Nobody keeps a secret like AT&T, and by that I mean nobody keeps a secret quite so poorly. Boy Genius Report and other sites are talking up an internal Death Star memo that asks employees to hold down the fort during the June 15 - July 12 window. Vacations should be moved if possible, says management, and no additional vacations are being approved during that period.
Since AT&T pulled a similar Mr. Burns-esque maneuver last year prior to the iPhone launch, it's entirely reasonable to pin this year's lockdown on the arrival of the 3G iPhone after WWDC. It's probably not necessary to stake out your place in line just yet, unless you happen to be an elected official or have an injured knee from a previous iPhone queue. If you were planning an iPhone purchase in the next four weeks, however, this is some of the strongest evidence yet that you really should put your credit card down and think it through.
The folks at iPhon.fr have got what appear to be two photos of iPhone 2.0 in the wild. It's in keeping with the other photo we saw of a black iPhone, though the logo appears grey this time, as opposed to the bright white, and the rear of the case seems less rounded.
The only thing we dislike about this shot is how scratched up the rear of the unit appears to be. My own phone is (I assume) older than this model and not nearly as scratched - and I don't use a case!
Of course, we could be comparing fake photo #1 to fake photo #2 here, so take all of this with a grain of iSalt. We'll all see the real thing soon enough, and we can look back on Photoshop jobs like this and laugh and laugh.
According to the Financial Times, Apple is (still) considering an "all-you-can-eat" subscription model, which is strange, because why would anyone want to eat digital music? They must mean "listen." Yes, as speculated before (in order to figure out what Jobs will be doing in a year, just listen to what he says he won't do now, apparently), Apple might come up with a plan where you would pay either a monthly fee or a lifetime subscription to download music from iTunes presumably straight into your iPod or iPhone.
Supposedly what's holding the deal up isn't the price negotiation between consumers and Apple, it's between Apple and the record companies. Nokia, which is planning a similar deal, is reportedly happy to pay $80 per device to the music companies for the rights, but Apple is only offering $20.
Which makes sense -- Apple is the 800 lb. gorilla in the media device market, and so they have the ability in most cases to pay what they want or not bother. If the two sides do come to a deal, however, even the terms of property are still up in the air. A few ideas being bounced around would let consumers keep a certain number of songs even if they changed devices, while some deals would only allow access while the subscription was active.
What this may mean for us as consumers, at least, would be that Apple is planning to bring the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store to even more devices in the iPod line (or at least expand the capacity of the iPod touch to hold a subscription collection like this). If Apple really is planning to open up their library to a subscription, they should make it as easy as possible to obtain the music on demand.
The Inquirer isn't just counting their chickens before they hatch -- they're counting all the feathers, the chicken feet, and even the eggs of those chickens, too. When we first heard that the slide you see above (reportedly from a CeBit presentation from Intel) apparently meant that Apple was going to put an Intel x86 "Moorestown" processor in the iPhone, we did a double take, and then a triple take (how is the iPhone not the one labeled "Premium Smartphone?"), and then we said, "they're kidding, right?"
But no, apparently they weren't: Apple Insider has jumped on the x86Phone bandwagon as well (granted, they originally jumped in December of last year). It took Apple about ten years to decide to switch its computer line to Intel chips, but if you're willing to believe the reasoning on this one (and personally, I'm not), it's only going to take a tenth of that to decide that the iPhone needs an x86 chip, too.
In a recent BusinessWeek blog post, writer Arik Hesseldahl says he has information from one of his sources that the long awaited iPhone SDK might well be delayed. According to the source, the delay could be anywhere from one to three weeks; with February drawing to a close and no announcement yet of an Apple event, this could very well be true.
The post goes on to say that last minute preparations are being made, and that the SDK release is a complex process (which tracks with our reporting as well). BusinessWeek has generally been respectable when it comes to sussing out Apple rumors (they did, in fact, break the rumor about the iPhone SDK a day before Steve Jobs announced it back in October). However, like with most rumors, there are always a wide variety of opinions.
TUAW has received a tip that the company that does television for Apple's live events and Macworld is apparently hiring for an unannounced Apple event at the end of February. Keep in mind that this is an unconfirmed rumor -- while TUAW trusts our source, job listings are not available on the video company's website, and Apple has not yet announced any events happening this month. But Apple did promise us a year flush with announcements, and starting with the new Mac Pros all the way up to the bigger iPhones and iPod touches last week, they haven't disappointed yet.
This is just a rumor, so don't get too excited yet. But if it is true, and if Apple is holding an event before the end of the month, get ready, baby. We just might be about to see the iPhone SDK.
Switch to a Mac has performed the old Macrumors trick of predicting Apple releases based on when the product was last updated, and according to their research, we're supposed to see new MacBooks and MacBook Pros before the holidays. On average, they're seeing just under 200 days between releases for both, and so they expect updates to the line before the end of November.
If you want my professional opinion (and I'll assume you did because you came here to read it), that's all bunk. I waited months and months while Macrumors' page said "don't buy - updates soon" on the iPod, hoping against hope that I would be able to get an iPod with a touchscreen, and it was just days after I finally broke down and bought a Video iPod that Apple announced the iPhone. I have no doubts that there will be a portable update soon over at Apple (in fact, I know that someone over at our sister site Engadget is waiting until January to buy an iPhone just in case there's a new revision announced soon), but I would say that before the end of November is a little too soon.
Still, if you're planning to buy a new MacBook or Pro and can stand to wait a few weeks, you just might want to. As usual, we guarantee nothing, and personally I doubt it'll happen, but if Switch's reasoning seems sound to you, give it a week or two and just maybe you won't be left out in the cold if Apple launches new MacBooks in early winter.
Thanks, Robert!
Update: Figures. I have to wait months for a new iPod, but when I post my doubts about using the same system to predict a MacBook update, I'm way wrong. And the Pros got updated, too. Good times.
A blue-and-green birdy is tweeting in our ears, this time telling us that iPhones running 1.1.2 firmware have been spotted in the UK during Apple training sessions.
Is this good news or bad news for the hackers? Well, it's hard to tell but clearly if 1.1.2 is already in use, it hasn't been patched to handle the ongoing exploits that have been filling your RSS feeds the last few hours.
Take a look at this page describing the new iPod's touch capabilities. Now, look at this older version via Google cache. Are they the same?
In the current version, the first paragraph reads:
"...And iPod touch features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, or adding new contacts."
In the cached version, the end of that sentence reads:
"...searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, entering calendar events, or adding new contacts."
It seems that "entering calendar events" has disappeared. A last minute adjustment? We'll have to get our hands on one to see what's what. Thanks, Jools!
Okay I'll be the first to admit this is pure rumor, but the French Mac site MacBidouille has posted (translation) what appears to be a leaked T-Mobile (Germany) advertisement for a new 3G iPhone to be released on November 12. The specs include HSDPA/UTMS 3G data (up to 3.6 MBmit/s) plus 16GB of storage for €499 (~$684). I have to admit that this smells right to me. It would help explain the US price drop and we already know that T-Mobile will be the German carrier. Furthermore, a 2.5G EDGE phone just wouldn't cut it in Europe. On the other hand, it misidentifies the iPhone as an "iPod," but since Steve Jobs himself occasionally makes the same mistake it wouldn't be that surprising on an early draft. If this is true, the question is: will a 3G iPhone hit the US before Christmas?
You've got to love a story that starts: "It has been reported..." Nonetheless, leftlanenews has a report that Uncle Steve and Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn "met earlier this month in California to discuss the possible joint-venture." Apparently there's been some market research that shows a market for an Apple upgraded automobile (no, really, people like Apple's electronic gadgets?). Nonetheless, I think this one is still in la-la rumor land, though maybe this lends some credence to that Apple GPS rumor we posted about in June. In any case this makes me feel even better about a white Apple sticker on my Jetta! So what do you think, are you ready to run out and buy a VW/Apple iCar?
We heard a rumor not long ago, and today Engadget confirms the date: Apple will hold a special press event on Sept. 5th. The invitation they received (where's ours, Apple?!?) looks like coverflow as displayed by an iPhone. Hmmm...
The invite is as cryptic as always, so I guess it's up to us to provide wild and baseless conjecture. Let's get started.
See you then, folks. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Infinite Loop (IL) is reporting that their sources "inside" Apple have leaked September 5th as the date of a future press event. Supposedly on the bill: New iPods! Some will run Mac OS X and some will be full-screen. When pressed, IL's source said that AppleInsider's latest report "...seems about right."
Of course, this is all speculation, so keep that in mind.
I got a suprising number of "hurrahs" yesterday when I mentioned how afraid I was that the Mini might get killed before I was able to buy one with Leopard pre-installed on it. Rumors about today's Apple event (which we'll be metaliveblogging, so stay tuned) are everywhere, and one that I've heard pretty often is that the Mini's last days are upon us.
Personally, that's really disappointing-- even if the Mini isn't quite the performer or the bastion of beauty that the iMac or the Mac Book Pro is, there's always room for the little computer that could (could convert the Windows faithful, I mean). So that's why I'm so happy to hear that Macenstein says the Mini won't be killed today-- instead, he's heard it'll get a nice upgrade: "The mini will sport a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, a 100GB hard drive, SuperDrive, and cost $699." He also suggests it'll get a design refresh, which I'm totally fine with. However you want to play it Jobs, just don't kill my Mini!
Is Apple's smallest desktop headed for the junk heap, or is a brand new version headed for the Apple store? We'll find out when the press conference starts in about half an hour from now.
[Update 1:15 pm -- And this is why we don't often post product rumors... indications are that this is coming from someone posing as our "reputable source," and other sites have received and debunked the rumor. We tried to reach the source for verification but were not able to do so. Our apologies if this turns out to be complete bunk. -Ed.]
We don't often post product rumors hereabouts, although we're certainly not above reporting on them and linking to them; it's just not the regular beat. That said, when an email comes in from a reputable source (thanks, Mr. X) with supposed details on Tuesday's product announcement... well, we gotta let you all know. Pile on the disclaimers (this is a rumor!) and here we go. Our source says that there are plenty of new products coming on Tuesday:
Two new iMacs, with 20 and 24 inch screens, and entirely covered in brushed metal (!) plus the previously hinted new keyboard design and a slightly slimmer enclosure. Even more surprising, our source says the iMacs are shipping with a 2.4GHz Intel Penryn chip. Intel's first 45-nm CPU was originally slated to ship at the end of the year, and it's not clear that Apple could get enough parts to actually build these puppies before October, so take this with a grain of salt. The machines might ship with the dual-core Conroe part instead.
Three new Apple Displays at 20, 24, and 32 inches. These are supposed to have an iSight camera built in.
The Mac Pro will get a speed bump as the Xeon/Woodcrest chips are swapped out for Penryn chips, running at a brisk 2.4, 3.0, and 3.33GHZ.
Lastly, the long-expected end of life for the Mac Mini may finally come around as the machine is expected to be dropped from the product matrix. *sniffle*
Again, this is all unconfirmed. We'll know for sure on Tuesday!
Nobody keeps a secret like AT&T, and by that I mean nobody keeps a secret quite so poorly. Boy Genius Report and other sites are talking up an internal Death Star memo that asks employees to hold down the fort during the June 15 - July 12 window. Vacations should be moved if possible, says management, and no additional vacations are being approved during that period.
The folks at iPhon.fr have got what appear to be 
According to the Financial Times, 
In a recent BusinessWeek 
TUAW has received a tip that the company that does television for Apple's live events and Macworld is apparently hiring for an unannounced Apple event at the end of February. Keep in mind that this is an unconfirmed rumor -- while TUAW trusts our source, job listings are not available on the video company's website, and Apple has not yet announced any events happening this month. But Apple did promise us a year flush with announcements, and starting with 
Take a look at 
You've got to love a story that starts: "It has been reported..." Nonetheless, leftlanenews has a 
We heard a 
I got 
[Update 1:15 pm -- And this is why we don't often post product rumors... indications are that this is coming from someone posing as our "reputable source," and other sites have received and debunked the rumor. We tried to reach the source for verification but were not able to do so. Our apologies if this turns out to be complete bunk. -Ed.]
