Apple Issues Invitations for iPad 3 Media Event on March 7

[Spectrum Abuser]

Maybe the home button is the way of the dinosaur. Who knows until March 7th.

 

[Icemilk]

Check it.

Notice in the invitation art that the bezel is also slightly blurred underneath the maps app. Compare to underneath the Calendar app. And, as mentioned in previous posts, the lighting on the hand is obviously not consistent with the light coming from the iPad.

Also, the hand is relatively small compared to the size of the iPad.

And if the following is legit, the iPad 3 will have a slightly smaller home button:

And if this is legit too, then the next iPad will have something where the home button is:

The invite appears to be in portrait orientation, many people have pointed out. The placement of the raindrops around the Calendar app have been often referenced. Even though they are slightly different, as seen in the Gizmodo photo.

If there were a home button on this invite, it would be in about the middle of the bezel, directly below the Maps app.

There are a few options.

If you want to take the image in the invite absolutely literally, you'd have to imagine a bigger iPad with no home button and odd light emissions.

If you want to look at it as marketing art, which is what it is, then you have a home button in the bottom corner of the image that has been removed because the blurry home button conflicted with the text. Pure aesthetics.

We've spent a lot of time reading into this on this thread. The invite art isn't pure. It has been edited. The only hidden message is the depth of field effect blurring the two outside apps. (You know, the retina display, clarifying stuff.)

It'd be rad to get rid of the home button as we know it. One less moving part. But I don't think it's going to happen yet. And certainly not by its complete removal.

 

[makeway]

by the way, let's hear it for those Foxconn employees who worked so hard to make this possible

Well now that hand appears to be a normal size.

Check it.

Checked. Agreed. And voted up.

 

[sekazi]

Isnt the top of the iPad 3G black? if that is the case this is a upside down iPad 3 as the edge is black. The camera is hidden behind text.

 

[wovel]

I don't believe the Apple could have an Apple TV available for announcement in a week and us not know about it. But I do have to say after seeing all the pictures of people trying to figure out if this is portrait or landscape and such, that no one has shown a picture with a hand even remotely this small. Really that hand looks tiny compared to the app icons. And the hand doesn't look like a child's hand either. I don't know what is going on. Perhaps just bad photoshopping where they got some proportion wrong as the hand was not originally in the picture. It could be as simple as that. Or perhaps it was just a really really small hand model. But I don't even think that is a hand model, because frankly that isn't that great looking a hand. There are some issues with the finger nails that, while fine for a normal person, would presumably preclude someone from being a person who's hands are specifically chosen to be photographed.
It is just a little strange.

Go to cult of Mac (http://www.cultofmac.com/149375/what-apples-ipad-3-event-invite-really-really-means-image/), and you will understand what the hand represents. I won't spoil their fun, look for your self.

----------

Isnt the top of the iPad 3G black? if that is the case this is a upside down iPad 3 as the edge is black. The camera is hidden behind text.

Yes, I kind of agree. The problem is the icons are not spaced close enough for portrait (or far enough apart for landscape) so speculating on this clearly manipulated image is silly.

 

[adamfilip]

Steve Jobs famously required every shot of Apple products to be done right on the camera. All of their product images are minimally photoshopped or not photoshopped at all.

90% of the product shots are renders.

 

[ashamam]

No home button and the bezel becomes touch sensitive. New gestures in 5.1.

 

[kiljoy616]

All I want is to hear "oh one more thing" and I will be a happy camper.

 

[macbook pro i5]

That is defiantly high res.....

 

[Warbrain]

90% of the product shots are renders.

I wish I could find the article but no, Apple's are actual products.

 

[kiljoy616]

No home button and the bezel becomes touch sensitive. New gestures in 5.1.

Sure why not, Siri is going to be all over this. Also suppose to see in the near future Merced coming out with SIRI integrated cars. Oh say so please says so and maybe Audi please Audi also.

 

[iChrist]

Helpp

.
CAN SOMEONE PLESAE TELL ME WHAT WILL BE NEW APPLETV 3? WHAT FEATUR WILL IT HAVE??

 

[Cory Bauer]

Wow, really people?

They painted out the home button because it's location in the photo would be distractingly close to the text and the edge of the frame. That is all.

The "something you have to see" is the retina display. The "and touch" is simply because it's an iPad.

 

[File not found!]

So Funny

Lets not jump to conclusions here boys....this could be a iCalendar revamp.

Been reading MR for years and finally signed up so I could "Up Arrow" this post.

Sorry, should have said "Vote Up" this post.

 

[iChrist]

I don't know if any of this has been said already but I don't want to read through 33 pages of comments, but heres my opinion on the matter.

Retina iPad? The product is definitely an iPad. The screen appears to be a retina display, though with the resolution it is hard to be sure, but it definitely looks crisp. When photographing a screen, the image usually appears even more pixilated, but here it seems to remain crisp.

Icons? I think that the icons were vary carefully chosen and have meaning and here are my ideas.
a. keynote. The obvious reason they included this is because this is going to be a keynote presentation as every new product announcement is. However, I think there might be reason beyond that. It could be that they wanted to remind the public of their iPad office apps do to the possible imminent release of Microsoft office.
b. calendar. Apple has used this before, and it seems to just be an indication of the event date which is what everyone cares about most, s it is prominent.
c. This icon I find the most mysterious. It could simply be indicating where it is. The map shows Cupertino, which is near the San Francisco center where they will be having the event, but they are not the same. They used it on the iPhone 4S invitation to indicate their headquarters so I don't see them using it to indicate elsewhere. It does seem to hint at the release of a new mapping app which has been in the works for years, but then its odd they would use the icon for their competitor's(google) app to suggest this. This could be reading way too much into it, and it could just be indicating its in california and not new york as other rumors were indicating, though Apple does put alot of thought into these things...

No Home Button? The main argument for there still being a home button is that the iPad could be in landscape position, but it can't, and here is why:
a. the icons in landscape view even when you have the maximum of 6 are not as close together as the icons in the image.
b. the spacing of the icons is exactly the same as having 5 icons on the bar when in portrait view.
c. the wallpaper is the standard wallpaper for the iPad, and I don't think they would tweak it just for this, just when in landscape mode, it crops the image and the specific droplets do not appear on the screen where they do in the image, where as in portrait view they appear exactly where they are shown.

So the iPad is in face in portrait position with 5 icons in the bar, but there is no home button, so there are three possibilities:
a. The iPad is upside down. The problem with this theory is that the camera would be visible. So either it isn't showing through the screen or they removed it from this device as some people have suggested which I find extremely unlikely because this is intended as a FaceTime device and they wouldn't remove a feature. Also, I don't think Apple would promote their device upside-down.

Edit: I just checked and it also appears that if it were upside-down the camera might be cropped out of the photo by about a millimeter, so it could just be upside-down.

b. The photograph didn't capture it. I tried to replicate the photo and found the button was not visible in the camera because of the exposure because of the brightness of the screen in relation, if you notice the bottom of the page appears darker just below the text so they could have darkened it out unintentionally. Though this seems unlikely
c. They have removed the home button to allow for exclusively multitouch gestures instead. I wouldn't miss this because I often accidentally hit the home button on my iPad when using it in portrait views and the home buttons have a tendency to break. However the leaked iPad screen suggests otherwise.

See. And Touch? I have been trying to decode the phrasing at the bottom, and I haven't reached any conclusions, but I have two contrasting ideas.

First, Their use of the word something seems to suggest one thing and one product launch which would suggest the iPad obviously, but this seems unlikely.

What is more compelling the the "And touch." as a second sentence. Had they said, "We have something you really have to see and touch." that would suggest you should see their new iPad and touch it because it has a touch screen, but the pause suggests there are two things: We have something for you to see. And we have something for you to touch. This tells me they are announcing the new iPad and "something you really have to see." New Apple TV? This is my best guess. I doubt they have their iTV ready though.

Don't expect too many people to have read all of this, but, thoughts?

OK OK. This is good but still not enough of information. You missed on describing appletv 3. Please continue and tell me of AppelTV 3. I need to know thanks.

.

 

[MacinDoc]

Wow, really people?

They painted out the home button because it's location in the photo would be distractingly close to the text and the edge of the frame. That is all.

The "something you have to see" is the retina display. The "and touch" is simply because it's an iPad.

But why emphasize "And touch." by making it a sentence fragment? I mean, we already know that it's an iPad. There has to be more to it than that. A multitouch-sensitive bezel would be my guess.

Having said that, I agree that the home button may have been painted out due to its location, although it would be odd to paint out something that had become part of the iconic appearance of the iPad.

 

[gusnyc]

Do we really have to wait till wednesday 7 november?

What? November?

 

[macjoshua]

I'm ready to buy one of these. I probably will just take the day off work when it's released.

I've gone back and forth on the wi-fi vs 3G (or LTE) version and which I would choose. But, I'm wondering: if I would get a tethering plan on my iPhone and connect through it, would I essentially have all of the benefits of getting an LTE iPad?

I'm not sure if there would be much speed degradation.

 

[Cory Bauer]

But why emphasize "And touch." by making it a sentence fragment? I mean, we already know that it's an iPad. There has to be more to it than that. A multitouch-sensitive bezel would be my guess.

You don't just look at an iPad, no matter how gorgeous the screen is. You touch it.

Maybe they didn't want to mislead people into thinking they were announcing a tv, so they added "and touch" to clear up any possible confusion to the "have to see" comment.

 

[jncoanalog]

I think the "And Touch" line refers to a tactile display. The technology exists and it's not even in some beta stages anymore, as you can see in the following video, it's already working in a tablet form factor on batteries, and that was in fall 2011! Just watch the video:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/senseg-demos-prototype-touch-feedback-technology/9742-1_53-50115714.html

This is the kind of innovation you only see in Apple products, and there is no reason for not implementing it, other than maybe cost and batterie drainage.
And it would make completely sense in combination with a new AppleTV.
Developers could for example use the iPad as a game controller, and could display tangible Buttons on the display. If Apple wants to dominate the TV market they have to compete with Xbox and Playstation.
But thats just one example, a tactile display is obviously good for a number of reasons!

Well I wasn't aware of the existence of that kind of technology , I would love to see (feel) that in person to judge it's effectiveness. There's really no other way to tell.
I will be surprised to see it in this iPad 3, although the person in the video said he expected to see it in a consumer product next year (being the video from 2011). Anyway, I believe Jobs already knew it would eventually end up being in some kind of touchscreen device when they started working on the first iPad (before working on the first iPhone according to Job's biography)...

 

[blinkin182]

But why emphasize "And touch." by making it a sentence fragment? I mean, we already know that it's an iPad. There has to be more to it than that. A multitouch-sensitive bezel would be my guess.

Having said that, I agree that the home button may have been painted out due to its location, although it would be odd to paint out something that had become part of the iconic appearance of the iPad.

Maybe the "and touch" just refers to the fact that they will be ready to ship right away

As for home button, my vote is that the iPad was simply held upside down for the aesthetics of the photo!

 

[kenobe23]

"And touch" could mean that the iPad will have a touchstone charger. There was a mysterious SKU that macrumors thought referred to a new accessory.

 

[ABernardoJr]

You don't just look at an iPad, no matter how gorgeous the screen is. You touch it.

Maybe they didn't want to mislead people into thinking they were announcing a tv, so they added "and touch" to clear up any possible confusion to the "have to see" comment.

That's reaching. The consensus is already that the "see" is for Retina, and considering the picture is of someone about to touch the screen of an iOS device, why would they need to say "and touch" to clarify what the picture is illustrating pretty clearly?

 

[euphrus]

has no one else ever realized that keynote is included in the dock, which could suggest the bundling of iwork in the ipad 3? just a thought.

 

[Cory Bauer]

That's reaching. The consensus is already that the "see" is for Retina, and considering the picture is of someone about to touch the screen of an iOS device, why would they need to say "and touch" to clarify what the picture is illustrating pretty clearly?

Reaching is the notion that Apple is hinting at some magical new touch technology. "And touch" is simply because it's an iPad event.