The Motorola Droid 2 is on it's way and more and more information is being leaked about it. Today there are a pair of independent leaks confirming that the second coming of Motorola's QWERTY keyboard smartphone will be running Android 2.2 (Froyo) right out of the box. Droid Life has a tipster that has apparently spent some time with the device describing its keyboard as "phenomenal" and pointing out that it feels notably snappier than the original Droid. The Froyo connection was reiterated by Phandroid's sources, which provide images of Verizon's device database indicating once again that Android 2.2 and Droid 2 will be matched and paired for when the launch codes get entered.
The device is rumored to be released earlier than expected and rumor has it that it might be dropping on August 12 which is 11 days sooner than previously mentioned. How many of you Android fans are excited hearing all this news now? Let us know by dropping us a comment below! And, stay tuned for more news and info by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.
Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, we have heard several rumors about Apple working with Verizon to bring the iPhone to their network. It seems that some of the speculations may have actually had a grain of truth to them. Wired recently looked into the complexity of Apple's relationship with AT&T over the years and the reason the partnership continued thus far despite the many problems between the two.
Fred Vogelstein from Wired says that one of the earliest instances the relationship between Apple and AT&T fell short was with Cupertino's use of Infineon as the supplier for cellular communication hardware. Vogelstein pointed out that Infineon's technology is better suited to the European market where cellular towers are located closer to one another. Apple reported to have declined the request by AT&T insisting on working with Apple to make the hardware from Infineon work better on their network, saying things such as "No, you resolve them. They're not our problem. They're your problem."
The report further mentioned that officials from AT&T visited Apple a number of times to try and convince the company to make a trade-off between user experience and call-quality but Apple officials ended up firmly standing their ground on these requests. Vogelstein noted the following:
It(Apple) wasn’t interested in cooperating, especially if it meant hobbling what had quickly become its marquee product. For Apple, the idea of restricting the iPhone was akin to asking Steve Jobs to ditch the black turtleneck. “They tried to have that conversation with us a number of times,” says someone from Apple who was in the meetings. “We consistently said ‘No, we are not going to mess up the consumer experience on the iPhone to make your network tenable.’ They’d always end up saying, ‘We’re going to have to escalate this to senior AT&T executives,’ and we always said, ‘Fine, we’ll escalate it to Steve and see who wins.’ I think history has demonstrated how that turned out.
Wired also mentioned that Steve Jobs suggested several times that Apple must terminate its partnership with AT&T in favor of another carrier. The report pointed out that Apple engineers made several visits to Qualcomm headquarters to study the possibility of switching to Verizon's network and what doing so would entail. Vogelstein mentioned the following regarding this issue:
Apple also heavily considered switching to Verizon numerous times. Around the end of 2007, at Jobs' behest, Apple engineers (including Scott Forstall) visited the headquarters of Qualcomm - the primary supplier of the chips in Verizon's phones. It concluded that switching to Verizon would be too complicated and expensive because the chips were different sizes and would necessitate rebuilding the iPhone from scratch. Apple also wasn't convinced that Verizon's network would fare much better and let's not forget the nasty lawsuit that voiding its exclusive pact with AT&T would invite.
Mainly an extremely high cost of transition to the Verizon network has been the primary reason behind Apple's decision to stick with the AT&T network thus far as noted by Wired. However the company continued to work with Qualcomm on possible other solutions to the issue. Recent rumors have been suggesting that Qualcomm could be working on a hybrid chip that will allow the iPhone to run on both CDMA and UMTS networks and it turns out these rumors are true.
Verizon is currently making the transition to the LTE network that is expected to become available next year. Currently, AT&T has also hinted on the imminent end to carrier exclusivity by announced the revised Early Termination Fee (ETF) chargers and advancing the upgrade eligibility for many of their customers for the iPhone 4. Between these events and the fact that there is a court case regarding AT&T and Apple's partnership with the iPhone we believe that speculations that Apple would offer the iPhone to Verizon as early as next year may turn out to be true. What do you think of the whole ordeal? Do you prefer the iPhone be on a network such as Verizon instead of AT&T? Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you are interested in reading the Wired article, click here.
As announced, Apple will be launching their free cases program at the end of this week, and its already affecting different iPhone case manufactures. Some companies most likely figure that many people will be swayed to Apple's free bumper, as after all the case works well to solve the antenna issues and comes in a few stylish colors. Perhaps the most obvious and important reason is because of the price, FREE. Apple's giving all iPhone 4 users the ability to get a Bumper for free, so why would anyone pay $29-49 for a case from a different manufacturer?
Incipio is already realizing this so they're running the "We love our customers too" campaign. This promotion lets users obtain their free Bumper from Apple, then send it in to Incipio for 5 bucks off one of their premium-quality cases. Incipio figures that a $5 incentive will be good enough to keep themselves in race, and honestly their campaign is quite clever. The catch is they'll only be accepting 2 trade-ins per households, and that's U.S only. The big question though is, what's Incipio planning on doing with all those bumpers cases?
Also, other case manufacturers like Zagg InvisbleSHIELD without wasting any time, have already started promoting their cases with a study that shows that their bumper cases can resolve the iPhone4's antenna issue.
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for more news and info by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.
As you may already know Samsung Super AMOLED displays are getting pretty popular despite the iPhone 4 using a different screen technology. The manufacturer is already running low on supplies and furthermore they are working on new technology which will probably be higher in demand than the current scarce supplies. Samsung is reportedly working on an unbreakable Samsung AMOLED display. OLED-Display.net is reporting that within the next two years, Samsung is aiming to have ultra-rugged, unbreakable smartphone screens available to OEMs. The report doesn't detail whether he digitzer will be included on this specific AMOLED display (the digitizer is what registers touch input and is what makes Super AMOLED displays "super") but if we to guess, it probably won't be. If you don't want to take anyone's word for whether something like this exists or if it can be made, you don't have to. Check the video below to see what happens when a a prototype of this flexible, bendable, very hard to break AMOLED display is hit by a hammer. (SPOILER: It doesn't break).
Today, Google announced several enhancements to their Google Images search page that aim to be more accurate, efficient, and image-oriented. The new look is said to bring the following enhancements:
Dense tiled layout designed to make it easy to look at lots of images at once. We want to get the app out of the way so you can find what you’re really looking for.
Instant scrolling between pages, without letting you get lost in the images. You can now get up to 1,000 images, all in one scrolling page. And we’ll show small, unobtrusive page numbers so you don’t lose track of where you are.
Larger thumbnail previews on the results page, designed for modern browsers and high-res screens.
A hover pane that appears when you mouse over a given thumbnail image, giving you a larger preview, more info about the image and other image-specific features such as “Similar images.”
Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.
Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down. It’s all about getting you to the info you need quickly, so you can get on with actually building that treehouse or buying those flowers.
The company seems to show that it is trying to change with the times and implement new technology behind their image searches to provide a better user experience. Not only has Google Images expanded since its first debut it has also been through several changes and it is now nearing what seems to be the ideal image search. Not only are they working on expanding functionality for users but also for advertisers who seek to put up ads on the Google Images searches. The new type of ads are called "Image Search Ads" and allow you to put a small thumbnail next to the text. Seems like Google is working hard to provide the average person a better internet experience. If you are interested in reading the official Google Blog Post, click here.
Looks like the iPhone 4 isn't the only smartphone on the block having issues. The Motorola Droid X adopters are documenting serious graphical and/or electrical problems with the handsets large screen. As of right now, we don't know how many users are being effected, symptoms include rapid flickering and vertical banding over all of the 4.3 inch LCD. Forums for many different sites have users claiming that they have already had their phones replaced and in some cases claimed that the defect was a common problem found in launch day batches. Verizon hasn't responded to the situation yet but hopefully they will soon. In the meantime, check out the flickering and symptoms for the issue below to see if you have experienced anything similar.
If you are a Droid X owner and are experiencing the problems, share your experience with us in the comments below. And, stay tuned to us for more news and info. by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.
Despite Apple's attempt to hinder Adobe, the company is still out and about - this time they released a little demo software of FlashTime, which allows peer-to-peer calls on the Android platform. Built using the upcoming Air 2.5, this peer-to-peer video chat client uses your smartphone's camera to get direct visual communication going with your fellow Android fan. Android users already have other options, such as Fring, to do the same exact thing but the main point is that you can do just about anything with Flash and since it's Flash, it is easy to port around to other platforms. Adobe's Mark Doherty did mention that there are no plans to release the client just yet and that the name "FlashTime" is just a placeholder for now. If we didn't know any better, we'd say they are jabbing at Apple's FaceTime feature, flaunting that the very same Flash software that Jobs said is going to get outdated soon can handle the same features that Apple has been boasting about. Check out the FlashTime demo below:
As announced on Friday, Apple is planning to provide free iPhone 4 cases (bumper cases and other models yet to be announced) to all the folks who purchased iPhone 4 and future customers, from now through September 30, 2010. Also, anyone who bought a Bumper already is due to get a refund.
Apple has since removed the bumper cases from the store shelves and the online store to prevent people from paying for something they are entitled to get for free. Multiple sources have reported that the online Apple Store had dropped the Bumpers to a price of $0 and marked them out of stock, and both Different District and iLounge are noting the absence of Bumpers from the retail stores as well.
No details yet on the refund/application setup for free cases, but it's expected that Apple will post instructions on apple.com later this week.
Stay tuned for more info on the topic by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.
iPhone Dev Team has just reported that with iOS 4 or higher, Apple has started putting ‘soft’ SHSH blob checks in the firmware. What does this mean? It means that - like iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, if iTunes can’t get the SHSH blobs for iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2nd generation (due to signing window being closed), the iTunes restore will error out.
According to Dev Team, soft SHSH blob check can be easily bypassed by using Redsn0w, PwnageTool and Sn0wbreeze.
Cydia has also started saving the SHSH blobs for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G. Check the how to guide posted here.
Dev Team reports:
Those of you with jailbroken iPhone3G and ipt2G devices may now have noticed Cydia starting to save your SHSH blobs too, just like it does for iPhone3GS, ipt3G and later devices. That’s because starting with 4.0, Apple started putting a “soft” SHSH blob check in the firmware. The SHSH blob check is very real in the sense that if iTunes can’t get your blobs (because the Apple signing window has closed), the iTunes restore will error out. But it’s “soft” in the sense that those devices can always use redsn0w or PwnageTool to get past the error (the bootroms themselves for those devices don’t require blobs to be in the firmware files, unlike the newer bootroms). Furthermore, since the 3.x IPSWs for these devices don’t enforce it, you can always restore to 3.x IPSWs outside of any signing windows.
So, Cydia is doing this to allow you to continue to use iTunes to restore to 4.x on iPhone3G and ipt2g outside of Apple’s signing window without needing to use redsn0w or PwnageTool to get around Apple’s annoying new restriction.\
You can also backup your SHSH blobs locally by using TinyUmbrella, which can be found here.
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Warning: Jailbreakers must stay away from iTunes 9.2.1 until further notice.
A new version of iTunes just arrived in Software Update. iTunes 9.2.1 to be exact. According to the update, the new version disables older versions of incompatible third-party plugins, addresses minor issues regarding dragging and dropping items, addresses a performance issue when doing a first sync to some devices, addresses an issue upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone or iPod Touch with encrypted backups, and fixes some stability and performance issues.
The new features and improvements include syncing with the iPhone 4, synchronization, and reading books on the iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 4 and iBooks 1.1, organizing and syncing PDF documents as books for reading in iBooks 1.1, organizing apps on your iOS 4 home screens using iTunes, faster backups while syncing iPhone and iPod Touch with iOS 4, and album artwork improvements to make artwork appear more quickly when exploring the library.
More information about the security aspects of the update can be obtained from Apple's Support page.
We just recently received a tip about the HTC Droid Incredible software update that many users are probably waiting to hear about. An email from HTC sent in as a tip mentioned the following information:
I wanted to pass along that the upcoming Incredible MR will also include Froyo (originally it was going to be two separate MRs).
We are targeting the end of the month/first part of August. As a reminder, below are the highlights:
Froyo
802.11 n
3G Mobile Hot Spot
HTC Widget: Email
HTC Widget: News
EAS Updates
720p Video Recording
Amazon MP3
Skype
My Verizon
The email confirms the much anticipated Incredible update that began rolling out this weekend will most likely be stopped and a much better and improved Froyo-inclusive update will be pushed out in the coming weeks. The update will also include 802.11n Wi-Fi support, 3G Mobile Hot Spot, 720p recording, and more. All pretty good new for Incredible owners. How do you feel about th delayed update? Is Android 2.2 worth the few weeks of waiting? Let us know in the comments below.
If you are one of the people who bought the new Motorola DROID X you bought one rock solid handset but we've been informed of a privacy flaw that the phone has. The Motorola DROID X will actually show text message and call history logs, even if you have deleted these items from the phone, via its contacts history function. It is never a good thing to find out that your new gadget has a vicious security hole revealing some potentially embarassing or confidential material that you would rather keep from others. All you have to do is scroll over to contact history in the contacts app and you'll find the deleted information there. The issue disappears after an entier phone wipe but its still disconcerting that any threaded text message conversation or recent calls will still show up after deletion.
You can check out a quick run through in the video below. After placing a call to Verizon to investigate further the company mentioned that they are aware of and are working on the fix. They did mention that this is visible on other Motorola handsets and it looks like it's tied to the Motorola BLUR's interface.
If you are one of the unfortunate victims of this security hole whether it is a DROID X phone or a different Android model, tell us about your experience below.
The iPhone 4 has been unlocked with UltraSn0w yet again using another method out of the three ways the iPhone Dev Team has to implement the iPhone 4 unlock exploit. MuscleNerd has shared an unlocked iPhone 4 screenshot. Previously, Planetbeing succeeded in implementing the first way of the unlock. For those of you who don't already know both MuscleNerd and Planetbeing have been working on an iPhone 4 unlock for a few weeks now. They found an exploit to unlock the iPhone 4 and they plan on using 3 ways to take advantage of the loop hole to inject the baseband unlock. Planetbeing has already unlocked the iPhone 4 using one of the 3 ways (which can be found in his video here) and now MuscleNerd has implemented the unlock using the second way. They'll release the one which is more stable, fast and easy.c
The iPhone 4 has been unlocked with UltraSn0w yet again using another method out of the three ways the iPhone Dev Team has to implement the iPhone 4 unlock exploit. MuscleNerd has shared an unlocked iPhone 4 screenshot. Previously, Planetbeing succeeded in implementing the first way of the unlock. For those of you who don't already know both MuscleNerd and Planetbeing have been working on an iPhone 4 unlock for a few weeks now. They found an exploit to unlock the iPhone 4 and they plan on using 3 ways to take advantage of the loop hole to inject the baseband unlock. Planetbeing has already unlocked the iPhone 4 using one of the 3 ways (which can be found in his video here) and now MuscleNerd has implemented the unlock using the second way. They'll release the one which is more stable, fast and easy.
As we are all aware of the iPhone 4's antenna issue, and the fix recommended by Steve Job's himself is to put bumpers/cases to resolve the issue. Folks over at ZAGG stated - that they have conducted extensive testing to determine if our products can help this problem, including internal tests, independent lab tests, and research with consumers in the wireless industry.
The test is clear in the video - "Packets go all over the place" when they don't cover up the antenna spot, then stop entirely when they do. Packets resume going "all over the place" once they release the spot. When the invisibleSHIELD is applied, one can touch the questionable antenna area all they want, but transmission seems to be unaffected.
Of course, you can wait for Apple to setup and start giving out free bumpers/cases or you can get a side-only version of the invisibleSHIELD for just $10, which is a pretty decent solution to the antenna issue, seeing as the shield is clear and fairly unobtrusive. A full front and back solution will cost you $25. Or, you can get a vinyl one with designs on it. [Zagg]
Let us know which bumper/case you pick out and your experience with it of course in the comments below.
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It's been a roller-coaster ride with the iPhone 4 over the last 3 weeks since it's release. While most of us are still happy to hear about Steve Job's freebies that are soon to be handed out, theres one question that is still bugging some people out there: What's taking so long with the white iPhone 4? Apple has promised us an "end of July" delivery for its latest iDevice but it has yet to specify exactly what the manufacturing difficulty is. According to 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese newspaper, the problems all stem from a Chinese factory by the name of Lens Technology, which is apparently responsible for transforming fine raw glass into the majority of the iPhone glass panels that are currently out there (no mention of Corning here either).
A rather boring and bland name for a glass manufacturer - Lens Technology isn't exactly a household name to the average gadget consumer. It is the manufacturing company that many top brands such as Huawei, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and many more have been going to since it's launch in July 1993. The company's set up sever plants all over China and most recently in Liuyang, Hunan that currently houses about 14,000 workers. Although it's still merely a faction of Foxconn's 400,000 employees in Shenzen, Lens' recent intake of about 7,000 "post-90s" workers led to many disciplinary issues. Although this still wasn't the reason for the white iPhone 4 delay.
According to a Len project feasibility report published in 2006, the glass manufacturing process involves the following steps: developing the tooling, cutting the raw material, fine milling using computed numerically controlled machines, sanding the edges, polishing, strengthening, cleaning, coating, screen printing, baking, anti-shatter treatment, assembling, and packaging. A pretty tedious process as you can see. A worker from the Lens' quality control department has allegedly admitted that the company's screen-printing workshop may currently be dealing with some issues with the white iPhone 4 covers. More specifically the factory's still working out the perfect combination of paint thickness and opacity. The prototype white covers acquired previously appeared a bit darker than the iPhone 4 dock, so the company is trying to find a better result for when the white iPhone 4 comes out later this month.
If Apple does somehow manage to deliver the new batch of phones by the promised date, can they meet the potential demand for the product? According to industry sources, Lens' current production capacity only meets half of Apple's demand, thus becoming a major bottleneck for the entire iPhone 4 production pipeline. This could all be trash-talking from competitors who are envying Apple's product success and there is a small chance that other components might be affected as well, but the truth is the handset's currently in short supply. After 3 million units since launch, Apple's online store is still listing a 3-week shipping date for the original (black) iPhone 4. Considering each CNC machine could apparently only cut out three iPhone 4 glass covers eery hour, Lens will need to get its act together on the paint job and use as many machines as possible along with skilled operators to make not only Apple happy but also all the fanboys the company has accumulated.
A less popular but long-time hacker, Sherif Hashim has posted a video in which he demonstrates how simple it is to activate the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G without using the original SIM card. You can literally use any SIM card you want, however you should keep in mind that iPhone 4 users will be required to cut the SIM into a micro-SIM size. Before you get all excited, you should know that this DOES NOT mean that your phone will be unlocked. This simply activates the iPhone, meaning that you can get past one of the biggest pains you first have to through when getting an iPhone: Hacktivating it, otherwise you're stuck on the emergency screen until you do so. The best part is there is no programming needed, so almost anyone can do this without the technical knowledge that one might think it would require. Here is what Sherif has to say:
instead of telling everyone who hasn't got the original sim that activation of the iphone is easy using a phonebook sim card, i made this video to show u all how it works , Use any phonebook sim card, they are there in radioshack, mobile phone shops or any mobile tech moles , any phone book simcard will do the trick, no need for programmable sims, all those phonebook sims used to save ur contacts and transfer them have a universal ICCIDs preprogrammed so they all work
Follow the video and try it out yourself and let us know how it works out for you:
Sherif Hasim is the same guy who found the exploit to unlock 05.12.01 / 05.13.04 baseband on iPhone running iOS 4, so you can imagine what is else is coming soon!
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Apple's Friday press conference, now dubbed Antennagate conference has definitely angered many, including several rival handset manufacturers. Some of the manufacturers such as Nokia and RIM have released an official response already towards Apple's statements but not all of the companies are taking Cupertino's words and opinions to heart. HTC's Droid Eris was arguably the most affected byt he grip of doom, its bars dropping to zero when held ,but the Taiwanese company's keeping any controversial opinions to itself for now. Instead it simply shared a simple percentage to clear the air.
Apple claimed over 0.55 percent of customers called AppleCare with reception-related complains, HTC's Eric Lin informed Pocket-lint the Droid Eris technical suport rate was only 0.016 percent, nearly thirty-four times lower - although with a seven-month head start, we have to wonder if the Eris sold close to three million by the time Verizon bought the axe down. HTC's approach is definitely different from that of the other companies brought into the mix.
Starting out directly by aiming at the iPhone 4's infamous "Death Grip" situation by kicking off the event with the "iPhone 4 antenna song" music video, Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple's press conference earlier today in Cupertino; promising to answer the longstanding questions about the iPhone 4's antenna dilemma.
"You know, we're not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren't perfect either," Jobs said, after noting the record sales and the popularity of the iPhone 4. "But we want to make all of our users happy. If you don't know that about Apple, you don't know Apple. We love making our users happy. We've been working on this for just 22 days," Jobs said, suggesting that "Antennagate" caught Apple off guard the same way it caught everyone else as well. Jobs said that Apple "first learned that this doesn't just happen to the iPhone. Nokia, Motorola and other phones have this issue..." while citing internal tests (for some reason YouTube clips weren't adequate). He demonstrated how the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the Samsung Omnia II similarly lose bars when held improperly, basically trying to make it clear that the iPhone 4 wasn't alone in the world of Death Grips.
This is life in the smartphone world. Phones aren't perfect. It's a challenge for the whole industry. Every phone has weak spots
"We had a reporting error," Steve Jobs said, finally bringing up the algorithmn and showing off the highly advanced $100 million facility in which the iPhone 4 was tested and re-tested over and over again. "We screwed up on our algorithm. Some of these other phones may be too generous. Our choice was to put the correct algorithm in. And we did that with the new update. You'll still see a drop as we haven't figured out a way around the laws of physics yet." He went on to note that "just one half of one percent" of iPhone 4 users have actually complained about the Death Grip, implying that the problem of the media going crazy over the issue was a bigger problem than the antenna issue itself. Comparing it to the iPhone 3GS, Jobs revealed that "in the early days of the iPhone 3GS, return rates were 6%, So for the iPhone 4, you think half the people must be returning their phones with what you read online. Well it's 1.7%, less than a third of the 3GS returns."
Jobs did admit (barely) to not being perfect either, indicating that While Apple believes the iPhone 4 is superior to the 3GS antenna, it actually drops more calls per 100 than the 3GS. "We're being transparent," he said, observing that the exact dropped call data can't be revealed as its within AT&T's discretion to withhold that info from competitors. But... "This is hard data... the iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS. Less than one." Here is what he said exactly about the issue:
Now when we look at this data, it's hard to escape the conclusion that there is a problem, but that problem is affecting a very small number of users.
So the big question arose: What is Apple going to do to try and resolve the big issue?
Steve Job's answer: iOS 4.0.1 (which was released JUST yesterday) AND.... free bumpers for all!
Here is what he said about the ordeal:
We think this has been so blown out of proportion. It's fun to have a story, but it's not fun on the other side. So here's what we're going to do to make our users happy. The first part is the software update, that fixes the way the bars report and other bugs, that's out now. Second, people said the bumper fixes everything... 'why don't you give everybody a case'? Okay -- we'll give you a free case.
Adding...
If you got one, we'll give you a refund.
For those of you wondering about what will happen if there aren't enough bumpers, he addressed that issue as well:
We're going to send you a free case. We can't make enough bumpers. No way we can make enough in the quarter. So we're going to source some cases and give you a choice. And if you're not happy, you can bring the phone back. We'll give you a full refund within 30 days. No restocking fee. We want to make everyone happy, and if we can't make you happy we'll give you a full refund.
To top it all off, Jobs mentioned that these cases will be shipped to you and the ability to order one will start late next week. Nearing the end of the conference Jobs mentioned news of the White iPhone 4 being available at the end of July. Hoping that the white iPhone 4 will be the biggest news from now on as opposed to more "Death Grip" situations. If reading all about it isn't enough, you can watch a video of the press conference which is now posted on Apple's site. Stay tuned for more info on the topic by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.
According to the Taiwan based publication, Digitimes, the next-generation MacBook Air will have an 11-inch screen and an ultra-low voltage (ULV) Intel Core i-series processor. The report claims that Digitimes is getting their information from "upstream component makers" and also echoes increasingly common rumors that the new iPod Touch released this year will have a camera. The report also claims that the refreshed MacBook Air would be produced in relatively few numbers, with only 400,000 units to ship by the end of the year. If the report information turns out to be true, then it would move the MacBook Air to almost netbook size although it'll still have a very significant price premium compared to most ultraportables. Apple's lightest notebook will start at a hefty price for $1,499.
The Digitimes story, with credit going to senior analyst Mingchi Kuo claims that the new MacBook Air will be thinner, lighter, and supposedly also have a ULV Intel CPU possibly the Core i5-560UM). Other rumors such as a 3G chip and more SSD options were not mentioned in the report. The MacBook Air has always been at a strange position in Apple's lineup since it's performance is like that of low-end MacBooks but the device as a whole is priced near the MacBook Pro range. It has done pretty well but is far outsold by the other more mainstream models. Many analysts have been challenging Apple for years to try and come out with a netbook but the company seems to ignore the requests. With a lower cost chip, Apple could easily reduce the price somewhat, but it is still very unlikely to see Apple netbooks priced below $500.
Mingchi Kuo also claims that the fourth generation iPod Touch will have Apple's A4 processor and a 3 megapixel camera. Other rumors have said that the Touch will have two cameras, one with a front-facing sensor, allowing FaceTime support. Kuo didn't refer to any second camera in his report though the next generation iPod Touch is expected in August or September when Apple has traditionally refreshed the iPod line.
