MacRumors

Verizon today became the first major U.S. iPhone carrier to report earnings for the third quarter of 2012, giving some insight into iPhone sales one week before Apple reports its numbers.

In a conference call following the earnings release, Verizon revealed that it activated 3.1 million iPhones during the quarter, representing approximately 46% of its total smartphone activations of 6.8 million. The iPhone activation number was up from 2.7 million in the previous quarter that saw Apple garnering a similar 45% share of Verizon's smartphone activations.

Addressing the iPhone 5, Verizon noted that 21% of its iPhone activations were for devices running on the carrier's LTE network, translating to about 650,000 iPhone 5 activations in the last few days of the quarter.

AT&T and Sprint will also be reporting their financial results next week, ahead of Apple's announcement and conference call following the close of trading on Thursday, October 25.

Just after the revelation that Apple has acquired Web app startup Particle, The Next Web reports that Apple is also in the process of acquiring Color Labs. Color, which raised a substantial $41 million round of financing even before launching last year, arrived as a photo sharing service that has since morphed into a streaming video service.

We’ve heard through trusted sources that the startup was nabbed for a price that is in the ‘high double digits’, as in millions, and that the deal is ‘done’, though papers have yet to be signed.

VentureBeat reported earlier today on an email sent to at least one employee of the company stating that the company leaders had "voted to wind down the company", but Color quickly issued a brief statement claiming that it was not in the process of shutting down.

Color was founded by Bill Nguyen, who was also behind Lala Media, the streaming music service that was acquired by Apple in late 2009. The Next Web speculates on why Apple may also have been interested in Color:

As to why they’d want Color Labs? We would look to Color’s patents, which may include ones for a file format that they were working on to record HD video. Or it’s software engineering team, if Apple was impressed by their work.

Apple and Color have not yet responded to requests for comment on the situation.

Next month, Apple will meet with accessory makers in Shenzhen, China to discuss integration of the new Lightning connector in third party products, according to a report from TechCrunch. The MFi Program allows manufacturers to obtain the hardware components necessary to connect iPhones, iPods and iPads to third party docks, cars, and other such devices.

However, in a change from the previous dock connector, TechCrunch says Apple will be keeping very tight control of the new Lightning connector:

One of those new rules, according to one of our sources close to the program, is that Apple’s Lightning pin supply is controlled by the company itself, and it supplies approved MFI partners with production quantities of the pin once their product is determined to have met its standards and specifications. It sells them in volume, and our source says the pricing is actually very fair when you consider the advanced technology involved in the connector’s construction.

An earlier teardown of the Lightning connector showed some specialized hardware inside the connector itself, including chips that could be used for security.

That said, Chinese companies are said to have cracked the security protocols already, and are in the process of ramping up Lightning component production. The meeting, reportedly scheduled for November 7 and 8, is a first step towards development of new Lightning-compatible products.

Apple did say during the iPhone 5 launch event that some companies including Bose, JBL, B&W and B&O were already working on devices compatible with the new connector. However, we haven't heard any concrete availability dates for new Lightning-compatible devices.

CNET reports that Apple has acquired Particle, a small San Francisco-based startup firm specializing in HTML5 Web and Web app work. The acquisition is said to have been for the company's talent rather than any specific project it was working on.

The company has done HTML5 work for Google, Motorola, Amazon, Yahoo, Sony, and Apple. The group has also created some "labs" projects including Intervue.me, an asynchronous video interviewing project. [...]

The deal went through late last month, though not all its less than a dozen employees stayed on to work at Apple. Those who did are listed as "creative technologists" as well as one "user interface engineer," according to their public LinkedIn profiles.

The report speculates that Particle's Web expertise makes it likely that the new Apple employees will be working on such projects as Apple's website, iAd, and iCloud.com. Particle's About page outlines some of its work with Apple prior to the acquisition:

Particle brings positive and energetic relationships with Google and the Chrome team specifically, as well as great Apple relationships and execution experience around iAds, iTunes Extras, and Apple.com. We have participated in and piloted much of the technology which will display the next generation of advertising and deliver media content for the next decade.

TechCrunch has documented five of Particle's former employees who are now listing Apple as their employer on LinkedIn, with all of the transitions listed as having taken place in September.

Earlier today, Geeky Gadgets reported that it has received word from a retailer in the United Kingdom indicating that the "iPad mini" will be launching on November 2 in at least the United States and UK, with pre-orders reportedly set to begin on October 26. 9to5Mac also issued a Tweet today stating that it has "heard whispers" of a November 2 launch.

As we noted earlier this week, November 2 is the most obvious date for a launch given Apple's past history and the October 23 date for its media event, making it difficult to assess which rumors might be based on actual information and which might simply be speculation based on the most likely scenario.

Apple typically releases its new mobile devices on Fridays, generally making them available roughly a week and a half after their introduction. This pattern was seen with the iPhone 5 last month and with the third-generation iPad earlier this year, among other past releases. Pre-orders, if they are offered, are a bit less consistent, with iPhone 5 pre-orders going live one week before launch while pre-orders for the third-generation iPad began immediately following Apple's media event nine days before launch.

One wrinkle that could derail Apple's usual schedule is the possibility that the iPad mini may be considered a new product line, and these products such as the original iPhone and full-size iPad had longer gaps between introduction and launch. We do believe, however, that the iPad mini is likely to be a rather straightforward expansion of Apple's existing product line, meaning that a November 2 launch is indeed likely.

Following word that increased quality control standards for the iPhone 5 assembly process have slowed Foxconn's production and increased stress on workers, The Wall Street Journal shares comments from an unnamed Foxconn executive explaining the difficulty in assembling the device.

“The iPhone 5 is the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled. To make it light and thin, the design is very complicated,” said an official at the company who declined to be named. “It takes time to learn how to make this new device. Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day.”

The executive also addressed the scratching issues that have reportedly been the cause of the increased quality control standards, noting that it is "always hard to satisfy both aesthetic needs and practical needs."

The executive also acknowledged tensions between production line staff and quality control inspectors, but declined to offer additional information on the situation that was initially reported as a strike by several thousand workers but later denied by Foxconn.

Parts firm ETrade Supply posts several photos of what it believes to be a legitimate display from Apple's forthcoming "iPad mini" set for introduction at next Tuesday's media event. The display is said to be of the same 4:3 aspect ratio of the full-size iPad and measures 162 mm x 124 mm.

Text on the back of the display suggests that the part was manufactured by LG Display, and text on the ribbon cable extending from the display is also consistent with labeling on genuine Apple parts.

ETrade Supply has also posted several photos of an iPad mini battery, which appears to be identical to the part shared by MacRumors earlier this week with the exception of the Apple part number. ETrade Supply's battery carries an APN of 616-0627, while the battery in our photo carried an APN of 616-0641. Any differences between the two parts are not immediately obvious.

Following ETrade Supply's posting of the iPad mini display photos, French site Nowhereelse.fr posted its own photo [Google translation] of what has been claimed to be the iPad mini display in quality testing. The site received the photo last week and was unable to verify with any degree of confidence that the part was indeed an iPad mini display, but with the actual part now having been shared by ETrade Supply, similarities in the mounting points for the two displays suggest that the display being tested may indeed be for the iPad mini.

According to a study by ABI Research, the average size of an iOS app increased by 16% from March to September 2012; iOS games have grown even faster, jumping 42% over that same time period.

The increase is thought to be partly the result of the iPad's new retina display, as well as a March increase in the over-the-air App Store download limit from 20MB to 50MB.

Universal apps include all the resources needed for the iPad and iPhone, regardless of which device the app is downloaded onto. These factors, combined with the new high-resolution graphics needed for the new iPad Retina display have ballooned app sizes.

The flipside of the increasing file-sizes is that the internal storage of smartphones and tablets is becoming a scarcer resource, as the device capabilities struggle to keep up with the requirements of apps and mobile content. Markkanen predicts, "Especially the consumers with 16GB devices are likely to become more conscious about what apps to keep and what to uninstall, so the developers’ bar to impress will be getting even higher than it is now. This could also speed up the adoption of the mobile cloud as a storage remedy quite significantly."

Some have speculated that Apple could hold down the entry-level pricing on the iPad mini by offering an 8 GB model, but as universal apps with Retina iPad support push app download sizes ever higher, Apple is likely to maintain 16 GB as the floor for its tablet devices.

Even the iPhone has trended toward larger capacities, with Apple adding a 64 GB option for the iPhone 4S and now offering only the free iPhone 4 as an 8 GB device. Though it doesn't support downloadable apps, the new iPod Nano is also only offered in an 16GB capacity, dropping the 8GB capacity that the prior Nano was offered in.

Last month, Apple stopped selling any iPod Touch model in an 8GB capacity -- the smallest iPod touch nowadays is the 16GB 4th generation model, available for $199. The new 5th generation model starts at 32GB.

The teardown experts at iFixit have taken apart the new Seventh-Generation iPod Nano, noting how much work Apple's engineers put into making the device as thin as possible. The teardown notes that the battery has a rating of 0.8Wh, more than twice the rating of the prior generation Nano.

The battery, Lightning connector and volume controls are all soldered directly to the logic board. The button cable and headphone jack are attached as well. The site does note that the LCD and digitizer glass are not fused together, allowing replacement of either component individually.

iFixit found components from Apple, Broadcom (Bluetooth + FM Radio), NXP Semiconductors, Toshiba (NAND flash), and Texas Instruments (touchscreen controller) inside the Nano.

Overall, iFixit found the new iPod nano to be fairly difficult to repair as many components are soldered directly to the logic board. The battery appears to be particularly difficult to replace. The revelation is not a surprise, as Apple does not intend its mobile products to be user-serviceable and the company's efforts to push the limits of design and size reduction have led it to sacrifice accessibility.

iFixit has also taken apart the Fifth-Generation iPod Touch, as well as the iPhone 5.

The Loop reports that Apple has just sent out invitations for a media event scheduled for next Tuesday, October 23. The event will be held at the California Theatre in San Jose, California and is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern. The tagline on the invitation reads "We've got a little more to show you."

Apple is widely expected to introduce its "iPad mini" at the iBooks-focused event, with the company reportedly planning for production of 10 million units of the device this quarter. Just today, leaked part numbers revealed that Apple is planning to introduce at least 24 different iPad models to span various capacity, connectivity, and color options.

There have also been a number of rumors regarding a tweaked full-size iPad that could incorporate Apple's new Lightning connector at a minimum, with rumors for additional enhancements ranging from adopting Apple's new A6 chip found in the iPhone 5 to new IGZO display technology that could reduce the device's thickness to adding LTE support for the UK and perhaps other countries. While a new report from Digitimes claims that the tweaked third-generation iPad may not appear until the first quarter of next year ahead of a fully updated fourth-generation iPad in the middle of the year, analysis of the leaked part numbers today suggests that the list may include new full-size iPad models next week.

In addition to the iPad mini announcement, Apple is also said to be introducing its 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro at the event. Part number evidence is also pointing to the introduction of new iMac and Mac mini models.

Four months ago, Apple pulled its products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry, with sources indicating that Apple's design direction for its increasingly thin mobile products was incompatible with EPEAT's criteria for "disassemble-ability" and other factors. Just a week later, Apple responded to significant criticism of the move by placing "all eligible products" back on the registry and issuing a letter from senior vice president Bob Mansfield acknowledging that their removal was a "mistake" for the company.

With Apple's products back on the registry, some observers were surprised to note that Apple's new Retina MacBook Pro was included, given that it had been the subject of criticism for recyclability issues, with the strong glue used to affix the battery to the casing being of particular concern. It was quickly noted that manufacturers grade themselves against the EPEAT criteria, and thus some believed that EPEAT's review of the grading would ultimately result in the Retina MacBook Pro losing its status on the registry.

Last Friday, EPEAT issued a press release stating that it had performed verification studies on "ultrathin" laptops from four manufacturers, including Apple, and found that all of the tested models did indeed meet registry eligibility requirements. At the time, it was unclear which Apple models were included in the study, and we assumed that the ultrathin designation only addressed the MacBook Air, which has been deemed eligible for the past several generations.

Consequently, fresh verification of the MacBook Air was not necessarily a surprise, although EPEAT did find it necessary to both clarify the definition of "commonly available" tools for disassembly or upgrades and note that an expansion port such as Thunderbolt or USB is sufficient to contribute toward meeting the criteria of upgradeability.

iFixit's Kyle Wiens has, however, now confirmed to MacRumors that the EPEAT verification testing did indeed include the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which the group is classifying as an ultrathin notebook despite the fact that it is substantially thicker and more powerful than the MacBook Air. In an opinion piece published at Wired today, Wiens addresses the impact of the decision, calling the new clarification of the EPEAT standards "greenwashing":

Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro – the least repairable, least recyclable computer I have encountered in more than a decade of disassembling electronics – was just verified Gold, along with four other ultrabooks. This decision demonstrates that the EPEAT standard has been watered down to an alarming degree. [...]

At best, the interpretation of the EPEAT Gold standard is laughably out of touch. At worst, it means recyclers a decade from now may be faced with a mountain of electronic waste they cannot affordably recycle without custom disassembly fixtures and secret manufacturer information.

Wiens goes on to provide an overview of how development of EPEAT's standards is weighted toward computer industry companies and how this has watered down the environmental criteria for the products.

Unfortunately, getting highly specific language into a standard like EPEAT is challenging because manufacturers claim it limits future innovation. So when language does finally make it into the standard, it’s critical to rigorously enforce it.

Where language is ambiguous, decisions must consider the goals of the standard, or risk negating its purpose entirely. The updated definitions systematically weaken the 1680.1 standard.

Apple's design direction is clearly weighted toward building products that are as slim and light as possible, using custom and proprietary components to achieve its goals at the cost of upgradeability and repairability. For most consumers who never see fit to upgrade their computers, the tradeoff is an acceptable, or even desirable, one. But for those who seek to keep their computers running as long as possible before purchasing a new machine, and even for any users interested in end-of-life recyclability of their products, Apple's tactics are undoubtedly cause for concern.

As part of its report detailing part numbers for the "iPad mini", AppleInsider briefly mentions that Apple appears set to launch updated iMacs on October 24, the day after the company's rumored media event.

The person also added that Apple is rumored to begin selling new iMac desktops on Oct. 24, one day after the anticipated Oct. 23 event.

While there have been rumblings of an iMac update for some time, and earlier this week we shared a report claiming that the new models will be thinner than current ones, today's report appears to be the first to specifically claim that they will launch next week.

For those keeping track, Apple's plans for next week now appear to include the iPad mini, updated iMacs, a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and updated Mac mini models.

Update 8:49 AM: 9to5Mac has now posted the four new iMac model numbers, which presumably correspond to two different standard configurations each of the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models, although the report claims that at least some configurations may not ship until several weeks after their introduction. This would presumably refer to the 27-inch models, which have reportedly been suffering from lower yields on the display-glass lamination process and have been rumored to be seeing a later launch than their smaller counterparts.

AppleInsider has posted a list of 24 different model numbers said to be for Apple's "iPad mini" scheduled for introduction at a media event next Tuesday.

According to the list, the iPad will be available in four basic device variants that presumably correspond to different capacities: P101, P103, P105, and P107. The set of four variants suggests that Apple may be releasing the iPad mini with capacities ranging from 8 GB up to 64 GB.

Each of those four variants is available in three different flavors designated "GOOD", "BETTER", and "BEST" that are presumed to be related to connectivity options. Apple appears set to launch both Wi-Fi and cellular-capable models, with the three flavors suggesting that there may be multiple cellular-capable versions such as separate 3G and 4G LTE models. Alternatively, there may simply be two different LTE-capable versions in order to support the various carrier networks available around the world, although it is unclear why one such model would be designated "BETTER" and another "BEST".

Finally, each model and variant is available in "A" and "B" versions, which almost certainly refer to color options. Current iPad models are available with black and white front panels, but rumors and part leaks have suggested that Apple may be extending those color differences to the aluminum rear shell with anodization as on the iPhone 5.

Update 7:36 AM: An alternate theory on the various models suggests that the "Good, Better, Best" designations refer to three different capacities, which would be more in line with Apple's previous use of the terms. In this scenario, the P101/P103/P105/P107 would refer to four separate hardware models, which could include Wi-Fi only models and perhaps several different cellular-capable models. The A/B designations would continue to refer to two color options.

Update 7:59 AM: 9to5Mac has independently received the part numbers and believes that some of them refer to the rumored tweaked full-size iPad with Lightning connector.

In this scenario, 12 of the new model numbers represent the iPad mini in a combination of three capacities, two colors, and two connectivity variants (Wi-Fi and cellular). The remaining 12 model numbers would represent the tweaked full-size iPad with a similar matrix of configurations. In the United States where Apple sells both GSM and CDMA cellular models, the full product matrix could include 36 different iPads: 18 iPad mini models and 18 tweaked full-size iPad models.