9to5 Staff

iPhone 5 concept render that briefly appeared on the website of Danish carrier 3.dk.

After we learned that Deutsche Telekom in Germany began accepting early reservations for Apple’s next iPhone model, a carrier in China is pulling a similar maneuver. According to a local report by Southern Metropolis Daily (via The Next Web and CapitalVue), China Telecom set aside 1.5 billion yuan (about $234.5 million) in marketing expenses for iPhone 5 launch. They refer to this as a ‘Dragon Plan’ and local branches are already preparing for the handset’s arrival with staff training and in-store advertising. For example, one local office already installed a LED screen advertising iPhone 5.

The story has it that China Telecom will take orders from end of September. Official sales will begin in October, sources claim. Foxconn, Apple’s contract manufacturer, is said to have increased iPhone 5 output to 150,000 units, enough to flood the market with 5-6 million iPhone 5s in September. Shares of China Telecom climbed 0.41 percent today on the news. Reuters previously claimed that iPhone is arriving to China Telecom and officials confirmed they had approached Apple with the idea of bringing a CDMA version of the iconic handset to its customers. 9to5Mac previously learned from sources that Apple will take pre-orders for its next iPhone beginning September 30 in the United States.

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South Korea has become the first country in the world to coerce Apple into re-thinking its global customer service policy concerning handling of faulty iPhones. The country’s regulators have persuaded Apple to replace faulty iPhones with new devices rather than refurbished models, provided customers report defects within a month of purchase, Bloomberg reports.

Korean iPhone buyers have complained Apple only gives devices refurbished with used parts when there are problems with the product, even though its service warranty states customers can get refunds, new phones or free repairs, the commission said. Under the revision, consumers have the right to choose between the options, the regulator said.

The commission acted after Apple refused to provide free repairs to a thirteen-year-old user who pressed charges. Eagle-eyed readers would remember that Apple brushed twice with South Korea in recent history…

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Another sign of an imminent product refresh in Cupertino, California: Contract manufacturer Foxconn has shipped fewer iPhone 4s during the month of August as Apple is gearing up to launch a new model. DigiTimes has the story:

Industry observers said Foxconn’s shipments of iPhone 4 may have decreased in August because of inventory adjustments ahead of the launch of the new iPhone model.

9to5Mac heard from sources, too, that iPhone 4 supplies are becoming constrained globally. Surprisingly, iPod touch supplies show no sign of dwindling. You probably know that somewhere in China there are stacks of finished iPhone 5s, waiting for that iOS 5 Golden Master to be preloaded in a matter of week or two.

Industry estimates call for 5-6 million iPhone 5 units during the month of September. Total iPhone 5 shipments in the holiday quarter are expected to reach 22+ million units, supply chain sources claim. That figure easily beats the 20+ million iPhones (which includes all models) that Apple moved during the June quarter of this year. If ChangeWave Research is to be believed, Apple will face “unprecedented” global demand for the fifth-generation iPhone. Also of note…

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Boy Genius Report thinks it has nailed some important dates regarding pending hardware and software updates from Apple. Per their report, the eighth and final beta of iOS 5 is due this Friday, after which Apple will introduce a Gold Master build on or around September 23. Author Jonathan Geller explains:

We believe that build is what will be loaded onto the already-assembled iPhone 5 hardware currently waiting for final software in China. Apple will then request that carrier partners give technical acceptance to the Gold Master by October 5th if there are no issues with it.

It’s unclear at this stage what might happen should Gold Master fail to pass technical acceptance, but the publication speculates that “odds are it will still be loaded on the iPhone 5 at launch with a software update made available almost immediately following the device’s release”. Boy Genius Report is known for their deep connections with wireless companies in the United States.

Their story does jibe well with the September 30 pre-orders 9to5Mac first heard about mid-August. Today also brought us the news of a possible October 15 iPhone 5 release date from France Telecom/Orange CEO Stéphane Richard. Mac4Ever reports that the executive said in an interview with BFM Business radio station:

If I believe what we heard, the iPhone 5 will be released on October 15.

Note that October 15 is a Saturday, an unusual day for such a high-profile global product launch. Whichever the case, a growing number of leaks are now pointing at an imminent launch of Apple’s next handset. Just this past week brought us the first public image reportedly taken with the iPhone 5’s eight-megapixel camera and more clues of Sprint iPhone based on a blackout for a major phone launch for the first two weeks of October.

Said leaks arrived on the heels of the much-reported lost iPhone 5, a bizarre repeat of a similar incident last year when an Apple engineer mistakenly left an iPhone 4 prototype on a bar stool. The device found its way to a high-trafficked tech blog which revealed the exterior design of the iPhone 4 to the world weeks ahead of its formal introduction at WWDC 2010. Looks like iPhone 5 will be Apple’s most popular iPhone yet. More than 22 million iPhone 5s are being manufactured for the fourth quarter, market sources tell. In addition, the latest ChangeWave survey shows “unprecedented” demand for iPhone 5, per the below chart.

Chart courtesy of CNN Money’s Fortune blog. Click for larger.

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This is a Samsung-branded Windows 8 tablet Microsoft is giving away to BUILD attendees today. 

The latest in the ongoing patent saga involving Apple, Google, Motorola and Samsung includes an unexpected twist as Samsung goes after iPhone and iPad with a complaint filed before a Paris district court in July. The filing alleges infringement of Samsung’s three technology patents, reports AFP. The first hearing is expected in December of this year.

Meanwhile, patent expert Florian Müller notes on his blog FOSSPatents that Apple has filed motions to temporarily halt two Motorola lawsuits until Google completes its $12.5 billion acquisition, which shook the technology world last month. Put simply, Apple argues Motorola waived its rights to sue when it transferred patents to Google. Apple wrote:

To further its pending acquisition by Google, Motorola has surrendered critical rights in the patents-in-suit, such that Motorola no longer has prudential standing to pursue this action. According to the publicly-filed Merger Agreement, Motorola has ceded control of the most basic rights regarding the patents-in-suit

As you know, Google has transferred some of the Motorola patents to HTC, in addition to the ones acquired from Palm and Openwave Systems. HTC then used those patents to counter-sue Apple. Back to Apple vs. Samsung…

Financial Times today opined that Samsung needs to hit the reset button, predicting a licensing agreement of sorts provided Apple succeeds in blocking Galaxy products in the U.S. next month. Contrary to the reports, the publication thinks “Apple is restricted from taking its chip business to Samsung’s rivals in Taiwan because Samsung offers a complete package of components that other firms cannot match”. However, there are indications that Apple’s been lowering Samsung orders for some time and it’s widely believed the company is eager to take its silicon business to TSMC beginning next year.

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Well, what do you know, the Federal Trade Commission is putting acne-curing apps out of business with the announcement that developers will stop promoting them under FTC settlements. Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the FTC, summed it up nicely:

When it comes to curing acne, there’s no app for that.

Computerworld explains that the FTC’s action was the first-ever against overblown health claims by mobile apps not supported by scientific evidence. Apps which claim to treat acne were found on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Marketplace. The ruling puts programs such as AcneApp for iPhone and Acne Pwner for Android out of business as App Store and Android Marketplace comprise the biggest chunk of mobile app downloads. Said programs, the agency explained, “both claimed to be able to treat acne with colored lights emitted from smartphones or mobile devices”. The apps would have you hold the display next to the area of skin to be treated for few minutes daily. The ruling won’t affect apps that educate on acne treatment, such as this one.

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While we’ve yet to witness the abundance of Thunderbolt-enabled peripherals (they are coming, though), accessory makers have finally begun churning out interesting products for getting some mileage out of your Thunderbolt Mac. We spotted mLogic’s mLink this past weekend and love it a lot. The $399 box, SlashGear explains, hooks up with your Mac via a Thunderbolt port and acts as an external chassis that lets you connect PCIe cards to any Thunderbolt-equipped Mac, just like Magma’s ExpressionBox 3T. They also launched mDock and mBack accessories. The mDock, aimed at mid-2009 or later MacBook Pros, includes either a 2.5-inch Time Machine-friendly 500GB or 1TB SATA 5400 rpm hard drive, port extender and port blocker.

Of course, you can add additional storage by attaching your own external drive via a front-facing USB port. The accessory replicates all of the ports found on the side of your notebook, including MagSafe and mini DisplayPort for hooking up external monitors. Its dedicated front facing USB port provides 10 watts of power for charging the iPad and the box doubles as a standalone charger when not docked. Pity it lacks a pass-through Thunderbolt port. The mDock also neatly routes cables to the back, an important feat for the people in the never-ending pursue of the clutter-free desktop. And about that mBack gizmo…

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Image courtesy of Anandtech

Anandtech has published some interesting findings based on their extensive Samsung Galaxy S II review. It’s the first smartphone to use the graphics processing unit based on the Mali-400 core from ARM Holdings, a fables chip maker from the UK. In fact, Samsung has engineered and manufactured its own system-on-a-chip solution for the handset.

They call it the Exynos 4210 and it combines a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU core and the aforementioned Mali-400 GPU sporting four cores. The resulting performance, says Anandtech, is comparable to Texas Instruments OMAP 4 chip that incorporates Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX540 GPU core. However, the quad-core 1.2GHz Exynos 4210 probably won’t hold a candle to iPhone 4S, which will likely carry the same dual-core processor-GPU combo as the iPad 2’s 1GHz A5 chip:

Samsung implemented a 4-core version of the Mali-400 in the 4210 and its resulting performance is staggering as you can see above. Although it’s still not as fast as the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 found in the iPad 2, it’s anywhere from 1.7 – 4x faster than anything that’s shipping in a smartphone today.

Interestingly, and per the GL Benchmark included below, the Exynos 4210 is more than twice as fast compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that runs Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chip and nearly four times speedier than iPhone 4’s 800 MHz A4 chip that sports the PowerVT SGX535 GPU core. However, the 4210 falls short in the triangle throughput department, a big disadvantage over the iPad 2’s A5 processor that clocks nine times the graphics performance of the original iPad’s A4 chip.

Triangle throughput is important in graphics-intensive games and will become key in “future games that may scale along that vector rather than simply increasing pixel shader complexity”. The video of Anandtech’s Samsung Galaxy S II review is right after the break.

Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com.

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Cable television channel TNT, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner, has released an iPad app which gives you complete access to full-length television shows and movies aired by the network. As you’ve come to expect from similar apps, TNT for iPad lets you access behind-the-scenes videos, check out program guides and schedule reminders. It also integrates with GetGlue, Facebook and Twitter so you can pollute your friends’ social stream with the seemingly unimportant “I’m watching…” status updates.

Important caveat: Watching full episodes of television shows such as The Closer, Falling Skies and Rizzoli & Isles requires authenticating through your television provider. The TNT for iPad app is a free download from the App Store. Go past the fold for three additional screenshots of the TNT for iPad app.

NBC has also updated its iPad app with the same content found on the NBC.com web site. Yes, you can finally stream The Office to your iPad! Also, their TBS for iPad program does the same for Turner’s other shows, including episodes of Conan, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, available free on your tablet.

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The ailing computer maker, Hewlett-Packard, announced a brand new iOS app with remote management and printing capabilities. In addition to the usual assortment of features ranging from automatic printer discovery and setup, printer status notification, remote ink/printer status and troubleshooting cartridge identification, HP Printer Control turns your printer into a two-way communications device with scan to Facebook, scan to Google Docs and scan to email capabilities.

The app works with most ePrint-enabled Photosmart, Officejet and LaserJet printers released in 2011 and is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or later. The app wasn’t on the App Store at the time of this writing. HP also supports Apple’s AirPrint technology on select printers and has recently rolled out AirPrint compatibility to eight new LaserJets.

By the way, don’t try opening the official PDF document in Safari or Preview – it appears garbled. Chrome renders it properly, though. Kinda makes you wonder what was HP thinking here, even with the bigger worries on their mind. Official release notes after the break.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQQRsnoyiPA]

[Ed. Note: This is a guest post by Jessie Friedman who is building a kickstarter project with Reason]

The rumors of Logic Pro X have shown the possibility for the long-standing Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to shift in a new direction. Logic is quickly becoming tightly integrated with all things “Apple.” Will the new Logic Pro X alienate the professional market? It is a valid question. Logic was always destined to merge with other visual and UI ideas from Apple Apps. Apple is all about its common themes and designs. It is what makes Apple a continued dominant innovator in the technology market. Utilizing the Mac App Store to sell Logic Pro X has a two-fold benefit. One they promote the App Store to audio software consumers. Two they effectively lower the price of Logic while reducing cost. It is cheaper to sell a “digital” product than it is to sell a “physical” product. A “physical” product involves packaging, shipping, warehouses, store related costs, etc… The audio software market is saturated with Digital Audio Workstations. (DAWs) Anything Apple can do for Logic to gain more exposure, lower costs, and lower the price for consumers boosts Logic’s competitive edge in the market. It is really a win win situation for Apple and Logic. Whether or not these decisions make Logic Pro X a poor man’s DAW is yet to be seen.

Many of these decisions by Apple are moving Logic into a better competitive position in its market. There is little to no information in terms of the exclusion of long time standard features in Logic Pro X. It is a DAW’s feature set that makes it valid in a professional setting. The hobbyist application focuses on an entirely different music making approach. The addition of Waveburner into Logic itself, and the decision to exclude MainStage do shed light on Apple’s intentions with Logic. It is moving away from live performance options and focusing on studio production. Logic’s original niche is as a midi sequencer and studio production environment. Another audio software giant with a unique penchant for creative features is Propellerhead’s Reason, which is due at the end of the month…

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From 9to5Toys:

MacConnection offers readers an additional 3% off Mac desktops and laptops via coupon code “3%MacDeal”. The coupon applies to MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac computers. It’s the best percent-off coupon we’ve seen from MacConnection in recent months. Even better, free shipping applies to most deals, yielding a trove of lowest-we-could-find prices.

Best Bets: New Core i5 MacBook Airs now start $921 (Amazon is $949).  Mac Minis start at $551.88  (Amazon is$569)

MacConnection also has the lowest price we could find on the new Thunderbolt display at $979 and a 128GB Crucial 6Gb/s SSD for $189.99.  AppleTVs are $94.99 as are Airport Express base stations..  Wireless Magic Mouse – $64.99.
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Blogger, a blog-publishing service, has been around since 1999 and it has gotten pretty popular since Google acquired them in 2003. Strange enough, the search firm neglected the iOS app until today, when Blogger for iPhone debuted as a free download on the App Store. Google says in a post over at the official Blogger blog that the app lets you write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device. Also,

You can also open a blog post you’ve been working on from your computer and continue editing it while you’re on-the-go. Your blog posts are automatically synced across devices, so you’ll always have access to the latest version.

The app also allows for adding pictures to your blog posts by choosing from your camera roll or taking a new photo. Yes, you can label posts, too, and add location. Plus, the app allows for more than one Blogger account or blog and you can easily browse the list of saved and published posts. Unfortunately, looks like we’re gonna have to wait a little for a universal binary because the inaugural release isn’t optimized for blogging on the iPad’s gorgeous 9.7-inch display, which is a shame.

TmoNews thinks it scooped a possible evidence that Apple will be announcing its next iPhone in about two weeks time. The site cites “a huge number of emails” they received, which apparently mention “that T-Mobile has called an “All Hands Day” meeting for September 24th for unknown reasons”. September 24 is a Saturday, ruling out the possibility of an Apple media event that day. It could be also just T-Mobile prepping for another product arrival, such as the Galaxy S II, or some non-Apple related marketing and sales initiative. Also, Boy Genius Report offers that the memo actually refers to a high-volume day, which does not compute since iPhone 5 is not expected to hit stores before October.

On the other hand, 9to5Mac heard that Apple could begin accepting pre-orders for the next iPhone as early as Friday, September 30. If T-Mobile USA gets the handset, as rumored, they would want to brief employees at least a week before pre-orders start. And T-Mobile holding a meeting on Saturday, September 24, could mean an Apple media event earlier that week, in which case invites should be sent out sometime in the next week or so.
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We heard back in March that Apple might have been considering giving its chip making contract to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Reuters and Taiwan Economic News later followed-up, claiming TSMC had already begun test runs of Apple’s A6 processor. Per both stories, the A6 chip will be manufactured on TSMC’s 28-nanometer process and is coming in the second quarter of 2012, conveniently matching the expected iPad 3 arrival.

DigiTimes this morning quoted TSMC’s head or research and development Shang-yi Chiang who confirms his company is gearing up for mass manufacturing of 28-nanometer chips:

Chiang claimed that TSMC has received enough orders to fully utilize its 28nm production capacity. Its 28nm process technology will be available for mass production in early 2012, Chiang said.

He also said TSMC will begin research on the 14-nanometer process next year and expects to begin volume production on the node in 2015. They’ll be using 18-inch wafers to process 14-nanometer chips because it helps bring production costs down, which should be music to Apple’s ears. The report doesn’t mention Apple directly, mind you, but it is no secret that the Samsung-Apple relationship is deteriorating at record rates. Consider this…

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Apple’s patent infringement claims against Samsung now include twelve courts in nine countries on four continents. Reuters reported this morning that Apple is now formally suing Samsung in Japan and seeking to block sales of Samsung phones and tablets in the country:

Apple has filed a suit with the Tokyo District Court seeking the suspension of sales of Galaxy S and its sequel S II smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 7 in Japan, according to sources close to the matter. The first hearing was held on Wednesday, the source said.

The iPhone maker is seeking 100 million yen, or approximately $1.3 million, in damages. Apple previously had filed four complaints before the Tokyo District Court, according to patent expert Florian Müller. Coincidentally, Japan is also another high-revenue market for Apple. Other countries where Apple took Samsung to court include Germany, U.K., U.S., Australia and more.

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Adobe is definitely on a roll these days. Just in the past thirty days the company unveiled an iWeb-like tool for building web sites and a PDF-creation app for iPhone and iPad. Earlier today, Adobe announced its Digital Publishing Suite will get the much-needed iOS 5 Newsstand support and now we learn about Adobe Carousel, a missing link aimed at fans of the company’s integrated photography solutions. The program lets you access your entire photo library on your computer from any iOS device and vice versa. It all happens wirelessly and automatically, without you having to sync or transfer photos manually. From Adobe:

Adobe Carousel gives you a new way to enjoy your photos, making all of them available across your Mac and iOS devices, so you can browse, enhance, and share them easily. No manual syncing, no storage limits, no differences in what photos are available to you. Your photography is everywhere you are.

It’s built on the Photoshop Lightroom technology so you’ll get “consistent, high-quality results across devices”, the blurb has it. You can fix exposure, white balance and saturation, adjust contrast, brightness and vibrance, among other features. Similar to the famous Camera+ app, editing in Adobe Carousel is non-destructive, always preserving your original photo. You can also assign other people privileges to browse your library, favorite photos and more.

The app will be released on both the App Store and Mac App Store soon as a free download. You should know that a paid cloud account will be required, starting at six bucks a month until January 31, 2012 (twice as much after that). Versions for Windows and Android are in the works so you’ll eventually be able to manage photos across all major platforms. Funny thing, remember when Steve Jobs had to beg Adobe to build Mac versions? It’s also nice how Adobe’s John Nack described Carousel using Apple-like words in a post on the official Adobe blog, quoted below the fold…

[youtube=ww.youtube.com/watch?v=fhgUQ6L3Hiw]

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Usually, when a brand new industry standard debuts on Macs, there’s a period of shortage before compatible devices begin trickling in. Thunderbolt is no different. Intel partnered with Apple on Thunderbolt earlier this year and it took Apple several months to update its notebooks, iMac and Mac mini families with Thunderbolt I/O. The offering of supported peripherals was initially limited to Apple’s $49 Thunderbolt cable, LaCie and Promise RAIDs, Matrox gear, BlackMagic’s solution for field video editing and a couple other devices.

Following Intel’s release of the Thunderbolt development kit, more companies are announcing Thunderbolt-ready products. By the way, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and other publications received tips that Apple began shipping its new $999 Apple Thunderbolt Display to stores. Now, among the upcoming Thunderbolt gadgets, Magma’s ExpressBox 3T, seen in the above image, caught our attention. Basically a three-slot expansion chassis allowing any Thunderbolt-equipped Mac to connect to PCIe 2.0 cards, the box also lets you power up your MacBook Air’s integrate Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with any PCIe graphics cards, useful if you’re going to do some serious video-related work or play latest games on your Air. The accessory is to be demoed at the upcoming Intel Developer Forum which runs September 13 – 15 in San Francisco.

Magma joins Sonnet, which also unveiled a similar Thunderbolt box last month. The $150 Sonnet ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt adapter accepts ExpressCard peripherals and also expands your Air’s connectivity with eSATA, USB 3, Firewire 800, Gigabit Ethernet and SDXC and CF cards. More product highlights after the break…

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-HWdMl4nDA&w=640&h=390]

Let’s be honest, the iOS task switcher that springs into action when you double-click the home button isn’t the most user-friendly implementation of task switching on mobile devices. Truth be told, many people who played with webOS devices came away impressed with the card metaphor efficiency, allowing you to quickly flip running tasks in and out of the screen. It feels right and quickly becomes second nature. You can now have that same card switching multitasking interface, on your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch (iPad version is coming soon) by downloading the CardSwitcher tweak in the Cydia Store. It feels a lot like task switching in webOS and you can assign your own action to invoke it using the Activator tweak in the Settings app, as demonstrated in the above video.

via CydiaHelp

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Intuit today announced QuickBooks for Mac 2012, the newest version of its accounting software for small businesses, enhanced for OS X Lion. More than fifty new features are part of the release, including better search with keywords and filters, customer and vendor history panels, transaction list, batch online banking transactions, progress invoicing and more. The software goes on sale September 26 as a digital download on the online Intuit store, Amazon.com, Apple’s online store and other outlets, priced at $230 for a single-user license. Boxed copies will hit store shelves on October 9.  Screenshots below.

Premier edition is also available (a Windows-only product), in addition to an add-on for QuickBooks Premier that lets you sync data with Salesforce. QuickBooks also has a cross platform Cloud edition which also shows some promise for Apple users.

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Adobe today announced its Digital Publishing Suite will get support for iOS 5 Newsstand, making it easy for publishers to create digital magazines and newspaper applications that take advantage of iOS 5 which automatically downloads the newest issues distributed through the Newsstand section on iTunes. Adobe’s vice president and general manager of Media Solutions, Todd Teresi, said:

Digital Publishing Suite support for Newsstand will provide Adobe’s publishing customers the ability to deliver engaging content directly to the digital doorstep of subscribers on their iPads.

Adobe notes that the iOS 5 Newsstand app allows for digital publications that are “automatically downloaded to the Newsstand shelf, eliminating long download times which can present a barrier to reading content on iPad devices”. Digital Publishing Suite will also support Newsstand push notifications and icon covers displayed on the Newsstand shelf, reflecting the latest issue of the magazine or newspaper.

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