Apple CEO Tim Cook began today’s event by talking about a “Post PC” world. Apple has its stake in three of these types of devices – the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod. And those post PC devices make up for 76% of Apple’s revenue, as they sold 62 million of them last quarter.

Last quarter, Apple sold 15.4 million iPads alone, which is more than any PC company sold of their PCs (more proof of that post PC world Cook’s been hammering). Cook went on to talk about how the iPad has become everyone’s favorite device for books, email, and even gaming.

And now comes the new iPad. It will hit the shelves on March 16th, and pre-orders start today.

First off, it is sporting that high-def retina display that we thought it would: 2048 x 1536 resolution. “Text sharper than a newspaper. Photos will look incredible. Fonts look amazing, it’s a huge step forward. Put another way, you all have an HDTV at home , 1080p — an iPad has more pixels. That’s incredible,” said Cook.

As far as the processor goes, Apple went with the A5X chip. What’s the “x?” Quad-core, baby. So Apple has built a high-def retina display with a chip with twice the graphic power of what’s in the iPhone 4S.

The new iPad also sports new cameras – the rear being called the “iSight.” It’s 5 megapixels and has autofocus, autoexposure, as well as face detection. And it supports HD video recording at 1080p resolution with built-in video stabilization.

One of the biggest things about the new iPad is that it’s got 4G LTE. There was a lot of speculation prior to today on whether Apple would launch the new iPad with this capability, and they have (to the joy of heavy data users everywhere). The LTE networks can accomodate 72Mbps. Apple claims that your battery life won’t be be negatively affected by all this – keeping 9 hours on 4G. It’s a little thicker than the iPad 2, as was expected (9.4 mm to 8.6 mm).

Here’s the pricing structure: $499, $599, and $699 for 16, 32, and 64GB, respectively. If you want 4G, it’ll cost you $629, $729, and $829, respectively.

[Image courtesy GDGT Live]