Mole maintains iPad 3, iPhone 5 out this year

Busy September for Apple?

Evidence continues to dribble in that Apple is planning to launch not only the iPhone 5 but also a new iPad this year.

The iPad was last upgraded as recently as March, but we're hearing from a well-placed source within the UK's biggest satellite broadcaster that a further - presumably pre-Christmas - iPad update is on the cards.

Likewise the next iPhone, which, had Apple followed tradition would have been announced earlier this month at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) but wasn't.

All the indicators are pointing to a September announcement, which will also feature what the mole identified as the "iPad 3".

Beyond a faster, more core-crammed CPU and a lighter chassis, the next iPad's key hoped-for feature is a high-density screen of the type Apple calls a "retina display", presumably with a 2048 x 1536 resolution.

Imagery from the pre-release version of iOS 5 suggest this could be so, but the evidence is circumstantial.

And since our mole hasn't actually had the new gadgets in hand himself, we have to take his claim with caution. Just as long as the iPad 3 doesn't sport the allegedly "dead cert" 3D display... ®