News from category ‘Hardware’

BroadPoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall calculated the real price of the Apple iPad. His numbers are based on the price of all components.

The flash memory and the aluminum case both cost about $25, while the Apple A4 processor is just $15. The total cost for 16GB Wi-Fi iPad (US$499) is just $270.50. Manufacturing adds $10 and warranty service costs add up to $20.

Thr 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi models add even more margin. The 32GB model costs only $25.50 more than the 16GB, but the suggested retail price is $100 more. Apple will really make money on the 64GB model, which costs $76.50 more than the 16GB device but sells for $200 more.

Google released a software update for Android-based Nexus One smartphones. The update offers a number of enhancements, but the most interesting one is a support of the multi-touch technology in phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications. The new functionality is called "pinch-to-zoom".

Google previously had an agreement with Apple, that Android OS would not support multi-touch in the U.S. Now it looks like all the agreements are gone.

Engadget posted a video of the Nexus One's pinch-to-zoom functionality:

iSpazio user Albe12 developed a new concept of what could be the next iPhone 4G. He combined the iPad design with current iPhone 3G/3GS one.

The case is partially made of aluminum. There is a small black plastic on the back, needed for the network signal. The phone has a wider high definition screen. Take a look:

A new photo of the iPhone 4G had been published by gadget blog Engadget just in a few hours before the iPad presentation, and because of the latter it has been lingering for nearly a week undetected.

Due to authorized sources the device on the photo is a prototype of the handset that will hit the market in about five months. As Engadget says, this fairly distorted shot is all that they have at the moment.

So it seems that iPhone appears without its iconic aluminum bezel. It looks like it is surrounded by a black plastic or maybe it's just rubberized somehow.  Also a whitish spot on the left of the earpiece grill points to a camera lens, but it may also be just a reflection from some other source.

As it was claimed by authorized sources from Apple, the new iPhone 4G will have a customized system-on-a-chip package (like an iPad has) and improved battery.

Enagdget reports that new facts about the 4th generation iPhone were discovered in iPad’s 3.2 SDK:

Buried way inside the platform simulator lies a set of folders dedicated to specific models of iPhone OS-ready devices, including the iPhone 3GS, second generation iPod touch, something called the "K48" (yep, the codename we were told was the internal name for the iPad), and... the "N89."

This "N89." is rumored to be the codename of the next iPhone. Previous versions of the iPhone were named the M68, N82 and N88.

They also have found a bit more than that:

Apple's just released firmware (3.1.3) also includes another new model, the "N80," which we're told will most likely be the next version of the iPod touch.

Rumors say that 4th generation iPod Touch is likely to ship this September, while the next iPhone is expected this June-July.

Another rumors about Apple tablets started with TechCrunch article. Refering to them, Apple works on another larger tablet, that seems to be more like Mac than iPhone. It may be have a screen up to 15,4’’ size like one in MacBook Pro versions and run Mac OS X.

It seems strange, as previous ideas of Desktop-OS-on-Tablet weren’t so successful and didn’t gain any traction. TechCrunch claims this tablet can be launched in the next year. So now we can expect Apple to introduce some more multi-touch friendly changes to Mac OS X soon.

Repairing company Mission Repair uncovered evidence of a forward-facing camera existence in the iPad after receiving a shipment of iPad replacement details yesterday.

The company confirmed that the camera from the Macbook does fit into place on the frame, with the LED, ambient light sensor and lens. As it also was reported before, the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK provided evidence that the shipping iPad could support a camera, and the native Contacts application on the iPad has an option of taking photos in addition to choosing an existing one.

A few days before iPad presentation the Wall Street Journal published an article about possibility of equipping iPad with a camera that could recognize the face of its user. At that moment it was unclear whether it is true or not, but now it seems to be more plausible than before.

The question about the iPad's front camera is really a mystery. Several days ago some developer found an evidence in iPad's firmware 3.2. Today ispazio found a new confirmation - an image from the Apple's Keynote on January 27, when Steve takes the iPad and shows it to the public. At some point the screen reflects the light and you can clearly see that there is something that looks like the camera, but could be just the light sensor.

The specialists from RedmondPie made a video showing how to turn the interface of the iPhone into that of an iPad. They used simple packages that are already available via Cydia (for jailbroken iPhone).

Everything is very simple, just follow these steps:

• Install Winterboard from Cydia.
• Install the Winterboard theme "Simple iPad Theme" from Cydia.
• Install MakeItMine from Cydia. This utility is needed to change the Carrier name to "iPad".
• Download the application Shrink to reduce the size of the icons.
• Install NYTimes, Classics and Kindle applications from AppStore.

The result is shown on the photo above!

Here is a full instructional video:

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Taking into consideration the lines of recent Apple products, including the iPad, the boys of iPhon.fr have created a concept of what could be the iPhone 4G.

It is made from aluminum, with a central black plastic, which is necessary to receive and transmit the signal. What do you think? Do you like it?

A few days ago Apple introduced the iPad, but obviously it is not the only device of its kind on the market. Gizmodo created a comparison table, where they are analyze different features of 8 devices:

• Apple iPad
• HP Slate
• Fusion Garage JooJoo
• Notion Ink Adam
• Dell Mini 5
• Archos 7 Android
• Lenovo IdeaPad U1
• Archos 9

Here is the table:

As you can see, these wonderful devices have different strengths and weaknesses, all users have to do is to choose which ones are more important, visit the store and... buy an iPad 🙂

Can you believe it? Stephen Colbert pulled out an iPad at the Grammy Awards to find his list of nominees for the Song of the Year:

"I'm sorry where's the list. Oh, I know! It's on my iPad. Jay-z, did you not get one of these in your gift bag? Am I cooler than you? Hunnie, Hunnie, does this make me look cool?"

Congratulations to Apple, that was cool! Take a look at the video:

A month ago John Gruber, author of the Daring Fireball blog, posted on twitter: “Shouldn't the iPhone shoot 16:9 video? Who wants 4:3 video nowadays?”

Many people admit that they expect all screens to be closer to 16:9 aspect ratio. However from the first look it is obvious that iPad does not have 16:9 screen. We can see from the picture above the iPad screen is apparently equivalent in its aspect ratio to 2 iPhone screens, stacked in landscape mode, which is 4:3. It is primarily meant to be used in portrait mode, and it looks like a video playback is a secondary function. Indeed a 16:9 video looks a bit skinny on the iPad.

So will 4:3 video get back to business or it is just another feature of more comfortable e-book reading?

As it was announced on Wednesday presentation, the iPad has a 1 GHz A4 chip that was developed by Apple. And now there is one thing that interests a lot of people: when this chip will make it to the iPhone?

The iPhone 3GS has an 833 MHz Samsung chip, which is underlocked to 600 MHz to increase battery life. This is better than the iPhone 3G’s 620 MHz CPU (also underlocked to 412 MHz). But there is still plenty of room for improvement, and analysts expect the latter will come either from the A4 chip or its lower-powered variant, specially designed for the smaller battery and screen, to the iPhone.

People who have already handled iPad say the device is pretty much faster than any iPod Touch or iPhone released so far. So it seems pretty likely the A4 chip will trickle down to Apple’s smaller mobile devices.

After the iPad presentation on Wednesday Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal journalist, had a conversation with Steve Jobs who revealed interesting information about the new product.

Books for the iPad were rumored to cost between $13 and $15, and Mossberg asked, why customers will purchase books on this price if Amazon charges only $9.99. Jobs answered: “The prices will be the same”.

Later Mossberg inquired Steve whether he can use Pages application to write his review and then send it to his editors in the Microsoft Word format, as his colleagues doesn't know anything about Pages. Jobs told that the mobile version of Pages allows saving files as Word documents.

The journalist also asked about battery life on the device, and Jobs answered that iPad offers 140 hours of music playback with the screen off or 10 hours of reading. It seems not so much in the comparison with e-books, but Jobs revealed that 10 hours is enough, as nobody reads for 10 hours, and plugging the device or docking it in the end is "not a big deal".