Apple will apparently manufacture itsfirst iPad 3 units in October, with an eye toward a launch early next year.

That report comes from the Wall StreetJournal, itself quoting unnamed sources supposedly familiar with the matter. Ifverified, that would mean Apple is sticking with the release schedule itestablished with previous iPad generations. The original iPad launched in April2010 (having been unveiled that January), while the iPad 2 made its debut inMarch 2011.

The Aug. 19 report adds that the next iPad "isexpected to feature a high resolution display-2048 by 1536 compared with 1024by 768 in the iPad 2." The screen will apparently retain the same 9.7-inch sizeof previous editions.

That would align with rumors fromearlier this summer that the next iPad will feature a high-resolution "RetinaDisplay," which started when a tipster included screenshots of some extra-largeimages in Apple's upcoming iOS 5 mobile operating system.

"As I was going through the iOS SDK Icame across some images in the new Twitter .framework. The resolution appearsto be 1,536 x 2,048," a tipster wrote to the blog TechUnwrapped ,including the aforementioned screenshots to back up those findings. In additionto the new Twitter .framework, images from Apple's upcoming Newsstandapplication-which consolidates iOS users' periodical subscriptions in oneplace, while downloading new issues in the background-apparently also featuredtwice-as-large resolutions.

Apple will issue iOS 5 sometime thisfall. It is a broad-based update: In addition to Newsstand, new featuresinclude a refined notifications screen, boosted interoperability with Twitterand an "iMessenger" conversation platform seemingly designed as a directcompetitor to BlackBerry Messenger.

In June, Reuters also paraphrasedTaiwan's Economic Daily as saying the iPad 3 would launch with "imageresolution 5-6 times higher than iPad 2."

The rumor mill is grinding feverishlyover the schedule of Apple's next releases. At the moment, tech publicationsand pundits seem to have generally

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