Apple rumor roundup: improbable removable battery edition
By Nilay Patel 
posted January 12th 2010 3:21PM
posted January 12th 2010 3:21PM
Now that CES is officially over, it's apparently time for the vague Apple rumor factory to start churning out sketchy reports about tablets, next-gen iPhones, and "vanishing" domain names. Yeah, it's getting silly out there, but judging by our tip box you all can't get enough, so let's do this thing rapid-fire style.The rumor: The Korea Times, citing unnamed sources at Korea Telecom, says the carrier is planning for a 4G iPhone featuring an OLED display, a front-facing video camera, a fast new dual-core CPU, and a removable battery. General launch is expected in June, but corporate clients will be doing a "litmus test" in April.
Our take: We will eat our hats if Apple puts a removable battery in the iPhone. Plus, Apple doesn't do focus group testing, least of all with enterprise customers. This just seems like wishful thinking -- we could have made up a more convincing rumor while eating a hat.
The rumor: 10.1 OLED and LCD display panels are no longer available anywhere, because Apple has "pre-ordered them all" to secure volume discounts and keep the tablet's price down.
Our take: We certainly saw plenty of new 10.1-inch netbooks and slates at CES, including some multitouch LCD units, and no one was complaining. Also, we saw several larger OLED displays at CES, but they were all too expensive and impractical for shipping products, so that's gotta be one hell of a discount.
The rumor: Apple has mysteriously shut down the FingerWorks website, which means something tablet-related because... well, it must mean something, right?
Our take: Apple bought FingerWorks years ago -- we're surprised this hadn't happened sooner. We bet the hosting contract just ran out. Alternatively, Steve Jobs is trying to send us a message by yanking an obscure touch-related domain just weeks before a highly-anticipated product launch, because he is the master of extremely minor hints about nothing.
All in all, a pretty lame set of rumors -- there's barely anything here for pundits and the mass media to conflate and distort into something bigger. At least give us a poorly-translated French telecom executive speaking off the cuff, you know? Have some dignity.
Now wait just a second.
The rumor mill stopped for CES?
@derX
In my opinion, CES would've been better off if the second rumor were true.
@derX
Just playing the rumor-monger's advocate here, regarding "corporate clients will be doing a "litmus test" in April".
Didn't Apple announce at the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007 that they had been secretly testing units in some of the largest corporations, before the iPhone went on the market?
If that was the case, then this wouldn't be the first time that Apple did this sort of "litmus test".
@ViewRoyal I concur, actually one of the seemingly vague yet visibly true strategy of Apple is to settle rumors/hype/excitement to people months before the real release of their gadget. Look at the iPhone? even 1 year before its official release.. rumors has been spilling how the so called 'messiah phone' looks like .. And then we all know what happened to Jun 6, 2007 right? History in the making..
Apple's strat's theme is "Curiosity never killed the cat, it made the cat buy their product" On the 27-28th of January. Expect the technews garnering around the Apple Tablet (curiosity wins again to say the least)
it seems apple is very protective of their mythological tablet that they left people with such a little info about it. It could also be that Apple is doing this to start their early marketing tactics against their competition. More iSlated Details: http://bit.ly/islate-specs-hoax-and-official-details
Let's make a deal. No more Apple tablet posts until Apple itself confirms it.
In return, no more flaming!
@Othi There's nothing to flame if they stop posting a bunch of Apple rumors. Of course, I would put money down that they couldn't go 3 days without posting about rumored Apple products.
@RMGH
And you couldn't go 3 days without making multiple comments on rumour threads....Yawn
@pukerocket You'd be surprised. But it doesn't hurt me to take their bait, so why not?
I have been waiting from someone to do what the AP did with Paris Hilton in 2007: not report on her and see if the world ends. From their article:
"No, editors just wanted to see what would happen if we didn’t cover this media phenomenon, this creature of the Internet gossip age, for a full week. After that, we’d take it day by day. Would anyone care? Would anyone notice? And would that tell us something interesting?"
Doesn't it sound like Apple? Face it, Apple is the Paris Hilton of the tech world!
@RMGH
They're not baiting you. Seriously. They don't care about you.
@Othi Guess what, arrogentsia? Some of us are interested. Shut the hell up, start your own blog, or just don't click on the apple stories. This is not a difficult concept.
@pukerocket I never said they were baiting me personally. I'm annoyed, not crazy.
@Othi Eh...it seems really tempting but... no deal!
@Othi
They can't just stop like that. I was getting worried something was wrong at Engadget HQ, being we had to wait this late in the day for our first bit of daily created out of thin air, made-up Apple advertisement. Make them not post Apple hype-machine info for a couple weeks, and I would start to think that we need to send out a search party.
But I felt OK once I realized that real news that had been confirmed(such as the Zune HD firmware update) had only taken 3 days to make it to the front page, even though I had "tipped" Engadget a couple times.
@RMGH I'd put my money down they can't go a day with posting about windows, so what's your point?
@NohOne1
You may actually be dumb enough to believe that Engadget is generating these rumors. it wouldn't surprise me. And that you've been asleep for the past week because you didn't see the hundreds of non-Apple posts. And that you're here whining and crying because there's a single Apple-related post.
Yeah, you're not biased against Apple or anything.
@Jack
Who the fuck asked you?
@NohOne1
Oh, I need your permission to respond to your idiot posts here now? I'm afraid you neglected to inform me of this. In the future I'll make sure to get your permission before pointing out that you're a hopeless douche.
@NohOne1 Zune HD is news? buddy, it's not news if nobody cares. Well, besides the two basement nerds who bought one.
@HighestRanked Are you really that much of a fanboy? Believe it or not, some people don't buy iPods. Seriously dude, you have to be one of the most annoying users on this site.
"All in all, a pretty lame set of rumors"
Well yeah, why post them then?
@Jakob We already know the answer to that. Let me put it this way - I don't believe I've ever seen an Engadget post dedicated to a bunch of lame Microsoft rumors...
@Jakob We post them because we have lots of readers who want to see them. We know this because they tip us and and ask us about them constantly. So we wait, and bundle them up when it makes sense.
@Nilay Patel
And based on the content of today's posts (no offense, because last week was awesome) that day is today.
@RMGH
I would suspect that is because Microsoft isn't doing stuff which is interesting. Partly this is due to MS talking up vapourware products for a couple years then dumping the idea, or releasing some muddle.
Apple slips out bizzare rumors, MS has press conferences about non-existant things. Same-Same
@RMGH Yeah. Right. Remember the amount of ZuneHD posts for the year prior to its release? Or the Xbox 360 Rumors prior to its release? It was just as much and just as often as Apple rumors are today, or even back then. Give it a rest.
@Jakob I dunno. I don't particularly care about an Apple tablet. I've managed to happily live my life without buying into the ecosystem, but if Engadget is getting bombarded with tips, I don't see anything wrong with doing a summation of the *ahem* news, and their take on it.
Personally I liked the: "OMG Apple bought every single 10 inch screen in the worldz" rumour. It made me laugh.
@Cy Starkman
"I would suspect that is because Microsoft isn't doing stuff which is interesting."
Well, in fairness, neither are Apple.
This just in: Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, has just scratched his ass and fixed his boxers.
OH EM GIZMS, TABLET'S COMING!!!
@maddawg579
Haha. Apple should just buy up all the various sizes of tablet displays for a couple of years and let the other companies sweat it out while Apple mass-markets its own tablet unfettered by the competition.
No doubt this is just a rumor. Somebody is just spreading FUD. None of the other companies are going to come out with tablets because Microsoft has already shown that consumers won't buy them in quantity. Most of the pundits and analysts already think the Apple tablet will be a failure, so why concern themselves about such an absurd rumor.
@maddawg579
Was he scratching his ass and adjusting his boxers AT THE SAME TIME?
Perhaps he was testing the multi-touch on a tablet he was hiding in his undies?
Is it possible for people to go to jail for releasing false statements that result in a companies stock price skyrocketing?
Of course, that would mean that all of this talk of an Apple tablet is unfounded. But that's just too hard to believe isn't it? I mean its Apple. Duh. Look up Apple in the dictionary and you will see a tablet.
@Jeff There's no law that says they actually have to be unbiased and report on facts.
Engadget and Fox News can both happily continue to report false statements and spread rumors til the cows come home.
@RMGH
How is Engadget spreading false rumors? It's debunking them.
That's like saying Mythbusters is propagating pseudoscience.
@jupigare Unlike Mythbusters, Engadget is actually bringing the rumors to light. Finding random non-credible sources and then reporting on them on a "mainstream" blog. The fact that appleinsider reported an apple rumor is of no surprise. That's all they do.
Why is engadget bothering with the rumors?
And do you seriously think that a Korea Times story is getting a ton of traction in the US?
I don't see Engadget "debunking" to the plethora of WebOS and Android rumors.
@RMGH
If Engadget got as many Android rumor tips as it gets Apple ones, I'm sure we'd see more Android rumor posts. But since the readers are more interested in sending iSlate tips to the site, Engadget is going to report on (and, in this case, disprove) them.
@jupigare
The difference is that Engadget and other blogs/news outlets continue to report the rumors after they debunk them.
For example, suppose you are liberal and are watching FOX News. Naturally you would mock and criticize their shows. Now imagine that you mock and criticize the shows every minute that you watch them with the same audience (ie. whoever is watching the show with you).
What Engadget is doing is preaching to the choir. I think the only reason they continue to report them is that they could potentially lose readers if they don't. You know, the sort of people that need to hear all of the rumors so they can be better informed as to when they need to put in their preorder.
@RMGH Our sources here are AppleInsider, The Korea Times, and The Register. Hardly no-names -- and these rumors are on every other major site today as well.
You really have to try harder.
Rumor: Apple rumors are lame
My take: yep
Lies. Cortex-A9 isn't due out in time.
@xbit I don’t think that is correct.
@xbit .. Except that Apple is likely going to be designing it's own chips. (a) they helped invent ARM, (b) they recently acquired PA Semi, (c) they were widely rumored to be one of the OEM licensees of ARM and (d) lots of experience with CPUs during the PowerPC days.
What's actually funny is that ARM was the CPU for the Apple Newton. So it's all coming full circle for Apple.
@xbit apple doesn't do low-level hardware development, they "worked" with ARM to make the newton processor back in 1994 (ya, that went well). But worked with usually means, gave them money and told them what they want. Apple, like most major end-user computer companies, buys tech from IC companies and puts them together for an end product.
No apple product contains chips designed by apple, and apple is not making it's own proprietary phone processor, the ROI would be stupidly low, and probably end up in a loss. This is why ICs make chips, and sell them to companies like apple. IC company fronts the cash for the initial R&D and then multiple companies buy the end product (ensuring a higher ROI). This isn't to say Apple isn't invested in IC companies that they have interest in, but no consumer product manufacture makes there own chips, it's simpily just not profitable.
@taligent
lol no, Apple doesnt make chips.
Courier currently has my heart but you never know with Apple
The new iPhone doesn't need to be amazingly better with a super CPU because most people with an iPhone thought that 3G WAS the iPhone. All Apple has to do is call it 4G, put a front facing camera on it and it'll have people lining up again........
@Lubing The Tube .. and my guess is that they will bump up the RAM to allow apps to be multitasked. People forget that the reason the iPhone can't multitask is not because of the OS but because it doesn't have enough RAM !
@taligent
You sir, have no idea what you're talking. My 3GS is currently multitasking just fine, with 9 apps running in the background. RAM has 0% to do w/ the stock iPhone's inability to run background apps. It has 100% to do with Apple's lame-ass psychotic stranglehold on their platforms.
=|
@theNEOone .. well on the 3G for example typically there is only 40MB left after the OS/Mail/iTunes etc takes their share. So there is zero chance of multitasking working on the 3G. I know this as the 20+ apps I've built all have involved lots of work diagnosing didReceiveMemoryWarnings. Yes the 3GS has twice the memory but I would argue that given that 3GS only apps e.g. augmented reality are memory intensive more memory is needed for real world multitasking.
@taligent
Yup, that' my opinion too. The 2G and 3G iPhones just don't have enough RAM to be able to handle multitasking. My 2G would run at around 25 MB of free memory, if I can remember correctly. Hopefully the 3GS will be a transitional step since it has sufficient memory to run at least a small amount of background tasks.
Overall though I've been very happy with Apple's support of the iPhone. Having been around since the pre-2.0 days, we've received updates that have cleared up most of the shortcomings of the original version - things that users have wanted. If you read the original Engadget review of the iPhone, it's funny to see how many of the problems that were originally pointed out have been fixed.
I think that multitasking will come around as soon as Apple is comfortable that they have a good implementation and can maintain the same user experience. Just like copy/paste, voice dial, or MMS.
You know you should have taken a page from Gizmodo with this post and broken it up into three (or four or five) separate posts. That seems to be their M.O.