Vanity Fair has published a new 2015 list of ‘The New Establishment’, where reporters rank the most important visionaries in business and culture. Although Mark Zuckerberg takes the top spot in the Disrupters category, Tim Cook and Jony Ive get listed at the 4th spot.
This is down from their previous rank of number three in last year’s 2014 list. In the accompanying blurb, Variety singles out Ive as Apple’s new front-runner using the Watch to become the “creative mantle at the world’s most highly valued company”.
As Apple continues to develop watchOS 2.0 for Apple Watch ahead of its release this fall, the company has released watchOS 2 beta 4 to registered developers today for testing the operating system update on Apple Watch.
The upcoming OS update includes a ton of improvements to the platform including support for native apps, third-party complications, new watch faces including using your own photos, a clever Night Stand mode for using the watch as a miniature alarm clock, and several refinements to apps and features like Digital Touch and Siri.
The previous beta included improvements to battery life and Notification Center bugs that plagued earlier betas plus Apple Music support, but Apple ID setup and Apple Pay were disabled for the pre-release software betas. We’ll dig in to the latest beta version and update with notable changes discovered. Expand Expanding Close
FreedomPop, the wireless service provider offering free and cheap no-contract plans on Sprint’s network, today announced it’s now allowing customers to bring their old Sprint phones to activate on its $0/month wireless plans. We’ve confirmed with the company that will also soon include iPhones.
The company has been around since 2011 with various hotspot products and recently launched its first smartphone direct to customers alongside the world’s first completely free mobile service. A guaranteed 500 MBs of data, 500 text messages, and 200 anytime voice minutes for free each month would sound enticing to anyone, but previously customers would have to pay $99 for an almost two-year old HTC Evo Design to get it. Despite that, FreedomPop says it “immediately sold out” of stock when it launched last month.
That’s about to change today as FreedomPop will now let Sprint customers bring their own device to activate on its free and cheap plans. Although there is no mention of it in the carrier’s press release and some are reporting iPhones aren’t supported, we’ve confirmed FreedomPop will support the iPhone 4 and 4S as well as 20 other Sprint devices initially. Stephen Stokols, FreedomPop’s CEO, tells us it will be another few weeks before the iPhone is compatible, and eventually all Sprint smartphones will be supported. Around 600 devices, including iPhones, will be supported by the end of the month. Expand Expanding Close
Following last week’s launch, U.S. carrier T-Mobile has begun airing its second TV ad for the iPhone 5. It is of similar style to the first ad as it explains T-Mobile’s new no-contract approach. Thanks, Matthew!
French website Nowhereelse [translated] posted more part leaks for the next-generation iPhone this morning, and while we get a new glimpse at the front screen, neither of the pictures show anything terribly new. The bronze piece pictured was originally thought to be an NFC chip, but more conventional wisdom suggests it is a speaker for the headset.
We also received an image of 4 iPhone motherboards before being chip loaded:
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…And, perhaps our most sketchy image:
Thanks, Sonny!
Adding to the slew of alleged leaks, a new image of a purported logic board for the next-generation iPhone has surfaced. The crisp picture shows the logical board without any protective EMI shielding for an internal look at the A6 chip that supposedly sits inside. We are a bit wary about the authenticity of this picture, as its originator, Sonny Dickson, said it needed to be “enhanced with Photoshop.”
It is speculated the A6, or a variant of the A5X chip, would appear in the next iPhone, and many thought Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s 28nm process would manufacturer the quad-core chip, but the latest reports claimed Apple is stuck with Samsung for at least CPU and/or baseband chip building after TSMC rebuffed an exclusive bid.
We also see another 9-pin dock cable from Sonny below:
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A gallery of new parts is below—including a video from Sinocent. Expand Expanding Close
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