Apple Watch 2, iPad Air 3 rumors: March and September announcement, new designs for Apple Watch
The release dates of Apple Watch 2 and iPad Air 3 have not yet been officially announced, but rumors on the release date and new features of both devices have started floating around.
While some rumors are saying that the Apple Watch 2 and iPad Air 3 will be released this March, Mac World UK believes that the March event is to focus on the iPhone 5se and iPad Air 3. The Apple Watch 2 is speculated to be released in September together with the iPhone 7.
However, Apple is rumored to introduce new colors and new materials for the previous Apple Watch models this coming March. The leather straps from the Hermès line might have additional colors, the Milanese Loop will have a black version, and an added line might be built from a new material.
The Apple Watch 2 is expected to have a longer battery life, making way to an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. It's also rumored to be thinner and include a FaceTime camera.
Apple CEO Tim Cook's interview with The Telegraph last year revealed that the company is planning on including a health-related feature on their upcoming devices. He said, "We don't want to put the watch through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process. I wouldn't mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it -- maybe an app, maybe something else."
Meanwhile, 9to5Mac, known for being one of the first sites to break exclusive tech news, said that a leaked schematic shows the iPad Air 3 having a smart connector, which allows an external keyboard to be attached, and a four-speaker system, both of which are in the iPad Pro. However, the site said that it's going to be 1.1 mm thinner than the iPad Air 2, which means battery could be sacrificed.
The Cupertino-based company mentioned no exact date of when the Apple-hosted event will happen, but sources say it will be around the week of March 15.