Edible Apple

With February already in full swing, rumors surrounding the iPhone 7 are already starting to heat up. Based on what we’ve seen thus far, it appears that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will come without a 3.5mm headphone jack (gasp!) and will rely upon the Lightning port for audio.

That aside, some of the more recent iPhone 7 rumors have indicated that the device will be thinner than the iPhone 6s and will incorporate a camera that sits flush with the body of the device. And somewhere, of course, Jony Ive is smiling.

The most recent iPhone 7 rumor, which you might want to take with the requisite grain of salt, relays that the device could feature a ceramic back as opposed to metal. Additionally, reports claim that the device will incorporate a Super AMOLED display, a new metal frame, quick charging functionality, improved 3D Touch and and Touch ID performance, wireless charging and more.

While intriguing to say the least, there’s not a whole lot of evidence to suggest the iPhone 7 will implement an AMOLED screen. Still, the render above is rather intriguing.

via Business Korea

Apple CEO Tim Cook today penned a heartwarming letter for BloombergBusinessweek where he publicly acknowledged, for the first time, that he is gay.

The letter reads in part:

For years, I’ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I’m gay, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I’ve had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people’s differences. Not everyone is so lucky.

While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.

…

I don’t consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I’ve benefited from the sacrifice of others. So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.

The entire letter is well worth a read.

If you pop on over to Apple’s Watch pages on the company website and start browsing around, you’ll notice the interstitial ads are a bit more sultry, dare we say steamier, than usual.

I can just see the tagline now — “Don’t kiss me yet. First, send me your heartbeat.”

With no release date nailed down for Apple’s newest product category, we’re going to have to wait a while, presumably, before we see any commercials for the Apple Watch start hitting the airwaves. But if the above is any indication, Apple’s adverts are poised to go down an interesting and, I’ll say it, sexy road.

It’s the calm before the storm, folks. Tomorrow promises to be one of the most important dates in Apple history. Well, either that or Apple has done an incredibly stupid job of hyping up an event with no pay off. But seriously, the avalanche of evidence suggesting that Apple has some stellar announcements tomorrow is ginormous.

Now one of the many reasons folks are so curious about what Apple has in store for us is that they’ve put up a three story structure adjacent to the Flint Convention Center — a curious move considering the Flint Convention Center can hold a sizeable crowd.

MacRumors reported the following about a week ago:

For the occasion, it appears that Apple has been building a massive structure on the campus, which has been kept under tight wraps with a white barricade. A MacRumors reader has sent in images of a mysterious structure at the Flint Center, which appears to span three stories and is protected by “scads” of security people. Administrators had previously declined to comment on what the structure is for, stating only “We are not at liberty to discuss that due to client wishes.”

Not to be outdone, AppleInsider sent up a drone high into the sky to take some aerial video of the mysterious white box.

Clearly, everyone is just dying to know what’s inside of Apple’s mysterious cube. Hell, even Brad Pitt is just dying to know.

Patience, Brad. Patience.

Apple’s media event tomorrow will have the entire tech world at attention, watching and listening to Tim Cook and co.’s every word. In addition to the introduction of two new iPhones, tomorrow will likely see the unveiling of Apple’s first new product category since the iPad was unveiled four years ago.

Suffice it to say, anyone with even a passing interest in tech will have their eyes glued to their computer screens tomorrow. Illustrating the immense interest in tomorrow’s event, the talented and ever-hilarious folks over at Geek Culture today released the following Joy of Tech graphic depicting what the average tech enthusiast’s desk will look like.

Hilariously spot on!

CNET reported yesterday that Nike laid off its entire Nike FuelBand team and that the company was planning to get out of the hardware business entirely in order to focus on software.

The company informed members of the 70-person hardware team — part of its larger, technology-focused Digital Sport division comprised of about 200 people — of the job cuts Thursday.

…

Of those 70 employees, about 70 percent to 80 percent — or as many as 55 people — were let go.

News of the layoffs naturally sparked debate as to the underlying cause. While the ostensible conclusion was that Nike was making a purely economical decision, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a long-time board member at Nike and that Apple may be releasing an iWatch sometime later this year.

Still, Nike was quick to respond to the report, telling Re/Code that it plans to continue selling the Nike FuelBand and that it only laid off a relatively small percentage of employees.

The Nike+ FuelBand SE remains an important part of our business,” the company said in a statement emailed to Re/code. “We will continue to improve the Nike+ FuelBand App, launch new METALUXE colors, and we will sell and support the Nike+ FuelBand SE for the foreseeable future.”

The language does seem to leave a lot of room, however, for the possibility that the Portland athletic apparel giant won’t produce future products in the FuelBand line. One source with knowledge of the situation said that it could be that Nike wants to be able to run down its inventory of devices, or that it still has not completely decided to shutter the unit.

I suppose time will tell.

While Samsung and Apple remain the top two smartphone manufacturers on the planet, that hasn’t always been in the case. Indeed, it’s easy to forget amidst the deluge of Samsung advertising materials that appear at every step, but HTC, back in the early days of Android, used to be Apple’s stiffest competition.

These days, HTC smartphones are highly regarded, even if they don’t happen to sell as briskly as their Samsung counterparts.

That said, it’s rather interesting that HTC has reportedly hired Paul Golden, the man behind Samsung’s rather clever and successful Galaxy brand strategy.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

An spokeswoman for HTC confirmed Friday that Paul Golden, who helped create Samsung’s successful Galaxy brand, is now a consultant for Chairwoman Cher Wang.

…

The struggling Taiwanese smartphone maker has long admitted that marketing was its weak spot. Within the past few years, HTC has shuffled through three CMOs, and in recent months Ms. Wang has taken an active role in overseeing the company’s marketing plans.

With early reviews of the iPhone Galaxy S5 seemingly falling on the negative end of the spectrum, many have pointed out that Samsung, without a leader to garner ideas from, is somewhat lost, a dynamic which results in shoddy products that don’t often work as advertised. The fingerprint sensor on the S5, for instance, has been almost universally lambasted by reviewers.

So who nows, perhaps we’ll see HTC actually win back some of the marketshare it lost to Samsung just a few years back. One thing’s for sure, it can only go up from here.

AppleInsider reports:

The details were relayed by the usual supply chain sources to DigiTimes, a Taiwanese tech industry publication frequently skewered for its track record. On Monday, the publication said that a new 9.7-inch iPad is planned to debut in September with a slimmer bezel, as has been rumored.

In addition, the report said the number of LED tubes to backlight the Retina display has been reduced from two to one, and battery life of the device has also been improved.

Pilot production of the device is allegedly already able to satisfy demand for the initial launch. As such, suppliers reportedly indicated they expect Apple to give shipment estimates as soon as the end of this month.

The next-gen iPad Mini, however, may be delayed a bit as Apple, so the report goes, is still considering whether or not to add a Retina Display to the next-gen device.

MacRumors has the scoop over here.

Cult of Mac reports via Reuters:

Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, has long been Apple’s biggest manufacturing partner, with around 60-70% of its revenue coming from the Cupertino company. But local rival Pegatron is hoping to change that.

By offering Apple more competitive prices and sacrificing its profit margins, Pegatron appears to be securing iPhone and iPad assembly orders that would have normally gone straight to Foxconn.

What’s more, it’s though that Pegatron will play a big part in manufacturing Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone after the company announced it will increase its number of workers in China by up to 40% in the second half of 2013.

“Pegatron posts a long-term risk to Hon Hai because as it catches up on margins by supplying more components, it can provide more aggressive pricing,” Daiwa Capital analyst Birdy Lu told Reuters. “Hon Hai’s margin uptrend is not a guarantee.”

Notably, Pegatron is already an Apple partner, though much of its current work revolves around working on older Apple products, like the iPhone 4S. The company, though, is involved with iPad Mini manufacturing.

AppleBitch reports:

Despite many assumptions to the contrary, it seems that Apple hasn’t forgotten iWork altogether as the company has today posted a job advertisement looking for a software QA engineer to work on the next generation of iWork software. The position advertisement is specifying a software engineer who can ‘work on the next generation of Desktop, Mobile and Web application/services‘. The position appears to be focused on bug detection, isolation and reporting in the iWork suite.

Siri certainly is sassy these days. But on other days, she’s just glad to make it through the boring ole’ 9-5.