Rumors about Apple

Bloomberg reports that Steve Jobs was intimately involved in the design work for the next-generation iPhone scheduled for release later this year, reiterating claims that the device will be a substantial change from previous designs in part because of a larger display.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has placed orders from suppliers in Asia for screens that are bigger than the 3.5- inch size now on the smartphone, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had worked closely on the redesigned phone before his death in October, one person said. [...]

Apple has been working on the new device since before the current iPhone 4S model was introduced last October, said one person with knowledge of the project. Jobs, who had gone on medical leave from Apple starting last January, played a key role in developing the phone, this person said.

Bloomberg becomes the third major publication to offer an independent report this week regarding a larger display for the next iPhone, following The Wall Street Journal and Reuters yesterday.





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Time Warner Cable and Viacom have settled their legal entanglements regarding Time Warner’s streaming of Viacom video content on its iPad app, according to the New York Times.

The breakthrough comes as a result of a settlement between Time Warner Cable and Viacom, which owns cable channels like Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and others. For months there had been a heated dispute over whether the cable company should have access to Viacom programs through its TWCable TV app.



On Wednesday, Viacom said that the companies had agreed “to resolve their pending litigations” and that “all of Viacom’s programming will now be available to Time Warner Cable subscribers for in-home viewing via Internet protocol-enabled devices such as iPads.”

The companies have been fighting over streaming rights for more than a year. Time Warner argued that its existing agreements give it the right to provide video streams on any screen, rather than just the television. Viacom said the app was “unlicensed distribution of Viacom’s programming.” Viacom still has a pending lawsuit with Cablevision over its Optimum live TV app.



Viacom’s programming will roll out on the Time Warner Cable app over the next few weeks.



Time Warner’s app, TWC TV, is available free on the App Store for its cable customers. [Direct Link]





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With long-running rumors of ultra high-resolution “Retina” displays for Apple’s next-generation MacBook Pro receiving a significant boost with reports from several sources surfacing yesterday and similar upgrades now being rumored for the iMac, fans of the MacBook Air have been awaiting word on when they might expect Apple’s smallest Mac notebooks to gain the feature.

9to5Mac now reports that Apple is indeed unsurprisingly planning to bring Retina displays to the MacBook Air, with that upgrade being the most significant change for the next-generation line.

Apple’s new MacBook Air will not see major changes across the entire computer like the next-generation MacBook Pro, but this update will truly be all about the Retina Display. [...]

Apple is preparing both new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models. These new Airs lack notable design changes, but feature fast and power-efficient Ivy Bridge processors and improved graphics engines to support the Retina Display, according to supply chain sources. The new Airs will also use improved Apple internal battery technology in order to support the battery life required by high-pixel-density screens such as the Retina Display, according to sources familiar with prototype versions of the super-thin notebook’s internal components.

The report’s source suggests that the updated MacBook Air is unlikely to appear at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, with Apple still working to meet the Retina display’s power requirements within the MacBook Air’s thin form factor.

Apple is also reportedly undecided on whether it will include USB 3.0 in the next-generation MacBook Air. The USB 3.0 standard, offering higher data transfer speeds, is reportedly being included on the revamped MacBook Pro, but the company is still weighing whether it wants to bring the standard to its lower-priced MacBook Air line.





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The Wall Street Journal briefly reports that Apple is planning to unveil an upgrade to iCloud at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), with one of the main new features being a photo-sharing functionality.

The new features, expected to be announced at Apple’s world-wide developer conference beginning June 11, will allow iCloud users to share sets of photos with other iCloud users and to comment on them, these people said. Currently, users can only store one set of photos in iCloud through a feature called Photo Stream, which is designed to sync those photos to other Apple devices, not share them.

Apple also appears to be looking to extend the Photo Stream feature to videos, allowing users to access their personal videos through iCloud. Finally, the report confirms that the Notes and Reminders icons spotted on a beta.icloud.com site late last week will be associated with new functionality to sync those services via iCloud for access through both dedicated apps and the iCloud website.

All of the new iCloud features are expected to make their way into iOS 6, which is also expected to be previewed at WWDC.





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Part leaks from the next-generation iPhone are beginning to ramp up, with component vendor SW-BOX.com having recently added a new headphone jack/earpiece/Wi-Fi cable part claimed to be from the device (via Cydia Blog). The new part joins a claimed micro-SIM tray that surfaced on the site several weeks ago and home buttons that appeared on several sites late last month.

If the new part is indeed legitimate, it does represent a significant departure from the component organization in the current iPhone. In the iPhone 4 and 4S, the headphone jack, volume buttons, and mute switch are grouped together on a single component, while this new part associates the headphone jack with the earpiece speaker and Wi-Fi cabling.

It is not terribly unusual for Apple to tweak the organization of components, and the new part leak offers essentially no information on any potential changes to the device’s form factor, but with part leaks beginning to accelerate it may not be long before more substantial parts begin showing up.





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Apple is planning on implementing a new, smaller dock connector, according to a report by iMore. The site has been reliable in the past and correctly predicted the release of an LTE equipped iPad. iMore also reported that Apple is still in the prototyping phase for the next iPhone and that the design is not yet set in stone.

Despite some rumors to the contrary, according to our sources Apple still hasn’t finalized the design of the next generation iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling iPhone 5,1). No giant screen. No 16:9 aspect ratio. No metal back.



[…]



Once again we’re hearing that if the screen size does change, it won’t be by a lot (no larger than 4-inches). We’ve heard nothing to indicate a planned change in the aspect ratio either way (and such a change still doesn’t make much sense to us).

iLounge previously claimed that the next iPhone would have a smaller, redesigned dock connector as well as a 4″ screen that is larger in height only — this would result in an adjustment to the screen’s aspect ratio. The iPhone 4′s design has served Apple very well, with the company selling millions upon millions of units. It is possible that the company will choose to stick with the successful design, albeit with some minor changes, rather than a wholesale redesign.



Other recent iPhone rumors include a claims that the next iPhone will launch in September; another that it would use the same micro-SIM as current iPhones, rather than a new nano-SIM concept; and that the next iPhone will retain its physical home button — a claim that iMore reiterates.





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Apple has released a new update for the generation 2 and 3 Apple TV models. The update allows movies and TV show previews from the iTunes Store to be viewed in HD and fixes a few other minor issues.

Apple TV Software Update 5.0.1



iTunes previews – Previews for movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store can now be viewed in HD.

AirPlay – Fixes an issue that caused some iOS apps to have trouble connecting via AirPlay.

Home Sharing – Improves the reliability of Home Sharing connections.

Netflix – Addresses an issue affecting Netflix login and navigation.

Stability and performance – Includes fixes for issues affecting stability and performance.

The update can be performed directly on the Apple TV by going to the Settings menu, then General, then selecting Update Software.





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Apple customers who purchased an iPod between September 12, 2006 and March 31, 2009 are being informed via email that they are being included in a class-action lawsuit filed against Apple in 2004. The lawsuit was granted class-action status by the courts last year and includes millions of customers who purchased any of a broad number of iPod music players. Notices are being distributed to customers covered by the class, directing them to the lawsuit’s webpage.

The class-action suit was filed in January 2005 by a customer complaining about the exclusive nature of Apple’s digital music offerings encoded with FairPlay, preventing users from playing music purchased from the iTunes Store on other companies’ music players and other music stores’ digital offerings from being played on iPods. In particular, Apple’s efforts to thwart RealNetworks’ reverse engineering of FairPlay with its own “Harmony” technology served as the impetus for the lawsuit.

In 2011, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs was instructed to provide a deposition in the case. Apple of course no longer sells DRM-encoded music through the iTunes Store, but the lawsuit argues that Apple sought to build monopolies in the digital music and portable music player markets by integrating its products and services while preventing interoperability with competitors’ products.

Three individuals who bought iPods have sued Apple seeking to recover money for themselves and other people who bought iPods. The lawsuit claims that Apple violated federal and state laws by issuing software updates in 2006 for its iPod that prevented iPods from playing songs not purchased on iTunes. The lawsuit claims that the software updates caused iPod prices to be higher than they otherwise would have been.

The Court in charge of the case is the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and the case is known as In re Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation, C-05-00037-JW.

The list of affected iPods is extensive, including all 5th generation iPods; the iPod Classic; the U2 Special Edition iPod; first, second and third generation iPod Shuffle models; first and second generation iPod Touch models; and, first, second, third and fourth generation iPod Nano models.

Customers who wish to be excluded from the class must inform the court by July 30, 2012. Members of the class who wish register with the court can sign up on the lawsuit’s website.





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Our sister site TouchArcade.com has launched an official iOS app this morning.

TouchArcade is a site focused on game news and reviews for Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platforms. The new iOS app features website content, easy game discovery, user forums, as well as app tracking abilities. Games can be added to your “Watch List” so you can be notified of sales, official reviews, and updates.

Meanwhile, we have already started working with the same app developers (Flexibits) and designer (Bartelme) to begin work on an official MacRumors app. It’s too early to predict a timeframe, but we hope to launch this year.

The TouchArcade app is available now and is free to download. [iTunes Link]





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While there has been much debate about whether Apple will refer to the next-generation iPhone as “iPhone 5″, “iPhone 6″, simply “iPhone”, or something else entirely, Fusible notes that Apple has filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) seeking to gain control of the iPhone5.com domain. WIPO authorities are currently assessing compliance of Apple’s claim with the agency’s regulations, and proceedings are likely to be initiated in the near future.

The iPhone5.com domain currently hosts a very small discussion forum dedicated to discussion of the “iPhone 5″. The forum was launched in October 2010 following the debut of the iPhone 4 earlier in the year.

Apple’s pursuit of the iPhone5.com domain is interesting given how slow the company has been to take action to secure domains related to its previous products. Apple didn’t gain control of iPhone4.com until nearly a year after that device launched and Apple didn’t seek to gain control of iPhone4S.com until several weeks after that device debuted last October. In the latter case, Apple was likely extremely motivated to take control of the domain because it was being used to forward visitors to pornography sites.

Given that Apple typically doesn’t pursue domain names for its products until after they launch, lest their names be revealed ahead of time by the negotiation process, it seems odd that Apple is already seeking to gain control of iPhone5.com. But with “iPhone 5″ having been the name informally attached to Apple’s next iPhone form factor redesign for nearly two years now and still in popular use, the company apparently believes that it should have some control over the name’s usage.





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