Amazing concept video is more iPad 7 than iPad 3

It isn’t too tricky to nail down near-term changes in smartphones and tablets. Faster processors, faster wireless, higher resolution displays, bigger batteries, updated software… there is a fairly short list of predictable upgrades. When you start looking at several years down the road, though, the advances get a bit trickier to nail down. We’ve grown accustomed to Apple’s multitouch devices looking mostly the same ever since the first iPhone. But will they look the same five years from now?

The above video bets that they won’t. Though it brands itself as a concept video for the iPad 3, this is more like an iPad 7 demo. Some of its features could be here within the next few years, but others would be more at home in a Star Wars prequel than in any actual product we’ll see in the next decade.

The software and the back of the device look familiar, but the first difference that you’ll notice is the bezel-less, edge-to-edge display. This part could actually happen sooner than later. Recent rumors have Samsung already producing a (nearly) bezel-less smartphone, and one of the many iPhone 5 rumors we’ve heard has Apple creating an edge-to-edge display. Tablet innovations generally follow soon after smartphone innovations, so we could potentially see these kinds of tablets within the next three or four years.

Another cool feature in this concept video is the use of NFC and magnets to attach two iPads. The two tablets then share the screen real estate, similar to how PCs employ a second monitor — only much better.

After that, though, we get into the silly season. This iPad can apparently create mid-air 3D projections for a football video game. Star Wars-like 3D holograms are a sci-fi favorite, but we’re nowhere near producing tech like this. Projections need some kind of surface to reflect off of.

That doesn’t, however, take away from the brilliance of these videographers. If you want to create something new, the first thing you’ll need is imagination. Concept videos like this inspire our collective imaginations, and could actually contribute to some of these features coming to fruition. … just don’t hold your breath for that 3D projected game of Madden 2016.

Aatma Studio, via geek