debunk
Latest
TMZ thinks this Android phone is the iPhone 6
TMZ is super, super proud of its "exclusive" scoop on the iPhone 6 today, as is clear by its obnoxious headline and loaded article that tells the story of a former Foxconn employee heroically smuggling the highly anticipated device out from manufacturing. As you'd expect from TMZ, there are plenty of grainy photos to go along with this. The only problem is that they don't have photos of an iPhone 6. It's an Android phone. First, let's tackle a couple of the images of the supposed Apple gadget and do some sleuthing. We'll start with this: I see a "lock" button that's been moved to the side of the device. Fair enough, given the larger size. But what's with the SIM Card door? It's not even flush with the phone's frame. That, alone, is a dead giveaway that it wasn't built from an Apple design. Apple doesn't design something that doesn't fit together, and we're reminded of that literally every single time it releases a new device. Next, we'll check out the front: Again we see that the SIM door is wildly misfitting, but look at the screen itself. Five icon rows on the new 4.7-inch display? That doesn't seem right, especially considering that's essentially a stock screenshot from iOS 7. But what's even more telling is the date icon. Do you see that "13"? That isn't the font that Apple uses for the date icon, it's far too thick. If you shift your attention to the lettering used for each icon you'll see that they have drop shadows which, again, aren't present in either iOS 7 or iOS 8. What we have here is an Android phone dressed up in an iPhone exterior, running a heavily modified version of Android 4.2.2. I know this because a Redditor posted images of a remarkably similar device -- complete with the iPhone 6 box seen in the TMZ images, and running on Android -- which was purchased by a Chinese knockoff seller: Look familiar? Oh, and by the way: Welcome, TMZ, to the world of Apple rumors. Next time, bring your 'A' game.
Konami calls Metal Gear Solid 5 Comic-Con screens 'fake rumours,' denies secret reveal
Screens depicting a logo for Metal Gear Solid 5 tie the game to Hideo Kojima's mysterious "Project Ogre;" the screens were allegedly leaked out of this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, from a behind-closed-doors presentation given by Kojima to developers, showing off the Fox Engine. At least, that'd be a reasonable story to believe – but Konami's saying it's all bunk.After (irresponsibly) tweeting ambiguous notes like, "Fake or real, we love a bit of speculation! #ogre #mgs5," Konami's UK account directly clarified that, "Seriously, just in case the #pinch #salt hashtags weren't enough - the chap who claims to have set up the fake rumours has been in touch," as spotted by Kotaku's Jason Schreier.Project Ogre is Kojima's current in-development game, though few details are known about its theme, or gameplay, or ... well, much of anything regarding it. Kojima has also spoken of a fifth Metal Gear Solid game, though its unclear if development of that game is already underway.Whether or not the game was shown behind closed doors, Kojima was definitely at Comic-Con this past weekend, and he appeared to be showing something secret. Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski tweeted, "Just got pulled into a back room at Comic Con by @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN and showed some crazy new secret stuff. Wow." We're doing pretty much everything we can right here to not make a lurid joke.
Debunkatron: No, the iPad is not destroying its own battery (Updated)
Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies analyzed the performance of the new iPad's battery when it says it's 100 percent charged versus when it's actually 100 percent charged. Unsurprisingly, he found a discrepancy; it's already been widely reported that the new iPad's charging indicator is bugged somehow and doesn't correctly report when the iPad is fully charged. Though the new iPad may report 100 percent charge capacity, it's in fact only around 90 percent charged at that point. It's a simple bug to fix, and it'll likely be one focus of a 5.1.1 update to iOS. Where Dr. Soneira's analysis and CNBC's reporting on the issue both go off the rails is when they both say that the iPad is actually overcharging its own battery and thereby causing damage to it. CNBC's analogy is that a battery is like a glass of fruit juice: it's meant to be filled to below the "rim," and if you overfill the glass the juice can spill out. This is an insipid analogy that demonstrates ignorance of how lithium battery technology has worked since... oh, the mid-1990s or so. Like all modern computers, the iPad's charging circuitry automatically stops charging the battery and puts it on a trickle charge once it reaches 100 percent of its capacity. This maximum capacity decreases over time as the battery accumulates charge cycles, but it's quite gradual; iPads and most other modern Apple gear contain lithium batteries designed to retain 80 percent of their initial capacity after 1000 full charge/discharge cycles. That's 1000 times taking the iPad from 100 percent charged down to zero, or the equivalent. It's worth restating that the iPad's charging circuitry automatically stops charging the battery when it senses the battery reached its maximum capacity. This is why you can leave your iPad plugged in overnight without worrying about the battery getting overcharged and exploding in a gooey, hot mess of chemicals and fire. The same is true of iPhones, iPods, and Macs -- once the battery is fully charged, the device throttles the charging circuits down to maintain a slow trickle charge that keeps the battery at or near 100 percent. Or, if you want to go with CNBC's dumb analogy, the glass is actually designed to be filled to the rim, but the juice dispenser is smart enough to stop filling it automatically when it gets to that point. However, Dr. Soneira and CNBC both seem to think that the bug pertaining to the iPad's charging indicator means the iPad is getting overcharged. They both argue that the iPad's battery is actually at 100 percent of its charge capacity when it says so, and leaving the iPad plugged in after that 100 percent overcharges the battery and causes damage. As evidence, Dr. Soneira notes that allowing the iPad to charge for additional time after it reads 100 percent charged gives the iPad an additional 1.2 hours of running time. His analysis correctly shows that the 11.6 hour runtime he got by "overcharging" the iPad's battery is likely in line with Apple's officially-stated 10-hour battery life. Apple has a history of being optimistic with its battery estimates for Macs and conservative with estimates for iOS devices, so the 10.4 hour runtime Dr. Soneira achieved when he stopped charging the iPad's battery when it said it was at 100 percent is right in line with what we already know: the iPad isn't actually fully charged when it says it is. When Dr. Soneira and CNBC both leap to the conclusion that the iPad is overcharging and therefore damaging its own battery, however, they both get it wrong. "Apple has put forth a rather shocking reverse perspective that the on-screen battery indicator is instead the correct one," Soneira claims, and CNBC says "Apple is saying... if you charge it more than [when the battery indicator reads 100%], you could actually harm the longevity of the battery." The problem with those claims? The problem with those claims? Apple didn't say either of those things. CNBC said Apple said them. Apple's page on the iPad's battery says nothing of the kind. It's common knowledge that if you leave a device with a lithium battery plugged in literally all the time without ever discharging it that you can do some harm to the maximum capacity, but that's not a symptom of overcharging the battery. Instead, it's a consequence of never discharging a battery that's designed to be discharged from time to time. "According to Apple the new iPad is configured to damage the longevity of its own battery if it isn't manually disconnected from the AC charger when the 100% indicator appears," Dr. Soneira says, without providing a link to a page proving that Apple actually made this claim. "Anyone that recharges their iPad unattended, especially overnight, will be doing this." In a word: no. This statement demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern lithium battery technology works. We reached out to Apple for comment, but we haven't heard back. We don't expect to, because this is a non-issue. The iPad may be telling us tall tales about its charge state in the status bar, but it's not destroying its own battery. Update: In a statement to AllThingsD, Apple confirmed the iPad's battery behaves exactly the same way as all previous iOS devices. Battery charging circuitry "is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like. It's a great feature that's always been in iOS," Apple VP Michael Tchao stated. It turns out that displaying 100 percent charge in the status bar before the battery actually reaches full capacity is also "normal" behavior. The device actually does continue charging for awhile after displaying 100% charge, discharges slightly when put on "trickle" charge, then charges back up to 100 percent. Rather than confuse users and have them see the battery charge oscillate between 90 and 100 percent while the device is plugged in, the iPad will simply display 100 percent charge status. So, not only is the iPad not damaging its own battery, the "bug" in its charging status isn't a bug at all.
Funcom debunks The Secret World launch date rumor
Could we finally have a specific launch date for The Secret World? Yes, but more accurately, no. While hopeful fans clung to possible news that Funcom had confirmed an April 24th launch date, the studio has issued a statement saying that this was "an internal production date" that was mentioned at a recent press event, and doesn't necessarily reflect the actual release date for the title: Funcom has become aware of postings in various media stating that commercial launch of the online game The Secret World has been set to 24 April 2012. This date was communicated at a press event in the Funcom offices in Oslo today -- as an internal production date. Funcom has previously announced the launch month for the game to be April 2012 and wants to stress that there is currently no change or update on the expected time for commercial launch of The Secret World. The company will announce the release date at a later stage through a stock notice and a formal press release when the date has been set. The studio recently wrapped up a week dedicated to the Illuminati faction and revealed one of the game's spooky settings, Blue Mountain.
Soulcalibur V advertisement debunked, junked
Following Namco's release of a controversial, crass Soulcalibur V ad focusing on ... non-fighting-related aspects of the game, the above image started going around of a subsequent ad that had reportedly been deemed too controversial and removed. The first post we've seen about it was on Digital Battle, but it's been picked up by a few others. However, we don't believe Namco Bandai even attempted to use Voldo's codpiece as a selling point. Try to contain your surprise: as far as we can tell, the ad is a fake. We don't know who's responsible for its creation, but we do know that the Voldo image used for the ad comes from a screenshot of Soul Calibur IV, released in 2007. Compare the two images above, and try not to think about how much time you've just spent concentrating on Voldo's business.
Sony: 3G PlayStation Vita not canceled in North America
Despite Amazon's claims to the contrary, Sony reps tell Joystiq that, no, the 3G model of the PlayStation Vita is not canceled in the US. Try and feign surprise! An IGN report from earlier today noted that the Amazon product details for the 3G model of the Vita listed it as "discontinued by manufacturer," but when contacted, Sony's senior director of corporate communication and social media Patrick Seybold immediately refuted the claims. He told Joystiq flat out, "This is not true," and said that Sony will be connecting with its Amazon contacts to figure out what's up. Both the 3G and non-3G versions of the PlayStation Vita launch in North America on February 22, with a 3G "First Edition" bundle preceding them both by a week.
Valve: Any Half-Life 3 clues are 'community trolling the community'
So your friend heard from his friend who used to go out with a girl who was a cousin of a Valve developer that Half-Life 3 would be released as a Steam exclusive this March? Or maybe you just crawled across a convincing website which seemed to point to another, long-awaited iteration in the Half-Life series? Well bad news, friends: "You are being trolled." That's the word from Valve writer Chet Faliszek, who says on the Steam forums that "there is no ARG," and there are no official hints out there at all that a third Half-Life game is coming any time soon. We don't care how convincing that secret FTP that the guy on IRC told you about was: any Half-Life 3 rumors so far are completely unofficial, as great as that fan-made Portal short was. Then again, it would be just like Valve to say that an official ARG wasn't official, wouldn't it? Maybe they're just trying to hide the real story by saying it too is a fake! Conspiracy!
Stephen Colbert exposes Siri biases
Stephen Colbert, America's indispensable authority on absolutely everything, decided to put Siri to the test on the Colbert Report to see if he could find an abortion clinic in Manhattan. Not only does he claim he can't find one, but he says it can't understand foreigners either. Well, Stephen, just to prove you wrong, Siri understands my Scouser husband just fine, thank you very much. You'll find the segment below from Colbert Nation, which highlights just how ridiculous the situation has gotten. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Conservative Siri www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive
Debunked: Ridiculous claims of 'pro-life' bias in Siri (Update: Apple responds)
Update: The New York Times has a response. Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, told them: "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks." Think Progress, Slate, and a whole lot of other outlets are piling it on thick and claiming that Siri's search parameters have a "pro-life" bias because the service has difficulty locating abortion clinics or birth control services in many areas. "Siri's unhelpful and sometimes misleading answers to pressing health questions stand in stark contrast to her prompt and accurate responses to inquiries about nearby escort services," says Think Progress, while Slate goes even farther off the deep end and says, "many around the Web [are] wondering if Siri is pro-life and whether Apple is attempting to impose its morals upon the rest of us." This is a textbook example of sensationalistic media making something from absolutely nothing. If Siri's search parameters function the same way as other services (and I'm almost certain they do), it's likely that in addition to the business name itself, a business will have a cluster of tagged metadata associated with it. Siri's association with Yelp in the U.S. makes this sort of tagging extremely easy for restaurants and other retail services -- searching for something as simple as "hamburgers" or "Target" will return dozens of results in major cities. For other services -- birth control and abortion clinics being two examples -- Siri apparently relies on a much less extensive database than Yelp, with far less comprehensive tagging. All that Think Progress and Slate's "research" shows is that Apple isn't relying upon Google's database for such searches, either; a Google Maps search for "abortion clinic in Washington, D.C." turns up 10 results in the Maps app, while Siri returns only two (apparently invalid) results. If you're the type to leap to your keyboard and pound out a linkbaiting headline before warming up your logic circuits first, then sure, this might look like Apple once again being the "evil Big Brother" that the media's been trying to paint it as for years, this time passive-aggressively shoving a pro-life stance on people searching for women's health services. If you instead insert a couple minutes of logical thought between your fingers and the keyboard, it looks more like Apple's tagging services for Siri are incomplete when it has to source its searches from sources other than Yelp -- which is exactly what you'd expect from a BETA service that's been in widespread public use for less than two months as of this writing. At any rate, the central premise of this handwringing claim that Siri is "pro-life" is easy enough to debunk. Searches for "abortion clinic" or "birth control clinic" return few if any results in most areas, but I found results for "abortion clinic" in Denver, Milwaukee, New York City, and several other cities across the US. A Siri search for "Planned Parenthood" almost always returns results no matter where you search in the States -- because that search is powered by Yelp rather than whatever comparatively limited database Siri is using for more specific searches like "abortion clinic" or "birth control." If Siri is really supposed to be "pro-life" and "imposing morals" on its users, then searches for the politically charged Planned Parenthood clinics would also turn up no results, wouldn't they? Why searches for "abortion clinic" or "birth control" aren't also Yelp-powered is easy enough to discern; searching for "abortion clinic" in Washington, D.C. on yelp.com returns an array of ridiculous results such as "New York New York Salon" (the top result), McDonald's (not kidding), Ebenezers Coffeehouse, and Georgetown University Law Center. That's the downside of a crowdsourced search service. "Why not just source results from Google Maps?" you might ask. That's easy enough to answer: it's probably because Siri is designed to lessen Apple's dependence on its biggest competitor for search services. Does that do users any sort of disservice, especially to the extent that Think Progress and Slate claim? Not particularly, since either the Google-powered Maps app or a Google search within Safari are at most one or two taps away. Going by the hilariously flawed logic in Think Progress and Slate's reporting, I could just as easily say that Apple has a jingoistic pro-American bias because Siri's business and navigational searches only work in the U.S. "OH NOES, Siri can't find places in New Zealand, that must mean Apple hates Kiwis! Quickly Robin, to the Boycottmobile!" About an hour or so after I finished writing the above diatribe against the massive overreaction to this non-event, Apple confirmed to the New York Times that Siri's responses to queries for abortion clinics were a glitch. "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone," an Apple spokesperson confirmed to the Times. "It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks." Critical thinking, ladies and gentlemen. It's not difficult. Note: Due to the inevitable storm in a teacup that results anytime anyone mentions the A-word, comments on this post will be heavily moderated. We will not approve comments from either side of the endless debate.
Reports of iOS developer account shutdowns may be erroneous (Updated)
A report from Karthikk.net alleges that Apple has begun shutting down the accounts of iOS developers who have sold "slots" on their accounts to users wanting to run iOS 5 betas on their devices without paying the US$99 yearly development fee. For a while now, developers have been offering to attach device UDIDs to their accounts for a fee; iOS dev accounts allow for a hundred devices to be associated with one account. Some unscrupulous developers have turned a modest-to-hefty profit by selling those slots off. (Incidentally, if you're one of those devs and try to drum up sales in our comments, the banhammer will fall upon you without mercy.) Although the shutdown has been reported in a couple of places already, we've been unable to verify these reports. Normally if such a thing happened, our tip line would be flooded with emails from users who had illicitly gained access to the beta and subsequently had their devices remotely disabled, but so far we haven't heard credible reports from even one user or developer that's been affected by this alleged crackdown. Karthikk claims that "many developers" have received a letter from Apple saying their accounts have been identified as a UDID clearinghouse and are subject to shutdown, but the site offers no direct evidence that such letters exist. We've reached out to the developer community to find out if any developers have been affected by the supposed crackdown. Not one has replied so far. We've also reached out to Apple for comment, but we've received no response yet. Crucially, the first two iOS 5 developer betas expired recently. Reading through forum comments on various sites shows that only those running the now-expired iOS 5b1 or 5b2 have had their devices shut down on them. Those running the current iOS 5 beta (5b4) do not appear to have been affected. We never heard of Karthikk.net before today. The scant evidence they offer for the "crackdown" isn't compelling enough for us to take it at face value. At this point, with various developer and jailbreaking communities saying they've heard nothing else on the matter other than the echo chamber effect of various sites reporting on it, we're inclined to believe that Karthikk's report is an erroneous interpretation of the first two iOS 5 betas expiring. If you do have your iOS device or developer account disabled as a result of this supposed crackdown, please send us feedback. Update: In the time since we first posted this story, we've heard from a handful of developers who say they have indeed had their accounts shut down because they were selling UDID slots. The confusion underlying the original reporting of this story on various sites may have been due to the first two iOS 5 betas expiring at the same time as the dev account takedowns took place. Some of our sources indicate this timing was accidental or coincidental, as Apple has been issuing takedowns of obvious UDID clearinghouse accounts for quite some time. Although the crackdown does not appear to be as widespread as initial reports indicated, some UDID clearinghouse accounts have recently been deactivated, and users with devices associated with those accounts can expect their iOS devices to revert to an unusable state once their current iOS 5 betas expire. The lesson here is twofold: If you're a developer, don't try to sell beta access to non-developers. If you're not a developer, don't try to buy access to betas.
Does iOS 5 reveal a new iPod touch? (Updated)
UPDATE: It would appear in our haste to check this, and with Erica's technical difficulties with her primary Mac, the 5.0 file was opened twice. A cross check with the 4.3.3 file indicates no such model (iPod4,2). Of course, this still doesn't mean there's a new iPod touch coming, but the evidence we thought we had to show that the supposed 'new' model was actually old is no longer valid. We regret the error. - Ed. Early this AM, our beloved leader Victor Agreda summoned me to the bat phone -- or at least the bat virtual office -- to confirm whether or not today's iFans spotting of "iPod4,2" in 5.0 firmware points to a new device. So, I did what any other exhausted mother-of-three would do while making breakfast for the crew and getting them ready for camp. I cracked open an iPod touch 4.3 firmware to see if this reference predates the 5.0 firmware. It does. Here's the 4.3 version of that file with the same iPod4,2 reference. So, what does this mean? Sorry, but not much. Apple has had unreleased alternative models mentioned in its firmware for a while now. There was an iPod2,2 model for example that never saw the light of day. Will there be an iPod 5 this fall? I haven't a clue. I think Chris and Rich hashed out the question quite thoroughly a short while back, and I leave that discussion to them. As for me? I need to go back and take a nap -- and I would if my hard drive didn't seem to be failing. Oh well, off to try to get that fixed.
Crytek denies it has new Xbox hardware
Earlier this week, Videogamer reported a rumor that the next generation of Microsoft hardware would be unveiled at E3 2012 and that Crytek already had its mitts on it, supposedly developing TimeSplitters 4 -- which would also be shown off at next year's annual trade show. However, according to the latest Crytek newsletter, it's all baloney. "Relating to the recent rumours, Crytek do not have any next generation hardware from Microsoft, nor do we know when Microsoft may announce future hardware or what that hardware will entail. Crytek are working at pushing the boundaries of what current technology can bring, including our focus on DX11 which will be released shortly as an update for Crysis 2, and we believe this work, added to our estimations of what the new hardware will provide, set up CryENGINE as a next generation engine for all consoles." Besides, it wouldn't make much sense for Microsoft to announce a new console when it's all gung-ho on Kinect right now -- unless the new console uses Kinect. You guys, we think we just figured it out!
Tennessee bill broadens scope of 'theft,' wide enough to include web-based subscription services?
This week, Tennessee signed a bill that made waves across the web, with many sites claiming that sharing your log-in credentials for services such as Netflix could soon land you in the slammer. The actual story isn't that simple. The bill essentially adds onto laws pertaining to the theft of 'services' in the legal sense by covering more things that can be defined under the title. For instance, the original list included cable services, to keep folks from jacking free HBO -- now, stealing "entertainment subscription services" can make you a felon as well. Tennessee has always been a hotspot for the recording industry, so there's almost no question about what this bill was meant to fight; during a senate hearing for the bill, the RIAA itself explained that online music services could be pirated via password sharing. It also added, though, that users who share passwords "en-masse" are the focus, rather than individual cases like it had pursued in the past. However, this bill covers more than online services and could even extend to physical media such as magazines, another example vulnerable to this type of theft. Furthermore, while sharing passwords to these "entertainment services" may be illegal after its enactment on July 1st, that's not what this legislation is technically about; the RIAA would still need to prove that password sharing equates to theft in a court of law. You can check the links down below for more details.
PSA: Purported new Inafune RPG is just Neptunia
Last week, a report from business journal Bloomberg featured an interview with Mega Man creator/ex-Capcom creative lead Keiji Inafune, covering a variety of topics. As has become par for the course since Inafune left the Japanese publishing giant, he spoke to the divide between creative and management in game development, and how he believes it can be amended. He also spoke to the challenges he faced at his old employer, echoing sentiments from earlier this month. And while all of that is certainly interesting, one particular line in the piece stood out to our news-hungry eyes: "Inafune said he plans to release a social game title for Japanese market as early as this month, and a role-playing title for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 in August." We knew about the social game, but a role-playing game for PS3, you say? As it turns out, the game in question isn't one that Inafune's studio, Comcept, is developing, but rather a game that Inafune himself is starring in. You guessed it: Hyperdimension Neptunia mk-II. You know, the game where Inafune's a weapon? That game. We reached out to the folks at Bloomberg, who clarified that, yes, the game in question isn't an unannounced PlayStation 3 RPG, as much as it is an already announced, Compile Heart-developed Japan-only RPG with Inafune as a laser-vomiting special weapon. On the one hand, we're a bit disappointed that Inafune's not crafting a secret PS3 RPG, but on the other hand we got to use that amazing header image again. You win some, you lose some.
Intel refutes Apple exclusivity for Thunderbolt I/O, LaCie and Promise detail first Thunderbolt peripherals
We can think of a pretty good reason why Apple might have a head-start when it comes to Thunderbolt-capable machines, but Apple doesn't actually have a timed exclusive on the technology, at least according to Intel PR. The company told us that while it's currently targeting an early 2012 launch for Thunderbolt with other OEMs -- whereas the new MacBook Pro has Thunderbolt right now -- there's nothing stopping other manufacturers from launching machines with the 10Gbps interconnect a good bit earlier if they so desire. In related news, the first Thunderbolt peripherals have just been formally announced -- the Promise Pegasus RAID array we saw spitting out 800MB / sec video streams, and the LaCie Little Big Disk. The former will come in four-bay and six-bay variants, topping out at 12TB of magnetic storage when it arrives in Q2, and the latter will boast a pair of Intel 510 Series SSDs -- which, by the way, have yet to be formally announced -- in RAID 0 for 500GB of storage in total. PR after the break. %Gallery-117530%
Debunk: Elop never said Microsoft is paying Nokia billions of dollars to use Windows Phone
In our sitdown with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop out at Mobile World Congress today, we brought up something that had come up during his press conference and Q&A session last Sunday evening -- that the company's partnership with Microsoft would generate "billions, not millions" of dollars' worth of value. This quickly morphed into an internet-wide story that Microsoft would basically be cutting a ten-figure check to Espoo in exchange for launching devices running its platform, but the reality is that Elop never said anything close to that: in fact, when we specifically asked how the money was flowing and who would be seeing black ink upfront, Elop said on no certain terms that they're not talking specifics of the deal. He goes on to say that it's a "very balanced relationship," which would indicate to us that there wasn't any massive cash transfer to kick this thing off. Regardless, the fact remains: at no time did he say Microsoft was paying to make it happen -- and considering Nokia's needs, we wouldn't be surprised if this was nearly a zero-sum transaction: Microsoft gets a huge boost in the platform's profile along with some services it needs, while Nokia gets a platform that it wasn't able to make itself. Makes sense to us.
Debunked: Amazon book listings suggest Mac OS X Lion ship date
TUAW readers know from past articles that Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" is expected to ship sometime this summer -- Apple told us that during the Back to the Mac event on October 20, 2010. Now MacNN has noted that listings for Lion books in the UK Amazon bookstore may indicate a possible ship date for the next generation of Mac OS X. The post notes that several books are showing a July 28 ship date, with others targeted for August 5 and August 28. As much as I'd like to believe that we're going to see a mid-summer release of Lion, I can tell you from personal experience that these dates are pure conjecture. Fellow TUAW blogger Michael Grothaus and I recently signed a contract to write a Lion book that is scheduled for August 2011. Does that mean that we know the ship date of Lion? Hell no, and neither do any of the other authors who I've talked to about their Lion titles. Most publishers want to build buzz about upcoming books and also get placeholders into online bookstores as soon as they can. To do this, publishers work with the authors to come up with a best-guess date, knowing that the operating system and book may not come out until later. As it is, the most any of us know at this point is that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will ship between June 22 and September 23, 2011 -- that's summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Considering that we don't even know when the first betas of Lion are going to be sent out to developers, it's entirely premature to come up with a ship date for the OS or books about Lion. With any luck at all, we'll see the first beta of Lion at WWDC 2011, which many Apple pundits believe is scheduled for June 5 - 9. After that, the OS will go through numerous revisions as developers find bugs, and during that period is when most of the Lion authors are going to be scrambling to get their books written. As for July 28, August 5, or August 28 release dates? I seriously doubt it.
Debunk: Clamcase now shipping, manufacturing problems remedied
You may remember that we had an oh-so-brief hands-on with the Clamcase back at CES, and at that time we were promised a review unit the following week. Well, here we are a month later and we still don't have our unit, and according to some unhappy tipsters neither do those who preordered all the way back in December. We spoke with a rep to get to the bottom of the matter and got some updates on the situation to share with all you eager pre-orderers. Things got off to a bit of a rough start when the initial January ship date slipped to February, and although an email was sent to preorder customers indicating a few week delay, credit cards were still charged. Apparently, a manufacturing issue early on rendered a small batch of the earliest units un-chargeable, though some of these units made their ways into customers' hands. We're told that these problems have since been solved and that units are rolling off the Texas factory lines daily, but we've also gotten reports of bunk tracking numbers and 'shipments' that never arrive. The last piece of the puzzle is the suspicious disappearance of a discussion thread on the company's official Facebook page, which apparently got so heated that lawsuits were threatened. We're told that it was "accidentally taken down while the page was being reorganized", but we still cannot locate it ourselves. Not all is wrong in the world though, as some Twitter spelunking has revealed that real life people have received real life units in at least some cases, so our best bit of advice would be to either hit the company up for a status report or simply move along to one of the many other iPad keyboard case options available to lighten your wallets. We've been assured that our unit should arrive sometime shortly, so stay tuned for the next installment of the Clamcase Chronicles coming in the near future!
Why the camera isn't the culprit for the white iPhone 4's delay (update: Woz responds)
Unless you've been away from the Internet over the last few days, you would've no doubt heard about Woz's special appearance at the Engadget Show on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, a few websites ran with some quotes that they pulled from our interview -- specifically, the highlight was Woz "confirming" that the white iPhone 4 was indeed delayed due to camera issues. Well, I don't think this is the case at all. In fact, I'm sure there are plenty of other good reasons for why Apple's been delaying the much anticipated flavor of its flagship smartphone, but the camera just isn't one of them. Head right past the break and all will be explained. Update: Our man Woz has just responded in the comments: I said plenty to make it clear that I know nothing of Apple's reasons for rejecting anything ever. I told how when I got my white iPhone 4 assembled I tested the flash photos and they did indeed have problems. I spoke of testing flash photos versus non-flash ones and comparing flash photos between my white and black iPhones. I don't recall saying that it was a 'reason' Apple rejected the parts although I had read that. For the last part, we were referring to 0:55 in the interview video after the break, but now that Woz has spoken, it could've been a joke at the time that got misinterpreted by some websites. They tend to do that with Woz. Read on!
Honeycomb will not require dual-core CPU as minimum hardware spec
Oh, never mind then. Google's ever-informative and ever-knowledgeable Dan Morrill has disabused the world from the bogus belief that Android's "made for tablets" iteration, aka Honeycomb, will require a dual-core processor as a minimum to run. Dan says there are no specific CPU requirements for aspiring Android 3.0 tablets to meet and we should all sit back, relax, and enjoy our breakfast. That's reassuring to note, but let's not read more into it than what's said -- while Honeycomb might not technically require a dual-core beastie to power it, there's a reason why the Motorola Xoom (which is soon to become the first device to offer Honeycomb onboard) is launching with a Tegra 2 chip inside. [Thanks, Dean]
