iOS Devices

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Last evening, a tipster sent us some pictures of what he now thinks is the iPhone 5.  He caught what he said was likely an Apple employee hunched over the device on the way home from work in San Francisco earlier this week.  He told us he was able to get a very good look at the device but the pictures he snapped “didn’t do it justice”.

We contacted the tipster by phone and checked his background.  We believe he saw a totally new Apple device, probably a prototype iPhone 5.  He contacted us because when he got home, he doubted what he saw was legitimate until he looked at the green cases we posted.  Then it all came together for him.  Our tipster has had an iPhone 3GS and currently has an iPhone 4.  He knows his iPhones and iPods and this was like nothing he’s ever seen.  He said it would fit perfectly into the case below.

“Almost EVO-like” in screen size, this iPhone also appears thinner than the current iPhone 4 but also wider.  The edges are rounded metal like the edges of a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but could still function as an antenna.  The back is a curved/tapered glass or plastic.  He couldn’t tell but if he had to guess he’d say glass.  He said it looked too amazing to be built by anyone besides Apple (fanboy!).

Our tipster wasn’t able to see the front/home button and the man holding the device was covering the Apple logo for all but a brief moment when the above picture was snapped.  It seemed apparent that he was trying to hide what he had more than the average smartphone user.

We aren’t certain if this is legitimate or not but it is too thin and flat to be an iPhone 3GS and too rounded to be an iPhone 4.  The black back with Apple logo would seem to rule out an iPod touch.  Our tipster is all but certain it was a new Apple product and the iPhone 5 would be the most likely scenario.

Would Apple let employees out into the world with these over a month before launch?  Apple has acknowledged that they real world test this way in the past (ahem, Gray Powell).  They’ve also indicated that the cases the iPhone 4s came in may have been a factor in not diagnosing the finger spot/antennagate fiasco ahead of time.  So perhaps this is legit?

Another picture below:
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Boy Genius Report relays a story by Taiwan Economic News asserting that Pegatron Technology, not Foxconn, has landed a contract to build iPad 3. Per the original story:

After garnering Apple Inc.’s big order for 15 million units of iPhone, Pegatron Corp., a Taiwan-based contract manufacturer of electronic products, is allegedly to snap up the customer’s another order for iPad 3 production, poised to shake up Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.’s leading status in Apple’s supply chain, according to industry sources. Hon Hai is likely to turn Apple’s another contract order for iPad 3 manufacturing over the Taiwanese counterpart, as the customer has considered looking for a second iPad supplier to reduce over-dependence on Hon Hai, especially at a time after an explosion accident occurred at the firm’s Chengdu factory in May. Therefore, Pegatron, having effectively integrated its production resources specifically for tablet PCs and built close partnership with Apple by supplying iPhone’s CDMA edition to the customer, has been regarded as the most likely candidate for handling Apple’s contract order for iPad 3.

Author Steve Chuang named purported iPad 3 suppliers, including the likes of TPK Holdings which is to provide touch panels for iPad 3, battery suppliers Simplo Technology and Dynapack International Technology, Largan Precision (camera lenses) and casings from Foxconn Technology. Those names tie nicely with a Tuesday report by DigiTimes that named other suppliers of iPad 3 components, including Novatek Microelectronics (LCD driver), Richtek Technology (integrated power management), Capella Microsystems (ambient light sensors) and Integrated Memory Logic (programmable gamma/Vcom buffer solutions). The China Times independently reported that iPad 3 would come “later this Fall”. This development is nothing unusual, mind you…

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Update: AT&T has officially verified this information.

Frankly, throttling isn’t so bad if done fairly.  It is a good way to penalize heavy users but without them having to worry about overage charges.  For high end users, however, it wold make sense for AT&T to add the ability to buy more regular speed data like they do now…
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We all know iPad is a great gaming device. Apple is bound to grow iPad’s entertainment allure as it puts out newer, faster iPads with juicer graphics and user base expands. But for some high-profile publishers, gaming on iPad is now their focal point as the traditional console business has been in a steady decline. Blame it on high-priced hardware and software in the console world, more attractive touch gaming platforms and consoles’ multi-year upgrade cycles. But we’re not talking any publisher here, this quote comes from the mouth of John Riccitiello, the Electronic Arts CEO, who told IndustryGamers yesterday:

Consoles used to be 80% of the industry as recently as 2000. Consoles today are 40% of the game industry, so what do we really have? I think that the pattern against which Nintendo is no longer resonating is over anyway. We have a new hardware platform and we’re putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn’t exist 18 months ago.

Wow, that’s a pretty strong statement. What’s more, coming from the world’s super publisher, it definitely legitimizes Apple as an important player in the gaming space. No wonder Nintendo called Apple “enemy of the future” and slashed the price of the 3DS handheld from $249 to $169 as the iPhone and iPad ate its lunch (and Forbes agrees). On top of that…

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MacRumors is reporting a plastic white iPhone found on Tinhte.vn may be the next value iPhone.

We only have 3 issues with these pictures:

1. It is running Cydia which is unlikely to be an easy install on a new prototype iPhone with a new cellular chip, internal hardware and firmware.  It is doubtful Apple is testing Cydia and it isn’t a cakewalk to jailbreak an entirely new device.
2. Probably most damning, it has the tell-tale old white speaker grill at the top which was phased out as the white iPhone was improved over the past year and a half. It looks like the poster may have tried to blur it as well. It is doubtful that Apple would go back to this flawed design.
3. Plastic?

Some other information that you want to transfer to you is that this machine seems to run faster than the iPhone 4, lighter weight and two glass front and back seem to have been replaced by two plastic sheets, type of sensation and cry other than the iPhone 4.

It is unlikely that Apple would ever replace the glass front with plastic.  Even the $229 iPod touch is glass.  Can you imagine Apple doing plastic face?  Not possible.

More likely there is a matte overlay on the front of it.

Otherwise, this phone has a plastic back which would decrease the weight and cost and increase the durability.  Which actually makes some sense – though the $229 iPod touch gets by with stainless steel.  We were throwing this device around yesterday and concluded it was probably an iPhone 4 prototype that was brought back up to the surface – there is no shortage of those in Asia.  Two more shots below.

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Research firm Nielsen chimed in today with a survey that puts Apple as the leading handset maker in the United States whilst Android is portrayed as the top mobile operating system in the country. Those findings follow a recent analysis which had Apple overtaking Nokia to become the world’s leading smartphone vendor in July, also corroborated  by IDC figures. According to Nielsen’s June data, Google’s Android remains the nation’s top phone platform with a 39 percent of the country’s consumer smartphone market. Apple’s iOS follows with 28 percent and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion continues to bleed share, down to 20 percent in the second quarter of 2011. Windows Mobile and Windows Phone combined grabbed nine percent, webOS and Palm OS were barely a blip with two percent, as was Nokia’s dying Symbian OS.

Apple on the other hand is the top smartphone maker in the United States that controls 28 percent of the market (excluding iPods and iPads). That’s partly “because Apple is the only company manufacturing smartphones with the iOS operating system”, Nielsen argues. HTC shares second spot with Research In Motion with a fourteen percent share of Android devices and six percent of Windows Phones for a total of 20 percent share of the whole market, same as the BlackBerry maker. HTC is also the nation’s leading Android and Windows Phone vendor with 14 percent and six percent share, respectively. No wonder Apple is suing HTC and seeking to ban import of their phones into the US…

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Guardian reports that BBC iPlayer will launch in eleven European countries, coming later this year to United States. The subscription-based service that streams some of the finest BBC programming launched its iPad app today in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. In those markets, BBC iPlayer will require a monthly fee of 7 Euros. The app provides on-demand access to BBC’s popular news and documentaries, in addition to both archive and most recent shows such as Doctor Who and Top Gear. Initially, BBC’s catalogue will include about 1,500 hours of content, with a hundred hours added each week.

In the US, BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones told the publication, will go head to head with the likes of Hulu and Netflix subscriptions and the low monthly fee of eight bucks should help BBC compete with those content providers on their own turf. You can download the app free on App Store in select markets, but note the system won’t let you stream content unless you access it from one of the supported countries. Another goodie for international viewers: Content can be streamed over 3G cellular networks and individual episodes can be downloaded for offline viewing. Interestingly, the team worked closely with Apple on the offline feature, Smith explains:

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Yesterday, a purported case mold schematic for the fifth-generation iPhone emerged, pointing to a complete re-design for Apple’s handset. This mold points to a larger display, a larger home button, and a thinner profile for the next iPhone. The original reporting of this schematic also includes a mockup of such an iPhone 5 case. Now, we have been able to secure an actual purported fifth-generation iPhone case from a source, not just a mockup. This source is similar to the source who provided us with impeccably accurate design schematics for the iPad 2. In addition, we can independently confirm, Asian case manufacturers are now shopping case designs to case sellers across the globe for their own branding.

We can’t tell you that the information used to build the case, that we have gotten our hands on, is different than the information revealed yesterday, but given that these cases have actually been built, and given that case manufactures are willing to spend millions of dollars on quality intelligence to maximize on the iPhone 5 launch, we have reason to believe that this iPhone 5 case is indicative of the next-generation iPhone’s design. Or at least a design that touched Apple’s Asia-based manufacturing plants for prototyping… more after the break:

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Google has released an update to their Shopper app conveniently giving users information on daily deals, including Google Offers. The update adds a “Offers” and “My Offers” tab at the bottom, along with the Shop tab you know and love. The Offers tab displays deals in map view that are available in your city. The deals you find can be saved in the My Offers tab for later use.

Businesses, on the other hand, can publish deals through Google Places. If Google Offers is available in your city you can redeem your purchased offers in the My Offers tab. Check out the update in the App Store.

Cross posted from 9to5Google.
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Never mind the iPad’s lack of USB and SDcard slots, how about a serial port? Our younger readers are now probably going like, “a serial what?”, but those of you that have been around for a while sure have fond memories of the romantic pre-USB era of computing when we connected peripherals like mice, keyboards and printers to our computers using the then ubiquitous nine-pin serial port. Well, a new accessory connects your modern-age iOS portable gear to old-school devices utilizing the serial interface. As you can see in the shot above, the $59 RS-232 serial cable has the iPod dock connector on one end and the male DB-9 connector on the other. Actually, we first spotted it at Macworld in January of last year.

The accessory is the result of collaboration between Redpark Product Development and Keyspan engineers behind the popular USB-Serial adapters for Macs. Because iOS doesn’t support the serial interface protocol, RS-232 peripherals don’t just work with existing apps. That’s why a Redpark serial communications library is available, helping developers write iOS apps that communicate with serial devices. This FAQ also states the cable does not work at this time with App Store apps out of the box. It might eventually, Redpark says, but it will “depend upon Apple policy”. With that in mind, the possibilities are seemingly endless….

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According to a report from Digitimes, Apple, among other companies like Samsung, is currently evaluating the use of solar panels for future products. Even more exciting is that Apple is reportedly considering the “inclusion of Taiwan-based solar firms in [its] supply chain.” This means that Apple is not only “evaluating” if they will make products with solar panels, but is already thinking about who will make the panels.

The catch is, though, according to Digitimes, that miniature solar panels need more development before they can actually be deployed in products.

However, according to Taiwan-based solar firms, these niche markets will need a longer time to develop. Samsung’s solar-powered netbook adopts a unique sized solar cell, added industry sources, and the number of solar cells used is less than rooftop solar systems, hence it is unlikely for solar-powered consumer products to form a solid market in the short term.

This is most definitely not the first time that Apple has shown interest in the solar panel technology. Apple began their exploration of the technology around early 2009 – when they filed a patent in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for mobile products that can be powered by solar panels. Apple was not specific, in this patent, about which mobile devices – but hinted at anything from one of their notebooks to an iPod or iPhone.

Additionally, although likely unrelated, the well-sourced Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month – seemingly based off both Apple and supply chain sources – that Apple is developing a “new way of charging” for the sixth-generation iPhone, launching in 2012. Although this “new way of charging” is likely related to some sort of inductive charging system, as previously discussed, it is still interesting to see that Apple is exploring multiple ways to charge their devices.

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MobileFun claims that the above image is an iPhone 5 case schematic. If real, it looks like the next-generation iPhone will have a slightly curved back – akin to the iPad 2’s back – in addition to a larger, edge-to-edge display, and a larger home button. Larger screen rumors for the iPhone have been rampant with some claiming 4 inches and other claiming 3.7 inches. The larger home button is reminiscent of a report that claimed the next iPhone would feature a gesture-based home button.

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Following TechCrunch’s finding that Facebook’s official iPad application can be found within their latest iPhone application update, Facebook shut down the find. Those who were not lucky enough to gain access early on are in the dark. Until now. iOS jail breaker extraordinaire, Chpwn, has managed to create a tweak that can easily turn any jailbroken iPad user’s Facebook for iPhone application into the full-blown iPad version. The tweak called FaceForward is dead simple: just install Facebook for iPhone on your jailbroken iPad, install FaceForward in Cydia, and run.

Update: Video of the installation and setup process after the break:

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In 2010 we reported that Apple snapped up a Swedish company called Polar Rose that specializes in face detection algorithms. Less than a year after this purchase, we have discovered what Apple actually intends to do with this software. Besides the fun Photo Booth effects that are now found in the OS X Lion implementation of Photo Booth – Apple will take their new face recognition knowledge to the next level with iOS 5.

Apple is not specifically planning to launch an iOS 5 application that relies on their face detection technology, but plans to do something much more important. Open up facial recognition as a public developer API for iOS 5 applications. The implications of this are obviously vast. Most importantly, an easy way for developers to integrate the sought after technology, with vast amounts of uses, into their App Store applications.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QBLKBYrgvk]

We have taken a look at these iOS 5-exclusive APIs and they are highly sophisticated. The first, called CIFaceFeature, can determine through an image where a person’s mouth and eyes are located. The second API, CIDetector, is a resource within the operating system that processes images for face detection.

•   hasLeftEyePosition
•   hasRightEyePosition
•   hasMouthPosition
•   leftEyePosition
•   rightEyePosition
•   mouthPosition

This presumably would power face detection via live motion imagery. The significance of this finding is that Apple is making face detection an even easier feature for developers to implement. Perhaps this is even a sign that Apple is working on some new iOS applications that take advantage of the software. Maybe Apple will even port OS X Lion Photo Booth’s face detection feature to the iOS version.

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Apple has just released iOS 4.3.5 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This update comes just days after the iOS 4.3.4 release and it resolves a “security issue” which has been resolved with certificate verification.

Standalone downloads and geeky specifics below:

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new screenshot left, old screenshot with Kindle Store link (right)

It looks like not only is the WSJ and the Kobo App store relenting to Apple, but so is Amazon.  In the latest release, they’ve pulled out the link to the Kindle Store.  The remaining holdout?  Google.

Update: Nook got the same treatment which render the current screenshots outdated.:

You can read any NOOK Book you have purchased on this updated NOOK for iPhone app, however the Shop link has been removed so to buy NOOK Books from your iPhone, open your Safari browser and go to nookbooks.com. 

There are some other updates for the Kindle App release notes accompanying the Kindle update (iTunes):
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Previously found Nuance Dictation reference in iOS 5 internal settings

Following our exclusive reveal of iOS’s Siri-based “Assistant” feature, we have discovered some more references to Nuance Dictation speech-to-text integration. These iOS 5 SDK findings backup some Nuance references that were found last month in an iOS 5 internal settings menu. Our new findings, though, are very descriptive and shed some light on how exactly the feature will work.

From the above finding, it appears that on iOS 5’s system wide keyboard (or when Apple decides to release this feature), there will be a button to initiate the dictation. This button is referred to the “start” button in the above code snippet. After the start button is clicked, a microphone screen will popover and when the user is done, they can double tap that new microphone view and the speech will be translated into text and the touch keyboard will return. There also may or may not be an option for the iOS device’s microphone to automatically translate the speech into text when it senses the user has stopped talking.

Yes, much like Android does.

How do we know this is Nuance? Based on the similarities between our finding and the internal setting screenshot on the top of this post. In addition, rumors have been rampant over Nuance integration into iOS 5, including claims that Nuance executives were present at this year’s WWDC keynote – the very keynote in which Nuance integration was rumored to be introduced.

Check out a video after the break of how Nuance Dictation works – pretty cool, eh?

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpjpVAB06O4]

Apple’s purchase of Siri in early 2010 and their partnership with Nuance in 2011 has many hoping that Apple has something like speech-to-text or voice-navigation up its sleeve for iOS 5. One of the remaining advantages of Android over iOS is its system-wide Voice Actions technology.

Unfortunately, WWDC and the iOS 5 announcement came and went and nothing related to voice-navigation had been announced. Even so, the Apple-Nuance partnership has been confirmed by way of Nuance voices in Apple’s OS X Lion and Nuance speech-to-text functionality that is referenced in Apple’s internal settings modules.

But that doesn’t mean Apple isn’t hard at work at this very moment trying to cram some native OS level voice recognition technology into iOS 5 before launch.

Coupled with Nuance speech-to-text, Apple appears to be planning to take the fruit of their Siri purchase and fully integrate it into this fall’s release of iOS 5. Because these new features have yet to appear in iOS 5 on the iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, Apple might be saving these new features as an iPhone 5 exclusive. This would be akin to Apple’s decision to make Voice Control and video recording exclusive features to the iPhone 3GS, even though they could technically function on earlier models of the iPhone. As you can see in Siri’s promotional video above, the company advertises itself as “your virtual personal assistant.”

As you can see in the screenshot above from an Apple iPhone test unit, Apple is currently developing and testing a new iOS feature called “Assistant.” This screenshot, from a reliable source, is corroborated with our own SDK findings (below). The source did warn, though, that development is not yet completed – and just went into testing – and may not even be finished by the time the next iPhone ships.

More info after the break…

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Congratulations to reader Kenneth Ng! Because of your backstory and how damaged your iPhone looks (insanity), the iFixYouri iPhone repair shop and 9to5mac will repair it for free. Don’t fear if you didn’t win this time around because we are going to hold the same contest again and announce a new winner in a month! Here’s the deal:

In order to enter the contest, retweet this post on Twitter with hashtag #HelpiFixYouri and a picture of your broken iDevice for a chance to win. If the story about your broken device requires more than what a tweet can share, send an email off to support@iFixYouri.com or like and share it on their Facebook page.

A winning contestant will be randomly selected each week, for the next month. You are only allowed to enter once and a winner can only win one time. If it is determined that your device is irreparable (and doesn’t start in Blend-Tec condition), iFixYouri and 9to5mac will replace the device with a good working equivalent!  (also no iPod shuffles or nanos are eligible)

You will also need to follow both iFixYouri and 9to5Mac on Twitter so we can DM you in case you win. Just a hint, send in high-quality pictures of your device.

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As Apple expands its businesses, with the iPhone and iPad reaching more nations, and their upcoming iCloud service, Apple has opened up the iOS App Store and Mac App Store in 33 new countries. Developers who wish to sell their applications in these new territories can do so by adding them to their sales territory lists in the iTunes Connect web application. Here are the new countries:

Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua, and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Iceland, Montserrat, Nigeria, Oman, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uzbekistan, Yemen

Thanks, Doug!

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Opening a great new iOS 5 feature to many more users, Apple has announced in their iOS 5 beta 4 documentation that iOS 5’s WiFi-sync functionality will work with Windows PCs. This is fantastic news for those with an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch that use a Windows computer as their main machine.

In iOS 5 beta 4, wireless syncing is now available on Windows as well as the Mac (requires OS X 10.6.8 or Lion)You will see an option to enable wireless syncing when you connect your device to iTunes with the USB cable. It is recommended you perform your initial sync with a cable after restoring your device.”

iOS 5 WiFi-sync is a part of Apple’s greater “post-PC” initiative and “cutting the cord.” iOS 5 WiFi sync is either activated to synchronize new content when your iOS device is plugged in for charging, or when you click the WiFi sync button in the iOS settings application. Thanks, iDannyOcean!

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