Following claimed iPhone 5 engineering samples unearthed yesterday by GottaBeMobile, KitGuru today followed up with a new set of purported images of, you guessed right, another iPhone 5 engineering sample. Obtained from a "Far East source", the images look fairly consistent to a rumored taller iPhone believed to be coming around October...
Rumors that Amazon is working on its own smartphone have been bouncing around for nearly a year now. But the speculation has really ramped up over the past couple of weeks.
Following a scoop from Bloomberg last week, a new report is out today claiming that the online retailer is currently testing an Android handset with a 4-5-inch display...
T-Mobile USA, the nation's fourth largest telco, is not seen getting Apple's smartphone this year, despite paying dearly for network upgrades to support 3G data speeds on the iPhone and testing its iPhone-friendly data service at WWDC. The news doesn't bode well for the Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier, conspicuously the sole major U.S. wireless company without Apple's device...
Hot on the heels of the iPhone 5 engineering samples we saw earlier today, comes new photos showing what is claimed to be a case mold for Apple's rumored iPad Mini.
The images surface in the midst of tons of ongoing speculation that the Cupertino company is set to unveil a smaller iPad this year, to help it expand its popular tablet line..
It seems like it's been a while since we've heard any new information regarding the next-generation iPhone. The rumor mill has been chock-full of iPad Mini talk, but nothing regarding the highly-anticipated handset.
That changed this afternoon, as purported photos of "iPhone 5 engineering samples" surfaced on the web. The metal mockups depict a device in line with previous speculation, with a slightly taller, thinner case design...
The otherwise pretty reliable Japanese blog Macotakara reported today that Apple's iPod nano music player is undergoing a major redesign later this year, focusing on a taller appearance akin to the previous-generation model.
In addition, the rumored device is said to have gained a home button and some sort of iTunes integration. Macotakara previously leaked parts of both the new iPad and iPad 3 and reported the next iPhone would launch this fall so you shouldn't dismiss this new piece of information as an unreliable rumor from a shady source...
After a series of reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, the "iPad Mini" has once again become the hotest topic in the tech world. It seems like everyone is getting in on the speculation regarding how, when, and why Apple would release such a device.
Up to this point, one of the most popular arguments against the smaller iPad has been that a 7.85-inch display would render most current apps unusable. So either developers would have to completely redesign their apps, or users would be forced to deal with tiny UI elements.
This theory has already been disproven by a number of pundits, via math and other reasoning. But we've come across some mockups that really drive the point across, demonstrating what apps would look and feel like on the smaller screen...
I know the sandpaper joke is getting boring at this point, but bear with me for a second. Though Jobs famously dissed seven inchers as being too small to comfortably operate "unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size", many watchers and journalists have been overanalyzing the repercussions of Apple's rumored inexpensive 7.85-inch iPad, allegedly slated for a September launch.
I'm also guilty for this, having recently explained why I thought Apple must deliver the iPad mini sooner than later (hint: it's the ecosystem, stupid). So let's assume for the argument's sake that the iPad mini is coming soon, rocking a 1024-by-768 pixels packed on a screen between seven and eight inches diagonally.
How would the new form factor affect developers, end-users and usability?
Having ditched Google Maps in favor of its in-house mapping solution in iOS 6, Apple could now be extending iOS 6 Maps to Macs running OS X Mountain Lion. This would seem logical and inevitable given Apple recently confirmed the use of OpenStreetMap data in iPhoto for both iOS and Mac. Apple conceivably has the maps.apple.com subdomain set up, which currently redirects to the iOS 6 section on its website...
Online retailer Amazon has reportedly informed select developers that it will be launching a new version of its Kindle Fire tablet some time in the second half of this year, possibly in the third quarter, in time for the holiday shopping season. The new Fire allegedly has a much improved display running at HD-ready 1280-by-800 pixels, matching Google's Nexus 7...
There have been a few rumors bouncing around the Apple community for the last two years that just won't die out. Among them is the iPhone-embedded, iTunes-based mobile payment system. Pundits believe that Apple, and its 400 million iTunes accounts, has the ability to kickstart the struggling mobile payment industry.
Apple itself added fuel to the fire last month when it unveiled its new Passbook application. It acts like a digital wallet of sorts, allowing users to store event tickets, gift cards, and even creditcards on their iOS devices. But it's still not the end-all mobile payment solution we were all expecting. At least not yet anyway...
Following up on a string of recent reporting which revives the iPad mini rumor, the usually accurate Japanese blog Macotakara claimed that the device will be produced in Foxconn's new manufacturing facilities in Brazil. Manufacturing is apparently set to ramp up in September, just in time for mass availability around the holiday shopping season, as indicated in other reports...