Archive for January 17th, 2012

Japanese website Macotakara reported today that Apple is planning to hold an earlier-than-expected special event to unveil a so-called "iPad 3" along with iOS 5.1 in early February. Despite a rumored early February introduction, the report claims that the new iPad would still launch in early March, much like the iPad 2 in 2011. Last year, the iPad 2 was unveiled in a media event held on March 2 and was released on March 11. Apple seems to want its customers to wait little bit longer for the next-generation iPad.  The delay might be caused by the fact that Chinese factories will be shut down to celebrate that country's New Year. This year's festival is earlier than usual, and runs from Jan. 23 through 28.

Recent reports have suggested that Foxconn and Pegatron will begin shipping the first "iPad 3" units in early March. Rumors leading up to the anticipated iPad unveiling have generally pointed toward a March launch of the device, but a month long wait time between the unveiling and sale of a new iPad would be a change from Apple's approach in 2011.

Different sources have generally agreed that the next iPad will support a new high-resolution "Retina Display"  and that Apple will continue to sell the current-generation iPad 2 at a reduced price.

Wireless operators in Singapore are preparing for the launch of an iPhone with removed cameras to market the device to military personnel. Such persons are not allowed to bring camera-equipped smartphones to army camps. And if taking in account that male citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 are obliged to do a 24-month military service, so it is quite large target audience.

One of Singapore's three major wireless operators (M1), confirmed work on a "Non Camera" iPhone 4S last week when it temporarily posted product pages for the modified device, as noted by CNet Asia (via The Verge). The device would sell for S$49 ($38) more than its camera-equipped counterpart. Depending on the monthly plan chosen with a two-year contract, the no-camera iPhone 4S was listed as selling for between S$49 and S$679.

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HzO, the maker of a "WaterBlock" technology,” was promoting its nano-scale film barrier at last week's Consumer Electronics Show, pitching it as a potential solution to waterproof expensive electronic equipment. HzO's WaterBlock technology protects the insides of devices on a molecular scale. It has been used in demonstrations to protect a number of Apple products, including the iPhone 4S, iPads and iPods, after the material has been applied to the devices in a vacuum deposition process they were submerged into water and remained in working proper order. The company also confirmed that it is in talks with Apple about using its material in future devices, including the iPhone.

While speaking to attendees at the show, officials with HzO said that Apple is among the companies that have shown interest in the water repelling technology, according to Pocket-lint. Company officials said Apple was interested in making a future iPhone waterproof, potentially with a sixth-generation model expected to be released later this year. "We expect HzO to be in next season's phones," the company reportedly said.

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This week, on Thursday, January 19, Apple plans to hold its education-related media event. Last week Apple sent out invitations for the event with a tagline stated that the company would make an "education announcement in the Big Apple." The multiple reports are claiming that the company could announce an initiative to help textbook makers produce interactive ebooks for the iPad, with some sources calling the initiative "Garageband for e-books."

ArsTechnica reported on Monday that its sources are claiming that Apple will release a simple app that makes e-book publishing as easy as recording a song in GarageBand. Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis, who worked on education projects at Apple before leaving to focus on interactive e-books, also confirms the rumors, because he dosn't believe that Apple would start releasing content to replace, for example, textbooks, the company is likely to provide content production tools, similar to its own Logic or Final Cut Pro software.

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iH8sn0w has released new version of popular jailbreak utility Sn0wBreeze 2.9. Sn0wbreeze is used to create a custom firmware with jailbreak and preserve iPhone modem (baseband) version for unlock. New version 2.9 adds support for untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak as well as support for all firmwares supported by previous versions of sn0wbreeze.

For now Sn0wBreeze 2.9 supports untethered jailbreak for iOS 3.1.3, 3.2.x, 4.0.x, 4.1, 4.2.1 - 4.2.8, 4.3 - 4.3.3 and 5.0.1. Supported devices are: iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1, iPod Touch 2G, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G.

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Research firm IDG published a new survey showing that iPad is very popular tool among business and IT professionals. According to the global survey, which is available for download, 91% of respondents "always" or "sometimes" use the iPad at work. Consumers and professionals both use the iPad for media consumption, and in the case of pros is chiefly work-related and text-based.

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