Intel Updates Price List with New Sandy Bridge Chips

As noted by CNET, Intel has updated its price list to include details for the new dual-core Sandy Bridge chips likely to be implemented by Apple in the next-generation MacBook Pros that, according to the rumors, should come out on Thursday.

The chipmaker yesterday added i3, mobile i5, and mobile Core i7 dual-core chips to the list of Sandy Bridge processors for sale.

A low-power i5-2537M (1.4GHz) and standard-power i5-2540M and i5-2520M mobile chips have been added to the price list. They are priced at $250, $266, and $225, respectively, in thousand unit quantities.

A sizable cluster of new dual-core i7 mobile processors includes the i7-2620M (2.7GHz), i7-2649M (2.3GHz) and i7-2657M (1.6GHz). Those are priced at $346, $346 (also) and $317, respectively.

The new i3 processors include the i3-2120 (3.3GHz) and i3-2100 (3.1GHz). They are set at $138 and $117, respectively.

Intel previously confirmed the Sandy Bridge CPU line would ship on February 20th after initial issues encountered in the manufacturing process with SATA connectors on the new chips. CNET also reported two weeks ago Apple is set to release new MacBook Airs in June, powered by Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors.

iPad 2 Delayed Until June Due to Production Issues?

Bloomberg reports a research note issued by Yuanta Securities Co. indicates the next-generation iPad might be delayed until June due to “production bottlenecks” at Apple’s manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

The delay arose after Cupertino, California-based Apple made design changes before the Lunar New Year, according to a report by Vincent Chen and Alison Chen, analysts at Yuanta. Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong, declined to comment on the report.

Our checks suggest new issues are being encountered with the new production and it is taking time to resolve them,” said Chen in the report. “As a number of Android 3.0 tablets are being launched in April and May, the delay in iPad 2 shipments may give the Android camp a brief window of opportunity.

The June timeframe does sound a little strange for Apple, which usually releases a new iteration of the iPhone in late June / first weeks of July, announcing it at the WWDC in the first weeks of June. A new iPad in June would have to face the obvious competition generated by the iPhone itself, although according to this report Apple has no choice because of “production issues”. The design changes also mentioned in the report would have been made three weeks ago, a few days before the Wall Sreet Journal weighed in to confirm a new iPad was in production. The timing of this rumor is somehow interesting in our opinion.

The design changes that are allegedly causing delays could go from new display technology or Retina Display to rear-facing camera adoption and a Light Peak interface for the new iPad. “Design changes” could mean anything, really, and the report doesn’t do much to address more details. We think it’s very unlikely that Apple will push the release of the much anticipated iPad 2 until June, which has become the month for the new iPhone. Another theory is that Apple will release the iPad 2 in late April / first weeks of May and the iPhone 5 in early July, thus putting roughly two months between the availability of each device. This, however, still doesn’t explain why Apple would release another iPad as early as September.

White iPhone 4 Still Missing, White iPhone 5 Rumors Begin

The white iPhone 4 has become some kind of a myth in the Apple rumor mill and production line with its multiple delays, reports of color and light issues, magical Japanese paint and presence on various international carriers websites. With a rumored release date of “Spring 2011”, we’re still waiting to hear of any updates from Apple in regards of this mythical device that Steve Jobs proudly showed on stage at the WWDC last year.

But forget about the white iPhone 4. Digitimes is reporting today the Chinese-language Economic Daily News paper indicated Wintek has been selected to be the “sole touch panel supply for white iPhone 5s” – reportedly shipping in June.

Wintek reportedly to be the sole touch panel supply for white iPhone 5s and may replace TPK Touch Solutions to become the leading touch panel maker worldwide in 2011 as Apple plans to focus on white models for the iPhone 5, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.

How is this even possible, we don’t know. The white iPhone 4 is nowhere to be seen and the well-informed people in China are already talking about suppliers for a white iPhone 5. If this is true, the white iPhone 4 with a Spring 2011 release would be just a few months ahead of the white iPhone 5 in June – which doesn’t really make sense. Perhaps Apple killed the white iPhone 4 altogether and it’s using the Japanese paint for the iPhone 5? Maybe there’s no white iPhone 5 at all? Maybe a little bit of both?

We don’t know. But we’re pretty sure our next iPhone is going to be black.

Steve Jobs: “We Created Subscriptions for Publishing Apps”

Following yesterday’s concerns in regards of Apple’s new subscription and in-app purchase policy for third-party publishers and developers, a MacRumors reader emailed Steve Jobs asking for clarification on the matter.

Yesterday, the developers of online reading service Readability announced that they would stick with the web platform as Apple rejected their iOS application that has a subscription feature, but it’s more of a “Software as a Service” (SaaS) rather than a “publishing” app. Readability aggregates articles saved from the web and displays them in an elegant and uncluttered view. Similarly, the TinyGrab developers (a screenshot taking tool) said they would soon cease App Store support because of the in-app purchase policy implemented by Apple. Read more

Apple’s “Greedy and Unjustifiable” In-App Purchase Rules→

Apple’s “Greedy and Unjustifiable” In-App Purchase Rules

Finally someone who gets the problems with Apple’s recently announced subscription / in-app purchase policy. Instapaper developer Marco Arment nails it:

But one argument that Apple should care about: this policy will prevent many potentially great apps, from many large and small publishers, from being created on iOS at all.

A broad, vague, inconsistently applied, greedy, and unjustifiable rule doesn’t make developers want to embrace the platform.

Android’s installed base is now large enough that a huge, compelling new service could launch exclusively on it. (It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s possible.) What if the developer of the next mobile killer app decides, for political or economic reasons like this, to release it only on Android?

A few curious paradoxes:

And what about a situation like Amazon’s Kindle app that will presumably be targeted for not selling Kindle books via IAP, even though Amazon’s catalog is so large that it surpasses Apple’s own limits on how many IAP items an app can register?

There are a lot of first- and third-party apps that access Salesforce, LinkedIn, and 37signals’ services, all of which have paid service tiers. Will all of these be removed from the App Store if they don’t build in IAP?

As Arnold Kim puts it, Apple’s policy is as clear as mud. I’ve said this earlier today in regards of the Readability rejection, and I’m going to say it again: it’s ridiculous to enforce IAP for “software as a service”. Not that Apple can’t: they have all the rights to do what they want with their platform. But it doesn’t make sense.

Apple needs to clarify many points of In-App Purchases for developers and content publishers, and quickly.

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Increase Your Mac’s Volume with Boom

You’ve been there before: you’ve reached the maximum volume level on your Mac, but that Youtube audio is just too low. Or, you’ve bought a pair of fancy new speakers for your MacBook Air but the default volume output doesn’t satisfy you. The annoyances of low volume in situations when you’d like to rock out your room are terrible, if you ask me. But luckily, a Mac app properly named Boom by Global Delight will allow you to dramatically increase the volume of your OS X machine with a simple slider in the menubar. Read more

Photopod Aggregates Your Photos From the Cloud: Flickr, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter

It’s been rumored that with the next versions of iOS, and most notably the MobileMe service, Apple will heavily rely on the cloud to allow users to store media like photos, music and videos online and stream them at any time on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A move to cloud-based storage would allow the company to produce cheaper devices with less internal storage, and let users access personal content anywhere as long as an Internet connection is available at the same time.

Photopod, an iPhone app available in the App Store and developed by Dear Future Astronaut, wants to become the ultimate photo aggregator and manager by providing a unified interface to browse pictures stored on a variety of online services. Think of it as a way to access content anywhere (and download it) using an application that does everything automatically through a tabbed “accordion” UI that brings Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Dropbox, Picasa and your Camera Roll all together.

Once authorized with the aforementioned services in the Settings (note that Twitter will only fetch images shared through TwitPic on your account), the main screen of the app will display a series of vertical tabs you can expand to reveal their contents – namely photos. As you open a tab, a list of thumbnail previews slides down allowing you to see all the photos you’ve stored locally or online. Tapping on the share button in the upper right corner will let you select multiple photos at once to upload them to a specific service. It’s very cool as it also lets you upload pictures from one service to another, or from your device to the cloud. You can also download photos to view them offline, or enter a basic editing mode that enables you to rotate and crop pictures. Everything is kept simple and accessible. Flickr, Facebook and Picasa even get menus for sets and menus you’ve organized your photos with.

I like Photopod because it brings the most popular photo sharing services together into a beautiful package that’s easy to use, fast, reliable and intuitive. The app is available here at $1.99, don’t miss it.

Another Leaked Case Suggests iPad 2 Will Simply Be Called ‘iPad’, Comes with Rear Camera Hole

As noted by Apple Bitch, a new leather case for the next-generation iPad leaked to German website Macerkopf.de (Google Translation) confirms a series of rumors we’ve been hearing about the device like tapered edges, thinner design, rear-facing camera and flat back, but also provides some details on the actual name of the ‘iPad 2’. The term ‘iPad 2’ was indeed created by journalists and bloggers to indicate the second iteration of the tablet likely to ship in April; the retail packaging of this new case, however, comes with a simple “For the new iPad” label that may or may not suggest the ‘iPad 2’ will actually be called…iPad.

Of course, we can’t confirm on the authenticity of this leather case – which was allegedly leaked from a Swiss dealer that received more than 100 of these cases. The accessory also puts a lot of attention on the larger speaker cutout, supposedly implemented to let the new iPad achieve a much higher volume output comparable to Apple’s MacBooks.

Check out more pictures of this new case here. Another case surfaced on the internet last week reaffirmed other iPad 2 rumors such as smaller design, cameras and tapered edges.

Update: it also needs to be noted that current iPhone 4 accessories don’t come with labels like “Made for the iPhone 4”. Instead, Apple went for a simple “Made for iPhone” that doesn’t point to the “iPhone 4” name in any way. Still, we think ‘iPad 2’ isn’t really a great product name at all - especially considering Apple hasn’t named a product “x 2” since the Apple II and the iPhone is the only product that has gotten some kind of a numeric update on each generation.

On a personal note, I remember reading on videogame magazines a few years back that Microsoft didn’t choose to name the second-generation Xbox ‘Xbox 2’ to avoid the sound of an “inferior product” against Sony’s PlayStation 3. And so Microsoft went for the Xbox 360 brand that would play nice with PS3. Following this theory, Apple might not want to call the second-gen iPad ‘iPad 2’ to avoid confusion and confrontation with the iPhone 4, or even iPhone 5.

Apple’s Furthest-North Store To Open in Anchorage, Alaska

ifoAppleStore reports Apple will open a new Store in Anchorage, Alaska in September, making it the furthest-north Apple Store for months and years to come. The report comes after a job listing on Apple’s website that suggests the company is looking for retail staff in the Fifth Avenue Mall (Anchorage) location. The store, reportedly in construction at the second floor or the mall in a space left by Eddie Bauer at the end of January, will become the most-northern Apple retail store at 61° north latitude, 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

The website also notes the new Store will be geographically located “above” the current most-northern Aberdeen store in Scotland and any Scandinavian city that might be chosen by Apple in the future. That’s quite an interesting detail to share and, why not, it’s also pretty cool. Apple is also rumored to use other spaces in the mall for stock, offices and Genius rooms, although no official construction plans have surfaced at this point.