Edible Apple

If you were lucky enough to get tickets to WWDC 2012 before they sold out in just under two hours, Apple has some special sessions in store that you might wanna keep on your radar.

This past Friday, Apple announced 3 special WWDC talks featuring big time Hollywood movers and shakers, including JJ Abrams (of LOST fame), LeVar Burton and William Joyce.

Burton, famous for his roles on Star Trek and Reading Rainbow, will be discussing the “powerful impact that his mentors, technology, storytelling and science fiction have had on his life and how each has helped to shape his incredible life’s work.” His presentation will conclude with a demo of how he uses technology to educate the masses, along with a look at his upcoming app aptly tiled “Reading Rainbow.”

More interesting, we think, will be J.J Abrams. In addition to LOST, Abrams was also behind the short-lived Alcatraz series and the nice remake of Star Trek. Abrams will touch on his proclivity for meshing old school technologies with modern ones and discuss how he “wrestles with what he sees as both the freedoms and challenges presented by today’s prosumer gadgetry. J.J. will also share his views on the importance of improvisation and experimentation in inspiring creative visual techniques and new forms of narrative.”

Check out the full scoop over here at Apple

In addition to Apple taking the wraps off of iOS 6 next in just a few hours, word recently emerged that we may see an entirely new MacBook lineup next week as well.

Citing analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with KGI, who has a pretty solid track record with respect to Apple’s supply chain, Apple Insider reports that Apple may introduce a completely revamped MacBook lineup on Monday.

As part of the revamp, Kuo said that Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook will not have an optical disc drive and will start at a retail price of $1,199. What’s more, it will be slimmer and lighter and will feature a tapered edge design as well, not to mention longer battery life as well.

Apple is expected to unveil its new 15-inch MacBook, priced at $1,799 with a hard-disk drive, next week, and the device will go on sale soon after. Kuo said he doesn’t expect the new 13-inch $1,199 MacBook to be available until August, as the smaller MacBook has “limited space for thermal dissipation,” and will also use a “lower-yield” Retina display than the 15-inch model.

Kuo also predicted on Friday that Apple could discontinue the MacBook Pro lineup entirely if the new MacBook series proves popular enough. He sees the Pro being gradually phased out, but remaining on shelves until 2013.

As for the MacBook Pro line, Kuo anticipates both 13 and 15-inch models of the notebook will also receive upgrades and may go on sale sometime this month. And if you need an optical disc drive, don’t worry, the Pros, according to Kuo, will still sport them.

via AI

Ahead of WWDC, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple will be bestowing upon developers a new way to track users while simultaneously protecting user privacy.

This is an important announcement, if true, following Apple’s relatively recent decision that precludes developers from using Unique Device Identifiers (UDID) as a means to collect data such as location information from users across different apps.

How Apple’s new technology works and what it will allow developers to track remains unclear. One of the people briefed said that the new anonymous identifier is likely to rely on a sequence of numbers that isn’t tied to a specific device.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Since saying it would phase out UDIDs, the Cupertino, Calif. company—gatekeeper to almost 600,000 mobile apps—has been mum about how it plans to do so.

Meanwhile, developers and mobile ad networks have been evaluating various workarounds, worried about losing millions of dollars in revenue if they can’t target users with mobile ads. Companies also say they need a way to recognize users in order to customize content and preferences. None of the new workarounds, which include methods like tracking based on an ID in a phone’s wireless networking hardware, have taken off.

via WSJ

Of all the major cell carriers in the US, T-Mobile is now the only one that doesn’t carry the iPhone. And make no mistake about it, it’s having an adverse affect on T-Mobile’s bottom line.

A few months ago, T-Mobile released their earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012 and disclosed that they had lost over 800,000 subscribers from October 2011 to December 2011.

Why you ask?

Well, to answer that hardly requires any insight at all. T-Mobile itself attributed the defection of subscribers to the iPhone.

Sequentially, the decline in branded net contract customers was driven primarily by higher branded contract deactivations as a result of the launch of the iPhone 4S by three nationwide competitors in mid-October.

Put simply, T-Mobile doesn’t have the iPhone, is losing customers as a result, and probably can’t wait until it does have the iPhone.

As it stands now, iPhone users can jailbreak their device and get on T-Mobile’s network, albeit on Edge. But 9to5Mac had an interesting, and perhaps revealing, report just recently.

A reader reports that while walking by San Francisco’s Moscone West with his unlocked iPhone 4 on T-Mobile’s network today, he noticed something strange and perhaps very exciting for those million or more iPhone users on T-Mobile’s US network.

His iPhone popped over to “3G” for just one block. It went back to “EDGE” as he left the WWDC area. Our reader walked across Moscone again, saw 3G for one block, and then EDGE appeared when he got a few hundred feet away.

He has been near Moscone before and never noticed 3G.

It would appear that T-Mobile might be beefing up its network with a 1900MHz MicroCell for Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, as most wireless carriers SHOULD.

Reason to get excited? Well, depends on how coy you believe T-Mobile is being. In an update issued to 9to5Mac, the carrier explained that everything was just a coincidence.

While upgrading coverage inside the West side of the Moscone Center, T-Mobile has also deployed 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band to test the live network on a small scale. As part of the company’s previously announced $4 billion network modernization effort, T-Mobile plans to launch 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band in a large number of markets by the end of the year, which will make our 4G network compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone.

NOTE: The time and location of this test is just coincidental.

Or is it?

Remember T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray had this to say back in March during a Q&A session when asked about whether or not T-Mobile’s network would be compatible with the iPhone.

 A nice side benefit of the refarming effort is that our 4G network will be compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone. The other important benefit of our network modernization effort is the coverage improvements it will deliver, especially when it comes to in-home coverage.

And whadyaknow, the iPhone 5, or whatever Apple plans to call it, is largely believed to come with 4G LTE support. Also, Apple has increasingly been rolling out the iPhone to more regional carriers along with carriers such as Cricket and there are rumors that it’s coming to Virgin Mobile as well. It only makes sense that Apple round things out by getting T-Mobile involved as well.

Well here’s a WWDC rumor that doesn’t involve iOS 6 that might wet your palette, or at the very least provide a little bit of intrigue into Apple’s possible future TV plans.

BGR, citing a trusted source we presume, is reporting that Apple at WWDC next week will introduce a TV SDK.

We have heard from a source that Apple will be introducing a TV SDK at WWDC next week. This would enable third-party developers to create software for Apple’s TV products.

Interesting stuff, especially in light of recent reports that Apple is also planning to unveil a completely new Apple TV iOS interface at WWDC and that this interface will also double as the interface for the rumored Apple iTV.

via BGR

Some interesting video which purports to show the iPhone 5 back cover, originally posted by eTradeSupply, a parts supply company. In line with earlier reports, the back cover is noticeably longer and thinner than the iPhone 4S

And if that whets your appetite, here are some CAD renderings of what the iPhone 5 may look like given rumors, leaked parts and the like.

via CydiaBlog

Solid breakdown over at Network World looking back over many of Apple’s mapping acquisitions and job postings over the past 3 years. In short, if Apple introduces its own Maps app next week at WWDC, expect it to be a very big deal.

Imagine an interface, for example, whereby a user could explore a virtual 3D globe and ascertain information about any location in the world. Zoom in on Italy and be presented with news stories from around the country. Zoom in even further on Rome, for example, and be presented with weather for the week, local sports scores, crime statistics, the cost of flights to Rome from your current location (similar to Kayak Explore), demographic info – a virtual almanac at your fingertips.And in conjunction with the aforementioned acquisitions, the WSJ notes that Apple has been vigorously working on features in an attempt outmaneuver Google Maps.

And when you factor in 3D mapping functionality thanks to Apple’s acquisition of C3 Technologies, things really get interesting.

via NWW

AppleInsider reports:

The Cupertino, Calif., company is expected to make “quite a few essential adjustments” to its next iPhone, KGI analyst Mingchi Kuo said in a note to investors earlier this week.

In addition to the move to HD, he believes Apple will also employ a flip-chip (FC) solution for the front-facing camera on the upcoming iPhone. The camera’s position would be moved to the middle, he said.

Kuo noted that an HD front camera would better suit the 4-inch display that he expects Apple’s sixth-generation handset to have. Currently, the front-facing camera of the iPhone 4S is capable of VGA resolution.

MacRumors reports:

Following yesterday’s leak of Mac Pro part numbers, AppleInsider now posts a full list of 27 new part numbers said to be on their way to resellers in Australia. A total of 13 of the part numbers are listed as “standalone kits”, indicating that they are accessories, which leaves as many as 14 Mac models included in the launch.

AppleInsider reports:

According to analysis from ABI research released on Monday, strong interest in Apple’s third-generation iPad helped the company maintain a nearly 65 percent share of the tablet sector which grew to 18.2 million worldwide shipments by the end of the first quarter.

Samsung shipped 1.1 million tablets during the first three months of 2012, returning to the South Korean giant to the number two spot and displacing Amazon’s Kindle which saw sales peter out after enjoying a strong holiday quarter.

“A pattern similar to smartphones is also occurring in tablets,” said Jeff Orr, group director of consumer research at ABI. “Apple and Samsung have demonstrated staying power while other tablet vendors ebb and flow like the tide.”

And with reports that Apple has a smaller 7.85-inch iPad in the works, perhaps ready to launch this Fall, expect that number to increase as Apple will be attracting price conscious consumers who have been turning to devices like the Kindle Fire and an assortment of other cheaper tablets.

FOSS Patents reports:

Late on Monday, Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District for the Northern District of California denied, for the time being, Apple’s post-appeal push for an injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 over an iPad-related design patent. This is unrelated to the merits of the motion. Apple is invited, and definitely won’t decline the invitation, to renew its motion after the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), which published its opinion on Apple’s appeal in mid-May, has issued a formal mandate to the district court.

9to5Mac reports:

Come this fall, people will start talking to their iPads. Apple’s breakthrough Siri Assistant, based on an incredible artificial-intelligence system, will no longer be exclusive to users of the popular iPhone 4S. According to trusted sources, one of the tentpole iOS 6 features is Siri support on the iPad. Not just the Voice Dictation brought to the iPad with the third-generation models and iOS 5.1, but the complete Siri voice assistant.