News from category ‘rumors’

BGR claims that Apple is planning to launch a completely redesigned iPhone in the fall of next year. The new iPhone will haven an aluminum back panel rather than the glass one with the incorporation of a rubber or plastic bezel covering similar to that used on Apple's iPhone bumpers. The device’s antennas will be also covered with some protective bezel to avoid direct skin contact.

We have also learned that Apple is planning to use a rubber or plastic material — similar to the material used in the company’s bumper cases — that will be built into the new iPhone case. In all likelihood, this material will be used as a bezel surrounding the front edge of the phone (like the iPhone 3GS bezel) and it will serve two purposes. First, it will join the glass iPhone face with a new aluminum back plate. It will also cover a redesigned antenna system that surrounds the device, allowing Apple to build the rear case out of aluminum without having to use a large plastic insert above the antennas as the company does on its iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G.

Digitimes reports citing its industry sources from the Asian supply chain that Apple is going to launch HDTV in 37-inch and 32-inch variants in summer 2012.

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9to5Mac has recently posted photo of the iPad 3 home buttons that was obtained from a Chinese source. Noteworthy, claimed iPad 3 parts have been circulating for some time already in China, but only now photos of the iPad 3’ home button have stated leaking out. No real surprises, though it should help kill already sketchy rumors that Apple might do away with a home button altogether.

The above image is a comparison of an iPad 2 home button and an iPad 3 home button. At the surface, not much as changed, but the prospects of some minor structural tweaks do hint at something greater. The iPad 3 home button, which has been handled in both black and white flavors, looks almost identical to the iPad 2 home button. However, the gray glyph representing the frame of a home screen application icon is slightly thicker.

Perhaps the most interesting part about the iPad 3 home button is that its internal structuring is smaller than the iPad 2′s connector. According to the rumors, Apple had to make home button size smaller to accommodate a more pixel-dense Retina Display.

Basing on this photo, we may suggest the following:

• The iPad 3 will likely to be launched in both black and white colors
• The buttons floating around right now-in large quantities-signal that the iPad 3 is either in production or close to the production stage
• The iPad 3 will have the home button in spite of the rumors claiming that the iOS devices could soon loose the home button

AllThingsD has decided to have a look at how the launch of Apple's Newsstand iOS 5 feature has affected subscription sales. Popular Science magazine was an object for the study that has revealed that the prominent placement of the Newsstand app and easy access to updated content has driven a substantial increase in new subscriptions. In fact, Apple’s Newsstand is a new way for users to keep track of their subscriptions, house them in a dedicated folder.

The chart comes to us courtesy of Mag+, Bonnier’s tablet-publishing software business. And as Mag+ CEO Staffan Ekholm points out, the really promising indicator for Pop Sci isn’t the one-week sales leap of 13 percent — it’s that the the magazine’s growth picked up after that week, with more velocity.

If you look at the graph above, you will find out that Popular Science appears to have been adding new subscribers at a constant rate of about 700 per week during the several months. Noteworthy, the magazine was a leader among digital media even before the debut of iOS 5. But a month after iOS 5 launch, we see a significant bump in Popular Science subscription sales at nearly double the rate seen before the arrival of Newsstand.

The recent rumors claim that Apple may launch a smaller 7.85" iPad sometime in 2012 to compete against the new 7" Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon. Though Apple has never tried to compete spec for spec against their competitors. For example, the iPhone has kept the same basic form factor across 5 different generations.

The supply chain has actually been very specific about the screen size of this rumored iPad. According to Chinese manufacturers, Apple is buying up 7.85" screens for this upcoming mini iPad. So, we asked our friends at CiccareseDesign to put together these mockups of what a 7.85" iPad would look like in comparison to the existing 9.7" iPad.

The 7.85" iPad is actually a lot smaller than the existing iPad. Icons are smaller than the 9.7" iPad, of course, but still bigger than the icons found on the iPhone. The on screen keyboard also seems quite usable at this size.

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Analyst Brian Blair with Wedge Partners said in a note to investors this week that though Apple is believed to have built prototypes for a 7-inch iPad, and rumors of such a device launching persist, he doesn't believe Apple will release a 7-inch tablet in 2012.

"Jobs was emphatic in his view that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival," Blair wrote, "and we believe it would be unlikely to see the company test the waters in this category anytime soon."

Blair thinks it's more likely that after the launch of a third-generation iPad Apple will keep its current iPad 2 on the production to decrease its price and address demand at the mid-tier range.

"We believe iPad 2's price drop could drop to the $349 to $399 range with Apple offering a single 16GB model," he said.

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A new rumor from the Far East claims that Apple is pushing its manufacturing partners to meet deadlines that would allow the company to launch a third-generation iPad next year on Feb. 24, which is the birthday of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

A local Chinese-language newspaper reported Friday that iPad3 might be launched on Feb. 24 to mark the anniversary of the birth of Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs.

Citing sources close to Taiwanese makers in the iPad3 supply chain, the Economic Daily News said the gadget could be launched in mid-first quarter of next year or by the end of next March.

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Last month we reported that Samsung released a revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N design in Germany in order to avoid an injunction over the sale of the device due to design issues. Apple quickly filed suit in an attempt to bar the new design, claiming that changes in the design were not significant. Though, the judge seems not to support Apple’s point of view and may not going to issue a ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1N sales in Germany, giving customers opportunity to choose between Apple’s and Samsung’s tablets. However, the final decision on Apple's request is scheduled to be released on February 9.

The Dusseldorf court that banned sales of the Galaxy 10.1 on Sept. 9 is unlikely to grant Apple an injunction against the Galaxy 10.1N, Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said at a hearing today. Samsung has changed the device’s design sufficiently to distance it from the iPad, she said, adding that the view is preliminary. [...]

“Consumers are well aware that there is an original and that competitors try to use similar designs, so buyers are vigilant when looking at products,” Brueckner-Hofmann said. “We don’t think that someone buys a Samsung to make his table neighbor at the coffee house believe he owns an iPad.”

Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said in a note to investors on Wednesday that as Apple did not redesigned several major products in 2011, the analyst suggest that significant changes could be made in 2012. Among such changes are said to be redesigned rumored iPhone 5 that is predicted to debut in the middle of 2012, as well as an expansion of the iPad lineup into both lower and higher price points.

The launch of a so-called "iPhone 5" in 2012 would set the stage for outperformance in 2013, in Munster's eyes. He offered two scenarios for Apple's products in 2013. According to the first scenario, Apple will sell 142 million iPhone units, good for an 18 percent increase in revenue. According to the more successful scenario, Apple will sell 162 million iPhone units throughout 2013, amounting to a 35 percent increase in revenue. As for a total revenue growth for Apple in calendar 2013, Munster suggests that the growth will reach 14 percent, but he noted that such estimates are rather conservative. More prospective scenario shows that Apple’s revenue will increase by 28 percent in calendar 2013.

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According to a new job application published by Apple this week and discovered by AppleInsider, the company is looking to hire someone for the position of iCloud Application Developer. That means that the company is already looking to improve iCloud service with new applications for the iPhone and iPad. The iCloud umbrella of services was launched in October to replace Apple's previous cloud-based option, MobileMe.

"The iCloud team is looking for a proactive, creative-minded (engineer) to build the next generation of cocoa-based client applications that integrate tightly with a set of cloud based services," the listing reads.

The position requires someone who will develop both new and existing iPhone and iPad applications for iCloud services. Though it offers no indication of what those applications might be, it notes that employees will "build products that people want to use every day."

Apple is expected to add in iCloud a proprietary mapping service from Apple. Moreover, there are a lot of rumors concerning that Apple is building its own mapping and location services for iOS.

We already reported that Apple is working on "HiDPI" modes in OS X Lion for supporting ultra high-resolution displays to achieve image quality that is seen on the iPhone with "Retina" display.

With new claims that Apple is set to release a new 15" MacBook Pro offering a resolution of 2880x1800 early next year, Apple's work on its HiDPI software support has also been gaining renewed attention. By doubling the resolution in each dimension over the existing 1440x900 MacBook Pro, Apple would achieve four times the number of pixels and provide developers with an easy way to scale existing artwork.

Evidence of Apple work on HiDPI was found in developer builds of OS X 10.7.3, with the "Get Info" window for applications seeing the addition of an "Open in HIDPI mode" checkbox, though it is not functional. Despite the fact that with yesterday's release of Build 11D36 to developers, Apple has now removed that checkbox from the "Get Info" window, it indicates that Apple is indeed likely actively working on the feature.

According to Hebrew-language newspaper Calcalist, Apple finalized its acquisition of flash memory maker Anobit, which is said to have been recently informed their employees about the finalized deal.  The final price remains unknown, but could be in between $400 million and $500 million.

The reported goal of Apple's acquisition of Anobit is to increase the amount of memory in its portable devices, like the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air, as well as to improve the reliability of solid-state memory. Apple is now expected to build a development center in Haifa, where Intel, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Qualcomm also have facilities. The Anobit purchase is believed to be the first acquisition for Apple with Tim Cook as CEO.

Anobit is a 200-employee Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage. Anobit has about 100 pending and granted patents, and was first founded in 2006. Apple is said to be particularly interested in the company's proprietary memory signal processing technology and planning to build a semiconductor development center in Israel.

Apple executives met with executives from media companies to discuss "their vision for the future of TV," according to The Wall Street Journal. The main aim of Apple was to discuss how users could access content "across phones, tablets and TVs," how Apple would stream content to users in new ways, allowing them to continue watching video across multiple devices like a TV, tablet and smartphone.

"The TV device Apple is working on would use a version of Apple's wireless-streaming technology AirPlay to allow users to control it from iPhones and iPads, according to people briefed on the matter," the report said. "When the company plans to start selling such a device and whether it would receive traditional broadcast or cable signals remains unclear, said these people, who say Apple may change its plans."

Apple is reportedly to have worked on would integrate DVR storage into its existing iCloud service that allows users to watch shows they have bought or recorded on multiple devices.

"The company has also talked to television-service providers about teaming up on new video services for Apple devices, according to people familiar with the matter," the report said. "It has also broached the idea of licensing content directly from media companies for some sort of subscription-TV service, resembling the packages now offered by cable operators, but the talks have been 'exploratory,' according to people familiar with the matter."

Apple TV is said to be launched on the middle of 2012, but some analysts believe that Apple will announce it in late 2012 for an early 2013 sale. We also reported that Apple TV could arrive in three sizes, including 32 inches and 55 inches.

The Paradox iPod nano watch kit

Nick Bilton from The New York Times, who in October wrote that large parts of rumoured Apple’s television sets appeared in the company's supple chain, now reports that Apple may be researching and even prototyping new wearable devices.

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The resent rumors suggesting that Apple may purchase Israeli firm Anobit, nudge that Apple plans to set up its first research and development center outside of its Cupertino headquarters.

Sources inform "Globes" that Apple Inc. has decided to open a development center in Israel focusing on semiconductors. The decision was taken even before the company entered into talks to acquire Herzliya-based flash storage solutions provider Anobit Ltd..

Apple has hired Aharon Aharon, a veteran player in Israel's high tech industry, to lead the new development center.

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