Apple 'orders 15m iPhone 5s for September'

iPhone 5 rumours have been intensifying for weeks now and, like this latest one, most seem to suggest an Apple launch some time in the next couple of months.

DigiTimes, which is the main source of most of the recent reports, says that Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron Technology has just taken an order for 15 million iPhone 5s, to begin shipping in September. It attributes the story to “sources from upstream component makers”.

The report also says that the iPhone 5 “does not have any major update from iPhone 4”. If that’s correct it would suggest that the new phone will be simply a slightly improved iPhone 4, just as the 3GS was a slight improvement on the iPhone 3G, and not a completely overhauled device.

Based on the rumours so far, it’s expected that the new iPhone will contain the same A5 processor that is in the iPad 2 and a better camera, possibly an 8-megapixel sensor rather than the 5-megapixels of the iPhone 4. The new handset will apparently look similar to the iPhone 4. However, some rumours have suggested that Apple will release two iPhone models this year, including a cheaper version of the handset.

Apple does not comment on rumours and is yet to confirm any events for August or September, though it typically holds an iPod-related event every September.

Apple 'to launch iPhone 5 in September'

The new Apple iPhone will have a faster processor and an improved camera, according to Bloomberg, which cited “two people familiar with the plans”.

The report said that the new iPhone would be upgraded to include the same A5 processor found in the iPad 2 and that it would have an 8-megapixel camera - an improvement on the 5-megapixel version found in the iPhone 4. The new phone will launch in September, Bloomberg said.

The report follows another rumour from technology blog Boy Genius Report, which yesterday claimed that the new iPhone would have “a radical new case design” - possibly one that was “teardrop-shaped” and would be launched in early or mid-August.

Rumours about Apple’s plans for the iPhone have been circulating for months but have intensified following Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which has been the venue for the launch of the new iPhone for the last few years. When that event turned out to be entirely focussed on software, speculation moved on to September, when Apple traditionally updates its iPod range.

Though the company is very secretive about its plans, particularly regarding new hardware, details of forthcoming products have, over the last few years, tended to emerge in the months before launch. With so many companies involved in the supply chain it’s impossible to keep a device like this completely secret. However, we’ll only know which of these reports is correct, if any, when Steve Jobs steps on that stage in September. Or will it be August?

Apple’s 'Jaw-Dropper' Final Cut Pro X unveiled at Mac Apple Store [PICTURES]

Apple has introduced an updated version of its Pro video editing software with a magnetic timeline that enables editing on a flexible trackless canvas.

The Final Cut Pro X is now available for $299.99 at Mac Apple Store and is complemented by two companion apps, Motion 5 for professional motion graphics and Compressor 4 for advanced media encoding, each for $49.99.

The updated device also features a Content Auto-Analysis that categorizes your content upon import by shot type, media and people.

"Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro," stated Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

The Clip Connections installed in the device helps to link primary story clips to other elements like titles and sound effects. This way, they remain in perfect sync even when they are moved. Furthermore, it is also possible to combine related story elements into a compound clip that can be edited as a single clip.

Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Final Cut Pro X is a 64-bit app that takes full advantage of the latest Mac hardware and software so as to avoid any kind of wait for the next edit, even while working with 4K video. It uses multi-threaded processing and the GPU on a graphics card for blazing fast background rendering and superb real-time playback performance. Additionally, a ColorSync-managed color pipeline ensures color consistency from import to output.

Nokia wins legal battle against Apple

The iPhone maker agrees to pay royalties for the use of Nokia technology, ending all of their ongoing patent disputes.The world's leading mobile phone maker Nokia has notched up a rare victory against arch-rival Apple as the iPhone maker agreed to settle a long-running dispute over patents.
Nokia said on Tuesday that Apple had agreed to pay royalties for the use of Nokia technology in its devices, ending all of their 46 ongoing patent disputes.
Apple and Nokia have been locked in a legal tussle since October 2009, when Nokia sued Apple in the US, arguing the iPhone-maker was getting a "free ride" on technologies patented by Nokia.
"The financial structure of the agreement consists of a one-time payment payable by Apple and on-going royalties to be paid by Apple to Nokia for the term of the agreement," Nokia said in a statement, adding that the details of the contract were confidential.
The deal constitutes a massive victory for Nokia and ends years of tit-for-tat suits filed by the two companies, with both agreeing to withdraw all complaints they had filed with the US International Trade Commission.
"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees... This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio," Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive, said in the statement.
'Positive news'
"This is the first positive news from Nokia for a long time. They can both focus on their businesses now, and the dispute was settled for Nokia's advantage," Mikael Rautanen, an analyst with Inderes, said.
Nokia, a Finnish company that has been struggling to maintain its position as global market leader, also said the deal should have "a positive financial impact" on its second-quarter performance.
An Apple spokesman confirmed the deal on Tuesday. "We're glad to put this behind us and get back to focusing on our respective businesses," he said.
Just two weeks ago, Nokia warned that its sales for the quarter would be far worse than previously expected and that it could no longer give a full-year forecast, sending its share price to its lowest level since early 1998.
Legal battles have become increasingly common in the mobile phone industry since Apple and Google carved out a large chunk of the lucrative and quickly expanding smartphone market at the expense of older players.
Nokia, which has said it will be more aggressive in licensing its patents, indicated that further legal battles were ahead.
"This settlement .... enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market," CEO Elop said in a statement.
Analysts said makers of Google Android phones were the next likely target.
"Emerging victorious from such a war, Nokia is in a strong position to collect royalties from other industry players, particularly from makers of Android-based devices," Mueller said.
However, analysts warned the company still had a long way to go towards any recovery.
"This (the Apple deal) could cause the stock to have a bit of a relief rally today, but does very little to address the stark reality that the company is facing," Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura, said.
"Hence we see no reason to remain anything other than negative on the stock."
Technical analysts said Nokia shares had been in oversold territory since late May and momentum indicators had been signalling that it was ripe for at least a short-term, technical rebound.

Apple's iCloud and what it means for wireless data service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple's new iCloud services announced at the World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco today will put everything from mobile apps to digital pictures to music in the "cloud," where users can easily store and access them. But what will this mean for your wireless data bill?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iCloud service, which acts as a digital hub that will store and replicate content so that it can be shared among multiple iOS devices, such as iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.
"Now the (digital) hub is in the cloud," Jobs said during the keynote presentation, according to CNET's live blog. "If you get something on your iPhone, like a picture, it goes up to the cloud, and gets pushed down to the other devices automatically."
What this means for consumers is that they'll no longer have to connect their iOS devices to a computer to back up information or sync their music. They also won't have to connect their devices to a computer for software updates. Their iTunes music collection, photos taken on their iOS devices, videos viewed on those devices, iBooks, e-mail, calendar information, and more will all be stored in the Apple iCloud so that users can access them on any iOS device.
Unlike other cloud-based services that may require users to manually upload music, Jobs said that Apple has automated the process to make it easy.
It all sounds great for people with iOS devices, who want access to all their content on any device. But how will all this content travel between the iPhone or iPad and the iCloud? Will this put a big strain on carrier networks, and cost consumers more money on their data plans?
Daily updates could indeed put a strain on already struggling cellular networks. But Apple seems prepared to mitigate this problem by forcing some of the data-intensive activities to be done over Wi-Fi instead of over a carrier's cellular network.
This is especially important given that many iPhone users may not have an unlimited data plan from AT&T. Verizon Wireless, which began selling the iPhone 4 this year, has also said it plans to get rid of its unlimited data plan and move to a tiered offering.
Experts believe that with Apple's use of Wi-Fi, plus the low-bandwidth nature of some of the updates, it shouldn't be a problem for most consumers. For one, much of the data that will be transferred between devices will be contacts, e-mails, calendar updates, and other text-based data that doesn't gobble up a lot of bandwidth. What's more, when devices are synched, they'll be updating only new information.
Secondly, software updates and major data transfers will likely be reserved for Wi-Fi only. Forrester analyst Charlie Golvin was at the WWDC event today, and he said Apple's daily updates of iOS devices will happen over Wi-Fi only. And the bigger software updates, which will also happen automatically from time to time, will also happen over Wi-Fi and will occur only when devices are plugged in to an electrical source. This is important, because it means the software updates won't drain the battery. Additionally, iTunes updates and syncing will also happen only over Wi-Fi.
What happens when Wi-Fi is not available? Apple didn't mention that. And Golvin said it's hard to say whether Apple will make it possible to do some of these more data intensive transfers over 3G, or in the future, 4G wireless networks.
Other experts speculate that Apple will give consumers a choice in the setting menu how they access the cloud-based content and backups.
"There are several ways that Apple could manage data usage," said Ross Rubin, an analyst with NPD Group. "For example, it wouldn't be surprising to see Apple uploading photos at a lower resolution when on a bandwidth constrained network."
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Gartner, said Apple already requires that certain apps that are too large be downloaded via Wi-Fi. And he said he expects the company to give consumers some choice in how they set up their data usage.
"They may give you the option to load your pictures now or to queue them until you get to a Wi-Fi hot spot," he said. "And you'll likely have the option to turn off the updates."
The new iCloud services will be available this fall. So expect Apple to discuss more details about how the service works as the launch date nears.

A brief tour of Apple's iOS 5

Apple's WWDC keynote is now behind us and if they're not at E3, tech journalists around the blogsphere are taking a rest. We didn't get a new iPhone or any new hardware, but Apple rolled out the company's new iCloud service, its Lion OS, and iOS 5, the latest version of its mobile operating system.
We've detailed the full list of changes in our iOS 5 first take--and frankly, they aren't terribly extensive--but we also downloaded the developers version of the update for a test drive. Keep in mind that the final consumer version of iOS 5 may show changes when it becomes available this fall, but this gallery will give you at least a taste of what's to come. We've only started investigating so we'll add additional conversations and "Easter egg" features (Apple says the update will bring 200 new features) as we find them

MetroPCS releases visual voice mail

Excuse us for not getting to this yesterday--E3 and Apple's WWDC keynote kept us a tad busy--but MetroPCS sneaked out a little announcement of its own yesterday by unveiling a visual voice mail service.

Like the services available on other carriers, MetroPCS' visual voice mail will enable customers to listen to individual voice messages without having to scan through their entire lists. Voice mails will show up on the phone's display along with the contact's picture and they can reply to the message by calling back or by sending a text message or an e-mail.

The service will be available on the Samsung Galaxy Indulge, LG Optimus M, and Huawei Ascend. Support for the RIM BlackBerry 8530 and other BREW-based devices will come at a later date. It will cost an additional $5 per month and you'll need at least a $45-per-month plan for non-4G

5 Productivity Boosters in OS X Lion

While iOS 5 looks like a bit of a snooze, today's announcement of OS X Lion looks like a productivity geek's playland. Better navigation throughout the OS, improved file management, and cool sharing features should make Lion well worth its $30 price tag. Here are five ways it'll make Mac users more efficient.

Mission Control

Mission Control will give OS X Lion users a single screen to view everything happening on their Mac.In the current Mac OS (and the last few versions, for that matter), Dashboard was sort of a wasted feature that placed a bunch of widgets on a screen hardly anyone ever accessed. If I had a quarter for every time a Mac user asked me what that little "thermometer" icon on their keyboard was for, it might just pay for my Lion upgrade. In Lion, the Dashboard screen has been integrated with Exposé and Spaces into a single interface called Mission Control.
The Mission Control screen brings all of your running apps together into one view, so you can see everything that's going on at once. To get there, you do a three-finger upward swipe on the keyboard. (I'm assuming the existing Exposé keyboard button will launch this, too, since the icon looks the same.) So one swipe shows you everything, and one tap takes you to the app you want. Not a bad little time saver to start with.
I'm less enthused about Launchpad, the new app menu that completely overtakes your screen. This looks like more like a bit self-indulgent move to impose the iOS interface on OS X users than a genuine attempt at making the OS more functional. But we'll see.

Versions & Auto Save

I've always preferred apps to autosave my work as I go. As infrequent as power outages and crashes are, when they do happen, they can take hours of work with them. And while you may be diligent about regularly saving your work throughout the day, I tend to forget. So I'm looking forward to Auto Save adding this feature throughout the operating system.
At the same time, I'm taking a wait-and-see stance on Versions. File versioning is awesome when you need to recover something you've lost, but I have a feeling Versions is going to blow through hard drive space like nobody's business. (Time Machine certainly does.) To a 128GB MacBook Air user like me, Versions sounds like potential trouble

Resume

In Lion, all your apps will reopen to the same document or page that you were on when you closed them whenever you restart your Mac. Good.

Full-Screen Apps

Regular readers of this blog know I love me some distraction-free apps. Lion's full-screen apps look like a great move in that direction.

AirDrop

To share files between OS X Lion users on your Wi-Fi network, you just find them on the network via AirDrop and drag the files to their picture. No more sneakernet.
OS X Lion will ship via the Mac App Store in July for $30. You can bet I'll post a follow-up to this post once I have a chance to reality-check my early assumptions.

Apple's free iCloud will automatically sync data from Macs, PCs, iOS devices

The newly announced iCloud service is expected to further drive sales of iOS devices as users become even more tied in to Apple's increasingly proprietary ecosystem, analysts on Wall Street believe.
Some of the most prominent analysts offered their take on iCloud, iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion following Monday's keynote presentation at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Most were wowed by iCloud, viewing it as an important component of Apple's product strategy.

Piper Jaffray

Analyst Gene Munster said Apple is increasing the likelihood that consumers will buy multiple devices. A central drive for Apple will be the free iCloud service, which will automatically share contacts, calendars, messages, photos, apps and music purchased on iTunes.

Going even further, Apple has made it easier for users to cut the cord to their PC. The new iOS 5 mobile operating system will make it possible for users to operate their iPhone or iPad without tethering to a computer and syncing with iTunes.

Apple's decision to make iCloud free will eliminate about 0.3 percent of Apple's revenue in 2011, Munster believes. By his calculations, that number will be easily offset by higher sales of devices.

Munster's overweight rating on AAPL stock and $554 price target also do not take into account pricing on Lion, so in his view the low $29.99 cost of the Mac OS upgrade will not have an impact on his numbers. He also noted that users who make the upgrade to Lion will be more likely to stick with the Mac platform.Gleacher & Company
iCloud will increase the "stickiness" of the Apple ecosystem, analyst Brian Marshall believes. And while the service will be a financial benefit for Apple in the long run, he does not see it moving the company's "financial needle" in the near future.

Relative to the previews of iOS 5 and Lion, Marshall believes iCloud stole the show, as he called the service "brimming with functionality." He also believes iCloud "will likely far exceed community expectations" with its list of features, including wireless sync, documents in the cloud, and iTunes in the Cloud.

Gleacher & Company has reiterated its "buy" rating and price target of $450 for AAPL stock. Marshall said the key risk for the company remains the health of Chief Executive Steve Jobs, and noted his physical appearance took "an unfortunate turn for the worse" since he last appeared at the iPad 2 introduction in March. "We wish him a full recovery," Marshall wrote.RBC Capital Markets
iCloud positions Apple for a "post-PC" world, and is a "possible game changer" for the company, analyst Mike Abramsky wrote in his note to investors. Apple's vision with a closed ecosystem of hardware, services, software and applications could help drive the company's next leg of growth and valuation against the competing Google Android platform, he believes.

"By 'cutting the cord' to the pC, Apple may expand its addressable market by 4x, addressing the (about 3 billion) handset users who have a phone -- but not a PC," he wrote. "We believe we may see new devices in time, based off iCloud services."

Abramsky was also impressed by iOS 5 and Lion, which he said reflect Apple's "trademark user experience," highlighting convenience, simplicity and discoverability. The new products and services unveiled by Apple on Monday "have the potential to significantly expand and defend Apple's franchise," he said.

RBC Capital Markets has reiterated its outperform rating for AAPL stock, as well as its price target of $450.Ticonderoga Securities
Analyst Brian White believes iCloud, Lion and iOS 5 further enhance Apple's ecosystem, and he was also encouraged by the appearance of Jobs at Monday's keynote. He believes the biggest announcement was iTunes in the Cloud.

"Clearly, the most anticipated app for iCloud was bringing iTunes into the cloud, allowing consumers to push already purchased songs into the cloud across Apple devices, while automatically downloading future song purchases across devices," he wrote.

White has reiterated his buy rating and 12-month price target of $612 for AAPL stock.

Deutsche Bank

"iCloud hits take-off velocity," analyst Chris Whitmore's note to investors reads. Like others, he didn't change his financial outlook for Apple based on iCloud, but he believes in time the service will attract new users and developers.

"We believe iCloud will greatly increase the stickiness of the Apple platform, particularly for multi-device iPad/iPhone/Mac owners, and further differentiate the AAPL platform in terms of scale and size," he said.

Whitmore has maintained a buy rating and price target of $450 for AAPL stock.J.P. Morgan Research
Analyst Mark Moskowitz was less impressed than his peers, declaring there was "no wow factor at WWDC." Still, he believes iCloud and other improvements will likely keep Apple ahead of its competitors.

"While WWDC did not introduce a major, new product category or refresh, we think there were plenty of incremental building blocks for driving above-peer revenue growth," he said. "Of note, the iCloud service stands to further cement Apple's role in constructing a 'way of life' for the user."

Moskowitz and J.P. Morgan have maintained an "overweight" rating for AAPL stock, with a price target of $450.

JMP Securities

Analyst Alex Gauna is less bullish about AAPL stock than others on Wall Street, and he came away unimpressed with Monday's keynote, declaring it "cloudier, with less lightning bolts, than normal." He also said the presentation had "no real surprises," and was merely an evolutionary step for Apple.

Gauna noted that the company's stock dropped more than 1.5 percent in response to the keynote, and he said he agreed with the reaction from investors. He was particularly disappointed by the lack of new hardware, which he said is needed to "stem the tide of faster Android adoption, or to make enterprise inroads."

Still, Gauna said that Lion and iOS 5 updates are "likely to please the Apple faithful and keep Apple products best in class with regard to intuitiveness and usability." He also said iCloud should maintain the dominance of iTunes.

Gauna remains concerned about Apple's "ability to execute without a healthy CEO," and as such has reiterated a "Market Perform" rating for AAPL stock, without a set target price.