MacRumors

Last week, a forum user at Chinese site sjbbs.zol.com.cn posted several photos (via The Times of India) of what was alleged to be the iPhone 5S in production. Despite the fact that the device is clearly an iPhone 5 clone, the photos have been widely circulating today.

The photos show a device with an outward appearance very similar to the iPhone 5, but the internals show essentially no resemblance to an Apple-designed device. Examples of just a few of the inconsistencies include:

- A battery capacity of just 1130 mAh compared to 1440 mAh for the iPhone 5
- An apparent SD card slot
- Loose red and black wires connecting components
- A green PCB for the connector bearing no resemblance to Apple's Lightning connector

Apple has been reported to be moving forward on an iPhone 5S model that will unsurprisingly appear very similar to the iPhone 5, although the iPhone 5S is said to feature upgrades to the rear camera. Other improvements such as upgraded internals are also certain to make their way into the new model. Reports have suggested that the device could launch as soon as June or July of this year.

Steve Hemmerstoffer of French site Nowhereelse.fr tweeted a photo three days ago showing some of the obviously fake characteristics of the device:

Nick Bilton reports for The New York Times that Apple is "experimenting" with smart watches made of curved glass, "according to people familiar with the company's explorations". The article notes that Corning -- the company behind the iPhone's Gorilla Glass -- has developed a bendable glass called Willow Glass that could potentially be used in a wristwatch type device that curves with the wearer's wrist.

Smart watches have been a topic of conversation in recent weeks, with the Pebble watch shipping last month, and a number of rumors regarding Apple working on a smart watch for possible launch later in 2013.

In its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Apple is experimenting with wristwatch-like devices made of curved glass, according to people familiar with the company’s explorations, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they are not allowed to publicly discuss unreleased products. Such a watch would operate Apple’s iOS platform, two people said, and stand apart from competitors based on the company’s understanding of how such glass can curve around the human body.

In court filings between Apple and Samsung, we learned that Apple wanted to use curved glass designs in the original iPhone but the technology available at the time wasn't sufficiently advanced. With the recent advances at Corning however, it appears that Apple's curved glass ambitions could soon be coming to fruition.

Wearable fitness-focused devices were popular at CES this year, with devices like the Jawbone UP and Nike FuelBand leading the way.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is a Nike board member and spoke about his Nike FuelBand at the D10 Conference last year, but demurred about Apple's plans. He did say that wearable devices were "an interesting area", though "the book hasn't been written on that yet."

Epic Games' Infinity Blade: Dungeons was first announced in March of 2012, as a demo game on the third generation iPad. The game was designed by Epic but handed over to Impossible Studios, a new division housing ex-employees of Big Huge Games.

Hints of trouble first appeared in October of last year, when the game was delayed until 2013. As of today, Infinity Blade: Dungeons has been put on hold indefinitely, as Epic Games has decided to shut down Impossible Studios. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney announced the news this afternoon:

We're closing Impossible Studios.

When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team. It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic.

This means that Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now on hold as we figure out the future of the project.

Former Apple employee and human interface developer Bruce Tognazzini published a blog post earlier this week listing his thoughts on the iWatch, a potential Apple product that made headlines late in 2012.

One of his more compelling ideas includes the elimination of passcodes. With a passcode, he speculates, the smart watch, which would incorporate a sleek, button-free design, could be used to unlock iPhones and Macs via proximity.

The watch can and should, for most of us, eliminate passcodes altogether on iPhones, and Macs and, if Apple's smart, PCs: As long as my watch is in range, let me in! That, to me, would be the single-most compelling feature a smartwatch could offer: If the watch did nothing but release me from having to enter my passcode/password 10 to 20 times a day, I would buy it.

As with passcodes, the watch could be used in conjunction with Find My iPhone, sounding an alert when a user moves out of range of the device.

Along with facilitating phone calls and incorporating sensors, Tognazzini believes that an Apple iWatch might also include NFC capabilities for making payments and temperature controls, similar to the Nest.

The NFC chip belongs in the iWatch, not in the iPhone! That way we'll know exactly where it is at all times, strapped to the end of an appendage expressly designed to be waved around at things. How handy! Reach. Touch. Done.

Meanwhile, our iPhone, handling any necessary communication, will stay hidden safely away, and, if someone does manage to get ahold of our watch, it will require reauthorization, having been removed from our arm. Net value to the thief: Zilch. Net loss to us: A whole lot less than an iPhone, with word on the street quickly making it clear there's no point in stealing an iWatch.

Of course, not every merchant will accept NFC right away, so the watch, linked to Passport, will also display QR codes, etc.

An iWatch could even potentially serve as a fix for Apple Maps, utilizing pressure data from watches to build an altitude map of the world, which would improve the functionality of Apple's 3D mapping.

Using pressure data from millions of watches, Apple could build a precision altitude map of the world. This map would indicate true altitudes everywhere that iWatch wearers travel. The granularity would be several orders of magnitude greater than ever before attempted for a wide-area map at a cost several orders of magnitude less than Flyover.

Tognazzini believes that via apps and design, Apple would revolutionize the smart watch industry, with its curved glass designs created by Jony Ive, Siri integration, and wireless charging.

Though Tognazzini admits to having no insider information, he points out that his ideas come from a "solid understanding of Apple, its products, the problem, and the opportunity."

His full rundown on the potential Apple iWatch is worth a read, and it can be found on his blog, AskTog.

As noted by Ars Technica, Adobe late yesterday issued a security bulletin announcing that it was releasing updates to Flash Player in order to address a pair of security vulnerabilities targeting Mac and Windows users.

Adobe is also aware of reports that CVE-2013-0634 is being exploited in the wild in attacks delivered via malicious Flash (SWF) content hosted on websites that target Flash Player in Firefox or Safari on the Macintosh platform, as well as attacks designed to trick Windows users into opening a Microsoft Word document delivered as an email attachment which contains malicious Flash (SWF) content.

Users can manually download the new 11.5.502.149 version of Flash Player from Adobe's site, or those who have specified that Adobe may update Flash Player automatically may simply allow it to do so.

In response to the issue, Apple has updated its Xprotect anti-malware system to enforce new minimum version requirements blocking all previous versions of Flash Player. Apple has used the system several times over the past month to block vulnerable versions of Java.

Apple has also posted a new support document addressing the issue and explaining to users how to update Flash Player when they discover that the plug-in has been blocked.

3.5" iPhone, 3.5" iPhone 4, 4" iPhone 5, and (mockup) 5" iPhone by iMore

- A source told Chinese mobile phone information site Laoyaoba.com that he has seen the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 at Apple's suppliers. Both models may be released in 2013, according to the website's microblog on Thursday evening.
- The source noted that the iPhone 5S resembles the iPhone 5, and the five-inch iPhone 6 is lighter and thinner.

This rumor adds to a chorus of reports that Apple is seriously considering a larger form-factor iPhone in the near future. While early reports had suggested that such a model wouldn't see the light of day in 2013, later reports continue to point to a 4.8"-5.0" device coming soon from Apple.

All these rumors have generated a significant amount of speculation on how such a larger model might make sense in Apple's iPhone lineup, especially when comparing it to Samsung's current offerings.

Due to Apple's use of Chinese manufacturers and the need to prototype their designs, it's possible that all of these sightings could be true, yet Apple may still not launch such a device in 2013. If Apple does begin ramping up production for 2013, we expect we'll see parts of this larger device to also begin to leak out of China.

A Mac client for EA's digital distribution platform Origin was launched today, as first noted by AppleInsider. Origin for Mac was originally announced in August 2011 and went into alpha testing in late January. 

Origin is quite similar to Valve's Steam and allows users to download games and demos, chat with friends and continue saved games from most computers.

The store currently lists 48 Mac games available for download, including games like Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition, LEGO Batman, Harry Potter and Star Wars, Tropico 3: Gold Edition and The Sims 3 and its plethora of expansion packs. The new SimCity is supposed to launch a little after the March release of the PC version of the game.

EA Origin Vice President of Production Mike Blank told AppleInsider that EA brought Origin to Mac because of two reasons: growing Mac marketshare and a vocal community of Mac gamers.

"We're seeing increased activity from our Mac gamers," he said. "In the past, we've brought games slower to market for Mac than for PC partly because the audience hasn't been at the same level. The growth of iOS and Mac devices, though, means we're starting to see gamers demand to play their games on devices that are becoming more prominent. I think, across the board, developers have focused on the PC platform, but I think you're going to start seeing some changes there. [Origin] is the first step in a strategy you're going to start seeing coming out of EA."

Origin client for Mac is available as a download for free at EA's Origin website. It requires OS X 10.6.8 or higher and an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor.

Apple has issued a press release reiterating its commitment to return some of its extremely large cash pile to shareholders, saying that Apple management and the Board of Directors are in "active discussions" about how to return cash to shareholders.

This follows letter sent to Apple shareholders this morning by Greenlight Capital [PDF], a major Apple shareholder, arguing that the company "must examine all of its options to unlock the growing value of its balance sheet".

Apple's statement:

By early last year, Apple’s cash balance had built to a point beyond what we needed to run our business and maintain flexibility to take advantage of strategic opportunities, so we announced a plan to return $45 billion to shareholders over three years. As of next week we will have executed $10 billion of that plan.

We find ourselves in the fortunate position of continuing to generate large amounts of cash, including $23 billion in cash flow from operations in the last quarter alone.

Apple’s management team and Board of Directors have been in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders. As part of our review, we will thoroughly evaluate Greenlight Capital’s current proposal to issue some form of preferred stock. We welcome Greenlight’s views and the views of all of our shareholders.

Apple's stock price rose sharply in the minutes following the release.