Rumors

iPhone 8 could boast L-shaped battery and True Tone display, retain Lightning connector

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 24, 2017

Purported drawings of iPhone 8's logic board showing internal component layout leaked on the web Monday. The images indicate that Apple's upcoming flagship won't adopt USB-C after because the good ol' Lightning port can be seen at the bottom of the device. Other things we can infer from the images, allegedly obtained from a Foxconn source, include an L-shaped battery, a display with True Tone capability similar to that on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and more.

KGI: iPhone 8 could launch in extremely limited supply in September

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 28, 2017

According to the latest KGI Securities research note Monday, Apple's iPhone 8 could be in extremely limited supply to end 2017. The note, obtained by MacRumors, blames the delay on significant hardware upgrades like a custom edge-to-edge OLED display panel, a redesigned thin-film 3D Touch module, 3D sensing cameras, ten-nanometer A11 Fusion processors and substrate-like printed circuit board.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo writes in the note that Apple's suppliers are now expected to ramp up production of the handset as late as October or November versus the usual August-September timeframe for a new iPhone. As a result, Kuo believes that iPhone 8 will launch in September to face “severe supply shortages” for some time.

Apple bought a firm that made a smart balloon platform for capturing impressive aerial imagery

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

The company best known for the iconic smartphone may be working on satellites, as per Bloomberg. This is cool, but here's something even cooler: back in 2015, Apple acquired a startup called Aether Industries LLC that specialized in “near-space technology.”

That's interesting because no one knew about this deal before Bloomberg's write-up today.

Among other technologies, Aether Industries developed high-altitude balloons used for capturing aerial images, anywhere on Earth, at up to ten times the resolution of the highest-resolution commercial mapping satellite in orbit today.

Apple may be funding Boeing’s satellite system for global broadband coverage

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

Today's report from Bloomberg on Apple's latest high-profile hirings includes a passage that sheds light on Boeing's alleged talks with Apple regarding a broadband satellite service. According to Boeing's regulatory filing, the aerospace giant is planning to blanket the Earth with more than a thousand satellites providing fast Internet coverage throughout the United States and internationally. According to authors Mark Gurman and Mark Bergen, Boeing has talked with Apple about investing in or partnering on the project.

Apple recruits top Google satellite executives for whole new hardware team

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

Mark Gurman and Mark Bergen, reporting Friday for Bloomberg, have learned from sources who didn't wish to be named that Apple is in the process of starting a brand new hardware team for which it recruited a pair of top Google executives specialized in satellites for collecting images and those for communications.

It's unclear from the report what Apple's secretive new hardware team might be focusing on, but it could be inferred from the hirings that Tim Cook & Co. might be considering a satellite constellation of their own for either image collection or some sort of communications services.

3D model of iPhone 8 casing based on likely fake schematics depicts rear mounted Touch ID

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

A pair of purported iPhone 8 design drawings that “leaked” recently depict Apple's upcoming flagship as having a vertical dual-camera layout and a rear-mounted Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Today, these alleged schematics received a cool CAD treatment, courtesy of Instagram user bro.king. He went about creating a 3D model of a future iPhone with a rear-mounted Touch ID sensor, based on supposed technical drawings, and this is what he came up with.

Apple Watch Series 3 may rock thinner, lighter & power sipping micro-LED display

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

Apple's secret research and development lab in Taiwan has been researching an emerging micro-LED display technology since at least 2015. A new report today by Business Korea alleges that an advanced micro-LED display could make its debut on the next Apple Watch, replacing flexible OLED panels of its predecessors (DigiTimes was first to report on such a possibility in June 2016). micro-LED displays are thinner, lighter and more energy-efficient than OLED or LCD screens.

Western Digital held talks with Apple regarding acquiring Toshiba’s chip business

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 20, 2017

Toshiba has narrowed the list of bidders for its lucrative semiconductor business to a small group that includes Western Digital’s rivals such as Apple's favorite contract manufacturer Foxconn, memory chip maker SK Hynix and wireless chip maker Broadcom. Western Digital, however, feels that Toshiba should negotiate with it first.

In a new Bloomberg report Thursday, Western Digital has confirmed it's currently in talks with Japanese government-backed investment funds regarding a potential deal with the Japanese conglomerate. Mark Long, Western Digital's CEO, hinted that his company has held discussions with Apple as it tries to win a battle for Toshiba’s flash memory unit.

Apple suppliers prepping to stockpile A11 chips for upcoming iPhones

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 25, 2017

Quarterly chip demand for iPhone is predicted to surpass 50 million units in the second half of this year as Apple begins to stockpile next-generation processors and other chips for 2017 iPhones, trade publication DigiTimes said Wednesday. Chip orders should hit a total of between 220 million and 230 million units between the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third. This implies strong projected demand for the OLED-based iPhone 8 and the iterative LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus updates.

iPhone 8 (iPhone 7s?) design drawing shows vertical cameras & Touch ID on the backside

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 25, 2017

Apple is testing at least ten different iPhone prototypes and Bloomberg said yesterday that one of the designs being considered features an aluminum back rather than a glass one, and slightly larger dimensions. Today, Australian leakster Sonny Dickson tweeted out an image of what appears to be a technical drawing for an aluminum iPhone 8 prototype (could it instead be an iPhone 7s prototype?) that shows vertically aligned dual cameras and a fingerprint sensor on the backside.

Facebook Messenger gaining curated Discover tab

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2017

Facebook’s annual developers conference, F8, is underway this week and the social networking firm just announced that its mobile Messenger app is gaining a new tab to help users find their recently used bots, nearby places and businesses to message. Titled Discover, the new tab has started to roll out to a few people in the US today ahead of wider availability.

New iMac to target Microsoft Surface Studio with server-grade Xeon chips, discreet graphics & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 25, 2017

We know Apple is working on pro-level iMacs slated for release this year and one source has already described some of the features allegedly found on higher-end models, including faster Intel Xeon chips, ECC RAM and more. Citing sources from supply chain makers, Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes said Tuesday that Apple is testing a new server-grade iMac model aimed at high-end users that will take on Microsoft's recently released Surface Studio.