iPad 3: release date, specs, iOS 5.5, screen, A6 news, rumors du jour

With Apple having steadied the iPhone lineup and finished its product releases for 2011, the focus now turns to what Apple has up its sleeve first for 2012: the iPad 3. There was some buzz that Apple might update the iPad in some form before this year ended, but that went out the window when the October press event turned out to be an iPhone-only affair. The only part of the event which related to the iPad, even tangentially, was the release of the iOS 5 operating system. True to form, Apple has said nothing regarding the iPad 3. Nothing is officially set in stone. but various details, from its release date to its likely specs to rumors regarding its screen, are beginning to emerge. With the caveat of pointing out that none of this is official, none of it confirmable, and most of it based on a mere combination of interpreting Apple’s pattern history and and common sense, here’s a look at what we think we might know regarding the iPad 3…

Release date: This one might be the easiest. Both the iPad and iPad 2 were introduced early in the spring and shipped around the end of March. That places the iPad 3 release date on track for March 2012, unless something goes wrong. The arrival of the iPhone 4S in October, after years of summer iPhone launches, demonstrated that things can in fact go wrong with Apple’s annual upgrade calendar, but most often don’t.

iOS 5.5: Apple could just as easily call it iOS 5.3 or some such, but whatever the name, the iPad 3 will arrive with a revised version of the current iOS 5 operating system. The quasi-headlining features of the new iOS update will likely tie directly into whatever new hardware features the iPad 3 delivers.

Screen: Scattered rumors have Apple’s inability to get the iPad 3 up to retina display quality as the reason why the device didn’t arrive in late 2011. Whether it can be pulled off by March 2012 is anyone’s guess…

Other specs: The iPad 2 marked the debut of the dual core A5 processor, which has since also found its way into the iPhone 4S. The year before, the iPad 1 marked the debut of the A4 processor. The safe-ish bet has the quad core A6 debuting in the iPad 3, giving the new tablet a level of computing speed which will finally begin to rival the horsepower found under the hoods of desktop and laptop computers, bringing Steve Jobs’ vision of tablets eclipsing home computers one step closer to reality.

Carriers and colors: Apple finally managed to deliver a single device in the iPhone 4S which can talk to AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon networks. The iPad 3 could do the same, eliminating the current carrier-segregated 3G models. That in turn could open the door for Apple to offer the iPad 3 in more colors than merely white and black, a limitation presumably placed on the iPad 2 out of respect for the eighteen different configurations on the market based merely on carrier, capacity, and two colors.

Source is
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