On Vietnamese forum Tinhte, a user has uploaded the above photo which he claims is a new “light” version of the iPhone 4 – potentially the rumored iPhone 4S that has been milling around in recent months. The photographs posted seem to show a nearly identical product to the iPhone 4, with the exception that there is no glass front and back panel. Instead the iPhone is plastered with a translucent plastic on either side with the familiar stainless steel banding around it.
According to information leakage, predictable from the English website, the more likely Apple will introduce the iPhone 4s (cheap version) and the iPhone 5 next month. And it looks like the iPhone that you see below is the iPhone 4s.
On the whole we’re fairly skeptical of this photo, except for the fact that in the past, Tinhte has been somewhat successful at leaking Apple prototypes, including this internal iOS 4 build and last year’s MacBook refresh. As for the possibility of a cheaper iPhone launching this year, not only has the rumor mill been churning out stories fairly frequently but Tim Cook conceded in this month’s earning call that Apple would be doing “clever things” to address the pre-paid mobile market and wouldn’t “cede any market”.
[Tinhte via TechCrunch]
Over the past few weeks, a number of “leaks” from Apple’s supply chain and retail operations suggested the company was on track to launch the next major version of OS X, Lion, alongside new Macs this week, more specifically yesterday, July 14. According to the rumors, Apple was gearing up to unveil new MacBook Airs, Mac minis and white MacBooks all featuring updated Sandy Bridge processors from Intel and Thunderbolt connectivity. Whilst rumors about Lion immediately sounded fairly accurate as Apple seeded the “Golden Master” version of the OS to developers on July 1 (unless major issues are discovered, the GM version usually matches the public release’s build number and codebase) and the company said at the WWDC Lion would be available in July, speculation about new Macs generated from a series of factors that had been capturing the interest of the tech press since February. (more…)
Two videos from Vietnamese website Tinhte [Google Translation] making the rounds of the Internet this morning claimed to show an internal build of the soon-to-be-announced iOS 5 running on a prototype white unit of the iPhone 5. The videos generated quite a debate on several blogs and among iOS developers on Twitter as a completely new multitasking system, folders and settings are demoed. Whilst many initially reported the iPhone shown in the videos was a 64 GB iPhone 5 running iOS 5, further inspection of the videos revealed the prototype unit (likely an iPhone 4) is running an old internal build of iOS 4.0 — carrying build number 8A216. Of course Apple might have changed the number of a “real” iOS 5 build to prevent people from leaking it, but we think that’s very unlikely. Plus, the iPhone sports old Calculator and Voice Memos icons — the Golden Master version of iOS 4.0 carried build number 8A293, so this might be an internal seed tested before the first developer betas released last year.
This build is interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, it shows Apple had been considering an alternative, Exposè-like interface for switching between applications — a UI Apple eventually discarded in the public version of iOS 4.0 for the icon-based multitasking tray. The Exposè design is very similar to jailbreak tweaks like Multifl0w in the way it displays apps in the background through a preview of their actual windows, rather than simple icons. The internal multitasking implementation features snappy and elegant animations, alongside a new placement for Spotlight search on top of running applications. The videos also showcase a different folder creation system with a smaller overlay on top of the device’s Springboard. In the settings, there are a series of preference panels like direct Facebook integration (perhaps linked to MediaStream) and “file sharing”, although no further details are provided. Update: as @chronic reminds us, File Sharing was enabled in the iOS 4 developer betas to let devs control sharing with iTunes through an on/off switch.
It is possible that these features are still being considered for iOS 5 — and especially in the case of file sharing, that would make sense as Apple is working on a Mac-to-Mac file sharing protocol called “AirDrop” for the upcoming OS X Lion.
The device shown in the videos also runs some Apple internal applications, and has a series of extra settings that suggest the build is legit and somehow leaked by Tinhte — which has a good track record when it comes to Apple rumors and products leaks. It is unclear whether this is a real white iPhone 4, an updated version of the device, or a simple mod — but the fact that it’s got 64 GB of storage seems to confirm the iPhone itself is legit, too.
Check out the videos below. [via Chronic, 9to5mac] (more…)
Update 2: To keep the display of the iPhone one that qualifies as a “Retina Display” whilst increasing the physical size and not the number of pixels, Apple could increase the display up to a size of 3.845-inches (diagonal) before it drops below 300 pixels per inch which as Steve Jobs explained in the iPhone 4 keynote, was the required PPI specification so that the human eye cannot differentiate between individual pixels when looking at a display around 10 or 12 inches away. (Thanks @ianharrier)
Update: MacRumors forum member, ‘Bartboy919‘ did some clever comparison on those images to the current iPhone 4 and it seems as though the form factor is exactly the same which would suggest something around a 3.7-inch display rather than the current 3.5-inch display.
In a new purported leak of the iPhone 5’s design, iDealsChina claims to have gotten a hold of engineering diagrams of the iPhone 5, which show a nearly identical design to the iPhone 4 with the exception of a larger screen, potentially one that is 4 inches. The screen seems to take up a larger portion of the front face of the phone and the bezel on the sides of the display is much thinner.
Whilst there are a number of purported leaks of design documents for upcoming Apple device releases, iDealsChina has previously leaked accurate design renderings of the fourth generation iPod Nano and they have also previously claimed to have posted a photo of the iPhone 5’s bezel which correspond with these drawings. Whilst this doesn’t confirm these designs are accurate it does decrease the likelihood that these are fake. Jump the break for another picture of the drawings.
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Well after the 4.3 Beta that previewed multitasking gestures on the iPad, there is now some supposed evidence that suggests that the iPhone is also being considered by Apple to have gestures thanks to an internal build that BGR claims to have gotten some screenshots of.
Obviously there is an issue with the supposedly leaked pictures, gestures on the iPhone would likely have to be different to those previewed on the iPad that used four or five finger swipes because they would be pretty unreasonable to use on the iPhone’s smaller screen. That said it remains possible that the text is left over from the iPad and whilst being tested internally has not been edited to reflect the iPhone’s gestures.
Engadget notes that information from it sources says that since the lost iPhone 4 debacle Apple made significant changes to how it keeps track of it’s devices and that it added clauses to screens saying “Confidential and Proprietary, if found, please contact…” listing a Cupertino 408 number. The photo’s BGR have gotten a hold have this message, adding credence to this leak. All three pictures posted after the break.
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The White iPhone 4 was at first rumored to suffer from a series of problems with color, but it was later rumored to be delayed thanks to issues with the camera sensor. As the glass is white, light leakage was affecting the camera sensor. While Apple has kept quiet about the latest White iPhone 4 developments, there were some signs of life in Apple Stores thanks to a 9 to 5 Mac reader spotting a Spring 2011 launch date. Today, MacRumors has a sneak peek at Best Buy’s inventory system (which has been a leaky faucet for numerous tech rumors).
The white iPhone is speculated to have a launch date of February 27th, and the SKUs are identical to the previous white iPhone listings last year before they were pulled. There’s no doubt that there will eventually be a white iPhone, and the question of when may be sooner than later. With a large pool of white iPhones on hand, however, would Apple launch a new series of white iPhone 4s with the next generation iPhone arriving in the Summer on AT&T? Or is this an early indication that Verizon will feature the iPhone 4 for the next year? (And let’s not forget the White iPhone 4 on Verizon snafu.)
[via MacRumors]
The Daily by News Corp. is one of the hottest rumors in the Apple tech sphere these days. Initially rumored to launch in December 2010 alongside iOS 4.3 and now apparently scheduled for a late January official announcement (with iOS 4.3 now out in beta), The Daily has been making the rounds also thanks to speculation that Steve Jobs might be directly involved in the realization of the iPad-exclusive newspaper. The Daily is also expected to bring a new feature based on “app subscriptions” that would allow users to set up automatic, recurring payments within iTunes. (more…)
Spider Web dug through the Apple discussion boards and found out what we all imagined: confirmation of a new iLife, a MacBook Air and, wait, a “reserved” product to be announced today.
It turns out Apple has already set up some discussion boards for the new stuff as placeholders:
Category 277 – Reserved 10 20
Category 278 – iMovie ’11
Category 279 – GarageBand ’11
Category 280 – iPhoto ’11
Category 281 – MBA (Need official name)
I have no idea what “reserved” could ever be, and it’s strange that the MacBook Air, which already has its own category, is getting another one. [via MacRumors] (more…)
Website Richy Rich has posted a series of blurry images of what they claim to be a N92 CDMA iPhone or as most people would call it, the Verizon iPhone. The device is running a testing operating system (the “inferno” we mentioned a few times in the past) and seems identical to the current iteration of the iPhone 4 in shape. The photos are not that much revealing, and they seem to come from the “usual” Vietnamese sources.
Just yesterday BGR reported that the Verizon iPhone hit the “AP” stage, which is the last step before mass production.
Today, I’m happy to report a follow up to that post with live shots of an “N92DVT” device, which was reported to be the CDMA version of the iPhone 4 back in August by John Gruber. To my knowledge, these shots originated from a repair shop in Vietnam, and according to the “DVT” (Design Verification Test) label, it is in final testing stages before production.
I was told that the side of the device does in fact have a micro-sim slot, like the current GSM-only variant; although the device is no longer in my sources possession, therefore I wasn’t able to obtain photos for proof. This coincides with Boy Genius’ aforementioned post, which enables us to speculate if this means it has global roaming capabilities, if it’s a one device for all unit, or both.
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