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iPhone Parts For An N90A Model Found In Foxconn’s Brazil Factory?

The above photo, taken by Gizmodo Brazil, is supposedly a new iPhone SKU taken from a Foxconn factory in Brazil. Shown on a quality control form, these iPhone parts are for a model N90A iPhone - a new model that does not currently exists.

Our Brazilian brothers, Gizmodo.com.br, got their hot little hands on a few photos of one a new iPhone, to be announced next week. How? Well, there’s a Foxconn factory in Brazil, and Pedro & co got one of their men inside. Inside, they found a new-SKU iPhone that looks just like the old iPhone 4.

A report from earlier this week noted that an iPhone with the codename N90A had appeared in Apple’s internal inventory system. Because the current codename for the iPhone 4 is N90 it is believed that this new SKU would represent an iPhone 4 with minor changes — likely becoming the cheaper iPhone available with 8 GB of storage at a lower cost.

[Translation of key sections of the above image, from Mike in the comments below]

JULGAMENTO DO LOTE means something like BATCH EVALUATION RESULT, certainly from quality control. APPROVADO and REPROVADO means APPROVED and REPROVED and the current batch was reproved with the indication “lentes manchadas” (stained lenses), written in blue over the REPROVADO box.

[Via Gizmodo]

“iPhone 4S” Name Found In Latest iTunes Beta

Apple has apparently included the “iPhone 4S” name in a file inside the latest iTunes beta seeded on Friday, 9to5mac reports. As shown in the screenshot above, two strings report “iPhone 4S” in the description, with a link to the same image used by iTunes for the older CDMA iPhone 4. Whilst the iPhone 4 had separate references for colors (black/white) and carrier variations (GSM/CDMA), the “4S” name in iTunes 10.5 beta 9 is only differentiated by color.

Speculation surrounding the next-generation iPhone initially described the “iPhone 4S” as the lower end model with improved specs over the iPhone 4, although recent rumors have suggested the “iPhone 5” may end up being the 4S itself, thus contradicting reports of two different models, one being “completely redesigned”.

The iPhone 4S name recently appeared on packaging for third-party cases and it also supposedly hit Apple’s internal inventory system with the codename N94. The CDMA image associated to the 4S in the iTunes beta may be a placeholder, but the 4S was previously rumored to have dual CDMA-GSM capabilities.

Apple will hold a keynote in Cupertino on Tuesday, October 4th, where it’s widely expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone.

The Strenuous Relationship Between Apple And Facebook

It’s been known that Apple and Facebook have had a strenuous relationship over the past year and a half or so - with the debacle of iTunes Ping being the key event known to the public over which the companies clashed. Mashable has a nice scoop today that delves deeper into the rift between the two companies and how things seemed to have taken a positive turn in recent months.

According to Mashable’s sources, Apple approached Facebook over fully integrating Facebook into iOS 4 as well as making their own Facebook app — apparently “lacking confidence in Facebook’s ability to build a great application”. Disagreements arose and negotiations broke down, Apple canned most of the Facebook integration, except Ping which they didn’t fully inform Facebook of — this then led to Facebook banning Apple from the APIs soon after it launched.

Three months ago Steve Jobs supposedly visited Facebook to talk with Mark Zuckerberg about a Facebook iPad app. Jobs learnt that Facebook was working with HP to release a native webOS app and according to Mashable’s sources, Jobs was furious about it. Zuckerberg tried to appease Jobs by pulling the app, but Jon Rubenstien of HP’s webOS division refused. Nonetheless the app wasn’t perfect when released and was restricted because Facebook pulled certain APIs, just as it had done with Ping in the previous year.

Was Facebook playing both sides? Absolutely, says a source close to HP. Facebook was made aware of the application and device integrations. The company knew what was coming, changed its tune right before release — and only did so to appease Apple. For its part, HP was furious. It had hoped the Facebook application would help differentiate the TouchPad from other tablets on the market.

Since then it appears Facebook and Apple have mended their relationship. As reported earlier this week from MG Siegler of TechCrunch, Apple and Facebook have been working together on a Facebook iPad app and on an HTML5 web app platform (Project Spartan) and could well be sharing the stage at Tuesday’s iPhone event to launch the products. Just as Siegler mentioned, Mashable notes that this collaboration seems to stem from the fact that they both share a common enemy: Google.

Be sure to jump over to Mashable and read their full article, they mention other interesting snippets of information and do a great job of putting together the juicy jigsaw puzzle that is the Facebook and Apple relationship.

[Via Mashable]

 

Diminish Debt with DebtMinder

DebtMinder is the latest creation from the talented developers over at Return7 and aims to help users eliminate their debt. You might already be familiar with their successful BillMinder app that helps users keep track of when bills are due to ensure that late fees are a thing of the past. BillMinder is known for being polished, reliable, and incredibly easy to keep multiple devices in sync. Thankfully the developers were able to bring those features and more to DebtMinder all wrapped up in a familiar interface.

DebtMinder allows you to input multiple accounts of debt into the app and it will help calculate the best payment plan to reduce your debt as quickly as possible. You can also customize this plan by telling DebtMinder that you either want to focus on debt that has the highest interest rate or debt with the lowest balance. This is known as the debt-snowball method. You basically pay off the smallest debt first while paying the minimum payment on the larger debt. It is the quickest way to decrease your total number of bills. Once a payment plan is created your monthly minimum payment is calculated and you can begin paying off you bills.

If you are a user of BillMinder then you will be able to pick up DebtMinder and feel as if you already know how to use the app. I was able to log in with my BillMinder credentials (new users will have to set up an account). As I added accounts to DebtMinder I had the option to link them with accounts that I had already set up in BillMinder. It was hard to appreciate this at first because it was so easy to set up, only two clicks. Once the account was linked and I added a payment to DebtMinder, I was able to launch BillMinder and see that the bill had already been paid. And not just on my phone, but on my iPad and on my wife’s phone as well because all devices are kept in sync under one account.

DebtMinder is my favorite kind of app for iOS because it is inexpensive, useful, and easy on the eyes. It will more than pay for itself when your credit card gets paid off ahead of schedule and unnecessary interest fees are avoided.

BillMinder is available in the iTunes App Store today for only $1.99

Apple To Announce International iTunes Match on Tuesday?

According to a report by Greg Sandoval at CNET, Apple may announce international support for its iCloud music service at the media event scheduled for next week. Apple is said to be in negotiations with record companies and music publishers to gain worldwide music rights for iCloud, although CNET reports nothing has been signed yet, but if negotiations wrap up in time there could be an announcement on Tuesday.

Whilst CNET mentions “access to iCloud”, iCloud music rights most likely refer to the specific iTunes Match service; however, another music-related feature of iCloud – iTunes in the Cloud – is also being tested in the US-only at the moment, as it can be seen on Apple’s international iCloud pages. It’s not clear whether CNET is referring to iTunes Match, iTunes in the Cloud, or both – thus bringing full iCloud access for music worldwide.

Managers at iTunes are trying to lock down worldwide cloud-music rights, CNET has learned.

[…]

Some of the countries that could receive access to iCloud include Germany, France and the United Kingdom, the sources said.

iTunes Match, originally previewed at the WWDC in June, is set to publicly launch this Fall in the United States. Apple hasn’t detailed a public plan for an international rollout of the service, which is currently in beta and requires a US iTunes account with credit card on file. The service costs $24.99 per year for 25,000 songs, but iTunes purchases won’t count against this limit. iTunes Match was previously rumored to be coming to the UK in 2012, however CNET has a solid track record in reporting Apple’s negotiations with the music labels and publishers, correctly predicting ahead of WWDC that Apple would announce a new cloud-based music service.

Gradient for Mac Public Beta: Creating Simple CSS Gradients

Gradient, made by JUMPZERO, is a simple yet powerful Mac OS X app that lets you easily create CSS gradients by getting rid of the clumsiness of vendor prefixes. The user interface is beautiful and works wonderfully. Gradient is in open beta for any designer that wants to help test the app out or see what Gradient will be able to do.  In Gradient, you can pick/select/input the colors and then define which type of gradient you’re looking for; click the Copy button near the bottom of the application window and paste the generated code into your favorite editor.

Gradient is customizeable as to which browser needs support by opening the preference pane and activating the radio buttons for the browsers you are going to support. No need for Internet Explorer? Simply uncheck the button. Gradient not only supports linear gradients but radial as well, just move the slider over to the type you need. The gradients’ directions can be altered by the directional arrows for linear and by using the radial-center-matrix-button for radial gradients. Before you decide to copy the CSS, you can preview the code in-app by clicking the CSS button. A hovering code box pops up and displays your code all within Gradient.

Gradient lives in your dock, menubar, or whatever mix you want. You can click the menu bar icon to activate the app and get to work. You can also click either of the two large top colors to bring up the OS X built-in color selector or click the magnifying glass icon to bring up the zoom tool to use on every pixel of your Mac’s screen.

Gradient feels very polished for only being in beta 2, and it looks like this will be a great tool for web designers looking for a simple yet intuitive way to create CSS gradients. Gradient’s development roadmap consists of adding HSL input & output, SASS syntax and multiple step gradients. No details on the app’s release date have been provided, but it should be soon according to the website.

MacRumors and Jan-Michael Cart Mock Up iOS 5 Assistant

Earlier this week, it was reported the final version of iOS 5 for the next-generation iPhone would include a new functionality called “Assistant”. Based on the acquisition of Siri in 2010 and allegedly using some of Nuance’s voice recognition technologies, Assistant is said to be the next iPhone’s biggest new software feature, which will allow users to “speak” to their device to complete a variety of tasks such as sending text messages, creating calendar events and reminders, or get information on a specific topic only with their voice. Assistant will apparently put the next iPhone’s A5 CPU and 1 GB of RAM to use, providing an effortless experience to execute voice commands with a natural language.

Based on this week’s report and details from “sources with knowledge of the feature”, MacRumors has mocked up Assistant’s activation screen and asked Jan-Michael Cart (author of several iOS 5 and OS X concept videos) to create a quick demo showing what Assistant should look like.

After a long press on the home button, the screen fades and slides up, just like with the multitasking interface. Revealed is a silver icon with an animated orbiting purple flare which indicates a ready state. From what we’ve been told, this image is a close representation of the actual Assistant interface.

From there, the user may be taken to a conversation view that somewhat mimics Siri’s original interface, but in Apple’s own styling.

You may remember MacRumors also commissioned a mockup of the iPhone 5 design in what has become an unofficial representation of the rumored “completely redesigned” device. The Assistant mockup posted today shows an equal attention to detail, and undoubtedly resembles something Apple could do with the multitasking tray, linen background, and styled buttons. Obviously, Apple’s official design will be different, but you can get the basic idea of this feature by looking at the video below.

Voice commands aren’t new to smartphones, but looking at the video and trying to imagine what would Apple do with reliable voice recognition tech, I assume Assistant could still feel “revolutionary” in some way, especially if Apple has really managed to build a “conversation view” that would let you give detailed instructions to your phone. Imagine being able to create quick reminders when you don’t have time to type (for example, while you’re driving) or dictate long emails and text messages directly to your iPhone, which would transcribe everything for you. Assistant is still a rumor, but an exciting one to think about.

Apple will hold a press conference in Cupertino on Tuesday, October 4th, where it’s widely expected to unveil the new iPhone.
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Apple Releases iTunes 10.5 Beta 9

Apple has released a new beta of iTunes 10.5 to developers this afternoon, re-enabling some iTunes Match functionalities that have gone missing after the iCloud music library reset that several developers reported on Apple’s Dev Forums this week. iTunes 10.5 beta 9, available now, contains bug fixes and improvements over iTunes 10.5 beta 8, which was seeded earlier this month.

iTunes 10.5 is required to sync devices running iOS 5, and it brings a number of optimizations and improvements to iTunes’ code, which now runs natively at 64-bit on Lion. The first beta of iTunes 10.5 that implemented support for iTunes Match – Apple’s upcoming backup and scan & match service for music in the cloud – was seeded in late August.

iTunes Match will launch this Fall alongside iCloud, and it will be compatible with OS X and iOS 5 devices.