Mac Rumors and Apple Rumors | 9to5Mac

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is that this machine seems to run faster than the iPhone 4, lighter weight and two glass front and back seem to have been replaced by two plastic sheets, type of sensation and cry other than the iPhone 4.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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We’re getting word from numerous Apple Stores that the Lion transition has begun.  In this photo taken at the 14th St. Apple Store in NYC by a passerby, you can see Apple employees updating Macs as well as some heavy hardware in the foreground.  Those are reportedly the new signage packages.

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MacRumors noticed that Apple placed images of their new LED Cinema Display on their website yesterday. The leaked display looks identical to the current model, but will have a Thunderbolt port on the back to easily connect with Apple’s latest Thunderbolt machines: iMacs, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros, MacBook Airs, and Mac minis in the very near future. You can tell that these are new displays based on the unreleased model number, previously thought to be a new White MacBook that they are attached to and by the OS X Lion wallpaper.

The differentiation is important because, as Apple has warned in a previous KB article, the CD no longer has to be the end of a Thunderbolt chain of devices.  For instance, you could have an external hard drive array connected to your monitor permanently rather than having to plug into another device which would terminate at the monitor.  For MacBook Air/Pro users, this would allow the ‘power-USB-Thunderbolt’ cable to do everything, yet again.

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MacRumors is reporting that Apple is readying Black MacBook Airs in its next refresh.

We’ve received several anonymous tips claiming that at least some models of the next-generation MacBook Air will be be available with a black finish, different from the aluminum case used on the current MacBook Air and most of Apple’s other Macs. The most specific of the claims suggests that a black anodized aluminum case would be available on a top-end MacBook Air model, in much the same way as Apple once offered a high-end black MacBook on top of the standard white offerings.

Remember that when we first broke the news of a MacBook Air way back in 2007 (without Optical drives), we’d been told there was a black version.  That information was later verified with the Ebay auction selling a prototype MacBook Air with a Black aluminum shell (pictured above, another shot below).

We’ve also received an anonymous tip with a similar Lion/Sandy Bridge/Thunderbolt/Next few weeks release information.  That tip also said a $899 starting price point.

Update: A reliable source has told us that they haven’t seen any Black in the new MacBook Air materials

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G-Form, a protective-wear company that is transitioning to iPad enclosures loves doing these stunts. In the video below, someone drops an iPad in their extreme sleeve out of an ultralight at 500 feet. The camera falls off but it looks like the iPad survives.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKNdknJI53Q?rel=0&hd=1&w=640&h=390]

Unfortunately they are only on pre-order.  The company promises to deliver on May 10th.
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MIC Gadget got some hands-on time with that 64GB iPhone we told you about earlier. You’ll notice the camera doesn’t have a silver ring around the edge like the infamous “lost in a bar” phone.

Perhaps most interesting is that we’ve been hearing that Apple does limited runs of these things (and had done them in the past as well) but the guy who got them from Foxconn said:

According to the owner, he believes that the next iPhone will bring 64GB storage capacity to users.

Bring it Apple!
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We recently reported that Apple would be bringing 90 second song previews to iTunes and tonight the mission has begun. A number of songs with 90 second (1:30) previews have just hit Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Enjoy. (Thanks, Matthew)

Oh, didya want the Beatles?

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