All Articles Tagged rumor

Yup. Just when ya thought it was safe to read the interwebs again, Gizmodo (via BGR) brings word that — you guessed it! — Flash is coming to the iPhone!

“You heard it here first, people! The latest version of the iPhone 2.0 firmware that was just seeded to developers has a YouTube plugin for MobileSafari.app”

Well, forgive me if I go looking for my iHulk Smash Puny Rumor graphic like immediately, b’okay?

No sooner did our own Chad Garette lay out the case for .Mac syncing via the iPhone, then iPhone Alley, (via TUAW), brings word that El Jobso might be doing just that:

In the just released SDK beta 2, iPhone Alley found a string within a preference bundle that reads: “Syncing with this Dot Mac account will turn off syncing for other Dot Mac accounts and delete any existing synced data.” This suggests the possibility of wireless syncing for non-Exchange users.

This would be awesome additional functionality for both the iPhone and for .Mac. 2.0 really can’t come fast enough.

And note to Chad: How about an article on why the iPhone really needs immediate release in Canada? Please?

“Phone different, real posts no gimmicks”

[With apologies to Eminem and - ahem - our readers.]

Rumor’s back. Back again. iPhone packed. Tell your friends.
From VP. Close to APPL. Kevin tweets. He’s top lvl.
3G soon. GPS spin. Here by June. FTW!
Kevin’s back. Back again. {interweb hums}

For those of you who aren’t up on either your Eminem or your Twitter, the story here is Kevin Rose posted up another teaser, this time on Twitter, that he has the inside line on the 3G iPhone with the above specs. He’s playing with us, right?

Right?

Ken Dulaney, a Gartner analyst has divulged to the iPod Observer that Apple may have already placed an order for 10 million 3G iPhones. Mr. Dulaney is aware of this based on the rumors he his following in Asia.

Mr. Delany also goes on to speculate that the 3G iPhone will also use organic LED’s allowing the device to be thinner and have a lower consumption. This comes just days off of Kevin Rose’s declaration that the 3G iPhone will have a built-in forward facing camera, possibly for video chatting via an iChat like client.

Will we see a new iPhone in a “few months”? My bet is the announcement will have to be at the WWDC this June.

People don’t want to rent their music. So said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Of course, the Jobsinator also said people don’t want to watch video on tiny iPod screens, and we see how far that got him…

So, while 100% unsubstantiated rumor at the moment, The Financial Times (via Apple Insider) is reporting a “tip off” that says Apple is now considering an unlimited music program similar to Nokia’s “Comes With Music”.

Under the terms of that plan, manufacturers would pay the recording industry a per-device fee (passed on to the consumer, ‘natch) that would allow for “unlimited” music over the course of a year. When the year’s up, consumers could either renew the subscription themselves or let it lapse and keep “50-60″ songs they’ve already downloaded.

What the cost(s) will be (guesses range from $5 a month to $100 per device), what kind of DRM (digital rights management) will be in place, what quality compression (128-bit like standard iTunes or higher 256-bit like iTunes+ and Amazon MP3) will be used, and basically every and all other details remain to be announced.

It is noted that, because of it’s existing cell phone billing arrangement, a more traditional monthly subscription model may also be made available exclusively for the iPhone.

The parties (Apple and the music industry) are reportedly still far apart when it comes to terms, but revenue streams makes for strange bedfellows (hi, AT&T!) so we’ll have to wait for another Special Music Event (starring Paul McCartney, of course) to know for sure.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind a subscription service. If the music industry had any sense (please, hold your laughter ’til the end…), they would provide radio-like free streams of low bit-rate music with an easy “buy now” button for higher quality. It would allow people to discover music again, just like the iTunes/Starbucks initiative, and give the rapidly dehydrating recording industry their own little sip of water…

What do you think? Buy or die? Rent over spend? How do you want your iPhone music?

Again with the Apple Insider analyst tea-leaf reading, we get word from Shaw Wu of American Technology Research that Steve Jobs will spend some time during Thursday’s iPhone SDK Event announcing enhanced support for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus corporate email “solutions” (having worked in IT, I’m entitled to add the quotes.)

Wu believes it “more likely” that iPhone’s corporate support will come as a result of internal development rather than licensing technologies like Microsoft’s ActiveSync and/or RIM’s Blackberry Connect, but only time and El Jobso will tell for sure.

Given that Apple pre-announced “enterprise” for the event, and their past job listing (no longer online) for a “motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills,” this could be a very safe bet.

Either way, it looks like crackberry addicts and active exchangers alike may soon have iPhone pushers joining them in desperate need of instant email fixes. (Which, of course, is seen as very necessary to increasing the iPhone’s penetration of corporate accounts.)

Above: a big yawner, courtesy of twob

It happens every year lately – a day or two before the big Keynote, some tiny site¹ claims to have the outline of what Steve Jobs will announce. The supposed goods on the iPhone: 16gb at $499 (really going on a limb there), arrival in Japan in March, and the unveiling of the SDK. A full unveiling, actually, with lots of details.

All of which are pretty safe bets.

After the jump: the full supposed outline. Give it credit for being realistic — heck, give it credit for being boring. But do not, we hope, give it credit for beingreal.

¹ Yes, we are a tiny site as well and we know you thought it earlier. Be Nice.

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An employee of Asus — the company that builds many of Apple’s laptops — told CNET that they are making a tablet PC from Apple. It’s apparently a brand new tablet design, not one that Asus has used before. The device could be introduced as early as January, at Mac World Expo 2008. Crave at CNET surmises that the tablet will take many OS cues from the iPhone, incorporating finger flicking, cover flow, and other gesture-based movements.

Apple generally doesn’t enter a market unless nowadays unless they can clean house — there’s no real market leader in tablets, maybe some pent-up demand for them, but no single tablet model that ‘rules the roost.’ If Apple can make that device, and make it compelling, I could be aboard with that. The idea of replacing my laptop with a tablet and maybe a bluetooth keyboard, I could get along with that.

Engadget reports that a deep red version of the iPhone is in the works. The report lists a 4GB version available in deep red, but I’ll believe a deep red 4GB iPhone when I see it. The best reason that Apple would make a red iPhone is to be part of the PRODUCT (RED) charity for AIDS in Africa, which Apple has done with iPods for quite a while now.

There are some reports that some folks are finding that the 1.1.1 firmware update for the iPhone has been pulled from Apple, and that the most recent version of iTunes is now reporting 1.0.2 as the most recent version. And if they haven’t, maybe they should.

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