MacRumors

According to new information from the China Times translated by BrightWire, Apple is planning to release the iPhone 5S alongside a larger phone, deemed the "iPhone Math" by the report.

Because the iPhone Math name is highly unusual and does not fit in with Apple's traditional naming scheme, it is not clear if it is a code name or a potential mistranslation, although the actual "iPhone Math" terms appears in English in the China Times report.

China Times says that the larger phone will come equipped with a 4.8-inch screen and an 8-megapixel camera. It is said that it will launch in June alongside an updated iPhone 5, which will also feature an 8-megapixel camera. An additional iPhone update is said to be coming during the holiday season, with a 12-megapixel camera.

Though the report contains detailed information on suppliers, manufacturers, and production times, it is difficult to believe that Apple will produce a bigger iPhone and that the company will release two iPhones in a six month time frame.

The shipments for components, including touchscreens and cameras, will start rising significantly in March, and iPhone manufacturers will begin production in late April. Hence, Apple's suppliers will see major growth in 2Q 2013.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. will undertake 90% of the manufacturing orders, and Largan has received orders for 8 million camera lenses. Fujikura, Flexium and Zhen Ding will share production orders for printed circuit boards.

Foxconn Technology and Coxon will provide molding parts for Apple's new models; Foxlink will continue to offer connectors; Hon Hai Precision's Microelectronics Technology will start designing 4G network solutions for Apple.

This is not the first rumor that has featured a larger iPhone. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek first reported in December that Apple was working on an iPhone with a 4.8-inch display, but just last week noted that he has seen no further signs of the device. Digitimes also reported in early January that Apple was working on a bigger, more affordable iPhone that was targeted towards emerging markets, and analyst Brian White suggested that Apple might be considering launching its next iPhone in multiple sizes.

While rumors from the The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg support the introduction of an additional iPhone at a lower cost, the device is said to be smaller, not larger.

As we noted the first time the 4.8-inch iPhone rumors emerged, Apple has just increased the size of the iPhone with the iPhone 5, and may be reluctant to face the same resolution and pixel density obstacles attempting to create an even larger iPhone.

Aubrey Johnson, a former Color employee, shares two stories behind the scenes at Apple's acquisitions of both Color and Lala -- both firms were founded by Bill Nguyen before being acquired by Apple for two very different reasons.

Like Pandora, Lala's music was streamed from the internet rather than stored locally. This allowed users to listen to a catalog of over 7 million songs for free as a stream over the web -- much like Pandora or Spotify today. Songs could also be purchased and downloaded, typically for a lower price than iTunes was offering.

Johnson writes that Lala's biggest strength was that it was at or near the top for many Google searches of particular songs, thanks to a search placement deal with Google. As a result, the firm was siphoning sales away from iTunes. As well, Google and Lala had partnered on Google's Music service. Both Nokia and Google made lowball offers for the firm, and Nguyen headed to Apple to see if they'd be interested in buying his company.

In late November [2009], Nguyen was seated at the dinner table in Steve Job’s home on Waverly St in Palo Alto. Also present were Eddy Cue and Tim Cook and other Apple executives. Steve led the conversation while eating a beet salad:

“I’m going to give you a number, Bill, and if you like it, let’s do it and just be done with this whole thing. Okay?” Bill agreed.

Jobs passed a piece of paper to Nguyen and Bill nodded. The deal was done.

After the acquisition, a number of Lala employees left the company with Nguyen, leaving millions in options on the table. Later, Apple apparently bought back some of those same engineers when the company purchased the remnants of Color, getting more experienced personnel for a significant savings.

Update: Johnson's post has been removed.

Reuters reports that Sharp, one of Apple's primary display panel partners for its mobile devices, has slashed production of iPad displays at one of its plants. Sources did not indicate the reasons for the dramatic cut, but it appears to be a combination of a shift in consumer interest to the smaller iPad mini and a natural seasonal slowdown coming out of the holiday quarter.

Sharp Corp has nearly halted production of 9.7-inch screens for Apple Inc's iPad, two sources said, as demand shifts to its smaller iPad mini.

Sharp's iPad screen production line at its Kameyama plant in central Japan has fallen to the minimal level to keep the line running this month after a gradual slowdown began at the end of 2012 as Apple manages its inventory, the industry sources with knowledge of Sharp's production plans told Reuters.

Apple also obtains iPad display panels from Samsung and LG Display, with a source at Samsung indicating that there has been no production cut there and a source at LG suggesting that any production cuts there were in line with typical seasonality.

Reports of cutbacks in iPad component production come close on the heels of reports that Apple has slashed orders for iPhone 5 parts, although there have been significant questions about the figures cited in those reports and whether the decline actually represents a weakening of demand.

Apple has rolled out a new feature for Newsstand, allowing select publishers to be featured in a new Read Them Here First section, reports TechCrunch.

Hearst is the first publisher to be featured, and its entire catalog is available to subscribers several days before the print editions hit newsstands, and before its magazines hit other platforms like Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The exclusive arrangement varies by individual publication in terms of how far in advance you’ll be able to get the various Hearst titles compared to in print and from other online storefronts like Amazon’s Kindle marketplace, but each will be available at least a few days in advance, I’m told. Existing subscribers will get early access, as well as those signing up for the first time.

The exclusive publishing window is a nice perk for potential subscribers and iPad owners, though it seems unlikely that getting a magazine a few days early would, on its own, sway potential tablet purchasers to the iPad.

Apple today added the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro to the refurbished section of its online store, giving prospective customers the opportunity to save 15% compared to brand-new machine. Currently available models include:

- 2.5 GHz Core i5 with 128 GB storage: $1439, compared to $1699 new

- 2.5 GHz Core i5 with 256 GB storage: $1699, compared to $1999 new

- 2.9 GHz Core i7 with 512 GB storage: $2289, compared to $2689 new

All three models are listed as shipping in 1-3 business days.

As with all of Apple's refurbished products, the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro units have been thoroughly tested and reconditioned and carry a one-year warranty equal to that offered on brand-new machines.

The addition of the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro to Apple's refurbished store comes roughly two weeks after the appearance of 15-inch models. But with the 13-inch models having just been introduced in October, some four months after the launch of the 15-inch models, the smaller Retina MacBook Pro has made the transition to the refurbished store much more quickly than its larger sibling.

(Thanks, Alan!)

Patently Apple highlights an interesting Apple patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today. The application describes a removable clip for a mobile device such as an iPod, with the clip integrating tactile or trackpad like controls to be used either while attached to the device or as a remote control.

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a body having a bend and a user interface area, a connector adapted to couple to a corresponding connector on an electronic device, and a plurality of conductive elements. The bend enables the user interface area to wrap around a portion of the electronic device when the connector is coupled to the corresponding connector on the electronic device. In another embodiment, a portable electronic system includes a removable user interface and an electronic computing device having a display surface, where the removable user interface is couplable to the electronic computing device such that the removable user interface is disposed over at least a part of the display surface.

Despite the patent application having been filed in July 2011, the diagrams in some cases depict a classic iPod with a relatively small screen and a click wheel on the front of the device. Various embodiments of the invention show the touch portion of the clip being used on the front of the device, either with on-screen content shrinking to fit below the clip or with content being displayed behind the transparent clip to provide a dynamic interface for the clip's tactile buttons. Alternatively, the clip could be mounted in reverse to place buttons on the rear of the device, or removed entirely and clipped onto a connector on a headphone cord to serve as a remote control for the device.

As with many of Apple's patent applications, the removable clip may never make an appearance in an Apple product, but the document provides an interesting glimpse at some of the areas of interest for Apple, and certain aspects of the technology could eventually appear in a different form.

Amazon today announced that it has optimized its MP3 music store for Safari on iOS devices, marking yet another step in the company's effort to eat into the iTunes Store's dominant position in the digital music market.

“Since the launch of the Amazon Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod touch, a top request from customers has been the ability to buy music from Amazon right from their devices. For the first time ever, iOS users have a way do that – now they can access Amazon’s huge catalog of music, features like personalized recommendations, deals like albums for $5, songs for $0.69, and they can buy their music once and use it everywhere,” said Steve Boom, Vice President of Amazon Music.

Features of the Amazon MP3 store on the mobile web browser include:

- The Amazon MP3 mobile website for iPhone and iPod touches is built on HTML5, which means customers can make purchases directly from the Amazon MP3 mobile website at www.amazon.com/mp3 on their iPhones and iPod touches
- Selection of over 22 million songs and over two million albums at everyday low prices
- Access to everyday deals like $5 albums, $0.69 songs, and free songs from artists on the rise
- Individualized recommendations based on purchase history
- Immediate availability and seamless playback of purchases in the Amazon Cloud Player app
- Free storage of all Amazon MP3 purchases in Amazon Cloud Player

Amazon's move to optimize its MP3 store for iOS devices comes over five years after the store debuted, but seems to be part of a renewed effort by Amazon to challenge the iTunes Store. The company has invested significantly in its Cloud Player services as a competitor to iTunes Match, and Amazon has just launched its new AutoRip feature to provide free digital versions of tracks purchased on CD, including for many orders dating as far back as 1998.

Earlier this month, Facebook updated its Messenger iOS app with beta support for making VoIP calls between Facebook accounts. That feature was initially limited to Canadian iOS accounts but is now being opened to all U.S. accounts, reports The Verge.

To access voice calling, open the Facebook Messenger app, open a chat with someone, and click the 'i' button in the top right corner. If the feature has been activated -- and the other user also has Facebook Messenger for iOS installed -- there should be a "Free Call" button. If it's greyed out, try tapping it anyway. Facebook is rolling out the feature to all users over the next several days.

What this means is that if you live in the US, you can now call other Facebook users for free over Wi-Fi or using your phone's data connection while you're on the go. When you call someone, a push notification appears on their screen that says "Ellis Hamburger is calling," for example. The feature is especially critical for people with bad cell service at work or at home, and for those who want to conserve cell phone minutes. It's also a huge step for Facebook — which with a single feature emerges as one of the largest communities of VoIP users in the world. Yes, competitors Viber, Vonage, and Skype have had the feature for some time, but all have much smaller user bases.

Facebook's efforts create a calling system that can potentially reach its more than 1 billion users, providing a massive competition to other VoIP services like Skype, as well as allowing teenagers using iPod touch devices to make phone calls to friends using Facebook's app.

Facebook Messenger for the iPhone is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

AT&T has again expanded access to the FaceTime Over Cellular feature to customers on all tiered data plans with a compatible FaceTime device. Previously, only users with an LTE device -- the iPad 3 and 4, as well as the iPhone 5 and iPad mini -- could use FaceTime over cellular. The only users who still can't use the feature are users with a grandfathered unlimited data plan.

When FaceTime over Cellular launched in September 2012, we explained that we wanted to roll it out gradually to ensure the service had minimal impact on the mobile experience for all of our customers.

As a result of ongoing testing, we’re announcing AT&T will enable FaceTime over Cellular at no extra charge for customers with any tiered data plan using a compatible iOS device.

This means iPhone 4S customers with tiered plans will be able to make FaceTime calls over the AT&T cellular network. AT&T previously made FaceTime over Cellular available to customers with a Mobile Share plan and those with an LTE device on tiered plans.

AT&T says the update should be automatically applied over the next few months, and eligible users won't need to do anything special to begin using FaceTime over cellular.

The upshot is that any AT&T customer with a supported device -- the iPhone 4S and newer, the third generation iPad and newer, and the iPad mini -- will soon be able to use FaceTime over cellular.