Apr 26 2012

Apple CEO defensive over iPhone impact on operator earnings

Tim Cook lists coveted handset’s ‘distinct advantages’ as Apple reports another record set of quarterly results.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook took time to outline the benefits to carriers of stocking the iPhone during the company’s quarterly investor call late Tuesday, amid concerns that high smartphone subsidies are eroding mobile operators’ margins.

“iPhone has some distinct advantages for the carriers over competing smartphones,” he insisted.

First of all, Cook claimed the subsidy that operators offer to prospective iPhone customers is “not that large relative to the sum of monthly payments [they receive] across a 24-month contract period”. He also claimed executives from a number of operators have told him that the churn rate from iPhone customers “is the lowest of any phone they carry”, resulting in a positive effect on their overall retention costs.

Furthermore, Cook championed the efforts of Apple engineers in making the iPhone’s data consumption as efficient as possible; he also highlighted that its desirability encourages feature phone users to upgrade to a smartphone.

“All of these factors are missed in this general discussion of subsidy,” he said.

His comments come at a time when more and more operators are wielding subsidised iPhones and other smartphones in a bid to woo consumers; however, the upfront cost of putting a smartphone in the hands of an end user is higher than with lower-spec devices.

This was exemplified in recent financial results published by U.S. telco giants AT&T and Verizon.

In the seasonally strong fourth quarter of 2011, when both operators reported a positive reaction to the then newly-launched iPhone 4S, wireless operating expenses reached $14.16 billion and $13.92 billion respectively, up from $11.71 billion and $11.29 billion respectively a year earlier. AT&T’s wireless operating margin narrowed to 15.2% from 22.9%, while Verizon’s shrank to 23.7% from 30.1%.

By comparison, in the first quarter of 2012, after the post-Christmas smartphone hype had settled down, AT&T’s mobile arm reported a 27.2% operating margin and operating expenses of $11.75 billion, broadly in line with the same figures for Q1 2011. Verizon Wireless meanwhile reported a healthier operating margin of 28.6%, while operating expenses edged down sequentially to $13.06 billion.

However, Cook suggested that operators are quite happy to tolerate the cost of subsidising his company’s devices.

“The vast majority of carriers want to provide what their customers want to buy,” he said.

According to Apple’s latest financial results, customers are still decidedly keen on iPhone.

For its fiscal second quarter ended 31 March, the U.S.-based electronics giant shipped a 35.1 million iPhones, up 88% from 18.7 million in Q2 2011. iPad shipments grew 151% on-year to 11.8 million from 4.7 million.

Apple also dispelled recent doubts over the company’s ability to maintain its current growth trajectory.

Net profit surged 94% to $11.6 billion, while revenue rose 59% to $39.2 billion.

“We remain very confident in our strategy,” said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, on the conference call.

Looking forward, he said Apple expects to report revenue of around $34 billion for the third quarter ending June 2012, compared to $28.6 billion in Q3 2011.

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Apr 26 2012

E-health FAIL: £1.59 iPhone apps dole out drugs to kids in A&E

Stop watching Star Trek and get some blood on your screens

Children arriving at A&E are having their drug dosages calculated with a £1.59 iOS app which has not been certified and whose use is not monitored. It has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. This statistic was offered as an example of the development of “electronic health” technology at present at the Future World Symposium in London this week.

That particular app is probably perfectly safe – it calculates adrenaline dosages within three clicks and comes from an established company – but with no one scrutinising what doctors use, the next one might not be so reliable.

That’s according to experts the London symposium. The great and the good from the UK electronics industry were told to stop making fanciful videos showing diabetic patents using high-tech gadgets to monitor already controlled conditions.

Engineers were also urged to stop waiting for interoperable standards and just get on with making multifunction kit that can withstand the blood and guts of a real hospital. Their tech also has to run software that has been certified by the same kind of approval process applied to the rest of the medical tech cupboard.

The “worried well”, who generally are expected to fund the industry by buying the latest gadgetry and presenting their doctor with a complete medical breakdown, were described by Keith Errey of Isansys as “a bunch of attention seeking old-style hypochondriacs and neurotics” if they existed at all.

Errey pointed out that anyone arriving at hospital clutching a home-printed ECG would be immediately connected to a trusted ECG machine, rendering the original scan pointless.

It was also Errey who listed all the various oozes one must expect medical equipment to cope with, complete with images for anyone still imagining Dr McCoy at work, although he did suggest that the tricorder might already exist – not as a single thing, but as an amalgam of the data already being collected if only it could be properly analysed.

That was a call repeated by the other participants, and culminating in a call for the NHS Spine – a project to computerise all NHS health records – to be completed and placed until patient control. The idea of the spine is that every citizen would have a medical record they could choose to share with medical practitioners, perhaps throwing some of their self-gathered data in too for the doctors to ignore.

But like most monolithic IT projects it has suffered from huge implementation and human problems which combine to make a laudable ideal all but impracticable even if it’s the thing that would save most lives.

When it comes to electronic health most of us are still thinking of slick videos populated with media-friendly diabetics, flashing touch-screens and smiling doctors in clean white coats. Sadly the reality is that the life of a child may depend on an iPhone app while millions of dollars is spent developing diagnostic gadgets aimed squarely at the very-rich-but-critically-ill demographic… and that never happened on Star Trek.

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Apr 23 2012

Getting rich off iPhone apps is b*llocks, say UK devs

MPs told sales can’t cover costs while Apple coins it

Almost no apps cover their development costs and software services only make money in “extremely unusual” cases, some proper engineers have told MPs.

A panel of engineers and boffins drawn from the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing poured cold water on the idea of the internet economy in their response to MPs’ questions about commercialising research.

Software “apps” can be marketed through App Stores, such as Apple Inc’s iTunes store, but competition is intense, individual apps sell typically for 99p, and almost no one recovers the realistic costs of development…

The software engineers added that internet businesses like Facebook and Google were one-offs that only made money after long periods of soaking up investment:

Some innovative software-based services have been commercialised extremely successfully – Facebook and Google being the leading examples – but the commercial model is extremely unusual, as it requires huge investment to provide free services so that a vast population of users is developed and monetised through advertising revenue and added-value services.

Sustained initial funding was required if the UK wanted to build businesses out of research science, the group said, pointing out the example of the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, which funded companies for up to 10 years before they became sustainable businesses.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has put out a call-out for opinions on the question of turning research in science and tech into successful business. They have published the responses of 89 universities, businesses and organisations and aim to produce recommendations on what they call “Bridging the Valley of Death” or turning “successful science into successful business”.

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Apr 21 2012

HTC One X vs iPhone 5 revisited

We take a fresh look at the list of iPhone 5 rumours to see how they stack up against the HTC One X

Published on Apr 20, 2012

We compare the latest rumours surrounding the iPhone 5 to the HTC One X.

Form
Apple iPhone 5 – TBA
HTC One X – 134.4×69.9×8.9mm, 130g

Rumours surrounding the iPhone 5′s form factor have been some of the longest running in mobile tech, but generally the overall consensus hasn’t changed from the idea of a metal-backed ‘teardrop’ shaped design.

What is slightly different though, is the new rumour that it’ll be made from ‘liquid metal’. We’re not sure exactly what kind of benefits this will create, however, but it is expected to be very light, thin and durable.

We suspect it’ll look enough like its predecessors to fit in with Apple’s signature style with slightly rounded corners and a proportionate stretch of bodywork at the top and bottom.

There is still the possibility that Apple will introduce the rumoured ‘edge-to-edge’ display, which would mean either no bezel along the edges or a remarkably thin one.

We expect the iPhone 5 to look suitably flashy, dynamic and different enough from the iPhone 4S to make a mark when it lands.

HTC’s One X is a much more refined device than the company’s previous offerings with a slightly curved profile and high-quality materials which give a premium feel.

The Taiwanese manufacturer has pulled a clever visual trick by seating the touchscreen in a black wedge-shaped panel, which means that from the front you can only see a thin bezel of the main bodywork for a more up-to-date look. It’s particularly striking with the highly contrasting white coloured version.

We think the iPhone 5 will look fantastic but the HTC One X has some striking visuals and we don’t think Apple’s next handset will detract from this. We’re calling it a draw.

Winner – Draw

Display
As we mentioned, it’s possible the iPhone 5 will feature edge-to-edge screen technology with no bezel. Whether it does or not, the other rumours consistently suggest it will have a larger screen than previous models.

Apple is expected to upgrade its Retina display from 3.5-inches to at least 4-inches. Potentially it could be larger, but somehow we doubt it.

Having cracked Retina technology on a device as large as the new iPad it should mean that a slightly larger iPhone touchscreen should pose no problems for keeping visual clarity and a high pixel density.

HTC’s One X has some impressive display tech with a 4.7-inch Super IPS LCD2 multi-touch capacitive screen, reinforced with Gorilla Glass and boasting a 1280×720 pixel resolution. This pegs the pixel density at 312 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

This screen is seriously sharp and bright with vivid colours. Aside from Sony’s Xperia S it is one of the best Android displays on the market currently.

Our guess is the iPhone 5 will sport a 4-inch screen with a pixel density approaching 400ppi, logically Apple should be able to match the HTC One X’s resolution of 1280×720 pixels, which would put the pixel density more precisely around 367ppi.

The thing is, when you get past the high 200′s on ppi it becomes hard to notice a difference unless you have perfect 20/20 vision, and even then past a higher threshold in the low 300′s even people with better peepers are going to be struggling to tell which is better.

Winner – Draw

Storage
Apple’s freshest hardware always features the same variety of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage models and we don’t expect that to change with the iPhone 5. What is also sure not to change is the absence of micro SD capability, so there won’t be any extra storage via cards.

However, with the third-generation iPad Apple broke the 1GB wall for onboard RAM and we think it’s likely this will transfer across to the next smartphone from the Cupertino-based giant.

The HTC One X has only one option for 32GB, but this is still a hefty amount of space. It has the same 1GB of RAM as its opponent and the lack of card storage, but this means it comes out a bit below Apple’s offering in terms of total storage space available.

Winner – Apple iPhone 5

We take a fresh look at the list of iPhone 5 rumours to see how they stack up against the HTC One X

Published on Apr 20, 2012

Processor
HTC’s One X is the company’s current flagship and has been fitted with Nvidia’s quad core Tegra 3 chip technology clocked at 1.5GHz with an ULP Geforce graphics processing unit (GPU).

Performance is very impressive indeed and benchmark tests show the handset can dominate much of the competition, although devices running Qualcomm’s S4 chipset tend to fare a bit better on the whole, including, perhaps rather embarrassingly, HTC’s own number two handset, the One S.

While some rumours suggest the iPhone 5 will make the leap to quad core, we’re not entirely sure about this. For one thing, the company only just switched to dual core on the iPhone 4S and for the other there’s the Qualcomm issue as we mentioned above, which proves that four cores aren’t necessarily better than two.

Lastly, everyone expected the third-generation iPad to boast the supposed ‘A6′ quad core chip, and instead it launched with the dual core A5X upgrade of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2′s original A5. This new A5X featured an upgraded quad core GPU.

We’re expecting the iPhone 5 to either have the same A5X dual core as the third-generation iPad, or, alternatively, an A6 chipset but one that is still dual core.

In any event we suspect Apple will pay plenty of attention to platform optimisation as it usually does and as a result will keep the clock speed at the same 1GHz as existing iPhones and iPads models.

Operating System
The iPhone 5 is expected to be the first Apple device to ship with the next version of iOS, which will likely be called iOS 6. Currently not much has been said, but we can glean a few possible hints about the update. We expect it to be quite significant, however.

Reports that Apple’s iTunes service is currently being updated could mean that the overhauled version will debut on iOS 6 and it is well overdue for a revamp.

Another possibility is a face-unlock feature similar to the one found on the latest build of Android as Apple has filed a patent for this technology.

Although not directly part of the operating system, it seems likely Apple’s Siri voice assistant will get additional tweaks and enhancements on the next iPhone.

The main thing Apple needs to concentrate on, however, is to ensure that the next version of iOS has a more stable release as the last couple of builds have been somewhat problematic for many end users.

HTC’s One X runs on the latest Android platform from Google, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.

To say that this new build is an improvement on its predecessors would be a huge understatement. Not only is this the fastest performing and most stable version of Android we’ve ever seen but significant changes to the menu layout and interface make it a much better experience all round.

Google has also improved on the already excellent multi-tasking by making it easier to actually use. This is thanks to the inclusion of a fast app switcher control for running and recent apps, which also has the ability to close active apps with a simple swipe.

We can’t speak highly enough of Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and it used to be that iOS would always win-out on stability, but we can’t really say this any more.

However, iOS 6 is sure to bring some interesting new features to the table and should still offer a more straightforward ‘no fuss’ platform for those who want it.

Winner – Draw

Final Thoughts
We’re expecting big things with the iPhone 5, it must make a substantial difference this time because, as well received as the iPhone 4S was, there is still an undertone of disappointment that it was not drastically different enough from its predecessors.

If this happens again it won’t be good for Apple. We think the company can deliver though.

HTC’s One X is a fantastic piece of hardware and a major step in the right direction for the company. It deserves to sell well.

Until the Samsung Galaxy S III turns up it is unquestionably the best (or joint-best if you consider its stable-mate, the One S) Android handset available and will hold up well against the iPhone 5 when it arrives.

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Apr 21 2012

Want a new iPhone? Which carrier should you choose?

This edition of Ask Maggie covers how to select the best carrier for the iPhone 4S as well as which carrier might be best for an expected LTE-version of the iPhone.

iPhone fanboys and girls in the U.S. have more choices than ever when it comes to picking a carrier. So which one offers the best service and the best deal?

Apple’s iPhone is now available on three of the four biggest U.S. wireless carriers. And it’s also available on a handful of regional carrier networks. In this edition of Ask Maggie, I offer some advice to a T-Mobile subscriber looking to jump ship for a carrier with the iPhone. I also give some good news to a mom, who is hoping Verizon Wireless will finally introduce a family data plan.

Picking a wireless provider for the iPhone

Dear Maggie,
I was just wondering what your opinion is regarding rumors of the new iPhone coming out. Currently, I am on the last month of my contract with T-Mobile and I really am looking to get the iPhone. I have had it with my Android experiences. The phones are just too buggy.

My question is should I switch contracts now and get the iPhone 4S or wait it out to see when the new iPhone will be announced? Also which would be the best carrier to go to for either the iPhone 4S or the new iPhone?

Thank you,
Nick

Dear Nick,
To answer your first question, you might want to wait a little while. A new iPhone may be announced in June. It’s already the middle of April, so that’s only about two months away. And if your current phone isn’t broken, I think you should hold onto it a little longer.

Of course, there’s also a chance that the new iPhone may not be available until the fall. If June comes and goes without a new iPhone, and you can’t stand your Android phone anymore, then go ahead and get the iPhone 4S. In any case, it’s probably worth your while to wait just a little bit longer until we get a better feel for when Apple’s next release may come.

When it comes time to buy your iPhone, the good news is that you and millions of other U.S. iPhone customers now have more choices than ever. Three of the big four national wireless carriers offer the iPhone: AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon Wireless. (Unfortunately for you, as you’re well aware, T-Mobile does not offer the iPhone and may be left out of the next version of the device, too.)

There is also a growing list of regional wireless operators also offering the iPhone. Starting today Alaska Communications, Appalachian Wireless, Cellcom, and nTelos are all selling the iPhone for their networks. And these carriers show the phone selling for $50 less than the price tag offered by the three nationwide carriers. A fifth carrier — GCL, according to 9to5Mac — is also selling the iPhone, but no information could be found on this provider.

The bad news is that even though it’s the same exact phone on each carrier, you will be locked into a specific carrier for that device. Even if you want to break your two-year contract and go to another carrier, your iPhone will be locked to a specific carrier. In other words, you can’t buy an iPhone on AT&T and then expect to use it later on Verizon Wireless.

So which carrier is right for you? The answer depends on several factors. Do you want an iPhone 4S or the next iPhone, which is likely to have new 4G LTE network technology? Which carrier offers the best service where you live? Do you favor faster speeds over lower cost?

For the purposes of this discussion I will look mainly at the three main nationwide wireless operators. But if you live in a region where any of these other five smaller operators is present, you may want to check out their service since they may offer you a less expensive service and a bigger discount on the iPhone itself. First, let’s talk about the basics.

The first thing you should always consider when choosing a wireless carrier is network quality and coverage. You want to be able to get a signal to make a call or get access to the Internet where you live and work. The next thing to consider is the cost of the plan. The big difference here is not so much in the cost of your monthly but how much you get for that price. For example, Sprint offers unlimited data while its competitors offer tiered data plans.

And the last thing to think about is whether you can browse the Web or use Net-based apps while you are talking on your iPhone. AT&T’s GSM network allows this, but Verizon and Sprint, which are CDMA carriers, do not. There is one caveat to this. You can browse the Web and talk at the same time on a CDMA carrier device if you are in a Wi-Fi hot spot. And if the new iPhone supports 4G LTE, then this point will also be moot, since LTE devices on CDMA carriers allow for simultaneous voice and data activity. Personally, I don’t think this is a big deal. Usually when I’m on a call, I’m talking or listening and not surfing the Web or using any other Net-based apps. But maybe I’m just not multitasking enough.

Now that you know what things to look for, let’s compare the big three nationwide carriers.

AT&T iPhone 4S

Pros: AT&T’s 3G network is speedier than Verizon’s and Sprint’s networks. The iPhone supports a faster version of AT&T’s 3G technology called HSPA+. (AT&T calls this upgrade 4G, but it’s actually much slower than LTE and other forms of HSPA+ used by carriers like T-Mobile.) The version supported in the iPhone 4S is HSPA+ 14.4 Mbps, which means it theoretically downloads data at 14.4 Mbps. This is much faster than Verizon’s and Sprint’s 3G EV-DO Rev. A technology, which downloads data at a theoretical speed of 3.2 Mbps. Cons: AT&T is notorious for dropped calls. Even though the company’ network has improved in some areas, AT&T has struggled to keep up with network demand particularly in dense cities, such as New York City and San Francisco.What’s more, the 3G speed advantage may not mean as much if you wait for the next iPhone, which is expected to have 4G LTE built into it. AT&T’s 4G LTE network, which launched in September 2011, currently only covers 32 markets. AT&T has said it expects to be complete the network by the end of 2013. Then customers can expect the same coverage they have with 3G.

Pricing:

• 450 minutes of talk time: $40
• Unlimited texting: $20
• 300MB of data: $20
• 3GB of data: $30
• 5GB of data with mobile hot spot: $50

Verizon iPhone 4S

Pros: Verizon has the best reputation when it comes to network coverage and reliability. Unlike AT&T, which has had some severe growing pains due to the iPhone, Verizon has proven that it’s up to the task of handling data from the iPhone as well as a slew of other Google Android devices.If the new iPhone has LTE, Verizon is likely to be the star carrier given its broad LTE network. As of April 19, Verizon’s 4G LTE network covers 230 markets and roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population. By the end of 2012, Verizon says it will cover 260 million people across 400 markets.

Cons: If you get the iPhone 4S or the new iPhone with LTE, when you don’t have access to the 4G LTE network, you will be on a substantially slower network than if you were on AT&T’s network. Verizon’s prices don’t differ much from AT&T, but in general consumers get less with Verizon’s plans than they do with either AT&T or Sprint.Pricing:

• 450 voice minutes: $40
• Unlimited texting: $20
• 2GB of data: $30
• 5GB of data: $50
• 4GB of data with mobile hot spot: $50
• 10GB of data: $80

Sprint iPhone 4S

Pros: The biggest benefit of Sprint is that it’s the only major U.S. operator with the iPhone still offering unlimited data. This means that Sprint is likely the most affordable option for those who plan to use a lot of data.Cons: Sprint’s 3G network is slow by comparison to AT&T. And the company is much further behind in its rollout of 4G LTE than its two main competitors. This means that when the new iPhone is released with LTE, Sprint will have the smallest footprint. Sprint says it will cover 123 million people by the end of this year with its LTE network. And it will cover 250 million by the end of 2013.

Pricing:

450 voice minutes with unlimited texting and data: $70 (Plus an additional $10 charge since the plan is associated with a smartphone.)The bottom line

If you plan on getting the iPhone 4S, AT&T may offer you the best option with faster speeds and more bang for your buck in terms of data than Verizon offers. If you have decent coverage where you live, AT&T will offer you the fastest network speeds and you will get more data for the same amount of money than you would with Verizon. For example, a $30 a month on AT&T gives you an additional 1GB of data. And if you want the Wi-Fi hot spot option, you get an additional 1GB of data per month for the same $50 price as Verizon.If network speeds aren’t that important to you, and you get decent service with Sprint, that’s likely to be your most affordable option.

But if you wait for the next the iPhone. And if that next iPhone has LTE, then I’d say Verizon is the best carrier, since you will likely get better 4G LTE coverage from Verizon. Still, the pricing for Verizon is higher than its competitors. But it in general, you get a better network. So if you are willing to pay more, you’ll likely get a better experience.

I hope that advice was helpful. Good luck!

When is family data plan coming to Verizon Wireless?

Dear Maggie,
My teenage son is begging me to let him have my old iPhone. But I don’t want to pay an additional $30 a month for his data plan. I actually don’t use my own $30 a month data plan that much. Anyway, we are on Verizon Wireless family plan. Do you know if Verizon will be introducing a new family plan that includes data?

Thanks,
Debra

Dear Debra,
You are in luck. Verizon Wireless is currently working out the details of a new family plan for data usage. During the company’s conference call on Thursday, Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo said the company would be rolling out the new plan this summer.

Verizon is still keeping the details of the plans under wraps, but the general gist is that it would work like your family plan for voice or text messaging. You would be given a bucket of data usage for the month, and it would be shared among the various members of your family plan. For families like yours where one person doesn’t use much data, it could be a real cost savings.

But you’ll have to be careful about monitoring usage. If your son starts downloading lots of HD video or streaming other media like audio etc. you could exceed your cap and be socked with even higher bills than you are paying now.

If you thought keeping track of voice minutes was tough, monitoring data could be even harder. At least with voice, you have a general sense of how long you’ve been talking on the phone. You also know generally about how many text messages you have sent. But with data it’s hard to know how many megabytes it is to download a movie or upload a picture to Facebook. And sometimes apps that are running in the background on a phone can also eat up data usage. So at this point it’s hard to say whether the family will really be any cheaper for some families that consume a lot of data.

Once Verizon announces its family plan, we will know more. I’ll be sure to analyze the options here in Ask Maggie. So stay tuned!

Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers’ wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie’s advice. If you have a question, I’d love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put “Ask Maggie” in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page.

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Apr 21 2012

Is this the finished Samsung Galaxy S3? New iPhone’s biggest rival ‘previewed’ in video by cult Vietnamese gadget site

One of the mostly hotly anticipated mobile phones this year has been spotted online.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, expected to rival the iPhone when it goes on sale next month, has appeared online in a Vietnamese video posted on YouTube.

The gadget appears to have  a 4.6-inch display and a 720p display, with the handset being powered by a 1.4Ghz quad core processor.

Scroll down for video

The leak comes via well-regarded Vietnamese site Tinhte, which previously revealed the Samsung Galaxy Tab and parts from the new iPad. It reveals footage of the new device for the first time

The leak comes via well-regarded Vietnamese site Tinhte, which previously revealed the Samsung Galaxy Tab and parts from the new iPad.

It reveals footage of the new device for the first time.

It is also expected to boast an 8 megapixel camera, 16Gb of storage and NFC technology allowing it to double as a credit card.

Its 720 x1184 4.6-inch screen is expected to have a slightly lower resolution than the iPhone 4S, but on a bigger 4.6inch screen compared to the iPhone’s 3.5inch.

Its 720 x1184 4.6-inch screen is expected to have a slightly lower resolution than the iPhone 4S, but on a bigger 4.6inch screen compared to the iPhone¿s 3.5inch

16GB of storage plus a microSD card slot are also mentioned, along with a 2,050mAh battery.

The mystery phone has the model number GT-i9300, expected to be the model number for the Galaxy S3.

The handset is also running Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google’s Android software.

However, experts warn that the final phone may look radically different – the leaked video is believed to have a ‘fake’ case to guard against leaks ahead of the expected May 3rd launch.

Well it a piece of Shit!!! iPhone’s the best!!!

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Apr 21 2012

Analyst: ‘revolutionary, compelling’ iPhone 5 out in October

Apple’s iPhone 5 will be out in October and sport a “revolutionary” industrial design. That, plus 4G LTE connectivity courtesy of 28nm Qualcomm chippery, will make the handset a “compelling upgrade”.

So said market observer Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, a broker, yesterday.

Munster said the iPhone 5′s October debut may be later than fellow pundits – and fanboys – might have hoped for, but the launch window is not only a year on from the debut of the iPhone 4S, but gives chip maker Qualcomm the time it needs up ramp up production of 28nm 4G LTE chips.

“Based on our checks,” Munster said, “we believe the design win momentum of Qualcomm’s 28nm products has been exceptionally strong and a 28nm LTE baseband is likely designed into the next iPhone.”

Qualcomm has been expanding the number of chip foundries capable of punching out its products, added Munster, giving the firm capacity it needs “to support a Q4 LTE iPhone 5 launch”.

The 4G version of the iPad 3 uses Qualcomm chips for the cellular radio.

In any case, said Munster, the timing of the iPhone 5′s launch doesn’t matter: it’ll so impress, fanboys and regular punters will snap it up.

Apple sold more than 37m iPhones in the final three months of 2011. Wall Street reckons it’ll sell almost 40m in Q4 2012, an eight per cent increase. Munster said the year-on-year sales increase will be rather higher than that.

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Apr 21 2012

Apple iPhone 5 ‘to be cased in Liquidmetal’

Apple’s next iPhone will be cased in ‘Liquidmetal’, according to reports.

Apple’s chief executive: Tim Cook. Photo: AP

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Apr 17 2012

New iPhone 4S Siri ads star Samuel L Jackson and Zooey Deschanel

We haven’t seen celebs hawking iPhone wares on screen before but when Apple gets the good looking and famous on board to sell more handsets, it doesn’t mess about.

A couple of iPhone 4S adverts have started being shown on TV in the US starring Samuel L Jackson, Zooey Deschanel and, of course, Siri. The ads mainly show off the location based features that iPhone 4S users in the US can use – like finding the nearest shop that delivers ‘to-may-to’ soup – but annoyingly that’s something the rest of the world can’t yet make use of.

There’s also some kooky uses of the calendar and Wolfram Alpha on show – take a look at the YouTube videos below if you want to see Zooey dancing around her flat or Samuel L taking cookery tips from his phone. We don’t know about you but we reckon “Date Night” at his house would be pretty damn cool.

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Apr 17 2012

Apple battles Greenpeace over “dirty” iPhone server farms

Apple is battling claims by Greenpeace that it is the “dirtiest” of the technology giants for the second year in a row because of the way it powers its vast data centres, which deliver an array of services to iPhone and iPad owners.

Facebook’s data centre planned for Lulea, Sweden, close to the Arctic circle

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