We expect Apple to come out with an iPad 3 in March.
What will it be like? Don't know.
But a source who says he has friends at Apple, and who has been reliable about future Apple products in the past, just shared a rumor with us that the company has experimented with some with 3D screens.
"The iPad 3 was often called iPad 3D in early prototypes," says this source. Like Nintendo's 3DS, this screen did not require users to wear glasses to see 3D effects.
This source says Apple ditched the 3D screen because, he speculates, "they didn't want it to be a gimmick."
He says there is still some talk that 3D will come back at some point – but only when it's "useful." He said that Disney has been busy converting is catalogue into 3D to be ready for that day.
Apple filed a patent for a 3D screen earlier this fall. Dylan Love reported: "The device would allow a user to interact with holographic images or project their hands onto a screen to manipulate virtual objects."
It's worth nothing that Apple tests out all kinds of prototypes for its gadgets, and that it files many patents for technologies that never see the light of day.
Related: The iPhone 5 was real. Click here to see what its prototype was like >>
