iphone 5 in amazon very soon

Apple takes on Google with own maps, better Siri

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:40:00 +0000

Source: Yahoo7! News
June 12, 2012, 5:25 am Poornima Gupta and Alexei Oreskovic Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc took the wraps off its own mobile mapping service and made its enhanced Siri voice-search available for iPads as it rolled out souped-up software and hardware on Monday to help it wage war on Google Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc took the wraps off its own mobile mapping service and made its enhanced Siri voice-search available for iPads as it rolled out souped-up software and hardware on Monday to help it wage war on Google Inc.

CEO Tim Cook, who took over from late co-founder Steve Jobs last August, spearheaded the unveiling of new services -- such as in-house mapping and beefed-up Siri software -- to help keep at bay Google and its fast-growing Android mobile platform.

Its new mobile operating software -- the iOS6 -- comes with a mapping system "built from the ground up," said software chief Scott Forstall, sidelining the Google map service that the Internet giant has invested heavily in.

Apple's map service comes with three-dimensional images of cities called "Flyover" along with real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation.

And Siri, the innovative voice-activated iPhone search-feature users have criticized as faulty and inadequate, is now available on iPads and recites a larger database of answers, especially sports, restaurants and movies. It is also integrated into the new mapping service.

Finally, executives said Apple has integrated No. 1 social network Facebook deeper into the operating system, allowing Siri-users to post photos with voice commands.

THE EDGE

Long lines marked the beginning of the week-long annual Worldwide Developers' Conference, where Apple developers rub shoulders with employees, test the latest products and software, and connect with peers. Apple kicked off proceedings by touting its hardware, its biggest edge over Google.

At 0.7 inches, the new MacBook Pro -- Apple's highest-end laptop -- ranks among the thinnest laptops in the market and will hit store shelves months before many Microsoft Windows-equipped "Ultrabooks." They will employ the "retina" displays that have won strong positive reviews for the new iPad, but start at an eye-popping $2,199 price tag.

Marketing chief Phil Schiller outlined how the redesigned MacBook Air notebooks, also unveiled at the conference, will be about $100 cheaper on average than predecessors, but sport quicker Intel Corp processors, potentially eating into territory staked out by Hewlett-Packard, Dell Inc and other PC makers.

Analysts have speculated that the company will begin aggressively competing on price, gradually shrinking the premium its Macs carry in general.

More than ever, Apple finds itself in a pitched battle with Google: in smartphones, cloud computing, and a never-ending competition to attract the best software developers. That is crucial as Apple looks to draw users deeper into its applications ecosystem.

Cook told the audience that customers have downloaded more than 30 billion Apple apps so far, choosing from more than 650,000 apps -- the largest library in the industry.

Battling in many arenas, the rivals employ different weapons. Apple's vise-like grip on its ecosystem - with the closely managed app store and its seamless integration with the hardware - stands in sharp contrast to Google's free-for-all approach.

The open system approach, reminiscent of Microsoft Corp's hugely successful strategy of creating standard-setting software that runs on a variety of hardware, has allowed Android to capture the market lead in smartphones, albeit with nothing close to Apple's profit margins.

Android has also helped create several potent hardware rivals to Apple. Samsung Electronics' Android-driven Galaxy SIII is drawing favorable comparisons to iPhone and Amazon.com Inc's cheaper Kindle Fire is challenging Apple in tablets and digital content.

The move - years in the making - to replace Google Maps is a dramatic example of how the rivalry between the companies has been evolving.

Google has invested huge sums in mapping technology over the years, and about half its map traffic now comes from iPhones and iPads. Among other things, the traffic from those devices reveals valuable location data that helps improve the mapping service and provides features like real-time traffic reports.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta and Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Mother's Day Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:16:00 +0000

Source: Amazon.com
If you're looking for Mother's Day gifts, you've come to the right place. We've gathered up all our top picks for gifts for Mom, from pretty pendants and scarves to kitchen essentials to popular gadgets. So whether you've got a sporty mom or a trendsetting mom, we've got Mother's Day gift ideas you'll love. Have a look around and find something special for Mom this Mother's Day.

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Mother's Day Gift Ideas in Cell Phones & Accessories--Help Mom Stay Connected in Style

This Mother's Day, show Mom how much you care with a cool new piece of technology to help her stay connected to everyone and everything she loves. Upgrade Mom to 4G with a new smartphone with service plan at AmazonWireless, or check out our great selection of no-contract and unlocked devices.

Looking for something to complement the phone Mom already has? Check out our bestselling Bluetooth devices to help her stay hands-free while on the go, or our fantastic selection of cases and covers to help her show off her style and keep her phone protected.

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Mother's Day Gift Ideas in MP3

Mother's Day is just around the corner. Give the gift of music to your mom with our featured MP3 players, speaker systems, and MP3 accessories.

Don't see what you're looking for? Visit our MP3 Players & Accessories Store.

Discount is reflected in current price. Applies only to products sold by Amazon.com; does not apply to items sold by other merchants on the Amazon.com website. Offer good through May 13, 2012, while supplies last.

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Give Mom exactly what she wants this Mother's Day, even if you don't know what it is. Amazon.com Gift Cards are redeemable storewide and never expire. Send gift cards instantly by e-mail, print your own, or order by mail with Free One-Day Shipping in a free gift box or greeting card.

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Mother's Day Gifts--Celebrate Mom This Mother's Day

Mother's Day only comes around once a year, and Mother's Day 2012 is Sunday, May 13. We bet you find ways all year round to tell Mom you love her, but we're big fans of this one special day to let Mom know she's No. 1. During childhood, we're betting you showered Mom with Mother's Day gifts like misshapen clay "art," overcooked scrambled eggs on the bed...oops...in bed, regifted and well-loved stuffed animals, and boxes of drugstore chocolate that were meant to be shared.

Now that you're all grown up, you have even more to thank Mom for than back then--after all, you got this far, didn't you? But finding the perfect gift for Mother's Day isn't always easy. You could go the classic route and send a lovely bouquet of Mother's Day flowers. Or, you could step up the old chocolate routine with a box of artisan truffles. Then, there's always something pretty to make her ooh and ahh, a heart-shaped pendant, a shiny new watch, a scarf in her favorite color, or a new bottle of her favorite perfume. The Mother's Day gift ideas are endless. That's why we're gathering all our top picks right here, so online shopping for Mother's Day is a breeze, and you pick out a Mother's Day gift that's not just a momentary whim, but one that's straight from the heart.

And, if you know one thing about Amazon, you know we've got great prices. Just because you want to celebrate Mom this Mother's Day, it doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money. We've got Mother's Day deals from across our stores, with low prices on gifts for Mom, and terrific shipping so you know you'll get your gift on time. If you can't be there to spend Mother's Day with her this year, take advantage of our gift-wrap option and mail your Mother's Day gifts right to her. And in case she didn't already remind you...don't forget to call!

Five Apple predictions for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:14:00 +0000

APPLE some surprises for 2012

Source: Yahoo!7
December 21, 2011, 4:05 pm CNET Australia CNET Australia

Expecting something from Apple can be a dangerous game, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to try and read the tea leaves every once in a while.

Below are five things I think we can expect from Apple next year. Some of these are based on a long ramp-up of rumors and telltale signs from this year, with others outright speculation from trends and the company's product release habits.

It's worth pointing out that Apple's usual lack of predictability is what makes it such an interesting company to watch. Nowhere was that more clear than what happened with the iPhone 4S. While most of the press and rumour blogs were anticipating a full overhaul of the iPhone's hardware, we got a souped up iPhone 4 instead. Sure, Siri turned out to be pretty cool, but many were expecting something else.

Now, without further ado...

1. No TV set, yet

The rumoured product that's spent most of 2011 as an abstraction of data points is almost certainly on its way to being a real thing, but likely won't be seen next year.

In the recently released biography of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, author Walter Isaacson noted Jobs' efforts on making an easy-to-use TV set that is integrated with the company's various products and services. "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs told Isaacson. "It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."

Of course how far along Apple really was in that endeavor remains a significant question. In an interview with CNET, Isaacson said Apple wasn't "close at all," and that "it was very theoretical." In late October, Bloomberg claimed that the company had already turned to one of the founding team members of the iPod and iTunes Music Store to get a TV set out the door. More recently, Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek claimed that Apple was tapping Sharp for display panels in order to make a TV for a mid-2012 release.

But that estimate seems awfully bullish, especially given where Apple's home entertainment landscape currently sits. For better or worse, the Apple TV box remains a hobby product for the company. No doubt it will become more capable in future iterations, but what many are expecting with a TV set would be something that leapfrogs that effort. Will Apple deliver that in 2012? My guess is no.

2. Siri opened up to developers

The sassy voice assistant has been a breakout hit for Apple since its introduction with the iPhone 4S in October, but it's missing something big. Apple's current implementation is limited to Web queries from partners like Wolfram Alpha and Yelp, along with Apple's own apps. What's missing is a way to hook it into the half a million or so apps that are on the App Store.

Much as those very same apps helped expand what one could do with the iPhone itself, creating voice plug-ins for apps could very well be the next step in making Siri a more useful service.

It took Apple a little less than four months after the launch of the original iPhone to announce a software developer kit, a move that led to the App Store in 2008. In Siri's case, the apps are already there, as are the tools to make them. However Siri does most of its magic on Apple's servers, and is currently limited to the iPhone 4S.

Would developers take on extra work for just one device? They certainly did that with the iPhone 4 and its move to a Retina Display, as well as the iPad and its bigger resolution.

3. The end of the Mac Pro

Desktop sales just weren't what they used to be compared to when Apple introduced the original design of the Mac Pro (then the Power Mac G5) in mid-2003. While Mac hardware sales have grown considerably since then, notebooks have been the belle of the ball since they surpassed the company's sales of desktop computers in 2004. Those same notebook units now face cannibalization from Apple's iPad, which itself blew past Mac sales last year.

So why keep the Mac Pro around? It certainly links back to Apple's roots in providing designers and professionals with beefy workstations. But it's one of the only products in Apple's lineup that just doesn't fit in anymore. Apple's Macs are basically sealed up, and need to be taken to a repair professional for anything outside of swapping out the RAM. By comparison, the Mac Pro lets you open up the side and fiddle around with the inside bits. That's the standard for PC manufacturers, but Apple's made a hefty business out of doing things the other way around.

An anonymously sourced report from AppleInsider in October suggested that Apple's seen a sharp decline in sales of the workstations, which begin at $2,499 in the U.S., and that the drop has led executives to reconsider whether it's worth continuing to invest in the product. Lending further credence to that idea is the fact that Apple hasn't given the line a proper overhaul since before it made the move to Intel processors, instead putting its focus on updates to its Mac Mini, iMac and MacBook portable lines.

The real question is how the Mac Pro will take its bow. Will Apple announce its demise, or simply replace that spot in its product line with something else?

4. Apple ditches Google for Maps

Google's been closely tied to Apple's iOS since the first iPhone was unveiled, but that could change next year if the company ends up introducing its own mapping service. Why would Apple do that? Tensions between the Apple and Google have increased in recent years with the rise of Android, Google's mobile operating system.

Making matters more interesting was Apple's acknowledgement that it was collecting traffic data "to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years." That sounds more like a layer on top of an existing mapping service than a standalone service of its own. Yet, Apple acquired C3 Technologies this year, the third such mapping company it's bought up, and one that specializes in eye-popping 3D imagery.

Something that throws some cold water on this prediction is that Apple renewed its deal with Google to use its mapping service earlier this year, but we don't know how long that's good for.

5. A truly new iPhone

Apple's released a new iPhone every year since its introduction, making this one a bit of a no-brainer. So far that cycle's consisted of a steady stream of internal tweaks, with every other year including a full-scale overhaul. The iPhone 4 was the last such big change to Apple's iPhone design formula, with the 4S getting speedier guts.

Yet before the 4S launched, the rumors were hot and heavy with Apple pushing out a drastic design change. That device never materialized, putting all bets on it arriving next year.

So what features will it have? The big thing to expect is a larger screen. The traditional 3.5-inch displays have served Apple well, but other manufacturers have bumped up to the 4-inch range, with some going bigger. Other things to put on that list include a jump to 4G networking, near-field communications (NFC) for transferring information between devices, and of course the usual tweaks to the camera and processor

Most wanted smartphones

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:25:00 +0000

The most wanted smartphones for christmas

Source: Yahoo!7

Credit: Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S II

Samsung builds well on the success of the original Galaxy with a fast, attractive and fully featured phone, but one that requires a lot of juice to run.

AU$899
Rating: 8.5/10

The Good: Lightning-fast performance • Super AMOLED Plus is fantastic • Camera is amongst the best we've seen • TouchWiz 4.0 has some neat shortcuts.

The Bad: Battery life is disappointing • Video-out requires a separate adapter.

Click here for our full review of the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Credit: HTC

HTC Desire HD

We looked long and hard for flaws in the Desire HD but failed to find anything significant. This handset checks all the right boxes, with outstanding performance complementing its large, clear display.

Price TBA
Rating: 9.6/10

The Good: Class-leading performance • One of the largest screens around • Sense UI is packed with useful tweaks and tools • Remote backup, lock and wipe.

The Bad: DLNA media sharing needs work • LCD doesn't have the same punch as AMOLED.

Click here for our full review of the HTC Desire HD.

Credit: RIM

BlackBerry Bold 9900

The touch-and-type Bold 9900 is the sleekest, zippiest BlackBerry to date, but there are key features missing, which business users would have loved to have had included.

Price TBA
Rating: 8.0/10

The Good: Outstanding design • Touch and type works well • Best BlackBerry browser yet • Great battery life.

The Bad: No HDMI • No DLNA • No Wi-Fi hotspot • No Flash support.

Click here for our full review of the Blackberry Bold 9900.

Credit: HTC

HTC Evo 3D

Whether you like the 3D feature or choose to never use it, the Evo 3D is a powerful, capable Android and our favourite HTC smartphone of the year, so far.

AU$912
Rating: 9.0/10

The Good: Solid smartphone experience • 3D is great when it works • 1730mAh battery is sufficient.

The Bad: No HDMI port • Struggles with 1080p videos • Limited multimedia file recognition.

Click here for our full review of the HTC Evo 3D.

Credit: HTC

HTC Sensation XL

HTC proves again that bigger is better, especially when its large-screen phone packs in a great user experience and Beats audio headphones to boot.

AU$899
Rating: 9.0/10

The Good: Huge display is great to have • First-class performance • Fantastic camera • Beats Audio headphones are a big plus in this package.

The Bad: Beats Audio profile only works in default music player • No expandable memory • TV-out requires adapter, no HDMI.

Click here for our full review of the HTC Sensation XL.

Best touchscreen phones

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:10:00 +0000

How You find the best touchscreen phones

Source: Cnet Australia

Samsung HD Icon. Credit: Samsung

Samsung has succeeded in creating the ultimate multimedia smartphone. If you have a desktop hard drive full of mixed media you wish you could take with you on the train to work, there is no better phone than the HD Icon.
RRP AU$999

The Good: Excellent AMOLED display • Best media playback options we've seen to date • DLNA and TV-out cable for media sharing • Roadsync for Outlook email • Responsive touchscreen input

The Bad: Average photo and video recording quality • Standard one-day battery life • No app store to download new tools and games

For our full review of the Samsung HD Icon, visit CNET.com.au.

Apple iPhone 3GS. Credit: Apple

Even substantial concerns about network reception and battery life can't stop us recommending the iPhone 3GS. The combination of its fantastic browser, the full-featured iPod media player and Apple's App Store forms a compelling trio and are together unmatched by the competition.
RRP AU$719

The Good: Multimedia messaging, video recording and voice dialling — finally • Runs faster • Promised longer battery life • Multimedia quality continues to shine

The Bad: No improvement in call quality • 3G signal reception uneven • Still no Flash Lite or USB transfer and storage • Only 8GB model available since iPhone 4 release

For our full review of the Apple iPhone 3GS, visit CNET.com.au.

HTC HD2. Credit: HTC

There's no doubt in our minds that the combination of power, features and good looks make the HTC HD2 the best Windows Mobile smartphone ever made.
RRP AU$829

The Good: Huge screen matched with slim, lightweight construction • Powerhouse Snapdragon processor • Wi-Fi router mode is very handy • Comparatively inexpensive • 16GB microSD included

The Bad: Memory needs to be managed to avoid major lag spikes • Keyboard auto-correction isn't as good as the iPhone

For our full review of the HTC HD2, visit CNET.com.au.

Sony Ericsson Satio. Credit: Sony Ericsson

There are a few trade-offs, but overall we're very impressed. The Satio sports a sharp, responsive touchscreen and is possibly the 2009's best camera phone.
RRP AU$1199

The Good: Responsive touchscreen • Excellent 12MP camera • Good media playback • Great connectivity

The Bad: Poor battery life • Signal issues • No 3.5mm headphone socket

For our full review of the Sony Ericsson Satio, visit CNET.com.au.

Nokia N900. Credit: Nokia

For users who don't mind spending a little time getting to know a new system, the Nokia N900 is truly outstanding. With multitasking and lightning-fast performance, the N900 is pushing smartphones to genius levels.
RRP AU$899

The Good: Maemo is an excellent smartphone platform • True multitasking • Zippy performance • Responsive touchscreen • Great keyboard

The Bad: New system takes time to learn • Needs a "Home" key • Camera isn't one of Nokia's best

For our full review of the Nokia N900, visit CNET.com.au.

Samsung Galaxy S. Credit: Samsung

Sure it looks like an iPhone, but on the inside the Galaxy S is a web-browsing, media-playing beast of a smartphone, and one of the best Android phones in Australia today.
RRP AU$849

The Good: Stunning Super AMOLED display • Support for DivX and FLAC • Great online performance

The Bad: Cheap-feeling plastic chassis • iPhone look-alike • Samsung's widgets are mostly ugly

For our full review of the Samsung Galaxy S, visit CNET.com.au.

Google Nexus One. Credit: HTC

Google's Nexus One may not be the iPhone killer, but it offers a comparable alternative to Apple's smartphone, with excellent performance and a suite of innovative and useful applications.
RRP AU$899

The Good: Outstanding design • Responsive AMOLED touchscreen • Speech-to-text integration throughout • 4GB memory card in the box

The Bad: Disappointing battery life • Apps still install to internal memory rather than expanded memory

For our full review of the Google Nexus One, visit CNET.com.au.

LG Mini. Credit: LG

LG has outdone itself again with a beautifully crafted handset that offers a good range of features.
RRP AU$609

The Good: Stylish design • Excellent build quality • Sharp 3.2-inch WVGA display • HSDPA/HSUPA • Air Sync that lets you manage content on the handset, PC and web

The Bad: No camera flash • Facebook and Twitter clients offer incomplete functions • Limited support for Flash on WebKit browser

For our full review of the LG Mini, visit CNET.com.au.

HTC Desire. Credit: HTC

The Desire strikes a perfect balance between design, features and performance, offering users a fun, fast user experience and some of the best communications tools available in phones today.
RRP AU$779

The Good: Excellent design with stunning AMOLED screen • Huge range of preinstalled software • First class web browser with Flash • HTC Sense is superb

The Bad: Poor 5-megapixel camera • Battery needs to be managed by the user • Needs at least 8GB of internal storage

For our full review of the HTC Desire, visit CNET.com.au.

The phones of 2012

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:51:00 +0000

Look the best prices mobile phones

Mobile phones for 2012

Source: Yahoo!7
Joseph Hanlon

Future is calling

With a number of models set to hit the market in 2012, mobile phone enthusiasts are in for a treat

Film still from 2001: A Space Odyssey, credit: Warner Bros; Morph phone concept by Nokia

If you follow the Mayan calendar, speculation about how cool next year's phones will be might seem kind of trivial. However, if the world doesn't end, then we're in for a treat next year, according to our various sources across the mobile industry.
There have been enormous leaps forward in smartphones in the last two years, with advancements in screen technologies, processing power and photo image quality to name a few, and there is no indication that we'll see smartphone designers and manufacturers slowing down in 2012. In fact, we expect to see a few exciting new technologies becoming mainstream next year, inside bigger, brighter, badder phones and tablets.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Credit: Samsung

Bigger screens, more pixels
At the end of 2009, the Desire HD wowed us with its WVGA (800x480 pixels) 4.3-inch display. In 2011, most of the high-end handsets featured screens with this spec, some with an even higher qHD (940x540 pixels) resolution displays. From all of the conversations that we've had with people inside the major phone makers and with people within the telcos, this trend towards larger screens will continue next year.

The Samsung/Google-made Galaxy Nexus is a clear indicator of what we can expect from screens in 2012 — it features a 4.65-inch 720p HD-resolution display. This is the benchmark that the major players will be aiming to topple, including Samsung, when it announces the Galaxy S3 at MWC. But will we see this pushed much further? Definitely; our money is on 5-inch-plus displays next year, as the line between the phone and the tablet blurs.

Credit: Fortes

Megapixels "in the teens"

One interesting titbit that we picked up from one of our many sources was to expect phones with "megapixels in the teens". The major phone players held off from launching handsets with image sensors larger than 8 megapixels in 2011, but, apparently, this will change next year. Will we finally see HTC's 16-megapixel camera phone? Our fingers are crossed.

Don't forget that image quality isn't measured in megapixels, though. "Megapixels" refers, indirectly, to the size of the photos you take, and if you had the misfortune of eating a Hungry Jack's Quad Stack burger, then you'd know that bigger isn't always better. Luckily, some of the major phone makers spent this year getting image quality right, so a 16-megapixel camera from Samsung, HTC or Apple could actually translate into a photographic experience worth printing and sharing.

The Nvidia Tegra 3 Chipset
Credit: Nvidia

Quad-core processors
For every dual-core smartphone or tablet we saw released this year (14 in Australia by our count), we expect to see quad-core counterparts in 2012. Rumours are already circling around HTC, suggesting that at least one quad-core phone and a tablet will be announced at Mobile World Congress in 2012. Computer makers Acer and Asus have already announced tablets with the new Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chipset, and we expect to hear from Samsung, LG and Motorola about similarly specced hardware very soon.

Like dual-core, though, don't expect every phone in a manufacturer's range to pack the most powerful processors. We expect all of the players listed above to announce one quad-core model at MWC 2012, and one quad-core tablet at the same time.

While it's exciting, the introduction of quad-core processing has us wondering how much is too much? How will the new Android OS handle quad-core processors? Will developers, presumably game developers, take advantage of this extra power? For as much as we've enjoyed using dual-core devices this year, you could argue that there were very few applications designed to take full advantage of the dual-core architecture.

The HTC Holiday will be Telstra's first LTE handset
Credit: HTC

4G data speeds
With Telstra and Optus both formally announcing (and Telstra launching) LTE, or 4G, networks, LTE-capable devices are definitely on the way for next year. If you missed our 4G coverage from a couple of months ago, we're talking about data download speeds that are twice as fast as the current maximums in Australia, and downloads of up to three times faster, plus much lower latency than you can currently expect on the current 3G networks.

While faster web browsing is the obvious benefit of LTE networking in handsets, this new technology also opens the door for rich, new multimedia experiences. Remember those HD-resolution screens we mentioned earlier? Well, how about an HD streaming movie to view on them? Or an HD game, streamed over the web to your handset using a service like the OnLive streaming game service running in the US right now.

Cloud storage service and subscription music service are more viable alternatives to locally stored data once you have a connection to the internet to make the transfer of data feel as though it's stored on the phone's own memory, so look out for increased interest in services like Dropbox, once LTE handsets begin to hit store shelves.

Don't expect it to make you coffee, though. Or be studded with diamonds.
Credit: Amosu

More bang for your buck
We saw a few incredible smartphone bargains this year, but, with AU$99 smartphones in the market already, don't expect the price of phones to lower next year. Instead, you can expect better phones at each price point. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg from Chinese manufacturer Huawei, for example. So far, the telcos have only ranged a handful of Huawei cheapest models in Australia, but the company has a range of higher-spec models waiting in the wings, and when these hit stores they will be considerably cheaper than the competition from the more established brands.

What sort of handsets are we describing? Imagine an Android-powered smartphone with a 4.3-inch LCD touchscreen, and a 1.2GHz or 1.4GHz processor available for $0 on an AU$29 plan. Huawei is in a great position to release such a phone, and don't be surprised if Chinese rival ZTE makes something similar for Telstra.

Credit: Google

NFC
We're beginning to see near-field communications (NFC) connectivity trickling into current smartphones, with the BlackBerry Bold, the Samsung Nexus S and the Nokia N9 examples of phones that you can buy today using NFC. We anticipate a flood of new handsets that will include an NFC chip next year, but the million-dollar question is whether we will see accessories and services to support these chips.

So, what is NFC good for? If you bought a Nokia N9 today, you would also have the option to buy Nokia 360 speakers, which use NFC to create a wireless connection with the phone. This is an excellent time saver, but NFC becomes much more exciting when you imagine your phone as your cashless wallet. Instead of carrying around credit cards, each with a different NFC chip, your phone, along with the right app, will be able to act in the place of all of these cards. Just take a purchase to the register, wave your phone over the scanner and walk out.

The Commonwealth Bank is first to market with this sort of technology for its customers, but expect other banks and major tech players, like Google, Apple, PayPal and others, to get involved in Australia in 2012.

Is there anything you think we've missed? If you have a prediction for next year, let us know in the comments below.

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The hidden cost of iCloud, and how to avoid it

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Excelent article can help for every one

Source: CNET Australia

The magic of iCloud may seem free, but it comes at a cost: your data. Find out how to avoid paying bucket loads just for the convenience of Apple's cloud syncing.

When the late Steve Jobs introduced iOS 5 during his last keynote address in June, he touted iCloud as something that "just works", saying that users would have nothing to learn. As it turns out, he was right — but only on his first point.

Not only is there a lot to learn about iCloud, but users also have little control over it once they start. So, before you jump in, it's important to know a few things about it.

What is it?

If you don't quite understand iCloud, you're not alone. Even Apple hasn't done the best job of explaining it.

In a nutshell, iCloud is more than just a cloud storage solution that gives you the first 5GB of storage for free; you can use it to store songs, apps and ebooks that you've purchased from the iTunes App Store, or photos shot with your device, on Apple's servers. It also pushes that data to up to 10 iCloud-enabled mobile devices and computers (running iTunes 10.5 or later) that belong to the same Apple ID account. So, for example, when you download an app on one iDevice, that app will also be downloaded to your iPhone, your iPod Touch and to your computer.

For the most part, it's all pushed in real time, with the speed depending on the internet connection. So by replacing the old way of syncing your mobile devices with a computer one at a time, you can keep your digital library updated as soon as you download a new song. As far as convenience goes, this seems to be a genius solution. However, you'll pay a potentially hefty price for the privilege.

The abuse of internet data and bandwidth

Let's say you want to download a game that's 20MB, which is pretty small as mobile apps go. In the past, you downloaded it to your computer using iTunes, and then synced it to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad by plugging the devices into the computer. (Or, if you chose to download directly to an iDevice, you could transfer that app back to iTunes before syncing to other devices.) This way, no matter how many iOS devices you wanted to put the game on, you just needed to use only 20MB of your internet bandwidth for the initial download.

Turning the Automatic Download setting on within iTunes means that apps, songs and ebooks will be re-downloaded on the computer. You can save bandwidth by turning these off, plugging the iOS device in and choosing "transfer purchases". (Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CBSi)

With iCloud, this changes dramatically. Let's say that you have an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod Touch and a MacBook Pro, all with iCloud turned on. Once you have started downloading the 20MB iOS game on one of these devices, the same game will be downloaded to the other three, making the total internet data needed 80MB. (The data concern aside, you'll probably find this automatic downloading very cool — I did — at least, until you realise that there are four concurrent downloads, instead of just one, going through the pipe. This means that your internet connection will also be significantly slower for other use.)

Now let's imagine that you intend to download about 20MB of apps, songs and books from the App Store per day (20MB is equal to about six songs, by the way). With iCloud, your data use jumps to 80MB per day or 2400MB (about 2.4GB) per month — an excessive amount.

That 2.4GB is more than the first-tier data cap that most wireless carriers impose on a mobile broadband plan. So watch out when you're on the road with iOS devices, especially if you like snapping photos with your iPhone (more on this below).

On iOS devices, you can turn off certain download types from the App Store to minimise internet use. (Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CBSi)

Note that when you use a mobile broadband modem, the router creates a small Wi-Fi network for the other mobile devices to connect to and share internet access. But remember that you're still using a carrier's data network to access the internet. So any device connected to a modem will still eat up your mobile router's data allowance, including those you have set not to use data.

Even while at home, where your internet provider offers a high monthly cap, iCloud could still put a strain on your connection.

iCloud also allows you to sync photos that you take across iDevices via Photo Stream. Yet, because these features also need to use the internet to upload the data from one device before pushing it to others, they can be even bigger bandwidth killers.

On average, each photo taken by an iDevice is about 2MB in size, so if you take 10 photos per day, the total monthly upload will be about 600MB. Keep in mind that this amount gets progressively larger if you have multiple people in the family using multiple iDevices for snapping photos.
And what would happen if different people shared one Apple ID account? Their privacy might be at risk.

When sharing the same Apple ID with others, turning Photo Stream off will not just help save internet bandwidth, but also the risk of sharing something that causes embarrassment. (Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CBSi)

The risk of sharing sensitive information

iOS devices, like the iPhone and the iPad, are designed to build a personal relationship between the product and the user. Unlike a PC, they don't support multiple profiles, which is why some families buy multiple tablets rather than just share one device.

Even with multiple devices, families may still share a single Apple ID. This saves them from having to buy the same app more than once; parents can monitor which apps their children use; and they can use one Find My Phone app to know the whereabouts of one another.

Before iCloud, this "sharing" scenario worked well, because regardless of how many iDevices a family has, each member could pick and choose which apps he or she wanted on the device when syncing with a PC. With iCloud, however, that's no longer the case. Anything that you buy for yourself will be downloaded on all of the devices instantly. So if you're using the same Apple ID, there may be times when books or songs not appropriate for kids will end up on their devices.

This could become even more embarrassing with Photo Stream, which, as mentioned above, automatically upload photos taken by one device and pushes them to all the others. Note that when you turn on the iCloud's Photo Stream feature, even photos taken before that will be uploaded from the device and downloaded to others that share the same Apple ID account.

What you can do to keep things in check

Now that it's pretty obvious that iCloud offers convenience at the expense of excessive use of the internet, and potential risk of privacy, there are few ways for you to keep it under control.

Using iTunes Wi-Fi Sync is a great way to keep your iOS devices synced without using the internet. (Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CBSi)

• Use Automatic Download selectively: turn off types of automatic downloads that are not important to you. For example, you probably don't need to use the automatic download for ebooks on the iPod Touch if you only use your iPad to read books. Also note that your iDevices have different amounts of storage space. Your 8GB iPhone can't hold everything that you want to put on your 64GB iPad, so don't fill it with unnecessary downloads.

• Opt to use iTunes Wi-Fi Sync instead of iCloud: iTunes Wi-Fi Sync allows you to download purchases from the Apple Store to one computer, then sync them with other iOS devices via your local Wi-Fi network. It basically works the same way as plugging the iDevices into a computer without actually plugging it in.

• Use the traditional plugged-in-to-sync method: this works especially well for those who use the computer to charge the device anyway.
Note that, although more convenient, syncing using iCloud is not always faster than the alternative ways. This is especially true for those with a slow internet connection.

In regards to privacy, it's best not to share your Apple ID account with others if you can afford it. If not, you should turn off Photo Stream, or just be aware that photos you take with your device can be seen by others. Maybe in the future, Apple will offer a way for users to disable this feature on certain photos.

In all fairness, this doesn't mean that iCloud is not a great feature. It really is, and you should definitely turn it on for non-data-intensive applications, like contacts, calendars, bookmarks and notes. However, like all online storage-based services, you need to exert more control over it, or risk finding yourself paying more than you should, or, even worse, regretting using it at all.

Smartphone war pauses as world mourns Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:50:00 +0000

Phone war on hold

Google and Samsung have delayed the announcement of their new smartphones to honour Steve Jobs.

Source: Yahoo 7 News
AFP
October 8, 2011, 12:27 pm

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - The launch of a hot new Google smartphone was delayed as the world mourned the loss of legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and sales began of the latest iPhone.

Unconfirmed word also spread that a private funeral was taking place for Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 after battling cancer. Apple has indicated that no public memorial is planned.

People touched by the death of the Apple co-founder have made pilgrimages to Apple stores, the company's Cupertino headquarters, and even his family's two-story brick home in an old section of the Silicon Valley city of Palo Alto.

Apple security and local police have discretely ringed the house, clearing the way for dark vehicles bearing flowers or friends to get through the barricaded intersection and into a driveway of the corner property.

On the far side of the slate-roofed house is an apricot orchard.

Jobs bought the neighboring property a long time back and knocked down the house there to put in a swing set for his children and an apricot orchard because he so loved the fruit, according to neighbors.

People, some with children, came to pay tribute to Jobs and a collection of orchids, roses and other flowers grew.

"I just wanted to know I could do something," Judith Sallot said of how she and others around the world sought ways to express their sense of loss since no public event is expected.

"People just want to do something," she explained.

Sallot, who recently turned 65 years old, confided that she was computer illiterate until she got an iPhone.

"I am computer savvy now," she said with a smile. "I feel so much better about myself, and it's because he made it easy."

Grim-faced people came and went, pausing to gaze thoughtfully at a growing shrine that included a classic white iPod with the words "Stay hungry" and "Stay foolish" written on it in black marker.

A pile of apples, each with one bite taken out in tribute to Apple's famous logo, was growing and heartfelt messages written in colored chalk coated the sidewalk.

On the other side of a low wooden-post fence lining the front yard, a small apple orchard laden with fruit stood in a sea of orange poppies.

Pictures of Jobs were tacked to the fence, along with messages including "Often imitated, never duplicated."

"It is sad, especially for the family," said a neighbor who asked only to be identified by her first name, Karelle. "He was part of the neighborhood."

As was the case with many of the others who stopped to leave notes, flowers, or other tributes to Jobs, Karelle snapped pictures with her iPhone.

Samsung and Google on Friday postponed a "Mobile Unpacked" press event planned for next week at an international wireless telecommunications industry conference in Southern California.

"Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product," Samsung said in a statement at its official blog.

"We will announce a new date and venue in due course," the South Korean consumer electronics titan promised.

Samsung was expected to unveil a Galaxy Nexus smartphone powered by a yet-to-be released version of Google-backed Android software and designed to challenge market-leading iPhone.

Postponing the launch was seen as a temporary truce of sorts in honor of Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 after battling cancer.

Apple on Friday began taking online pre-orders for an updated iPhone 4S that is to be available on October 14 in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain.

The iPhone 4S features a speedier processor, a "personal assistant" that responds to voice commands and a more powerful camera.

It remained to be seen whether the legions of people from around the world touched by the death of Jobs would buy the iPhone 4S in tribute to the man who altered lives with iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macintosh computers.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

How Steve Jobs spent his final weeks

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:32:00 +0000

With Time Running Short, Jobs Managed His Farewells

Source: Yahoo 7 News

Companies:Apple Inc.

Related Quotes

Symbol	Price	Change
AAPL	369.80	-7.57

CHARLES DUHIGG, On Thursday October 6, 2011, 9:25 pm EDT

Over the last few months, a steady stream of visitors to Palo Alto, Calif., called an old friend’s home number and asked if he was well enough to entertain visitors, perhaps for the last time.

In February, Steven P. Jobs had learned that, after years of fighting cancer, his time was becoming shorter. He quietly told a few acquaintances, and they, in turn, whispered to others. And so a pilgrimage began.

The calls trickled in at first. Just a few, then dozens, and in recent weeks, a nearly endless stream of people who wanted a few moments to say goodbye, according to people close to Mr. Jobs. Most were intercepted by his wife, Laurene. She would apologetically explain that he was too tired to receive many visitors. In his final weeks, he became so weak that it was hard for him to walk up the stairs of his own home anymore, she confided to one caller.

Some asked if they might try again tomorrow.

Sorry, she replied. He had only so much energy for farewells. The man who valued his privacy almost as much as his ability to leave his mark on the world had decided whom he most needed to see before he left.

Mr. Jobs spent his final weeks — as he had spent most of his life — in tight control of his choices. He invited a close friend, the physician Dean Ornish, a preventive health advocate, to join him for sushi at one of his favorite restaurants, Jin Sho in Palo Alto. He said goodbye to longtime colleagues including the venture capitalist John Doerr, the Apple board member Bill Campbell and the Disney chief executive Robert A. Iger. He offered Apple’s executives advice on unveiling the iPhone 4S, which occurred on Tuesday. He spoke to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. He started a new drug regime, and told some friends that there was reason for hope.

But, mostly, he spent time with his wife and children — who will now oversee a fortune of at least $6.5 billion, and, in addition to their grief, take on responsibility for tending to the legacy of someone who was as much a symbol as a man.

“Steve made choices,” Dr. Ornish said. “I once asked him if he was glad that he had kids, and he said, ‘It’s 10,000 times better than anything I’ve ever done.’ ”

“But for Steve, it was all about living life on his own terms and not wasting a moment with things he didn’t think were important. He was aware that his time on earth was limited. He wanted control of what he did with the choices that were left.”

In his final months, Mr. Jobs’s home — a large and comfortable but relatively modest brick house in a residential neighborhood — was surrounded by security guards. His driveway’s gate was flanked by two black S.U.V.’s.

On Thursday, as online eulogies multiplied and the walls of Apple stores in Taiwan, New York, Shanghai and Frankfurt were papered with hand-drawn cards, the S.U.V.’s were removed and the sidewalk at his home became a garland of bouquets, candles and a pile of apples, each with one bite carefully removed.

“Everyone always wanted a piece of Steve,” said one acquaintance who, in Mr. Jobs’s final weeks, was rebuffed when he sought an opportunity to say goodbye. “He created all these layers to protect himself from the fan boys and other peoples’ expectations and the distractions that have destroyed so many other companies.

“But once you’re gone, you belong to the world.”

Mr. Jobs’s biographer, Mr. Isaacson, whose book will be published in two weeks, asked him why so private a man had consented to the questions of someone writing a book. “I wanted my kids to know me,” Mr. Jobs replied, Mr. Isaacson wrote Thursday in an essay on Time.com. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”

Because of that privacy, little is known yet of what Mr. Jobs’s heirs will do with his wealth. Unlike many prominent business people, he has never disclosed plans to give large amounts to charity. His shares in Disney, which Mr. Jobs acquired when the entertainment company purchased his animated film company, Pixar, are worth about $4.4 billion. That is double the $2.1 billion value of his shares in Apple, perhaps surprising given that he is best known for the computer company he founded.

Mr. Jobs’s emphasis on secrecy, say acquaintances, led him to shy away from large public donations. At one point, Mr. Jobs was asked by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates to give a majority of his wealth to philanthropy alongside a number of prominent executives like Mr. Gates and Warren E. Buffett. But Mr. Jobs declined, according to a person with direct knowledge of Mr. Jobs’s decision.

Now that Mr. Jobs is gone, many people expect that attention will focus on his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, who has largely avoided the spotlight, but is expected to oversee Mr. Jobs’s fortune. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Mrs. Powell Jobs worked in investment banking before founding a natural foods company. She then founded College Track, a program that pairs disadvantaged students with mentors who help them earn college degrees. That has led to some speculation in the philanthropic community that any large charitable contributions might go to education, though no one outside Mr. Jobs’s inner circle is thought to know of the plans.

Mr. Jobs himself never got a college degree. Despite leaving Reed College after six months, he was asked to give the 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.

In that address, delivered after Mr. Jobs was told he had cancer but before it was clear that it would ultimately claim his life, Mr. Jobs told his audience that “death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent.”

The benefit of death, he said, is you know not to waste life living someone else’s choices.
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

In his final months, Mr. Jobs became even more dedicated to such sentiments. “Steve’s concerns these last few weeks were for people who depended on him: the people who worked for him at Apple and his four children and his wife,” said Mona Simpson, Mr. Jobs’s sister. “His tone was tenderly apologetic at the end. He felt terrible that he would have to leave us.”

As news of the seriousness of his illness became more widely known, Mr. Jobs was asked to attend farewell dinners and to accept various awards.

He turned down the offers. On the days that he was well enough to go to Apple’s offices, all he wanted afterward was to return home and have dinner with his family. When one acquaintance became too insistent on trying to send a gift to thank Mr. Jobs for his friendship, he was asked to stop calling. Mr. Jobs had other things to do before time ran out.

“He was very human,” Dr. Ornish said. “He was so much more of a real person than most people know. That’s what made him so great.”

Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman, Quentin Hardy, Claire Cain Miller and Evelyn M. Rusli.

World mourns Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Source: Reuters

Fans' Apple HQ shrine to Jobs (01:26)

By Jennifer Saba

NEW YORK | Thu Oct 6, 2011 2:50pm EDT

(Reuters) - Outpourings of public grief and appreciation swept the globe on Thursday after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Jobs, who touched the daily lives of countless millions of people through the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad, died on Wednesday at age 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He stepped down as Apple chief executive in August.

Reaction in the stock market was muted as Apple shares quickly recovered from an initial 1.5 percent decline. The shares were up 1 percent to $382.15 at midday.

In New York City, an impromptu memorial made from flowers, candles and a dozen green and red apples was erected outside a 24-hour Apple store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, with fans snapping photos of it on their iPhones.

"It was really sad news for us," said Daiichiro Tashiro, 25, visiting from Tokyo. "A lot of Japanese use the iPhone. We're here to thank him."

Tributes poured in both from ordinary people and from the pinnacles of the business and political worlds.

"He's the hero to everybody of this generation because he did something that I think is very hard, which is be both a dreamer and a doer," General Electric Co CEO Jeff Immelt told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday.

"I wouldn't be able to run my business without Apple, without its software," said David Chiverton, who was leaving Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London. "I run a video production company. It's allowed me to have my dream business."

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said, "Steve Jobs was simply the greatest CEO of his generation."

At an Apple store in Sydney, lawyer George Raptis, who was five years old when he first used a Macintosh computer, spoke for almost everyone who has come into contact with Apple. "He's changed the face of computing," he said. "There will only ever be one Steve Jobs."

U.S. President Barack Obama remembered Jobs as a visionary. "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it," Obama said in a statement.

Microsoft's Bill Gates, who once triumphed over Jobs but saw his legendary status overtaken by the Apple co-founder in recent years, said, "For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor."

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, whose company competes with Apple's iPhone in the handset market, said, "The world lost a true visionary today. Steve's passion for simplicity and elegance leaves us all a legacy that will endure for generations."

When he stepped down as CEO in August, Jobs handed the reins to long-time operations chief Tim Cook. With a passion for minimalist design and a genius for marketing, Jobs laid the groundwork for the company to continue to flourish after his death, most analysts and investors say.

But Apple still faces challenges in the absence of the man who was its chief product designer, marketing guru and salesman nonpareil. Phones running Google's Android software are gaining share in the smartphone market, and there are questions about what Apple's next big product will be.

LEGENDARY ENTREPRENEUR

A college drop-out and the son of adoptive parents, Jobs changed the technology world in the late 1970s, when the Apple II became the first personal computer to gain a wide following. He did it again in 1984 with the Macintosh, which built on breakthrough technologies developed at Xerox Parc and elsewhere to create the personal computing experience as we know it today.

The rebel streak that was central to his persona got him tossed out of Apple in 1985, but he returned in 1997 and after a few years began the roll-out of a troika of products -- the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad -- that again upended the established order in major industries.

A diagnosis of a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 initially cast only a mild shadow over Jobs and Apple, with the CEO asserting that the disease was treatable. But his health deteriorated rapidly over the past several years, and after two temporary leaves of absence he stepped down as CEO and became Apple's chairman in August.

Jobs's death came just one day after Cook presented a new iPhone at the kind of gala event that became Jobs's trademark. Perhaps coincidentally, the new device got lukewarm reviews, with many saying it wasn't a big enough improvement over the existing version of one of the most successful consumer products in history.

Apple paid homage to its visionary leader by changing its website to a big black-and-white photograph of him with the caption "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011."

On Google's home page, the same line appeared just below its search box. It was a link to the Apple site.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Liana Baker in New York; Scott Malone in Columbus, Ohio; Sarah McBride in Cupertino, California; Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Matt Cowan in London; and Amy Pyett in Sydney; editing by John Wallace)

Steve Jobs dead at 56

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:47:00 +0000

"To Day We lost a the most of true visionary. My condolences to his family and whole Apple family too."

Source: Yahoo 7 News

Steve Jobs, the mind behind the iPhone, iPad and other devices that turned Apple Inc. into one of the world's most powerful companies, has died.

Jobs, 56, stepped down as Apple's CEO on August 24 after suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He handed the reins to current chief executive Tim Cook.

Jobs had been suffering various health issues following an operation for cancer in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009. In January this year Apple announced he would be taking indeterminate medical leave of absence.

Apple released a statement on its website announcing Jobs' death and describing him as an amazing human being.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius,” the statement said.
“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.

“Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

The American entrepreneur had a devoted fan base after being credited with reinventing Apple Inc. as a power player in the tech scene. He was also deemed the heart and soul of the company that rivals Exxon Mobil as the most valuable in the United States.

He was considered one of the most legendary businessmen in American history, turning three separate industries on their head in the 35 years he was involved in the technology industry.

Apple are credited with the invention of personal computers with the launch of the Apple II in 1977. The iPod and iTunes then brought legal downloads into the mainstream in 2007 followed by the iPhone mobile device, which made the tech industry fall to its knees. The mobile phone market was never the same, with copycat products flooding the market - yet rarely competing.

The pinnacle of Jobs' career came with the development of the iPad. His vision to take personal computing to a new level made the touch-screen tablet a technological revolution.

A creative genius, he excelled at business by being a master salesman but always considered himself an artist. His elegance in design was revered, yet he was rarely seen in public wearing anything more than a black turtleneck, blue jeans and a three-day growth. Apple customers considered him superhuman, while he was often feared by the staff who worked for and against him.

His life started in San Francisco, where he was born to young parents and adopted out to Paul and Clara Jobs. The couple and their new son moved to Santa Clara Valley in 1960, which was to become the Silicon Valley, where Apple headquarters are located.

His career kicked off when he discovered his friend Steve Wozniak had been assembling small computers. Forming a partnership, they created Apple Computer in 1976 and like many Silicon Valley start-ups, built the company out of their parent's garage.

The creation of Apple I, with Jobs handling the sales and Wozniak taking care of the technical, made the pair rich and earned them a reputation for brilliance, arrogance, and the possibilities that come with the sheer force of will and persuasion. Though, It was with Apple II they made their name as a company to watch.

The Macintosh was invented 1984, and cemented the company as a big player in the tech scene. It was only a year later, Jobs was removed from his position by his friend, Apple CEO John Sculley, who he had earlier convinced to leave Pepsi and run Apple. The drastic move was put down to a clash on the future vision of the company and backed by the Apple board.

After this, Jobs told a group of university graduates: "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating."

In a poetic twist, Jobs would return to the company as its saving grace in 1996.

During his hiatus from Apple, he went on to found NeXT, which set about making the next computer in Jobs' eyes. NeXT was never the commercial success that Apple was - yet it was here he concentrated on object-orientated software development. NeXT chose one of his models for its operating systems, proving to be more advanced than the developments being undertaken at Apple without Jobs.

Jobs also served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios and became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.

Just as Apple found itself in a shambles and on a downhill track, Jobs returned. He convinced then-CEO Gil Amelio to adopt NeXTStep as the future of Apple's operating system development. Apple was losing money, market share, and key employees at the time. It was to be Jobs' guidance which saved them from the brink of collapse.

He became the head of Apple once again in 1997, bringing the buzz back to his brainchild and creating a new following of loyal fans. He also became the brand's superstar.

In touching remarks in 2005, he envisioned how his last years at Apple would come to be his finest:
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Jobs leaves behind his wife, four children, two sisters, and 49,000 Apple employees.

Related stories:

Steve Jobs dies

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:47:00 +0000

Source: Yahoo 7 News

October 6, 2011, 10:57 am CNET Staff CNET Australia

We mourn the loss of a tech visionary. After a long battle with cancer, Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs has died.

We mourn the loss of a tech visionary. After a long battle with cancer, Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs has died.

Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs died today, Apple said. He was 56.

Jobs had been suffering from various health issues following the seven-year anniversary of his surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in August 2004. Apple announced in January that he would be taking an indeterminate medical leave of absence, with Jobs then stepping down from his role as CEO in late August.

Jobs had undergone a liver transplant in April 2009 during an earlier planned six-month leave of absence. He returned to work for a year and a half before his health forced him to take more time off. He told his employees in August, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

One of the most legendary businessmen in American history, Jobs turned three separate industries on their head in the 35 years he was involved in the technology industry.

Personal computing was invented with the launch of the Apple II in 1977. Legal digital music recordings were brought into the mainstream with the iPod and iTunes in the early 2000s, and mobile phones were never the same after the 2007 debut of the iPhone. Jobs played an instrumental role in the development of all three, and managed to find time to transform the art of computer-generated movie-making on the side.

The invention of the iPad in 2010, a touch-screen tablet computer his competitors flocked to reproduce, was the capstone of his career as a technologist. A conceptual hybrid of a touch-screen iPod and a slate computer, the 10-inch mobile device was Jobs' vision for a more personal computing device.

Jobs was considered brilliant yet brash. He valued elegance in design yet was almost never seen in public wearing anything but a black mock turtleneck, blue jeans, and a few days worth of stubble. A master salesman who considered himself an artist at heart, Jobs inspired both reverence and fear in those who worked for him and against him, and was adored by an army of loyal Apple customers who almost saw him as superhuman.

Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 to young parents who gave him up for adoption. Paul and Clara Jobs gave him his name, and moved out of the city in 1960 to the Santa Clara Valley, later to be known as Silicon Valley. Jobs grew up in Mountain View and Cupertino, where Apple's headquarters is located.

He attended Reed College in Oregon for a year but dropped out, although he sat in on some classes that interested him, such as calligraphy. After a brief stint at Atari working on video games, he spent time backpacking around India, furthering teenage experiments with psychedelic drugs and developing an interest in Buddhism, all of which would shape his work at Apple.

Back in California, Jobs' friend Steve Wozniak was learning the skills that would change both their lives. When Jobs discovered that Wozniak had been assembling relatively (for the time) small computers, he struck a partnership, and Apple Computer was founded in 1976 in the usual Silicon Valley fashion: setting up shop in the garage of one of the founder's parents.

Wozniak handled the technical end, creating the Apple I, while Jobs ran sales and distribution. The company sold a few hundred Apple Is, but found much greater success with the Apple II, which put the company on the map and is largely credited as having proven that regular people wanted computers.

It also made Jobs and Wozniak rich. Apple went public in 1980, and Jobs was well on his way to becoming one of the first tech industry celebrities, earning a reputation for brilliance, arrogance, and the sheer force of his will and persuasion, often jokingly referred to as his "reality-distortion field."
The debut of the Macintosh in 1984 left no doubt that Apple was a serious player in the computer industry, but Jobs only had a little more than a year left at the company he founded when the Mac was released in January 1984.

By 1985 Apple CEO John Sculley — who Jobs had convinced to leave Pepsi in 1983 and run Apple with the legendary line, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?" — had developed his own ideas for the future of the company, and they differed from Jobs'. He removed Jobs from his position leading the Macintosh team, and Apple's board backed Sculley.

Jobs resigned from the company, later telling an audience of Stanford University graduates "what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating." He would get the last laugh.

He went on to found NeXT, which set about making the next computer in Jobs' eyes. NeXT was never the commercial success that Apple was, but during those years, Jobs found three things that would help him architect his return.

The first was Pixar. Jobs snapped up the graphic-arts division of Lucasfilm in 1986, which would go on to produce Toy Story in 1995 and set the standard for computer-graphics films. After making a fortune from Pixar's IPO in 1995, Jobs eventually sold the company to Disney in 2006.

The second was object-oriented software development. NeXT chose this development model for its software operating systems, and it proved to be more advanced and more nimble than the operating system developments Apple was working on without Jobs.

The third was Laurene Powell, a Stanford MBA student who attended a talk on entrepreneurialism given by Jobs in 1989 at the university. The two wed in 1991 and eventually had three children; Reed, born in 1991, Erin, born in 1995, and Eve, born in 1998. Jobs has another daughter, Lisa, who was born 1978, but Jobs refused to acknowledge he was her father for the first few years of her life, eventually reconciling with Lisa and her mother, his high-school girlfriend Chris-Ann Brennan.

Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, having convinced then-CEO Gil Amelio to adopt NeXTStep as the future of Apple's operating system development. Apple was in a shambles at the time, losing money, market share, and key employees.

By 1997, Jobs was once again in charge of Apple. He immediately brought buzz back to the company, which pared down and reacquired a penchant for showstoppers, such as the 1998 introduction of the iMac; perhaps the first "Stevenote." His presentation skills at events such as Macworld would become legendary examples of showmanship and star power in the tech industry.
Jobs also set the company on the path to becoming a consumer-electronics powerhouse, creating and improving products such as the iPod, iTunes, and later, the iPhone and iPad. Apple is the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world, surpassing ExxonMobil?'s market capitalization in August. He did so in his own fashion, imposing his ideas and beliefs on his employees and their products in ways that left many a career in tatters. Jobs enforced a culture of secrecy at Apple and was an extremely demanding leader, terrorizing Apple employees when he returned to the company in the late 1990s with summary firings if he didn't like the answers they gave when questioned.

Jobs was an intensely private person. That quality put him and Apple at odds with government regulators and stockholders who demanded to know details about his ongoing health problems and his prognosis as the leader and alter ego of his company. It spurred a 2009 SEC probe into whether Apple's board had made misleading statements about his health.

In the years before he fell ill in 2008, Jobs seemed to soften a bit, perhaps due to his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004.

In 2005, his remarks to Stanford graduates included this line: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Later, in 2007, he appeared onstage at the D: All Things Digital conference for a lengthy interview with bitter rival Bill Gates, exchanging mutual praise and prophetically quoting the Beatles: "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

Jobs leaves behind his wife, four children, two sisters, and 49,000 Apple employees.

Via CNET

iPhone 5: Most wanted features

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:51:00 +0000

iPhone 5 Very soon you will enjoy

Source: Yahoo 7 News

Friday, September 30th, 2011

DesignedbyItem's concept design for a future iPhone. Credit: designedbyitem.com

Rumours and speculation are flying thick and fast over the iPhone 5; apparently "sources" have leaked details and rough release dates for the new Apple product.

Until Apple actually confirms or denies these rumours, we can't give any details on the phone itself … but here is a list of the top features we hope to see included in the iPhone 5.

Credit: CBSi

Enhanced voice control

Apple didn't show off any new voice-control features as part of its iOS 5 preview. But rumour has it that those features weren't quite ready to be shown off at Apple's WWDC in June, so we may very well get them. We do expect that Apple will continue to flesh out the voice controls for the iPhone with significant enhancements. It would be cool to be able to compose and send e-mails or text messages by just using your voice, no?

Chance of implementation: 70 per cent.

Credit: Apple

Micro HDMI out

In March, Apple finally announced support for full 720p or 1080i HD video output for the iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, and iPad 2. However, you need Apple's $39 Digital AV to send that HD video (audio) to a TV or monitor, whereas many Android-powered smartphones offer a built-in Micro-HDMI port that only requires an inexpensive $5 cable to run video to your TV.

Apple's recent announcement that it would be adding AirPlay mirroring as part of iOS 5 fueled hope that the feature would be available for the iPhone. In demos, Apple has shown the new feature working with the iPad 2, (what's on your iPad 2's screen is wirelessly streamed to an Apple TV connected to a TV), but it's quite possible that the next-generation iPhone will support AirPlay mirroring. Still, it's worth mentioning that Apple TV is an AU$129 accessory.

Chance of implementation: 2 per cent.

Credit: Jim Young

Removable battery

This well-known rendering of a future iPhone dreams of a model with a removable battery. That appears to run counter to Apple's current design principles.

Chance of implementation: 0 per cent.

Credit: Kingston

Expandable memory

Not happening, but just thought we'd mention it.

Chance of implementation: 0 per cent

Credit: Visa

NFC-enabled (near field communication technology)

Rumor has it that Apple may be working on adding near field communication technology (NFC) into the next iPhone. This is sort of a bar code replacement technology that would allow your iPhone — among other things — to act as a payment device (e-wallet) or even a car key.

Chance of implementation: 35 per cent.

Credit: iLounge.com

More memory

A lot of people were disappointed that the iPhone 4 didn't come in a 64GB version (only 16GB and 32GB). Maybe next year we'll get 64GB.

Chance of implementation: 50 per cent.

Credit: Apple

Improved home screen and notifications system

iPhone users have been waiting a long time for a more customisable home screen, with a real "dashboard" and a better, streamlined notifications system. Apple is delivering all that in OS 5, and though the new design may fall a little short for some folks, it's certainly a huge advancement. Of course, Android users will point out that these features, including customisable widgets, have long been available on Android smartphones.

Chance of implementation: 100 per cent.

Credit: Apple

Better cloud-computing support

In previous versions of this list, we've asked for this feature, and we'll now get it with iCloud in the fall. In some ways iCloud is more restrictive than Amazon's iDrive cloud storage solution, which allows you to store all your photos and videos (Apple's iCloud has not addressed video yet), but it's a big step forward, and the fact that you can mirror your iTunes music library (regardless of where you got your music) for US$25 a year is an enticing offer.

Chance of implementation: 100 per cent.

Credit: Apple

Video chat (FaceTime) over cellular network

Currently, on the iPhone 4, FaceTime only works over Wi-Fi (yes, there are some workarounds to get it to work over 3G, but Apple doesn't officially support it). In iOS 5, doing FaceTime over a cellular data network is now part of the settings menu but it looks like the carriers have control over whether it's enabled.

Chance of implementation: 75 per cent.

Credit: CBSi

Flash support

It'll be a cold day in hell when Apple allows for Flash support on the iPhone. But that doesn't mean we can't ask for it.

Chance of implementation: 1 per cent.

Credit: 9to5Mac

Larger screen

Rumours continue to surface that Apple will be expanding the size of its iPhone screen to compete with the larger screens on Android smartphones.

From our polling on CNET, we've found that a clear majority of our readers want a larger screen. However, they don't want the iPhone to get any bigger or lose any battery life.

We're hoping Apple can come up with the right balance, but as you can see from this mock-up, going to 4 inches makes a significant difference and is probably the optimal size for a smartphone screen.

Chance of implementation: 50 per cent.

Credit: CBSi

Better camera

We certainly appreciate that Apple improved the camera in the iPhone 4 (5 megapixels; LED flash), but we've seen rumors that Sony is developing an even better 8-megapixel camera for the fifth-gen iPhone.

It's worth noting that as part of iOS 5, you'll be able to launch the camera app right from the lock screen, and the hard volume-up button on the side of the phone now becomes the shutter button while taking pictures. That's a big improvement.

Chance of implementation: 95 per cent

Credit: Apple

Dual-core processor

With Apple's acquisition of PA Semiconductor, it's started designing and churning out its own CPUs, including the new 1GHz A5 dual-core processor that's in the iPad 2. That same processor will almost assuredly make its way into the next iPhone. (The iPhone has an A4 processor that also runs at 1GHz, but the A4 has a single-core architecture).

It's worth mentioning that LG, Motorola, and others have already released dual-core Android phones.

Chance of implementation: 100 per cent.

Credit: Imagination Technologies

Improved 3D graphics

The A4 CPU has a Imagination PowerVR graphics chip integrated into it. Like the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 uses a PowerVR SGX535 chip. But the iPhone 5 will presumably get the PowerVR SGX543MP found in the iPad 2.

For those who keep track of this sort of stuff, a PowerVR SGX545 was also announced last year.

Chance of implementation: 95 per cent.

Credit: CBSi

Better battery life

Every time Apple puts out a new iPhone, the battery life gets better, so we expect no less from the fifth-generation iPhone. Apple says the iPhone 4 has 40 per cent more talk time than the iPhone 3GS. So, if the past is any indicator, we might see similar gains in next year's model, though Apple did not improve the iPad's battery life when moving to the A5 processor in the iPad 2 (many say it made it worse).

Chance of implementation: 80 per cent.

Credit: cultofmac.com

An actual redesign

Rumours have been all over the map with the next-generation iPhone. Some reports suggest that the fifth-generation iPhone will actually be called the iPhone 4S and offer performance improvements (along with a better camera) but maintain the same design.

You'd hope that a true iPhone 5 would look different than an iPhone 4 and offer an improved design. Some say that Apple may mimic the design of the iPad 2. Or the company could even do two different models (an entry-level iPhone along with a standard higher-end model). We'll know soon enough.

Chance of implementation: 50 per cent.

Via CNET.com.

Jun 23, 2011

iPhone 5 design features leaked

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:43:00 +0000

iPhone 5 coming very soon

Source: cnet and Yahoo 7 News

September 16, 2011, 12:22 pm Josh Lowensohn CNET Australia

In a peculiar (but not unheard-of) move, accessory maker Case-Mate briefly posted renderings of a new line of cases for the Apple's next iPhone, which has not yet been announced by the company.

Included in the renderings were depictions of Apple's next device, which was shown as having a rounded aluminium backing, similar to the iPad 2's design.

The accessory gallery was pulled down shortly after its discovery, BGR reports. In its place, the old gallery page redirects to a page where users can sign up to be notified when Case-Mate will be providing cases for the new device, be it an "iPhone 5" or "iPhone 4S".

A Case-Mate spokesperson declined to comment on the gallery.

Curiosity over whether Apple plans to make dramatic changes to the iPhone's design continues, with reports duelling over the details. For months, there has been talk of Apple moving to a larger screen size and new materials, with others saying simply that Apple is rolling out a version that will be nearly identical to the iPhone 4 model, with a speedier processor, a new camera and improved networking equipment. There have also been reports of Apple debuting both such models at once, using the 4S as a low-cost option in emerging markets.

In a related report, MacRumors points to a new screen cover making the rounds that was supposedly designed for Apple's next iPhone. It comes in as larger than the iPhone 4 with a bigger, rectangular home button, reviving speculation that Apple intends to change what has been an iconic fixture on its iOS devices.

Apple is expected to take the wraps off the next iPhone possibly by the end of this month, with a launch to follow in early October. Recent reports have suggested manufacturers, including China's Foxconn Electronics, have already been at work producing the device, with others saying Apple is putting the finishing touches on iOS 5, which is expected to debut alongside the new hardware.

Via CNET

Image credit Case-Mate/BGR

When a slimmer iPhone just isn't good enough

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 06:09:00 +0000

Source: Yahoo News

By Sinead Carew and Edwin Chan | Reuters – 11 hrs ago

Related Content

Customers purchase the iPhone 4 shortly after the phone went on sale with the Verizon …

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tim Cook has big shoes to fill and he can't do it by just pushing out snazzier versions of the iPhone or iPad.

Apple Inc's newly minted CEO needs a revolutionary product to prove he has the chops to succeed Steve Jobs, and that may be a full-on assault on the living room by as early as 2013, analysts and industry experts say.

Jobs has called Apple TV -- a 4-inch-square box launched in 2006 that connects your plasma or LCD TV to the Web -- a hobby, but it is also one of the rare missteps in the course of Apple's meteoric ascendance.

If Cook can succeed where Jobs has failed, he would put to rest questions over whether he has the vision to lead Apple, in addition to widely respected operational skills.

"The TV is the obvious gap in Apple's product line up," CCS Insight's John Jackson said. "There's pressure to constantly innovate, (but) there's more than sufficient momentum at Apple right now that they don't need to reinvent the movie screen the TV, the car or the horse and buggy in the immediate term."

Getting Internet programing off computers and onto television sets has long been viewed as the next big thing for consumer technology companies, but none has succeeded so far with a product that has gained wide appeal.

Cook and the $350 billion company he now leads would be jumping into a field crowded with Microsoft, Google, Sony and Samsung.

"The Holy Grail is the living room," said David Rolfe at Wedgewood Partners, which devotes 9.5 percent or about $1 billion of its portfolio to Apple. "They would get into it, only if they can make a significantly better product than what currently exists."

OBSTACLES

It remains far from clear what Jobs -- and now Cook -- intends on the TV front. There are persistent rumors that Apple may produce an actual television to go along with content in an iTV, as part of the ongoing debate over whether the beleaguered television industry is ripe for an Apple-style shake-up.
The current market offers a confusing array of options -- from video streaming through game consoles like Microsoft's Xbox to Google-powered TV sets from Sony, Samsung and others.

Apple has "been the early follower in the iPad-tablet space, been the early follower in the music space, the early follower in the smartphone space," said independent digital media strategist Mark Mulligan. "They wait for a market to get primed, learn from the mistakes and then go and do everything better than anybody has done before."

Analysts estimate Apple takes roughly five years to develop a wholly new product, so either Jobs has already started down the TV road or Cook needs to start thinking now.

Chief among the obstacles would be concerns in the entertainment industry about potentially aggressive video licensing terms that Apple would seek -- and has gotten in the past for music and video licenses on iTunes. Executives say Apple had asked for 30 percent of rental fees for iTunes, which is blamed for smothering the music recording industry.

THE ROLE OF CHARISMA

Jobs' charisma and negotiating power were crucial to the launch of iTunes in 2003 and the then-unprecedented sale of songs rather than albums on the Web. Cook remains untested on this front, despite his deft hand dealing with the supply chain partners that make Macs, iPhones and iPads.
"It was Steve's rock-star status that convinced these guys, they were in awe of him," said a former major recording label executive involved in the negotiations before iTunes was launched. "Without him Apple would never have been able to pull off that deal."

There's some evidence that Cook can be as tough at the negotiating table. Peter Misek at Jefferies cites Cook's command of the iPad 2 rollout, and his firm stance this year when the Japan earthquake and tsunami threatened to turn off one of the world's largest semiconductor-component spigots.

"Cook was able to double or sometimes triple source component suppliers," Misek said. "To date, no competitor has been able to gain meaningful share in the tablet market and ... Cook's leadership during the introduction was critical to this."

Now, the former Compaq executive needs to prove that he can not only execute his boss's vision and keep Apple's fabled product pipeline alive, but that he can also make that intuitive leap to tell consumers what they want.

Wall Street will be watching.

"The market and the organization needs to see that Tim has the judgment to pick a winner," said Jane Stevenson, vice chairman of Board and CEO Services at Korn/Ferry International.

"The market will need to see a continued stream of innovation that has his fingerprints on it," ranging from launching new products to turning around products that haven't much success, like Apple TV.
(Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta and Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Yinka Adegoke and Jennifer Saba in New York, editing by Tiffany Wu; Phil Berlowitz)

(This story corrects to show iTunes was launched in 2003, not 2009 in paragraph 14.)

Note: ABRKMZZW8ASP

From APPLE Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:52:00 +0000

Photo from Wikipedia

Jobs holding a white iPhone 4 at

Worldwide Developers Conference 2010

This is the letter from Steve Jobs:

PRESS RELEASE: Letter from Steve Jobs

August 24, 2011–To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

The Great iPhone 5 Rumour Round-up

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:33:00 +0000

Source:

August 22, 2011, 11:18 am Kent German CNET Australia

As we wait for the official announcement of the next iPhone, we only can guess about what we're going to see. Apple, after all, always generates a tonne of gossip in the absence of real details about upcoming devices.

Some of the rumours about the new handset contradict each other — one camp suggests a minor update with an iPhone 4S, while another predicts a big update with an iPhone 5 — but disagreement, after all, often is what the rumour mill is all about.
Since all that conflicting information can be hard to track, we offer this handy timeline of iPhone 5 rumours so far in 2011.

August 17
A 7 October release
9To5Mac says that Apple is considering a 7 October release for the iPhone 5, with preorders starting 30 September. If that date is correct, the company would hold an unveiling event in early September.

August 12
iPhone 5 design concepts
Apple news and rumour site MacRumors commissioned CiccareseDesign to create mockups of the iPhone 5 based on the original leaked case designs. The renderings show a sleek handset with a 4-inch display and elongated Home button.

Apple prepping iPhone reveal for September 7 event?
According to Japanese Web site Kodawarisan, Apple is planning a media event for September 7 where it will unveil its new iPod lineup and perhaps the iPhone 5. But before you clear all appointments for September 7, another report by AppleNApps says the company will hold a separate event for the occasion, where Apple will not only introduce the iPhone 5 but also a cloud-based iPhone.

August 4
China Telecom to get two new iPhones?
A report by China-based Sohu.com says Apple and China Telecom have reached a "preliminary agreement" to start selling the iPhone before the end of October. And it's not just any iPhone, it's rumored to be the iPhone 5 alongside a "simplified" iPhone 4.

August 3
10 million handsets in September
Taiwian's DigiTimes says that Pegatron will produce 10 million iPhone 5 units. According to an unnamed source, the handsets will ship to Apple in September, which would pave the way for a release any time after that.

August 2
iPhone 5 out for testing
The Guardian reports that wireless carriers have received highly secure boxes containing iPhone 5s that the operators are using to test network compatibility.

August 1
No holidays for you
Gizmodo cites an e-mail allegedly from an AT&T employee, which says that the carrier is denying any time off requested during the last two weeks of September "due to an event blackout". According to the employee, the only other times vacations were denied in the past were during iPhone release periods.

Or maybe in October?
Going the other direction, a story on AllThingsD quotes a source "with knowledge of the plans" who says, "I don't know why AT&T's calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it's not for an iPhone launch". Instead, the source says that the next iPhone will come in October.

July 28
A white iPhone 4S
In a rather convoluted tale, MacRumors highlighted a forum post from Vietnamese site Tinhte that claims to have a new version of the iPhone 4. Differences between the new version and the current handset are few, but Tinhte says it's a bit faster, it weighs less, and it has a plastic shell instead of glass.

4 million iPhones in September
China Times reports that Apple will produce 4 million new iPhones for release in the second week of September.

July 27
A new case for a new design
U.K. blog Mobile Fun receives new iPhone case designs from two manufacturers. They point to a major redesign that includes a larger screen and home button, and a curved back.

July 13
Now hiring for an August iPhone
After some clever detective work, CNET UK finds a job posting repeated throughout the United Kingdom that asks for "Apple iPhone Sales Specialists" to work in Apple retail stores. The temporary positions would last from mid-August through the end of October and would be for what the recruiter describes as "an exciting project".

July 6
Suppliers get their orders
Anonymous sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Apple has asked suppliers to build 25 million units of its next iPhone by August for a third-quarter launch.

July 5
15 million in September
DigiTimes reports that Apple has placed an order for 15 million iPhone 5s for a September release.

July 1
Both an iPhone 5 and an iPad 3
DigiTimes says that suppliers are gearing up to help Apple produce millions of units of both an iPhone 5 and an iPad 3 for an October release.

June 29
A modest update
BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman claims in a note to investors that Apple will introduce just an iPhone 4S model in September. The iPhone 4S would include only modest feature upgrades and the design would be unchanged.

June 27
Two new iPhones to come
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore predicts that Apple will introduce two iPhones later this year. The first will be a full next-generation handset (most likely an iPhone 5), while the second will be a revamped iPhone 4 (probably called an iPhone 4S) that Apple will target to customers on prepaid cell phone plans.

A third-quarter release
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said that Apple will start "aggressively" making the next iPhone in August and launch the handset late in the third quarter of this year. Huberty made the remarks after a trip to Taiwan where she presumably met with Apple suppliers.

June 24
A brighter flash
DigiTimes says the iPhone 5 will have a dual-LED flash.

June 22
Again, in September
Bloomberg reports that the new iPhone will have a faster A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and support for iOS 5. The new handset will sport a design similar to the iPhone 4's and will be released in September to coincide with iOS 5's debut. On a related note, Bloomberg's source also repeats a rumour that Apple is developing a cheaper iPhone for developing countries.

June 21
An iPhone 5 in full September
The Boy Genius Report predicts that Apple will announce the fully revamped iPhone 5 in early August with a release date later in the month. If true, that timing would bend from tradition, given that Apple usually holds an iPod-themed event in September.

A 'tear drop' design
Photos of a brand-new tapered or "tear drop" design also resurface that day.

May 23
A curved display
DigiTimes suggests that the iPhone 5 will have a curved glass screen like the Samsung Nexus S' "Contour" design. DigiTimes also says that Apple has bought 200 or 300 glass-cutting machines to be used by glassmakers.

May 18
An iPhone 4S
DigiTimes chimes in on the iPhone 4S side with a report that Apple will release an upgraded, but not redesigned, handset in September.

April 19
A5 processor and a bigger camera
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the device will get an A5 processor and a much-improved 8-megapixel rear camera, and that it will be released in October or November.

A September release
Reuters follows a different track with a report that Apple will begin production of the phone in July for a September release.

April 13
Suppliers still in the dark
DigiTimes writes that part suppliers in Taiwan still don't know Apple's needs for the handset. What's more, the outlet also says that production of iPhone 4 displays is still going strong.

April 11
Trouble with suppliers
AppleInsider quotes an Avian Securities note to investors, which suggests that production will start in September. According to the note, the latest information is "consistent with other findings the organization has heard in recent months." What's more, another rumor mentions that Apple is taking its time finding enough parts suppliers.

April 7
A bigger display, part four
A new Apple patent application depicts a screen that's built into the area surrounding the traditional touch screen. This could free up space on the main display, and open up new directions for developers.

March 28
An October release
A Japanese blog reports that because Apple is behind schedule on securing parts, the iPhone 5 launch could be pushed to October. The blog also says the company is deciding whether to change the back of the iPhone from glass to metal.

March 22
NFC, larger display and a new antenna
China Times claims the iPhone 5 will have a slightly larger screen, a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip, an A5 processor, and a tweaked antenna design to address attenuation. The release date is only set as "later this year."

NFC confirmed
The same day, The New York Times confirms that future iPhones will have an NFC chip.

March 14
No NFC
The Independent says that NFC won't make it into the new phone. Instead, the newspaper says, Apple plans to introduce its own mobile payment system next year.

March 11
A bigger display, part three
Reseller iDealsChina posts a "mold engineering" drawing that vendors use to develop iPhone accessories. The drawing shows a handset with an iPhone 4-like design but with a larger display.

March 9
A5 processor, part two
In a deep dive of the new iOS 4.3 code, Apple developers found signs that Apple may add an A5 dual-core processor in the next iPhone version. That would put the handset on par with the iPad 2's processing power.

March 7
Looking like the iPad
Design is the focus of this rumor, which suggests that Apple will ditch the glass backing on the iPhone 4 for a metal backing, revamp the antenna, and add tapered ends. The end result will be something like the iPad.

February 28
A bigger display, part two
iDealsChina posts a photo of an iPhone 5 front bezel that shows a larger display.

February 15
A5 processor
The A5 chip rumor is raised again when DigiTimes reports that Apple is outsourcing the production of the processor, which will be based on the ARM Cortex A9 design.

February 14
A bigger display
Speculation builds that the new handset will offer a 4-inch, "edge-to-edge" display. The reports suggest that the move would be a direct response to the display design of many Android devices.

Slide-out keyboard
We also hear that the iPhone 5 could offer a slide-out keyboard or that it could just offer longer battery life and a better camera.

January 14
No home button
An anonymous Apple source told the Boy Genius Report that both the iPad 2 and the next-generation iPhone would lose their home buttons in favor of gesture-based commands that would be part of iOS 4.3.

Via CNET.
Image credit: Antonio De Rosa
Want to read more about the iPhone 5? Check out our wish list of the features we most want to see.

Apple planning early 2012 launch for new iPad: WSJ

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:52:00 +0000

AFP ©

NEW YORK (AFP) - Apple plans to begin trial production of a next generation iPad in October with an eye to an early 2012 launch, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The newspaper, citing "people familiar with the situation," said Apple is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia on the iPad 3 and has ordered key components such as display panels and chips.

It said the next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution 2048-by-1536 pixel display compared with the 1024-by-768 display on the iPad 2.
The Journal quoted one unidentified component supplier to Apple as saying that the company has placed orders for parts for about 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter.

Apple sources parts for the iPad around Asia and assembles the tablet computer at Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

Apple sold 9.25 million iPads last quarter

iphone 5 will Be Released In October

noreply@blogger.com (digitalantennastv.bloger.com) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:37:00 +0000

After months and months to predict the rumor will be come in this year iPhone has finally settled in September or October for his release.

Just when we all thought it was safe to assume that the iPhone 5 would be released in September or October, a leader in new technologies Apple thrown a wrench into the machine, which operates iPhone 5 rumors.

A very plausible explanation for the release in October is that it allows the release of the closest to the iPhone 5 the start of Christmas shopping in the U.S. and Europe, which generally begins in earnest in late November. Another possible reason for moving may be the debt crisis going on here in the U.S., which could affect sales of the iPhone 5.

Apple may want to ensure that the iPhone 5 announcement does not coincide with any financial disaster.
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iphone 5 will Be Released In October