News from category ‘Hardware’

The New York Times' Nick Bilton has heard that the iPhone 5 will be announced in just few weeks.

We’re just weeks away from the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 5, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly for the company.

The report also tells us that the next-generation iPhone design is quite similar to various cases and what we’ve heard from anonymous Apple employees.

From descriptions I’ve heard of the new iPhone from Apple employees, the images seemed potentially authentic.

Bilton claim that there is still no information about whether the iPhone 5 will represent a truly updated form factor, but he echoes a number of previous claims that the next-generation iPhone will receive 8-megapixel camera, possibility of near-field communication (NFC) technology for payments, though, it’s unclear whether NFC will arrive in the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6.

CNet notes that Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors will include improved graphics processing unit (GPU). According to Anandtech, Intel expects that graphics processing on next generation chips will be 60% faster than on Sandy Bridge processors that are currently shipped in Apple’s computers.

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Unwire.hk has posted first photos of a screen protector that has been designed for the iPhone 5, suggesting the elongated home button.

A second shot shows how much bigger the screen protector is than the current generation iPhone 4.

Despite we have seen different cases for the next-generation iPhone, none of them had show a front panel of the device. But we have already heard about the elongated design of the Home button from the leaked designed documents that described areas to be exposed or open to the user. From the image we may see that the hole for the front facing camera was also elongated and camera itself was included in to the hole for the speaker. But we can say for sure that this case is not the accurate image of what the iPhone 5 will look like. Apple is widely expected to release the iPhone 5 in September/October.

Winrumors has posted a very thorough 11 minutes video comparison of an iPad 2 running iOS 5 vs Windows 8 Slate. Almost every feature is compared in the video below, everything from lock-screen to social network integration. Take a look:

MacRumors has heard that the MacBook Pro line will receive minor processor updates before the holiday shopping season.

According to people with proven insight into Apple’s future product plans, the late-2011 MacBook Pro refresh will deliver marginal speed bumps to the notebooks’ Core i-Series of Sandy Bridge processors but will otherwise introduce no material changes over the existing models. While precise timing for the update may change, those same people say the Mac maker currently anticipates an introduction of the refreshed line before the end of the month.

Moreover, Intel recently announced that its next-generation processor code-named Ivy Bridge will offer lower-power quad-core chips than the current generation of Sandy Bridge chips. As AnandTech notes, this development means that Apple could offer quad-core processors in its smallest 13" MacBook Pros. Now the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros are the only models that presently offer quad-core processors.

At the Intel’s Developer Forum the Intel today announced a new processor that will be capable to supply power to a x86 computer in stand-by mode for 10 days off a single charge. New Haswell processor implements a 3D-transistor 22-nanometer architecture, which uses 20 times less energy than current Sandy Bridge chips included in the newest Macs. Also the new processor can power a computer by grabbing light from a source the size of light bulb. In addition, Haswell processors will run faster than current chips.

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MacRumors reports that Apple is shipping its new 27-inch Thunderbolt Display to its retail stores and resellers this week. Early online customer orders are expected to begin shipping on September 15. Apple unveiled this 27-inch LED display in July. The display is the first display that can boast about of the new Thunderbolt I/O technology. The display requires a Mac with a Thunderbolt I/O port. Such Thunderbolt compatibility allows the displays to act as a docking station using a single Thunderbolt cable.

“The Apple Thunderbolt Display is the ultimate docking station for your Mac notebook,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said when the display was first unveiled. "With just one cable, users can dock with their new display and connect to high performance peripherals, network connections and audio devices.”

The Thunderbolt Display features a built-in FaceTime HD camera, 2.1 speaker system, three USB ports, one Firewire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a second Thunderbolt port to enable daisy chaining, a 16:9 edge-to-edge glass design with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle.

Apple reportedly has made a deal with Simplo and Dynapack to produce and supply a thinner and lighter battery for the iPad 3. Such battery means that the company may work on the iPad with a potentially thicker high-resolution Retina display. The cost of new batteries is 20-30% higher that the current iPad batteries but provides longer service life and higher safety.  Mass production of such batteries are planed on the first quarter of the next year.

With the upcoming iPad 3 to feature a thinner, lighter battery module that is widely believed to be priced 20-30% higher than iPad 2’s, Simplo Technology Co. and Dynapack International Technology Corp., both Apple Inc.’s contract suppliers of iPad and Macbook battery packs, will hence secure a surefire profit drive for the near future.

Institutional investors pointed out that the battery pack for iPad 3, scheduled to be massively produced in the first quarter of next year, has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter with a longer service life than iPad 2 edition’s.

First evidences anticipating radical redesign of the iPhone 4 appeared in April. The co-called iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 was expected to adopt new larger form factor. Late in July a design document for the iPhone 5 was surfaced. According to this document, we assumed that the iPhone 5 design should have had dimensions of 4.33" x 2.36", suggesting a shorter but only slightly wider design. In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are 4.5" x 2.31". Soon after appearing of that document, different third-party case manufacturers began producing cases for the rumored iPhone 5.

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The next iPhone that is codenamed "N94" has gained FCC ID "BCG-E2430A". This information was found in the latest iOS 5 Beta 7 release, from a file named "RegulatoryInfo-N94AP@2x~iphone.png" as related to the General > About > Regulatory section of the device’s Settings app.

This provides more proof that Apple is moving closer towards releasing much rumored iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. The actual FCC filing is yet not found in the equipment authorization database, since Apple products typically don't show up in the data FCC's database until the same day the products are unveiled. This FCC IDs for iPhone 4 GSM and iPhone 4 CDMA are "BCG-E2380A" and "BCG-E2422A".

Whether this is an next-gen iPhone 5 or the much rumored iPhone 4S, we'll most likely have to wait till the fall to find out.

Apple is reportedly still exploring idea of integration of USB 3.0 into its future computers.  The USB 3.0 is up to 10 times faster than USB 2.

A lot of people have been disappointed over Apple's lack of interest in the USB 3.0 standard, but thanks to a little bird, VR-Zone has heard that the company is still looking at USB 3.0 as a potential feature to add on future products. As to when and how this might happen is not something we know, but from our understanding it'll happen before Intel integrates USB 3.0 support into its chipsets.

USB 3.0 was not built in the current line of Apple’s computers, due to lack of Intel support in their motherboards. Though, Intel will be provide support for both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt in its 2012 platform known as 'Ivy Bridge', Apple may implement USB 3.0 before Intel’s adoption. But Apple is unlikely to update its iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro until the first half of 2012.

Openware Systems has filed a lawsuit against Apple and RIM, accusing them in infringing of five of its patents. Three of them are related with mobile computing, while other two apply to cloud computing and fast page navigation.

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CNET reported that Apple once again have lost another unreleased iPhone model in Sun Francisco. As CNET claims, the device was lost in July.

Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said. Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like, the source said.

Rumors claim that Apple managed to electronically trace the phone and found it in a single-family home in San Francisco. Apples representatives and local police visited the house and spoke with a man in his twenties who was in Cava 22 then the device was lost. The police searched the house but didn’t find anything. Whether or not, Apple did not file a police report about the missing phone.

You probably remember that last year Apple lost a prototype of iPhone 4 at a bar near the company's headquarters. This device was sold to Gizmodo. Apple initiated legal action that ended just couples of days ago.

Samsung, one of the main Apple’s component suppliers, is likely to face a financial blow from Apple. It is rumored that  Apple is actively looking for alternative A6 chip manufacturers. The designed in-house A6 processor is expected to debut in iPad 3 next year and afterwards find its way into iPhone 6.

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At least one developer reportedly has found evidences confirming fact that Apple is testing the dual-mode iPhone 5, supporting both GSM and CDMA in one phone, against current App Store apps.

The logs show that the app has been briefly tested by a handful of people using what is almost certainly an iPhone 5, evidently running iOS 5, sporting two distinct sets of mobile network codes (MNC) / mobile country codes (MCC). Those codes can be used to uniquely identify mobile carriers.

Sure enough, some registrations for the app – which the developer also asked not to be named – were logged from a new Apple device, using the MNC/MCC codes from both Verizon and AT&T.