News tagged ‘display’

Japanese blog Macotakara reports that Apple’s contract manufacturers Pegatron Technology and Foxconn Electronics was commisioned to begin assembly of next iPads for a launch in early March.

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Last week iLounge reported that the next-generation iPad would receive improved cameras and today the site has reported that it has viewed what appear to be at least prototype parts for the device, including the rear shell and front glass bezel. The parts seem to corroborate iLounge's earlier claims of an almost imperceptibly thicker body and an upgraded iPhone-like rear camera.

The new iPad’s body is so slightly thicker than the iPad 2 that the change is unnoticeable on first inspection; a roughly 1mm increase will barely be perceptible to users. We’ve heard that the only accessories that might have issues are cases, and then, only cases that were precisely contoured to fit the iPad 2’s back. On the rear, the camera in the upper left corner has become bigger—noticeably so when placed alongside the iPad 2, but not so huge that anyone would think they were different at a distance. The new camera hole is silver-ringed, and does in fact look the same size as the iPhone 4S’s much-improved rear camera system, minus the LED flash.

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Citing component makers in Taiwan, DigiTimes reported on Friday that the so-called "iPad 3" will launch in March with a high-resolution Retina Display, while an "iPad 4" will arrive in October of this year to counter a rumored Google-branded tablet as well as touchscreen devices running Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.

Apple will ship the so-called "iPad 3" with a full HD display in March and then "iPad 4" - named so by its component suppliers - with killer applications in October, according to industry sources in Taiwan. [...]

But a true battle for market share will arrive in the second half of the year when Apple ships its iPad 4 in October, about the time when Microsoft releases its Window 8 and Intel unveils its Clover Trail-W platform, the sources commented.

The 9.7-inch iPad 4 is expected to come with much upgraded hardware specifications and integrated applications so as to compete with an array of Android-, Wintel- or WoA (Windows on ARM)-based tablet PCs to be released in the fourth quarter, said the sources.

Finally, Digitimes suggests that Apple will continue to sell the current iPad 2, but will drop its price to $399, much like Apple currently does with older iPhone models, to counter lower priced tablets that are available, such as the Kindle Fire for $199.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple an original iPhone patent for editing lists by using touch gestures. Such technology gives an opportunity for inventions regarding use of the handset as a portable hard drive and a filing for the company's now defunct Bluetooth headset.

The original touchscreen patent, first filed for in June 2007, covers a method for displaying and managing lists on a portable multifunction device, and details a simple computer user interface controlled by finger gestures rather than a sequence of button presses and stylus touches. What the abstract describes is the basic list management system found on current iOS devices.

Included in the patent background is a look at the state of portable devices at the time, which Apple claimed "resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data." A far cry from what the company eventually released in the original one-button iPhone.

The company explains that devices which rely on physical pushbuttons are inherently limited in their configurability, and that a conventional user may find it frustrating to operate such an inflexible interface.

Because such devices are designed to read the precise pinpoint contact of the stylus (when a user makes a selection on the touch screen with the stylus), making selections on the touch screen of the device without a stylus, for example, with a user's finger, can prove to be somewhat difficult.

United States Patent and Trademark Office published a series of patents (via PatentlyApple) suggesting that Apple is attemting to possess as many Thunderbolt related patents and trademarks as possible despite the widespread impression that technology is a result of collaboration between Apple and Intel.

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All-in-one PCs have quietly become a booming market and Apple’s iMac now has a third of all sales. The all-in-one desktop market is expected to continue to grow and it could reach 23.3 million units by 2014.

All-in-one desktop computer sales grew 39 percent in 2010 to reach 14.5 million units, research firm DisplaySearch revealed to Bloomberg. Among those desktop sales, Apple accounted for 32.9 percent, making it the single largest all-in-one PC maker in the world. The iMac is Apple's all-in-one system and the company's strongest selling desktop, beating out the Mac mini and Mac Pro. In the company's previous quarter, portable Macs represented 74 percent of Mac sales, but desktop sales still hit a new record for Apple.

Apple with nearly 33 percent share of all-in-one desktops is  now leading the market, putting it ahead of the No. 2 company, Lenovo. Hewlett-Packard with 21.4 percent was in third place. Noteworthy, Hewlett-Packard plans to release a new pair of desktop PCs before next week's Consumer Electronics Show.

The HP Omni is an all-in-one desktop with a 27-inch screen meant for family use, and it will go on sale Jan. 8 starting at $1,200. It will be joined by a standard desktop geared at gamers, the Pavilion HPE h9 Phoenix, which starts at $1,150.

Digitimes has reported that Apple will be utilizing IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) flat panels instead of IPS (in-plane switching panels) in its "next-generation mobile display products" such as the iPad 3.

Starting with the new iPads, Apple will utilize IGZO panels from Sharp in order to upgrade the display resolution of the new tablets to full HD level, the sources indicated.

Though, such rumors aren’t new ones. We have already heard that Apple could use this technology in the next-generation iPad. A research note from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek back in November made very similar claims:

Also, we believe that Apple and Sharp together have a modified IGZO (indium, gallium, zinc) technology to achieve 330 dpi, which is sufficient for an HD display while not using IPS nor having to include dual-bar LED backlighting. In our view, this should lead to several design advantages, namely the device can be thinner, battery life should be longer, and the overall experience for users should be meaningfully improved.

In April, Sharp revealed its plans to commercialize new IGZO panels for mass production later this year. DisplayBlog recaps the advantages of this new technology:

The benefits of IGZO are plenty: lower cost of manufacturing, up to 30x higher electron mobility than a-Si (amorphous silicon), increased aperture ratio for improved light transmittance, higher resolution in terms of ppi, etc. IGZO would allow for significant cost reductions compared to LTPS (Low Temperature Poly-Silicon).

The new technology is said to allow Apple not to use a second light bar system that is presently used in the iPad and to avoid making the iPad 3 thicker than the current iPad.

A Korean forum (via MacRumors) published on Friday an unverified photo of the much rumored iPad 3's high-resolution display, and reveals a subtle change from the iPad 2 that could suggest a higher resolution panel is being sourced for the upcoming tablet. An image shows a component that has three ribbon cable connectors instead of the two found on current iterations of the device.

Little to no information accompanied the photo. It is only believed that the image is a comparison shot of a current iPad 2 panel sitting above an alleged iPad 3 display.

As you can see there are 3 brown ribbon cables leading from the screen itself to the circuit board. The small brown cable to the far left is the power cable, while the other two wide cables are for display data. This configuration matches with the top display in the leaked photo (though the power cable is missing).

The claimed iPad 3 photo shows 3 wide ribbon cables that might be used for data. The iPad 3 is expected to carry a high resolution screen of 2048x1536 which is four times the number of pixels of the current iPad 2, so the need for additional data bandwidth would be understandable.

Sources in Apple's supply chain told DigiTimes that Apple has begun reducing orders for the iPad 2 ahead of the unveiling of an anticipated third-generation iPad. While iPad 2 orders are being reduced, orders for the next iPad, reportedly set to launch in March of 2012, remain steady. It's not yet known whether Apple will keep the iPad 2 around at a discounted price. There are some rumors claiming that Apple would remain it available at a discounted price in order to take on Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire. It is known that Apple has gained great success in continuing to sell older iPhone models at discounted prices. The iPhone 3GS is still remaining the number 2 smartphone in the United States.

Various reports have suggested that Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 at a discounted price after it launches a third-generation iPad. Apple already employs that strategy in offering the iPhone 3GS, first released in 2009, as an entry-level handset, in addition to the iPhone 4, released in 2010, and iPhone 4S, which just launched in October.

There are also lots of rumors suggesting that in 2012 Apple plans to introduce new models of the iPad with different features at a number of price points. Many analysts believe that Apple indeed will launch the next-generation iPad with a high-resolution Retina Display.

Digitimes now claims that it has obtained new portion of information on the rumored Apple’s television. The main role in manufacturing and assembling of the new TVs is expected to be played by Foxconn, Apple's primary iOS device manufacturing partner.  The company is likely to win the contract for assembly of the television set products.

Following sources' claims that Samsung Electronics and Sharp will manufacture chips and displays, respectively, for the so-called Apple "iTV," others have suggested that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) have the potential to win orders for Apple's smart TV.

Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) likely will obtain assembly orders for the Apple smart TV, according to industry sources.

We have already reported that Apple is going to finalize Apple’s TV design by the end of the second quarter and launch the television sets by the end of the year. Moreover, the analyst Shaw Wu at Sterne Agee has suggested that Apple may be interested in disrupting the television industry on the content side by launching its own television services which, obviously, will be connected with Siri.

"This is obviously much more complicated (than current offerings) from a licensing standpoint," Wu wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday. "And in our view, would change the game for television and give AAPL a big leg-up against the competition."

Hardware and technology are not the issues holding back Apple from releasing a television set, he said. Instead, Apple must negotiate unique content deals that will allow the company to differentiate its product from other televisions on the market.

There have been many rumours about the iPad 3 which is expected to debut sometime in the beginning of 2012. DigiTimes is one of the main sources for these reports and now it claims that Apple is going to launch its next iPad at the Macworld|iWorld conference that will open on January 26th 2012.

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office published on Tuesday that Apple won a core multitouch patent that describes how touch events are recognized by a touchscreen device. The patent blog Patently Apple also noted that this patent was one of the "200+ Patents for new inventions" Jobs lauded when the iPhone first debuted in 2007.

The newly granted patent focuses on the oscillator signal and circuit of a touchscreen-equipped device, an integral invention directly related to how users interact with their multitouch products.

Apple states in the filing: "In general, multi-touch panels may be able to detect multiple touches (touch events or contact points) that occur at or about the same time, and identify and track their locations."

One way to record multiple touches is to generate an oscillating signal circuit that can power and clock inputs over a substrate as in a capacitive touchscreen display. But it is difficult to create a precise circuit-based oscillator. According to Apple's patent, the solution to capacitive touchscreen problem is to calibration logic circuitry which compares the signal oscillation against a reference signal and tunes the clock frequency accordingly. The invention provides for an accurate capacitive display that can not only sense multiple touches, but also detect hover or near touches which are also recognized as "touch events."

Early this month the rumors suggested that Intel’s next-generation Ivy Bridge processors would launch in May. Theses mobile processors are expected to be used in Mac mini, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines.

Now DigiTimes reports that new Ivy Bridge processors may debut in early April, with both desktop and mobile processors launching around the same time.

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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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Chinese language newspaper China Daily reported on Monday  that Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partner  - Foxconn – plans to double the size of its iPhone-producing plant at Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou that now produces over 200,000 iPhones a day. The company is expected to spend $1.1 billion to expand the plant that, after the massive expansion, would bring Foxconn $20 billion in sales revenue in 2012. Moreover, the plant is expected to become the largest smartphone-producing facility in the world after the $1.1 billion construction.

Apple's primary iPhone manufacturer will increase the number of production lines to 95 and add to its over 1 million mainland China employees, 130,000 of whom work at the Zhengzhou facility. Foxconn currently employs a total of 1.2 million people and supplies electronics to a number of worldwide companies.

Foxconn also owns a production facility in Brazil. The plant also produces some iPhone models. The company now tries to come to a decision with local authorities concerning a $12 billion investment to build an iPad manufacturing plant in the region. Rumors claim that Foxconn will begin producing the iPad 3 with Retina Displays in January.