News tagged ‘SD’

9to5Mac suggests that Apple may launch the new MacBook Pros next week.

With supplies only becoming more constrained, and with shipments already touching down in select countries, we think a launch next week is likely (between Tuesday and Thursday). That is, of course, if there are no unforeseen circumstances.

The new laptops are likely to have the same prices as current MacBook Pros. The new machines are said to be only a minor update and would probably take advantage of new Sandy Bridge processors released by Intel late this year. The new processors include Quad Core i7 processors with speeds of 2.4GHz, 2.5GHz and 2.7GHz, as well as a Dual Core i7 at 2.8GHz models. The most expectable candidates among processors that might be used for upgrade are Core i7-2840M, Core i7-2760QM, Core i7-2860QM (the top three in the list below). Apple is unable to use Core i7-2960XM due to problems with heating and is unlikely to use the mobile Celeron processor.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Operating Officer Lee Jae-yong are said to have discussed their long-term component supply relationships during a two-hour meeting that took place earlier this week.

Lee Jae-yong, chief operating officer (COO) of Samsung Electronics said Wednesday he had discussed long-term parts cooperation arrangements with Apple Inc.'s chief Tim Cook.

The meeting took place Monday after Lee attended a memorial service for Steve Jobs, Apple's late co-founder, and as Samsung and Apple remain locked in fierce legal disputes to control the global smartphone and tablet computer markets.

Lee noted that the companies made agreement for 2012 and would like to prolong their cooperation for 2013-2014. Apple has been keen to make long-term supply agreements with component suppliers, sometimes prepaying billions of dollars in advance to secure massive supplies looking over several years and overcoming or better to say excelling its competitors.

On Tuesday Apple announced that it has $81.57 billion. As usual different Apple analysts and watchers try to guess and suggest what the company should do with its huge cash reserves. Now Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer oversees $9.815 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $16.137 billion in short-term marketable securities, and $55.618 billion in long-term marketable securities. Despite Apple huge cash reserve, the company invests its money very carefully.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook noted that “the cash wasn’t burning a hole in our pocket” and that the company “didn't want to do silly things”. In recent months Apple acquired several companies, intellectual property, invested in the supply chain and in new stores. Moreover, the two-thirds of Apple’s cash reserve are offshore.

“The U.S. government taxes U.S. businesses on income earned worldwide, but allows them to defer taxes on the money until it is brought back to the United States. As a result, American corporations like to keep the money abroad, particularly as they increase investment overseas,” Reuters explained.

This weekend a memorial service for Steve Jobs was held at Stanford University's Memorial Church. A number of famous personalities attended the service as well as close friends and family members.

Steve Jobs’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs, sister Mona Simpson and three of his children spoke at the memorial service held for the Apple co-founder on Sunday, according to two people who attended…

Both people who attended described the service as incredibly moving and a fitting tribute to Mr. Jobs, who was known as a tech visionary, demanding boss and a fanatic for design. One person mentioned that many speakers cracked jokes about Mr. Jobs, who died on Oct. 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jobs' private funeral was held two days after his death and an event for Apple employees will be held this Wednesday and will include temporary closure of Apple’s retail stores.

Today senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing in Apple Philip Schiller said that iPhone 4S sales topped 4 million units during opening weekend surpassing the 1.7 million units sold during last year’s debut weekend. Also he said:

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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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Steve Jobs' death certificate has been released, according to Blumberg. It claims that the causes of death were respiratory arrest and a pancreatic tumor.

Steve Jobs died at home of respiratory arrest and a pancreatic tumor at about 3 p.m. on Oct. 5, according to his death certificate. His occupation was listed as “entrepreneur.”

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department in San Jose, California, released the document today.

Many had believed that Steve Jobs' death was a result of a rare form of pancreatic cancer for which he was initially treated back in 2004 he also underwent a liver transplant in April 2009. Early that year he  had to go on medical leave. The official cause was "hormone imbalance" and continued his battle with pancreatic cancer until October 5th. A private funeral for Jobs was held last Friday. And recent information we’ve received tells us that Apple will be holding a celebration of his life for employees on Wednesday, October 19th.

Samsung and Google announced that they would cancel a special event which is scheduled for Tuesday and at which the companies were going to introduce their new handset Nexus Prime. The particular feature of this smartphone is the brand new software, Google's latest "Ice Cream Sandwich" version of Android. Rumors immediately turned to the possibility that the companies postponed the launch in respect for Steve Jobs who passed away on October 5th.

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

AllThingsD has confirmed that speculations. The site claims that Samsung and Google did indeed cancel the event due to Jobs' death.

The decision to postpone things was made late last night at the top levels of both companies, sources said, with Jobs’ death being the reason. There are no delays with the product itself, sources insisted.

But Apple is not going to cancel its plans for the iPhone 4S, having started accepting pre-orders for the device.

AllThingsD reports that Simon & Schuster has rescheduled release of Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs to October 24th. The previous date of release was November 21st.

The fully authorized by Steve Jobs book is based on over 40 interviews with Jobs and interviews with over 100 of his friends and family members and will include full details on Steve Job’s life. The Wall Street Journal reports that Isaacson last interviewed Jobs four weeks ago. At that moment Jobs already knew that he would die soon. The last interview will be included in the book. Of course, the book causes a great interest of Apple fans. Since yesterday the book orders on Amazon has increased by 40,000%.

Mobile carrier Sprint has confirmed rumors that it will start offering unlimited data plan for the iPhone when it launches on the carrier.

“We will be offering the benefit of our unlimited plans that start at just $69.99,” said spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein. Sprint’s $69.99 plan includes unlimited data and 450 voice minutes as well as unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Unlimited calling and data costs $99 a month.

The new iPhone 4S alongside 8 GB iPhone 4 are to debut on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon in the United States on Friday, October 14th. It seems that Sprint is indeed "very excited" to begin offering the iPhone, AllThingsD noted. Though, the mobile carrier has been quiet since yesterday.

We know that iPhone 4S is better than the iPhone 4, let's take a look at how Apple's latest smartphone compares to Android and Windows phones. Engadget compared iPhone 4S with Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Titan. The first two are Android based, while the last one is Windows one.

Take a look at the results:

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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".

According to 9to5Mac the next generation iPhone will be released in 3 different capacities, but they do not sure about exact size of memory. It could be 16GB, 32GB and 64GB or 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB, or some other combination. What sizes Apple will actually release is up for argument. It seems unlikely that an 8GB model will appear, but all will be revealed at Apple’s iPhone 5 / iPhone 4S media event on Tuesday October 4th. But we should note that it is not the first time we’ve heard rumors about 64GB iPhone. Currently, the iPhone 4 is only available in 2 sizes: 16GB and 32GB. The source of the rumor comes from images of an iPhone 4 with storage of 59.1 GB, which shows that Apple have been experimenting with a higher-storage device.

After Apple offered movie content on iTunes Stores in many new European countries this week, it became interesting whether Apple is going to make Apple TV available in those countries.

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