Report: Apple Enters Into An Agreement With TSMC For A6 And A7 Chip Production

DigiTimes is today reporting on claims from industry sources who say that Apple has signed a partnership agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The agreement will see TSMC produce the A6 chip as previously reported but also the A6’s successor, presumably dubbed the A7.

It now means that Samsung is no longer the exclusive manufacturer of chips for Apple’s iOS devices, which could be related to the current legal battles between the two companies. Sources have also told DigiTimes that TSMC has secured a favourable price, with little impact on TSMC’s profitability.

Apple and TSMC, however, have not yet talked about backend manufacturing, the sources said. It is likely that Apple will have TSMC and the other dedicated packaging and testing house split the orders due to TSMC’s limited available capacity for backend services, the sources speculated.

[Via DigiTimes]

Apple Preparing The Ability To Merge Multiple Apple IDs

According to MacRumors, Apple is currently working on the ability to merge multiple Apple IDs into a single ID. Currently those who have (for whatever reason) multiple Apple IDs are unable to merge them, even when contacting Apple support directly.

In an article posted yesterday however, it is revealed that a MacRumors reader had emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook and promptly received a phone call from an Apple executive relations employee regarding the issue. According to their account, the employee contacted the team responsible who said that they were aware of the issue and were concerned with iCloud exacerbating the problem. It was noted by the executive relations employee that they are working on it and in the meantime to pick a single account to use for all future purchases.

In an update to their article, MacRumors notes that a second reader has come forward, noting that they received a similar response over the issue. This prompt reaction by Tim Cook in responding to email from a customer is not his first and is consistent with his dedication to work.

[Via MacRumors]

Further Reports Of Two New iPhone Models, Supply Issues For The iPhone 5?

As the official announcement of the iPhone 5 inevitably creeps closer there has also been a flurry of activity in the past 24 hours with more rumors, supposed leaks and speculation from a wide variety of sources. Most recently, Nick Bilton of the New York Times wrote that a “fairly different” iPhone 5 with 8 MP camera is just weeks away.

Bilton’s suggestions are by-and-large consistent with most frequent of past rumors regarding the iPhone 5. Noting this, 9to5 Mac last night reported that they have heard that there will be two different iPhone models coming next month - a low-end, iPhone 4 look-alike and the new iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5 itself is a sight to behold, we’ve been told.  It is impossibly light, yet much firmer than Samsung Galaxy phones which are backed in plastic.  The camera rivals point and shoot cameras and will be a major marketing point for this device.

There isn’t anything inherently unique in their report either, claiming that Apple’s lower-end iPhone will be similar to the current iPhone 4 whilst the iPhone 5 will be tear-drop shaped, which has been claimed before. However they do say that this lower-end iPhone (the iPhone 4S if you will), is already being produced in high quantities, with 10 million expected on launch day. The iPhone 5 though, is apparently seeing “continued design and production delays, at least on one assembly line” with 9to5 Mac speculating there could be slight delays and shortages until 2012.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

“Fairly Different” iPhone 5 with 8 MP Camera, A5 Processor “Just Weeks Away”

In reporting about today’s allegedly “leaked” iPhone 5 design per Case-Mate’s product pages (later pulled), The New York Times’ Nick Bilton says an announcement of Apple’s next iPhone is “just weeks away”.

We’re just weeks away from the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 5, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly for the company.

Bilton then reports that according to descriptions he’s heard from Apple employees, the images posted today by Case-Mate looked “potentially authentic”. The cases indeed seemed to show an iPhone 5 in line with recent speculation surrounding the new device such as tapered edges, and thinner form factor. In the same article, Bilton mentions “an engineer familiar with the new iPhone” said the iPhone 5 would look “fairly different” from the previous-gen model. According to the engineer the iPhone 5 will feature an 8-megapixel camera as previously rumored, the faster A5 processor also seen on the iPad 2, and possibly NFC functionalities for mobile payments. NFC on the iPhone 5 was rumored before, too, but most recent speculation indicated Apple might save the feature for a future “iPhone 6” next year.

As I’ve written in the past, two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Apple’s next-generation iPhones say either the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 will include a new chip that is made by Qualcomm.

Plenty of rumors posted in the past months failed to indicate whether Apple will soon announce a completely redesigned iPhone 5, and iPhone 4-like device with slightly improved specs, or both to address different market segments. You can read more on this in our iPhone 5/4S rumor roundup and retrospective. [image via]

Smartphone Games “Front and Center” at Tokyo Game Show 2011→

Smartphone Games “Front and Center” at Tokyo Game Show 2011

Wired has an overview of what’s going at Tokyo Game Show – annual exposition of Japanese videogames – this year: smartphone and tablet games are “dominating” the show floor, whilst long-time publishers of regular console games decided not to have a booth.

In their place, dominating a massive section in the center aisle of the show floor, are smartphones and tablets: iPhones, Android phones, PlayStation phones and all manner of Japan-only devices with keys that easily let the country’s millions of texters type out entire novels’ worth of kanji messages. Cellphone games have been part of Tokyo Game Show for more than a decade, but until this year, the casual time-killers lurked on the periphery of the show, in the backs of the booths, attracting few onlookers.

The impressive growth of the mobile gaming industry is no secret to those who have been keeping an eye on the explosion of “app stores” through 2010 and 2011. But Wired makes a good point in its TGS coverage: there’s one niche of gamers mobile games have failed to attract, and that’s hardcore gamers. The “regular console games” that have dominated the Tokyo Games Show in the past years, and which are struggling to impress on iPhones, iPads, and Android handsets.

One challenge for Gree and other mobile gamemakers: Creating mobile games that appeal to hard-core gamers as well as casual players. Gree President and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka noted the dilemma.

“I was just walking around the show floor,” he said at a press briefing Thursday, “and what I thought while I was looking around was, ‘Console games seem much more interesting than social games. They’re more cool.’”

Gree, for instance, is the company that bought OpenFeint and announced a CEO replacement this week. The issue is a complex one: Angry Birds is selling millions of copies (350 million to date), yet hardcore gamers still can’t find proper mobile counterparts for their favorite PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii games. Big companies like EA are reinventing themselves with strong mobile offerings, and revenue speaks clearly.

I believe the scarcity of “hardcore games” or lack thereof is more related to the youth of these mobile platforms, as well as ongoing technological advancements. Lets’s see what the A6 will bring.

[image via]

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Kensington’s BungeeAir Helps You Find Your iPhone

Accessory maker Kensington announced earlier this week the BungeeAir, a hybrid case/iPhone tracker/backup battery solution to protect an iPhone 4, increase its battery life, and, more importantly, find a paired device nearby. The BungeeAir, in fact, works in combination with a compact key fob, which through a 2.4 GHz wireless connection (the one supported by the iPhone 4) will alert users when they’re separated  from their device – Kensington is touting this as a convenient way to never leave an iPhone behind in public places, or simply find it again in your house. The BungeeAir comes bundled with a free app on the App Store, which besides support for alarms and vibration when the “wireless tether” is broken, adds a number of security features such as passcode protection for a lost iPhone, or a two-way “find” functionality to locate either the case (and thus, the iPhone) or the fob by pressing “Find” button.

BungeeAir is perfect for the professional on-the-go who relies on their iPhone to be productive throughout the day. Simply place the iPhone in the protective case and attach the BungeeAir fob to your keys, purse or badge and it will remind you if ever leave your phone behind, before it can get out of your sight. A convenient companion app lets you customize the security settings, and with the added feature that it can help you find your fob and attached misplaced keys.

Kensington’s BungeeAir might sound similar to Apple’s free Find My iPhone service, but it’s quite different in the way it’s meant for a much more “local” use – BungeeAir doesn’t have an online counterpart to track and geo-locate a lost or stolen iPhone, and the app allows you to customize the distance between the fob and the case after which you’d like to be alerted.

Kensington is offering two different versions of the BungeeAir. The BungeeAir Power Wireless Security Tether for iPhone acts as tether, battery, and case and is available for pre-order at $99 or on Amazon. The BungeeAir Protect Wireless Security Tether doesn’t have a battery, and can be yours for $20 less at $79.99. Check out Kensington’s three promo videos for the BungeeAir’s Remind, Find, and Secure features below. [via Macworld] Read more

Twitterrific 4.4 Improves Tweet Marker Support, Adds Fixes

The Iconfactory’s Twitterrific, a Twitter client for iOS and OS X, was updated earlier today to version 4.4, adding better integration with Tweet Marker, and a number of bug fixes and improvements. Following Twitter’s recent changes to how links are wrapped inside its own t.co shortening system and displayed in third-party clients, The Iconfactory tuned Twitterrific to display unwrapped t.co links whenever possible, as the API currently allows. This means Twitterrific shouldn’t show anonymous t.co links in the timeline anymore, fetching the original shortened link or domain (example: mcstr.net or apple.com) instead. You can see a comparison between Twitterrific 4.3 Vs. 4.4 in the screenshots below.

Twitterrific 4.4 with an unwrapped t.co link on the right

Twitterrific 4.4 improves and unifies support for Tweet Marker across its Mac and iOS versions, as well as other third-party iOS apps that have implemented the service. Notably, Twitterrific 4.4 can sync Twitter lists with Tweetbot, which recently introduced such functionality through Tweet Marker. This update also brings Tweet Marker sync to saved searches (both lists and saved searches will have a separate “saved status”, outside the main timeline) and it greatly improves how the OS X version handles sync when a computer goes to sleep, or a link is clicked. For instance, Twitterrific 4.4 will sync back to Tweet Marker (if enabled in the Preferences) when a Mac goes into sleep mode, wakes up, or goes into power saver mode. Marked tweets are synced when the app is quit or links are clicked – the latter is true when links aren’t set to open in the background.

Twitter lists have seen some enhancements in Twitterrific 4.4 as well. For one, they now have a Load More button to fetch missing tweets. They are now sorted by type and then alphabetically, they show retweets alongside regular tweets, and a bug that would make a list “un-selected” in the Finder has been fixed. The same Load More button has been improved throughout the entire app, as it now loads missing tweets in timeline gaps, and generally keeps Twitterrific scrolled to bottom while loading more tweets. These are minor changes, but important ones if you, like me, wake up every morning willing to “catch up” on Twitter, and see what people have posted overnight. The improved Load More behavior certainly helps in making timeline gaps more reliable.

Other features include improved handling of non-image Camera+ URL’s (such as user profiles), and a new Shift-spacebar shortcut to manually navigate to a previous tweet, as opposed to spacebar for “next tweet”.

Both on the Mac and iOS, Twitterrific keeps unifying the Twitter experience and its own app ecosystem on each update. You can download Twitterrific 4.4 on the App Store now at $4.99 for the Mac version, or upgrade the free iOS app for $4.99 through in-app purchase.

Skype for Mac Beta Gets Facebook Integration

With a blog post published a few minutes ago, Skype has announced a new beta version of its desktop client for OS X, which adds Facebook integration for chat, news feed, and friends’ posts. The new Skype for Mac 5.4, available for download here, allows users to connect with Facebook directly within the app – without having to open Facebook’s website – to start chatting with Facebook friends, like their posts, or read and update the News Feed.

Once authenticated with Facebook in-app, Skype 5.4 will display an additional Facebook tab in the Contacts view, enabling you to filter the buddy list down to only people who are available for IM through Facebook. The cross-platform IM solution seems pretty reliable in this regard, in that I was able to easily find a Facebook friend, and start chatting with her while I was using Skype 5.4 for Mac. She received my messages correctly on Facebook’s website. When another friend tried to contact me on Facebook via chat, a new message showed up in Skype’s sidebar next to his name (the Mac version of Skype also supports Growl notifications).

Similarly, I was able to read posts from my news feed, like them, and even post a status update using Skype 5.4.

Skype has also confirmed this release brings a new advertising platform to the app, although I haven’t been able to personally verify this yet:

We are also introducing an advertising platform in this new release, but if you are a paying Skype consumer or have Skype Credit, you won’t see any display ads; similar to the model that is currently being used in our Skype for Windows client.

Skype 5.4 beta for Mac can be downloaded here. After Microsoft’s acquisition, the company recently brought HD video calling to the Mac with version 5.3, and released a native client for the iPad.