Phil Schiller dismisses rumors of Apple making a cheap iPhone

We have been hearing rumors of Apple working on a cheaper iPhone, something that is backed by both The Wall Street Journal as well as Bloomberg. But it seems that may not be the case after all.

In an interview with China's Shanghai Evening News, Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing at Apple - Phil Schiller - said that ?Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones [in China], this will never be the future of Apple?s products".

While this comes across as a clear dismissal of the rumors, it won't be the first time when Apple said that they were not going to do something and then basically do that thing later on. Then again, with Apple's strategy of selling previous generation iPhones at a lower cost, one does have to wonder where this 'cheap iPhone' would fit and if it is even necessary.

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Sony, Apple and others receive Red Dot awards for product design

 

The Red Dot awards were handed out and we have several winners in the mobile space. Sony in particular was quite proud of its achievement - it walked away with four awards plus an honorable mention.

The Sony Xperia ion and the Xperia active both got product design awards in the Communication category. The SmartDock for the Xperia ion got an award of its own and Sony's Smart Wireless Headset pro snatched one too. The Sony Xperia ray received an honorable mention.

Sony wasn?t the only winner though, Red Dot handed out quite a few awards to other phones. The HTC Droid Incredible 2 got one, as did the Alcatel OT-916, Lenovo S800, Vodafone 555 Blue and 858 Smart.

Apple also scored two awards, but it was Cupertino's tablet endeavors that impressed the Red Dot jury. The iPad 2 and the smart covers that debuted with it each got a Product Design - Best of the Best 2012.

You can check out Red Dot's site for the other winners - they awarded everything from articulated haulers to toothbrushes.

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Apple extends exclusive deal with Liquidmetal by two years

 

Apple has used liquidmetal sparingly so far - just for the SIM ejector tool for iPhones and iPads - but the company behind the material announced that the exclusive deal between them and Apple has been extended for two more years.

The deal gives Apple exclusive rights to use liquidmetal for consumer electronic products (the material is also used in various sport equipment). The original deal ended on February 5 2012, but it has been extended until February 5, 2014.

With many leaks pointing to a metal back on the upcoming iPhone 5, the extended deal might mean that Apple will be using the tough alloy for the back of its new smartphone. There has been speculation that using the liquidmetal for the SIM ejector tool is a low-risk way to test both the material and the manufacturing process.

Or it could mean they just really like those liquidmetal ejector tools. Just like with the new screen aspect ratio, we won't know for sure until Tim Cook takes the stage and unveils the new iPhone.

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More images of the Apple iPhone 5 surface

Update, June 14: Ok, that dude Martin has talent. We give him that. Not only did he manage to fool us, but these are some of the best photo-realistic fakes we've seen for a while.

Four images of what are reportedly two Phone 5 units just surfaced, showing the new design with aluminum back panel to all of us once again. The pictures also confirm a smaller dock connector, a 3.5 mm headphone jack placed at the bottom, a front-facing camera above the earpiece as well as a different camera and LED flash module.


The possible iPhone 5

The devices go all "the Dark Knight Rises" with an all-round black design, going as deep as the external antenna of the device. Even the Apple logo on the back is colored black.

But here's what we find unusual about this, assumed, iPhone 5. It's running on iOS 5, not iOS 6, which we gather from the Maps icon. The antenna has reflective surface and doesn't look like the steel one used on the iPhone 4S. There doesn't appear to be a secondary microphone at the top either, but it could be the tiny slit between the camera lens and the LED flash.

TomTom licenses its maps data to Apple for iOS6

Yesterday at WWDC 2012 Apple announced their new Maps app, boasting an entirely new look, crowd-sourced traffic info as well as turn-by-turn navigation. The announcement confirmed the rumors that Apple has now officially stopped partnering with Google for the iOS map application.

Instead, Apple is now using content from C3 Technologies, which it recently acquired. And to make the picture complete, the popular manufacturer of navigation systems TomTom just published a press release, stating it has licensed its maps and other content to Apple.

TomTom remains mum on further details, stating that "No further details of the agreement will be provided," but this is hardly surprising considering how secretive Apple likes to be.

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Apple iOS 6 preview: First Look

As expected, Apple used the keynote of its annual WWDC event in San Francisco to announce the latest version of their iOS mobile platform. The sixth major build of the OS aims to bring the user experience to the next level with no less than 200 new features, services and UI tweaks.

The number is certainly huge, but then again so were the expectations of the millions of Apple fans around the globe. The fact that iOS 6 will only go official in three months' time heaps even more pressure on the latest release of the platform. By that point Android will probably have Jelly Bean to chew on, while Windows Phone will have released the multi-core friendly Apollo.

The iOS 6 key features include a Siri upgrade, system-wide Facebook integration and brand new Maps with turn-by-turn voice navigation. There're plenty of lesser new goodies such as achievements in the Game Center, new App store UI and the Music app, improved Safari with full-screen mode, better Mail, etc.

The complete changelog is coming up, but first we'll get the issue of compatibility out of the way. iOS 6 is compatible with the three latest iPhone generations (3GS, 4 and 4S), iPad 2 and 3 and the fourth-gen iPod Touch. The first iPad is not on the list, so if you are still holding on to the original Apple slate, you might finally want to consider an upgrade.

A few other restrictions apply, too: the iPhone 4S has finally lost its Siri exclusivity, but it's only going to share it with the iPad 3. The turn-by-turn navigation and the Flyover mode in Maps can be used only on dual-core iDevices - iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPad 3.

Now let's not waste any more time and get down to testing. We installed the beta release on an iPhone 4S, so all impressions of the OS are based on its performance. If you have an older-gen Apple smartphone your mileage may vary.

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Apple all set to announce iOS 6 tomorrow, but what else?

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is about to start tomorrow and as usual, it's a big industry event - one, which has seen the announcements of new iPhones, new iPods and iOS versions in recent years.
Eye-witness photos of the Moscone West convention center, where the event is held, show the place is being rigged up for tomorrow's event. And the new banners confirm the highlight of the opening Keynote will be iOS 6, the next iteration of the mobile OS.

It's good to know we'll be getting another major release, but bear in mind the final version won't come out before fall. Perhaps we'll see several beta versions come out before that to give us a taste of what's coming. We have a small roundup of the stuff supposed to go in the new release, but there will surely be a lot more.
What's even more interesting is the things that were left out of the banners. Rumors suggest we might see certain developments in the MacBook series - unveiling of a refresh or even a complete discontinuation of the Pro series, making the Air the single MacBook in the lineup. Another expected debutee would be the final version of Mac OS Mountain Lion.
But whatever it is, you can be sure we'll be here covering it for you as it happens, so stay tuned. The event's keynote starts Monday, 6 p.m. London time.
Check out more pictures of the Moscone West convention center - in the link below.
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Apple files new ITC complaint against HTC – alleges HTC’s ‘data tapping’ workaround still infringes on Apple patent

The ’data tapping’ dispute between HTC and Apple is back in play. Back in December, the ITC sided with Apple in its “data tapping” patent infringement complaint against HTC. The patent itself is a “system and method [which] causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data,” which covers how Android interacts with the UI, automatically identifying a phone number, email address or hyperlink and presenting the user with multiple execution options when tapped.

The ITC gave HTC until April 19, 2012 to update the software on its phones before an exclusion order would prevent all infringing devices from being imported in the the United States. After a short holdup and inspection by U.S. Customs, all HTC handsets were cleared and said to be in compliance with the ITC’s ruling.

Unfortunately, Apple was not satisfied with the U.S. Customs stamp of approval and has issued another complaint with the ITC regarding the same ”data tapping” patent. Apple claims that HTC’s software workaround still infringes on Apple’s #5,946,647 patent even though HTC’s tweaks change the way the OS interacts with links, phone numbers and emails by allowing users to select application associations within the phone’s settings. At the time of the ITC’s initial ruling, HTC claimed “the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.”

Apple’s complaint shows images of the functionality within the Gmail application which they claim infringes on its patent. Upon inspection, Apple is showing off Android’s menu which shows up when long-pressing a link which gives users the option to open the link in the browser, share it with another application, or copy the URL – which are present on all modern-day computer operating systems and most likely do not fall under Apple’s #5,946,647 patent.

Do you think Apple’s new complaint against HTC will get any traction from the ITC or will Apple have to resign to the fact that its ”data tapping” patent is trivial and can easily be avoided by HTC and other OEMs.

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