The website M.I.C. Gadget has gotten its hands on what it says is a pile of iPad 3 components and put them together in what SlashGear is calling "Frankenslate."
In the video, you'll notice the bloggers didn't actually put together a working tablet but merely assembled the outer shell of what they say will be the iPad 3. Even so, they came to a few conclusions.
It will Have a Physical Home Button
Much speculation to the contrary has been flying around since Apple sent its invitation to the media. The invitation showed a small section of an iPad with no home button on the bezel, but it could be that Apple included a weird angle in the invitation to mess with rumormongers. PCWorld's Jared Newman has already said he bets the home button is sticking around. He may very well be right -- at least it appears so if the components M.I.C. Gadget used are legit.
LTE Connectivity will Not be on Board
Last week 9to5Mac reported that a reliable source said iPad 3 pricing would be the same as iPad 2 and that the next-gen configurations would remain at 16/32/64GB. Interestingly, 9to5Mac also said its report had no bearing on LTE. Even so, M.I.C. believes LTE won’t be on board the iPad 3 for two reasons: There's currently a limited market for LTE and including the chip set would add an extra cost to each unit.
iPad 2 Covers are Tight on the iPad 3
M.I.C played around with a few new iPad 3 cases and said thousands of them have been sent to the U.S. That's hardly a revelation, although they did say people who want to use their iPad 2 cases on the iPad 3 will find it a tight fit because of the iPad 3's tapered edges which may make it feel thinner even though the iPad 3 looks to be thicker than the current model.
"Frankenslate" rumors aside, the leading theory is that the iPad 3 will sport an amazing Retina display, doubling the resolution over the previous models. Many Apple watchers believe the new tablet should get an updated camera and either a quad-core A6 processor or a dual-core A5X.
Check back on March 7 when PCWorld will lay all the conjecture to rest and bring you the news from Apple's media event.
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