'iPad 2S' cases pop up matching some iPad 3 rumors
updated 10:25 pm EST, Wed January 18, 2012
iPad cases claim to match 2012 design
Case maker Chinee has taken a gamble and built designs based on descriptions matching the rumored iPad 3. Its "iPad 2S" cases are 1mm thicker than for the iPad 2 but otherwise cosmetically identical to the existing version. The company insists that its designs are based on details from Apple's own supply chain.
The casing isn't necessarily accurate. Last year, blueprints for supposed iPhone 5 cases surfaced and led at least some companies to produce cases for a product that never materialized. If real, though, it could represent another incident of employees stealing blueprints and likely being paid by less scrupulous case designers hoping to get an early edge on production.
Details of the iPad 3 have so far settled around Apple following a pattern much like it has with the iPhone, where the design is ergonomically conservative every other year and switches attention to the inside. The differences would be more ambitious than with the iPhone 4S, though, and could center on a 2048x1536 screen that would require either a quad-core or updated dual-core processor and matching graphics to drive it smoothly. More recent assertions have given it 4G LTE support. [via 9to5]
