There was much speculation surrounding the supplier of the camera module of the new iPhone prior to the official iPhone 4S announcement, which confirmed the device has an improved 8 MP camera but didn’t give us any details on the manufacturer behind the component. In the months leading up to the iPhone 4S, you may remember Sony CEO Howard Stinger hinted at Sony producing the camera for the next-generation iPhone, though confusion arose as it wasn’t really clear whether he was being sarcastic in his statements or not. A report from June then noted both Sony and OmniVision — Apple’s main camera supplier for the previous iPhones — would supply a new 8 MP camera for the iPhone.
Following iFixit’s teardown of the iPhone 4S, Chipworks has put the camera module under a microscope, and confirmed that their unit has a Sony camera as seen in the die markings from the photos. This still doesn’t completely exclude OmniVision from the list of camera suppliers, but it seems to confirm rumors of a Sony camera were correct.
In order to get our readers the device manufacturer as soon as possible, rather than going through a fuming sulfuric acid chip deprocessing we chose to use our infrared microscope to look through the structure of this image sensor. What you see are the die markings on the base layer of the image sensor. The image isn’t beautiful, but it’s enough to tell us that Sony is in our particular iPhone 4S.
The iPhone 4S’ camera has been known to feature improved optics, allow for 73% more light through the lens and, overall, shoot sharper and crisper images, as well as 1080p HD video. You can check out Chipworks’ teardown and X-ray images here. [via]
Sony Pictures is apparently “in the process” of making a large offer for the feature movie rights of the upcoming biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, according to Mike Fleming of Deadline. The move isn’t surprising, and Sony has recent history of turning business success books into successful drama movies in The Social Network and Moneyball.
I’m hearing the deal is $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be the biopic’s producer. But this will be an MG360 project, which is the movie production partnership between Gordon and Management 360.
The release of Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Steve Jobs was this week moved forward to October 24th after Steve Jobs passed away this past Wednesday. Based on over 40 interviews and over 100 conversations with friends, family and competitors, the biography covers 448 pages. Walter Isaacson’s previous biographies include those of Albert Einstein, Henry Kissinger and Benjamin Franklin.
According to a new report from Digitimes, camera image sensor supplier OmniVision has won “significant orders” for Apple’s next-generation iPhone, set to debut later this year. Whilst OmniVision has been the selected supplier for image sensors in previous generation iPhones, iPods and iPads, surprisingly enough Digitimes claims 90% of orders will be supplied by OmniVision, with Sony shipping another 10% of units.
OmniVision has grabbed a majority of total CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders placed by Apple for the fifth-generation iPhone, market sources have claimed. Meanwhile, power amplifier (PA) supplier Avago Technologies has landed orders for the WCDMA version of the device for its first time, according to the sources.
About 90% of the CIS orders for Apple’s new iPhone will be supplied by OmniVision, while Sony takes up the remainder, the sources said. The upcoming device will feature a built-in 8-megapixel camera, the sources added.
Speculation about the iPhone 5′s camera in the past months arose to a new level when a rumor claimed Sony would be the only supplier for the device’s camera. With other reports claiming the statement from Sony CEO Howard Stinger were largely a misunderstanding or inventions from bloggers, it wasn’t clear why Apple would choose Sony over the long-time partner OmniVision, which in the meantime announced a variety of new sensors including improved 5 MP, 8 MP and 10 MP ones, some of them with 1080p capabilities.
As work on the rumored cloud music service nears finalization for an official WWDC announcement, Bloomberg reported last night Apple has reached a deal with Sony Music Entertainment, following reports that the company managed to sign the Warner Music Group and EMI. This leaves Universal, the biggest label of all four in the United States, out of the equation, but according to the rumors Apple’s Eddy Cue is actively focused on closing all the remaining paperwork with music labels by next week.
Apple has reached licensing accords with Sony Corp. (6758)’s music division, EMI Group and Warner Music Group, the people said. Universal Music Group, the largest recording company, is close to a deal, another person said. The company also would need to reach agreements with music publishers, which control different rights than the labels.
Apple’s cloud music service is said to be part of a major MobileMe revamp the company has been working on for the past two years, which will include several new functionalities and a new price point with basic features offered for free. As for the music service, it’s unclear whether Apple will adopt an upload system like Google and Amazon or a subscription-based delivery with songs coming from the iTunes Store, but a patent surfaced yesterday seems to suggest Apple’s implementation will go as far as allowing users to upload their own songs, and stream others they don’t own from a larger “content source” like the iTunes Store.
In spite of previous rumors suggesting Sony would never consider releasing an iOS app again after the rejection of their eBook reader application a few months ago, the company pulled the trigger today on the official Crackle app for iPhone and iPad. Crackle, a growing digital entertainment platform that offers movies and TV shows from Sony’s library (including series from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics), allows you to stream content over WiFi and 3G, it’s universal and has “unlimited, on demand viewing.” Crackle, however, is only available in the United States and with “selected content” to viewers from the UK, Canada and Australia.
You can browse by Movies, TV shows, Originals and Genres, or build your queue to organize the content you want to watch later. The design looks decent from the screenshots, and there are some sharing options as well. Alternatively, you can buy movies and episodes on iTunes with the tap of a button.
You can find Crackle in the App Store here. [via Cult Of Mac]
During the weekend, a rumor about Sony being selected by Apple as the only supplier for the image sensors in the next-generation iPhone quickly made the rounds of the Internet following some statements from Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer in an interview with Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The report came as a surprise to Apple fans and market watchers as the company has been using camera lenses provided by OmniVision in the iPhone 3GS (3.2 MP), iPhone 4 ( 5 MP), iPod touch 4th gen. and iPad 2 for the past few years.
The rumor suggested that, due to the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Sony’s Japanese facility in Sendai, shipments of image sensors to Apple would be delayed.
Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.
The Wall Street Journal also published a blog post with a partial transcript of the interview:
Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?”
It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.
9to5mac reports Sony CEO Howard Stringer, in an interview with Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall in New York City, said shipments of camera sensors to Apple will be delayed due to Sony’s facility in Sendai that was affected by last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Stringer’s statements come as a surprise considering Sony has never been a supplier for Apple’s camera-enabled mobile devices (iPhone, iPad 2, iPod touch 4th gen) as the company chose to implement Omnivision’s image sensors in the past years. Omnivision’s lens modules are used in the iPhone 4 (5 megapixel sensor), iPod touch and iPad 2.
Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.
MacRumors also points to a transcript of the interview by the Wall Street Journal itself, which seems to confirm Stringer’s hints at image sensors set to be shipped to Apple in the near future:
Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?”
It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.
Following Stringer’s interview, speculation is running wild on the Internet about whether he was referring to a brand new Apple product still in early production stages, or a new version of the iPhone or iPad. A report from April of last year, however, provides more insight into Stringer’s mention of image sensor for Apple: analyst Ashok Kumar claimed that Apple had signed on with Sony for an 8-megapixel camera lens to be used in the “2011 iPhone” — which would be the iPhone 5 set to be announced sometime between summer and fall. The report from Kumar also correctly indicated that Omnivision would be the supplier of a 5-megapixel sensor for the iPhone that Jobs would announce at WWDC 2010 — indeed, the iPhone 4 with a 5 MP camera module from Omnivision. In the past months, several bloggers also speculated Apple could implement Omnivision’s new 16:9 CMOS image sensor in the iPhone 5, although the reports didn’t provide any additional details. The iPhone 5 is also rumored to feature a bigger screen, the same Apple A5 processor seen in the iPad 2, NFC capabilities and a new aluminum design with internal antenna.
According to sources who talked to Bloomberg, Apple is negotiating with the key record companies of Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner for an improved iTunes service that would simplify access to music that users have purchased. The service would allegedly allow consumers to retrieve a backup of all their music perhaps if their originals were lost.
According to Bloomberg’s three sources, an agreement could be announced midyear which could have the potential of bringing consumers “closer to universal access to content centrally stored on the Internet.” The record companies are supposedly concerned of the gaining popularity of Internet services such as Pandora, which allow users to stream songs rather than purchase them and want to offer users who purchase music a similar convenience.
Here’s something you’d probably like to try right away, but likely can’t because it’s really too geeky to understand: a group of hackers and developers known as “pandaelf” managed to stream PlayStation 3 games to the iPhone and iPad on a local network using a series of USB devices attached to the PS3, and an “interpreter” to send iOS gestures back to the console. Somehow, it’s working.
Here’s what they did: they connected a USB mouse and keyboard to the PS3 as input controls, and another “third party capture device” that streams video to a PC running a build of “everyAir”, a remote desktop controller. everyAir really handles everything, from iOS to PC communication to live video streaming from the TV and PS3 to the iPhone and iPad. It’s one hell of a setup but as you can see from the demo video below, it seems to be working.
Video and Q&A below. Somebody please find a way to play Game Cube games on the iPad now, and I’m sold. [via iThinkDifferent] (more…)
