Apple just completed its March 7 media event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. If you want the full coverage, please visit the usual suspects such as Engadget, MacWorld etc websites. For those in a hurry, here are the quick summary:

• iOS 5.1 will be available later today. Those with iOS 5 can update directly from within Settings app.
• As part of iOS 5.1, Siri will add Japanese language support.
• iTunes in iCloud now support movies with the ability to re-download movies you’ve purchased on any device. iTunes movie now come in 1080p.
• Apple unveils third generation Apple TV with 1080p support with a streamlined new user interface. The price is the same as existing model at $99. Available next week March 16th, order starts today.
• Apple launches new iPad. It is not iPad 3 or iPad HD, just iPad. Or the new iPad. Or third generation iPad.
• New iPad comes with 264ppi 2048×1536 resolution Retina Display. This is twice the resolution of existing iPad and more than 1 million pixel more than HDTV 1080p (1920×1080) standard. The new screen also boasts 44% greater saturation.
• New iPad has a new A5X processor with quad-core graphics and is twice as fast as Tegra 3.
• New iPad has a 5M pixel iSight camera with backside illuminated sensor, 5-element lens, Hybrid IR filter, face detection and ISP (signal processor) module built into the A5X chip. It can record video at 1080p with video stabilization and temporal noise deduction features.
• There is no Siri for the new iPad. Instead it comes with voice dictation for US English, British, Australian, French, German and Japanese.
• The new iPad supports World Ready 3G and next-generation 4G LTE wireless. It is capable of 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, and LTE at 73Mbps. (Compare with iPad 2 which is capable of 3.1Mbps on EV-DO and 7.2Mbps on HSPA).
• The new iPad has a 10 hours battery life. The battery life is 9 hours on 4G LTE. It is 9.4mm thin and weights 1.4lbs, which is slightly heavier than iPad 2.
• The new iPad has the same pricing as iPad 2: $499 for 16GB Wi-Fi, $599 for 32GB Wi-Fi and $699 for 64GB Wi-Fi. The price for 4G LTE version is $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.
• The new iPad will be available March 16 for US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Pre-orders starts today.
• The new iPad will be available March 23 for Austria, belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
• Apple updates iOS apps: iWorks, iMovie, Garage Band. Free update for existing users.
• Apple releases new iPhoto for iOS with photo editing and organization features. $4.99 available today.
• iPad 2 16GB will be made available at $399, a price drop of $100.

More and more musicians are using iPad as their tool for production and recording. Many are churning out entire songs solely on iPad. If you have doubt if iPad can produce anything decent, check out the videos.

With the introduction of iOS 5 and iCloud, it is possible to use your iPhone and iPad without owning a Mac or PC. In iOS 5, a number of features are introduced to fulfill the “Post PC” era of iDevices.

Activate from within device. Instead of having to plug your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad into an iTunes running Mac or PC to activate the device, iOS 5 allows you to activate directly from within the device.

OTA (Over-The-Air) Software Update. OTA Software Update will make it possible to update iOS system software wirelessly. When Apple release a new update let say iOS 5.1, just go to Settings > Software Update to upgrade. No iTunes and Mac/PC required. Apple implements delta update mechanism. Instead of the whole iOS, you only download what’s changed, which significantly reduced the size of the update.

Purchased apps, music and books in the cloud. Apps, music and books that you purchased from the iTunes store are now in iCloud. You can re-download them into your iDevice without relying on iTunes backup.

Backup to iCloud. When you enable backup to iCloud, it backs up daily over Wi-Fi your photos and video in the camera roll, device settings, app data, home screen and app organization, ringtones and text/MMS messages. This backup can be used to restore your phone data and settings such as when changing a new phone.

Apple probably just had its greatest software updates in its history. For the past 2 days, Apple software relating to iOS 5 and iCloud are updated, together with few new apps. Here are the list:

• iOS 5
• OS X Lion 10.7.2
• OS X Lion Recovery Update
• iCloud & iCloud.com website (new)
• Safari 5.1.1
• iTunes 10.5
• Apple TV 4.4
• Updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iOS
• Updates to Remote, iMovie, Find My iPhone for iOS
• iPhoto 9.2
• Aperture 3.2
• iCloud Control Panel for Windows (new)
• Cards app for iOS (new)
• iTunes Movie Trailers app for iOS  (new, US only)
• Find my Friends app for iOS (new)
• AirPort Setup utility app for iOS (new)
• XCode 4.2

With iCloud enabled, you can store your data such as mail, contacts, calendar, iTunes music, movie, books and apps on iCloud, bypassing the need to use iTunes on your Mac/PC to sync to your iOS devices. There are however contents on your Mac that you still need to sync to your iDevices, such as your movie, music, PDFs collection. iTunes 10.5 together with iOS 5 make it easy with wireless sync over Wi-Fi without the need of a USB cable.

To enable wireless sync, connect your iDevice using USB cable to the Mac. Under iTunes, on the “Summary” page for your iDevice, tick the option “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi”.

You can now unplug your USB cable. Then click the Sync on iTunes to start data sync wirelessly.

You can also initiate the sync directly from your iDevice. From the Settings app, navigate to General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Tap the “Sync Now” button to start wireless sync.

Apple will release later today iOS 5, iCloud and OS X Lion 10.7.2 with iCloud support. Without a doubt, iCloud is the core feature of these releases. So what is iCloud? You might have read many things about it. This is a concise layman’s guide to what is iCloud.

“Cloud computing” is a buzz term used by tech geeks to describe computing services provided over the Internet. iCloud is Apple’s service to provide you ways to store and sync your data on the Internet. Once your data is in iCloud, you can access them via Internet on Mac or any iOS devices.

iCloud can be loosely view as an upgrade of MobileMe. However iCloud is so much more than just MobileMe. Apple integrates iCloud tightly with iOS 5 and OS X Lion, to give users seamless data sync across Apple devices. For developers, iCloud is also a data store and sync platform with API to allow development of apps and services.

Apple off course is leading the pack with a number of native apps riding on iCloud. You can store your mail, calendar, contacts, notes, reminders, Safari bookmarks on iCloud and access them from multiple Mac or iOS devices. “Find My iPhone” is one of the earlier MobileMe app ported to iCloud. You can find out your device’s location with this app, remotely lock or even wipe the data of the device. Apple is also launching a new “Find My Friends” app that allows you to check out your friends location.

PhotoStream is another new service in iOS 5 from Apple riding on top of iCloud. PhotoStream will sync your photos in iOS devices’ camera roll to the iCloud, so that you can view them from multiple iOS devices and also from AppleTV. iWork is the first major productivity apps that can store your documents in iCloud. So you can compose your Keynote file on the Mac, and pop over to show the presentation using your iPhone.

iCloud is also an internet website at iCloud.com. This website as shown above allows you to access your iCloud data over a browser. Essential when you do not have an iDevice with you.

Apple is also storing the music, apps, books that you purchased on iTunes App Store on iCloud. If your music and books are all from iTunes App Store, you can essentially bypass iTunes app on the desktop and access those content from iCloud. You can now choose not to use iTunes desktop app. iOS 5 is the first iOS that can be operated without first plugging into your Mac/PC and iTunes.

For many years, iTunes app on your Mac/PC is considered the hub where you store your iTunes data, and sync the data over to your iOS devices. iCloud is poised to take over this place to be the central hub for these data.

Apple will be launching iTunes Match end October for US. This subscription based iCloud service will match your iTunes library, allowing you to convert your private music collection over to iCloud, and download them as and when needed over iCloud for listening.

With an API opens to third party developers, we expect more and more apps and services will be build on top of iCloud.

Apple has released iTunes 10.5 ahead of tomorrow’s iOS 5 and iCloud launch. iTunes 10.5 is required for the upgrade to iOS 5. Include in this new release is also the ability to sync your iOS 5 devices wireless to iTunes. Missing in iTunes 10.5 is iTunes Match, which is part of iCloud. Apple has mentioned in its iPhone 4S launch that iTunes Match will be released end October. Guess we will receive another iTunes update for the launch of iTunes Match.

Apple has released a beta for its iTunes Match service for its developers in United States. iTunes Match is a service that scans your music in your iTunes library, and makes the same music available on iCloud so that you can access your music anywhere, anytime on iOS devices or computer.

iTunes Match is expected to launch together as part of iCloud when the service is live later this year. Subscription is $24.99 per year.

Apple has canceled TV show rental on iTunes and Apple TV, as “iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows”.

“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”

Priced mostly at 99-cent per episode, TV rental debuted as an option when Apple launched its second generation Apple TV last September. With only ABC and Fox joining the program, Apple has not been able to get other studios such as Warner, NBC and Viacom to offer their programming on TV rental.

All Things D: Apple Pulls the Plug on TV Rentals