News from category ‘rumors’

The picture above reveals that World of Warcraft was launched on the iPad. We don't know does it work correctly because there is no video yet, but there is information that the game was launched via Gaikai.

Gaikai is a service that allows you to play games in a browser, directly from the cloud. The scheme is pretty simple - the service runs and hosts the games and then streams it to the user using Silverlight, Java or Flash. As you know, iPad doesn't support Flash but somehow WoW works through Gaikai.

Gaikai and its competitors (OnLive and OTOY) are still in beta, but when it'll reach maturity there is a big chance to successfully use it for playing graphically intensive games on different devices including iPad.

As you remember, this Thursday Steve Jobs wrote a letter about his thoughts on Flash. In responce to such a public attack Adobe decided to give its employees mobile phones running on Android OS which support Flash.

CNet reports it has information from three sources close to Adobe that the company is going to give Android phones, but the exact model is not specified yet (though HTC phones and Google Nexus One were mentioned). There is also no information about whether Adobe is going to give devices to all 8,600 employees or just to developers.

Flash 10.1 will be presented in May at Google's I/O conference. Every its attendee will receive Motorola Droid or Nexus One from Google.

Several web-resources including Gizmodo and TechCrunch confirmed that HP stops working on its "HP Slate" tablet device. The decision is caused by this week's deal that will end soon with acquiring Palm. Now Hewlett-Packard is rumored to integrate Palm's WebOS instead Microsoft WIndows in their tablet (which can take a year or more) and reconsider using Intel-based hardware in it because of its excessive power requirements.

So now it looks like HP changes it course and is going to convert webOS to a tablet OS and compete with Google's Android and Chrome on the market of operational systems.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has also cancelled working on its own booklet-style tablet device called "Courier". Gizmodo sources say the project will be no longer supported. Anyway, the device had never been publicly announced, though it could be very interesting with its two touch-sensitive screens in a foldable format and handwriting recognition input.

Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that this year Apple is going to charge companies 1$ million for iAds on its mobile devices. Citing an unknown but reliable source familiar with the matter those companies that want to become a part of the iAds launch will pay $10 million to be first in the door.

The pricing policy of iAds is pretty simple. Every time user sees an ad the advertiser is charged a penny. If he's tapping the banner, Apple charges $2. So $1 million ad buy will provoke a big amount of its views and user taps.

In addition to a higher price Apple wants to take more control over marketing campaigns of its clients. But still it doesn't reduce companies' interest in iAds:

"Despite the high price, ad executives at agencies from Boston to New York and San Francisco to Los Angeles have crowded into conference rooms in recent weeks to listen to the tech company's pitch for iAd".

One of the advertisements that is already developed is an ad for Nike's Air Jordan basketball shoes. It includes iAd logo and animated banner. If you select it, you'll see an interactive store locator, special videoclip and exclusive offers taking place at local stores. This iAd was also shown by Apple on its iPhone OS 4 preview event.

Some experts think Apple's appearance at the market of mobile advertisement may convince some other selling ads companies to switch to other mobile platforms (for example, Google Android).

With a growing popularity of apps for Apple devices advertisers and developers see iAds as a potential opportunity to reach a wide audience and raise more money on it.

Early this morning 9to5mac.com has posted a link to an eBay page where some seller was selling 2 semi-working iPod Touches that have cameras (!) and run a development version of the iPod OS.

The devices are marked with "Apple Development Team", "DVT-1" and "DVT-2". DVT means "design verification test". As you see from the photos below the UI looks pretty strange. Some people say it is a software that hardware team gets to set.

Currently the link is being broken so we can't check the information. Maybe Gizmodo already bought it? Also, the devices look very used, so there is no reason why it can't be another Chinese clone.

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This Wednesday London Evening Standard posted an article about supposed acquisition of ARM Holdings by Apple. According to the source:

"Apple is ARM's biggest customer and speculation is that the iPad maker wants to take chip design in house."

With a reference to an unknown trader it is claimed that with such a deal Apple could stop ARM from delivering its technology to everyone else's devices. That looks convenient. But we were not sure if it is a rumor or not, so we waited for a while for further information.

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Gizmodo decided to take apart the future iPhone 4G before they will return it to Apple. It is interesting just to see what's inside. And this is one more confirmation that this phone is from Apple. There are three separate places, inside the case, where APPLE is written prominently.

Here is a photo gallery of iPhone's internals:

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Yesterday Gizmodo posted photos and videos of iPhone 4G prototype. Apple reaction was simple - Senior VP and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, wrote to Gizmodo:

It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple. Please let me know where to pick up the unit.

Well, this sounds like a proof that the lost/stolen iPhone 4G is real. Here is a scan of this letter:

Here is the reply from Gizmodo to Apple:

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Here are the first video clips  with prototype of the future iPhone 4G. We still have no proof it is real, so we post as rumors.

The video is interesting, so let's watch:

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iPhone 4G prototype might be real. Here are several photos of iPhone 4G and iPhone 3GS together:

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The story about iPhone 4G get's even more complicated. Recently the future iPhone 4G photos were shown just everywhere. After several hours these photos were claimed fake, because the device looked just like a Japanese iPhone clone. Today Gizmodo posted an article with many photos and videos, proving this is actually the next iPhone prototype. This might even be the real final version of iPhone 4G. And of course this might still be fake, a good one though. We don't know yet.

So what's new in the next iPhone 4G:

Front-facing video chat camera.

Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS).

Camera flash.

Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad).

Improved display. It's unclear if it's the 960x640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.

What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack.

Split buttons for volume.

Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic.

iPhone OS 4.0.

Dimensions: 4.50 х 2.31 х 0.37 inches.

Weight: 140 g.

Battery: 5.25 WHr 3.7V (iPhone 3GS - 4.51 WHr 3.7V).

Here are the photos of next iPhone:

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Recently almost all Apple-related sites posted a story with new iPhone 4G photos. These photos have been proven to be fake. The device is actually a Japanese iPhone-clone.

UPDATE: Is it real?

The story is quite strange. Someone found a future iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD) in a bar in San Jose. It was inside of an iPhone 3G case. The device has a front facing camera and 80GB of storage. It's not clear if this is definitely a production model, or just a prototype.

Fortunately the founder contacted engadget, so we have the photos:

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According to the sources from Apple Insider, AMD representatives have been seen recently on the meeting with Apple's top brass. The discussion was about the possible partnership between these two organizations as Apple looking forward in bringing AMD's CPUs to workstations and notebooks. The main reason for changing its main processor supplier is probably the try to increase the flexibility and competitive options of Cupertino's company. Another explanation is problems, that were encountered with Intel recently (they include limited availability of recently produced processors and new chipset designs that don't allow using any video chips except its integrated graphics chip).

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Dave Johnson from Bnet's blogs has written a post about why iPhone OS 4.0 and, particularly, iAds is a reason to get rid of your iPhone. He says that even such a big company as Apple cannot stay of the road when there are opportunities to gain additional billions of dollars with their new advertising program. It is announced that iAds service will work only in a free apps, but in a while there will be nothing to stop it from showing up such advertisements in paid apps too. That is why it is time to look at iPhone rivals.

Mike Schramm from TUAW develops this thought further - if iAds will bring significant revenue to Apple, why not deliver it to Mac OS X?

But at this moment these thoughts are not confirmed with any of the Apple actions, so there is no need for panic yet.
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