If there’s one company in particular who’s eager to get their hands on new Apple products, it would be manufacturer Pegatron Technology. A new report claims the supplier has landed the contract for the new iPhone, while competitor Foxconn will build a seven-inch iPad.
DigiTimes is reporting that Pegatron Technology will be manufacturing two of Apple’s biggest products for the fourth quarter: The next iPhone as well as a mysterious “10-inch iPad to be launched in the fourth quarter.”
“Pegatron has already finished expanding its equipment and labor force for Apple’s orders,” sources close to the Taiwan-based supply chain maker reveal. The same sources pinpoint a September release for this year’s iPhone, which would be a month earlier than last year’s iPhone 4S.
To ramp up for Apple’s products, Pegatron is shifting its focus elsewhere. “To mainly focus on Apple’s orders, Pegatron has also internally decided to downsize its SI motherboard department and to shift resources to Apple’s orders,” sources claim. “Since Asustek has been reducing its motherboard orders to Pegatron, while gross margins are also rather low, the shifting in resources is expected to benefit Pegatron in its operations.”
The report also casually notes that rival manufacturer Foxconn Electronics will be building a seven-inch iPad for Apple due for release in August — despite Cupertino’s continued insistence that they have no interest in building such a device.
Now, do we have to remind you about taking rumors like too seriously again? Grain of salt, people… grain of salt…
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When discounting their older product, most companies simply dump it into the market and call it a day. But Apple isn’t just any company — an updated model of the 9 iPad 2 is floating around at retail, and it might improve battery life by as much as 16 percent.
Engadget is reporting that the lower-cost version of the iPad 2 introduced in March has quietly introduced a new 32nm A5 processor, and that could translate to improved battery life for budget-minded buyers.
The discovery was made by AnandTech, who did an extensive review on the upgraded model, which bears the “iPad2,4” model. Instead of the 45nm process used for the A5 processor used in the original iPad 2 last year, the newer 9 model features “special A5 chips manufactured using Samsung’s 32nm chip-making process.”
In testing, the website discovered that the 32nm iPad2,4 model boasted improved battery life of 15.8 percent, including a video playback test that lasted 15.7 hours — far better than the original iPad 2 model at 13.3 hours and even the new iPad with its larger battery, which ran for a mere 11.15 hours.
The problem is, there’s no way to tell which iPad 2 you’re buying until you’ve opened the box and checked the system information with something like GeekBench.
“This particular iPad 2,4 sample came from Best Buy, and several attempts to find one elsewhere came up short. All indications seem to point to the iPad 2,4 being relatively rare, which makes sense considering what’s inside it,” AnandTech reveals.
But fear not — once your fellow human beings have snapped up available inventory, it’s likely this once-rare version will be on store shelves everywhere, should you still be looking for a cheaper model of last year’s technology with a little extra battery life.
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(Image courtesy of Engadget)
Samsung is back for more, today introducing the third generation of its Galaxy S smartphones with an impossibly large 4.8-inch display and a handful of the iPhone’s best features (such as a Siri knockoff) thrown in for good measure. Gee, maybe they actually like getting dragged into patent court all the time? At least Apple can’t say the Korean manufacturer is stealing their screen size. With that in mind, let’s jump into the rest of the day’s news for Thursday, May 3, 2012.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire made quite a splash out of the gate last November, but according to new data released by IDC, the flame appears to have mostly been snuffed out by the release of the new iPad. Overall, the tablet market dropped 38.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, a bit more than IDC’s previous prediction of 34 percent. Total tablet sales hit 17.4 million, but Apple’s iPad nabbed 11.8 million of those for a 68 percent market share, which didn’t leave many potential customers for competitors to mop up. After grabbing 16.8 percent of the tablet market late last year with the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s darling dropped to third place with a mere four percent share in Q1 2012, bumped out of second place by Samsung. Lenovo ranked fourth, and Barnes & Noble sopped up the rest of the market for fifth place.
It certainly took long enough, but the first iPad-only newspaper The Daily has finally made the leap to the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch. Even better, the subscription pricing has similarly gotten a downsizing at only .99 per month or .99 per year. iPad users won’t get those cheaper rates, but they do get a small bonus: Free access to the iPhone edition as part of their 99-cent per week or .99 per year tablet subscription.
App developers are about to have some expanded options when it comes to offering their apps internationally, as iTunes Connect has announced 10 new languages: Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, Turkish, Finnish, Danish, Indonesian, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, and Greek. “Now you have more ways to reach millions of users around the world,” the developer news website notes today. “We have expanded language support in iTunes Connect, so you can localize app metadata, keywords, and screenshots in 10 new languages.” Sadly, we don’t speak a single one of those, but it should be good news for customers in those regions.
We’re not likely to see a new iPhone again until October, but Samsung is taking advantage of the lull in Apple’s schedule by introducing the third chapter in its flagship Android smartphone line. The Samsung Galaxy S III has been officially unveiled at an event today, with a whopping 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display featuring a 1280×720 resolution. Despite being 20 percent larger than the iPhone 4S, the GS3 is actually lighter and thinner, and even includes a Siri-esque feature Samsung has called the “S Voice.” The handset won’t be available in North America until this sunny summer, but begins an international rollout on May 29 in Europe before moving on to Asia. Aside from the enormous tablet-sized display, the handset is noteworthy for bundling 50GB of Dropbox storage for two years as well as an exclusive app: Flipboard for Android, which will eventually roll out to other handsets as well. Oh, and the Korean manufacturer claims the GS3 is “designed for humans” — at least those with hands beefy enough to hold it, that is. And just try to watch the GS3 commercial without making a smart-aleck remark — we dare you!
Looks like iPhone rumor season is in full swing again, with iLounge publishing a number of tidbits on what we might see come October. Fans of that mocked-up teardrop-shaped iPhone 5 design that made the rounds last year will be disappointed to hear that the next iPhone is likely going to retain a similar look to the existing iPhone 4S, but shed 2mm in thickness and get stretched out by 10mm in height to create a larger 4-inch display. The more bizarre part of this dubious rumor suggests that “a metal panel” will be added to the center of the back of the otherwise Gorilla Glass-covered handset. The website likens it to the current iMac generation, but we say it’s just butt-ugly. Finally, in keeping with a volley of other rumors, iLounge is also predicting the 30-pin dock connector will get a big shrinky-dink with a smaller “pill shape” hole. Do we need to remind you yet again about getting your hopes up too much with these rumors? We didn’t think so.
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Looks like WhitePages isn’t the only app hitting version 2.0 on Thursday — eBay has just pushed out a major new upgrade of its existing iPad app that’s designed from the ground up for better search and the ability to revise seller listings.
eBay has announced an update to the company’s existing iPad app on Thursday. eBay for iPad 2.0 is a complete redesigned experience, built with the new iPad’s Retina Display in mind and loaded with new features, fixes and user requests.
“Designed from the ground up, our 2.0 app brings what you want right to the front,” the app description reads. “The first thing you’ll notice is a new ‘home’ screen. At the top of the screen, we automatically include your eBay Buying, Watching, and Selling activity. Prefer something else on your home screen? Tap the Edit button and move your home screen options around, add new options or delete.”
eBay for iPad 2.0 was inspired by features and functions requested by users on the company’s support forums, which includes the ability for sellers to revise listings right from the app, a back button and improved search, with results now available in three different ways.
The iPad edition also includes ultra-high resolution item images, more eBay notifications and a whole lot more, which the e-tailer calls “a must-have for savvy eBay users.”
eBay for iPad 2.0 is available now from the App Store; the 24.5MB download is free and compatible with all iPads running iOS 4.0 or later.
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Owners of the iPad have a reason to rejoice today, as they are finally able to join their music-loving brethren on Mac and iPhone in the phenomenon that is Spotify. After a less-than-satisfying release of an iPhone app that wouldn’t run natively on iPad, the music streaming giant sat down and built an app from the ground up to give Apple’s tablet crowd access to 17 million streaming songs. While the wait was lengthy, the app appears to be worth it.
Building off of the existing functionality of the iPhone app, Spotify for the iPad takes full advantage of its new platform. The sizable and pixel-perfect display of the iPad inspired a Retina-optimized interface and a new full-screen “now playing” view that presents cover art in beautiful high definition. The iPad version also boasts some extra settings that until now have been desktop-specific, including the ability to set the length of crossfading between songs — between zero and twelve seconds — and gapless playback. Songs will also come through better than ever if you so choose, thanks to the ability to pick the download quality — the highest being “extreme,” at 320Kbps.
While there are a handful of new features that are absent in the iPhone version, Spotify still delivers the familiar layout and functionality that have made it such a hit on other platforms. Delving further into the never-ending pit of music that Spotify possesses is just as easy as it was on the iPhone, if not even easier. You’ll start each session with the “What’s New” tab, which presents all of the best offerings from trending artists and worthwhile playlists. One tap will take you into a band’s discography, while another sends you off to one of their main collaborators’ projects, and then to the solo album their drummer released — it really goes as far as you’re willing to take it. Luckily, swiping back allows you to climb out of the hole just as easily as you fell into it.
The social features that have carried the service’s popularity since it first launched for Mac and PC are still ever present. Sharing songs across social networks is as easy as making two taps, or you can send songs to individual Spotify users within the People list. If you’ve got friends over and want to save the effort of sharing in the device, just stream the songs over your speaker system with Apple’s AirPlay.
Like the other versions of the Spotify app, you’ll be required to subscribe to the premium service after the 30 day free trial. It’ll run you .99 a month, but with how slick the app is and how much you can conceivably pull from it, that might be well worth it. The free universal Spotify app is available now from the App Store.
