MacRumors

Ahead of Friday's launch of the iPhone on T-Mobile USA, the carrier has announced details on its trade-in program designed to entice current iPhone 4 and 4S users to switch carriers. The trade-in program reduces the down payment on a 16 GB iPhone 5 from $99.99 to $0, with additional credit of up $120 depending on the value of the device being traded.

“Our message to iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 customers is simple: bring in your device and trade up to iPhone 5 on T-Mobile,” said Mike Sievert, chief marketing officer for T-Mobile. “We’re making it incredibly attractive to buy an iPhone 5 by pairing an un-beatable upfront price and trade-in offer with Simple Choice, the most hassle-free and affordable rate plan in wireless.”

The offer is valid through June 16, with the additional credit applicable to monthly service fees, an outstanding balance, accessories, or another device.

T-Mobile's new "Uncarrier" service plans unbundle device costs from service plans, allowing users to finance the full cost of their devices over 24 months while signing up for contract-free service starting at $50/month.

Code within the latest 10.8.4 beta release of OS X confirms that 802.11ac 5G "Gigabit Wi-Fi" support, which is not offered in OS X 10.8.3, will be offered on Apple's next generation Macs, reports 9to5Mac.

In January, Apple reportedly signed a deal with wireless chip firm Broadcom to bring the high-speed wireless access to its future Mac lineup.

802.11ac offers triple the speeds that are available with the current 802.11n standard, supporting up to 450 Mbps on one antenna and up to 1.3 Gbps when used with three antennas. The speed boost allows for quicker file transfers between home computers.

A report from Digitimes earlier today suggests that Apple might be refreshing its notebook lineup near the end of the second quarter, which may translate to an introduction at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

The first reviews for Facebook Home, the social network's new Android home screen experience, are out. Home isn't quite a "Facebook Phone", but it also isn't a full-fledged operating system. It slots right in between the two segments.

Dieter Bohn of The Verge details the two main components of Home:

Facebook Home essentially consists of two parts. The first is Facebook Home proper (henceforth "Home"), which replaces your homescreen and your lockscreen with Facebook's News Feed and app launcher. The second is a major update to Facebook Messenger which lets you receive and reply to texts no matter which app you're using.

Bohn mentions that the Chat Head feature, which overlays Facebook Messenger chats over any app a user may use, was a highlight.

The difference in immediacy and convenience is huge. What Facebook has figured out is that people usually have messaging conversations with somebody for a little while, but are doing other things on their phone while they do it. Being able to reply without losing your sense of place is incredibly convenient.

Walt Mossberg of AllThingsDigital thought that the two-pronged set-up was simple to use.

I found Facebook Home to be easy to use, elegantly designed and addictive. Although I’m a regular Facebook user, I found that, with Home, I paid more attention than ever to my news feed, Liked items more often and used Facebook’s Messenger service more often. So, if you are a big Facebook fan, Facebook Home can be a big win.

Although The Verge says that Home's simplicity also hurts it as it lacks key Android features like Widgets and Folders. They also mention that although Home has its own version of notifications, most apps do not support it and default to Android's notification pane. Both Bohn and Mossberg conclude that although Home is simple-to-use and addictive, only Facebook fans should take notice as it lacks key features for most smartphone users.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said that bringing Home to iOS would not be as easy as it was on Android because Android is "open" and Facebook would have to go through Apple and its existing relationship with the company while they don't have to go through Google for Home.

Facebook Home will be available to download for select Android devices (Samsung Galaxy SIII, HTC One X, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II) on April 12th for free. HTC and AT&T will also be offering the HTC First, a $100 smartphone that will have Home preloaded.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple and Yahoo have been discussing how to integrate Yahoo's services more prominently in iOS, beyond powering the Weather and Stocks apps.

Yahoo also provides sports scores to Siri, but Yahoo has significant content deals related to news, sports and finance that could be tapped.

Data from Yahoo Finance and its weather site already come preloaded onto iPhones and Yahoo data like sports stats help power Apple's voice-activated "assistant" Siri. But the companies continue to discuss new arrangements, including possible deals to get more content from Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News, among other Yahoo Web properties, preloaded onto Apple devices or available through an expanded partnership with Siri, one of these people said.

The WSJ also says Yahoo would like to provide search results to Apple in Safari, but Microsoft's Bing search engine currently powers Yahoo Search and Apple has a long-term deal with Google as the default engine on iOS.

The paper did note that no deal is imminent, and negotiations appear to be in the very early stages. Former Google executive Marissa Mayer took over as the CEO of Yahoo recently and has been focusing a lot of energy on Yahoo's products and content, rather than its traditional strengths in advertising.

Following a research note from Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White stating that the iPhone 5S would launch in two or three different sizes, Japanese website Mac Otakara has released a report suggesting that the iPhone 5S will come in five colors, including the original black and white.

The site also mentions that Apple’s rumored cheaper iPhone will also be offered in a range of different colors. There is no indication on what colors the iPhone 5S might sport, but the current 5th generation iPod touch is available in black, white, pink, yellow, and blue, along with a special edition available in red.

Mac Otakara's report adds that the iPhone 5S will be announced in July, with a release to follow in August. That is in line with previous reports released earlier this month, which suggested an August release.

In the past, Mac Otakara reliably predicted the redesigned form factor of the seventh generation iPod nano and the updated 4-inch screen of the fifth generation iPod touch.

It should be noted that AppleInsider claims that the original article has been incorrectly translated and actually mentions one color in addition to black and white, making for a total of three colors rather than five.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster today released the results of his semi-annual survey of U.S. teenagers, finding that iPhone and iPad usage remains strong among the 5,200 teens included in the study. According to the report, 48% of teens now report that they are using iPhones, up from 40% just six months ago.

We believe this demonstrates that Apple remains the top choice for teens despite more competition from Samsung. Additionally, the survey demonstrated that 62% of teens expect their next phone to be an iPhone, which we believe shows that the iPhone has loyalty amongst teens. In terms of Android, 23% of teens expect their next phone to be an Android device, up from 22% in Fall 2013. We believe that the Samsung Galaxy S3 and eventually the S4 are taking share from other Android devices, but little from Apple in terms of the teen demographic.

In looking at tablets, 51% of teenagers now report using a tablet, up from 44% six months ago. Of those 51%, 63% are using full-size iPads and 5% are using iPad minis, meaning that nearly 35% of teenagers in the survey are currently using Apple tablets.

For those teens that expect to purchase a tablet in the next 6 months, 68% said they plan on buying an iPad, thus it appears that Apple should be able to maintain its tablet share. The iPad Mini is beginning to show its impact as the 68% of those who plan to purchase break down into 54% for full sized iPads and 14% for iPad Minis. We would expect the iPad Mini to continue to cannibalize the full sized iPad in our continuation of the survey as we expect the breakdown in sales to reach 50/50 in the March quarter.

Samsung has attempted to play up its appeal with younger consumers through ads portraying the iPhone as uncool, with one ad poking fun at Apple fans waiting in line for the latest gadget by showing one Samsung user in the line actually saving a spot for his parents. But Piper Jaffray's results suggest that the iPhone and iPad brands remain strong with U.S. teenagers, with Apple undoubtedly planning for those users to become lifelong Apple customers as they become locked into the company's app and content ecosystem.

There are few great emulator options for OS X, but that is set to change in the near future as multi-source system emulator OpenEmu prepares for an official launch.

Open Emu is an open source project to bring game emulation to OS X as a first class citizen, leveraging modern OS X technologies such as Cocoa, Core Animation and Quartz, and 3rd party libraries like Sparkle for auto-updating. Open Emu is based on a modular architecture, allowing for game-engine plugins, this means Open Emu can support a host of different emulation engines and back-ends while retaining a familiar OS X native front-end.

OpenEmu, which has been in beta for quite some time, is able to emulate the hardware of several different consoles. Version 1.0 of the software will include support for several 16-bit systems, including the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo, among others.

Support for additional systems like the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo DS, and the Sony PlayStation will be added in the future.

The emulator features a slick iTunes-style design, displaying downloaded ROMs in a menu organized by system. Designed from the ground up for OS X, it offers up a native OS X interface.

With full save state support, the software allows for multiple ROMs to be played at once and it also provides OpenGL scaling, multithreaded playback, and gamepad support.

At this point in time the team behind OpenEmu is working on polishing the app and adding final artwork, but the release is "close."

OpenEmu was previously available as a beta download and the beta version of the application can still be acquired by downloading and compiling the source code via Xcode. A full set of instructions is available here.

Research firm IDC today announced the release of a new report covering the mobile advertising market, noting that ad networks such as those from Google and Apple are losing traction to publishers able to use their size to drive their own advertising sales.

Where in past years, ad networks such as Google, Millennial Media, and Apple received most of the spending on mobile display ads, now publishers control the segment, thanks to very strong sales growth in the past year. Facebook, Pandora, Twitter, and The Weather Channel all registered strong sales in 2012 and all (with the exception of Pandora) popped onto the scene from zero sales in 2011. As a result, publishers controlled 52% of U.S. mobile display ad spending in 2012, compared to the 39% they received in 2011.

IDC notes that, despite slowing growth, the mobile advertising market continues to boom in the United States, growing 88% in 2012 to reach $4.5 billion to provide a massive opportunity for ad networks and publishers alike. The report notes that mobile advertising now accounts for 11% of all digital advertising, illustrating the strong momentum of mobile.

Apple has long faced an uphill battle to gain momentum with its iAd service, repeatedly slashing buy-in fees in order to lure and keep customers unwilling to commit to expensive advertising campaigns limited to Apple devices. The popularity of Apple's devices did allow Apple to rise to the number two spot behind Google in mobile display advertising, but IDC notes that Apple ($125 million gross revenue) lost that spot to Millennial Media ($151 million gross revenue) last year.

Apple's iAd program grew out of its 2010 acquisition of ad firm Quattro Wireless. Quattro founder and CEO Andy Miller left Apple in mid-2011, and since that time iAd has been overseen by senior vice president Eddy Cue as part of Apple's umbrella of Internet Software and Services.

Among Apple's granted patents released today, AppleInsider has noted a pair of inventions that appear to be of some interest. The first patent addresses the idea of offline iTunes Store purchases from mobile devices, allowing users to store "credit" that can unlock content already on their devices but not yet owned by the user.

In some cases, a user may wish to add new media items to the library, for example from an online media store. When the device is not connected to the store, however, the user may not be able to perform a transaction to purchase new media items, nor download or access the media items from the store. To enable offline purchases of media, the electronic device can store locally for future use one or more recommended media items received from the store when a connection with the store is available. Access to the recommended media items can be restricted, so that the user cannot consume the media items without first purchasing them.

To complete a media item purchase without sending transaction information to the media store, the electronic device can store pre-paid credits locally on the device. The pre-paid credits can be purchased in advance, for example when the device is connected to the store. In response to a user request to purchase a particular recommended media item, the electronic device can deduct the cost of the recommended media item from the locally stored credit, and remove the access restrictions of the device. The amount of credit remaining can be communicated to the store or to a host device (e.g., used to manage the user's media library) when communications become available.

The difficult part of this scenario involves getting the content onto the user's device, and Apple's patent addresses several methods, including manual loading of files either from the Internet before going offline or from other storage devices. Alternatively, the user's device could automatically pre-download content based on Genius-like recommendations or other criteria and offer the content for on-device purchase.

While Wi-Fi hotspots have become increasingly common to allow iPod touch or Wi-Fi iPad owners to connect to the Internet with some level of regularity, it appears that Apple is still interested in exploring ways to allow users to unlock new media content even when not connected to the Internet.

The second patent describes a proximity-based method for transferring files between devices, such as a computer and a mobile device. While a number of existing solutions such as Bump and Samsung's S Beam allow for such actions, Apple's patent includes a contextual aspect that allows for very specific transfer scenarios to simplify the user experience.

In one simple example outlined by Apple, a user composing an email on his or her Mac wishes to add an image from their phone. Under the proposed method, the user could select the insertion location in the email, use a contextual menu to invoke an insertion option, bring up the desired image on their phone, and then bring the phone in close proximity to the Mac.

Using a combination of proximity and communication technologies such as Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC) technology, Wi-Fi, and or a webcam, the image could then be automatically and wirelessly transferred to the computer and inserted into the email at the proper location.

DigiTimes claims that Apple will begin volume production of the 5th generation iPad in July-August 2013. The timeline reportedly comes from sources in Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

Mockup of 5th Generation iPad next to an iPad mini

While Apple's traditional timeframe for iPad launches has been in the first few months of the year, last year saw two iPad launches -- one in March, and one in November. The late 2012 release of the 4th Generation iPad may have altered that usual timetable.

The new iPad is believed to be "thinner and lighter" than the currently shipping full-sized iPad. The 5th Generation iPad is also believed to take on the same thin-bezel design as the iPad mini. The above mockup is based on leaked iPad 5 enclosures from early this year.