After waiting in line to buy and spending seven days with the iPhone 5, living with it, owning it, I can say confidently that it's the best smartphone you can buy. The whiners, the babies, the cranky zealots who think it's boring, or disappointing, or not differentenough? They don't understand. The iPhone has finally grown up. There's nothing boring about it.
Apple has released Apple TV Software Update 5.1 for 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TV models. The release has build number 10A406e. The biggest changes include support for Shared Photo Streams, the ability to send audio content from the Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs), and the ability to switch between multiple iTunes accounts.
Apple has updated the Apple TV Software Update webpage with full details:
Shared Photo Streams - Accept invitations for Shared Photo Streams, browse photos and comments, and receive notifications of new content.
AirPlay - Send audio content from Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs). Also includes the ability to require an onscreen code to use AirPlay with your Apple TV.
iTunes account switching - Save multiple iTunes accounts and switch quickly between them.
Trailers - Search movie trailers. In the United States, see show times for local theaters.
Screen savers - New Cascade, Shrinking Tiles, and Sliding Panels screen savers.
Main menu - Reorder icons on the second page by holding down the select button on the remote.
Subtitles - SDH support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as improvements to viewing and selecting subtitles.
Network configuration - Support for setting up advanced network options using configuration profiles. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5437 for more information.
Stability and performance - Includes general performance and stability improvements.
The Apple TV can be updated directly on the unit by going to the Settings menu, then General, then selecting Update Software.
The last Apple TV update was released back in June.
It's about to become a heck of a lot easier to get your hands on a consumer light-field camera. The Lytro, that marvel of post-picture-taking-focusing, is finally expanding its reach well beyond the confines of its own site. The camera will be hitting Amazon and Best Buy and Target's sites come October 9th. That same day, Canadians will be able to pick the lipstick-shaped device up via Future Shop, followed by retail availability in Canada on the 10th. In mid-October, it'll be hitting stores in Singapore and Hong Kong, swinging back around to the States in November for availability in CityTarget stores in select locations.
The Factory Reset. One of those last ditch efforts that many of us have a fair bit of experience with. However, a malicious embed code could potentially do the exact same thing to your Galaxy S III. The Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code (which we won't reproduce here) apparently only works on Samsung phones running Touchwiz, and only if you are directed to the dodgy destination while inside the stock browser (rather than Chrome, for example). This means the Galaxy Nexus is unaffected, but it can work the same dark magic on the likes of the Galaxy S II.
Huawei's boss must have been a Boy Scout, since he's taken its "be prepared' motto deeply to his heart. CEO Wan Biao has told Reuters that his company is working on its own mobile OS just in case its partners "won't let us use their system[s] one day." We don't expect to ever see the software, but given thefractious nature of the business, it's more likely to be a barbed hint at Google and Microsoft to keep sending flowers and chocolates to Shenzhen. That said, given that local rival ZTE is building phones withFirefox's OS, we'd politely suggest that it rescues another beloved OS from the clutches of HP's indifference.
YouTube recently launched a beta feature, called “Video Questions Editor Beta,” which Dutch tech website WebSonic.nl first discovered, that allows publishers to add an interactive quiz to their videos.
This is an opt-in beta for a simple Video Questions Editor on YouTube. Through this editor you can setup multiple questions to be displayed on top of your video during playback that a viewer can answer.
Samsung will begin rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean updates to the Galaxy S III today, according to a report from The Verge that cited an email directly from the company. The report said Poland would be the first market with access as the update gradually rolls out across other markets. When exactly you will be able to get your hands on it is unclear, but the report noted schedules for the roll out will “vary by market and wireless carriers’ requirements.”
Samsung also apparently provided a list of 15 additional devices that will receive updates to Jelly Bean in the future. The devices listed by The Verge include 10 phones and four tablets, such as: Galaxy S II,Galaxy Note, Galaxy S Advance, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Chat, Galaxy Ace 2, Galaxy Beam, Galaxy Ace Plus, Galaxy Mini 2, Galaxy S Duos, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Galaxy Note 10.1. The final device is listed as simply the “Galaxy Music,” which neither The Verge or ushave any information on. We will update this post if Samsung provides any more details.
Update: As you can see to the right, Google Closed at close to 750, its highest mark ever.
Heading into the afternoon, Google’s stock price hit a record high of $748.90 at around 12:30 p.m. EST. Today’s record beats out Google’s previous record of $747.24 set in November of 2007, after which Google’s stock quickly fell. However, over the last month, it has been shooting upward, perhaps fueled by Google’s continued Android growth, solid ad sales, and possibly some performance issues with Apple’s new Maps solution. At any rate, Google’s team is most likely celebrating their accomplishment. Who knows, it is still early in the afternoon, so maybe another record will be broken. [Google via BGR]
The iPhone 5 is currently available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the U.K. It will be available in 22 more countries on September 28. The countries are - Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The same announcement also informs that the iPhone 5 will be available in another 100 countries by the end of 2012.
Note: Single letter keys are shown capitalized, but you do not have to hold Shift unless it's written. You also don't have to type the plus sign; plus sign just means push the keys on either side of it at the same time.
Left: Apple's Clock app. Right: The iconic Swiss Railway clock. Courtesy Wikipedia
The clock, designed by Hans Hilfiker, has become an icon of both the Swiss railway and of Switzerland itself. The trademark and copyright for the clock is owned by the Swiss Federal Railways service.
According to the article:
SBB is the sole owner of the trademark and copyright of the railway clock. The railway company will now get in touch with Apple. The aim is a legal, as well as a financial solution. It is not right that one [Apple] simply copies the design.
The paper notes that Apple Switzerland declined to comment and directed reporters to Apple's corporate headquarters in the United States.
The clock's image is widely licensed, with the watchmaker Mondaineselling replicasaround the world.
(Thanks for the translation, Dave!)
Update: In the interest of fairness, we have changed our links from Tages-Anzeiger to the Swiss daily Blick, which first reported the story. The translated quote remains one provided by a MacRumors reader from a paragraph in the Tanges-Anzeiger story.
Last night i updated all my devices which could update to iOS 6! Well it was an amazing feeling as it has become a ritual now to wait for the next iOS or watch the keynotes of apple! so as a result woke up early to check if it was worth the wait, well you won't notice if u have updated as there weren't any major changes in the UI yeah some new wallpapers have been updated! Well i like..
Today at school there was just one thing going on in my mind, no it wasn't the Lumia 920, as u may guess it was the much awaited iOS 6! the only reason i woke up early for school . But why ? Well because it's the only thing which gives me maximum happiness as it's FREE! You don't need to spend a single penny yeah u need some amount of the internet! I some how managed school, as god's will the school announced holiday on 20th september due to some politics in our country! Well i was the happiest person on the world! Coz now i could wake up until 5 Like a Boss ! Well right now i'm just blogging through my Macbook Retina and updating my Little buddies ( iPhone/iPad) to the next level! Well frankly apple knows how to impress people! They have the perfect marketing team as well as the engineering team! Well now this is how i'm going to blog from now onwards, so look forward in writing more for you!
AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service provider, said it set a sales record with Apple's iPhone 5 over the weekend, making it the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered.
AT&T did not disclose how many iPhones it sold, but said the iPhone 5 was still available for preorder and would go on sale from September 21 at AT&T retail stores.
It is not unusual for Apple products to sell out the first day. Orders for the previous iPhone 4S, the last product the company introduced before the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, surpassed 1 million in the first 24 hours, beating Apple's previous one-day record of 600,000 sales for the iPhone 4.
Apple's U.S. store, at www.apple.com, on Monday morning showed pre-orders for the iPhone 5 would take 2-3 weeks to ship.
The phone's other carriers, Verizon Communications Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp, also showed similar delays in shipping the phone.
The company began taking orders for the iPhone 5 at midnight Pacific Time (0700 GMT) on September 14, but shipping dates for the slimmer and faster smartphone slipped by a week within an hour of the start of pre-orders.
Apple had previously said it would start shipping the iPhone by September 21 in the United States, UK, France, Germany and a few other countries and reach 100 by the end of the year.
Analysts have predicted that more than 30 million iPhones, including older models, will be sold by the end of September. iPhone sales account for more than half the company's revenue.
Shares of Apple were up less than 1 per cent at $694.88 in premarket trading on Monday. They closed at $691.28 on the Nasdaq on Friday.
Apple has finished decorating the front facade of the Yerba Buena center in preparation for their September 12th media event. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 5 at that event. At initial glance, the front decoration seems to show no obvious clues as to their announcements.
However, one eagle eyed MacRumors forum visitor believes the facade show stretched iOS icons. Zaym points out that you can see stretched versions of iOS icons including Game Center, iTunes, Music and App Store in the image and provides an example image.
After taking the above image and skewing it and shrinking it, we've verified his findings. Several icons are clearly recognizable in their un-stretched form:
Game Center (upside down above), iTunes and Music icons:
Of course, speculation on the reason for the stretched icons points to the long-running rumors that Apple will be introducing a taller iPhone with a 4" diagonal screen. Ourcomplete iPhone 5 roundup details everything we expect in the new iPhone.
Update: Another take on the icons from roosternugget:
Less than a week ahead of next week’s media event, rumored to be focused on the next-generation iPhone, Apple has started decorating the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with its typical banners to indicate the upcoming event. Earlier this week, Apple sent invitations to the press for the event they will hold in San Francisco on September 12th, starting at 10 AM PST.
As usual, our friend @SteveStreza has managed to capture a series of photos of the work in progress at Yerba Buena.
We are updating this post with more photos of Apple’s banners at the Yerba Buena Center past the break — these banners are typically of little indication of what the company will announce, but they’re always interesting enough to check out, if anything from a design standpoint.
The WSJ reports that, as widely expected, the iPhone 5 will support ultra-fast LTE network. But the newspaper says that, unlike with the third-generation iPad, the new iPhone will support globalversions of LTE for Asia and Europe in addition to the United States. The report’s sources say that it is “unlikely” that all carriers will support the LTE feature, though.
Apple Inc.’s AAPL +0.62% next iPhone will work on the fastest wireless networks around the world—including in the U.S., Europe and Asia—though it is unlikely to be available on every carrier, people familiar with the matter said.
The technical compatibility with so-called LTE networks removes a big competitive danger for Apple and gives carriers a chance to sell their fastest data services to Apple’s huge base of iPhone customers.
We previously discussed new LTE chipsets that could be in this new iPhone which may even include support for the 600M+ subscribers on China Mobile’s network which runs TD-LTE.
The new iPhone will be announced at a press event on Wednesday September 12th at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center. In addition to LTE, the iPhone 5 will feature a taller, 1136 x 640 display, improved internals, a thinner design, and more. Apple’s new iPhone is codenamed N42 and will ship at the same price points at the iPhone 4S. Apple will also debut a slew of refreshed iPods at its event next week.
The next iPhone will be announced at Apple's September 12 media event, with in-store availability likely on September 21. Apple usually offers some way to pre-order the iPhone so you don't have to wait in line. This year appears to be no different, with pre-orders reportedly opening up on the announcement day.
The biggest distinguishing feature in the new iPhone will be a longer 4" screen, up from 3.5" on all earlier iPhone models. The screen will be longer, but not wider. It should feel about the same in your hand, but the added vertical height will provide some extra screen space for your apps. Movies will also be able to play in full widescreen (16:9) format without any black bars at the top and bottom.
This mockup video shows how this might work.
Overall the next iPhone will look similar to the iPhone 4S but have a two-tone(aluminum/glass) back, as shown below, and also be slightly thinner. We've seen photos and video of newly designed headphones that we believe are destined for the new iPhone.
The dock connector has been replaced with a smaller/thinner connector, so existing accessories and cables won't work. You will have to either buy an adapter or all new accessories if you are upgrading from an existing iPhone.
The wireless cellular networking in the next iPhone is believed to be the faster LTE standard which means downloads (video, email, music) will be much faster than the existing models which support only 3G. We also expect the processor to be upgraded (likely to an "A6"), but exact details are still pretty scarce. Generally, though, "faster" is a safe bet for any subsequent iPhone.
Apple had dropped the numbering scheme from the iPad with the most recent release, so it has seemed likely that Apple would do the same for the iPhone. The media event invitation, however, seems to suggest that the new iPhone will indeed be called the "iPhone 5".
The iPhone 3GS is likely to be discontinued, with the iPhone 4 and 4S being used to fill the free-with-contract and $99-with-contract spots in Apple's lineup.
In More Detail
4-Inch Screen
There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that Apple is going to adopt a taller 4-inch iPhone screen. The evidence comes primarily from countless iPhone part leaks. Apple's upcoming iOS 6 software also supports the expected taller resolution of 1136x640.
The part leaks have also been numerous and consistent over the past few months. Apple is believed to have already started to ramp up production on the next iPhone, and these parts are a side effect of that massive ramp-up.
In order to avoid a huge slump in iPhone sales, Apple needs to launch the next iPhone shortly after they announce it. And in order to do that they need stock -- a lot of it -- to be ready quickly. The only way to accomplish that is to start building them early.
Naysayers are quick to point to last year's iPhone 5 renders (Yes, we called that one "iPhone 5" too) being wrong. They were wrong, but the difference is that we never saw part leaks for that device, just case designs. Part leaks are much stronger evidence that this is it. Last year, we did see part leaks... for the iPhone 4S. They just looked so similar to the iPhone 4 that we couldn't tell the difference or ascribed them to rumors of two new iPhones.
Dock Connector, Nano-SIM and Headphone Jack
This year, Apple is making a massive change-up to its iPhone ecosystem, changing the near-ubiquitous 30-pin dock connector to a much smaller connector. Apple has been on an almost constant quest to reduce the size of its components, so it makes sense that the dock connector is on Apple's list.
The new dock cable is much smaller and offers a fewer number of pins, but we're not sure if that means we are losing any functionality to our dock connectors. Apple is expected to sell an adapter for your existing accessories.
Following in the "smaller" theme, it appears Apple has also adopted a smaller SIM standard known as "nano-SIM". Most of us in the U.S. never eject our SIM cards, so the change should represent no inconvenience. For those who do regularly swap out your SIM cards, this is probably going to be a nuisance since no other phones presently have a nano-SIM.
Finally, the parts show that Apple has moved the headphone jack from the top of the unit to the bottom, next to the dock connector.
LTE / A6 Processor
High-speed LTE networking seems a given for the next iPhone, especially since the latest iPad shipped with the technology.
The problem with LTE in the iPhone has always been one of battery consumption, and LTE phones released to date have required larger batteries and offered shorter battery life. Apple has said in the past that they weren't willing to make those battery life compromises in the iPhone.
All of this should mean a faster CPU with decreased power requirements.
The chipset that promises LTE speeds with much improved power consumption is theQualcomm MDM9615. Conveniently, that chip is set to arrive in time for late 2012 delivery -- just in time for the new iPhone.
The iPhone's processor remains another area where we've heard few rumors in the lead-up to the launch. We all assume that Apple will make a stride in processor technology with a combination of lower power and/or faster speeds.
The iPhone 4S presently uses a dual-core A5 processor. When Apple introduced the third-generation iPad, the company bumped it to an "A5X" processor. The A5X has the same dual-core processor as the A5, but with a quad-core graphics chip to help handle the higher density Retina display of the new iPad. The new iPhone won't need nearly as large a boost in graphics power to support the marginal increase in screen size.
What we have heard is that the A6 processor is destined for the 2012 iPhone. Reports had suggested that Apple might partner with TSMC on chip production using a 28-nanometer process, but it now appers that Apple will stick with Samsung and its 32-nanometer process, while moving to a quad-core processor. All of this should mean a faster CPU with decreased power requirements.
We have seen one sketchy photo of an A6 processor, but we aren't convinced the photo is real.
NFC? Nope.
There had been some early talk of the possibility of Apple incorporating near field communication (NFC) capabilities for mobile payments into the 2012 iPhone. That talk has diminished over time, and a Wall Street Journal article has suggested that Apple has been deliberately cautious about moving into mobile payments.
With that, the most recent word is that the new iPhone won't come with this technology.
Discuss
Discuss and ask questions about the next iPhone 5 our iPhone forums. This document will be continuously updated to take into account new rumors.
Samsung will begin rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean updates to the Galaxy S III today, according to a report from The Verge that cited an email directly from the company. The report said Poland would be the first market with access as the update gradually rolls out across other markets. When exactly you will be able to get your hands on it is unclear, but the report noted schedules for the roll out will “vary by market and wireless carriers’ requirements.”
The part leaks have also been numerous and consistent over the past few months. Apple is believed to have already started to ramp up production on the next iPhone, and these parts are a side effect of that massive ramp-up.
