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App logs reportedly confirm dual mode CDMA / GSM iPhone 5 in testing
While the world waits to find out what the fifth-generation iPhone looks like, TechCrunch reports an anonymous app developer has pulled information from their registration logs confirming the existence of a new device that's rocking both CDMA and GSM radios. That conclusion is based on registrations that came from the same device that show mobile network codes and mobile country codes from both AT&T and Verizon. This is hardly shocking however, since the Verizon iPhone 4 already has a dual mode chipset from Qualcomm with the GSM side turned off, and we'd heard back in January that Apple was planning to go the one-size-fits-all route this time around. Who this does matter for however, could be world travelers that will find keeping their device connected between countries and networks much easier with a world iPhone, whenever the new phone is revealed later this year. The bad news is still the same however, as this probably also means there's no plans for speedy LTE access -- pencil in a pithy explanation from Steve about why it's not necessary here.
Daily Update for August 19, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
iPhone 5 reportedly slated for early October launch
According to BGR, an AT&T Vice President is telling employees to be prepared for an early October launch of the iPhone 5. Jim Dalyrymple of The Loop adds credibility to this rumor by replying with a simple "yep". This October date has been thrown around recently and fits in nicely with Apple's usual fall iTunes launch event. So until we hear anything more, we'll assume the iPhone 5 could be announced during a September event and possibly made available in early October.
Apple cracks down on counterfeit products sold in NYC, files lawsuit against Queens vendors
There may be more than a few fake Apple Stores in China, but for the moment, Cupertino's anti-KIRF crusade seems focused squarely on New York City. According to Reuters, Apple has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against two stores in Queens, alleging that they sold unauthorized cases, headphones and other accessories for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. In the complaint, the company claims that the products in question were all emblazoned with its familiar fruit logo, along with the phrase, "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." The suit also demands that one of the stores, called Apple Story (seriously), change its name to avoid confusion with the real retail outlet and that both vendors disclose full lists of people who both supplied and purchased the goods. It all began when company representatives visited the Chinatown-area stores on "multiple occasions over several weeks," where they bought and examined the items, described in court records as "exact duplicates" of their authentic counterparts. On July 27th, Apple executed a few ex parte seizure warrants, which allowed authorities to seize any goods bearing its logo. US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto has already granted an injunction to stop the stores from selling the alleged knockoffs, but hasn't yet decided whether Apple Story will have to change its name. The complaint also seeks undisclosed monetary damages and asks that all existing counterfeit goods be destroyed, though court documents suggest that both sides are close to reaching a deal. Neither Apple nor the defendants have commented on the accusations, but we'll let you know as soon as we learn more. In the meantime, check out this KIRF "iPhone 5" we found in Beijing -- a Java-powered handset that's slimmer than the Galaxy S II and a bit laggy, but boasts a multitouch capacitive screen. Asking price? ¥680, or about $106. %Gallery-131124%
Why is LTE equipment being installed in an Apple Store?
Well, this is certainly interesting. While rumors of an LTE-enabled iPhone had died down for a little while, they sprung back to life yesterday with a report that just such a device was being tested by carriers. Now we've received an image the image you see above, which shows some 4G LTE equipment that was recently installed in a major Apple store -- by AT&T, according to our source. Making things somewhat more interesting is the equipment itself, one piece of which supports only the 700MHz and AWS bands -- both of which AT&T plans to use for its LTE network if the T-Mobile acquisition goes through. We're also told that the Apple Store in question, and all those in the region, are now trying to increase staffing on the sales floor by about 30 percent, which is apparently not related to the usual hiring in the lead up to the holidays (that will apparently still happen later). Of course, this could simply be the result of some long-term planning rather than evidence of the next iPhone, but the timing is a bit curious to say the least. Update: We've removed the pic for now at the request of our tipster. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Telefonica iPhone stock being recalled in time for September 12th launch?
Well folks... looks like we're finally getting some meat to all the iPhone 5/4S rumors that have been swirling around for months. We got some interesting news from a vigilant tipster today: beginning August 22nd, Telefonica will begin scaling back its current iPhone stock through September 12th. According to the source, this three week program is a move that "will of course prepare us for the launch of a new smart phone." While the date next month should sound familiar, we've heard recently that the launch will actually take place sometime in October. Either way, a move like this is usually a telling sign that points directly to a new model launch. Keep your eyes pinned here, and prepare yourself, as it appears Mr. Jobs may have something planned for the fall. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Apple to boost iPhone orders to 56 million for second half of 2011
Apple may be expecting a banner second half of the year for the iPhone. According to a report by Digitimes, Apple has boosted its orders for iPhone models from 50 million to 56 million units with the iPhone 5 accounting for almost half of this order. The bulk of the iPhone 5 orders will be shipped in Q4 2011 with 20 million units flying off the production line. Apple has asked for 5 million units in Q3 2011, a lower figure that points to a launch date late in that quarter. This 12% jump could push iPhone shipments to 95 million units for the year.
iPhone resellers eagerly await iPhone 5
When you consider that there are four different versions of iPhones out there (original, 3G, 3GS, and 4), and all of them have sold a ton of units, it's clear that there are a whole lot of used iPhones around. That's probably why, as GigaOm reports, iPhone resellers are very excited for another new version of the iPhone. Reseller site Gazelle says that just minutes after the announcement of the latest iPhone 4, over 10,000 old iPhones flowed in. If an iPhone 5 is announced soon, Gazelle plans to see another big bump in items for sale. While resales go up a lot when a new iPhone update is announced, the time in between isn't nearly as successful. Over 32,000 iPhones were traded on Gazelle last year, but this year there have only been 18,000 trades. A new iPhone would boost that number, especially since we already know consumers are hungering to buy it, no matter what the new features. Meanwhile, resellers will have to wait. We've heard plenty of rumors, but there's no official announcement yet of a new iPhone 5 -- or even a new iPad, which would certainly inspire plenty of resales on that device as well.
Blurrycam Theatre Presents: The i(have too much free time)Phone 5
Usually, tipsters looking to prank us with a faked shot of an unreleased Apple product will send us something like the fake iPod classic we saw a few months ago. You know, the classic Blurrycam shot, where it's obvious that A) the tipster has no idea how to use his camera's focus, and B) also has no idea how to use Photoshop. But today's subject went above and beyond. First off, he didn't stop at sending us a single image of a faked iPhone 5 -- he sent us a full-fledged video. The purported story behind this video is that Apple fouled up somehow and managed to accidentally include a hidden link to the iPhone 5 on its Swiss website. Ludicrous? Absolutely. But if you suspend disbelief for a bit and watch anyway, the video shows our tipster navigating through this secret site, flicking through galleries of a quite convincing-looking iPhone 5 and even a comprehensive tech specs page. The whole thing looks like a lot of effort went into it, with near-professional quality renders of the supposed iPhone 5. Frankly, it's the best fake I've ever seen -- and it was good enough to hoodwink some other sites that have posted it as a legitimate leak. A good fake, however, remains a fake; there are several clues to the faux-ness throughout the video, and they aren't exactly hard to find. First off, check out the URL in the address bar during the opening split second of the video. Busted. Rather than a standard http:// address, the video kicks off with a file:// prefix -- meaning the browsing wasn't of a website hosted on a server, but instead a collection of local files on Peter's desktop. This is an immediate tipoff that the whole thing is fake. All our tipster had to do was edit out this one second of video, and he might not have burnt all his credibility from the word "Go." (And I'm sure it's a total coincidence that the first person to send this video to us was named Peter.) Any other clues this video might be fake? Oh yeah. There's the random string of characters between www.apple.com/chde and iphone5 in the URL -- the current Swiss site for the iPhone 4 is a simple www.apple.com/chde/iphone. There's clumsy typesetting on the iPhone 5 logo. The "hero" images don't autoscroll the way they do on Apple's real site. The gallery's background is grey instead of black. Screenshots of the phone show "No Service" in the status bar -- a great way to advertise a mobile phone, right? The time in the status bar reads 8:07 AM rather than Apple's traditional 9:41. Battery percentage is showing, too, which Apple doesn't show off in its product shots. The forehead-slapping "duh" moment comes in when you see that all of the apps in the gallery shots have English names... on a Swiss site. Oops. The iPhone 5. iPhone without the phone. This changes everything. Peter really went overboard on his tech specs page, with what looks to be carefully-calculated dimensions for an iPhone 5 with a 4.2-inch touchscreen at 275 ppi. The camera has been upgraded to 8 megapixels and 1080p video, and capacity is bumped to 32 or 64 GB. In all, it's a laundry list based off all the rumors we've heard so far, but it falls flat on at least one detail. The tech specs on Peter's page list iTunes 9.2 as the minimum required version for the iPhone 5, and we know full well that iTunes 10.5 will be the earliest version of iTunes that iOS 5 will support. Also, he's missing photos and descriptions of the top and bottom ends of the supposed iPhone 5; I guess he just forgot those? The thing is, I actually like Peter's renders of the iPhone 5 -- I'd be neither surprised nor sad if the device looks similar to them -- but trying to pass this off as a "leak" is what's prompted me to poke fun at him. If he'd sent us these pics and said something like, "Hey, check out my iPhone 5 renders, do you think they're pretty close?" we might have taken him more seriously. But trying to put one over on us (and the rest of the Apple-centric web) this way gets you inducted into the Blurrycam Hall of Shame. We hope that publishing this rundown means our more easily misled readers will stop sending us his video as a tip.
Rumor: Next iPhone will launch in October
The next iPhone may arrive in October, not September according to a new report from AllThingsD. A source familiar with Apple's plans claims the rumor that AT&T was blocking vacation at the end of September in preparation for an iPhone launch was incorrect. AT&T may still black out vacations for that time period, but it's not for the iPhone 5. Instead, this source claims the iPhone 5 will launch in October, possibly late October. But what about Apple's annual iPod event in September and iOS which will launch this fall? In the past, Apple has announced the iPhone a few weeks before its actual launch. It's possible that Apple may confirm the iPhone 5 in September for a mid-to-late October launch. iOS 5 should also be released around that time as well.
35 percent of customers polled say they'll buy the iPhone 5 right now, no matter what it is
Haters will call it the "reality distortion field" effect; others will call it the sign of being the best smartphone on the market. Whatever you attribute it to, it's good news for Apple. Experian's PriceGrabber shopping website polled almost 3,000 US consumers and found that 35 percent of them said they will buy the iPhone 5 sight unseen. That means that for these people, all you have to do is tell them the iPhone 5 is out and they'll plunk down cash for it right then and there without setting their eyes on it, testing it out, or even reading about its features. As for when people plan to buy the iPhone 5, 30 percent of respondents said they will buy it before the end of 2011, 14 percent will buy it within its first month of release, and 7 percent will buy it within the first week. The biggest feature wishes respondents have for the iPhone 5? 59 percent hope the new phone has better battery life, 55 percent hope it's less expensive, 46 percent want it to run at 4G speeds, 45 percent want a larger screen, and 42 percent want an improved camera.
Apple actually not looking for additional iPad manufacturers, still BFFs with Foxconn?
Earlier this week, DigiTimes alleged that Apple was considering an additional manufacturer to produce the supposedly looming -- but really more mythical -- next generation iPad. Fast forward to now, and the Taiwanese publication reports that Cupertino has had a sudden change of heart. Foxconn -- who is currently the sole producer of the slate -- has reportedly convinced Apple to keep its manufacturing exclusive until the end of this calendar year. All isn't lost for Foxconn's competition though: the rumormonger suggests Pegatron still has a shot at a ten million production run for the next iPhone, and whatever iPad's 2012 will bring. Unmentioned in the report, however, is whether enough salt exists in the world to cover the next round of claims, later this week.
UK job posting sets off iPhone 5 launch date speculation (Updated)
Update: Throwing cold water on this theory is a tweet from MacRumors writer Jordan Golson (and former Apple Store employee), explaining that back-to-school crowds dwarf iPhone launch crowds. It's highly likely this is simply a basic ramp-up of staff in anticipation of computer-buying students and parents. CNET UK noticed a job posting on Reed calling for full-time, seasonal sales staff to work from August 16 through October 29. The posting specifically asks for people with knowledge of the iPhone and/or mobile phone sales, and it notes that successful applicants will attend a four-day training event in London from August 9 through 12. Building off of that, CNET speculates that the next-generation iPhone will launch on August 16, the first day these new seasonal staff begin working in UK-based Apple Stores. While the timing is interesting, we're less convinced that the iPhone 5 will launch on this date, because iOS 5 is unlikely to be ready for public deployment by then. Granted, Apple could choose to launch the device before iOS 5 is fully-baked, but that's not generally how Apple has chosen to do things in the past; almost without fail, major new revisions of iOS software have launched alongside new hardware. There's no rule saying that Apple has to hold off on launching the iPhone 5 until iOS 5 is finished, but we already have precedent showing that's likely to be the case. Revisions of the MacBook Air and possibly other members of the Mac family have been ready to go for several weeks, but Apple reportedly chose to hold off on releasing them until after OS X Lion's public release. One could also argue that iOS 5 might be ready for launch earlier than the previously quoted "fall" date, but I'm just going to say an NDA-infused "Uh, not likely," to that. The mid-August start date for these temporary sales positions may instead indicate that these employees are being given a few weeks to acclimate themselves to the Apple Store work environment before the actual iPhone launch takes place. If that's the case, it still points to a September launch for the iPhone 5, as indicated by most other signs thus far.
iPhone 5 / 4S: the rumor roundup
It's July, there is no new iPhone, and the analysts are restless. This time last year, Apple had already announced and begun shipping the iPhone 4 -- in fact, every single previous model has been announced in June, save for the first, which was unveiled in January 2007. So, now that the month has come and gone and WWDC with it, what are all of the tech publications out there to do? Make with the rumor stories, naturally -- and over the past few weeks, they've been coming fast and furious.DigiTimes has offered a fairly constant stream of sometimes dubious rumors surrounding the device from its stable of supplier contacts, and a recent article from The Wall Street Journal has reopened the floodgates. GigaOm has gone so far as to suggest that the latter may well be a controlled leak from Apple, and certainly it has reignited interest in the belated device.There's not a lot in the way consensus here, save for one key detail: Apple appears set to release a new iPhone. That much seems certain. After all, the iPhone remains the company's biggest money maker, even in this post-iPad world. Last year, of course, we had a slightly better guide ahead of the launch, but this time out, for better or worse, no one at Cupertino has been considerate enough to leave the upcoming handset at a Redwood City bar after a night of partying, so let's cut through the noise and and piece together a cohesive picture based on the wide assortment of rumors.
2012 iPhone rumored to feature new charging method
The Wall Street Journal has served up another batch of iPhone rumors after its (ahem) daring claim earlier that the next iPhone will be "thinner and lighter" than the iPhone 4. While the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S) is rumored to feature an eight-megapixel camera and will almost certainly have the same A5 processor as the iPad 2, it's otherwise likely to be broadly similar to the iPhone 4 in most respects. According to "a person briefed on Apple's product plans," Apple initially planned to launch the next iPhone during the summer as it has in the past, but the device wasn't ready and was pushed back to September. The same person claims Apple is working on a cheaper iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen. The most interesting rumor claims the 2012 iPhone will be a major redesign featuring "a new way of charging the phone." 9to5 Mac theorizes this may be similar to the Pre's Touchstone wireless charging, which uses inductive charging to top up the battery without needing to plug the phone in. Thus far rumors about the iPhone 5 have been fairly inconsistent, and as we're likely at least a year away from the sixth-generation iPhone's launch, any rumors about it shouldn't be taken too seriously at this point. Still, Apple made "cutting the cord" a hallmark feature of iOS 5 in terms of data syncing, and if the iPhone 6 does feature inductive charging, it may be the first iPhone you'll never have to plug in.
WSJ: Apple prepping thinner, lighter iPhone 5
The Wall Street chimed in with its insider information on the rumored iPhone 5. According to the report, Apple's next generation iPhone will be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4. It also may include an 8-megapixel camera, which is a nice boost from the 5-megapixel shooter on the current model. Qualcomm will supposedly provide the wireless baseband chips which suggests the handset may be a world phone capable of connecting to both CDMA and GSM networks. Apple apparently expects the iPhone 5 to be popular and has warned suppliers it plans to ship 25 million units by the end of the year. Foxconn will be the assembler for the rumored iPhone, but these yields may be lower than Apple wants as the iPhone 5 is described as being complicated and difficult to assemble. We're not sure what that means, but it is intriguing.
Pegatron reportedly receives Apple's order for 15 million next-gen iPhones
Digitimes is reporting that Taiwan-based Pegatron Technology has received an order from Apple for 15 million next-generation iPhones. It's been rumored that production will be begin in August with a targeted September shipping date. Sources following Pegatron indicate the new iPhone design is not a major departure from that of the iPhone 4, while others predict a new case with a redesigned antenna system. Apple uses multiple suppliers for its products, including Pegatron and the sometimes controversial Foxconn.
Analyst: the cheap iPhone will be a free 3GS
Analysts really want Apple to enter the low-price smartphone market. So much so, they can't stop talking about this rumored cheap model. The latest analyst to chime in on this topic is Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital. He predicts Apple will release a cheap iPhone model when the iPhone 5 debuts. It won't be a new model, though. Instead, he expects the iPhone 3GS to be offered for free. Apple will also drop the price on the iPhone 4 to US$99, says Abramsky. Earlier this week, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore kicked off this rumor again when he proposed the idea of a mid-range iPhone 4S that will launch along with the iPhone 5. Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford Bernstein also called for Apple to release a lower priced iPhone, but did not mention an iPhone 4S. Keith Bachman of BMO threw a monkey wrench into everyone's predictions by dismissing the idea of a cheap iPhone and predicting a single, full-featured model - the iPhone 4S.
No Comment: A fruit-filled iPhone 5 that you can eat
We'd love to share another analyst's opinion about the rumored iPhone 5 and how it will launch in September, but this morning we're looking at another product launch. The folks from Top Fruit Produce gave us a different look at the hypothetical future handset. The team of creative fruit artists decided to re-create the upcoming iPhone handset using their favorite medium: bananas, oranges, apples and more. It's definitely reminiscent of an iPhone 4 and sports our favorite icons, including Messages and Fruit Ninja. It also includes blackberries -- which is more than enough to merit today's No Comment. [via Mashable]
Apple's A6 processor may come courtesy of TSMC, Samsung left to wonder why
Apple's fondness for anorexic handhelds knows no bounds, and if this alleged deal with the Asian foundry holds water, expect to see its waistband tighten further. Rumoured back before the iPad 2 launch, the house-that-Steve-built's reportedly been eyeing Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp to produce an 'A6' for its upcoming iPhone refresh. While it's easy to dismiss this purported move as a direct diss to Samsung, what's more likely is that Cupertino's engaging in a competitive bit of size does matter -- specifically, the A5's 45nm process. A transition to newer, lower power 28nm ARM chips would give Jonathan Ives' employer a distinct market advantage, dwarfing even TSMC's current 40nm in the process. While it's all still just speculation for now, only time and an iPhone 5 tear-down will tell for sure.
