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Nano-SIM for next iPhone makes appearance ahead of launch?
First we saw a supposed leak of the next iPhone's nano-SIM tray, and now we're seeing alleged photos of the nano-SIM itself. iFun posted an image of what it says is a new T-Mobile nano-SIM that has just started arriving at the German carrier. The package apparently came with a message telling carriers that these SIMs are for smartphones about to go on the market, and that they're not to be given to customers -- yet. Cupertino, of course, tweaked its nano-SIM design earlier this year, and this photo does come ahead of an Apple announcement event rumored for next week.
Carriers testing LTE-enabled 4G iPhone?
Earlier this year, Verizon CEO Dan Mead all but confirmed that an LTE Apple device would be making its way to Verizon. Eventually. And no 2011 Apple rumor spattering would be complete without at least a casual mention of the high-speed 4G network. Now, BGR claims to have received an internal iOS test build from a major carrier, revealing a property list file for LTE. This of course doesn't guarantee that Apple will be shipping an LTE iPhone flavor later this year, but that it at least remains a possibility. Still, an October iPhone launch would fall nicely in line with recent confirmation that AT&T will be releasing an LTE smartphone in "late 2011," and 4G compatibility could definitely explain Cupertino's holdup in announcing the iPhone 4's successor. So, will you be flying through the wireless web at lightning-fast speed later this year? Hopefully we need not wait much longer to find out.
iPhone 5 to have 8 megapixel camera and improved antenna, same old design?
To date, we've heard scant few details about the next-generation iPhone, except for a rumor that it may or may not have a bigger screen, and that it almost certainly won't pack an NFC chip. Now, one analyst is reporting the design will remain unchanged, though its innards will get a slight boost. Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities (who has been dead-on in the past) talked with sources in Apple's supply chain to learn that the iPhone 5 will boast the same A5 processor as the iPad 2, along with an 8 megapixel rear camera, improved antenna design, and that Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA models we've seen bandied about (technically, the one in the current Verizon version is already GSM-capable). His sources also claim that Apple will begin mass production of its next-gen phone in September, which aligns with what we already heard about Apple moving to a fall launch -- and because of the ongoing disaster in Japan, the company might not have sufficient supplies to launch a new iPod touch at the same time. Typically we take many Apple rumors with a grain of salt, but these tidbits all sound plausible. And given that Kuo has been right before, we're especially inclined to believe him -- even if the truth is more ho-hum than magical.
The Apple Tablet: a complete history, supposedly
It's no secret to us (or our readers) that Apple's products tend to generate what some might consider insane amounts of interest for weeks, months, and even years before they're launched or even announced. Whether you love the company or hate its guts, you can't deny that Apple is particularly prone to being fodder for the rumor mill. It comes in all forms: leaked photos (be they real, fake, or merely imaginative fan creations), analyst speculation based on "what if" scenarios for investors, "insider" reports from Asian supply chains, and a fair amount of conjecture via the press, both mainstream and blog alike. Here at Engadget, we've always been pretty proud of our ability to decode fact from fiction, and we try not to add too much noise to the echo chamber in which the gadget world seems to sometimes live. That said, we do cover plenty of rumors -- and the Apple Tablet (in its many rumored form factors) may just be the biggest and most twisted of them all. Apple's been kicking around the idea of a tablet since at least... oh, 1983. From real, physical prototypes to out-there ideas such as the Knowledge Navigator -- the company (who did not, alas, invent the idea of a tablet PC) has, somewhat unsurprisingly, seen fit to investigate the possibility for almost as long as it's been around. For one reason or another, though, they've never actually produced a device which saw the light of retail day (well, besides the Newton). Perhaps that's part of the fascination that Apple fans have with the product -- it's been rumored so long, and seemed on the verge of actual arrival so many times that it's become a Holy Grail of sorts for the tech community. The rumor timeline 2004 - 2006: The early years 2007 - 2008: Backburner 2009: The heat is (back) on 2010: The year we make contact? Wrap-up Follow the saga Evidence that any tablet actually existed or would come to retail, however, has always been slim at best. In the entire lifespan of Engadget, not one viable photo of a real-looking prototype has ever emerged, and not one source within Apple itself has ever really hinted that it was at work on such a product. Oh sure, there have been dozens -- possibly hundreds -- of people "familiar with the matter," but almost no one who would or could go on record to talk about the tablet, and in the end, it's always seemed like a non-starter. The Apple Tablet rumor started in earnest around 2002 -- before Engadget was even around. By the time we arrived to the party, the idea that Apple might be working on a tablet or slate PC was pretty firmly entrenched into the psyche of the avid gadget geek, but again, perilously little evidence existed to support the idea, or shall we say... the hope? And here we are, in January of 2010, on the verge of yet another expiration date for the rumored launch of an Apple Tablet (though let's be honest -- this thing is starting to feel pretty real). We thought now might be as good a time as any to take a look back -- back through the rumor timeline of one of the gadget world's longest-standing, and seemingly best-loved unicorns. Join us for the ride, won't you?
Apple planning event for January, with high-res iPhone or small-sized tablet in tow? Maybe just hanging out?
Breaking news, everybody: Apple's working on some stuff. The rumors are flying in all directions today, starting out fairly innocently with word from the oft-innacurate DigiTimes of an iPhone-destined 5 megapixel camera sensor. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster piled on with an investor note saying they're giving an Apple January event a 75% chance of happening, and the tablet is squarely at 50 / 50. The most interesting word, however, comes out of the Silicon Alley Insider, who is quoting a "plugged-in source in the mobile industry" who says that Apple is working with some select app makers on prepping high-res apps to demo on a "new, larger mobile device." The device would be shown in January but not available at that time -- presumably in wait for these redesigned apps to mature (at WWDC, perhaps?). While that rumor is being piled in with the ever-present tablet hubbub, if we were to read between the lines we'd say it sounds more like a higher-resolution iPhone in the style of Google's Nexus one or Motorola's Droid -- both of which are making the iPhone's 320 x 480 screen look a tad archaic. Certainly more likely than Apple releasing "several tablets" to match up with all the disparate rumors we've seen of the 7-inch / 9-inch / 10-inch unicorn device. Update: Just so you know, The New York Times has it on good authority that Steve Jobs is apparently "extremely happy" with the current tablet design. The assumption here -- if true, of course -- is that he won't be killing this project like he did all the previous iterations.
Apple prototyping "iPhone lite" and MacBook Mini / media pad for Verizon?
Hot on the heels of yesterday's reports of Apple and Verizon dealings comes some tantalizing, but still unconfirmed, new details from BusinessWeek. According to the publication, the gang in Cupertino has prototyped two devices for the carrier. The first one is a smaller, less expensive device that's been dubbed as "iPhone lite" by someone who's apparently seen it in person. The other is called a "media pad" (Joggler, anyone?) for music, photos, HD video, and placing calls over WiFi. Details are scant beyond that, and while that pad sounds a lot like an iPod touch to us, we can't help but wonder if it has something to do with those 10-inch displays that Quanta's rumored to be manufacturing. Don't put too much stock into this, as the reports could end up being all for naught, but one thing's for sure: you can bet the suits at AT&T are keeping a very, very close eye on this. In other, even sketchier and likely unrelated rumors, a listing for "MacBookMini" has popped up in Adium's statistics. While we wouldn't normally think anything of this -- as TUAW correctly notes, anyone can edit their computer IDs -- it was from these pages that we first heard the name MacBook Air. Chances are this is nothing, but with all this talk of 10-inch screens and media pads, it kind of makes you wonder. [Via TUAW; image courtesy of Frunny]Read - BusinessWeekRead - Adium stats
Is Apple working on a multi-touch-based Newton successor?
This one is purely in the realm of rumor, folks, but AppleInsider is now reporting the tantalizing detail that Apple is currently working on a multi-touch-based successor to its Newton handheld. As the story goes, Apple has actually had a "small team of engineers" working on the project for the past 18 months, during which time they were occasionally forced to put the project on hold in order to help get the iPhone out the door on time. Now, with the iPhone out of the way, AppleInsider says it's "full steam ahead" on the "modern day Newton." Delving even further into the rumor mill, AppleInsider says the device will about 1.5 times the size of the iPhone, and sport a 720x480 display that fills nearly the entire surface of the unit (no surprise there). What's more, it seems that the device is intended to compete as much with UMPCs as with PDAs (something the original Newton's already taken a shot at) and, if the rumors are to be believed, it could be released "sometime in the first half of 2008," with a possible announcement as soon as MacWorld in January. [Image courtesy of audiopollution/AppleInsider]
Analyst expects new iPods next month
We've certainly had plenty of indications that some new iPods would be coming sooner rather than later, and an analyst at UBS Investment Research now seems to be saying much the same thing, albeit with a few more rumored details and a bit more certainty. According to AppleInsider, UBS's Ben Reitzes recently told his clients that he expects to see some refreshed iPods sometime next month, including higher capacity iPod nanos at "aggressive price points," and a flash-based widescreen video iPod "likely using multi-touch technology" priced under $300. Reasonable bets to be sure, although we'd still recommend taking them with the usual grain of salt pending word from the man himself.
AppleInsider says the Mac Mini is dead
Well, we're getting closer to another Stevenote and the Apple rumor mill is at full tilt, so take this one with a huge grain of salt, but the team over at AppleInsider says they "sincerely believe" that the Mac Mini is about to be discontinued. Citing sources for whom they have the "utmost respect," AI says that Apple management was only bending to shareholder demands for a sub-$800 Mac when it developed the Mini, and that the recent release of the Apple TV all but spells the end of significant updates to the lil' bugger. We can see what they're getting at, we suppose: the Mini has never gotten a lot of attention, but the similarly-discontinued products AI compares it to -- the Cube, the PowerBook 2400, and the 12-inch PowerBook G4 -- were all higher-end machines, while the Mini sits at the very bottom of Apple's product line. On top of that, the description of the Apple TV as the "next-generation Mac Mini" strikes us as a little odd, since the Mini was never sold as a media extender (even though you can use it that way) and the Apple TV was never sold as a general-purpose computer (even though you can use it that way). AI does seem pretty confident in the case it's laid out -- but as with all things Apple, only time will tell.
Apple planning H.264 hardware in all Macs?
At least that's the word from columnist Robert X. Cringely, who says he's heard a rumor on the subject, that he believes to be "a fact," that has simply yet to be confirmed. Supposedly, Apple will not only be including hardware-based H.264 video decoding across its entire line of Macs, but hardware encoding as well, which would significantly reduce the load on the computers' processors while still churning out high quality video. The H.264 video encoding would also have the added benefit of greatly reducing the file size of the captured videos, making them ready made for spreading across the Internet. According to Cringely, the cost of the across the board upgrade would set Apple back upwards of $500 million, but he seems quite confident that Apple's ready to take that gamble sometime this year. That would seem to jive with at least one other Apple rumor we've heard, which touted updates of an unspecified sort to all Mac lines by June -- although, as with all of these, we likely won't know for sure until we get the word from the man himself.
Rumor: Apple's iTV product to have TiVo Inside
The latest in pre-Macworld rumors is another case of wishful thinking with no shred of credible evidence to back it up. An anonymous tipster told PVRWire yesterday that "Apple will be licensing TiVo patented technology for iTV. Also, the name iTV has changed to Mac Media Capsule." Wow! Really? Um... no. Haven't we been here before? Oh wait, it was debunked then, too. If Apple and TiVo ever do hook up, I'll be ecstatic since they are two of my favorite brands, but there's nothing to indicate that's happening anytime soon. It was a better bet two years ago when I hinted at it.
Rumor: Apple prepping ultra-thin MacBook Pro
MacScoop, aka MacOSXRumors, claims to have reliable sources confirming that Apple is in the final development stages for an ultra-thin 12-inch MacBook Pro sub-notebook. Details are sketchy, as they tend to be with these kinds of rumors, but here's what you can get your hopes up about:The new portable would be, as the term "ultra-thin" implies, lighter and thinner than the current MacBook Pros, but will still have all the frills you've come to expect from a rumor. like a dual-core CPU, widescreen aspect ratio and a built-in SuperDrive. The price tag is undefined, but allegedly well-informed people say the Apple sub-notebook would be priced around $1700-$1800 and you can expect to see it in stores sometime between now and, oh let's say... the year 2099.While I might be the first in line to buy such an animal, should it ever come to fruition, there is simply nothing in this "report" that makes it a viable rumor, in my opinion, other than the fact that it's a given that Apple is constantly striving to do new things and is always developing new products, some of which actually make it to market. It's perfectly logical to think that Apple might want to trim some fat from their notebook lineup. The technology circle of life is almost always "make it faster, smaller, lighter, cheaper - and sooner, rather than later." Why confuse matters by turning that inevitability into a top-secret rumor? This just smacks of publicity-seeking wishful thinking to me. And there aren't even any fancy Photoshop mockups to go with it! Shame on me for even mentioning it...
