Archive for September 14th, 2011

According to Bloomberg, South Korea is the first country worldwide that has convinced Apple to change its customer service policy on faulty iPhones. The country’s fair trade commission has persuaded Apple to replace defective iPhone with new models instead of refurbished devices, providing users report faults within one month after purchase.

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The Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology, Aolizio Mercadante, has confirmed that the new Apple’s factory is “ready”, and even already making iPads that will begin shipping in Brazil from this December.

At first many doubted, but it will be the first time that the company will produce iPads outside Chinese territory. We are taking a big step for digital inclusion in the country,” he said. Mercadante also said that the federal government will announce in the coming days to invest in a big factory of games in the Manaus Free Zone.

The new Brazilian factory is a result of a joint effort by the Brazilian government and Foxconn, manufacturer of the iPhone and iPad that reportedly invested $12 billion in this new factory. As Apple planed production started in late August / early September. We also reported that in June Foxconn hired 175 engineers for the new factory.

At the Intel’s Developer Forum the Intel today announced a new processor that will be capable to supply power to a x86 computer in stand-by mode for 10 days off a single charge. New Haswell processor implements a 3D-transistor 22-nanometer architecture, which uses 20 times less energy than current Sandy Bridge chips included in the newest Macs. Also the new processor can power a computer by grabbing light from a source the size of light bulb. In addition, Haswell processors will run faster than current chips.

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Apple's customer service call centers - AppleCare has reported AppleInsider that the company expects that a large influx  of iOS-related support calls beginning Monday, October 10th, suggesting that Apple may release the iOS 5 on this date.

For instance, one person familiar with the matter said his local AppleCare call center has been told to expect an eightfold increase in customer calls on that day, and that staff are being advised ahead of time for the increased traffic.

The person could not say with any certainty what will be released on that Monday, but noted that the increase in call volume is related to iOS. This led them to speculate that Apple could release iOS 5 and iCloud on Oct. 10.

Apple always releases its major iOS updates a couple of days ahead of the new hardware release. For example, the iPhone OS 3.0 was released on June 17th, 2009 while the iPhone 3GS was released on June 19th, 2009; last year iOS 4.0 was released on June 21st following the iPhone 4 release on June 24th. So, we may expect release of new iPhone 5 after October 10th. Moreover, there are lots of rumors suggesting that Apple is planning to announce its next-gen iPhone in mid-October.

As Patently Apple reports, US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent granted to Apple, which covers 3D display and imaging technologies. This invention could lead to Kinect-like navigation by manipulating holographic images and performing gestures within a virtual 3D system.

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