The iPhone 5 News Blog

Breaking news today regarding the rumored “Mini iPad.” According to BGR, an unnamed source from Samsung indicates that the smaller iPad will be released later in the year, based on Apple’s recent ordering of parts from the components manufacturer. Zach Epstein reports: “While speaking with The Korea Times, the anonymous Samsung official said that Apple will likely spend a record $11 billion on Samsung-sourced parts for its various devices in 2012. ‘The amount of the current contract is around $9.7 billion,’ The Korea Times was told.”

Samsung is the current supplier of the new Retina displays for the iPad 3, and is rumored to be producing the display for the sub-9.7 inch Mini iPad, which will most likely feature a 7.85-inch screen. These screen dimensions would put the Mini iPad in the midst of lower-priced tablets, such as the Kindle and Nook, though the Samsung source gave no indication as to a comparative price point for the new Mini iPad.

It is well-known that Steve Jobs was on record as panning the notion of small-screened tablets, arguing that the smaller screen would blur the lines between tablet and smartphone so as to make it difficult to sell both to prospective users. Thus, a 7.85 inch Mini iPad would be a dramatic reversal for Cupertino’s design team in the wake of Jobs’ death.

By Michael Nace

Speculation about the future of the home button for both the iPad and iPhone was rekindled in the week leading up to the New iPad’s launch, thanks to an ill-advised teaser photo from Cupertino’s PR department. The photo, which appeared to show an iPad in landscape mode with no home button,was later refuted by late-breaking component photos of the new iPad’s front display piece, and then officially killed at the product launch, when the home button appeared on the New iPad, with no special attention paid to it either way by Tim Cook.

In the ensuing excitement and attention paid to the New iPad launch, few have stopped to question Apple’s decision to use the cryptic teaser photo. And while that story may no longer be of interest to Apple enthusiasts, the zeal for this story — the future of the home button on iOS devices — is worth noting. The size, shape, function, and use of the home button on the iPad and iPhone remains a feature that users feel is bound for an upgrade — or total removal from the device.

For the few days where a home button-less New iPad seemed possible, the rationale was based mostly on the new display; some suggested that the removal of the physical home button would be a result of either increasing the screen size or decreasing the bezel/chassis around it. Neither of those two things happened, of course.

Now that the iPad release is under our belts, full speculation will shift now to the iPhone 5 (and iOS 6 to a lesser extent). Considering that the home button remained on the New iPad, can we also assume that it will be there on the iPhone 5 as well?

From my perspective, there are a few things to consider in this discussion. First off is the popularity of the home button, and how that popularity coincides with Apple’s own design ethics. Anecdotally speaking, most iPhone (and iPad) users seem happy with the home button. In a way, the home button is a major part of the stability of iOS: you push it, you feel it depress, and then you’re back home. The more nondescript sense of tapping a touch-style home button (we have one on our Kyrocera Echo) doesn’t give you any physical feedback, so you don’t always have a sense that you really pushed it. Because of this, there is no tactile confirmation that you’re “going home” when you push a key like this. And the same would be true for a home button on the actual screen.

My sense is that Apple feels this way as well.

The decision to remove the home button would seem at face value to be about aesthetics more than function; it would allow Apple to perhaps make a completely minimalist iPhone 5 design — maybe with no physical buttons at all, and cut from a single piece of metal. Something like that. In this way, the idea would be in keeping with Apple’s past designs, which include computers with no hardware-style eject button for disk drives, no separate reset button, etc.

Of course, there is one scenario where we could imagine Cupertino removing the home button on the iPhone 5, while having chosen to keep it on the iPad 3: screen space. Just as Apple didn’t really have a need to increase screen size on the New iPad — 9.7 inches is actually considered to be rather large these days for tablets, as many competing models are getting smaller, not bigger — the iPhone 5 will be a different situation. Users are calling for a larger screen, but as we have argued here on the Blog, Cupertino seems to like the iPhone’s overall dimensions. It is possible that the iPhone 5 could be a shrinking or removal of the home button to accommodate a slightly larger 3.7-inch screen.

If this was the case, users would have to decide for themselves if the loss of the home button would be worth a slightly larger screen.

Of course, there is no hard evidence to suggest that it has to be one or another. Photoshoppers have already mocked up iPhone 5 concepts with the 3.7-inch screen, still retaining a home button. However, it can be said that the iPhone 5 has a better chance of losing the home button than the iPad 3 ever did.

In keeping with previous product launch successes, Apple managed to sell out of its stock of pre-order-ready New iPads in less than 24 hours. All indications are that they will be supply issues in the early going of the iPad’s official store launch date of March 16th.

If you were one of the millions of people who managed to get your pre-ordered New iPad, then congratulations: you were lucky. Less than 24 hours after the New iPad’s official announcement, Apple was already advising pre-order customers of shipping delays for certain models. As of right now, all models are delayed. This is indicative of an amazing sales achievement: Apple sold out of its pre-order cache of New iPads in just a few days.

According to Josh Wolford at WebProNews: “Less that 24 hours after Apple announced the device, some models had already pushed the date back to March 19th. The most popular models, by that measure, were the white 16 GB 4G model on AT&T and the white 64 GB 4G model on AT&T.” Considering that these 4G models are not the entry-level wi-fi models, it also shows a dramatic shift in focus among iPad users, who with the previous two iPad iterations coalesced around the wi-fi models. Considering that 4G models appear to be the hottest selling new iPad, it would indicate that consumer demand for 4G LTE devices is indeed on the rise — and that Apple was spot-on to make the New iPad its first foray into 4G connectivity.

These early iPad sales indicators are complete in line with what Wall Street expects will be yet another dominating year for Apple’s tablet sales. According to Apple Insider, the new, third-generation iPad is seen my analysts and consumers alike as a next-generation device that will continue to excite sales throughout the year: “Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to investors that the new iPad is a “significant upgrade” to the iPad 2. He expects the device and a new version of iOS will help Apple maintain its lead in the tablet market.”

Munster is clearly pointing to both the iPad 3′s Retina display and 4G LTE connectivity as defining it as a “significant upgrade,” in spite of the fact that leading voices in the tech community, such as Richi Jennings at Computerworld who characterized his New iPad roll-up as thus: “Aside from the name, not much else was a surprise (except to those who backed the wrong rumors).” This perception, however, may be a byproduct of sensational, late-breaking rumors that never came to fruition, such as the rumor of an iPad 3 with no home button, an accompanying Mini iPad, or an early-morning press release from LiquidMetal technologies on the day of the New iPad release that suggested to investors that LiquidMetal might comprise a new iPad 3 form factor.

Since none of these form factor-related innovations showed up on the new iPad, lofty expectations from the tech rumor mill once again built up expectations that Apple could not meet.

These perceived disappointments are not mainstream, however, as Apple’s stockade of New iPads dwindle, and Cupertino struggles with relish to meet crushing demand for a New iPad that millions upon millions of consumers will come to own in 2012.

By Michael Nace

My first impression that Apple was being too cute by half in going with just “iPad” for the third-gen tablet is evolving. Peripherals and accessories manufacturers are already struggling with the unexpected name. For example, check out this from a press release I received today from Kensington:

Kensington KeyFolio Bluetooth Keyboard Case for new iPad®, iPad® 2 & iPad® (K39336US; $99.99)

“New iPad” will work for a bit, but what do they do for the next act? And what will we call it when the next generation is released and this one is no longer new?

I was underwhelmed by Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller’s explanation to The Wall Street Journal that Cupertino decided to call the new iPad simply “iPad” “because we don’t want to be predictable.” That manages to be both lame and supercilious simultaneously, and I’m not convinced that Schiller was being candid or serious about that. Others have suggested, more convincingly in my estimation, that it may be more that Apple wants to “generify” the iPad name, much the way the MacBook and iMac names are applied to various versions of their respective products. The aforementioned Pismo was the last Apple laptop to be popularly referenced by a development code name. Subsequent models have just gone by more generic nomenclature like PowerBook G4 or the various MacBook family designations, with versions distinguished by the dates of their release, eg: “late 2008,” or “mid-2011,” etc. — much the way automobiles are.

Consequently, if this change in Apple idevice naming conventions turns out to be a policy shift rather than just cocking a snook at the Apple rumorista cohort, the iPad model announced Wednesday would eventually be referred to as the “early-2012 iPad,” and the rumored 7.85-inch model, if it materializes in Q3 would be the “late-2012 iPad, and so forth.

And if that be the case, we may never see an iPhone 5; in fact, I’m now skeptical that we will. My inference could be mistaken of course, but I would rate the odds as less than 50-50 that a new iPad released later this year will be called “iPhone 5″ by Apple. More likely it will be “mid-2012” or “late-2012″ iPhone. Actually, that would be more precisely appropriate than iPhone 5 strictly speaking, since the current iPhone 4S is the 5th-generation iPhone.

Moving on, I’m also altering my provisional deduction that the next iPhone will share the new Apple A5X CPU with the new IPad, and my evolving POV has to do with the new iPad’s emphasis on graphics performance necessitated by the big Retina Display. The next iPhone, whose screen will be much smaller, won’t need nearly as much emphasis on graphics processing muscle.

Apple’s official description of the iPad chip is: ”Dual-core Apple A5X custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip with quad-core graphics.” Not exactly crystal-clear what that signifies, but CNET Crave’s Margerite Reardon quotes fellow CNET blogger and chip guru Brooke Crothers explaining that:

“The new iPad’s graphics chip — which is based on Imagination’s PowerVR tech — is basically a quad-core version of the dual-core graphics chip in the iPad 2. That’s where Apple gets the two-fold performance increase. The upshot is that Apple is focusing on the GPU because it needs to devote all of the chip real estate it can to transistors that push around an amazingly pixel-dense display–which crams a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 into a 9.7-inch display.”

So, the pertinent question for most readers of this blogsite is what Apple’s choice of processor silicon for the new iPad portends for the iPhone 5 (since Wednesday it seems prudent to consider that name a possible placeholder) coming later this year. My read of the tealeaves is that odds of the next iPhone having a quad-core A6 processor are looking even slimmer that they had been — I still think it’s more likely that Apple will launch the A6 in an iPad. That would be especially the case if the new Apple handset were to be released at the WWDC three months from now, as I don’t think it will be, ‘but I think it’s a very long shot even for a fall 2012 release.

I’m guessing now that iPhone 5 (or whatever) this year will be powered by another A5 variant, but probably one without the A5X’s quad-core graphics.

IDG News Service’s Agam Shah cites several analysts suggesting that the A5X, with its four graphics cores and heavy focus on graphics processing performance, may not be ideal for smartphone use, although they are crucial for providing smooth operation of the iPad’s 2048-by-1536-pixel display.

More likely the iPhone would get its own chip, possibly produced with a 28-nanometer manufacturing process (refers to refers to the size of the smallest circuits etched onto the chip) that would make it more power-efficient and cheaper to produce, but which wasn’t quite ready in time for the early 2012 iPad. Current ARM-based chips are manufactured with a 40-nanometer process and based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 technology, but it’s expected that a new more power-efficient 28-nanometer Cortex-A15 core family of ARM CPUs will be ready to ship later this year. Ergo, probably the A6, but not necessarily quad-core, at least for the iPhone.

By Charles Moore

Apple’s decision to include an A5X processor with quad-core graphics in the New iPad is in line with a growing quad-core trend for mobile devices. But a leading analyst believes that the iPhone 5 is unlikely to use the same processor.

In the months leading up to the release of the New iPad, debate swung heavily back and forth between whether or not Apple would equip their third-generation tablet with a rumored dual-core A5X processor or quad-core A6 chip. In the end, the A5x turned out to support quad-core graphics, and well-suited for the robust software features and high-definition display on the New iPad.

But for as much as the new A5x would appear to be ushering in a new quad-core movement in Apple’s mobile gadget ranks, a leading analyst argues that the high performance of the A5X processor may not be well suited for the upcoming iPhone 5. According to Macworld, “The chips used in the first two iPads, the A4 and A5, both made their way into a new iPhone soon after. But the A5X, with its heavy focus on graphics, may not be ideal for smartphone use, and Apple may wait for a more power-efficient chip built with a new manufacturing process.”

This perspective comes by way of Linley Group founder Linley Gwennap, who states that the A5X is simply too power inefficient, and thus the iPhone 5′s smaller battery will not be a good match: “I think that this new chip is probably just for the iPad… it looks like they planned ahead for this.”

The Macworld article also goes on to cite “Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research,” who “also sees the current A5X as an unlikely candidate for the next iPhone, which won’t require as much graphics processing power as an iPad. The current iPhone has a display density of 326 pixels per inch, greater than the latest iPad’s 264 pixels per inch, but the iPhone has only a 3.7-inch display.”

Gwennap and McCarron are both imagining that, while the A5X chip supports quad-core graphics, we could be due for a dual-core A6 later in the year, which would be used on the iPhone 5, since matching the New iPad’s graphics will not be a priority, while offering an iPhone 5 with sustained battery life will be.

Apple enthusiasts may be disturbed by the prospect of a quad-core A5X chip being followed up by a dual-core A6 chip for the iPhone 6, sensing yet another odd naming convention, similar to the disconcerting nature of Apple’s decision to brand the new iPad simply as the “New iPad.” But in point of fact, it is much easier to justify the A5X’s name as a possible new sub-series for all of Apple’s future quad-core graphics chips: now, whenever “X” appears on the chip name, it may be indicative of quad-core graphics, versus the dual-core design of the A4, A5, and soon-to-be A6 chips.

More tricky for Apple, however, could be leaving off quad-core processing technology on the iPhone 5 altogether in the year where quad-core is being deployed heavily across a wide range of competing devices. We’ve already reported on the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, which is set to find its way onto Android smartphones this year. Similar to the issue of 4G LTE, Apple may not from a marketing standpoint be able to ignore quad-core processing on the iPhone 5 if it is perceived by consumers as a necessity for top-tier smartphone designs.

By Michael Nace

It was widely assumed that the third-generation iPad would be called “iPad 3,” “iPad HD,” or some other name with a qualifier in it. But the nondescript “New iPad” moniker leaves Apple enthusiasts with questions about the future of Cupertino’s naming taxonomy for both the iPad and iPhone.

There is a certain comfort and familiarity to the naming conventions that Apple has used over the years for its iPod, iPhone, and iPad product lines — an innate understanding that an “iPhone 4S” denotes a “refresh,” whereas an “iPhone 5″would indicate an “overhaul.” In the case of prognosticating the name of the third-generation iPad, expected names were “iPad 3″ or “iPad HD,” with the former being the most accurate identifier, and the latter a reasonable alternative, boasting of the new Retina display. “iPad 4G” probably would have also sufficed.

But Apple threw us all for a loop, opting for the minimalist “New iPad” instead.

The “New iPad?” Which new iPad? Is this the “New iPad 2?” That would make it an “iPad 2S,” right? Or, given the fact that this is the third-generation iPad, is this a de facto “iPad 3?”

Moreover, will the “New iPad” still be the new iPad 8 months from now? How about 15 months from now, when the 2013 iPad is released? Will that be the “New New iPad?”

The tech community sometimes derides Appledom for stressing over these naming issues, citing it as more proof that consumers’ devotion to the Apple brand is more of a cult-like obsession rather than a healthy passion for cool electronics. But whether or not that is the case, it is Apple’s marketing department that has ginned up its own customers by establishing reasonable naming conventions for its devices — and then wantonly breaking them in disconcerting fashion.

With the “New iPad,” we don’t really know what we have here. Is this a refresh of the iPad 2, or an overhauled design? According to the preponderance of evidence from the mainstream tech media, the New iPad has not impressed enough to warrant calling it an overhaul. Thus, even though the New iPad is the third-generation iPad, will there be an “iPad 3″ next year?

According to Apple, we shouldn’t expect much explanation. From the Wall Street Journal: “The company didn’t provide a detailed explanation. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of world-wide marketing, simply said that Apple broke from the convention ‘because we don’t want to be predictable.’”

This academic discussion may remind you of similar arguments regarding the iPhone 4S, which is in actuality the fifth-generation iPhone. Many analysts believe that Apple should technically name the 2012 iPhone “iPhone 6,” skipping over the long-awaited “iPhone 5″ moniker in order to bring the sixth-generation iPhone’s name in line with its iteration. Whether or not Apple will do that remains to be seen — there is no evidence either way as to whether or not Apple will call 2012′s iPhone the “iPhone 5″ or “iPhone 6.”

And for all we know, they may call it the “New iPhone.”

One thing is for sure, Apple’s new name for New iPad has once again made it impossible to know for sure what brand name they will stamp on their next device, making it increasingly difficult to divine what Cupertino is up to in their R&D department. Of course, that’s exactly what Apple hopes to do.

By Michael Nace

Now that I’ve had a few hours to digest today’s third-generation iPad announcement, some thoughts and impressions are beginning to gel. First, the new Apple tablet turned out to be pretty much what I expected, and the rumor mills did a pretty good job of previewing what we were going to get.

Whether it’s “revolutionary” or not depends largely on how much value you put on the Retina display. Personally, I’ve been of the school of thought that wondered why the iPad needed a higher-resolution screen. The 1064 x 768 display in my iPad 2 has seemed perfectly adequate to me resolution-wise. Heck, that’s the screen-res. of my old Pismo PowerBooks, of which I still have two in production service. However, BetaNews’s Joe Wilcox in a blog yesterday suggests that for education, healthcare and publishing, a high-resolution iPad would be a transformative product, and contends that nothing currently available anywhere will be able compete toe-to-toe with an iPad offering 2048 x 1536 resolution, and that nothing likely will be able to for at least 12 months, perhaps longer, noting that current and announced Android tablets top out at 1280 x 800 resolution.

Photo Courtesy Apple

More importantly, Wilcox suggests that the Retina iPad will be positioned to further eat into PC sales, putting tremendous pressure on Microsoft as it prepares Windows 8 and Windows on ARM for future tablet sales, noting that for many people, the iPad will offer the best computer screen they can afford. I find this line of argument somewhat persuasive, especially since the curmudgeonly Mr. Wilcox is anything but an Apple cheerleader or fanboy.

That said, while I expect the new iPad’s Retina Display is truly spectacular and a glory to behold, I still don’t find myself as an iPad 2 user, Jonesing for more resolution at this point. Perhaps in the future something will come to light that will make it more compelling as a gotta’ have rather than a nice to have.

I have to say that I’m amused at Apple’s pulling the rug out of all,the speculation about what the third-gen ‘Pad would be called by not naming it anything beyond the generic “iPad.” I’m reminded of the Pismo PowerBook announcement at Macworld Tokyo almost exactly 12 years ago, with Apple calling their latest (and as it turned out, greatest G3 Series laptop) simply “PowerBook.” Well, strictly speaking its official moniker was “PowerBook G3 2000 FireWire, but for marketing purposes it was simply “PowerBook.” Of course, while that might have been elegantly minimalist, it didn’t really work very well in practical terms, and the machine immediately became known by it’s development code name, borrowed from a famous ocean beach near San Francisco.

Which begs the question of what name will end up sticking to the third-gen. IPad. I’m really glad they didn’t go with “iPad HD,” which had been bandied about for the past week or so, and which would have been lame. I would have been happy with iPad 2S, which would make logical sense to me at least.

I never put much stock in rumored speculation that this iPad release would have a quad-core A6 CPU, and especially not after Samsung started up its new state-of-the-art chip fabrication facility in Austin,Texas, making A5 chips. It beggared credibility that they would do that so close to the new iPad’s launch, if the latter were not going to persevere with the A5.Presumably, switching production to the new new A5X chip didn’t require any major production line retooling. The A5X features quad-core graphics, which Apple says offers double the graphics performance of the A5 chip used n the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, providing the graphics processing muscle to support the Retina display while striking a balance between performance and power efficiency.

I was on the fence about LTE, however, it’s included, which will be important to some potential buyers, and will offer future proofing for those prepared to pony up the extra trickles. Academic to me, since I’m even out of 3G range where I live.

Speaking of pricing, I think Apple did well to maintain the price points of the previous generation models, and carrying the 16 GB and 32 GB iPad 2 models at $399 and $529 respectively is a shrewd move as well.

Having a nine month old iPad 2, I’m not even considering moving up to the third-gen, model, although I would love to have that 5 megapixel camera and better lens, since I’ve been using the camera feature in my iPad more lately.

That’s pretty much it for first impression analysis. As always, I’ll be interested to hear readers’ views.

After a great deal of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals the highly anticipated iPad 3, together with an impressive array of new features that are bound to make it a massive success in 2012.

Apple delivers, again.

At Apple’s new product launch today, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the new iPad 3 to a packed house of enthusiastic tech journalists and enthusiasts. While the tech community has pondered at length whether or not Apple and its ever-popular gadgets could continue to deliver on coolness and excitement in the wake of Steve Jobs’ death, the iPad 3 appears to be poised for yet another landmark success.

Leading off with staggering sales numbers from last year – Apple sold 315 million iOS devices through last year, and 62 million in Q4 alone — Cook steadily rolled out virtually everything that Apple enthusiasts were wishing for: an improved iOS 5.1, an upgraded Apple TV, and of course the piece de résistance, the iPad 3.

Retina Display

The iPad delivered on the high-definition Retina display that has been rumored for almost a year, with the resolution being so crisp that Cook could not even properly demonstrate on the screen behind him.The new display comes in at the expected 2048 x 1536 resolution, which works out to 3.1 million pixels. “The most ever in a mobile device,” Cook reminds us, and 40 percent better color saturation.

The Retina display is going to greatly enhance the overall user experience, and become the driving force behind SketchBook Ink from Autodesk, which is an incredible, new drawing app that focuses on line art, and leverages the new display to bring an impressive level of artistry to the new iPad. This new app promises to give users a new digital medium for creating art and graphics, and can export images greater than 100 megapixels.

The Cupertino crew are also boasting of how the new iPad will really ratchet up the gaming experience, claiming that it eclipses the memory and screen resolution experience that you get with even the Xbox 360 or the PS3.

New Processor — and all the bells and whistles that come with it

The new iPad also comes with the rumored A5X processor, which at times was assumed to be a refreshed, dual-core version of the A5. However, the A5X will deliver quad-core graphics and power a 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor, 5-element autofocus lens, IR filter, and ISP. Plus, 1080p video recording, which will make the new iPad a pretty serious video device. Another nifty feature will be a voice dictation app, which will support multiple languages and allow users hands-free composition.

But what’s really impressive is that all of this new processing power will still serve up 10 hours of battery life, a not-so-sexy but appreciated feature, especially considering the battery issues on the iPhone 4S.

4G LTE

But perhaps the most anticipated feature was 4G LTE. The new iPad now features 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, and 4G LTE at a resounding 73Mbps. It becomes the first Apple device to be officially 4G LTE. The use of LTE will make it much easier for users to send all of the new high-performance photos and video quicker. The fact that both AT&T and Verizon will feature the 4G LTE service will make this new feature widely available. And because the new iPad will work as a hotspot, it will be able to power other devices as well.

New, Improved Software

Already popular Apple software is all getting upgraded as well. Garageband will see an impressive upgrade, allowing musicians to share and work together on the same projects, Smart Strings, a Note editor, and the ability to push audio content through iCloud. This is particularly impressive, since raw audio files tend to be big and hard to transfer/move.

iMovie is also getting a sorely-needed update, and will include better clip editing and storyboarding, taking it to a more pro level. Also, the improved iMove will work seamlessly with the improved video quality, allowing users to shoot, edit, and produce really high-quality movies all on the new iPad.

Joining these two upgrades is iPhoto for iPad, something completely new from the iPhoto app that looks simply amazing. The new app allows an incredibly fluid, intuitive interface that lets users browse, compare, and edit personal photos with ease, and even let the iPhoto engine find comparable photos in your library. It even features a kind of “smart bezel” built into the software portion of the frame. It also facilitates social sharing of all photos.

The whole new iLife package will run $4.99, starting today.

Same Price Tag!

“When we set out to create the iPad, we set out to create not just a new product but a new category,” said Cook. “In order to do that, the iPad had to be the best device for doing some of the things that you do most often.” The new iPad certainly appears to be delivering on that promise, with the best part being that it will feature the same prices as current iPad, with pre-orders starting today, and available in stores on March 16th.

Apple TV Upgrade

The upgraded Apple TV appears to be delivering new features and services as per some of Tim Cook’s recent candid comments about where he saw Apple’s investment into television was headed. The improved Apple TV essentially looks the same as the original, but offers some major upgrades: 1080p, a new user interface will now feature big billboard-like images for thumbnails, TV shows will be added the day after they air, full integration with movies stores in iCloud, and there’s iTunes Match support, recommending movies for you based on what you’ve already watched. Most impressively, it will retain its $99 price tag and be available for pre-order today, with a delivery date in a few weeks.

iOS 5.1

The long-awaited iOS 5.1 iteration will also be warmly received, which has been heavily speculated on for the past few months, with hopes that it would deliver improved battery function on the iPhone 4S, as well as several new, innovative features for the mobile operating system. iOS 5.1 will include new multi-language Siri support, with Japanese being a big focus of the new rollout.

The release of the iPad 3 will also impact and fuel further speculation about the highly anticipated iPhone 5, which is expected to be released sometime between June and October this year. Analysts believe that the appearance of 4G LTE, a new A5X processor, and new software features could all be harbingers of a completely overhauled iPhone 5 design that will once again launch Apple’s flagship smartphone into a new strata of success.

but for now, the iPad 3 will reign supreme as Apple enthusiasts’ newest obsession.

By Michael Nace

We head into Apple’s big product announcement today with wild rumors swirling about what is to be announced. Here’s a recap of all that’s been rumored thus far.

As usual, the Apple rumor mill has ratcheted up expectations for today’s Apple product release event, to the point that, should all of the rumors prove true, we’ll end up with a host of groundbreaking, new Apple gadgets. That is highly unlikely to happen, however, as Apple has proved over the years that they seldom drop more than one really big, groundbreaking product at a time. In the end, this time of the year is iPad season, and the most likely and reasonable expectation should be “just” a “plain old” iPad announcement. What that new iPad is going to look like — and be named — still remains to be seen.

In anticipation of the big event, which is scheduled to begin at 10:00 am PST, I thought it would be worth recapping all of the rumors attributed to this day, just  to keep them in mind and weigh their likelihood.

First up is the new iPad’s name. The tech media has ascribed the working title of “iPad 3″ to what’s due out today, simply because it’s an easy to use moniker, and thus far we already have the original iPad and iPad 2 to go by in terms of taxonomy. But really, it seems as if we never have quite enough information from previous Apple gadget iterations to completely lock in a naming scheme for new models, and as a result, the “iPad 3″ name has lately switched to a belief that it will in fact be named “iPad HD,” based on the rumored upgrade in the display.

If we go by this logic, Apple would also be capable of naming the thing “iPad 4G” or “iPad LTE,” based on the belief that it will be Apple’s first 4G LTE mobile device. But it is worth mentioning that the rumor mill actually posited the name “iPhone 4S” some six months before its release, and actually got it right. Maybe the rumor mill will get “iPad HD” correct as well?

Second, we have to mention the dual iPad release rumors. There are two of these to mention: the smaller, 7- or 8-inch “Mini” iPad, which has more recently been revised to suggest Apple will release it in the third quarter of 2012 (what, at the same time that the rumor mill says the iPhone 5 will launch? C’mon!); and very recently, a “slimmed-down” cheaper 8GB iPad 2 to take on the Kindle. This rumor has actually gone mainstream, with the Daily Mail doing a big spread about it today.

I guess anything’s possible, but isn’t this iPad 3/el cheap-o iPad 2 dual release rumor basically the same thing as the iPhone 4S/5 rumor from 2011? I’ve argued that Apple would be undercutting itself with a move like this, and considering that polls show that even a super majority of Kindle users are ready to shell out bigger bucks for the iPad 3, it’s hard to imagine that Apple would complicate consumers’ minds by doing this.

Third up is iOS 5.1. Certainly not as “sexy” of a story as the iPad 3, rumors and speculation about iOS 5.1 has actually garnered tons of attention over the past few months, based in part of interesting rumors of new features, and also on iPhone 4S users’ yearning for improved battery life for their notoriously lethargic smartphone. The prevailing belief is that iOS 5.1 could be announced today, and that the new iPad will be shipping with it. It will be interesting to see how high-profile Apple chooses to make iOS 5.1 in its presentation.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning iTV and Apple TV. Both have been talked about as of late, with Tim Cook recently speaking candidly about Apple’s sincere interest in penetrating the television market. He believes that it is an untapped market, and that Apple is well positioned to lead the way. Many have interpreted this to mean that iTV could be imminent.

There have been no production or component rumors about iTV coming out of Asia, and as mentioned before, Apple typically does not overlap big product launches, for fear that they could eclipse one another. However, an upgraded Apple TV would be something that we could see today, which would be just unimportant enough to not cloud the iPad 3. Mac Rumors is predicting an updated Apple TV with 1080p video support, but that will remain just $99. This would explain why inventory for the current Apple TV would have been cleared out recently.

So, there you have it. This is all that is floating around just prior to the product launch today. Let’s see what shakes loose from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

By Michael Nace

[UPDATED 3/7/2012: Read our full coverage of the release of the new iPad 3 today here.]

It’s amazing how nine words and two periods can fuel so much speculation. Not even two complete sentences — “We have something you have to see. and touch” is just a sentence and a fragment. And yet, embedded in those lines lies the secret in store for us all (assuming that Tim Cook has decided to make Apple much less interesting in these teaser photos, and we just didn’t get the memo.”

A picture is worth a thousand words, which is why the first impressions of Apple press invitations was visual: the orientation of the iPad photo, together with what appears to be the lack of a home button, spurred people on to analyze the accompanying lines of text and match meaning with the home button-less speculation. Does “And touch” refer to the fact that you’ll have to touch the iPad 3′s screen to get back to the home screen? Recent rumored photos of iPad 3 parts deny that notion, but then again, how reliable have these part photos been in predicting new Apple form factors in the past? Not so much.

But since we’re just about 24 hours out from the big March 7th announcement, let’s crunch the words one more time: what if Apple is attributing “see” to iTV — or at least some upgrade to the current Apple TV — and “touch” refers to the new iPad 3?

Maybe you’ve already thought about that possibility in passing — or maybe you haven’t dared to. But others has already taken the plunge. check this out:

The Guardian had this to say about the prospect of iTV debuting tomorrow in their prognostication poll: “An iPad 3? A smaller version? One with LTE/4G? Retina display? And what about Apple TV?”

There’s more.

Mac Rumors has a trending article from yesterday, pointing out that the current Apple TV is all but sold out in stores, indicating that the supply chain has been cut off, ostensibly in anticipation of a new device: “With Apple’s iPad 3 media event now roughly 36 hours away and Apple also expected to unveil an updated Apple TV at the event, we’ve been watching as more and more Apple retail stores are running dry of the current model. By our most recent count, 98% of Apple’s 246 U.S. stores are currently out of stock…” So, Mac Rumors is arguing that this piece of circumstantial evidence might be a clue that iTV — or at least an uptade to the current Apple TV, could be on its way.

Semantically speaking, Apple’s teaser scrawl doesn’t really add up to a dual release: The use of the word “something” throws a wrench into the theory that the are talking about two things, since “something” is singular.” And the sentence fragment “And touch” makes reference to this one thing. Also, Apple has yet to deliver on a big dual release, in spite of the rumor mills trying to will it into reality: last fall, we heard rumors of both an iPhone 4S and 5 release, as well as the dual iPhone 5/iPad 2 Plus release, none of which ever came even remotely true. But given Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent comments about what sounded a lot like iTV, he clearly has something in works, and it would appear to be coming sooner rather than later.

By Michael Nace