ParisLemon

Rene Ritchie scoops the info, and Jim Dalrymple confirms it. Good enough for me.

As previously discussed, March 7 makes sense as it’s a Wednesday, a day which Apple likes to use for such events. But it does call into question a SXSW launch.

That event starts on March 9. Last year, the iPad 2 launch coincided with the first day of SXSW and Apple set up a pop-up store in Austin to accomodate it. With a March 7 unveiling, a March 9 launch seems unlikely simply because it wouldn’t give enough time for the initial press reviews — unless Apple pre-briefed the press before the unveiling, which typically doesn’t happen. 

So perhaps the Ides of March is likely after all — or Friday, March 16, for the actual launch.

Other details Ritchie hears include a 2048 x 1536 “Retina” display (obviously), a quad-core A6 chip, and possibly 4G LTE capabilities, which isn’t crazy at all when you think about it.