MacRumors

With Apple's new Lightning connector on the iPhone 5 dropping to just eight contact pins from the 30 pins seen in the original dock connector and gaining the ability to be inserted in either orientation, many have wondered just how Apple has been able to maintain most of the functions of the original dock connector. Others have wondered why Apple simply didn't shift to micro-USB, an existing standard in a comparable form factor.

Developer Rainer Brockerhoff has been examining Lightning's technical features and over the weekend outlined his thinking on how the "adaptive" nature of the Lightning connector highlighted by Apple during the technology's introduction at the iPhone 5 media event has enabled flexible functionality with a minimum of pins. Brockerhoff notes that the Lightning connector appears able to sense what kinds of devices are being connected and to use chips embedded in the cable to assign pin functionalities appropriate for each situation.

- The device watches for a momentary short on all pins (by the leading edge of the plug) to detect plug insertion/removal.

- The pins on the plug are deactivated until after the plug is fully inserted, when a wake-up signal on one of the pins cues the chip inside the plug. This avoids any shorting hazard while the plug isn’t inside the connector.

- The controller/driver chip tells the device what type it is, and for cases like the Lightning-to-USB cable whether a charger (that sends power) or a device (that needs power) is on the other end.

- The device can then switch the other pins between the SoC’s data lines or the power circuitry, as needed in each case.

- Once everything is properly set up, the controller/driver chip gets digital signals from the SoC and converts them – via serial/parallel, ADC/DAC, differential drivers or whatever – to whatever is needed by the interface on the other end of the adapter or cable. It could even re-encode these signals to some other format to use fewer wires, gain noise-immunity or whatever, and re-decode them on the other end; it’s all flexible. It could even convert to optical.

Double Helix Cables has now shared with AppleInsider a mapping of the pins on the two sides of the Lightning connector, demonstrating that this adaptive assignment of pin functions is required for the reversible nature of the plug.

"Take top pin 2 for example," he wrote in an e-mail to AppleInsider. "It is contiguous, electrically, with bottom pin 2. So, as the plug is inserted into the iPhone, if you have the cable in one way, pin 2 would go into the left side of the jack, flip it the other way and the same pair of pins is going to match up with the other side of the jack (as the electrical contacts in the iPhone's jacks are along the bottom)."

The adaptive nature of the Lightning connector may explain to some degree the rather high cost of cables and adapters for the new standard, as the $29 and $39 adapters for connecting 30-pin dock accessories to Lightning-equipped devices are required to contain hardware capable of working with the dynamically assigned pin functions. In addition, the adaptive nature indicates that the same Lightning interface could evolve over time to support new technologies within existing hardware.

iFixit and Chipworks have partnered on a teardown of the A6 system-on-a-chip, Apple's custom design that powers the iPhone 5. While several of the high-level details such as 1 GB of RAM and a dual-core CPU paired with triple-core graphics have already been shared, the teardown confirms all of these details with high-resolution images showing the various components of the chip.

Perhaps most notably, the custom ARM-based CPU developed by Apple for the A6 appears to have been manually laid out on the die, an expensive and time-consuming process but one that can offer greater efficiency than automatic layout.

- When compared to the rigid, efficient layout of the GPU cores directly below it, the layout of the ARM cores looks a little homespun—at first.

- Generally, logic blocks are automagically laid out with the use of advanced computer software. However, it looks like the ARM core blocks were laid out manually—as in, by hand.

- A manual layout will usually result in faster processing speeds, but it is much more expensive and time consuming.

- The manual layout of the ARM processors lends much credence to the rumor that Apple designed a custom processor of the same caliber as the all-new Cortex-A15, and it just might be the only manual layout in a chip to hit the market in several years.

The report also takes a look into the die, where it confirms that the A6 is manufactured using Samsung's 32-nanometer HKMG process that was trialled earlier this year with the A5 that made its way into the third-generation Apple TV and the revised iPad 2.

Finally, iFixit and Chipworks took a look at a number of other chips from the iPhone 5, sharing die photos from Qualcomm's MDM9615M modem and RTR8600 RF transceiver, a Cirrus Logic audio amplifier chip, and Murata's Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module incorporating a chip from Broadcom with other components.

9to5Mac reports that one of its readers emailed Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller regarding scratching of the iPhone 5, an issue that we documented on launch day. The issue is most visible on the black models due to the anodized slate color scratching off to reveal the silver color underneath. According to Schiller, such scratching is "normal" with use.

Q: I love my Black & Slate iPhone 5, but I've been seeing some scuffs, scratches and marks throughout the band around the phone along with many others. What should we all do? Any plans to fix this?

Schiller: Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.

Not only are users experiencing scratching on their iPhone 5 bodies with normal use, but a number of complaints have surfaced regarding units being scratched right out of the box. According to a a thread in our forums, several readers have reported scratching or scuffing out of the box before the device had even been handled.

While Apple set a company record by selling over five million units of the iPhone 5 during the device's launch weekend, it clearly could have sold even more if supplies had been available. Pre-orders for the iPhone 5 sold through the company's launch day stocks in just about an hour, and shipping estimates for new orders have been sitting at 3-4 weeks since soon after pre-orders began.

Bloomberg reports that Apple's tight supplies at launch are a result of the new in-cell technology being used for the iPhone 5's display. The technology integrates the touch sensors directly into the display rather than adding them as a separate layer, allowing for thinner displays.

Apple used the technology in the first major iPhone overhaul since 2010 to make the device more svelte, an attribute that helped lure a record 5 million buyers in three days. Yet producing in-cell screens is also more painstaking than earlier screen types, contributing to bottlenecks.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously noted that shifting to in-cell technology would simplify and shorten the display manufacturing process, but low yields of the new implementation have challenged Apple's supply chain partners' efforts to meet demand. Although LG and Japan Display were able to ramp up production, Sharp experienced the most significant difficulties and only began mass shipments of the display into the supply chain two weeks ago.

Reuters reports (via TheNextWeb) that Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has denied claims that the company has already submitted a Google Maps application to Apple's App Store.

Google Inc. has not submitted a new Google Maps application to Apple Inc after the iPhone maker dropped the use of it in launching its newest device, the head of the world's top search engine provider said on Tuesday.

The rumor emerged last week shortly after Apple launched iOS 6. In iOS 6, Apple replaced the Google-based Maps on iOS devices with the company's own solution. Apple's Maps have since drawn criticism for areas of poor coverage.

Schmidt told reporters, "We have not done anything yet" and stated that they've been talking to Apple for a long time and talk to them every day.

Update (Sept 25, 1:34am PT): Bloomberg has a slightly different interpretation of Schmidt's comments. Schmidt said that it was up to Apple to approve the app, though they claim that Schmidt declined to say if Google Maps had been submitted.

“We haven’t done anything yet with Google Maps,” Schmidt told reporters in Tokyo today. Apple would “have to approve it. It’s their choice,” Schmidt said, declining to say if the Mountain View, California-based company submitted an application to Apple for sale through its App Store.

DisplayMate posts an extensive analysis of the new iPhone 5 screen and also provides detailed comparisons against the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S III.

They conclude that the iPhone 5 represents the best Smartphone screen they've tested.

Based on our extensive Lab measurements the iPhone 5 has a true state-of-the-art accurate display – it’s not perfect and there is plenty of room for improvements (and competitors) but it is the best Smartphone display we have seen to date based on extensive Lab measurements and viewing tests.

In particular, they note that the iPhone 5 has much lower screen reflections, a much higher image contrast and screen readability in high ambient lighting and notably improved color accuracy and picture quality.

Here is their Overall Assessments chart comparing the iPhone 4, iPhone 5, and Samsung Galaxy SIII. They conclude the iPhone 5 significantly outperforms the other two units:

The remainder of their charts detail differences in Reflections, Brightness and Contrast, Color and Intensities, Viewing Angles, Power Consumption and Battery Impact.

In a high-profile case last month, a hacker was able to gain access to Wired reporter Mat Honan's iCloud, Gmail, Twitter, and Amazon accounts, taking control of much of Honan's digital life and remote wiping his iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. Honan later detailed how the hack was accomplished through social engineering by entering the system through weaknesses in Amazon's account security and then using credit card information stored there to gain access to Honan's iCloud account.

Following the incident, Apple temporarily halted over-the-phone iCloud password resets, which had required only the user's billing address and the last four digits of the credit card on file with the account. Apple has since rolled out new authentication for password resets, including a requirement that users provide two correct responses to a small group of challenges that includes user-set security questions, more detailed credit card information, and device confirmations via either serial number or pushed Find My iPhone verification codes.

We've heard from several Apple support employees who have noted that their abilities to help customers have been severely restricted as part of the effort to tighten up security, with staff only able to send password resets to email addresses on file with the account. Employees are no longer permitted to send password resets to arbitrary email addresses and can no longer set temporary passwords on accounts to enter troubleshooting mode during support calls.

One employee we spoke with has detailed a tremendous influx in support calls with the release of iPhone 5, as customers looking to restore iCloud backups of their old phones onto their new phones are in some cases having difficulty remembering their passwords. Support calls are said to be up on the order of tenfold over the past week or so surrounding the iOS 6 and iPhone 5 launches.

I know what you are thinking. The rightful person that owns the Apple ID should have no problem doing enough of that to be able to verify their ID and be able to then reset their password or security questions or unlock their account. And you would be wrong in thinking that.

This employee has emphasized that if users can not confirm their identities within the new framework of authentication challenges, there is nothing Apple support staff can do to help them and they will be frozen out of their iCloud accounts. For this reason, the employee notes that users are strongly encouraged to know the exact answers to their security questions, make sure a proper credit card is associated with the account, and set up Find My iPhone/iPad/iPod, maximizing their chances of being able to regain access to their accounts should their passwords be lost.

Finally, this employee has cautioned users about both changing their password and resetting their security questions at the same time, particularly if they do not have a credit card on file with the account. In that instance, if the user is unable to get into their account with the reset password, the deleted security questions and the lack of a credit card will essentially make it impossible for Apple support to verify their identity and regain access to the account.

A large amount of criticism has been correctly directed towards Apple regarding the new Maps app in iOS 6, with common complaints focusing on Points of Interest data. This is the information that Apple has purchased from third parties relating to addresses and phone numbers of stores, museums, hospitals and the like.

Google Maps is a much more complete, more polished product offering, but that's mostly because Google Maps has been around for years. Its developers have had plenty of time to refine it -- but its users have helped a considerable amount as well. Every Google Maps page has "report a problem" located somewhere on it, allowing the company to crowdsource and verify much of its data.

Like Google Maps, Apple also allows users to submit error reports and correct POI data. Last week, Apple said that "the more people use [Maps], the better it will get." Reporting errors in information is surely part of how Apple plans to improve the product.

The Home Depot in Durango, Colorado is located at 1301 South Camino del Rio, but, Apple's map data puts it at 1301 Camino del Rio, in the middle of downtown Durango. It's unclear how quickly the data will be integrated into Maps, nor what sort of quality control processes the company has in place to deal with malicious submissions.

However, with Apple aggressively recruiting former Google Maps employees, it seems likely that lessons learned during Google Maps development will soon be implemented at Apple. Incidentally, Google Maps gets the address correct.

According to Korea's etnews.com [Google translation], fingerprint sensor firm AuthenTec has notified a number of its customers, including Samsung, HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Fujitsu, that it will cease offering its technology to those companies as of next year. Apple agreed to acquire AuthenTec in July, and AuthenTec's board is expected to approve the acquisition next month.

AuthenTec's current customers are said to be "in a state of panic" as they seek to secure alternative suppliers for the fingerprint recognition technology that has been seeing increasing adoption. But with AuthenTec holding a significant amount of intellectual property rights in the field, those companies may have difficulty finding adequate alternatives.

Apple has not signaled its exact area of interest for AuthenTec's technology, but many observers have speculated that Apple is interested in incorporating it into its mobile devices for user recognition and other purposes.

The security of fingerprint scanning may also play into longer-term efforts at Apple for developing mobile payment solutions, although the company is said to be deliberately holding back on a public implementation as it explores the competitive landscape and potential. Rumors had suggested that Apple was looking at including near field communications (NFC) in the iPhone 5 in order to facilitate mobile payments integrated with the new Passbook app in iOS 6, but Apple elected not to pursue that technology with this round of iPhone hardware revisions.

9to5Mac reports that Apple is planning to launch Personal Pickup for new iPhone 5 orders starting tonight at 10:00 PM Eastern. The program allows users to place and pay for orders online in advance and then pick up their items at an Apple retail store.

Customers can use the Apple Store App or website between 10PM-4AM nightly to pre-purchase available iPhone 5 inventory for the next day.

AppleInsider notes that the program is new for U.S. iPhone 5 customers, as sales in many other countries have already been made available on a reservation basis.

An announcement about the policy change was reportedly made internally to Apple's employees on Monday. Word then began spreading as the day went on.

For now, Apple's website still says that iPhone 5 purchases are available on a first-come, first-served basis. In contrast, customers in other countries, such as the U.K., have the option to reserve an iPhone 5 and pick it up the next day at an Apple retail store.

Reports differ on how long customers will have to pick up their purchased iPhones, with 9to5Mac saying that customers will have "upwards of 2 weeks" while AppleInsider says that customers will have to pick them up the following day or the units will be returned to the pool for purchase by other customers.

Last week it was reported that the Verizon iPhone 5 is being sold with an unlocked SIM slot, allowing users with a nano-SIM or a trimmed micro-SIM from a GSM carrier such as AT&T to use the device on their networks. The Associated Press confirmed with Verizon that it will not remotely relock their iPhone 5 models. Last year, Verizon would only unlock their iPhone 4S models after 60 days.

It's worth noting that though the Verizon iPhone 5 will work on AT&T and T-Mobile's 3G network for voice and data, the phone will not work on AT&T's LTE data network. It will work on a number of international LTE networks. Apple's LTE information page details the bands that each specific model of iPhone 5 supports.

The main reason for the unlocked SIM card slot appears to be FCC network access requirements for Block C, the 700 MHz spectrum that Verizon uses for its LTE network. According to the FCC's CFR Title 47 Part 27.16 paragraph (e):

(e) Handset locking prohibited. No licensee may disable features on handsets it provides to customers, to the extent such features are compliant with the licensee's standards pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section, nor configure handsets it provides to prohibit use of such handsets on other providers' networks.

Sprint iPhone 5 models are SIM-locked, but customers can request unlocking after three months for international use. AT&T's existing unlock policy -- to unlock off-contract phones only -- remains in effect for the iPhone 5.

Apple has released Apple TV Software Update 5.1 for 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TV models. The release has build number 10A406e. The biggest changes include support for Shared Photo Streams, the ability to send audio content from the Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs), and the ability to switch between multiple iTunes accounts.

Apple has updated the Apple TV Software Update webpage with full details:

Shared Photo Streams - Accept invitations for Shared Photo Streams, browse photos and comments, and receive notifications of new content.

AirPlay - Send audio content from Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs). Also includes the ability to require an onscreen code to use AirPlay with your Apple TV.

iTunes account switching - Save multiple iTunes accounts and switch quickly between them.

Trailers - Search movie trailers. In the United States, see show times for local theaters.

Screen savers - New Cascade, Shrinking Tiles, and Sliding Panels screen savers.

Main menu - Reorder icons on the second page by holding down the select button on the remote.

Subtitles - SDH support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as improvements to viewing and selecting subtitles.

Network configuration - Support for setting up advanced network options using configuration profiles. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5437 for more information.

Stability and performance - Includes general performance and stability improvements.

The Apple TV can be updated directly on the unit by going to the Settings menu, then General, then selecting Update Software.

The last Apple TV update was released back in June.

Reuters reports on a riot that broke out earlier today at Foxconn's facilities in Taiyuan, China, forcing the company to temporarily shutter the plant as it cleans up the damage and investigates the situation. The cause of the riot, which reportedly involved about 2,000 workers, remains unclear, with the company claiming that it began as a personal dispute between workers while other sources have indicated that it stemmed from security guards beating workers for unspecified reasons.

It was not clear how long the shutdown would last at the plant, which employs about 79,000 people in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, while police and company officials investigate the cause of the disturbance. [...]

"The plant is closed today for investigation," Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo told Reuters. An employee contacted by telephone said the closure could last two or three days.

M.I.C. gadget shares a number of photos and videos from the scene, showing overturned vehicles, broken windows, and small fires.

The report also claims that an iPhone 5 production line was damaged in the riots, but that information does not appear to have been confirmed. As detailed in an undercover report from earlier this month, Foxconn's Taiyuan facility is involved in the production of the iPhone 5 black plate, and a multi-day shutdown at the plant could potentially have an impact on overall device production depending on existing supplies of the part in the assembly chain.

Update 11:12 AM: CNET reports that Foxconn has issued a statement saying that production at the closed facility will resume tomorrow and confirming that there were no deaths from the rioting. Reports have, however, indicated that at least 40 people were injured.

Earlier today, Apple officially announced sales of over five million iPhone 5 units during its launch weekend, easily topping the iPhone 4S debut from last year but falling short of many analysts' expectations.

ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall theorizes that the apparent shortfall compared to expectations may stem from Apple's rapid sellout of its own launch day pre-orders, which occurred in just about an hour. Apple announced two million pre-orders for the iPhone 5 in the first 24 hours of availability, a figure that was used by analysts to predict blockbuster opening weekend sales of 6-10 million units.

Marshall notes that many of those first-day pre-orders, as well as ones made after that date, have yet to be delivered, and thus Apple can not yet count them as sold. A brief "clarification" from Marshall reads:

[R]ecall the 5mil+ iPhone 5 reported sales only takes into consideration: 1) what was sold into partners (e.g., retail outlets, carriers, etc.), 2) sold in AAPL retail stores, and 3) direct to customers only if they signed for the device. Importantly, this doesn't take into consideration units in delivery direct to customers (i.e., AAPL must have signature of acceptance by customer before it is counted as a sale) and we estimate units in transit could be in the millions currently.

Some of those "late" iPhone 5 pre-orders through Apple that had been quoted delivery in early October have already begun shipping with estimated delivery dates of September 27. Those units will not, however, be counted as sales by Apple until they are delivered.

Update 7:13 AM: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who was responsible for the widely cited 6-10 million unit estimate, has released his own note expressing similar sentiments. He believes that up to a million iPhone 5 pre-orders remain in transit and notes that in-store supply was tighter for the iPhone 5 than for the iPhone 4S, holding back iPhone 5 sales numbers.

We believe there are two factors that negatively impacted the number. First, our sales expectation assumed that Apple would include all phones pre-ordered online. We believe that this may have been up to 1 million additional units as units pre-ordered after the middle of the first day were projected to be available in October. Second, we noted 1.25 days of Apple Retail inventory compared to 2.5 days during the 4S launch. Our 8 million estimate assumed full weekend availability and the counting of all online pre-orders. We believe that if supply were not a constraint and Apple included all pre-orders, the launch weekend number would have been closer to 7-8 million, assuming ~1 million October pre-order sales and an additional 1-2 million units at retail.

Apple today began sending out notices to former MobileMe customers reminding them that their free 25 GB iCloud accounts will be reduced to 5 GB as of September 30. iCloud offers 5 GB of storage for free, but MobileMe customers received an additional 20 GB for free during the first year of iCloud's existence. The offer was initially good through through June 30, 2012, but Apple later extended the bonus through the end of September.

Your iCloud storage will be reduced to 5 GB on 09/30/2012.
However, you are currently using more than 5 GB.

Unless you take action before your downgrade takes effect, backups to iCloud will stop, and apps will no longer be able to save documents to iCloud. You can either free up storage or cancel your downgrade to keep your current storage plan for another year.

With the launch of the iPhone 5 this past weekend, upgraders who have elected to back up their devices to iCloud may find themselves suddenly over the 5 GB limit for free iCloud accounts if their previous iPhone is also being backed up to iCloud. Camera Roll in particular can be a significant contributor to storage needs for iCloud.

Additional information for those seeking to keep their iCloud storage needs below 5 GB can be found in an Apple support document, while those interested in purchasing additional storage space can do so through their iOS device iCloud settings, System Preferences on a Mac, or iCloud Control Panel on a PC. Annual pricing is currently set at $20 for 10 GB, $40 for 20 GB, and $100 for 50 GB. All of the purchased amounts are added to the base 5 GB storage capacity.