iPad Air 2 Rumors Heat Up Ahead of Launch

We’re only a couple days away from the alleged announcement of the iPad Air 2, but that doesn’t mean the rumor mill stops. Case in point, a plethora of leaked parts have made their way into the ether, showing off the Touch ID capabilities of the new tablet.

According to a Taiwanese website that posted the leaked photos, the iPad Air 2 could come with Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor, as well as a gold color option. The leaked photos show off the Touch ID sensor for the iPad, along with a gold capacitive ring around the sensor, suggesting the gold color option.

While this could be a Touch ID unit for the iPhone, the longer ribbon suggests that it’s for something larger than the iPhone, which means the iPad is only the other device that would get the functionality.

The iPad Air 2 is rumored to be unveiled on October 16, which is the date that Apple is expected to host their annual iPad event. Ahead of the launch, we’ve already seen several leaked photos claiming to be images of the iPad Air 2, giving us a good idea on what to expect come Thursday.

Not a whole lot is known about the iPad Air 2 or the iPad mini 3, but we’ve seen some other leaked photos that suggest what we might see this week.

The new iPad will supposedly only be 7mm thick, making it just as thin as the iPhone 6, which is quite incredible for a tablet.

The iPad Air 2 isn’t expected to get a huge redesign, as the iPad Air was the model to see a major refresh. Apple typically doesn’t overhaul its products’ designs until a couple of generations have passed, so we can expect the iPad Air 2 to keep the same overall look as the iPad Air, except for some small, but impactful changes.

The new iPad could come with recessed volume and power buttons, as well as a redesigned speaker grille. The volume buttons look to keep the same design as the iPad Air, but are simply recessed slightly into the body of the tablet. As for the speaker grille, the leaked photos that we’ve seen show the iPad sporting a single horizontal line of larger holes, which is a drastic difference than the smaller holes that were arranged in two rows on the iPad Air.

Furthermore, it’s already been rumored a couple times this year that the iPad would get Touch ID fingerprint sensor capabilities. We even saw hints of Touch ID capabilities in the code of iOS 7.1 back in April, and a few days later we heard that one of Apple’s part suppliers were cranking out Touch ID fingerprint sensors in large quantities.

Touch ID was definitely one of the features that users were looking forward to ahead of the iPad Air event back in October last year, especially after it was introduced on the new iPhone 5s just a month earlier, but Apple sadly did not deliver such a feature.

If you’re interested in what Apple could announce on Thursday, you can watch the live stream by simply navigating to Apple’s livestream webpage on October 16 at 1pm ET to watch the event live as it happens. Besides new iPads, Apple could also launch iOS 8.1, as well as release new iMacs and OS X Yosemite.

Apple’s last event where it announced the iPhone 6 saw a bit of trouble with the live stream, with viewers complaining about lag and freeze-ups that essentially made it unwatchable. However, hopefully the company learned from the bugs and will offer a much better live stream this time around.