Posts tagged with "iphone 5"

Rumor of Sony Camera In iPhone 5 A Misunderstanding?

During the weekend, a rumor about Sony being selected by Apple as the only supplier for the image sensors in the next-generation iPhone quickly made the rounds of the Internet following some statements from Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer in an interview with Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The report came as a surprise to Apple fans and market watchers as the company has been using camera lenses provided by OmniVision in the iPhone 3GS (3.2 MP), iPhone 4 ( 5 MP), iPod touch 4th gen. and iPad 2 for the past few years.

The rumor suggested that, due to the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Sony’s Japanese facility in Sendai, shipments of image sensors to Apple would be delayed.

Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.

The Wall Street Journal also published a blog post with a partial transcript of the interview:

Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?”

It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.

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iPhone 5 To Feature 8-Megapixel Camera from Sony?

9to5mac reports Sony CEO Howard Stringer, in an interview with Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall in New York City, said shipments of camera sensors to Apple will be delayed due to Sony’s facility in Sendai that was affected by last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Stringer’s statements come as a surprise considering Sony has never been a supplier for Apple’s camera-enabled mobile devices (iPhone, iPad 2, iPod touch 4th gen) as the company chose to implement Omnivision’s image sensors in the past years. Omnivision’s lens modules are used in the iPhone 4 (5 megapixel sensor), iPod touch and iPad 2.

Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.

MacRumors also points to a transcript of the interview by the Wall Street Journal itself, which seems to confirm Stringer’s hints at image sensors set to be shipped to Apple in the near future:

Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?”

It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.

Following Stringer’s interview, speculation is running wild on the Internet about whether he was referring to a brand new Apple product still in early production stages, or a new version of the iPhone or iPad. A report from April of last year, however, provides more insight into Stringer’s mention of image sensor for Apple: analyst Ashok Kumar claimed that Apple had signed on with Sony for an 8-megapixel camera lens to be used in the “2011 iPhone” – which would be the iPhone 5 set to be announced sometime between summer and fall. The report from Kumar also correctly indicated that Omnivision would be the supplier of a 5-megapixel sensor for the iPhone that Jobs would announce at WWDC 2010 – indeed, the iPhone 4 with a 5 MP camera module from Omnivision. In the past months, several bloggers also speculated Apple could implement Omnivision’s new 16:9 CMOS image sensor in the iPhone 5, although the reports didn’t provide any additional details. The iPhone 5 is also rumored to feature a bigger screen, the same Apple A5 processor seen in the iPad 2, NFC capabilities and a new aluminum design with internal antenna.

Rumor: Cloud-based iOS 5 Coming this Fall with New Location & Music Services

Following the speculation that Apple might soon seed a GM build of OS X Lion to developers, TechCrunch now reports the long-awaited major revamp of iOS, dubbed iOS 5, has been pushed back to fall, with a possible WWDC preview in June. The rumor is interesting because it breaks Apple’s usual release cycle and media event pattern: in the past years, Apple previewed a new version of iPhone OS (and then iOS) with a media event in March / April, and then released it by the WWDC, or soon after that together with the availability of a new iPhone model. And in the past years, this plan has worked quite well for Apple: developers had time to test the OS in the months leading up to the WWDC, whilst everyone else was getting ready for a new iPhone in June / July. According to TechCrunch, this is about to change.

Citing “two solid sources”, MG Siegler reports this year’s plan involves a preview of the new OS at the WWDC, and a public release “this fall”. Putting the pieces together, as TechCrunch also notes, pushing iOS 5 back to fall would play well with Apple’s usual music event in September. But why would Apple use the music event to do some major iOS-related announcement? TechCrunch speculates it’s all about the cloud: the rumored “music locker” service will be ready this fall, and being a major new feature of iOS 5 Apple might as well wait until September to unveil it. iOS 5 is also rumored to introduce a new UI, a new notification system, direct OS X integration. Read more

New York Times: A Future iPhone Will Include NFC, Perhaps Not The iPhone 5

After all the recent rumors and speculation about Apple willing to implement Near Field Communication (NFC) technology into the next-generation iPhone, The New York Times weighed in earlier today to confirm that according to “two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone” a future version of the device will indeed include NFC.

The NYT report is rather curious as they’re not sure whether or not Apple will deploy this feature in the iPhone 5, set to debut this summer:

According to two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone — although not necessarily the next one — a chip made by Qualcomm for the phone’s processor will also include near-field communication technology, known as N.F.C. This technology enables short-range wireless communications between the phone and an N.F.C reader, and can be used to make mobile payments. It is unclear which version of an iPhone this technology would be built into.

The New York Times also claims that according to another person familiar with Apple’s plans the iPhone will use NFC to enable mobile payments tied to users’ iTunes credit – something that was also reported in the past months, although some people speculated Apple could also consider providing an option for billing users through their carrier, rather than iTunes. At this point, however, it seems very clear that Apple will strongly invest in the iTunes payment option to give users the possibility to “keep it all together” in iTunes. Currently Apple has more than 200 million active accounts in iTunes with credit card information stored on their servers.

In the past months, rumors suggested Apple could also rely on NFC and MobileMe to enable remote computing and usage of App Store apps. Several reports pointed to the iPhone 5 featuring / not featuring NFC, and others also reported such a feature was being considered for the iPad. An e-Wallet application for iOS also made an appearance in a patent design published last year.

NFC Technology In iPhones Could Also Enable Remote Computing

According to a source of Cult of Mac, Apple is planning to use Near Field Communication (NFC) not just as a method for retail payment services but also to turn an iPhone into a pseudo-ID tag for remote login. According to Cult of Mac:

…when a NFC-equipped iPhone is paired with a guest machine, part of the user’s profile includes the apps they’ve purchased through the Mac App Store. The icons for their apps appear on the remote Mac, but aren’t downloaded, our source said.

Once the guest machine is logged into; users would be able to open any of their apps, which would download on demand, although presumably only those from the Mac App Store. Documents too could be accessed and synced using MobileMe from anywhere using this remote login system and once a user leaves, the Mac would wipe any documents and applications.

As MacRumors points out, it is similar to the once promised feature of ‘Home on iPod’ that would have allowed OS X Panther users to sync their Home directory on to an iPod for easy document storage regardless of where you were. Cult of Mac claims that this new feature is currently being developed in OS X Lion but their source stresses that it isn’t guaranteed to become public.

[Via Cult of Mac]

iPhone 5 To Have NFC, Says Person Who Knows A Man With A Friend Who Works At Apple

The iPhone 5 will feature NFC capabilities. The iPhone 5 won’t have NFC. The iPhone will indeed feature NFC, according to people familiar with the matter. That is, if you follow the Apple rumor mill you might have heard stories like these in the past months.

But the latest rumor posted by Business Insider is just so good and confusing at the same time that I could not post it here, for the sake of reference and sarcasm. Who knows, perhaps this person familiar with Apple’s plans may be right. Or not. But how familiar anyway?

If meeting with an entrepreneur who says iPhone 5 will have NFC because a friend who works at Apple said so is enough for you, there you have it. According to a tweet from Forbes reporter Elizabeth Woyke, that’s what the next-generation iPhone will do: magical near-field communication. Take it with a (huge) grain of salt, of course.

If I were to look deeper into this tweet and over-contextualize it, I’d say Woyke herself doesn’t quite believe the story, too. In fact, she said “Huh”.

For what it’s worth, several reports in the past suggested the iPhone 5 would come with NFC capabilities, although recent rumors dismissed those reports. Furthermore, a European carrier even mentioned an iPhone with NFC in a slide used at a press conference weeks ago.

Rumors are floating around about this iPhone 5 with NFC, and at this point it is unclear whether or not the device will have such a feature. Personally, I just wish there was a BlackBerry PlayBook reference in that tweet.

Reports Suggest Apple Won’t Include NFC Technology In The iPhone 5

An article today by The Independent (a UK publication) has suggested that the previously rumored inclusion of Near Field Communication technology in the iPhone and iPad will not be coming this year. The technology is perceived to become a new way for consumers to pay for goods and services and it was hoped by many in the retail industry that Apple could set the standard by adding the technology to the iPhone.

It appears however, according to several sources in UK mobile operators, that Apple had decided against the inclusion of NFC technology in the next version of the iPhone. One source told The Independent “The new iPhone will not have NFC, Apple told the operators it was concerned by the lack of a clear standard across the industry.”

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Alleged iPhone 5 Design Documents Show Bigger Screen

Update 2: To keep the display of the iPhone one that qualifies as a “Retina Display” whilst increasing the physical size and not the number of pixels, Apple could increase the display up to a size of 3.845-inches (diagonal) before it drops below 300 pixels per inch which as Steve Jobs explained in the iPhone 4 keynote, was the required PPI specification so that the human eye cannot differentiate between individual pixels when looking at a display around 10 or 12 inches away. (Thanks @ianharrier)

Update: MacRumors forum member, ‘Bartboy919’ did some clever comparison on those images to the current iPhone 4 and it seems as though the form factor is exactly the same which would suggest something around a 3.7-inch display rather than the current 3.5-inch display.

In a new purported leak of the iPhone 5’s design, iDealsChina claims to have gotten a hold of engineering diagrams of the iPhone 5, which show a nearly identical design to the iPhone 4 with the exception of a larger screen, potentially one that is 4 inches. The screen seems to take up a larger portion of the front face of the phone and the bezel on the sides of the display is much thinner.

Whilst there are a number of purported leaks of design documents for upcoming Apple device releases, iDealsChina has previously leaked accurate design renderings of the fourth generation iPod Nano and they have also previously claimed to have posted a photo of the iPhone 5’s bezel which correspond with these drawings. Whilst this doesn’t confirm these designs are accurate it does decrease the likelihood that these are fake. Jump the break for another picture of the drawings.

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iOS 4.3 for iPad 2 Suggests iPhone 5 Will Get Apple A5

Code references found in the iOS 4.3 firmware for iPad 2 released (in three versions) earlier today suggest the upcoming iPhone 5 will use the same Apple A5 dual-core processor of the iPad 2. Several developers have, in fact, spotted references to a N94AP device in the code, and they’re assuming that’s the internal model number for the next-generation iPhone. The Verizon iPhone, for example, was labelled N92 internally.

Digging into the included N94AP kernel, developers have found out that it’s associated with S5L8940 – another codename, this time for the A5 chip. For this reason, speculation has mounted leading many to believe that the iPhone 5 will feature the same CPU we’re going to see in the iPad 2 later this week.

At this point it seems very likely that the new iPhone (to be released this summer) will carry a dual-core CPU for faster processing times and improved performances. Code references in iOS firmwares are usually a good and reliable indication of things to come, so we’re very confident the iPhone 5 will indeed get the A5. [via 9to5mac, iLounge, @chronic]