iPhone 5:Purported iPhone 5 part surfaces with alleged deals of sliding cover
tw.apple.pro posted on Monday a photo of a part claimed to be from the iPhone 5. It appears to show the 30-pin dock connector and the ribbon used to attach it inside of Apple’s handset. The part is labeled 821-1300-02 HF/c1.
A rough translation of the report via Google Translate claims that recent online photos of a different part claiming to show an edge-to-edge 4-inch display in the next iPhone are fake. Some reports have suggested that Apple is considering a slightly larger screen size for its next handset.
Instead, the report claims Apple has built a new iPhone model with a “sliding cover.” It notes that the alleged device has a “frame shape” similar to the current iPhone 4, though the device is “slightly thicker” than the current-generation iPhone.
Though the roughly translated report does not specifically indicate that the “sliding cover” would involve a keyboard, the same site earlier this month said that Apple was evaluating three prototypes for the iPhone 5, and one of them allegedly has a slide-out keyboard. In that report, it was said that a “sliding cover” would conceal a keyboard on the handset.
Finally, the translated post also makes mention of a “3D screen.” It seems to suggest that a future iPhone will employ 3D, “but not iPhone 5,” it states.
Other parts obtained by the site before their formal announcement include a white iPhone 4 panel, an iPhone 4 battery, and Apple’s redesigned MacBook and unibody MacBook Pro both in 2008. However, also in 2008 the same site was the source of a false 13-inch MacBook Pro casing, as well as claims that Apple was working on a 15-inch MacBook Air.
iPad 2:Production issues with new thin display could limit Apple’s initial iPad 2 supply
Bill Shope with Goldman Sachs said in a note to investors this week that sources in Apple’s overseas supply chain have indicated that the iPad 2 may be affected by production difficulties. These alleged problems could result in limited supply available at launch, for a surprising product availability that AppleInsider has heard could happen near immediately.
But while Apple may experience an initial production bottleneck, Shope also reaffirmed that Apple is not expected to experience delays in launching the iPad 2. Earlier reports suggesting a significant delay of months were separately rebuffed last week.
“It appears that Apple is once again pushing the technology envelope by making the device far thinner than the original iPad, and the iPad 2′s ultra-thin glass screen is generating yield issues,” the analyst wrote. “This appears to be more of a process problem as opposed to a technology problem, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see volumes ramp fairly quickly as the process improves.”
Shope noted that almost all of Apple’s new iOS products start out with limited volumes at launch. Because of this recurring trend, he said supply constraints for the second-generation iPad “should not be a major concern” for AAPL investors.
The new iPad is widely expected to have a forward-facing camera for FaceTime video chat, along with the usual technical improvements like a faster processor and more RAM. Shope also expects the new iPad to support both GSM and CDMA wireless technology, but does not expect the product to be a 4G long-term evolution compatible device.
“As of now, we are not assuming Apple will expand the storage capacity for the iPad, which should enable the company to enjoy better product margins over time,” he added.
The current financial models from Goldman Sachs project the average selling price of the iPad to be 10 percent less than the previous generation. However, he noted that iPad pricing is already more aggressive than competitors, so he does not believe a price cut is necessary for the second-generation device.
Apple is set to hold a media event on Wednesday to introduce the second-generation iPad. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Calif., and AppleInsider will have full live coverage.
iPhone:Comments from Apple exec Tim Cook hint at lower-priced iPhone options
Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi met last week with Cook, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, and Vice President of Online Services Eddy Cue. According to Forbes, the analyst came away with the impression that Apple is “likely to develop lower priced offerings” in its handset business.
Cook also reportedly said that Apple is planning “clever things” to compete in the prepaid handset market. He also said that Apple is “not ceding any market,” and the company doesn’t want its products to be “just for the rich.”
Cook’s comments, and the analyst’s interpretations, come soon after two prominent publications claimed that Apple is working on a new, smaller, $200 contract-free iPhone that it could sell directly to customers and bypass wireless carrier contracts. Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal said that Apple’s alleged plans were in an effort to compete with Google’s growing Android mobile platform.
But another mainstream publication, The New York Times, rebuffed those two reports only days later, and said that Apple is not developing a smaller handset. However, it was reported by the Times that Apple has explored opportunities to create a less expensive iPhone.
In his meeting with Sacconaghi, cook reportedly referred to the iPhone as “the mother of all halos,” as the handset has expanded sales of Apple’s other devices, particularly in emerging markets. Apple has long referred to sales of the iPod — and later iPhone — as having a “halo effect” that drives sales of Macs.
And one emerging market where Apple has found great success in a short period of time is China. Cook reportedly acknowledged that Apple has spent “huge energy” in China, and also noted that it is a “classic prepaid market,” which would be an ideal candidate for a cheaper iPhone.
The company is also said to be looking to expand its carrier partnerships. Oppenheimer said that Apple has 175 carrier partners, while rival Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry, partners with 550 carriers.
Cook also said he believes the tablet market will eventually be bigger than the PC market, and that competition for tablets will be even more intense than with smartphones. He also hinted that the company has interesting new things in its product pipeline.
Finally, Oppenheimer also said that Apple’s current capital structure is not efficient. He said the company is likely to use its cash to secure supplies of key components, much like the recent secret $3.9 billion deal Apple recently revealed it made with component suppliers.
iPhone:World’s largest book publisher Random House may soon join Apple’s iBookstore
In a brief statement to the media Monday, Random House said that it has agreed to “the agency model for e‐book sales” in the U.S. effective Tuesday. That means that going forward, “Random House will set consumer prices for the e‐ books we publish, and […] will provide retailers with a commission for each sale,” the publisher said.
The concession could bring to an end a near year-long standoff between Random House and Apple’s iTunes-based iBookstore, which operates on the so called ‘agency model’ that allows the company serving the content to take a cut of sales. For its iBookstore, Apple employs the same 70-30 split that has seen renowned success on its App Store for software on the iPhone and iPod touch.
“The agency model guarantees a higher margin for retailers than did our previous sales terms,” Random House said. “We are making this change both as an investment in the successful digital transition of our existing partners and in order to give us the opportunity to forge new retail relationships.”
The statement appears to imply that the publisher could be on the verge of announcing plans to bring its catalog to Apple’s iOS devices though the iPhone and iPad maker’s iBookstore. Currently, iOS device users can only purchase and download from Random House’s digital catalog through Amazon’s Kindle app for those devices.
In the lead up to the launch of Apple’s iPad last April, Random House executives were said to be exploring the adoption of the agency model with their authors and agents before agreeing to Apple’s terms, which dictate that Apple receives a 30% cut of all sales on the iBookstore. At the time, chief executive Markus Dohle said his company hadn’t ruled out reaching a deal before the April 3rd, 2010 launch of the tablet device, but added that he was proceeding with caution.
Word that Random House could join on the iBookstore five of its biggest competitors — HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and Simon & Shuster — comes just two days before Apple is expected to take the wraps off its second-generation iPad in San Francisco, a device that is rapidly altering the landscape of the publishing industry.
Apple //gs Emulator with Best of FTA on App Store
This one’s going to be for only a select audience. Old Apple //gs owners who enjoyed graphical demos by the Free Tools Association (FTA) will be surprised to find that they have released a “Best Of” collection for the iPhone:
To celebrate the 20 years of the *Free Tools Association*, here comes a collection of the best programs developed by the members of the FTA team : Nucleus, Modulae, Photonix, Delta Demo and much more!!! Enjoy this journey back into time
The app is the ActiveGS emulator bundled with many of FTA’s Apple //gs demos.
There’s probably some legal issues with an emulator that presumably includes Apple owned ROMS, but we’re going to hope that Apple turns a blind eye to this one. But you shouldn’t hesitate in downloading it if you are at all interested, just in case. It’s free.
iPhone:’Consumer Reports’ Smacks Verizon iPhone Over Antenna Issues
Consumer Reports is back at it again, this time hitting the Verizon iPhone for essentially the exact same reason it knocked on the original iPhone 4.
The Verizon iPhone 4 has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions, Consumer Reports engineers have found in lab tests.
The problem is similar to the one we confirmed in July with the AT&T version of Apple’s newest smart phone. It can occur when you hold either version of the phone in a specific but quite natural way in which a gap in the phone’s external casing is covered. The phone performs superbly in most other respects, and using the iPhone 4 with a case can alleviate the problem.
According to tests conducted by Consumer Reports, simply placing a finger on the gap at the lower left side of the Verizon iPhone causes signal to drop over a period of 15 seconds, resulting in calls being dropped in areas of low signal. As a result, the publication is similarly declining to recommend the Verizon iPhone despite lower reports of users experiencing the signal issues, potentially due to the strength of Verizon’s network.
But given our findings, we believe the possibility exists for individual users to experience the problem since low signal conditions are unavoidable when using any cell-phone network.
For that reason, we are not including the Verizon iPhone 4 in our list of recommended smart phones, despite its high ranking in our Ratings.
Consumer Reports was unable to generate similar issues with a variety of other phones on Verizon’s network, including the Samsung Fascinate, Motorola Droid 2 Global, HTC Droid Incredible, LG Ally, and Motorola Droid X, thus isolating the issue as unique to Apple’s current iPhone designs.
iPhone:Verizon Says Short iPhone Lines Due to Strong Online Sales, Staggered Rollout
The Wall Street Journal reports on an interview with Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead, who claims that short lines for the public launch of the Verizon iPhone were the result of an intentional effort to push sales to online distribution and to stagger availability, not due to poor sales.
Verizon first offered pre-orders of the phone to existing customers on Feb. 3, and then began selling it in stores one week later. Mr. Mead said the company staggered the launch of the Apple Inc. device in phases so that customers would have a smooth purchasing experience. “It was a conscious decision to spread the launch over three phases,” said Mr. Mead.
Mr. Mead said more than 60% of iPhone sales occurred online. That heavy activity online contributed to short lines on launch day, which were noted by many news outlets. “If we had not done online, you would have seen a much different flow in the pictures,” he said. In a few days, the company will double the number of stores that sell the iPhone, going from 4,000 to 8,000.
Mead declined, however, to announce specific sales figures for the Verizon iPhone, choosing to wait for the company’s next earnings release to share numbers.
Mead also reported that Verizon expects Apple to offer devices compatible with the carrier’s new 4G LTE network, although he declined to offer information on which product lines they might be and when they might be released.
“You’ll see more coming from Apple on LTE,” he said. “They understand the value proposition of LTE and I feel very confident that they are going to be a part of it.”
The interview comes just as Consumer Reports announces that the Verizon iPhone possesses an antenna issue similar to that found on the original iPhone 4, although the strength of Verizon’s network makes the issue less noticeable to users.
[iPhone]MobileNotifier: Jailbreak App Aims To Revamp iOS Push Notification System
Apple’s Push Notification system has been maligned for being intrusive and modal. iOS competitors on the other hand have been doing a good job on this front of late. HP’s webOS for example has a banner notification system that has been widely acclaimed.
We’ve also heard rumors that Apple is acquiring a small developer to help them fix the Push notification system.
If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch then you probably don’t have to wait for Apple to fix it as developer, Peter Hajas has released a jailbreak app called MobileNotifier, which is pretty cool.
Mobile Notifier is inspired by Android’s notification system so unlike iOS’s push notification system, MobileNotifier prevents notifications from interrupting you and allows you to access your notifications from a drop-down drawer. You can also access the notifications from your iOS device’s lock screen.
Peter has also cleverly used the unused area when you activate the multitasking switcher for the Alert Dashboard to show the pending alerts/notifications.
You can checkout the demo video of see how MobileNotifier works:
Peter has recently released the third beta version of MobileNotifier, which you can install from the Cydia App Store by following these steps:
As always, please don’t forget to tell us if you like it.
[via Peter Hajas, thanks Jeff for the tip]
We’ve also heard rumors that Apple is acquiring a small developer to help them fix the Push notification system.
If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch then you probably don’t have to wait for Apple to fix it as developer, Peter Hajas has released a jailbreak app called MobileNotifier, which is pretty cool.
Mobile Notifier is inspired by Android’s notification system so unlike iOS’s push notification system, MobileNotifier prevents notifications from interrupting you and allows you to access your notifications from a drop-down drawer. You can also access the notifications from your iOS device’s lock screen.
Peter has also cleverly used the unused area when you activate the multitasking switcher for the Alert Dashboard to show the pending alerts/notifications.
You can checkout the demo video of see how MobileNotifier works:
Peter has recently released the third beta version of MobileNotifier, which you can install from the Cydia App Store by following these steps:
- Launch Cydia from your jailbroken iOS device homescreen.
- Tap on the Manage Tab and then tap on Sources.
- Tap on the Edit button and then tap the Add button to add the following repo URL: http://phajas.xen.prgmr.com/repo
- After it is successfully added, tap on the Search tab and search for MobileNotifier.
- Tap on MobileNotifier from the search results
- Then tap on the Install button and then Confirm to install it on your iOS device
- You will be prompted to Restart SpringBoard, tap on the button to proceed.
As always, please don’t forget to tell us if you like it.
[via Peter Hajas, thanks Jeff for the tip]
[iPhone]iOS 4.3: Update On Unlocking iPhone
MuscleNerd revealed this news via the following tweet:
Current i4 unlock goal includes til 04.10.01 (4.3b3). Very weird situation…vuln cmds are there, trying to invoke them!In January, iPhone Dev Team had announced that the unlock for iPhone 4 will be released after iOS 4.3 is released, which is widely speculated to be released this week.
So based on today’s tweet, it means that the new version of Ultrasn0w that will be released after iOS 4.3 is released will initially unlock baseband 02.10.04 (that came bundled with iOS 4.1) and baseband 03.10.01 (that came bundled with iOS 4.2.1) for iPhone 4.
iPhone unlocking expert Sherif Hasim also indicated this possibility yesterday while reply to one of his followers on Twitter:
VaMpYrE7: @sherif_hashim Hi Sherif, I dont wanna ask about an ETA but I just wanna know if uve found an exploit for bb 03.10.01 or not, w8ng patientlySherif_Hashim: @VaMpYrE7 the one I found is working for bothThough both could mean baseband 03.10.01 and 04.10.01 or 02.10.04 and 03.10.01.
This means that iPhone Dev Team will probably release PwnageTool for Mac and iH8sn0w will also release Sn0wbreeze for Windows to allow users to jailbreak and preserve their iPhone’s baseband so that it can be unlocked using Ultrasn0w.
Currently, Ultrasn0w can only unlock iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G on iOS 4.0.2 (baseband 05.13.04) or earlier and iOS 4.2.1 by upgrading the baseband to 06.15.00.
It remains to be seen if the new version of Ultrasn0w will unlock baseband 05.14.02 (bundled with iOS 4.1), baseband 05.15.04 (bundled with iOS 4.2.1) and baseband 05.16.00 (bundled with iOS 4.3) for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G and if the Dev team will release a method that will allow users to downgrade from 06.15.00.
We will let you know as soon as we get any more information so stay tuned here at iPhone Hacks or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed.
Note: You can find your iPhone’s baseband by going to Settings –> About –> Modem Firmware
[iPhone]Cinq Photo updated for iPhone and iPad: Send your pix home when mobile
Some recent updates have made Cinq even more attractive. It now is a universal app that runs on the iPad, as well as the iPhone and iPod touch. As before, you have to install the free Cinq server software on your home Mac or PC and set up a free account. The GUI of the app has been simplified, and looks more attractive. Once the server is up and running you choose to have your photos saved to your iPhoto library, or to a folder.
My past critique of the app included speed and a lack of background operation. Those issues have been addressed. You can now send a photo or multiple photos in the background, and the speed of transfer seems to have been improved. Of course the speed of your connection is important, but it’s clear from my testing that the app is faster.
Your pictures can also be shared via Facebook and Twitter (with TwitPic). The app now supports Airprint and high resolution transfers. The app is ad supported, but you can remove the ads with a US$2.99 in-app purchase. People who had bought the older versions of Cinq can remove the ads at no charge by simply clicking a button in Cinq Photo. Cinq is a nice solution to viewing photos on your main computer, or getting your photos back to it. I think it’s worth a look if you find yourself using your iPhone camera when on the go.
iPhone Game:Play Playstation 3 games on any iOS device with hack
The group of hackers and developers known as pandaelf found themselves with a PlayStation 3, an iOS device and some time on their hands. With a bit of ingenuity, they figured out a way to play their PS3 games on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The setup is slightly complex and requires you to attach a capture device as well as an input converter with a USB mouse and keyboard to the PS3. You also need a PC to serve as the conduit between the game console and your portable Apple device.
The capture device sends video from the PS3 to a nearby PC and the keyboard/mouse converter sends and receives button presses. The iOS device then connects to the computer using a custom build of everyAir, a remote desktop application. Basically, the PS3 sends its info to the PC which processes the incoming stream and sends it to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch via everyAir. This communication is bi-directional so the information flows both ways.
Currently, this custom build of everyAir is not available to the public so the average iOS owner won’t be able to do anything with this setup quite yet. While you wait for this build to become available, you can check out a video of the system in action below.
