it could easily be the standby/hold button. where else do you see an opening for it?
Um, you can clearly see a slot for that in the same exact place that it is on the current iPad, the top right corner. In top picture in the article, you can clearly see the hole you are talking about at the top right.
No this is definitely something new to the design, but the one theory I haven't seen anyone mention is the possibility of an
omni-directional microphone (like the one I linked but much smaller). Considering there is no hole for the current iPad microphone (which sits next to the headphone jack) this would be a clear indication that this is what they are doing.
The fact that FaceTime and video recording would be a big part of it, having an omni-directional stereo microphone would make a huge difference when shooting/streaming video. Imagine you are in a room with many people crowded around the iPad, talking to another group of people on the other end (they also have an iPad). Families do this all the time to video chat with other sides of the family. It's very difficult to do this with the iPhone because the screen is so tiny and the speaker isn't loud enough.
With an improved speaker and a much nicer microphone, the iPad could be a great video conferencing tool for all sorts of things, even in offices where you need to hold a quick impromptu conference between groups of people. The only issue is the screen size limits it to about 4-5 people but it still would be better than the 1-2 people that the iPhone could support.
Only scenario where this wouldn't make sense is if they were going to place the microphone right next to the camera hole on the front of the iPad. But I still say it might make sense to have a nice omni-directional microphone. You could even use the microphone to record meetings, which would be a huge feature for people to use.
So I ask:
Where did they move the microphone to on the new iPad? (if these cases are accurate) There is no slot for it anywhere along the edges like it was before.
displays.