iOS devices refer to any of Apple’s hardware that runs the iOS mobile operating system which include iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 10. Here is the complete list of iOS 10 compatible devices.
We initially detailled what developers were calling an ‘iPhone 4S’ way back in April. It was essentially an iPhone 4 with an upgraded processor. Then an iPhone that was supposed to be running on T-Mobile USA’s 3G network turned up shortly thereafter with an interesting antenna design.
Today,iPatchiPods.com and MacRumors stumbled upon some of what they think might be ‘iPhone 4S’ bodies. Both sides of the frame are shown above and feature a slightly different antenna design than the iPhone 4 with the only breaks being at the bottom of the phone.
Interestingly, the frame also deviates from the iPhone 4 in where the home button lies (below), leaving them to speculate that there might not be a home button, there could be a capacitative home button or some sort of other redesign. Expand Expanding Close
Comex, the founder of JailbreakMe, has just announced on Twitter that he’ll be joining Apple as an intern next week. From the sound of his tweet, it looks like Comex will be taking a break from the jailbreak community. It’s sad to see him go, but we’re pretty sure he’ll hand over the reins of JailbreakMe to someone else. We wish him the best of luck at Apple!
Tweet 1: It’s been really, really fun, but it’s also been a while and I’ve been getting bored. Tweet 2: So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple.
T-Mobile dissing the iPhone it will soon carry and the company that will soon buy it?
After yesterday’s Sprint story, MacTrast chimes in that the soon to be acquired by AT&T network will carry the iPhone 5 as well.
The informant, who requested to remain anonymous, went on to claim that the iPhone 5 would also operate at 3G speeds on T-Mobile US network. Current unlocked iPhone 4 units can only operate at at 2G “edge” speeds on T-Mobile’s network, and lack certain network-dependent features, such as Visual Voicemail.
That’s somewhat strange as the chips inside the Verizon iPhone and what are thought to be in the upcoming iPhone 5 support T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 14Mb ‘4G’ service (as well as AT&T’s ‘4G’).
We reported earlier this year that T-Mobile already had over a million iPhones running on its US network.
It’s no secret typing on an iPad isn’t nearly as efficient as the traditional hardware keyboards we’re used to. However, over time frustrations with Apple’s onscreen keyboard have settled as users acclimate to a new method of typing. The problem? If you were to use the iPad’s keyboard like a hardware keyboard, you would inevitably experience accidental key presses. This greatly slows down typing speed as users are forced to not rest their fingers on the keyboard. LiquidKeyboard aims to fix that.
A report from The Economist profiles Christian Sax and Hannes Lau of the University of Technology in Sydney and their LiquidKeyboard prototype which hopes to provide a truly adaptive typing experience on tablets in the near future.
The video above starts off by showing the limitations of the iPad’s system wide keyboard in comparison to the LiquidKeyboard’s ability to adapt to a user’s natural finger position. It does this by allowing you to place all fingers on the screen at once, opposed to one or two fingers, and appears and aligns ergonomically in relation to your fingers and wrist position. Expand Expanding Close
I’m not sure exactly how good this actually works but I love the idea of no wires or batteries (or eyesores).
MegaPhone – SATELLITE 2011
Amplifier passive ceramic iphone. The form is designed to amplify and optimize the best sound output. The amplifier is based on a thin wooden structure that allows the object to float off the table. This is to increase the vibration of the object being used and to optimize the emission of sound. Designed for the iPhone is perfect for listening to music without headphones, for audio conference to hear the person on the phone as if he were talking in the same room.
In May, Logitech announced nice Bluetooth accessories for iPad and today the company outed two new products, one aimed at gamers and the other for users who want their tablet to be more – you know – notebook-like, with real keyboard and stuff. The first, the suction cup joystick, sounds like a great idea, but we have doubts that this thing can sit on iPad’s 9.7-inch display long enough during intense action games. Also bear in mind its lack of textured grip and a seamless surface. Logitech argues the coiled spring provides force feedback that automatically returns the joystick to the center position.
At $20 a pop, who could complain? Engadget got a chance to play a round of Pac-Man using this thingie (video below the fold) and we suspect any game with on-screen sticks should lend itself well to this gaming accessory. The fold-up keyboard, another Bluetooth accessory, connects wirelessly to your iPad and has a built-in stand that props up your iPad in portrait or landscape. The keyboard is full-sized, it charges over USB and automatically turns itself on and off when unfolded/folded. Price? Just $130. Both accessories will hit the U.S. and Europe beginning in September.
There is no shortage of iPhone 5 renderings, leaks and case designs and weposted those on a few..different..occasions. As opposed to artists’ renditions predominantly based on leaked cases and late rumors, let’s step back for a moment and think big. Courtesy of Aatma Studio, a San Francisco-based 3D animation and digital content shop, here comes a cool iPhone 5 concept they fashioned, shown above.
We absolutely love the virtual laser keyboard that can be “swapped out” of the device and perched on the desk. It is also pinch-zoomable and illumination controlled. As for the holographic display, the idea actually stems from Apple’s patent filings related to pico projection systems letting you (theoretically, of course) flick whatever’s shown on your device’s display onto the wall. Enjoying a movie projection while camping at night suddenly takes on a whole new dimensions. Wondering about that thriller-like soundtrack? It’s “Movement Proposition” by Kevin MacLeod.
Acer’s seven-inch Iconia Tab A100 tablet, which hit US shores earlier this month
Sixteen months following the original iPad launch back in April 2010, the Android camp has hit unexpected roadblocks as first tablets based on Google’s software fail to impress the mass consumer or gain any meaningful traction in the marketplace. Earlier this year heads rolled at companies that couldn’t produce a viable answer to Apple’s market-defining product, while nasty quotes from competitors only served to stress their jealousy. Computer maker Acer is a typical example. Their former CEO and president Gianfranco Lanci was forced to quit his post abruptly in the wake of the iPad challenge as the company outlined reorganization plans.
Today, the Acer Group posted preliminary results and the numbers don’t look good. They suffered a quarterly operating loss of NT$7.1 billion (about $246 million) – Acer’s first-ever quarterly loss – and a 32 percent annual drop in consolidated revenues of NT$102.1 billion, or about $3.5 billion. Three hundred jobs will be cut in Europe and the company will take a $150 million hit to write off inventory and doubtful payments in Europe. Acer shares fell a whopping 65 percent this year in a broader market down 16.4 percent. Also, they have no compelling products in sight in the run-up to the holiday quarter. It gets worse, chairman JT Wang tellsGuardian:
Today I have to say, trying to break even this year becomes impossible.
Why poor results? As mentioned earlier, Acer had to swallow significant costs attributed to company-wide reorganization and clearing up excessive inventory. The latter is in line with other makers reducing prices of Android tablets in order to “digest inventory overstock”. Interestingly, Acer will no longer report sell-in, which only includes shipments to the channel, and will instead switch to the sell-through model which counts actual sales to end users.
This is what the post-PC world ranking looks like today, if you count tablets as PCs
Apple has won 16 new patents published by the the US Patent and Trademark Office today (viaPatentlyApple) that cover everything from possible methods of charging future Apple products via solar power, to key multi-touch technology and iOS camera related patents. Certainly more fuel for the ongoing patent wars between Apple and the rest of the smartphone industry.
We already know Apple is experimenting with solar power from past patents, even going as far as considering which company would produce panels for future products. We also heard reports in March of a superthin solar panel layer from French company Wysips that could be rolling out to handset manufactures within a year. Today one of the 16 newly granted patents gets us a step closer by detailing “methods and apparatuses for operating devices with solar power”.
PatentlyApple explains:
“a solar power tracking apparatus includes, but is not limited to, a voltage converter and a controller coupled to the voltage converter. The voltage converter includes an input capable of being coupled to a solar power source and an output capable of being coupled to an electronic load, such as, for example, a portable electronic device. The voltage converter is configured to monitor or detect an amount of power drawn by the electronic load at the output of the voltage converter. In response to the monitored power drawn, the controller is configured to control the voltage converter to reduce amount of power to be drawn subsequently if the monitored amount of power exceeds a predetermined threshold. As a result, the output voltage from the solar power source is maintained within a predetermined range.”
You may have heard about “prior art”. In patent law, prior art is basically all information made available publicly before a date which might be relevant to a patent’s claims of originality. Hence, if any invention can be described in prior art, its patent can be invalidated. Samsung is resorting to some pretty sci-fi (literally!) arguments in its legal spat with the Cupertino gadget maker, having gone as far as citing Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” movie as prior art against Apple’s tablet.
The finding, discovered by intellectual property expert Florian Mueller on his blog FOSS Patents, stems from page two of an exhibit Samsung filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The document reads:
Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of a still image taken from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. In a clip from that film lasting about one minute, two astronauts are eating and at the same time using personal tablet computers. The clip can be downloaded online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8pQVDyaLo. As with the design claimed by the D’889 Patent, the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table’s surface), and a thin form factor.
The prior art claim is in Samsung’s defense against Apple’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Samsung must be pretty desperate if they’re resorting to such childish tactics. Color us blue, but this one tops Samsung’s claim in a Dutch court that Apple doctored Galaxy smartphone images.
Go past the break for the said YouTube clip from “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Now, I’m no lawyer but Samsung would probably be better served to use their own prior art, perhaps something like this Photoframe from 2006. What do you think?
Reuters this morning ran a story sourced from “two people with knowledge of the matter” who confirmed that Apple in fact is gearing up to launch an inexpensive iPhone model alongside a new fifth-generation iPhone in “late September”, which 9to5Mac was first to report on with the September 29 pre-order date. The cheapo one? An 8GB version of iPhone 4, expected to launch “within weeks”:
Asian suppliers to Apple Inc have begun manufacturing a lower-priced version of its hot-selling iPhone 4 with a smaller 8 gigabyte flash drive, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The flash drive for the 8GB iPhone 4 is being manufactured by a Korean company, one of the people said Tuesday, declining to name the company. Apple currently sources its flash drives from Japan’s Toshiba and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.
There has been some talk as of late that Apple has begun sourcing Samsung parts from other suppliers amid a nasty patent spat with the Korean consumer electronics maker. It is therefore entirely possible that Apple bought the 8GB NAND flash model from Toshiba, but with the price being paramount for this cheap iPhone 4 we wouldn’t be surprise if the chips came from Samsung, if the price was right. The Reuters report also describes iPhone 5 as sporting an improved antenna, a bigger screen and an eight-megapixel camera on the back. Surprisingly, the sources insist iPhone 5’s form factor is similar to its predecessor, which contradicts the rumor-mill and recent case leaks that point to a slimmer, redesigned appearance.
Apple currently offers iPhone 4 in 16GB and 32GB flavors for $199 and $299, respectively, after a two-year service contract. It is unclear whether Apple will remove the two-year old iPhone 3GS from market this Fall and replace it with the 8GB iPhone 4 at a similar asking price or perhaps free? The story corroborates our own speculation that September will see Apple launch two iPhones, a major upgrade that is the iPhone 5 and an inexpensive model for emerging markets that could either be this 8GB iPhone 4 or even a re-worked iPod touch with 3G connectivity added.
Multiple leaks of various parts purported to belong to a fifth-generation iPhone, which we’ve been hearing is up for launch October 7, are a norm that late in the game. Today, MacRumors points (here and here) to several components allegedly sourced from suppliers. These parts might have been used in the design of iPhone 5. The back camera module, picture above next to its iPhone 4 counterpart, reveals the familiar compact design calling for the LED flash embedded closely to the CMOS sensor.
Surprisingly, the iPhone 5’s back camera appears to lack dual LED flash. Of course, you never know with those leaks. For all we know, this part could just as easily have been used in one of early iPhone 5 design prototypes. It could also be the case of a repair shop looking for some free coverage. As 9to5macreported back in April, Apple is likely to keep iPhone 5 ahead of other smartphones in the camera department by using Sony’s eight-megapixel camera.
The company also might keep its current supplier, OmniVision. That company unveiled in May a 1080p camera sensor that could lend itself well to a thinner designs, said to be one of the iPhone 5’s treats. Asian trade publication DigiTimes followed-up with a report that both Sony and OmniVision cut a deal to supply Apple with eight-megapixel cameras for iPhone 5s. The other leaked parts reveal little new information, but are nevertheless interesting…
Late last week, Verizon introduced a new 300MB data plan for $20/month for the carrier’s mid-Atlantic region. This covers Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia and North Carolina. This special data plan tier is available in a limited test run from August 18th until September 30th. The idea for the plan, according to Verizon regional president Mike Maiorana is to welcome users from non-smartphones:
This is a great introductory plan for customers who have been contemplating moving from a basic phone to a smartphone but were hesitant because of cost, said Mike Maiorana, regional president in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. The $20 monthly access promotional plan is an opportunity for customers to learn the many benefits of having a smartphone with email and calendar functions, as well as Internet access and apps, at their fingertips
According to our sources, though, Verizon’s reasoning for the plan is not that simple. The company is actually going right after AT&T’s $15 data plan that provides users with 200MB of data usage per month. Verizon Wireless figures that an extra 100MB for only $5 is the more enticing deal. The plan also doubles as an easier route for parents to set young children up with a phone line on their Verizon plan. Because of this, Verizon Wireless currently plans to make this data plan a permanent and nationwide option by this holiday season. This could change at anytime, though, depending on response to the test-run.
Following the devestating earthquake in Japan earlier this year, Apple has added a new early earthquake warning notification option to iOS 5. iOS 5 users in Japan can turn on early earthquake notifications at the very bottom of the iOS 5 Notification Center settings pane. As you can see above, all the user has to do is flick a switch to start receiving these notifications. According to Time, who profiled Japan’s earthquake warning system earlier this year, the system gives warnings from seconds to one or two minutes before the earthquake hits. Time also explains the history of the system:
Japan has the most advanced earthquake early-warning system in the world. A nationwide online system launched in 2007, it detects tremors, calculates an earthquake’s epicenter and sends out brief warnings from its 1,000-plus seismographs scattered throughout the country, one of the most earthquake-prone nations on the planet.
Apple’s built-in earthquake notification system will be a nice replacement for those in Japan who rely on earthquake warning applications from the App Store such as Yurekuru Call. For those who cannot read the text above, it also warns that the feature may reduce your battery life because it is always connected to Japan’s earthquake warning system. This new notification options truly showcases Apple’s commitment to safety for those in Japan. Thanks, l9!
Sudden drops? The Kraken II rugged case comes to the rescue.
Trident Case recently sent along their Kraken II case for review and I’ve been carrying my iPhone 4 in it for several weeks – and not just around office, mind you. I took it for a spin through a variety of environments, from public transport in an ugly, big city to cafes and restaurants, some countryside and finally to the beaches of Rovinj, a city on the North Adriatic sea where I’ve been blogging and soaking up sun rays since June.
The case did a good job protecting my iPhone 4 from several accidental drops at the gym, my home office and during mountain biking. My device also survived a really ugly drop onto a marble staircase from about two meters. I’m pretty convinced that accident would have been fatal (can you say Glassgate?) had it not been for the Kraken II’s silicone insulation and its rugged design calling for reinforced edges. But on the flipside, it does need some additional tweaking and more attention to detail, but more on that later.
An unexpected treat: A kickstand totally lends itself to media viewing in landscape and alarm clock/weather apps. Wish iOS 5 supported landscape lock screen.
Besides the iPhone 5 release date, the hottest iPhone-related news topic as of late has been LTE. A recent report claimed that Apple’s carrier partners were already exploring LTE iPhones, and this rumor became juicier with the discovery of LTE antennas being installed in some Apple Store locations in the United States. Now, we have discovered that carriers are not only “testing” an LTE iOS device in some fashion, but Apple actually has references to LTE in their iOS 5 field-test application.
This could mean that Apple has actual LTE devices – whether they are iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads – in a field-test stage. Not just in their $100 million “black lab.” The news comes straight from Apple’s field-test application that is installed on fully functioning iOS devices. The big picture here is that carriers are not just testing Apple LTE devices in their previously revealed chambers, but Apple actually has multiple references to the technology in their iOS 5 field-testing mechanism. In fact, the LTE references are even present in certain developer build plist files, not just the field-test application, as discovered by MacRumors.
Apple’s LTE devices will be covering the current carrier-band spectrum, running on bands from 1.4 to 20 MHz. This Apple field-test application references LTE SIM-cards as well. This not only means that Apple’s current LTE test devices are built-up enough to support a SIM-card – not just a bunch of wiring on a board – but that hopes of an integrated SIM-card system are likely still not going to come to fruition (at least in their LTE device[s]). The field-test application will also collect usage logs for Apple, furthering evidence that this is not simply an in-lab or in-box testing by carriers, but full-on testing against LTE tower connections in the wild.
If Apple is actually testing LTE devices in the field, it may seem a bit obvious to some, but the most interesting part is that the testing could be happening right now, on iOS 5 devices. The next iPhone will be an iOS 5 device and so will the next iPod touch, but the most interesting iOS 5 device – to us, at least – is the iPad 3. This is Apple’s largest iOS device. The device that they could technically cram the most components and battery life into. You may recall Apple COO Tim Cook’s words on why the first-generation Verizon iPhone does not support LTE: LTE would “force design changes we wouldn’t make.”
Apple is gearing up to launch an iOS 5-packing third-generation iPad in early 2012. A 9.7 inch tablet would be perfect for an LTE chip because of the hardware’s naturally larger (compared to an iPhone) internal component space. As LTE networks grow from both Verizon and AT&T in the United States into the first half of 2012, the iPad 3 will be the perfect LTE launch device from Apple. Unlike the iPhone, users will not need to rely on having a constant cellular connection – in addition, most of the iPads sold are the WiFi-only models. We do not have any evidence from sources that claim the new iPad will be an LTE device, but just a single tidbit that is complete with a large dose of speculation and open to much discussion…
Apple has released iOS 5 beta 6 to developers today as the fall launch of the major iOS software upgrade nears. In addition, Apple released beta 6 of iTunes 10.5 to developers, which is required for syncing with devices that carry iOS 5 beta 6. Also, Apple seeded Xcode 4.2 developer preview 6 today, which is required for compatibility with developer devices running iOS 5 beta 6. iOS 5 will launch publicly this fall alongside the fifth-generation iPhone. The iPhone 5 is likely launching in early October, so we will most likely see the public launch of iOS 5 during that timeframe as well.
iOS 5 includes over 200 new features including an all new notification system called Notification Center, Newsstand for easy magazine and newspaper reading from the home screen, Twitter integration, iCloud support, an improved camera and photos application with photo editing, a location-aware Reminders application, over-the-air software updates, setup without a computer, iMessages, an improved Safari with Reading List and improved tabbed browsing on the iPad, an improved Game Center, iPad navigation gesture support, WiFi syncing, iPad 2 AirPlay mirroring, and more.
In addition, Apple has seeded a second beta of iWork for iOS with iCloud support and Apple TV software beta 5.
If you find anything new in today’s releases, please let us know at tips@9to5mac.com. Apple’s full change log for iOS 5 beta 6 is after the break for your perusal.
Relaying information provided by “high-level sources” from American carrier AT&T, BGR is getting on the early October iPhone 5 launch bandwagon. They’ve heardthat AT&T higher-ups told their managers to prepare employees for a “really, really busy” iPhone 5 launch. The internal communication allegedly includes the specific mention of an early October release:
One of our high-level AT&T sources just informed us that an AT&T Vice President has confirmed to several employees that the iPhone 5 is slated to launch in early October. Additionally, the VP communicated the following to a group of managers: ‘Expect things to get really, really busy in the next 35-50 days, so prepare your teams accordingly’.
Per information 9to5Macobtained from trusted sources, corroborating the dates TiPbheard as well, Apple is aiming to launch the fifth-generation iPhone on October 7 and planning on starting pre-orders September 30. Additionally, the first week of October date for the new iPhone’s availability, fits nicely with our report about AT&T’s major early October changes: data throttling and a new insurance plan for $199 devices.
Several leaks do, however, point to a thinner, sleaker form factor that represents a distinctive departure from iPhone 4’s glass design (although some obviously disagree).
Hewlett-Packard engineers did dare pull unthinkable: They hacked iPad to install webOS only to find out Apple’s hardware runs their mobile operating system more than twice as fast compared to their own TouchPad hardware, a source “close to the subject”toldThe Next Web. The finding had devastating effects on the team’s morale:
The hardware reportedly stopped the team from innovating beyond certain points because it was slow and imposed constraints, which was highlighted when webOS was loaded on to Apple’s iPad device and found to run the platform significantly faster than the device for which it was originally developed.
It should be pointed out that webOS runs on Qualcomm ARM chips while iPad 2 runs on Samsung silicon. This little nugget is even more revealing:
With a focus on web technologies, webOS could be deployed in the iPad’s Mobile Safari browser as a web-app; this produced similar results, with it running many times faster in the browser than it did on the TouchPad.
In fact, the webOS team wanted HP’s TouchPad and Pre hardware “gone” even before the products hit the marketplace according to TNW. With a hardware refresh a year off and similar issues with the Pre phones, this could have contributed to the decision to shutter the webOS and perhaps license it out to other companies (with better hardware).
In a separate report, TNW details how the news was broken to the webOS group within HP.
Almost everyone at HP found out about the death of the TouchPad and Pre hardware as the public did, in the press release. Only the top executives knew anything about this decision and even senior staff as high as Ari Jaaksi, the Vice President of webOS software, didn’t know about the shuttering of hardware before it happened.
After the press release came out, there was a company wide meeting filled with a bunch of ‘corporate speak’, in which staff were told that they were going to be in limbo for 3-4 weeks.
Adding their bit to the overall confusion related to an upcoming iPad refresh, the Wall Street Journal this morning runs a story asserting that the device is coming out early 2012 rather than this year. Contrary to late reports, “people familiar with the situation” have informed the paper that iPad 3 will in fact rock an ultra-high-resolution display with a 2048-by-1536 pixel resolution, four times the number of pixels on the original iPad’s 1024-by-768 pixel display:
Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia for the trial production of its next generation iPad from October, people familiar with the situation say, as it looks to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-growing tablet computer market. The next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution display – 2048 by 1536 compared with 1024 by 768 in the iPad 2 – and Apple’s suppliers have already shipped small quantities of components for the sampling of the iPad 3. Suppliers said Apple has placed orders for a 9.7-inch screen device.
The report does confirm an earlier story telling us Apple scrapped plans for Retina Display iPad 3 this year due to issues associated with volume production of such a high density screen. The company has been reportedly quality-testing 2048-by-1536 displays for iPad 3 from LG and Samsung.
Reporting essentially the opposite of what they said last week, Digitimes now reports that Apple is scaling back fourth quarter iPhone orders due to changes in the economy.
While most smartphone vendors are likely to reach their shipment targets for the third quarter, they have begun to reduce orders for parts and components for the fourth quarter in preparation for a possible impact from changing economic conditions, the sources noted.
The website’s previous report claimed that Apple upped iPhone orders to 56 million units for the third and fourth quarters, but according to their new report, those plans won’t be happening. The iPhone 5 will likely be available in early October, and it will be interesting to see the supply and demand breakdown for the product amidst this report.
id Software got 100,000 likes on their Facebook page so they’re releasing the iOS version of their upcoming next gen shooter, Rage, free for a week. (Rage HD, Rage)
We’ve independently heard that Apple has plans to begin selling the next-generation iPhone on Friday, October 7th; the date first reported by TiPB. According to our sources, Apple has been weighing between launching the new iPhone on October 7th or October 14th, but with the product’s latest stages of pre-mass-production currently moving along nicely, Apple is presently shooting towards a launch on the 7th. On top of this, unlike with the iPad 2, Apple plans to offer pre-orders for the new iPhone.
Apple currently plans to begin pre-orders for their next-generation smartphone in the final days of September. The company has still not finalized the pre-order start date, but is debating between Thursday, September 29th and Friday, September 30th. The 30th seems more likely at this point according to one of our sources.
Pre-orders for the new iPhone starting in late September will also mean that Apple’s fall event will take place in September; which would seem to counter NewsCorp’s Kara Swisher’s combative insistence of an October iPhone 5 event. Additionally, the first week of October date for the new iPhone’s availability, fits nicely with our report about AT&T’s major early October changes: data throttling and a new insurance plan for $199 devices. This release date would also jive with John Paczkowski’s report about the iPhone 5 becoming available in October.
There has been mixed chatter about the device’s exterior design, with cases, which we first revealed, pointing to a thinner form factor. Others, though, have said the design will be largely similar to the current iPhone 4. As with any launch date report, we have to note that Apple is constantly shifting their launch plans. As we noted earlier, the launch date was already moved up a week in the company’s recent launch planning. We are reasonably confident, though, that as of today, Apple is planning to unleash their next iPhone on October 7th and offer pre-orders starting on September 29th or 30th. The date could and likely will change again, but we feel it is necessary to report the company’s current plan.
Mockup based on current Apple Store native application
Although Apple offers an Apple Store iOS application that provides full access in a simplified manner to iPhone and iPod touch users, Apple is looking to make the experience even simpler. Over the past months, we have observed Apple gradually shelving and re-touching a project to replace the native Apple Store application with a mobile web version of the Apple Online Store. Now it appears that Apple is working towards actually completing and launching the mobile version of the store.
This new online store, showcasing Apple’s belief in powerful and innovative web-based experiences, will largely mimic the Apple Store application of today, according to a proven source. The big difference is that it will be far more accessible, and the iOS App Store download process will not get in the way of people looking to quickly purchase products on the go.
We do have some concerns about some of the functionality from the native application being ported over to the mobile web version. Notably the feature that provides users with functionality (shown above) based on the physical Apple retail that they are currently visiting. Perhaps Apple will keep the App Store version around for that feature or will figure out a way to move it to the web browser. After all, iOS Safari can access a user’s current location.
Apple plans to debut the mobile version of the online store sometime in 2012. As aforementioned, the project has been shelved multiple times before, so it is possible that the project will once again be moved to the sideline in favor of other product development.
