New iPhone 5 cases indicate a thinner but half inch wider and longer frame

Following our post with images of a purported iPhone 5 case, other sources have followed up with us with their own cases. This time we not only have a silicone case, but a hard case, too. The image above shows a top view of both of our cases. They both show a ringer switch on the opposite side of the volume keys, which is a shift from previous models of the iPhone. In addition, the bottom of these cases have holes for a separate speaker, main microphone, and USB dock connector. You may have noticed this on our iPhone 5 case post earlier this week, but today comes the more important information.







Our images were admittedly not very clear about the case’s thinness or if there was a “tear drop” as previously described by This is my next. Our new images are clear and there are appears to be a slight – not major – tear drop in the design. The case goes thick to thin from top to bottom. In addition, the sources who provided us with these two new cases have shared some dimensions. According to them, the case is 5 inches tall and 2.8 inches wide. These are tight cases so the iPhone 5 dimensions should only be a few millimeters smaller than those numbers. For comparison, the iPhone 4 is 4.5 inches tall and 2.31 inches wide. This likely will leave room for the rumored bigger screen, as reported by the WSJ, Bloomberg, and This is my next.




Although we are not able to absolutely confirm that these cases will fit the fifth-generation iPhone, the sources of these cases stress that the information used for design and manufacturing came from their own proven industry sources…Sources like the ones that provided amazingly accurate iPad 2 information and dimensions to case manufactures months before the product’s March debut. These cases are also just appearing weeks ahead of the iPhone 5′s debut. With the iPhone 5 most certainly in production, it is prime time for insider leaks to occur in Asia.




iPhone 4 case, left. iPhone 5 case, right









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- Posted using my iPhone 4

AT&T verifies data throttling for top 5% of users officially for October 1st

As we reported yesterday: October 1st, top 5% of AT&T users will see reduced speeds.

A new change for AT&T Wireless’ Unlimited Data subscribers will soon be taking place. Rumored to be starting in the first week of October, we’ve heard that AT&T will start throttling the data speeds of the network’s top data hogs. As Verizon (PDF) and Virgin have recently done, AT&T will be adopting a similar plan to try to curb the problem of data congestion and overall network issues that have hurt its 3G network’s performance since the onset of the iPhone.
Today AT&T made it official. Full statement below the fold:



An Update for Our Smartphone Customers With Unlimited Data Plans
Like other wireless companies, we’re taking steps to manage exploding demand for mobile data. Many experts agree the country is facing a serious wireless spectrum crunch. We’re responding on many levels, including investing billions in our wireless network this year and working to acquire additional network capacity. We’re also taking additional, more immediate measures to help address network congestion.

One new measure is a step that may reduce the data throughput speed experienced by a very small minority of smartphone customers who are on unlimited plans – those whose extraordinary level of data usage puts them in the top 5 percent of our heaviest data users in a billing period. In fact, these customers on average use 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone data customers. This step will not apply to our 15 million smartphone customers on a tiered data plan or the vast majority of smartphone customers who still have unlimited data plans.

Starting October 1, smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage in a billing cycle reaches the level that puts them among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users. These customers can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before you are affected, we will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.

This change will never impact the vast majority of our customers, and is designed to create a better service experience for all.

The amount of data usage of our top 5 percent of heaviest users varies from month to month, based on the usage of others and the ever-increasing demand for mobile broadband services. To rank among the top 5 percent, you have to use an extraordinary amount of data in a single billing period.

There will be no changes for the vast majority of customers. It’s not how much time you spend using your device, it’s what you do with it. You can send or receive thousands of emails, surf thousands of Web pages and watch hours of streaming video every month and not be in the top 5 percent of data users.

Typically what puts someone in the top 5 percent is streaming very large amounts of video and music daily over the wireless network, not Wi-Fi. Streaming video apps, remote web camera apps, sending large data files (like video) and some online gaming are examples of applications that can use data quickly. Using Wi-Fi doesn’t create wireless network congestion or count toward your wireless data usage. AT&T smartphone customers have unlimited access to our entire Wi-Fi network, with more than 26,000 hotspots, at no additional cost. They can also use Wi-Fi at home and in the office.

The bottom line is our customers have options. They can choose to stay on their unlimited plans and use unlimited amounts of data, but may experience reduced speeds at some point if they are an extraordinarily heavy data user. If speed is more important, they may wish to switch to a tiered usage plan, where customers can pay for more data if they need it and will not see reduced speeds.

But even as we pursue this additional measure, it will not solve our spectrum shortage and network capacity issues. Nothing short of completing the T-Mobile merger will provide additional spectrum capacity to address these near term challenges.

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=20535&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=32318&mapcode=corporate


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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Launchpad Control allows you to select which apps appear in Launchpad

A little tip for you weekend Lion users:


Launchpad feeling a little cluttered? Launchpad Control is a free application on OS X that will assist you in cleaning out the unnecessary apps in your Launchpad. The app is pretty simple in that you just check off which apps you don’t want to see . via LifeHacker

Download here.

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New tech will allow 22Mbps for 100 kilometers over TV broadcast bands

Illustration via profile pictures on IEEE’s Facebook page

The IEEE standards body that oversees the development of WiFi technology announced today a next-generation WiFi 802.22 technology designed to facilitate wireless data transfer up to 22Mbps over great distances up to 60 miles, or a hundred kilometers. The interesting thing is, the new technology is utilizing television bands without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations:

This new standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) takes advantage of the favorable transmission characteristics of the VHF and UHF TV bands to provide broadband wireless access over a large area up to 100 km from the transmitter. Each WRAN will deliver up to 22 Mbps per channel without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations, using the so-called white spaces between the occupied TV channels.
The technology will be great in rural areas and developing countries with vacant TV channels, IEEE says. In our view, this could also knock out any rationale for the much talked-about AT&T/T-Mobile merger. For example, why use pricey cellular data if your phone is within the range of a 802.22 hotspot? Apple is one of the leading backers of WiFi and has long ago incorporated wireless capabilities to all their products. As of recently, Apple ships its Macs with souped up WiFi capable of hitting 450Mbps over wireless networks, even though they aren’t advertising this as a feature.

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My question is, how big will this new wifi router be? Will we be able to use this in our own homes or is this for large companies only? This would be great for the everyday Internet user who works within 10miles of his/her house, simply buy this and get a high speed Internet service and you can use your home Internet anywhere! However realistically this is for the big cellular service providers. Now imagine this, anyone with enough money would e able to open a small broadband Internet company, simply but up some space on the roofs of buildings put up your towers and you can cover a small city with a fast and reliable service net. This would help companies like virgin mobile, metro pcs, trac phone, straight talk, and many more to build their own towers and pay less for leasing towers from larger companies.

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Benchmarks for the New Mac Mini and MacBook Air

Primate Labs has released their benchmarks for the new Mac mini and MacBook Air.

Mac Mini
The Sandy Bridge processors in the new Mac mini provides a tremendous boost in performance: the quad-core Mac mini server is 2.3x faster than the previous Mac mini while the dual-core Mac minis are 1.6x to 1.9x faster.



Another interesting thing (not shown in the chart above) is that the Mac mini server has roughly the same performance as the entry-level Mac Pro. While this will not hold true after the next Mac Pro update (which is overdue), it's impressive to see Apple's smallest computer provide comparable performance to Apple's largest computer!


MacBook Air
Like the Mac mini, the new Sandy Bridge processors provide a tremendous performance boost to the MacBook Air lineup: the 13-inch MacBook Air is 1.9x faster than the previous 13-inch MacBook Air, while the 11-inch MacBook Air is an incredible 2.6x faster.






The Core i7-based MacBook Air is almost as fast as the Core i5-based MacBook Pro ( only 20% slower). While there has always been a (sometimes sizable) gap between the fastest MacBook Air and the slowest MacBook Pro, this update eradicates that gap.



These benchmarks were compiled from the Geekbench browser. You can benchmark your own system by getting Geekbench from here.
Read More

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AT&T to implement data throttling in early October, just in time for iPhone 5

A new change for AT&T Wireless’ Unlimited Data subscribers will soon be taking place. Rumored to be starting in the first week of October, we’ve heard that AT&T will start throttling the data speeds of the network’s top data hogs. As Verizon (PDF) and Virgin have recently done, AT&T will be adopting a similar plan to try to curb the problem of data congestion and overall network issues that have hurt its 3G network’s performance since the onset of the iPhone.

AT&T will also be releasing its first LTE devices later this year.

We’ve heard that AT&T will rejigger its insurance structure that week as well, which makes us think a certain high profile device may be launching on or around that time.

The throttling plan will work like the others’. The heaviest users will see significant speed decreases for one billing cycle once they go over a threshold of data (we’re guessing 2-4GB?). These heavy users will still be able to access the network, but at a much slower speed. At the start of the next billing cycle, their speeds will return to normal. We don’t have numbers for AT&T’s throttle speeds but Virgin takes you down to 256Kb/s once you’ve reached their 2.5GB limit (not too bad actually – sometimes we’re happy to get 256kbs). Interestingly, Virgin’s throttle also will also be implemented in the first week of October which may indicate that they’ll be carrying a certain high profile mobile device as well.

Frankly, throttling isn’t so bad if done fairly. It is a good way to penalize heavy users but without them having to worry about overage charges. For high end users, however, it wold make sense for AT&T to add the ability to buy more regular speed data like they do now…



Ever since the introduction of the original iPhone 1 back in the summer of 2007, AT&T has seen a 8000% increase (80X) in mobile data traffic. Combine this with the release of more and more smartphones capable of streaming Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, MLB, Sling and other 3G streaming apps, demand for bandwidth continues to rise dramatically. The heart of the problem is spectrum and infrastructure. However expanding either of those for AT&T’s immediate needs can take years. Combine this with the building out of their 4G/LTE network, they need to come up with answers fast.

We’ve heard that, just like tiers before them, throttling of data will not effect 95% of the subscriber base. In fact, that top 5% of users using the most data account for approximately 30% of the bandwidth. There is no defined GB amount that is known yet that will put someone in the top 5%, but we’ve been told that 12,000 emails, 12,000 website views, 4 streaming movies and 5 hours of streaming music will start to put you close to that upper range of usage.


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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Google search on iPad gets a sexy new interface, continuous scroll

The new icons are bigger so you can filter search results without sanding down your finger.

Google last month announced a bunch of enhancements to its search engine and today they confirmed via a blog post an overhauled layout on iPad and other (read: Android) tablets, just two days after the blog Digital Inspirations leaked the new UI. From now , running a query by visiting www.google.com in your iPad’s browser produces an iPad-optimized layout in search results.

Gone is the left-hand column that had ridiculously tiny search controls, making room for bigger buttons and more white space which is definitely a lot easier on the eyes. It’s surprising how long it has taken Google to optimize web search experience on tablets, really. Now you can finally hit the controls on smaller tablets without having to sand down your finger first.

Our favorite: The big buttons right below the search box for quick access to specific search silos, such as Web, Images, News and so forth. Also noteworthy, image results are now way more attractive due to larger previews and they continuous scroll – just reach the bottom of the page and a new batch of images will load automatically. The new layout will be available on iPad and Android Honeycomb 3.1 tablets and in 36 languages “in the coming days”, everyone’s favorite search monster noted. Another pretty screenshot right below.





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Google purchased A thousand IBM inventions to protect Android from Apple threat

Image from gizmodo

Anticipating Android backers will face legal hurdles as Apple now has the upper hand in its case against HTC (here and here), Google has stepped up and bought more than a thousand IBM patents for an undisclosed sum. The news was first reported by the blog SEO by the Sea and picked up by The Wall Street Journal. The search company might use IBM inventions as a leverage against pending lawsuits that indirectly involve its Android software.

Google failed to outbid the Apple-led consortium which paid $4.5 billion for Nortel’s treasure chest of more than 6,000 patents covering wireless technologies, among them crucial inventions related to fourth-generation cellular networks. The new patent deal is in line with Google’s focus on snapping up patent portfolios left and right in creating a “disincentive for others to sue Google”, as noted on their official blog back in April. The 1,030 granted patents Google bought from IBM cover varied technologies, including…




“the fabrication and architecture of memory and microprocessing chips” plus other areas of computer architecture which “include servers and routers”, in addition to “relational databases, object oriented programming, and a wide array of business processes”. It is not immediately clear how the acquired patents relate to Android, but a Google spokesperson took this jab at Apple, telling CNET:

Like many tech companies, at times we’ll acquire patents that are relevant to our business needs. Bad software patent litigation is a wasteful war that no one will win.
Florian Mueller of the FOSS Patents blog explains how Google could use some of the patents to defend Android from litigation:

Google could sell some of those patents to embattled Android device makers such as HTC. HTC could then, for example, use them in countersuits or counterclaims against Apple, possibly with an obligation to sell the patents back to Google after the dispute.
Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com

And if Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi is right, then Apple is going to “push its legal claims hard and unrelentingly”, he tells Fortune. He foresees huge, positive financial implications for Apple should the company prevail in its anti-Android legal crusade. The analyst wrote in a note to clients: “We note that a 10 percentage point shift in smartphone market share from Android to Apple (the current run-rate smartphone market share is 46% for Android vs. 18% for Apple) in 2013 is worth an estimated $30B+ in annual revenue and $10+ in annual EPS to Apple”. He also noted Apple ships a much higher value of smartphones than any other player, as seen in the below chart accompanying his note.


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- Posted using my iPhone 4

iPhone captured two-thirds of mobile phone profits in the second quarter

Global operating profit from the sale of mobile phones among eight major players, by Asymco



In case you missed it, the big news today is that Apple is king of the hill in smartphones and is now chasing LG for the third place in global cell phone sales. Samsung, which reported its second-quarter earnings today, ranks as the world’s second-largest smartphone maker in units, but the company said it will cease reporting phone and tablet sales citing competition from Apple. If that didn’t impress you, this data point will blow your mind: More than six out of ten dollars of profit in the mobile phone business go to Apple’s pockets, or 66.3 percent. This is interesting because it shows Apple steadily improving its profitability in the cell phone space at the expense of its rivals, Asmyco’s Horace Dediu explains:



This share is up from 57% in Q1 and 50% in Q3 and Q4. Samsung’s share went to 15%, though that’s not a peak level historically. In Q1 2008 the company was at 21%. RIM was at 11%, a level in a range that has been unchanged for three years. Finally, HTC captured 7.4%, a new high and an increase from 6% since last quarter.
And guess who controlled the industry’s profits four years ago, when the iPhone debuted? That’s right, Nokia, which in the second quarter of 2007 enjoyed 55 percent of global operating profit from the sale of mobile phones. Back then, Apple, Research In Motion and HTC collectively captured 11 percent of the profits and now they together control 84 percent of the profits. And another somewhat related tidbit: Apple now has more cash than the world’s largest sovereign government.

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Real Apple Store services fake MacBook Air in China, of course

Is there no limit to the tolerance margin in Apple Stores? After comedian Mark Malkoff brought his pet goat into an Apple Store, another guy found out that Apple Stores will in fact service his knock-off MacBook Air. And no, we are not talking about counterfeit Apple Stores in China, although the store in question was located in China.

Per this report from the Chinese forum Sina Weibo, relayed by MIC Gadget, a Chinese guy brought his laughable MacBook Air knock-off to Apple’s flagship store in the Shanghai’s Pudong district. An Apple Genius not only agreed to repair the poor guy’s computer, but also posed for a shot which is now making the rounds on the web. From the looks of it, the Genius appears to be genuinely surprised by just how closely the rip-off Air resembles the real one. Yup, knock-offs are getting sophisticated these days.

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Samsung stops reporting phone and tablet sales data due to competitive and legal pressure from Apple

Samsung, which reported second-quarter earnings today, did something odd, especially if you consider peculiarity of the timing. The company has stopped reporting sales data and forecasts for its mobile phones and tablets, notes The Wall Street Journal. Indeed, Samsung did not divulge phone or tablet shipments data in today’s earnings release, noting instead that “shipments of mobile handsets increased in the high-single-digit range quarter-on-quarter”. The firm’s chief of investor relations Robert Yi defended the move in a conference call with Wall Street analysts, citing competitive reasons:

As competition intensifies, there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses.
Analysts tell the Wall Street Journal that the change in reporting practice was “probably due to its continuing legal battle with Apple”. As you know, Samsung is embroiled in a tough legal spat with Apple which accused them of ripping off the iPhone’s hardware, software, design, packaging and even marketing. In that respect, it would make sense for Samsung to hide sales numbers because they are growing at an astounding rate and with an IDC-estimated second-quarter smartphone sales of 19.2 million units they indeed are within spitting distance of Apple’s record-breaking shipments of 20.34 million iPhones.

In fact, several research firms warn Samsung’s 500 percent unit growth versus Apple’s 142 percent growth suggests that Samsung most likely will overtake Apple this year to become the world’s #1 smartphone maker. The decision to cease reporting phone sales could also stem from failed expectations as Samsung’s top brass might have been convinced they would outsell Apple this quarter, as Boston-based Strategy Analytics wrongly predicted. Seeing the Apple hype machine at work and bloggers rave about iPhone milestones, it is entirely possible that Samsung’s leadership concluded it would be in their best interest if they withheld sales data.







Above: Samsung Galaxy Player, one of the gizmo’s Apple says blatantly copies iOS gadgets.

Per latest IDC and ABI Research second-quarter cell phone survey, Samsung shipped an IDC-estimated 19.2 million smartphones in the second quarter of this year. In the year-ago quarter, the company moved just 3.1 million units, so they grew an astounding 500 percent on an annual basis. Apple reported shipments of 20.34 million iPhones in the second quarter, up from the 18.64 million iPhones shipped in the previous quarter and representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. In terms of market share, Apple captured an IDC-estimated 20.3 percent share of the smartphone market in the second quarter versus 19.2 percent for Samsung in the industry that shipped 110 million smartphones in the June quarter.

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Samsung stops reporting phone and tablet sales data due to competitive and legal pressure from Apple

Samsung, which reported second-quarter earnings today, did something odd, especially if you consider peculiarity of the timing. The company has stopped reporting sales data and forecasts for its mobile phones and tablets, notes The Wall Street Journal. Indeed, Samsung did not divulge phone or tablet shipments data in today’s earnings release, noting instead that “shipments of mobile handsets increased in the high-single-digit range quarter-on-quarter”. The firm’s chief of investor relations Robert Yi defended the move in a conference call with Wall Street analysts, citing competitive reasons:

As competition intensifies, there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses.
Analysts tell the Wall Street Journal that the change in reporting practice was “probably due to its continuing legal battle with Apple”. As you know, Samsung is embroiled in a tough legal spat with Apple which accused them of ripping off the iPhone’s hardware, software, design, packaging and even marketing. In that respect, it would make sense for Samsung to hide sales numbers because they are growing at an astounding rate and with an IDC-estimated second-quarter smartphone sales of 19.2 million units they indeed are within spitting distance of Apple’s record-breaking shipments of 20.34 million iPhones.

In fact, several research firms warn Samsung’s 500 percent unit growth versus Apple’s 142 percent growth suggests that Samsung most likely will overtake Apple this year to become the world’s #1 smartphone maker. The decision to cease reporting phone sales could also stem from failed expectations as Samsung’s top brass might have been convinced they would outsell Apple this quarter, as Boston-based Strategy Analytics wrongly predicted. Seeing the Apple hype machine at work and bloggers rave about iPhone milestones, it is entirely possible that Samsung’s leadership concluded it would be in their best interest if they withheld sales data.






Above: Samsung Galaxy Player, one of the gizmo’s Apple says blatantly copies iOS gadgets.

Per latest IDC and ABI Research second-quarter cell phone survey, Samsung shipped an IDC-estimated 19.2 million smartphones in the second quarter of this year. In the year-ago quarter, the company moved just 3.1 million units, so they grew an astounding 500 percent on an annual basis. Apple reported shipments of 20.34 million iPhones in the second quarter, up from the 18.64 million iPhones shipped in the previous quarter and representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. In terms of market share, Apple captured an IDC-estimated 20.3 percent share of the smartphone market in the second quarter versus 19.2 percent for Samsung in the industry that shipped 110 million smartphones in the June quarter.

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Opps an Apple Employe did it again! Another iPhone prototype seen into wild!

Yet another Apple employe has been spotted with whats now believed to be the next iPhone. Are these picture real or not, we will not know until the official release so we can compare the device to these pictures. Apple should have these people locked up in a special building and hold rem there until the official release of the device! More below from 9to5mac.
'





Last evening, a tipster sent us some pictures of what he now thinks is the iPhone 5. He caught what he said was likely an Apple employee hunched over the device on the way home from work in San Francisco earlier this week. He told us he was able to get a very good look at the device but the pictures he snapped “didn’t do it justice”.

We contacted the tipster by phone and checked his background. We believe he saw a totally new Apple device, probably a prototype iPhone 5. He contacted us because when he got home, he doubted what he saw was legitimate until he looked at the green cases we posted. Then it all came together for him. Our tipster has had an iPhone 3GS and currently has an iPhone 4. He knows his iPhones and iPods and this was like nothing he’s ever seen. He said it would fit perfectly into the case below.



“Almost EVO-like” in screen size, this iPhone also appears thinner than the current iPhone 4 but also wider. The edges are rounded metal like the edges of a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but could still function as an antenna. The back is a curved/tapered glass or plastic. He couldn’t tell but if he had to guess he’d say glass. He said it looked too amazing to be built by anyone besides Apple (fanboy!).

Our tipster wasn’t able to see the front/home button and the man holding the device was covering the Apple logo for all but a brief moment when the above picture was snapped. It seemed apparent that he was trying to hide what he had more than the average smartphone user.






We aren’t certain if this is legitimate or not but it is too thin to be an iPhone 3GS and too rounded to be an iPhone 4. The black back with Apple logo would seem to rule out an iPod touch. Our tipster is all but certain it was a new Apple product and the iPhone 5 would be the most likely scenario.

Would Apple let employees out into the world with these over a month before launch? Apple has acknowledged that they real world test this way in the past (ahem, Gray Powell). They’ve also indicated that the cases the iPhone 4s came in may have been a factor in in not diagnosing the finger spot/antennagate fiasco ahead of time. So perhaps this is legit?





'
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FaceTime 3G for Verizon iPhone may be restricted to tiered data plans

In June we reported that the fifth-generation iPhone had reached its final testing stage, and within that report we noted that Apple and Verizon Wireless were yet to strike a deal for FaceTime video calling over 3G networks. Now our sources have followed up to let us know the progress on this situation. Currently, Verizon has multiple engineers testing FaceTime over 3G in many regions with heavy iPhone usage. According to a couple of people who have seen such Verizon 3G FaceTime in action, the quality looks fairly good. Perhaps Verizon has been tweaking its comparatively-slow network in order to reach this seamless FaceTime video calling experience. In addition, Apple’s iOS 5, which is launching this fall, includes a tweaked FaceTime backend that provides a better quality video call overall.

To put it simply, Apple and Verizon are still in negotiations over bringing FaceTime 3G to end users. The issue is not particularly on Apple’s side, as support for FaceTime 3G is fully integrated into iOS 5 as proven by the aforementioned testing and our own findings in iOS betas. The reason that negotiations are still ongoing is due to a disagreement between Apple and Verizon. Apple wants FaceTime over 3G to a be a seamless experience for the end user: a feature that works for all Verizon iPhone customers. This would mean that Verizon 3G FaceTime needs to work for users with both unlimited or tiered data plans. The problem is that Verizon stresses that the feature should be limited to tiered-data plan users only. This would consequently limit usage over 3G, furthermore leaving open more bandwidth. This would mean higher quality calls over 3G.

This is a big deal for a few reasons. The first and more important is that if Apple and Verizon cannot close an agreement, Verizon iPhone users may be far from FaceTiming over 3G. Speaking of which, we have yet to hear anything out of the AT&T camp. Knowing their past history with adding iPhone features, AT&T iPhone users may not see 3G FaceTime when iOS 5 launches later this year. This is also a big deal in the case that Verizon wins the argument. Customers who are paying more for unlimited data will be out of a really neat feature: a feature that will surely make FaceTime more popular. The third scenario is Verizon giving into Apple’s demands. This would mean lower-quality video calls as more people will be using the feature without a penalty.

We’re thinking that Verizon’s point might be the better way because it will provide a better experience: higher quality FaceTime calls. In addition, Verizon removed unlimited data plans from their lineup earlier this month, so newer and all future Verizon iPhone customers will not even be affected. This argument might even mean that Apple will give in and push out FaceTime 3G on Verizon’s terms. It is, quite frankly, better than nothing at all. Be sure to check out our video, after the break, of a 3G FaceTime call.



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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Plastic iPhone 4 to replace iPhone 3GS as low cost iPhone?

MacRumors is reporting a plastic white iPhone found on Tinhte.vn may be the next value iPhone.

We only have 3 issues with these pictures:

1. It is running Cydia which is unlikely to be an easy install on a new prototype iPhone with a new cellular chip, internal hardware and firmware. It is doubtful Apple is testing Cydia and it isn’t a cakewalk to jailbreak an entirely new device.
2. Probably most damning, it has the tell-tale old white speaker grill at the top which was phased out as the white iPhone was improved over the past year and a half. It looks like the poster may have tried to blur it as well. It is doubtful that Apple would go back to this flawed design.
3. Plastic?

Some other information that you want to transfer to you is that this machine seems to run faster than the iPhone 4, lighter weight and two glass front and back seem to have been replaced by two plastic sheets, type of sensation and cry other than the iPhone 4.
It is unlikely that Apple would ever replace the glass front with plastic. Even the $229 iPod touch is glass. Can you imagine Apple doing plastic face? Not possible.

More likely there is a matte overlay on the front of it.

Otherwise, this phone has a plastic back which would decrease the weight and cost and increase the durability. Which actually makes some sense – though the $229 iPod touch gets by with stainless steel. We were throwing this device around yesterday and concluded it was probably an iPhone 4 prototype that was brought back up to the surface – there is no shortage of those in Asia. Two more shots below.







*thanks 9to5mac*

In our opinion this is just a cheap after market housing forthe iPhone 4.. Apple has never used plastic on the screen of an iPhone and I believe will never use plastic for the lens over the screen.

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Ruling Whittles Down HTC’s Patent Case Against Apple

If HTC thought its acquisition of S3 would be a handy club with which to beat down Apple’s patent infringement attacks, it best think again.
A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has ruled that some of Apple’s Mac computers do infringe two of the four patents S3 asserted against the company. But it also ruled that Apple’s iOS devices do not and that Macs running Nvidia GPUs have an implied license to use them.


In other words, the iPhone and iPad are no longer at risk for an importation ban if things go sideways for Apple in this case. And neither are any Macs protected by that implied license I mentioned earlier. Really the only infringing products at issue in the case are Macs with Intel GPUs. So worst case scenario, if the ITC’s initial ruling should be upheld, Apple could presumably switch its Mac line over to Nvdia GPUs and dodge an ITC ban. Which significantly blunts S3′s helpfulness to HTC in its ongoing IP war with Apple, as Litigating Apple’s Matt Macari suggested last week.
“As S3 goes, so goes HTC — at least when it comes to using the S3 acquisition as leverage against Apple,” Macari, an IP attorney, wrote. “Such a turn in events would effectively put HTC back where it was before it purchased S3, forcing HTC to face Apple’s initial ITC win head on.”




*thanks All things Digital*

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Android from inception to now infographic

Here is a infographic of Android from it's creation to today. The Android group was created in 2003 and was purchased by google in 2005 and turned into the android we know now.




Image by xcube labs

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Next iPhone to feature thinner, tapered design according to new silicone cases

Yesterday, a purported case mold schematic for the fifth-generation iPhone emerged, pointing to a complete re-design for Apple’s handset. This mold points to a larger display, a larger home button, and a thinner profile for the next iPhone. The original reporting of this schematic also includes a mockup of such an iPhone 5 case. Now, we have been able to secure an actual purported fifth-generation iPhone case from a source, not just a mockup. This source is similar to the source who provided us with impeccably accurate design schematics for the iPad 2. In addition, we can independently confirm, Asian case manufacturers are now shopping case designs to case sellers across the globe for their own branding.

We can’t tell you that the information used to build the case, that we have gotten our hands on, is different than the information revealed yesterday, but given that these cases have actually been built, and given that case manufactures are willing to spend millions of dollars on quality intelligence to maximize on the iPhone 5 launch, we have reason to believe that this iPhone 5 case is indicative of the next-generation iPhone’s design. Or at least a design that touched Apple’s Asia-based manufacturing plants for prototyping



This is definitely not the first time that we have heard about a fifth-generation iPhone with a thinner design. As far back as March, a Japanese site called Macotakara reported that the fifth-generation iPhone would employ a curved, aluminum back. This is the same website that independently reported a flat back with tapered edges, a wider speaker, and a March release date for the iPad 2. This is also the website that revealed Apple’s method to finally releasing the white iPhone 4: an all new painting method for white devices.

In April, This is my next reported that the iPhone 5 will feature a thinner, teardrop design in addition to larger display and a gesture-based home button. Our cases can’t confirm the larger screen or new home button, but they do fall in line with the thinner profile. On top of all of this, the typically well-sourced Wall Street Journal reported twice that the next-generation iPhone will feature a thinner and lighter design. The first report came from Asian supply sources while the second appears to come from sources within Apple’s home base.



Although these reports do exist, it’s only fair to mention reports from both Reuters and Bloomberg that claim the next iPhone will feature a design that is very similar to that of the current iPhone 4. It is also worth mentioning, though, that This is my next claims – something we heard independently back in April – that Apple is testing next-generation iPhone guts with iPhone 4 casing in order to maintain secrecy.

In addition, Bloomberg’s iPhone 5 report says that the that the next iPad’s display will be 1/3 higher in resolution than the current iPad. This seems highly unlikely due to fragmentation reasons, so this casts some doubt over the rest of Bloomberg’s report. As you can see, at this point the iPhone 5 rumor game is a tossup – and every publication seems to be saying something slightly different. We’ll surely know all come September, and hopefully the cases we have independently received are indicative of the next iPhone’s design.

*thanks 9to5mac*

We believe this is a newer version of the iPhone 3GS with flash and it will remain at $49.99 or it will become the first ever fully subsidized iPhone!

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Google changing Chrome gestures to respect Lion’s multitouch guidelines

Now that Apple let Lion out of the cage, Google is developing a Chrome browser version to take advantage of the operating system’s gestures support. The search company announced on the Google Chrome Releases blog a new developer build (version 14.0.835.0) that re-enables a two-finger gesture “which respects the system preference”. A three-finger swipe that would previously move you backward and forward in browsing history now respects system-wide preference in Lion that flips between full-screen apps. Chrome still lets you go forward and backward in browsing history by invoking a two-finger swipe left or right.

The release also comes with a multi-profile user interface improvements and support for a new communication protocol for Web Sockets. The former lets one browse the web using multiple online identities and switch them easily. Windows and Linux builds added platform-specific tweaks and changes as well. It’ll be some time before Chrome 14 makes it down to the stable channel, but if you wish to try out experimental new features without messing with your existing Chrome installation and user profile, we recommend installing the Canary build of the browser.



*thanks iclarified*

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- Posted using my iPhone 4

NASA releases a cool new iPad app

Today, NASA released a cool new free app for exploring Space and the world around us.

NASA science: revealed! This is the NASA Visualization Explorer, the coolest way to get stories about advanced space-based research delivered right to your iPad. A direct connection to NASA’s extraordinary fleet of research spacecraft, this app presents cutting edge research stories in an engaging and exciting format. See the Earth as you’ve never seen it before; travel to places otherwise unavailable to even the most intrepid explorers! Download it now, tap into the power of NASA’s cutting-edge research today and check for new stories every week!
More imagery below:










*thanks 9to5mac*

Send us a story or tip @ TipsForLimerain.com@gmail.com and follow our pages for the latest limera1n, rubyra1n, and all tech stories, follow us on Twitter at @iphonepixelpost or @limerain_com
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- Posted using my iPhone 4