It’s On: Apple Has Something You “Really Have To See” (And Touch), March 7 – [UPDATED X5]

February 28, 2012 @ 5:22 PM

It’s On.

The Verge just confirmed that Apple has this afternoon issued invites to its special media event, scheduled to take place on March 7 at 10am PST. The event is set to be held at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and it is highly expected Apple will unveil its long-rumored third-generation iPad.

Updating after the break …

[Update] – The invite carries the slogan “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” As noted by Topolsky himself, the invite appears to have Apple’s next-generation iPad pictured in part, with the journalist noting “that’s no regular iPad display!” … We have to say, we think he’s right. Just look at that thing! – Crisp doesn’t cover it.

As you can see in the image above… that’s no regular iPad display! It’s obviously super high res.

[Update 2] – Also … There’s no home button. Unless, of course, the part pictured in the invite is the ‘top’ of the iPad … (or we’re seeing things).

[Update 3] – Okay, maybe this pictured iPad is in landscape – (Thanks for chiming in everyone!).

[Update 4] – Or perhaps not. The fact that the pictured iPad could be in landscape orientation has been thrown into dispute by Gizmodo, who notes the icon spacing between icons pictured on the iPad’s dock are simply too close to warrant the device being in landscape.

They also chimed in on there being no home button, citing this makes sense given Apple’s separate emphasis on the phrase “And touch” in the invitation:

Not only that, but there seems to be NO home button, which explains the mention of the “And touch.” in their invitation. How do we know? First, the photo they are showing is on portrait mode. You can’t achieve that icon spacing in the landscape mode (which is the only explanation for the lack of home button). Moreover, the icon falls right onto the same water drop that the current iPad 2 falls while in portrait mode. It’s clearly a photo of the iPad in portrait mode. And there’s no button to be seen.

[Update 5] – 9to5Mac has also added its own thoughts, also adding that it expects three models of the new tablet.

Both the wording (“something you really have to see”) and the image (can you spot the pixels?) would appear to confirm the long-standing rumors of an ultra high-resolution Retina Display (2048-by-1536 pixels), reportedly the key selling point of the device. Also interesting is Apple’s choice of timing, announcing iPad 3 event right in the middle of Eric Schmidt’s keynote talk at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.