At a media event this afternoon at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple (News - Alert) CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller finally revealed the latest generation iPad.

The new iPad, which maintains the design form of its predecessors, features a long-anticipated Retina display with 2047 x 1536 pixels, more than twice the resolution of the original device. The new iPad features an A5X processor, featuring quad core graphics. And, answering much speculation, the iPad features 4G LTE (News - Alert) data speeds in addition to HSPA+ an d DC-HSDPA. It also supports a personal hotspot.

Apple said that 4G LTE service for the iPad will be available from Verizon (News - Alert) and AT&T, in the U.S. and Rogers, Bell and Telus in Canada.

"This new iPad has the most wireless bands of any device that has ever shipped," said Schiller. The new device will offer nine hours of battery life while on 4G.

The updated iPad also features a rear-facing five-megapixel camera, identical to the iPhone (News - Alert) 4S camera. The camera offers a number of capabilities, including face detection and 1080p video recording with image stabilization. The device remains around 1.4 pounds.

Also making its debut on the new iPad is a voice dictation feature, with a trigger key built into the device’s virtual keyboard.

Pre-orders for the new iPad start today, Apple said. The device will debut on March 16 in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. The pricing structure will remain the same, with the 16GB WiFi (News - Alert) model starting at $499, with the 32GB model priced at $599 and 64GB at $699.

"In many ways, the iPad is reinventing portable computing, and it's outstripping the wildest of predictions," Cook told attendees at the unveiling. He noted that Apple has three post-PC devices – the iPhone, iPad and iPod – and sold 172 million such "post-PC" devices last year, accounting for 76 percent of the company's revenues. "This is incredible," Cook said.

"We think that iPad is the poster child of the post-PC world. The momentum behind iPad has been incredible, and it surprised virtually everyone," Cook said, noting that Apple sold more iPads in last year’s fourth quarter than PCs sold by any PC manufacturer.

"When we set out to create the iPad, we set out to create not just a new product, but a new category, and we said that in order to do that, the iPad had to be the best device for doing the kinds of things you do the most often, things like browsing the Web or checking e-mail," Cook says.

Speculation over the new tablet’s capabilities had been running wild for days. CNN reported this morning that insider leaks said that Verizon technicians dressed in plain clothing had been dispatched to Apple retail stores to install LTE infrastructure in anticipation of the new iPad’s release. CNN noted that Verizon’s LTE network covers 200 areas with more than 200 million people in the US, compared to just 74 million for Verizon. Rumors had also swirled around the new iPad’s screen resolution, which was expected to double that of the first and second generation models. Today’s presentation confirmed both rumors.

Cook also revealed a new version of Apple TV featuring 1080p capability.

For more information as it becomes available check with TMCnet.