MacRumors

Rumors are flowing fast for the next generation iPhones. Digitimes is now claiming that the next generation iPhone will use a 4-inch screen to better compete with Google Android.

The component suppliers noted that the production lines for Apple's next generation iPhone have begun testing, and Apple is interesting in expanding the screen size to 4-inches to support the tablet PC market as the vendor only has a 9.7-inch iPad in the market.

The news is interesting given the recent rumors of a smaller iPhone as well. The iPhone has always used a 3.5-inch screen since its launch, while several Android phones have launched at larger screen sizes.

Digitimes has a bit of an on-again off-again reliability with Apple-related rumors. They have certainly made some legitimate predictions, but has also detailed 7-inch iPad and 22-inch touch-screen iMac. It's believed that Apple prototypes several different designs for testing purposes but may also be the source of the some the false rumors we've seen in the past.

Taiwanese site Apple.pro reports (via AppleInsider) that Apple has been testing three separate prototypes for the fifth-generation iPhone, including one with a slide-out keyboard.

There are three iPhone5 prototype
one is a sliding cover which
Is the introduction of the keyboard after the side cover

Other prototypes are said to be similar to the iPhone 4 except with an upgraded battery and apparently an 8-megapixel camera, up from the 5-megapixel sensor found on the iPhone 4's rear-facing camera. The report likens those prototypes to the transition from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS, with the same basic design augmented primarily by improvements in the device's internals.

As for claims of a slide-out keyboard, the rumor seems incongruous with Apple's devotion to multi-touch functionality with on-screen virtual keyboards. Normally, we would simply cast such suggestions aside, but Apple.pro has a strong track record of providing leaked information from Apple's product pipeline. Most recently, the site posted photos of a small Apple-branded touchscreen that appeared a few months later in the company's latest iPod nano.

The site also notes several times that these are prototypes, suggesting that the model sporting a slide-out keyboard could simply a design put together by Apple for the purposes of testing out various form factors, and may never be intended for a public release.

Today's report from Apple.pro also reiterates ongoing claims that the next-generation iPad will be thinner and will carry at least one built-in camera.

As noted by Macerkopf.de [Google translation], free access to the new iPad news publication The Daily has been extended beyond the original two-week trial period, pushing the free access window out to February 28th. The change comes as we continue to await the public release of iOS 4.3, which will bring support for the in-app recurring subscriptions to be used by The Daily.

With its February 2nd debut carrying a two-week free trial from Verizon, The Daily sparked speculation that a public release of iOS 4.3, and possibly even an introduction of the next-generation iPad, would occur within that two-week period. In particular, one rumor claimed that iOS 4.3 would appear today, a move that appears unlikely to happen given that Apple's usual iOS release time of 10:00 AM Pacific Time has already passed.

Even without a release today, the broader two-week window for an iOS 4.3 is in fact rapidly drawing to a close, and this extension of free access to The Daily suggests that we may have to wait a little while longer for the software update to make its public debut.

Dow Jones Newswires briefly reports on an article from the Korea Economic Daily claiming that Apple is set to sign contracts that would see Samsung providing $7.8 billion in parts for Apple's mobile devices this year, making Apple the Korean company's largest customer.

The paper also said that Samsung will supply Apple with liquid crystal displays, mobile application processors and NAND flash memory chips used for the U.S. company's iPhones and iPads.

If the contract pushes through, Apple will become Samsung's largest customer, the paper added.

The Apple-Samsung relationship is an interesting one, given its size and the growing competition between the two companies with devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Android-powered smartphones going head-to-head against the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung has long provided an array of parts for Apple's iOS devices, including displays, flash memory, and even Apple's A4 chip. The company's Super PLS display technology has been rumored to be under consideration for use by Apple in upcoming iPad models, although Apple has also been rumored to be locking in multiple other vendors for displays for upcoming devices.

The Loop's Jim Dalrymple offers his thoughts on the rumored forthcoming MobileMe overhaul, sharing his belief that rather than utilizing a true "cloud-based" strategy in which Apple hosts all of a user's data on its own servers and sends it to devices as needed, MobileMe will instead become the "brains" of a service that taps the user's own home computer for hosting the content.

Is Apple going to give us all 100GB of cloud storage to host our music, backups and sync data? That seems a bit much to me. Here's what I think will happen with Apple's new MobileMe service.

Instead of trying to provide everyone with cloud storage, I believe Apple will use MobileMe as the brain of the cloud service. The actual storage will be on our individual machines. In effect, in the cloud.

Dalrymple suggests that this sort of personal cloud will include the expected audio and video media, but also files and documents, along with a syncing service to allow changes made on any device to be automatically reflected across all machines. He also suggests that rumors of the service becoming free may not entirely come to fruition, with portions of the functionality likely still requiring a paid subscription.

We have questions about how such a service would be embraced by increasingly mobile computer users who are likely to use notebook not always awake and connected to the Internet as their primary machines, but it certainly appears that Apple has something up its sleeve to help users deal with their growing arsenals of connected devices.

Following up on recent reports of a smaller, cheaper iPhone, Cult of Mac claims that Apple will cut costs on the smaller iPhone in large part by drastically slashing the on-board memory of the device and relying on cloud-based content delivery.

Apple decided to lose some of the memory, which is by far the most expensive component of the iPhone (up to one-quarter of the devices cost, according to iSuppli estimates).

By "some" of the memory, we mean ALL of the memory. The iPhone nano will have no memory for onboard storage of media, our source says. It will have only enough memory to buffer media streamed from the cloud.

"I'm talking strictly storage memory here," said our source.

According to the report, the smaller iPhone would pull essentially all of its media through a revamped MobileMe service, reducing the need for significant on-board storage in the same way that the Apple has been able to slash storage on the second-generation Apple TV by shifting to a streaming model.

The report notes that some on-board storage would clearly be required for the operating system itself and other critical system data, including caching of data handed down from the cloud and perhaps storage of photos and videos taken by the device should it include a camera.

We also suspect that such a device would not be able to support the App Store, as Apps depend on locally-stored content, and would thus require significant modification to run from the cloud. Apple may avoid the potential user interface issues of a smaller, lower-resolution screen by simply not allowing third-party apps at all, and opting to use only built-in apps specifically designed for the smaller screen. But given the runaway success of the platform, it would still be surprising for Apple to shift away from an App Store-focused ecosystem for the new device.

The Wall Street Journal has added more details about the rumored MobileMe revamp that is potentially due this summer.

The new service would give users access to their iTunes libraries from, say an iPhone or iPad, instead of requiring that the devices be synced by cable with a computer and use space to store the actual files, the people said. The new service likely would be compatible with the iPhone 4, one of the people said.

The newspaper indicates that users will finally be able to access their iTunes libraries without syncing to their computer. Instead, files would be served wirelessly. There's been a lot of speculation that Apple might move towards "cloud" based music sync and services. Licensing issues are apparently holding up the debut of the service which was originally planned for last year.

Steve Jobs has said in the past that wireless sync services would come eventually.

The Wall Street Journal has updated their previous story, adding some new details about the rumored smaller iPhone.

The person who saw the prototype of the new iPhone said the device was significantly lighter than the iPhone 4 and had an edge-to-edge screen that could be manipulated by touch, as well as a virtual keyboard and voice-based navigation. The person said Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., also plans to upgrade the iPhone 4.

The new phone is said to have an "edge to edge" screen with (obviously) a touch interface. The one possibly new feature appears to be "voice navigation". Apple already offers some rudimentary Voice Control with the current iPhone, so it's not clear if this voice navigation is something really new. The newspaper also adds that the iPhone 4 is also expected to be updated.

The Wall Street Journal seems to confirm an earlier Bloomberg report that Apple is working on a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone due this summer:

One of the people, who saw a prototype of a new iPhone several months ago, said the new device is intended to be sold alongside the current line of iPhones and would be about half the size of the iPhone 4. The phone, one of its codenames is N97, would be available to mobile carriers at about half the price of Apple's main line of iPhones, the person said.

The previous Bloomberg report claimed the price of the smaller iPhone would be $200 without contract, opening the door to the phone possibly being discounted to free with contract. The iPhone Nano rumor has been circulating for years with various case designs and enclosures suggesting at least prototype work had been done on it over the years.

Next, The Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is also working to revamp its MobileMe service. Apple is reportedly considering making MobileMe a free service. The new free service could serve as a digital "locker" for photos and video, or become the focal point for online music.

Both the new smaller iPhone and revamped MobileMe service are expected this summer.

As we approach the expected updates for the MacBook Pro line, we tend to start hearing about possible release dates. There are typically some false starts, so it's hard to be sure, but the first contender for this round appears to be March 1st.

Danish blogger KennethLund.dk claims to have heard from a source in one of the major Danish Apple resellers that MacBook Pro models are on tight supply but that the newly updated models will arrive on March 1st.

March 1st falls on a Tuesday which is typical for Apple's releases. The MacBook Pro was last updated in April of 2010 and is due for an update. While there had been some concern that the new models would be delayed by Intel's manufacturing issues, the latest reports claim that any delay will be minimal.

The MacBook Pro will likely adopt Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors. Many also expect that some of the models may take design cues from the MacBook Airs. The latest MacBook Air moved away from traditional hard drives and are now using smaller SSD sticks to save on space. The MacBook Air has also never included a built-in optical drive in another effort to reduce weight and space.

The Korea Times claims that Samsung may be supplying Liquid Crystal Display panels for the next generation iPad. (via 9to5mac)

According to sources, the company, established in January 2009, is in the final stage of talks on supplying its latest LCD panels for Apples iPad 2, which is expected to be released later this year.

Apple is said to be working on expanding its list of suppliers for the iPad LCD to many firms, including LG Display and others in Japan and Taiwan, other than Samsung.

The article, however, goes on to say that Apple may also be considering the use of Samsung's Super Plane to Line Switching (PLS) technology that was just unveiled in November of 2010.

It was further reported that Apple is interested in Samsung Mobile Displays Super Plane to Line Switching (PLS) displays ― first unveiled in November last year ― which enable the company to deliver more and improved viewing angles.

The main advantage of the PLS display is improved viewing angles over existing IPS displays which are currently used in the iPad. The new screen is also said to be 10% brighter and 15% cheaper to produce, but Samsung has 30 key patents for the technology, so we're not sure how this fits in with Apple's plans to secure multiple suppliers for their LCDs.

Much has been made of Intel's issues with a design error on its new Cougar Point chip used with its Sandy Bridge processors and whether the company's need to produce revised hardware will delay a highly-anticipated refresh of Apple's MacBook Pro lineup.

But a new report from AppleInsider suggests that any delays appear to be minor, on the order of two weeks for machines already in production.

However, one person familiar with the matter tells AppleInsider that some -- not all -- of the company's upcoming MacBook Pros were affected by the situation. According to this person, the Mac maker elected to make minor tweaks to the logic boards of those models, but that those changes would translate to a delay of less than two weeks.

Reading between the lines can only lead to speculation that Apple was an early recipient of some of those Cougar Point chipsets from Intel, and that the changes it's making involve tweaks to SATA ports that those MacBook Pros will utilize.

The report notes that supplies of the MacBook Pro continue to tighten beyond the initial constraints we reported late last month. Notably, Apple had reportedly offered major retailers restocking dates of late January for MacBook Pro models but has since pushed those dates out by a week several times.

Intel has officially announced that it will begin shipping the dual-core Sandy Bridge chips for notebooks on February 20th, with those chips expected to be used in the revised MacBook Pros.

While lines for the public launch of the Verizon iPhone were generally short yesterday, the device had already been making its way into customers' hands through a pre-order program for existing Verizon customers, and many have been wondering just how strong sales of the new device have been.

Mobile ad firm Chitika today announced that it has put together a live tracker showing the relative balance of AT&T and Verizon iPhones showing up on the company's advertising network. The data, which is based on a rolling 24-hour average and is updated hourly, currently shows the Verizon iPhone already grabbing 3% of the U.S. base as measured by the limited study.

We spoke with Chitika's Dan Ruby and asked him if he could come up with a ballpark figure of the number of Verizon iPhones that might already be in circulation. Such an estimate would of course be based on a number of guesses and assumptions, including the percentage of iPhone sales occurring in the U.S., the percentages of phones of given ages still in operation, and even just how representative Chitika's data is of iPhone usage as a whole. But given those constraints and understanding the likelihood of a significant margin of error, Ruby offered an estimate in the range of 900,000 Verizon iPhones currently in use.

While Verizon is continuing to grow its base of iPhone users from scratch, AT&T has continued its push to retain its iPhone customers with a new initiative of its own. According to 9 to 5 Mac and AppAdvice, AT&T has started sending text messages to some iPhone users offering them 1000 free rollover minutes in appreciation for their business. Customers can accept the offer by responding "YES" to the 11113020 number from which the text message comes. A number of users have reported success simply sending "YES" to that number without having received the text message, although the confirmation text notes that it can take up to four weeks for the bonus minutes to be credited to customers' accounts.

Cult of Mac reports that Apple is planning to revamp its system for providing notifications within iOS, looking to address one of the areas of perceived weakness compared to other platforms such as Android and webOS.

Apple's pop-up notification system for new text messages, voicemails and the like has often been criticized as one of the weakest parts of the iOS. Notifications are intrusive, modal and often cryptic. It's a mess.

HP/Palm's webOS banner notification system, on the other hand, has been widely praised for its utility and ease of use. And from this weeks preview, it looks to be getting better.

According to the report, Apple's strategy for the revamp involves acquiring a small iOS development firm that currently offers a notification system in the App Store. While the targeted firm was not identified by the report's source, Cult of Mac speculates that it may be Boxcar from App Remix, which offers an iOS application providing push notifications for a variety of services.

The report also points to last year's return to Apple by Rich Dellinger, inventor of the webOS banner notification system, and notes that many had hoped he would lead an effort to improve Apple's own system. But it appears that Apple has not yet reached that goal and may feel that tapping an outside firm with some expertise in the area could aid the process.

According to The Age, Sony is looking to its new "Music Unlimited" streaming service not only as an opportunity to grab a piece of the digital music pie but also in hopes of one day being able to pull its music from Apple's iTunes Store entirely.

If Music Unlimited becomes popular it will provide a credible alternative to iTunes for music publishers, including Sony Music Entertainment, which includes Bob Dylan, Beyonce, Guy Sebastian and Delta Goodrem in its stable of artists.

''If we do [get mass take up] then does Sony Music need to provide content to iTunes?'' Mr Ephraim asked. ''Currently we do. We have to provide it to iTunes as that's the format right now.

''Publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and they are looking for other delivery systems, and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold.''

Apple and Sony have recently faced off over App Store content as well, with Apple reportedly rejecting Sony's eBook software from the App Store due to new enforcement of Apple's rules requiring content purchases to be made available through the company's in-app purchasing mechanism.

Apple itself has been rumored many times over the years to be developing a subscription and/or streaming music service, presumably utilizing the capacity of its new North Carolina data center, but the company has reportedly yet to get music labels on board with the plan.

Sony's goal of pulling music from iTunes is of course dependent on a viable alternative such as Music Unlimited developing, something that has yet to occur as evidenced by Apple continuing to hold the lion's share of the digital music market.

CNet reports that Apple will be updating the MacBook Air this June with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors.

The MacBook Air refresh is expected in June, according to a source familiar with Apple's plans.

Sandy Bridge is the latest processor from Intel and would represent a significant upgrade for Apple's MacBook Air. The MacBook Air has been a generation behind in terms of Intel's processors.

It's believed that Apple chose to stick with Intel's Core 2 Duo processor in the MacBook Air because they could pair it with the more powerful NVIDIA integrated graphics chip rather than Intel's less powerful solution. With Sandy Bridge, however, Intel has upgraded their integrated graphics hardware performance to be more on par with NVIDIA's. CNet believes that the expected MacBook Pro updates may come earlier and are not necessarily tied with the MacBook Air revision.

Making official what has been widely expected for days, Nokia and Microsoft have announced that the two companies are teaming up in the smartphone market, with Nokia embracing Windows Phone as its "primary smartphone strategy" while contributing its own expertise to further development of the platform.

While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here's a quick summary of what we are working towards:

- Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

- Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

- Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

Nokia has long been the world's smartphone market share leader with its Symbian platform, but the company's dominant lead has been quickly evaporating as iOS and Android have rapidly grown. From the other perspective, Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 platform has been fairly well regarded by reviewers, but has yet to catch on as a latecomer to the increasingly crowded smartphone space.

A purported memo from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop published earlier this week outlined the challenges faced by Nokia in a smartphone market that has shifted from a battle of devices to a battle of "ecosystems", a theme echoed in the public statements made today in support of the partnership with Microsoft.

In a brief report on declining shipments in Taiwan's notebook manufacturing segment, DigiTimes claims that Apple and Samsung are the only major notebook companies increasing production over the year ago quarter, with the notebook industry as a whole reportedly targeting flat production compared with the year-ago quarter and down 5-10% from last quarter.

Apple is seen as one of the biggest boosts to the notebook market, with the company reportedly seeking to as much as double production of some "hot-selling" notebook models.

Samsung has been performing better than other brands by taking up deliveries from the suppliers, the sources noted, adding that Apple reportedly is revising upward its orders with the volume of some hot-selling models being doubled.

Apple has been widely rumored to be on the verge of releasing new MacBook Pro models, which could explain such a significant ramp up in production as the company seeks to fill sales channels with the new models and stay ahead of customer demand. Despite dealing with a "design error" that has set back chipset production, Intel has announced a February 20th shipping date for the dual-core Sandy Bridge processors expected to be used in the next-generation MacBook Pro.