iPad rumour round-up - what to expect at tonight's Apple event

Apple is holding an event at 6pm (GMT) tonight where, among other things, its iPad plans will be revealed.

After last year's one-two punch of the completely revamped iPad Air and the (surprisingly) equally potent iPad mini 2, expectations are high for this years revamp.

So what are we expecting? As you might have expected, there are plenty of rumours, leaks, and supply chain speculation flying around.

Here's what we're expecting to see based on all this scurrilous nattering.

The big announcement here should be the iPad Air 2, the second of Apple's super-slim full-sized tablets.

It won't look all that different from the first iPad Air, which is no bad thing - the Air remains one of the slinkiest and downright best looking tablets on the market.

Reports suggest that the iPad Air 2 will be a little slimmer, however, at 7mm (that's a good 0.5mm less than the Air).

The biggest external difference, however, will be the inevitable addition of a Touch ID-equipped home button, making the iPad Air 2 the first tablet to feature Apple's fingerprint-sensing technology.

Internally, motherboard component leaks have it that Apple will pack the iPad Air 2 with a souped-up version of the iPhone 6's A8 processor - an A8X, to use Apple's previous parlance. For all its strengths, last year's iPad Air didn't bother enhancing the iPhone 5S's A7 chip at all, so this'll be an improvement in every way.

It should make the iPad Air 2 a truly formidable device for playing games on.

We're not expecting the iPad Air 2 to change its display much, in that the resolution should stick at the 2048 × 1536 mark. However, Apple may well fuse the cover glass with the LCD panel, which would help slim the tablet down and also create a picture with extra pop.

For a while there, all signs were pointing to a no-show for Apple's iPad mini range. Was Apple scrapping its 7.9-inch compact tablet format because of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus and relatively underwhelming sales of last year's model?

Nope. It seems not. A recent leak from Apple itself suggests that the iPad mini 3 is indeed in the works, while other experts suggest that the iPad mini 3 will indeed make a showing.

Expect to see a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and an A8 processor, but no dramatic design changes.

Oh, and we wouldn't be surprised if Apple launches a third colour of both the iPad mini 3 and the iPad Air 2 - spangly gold. That's not the official name, by the way.