Harder, better, faster, longer -- that seems to be Apple's mantra for its new iPhone, which has had its supposed casing snapped alongside the current iPhone 4S.
Japanese blog Macotakara made the comparison, which points to a device that's a good deal longer than the existing model, and sporting a display that's about 4 inches on the diagonal.
Snaps of what could be the casing for Apple's upcoming toy appeared several days ago, sporting a striped metallic look. Those images were followed swiftly by blueprints that matched that elongated design. These new snaps suggest Apple's next effort will be a healthy chunk taller, but not significantly wider than the iPhone 4S.
There's a video comparison too, which I've embedded below.
There's no way of telling whether this casing is the genuine article -- it could be a fake, or a prototype design that's somehow found its way into the wild. The panel does chime with earlier reports from the Wall Street Journal that the next iPhone would have at least a 4-inch display.
It also matches rumours that Apple's sixth smart phone (likely to be called the 'new iPhone' following recent iPad naming convention) will have a 16:9 aspect ratio when you spin it on its side, granting owners a widescreen view of funny animal videos.
A thinner, lighter phone wouldn't go amiss, as compared to new mobiles such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, the iPhone 4S is starting to feel rather hefty.
Indeed, with Samsung's new toy now lining the pockets of Android fans, the ball is in Apple's court to blow us away with its next smart phone. Would this baton-style design be enough to keep iOS devotees happy? I'm not sure myself. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Facebook wall.
Motorola’s smart watch gets social with improvements - Gigaom.com
I like Motorola’s approach to this class of device because while I’ve seen and tested a number of wearable connected devices, few have delivered either a positive experience, wide range of useful features, or both. Instead of putting out a half-baked product, Motorola designed and marketed the MotoActv to fitness enthusiasts from the beginning and recently added golf functions while a few smart watch functions went along for the ride. And even those — notifications for email, text messages and caller ID — were first limited to Motorola-branded phones.
motoactv_mr7_facebook
Eventually, the smart watch features were extended to all Android phones, not just those made by Motorola. The company also fixed initial battery issues and at that point, I bought myself a MotoActv for my daily running: The integrated GPS provides route, elevation, pace and time. Once I realized the accelerometer could track steps, I ended up wearing the MotoActv every day, and I still do. But I haven’t been using the phone notification feature. Now that the updated device includes support for Facebook and Twitter, I may enable that feature.
I’ll also be taking full advantage of the more detailed golf tracking included in this software update. Ironically, I just played 9 holes with the watch yesterday, using it to track every shot on the course (and there were quite a few of them!). Here’s an example of the data tracking:
But I had commented to a fellow golfer during the round that I wish the MotoActv didn’t treat all putts the same: It only captures how many putts used on each hole. Lo and behold, just a day later, the new software update allows putt tracking for short, medium and long putts, making the data capture even more useful.
Interesting to me is how Motorola still isn’t positioning the MotoActv as a smart watch, although I think most would consider it one if they knew the capabilities. Then again, many people haven’t yet heard of smart watches. It’s a clever move to instead market the device as a known item — a fitness tracker — and then keep adding smartphone-assisted functions and other improvements. Motorola’s MotoActv may be the best smart watch to date; just don’t call it a smart watch!
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Motorola launches triple-SIM MOTOKEY 3-CHIP for Brazil - gsmarena.com
Motorola has just unveiled a new addition to its mobile phone portfolio and it's a pretty strange device. The new handset is a featurephone called Motorola MOTOKEY 3-CHIP and has 3 SIM card slots as its key selling point.
The other highlights of the MOTOKEY 3-CHIP are a full physical QWERTY keyboard a 2 MP camera, an FM radio receiver and a microSD card slot. The handset will have a 2GB microSD card included in its retail package.
Motorola MOTOKEY 3-CHIP
Being a simple featurephone, the Motorola MOTOKEY 3-CHIP doesn't even offer a touch-enabled display. Also just one of its SIMs may be used for transferring data at a time, with the other two available only for telephony and messaging.
The MOTOKEY 3-CHIP will only be available on the Brazilian market from the first week of June. The suggested retail price of the handset is 349 BRL (around $171).
New iPhone 5 specs 'outed' – is it enough power? - Techradar.com
We may have heard some of the iPhone 5's early specs if a new leak is to be believed.
We may not know the release date of Apple's newest smartphone, but according to a leak from 9to5Mac the new handset will be packing a new CPU to provide next-generation speeds.
According to the tip, the CPU will be the sexily-monikered S5L8950X – whether Apple would see fit to jump on the quad core bandwagon remains to be seen as there's no indication of clock speed here.
Update or not?
However, the leaked chip name still works with the A5 label, which sounds like it might not be a huge update from the dual-core chip seen in the iPhone 4S, although 9to5Mac posits this may be because it's working on a low-power 32nm chip.
It will also likely be coming with 1GB of RAM, in a similar fashion to the new iPad 3, which probably won't stay at the sharp end of the market for long (we're already seeing 2GB variants of the Galaxy S3).
But before crowing about how underpowered the iPhone 5 will be, remember Apple's always been fairly resource-light with its iOS platform and signs are pointing to an even more advanced and agile platform in iOS 6.
So the upshot of this possible leak: the iPhone 5 will have just enough of a specs update to make it next-gen, but not as much as the rest of the market. Hardly a shock, right?
From 9to5Mac
Cricket gets prepaid iPhone; Available in Utah - ksl.com
NEW YORK (AP) - Leap Wireless International Inc., the parent of the Cricket cellphone service, on Thursday said it will be the first mainland U.S. phone company to sell recent iPhone models on a prepaid, no-contract basis.
Starting June 22, Leap will sell the iPhone 4S starting at $500 and the iPhone 4 starting at $400. Service will cost $55 per month for unlimited calls, texting and data.
Leap Wireless International Inc., which is based in San Diego, focuses on selling no-contract service to low- income households. Its own network is limited to certain cities. In other places, it uses Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network.
The iPhone is compatible with only part of Leap's network, and the company is limiting sales to those areas, which include Houston and Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; Pittsburgh; Denver; and Salt Lake City.
Leap said the arrangement will be available in areas covering about 70 percent of its 6.2 million subscribers. Leap is the sixth-largest cellphone company in the U.S., as measured by number of subscribers.
Open Mobile, which serves Puerto Rico, became the first U.S. company to start selling the iPhone 4 and 4s on a no- contract, prepaid basis on May 18.
When the original iPhone launched in 2007, buyers could chose to set it up directly on an AT&T prepaid plan, But that option disappeared with later models. It has been possible to use imported or hacked "unlocked" phones on prepaid plans as well.
Leap's "unlimited" data service for the phone slows down once a customer user has racked up 2.3 gigabytes of usage since the start of a monthly billing cycle. That's a slightly lower limit than either Verizon or AT&T imposes under their "unlimited" plans.
Apple sells the iPhone at an average wholesale price of $647. The bigger phone companies then subsidize it by hundreds of dollars to sell it for $99 or $199. They count on making their money back in service fees over the life of a two-year contract. Since Leap sells the phone without a contract, it's subsidizing the phone less.
Larger carriers also sell the iPhone without a contract plan. But those phones cost more than iPhones bought through plans, and service costs the same as for phones used on a contract plan. Leap's plan is cheaper than what most iPhone customers pay.
Since the iPhone is so expensive, it's not a given that it's a good deal for a phone company to sell it. In a presentation to investors, Leap said it has committed $900 million over three years to buying iPhones. That's just 10 percent of its projected spending on phones, it said, and it doesn't expect iPhone sales to affect its operating income this year.
"We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think it was a money maker," said Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson, in an interview. But because of the high price of the phone, he doesn't expect that more than 10 percent of the company's customers will buy it.
"This is an important addition to our portfolio, but it isn't going to become our business," Hutcheson said.
Leap sells smartphones running Google Inc.'s Android software for $100, and sometimes even less.
Investors initially cheered the news, sending Leap shares up in premarket trading, but the stock closed unchanged at $5.77.
The iPhone is hugely popular, but its price has kept it out of reach of many people who want it, across the world. When asked whether they could produce a cheaper model to satisfy demand, Apple executives have said that their first priority is making a good phone.
Missing from Leap's iPhone lineup is the 3GS, an older model that's still sold by AT&T. It's cheaper than the newer models, but doesn't work with Leap's or Sprint's networks.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and Sprint, the three biggest cellphone companies in the U.S., already sell the iPhone, as do a half-dozen smaller, regional phone companies. The biggest companies that don't carry it are T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications Inc. U.S. Cellular Corp., another regional carrier, said it turned down the chance to sell the phone because of its cost.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S III renders surface, complete with physical home button in tow - PhoneDog
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Hot on the heels of news that the T-Mobile Galaxy S II's Android 4.0 update is near, some more Samsung Galaxy goodness has made its way online. The folks at The Verge have gotten hold of some renders purportedly showing off a T-Mobile-branded ...T-Mobile’s Galaxy S III May Not Get A Facelift Before It Launches In The U.S. - TechCrunch
When the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S II made their respective journeys to the United States, they lost a little something that international customers have enjoyed since the beginning: the physical home button.
According to some new images obtained by The Verge though, that era may be drawing to a close, as T-Mobile’s GSIII variant may sport that home button after all.
It may seem like a minor thing to get worked up over (because it is), but it’s a considerable shift from the four-capacitive-button days of yore. Those design changes were mandated by carriers, and if true, these new images may mean that Samsung is flexing their muscle as the most prolific smartphone manufacturer in the world. That could also mean that the models meant for other carriers will sport a similarly untouched design, and I get the feeling it won’t be long before they start popping up in the wild.
Though the device’s looks may not have changed, you can bet the internals are at least slightly different from the international model. Samsung Mobile chief J.K. Shin noted at the company’s London launch event that the North American variants would be 4G-capable, but that raises another question about T-Mobile’s version — will it have an LTE radio?
T-Mobile’s made it clear recently that they’re working on getting their own LTE network up and running, but it isn’t expected to go live until some time next year. Meanwhile, Verizon, AT&T, and even Sprint have either already lit up their LTE networks or are right on the verge of making it happen. T-Mobile could certainly try and pull a Sprint by releasing LTE-capable hardware ahead of the network actually going live, but I somehow don’t think they’re that bold.
It wouldn’t be the first time a T-Mobile Galaxy device would have its insides changed — when the three domestic GSII flavors were revealed last year, the T-Mobile version remained awfully mum about the device and went as far as locking their demo unit up in an acrylic cage so as not to be manhandled. While the AT&T and Sprint models both sported Samsung’s own Exynos processor, T-Mobile’s was later revealed to be running on a Qualcomm chipset that allowed it to take advantage of the carrier’s HSPA+ 42 coverage.
All that geekery aside, there’s still no official launch date on the books this little looker, but with a Canadian release slated for June 20 we can’t be too far behind. Here’s hoping Samsung has ironed those issues with their hyperglaze finish though, because the last thing they need is to launch some peculiar looking hardware.
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