parts

Following photos that surfaced this morning showing much more subtle antenna breaks on the back of a supposed production model iPhone 6, a video of a device based on the upcoming flagship has surfaced thanks to Feld & Volk, an association of designers and engineers who create luxury custom versions of Apple’s most popular handsets. But what’s interesting about this device is that it seems to actually be built from working parts, and can be seen booting and asking the user to connect to iTunes.

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Apple will finally begin offering iPhone 5s screen replacements in its official U.S. and Canada retail stores in the coming days, according to several sources. Apple Store Genius Bars are said to have begun taking delivery of large quantities of iPhone 5s screens for the repair program. The crucial service’s debut is currently scheduled for Monday, August 4th. This upcoming rollout will mark an official launch as a few stores in the U.S. have piloted iPhone 5s screen repairs over the past several months. Apple officially rolled out iPhone 5c screen repairs in January, and it began replacing other iPhone 5c and 5s parts late in 2013. The screen replacements will cost approximately $150 per repair, and this is more affordable than the $269 price of completely replacing a broken iPhone 5s.

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Following a number of leaks claiming to show prototypes, cases, and manufacturing tools for the next-generation iPhone, today yet another leak of a physical iPhone 6 mockup has popped up via Japanese blog Macotakara.jp. The site posted images from the Hong Kong Electronics Fair taking place from April 13-16 that apparently show mockups of the iPhone 6 used by case makers to create cases and accessories they plan to launch alongside the new iPhone.  
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The State of Arizona today announced that Apple is planning to build a new manufacturing facility in the city of Mesa, Arizona. The facility will create 700 jobs for manufacturing, and an additional 1,300 jobs for the construction and management of the new facility, In total, Apple will be bringing at least 2,000 new jobs to the United States thanks to this new facility.

In addition to the manufacturing facility, Apple will be constructing a new solar power grid in the city to power the manufacturing operations, according to Arizona’s announcement:

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Only a few weeks after comparing iPhone 5s components to the iPhone 5, TLDToday is back at it again, tearing down an iPad 4 to compare its components to that of the upcoming iPad 5. The results are rather interesting, and show just how dramatic of a redesign the iPad 5 will be.

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With the lower-cost iPhone supposedly already in production, in time for launch later this year, the likelihood of parts leaking can only increase.  Earlier today, iPhone5skopen posted images of supposed front panels for the cheaper device. As shown by previous leaks, the faceplate is almost identical to an iPhone 5 with a plastic body being the main differentiating factor in the product lineup.

Now, Chinese site IT168 has posted pictures of supposed camera modules for this device  (via MacRumors). The site claims the sensor is the same as the one found in the iPhone 5, being 8 megapixels in resolution, albeit in a plastic casing. The inclusion of an eight megapixel sensor, rather than a five megapixel one as some expect, gives more weight to the idea this device is by no means a “budget” product. Recent reports have put the ‘cheap’ iPhone in a mid-range price bracket, around $350.

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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:

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.
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