Are employees at Apple already using the so-called iPad 3—possibly running iOS 6—to surf the Web ahead of its expected announcement on March 7? We're not sure, but the Ars magic 8-ball says "signs point to yes."

While digging through our logs in preparation for our monthly browser stat report, we found 346 (update: actually 365) visits from a device with a screen resolution of 2048x1536—the exact resolution rumored for the "retina" display in the next-generation iPad. Although a screen resolution by itself isn't much to go on, a quick search around the Web indicates that there are very few devices in current use that have this same resolution. (There is a $5,000 NEC display for medical use with that resolution.)

But to add to this discovery, we began looking at iPad user agents coming from Apple's corporate IP block in Cupertino and discovered that Apple appears to be surfing the Web using iPads running what looks like iOS 6.0. The whole listing shows iPads running iOS 5, iOS 5.0.1 (the current public release), iOS 5.1 (the upcoming release currently available to developers), and iOS 6. The iPads that appear to be running iOS 6 are also using a slightly newer build of WebKit—the older OSes all show WebKit 534.46, while the ones claiming to be iOS 6 show WebKit build 535.8.

We don't think Apple plans to release iOS 6 along with a new iPad this month, but it seems clear that the next major version of the operating system is on the way. (It's more likely that Apple will release iOS 5.1 to the public when the next iPad hits the streets.) We're willing to guess that we might end up seeing a preview of the new OS on Wednesday, however, with a release date sometime later in the year to coincide with a next-gen iPhone release.

What do you think? Be sure to let us know.

Update: This post is now being picked up by a number of publications that seem to be conflating the two pieces of evidence. The screen resolution numbers aren't necessarily connected to the iPads running iOS 6; they could be completely unrelated. The only thing we're sure of is that there are iPads that claim to be running iOS 6 browsing Ars Technica from Apple's campus in Cupertino. Whether those exact iPads are iPad 3s with "retina" displays remains unknown.