
And since the only thing better than sharing a photo with someone is sharing multiple photos, you'll be able to create and share a fancy-looking journal with multiple images and captions. It kind of doubles like a diary of your day's events documented in photos, and even goes as far as to grab the date from the images' EXIF data and remember what the weather was like that day. You know, in case the sun shining in the background of your photos left you wondering if it was actually pouring rain.
To find out all things iPad HD as they're unveiled in real time, ride along with us on our iPad HD Liveblog this Wednesday, starting at around noon EST.