Blueprint of Apple's "iPad Air Plus," details of iPad mini 4 reportedly outed in Japanese mag - Rumor

A Japanese Apple fan magazine published on Friday what it says is a full-scale schematic of Apple's much rumored "iPad Air Plus," along with claims that the device will be powered by an A9 chip and ship between April and June of 2015.

The spread in "Mac Fan January 2015" reports that the "12.2 inch LCD tablet iPad Air Plus" will be 305.31 x 220.8 x 7mm in size and come powered by a next-generation A9 processor, with a market launch scheduled some time between April to June 2015.


It adds that the "iPad Air Plus" will have four built in speakers — on the edges of its enclosure — to facilitate stereo sound, even when the iPad rotated (presumably amongst a group of students, as its long been rumored that the device would be positioned at educational and creative segments).

Macotakara, another Japanese-language publication, tipped AppleInsider off to the report and said the details shared by Mac Fan align with information it's heard from its own channels. A similar article, identifying the device as an "iPad Pro" similarly reported at the top of the month that Apple was developing the device around a 12.2-inch display with speakers and microphones on multiple edges.

Its worth noting that Mac Fan, the source of the latest information, previously reported some accurate details regarding the resolution of the screen on the iPhone 6 Plus prior to its unveiling, though its claims regarding the physical size of the device's display were way off.

As part of the same report this week, Mac Fan also claims that the iPad mini 4 — similarly due out in 2015 — will be powered by Apple's existing A8X processor and sport a new, thinner design akin to the iPad Air 2. The publication added that, upon the launch of the iPad mini 4, the iPad mini and iPad mini 3 will be removed from Apple's line-up, leaving just the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 4.