Rumor Roundup: Unannounced Apple products delayed, ad infinitum
The sketchy iPhone 6 rumors keep coming – haptic feedback & 68M orders (9to5 Mac)
9to5 Mac continues its "proud" tradition of calling rumors "sketchy" but then reblogging them anyway. The first of these, regarding haptic feedback, is a perennial favorite; we've heard for years that Apple will integrate haptic feedback features into one bit of tech or another, but guess what keeps not happening?
TSMC shipping Apple's SoC's for the first time with iPhone 6 says report, will use 20nm process (9to5 Mac)
First, this report comes from The Wall Street Journal... and even though 9to5 Mac erroneously refers to them as "often reliable," they are anything but when it comes to Apple rumors. The Journal has had a pretty awful track record on this subject for several years.
Second, as 9to5 Mac itself notes, we've been hearing for no less than four years that TSMC would start taking over production of Apple's mobile device CPUs. It's failed to happen, year after year. At this point, no one should believe TSMC has anything remotely to do with production of iPhone components until iFixit does one of their famous teardowns on a new Apple device and finds TSMC branding on the caramel center.
Claimed iPhone 6 Front Frame with LCD Shielding and Home Button Bracket Shown in New Photo (MacRumors)
The blurrier the photo, the more you can trust it. No, wait. The other thing.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple "iWatch" mass production pushed back to November (AppleInsider)
Often-wrong analyst claims Apple product not yet proven to exist will be "delayed." Something about this smells very heavily of bet-hedging. In other words, now that we're getting very close to the speculative launch date reached by the conclave of know-nothing analysts, but still not a single iWatch ribbon cable or pentalobe screw has "leaked" to the rumor blogs, it's now time for everyone to leap over one another claiming the iWatch will be "delayed." That way, if (when) it doesn't launch when these windbags originally claimed, we can all blame it on Apple rather than the analysts. It's like the Apple HDTV all over again.
Expert Believes Alleged iPhone 6 Sapphire Front Panel Could Be 'Legitimate' (MacRumors)
As opposed to most "experts" cited by rumor blogs, this guy actually has the chops to be believable: a professor at the Imperial College in London. Thus, it's far more difficult to dismiss his claims out of hand than it would be otherwise.
Apple's Next-Generation A8 Chip Said to Top 2 GHz, Remain Dual-Core (MacRumors)
Interesting claim. Too bad it's sourced from an Asian media source, which makes this about as likely to be true as the average Sasquatch sighting.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple's 5.5-inch 'iPhone 6' faces production issues, launch may be pushed to 2015 (AppleInsider)
Often-wrong analyst claims Apple product not yet proven to exist will be "delayed" - hey, wait a minute. This sounds awfully familiar. And it's the same analyst as the iWatch "delay" story, too.
Isn't it awfully convenient that both of the major rumored Apple products that have had no component leaks or any other associated physical evidence whatsoever thus far are now both rumored to be "delayed" by the same analyst?
I mean, fine, we've seen leaked parts for the purported 4.7-inch iPhone 6 that look too high-end to be faked, especially the various display components. But where are the 5.5-inch parts leaks? And before you answer that question, let's get one thing straight: "mockups" don't count.
"Delays" are analyst-speak for "Oh crap, the nonsense I was spewing earlier might not come true after all. Better find a scapegoat..."
On the other hand, considering the source of this claim is the "accurate" Ming-Chi Kuo, the giga-iPhone may well launch on schedule after all.
