Unless you’ve been hiding away for the last week or so, you will have caught the coverage of the upcoming iPad 3’s Retina display – all-but confirmed thanks to a discovery of the new and improved part by MacRumors.
Having confirmed the display to double the current display’s pixellage vertically and horizontally (thus quadrupling the total number of pixels), MacRumors unfortunately couldn’t fire the screen up. For a little more technical expertise, MacRumors passed the unit on to iFixit, a renowned company in iPhone, iPad and iPod repairs, to see if they could elaborate any further.
Since the new display has a different connector to the iPad 2’s, iFixit was also unable to hook it up. Whilst connecting to an older device wouldn’t improve the resolution of, say, apps or wallpapers, it would allow the now heavily-salivating tech world to catch a glimpse of the new Retina display showing some signs of life – bringing it closer to reality.
iFixit also had a pop at attempting to map the pins of the two displays in a makeshift arrangement, but concluded it would have little chance of success. Furthermore, with the iPad 3 rumored to be announced in the next couple of weeks, the timeframe was just too narrow.
Nonetheless, through the lovely MJ, iFixit did confirm the findings of MacRumors, with the 2048×1536 display set to really step the iPad’s game up for 2012. Hitherto, consumers have been left disappointed by a fairly mediocre LCD, but with iBooks, Newsstand and now iTunes U all pushing out various forms of e-reading content, sharp edges and neat lines are a near-necessity.
Allied to the display, we should also see an improvement in the cameras, with 5 & 8 mega-pixel displays both being suggested by tech commentators and analysts. There’s likely to be a quad-core processor since – if nothing else – Apple has nearly always doubled the speed of its smartphone and tablet devices since day one.
The fruit company may finally join Club LTE, having opted to keep a distance from the relatively new technology whilst watching rivals eagerly adopt. With the form factor of the iPad 3 rumored to be slightly thicker, one suspects Apple is finally loosening its belt and embracing.
We eagerly await the March 7th announcement, which, if my math is correct, is just thirteen short sleeps away.
Stay tuned for updates as they come in!
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