iPad 3 Release Date

Apple unveiled iBooks2 last week in New York City as part of its education event. iBooks2 was released to set the stage ready for the coming iPad 3 to boost up its educational credentials. According to Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, “now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students can have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love”.

According to Apple pundits, this latest update of iBooks gives enough clues about the ‘Retina Display-like’ high resolution screen that has been rumoured to come with the iPad 3. High quality iPad images were found in the iBooks app in January, 2011 and it triggered speculations about 2048X1536 resolutions for iPad2. That didn’t materialize, but as per experts, the recent update of iBooks2 contains a third image with 2X equivalent resolution of the iPad. Similar high-resolution images were found in an iOS 5 beta last summer too.

iPad and iPad2 were launched with a resolution of 1024X768. A 2X resolution for iPad3 means a resolution of 2048X1536 – which comes to 264 PPI (Pixels per Inch). iPhone 4 has a pixel density of 326 ppi. But this much pixel density is not required for an iPad, considering the distance at which screen is held from the eye. A recent beta update of iOS 5.1 showed references to debut of A6 quad-core processor with the iPad3. Now iBooks update affirms 2X resolution. Are the iPad 3 specs finally starting to become clearer? Do you think Apple is intentionally leaving these bits and pieces of the puzzle just before the launch of iPad 3?

Reports are buzzing that Microsoft are planning to launch its Office Software suite optimized for iPad next year and there are chances that this will happen even before the launch of iPad 3. Last month Facebook too released its official app for iPad. With iPad occupying around 80% of the tablet market space, even giants like Microsoft are left with no other option. It will be their loss if they don’t release software optimized for iPads.

As per reports from The Daily, Microsoft has plans to bring the Office software suite for iMac, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air also down the line. According to the news agency, the new software versions will bring more revenue to Microsoft. Microsoft is expected to release its tablet-friendly, touch-optimized and tiled-OS Windows 8 next year. Microsoft is pinning up hopes on this release to challenge Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. But with plans for launching Office for iPad, it looks like Microsoft has more than one strategy to beat the competition. It is a 180 degree shift from the days of exclusivity game-play strategy. As per the daily, “The full versions of Office for Mac and Windows 8 are expected to launch near the end of 2012, though the iPad version could come well ahead of that date”.

It is surprising why the latest source code for the default compiler in Apple’s Xcode developer tools shows support for Marvell’s quad-core, ARM-based Armada XP processor. As we know, Marvell is targeting the processor for low-power cloud computing applications. This was inadvertently discovered by a developer who works on a low-level ARM assembly coding for security products.

While we cannot posit any definite answer, we can try to make a few educated guesses why something like this would be done. Having optional support for the Armada XP is something fascinating.

First, we think Apple could be considering the Marvell for the iPad 3, along with next-generation iOS devices. Since it is possible that NVIDIA may have its “Kal-El” quad-core Tegra 3 processors  next year to run Android-based mobile devices with impressive processing power akin to a desktop, Marvell’s Armada processors will be able to approximate a similar kind of performance.

Second, the Marvell is a good choice for a processor that is low powered and enhances batterly life, perfect for the MacBook Air. While gossip seems to suggest that a move to ARM for the Mac Air, the performance based on the watts used of the processor is not that attractive. Also, sticking with Intel would mean that there would be no need for Apple to convince app developers to recompile their software.

Maybe Apple would be using the Marvell chip in prototypes of future iOS device designs for testing purposes. Think about it. An Armada XP-powered prototype logic board would also allow iOS or Mac OS X software engineers to test performance tuning. Meanwhile, Apple’s hardware design team could continue testing a possible quad-core ARM design. The reals reason is to ensure that it remains competitive in the mobile device market, when circumstances demand it to be.

The 5th beta version of the upcoming iOS 5 from Apple has been released yesterday (Saturday) and many of us are excited not only at the fact that this means Apple could be close to releasing the new OS but also the fact that they are releasing it at the weekend means they probably have a tight deadline to stick to.  What could the deadline be….

As you may know, the development team at apple usually like to keep their release schedule to weekday business hours, the fact that they have pushed this 5th beta version out on the weekend is something quite of a rare occurance.  It’s strange that they didnt just wait till Monday to release this, a few days really isnt that much of a difference, the teams must be working against a pretty tight clock.

The iOS 5 will power Macs as well as the portable devices such as iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad which means it must be ready when the new hardware is ready for release.  Seeing as they are pushing this release out on the weekend means that the new hardware is probably soon to be released.

Apple can get feedback on the new beta and iron out any bugs, most of the time there is less of a rush as updates for an OS can be rolled out easily in 5.0.1 a few weeks after launch but its slightly different with portables running the OS as its slightly harder to distribute updates and a bug in the OS could cause a lot of problems for consumers and reflect badly on Apple.

So it looks like, while there hasnt been an official date set for the ipad 3, there is certainly something penned in on Mr Job’s calendar as the the engineers at Apple appear to be battling against a finite timeframe.

Checkout the full list of release notes for iOS 5 Beta 5 here