Is iBooks 2 App High Res-Image Files Alluding at iPad 3?

20 Jan 2012 | News | Summer on Google+

Apple’s iBooks 2 app comes with some interesting media bundled in it. Developers have uncovered high resolution images that seem designed for use in a Retina display but the iPad 2 doesn’t have one. Is this means that the iPad 3 will? According to iPad 3 rumours iBooks 2, which Apple announced and released on Thursday, contains a third image with a @2x equivalent for the iPad.

Higher-quality iPad images were first discovered in the iBooks app alongside @2x images for the iPhone last January. The discovery of the images was taken as evidence that Apple was planning for its iDevice the same resolution jump that it did with the iPhone. Apple released the iPhone 4 with a “Retina Display” that featured twice the resolution and four times the pixels of its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS.

High-resolution images also appeared in an iOS 5 beta last summer. The alleged files had a resolution of 2048×1536 and were found inside the Twitter framework. 1536 pixels, they are double what the iPad 2 can natively display. What’s more, they display at 260 pixels per inch (PPI). That’s not quite the 300PPI that the latest iPhones can do-and what Apple has said officially constitutes a Retina display-but still dense enough to fool your eyes at the increased viewing distance.

Numerous iPad 3 rumours have suggested that the Cupertino, Calif., company is due to release a high-definition iPad this spring, though there has been some disagreement on whether it would arrive as a high-end model. Most recently, Bloomberg claimed that the third-generation tablet has entered mass production ahead of a March launch and will feature a double-resolution display, 4G LTE and a quad-core processor.

Many facts such as Siri on iPhone probably meants that in near future we will see Siri on iPad 3. So, according to iPad 3 rumours is Apple prepping for a surprise iPad 3 launch or is someone on the iBooks 2 app development team just having a bit of fun with us?

Relating to one iPad 3 rumor, suppliers will ship this quarter six to seven million of the high-resolution LCD panels bound for the iPad. Sharp, LG and Samsung have all been named as suppliers of the upgraded panels by various sources, though one recent report said it had confirmed that Sharp had failed in its initial supply.

iBooks 2 app was unveiled as part of Apple’s education event in New York City on Thursday.