Edible Apple

As production of the iPhone 5 begins to ramp up, there have been scattered reports of key component shortages for Apple’s next-gen smartphone. Regardless, Apple is still expected to announce the iPhone 5 at a special media event on September 12 to be followed by an actual product launch on September 21.

Expounding on Apple’s alleged component supply strain, AppleInsider noted last week, citing a trusted industry insider, that Apple should still be able to meet initial demand for what promises to be the hottest iPhone launch yet.

These views were similarly shared in a research note Friday by well-respected KGI Research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said the next-generation handset is entering the production verification test (PVT) stage and that Apple’s supply chain will be intact for the initial ramp, though availability of select components, like in-cell touch-panels made by Sharp and LG, may be tight due to low yield rates.

According to industry checks the two suppliers will be able to pump out a small number of panels and contribute to Japanese display maker JDI’s already-growing stockpile, which will stand at over 10 million units before the end the third quarter. Overall, in-cell panel supply should reach between 14 to 18 million units in the third quarter, sufficient for the next-generation iPhone’s rollout.

via AI

After doing some digging in the recently released iOS 6 beta and playing around and tweaking the iOS Simulator app, 9to5Mac discovered that the upcoming Apple iOS scales up to a 640×1136 display.

Today, we have found more proof that Apple is at least testing next-generation iPhone displays that are taller. In fact, iOS 6 is completely scaleable to a taller display. 

Thanks to some tweaks to the iOS Simulator application that is included in the iOS development tools, we were able to run the simulator at the rumored next-generation iPhone display resolution of 640 x 1136. We did this running both the current public release of iOS 5.1 and the upcoming iOS 6.0 The iOS 5.1 simulator displayed the home screen with a stretched set of four rows of icons. On the other hand, iOS 6 displayed five complete rows – as our sources said Apple was testing for taller iPhone displays.

Translation? Get yourself ready for 5 rows of icons.

Well as many of the iPhone 5 rumors begin to crystallize – we now have a unveiling/launch date and know many of the upcoming features – Jeremy Horwitz tosses a monkey wrench into what we all thought we knew.

Horwitz has typically proven to be rather reliable in the past, which is why his most recent post over at iLounge is particularly interesting.

Now it’s been reported for quite some time, and seemingly corroborated by leaked device parts, that the iPhone 5 will move from the standard 30 pin dock connector in favor of an 19 pin connector. Reports of a “micro dock”, as it were, first surfaced this past May. The objective of shrinking the dock connector, we should point out, is simply a matter of saving space inside the device for more important items, oh like you know, the battery.

A few months back we wrote:

Notably, a number of rumors have pointed to the iPhone 5 not only housing a larger screen, but also support 4G LTE networks. These two factors, even by themselves, but especially when taken together, demand outstanding battery life. The current lineup of 4G enabled Android handsets sport notoriously poor battery life.

The current 30-pin dock connector is by no means terribly large, but when you have a device as advanced and capable as a modern day smartphone, every piece of real estate, no matter how small, is incredibly important. Also, remember that when commenting on Apple’s patience with respect to rolling out 4G equipped iPhones, Tim Cook stated that 4G chipset designs were too bulky to meet Apple’s stringent design objectives.

Since then, we’ve seen a plethora of leaked iPhone parts which all have 19 pin connectors, and yet here comes the reliable Jeremy Horwitz with news of an 8-pin connector. Say what?!

According to two sources, Apple’s new Dock Connector features only 8 pins, seemingly contradicting claims of “16-pin” and “19-pin” connectors. Although the original Dock Connector contained 30 pins, reports of 16- or 19-pin connectors seemed hard to square with the port’s small size and Apple’s actual need for additional pins beyond what USB/Micro-USB offer. No images or parts for the connector have leaked out, either. Both of our sources concur that there are eight pins in a line within the new Dock Connector, which may well receive a different name going forward.

And Horwitz also relays some news about a heretofore unannounced iOS 6 feature that will bridge Apple devices via Bluetooth 4.

The feature would enable, say, a future iPod nano to display iMessages received by an iPhone, record voice memos that could be shared via the iPhone, and even initiate phone calls through its own headphones. It could also conceivably let you make iPhone calls from your iPad (or possibly even recent Macs), assuming the iPhone was paired with the computer over Bluetooth. The core concept here might sound familiar to fans of HP’s ill-fated TouchPad, but our source claims that it’ll be more broadly and deeply executed by Apple.

Apple’s iPhone 5 unveiling is set to take place on September 12. This has been corroborated by a number of media outlets but still no official invitations have been sent out yet. As for the launch, that’s rumored for Wednesday September 21.

Last week saw a number of Apple executives take the stand in the Apple-Samsung trial which has now been ongoing for a week.

One notable appearance came from Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of worldwide marketing.

It’s no secret that Apple is world renowned for its advertising efforts, having had a hand in a number of iconic advertising campaigns over the past few years, from the memorable  iPod silhouette ads to the now-defunct “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads.

In any event, while being cross-examined, the topic of Apple’s marketing budget came up and Schiller helped shed some light on just how many millions Apple spends on advertising for its respective products.

Specifically, Schiller told the Courtroom that Apple spent $97.5 million on iPhone ads in 2008, a figure which grew to $149.6 million in 2009. And in 2010, putting Apple’s iPhone and iPad marketing budgets together, Apple expended approximately $346.6 million in advertising efforts. That’s a lot of dough, but when you have over $100 billion in the bank, it really ain’t no thang.

And further highlighting the acceleration of Apple’s advertising expenditures, Apple’s complete marketing budget in 2009 was $501 million, only to grow to $691 million in 2010 and a whopping $933 million in 2011.

Interestingly, Schiller quipped that inside the confines at Apple, the company views each successive iPhone as a success if the total sales of a particular device equals the sum total of all previous iPhone  sales. A lofty goal, but incredibly, one that Apple has maintained with every single iPhone release.

And with the iPhone 5 slated for release in about a month and a half, Apple could very well be on track for a huge blowout quarter.

The Apple/Samsung litigation has proven to be an Apple enthusiast’s dream. iPhone prototypes, iPad prototypes, and a plethora of fascinating information regarding Apple’s design process and previously undisclosed internal workings of the notoriously secretive company.

This past Friday was no different when Scott Forstall – Apple’s Senior VP of iOS Software – took the stand to testify.

During his examination, Forstall spoke at length about the development of the original iPhone and dropped a number of extremely fascinating tidbits.

“In 2003, we had built all these great Macs and laptops and we started asking ourselves what comes next. One thought we settled on was a tablet. We settled pretty quickly if we could investigate doing that with a touchscreen, so we started investigating and building prototypes.”

And then the talk turned to cellphones, a conversation prompted by a number of Apple executives’ displeasure with their current devices.

“In 2004, I remember sitting with Steve and saying we all hated our cell phones,” Forstall recalled. “We were asking ourselves: could we use the technology we were using with touch and use that same technology for phone. Something that would fit in your pocket.”

Forstall continued:

I’ll never forget we took that tablet and built a small scrolling list. On the tablet, we were doing pinch and zoom. So we built a small list to scroll on contacts and then you could tap on it to call. We realized that a touchscreen that was the size that would fit in your pocket would be perfect for the phone. So in 2004, we switched over from developing a tablet to developing the iPhone.

And so the first plans to hatch the iPhone were born. Jobs then approached Forstall about designing a mobile OS for the device, giving him free reign to handle the software aspect of iPhone development, albeit with one major caveat – Forstall could take anyone from within Apple he wanted, but he was not to hire anyone from outside the company.

So armed with that constraint, Forstall went on to approach all the superstars he could find at Apple whereupon he would deliver a cryptic offer.

“That was quite a challenge,” Forstall explained. “What I did was find people who were true superstars of the company, amazing engineers, bring them into my office and say, ‘you’re a superstar in your current role. I have an other offer, another option. We’re starting a new project. It’s so secret I can’t tell you what that project is. I can’t tell you who you will work for. What I can tell you is if you chose this new role, you’re going to work hard, give up nights, work weekends for years.”

“We wanted to build a phone for ourselves, “Forstall continued. “A phone that we really love. A computer in your pocket. We wanted to bring out something great without anyone else finding out what we’re doing so they wouldn’t leak it.”

As far as working conditions go, Forstall described how the orginal iOS team worked in a locked down floor in a building on Apple’s campus, complete with security readers and video cameras to monitor activity. The iPhone project was given the code name Purple, so the building was henceforth called the “purple dorm.”

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As rumors of an iPad Mini continue to hover overhead, the rest of the tablet market seems to be heating up. The Amazon Kindle Fire has established  its own little niche, and more than that, the recently released Galaxy Nexus 7 has gotten off to a very strong start amidst overwhelmingly positive reviews. Further, there are some new tablets from Samsung worthy of some mention, and let’s not forget the upcoming Microsoft Surface tablets – which to be honest, still constitute nothing more than vaporware at this point.

All that said, the iPad, with it’s higher price point and all, continues to remain the top dog in an increasingly saturated tablet market.

According to the most recent data compiled by IDC, Apple’s share of the tablet market during the second quarter of 2012 remained steady with an impressive 68.2% share of the market thanks to 17 million in iPad sales.

Contrast that to the second place tablet maker – Samsung – which accounted for just 8.4% of the tablet market on the back of 2.4 million tablet units shipped. And illustrating Apple’s ongoing dominance in the tablet space, Apple’s share of the tablet market during the second quarter of 2011 was 61.5%. So yes, it’s rising.

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This past February, Apple and Rupert Murdoch introduced an iPad only publication called The Daily.

“New times demand new journalism,” Murdoch said during the product announcement. “So we built The Daily completely from scratch — on the most innovative device to come about in my time — the iPad.”

Seeking to inject some new blood into an otherwise old medium, The Daily incorporates a plethora of multimedia content and touch interaction to deliver an immersive newspaper experience. Priced at just $0.99 a week, or $39.99 for an annual subscription, The Daily won’t break your wallet and the intention was clearly to rake in the cash on volume sales.

But things don’t often go as planned.

In May of 2011, News Corp president explained that they had already lost about $10 million on the app. At the time, many of those loses could be traced back to one-time investments needed to get everything up and running, so the optimists among us thought that greener pastures lied ahead.

But more than 12 months later, things don’t seem to have been turned around just yet.

Last week it was announced that News Corp will be letting go of about 50 of its 170 staff members as the subscription-based paper continues its struggle to stay profitable. That’s almost a third of its entire staff.

According to All Things D, which first broke the news, the paper’s editorial and sports pages will be affected the hardest by the layoffs though they will still continue to exist, albeit in a thinned out fashion.

In addition to the layoffs, The Daily will try to save money in other ways. For instance, it will no longer create digital pages that work in both vertical and horizontal layouts, and will produce only vertical pages from now on.

But people familiar with the paper’s plans say it isn’t changing other parts of its strategy, including a recent move to produce a weekend edition.

The Daily also issued a press release on the matter which you can check out after the break.

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Reuters reports that Sharp will soon start shipping iPhone 5 screens for Apple’s next-gen smartphone.

“Shipments will start in August,” Sharp’s new president Takashi Okuda recently explained at a press briefing.

Apple is planning a major product launch on Sept 12, stoking speculation that the world’s most valuable technology company will announce the sale of its redesigned iPhone. Sharp, identified as a supplier by Apple last year, is one of three companies expected to build the screens for the latest Apple offering.

Sharp does not comment on its relationship with Apple, but the screens set to start shipping in August are widely known to be headed for the new iPhone.

The other two suppliers of the panels are LG Display Co Ltd and Japan Display Inc.

Apple is expected to hold a special media event to unveil the iPhone 5 on September 12 with a launch expected for September 21.

Check it out, folks.

MacRumors adds:

ETrade Supply has also taken a close look at the home button region of the front panel, showing that the hole for the home button is 0.3 mm smaller in diameter than the hole on the iPhone 4S, while the margin between the bottom of the panel and the bottom of the display area is 2.6 mm shorter, allowing Apple to significantly increase the size of the iPhone’s display while only slightly increasing the overall device height.

via etradesupply

With the jurors all picked and ready to go, the Apple/Samsung trial is off and to the races. Things got started on Tuesday with Apple’s opening argument wherein Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny explained that Samsung, after realizing that they couldn’t compete with Apple, just went ahead and decided to copy the iPhone as best they could. Indeed, a perusing of various internal Samsung emails reveals that the Korean based company was hell bent on catching up with and overtaking Apple as the premier purveyor of smartphones, arguably by any means necessary.

Showing a key slide, McElhinny let the photo below speak for itself – a comparison of Samsung smartphones before and after the iPhone. A telling chart, to be sure, though Samsung argues that Apple merely cherry picked phones amongst dozens to deliver a misleading message.

“As we all know it is easier to copy than to innovate,” McElhinny explained. “Apple had already taken the risks.”

Reuters adds:

McElhinny showed jurors an internal Samsung product analysis which said the iPhone’s hardware was “easy to copy.” Another document prepared by a Samsung executive said the company was in a “crisis of design’ due to the iPhone.”

The Apple/Samsung trial got underway yesterday, preceded by a flurry of court activity that revealed a plethora of information about various Apple prototypes and much much more. But more on that later.

For now, the jury for the trial has been selected and it’s all systems go. Bloomberg yesterday reported on the jury selection process and there are a few interesting nuggets of information.

All told, there are 7 men and 3 women on the jury, and as you might expect from a jury pool sourced out of Silicon Valley, there are some tech inclined folks on the jury. Which, of course, is a good thing given the complexity of the legal dispute at hand.

Some of the jurors include a woman who previously worked for a semiconductor company, a man who has previously filed for his own patents, and a software engineer.

Interestingly enough, a Google employee was being considered for the jury, obviously against the wishes of Apple.

Koh twice rejected a request by William Lee, a lawyer for Apple, to dismiss “for cause” the Google engineer who said he owns shares in his company.

The engineer said he started at Google before it bought YouTube, working on user interface layouts. He said he had worked on the company’s AdWords program, maps and a version of the company’s Android operating system called Jelly Bean. He said he assisted in some capacity with patents covering some of those technologies.

Koh has been seemingly balanced in her decisions thus far, but this seems a bit odd.

“His credibility, as far as I’m concerned,” Koh explained,  “I believe it when he says he can be fair and impartial. For right now he’s been solid that he can be fair and impartial, so he’s staying on.”

Eventually, the report notes that the Google engineer in question was subsequently dismissed after counsel from both Samsung and Apple met and conferred on the issue.

The engineer who applied for his own patents told the court he worked in the hard-drive industry. He said he’s married with two children and that he had worked for Memorex, Digital Equipment and Seagate, among other companies. during the seven years it took him to get the patent approved, he was “active” with his lawyer during the process, he said.

A woman serving on the jury said she worked for National Semiconductor Corp. and now works in retail. She said her husband worked for Applied Materials Inc.

And so, let the games begin!

MacRumors reports:

Apple has quietly launched a Hulu Plus channel on Apple TV this morning. We’ve first received a report from one Apple TV owner who first found the channel to appear this morning and have since been able to confirm it ourselves. We’ve found that users may have to reboot their Apple TV for the channel to appear.