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.

Screw iPhone 5 rumors, the nano may be getting games

iPod nano rumors seem to be heating up this week. It started with a "leaked" nano case that shows off a rear-facing camera. Now, a patent has surfaced that shows the iPod nano not only gaining a camera, but also motion sensors and games.

Yup, you read that right.Video games on your nano. It wouldn't be the first time that Apple managed to sneak games onto an iPod with a small screen. The original iPod shipped with a hidden edition of Brick, a game originally developed by Steve Wozniak. Down the road Apple also added Parachute, Solitaire, and Music Quiz. Then it was officially game on time. Apple announced in September 2006 that games would be coming to the iTunes store and would include 9 other games for the iPod, including Bejewled. Again, it should be noted that these games did not require iOS and shipped long before both iPod touch and iPhone.

 

It seems that Apple's at least thinking about bringing games of this variety back to the iPod nano. Not every patent filed by Apple comes to fruition, so there's also a chance that this doesn't happen at all. That being said, there are a couple of things I wouldn't mind seeing in a new updated iPod nano.

1. FaceTime. The ability to take FaceTime calls from my iWatch would fantastic.
2. iOS notifications. James Gifford brought this one up in the comments a couple of days ago. The more I think of it, the more I think he's on to something. Imagine getting your iOS notifications to your iWatch? Missed calls, appointment reminders, and text messages would be fantastic on my wrist. FANTASTIC.

iPhone 5 To Get Curved Display Glass And LTE 4G In 2012?

Read Charles Moore's new reflection on rumors that the iPhone 5 will feature a curved glass display and the coveted 4G in 2012.

I'm seriously dating myself by revealing that I remember well Volkswagen's introduction of the new Super Beetle model in 1971 with a curved, mildly wraparound windshield. All VW Beetles previously had had completely flat windshield glass, so the curvature was considered highly revolutionary.

I took a new Super Beetle belonging to a friend for a test drive and recall noticing how much better it rode and handled with its completely different suspension system, and the gracefully curved windscreen did much to eliminate the impression of viewing the world through a letterbox slot. The Super Beetle is my favorite VW Beetle of all time (I'll take a Cabriolet Champagne Edition by preference, thanks), the most recent example I've driven being a hotrod built by my daughter and her friend as a bare chassis up project, with a twin-Weber carburated Porsche engine and Porsche alloy wheels, as well as a rock hard suspension that makes it handle and corner like a go-kart — at least on smooth roads. It's seriously demanding to drive, but one seriously hot Beetle.

Curved glass: cool on the old VW Beetle — how about the iPhone 5?

Anyway, I thought of the curved-windshield VW announcement of 40 years ago when I read a DigiTimes report by Yenting Chen and Steve Shen noting that the latest scuttlebutt being circulated around the OEM componentry supply chain in Taiwan is that Apple is fixing to adopt a curved cover glass for the iPhone5 according to DigiTimes customary unnamed industry sources.

However, Chen and Shen report that cover glass makers are reluctant to invest in the necessary glass cutting equipment due to high capital cost, so, Apple itself has reportedly purchased 200-300 glass cutting machines to be used by glass makers, or so the sources affirm, currently storing them at associated assembly plants to be brought into production service once yield rates for curved glass reaches a satisfactory level, and further that there's still been no timetable set for iPhone 5g volume production, at least in part because Apple is currently still working out logistics issues with suppliers including ones involved in cover glass, glass cutting, lamination and touch sensors to improve yield rates.

So why would Apple want a curved iPhone display? Unlike the Super Beetle windscreen of yore, a curved iPhone screen would seem to not offer any obvious advantages, and actually seems sort of like a step backward, since the curved

Curved design concepts like this one from HTC can make for more ergonomic phone calls — but is it a good idea for a touch screen?

screen glass of CRT computer monitors long since gave way to flat plane displays almost universally acclaimed to be an improvement. One rumor I heard suggested it might have something to do with 3D, working like some sort of lens.

And while we're at it, DigiTimes' Amanda Liang and Adam Hwang have posted a new report sayingthat China Mobile, China's largest mobile telecom carrier, has reached an agreement with Apple for China Mobile to develop an iPhone model based on TD-LTE which to be offered in 2012, citing comments by China Mobile chairman Wang Jian-zhou at the company's 2011 shareholders meeting on May 19, according to a report in the Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily.

In an earlier report, Digitimes' Irene Chen and Steve Shen noted that Apple is unlikely to launch LTE-enabled iPhone 4S smartphones in 2011 as originally planned due to problems concerning yield rates of LTE chips offered by Qualcomm.

Many thanks to all of the folks yesterday who sent in links to stories about this rumored new feature for the iPhone 5! iPhone 5′ers are the best at keeping up on all things iPhone!

What do you think the purpose of a curved screen might be on the iPhone 5? Cool looks? Ergonomics? And how would it affect gesture control on the touch screen? Let us know what you think!

Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

iPhone 5 Will Feature Voice Recognition With iOS 5 Update

A new report suggests that Apple has further established its relationship with Nuance; a speech recognition company that will supply the software for iOS 5 (the operating system we'll see featured on the iPhone 5).Its been speculated for quite some time that Apple was expected to enhance the iPhone's speech recognition capabilities, especially since Google has been clearly taking the lead with its own speech recognition which they boasted at a conference back in 2010.

However, Apple is now right in the speech recognition game and is expected to feature speech recognition software that will be in the form of a personal assistant thanks to it's acquisition of Siri (the name of the software owned by Nuance) last year.

There was some speculation surrounding whether Apple would integrate the voice software on time for their public announcement of iOS 5 this June, but everything seems to be right on track.

Most people presumed that the fifth generation operating system of much anticipated iPhone5 will highlight some key features like speech recognition software alongside some other key features; but with that being the biggest attraction (based on what we know so far at least).

According to the same report, an "anonymous tipster" had reported that people over at Microsoft were pushing Apple to adopt their voice recognition software and were quite disappointed when they were informed of Apple's acquisition of the company.

The report goes on to say that Apple and Nuance had been in "months and months of intense negotiations" as Apple wanted to be ensured the ability to build on the technology in which they own quite a few patents on.

Check out this video and you'll see exactly why Apple decided to acquire Nuance; it's really quite clear

iPhone 5 benefits from mystery appearance, unlike iP4

Mystery appearance for the win. When the iPhone 5 debuts, it'll be the first iPhone to surface since 2008 whose appearance won't already be known to the world. Last year the iPhone 4 was released after its prototype had already been exposed by those who found it in a bar. And the year before, the iPhone 3GS turned out to have a physically identical external design to the previous iPhone 3G. That gives Apple the potential for shock value in 2011 which is hasn't had for generations when it comes to its flagship smartphone product. Things could still go wrong. An iPhone5 prototype could once again become lost and found, though such a fiasco happening twice in a row seems unlikely. Or Apple could fail to produce an all-new iPhone 5 and be forced to punt with an "iPhone 4 part two" after all (which would be more like an "iPhone 4 part four" after the release of the original iPhone 4, the Verizon iPhone 4, and the white iPhone 4 in the interim). But assuming Apple manages to dodge both of those unfortunate pitfalls, the iPhone 5 will take the world by surprise when it's unveiled – and that'll count for more than it logically should.What's in a new design? A lot, actually. Consider how much the white iPhone 4 has boosted overall iPhone 4 sales by, despite the fact that it offers literally nothing more than a color change and the fact that it comes so close to the end of the iPhone 4 era. Then again, Apple could do as much harm as good if a redesigned iPhone 5 ends up being not to the public's stylistic liking. Most folks don't talk about it now, but the dirty little secret of the iPhone 4 era is that when that supposed prototype did surface back in 2010, many said it had to be a fake because it was too ugly, too boxy, to un-Apple-like to be a real Apple product. Then later Apple debuted the iPhone 4 and it looked identical to the "ugly boxy" prototype, and yet few called it out for being just that, despite having harshly judged it as such before learning that it really was an Apple design. So with Apple having spent the past year peddling an iPhone 4 design which not only was known about long prior to its launch but was also pre-judged to have been on the unattractive side, Apple has the potential to pull a double whammy with the iPhone 5g: it can shake things up by delivering any new-looking model at all, and shake them up even further by delivering something that's not as unattractive as the model it replaces. All Apple really has to do, seemingly, is to revert back to the curvaceous styling of the iPhone 3G/3GS era, which was widely liked, but of course updated so as to feel like a 2011 product and not a 2009 one. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

iPhone 5 Features

Dear Apple please be upstanding while we take you through a few pointers of the top 5 most wanted iPhone 5 features that will make us applaud you.

There are so many new features customers would love to have on the next generation Apple smartphone and if the iPhone 5 expected to release in September incorporated any of the ones we mention below then happy days all round as they say.

iDB have given a few features and we have a few more, 1080p video capture would be a fantastic addition if Apple could give users this on the new iPhone 5 because seeing 1080p streaming to the Apple TV would be amazing.

Many have the GSM iPhone 4 and Verizon has the CDMA version so it makes sense to give all a world phone, basically the new iPhone 5g should have both GSM and CDMA capabilities. The third feature has to be a 720p front-facing camera, which would be perfect for FaceTime as the video call would be of superior quality.

Number four has to be a brand new design, please get rid of the glass back and bring us the old aluminium back cover or push the boat out and make it carbon fibre.

The Apple Mac Pro and Mac Airs feature the Thunderbolt port so surely the new upcoming iPhone 5 should have the same port. So far that is the top 5 most wanted iPhone 5 features 2011, if you have any more features you would like the iPhone5 to have please let us know.

Pushing The Boat Out (More Features): Edge-to-Edge display, 3D cameras, 4G technology, Smaller SIM cards, better battery life, 8-megapixel camera or better, Speech to Text Conversion

Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

Moved Camera Flash Another "Fix" For the iPhone 5, or a 3D Camera?

Thanks to a purported leak of an iPhone 5 case, new rumors of the iPhone5 featuring a repositioned camera flash could be the result of yet another flawed design on the iPhone 4. But could that other cut-out also be for a rumored 3D camera?

iPhone users eager for a sneak peak at the iPhone 5′s form factor have been abuzz3D in conjecture over a recently-discovered iPhone case being offered on the trade site alibaba.com that purports to be for the "iPhone 5G." While the iPhone inside the photo is most definitely a mock-up, the case itself is possibly believed to be the product of a design leak from one of Apple's China-based component manufacturers, giving the tech community a kind of "outline" of what the form factor of the iPhone 5 may end up being.

While many have focused on the sloped shoulders of the purported iPhone 5 case's chassis and seemingly-edge-to-edge screen, new reports are taking notice of a considerable shift in the position of the rear-facing flash. As opposed to the positioning of the iPhone 4′s LED flash — which sits just to the side of the camera sensor — the mysterious iPhone 5 case features a cutout on the other side of the rear face of the design.

If this indeed is an inside peak at what the iPhone 5 features, what would a repositioned camera flash mean? Given some of the issues with the camera flash on the iPhone 4, would this not constitute yet another "fix" on the iPhone 5?

Or, could that circular cutout be for something revolutionary for the iPhone 5, such as a 3D camera?

iPhone 4 Camera Flash Issues: a History

Camera flash issues are nothing new for the iPhone 4. Early on in the release of the iPhone 4 in the Summer of 2010, there were numerous reports of the iPhone 4 taking yellowed photos. Heather Kelly at Macworld did a thorough investigation of the issue way back in July of 2010, most of which was inconclusive, stating: "Hopefully, this isn't a hardware issue involving the camera's lens, and Apple can fix the problem with an update to the iPhone 4′s firmware."

It still remains to be seen what the culprit of the camera flash issues on some iPhone 4s are: while some believed that it was a software issue, others suggested it was a design flaw in the LED flash, or even an effect of shoddy, poorly-designed iPhone 4 cases.

More recently, Apple purportedly had to deal with similar problems with the white iPhone 4′s chassis. Cult of Mac, which predicted the release of the white iPhone 4 perfectly, indicated in a report from October of 2010 that the white plastic was letting too much light into the case, affecting the clarity of photos: "The handset's semi-translucent glass case leaks light in, ruining pictures taken with the internal camera, especially when the built-in flash is used." It was this flaw that caused the delay in the release of the white iPhone 4.

While Apple only made nominal changes to the positioning of camera components to compensate for the white iPhone 4, the iPhone 5 could feature a dramatic repositioning of the camera flash, particularly if it is looking to invest in an 8-megapixel camera and upping the ante on the iPhone being consider a serious picture-taker.

Is that a repositioned camera flash, or another 3D camera sensor?

Of course, if this is the case, it will be yet another "fix" for an iPhone 4 flaw: first the antenna, now the camera flash. As we've commented before, Apple cannot sell fixes like these as "new features," and raise conjecture about the quality of the previous device.

Could Two Cutouts on the Purported iPhone 5 Case Be For a 3D Camera Array?

There is another more exciting possible feature that the two cutouts on the iPhone 5 case could suggest: t a 3D camera array. Rumors of a 3D camera have gained little traction over the past year, with most reports focusing on a relatively nondescript Apple patent, which outlines the schematics for taking 3D photos. Typically, patents such as there are years away from seeing mainstream introduction, but the purported iPhone 5 case design features several elements that conform to the schematics of the 3D camera patent.

Could that cutout be for a second camera sensor with integrated LED flash?

To achieve a 3D image, two offset photos would need to be taken to create a "stereo" image.

All accounts of the Apple 3D camera patent's schematic show the placement of three sensors, whereas the purported iPhone 5 case only accounts for two. But other elements of the patent explain that Apple's approach to achieving 3D would be accomplished not through software alone, but through hardware as well, as Neil Hughes at Apple Insider explains, noting that current 3D software "must 'guess' at how to perform stereo disparity compensation for 3D images. Those guesses, Apple said, can result in images with artifacts in a composed 3D image that would result in a poor quality photo. Apple's method would instead employ a hardware-based approach with a 'deterministic calculation for stereo disparity compensation.'"

The notion of a "stereo" image, together with an example photo from the patent, suggests that perhaps Apple has managed to capture 3D photo-taking technology with just two sensors.

there's no doubt that 3D technology is a hot commodity right now, and even though we've written about how Apple Should Put the Brakes on 3D Photo Technology for the iPhone 5, 3D photo capabilities would be a mind-blowing new feature that would define the iPhone 5 not as a simple refresh, but rather as a next-generation device. It could also make up for the lack of 4G capabilities.

Chances are, 3D technology is still a way's off for the iPhone, and a shady iPhone 5 case design isn't nearly enough to put a 3D camera into the "probable" column for iPhone 5 features. But if that case is real, it's time to start think out of the box for what else it could be.