MacRumors

The Wall Street Journal confirms the widely-held belief that the iPhone 4S/5 set to be introduced later tonight will not support the fastest current data networks built on LTE and WiMax technology. The news is not much of a surprise, but such last-minute reports by mainstream news outlets such as the Journal are frequently thought to be controlled leaks by Apple to help frame expectations for its upcoming announcements.

According to people familiar with the company’s plans, the hotly anticipated device won’t operate on long-term evolution or WiMAX fourth-generation networks. Those wireless networks promise speedier downloading to mobile devices of episodes of television programs, as well as cute baby photos.

The people said the device will work on 3G networks, which are broadly in use today and are the standard for the current iPhone 4. AT&T says its HSPA+ network has 4G-like speeds.

The specific mention of a lack of WiMAX compatibility would seem to put a significant damper on yesterday's highly questionable rumor that a redesigned iPhone 5 could in fact debut today as a WiMAX-capable device exclusive to Sprint until an LTE version comes out next year.

Meanwhile, 9to5Mac shares a couple of "uncorroborated" tips it has received claiming that the next iPhone will launch on October 14th and that the iPhone 4S could come in at $99/$199/$299 price points for 16 GB/32 GB/64 GB models. Such a pricing structure would likely mean that the 8 GB iPhone 4 reportedly set for introduction would be priced at $49 with an iPhone 3GS potentially available for free. All of the listed prices would be for on-contract devices.

October 14th has been rumored as a likely launch date based on vacation blackouts at Apple retail stores. The date would also match up with previous intervals between iPhone announcements and launches, as well as claims of a "mid-October" launch for the device.

With Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" media event set for tomorrow, we've put together this rumor roundup as a summary of major rumors that have been circulating in the lead-up to Apple's highly-anticipated iPhone introduction and the formal launch of iOS 5 and iCloud. The iPhone 4 is now nearly 16 months old, and the rumor mill has been in high gear trying to determine Apple's plans for its next-generation hardware.

iOS 5

There aren't too many surprises expected for iOS 5 tomorrow, as Apple offered an extensive preview of the next-generation mobile operating system at its Worldwide Developers Conference in early June. Apple has also posted a number of promotional materials for iOS 5, describing several of the over 200 new features included in the release.

One remaining question about iOS 5 is its public release date, which would need to come at or before the launch of the new iPhone hardware, as it will undoubtedly come preinstalled on those devices. Apple typically releases its major iOS updates to existing users a few days prior to the hardware launch, and some claims have pegged Monday, October 10th as a possible launch day. Officially, Apple has only said that iOS 5 will launch in the "fall".

Rumors of an announcement regarding some sort of partnership with Facebook have also been circulating, with some suggesting that tomorrow's event may see the launch of Facebook's iPad app, a revamped iPhone app, and Facebook's new "Project Spartan" HTML5-based tools. Others have also suggested that Apple may be looking to launch systemwide Facebook integration, similar to the Twitter integration already previewed for iOS 5. But a fresh report from Business Insider claims that no such Facebook announcement is planned for tomorrow.

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The Wall Street Journal reports the Sprint is preparing to "bet the company" on the iPhone, agreeing to purchase 30.5 million units over the next four years regardless of whether they are purchased by customers or not. At a current average selling price of $655 for the iPhone, the agreement is a nearly $20 billion commitment for Sprint.

Mr. Hesse told the board the carrier would have to agree to purchase at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years—a commitment of $20 billion at current rates—whether or not it could find people to buy them, according to people familiar with the matter. In order to keep the price people pay for the phone low and competitive with rivals, Sprint would be subsidizing the cost of each phone to the tune of about $500, which would take a long time to recoup even at the high monthly fees iPhone users pay.

With a source calling the projected hit to Sprint's operating income "staggering", the company's directors agreed to the deal as an all-in gamble to give Sprint hopes of competing against AT&T and Verizon.

The report notes that such commitments aren't unusual for Apple's carrier partners, demonstrating the leverage Apple has gained with the iPhone. With multi-year deals carrying unusual provisions for increasing units over time, Apple is locking in carriers for the long haul in much the same way that it has sought to lock in component suppliers for its hardware.

In the wake of the new report on Sprint's massive iPhone commitment, BGR separately reports that this development may lend weight to a claim it had heard that had previously seemed outrageous – that the iPhone 5 does indeed exist and that it will launch as a 4G WiMAX device as a Sprint exclusive.

I have been told that Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 — yes the real iPhone 5, not the iPhone 4S — as an exclusive. And it will be a WiMAX device. AT&T and Verizon would launch the iPhone 4S and get the iPhone 5 sometime in the first quarter of next year as an LTE device. Globally, the iPhone 5 might be available as a 4G HSPA+ device.

The claim reportedly comes from an "incredibly solid" industry contact and is one which has seemed simply unbelievable. But with Sprint clearly betting the future of the company on the iPhone, it is at least possible that it may have gone to extreme lengths to make a staggering entrance to the iPhone market.

BGR's rumor record has been spotty over time, and it's hard to imagine Apple making this move. Still, we mention it for interest and discussion in the lead-up to tomorrow's media event.

9to5Mac reports that it has received word from an Apple press representative that the company will not be offering a public live video stream of tomorrow's iPhone media event.

As we noted last week, Apple will be offering a private live stream of the event to its Covent Garden retail store in London, where it will be hosting simultaneous gathering for European press.

MacRumors will be offering article updates with coverage as the media event unfolds and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account. Separate news stories regarding the event announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.

Apple last year offered live video streaming of its September iPod event and October "Back to the Mac" event, but did not offer live video streaming of the iPad 2 introduction earlier this year.

Apple is expected to follow its usual policy of making a video of tomorrow's press event available for viewing at a later time. Such videos generally become available a few hours after the conclusion of Apple's events.

Adobe today announced a new cloud-based initiative, with content creation for tablet devices playing an integral role in the effort. As part of that initiative, Adobe will be releasing six new tablet apps to allow users to easily and elegantly design and edit their content.

The new tablet apps are being released for both Android tablets and the iPad, with the Android apps set to launch next month. Unfortunately for iPad users, Adobe does not yet appear to have a release date for the iOS versions of the new apps for that platform, stating only that an announcement on availability is scheduled for "early 2012".

Inspired by Adobe Creative Suite® software, these stunning new apps bring professional-level creativity to millions of tablet users. The apps address multiple areas of the creative process: image editing; ideation; sketching; mood boards; website and mobile app prototyping; and presenting finished work. They are headlined by Adobe Photoshop® Touch, a groundbreaking app that brings the legendary creative and image-editing power of Photoshop to tablet devices for the first time.

Available soon as standalone apps, Adobe Touch Apps are essential components of Adobe Creative Cloud, a major new company initiative also announced today (see separate release). Adobe Creative Cloud will become a worldwide hub for creativity, where millions can access desktop and tablet applications, find essential creative services, and share their best work. Files created via Adobe Touch Apps can be shared, viewed across devices or transferred into Adobe Creative Suite software for further refinement – key features of Adobe’s vision for the Creative Cloud.

The six apps, which will carry "introductory pricing" of $9.99 each, include:

- Adobe Photoshop Touch: Image editing and transformation.
- Adobe Collage: Photo importing and drawing tools for creating image collages.
- Adobe Debut: Presentation software for Creative Suite files.
- Adobe Ideas: Vector-based drawing tools. (Released for iPad last year and currently priced at $5.99.)
- Adobe Kuler: Color theme generation and exploration.
- Adobe Proto: Prototyping tools for websites and mobile apps.

While much of the focus surrounding Apple's iPhone plans has been on the iPhone 4S/5 and the possibility of a low-end 8 GB iPhone 4, there have been a few suggestions that Apple could keep its iPhone 3GS around even longer in order to offer a handset available for free on contract. Despite being based on an over two year old design, the iPhone 3GS continues to be the second best-selling smartphone in the United States behind the iPhone 4, demonstrating that upfront device cost continues to be a major factor in customers' purchasing decisions.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky today issued a new research note outlining his expectations for Apple's iPhone event tomorrow. While many of his predictions are in line with existing thoughts regarding an HSPA+ iPhone 4S or 5 based on an A5 chip and maintaining existing price points with the possibility of a new 64 GB model also in the mix, he also predicts that Apple will continue offering the iPhone 3GS alongside the new hardware.

Abramsky outlined his rationale for such a move back in late June, and he continues to stand by his predictions of an iPhone 3GS offered for free on contract or $399 off contract in today's report.

We expect Apple to reduce the price of the prior iPhone 4 to $99 subsidized ($499 unsubsidized) and the iPhone 3GS to $0 subsidized ($399 unsubsidized, see 11/06/29 note for more detail and rationale); the prior iPhone 4 may be available only with 8GB memory.

We might have dismissed this report in the chatter leading up to the event, except MacRumors has also heard that Apple may indeed be keeping the iPhone 3GS around. We haven't heard anything on pricing, but it would likely only make sense as a free-with-contract option as outlined by Abramsky.

Siri co-founder Norman Winarsky provides some details and impressions of their original Siri Assistant technology in an interview with 9to5Mac. Siri was a virtual assistant application that was released for the iPhone back in February, 2010. While the app still remains in the App Store, the company was acquired by Apple back in April, 2010.

Apple is expected to finally launch their own version of this intelligent assistant interface alongside the new iPhone at tomorrow's media event. The new feature is expected to be exclusive to the new iPhone which carries a faster A5 processor.

Winarsky provides some details about why the software would require so much processing power. While the original version of the software does run on the iPhone 3GS, he says that "all kinds of optimizations and shortcuts" were done to get it to work on the device. Winarsky reports that it will likely run "much better" on a faster phone.

Winarsky is also not bashful about what the significance of Apple's adaptation of Siri technology would mean, calling it a "World-Changing" event:

Make no mistake: Apple’s ‘mainstreaming’ Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event. I’d go so far as to say it is a World-Changing event. Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language. The PAL will get things done and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We’re talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift.

Many have compared the technology to Google's Voice Actions for Android, but Winarsky believes their technology was much more advanced.

This video provides a mockup of what is expected to be the workflow for Apple's Assistant technology:

Apple will be launching the new iPhone tomorrow, October 4th, and is believed to be launching this Assistant software as well.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today published a series of letters it exchanged with Apple between June and August of this year addressing Apple's patent settlement with Nokia.

It was revealed in mid-June that Apple had entered into a patent license with Nokia to settle a series of lawsuits between the two companies, but Apple did not make any disclosure regarding the licensing agreement in its financial filings, despite the fact that analysts have suggested that the licensing fees could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The SEC was apparently unsatisfied with Apple's lack of disclosure about the transaction, and sent a letter (PDF) to Apple in late June asking for more detail on the terms of the deal and information on Apple's decision not to address the topic in its regulatory filings.

We note various news articles discussing the patent litigation settlement between Nokia and Apple. Supplementally tell us the amount and terms of such settlement agreement, any amounts accrued, the periods in which they were recognized, and the timeline of the negotiations with Nokia that led to the June settlement agreement. Also, tell us how you considered including a discussion regarding this matter in your MD&A [Management Discussion and Analysis] disclosures and financial statement footnotes, including disclosure of a reasonably possible range of loss in excess of amounts accrued. Further, tell us how considered disclosing this event in a Form 8-K or tell us how you determined that such disclosure was not necessary.

Apple responded to the SEC on July 12th, offering at least some of the requested information, although details of the transaction are not included in the publicly-available document as Apple included a request and justification for confidentiality on portions of the letter. Information on Apple's disclosure analysis is, however, included, and it reveals that the company considered the deal to be part of its "ordinary course of business" and not material to its financial statements. Consequently, Apple determined that it was not required to discuss the agreement in its filings.

Apple's response was apparently still not entirely sufficient in the SEC's eyes, however, as the SEC sent a follow-up letter (PDF) on July 19th requesting additional information.

Please describe in further detail the terms, arrangements, obligations and rights associated with the Settlement Agreement and Patent License Agreement entered into between the company and Nokia. Also, describe for us each element of these Agreements (i.e. settlement portion, past usage, future usage, etc.).

Apple's response dated August 1st included five pages of confidential material not included in the publicly-available version, with three of those pages dedicated to full disclosure of the terms of the patent deal with Nokia.

Apple's response apparently satisfied the SEC, as the agency sent a notice (PDF) on August 17th acknowledging that it had completed its review of Apple's regulatory filing, although such notice does not prevent the SEC from taking additional action with respect to the filings in the future.

Over the past few days, there have been a number of reports of next generation iPhone models appear in various inventories. Both Radio Shack and Cincinnati Bell websites have listed "iPhone 5" entries, fueling speculation that Apple might actually release a phone called "iPhone 5" at Tuesday's event.

We said in our breakdown of possible outcomes that we generally don't put too much faith in these inventory listings. The entries are believed to be placeholders based on the same rumors that we are all reading.

But here's a new finding via iPhone-Ticker.de that is slightly more interesting. German mobile carrier Vodafone.de is now listing new iPhones on their website that line up to circulating rumors quite nicely.

In several of their accessory pages, Vodafone.de now lists several new iPhone models under compatibility requirements. The new models include (note weiß and schwarz translate to white and black):

- iPhone 4 Black (8GB)
- iPhone 4 White (8GB)
- iPhone 4S White (16GB, 32GB, 64GB)
- iPhone 4S Black (16GB, 32GB, 64GB)

This particular composited screenshot (above) comes from the iPhone 4 Bumper Vodafone shop page which claims compatibility with all these devices. But even the Elgato TV receiver lists the same models with no "iPhone 5" in sight.

While there's still a chance that these could represent best-guess placeholder entries, they line up nicely with our current expectations: a lower cost 8GB iPhone 4, and three iPhone 4S models. Additionally, Vodafone is an Apple partner and sells the iPhone 4 in Germany, and we know Apple has also had inventory listings that line up with this same rough configurations.

Apple is hosting a media event on October 4th and is expected to announce the next iPhone.

While most of the recent focus has been whether or not the next iPhone will have a dramatic external redesign, one feature that seems to be universally agreed on is that the new iPhone will incorporate the much faster dual-core A5 processor, which also houses a much faster graphics processing unit (GPU).

The A5 was first introduced in the iPad 2 in March. At the time, Apple said the iPad 2 had up to nine times the graphics performance as the original A4-powered iPad.

A recent set of GLBenchmark tests by Anandtech (graph above) shows how much faster in this the A5's GPU is as compared to the A4, at least with respect to certain graphics performance. The results may not be exact, as Apple could underclock the new iPhone's CPU as compared to the iPad 2, but the results should be somewhat representative.

Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone on Tuesday, October 4th during a media event.

Gizmodo.com.br (via Gizmodo) claims to have images from Foxconn's Brazilian factory which shows the iPhone "N90A" model that will be introduced next week.

Now, as a reminder, the N90A is expected to be the low-end cheaper iPhone 4 model that is to be released alongside the iPhone 4S (N94) model. The current iPhone 4 carries a model number of N90, so changes are expected to be slight. So, these images don't actually show anything we don't already know, but do seem to represent a legitimate leak from a Foxconn factory producing Apple iPhones.

The [devices] are basically ready to be delivered, as shown in these photos obtained exclusively. The most interesting: they are a new model, it seems, will have less capacity and is cheaper.

Readers may recall that Foxconn has been working to expand iPad production into Brazil as well. Apparently, they have already been producing iPhones there.

This second image shows the model number ("N90A") in the top left and shows it didn't pass inspection:

This model is supposed to represent the cheaper iPhone 4 (8 GB?) model that will replace the iPhone 3GS in the low end. The higher end iPhone is believed to be called the iPhone 4S and will carry an A5 processor.

Apple has seemingly outed the "iPhone 4S" name in the latest iTunes beta released Friday, according to this screenshot (above) posted by 9to5Mac.

The screenshot shows specific mention of the "iPhone 4S" using the same image icon as the iPhone 4 CDMA. This suggests that the new iPhone will be called the iPhone 4S and will look identical to the Verizon CDMA iPhone 4 shown on the left:

It's possible that the image is only a placeholder, but all previous parts evidence has suggested that the new iPhone 4S will look nearly identical to the current iPhone.

Apple is holding its media event on Tuesday, October 4th where the company is expected to launch the new iPhone.

Update: Latest iTunes Beta has been pulled.

Update 2: It's now available again. There's some debate as to whether it was pulled at all, but the same version remains available now to download.

Update 3: So, the "iPhone 4S" reference first appeared in the iTunes Betas back in iTunes Beta 6.1 which was released on August 29th, 2011 -- a little over a month ago.