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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

DigiTimes: Apple Ramping Up iPhone Production With The iPhone 5

A report in DigiTimes today claims to reveal new estimates of iPhone production for the rest of 2011. In their report, DigiTimes says that Apple has increased the number of orders for iPhones from 50 million units to 56 million units - roughly a 12% increase. Furthermore, they note that iPhone 5 production would represent roughly 26 million units for the rest of this year.

Looking more closely at iPhone 5 orders, DigiTimes says that Apple has revised down their third quarter (July, August and September) orders from 7 million units o 5.5-6 million units. The fourth quarter (October, November and December), however, has seen an increase in orders from 14 million to 20 million units. Production of the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 would also alter between the third and fourth quarters, reducing from 20 million units to just 8 million units in the fourth quarter.

Continued production of the iPhone 4 in the fourth quarter would suggest that Apple is interested in following its recent trend of making the ‘old’ iPhone a cheaper option for those looking to purchase an iPhone. If these suggested forecast figures become reality, it would mean that Apple produces, and likely sells, 95 million iPhones (any generation) over the course of the 2011 calendar year.

[Via DigiTimes, Image via MacRumors]

Preview of Elements 2.0: Revamped Interface and Web Publishing

Last August we previewed Second Gear’s Elements 1.0, a Dropbox based text editor for iOS. Since then it has seen a few updates such as an improved UI, sub-folders, Markdown preview and improved file saving - that’s a lot of great improvements from 1.0 to 1.5. Elements is bar none one of the best Dropbox text editors available. Are you ready for a little preview of what Second Gear has in store for Elements 2.0? Read more

Chinese Customs Crack Down on Smugglers Moving iPads By Crossbow and Pulleys

Yes, you did read that headline correctly. Smugglers moving Apple products from Hong Kong to mainland China were caught doing so via a clever pulley system that had iPhones and iPads being hoisted over the border with a large tote bag, hook, and a crossbow that was used to initially get the 300 meter cable over the Sha Tau Kok river. In an operation consisting of six smugglers, iPads and iPhones could be transferred across the river in about 2 minutes under the cover of darkness, where products were lifted up to the 21st floor of a residential block in Shenzhen. After a surveillance operation, Chinese customs moved in arrested the six smugglers, recovering 50 iPhones and 50 iPad 2s in the process worth 300,000 yuan (around $47,000).

Smugglers attempting to smuggle electronics into China hope to rake in profits — devices sold in China are much more expensive than devices sold in Hong Kong. Smugglers can purchase electronics in Hong Kong (whom have some of the cheapest prices in the world) and resell devices in the mainland, where they can profit off of the higher prices. Smugglers simply can’t move electronics across the border since as China requires a 20% property tax for all electronic devices brought into the country. Thus, we end up with a situation like this — smugglers get creative in an attempt to make a quick buck selling devices back home.

As for the high-wire act, there’s a video report to go with it, showing off the equipment the smugglers used to move items between the border which we’ve posted after the break.

[via WSJ, (image via) M.I.C. Gadget]

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Apple Cracking Down on Developers Selling Device Slots for iOS 5

With plenty of free slots left after registering their own UDIDs, some “developers” whom pay the $99 fee for early access are selling off the additional spaces to make a quick profit from non-developers or users whom seek to get into the program at a discount, or to play with the iOS 5 betas early. With so many non-developers having early access, and Apple generally being quiet about NDA breakage, AppleInsider reports that Apple is specifically targeting these “crooks”, shutting down developers who sold their excess slots by closing their accounts (and sending devs a cease and desist via email). Apple is also going as far as flagging UDIDs associated with these accounts, and locking down the iOS devices to render them unusable.

“Once Apple locks your iOS device, the phone will enter the initial setup mode asking you to connect to a WiFi network,” the report said. “And nothing happens more than that.”

AppleInsider points out that websites have grown up around Apple’s developer program, allowing users to use PayPal to sign up for one of the empty slots to get their devices registered. Only developers are supposed to have access to the beta, with the public having access to iOS 5 with a final release this fall.

[KatharikK.net via AppleInsider]