Apple is less than 24 hours away from announcing the next iPhone. Unlike previous announcements, this show will be intimate and small, held at Apple’s HQ rather than a large venue like the Moscone Center. Most important, Steve Jobs isn’t headlining the show; although, if rumors are to be believed, he might make a cameo. Apple’s latest commander and chief, Tim Cook, is expected to lead the charge at what will likely amount to one of the biggest Internet traffic days of the year.
Apple is rather tardy releasing this latest iPhone, missing its traditional summer launch date by a good two months. However, if the rumor mills are to be believed, there, the new iPhone will be very similar to the old iPhone – except where it isn’t. We compiled all of the rumors here along with stating the viability for each. Some are wide-eyed, others are realistic, while some are pure fanboy fantasy. → Read More
Really? Could this video really show the iPhone 5? Probably not. The video’s authenticity is tipped by several subtle clues. But the video is still worth watching. The creator clearly knows his way around video editing software and deserves major props for this timely video. It’s good and I want it to be real. → Read More
While it’s near impossible to say what exactly Apple has in store for us come October, a new report from DigiTimes reveals that there may be fewer iPhone 5s to go around if it indeed makes its debut.
Some of the iPhone 5 touch panels that manufacturer Wintek has assembled are turning out to be defective, and could potentially cause a supply shortage come launch day. → Read More
Bad news T-Mobile customers: you may have to cross the iPhone 5 off of your holiday wish list. According to a leaked document from T-Mobile’s OneVoice intranet, Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman has unequivocally said that T-Mobile will not get the iPhone 5 this year. → Read More
As the pending case tally reaches almost two dozen, Samsung has decided to both go big, and go home once Apple’s flagship iPhone 5 debuts. With its Galaxy Tab 10.1 officially banned in Germany, and the GalTab 7.7 pulled off shelves at IFA in Berlin, Samsung is the only participant in the battle with casualty products.
And apparently, it’s about time to strike back. According to an unnamed senior executive at Samsung, the firm plans to file suit against the iPhone 5 as soon as its released in Korea hoping to ban sales of the killer phone on its home turf. → Read More
Apple is famous — hell, notorious even — for their culture of secrecy. With the strictest of NDAs, discussions between even the closest of teams limited to need-to-know matters, and whispers of creepy internal investigation squads lurking about, people in the know tend to keep their lips sealed up tight.
Unless that person’s name is Stéphane Richard and they’re the CEO of France Telecom — then they say just about whatever the heck they want. In this case, he’s stirring up the rumors surrounding the iPhone 5′s launch date.
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And like that it’s gone. Before I could hit the publish button on this post, Case-Mate pulled the page in question and replaced it with a landing page. But for a second there, Case-Mate had what seemed to be a whole bunch of images [full gallery after the jump] of iPhone 5 cases loaded with a slightly different phone that looks rather iPad-ish.
Here we go again. Yet another trip around the iPhone 5 leak zone. → Read More
It’s time for your weekly dose of next-gen iPhone rumors. This edition is a doozy, friends. Purported iPhone components are leaking everywhere with every site claiming to have the real deal. It’s hard to say which components are lifted straight from Foxconn’s lines, but when they’re viewed as a whole, these components paint an interesting picture that Apple is about to dramatically shift course and fully disrupt the cell phone market. → Read More
The upcoming iPhone 5 will almost certainly be a single phone that supports multiple networks, namely CDMA (such as the one used by Verizon or Sprint in the United States) as well as GSM (which is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.).
This has been rumored before, and even at one point half confirmed by a Verizon executive, but nothing like some good old evidence from the field to turn a rumor into a near-certainty. → Read More
January 19, 2011. It’s a day I’ll always remember. It’s the day I finally got to destroy a Horcrux that had been bringing misery into my life: AT&T.
That’s the day I finally cancelled my AT&T service after years of dropped calls, non-existant service, gross over-charges, and all around frustration. I even did it before I knew for sure that Verizon was getting the iPhone. I had had enough. That I got to cancel it by way of Google Voice, adding insult to injury, was just icing on the cake. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions, technology-wise, I’ve made in the past few years. And today it’s looking even better.
You see, after months of AT&T being out of sight, out of mind, they stormed back into my brain last night when I read on Engadget that they would be removing individual text messaging plans in a few days. In AT&T marketing parlance, this is called “streamlining”. In my parlance, this is called “bullshit”. → Read More
Apple is gearing up for a big second half of 2011. The computer company is reportedly ramping up iPhone production lines by 12 to 13 percent, which includes orders for the next-gen iPhone, iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4.
Per a supply chain source, industry watchdog DigiTimes is reporting some staggering production numbers. Apparently Apple’s 2H2011 iPhone order is now more than 56 million units, up from 50 million units and 26 just iPhone 5s. Interestingly enough, the time frame for iPhone 5 orders shifted slightly, with the Q3 order decreasing from 7 million units to 5.5 million units while the Q4 order increased from 14 million units to 20 million units. That’s 20 million iPhone 5s. If those are sold at retail, that would eclipses Apple’s blockbuster 2Q2011 sales record when it sold a total of 18.65 million iPhone units. → Read More
If you’ve got $30 burning a hole in your pocket you can be the proud owner of a brand new HiPhone 5, a knock-off iPhone 5 modelled – we presume – on the leaked pictures of the iPhone 5. The phone, which features Wi-Fi, a micro SD slot, and a GSM cellular radio, is standard Shanzai material. It also requires a stylus to use the touchscreen and call quality, according to a buyer, is pretty bad. → Read More
Profit.
No point in burying the lede.
For the past two years, it seems as if every other story in the mobile space has been about the war between the iPhone and Android. Hell, though it wasn’t technically the theme of our Mobile First CrunchUp last week, that’s all anyone wanted to talk about there as well.
It’s a sexy story because it features two companies, Apple and Google, that could not be any more different. And now they’re the two companies dominating the mobile landscape. And the cherry on top is that they used to be close allies. They’re Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier. → Read More
I’ll say it now, before anyone gets their hopes up: this is most definitely not an iPhone 5. Those blurry, Big-Foot-esque shots from last week still may very well be the real deal, but this is not. This is yet another fake iPhone out of Shenzhen, China — but here’s the twist: its design is supposedly stolen straight from that of the actual iPhone 5. → Read More
Absolutely not, but it’s a nice try. MICGadget found this ridonkulous “dual camera” iPhone featuring two cameras for hot 3D action. Will there ever be a 3D iPhone? Who the heck knows, but I assure you whatever this monstrosity is it’s not the iPhone 5. → Read More
Did you catch the second episode of Covert Affairs last month? Yeah, I didn’t either. The iPhone 5 seemed to be featured in the episode, though — or rather a prop designer’s vision of the next iPhone. The video is after the jump, but the pic above clearly shows a (fake) iPhone with edge to edge glass. I like. → Read More
A new iPhone is approaching — this, everyone knows. While WWDC came and went without an announcement, this was expected. Instead, this year it will be all about the fall — with new hardware hitting just in time for the formal launch of iOS 5. But what exactly will the new hardware be? An “iPhone 5″ or an “iPhone 4S”? Or, better yet, both?
That’s the latest rumor making headlines today, based on a report by Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore, an analyst. Now, analysts typically have a horrible track record when it comes to correctly predicting Apple moves. And when I say “horrible”, I mean that you’d have a better shot correctly predicting what Apple is going to do by throwing darts at a board… with a blindfold on. But — there has been some evidence that backs up this latest claim (which is probably why they made it in the first place). → Read More
With WWDC quickly approaching, the rumor mills are heating up with what we should expect at Apple’s annual conference known for big announcements. We’ve learned a little bit more that speaks to what to expect — including a couple of big, widely-requested things.
First of all, a lot of sites seem to be working themselves into a tizzy about the so-called “iPhone 4S”. While it has already been widely reported that there will not be any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year, people seem to be letting their imaginations get the best of them anyway. This site, for example, notes that Apple is pushing for British journalists to fly out for WWDC. And today, there’s a report about Australian journalists getting the same message. Both conclude this must be for the “iPhone 4S”. → Read More
This morning’s upgrades to Apple’s iMac line of computers brought a range of nice features. But most were just spec bumps. The big new addition is Thunderbolt. Following the initial roll-out to the MacBook Pros, the new super high-speed ports are clearly destined to be a key component across Apple’s product lines. But what about Apple’s two key newer products: the iPhone and iPad? Apple hasn’t said a word yet about what Thunderbolt means for them.
During a call with Apple this morning, I specifically asked about when we might see Thunderbolt-enabled adapters for iPhone/iPad. Apple would only say that they had nothing to share at this time. That’s usually code for “it’s coming, but just not yet.” And that makes sense. Why pour all this money into a new technology if you’re not going to use it in places where it makes the most sense? But it’s also not that simple. → Read More
