Rumored Features of the Apple iPad 3

There have been speculations that the next generation Apple iPadwill have retina display. That means that the iPad 3 will have thelargest resolution compared to the previous versions. It would featurea 2,048 by 1,536 pixels resolution for 326 dots per inch which is similar to the density of the touchscreen on the iPhone 4.

There are latest rumors stating that the iPad 3 will be launched early next year while others say that it would come out this fall or winter. It has been Apple’s policy not to comment on rumors and it hasn’t talked about the next generation iPad.
Apple’s iPad now faces a lot of competition from tablets running on Android mobile platform. To be competitive, the iPad 3 must be thinner, faster, and lighter. A better screen would also lure in the consumers.

he Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is thinner and lighter than the iPad 2. But its plastic back feels cheap compared to the iPad 2’s aluminum material. Apple could use plastic and glass combination for the iPad 3 to come out with a lighter and thinner tablet.
The iPad’s glossy screen reflects too much light and makes it hard to read outdoors. Apple could incorporate a glare protector so that it could become a major player in the e-book market. Apple provides it for its MacBook Pro laptops and this should be an option for the iPad as well.

Apple Fauxtotypes

iMake: 3D printer imagined by Mark Frauenfelder of MAKE

When Mark Frauenfelder was asked to think of an imaginary future Apple product, he came up with a glossy and sleek.
I've always imagined that someday soon, everyone will have a 3D printer at home. Mark's vision of the Apple-y future really shook me up and made me think about how designs circulate. In the future Mark posits, designs could be like songs, or iPhone apps in iTunes.

"To create a product, you visit the iTunes Store to choose from among tens of thousands of product designs--prices range from free to $9.99--purchasing one just as you would a song, video, or app. The 3D data is sent to the iMake, which builds the parts, layer by layer, out of high-quality plastic. The iMake will also make the circuit boards. Then, all you do is snap the pieces together! After purchasing a 3D model from the iTunes Store, it takes about 15 minutes to print a 3D part."

Imagining a digital design branch of iTunes unsettled me, because one of the main focuses of the current DIY 3D printing movement is to be open source--and focus on sharing ideas and designs freely. The collective goal is to build out a large library of digital objects that anyone can download, modify, customize and share.
Should designs be free? It's really a provocative question. Would designers be more motivated to create designs if they could make money off of them?
I'm really curious to hear what you think about this in the comments! And, thanks to Mark for the thought-provoking vision of the future!

Applevision: You won't be able to tear your eyes away from Apple's superpowered television.

Whether it’s a lovely 3.5-inch Retina display on an iPhone 4 or the absolutely stunning 27-inch Cinema Display, Apple’s rightly famous for putting gorgeous visuals first. But they’d never bother with a device as mundane as a regular television set. No, when Apple moves into the living room to capitalize on the snowballing convergence of the internet, gaming, apps, computing, and plain old movie-watching, the least significant thing the AppleVision will do is deliver a pretty picture.

But let’s start with that. The AppleVision’s 65-inch P-IPS display will offer 30-bit color depth capable of displaying more than a billion colors. That alone will make it prettier than any picture currently on the 
market.

1. The camera/mic combo will enable FaceTime video calls...as well as a Minority Report—style "swipe the air" control interface.
2. By gesturing in the air, you'll be able to shrink down your video and pop up a Safari window to look up the actor whose name is on the tip of your tonue.
3. Built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Max networking will keep your AppleVision and your iPhone in sync without all those annoying cables.

On to “the magic.” The gateway to the AppleVision’s coolest feature will lurk in a pinhole at the top of the display, where a wide-angle camera and a mic will be concealed. Of course they’ll be good for FaceTime chats right from your couch (just like the Jetsons!), but like Microsoft’s recently released Kinect (an add-on to the Xbox 360), the camera’s continuously projected infrared pattern will be constantly reading and analyzing the scene in front of the AppleVision. That means it’ll recognize you when you walk into the room, turning on your default home screen—or reacting to your kids’ arrival by activating whatever parental controls you’ve set. You’ll simply speak a command like, “Play The Hobbit” to cue up Peter Jackson’s latest masterpiece, or you’ll gesture with your hand, making a swiping motion in the air to flip through the menus and find something else to watch, an app to load up, a game to play, or simply just emails and tweets to answer. There’s no remote to master—just a “touchscreen in the air” interface that will make AppleVision a pleasure to use.

Behind the screen, AppleVision will pack in 4TB of RAID-enabled storage—HD movies are big!—as well as dual Core i11 Intel processors and 256GB of RAM. Since AppleVision runs iOS 6, you’ll be able to just sync a Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo, and you’ve got the biggest iPad ever built.

Yes, the AppleVision is an entertainment powerhouse. You’ll be able to access content stored locally, on your network, and in the cloud. And if you still need more media, the AppleVision will connect (over Wi-Max, of course) to streaming video from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and of course the iTunes Store. It will, quite simply, be the beautiful, Jonny Ive–designed display packed with the turbo-charged Apple TV functions that we’ve always dreamed of.