News from category ‘Hardware’

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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The new study entitled iPad Usage Patterns On-the-Go and at Work from the Software Usability Research Laboratory was highlighted on Thursday by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop. A new survey has found that an overwhelming majority of iPad owners (83.65 percent) were satisfied with the iPad, while 62 percent ranked Apple's device as "excellent," 10 percent said "best imaginable," and 21 percent said "good."

The survey was also aimed at finding out how people are using Apple’s tablet. 52 percent of participants reported they carry their iPad only when traveling, while 21 percent carry their iPad every time they go out, and 17 percent only carry it on them for work.

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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.”

A couple of days ago Apple began replacing recalled first-generation iPod nanos with current-generation units. The users are beginning to report in that they are indeed receiving the current models.

Just received our replacement today - Fedex truck pulled up late in the evening. Inside was our replacement for our 1st gen ipod nano that was sent into Apple 1 month ago.

It's a 6th generation ipod nano, serial number shows that warranty has expired. Not sure if that means that it's a refurbished model or if it's a brand new model and they've deactivated the warranty. It's silver.

Initially Apple replaced the recalled first-generation units at risk of overheating with refurbished first-generation models. But the company seems to have run out of first-generation units soon and is now supplying users with current-generation units as replacements.

Apple’s oldest iPod was launched in September 2005. It utilized a click wheel for navigation and contained a 1.5-inch screen. Battery life was advertised at 14 hours of music playback and four hours of photo slideshows with music.

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.

Citing findings by research firm GfK, the Financial Times reported on Monday that Apple’s iPhone 4S accounted for nearly one out of every four smartphone sales in the UK during the lead up to the holiday season and retains the best-selling smartphone in the UK.

During the first week of December, five versions of Apple's handset, including the two and a half year old 3GS, ranked as one of the top 15 smartphones sold and took over 37 percent of a smartphone market that nearly doubled in size between Feb. 2010 and Aug. 2011. According to figures from Ofcom, the U.K.'s government-approved regulatory authority for telecommunications, 46 percent of all mobile users are now smartphone owners.

Apple’s rivals are also showing significant grown in sales. The second best-selling smartphone in the UK is Samsung's Galaxy S II and three versions of RIM's BlackBerry Curve all landing in the top ten. Noticeably absent from the top-selling handsets was Nokia. The company's new partnership with Microsoft has yet to bear fruit. The Windows Phone 7-based Lumia line failed to crack the top ten handsets sold in the UK after.

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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Analyst Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan expects that MacBook Air sales will reach an average of 1.6 million units per quarter over the next 12 months. In the third quarter of calendar 2011, Apple sold 923,000 units of the MacBook Air, representing 838.6 percent year-over-year growth. Comparing with the previous quarter MacBook Air sales grew by 43.8 percent, outpacing total Mac unit growth of 17.1 percent.

China is now becoming a strong driver for growth of MacBook Air sales. Last quarter, MacBook Air units grew 339 percent year over year in China, versus 76.5 percent for the rest of the Mac lineup. Moreover, notebooks based on Intel's Ultrabook specification are highly unlikely to be a significant threat to the MacBook Air.

"In general, we think that Ultrabooks are highly-discretionary devices, and pricing on competitive offerings must fall below $800 before posing a viable threat to Apple's MacBook Air," he wrote in a note to investors. "In our view, Apple's first mover advantage and optimized feature set and form factor command a higher price that early adopters, productivity users, and Apple enthusiasts are willing to absorb."

Many Apple fans are interested in discovering hints of Apple's future iOS devices in various configuration files in each beta and public version of iOS. Such references provide essentially no information on the new devices themselves. Most of them simply appear in the form of "iPhone4,1" that meant the iPhone 4S as one example, but they are carefully watched as hints of what devices Apple is likely to be testing with the software at the moment and perhaps how many variations of an upcoming device there might be.

But today Apple has tried to obscure that information having released 5.1 beta 2 with numerous fake references within configuration files. For example, USBDeviceConfiguration.plist has listed about two dozen different device variants.

As discovered by 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, that list has now ballooned to well over 100 such entries as Apple has seeded it with dozens of new fake references to such future products as "iPad10,1", "iPhone11,3", "iPod11,1", and "AppleTV8,3".

Apple has made more difficult to identify new product, though the change does not shut out examination of the evidence entirely, as unaltered listings are still visible in other locations.

Apple suppliers now claim that the next generation of iPads will arrive on the market in the next 3-4 months. Manufacturing partners of the company have reportedly begun delivering parts and components for the third-generation iPad while reducing the iPad 2 production, through it is expected to remain steady at 14-15 million units in the December quarter, before declining to 4-5 million units in the first quarter of 2012. The same sources said that production of the iPad 3 will reach 9.5-9.8 million units next quarter.

China's Commercial Times has reported that Apple will begin producing the device in January ahead of large-scale production in February. Moreover, analysts suggest that there left no significant technical hurdles for the device.

The iPad 3 is expected to include a high resolution Retina Display. Last month we reported that Apple invested in a Sharp factory for production of LCD panels for the next iPad that will be utilize IGZO (indium, gallium, zinc) technology to provide a thinner design and improve battery life. However, the recent report from Japanese source claims that iPad 3 will be little thicker that the current-generation Apple’s tablet because of unknown reasons.

According to Japanese blog Macotakara, Apple held a MFI Conference for iPod / iPhone / iPad for accessory manufacturers in Shenzen, China this past week.  During the conference Apple reported that the company was going to introduce a new chip for MFI program ("MFI" means Apple's Made iPod / iPhone / iPad certification program) in order to encourage manufactures to produce more iOS-compatible accessories. The rumored chip will provide access to devices running iOS via AirPlay, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The current program for iOS devices is limited to physical dock accessories.

TouchArcade has confirmed these rumors by its recent article telling us about iOS gaming accessories. TouchArcade explains that the reason why all the current gaming accessories rely on Bluetooth keyboard emulation is due to the restrictions Apple has placed over bluetooth connections and with the new chip such restrictions seems to be loosed opening the way to analog control sticks for iOS devices.

Moreover, Apple has recently revealed that the company would be adding support for AirPlay over Bluetooth. It is unclear what advantages this will offer.

Businessweek suggests that in the coming year TV industry will move towards voice-activated TV remotes, because of Apple's plans to enter the TV market in the near future. Many analysts believe that Apple’s TV will have Siri voice recognition system to simplify user interaction with the TV and provide users to control their TVs with voice.

Whether the rumors are true that Apple is planning to release a TV set by 2013, Siri-like voice recognition is headed for the living room. Microsoft (MSFT) is already there, via its Xbox 360 game console, and Comcast (CMCSA), Samsung Electronics (SHCAY), LG, and Sharp are working on voice-enabled features for TV sets, set-top boxes, and related products.

Businessweek believes that simple voice command as "Record the next episode of Modern Family" are much needed to improve user experience. Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group goes on to say "Anything would be better than what we have now."

The remotes for such voice-controlled TV are said to look more like iPhones than traditional remotes, with possibly a single physical button to activate the microphone. Nuance suggests that 5% of TVs could be voice controlled by Christmas 2012.

According to a research note issued by Citi analyst Richard Gardner, the next-generation iPad will be introduced in February.

According to "several sources" the next iPad will launch in February, and it will sport a screen with double the resolution of the current model.

Gardner says, "there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining" to prevent a launch of a high-resolution iPad, despite rumors to the contrary.

Some of the prior reports of a mid-winter launch for the iPad 3 suggested that Apple's display suppliers were struggling with mass production of the higher-resolution 2048x1536 displays.  It still unclear is whether the next-generation Apple’s tablet will be thinner or slightly thicker than the iPad 2. Some sources claim that it will be slightly thicker due to use a dual light bar system that is necessary for the Retina Display. But others suggest that Apple will use a new technology that will allow the iPad 3 to be slightly thinner than the current model.