iPad 2S Up Next, iPad 3 Pushed Back

When it comes to Apple, there's only one thing you can guess on releases: you never ever quite know what you're going to get or what it'll be called – thats why when the name iPad 2S popped up on the airwaves this afternoon, the wheels in our minds started spinning furiously. This is not the first time we've seen the "S" naming scheme appear on an Apple product, nor will it be the last time, but here it certainly does appear to be the first iPad to attain the partial step between full refreshes in models. It's a Chinese case maker by the name of Chinee that appears to have spilled the beans here, showing off a case that looks not unlike one that would fit fine on an iPad 2, but with an additional letter that's oh-so-telling in the title.

It was 9to5mac that turned this gem up, showing how the case does have a 1mm increase in thickness over the current iPad 2, making this a 9.8mm deep case for the next generation iPad. The S being a specification thus far for Apple symbolizing a specification update rather than a hardware update, it's not surprising that these cases don't appear to be all that different from what we've seen in the multitudes of cases released for the iPad 2 already.

The case maker notes specifically that they've got design knowledge from sources within Apple's supply chain, so based on that, if you believe them, they likely cut themselves off from Apple ties for the rest of their lives right here and now. For those of you following along with the "iPad 2S" rumors, hereto known as the iPad 3, you'll know that inside this upgraded model may well feature a quad-core processor, Retina Display, Siri integration, and LTE network compatibility. Swallow all this with a healthy cup of salt, folks cases like this pop up quite often and sometimes lead nowhere other than a sore foot and a crying eye.

[via 9to5Mac]