Handhelds

Bluetooth 4.0 theoretically allows iPhone 4S devices to connect to the new MacBook Airs (And other BT 4.0 devices) at an extremely low power mode up to 50 meters away.

Do you know what time it is? It is one hour before this iPhone event – and Apple is updating its Store. That means new toys obviously. You ready already?

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In case there was any question, we’ve heard directly from Apple PR that there won’t be a webcast of Apple’s iPhone launch event. Last Year’s September event was live streamed but for unspecified reasons, Apple has chosen to keep this one off the airwaves. They will provide a live closed feed to the UK for European journalists however.

We’ll still be covering the event as it unfolds so make sure to stop by at 10am PT, 1pm ET or your local varient.

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Remember when we brought you news way back in June that AT&T would be increasing its premiums on iPhone insurance on October 4th?  This was the very first indication that Apple’s iPhone launch event would be on October 4th.

Deductible: A tiered deductible per the terms of your Mobile Insurance Coverage Certificate, will apply as follows:

Now that is out in the open.  Prices for iPhones will increase from $4.99 to $6.99.  Such an arbitrary date may signal that the new iPhones may be ready sooner rather than later after the announcement.  Perhaps as early as October 7th.  See new screenie below
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What’s most interesting about these fake iPhones is that they were made from real iPhone parts.  The assumption is that the companies that made supplies for Apple would make additional parts and sell them to third parties who would somehow assemble a Frankenstein of iPhone and non-iPhone parts together and sell them at double the cost.

The cost to make one fake iPhone, which used some genuine parts, was around 2,000 yuan ($313). It was sold on unauthorized markets and on the Internet for around 4,000 yuan, only a few hundred yuan cheaper than the real iPhone, the newspaper said.

The fake iPhones had the same functions as the genuine ones but had a shorter battery life, it quoted the police as saying.

It would be interesting and surprising if they got iOS working on these.  I’m guessing a flavor of Android with a iOS-like skin was used. Apple would have a big problem on their hands if iOS was being pirated.

Updated with video of one of these fakes:

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Adding some validity to the possibility of a new iPhone branded “4S”, @chronicwire has just posted the images below showing the iPhone 4S branding on what looks like legit packaging for a new Otter Box iPhone case.

Another couple if you head down south. Notice the changed volume buttons that may or may not be indicative of a volume button to camera shutter feature.

LEAK: Photo of the back of the package showing the iPhone 4S case, depicting new volume buttons, and on the right side. New soft-looking volume buttons being on right side of iPhone 4S can probably be attributed to the “volume button to take pic” iOS5 feature

Update (Sept 23rd): TUAW talked to Otterbox who clarified:

She explained that the ad reflected the current conversations going on in the blogosphere. “Like many, we are watching the rumor sites and using information to plan ahead as much as we can.” Otterbox promises support for whatever iPhone debuts, but they’re emphatically not stating or leaking anything further. “We do not have any confidentiality agreements with Apple,” Richardson told TUAW.

As for those iPhone 4S Otterbox packaging photos that leaked yesterday, she explained, “What was circulating yesterday was not a case image for the iPhone 4S but a packaging design.” Otterbox has not identified the source of the photos.

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(flipped)

MacPost..posts..another image of today’s earlier ‘iPhone leak’ which shows much more of the front of the device.  In the time since our original post this morning the iPhone 4 repair experts at iFixyouri have chimed in to note that the grill on the white iPhone front plate is a non-OEM version which likely indicates that this isn’t from Apple.

Apple removed the grated grill during the white iPhone redesign to help with the proximity sensor issues.

Perhaps this one is built from parts floating around Asia, but it isn’t one that Apple would have put together itself – recently anyway.

More below:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFNi9SLFkU]

Not, “put this on my iPhone now” good but “wow, that’s interesting and must’ve taken a lot of hard work” good. Lifehacker explains:

You can now grab the theme via an app on Theme Outlet. Here’s how. (And make sure you have Dreamboard installed, as this is a Dreamboard theme and requires it.)

1. Open Cydia
2. Tap Manage Sources
3. Tap Edit, then Add, then add source fnetdesigns.com/cydia/repo
4. Go to the Changes section and install Theme Outlet
5. Close Cydia, go to your home screen, and open Theme Outlet
6. Browse for OS X Ultimatum and download it from there
7. Open up Dreamboard, browse for the OS X Lion Ultimatum theme, and install it.

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Update: This isn’t likely real

The image above was posted on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter clone of sorts, showing what is thought to be components of Apple’s yet to be released next-gen iPhone.

Clearly showing the familiar Apple “A5” stamp, the chipset is mysteriously not from an iPad 2, and as Phone Arena points out, closer resembles that of the current iPhone 4’s A4 chipset layout. Curiously, the visible part of the battery reads “430 mAh”, which leads us to believe a similar battery to the iPhone 4’s 1420 mAh battery may be included in the next-gen iPhone.

There is reason to be skeptical of these images. Apart from the overall blurriness of the shot, the A5 logo itself seems a little off and the source of the image cannot be confirmed.

We still expect two variations of a next-gen iPhone to be unveiled late September and becoming available for purchase sometime around October 7th. You can get all the details here.

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Unwire.hk (via MacRumors) shows what they indicate may be screen protectors for the new iPhone 5. Interestingly, the screen protectors here show a wide home button (above) and when compared to the current iPhone 4, show a wider screen area (below).

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If the current aspect ratio is preserved, the new size would indicate that the screen extended further toward the top and bottom of the device.

Another closeup image, below:

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Martin Fichter, the acting president of HTC America, has a daughter down at Steve Jobs’ alma mater, Reed College, where he conducted the very scientific focus group:

On the iPhone 5 hype: “Apple is innovating. Samsung is innovating. We are innovating. Everybody is innovating. And everybody is doing different things for the end consumers. I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were carrying HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacture’s devices. If you look at a college campus, Mac Book Airs are cool. iPhones are not that cool anymore. We here are using iPhones, but our kids don’t find them that cool anymore.”

They also have no interest in dad’s Porsche.
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PocketNow shows what it thinks to be an image taken with an iPhone 5.

This (very attractive) photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235×2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264×2448 — or just shy of eight megapixels. What’s more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4’s actual 3.85mm f/2.8.

We’ve remarked on a number of occasions that the camera holes in the purported iPhone 5 cases seem significantly bigger than the current iPhone 4 cases.  Could this be an indication of some serious glass?

Interestingly the EXIF Data (comparisons below the fold) points to a GPS location here.

This one was “supposedly shot by an Apple engineer eating his lunch at work.”

YUM.

Update: Here is the original image on Flickr

Update 2: Taken down.  That’s obviously a good sign.

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iFixyouri iPhone repair shops have just received a limited order of color iPad 2 front glass customized replacements in blue, green, yellow and pink. We’re told that if you use code “9to5mac” at checkout you’ll get 10% off the $200 iPad customization (yes, that’s pretty steep but we have a feeling there is a pretty big market for these).

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What’s interesting here is that the button isn’t wider as originally prognosticated. In this scenario,it is actually shorter to make room for the bigger screen.

Earlier today we broke the news that an iPhone icon in the Photo Stream beta software had some new dimensions including a more edge to edge screen and an elongated button, which coincidentally matched the earlier rumors.  One obviously possibility is that this device is a larger-screened iPhone 5.  However, we’ve received word that of the two new iPhones coming out from Apple, this device might actually be the smaller, cheaper iPhone that is set for release at the same time.

One was called the “upgraded one, the iPhone 5” and the other, “a new smaller one”.

To that end, we’ve got a mock up of what something like that would look like using current iPhone sizes, and the dimensions offered up by the icon (above) if it is a smaller device.  If it is the bigger device, or at least bigger-screened device, It could look like the below:

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This would be a nearly 4+ inch screen, nearly the size of the Galaxy S line.
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Apple’s latest Photo Stream beta has an interesting icon that seems to look like the rumored iPhone 5s with extended screen and elongated home button (we count 4 pixels by 2 pixels – close up below the fold and actual icon, right).  What do you think?  Coincidence?  (Thanks Steve and Olivier!)

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We initially detailled what developers were calling an ‘iPhone 4S’ way back in April. It was essentially an iPhone 4 with an upgraded processor. Then an iPhone that was supposed to be running on T-Mobile USA’s 3G network turned up shortly thereafter with an interesting antenna design.

Today, iPatchiPods.com and MacRumors stumbled upon some of what they think might be ‘iPhone 4S’ bodies. Both sides of the frame are shown above and feature a slightly different antenna design than the iPhone 4 with the only breaks being at the bottom of the phone.

Interestingly, the frame also deviates from the iPhone 4 in where the home button lies (below), leaving them to speculate that there might not be a home button, there could be a capacitative home button or some sort of other redesign.

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Kodawarisan claims that Apple’s annual fall event will be held on Wednesday, September 7th (8th in Japanese time zone -via MacRumors). Apple will likely use this event (whenever it falls) to detail the final versions of iCloud and iOS 5, in addition to announce the next-generation iPhone (or iPhones) and iPods.

Word on the street is that iPhones won’t be in customers’ hands until early October, however.

Rumors of an iPad 3 or iPad HD have also been floating around but are far less likely.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhowtIJQS8&hd=1]

This is that clone that is supposedly based on the real iPhone 5.  It is interesting how far the cloning business has come…at least in China.

BTW, built-in stylus FTW!

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MacRumors posts some “iPhone 5 renderings” they commissioned from CiccareseDesign to create high quality drawings made as closely as possible to the original leaked case designs we’ve posted on a few..different..occasions.

The final dimensions of the new design are calculated to be: 4.33″ x 2.36″ and .27″ thickness at the top and .21″ at the bottom In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are: 4.5″ x 2.31″ x .37″. So the new design is actually shorter than the existing iPhone 4, but slightly wider and thinner.

They do bear a striking resemblance to the ones the Verge posted in April:

Full Gallery below:

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Update: The date in the file has moved a day forward.

We know you are just rooting through iOS Beta 5 now, but we’re think we’ve cracked the OTA update date code.

Apple plans to release their next developer seed of iOS 5, Beta 6, on Thursday, August 18th according to some codes a few developers sent our way. The sources, who provided us with the exact date and time of today’s iOS 5 beta 5 release (which we were skeptical of – because it was a Saturday), warns that because we are still days away from the planned release, the seeding can be delayed due to bugs or other reasons out of our control.

Anyway, you might want to block out your calendar for Thursday evening.

Thanks, Yarin, Andre and  A!

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There is a standalone of iOS 5 beta 5 build 9A5288d as well as a new delta update available via OTA which weighs in at 128mb.  Xcode and iTunes also received updates today as well.  Interestingly, to do the OTA, Apple says you’ll need to do a hard reset (though we’re hearing that is optional)

To install iOS 5 beta 5 using over the air software update, you must first erase all content and settings on your device by choosing Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Over the air software update can be initiated on devices running iOS 5 beta 3 and later by choosing Settings > General > Software Update.

Monster release notes and changes, below:
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