This Week's Sponsor:

Copilot Money

The Apple Editor’s Choice Award App for Tracking Your Money. Start Your Free Trial Today

iPhone 5 Major Design Change? Announcement in August?

According to BGR – which has a good track record with Apple rumors – the next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 5, won’t be a minor hardware refresh as many have speculated and reported until today. According to the website, in fact, a source close to Apple’s operations has confirmed the new iPhone will bring major changes especially in case design, which BGR calls a “radical” change. No other details have been posted on the alleged iPhone 5 specifications, though it needs to be mentioned that, among rumors of minor hardware updates and spec bumps, This is my next reported months ago the iPhone 5 would be a major update with a completely new design and a “tear drop” case / screen. The same report also detailed how Apple could implement a thinner design and an update Home button, capable of doubling as “gesture area”.

BGR also claims an iPhone 5 announcement could come in August, with a release a few weeks later, although it’s not clear how this would play out with Apple’s usual music event in the first week of September:

According to our source, Apple may hold an event in the beginning or middle of August to announce the new iPhone, with availability to follow in the last week of August. We’re not sure if that means the iPod event will be moved up slightly, or if this will be an iPhone-specific event.

Speculation is running wild at this point as to whether the iPhone 5 will be similar to the iPhone 4 and only feature a faster processor (likely A5) and better cameras, or be a major change from the existing iPhone hardware with a bigger screen, different Home button, and perhaps NFC capabilities. Several rumors in the past claimed Apple would announce and release a new iPhone in September, shifting its usual release cycle from summer to the fall. As for recent rumors, whilst many publications reported the iPhone 5 (or “iPhone 4S” due to the rumored nature of minor update) wouldn’t be a significant upgrade spec-wise, others claimed a curved glass screen and GSM/CDMA dual-mode could be part of Apple’s announcements. Other noteworthy reports from the past months also indicated the “iPhone 4S” would go into mass production in August (thus backing up BGR’s theory of a late August release) and that Apple was testing an A5-powered iPhone 4 prototype running on T-Mobile network.

Last week, it was reported the iPhone 5 reached the final testing stage, for a September 2011 launch.

Update: Aside from BGR’s speculation, it’s worth considering that Apple might want to ship the new iPhone model with iOS 5 already pre-installed, rather than forcing users to manually update to iOS 5 when it comes out a few weeks later, likely in September. In fact, Apple confirmed that iOS 5 is coming out “this Fall” after a beta period for developers this Summer. As several bloggers and tech pundits were already claiming months ago iOS 5 would come out in September, that might be the reason why many believe the iPhone 5 is set for a Fall release too, shortly after iOS 5 comes out. For example, when Apple released the iPhone 4 on June 24 last year, the device was running iOS 4 out of the box – the OS was publicly released on June 21.

Apple Releases New Time Capsule with 3 TB Storage, $499

As the rumors correctly suggested, Apple has just launched a new Time Capsule model with 3 TB of storage. At the moment of writing this a press release isn’t out yet and the Apple website seems to be going under an update, and from what we can see right now there’s no mention of additional caching capabilities for software updates or iCloud integration.

The Time Capsule retains the same 802.11n wireless features of the previous models with simultaneous dual-band operation and Mac / PC compatibility. The device now comes in 2 TB and 3 TB configurations and Apple’s product page states it “starts at $299”, though the retail website hasn’t been updated yet with the new models’ pricing.

The AirPort Extreme, also rumored for an update, doesn’t look like will be getting a refresh today.

Update: The new Time Capsule models are now available on the Apple online Store. The 2 TB version is priced at $299, whilst the new 3 TB one is available at $499. From the search results:

Apple Releases Final Cut Pro X On The Mac App Store For $299

UPDATE: Final Cut Pro X is now available in the Mac App Store, as well as Motion 5 and Compressor 4.

Apple has just issued a press release noting that Final Cut Pro X will launch sometime today on the Mac App Store for a price of $299.99 with Motion 5 and Compressor 4 also out today for $49.99 each.

Apple® today announced Final Cut Pro® X, a revolutionary new version of the world’s most popular Pro video editing software which completely reinvents video editing with a Magnetic Timeline that lets you edit on a flexible, trackless canvas; Content Auto-Analysis that categorizes your content upon import by shot type, media and people; and background rendering that allows you to work without interruption. Built on a modern 64-bit architecture, Final Cut Pro X is available from the Mac® App Store™ for $299.99.

Some of the new features of Final Cut Pro X include a vastly improved video editing experience, completely rebuilt to feature a “dynamic editing interface” including what Apple dubs a ‘Magnetic Timeline’ which lets editors assemble shots simply and quickly with no unwanted black gaps in the timeline. In a similar vein clips can now be connected so that as you move one clip to a new place on the timeline, all the other connected clips (such as music or audio effects) stay synchronized with the clip. Compound Clips is another new feature that lets editors combine a group of elements (clips, audio etc) into just one clip that can easily be moved around on the timeline.

Another cornerstone feature of FCP X is vastly improved media organization, starting with support for many more formats of video. Content is now automatically analyzed with FCP X organising your footage into preset kinds of footage including whether or not there are people in the shot (and whether it is just one person or a group), whether it is a wide or closeup shot, whether the footage is stable or shaky and so on. There is also support for keywords which can be applied quickly to any piece of footage, combine this feature with the content auto-analysis and you can find the shot you need nearly instantly. Other key points of interest include ‘Smart Collections’ allowing users to organize clips without having to physically move the file and direct access to content libraries such as Aperture and iPhoto.

As had been expected, performance is also a huge area of improvement for FCP X, off the bat there is support for the 64-bit architecture and then there is resolution independence (4K footage is now supported), improved GPU utilization, background processing and a shared render engine between Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. Some final points of note are that FCP X comes with a large variety of video effects, including the standard ‘Film Grain’ and ‘Cartoon’ to many others. There are also title sequences and bundled audio effects that are royalty free.

Motion 5 which is also available from today from the Mac App Store for $49.99 which is Apple’s motion graphics tool that has been redesigned, adds new templates, simplified chroma-keying and similarly takes advantage of 64-bit architectures. Compressor 4 is also available for $49.99 in the Mac App Store and has seen some modest improvements and feature additions, most notably is again support for 64-bit architectures and GPU utilization. Curiously both Motion 5 and Compressor 4 mention Blu-Ray recording - perhaps a Mac accessory could soon allow direct Blu-Ray recording, or perhaps new Mac Pros.

You can purchase Final Cut Pro X in the Mac App Store for $299.99, also available in the Mac App Store is Motion 5 for $49.99 and Compressor 4 for $49.99. FCP X requires at least 2GB of RAM (4GB is recommended), an OpenCL-capable graphics card or an Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later, 256MB of VRAM and at least 2.4GB of disk space. For a full run down of new features be sure to check out the Final Cut Pro X page on the Apple Website.

Jump the break for Apple’s full press release.

Read more

Report: Apple Demands Suppliers To Reduce Costs For iPhone And iPad Components

According to reports in today’s Economic Daily News, Apple has demanded cuts in supplier’s quotes for various components that are vital to the production of the iPhone and iPad. The paper has reported that Apple is putting significant pressure on the suppliers of PCBs, optical components, battery modules and touch panels to cut costs by 10% in the second quarter of 2011.

Apple is using the increased business it brings to the suppliers as a bargaining chip to get a 10% cut in costs. In particular the growing popularity of the iPad has meant that analysts are expecting a 70% growth in the second quarter, a significant windfall for Apple’s suppliers.

With a new iPhone expected sometime later this year and continued growth because of the iPad, Apple is expected to continue to demand cuts both in this quarter and on an ongoing basis.

[Via DigiTimes]

iPhone 4 Becomes The Most Popular Camera On Flickr

Sometime in the past few days, the iPhone 4 became the most popularly used camera on Flickr – two months after TechCrunch noted that it was poised to take the top spot. The Nikon D90 now holds the second spot, although its share of users has remained constant whilst the iPhone 4 has surged to the front. The next three spots are taken up by various Canon EOS line cameras including the 5D Mark II, Digital Rebel XSi and Rebel T1i.

In terms of smartphones the iPhone 4 took the lead a long time ago but it continues to extend its lead. It is followed by the iPhone 3G, 3GS and then the HTC Evo 4G. Surprisingly the iPod Touch rounds out the top smartphone cameras at number 5.

The iPhone 4 becoming the most popular camera in the Flickr community comes after the iPhone 3G held the top spot for just over a year. It lost the top spot earlier this year as it saw a significant reduction in users as the iPhone 4 surged in popularity (just see the above graph and the drop-off in 3G users).

[Via @espiekermann]

Firefox 5 Launches Today, Downloads Already Available

After a number of months in Aurora and Beta testing, the public release of Firefox 5 is expected to come sometime today, but ahead of schedule the downloads are already available now for all platforms.

Although the Firefox page has not yet been updated, notable new features in Firefox 5 include improved support for HTML5, MathML, XHR, more support for CSS animation, a ‘do not track’ option in the privacy pane and general speed and perfomance gains. There is also improved sync support, better add-on updates and improved spell checking for many languages.

You can download Firefox 5 here for Mac, Windows or Linux.

Update - Federico Viticci 5 PM GMT +1: Mozilla has announced the official release of Firefox 5, the first browser to enable the “Do not track” feature on multiple platforms. A full list of detailed changes to the browser can be viewed here.

The latest version of Firefox includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox. This release adds support for more modern Web technologies that make it easier for developers to build amazing Firefox Add-ons, Web applications and websites.

Here’s a direct link to Firefox 5.0 for Mac.

Apple Planning New Store in Sydney, Grand Opening in Reading This Saturday

According to two separate reports from the well-sourced ifoAppleStore.com, Apple is about to open a new retail location in Reading, UK, on Saturday. The grand opening, scheduled for June 25 at 9.30 AM, comes after a five-year wait that saw rumors constantly pinpointing the new Reading Apple Store about an hour west of London. Located in The Oracle Shopping Centre, the store is said to occupy spaces of two former stores on the upper level of the mall. Rumors of a new Apple Store in Reading go back to 2007.

The Westfield Hornsby shopping centre.

Meanwhile, the website also claims Apple is considering another store in Sydney’s suburban area, at the Westfield Hornsby shopping mall about 17 miles northwest of Sydney. Early rumors suggest a 2012 grand opening in this location that already has 305 retailers, a cinema, and a restaurant across its 1 million square feet space.

Update: screenshot of an Apple email about the Reading grand opening this weekend, courtesy of @HabibCham.

[The Oracle photo via]

New Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme Launching Today?

Speculation around a Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme refresh has been intensifying lately and it looks like the new models are ready to go as model numbers have surfaced and an FCC filing discovered by Engadget confirms Apple is about to launch at least a new AirPort Extreme device, model A1408. Little is known from the FCC documents, but in a separate report 9to5mac shares the new model numbers and indicates the AirPort Extreme will keep a single configuration, with the Time Capsule adding a 3 TB option in addition to the existing 2 TB one.

  • MD031LL/A – AIRPORT EXTREME 802.11N (5TH GEN)- USA
  • MD032LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 2TB (4TH GENERATION) – USA
  • MD033LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 3TB (4TH GENERATION) – USA

The new Time Capsules are rumored to be getting a new functionality to cache software updates for iOS and OS X devices, in order to speed up the process of downloading and installing new software. This feature was also confirmed by some code strings found in the latest AirPort Utility update. As Apple usually likes to time its hardware refreshes with FCC document releases, there’s the possibility the new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule will come out later today.

Apple Releases iTunes Festival 2011 App with Live Shows and AirPlay

Kicking off on July 1 at the Roundhouse in London for 31 nights of consecutive live performances from 62 bands, the iTunes Festival 2011 has seen Coldplay, Beady Eye, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters and Mogwai signing up for Apple’s annual initiative, among others. Today Apple released an official app for the iTunes Festival 2011 which, besides letting you check on the schedule for the venue and check out more information about the performing bands, will enable you to follow shows live or on demand “for a limited period from wherever you are in the world”, as well as beam video contents from your iPhone or iPad to an Apple TV or unofficial third-party receiver like MacStories staff favorite AirServer. This is the first time Apple is supporting both the iPhone and iPad with options for live streaming, AirPlay and Apple TV. Apple’s recent experiments with live streaming events include special media events and WWDC keynotes, though they have seemed to refrain from streaming announcements as of lately. It’ll be interesting to see how the app will allow users to watch live concerts come July 1.

You can download the iTunes Festival London 2011 app for free here.