iPad 3 front case leaks, home button intact
Another alleged part of the iPad 3 has leaked, and -- if true -- confirms the home button will be on board as normal.
Some more alleged parts of the iPad 3 have leaked -- this time it's a pair of front panels that hold the screen, known as "digitizers", according to our sister site CNET.com. And the most notable thing is the Home button is there as standard.
This pours doubt on the idea that Apple is ditching the home button in favour of controlling everything via on-screen gestures. The invite for Apple's event next week showed an image of an iPad without the button, though it could've just been lying on its side with the screen in landscape mode.
The panels have come from a gadget fixing service called Repair Labs. If genuine, they show Apple is sticking with black and white colour schemes, and the hole for the front-facing video camera is in the same place.
The only difference seems to be that the panel is 1mm thicker than that on the iPad 2, with a different cable connection. Could that extra thickness be anything to do with the retina display we're expecting to see?
A couple of weeks ago some enterprising sleuths got their hands on what they claimed was a retina display. It's said to have twice the resolution of the iPad 2's screen -- a whopping 2,048x1,536 pixels compared to 1,024x768. That means sharper, better defined images, so it's good news for fans of movies and games.
This looks like the main difference from the existing iPad, and could lead Apple to name the device the iPad HD rather than the iPad 3. There might even be a smaller version in the works -- a 7.85-inch model could be landing this autumn.
Apple might also launch an updated Apple TV on Wednesday, which would explain the slogan on the invite: "We have something you really have to see. And touch."
We'll be there Wednesday, with all the announcements as they happen. What would you like to see? Let me know in the comments below, or on Facebook.
Image credit: Repair Labs