With the iPad 3 event slated for March 7, the rumor mill is churning out a whole slew of changes to the original formula that may or may not appear on launch day. Of course, we couldn’t help ourselves from joining the fold and rounding out the best rumors out there. Oh, if only they would all come true… Too bad the iPhone 4S taught us that tech dreams are not meant to come true. Thanks for that.
Almost-Retina Display
Display is the most talked about change coming to the iPad 3. In all likelihood the screen will stay the same size as the iPad 2 but with double the resolution, bumping it up to 2048 x 1536. The screen won’t quite reach the hallowed ground known by us mere mortal as “Retina Display” , but the ppi (pixels per inch) will be an impressive 264 ppi versus the iPad 2’s 146 ppi. With Android’s tablet offerings encroaching on 1080p, it only makes sense for Apple to offer a display worthy of competing.
iPad Mini
Rumors are particularly heavy with this one, just as they were leading up to the iPad 2 launch. But the consensus this time around seems to be that Apple has a good thing going and there is really no reason to mess with the formula. That being said, some rumor sites are saying a smaller iPad (7.85 inches) may be coming in the third quarter. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a smaller iPad to compete with tablets like the Kindle Fire.
8 Megapixel Camera
The iPad 2’s camera offerings are pretty pathetic, each less than 1 megapixel, so it only makes sense that the new iPad will ship with an 8MP camera on the back. After all, the iPhone 4S received the upgrade. Even more exciting, iLounge has dropped hints that the iPad 3 may come equipped with an HD front-facing camera for all those Facetime sessions we all love.
Pumped-up Internals
The iOS 5.1 developer preview leads us to believe that a quad-core next-gen A6 chip seems destined for the iPad 3. This new chip comes alongside rumors of upgraded RAM, possibly reaching 1GB (up from the iPad 2’s 512 MB). As far as actually storage is concerned, chances are the sizes will stay the same and if they do increase, don’t expect anything over 128GB. And expandable memory is nothing but a pipe dream (unfortunately).
Faster Network
3G is old hat. If Apple is ready to compete with Android – and you can bet they are – then the iPad 3 will no doubt include 4G/LTE capabilities. It’s really a no-brainer. There is always a demand for faster internet, faster downloads, and faster streaming so why not toss it in there?
New Name (Obviously)
The physical design is not expected to change from the iPad 2, so the moniker of 2S would make sense. But the internet seems convinced that the new iPad will carry the number 3 or perhaps be named the (dreaded) iPad HD. Honestly, we’re getting sick of seeing HD stuck on the end of every product name in existence and it doesn’t really make sense for Apple to throw a wrench in their numbered system that extends through their iPhone and iPad lines.
Addition of Siri
If the iPad 3 didn’t come with Siri, it just wouldn’t make sense. Given all the marketing and promotion that Apple has thrown into its digital assistant, it only makes sense to offer the added functionality. But don’t take our word for it, the groundwork for iPad Siri was present in the iOS 5.1 beta.
Getting Thicker
This is definitely the least exciting rumor. Apparently, the iPad 3 may be one millimeter thicker than the previous model. Wouldn’t exactly call that game changing.
So that’s what we managed to dig up while surfing the web and reading a few dozen articles. What have you heard? Did we miss anything in our search?
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