News tagged ‘less’

Samsung made a next step in its battle with Apple and filed for a preliminary injunction against the iPhone 4S in Australia and Japan. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Japan filing that is also attempting to halt sales of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, accuses Apple of infringements in technology and user interface patents. The patents apparently relate to “the display of a flight mode icon, the utilization of homescreen space, and an app store menu structure”. Samsung claims that in Australia Apple has infringed on patents related to wireless telecommunication standards.

A Samsung spokesperson said that the company is “now counterattacking Apple again”. Though, many believe that Samsung’s attack will certainly fail. Moreover, an Australian judge will unlikely consider patents Samsung using in the filing as enough for a preliminary injunction, because they are essential for the 3G telecommunications network. As for Japan filings, the situation here is not so obvious like in Australia. This means Samsung could seek injunctions on them and it would be up to Apple to contest their validity.

As usual, iFixit conducted their standard teardown of Apple's latest gear, this time it was Apple’s next generation iPhone 4S. The device has largely the same design as the iPhone 4, but inside it is different. The new iPhone 4S has a slightly larger battery that improves battery capacity and offers extra hours of talk time, comparing with the iPhone 4.

Other new thing implemented in the iPhone 4S is the A5 chip that improves performance up to seven times, comparing with the iPhone 4. The A5 CPU has a marking of E4E4 with 512MB of RAM.   The teardown also revealed a new Qualcomm MDM6610 baseband chipset that is the slightly modified model of the “worldwide” MDM6600 Qualcomm baseband used in the CDMA iPhone 4 that, as you remember, has both CDMA and GSM modes, but works in only CDMA networks. The iPhone 4S is the true worldwide smartphone, which will allow both GSM and CDMA customers to roam on GSM networks worldwide

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Yesterday Apple issued a press release stating that the company will announce its fourth fiscal quarter of 2011 financial results on Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 and will be followed by a conference call relating to the announcement.  The earnings release comes around 4:30 PM Eastern and the conference call at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific.

Apple’s conference call webcast discussing Q4 – 2011 financial results will begin at 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. Please note that comments made in this call may include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For additional information at the factors that may influence results, please seek advice from Apple’s SEC filings.

Apple is expected to announce $25 billion in revenue with profits of $5.50 per share, that less that the previous quarter record-breaking results - $7.31 billion in profit on revenue of $28.57 billion.

Yesterday Apple released the long-awaited iOS 5 for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, first-generation iPad, fourth-generation iPod touch, and third-generation iPod touch. An update is also available for the Apple TV, bringing wireless mirroring functionality over AirPlay. To update to the iOS 5 users should install iTunes 10.5 released on Tuesday. Noteworthy it is the last time when Apple provides their users with update with USB. All next updates will be available wirelessly, without the need to use a cable.

The iOS 5 pack includes more that 200 new features. The most noteworthy among them are the following:

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Ahead of today’s iOS 5 launch, Apple released the rumored AirPort Utility app that allows you to manage your AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule base station and Wi-Fi network right from your iOS device. The app also includes some advanced capabilities that let you effectively manage your base station and networks.

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Apple will start to sell the unlocked version of iPhone 4S in November. The price will be $649 for 16GB, $749 fro 32GB and $849 for 64GB model. This is less than prices in Europe.

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AT&T has officially announced that they have processed 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S. It looks like new Apple smartphone is the most successfully launched iPhone yet. These 200,000 orders only come during the first 12 hours of sales

AT&T has seen extraordinary demand for iPhone 4S with more than 200,000 preorders in the first 12 hours alone, the most successful iPhone launch we’ve ever had. It’s obvious customers like AT&T’s 4G network, which is the only one that lets their iPhone download twice as fast and talk and surf simultaneously.

These numbers don't include Apple's own online pre-orders or the orders through Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

The iPhone 4S officially launches on Friday, October 14th.

As Apple promised, pre-orders of expected iPhone 4S is become available. Now it is possible to pre-order new iPhone through Apple’s website in Australia, Germany, France, Canada, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. Besides, pre-ordering is also available through the websites of carriers in these countries.

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An hour ago Apple's Board of Directors released a statement in which it is said that company co-founder and longtime CEO has passed away.

Apple has already updated the main page of the website and asked for "thoughts, memories and condolences" to be sent to rememberingsteve@apple.com.

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Implementing its plans to ban sales of Apple’s new iPhone over infringement of intellectual property, Samsung today has said that it is going to file requests with the courts in Italy and France for preliminary injunction of new smartphones.

“Samsung Electronics will file separate preliminary injunction motions in Paris, France and Milano, Italy on October 5 local time requesting the courts block the sale of Apple’s iPhone 4S in the respective markets”.

Samsung’s requests in Italy and France will refer to patent infringements connected with wireless telecommunications technology for 3G mobile devices. Also Samsung said that it plans to file the same requests in other countries after it reviews the situations.

Today’s statement from Samsung does not refer to the specific patents which iPhone 4S infringes, but it is possible that they are the same patents that already used by Samsung in a Dutch suit seeking the sales ban of iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2.

Apple has claimed that patents cited by Samsung are essential for 3G wireless technologies and should be licensed under FRAND terms. Apple argued that Samsung has not offered it licensing under reasonable terms, and two companies has been unable to arrive at agreement on licensing of those patents.

Apple has finally released iOS 5 GM seed to the iOS developers. GM version is usually the same as the release version, unless some critical error are found.

Yesterday Apple announced that iOS 5 software will be available on October 12 as a free software update for all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch customers.

There is no need to register UUID at Apple to install GM version, so anybody can install and try iOS 5 right now.

Developers can download iOS 5 GM here.

Apple yesterday announced iPhone 4S  and seems to prepare the name “iPhone 5” for 4G LTE model of the smartphone that may be released next spring. Analyst Will Strauss, president of wireless chip market research firm Forward Concepts, has tried to explain why Apple showed off an iPhone 4S and not the rumored "iPhone 5" on Tuesday.

"They're saving iPhone 5 for the LTE version and that won't be out until next spring. There's no way they could come out with LTE now," he suggested.

Apple may need an LTE baseband chip that, according to Anand Shimpi of AnandTech, will arrive early next year, so first iPhones powered by it likely to arrive in the second quarter of 2012.

"While I don't like participating in the rumor garbage, if I were to guess at the release date of the rumored iPhone 5 I'd say early Q3 2012," he added.

But Apple is not in hurry. The company shows interest in LTE, but not going to implement LTE technology in the next iPhone as soon as possible. Quoting Apple executive Tim Cook, the reason is what that “LTE chipsets force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those we are just not willing to make".

Yesterday during the expected media event Apple announced the new iPhone 4S, an upgrade to the existing iPhone 4 with improved A5 processor, new 8 MP camera with better optics, faster download speed on 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, and more. Media members who attended Apple's iPhone 4S event had the opportunity to spend some time with the new hardware following the presentation, and immediately started posting their first impressions about the iPhone 4S.

Engadget highlights the improved internal specifications of the new iPhone 4S, noting that it is faster than the previous model, with faster navigating between pages and opening the camera application. Engadget was also able to test the new voice assistant, Siri:

The most impressive part was the demo of Siri, the new assistant that lets you do just about anything you can do on your phone — but with your voice. We tried to psych it out with a bunch of random requests... Siri never faltered, never missed a beat… There’s nothing better to say than that. We even sent ourselves a few text messages, which Siri transcribed to a T. Of course, the lady on the other end still sounds eerily robotic, but we’re hoping for smoother responses from the alien within in a future update.

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop covers the differences in antenna design:

The current model has three bands — one on each side on the bottom, and one on the top. The iPhone 4S has four bands — two on the top and two on the bottom. The bands are where Apple houses the antennas for the device. The Wi-Fi, wireless and Bluetooth technologies use these areas. It’s not clear at this point if Apple moved any antennas or what they added the extra band.

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Right after Sprint iPhone 5 WiMax/LTE rumors here goes another one: the Wall Street Journal reports that people familiar with the company’s plans claim the device “won’t operate on long-term evolution or WiMAX fourth-generation networks”:

The people said the device will work on 3G networks, which are broadly in use today and are the standard for the current iPhone 4. AT&T says its HSPA+ network has 4G-like speeds.