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Apple Unlikely to Use Liquidmetal Alloys
Dr. Atakan Peker, who discovered and developed the formulation that later became Liquidmetal, said in an interview with Business Insider that Apple would need investment of $300 million to $500 million and over three years to ready the technology for mass-production of its electronic devices. He also mentioned that there is "no suitable manufacturing infrastructure yet to take full advantage of this alloy technology."
"This is a technology that has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development," Peker said. "I should note that this is a completely new and different metal technology."
Leave a commentApple's iPhone climbs to 31% share of US smartphone market
comScore released on Tuesday quarterly data from its MobiLens service, which surveyed 30,000 mobile subscribers users, revealing that the iPhone made up 30.7 percent of the U.S. smartphone market and 14 percent of the mobile market in the first quarter of 2012.
Apple's share of the smartphone market grew 1.1 percent when compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. The figures were up 0.5 percent from Apple's three-month average from February.
Claimed iPhone 5 SIM Card Tray Appears Identical to iPhone 4S
Parts vendor SW-BOX.com has posted information on a claimed iPhone 5 SIM card tray that it obtained from one of its parts suppliers.
The tray appears essentially identical to the SIM card tray found in the iPhone 4S and 4, and if the part is indeed legitimate it suggests that Apple may retain a similar flat-edged form factor for the forthcoming device. Such a design would be opposed to a tapered or rounded-edge design that would likely require a somewhat curved exterior surface for the tray or at least a thinner tray profile as was seen in earlier iPhone models such as the 3G and 3GS.
One in four iPad purchases are made by first-time Apple owners
The NPD Group has found that about 25 percent of buyers in the U.S. have made the iPad their first-ever Apple product.
"iPad sales are growing much faster than any other Apple product has this soon after launch," said Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis at NPD. "In fact, one-in-five Apple owner households has one— nearly equivalent to the number that own an Apple computer. This demonstrates the appeal of both the new form factor and Apple’s app ecosystem."
A majority of the U.S. households that do have Apple products — 67 percent — own an iPod, and 82 percent of iPod owners polled said the media player was their first Apple product.
Apple rumored to adopt in-cell touch panels for 2012 iPhone
Taiwan's DigiTimes cited sources in Apple's supply chain on Friday claiming that Apple could make use of thinner in-cell touch panels from Sharp and Toshiba Mobile Display for its next-generation iPhone. Production of the panels is expected to ramp up in the second quarter of this year.
"An improvement in yield rates of the in-cell touch panels at Sharp and TMD has persuaded Apple to choose to cooperate with Japan-based panel makers," the report said.
Apple's next iPhone expected to launch in October with Qualcomm LTE chip
Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray expects that Apple plans to launch its sixth-generation iPhone before October of this year and with LTE 4G connectivity. Last year's iPhone 4S launch was uncharacteristic for Apple, which had previously introduced new handsets at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
"It is more likely the phone launches in October given Qualcomm commentary around 28nm chip supply," he said. "We believe Apple will include LTE in the iPhone 5 as an important feature in the product update."
Samsung accuses Apple of violating 8 patents in latest US filing
Samsung continues to escalate the fight with Apple and has filed recently a counterclaim against Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of violating eight patents.
The accusations by Samsung were officially filed in the Northern District California this week in response to a complaint filed by Apple in February. Apple's original complaint accused Samsung of violating 8 patents, and named 17 specific Samsung products that the company felt were infringing upon its own inventions.
Apple working on new power management technology for future Macs
According to AppleInsider, Apple is working on a new power management technology for the next-generation Macs. Such technology will allow devices to be more efficient and run even longer on battery power.
Apple's plans were revealed in a newly published job application discovered by AppleInsider. The advertised job describes the role as "an excellent opportunity to work on the forefront of new power management technologies." The new hire will join a team that will innovate in power use from concept investigation and design through product implementation.
Apple's next iPhone to have glass replaced with Liquidmetal
New rumors claim that Apple's next-generation iPhone will replace its glass back with the super-durable Liquidmetal alloy.
The claim was published on Wednesday by Korea IT News, which said Apple's sixth-generation iPhone will be made of zirconium, titanium, nickel, copper "and so forth." It also said it will have a "surface smooth like liquid."
Apple partner TSMC ramping up production of 28nm mobile chips
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is expected to begin ramping up manufacturing of its 28-nanometer ARM processors.
TSMC is said to currently have a decent yield rate on its 28nm processes, but the company remains cautious on expansion, partially because the 28nm process is so new to the industry.
For example, Apple, one of the largest users of mobile processors, still relies on the 45nm manufacturing process for its latest-generation A5X ARM CPU found in the third-generation iPad. Apple is said to have viewed newer chips as a potential risk to their products, and have stuck with older processes to ensure availability and reliability.
Latest Mac trojan spreads through Microsoft Word documents
Kasperskky lab expert discovered that a new version of a backdoor trojan for Apple's OS X operating system takes advantage of an exploit in Microsoft Word to spread.
The new Mac-specific trojan, named "Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a," uses a Java exploit to infect targeted machine. It spreads through Microsoft Word documents that exploit a vulnerability known as "CVE-2009-0563." There are currently at least two variants of the "SabPub" trojan, which remains classified as an "active attack." It is expected that new variants of the bot will be released in the coming weeks, as the latest was created in March.
Apple Reportedly Looking to Launch 'iPad Mini' Priced at $249-$299 in Q3
Chinese web portal NetEase claims that Apple plans to launch a smaller "iPad mini" in the third quarter of this year.
NetEase claimed that the device will be released around the third quarter of this year to "counter attack" the upcoming Windows tablets, although smaller Android tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire have also been viewed as targets for Apple. The report further claims that the devices will cost anywhere from US$249 to $299 and that there will be an initial 6 million units ready for launch.
Here is how 7.85-Inch iPad might look like
Ciccarese Design has posted renderings of what a 7.85-inch iPad might look like next to the current iPad and iPhone 4S.
Apple expected to report sales of 33M iPhones, 12M iPads
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has recently announced his estimates of Apple sales for the first calendar quarter of the year 2012 ahead of the earnings call set for March 24.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster’s numbers differ from the average expectations on Wall Street. He expects the company sold 33 million iPhone that is a bit higher than the Street's forecast of 30.5 million handsets, while his forecast of 12 million iPads is slightly below the Street's 13 million. He also suggests Apple will report on 4.3 million Macs sold in the three-month span from January to March.
Foxconn employee says Apple placing orders for next iPhone to debut in October
South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper reports that the head of human resources at one Foxconn factory gave the info claiming that Apple has recently placed an order for its sixth-generation iPhone that is on schedule to launch in October of 2012.
"We just got the order," the Foxconn human resources head reportedly told the newspaper. "[The release] will be around October."
Focxonn has posted many hiring notices recently. Such fact suggests that Focxonn enlarges its staff preparing for mass production of Apple’s new devices, presumably, the sixth-generation iPhone.