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Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 6, 2011

iPhone 5G

We have received several reports that Apple is strengthening ties with the company Nuance to develop voice recognition software. It is hoped that this will allow them to match and hopefully supersede such capabilities as exist on Google's Android iphone 5g.

Existing voice recognition software on iOS has been in the past provided by Microsoft, however as it developed an inferior reputation to Google's Android's abilities it seems that this development is an attempt by Apple to strengthen its place as industry leader in the phone market.

Competition between Apple and Google has become increasingly fierce over the past couple of years; with Apple adding Microsoft Bing support and it's own 'Google Maps' clone, it has increasingly come to see Google as it's prime competitor rather than partner.

It is in this context that this move must be seen and it's likely that rather than any strategic disagreement between Apple and Microsoft, Apples move towards Nuance is simply due to them being able to design better software.

Rumors on the internet are also declaring that Apples massive data center in North Carolina is already utilizing Nuance voice recognition technology and that this integration occurred in defiance of Microsoft demands that their software be better integrated into iOS5.

Running Nuance software in Apples data center is beneficial for numerous reasons, firstly it allows them to build upon the software as they see fit, without having to run it through third party servers first. It would also allow them to process data much faster, compared to having to send data to Nuance servers and then wait for it to come back again.

So why did Apple decide to partner with Nuance? The answer to this is is to do with who owns the patents that underlay voice recognition technology, the vast majority of them belonging to Nuance and Google. Given the fact that almost all the worlds voice recognition experts work for these two companies, Apple didn't really have a choice in going with Nuance if they were to develop new and Google beating software.

What this all means for Apple fans anticipating the WWDC coming up this summer is that the Apple/Nuance partnership is likely to play a big role in Apples new cloud initiative which is set to be a huge part of iOS5. Whether prospective developers will get any further insight to this at the WWDC is as of yet to be known.

Here's more on the iPhone 5g

September iPhone 5 release date: odds of 4G, redesign, white, colors

Don't expect the iPhone 5 to see a release date prior to September, as the recent arrival of the white iPhone 4 means Apple doesn't expect to have a new iPhone generation ready to go quite as soon as this summer. But the longer the iPhone 5 takes to arrive, the better the odds of certain features coming along for the ride. Here are the odds of various iPhone 5 potential features making the cut if September 2011 indeed ends up being the official release date.

4G: This is tricky because the two current iPhone carriers, Verizon and AT&T, both barely have any 4G rollout to speak of. For Apple to add 4G networking hardware to the iPhone 5, it would have to be confident that one or both carriers will have far more 4G LTE in place by the end of the iPhone 5 era than at the beginning of it. The odds of Apple including it are reasonable, but not great.

Redesign: Here's where the odds get better. Apple has used the current iPhone 4 body styling three times: first with the original iPhone 4, then with the Verizon iPhone 4, and now with the white iPhone 4. Sure, it's all been less than a year in the making. But Apple has used the styling one too many times (arguably two too many times) to be using it yet again, particularly at a time when many or most are expecting a full revamp for the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 white : The iPhone 4 will stick around as the bargain bin model in the iPhone 5 era. The fact that Apple has released a white iPhone 5 at all means that both the black and white iPhone 4 models are likely to stick around in the iPhone 5 era. And while Apple could blow up the blueprint with an exposed brushed metal iPhone 5 design or some such, it's difficult to picture there being a white iPhone 4 but not a white iPhone 5. So the odds are strong, to say the least, that there will be a white iPhone 5.

Colors: The more colors Apple adds to the iPhone lineup, the more retail SKUs there are to deal with and the more inventory snafus (witness the current eighteen iPad 2 models, and that's for just two colors). But if the iPhone 5g is indeed to be a hybrid device which works on both carriers, that would mean a mere four SKUs total: 16 and 32 GB models in a choice of black or white. That would give Apple room to add colors to the mix, as a way to differentiate the iPhone5 both from the cheaper iPhone 4 and from competitors who have over-fixated on the color white. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

Apple: iPad 2 launching in 13 more countries

Apple today confirmed that iPad 2 will launch in thirteen more countries in the coming days and weeks. China will get WiFi iPad 2 beginning Friday, May 6. The device will go on sale in Japan on Thursday, April 28, 2011 and in eleven additional countries on Friday, April 29, 2011: Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and UAE.
iPad 2 will be available at Apple retail stores at 9am local time, Apple said, in addition to select Apple Authorized Resellers. Online sales via the online Apple Store will begin at 1am. Further international availability will be announced at a later date, Apple said. Suggested retail prices in the additional thirteen countries are the same as US price points for WiFi and 3G iPad 2 variants.

iPhone 5 era sees AT&T in pole, Verizon close, T-Mobile hanging

The race to dominate the iPhone 5 era is already underway in earnest despite the fact that the iPhone 5 has yet to gain a release date or a single official feature. Whether it be longtime hanger-on AT&T, shiny new partner Verizon, existence-pending T-Mobile, or even outsider Sprint, the carriers are already jockeying for position to see who's going to be in the pole when it comes time for Apple to launch the iPhone 5 this year. As of today, here are the prospects for the four major U.S. carriers in terms of the position they'll be in at the time the iPhone 5 is ready to reach your hands.

AT&T in pole position: This of course has little to do with who offers the best network or service. At the time the iPhone 5 launches it'll assuredly be available on both AT&T and Verizon. But AT&T has tens of millions of iPhone users already locked into contracts who would have to pay a financial penalty in order to switch to Verizon for their iPhone 5. Some will, but most won't. It's a temporary hold (and a different landscape altogether by the iPhone 6 era), but consider the iPhone 5 release to be AT&T's last hurrah from a position of pure leverage.

Verizon closing in: Verizon is generally perceived to have a superior network to AT&T. But part of Verizon's iPhone 5 problem is that with so many Verizon customers opting for the just-launched Verizon iPhone 4 now, relatively few of them will turn around and replace it with a Verizon iPhone 5. So Verizon is counting on its existing customers switching over from phones like Android or BlackBerry, as well as AT&T defectors – but again, the latter is still an expensive proposition until those two-year contracts begin expiring. Still, the iPhone 5 will bring Verizon closer to parity on the iPhone front than it is currently.

T-Mobile in the balance: Now that T-Mobile is about to become part of AT&T, questions abound as to whether this means T-Mobile will automatically get the iPhone 5 at launch or whether the two will still be sufficiently separate carriers by then such that T-Mobile would need to make a separate deal with Apple. And if it's the latter, would doing so make sense with T-Mobile about to eventually become part of AT&T anyway?

Sprint on the backstretch: On the one hand, Sprint is about to become both the smallest U.S. carrier and the only one without the iPhone – not an ideal combination. But whether that'll motivate Sprint to push Apple for an iPhone 5 deal could depend on Apple's willingness to embrace Sprint's 4G network, which is a core part of the carrier's marketing efforts.

Here's more on the iPhone5.

iPhone 5 News Blog: Revolutionary New PaperPhone Reveals A Flexible Future For Smartphones And Tablets

While the iPhone 5 News Blog is committed to reporting on iPhone news, rumor, and opinion, we also keep an eye on next-generation communication concepts that could someday put technology like the iPhone to rest. Read lead columnist Charles Moore's fascinating exposé on a new smartphone design that could put the iPhone 5 to shame — the PaperPhone!

The iPhone has been a game-changing device. just ask Apple's competitors like Research In Motion (RIM) and Nokia. And iPhones to come like the iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and beyond will be cooler yet. However, a Canadian university scientist and inventor says the thin film phone he and his team have developed will make current smartphones like the iPhone obsolete in 5 to 10 years.

The world's first interactive paper computer is set to revolutionize the world of interactive computing, according to its creator Dr. Roel Vertegaal, director of the Queen's University Human Media Lab at Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and incidentally a current iPhone user.

could the paperphone replace the iPhone 5

Could this be the smartphone that puts the iPhone5 to shame?

"This is the future," says Dr. Vertegaal, "Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years. This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen."

I can hardly wait.

Notwithstanding the many virtues of devices like the iPhone, iPad, other tablet computers, as well as dedicated e-readers like Amazon.com's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook, in my estimation a major deficiency they all share as platforms for comfortable, relaxed reading is tactile — that rigid form factor with a plastic or metal feel. Consequently, I much prefer traditional ink-on-paper newspapers, magazines and books to e-books and other e-publishing formats. Especially when reading for pleasure. I still subscribe to a hard-copy daily newspaper, and the ink-on-paper versions of five magazines. They're more expensive than their corresponding e-editions, but I just prefer the friendly, flexible feel and heft of them.

It's partly generational I suppose. I was 40 by the time I got my first computer, and I didn't grow up reading off electronic screens. Heck, our family didn't even get its first black & white television, with reception on a whopping two broadcast channels until I was 10. Don't get me wrong. I love digital devices as powerful creative tools, communication platforms, and information access, storage.and retrieval media, and I'm Internet-addicted, but for me the paradigmatic reading experience involves print on paper.

However, Dr. Vertegaal's smartphone prototype, called PaperPhone, can be aptly described as a flexible iPhone. It does everything a smartphone does, such as store books, play music or even make phone calls. But instead of a rigid glass or plastic its display consists of a 9.5 cm diagonal thin-film flexible E-Ink display. The flexible form of the display makes it much more portable that any current mobile computer: it will shape with your pocket. It's also much more durable than any current mobile phone, a point illustrated convincingly in a demonstration video in which a PaperPhone screen is shown being beaten on vigorously with a mallet without as much as an image flicker. It still feels like plastic of course, but in this context flexible plastic beats the whiz out of rigid plastic in terms of comfortable feel. The potential for it supporting user input via a standard pen as cited by Dr. Vertegaal would just be icing on the proverbial cake.

Stylin'!

Being able to store and interact with documents on larger versions of these light, flexible computers would also be a major step toward realization of the long-predicted but thus far elusive paperless office by lessening the need for paper and printers even further.

"The paperless office is here. Everything can be stored digitally and you can place these computers on top of each other just like a stack of paper, or throw them around the desk" enthuses Dr. Vertegaal, who notes that besides revolutionizing the world of mobile smartphones, this invention heralds a new generation of computers that are super lightweight, thin-film in form factor, comfortably flexible, and that use no power when nobody is interacting with them, and when you are, it doesn't feel like you're holding a slab of glass or metal.

The only downside is that you'll likely have to wait at least five hears for this next wave of potentially disruptive technology to reach consumer hands. At least by that time the iPhone 5 should have arrived!

Dr. Vertegaal will unveil his paper computer to his scientific peers on May 10 at 2 pm at the Association of Computing Machinery's CHI 2011 (Computer Human Interaction) conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, — the field's premier international event. An article on a study of interactive use of bending with flexible thinfilm computers is to be published at this conference, where the development group is also demonstrating a thinfilm wristband computer called "Snaplet."

Just like the iPhone, PaperPhone has a dynamic touch screen

The PaperPhone development team also includes researchers Byron Lahey and Win Burleson of the Motivational Environments Research Group at Arizona State University (ASU), Audrey Girouard and Aneesh Tarun from the Human Media Lab at Queen's University, Jann Kaminski and Nick Colaneri, director of ASU's Flexible Display Center, and Seth Bishop and Michael McCreary, the VP R&D of E Ink Corporation.

iPhone 5 rumors: relocated flash, Sprint & T-mobile compatibility

The latest rumors about Apple's next-generation iPhone suggest that Apple might move the location of the LED flash for improved indoor and nighttime photos. A unified baseband processor could also mean Sprint and T-mobile users could get official iPhone support. We took a look at the thin evidence supporting these claims, coming away hopeful but not entirely convinced.

The number one source for random Chinese-made iPhone cases, Alibaba.com, has a new product claiming to be a "crystal case" for an "iPhone 5g." The case appears to use a photochop of an iPhone with a 4″ screen, though what we know about iOS development leads us to believe the next iPhone won't have a larger screen. However, the rear of the case shows the rear-facing camera on the left in its usual position, and the LED flash moved far to the right.

Most camera-equipped mobile devices have the LED flash attached to the camera module, and so it is always located right next to the camera lens. This arrangement, while convenient for manufacturing, often results in less-than-optimal image results. Light can leak into the lens, causing flare and interfering with auto-exposure. The close proximity to the lens axis also causes red eye and flat, unflattering lighting. This is the reason that compact cameras orient the flash to a far corner of the device, and why SLR users use brackets, tilting flash heads, and other light modifiers—to keep the flash as far from the lens as possible.

It was rumored that part of the reason behind the embarrassingly long delay of the white iPhone 4 was due to issues with the flash and camera not working well with the white casing. The camera module supposedly had to be redesigned for the white iPhone 4, so it certainly seems plausible that Apple might move the flash further away from the camera lens. Besides reducing flare and possible autoexposure problems, it would also have the benefit of reducing red eye.

It's important to remember, though, that Chinese-made case manufacturers often produce designs based on leaked information in order to try and get a jump on competitors. Such early designs have often been wrong about certain details, so they're not exactly a reliable barometer.

Asian website Apple.pro offers an image of alleged iPhone 5 camera modules that lack an integrated LED as further evidence that Apple plans to move the flash away from the camera module. We've outlined why it would be a good idea for Apple to consider such a design change, but the image of the iPhone parts released by Apple.pro is far from definitive proof.

Alleged camera parts for the iPhone 5 compared to those used in the iPhone 4.

Apple.pro

Previous rumors have suggested that Apple is moving to an 8 megapixel sensor, possibly from long-time supplier OmniVision, or possibly a new design by Sony. But the purported rear-facing camera module in the image looks just like the fixed-focus, low-resolution front-facing camera modules. Whether Apple bumps the next iPhone to 8MP or sticks with 5MP, any such rear-facing camera module is going to be much larger than the part pictured. While we think relocating the LED flash could provide some improvements to iPhone camera's low-light results, the evidence offered so far isn't conclusive.

Whatever Apple does with the iPhone's 5 camera, though, analysts seem to be increasingly convinced the device will be compatible with all major US carriers when it is released in September. Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek believes, according to his latest research note, that Apple will move the next-gen iPhone to its dual-core A5 processor and, as we speculated earlier this year, the external design will be largely the same. However, major design work will largely be focused on the iPhone's cell radios.

Misek doesn't believe Apple is ready to include support for LTE 4G technology—next-generation chips may not be available in sufficient quantities in time, and LTE networks aren't yet ubiquitous. However, Misek expects Apple will leverage the full capability of the Qualcomm baseband used in the CDMA iPhone 4 to create a device that can work with both CDMA and GSM networks, including HSPA+ networks like those operated by AT&T and T-mobile. This will enable Apple to offer the iPhone5 via new carriers, including Sprint, T-mobile, and China Mobile, Misek said in his note.

We've said in the past that it makes business sense for Apple to build in support for both CDMA and GSM-type networks into the iPhone, and Qualcomm's baseband chips make that possible. Still, financial analysts are rarely the harbingers of accurate information on Apple's future plans, so consider us optimistic if not entirely convinced.

iPhone 5 release date obliterated as factory burns, iPad 2 up in smoke

Whatever chance the iPhone 5 had of seeing a release date in June on the heels of the white iPhone 4, those odds just went up in smoke – literally – in an unfortunate explosion and fire at the factory where Apple has its iOS devices manufactured. As a result, iPad 2 inventory is expected to once again fall behind demand after Apple initially struggled to keep up after the March launch and had just recently caught up to the point where an iPad 2 review would ship to a customer a week or two after it was ordered. But while the exact impact on iPad 2 availability remains to be seen, this should put to bed the pipe dream that saw Apple somehow introducing the iPhone5 a mere six weeks after first shipping the white iPhone 4. The lack of any reports about iPhone 5 manufacturing being underway at such facilities (this kind of news always leaks) already made it clear that Apple wasn't about to attempt the PR-suicide stunt of ending the iPhone 4 era a month and a half after it launched a new iPhone 4 model. But even if Apple were planning to secretly launch the iPhone 5g in June, those plans would certainly have to be scuttled after the factory damage.If nothing else, those who've been holding out hope a soon-arriving iPhone 5 will now be able to erase any doubt and weigh their actual options: buy an iPhone 4 now or wait for awhile longer before Apple announces what comes next. The cautious among us will likely still opt to wait another two weeks to see what Apple does with its early June WWDC Keynote. But even if there were a surprise iPhone 5 4G or even iPhone 4S (whatever the heck that's supposed to be) planned for June 6th, Apple wouldn't be able to ramp up from zero inventory at this point in time for such a launch; it'll have a difficult enough time maintaing inventory levels of the already-shipping iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Our revised advice: if you've been meaning to pick up an iPad 2 but haven't gotten around to it yet, hurry before they suddenly get harder to find for awhile. And our iPhone buying advice hasn't changed: the arrival of the white iPhone 4 made it clear that the iPhone 5 won't come until late summer or fall, and while either option is defensible, it's difficult to ask someone to wait for a phone whose release isn't known beyond the fact that it isn't soon, and whose features are at this point still a blank slate. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.