iPad, iPad wherefore art thou iPad 3? Or is that iPad 2 HD?
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| One impression of the next iPad. |
We’ve been there and done that with the iPad 2. So what does Apple have up their sleeve for the next tab instalment, due this year?
Apple’s third cult tablet will up the ante on features, but only slightly, believes Kyle Wiens from iFixit, who has made pretty accurate predictions on previous Apple devices in the past.
The iPad 3 and could boast double the screen resolution (possibly Retina), quad-core processor and high-res camera.
But will it be all the different?
Not really, Wiens told PC World and says he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Apple pulled an iPhone 4S on it and christened its new release ‘iPad 2 HD’, holding out on a gung-ho new 3rd series.
Wiens, a tech wizard who knows the inside of electronic devices better than you know your mother, predicts upgrades from the iPad 2 on performance “will be incremental, not insane.”
“I anticipate the iPad 3 will have basically the same form factor but with double the screen resolution,” he said, adding it may be “close” to a Retina display, as per iPhone, meaning you will be almost unable to see pesky pixels.
He also expects Apple to go to a quad-core processor “within two years” (up from its current A5 dual-core), thus a more potent computing engine, a la Asus 10″ Prime Transformer and a lot of the new smartphones rearing their head (including Samsung’s S3), may be pushed out til after ‘3’.
Predictions from other sources indicate ‘3’ will boast a low temperature polysilicon HD (2048X1536) p-Si high res display, 4G capabilities, and Near Field Communications (NFC) for tap and go payments.
Wiens also predicts the front camera will be high-res, similar to other sources, who say the front end will indeed be HD. iPad 2 back camera already has HD.
And there lots of room for improvement on the graphics processor for better video and game viewing, the tech whiz notes, and warns “Apple needs to up their game on the iPad” in the same way they did with the iPhone.
And speaking of iPhone, Wiens also said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Apple brought in Siri, for first-gen i4.
