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iPhone 5 Prototype from Foxconn Sold To Case Manufacturer?

With Apple’s iPhone media event now only a few days away, questions still remain weather Apple will announce a “completely redesigned” device, as several rumors claimed, or a minor revision with improved processor and camera. In the past months, rumors have indicated both possibilities – an iPhone 4S type of device with iPhone 4-like design and better specs, as well as a more powerful handset with a redesigned, thinner chassis.

In an article published earlier today, M.I.C. Gadget claims to have the details behind the proliferation of alleged iPhone 5 cases in China – according to the website, a “lost” iPhone 5 prototype from Foxconn may have ended up being sold to a Chinese case manufacturer, and thus the hundreds of the “iPhone 5 cases” we’ve seen so far.

With its past experience, one might think Apple would have been able to track that prototype down in a heartbeat. However, Apple was outsmarted. The person who had access to the prototype wiped the phone’s software, thus disabling the GPS hardware needed to track it down. It was then allegedly sold to one of the iPhone case manufacturers for RMB ¥20,000 (about $3,100). We were told that Foxconn was aware of the loss and had penalized internal management for the incident. We also heard from another source that the person who “lost” it was paid to do so.

M.I.C. Gadget says the iPhone 5 prototype was a final design, although concealed inside an iPhone 4 enclosure – just like with last year’s iPhone 4 leak, although this wouldn’t explain how a supposedly wider and taller device would fit inside an iPhone 4 case. However, according to the rumor, the device shares the thinner “tear drop” design hinted by This Is My Next back in April. Apple is also believed to have lost a next-generation iPhone prototype in a bar in San Francisco, which triggered a somewhat curious internal police investigation.

Apple is expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone on Tuesday, October 4th.

FIFA 2012 Comes To The Mac→

FIFA 2012 Comes To The Mac

Electronic Arts and TransGaming have announced the release of FIFA Soccer 12 for the Mac, The Loop reports. This is the first time the popular soccer franchise is available on the Mac platform, and as usual with TransGaming’s OS X release, the port has been done using the Cider translation engine. Cider has been used in the past years in several Mac games including the recently re-released GTA series.

FIFA 2012 comes with important changes in the physics and artificial intelligence engines:

Chosen Best Sports Game by E3 Game Critics, FIFA Soccer 12 brings to the pitch the game-changing new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Revolutionary gameplay innovations inspired by the real-world game make FIFA Soccer 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling creates a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for better control in tight spaces, more time to make decisions on attack, and more control over the pace of the game. Innovations in attack are balanced by a re-designed defending mechanism called Tactical Defending, which fundamentally changes the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling.

FIFA 2012 requires a Mac with OS X 10.6.8 or later, Intel Core 2 Duo or better, 4GB RAM, and ATI HD2600 or Nvidia GeForce 9400M or greater. You can buy FIFA 2012 for $39.99 at GameTree Mac.

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Firefox 7 Officially Released

Last month Mozilla officially introduced a new version of its browser, Firefox 6, but we noted that work on Firefox 7 was already underway as part of Mozilla’s new six-weeks fast release cycle. Firefox 7 has been officially released today, adding a number of memory and engine improvements to make the app speedier, and more reliable. Mozilla says they have “drastically improved” memory handling – this is something that Mozilla announced back in August when they claimed that Firefox 7 would use 50% less memory to address memory leaks, crashes, and general instability with lots of different open tabs. On Windows machines, a new rendering backend is said to be increasing performances of Canvas operations, whilst all platforms are getting better password and bookmark sync with Mozilla’s built-in sync tool.

The most visible change in Firefox 7 is the lack of the http:// prefix in the address bar:

The new Firefox also brings some changes for developers:

New tools in Firefox make it easier for developers to build snappy Web experiences for users. A new version of hardware-accelerated Canvas speeds up HTML5 animations and games in Firefox. This allows developers to build more compelling and interactive Web experiences like Angry Birds or Runfield.

Firefox now supports the W3C navigation timing spec API so developers can measure page load time and website navigation against bandwidth speed, website traffic and other factors. This API allows developers to test user experiences remotely and easily and quickly optimize websites and Web apps for different types of users.

From the release notes:

  • Added support for text-overflow: ellipsis
  • Added support for the Web Timing specification
  • Enhanced support for MathML
  • The WebSocket protocol has been updated from version 7 to version 8
  • Added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of Firefox
  • Fixed several stability issues
  • Fixed several security issues

With version 7, Mozilla has also implemented a new usage statistic functionality called Telemetry that will help the company collect usage information (memory, CPU, startup speed) to improve future versions of Firefox.

Beginning with version 7, Firefox includes functionality that is turned off by default to send to Mozilla non-personal usage, performance, and responsiveness statistics about user interface features, memory, and hardware configuration. The only Potentially Personal Information sent to Mozilla when this functionality has been enabled is IP addresses. Usage statistics are transmitted using SSL (a method of protecting data in transit) and help us improve future versions of Firefox. Once sent to Mozilla, usage statistics are stored in an aggregate form and made available to a broad range of developers, including both Mozilla employees and public contributors. Once this functionality is enabled, users can disable it in Firefox’s Options/Preferences. Simply deselect the “Submit performance data” item.

Telemetry is off by default and needs to be manually enabled. The feature can also be deactivated from the Preferences.

Firefox 7 can be downloaded here. The latest version of the browser still doesn’t come with Lion-specific fixes and features, but mockups posted recently by Mozilla’s Product Visual Designer Stephen Horlander suggested the Firefox team is experimenting with new interface elements and navigation options for Firefox on OS X. Read more

Apple Confirms: Media Event on October 4th

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop reports Apple sent out invitations for a media event moments ago. The event is scheduled for October 4th and it’ll take place at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.

Looking at the invitation posted by The Loop, it’s clear Apple’s keynote will focus on the iPhone – the tagline for the banner is “Let’s talk iPhone” – and, curiously enough, the image features four of Apple’s stock apps for iOS: Calendar, Clock, Maps, and Phone. We wouldn’t look too much into a possible hidden meaning on this image, but all these apps were mentioned in a rumor that claimed to have details on Assistant, an upcoming software feature of the iPhone 5. Obviously, the image itself is a representation of the event’s details (October 4th, 10 AM at Infinite Loop), but it’s not like Apple hasn’t hinted at upcoming features/products in invitations before.

Apple is widely expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone at is next keynote. Speculation surrounding the device in the past months has failed to pinpoint exactly how the next iPhone will look like, and iPhone 4-like parts surfaced this summer suggested Apple could also plan a minor “iPhone 4S”  upgrade. Others claim the “iPhone 5” will be a completely redesigned device with thinner form factor, and possibly a bigger screen. Either way, the next iPhone is rumored to feature the company’s A5 processor, 1 GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel camera – as for the iPhone5-iPhone 4S speculation, you can read more about it in our rumor roundup and retrospective.

At WWDC in June, Apple announced iOS 5 with iCloud integration would ship “this Fall” to customers. iCloud is cross-compatible with iOS devices, web browsers, PCs and Macs – OS X will need an update to version 10.7.2 (currently in beta with developers) to work with iCloud. Other software updates expected to hit with iOS 5’s release are iTunes 10.5 (required for iOS 5 device syncing) and iPhoto 9.2 (for Photo Stream integration).

JotAgent 2: Quickly Save Notes In Dropbox or Evernote

Last year, I reviewed JotAgent, a quick and easy way to save notes in your Dropbox account with a few taps. JotAgent 2, released earlier this week, improves on every aspect of the original app, adding support for Evernote and a refreshed user interface both on the iPhone and iPad. Just like the first JotAgent, you can configure the app to save text notes in your Dropbox account (you can pick your own folder for notes); in this version, you can also log in with your Evernote credentials, and select a notebook where new notes will be saved. If you configure both Dropbox and Evernote, you can easily de-activate one of the two services in JotAgent’s main screen, which has got service, settings, and queue icons in the lower section.

As soon as the app launches, you can begin writing. When you’re done with a text note, you can hit Save to send it to Dropbox or Evernote – the saving process will require a few seconds depending on your Internet connection. If you’re offline, JotAgent allows you to queue notes for later, and upload them when you’re back online. Two interesting features of JotAgent are TextExpander support for snippets and title formatting: the latter lets you change the default template for your notes’ titles, and you can choose between a nice selection of modifiers available on JotAgent’s website. Thanks to these modifiers, I’ve been able to customize the way notes are saved in my Evernote account to show only the month and day of creation.

JotAgent 2.0 doesn’t want to be a full-featured text editor as its focus is completely different. It’s a lightweight app to quickly send a note or idea to the cloud – as I wrote last year, it’s like Captio for text notes. You can get JotAgent 2.0 now at $0.99 on the App Store, or jump after the break to enter our giveaway. Read more

Magical Weather: A Beautiful Weather Station For Your iPad

When Sophiestication invited me to try a beta of her upcoming weather app, I was curious to see how the typical style of Sophia’s apps (Coversutra, Articles) would fit with this kind of software – I’m no Ben Brooks, but I’ve tried several weather apps for iOS in the past year, and I know that putting too much focus on the presentation, rather than data, can be counterproductive for the developer and an app’s success. That’s one of the reasons why apps like Weather HD quickly sold thousands of copies on the App Store, but never really got the weather geeks’ attention and long-term usage.

Magical Weather by Sophiestication might just hit the right spot between available weather data and attention to beautiful pixels. When you start the app for the first time (Magical Weather is iPad-only for now), you’re presented with a grid of thumbnails for different cities, labelled with their names and current temperature. You may notice the thumbnails are actually generated in real-time based on weather conditions, but more on this in a bit. The first item in the grid is “local weather”, which is obtained by default. You can add new locations to the app’s main screen by searching (city, ZIP and Airport codes are supported) and, with the Edit button, you can remove locations at any time. From the Settings popover in the upper left corner, you can set the temperature to Celsius and Fahrenheit, and tweak Wind Speed to the unit you’re more comfortable with.

When you tap on a location, the app brings you to a full-screen view of the current weather conditions. This new screen is gorgeous: Sophiestication built in several different animations that look great, and provide an instant summary of what’s going on. If it’s raining, you’ll see dark clouds and rain; if there’s a thunderstorm, you’ll see thunders animated on screen. But the real treat isn’t the weather animation itself – it’s the combination of beautiful artwork and data in the right sidebar.

As you open a location, in fact, Magical Weather will launch a weather animation and a sidebar containing a forecast, current temperature, and the following data:

  • Current temperature with today’s high and low
  • Relative humidity
  • Probability of rain
  • Atmospheric pressure
  • Wind speed (in Beaufort, knots, mph, kph, or mps)
  • Change in temperature since yesterday
  • Current UV index

If you don’t understand the icons displayed on screen, you can hit the “?” button to make a handy guide appear explaining all the data points offered by Magical Weather. This sidebar, however, offers two additional views: you can “hide it” by dragging it at the bottom of the screen – thus displaying only the current temperature in a corner – or expand it by revealing an additional section with a hourly forecast. Weather icons and typography are extremely clear and legible, and look elegant no matter the background they’re visualized against.

At $0.99 on the App Store (limited time offer), Magical Weather is a great piece of work with beautiful graphics and data that doesn’t confuse the user. The app isn’t complex and doesn’t require a learning curve, it’s fun and intuitive to use. Magical Weather may not be enough for the uber-geek, but it’s a fine weather app for everyone else. Get it here.

Apple Announces Q4 2011 Conference Call For October 18

As usual after the end of a fiscal quarter, Apple refreshed its Investor web page and activated the URL that will redirect to its next conference call webcast. For the fourth fiscal quarter, which ended on Saturday, September 24th, Apple has announced that they will announce results on October 18th.

Apple’s conference call webcast discussing Q4 - 2011 financial results will begin at 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET on Tuesday, October 18, 2011.

Please note that comments made during this call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For more information on the factors that could influence results, please refer to Apple’s SEC filings.

In Q3 2011, Apple posted $28.57 billion of revenue with 20.34 million iPhones, 9.25 million iPads, and 3.95 million Macs sold. The company posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. Also in Q3, Apple reported an amazing growth in China with revenue of $3.8 billion during the quarter. In the year-ago quarter, Apple posted revenue of $20.34 billion with 3.89 million Macs, 14.1 million iPhones and 4.19 million iPads sold during the quarter.

Initially rumored to be released in September, Apple’s fourth quarter won’t include any iPhone 5-related results – the device is now rumored to be unveiled at a media event on October 4th. The earnings call will provide, however, insight into Apple’s summer release cycle, which saw updates for the popular MacBook Air line, new Mac minis, and the release of OS X Lion in July. If most recent rumors are to be believed, the Q4 earnings call might be a way for Apple to announce day-one sales of the next iPhone, rumored to be hitting the U.S. marked in mid-October.

We will provide live updates from the call on our site’s homepage on October 18 starting at 2 PM PT.

Instagram Hits 10 Million Users in 355 Days - A Brief Retrospective

The Instagram developers have announced their photo-sharing service has now 10 million registered users:

Last October, we launched Instagram live in the App Store. Today, less than one year later, we’re happy to announce that the Instagram community now consists of over 10 million registered users.

The first version of Instagram, which I reviewed here, was released on October 6th, 2010, exactly 355 days ago. Last week, Instagram released a major 2.0 upgrade, which includes live filters, and updated UI, and several optimizations to the code. Here’s a quick look back at Instagram’s history in the past 12 months:

- October 6th, 2010: Instagram released on the App Store.

- December 7th, 2010: Instagram gets inline viewer on Twitter.com.

- December 21st, 2010: Instagram reaches 1 million registered users.

- January 27th, 2011: Instagram 1.1 is out with hashtag support and some optimizations.

- January 28th, 2011: Twitterrific, a popular third-party Twitter client for the Mac and iOS, adds native Instagram support for photo URLs.

- February 8th, 2011: Instagram announces its official API.

- February 26th, 2011: The first results of Instagram’s API are in.

- March 10th, 2011: Flipboard, Apple’s iPad app of the year, adds native Instagram integration.

- March 11th, 2011: Instagram 1.5 brings new effects and News Feed.

- April 2nd, 2011: Here comes the first Instagram client for Mac based on the API.

- April 15th, 2011: Instagram 1.6 focuses on performances.

- May 16th, 2011: Instagram 1.7 gets a new profile view.

- May 23rd, 2011: Instagram announces 4.25 million users.

- May 26th, 2011: Instagram 1.8 improves the comment section.

- August 3rd, 2011: 150 million photos have been uploaded to Instagram.

- September 20th, 2011: Instagram 2.0 released.

- September 26th, 2o11: Instagram hits 10 million users.

From the timeline above, I had to exclude several of the minor updates Instagram released, or amazing third-party apps that plug into the service to extend its capabilities (not to mention celebrities and brands). And as with last year’s original release, Instagram is still an iPhone-only app.

Has there ever been an iPhone app with such terrific third-party and user support in just 355 days?