News tagged ‘iPhone 5’

According to DigiTimes, production of iPhone 5 is in full swing with 150,000 manufactured units per day. However, this rate is not quite sufficient for Apple, as it plans to release the iPhone for the holiday season.

"Lens maker Largan Precision, touch panel maker TPK Holding, reinforced glass supplier G-Tech Optoelectronics and battery vendors Simplo and Dynapack are all operating at full swing currently, the sources indicated".

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Pocketnow.com claims that it has found a photo taken by the iPhone 5. The EXIF data shows that the shot was made by the iPhone 4, but the original size of the photo, before cropping, was nearly 8 megapixels. The iPhone 4’s camera resolution is 5 megapixels, so the shot touched off rumors that it was made by the iPhone 5. The original image was taken by an Apple engineer working on Safari and WebKit for iOS eating lunch at work.

This (very attractive) photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235x2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264x2448 -- or just shy of eight megapixels. What's more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4's actual 3.85mm f/2.8.

After amazing lost of the iPhone 5 prototype, Apple seems to start worry about their forthcoming devices, having posted a job listing for two positions that are titled “New Product Security Managers”. Noteworthy to say, that these positions became available just a day after there appeared rumors claiming that Apple had lost the iPhone 5 prototype at a San Francisco bar. That’s probably somewhat of a coincidence, but it is obvious that the company does its best to protect future products and its intellectual property, describing the new jobs as follows:

The candidate will be responsible for overseeing the protection of, and managing risks to, Apple’s unreleased products and related intellectual property. Position will reside in Cupertino, California and will require up to 30% travel (international and domestic). The individual will collaborate with other security managers by contributing to, and managing execution of, strategic initiatives set forth by Director, Global Security.

A new report claims that Apple has made a deal with Largan Precision and Genius Electronic Optical to build and supply 8-megapixel camera lenses for the company's forthcoming next-generation handset.

“The two companies are reported to continue supplying lenses for Apple’s newest iPhone 5 with an 8-megapixel camera. With relatively higher production yield, Largan, commanding nearly 20% of the global market, will reportedly garner a big order from Apple.”

Both companies were previously responsible for production of 5-megapixel lens modules for the current-generation iPhone 4. Today’s report claims the two companies will compete and work together as they continue to share Apple has one of their largest customers for the upcoming next-gen iPhone. Last year both companies covered 27.5 percent of global market share and it could move even higher as iPhone sales continue to grow. It’s not surprising that Apple continues to source parts from multiple suppliers. This is a move that is common for the company in an attempt to create competition amongst suppliers, drive down prices, and increase production quality while reducing risk.

Several sources have claimed that GameStop will soon sell the full lineup of popular iOS devices such as iPods, iPads and iPhones at its stores. The company announced it to dealers at this week’s trade show in Las Vegas. Besides, this week GameStop began offering trade-ins of iOS device for in-store credits.

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Today Deutsche Telekom has begun offering first-served reservations for the iPhone 5 whenever it debuts. The company confirmed that the program is now in effect.

Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) will allow customers to reserve the next generation of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone as of today in anticipation of supply bottlenecks for the device, spokesman Alexander von Schmettow said by phone. The operator will hand out coupons to people who expressly request the successor model to the iPhone 4, without providing the name or release details of the device, he said.

Apple typically keeps its carrier partners in the dark about its release plans until it is ready to make a public release. So Deutsche Telecom seems to work on the ground of rumors rather than official information. Hints have been multiplying since last week that Apple could be close to unveiling a fifth-generation iPhone. Apple store employees have received their iOS 5 and iCloud training materia and internal Best Buy documents have pointed to a Sprint iPhone 5 launch in the first week of October.

We’ve heard that Apple has begun iOS 5 and iCloud training with retail store employees through a new section of the company’s recently released internal RetailMe application. Such fact might be an indication of a forthcoming release of the iPhone 5 as Apple typically introduces major iOS updates in the days surrounding new iPhone launches. Apple Store employees have begun receiving detailed information on Apple’s upcoming iCloud service and iOS 5. Apple originally said iCloud would be launching alongside iOS 5.  This iOS 5 and iCloud training news helps support rumors about  late September iPhone 5 pre-orders and an early October launch.

First evidences anticipating radical redesign of the iPhone 4 appeared in April. The co-called iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 was expected to adopt new larger form factor. Late in July a design document for the iPhone 5 was surfaced. According to this document, we assumed that the iPhone 5 design should have had dimensions of 4.33" x 2.36", suggesting a shorter but only slightly wider design. In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are 4.5" x 2.31". Soon after appearing of that document, different third-party case manufacturers began producing cases for the rumored iPhone 5.

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Best Buy expects that the iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order during the first week of October. BGR points to an internal memo:

Thanks to a leaked document from a Best Buy source, we have discovered that Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores are anticipating taking preorders for the iPhone 5 starting in the first week of October. What’s a tad bit more interesting, however, is the mention (and further anticipation) that Sprint will be carrying the iPhone 5 at launch.

Of course, the dates may be changed. Noteworthy to say that the Wall Street Journal is also anticipating Sprint will be carrying the iPhone 5. Meanwhile, Best Buy is also expecting a new "Apple Fixture Installation" on Friday, October 21st.

To be clear, this isn’t a run-of-the-mill installation for the big box — our tipster tells us that the request that a manager be on-hand at 6AM is out of the ordinary (they usually show up at 7AM for inventory), and that a similar arrangement was scheduled for the iPhone 4 launch.

Today San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield has confirmed that four officers “assisted” two Apple investigators in searching the house and car of Sergio Calderòn, who was claimed to have found the prototype of the iPhone 5.

Dangerfield says that, after conferring with Apple and the captain of the Ingleside police station, he has learned that plainclothes SFPD officers went with private Apple detectives to the home of Sergio Calderón, a 22-year-old resident of Bernal Heights. According to Dangerfield, the officers “did not go inside the house,” but stood outside while the Apple employees scoured Calderón’s home, car, and computer files for any trace of the lost iPhone 5. The phone was not found, and Calderón denies that he ever possessed it.

Apple found out through GPS signal that the lost phone was in Calderón’s house. Calderón told that one of six men, who came in his house in order to find the iPhone 5 prototype, gave him his phone number. Later this man was identified as an investigator employed by Apple.

The visitors also allegedly threatened him and his family, asking questions about their immigration status. “One of the officers is like, ‘Is everyone in this house an American citizen?’ They said we were all going to get into trouble,” Calderón said.

The next iPhone that is codenamed "N94" has gained FCC ID "BCG-E2430A". This information was found in the latest iOS 5 Beta 7 release, from a file named "RegulatoryInfo-N94AP@2x~iphone.png" as related to the General > About > Regulatory section of the device’s Settings app.

This provides more proof that Apple is moving closer towards releasing much rumored iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. The actual FCC filing is yet not found in the equipment authorization database, since Apple products typically don't show up in the data FCC's database until the same day the products are unveiled. This FCC IDs for iPhone 4 GSM and iPhone 4 CDMA are "BCG-E2380A" and "BCG-E2422A".

Whether this is an next-gen iPhone 5 or the much rumored iPhone 4S, we'll most likely have to wait till the fall to find out.

An interesting icon had been found in the latest beta of Apple's Photo Stream. It obviously reveals the look of iPhone 5 and shows that the new device sports an extended screen and wider home button.

9to5mac managed to render and compare the appearance of iPhone 5 with its precedessor.

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CNET reported that Apple once again have lost another unreleased iPhone model in Sun Francisco. As CNET claims, the device was lost in July.

Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said. Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like, the source said.

Rumors claim that Apple managed to electronically trace the phone and found it in a single-family home in San Francisco. Apples representatives and local police visited the house and spoke with a man in his twenties who was in Cava 22 then the device was lost. The police searched the house but didn’t find anything. Whether or not, Apple did not file a police report about the missing phone.

You probably remember that last year Apple lost a prototype of iPhone 4 at a bar near the company's headquarters. This device was sold to Gizmodo. Apple initiated legal action that ended just couples of days ago.

CNN reports that Wikileaks cables showed that in 2008 Apple formed an anti-counterfeit team to combat fake iPod touches and iPhones. Initially Apple planned to go after street vendors and retailers, cooperate with police to raid production facilities, and to catch online retailers.

The technology giant eventually organized a team in March 2008 to curtail the explosion of knockoff iPods and iPhones, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008.

In recent years fake products has been a serious problem for Apple. More recently, several Apple stores selling almost identical devices were opened in China. It is likely that great amount of counterfeit sales is connected with insufficient number of stores in this region. At present, Apple has only 4 stores, and a new store in Hong Kong will be opened this year.

Recently Apple hasn’t managed to combat counterfeits, as more and more fake products appear ahead of iPhone 5 launch.

Reportedly Chinese government doesn’t give any help to Apple. CNN reports that, according to the cable dated April 2009, Chinese government refused to investigate facility where fake Apple laptops were manufactured, because this could affect local jobs. Also it doesn’t approve Apple’s plans for a raid on a mall selling electronics in the Guangdong province, as it could scare away shoppers.

As New York Post reports (via BGR), Amazon is preparing to release the rumored Android-based tablets that will cost “hundreds less” than $499 current base model of iPad 2. It is likely that “hundreds less” implies $299.

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