Category Archives: Apple

Top 25 Latest Rumours, News and Announcements for Wednesday 27th August 2014

Below are details of rumours and announcements since yesterday.

1) HTC teases a 64 bit, 8 core phone for China. And then HTC announced the LTE-equipped Desire 510 for a worldwide launch. The 510 is a 4.7-inch device with a fresh plastic design in either white or navy blue.
The Desire 510 pulls design notes from both the Desire 816 and 610, but has much lower-end specs with a 4.7-inch display of 480 x 854 (FWVGA), Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage (SDcard expandable) and a simple 5MP camera, Android 4.4 and Sense 6.
HTC_Desire_510_PerRight_White

2) Samsung opens registration for its Developer Conference 11-13 November at the Moscone West Centre in San Francisco. And it costs $499.

3) California law is now changed – every cellphone sold in California will now have to include a remote disabling option that lets you render a stolen device unusable. More importantly, this antitheft security measure will have to come enabled by default.

4) Moto Luge leaked by TKTechnews. Looks like a rebranded Moto R from a few years ago.
luge

5) Windows Phones dealt a blow by Huawei. Wall Street Journal reported that Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s consumer business group, that although his company would be interested in building handsets based on another OS, it just makes no sense to do so right now because it’s found that consumers don’t want to buy Windows Phones.

6) Ralph Lauren is making a move in to the wearable devices market this week, as a number of ball boys and one player at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships are outfitted with new, iOS-connected nylon shirts that track health and fitness data.

7) Rumoured Phosphorus coprocessor for the iPhone 6 will be able to track information from various wearables and other built-in sensors that provide heart rate, cholesterol, blood sugar and calorie levels

8) iPhone 6S rumour – It will feature the new A9 chip that will be a 16 nanometer chipset

9) Huawei stops backing Tizen. Says it has no future.

10) Sony announces the M2 Aqua. The worlds most waterproof and dustproof phone. IP65, IP68. Other specs include a 4.8-inch qHD display (540 x 960 pixels), a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, an Adreno 305 GPU, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel Exmor RS rear-facing camera, 8GB of expandable storage, 4G LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 2,330 mAh non-removable battery.12_Xperia_M2_Aqua-578-80

11) Google releases Slides for iOS to complete its Office editing apps for iOS.

12) Motorola to releases updated SKIP as a keychain fob.

13) Sony releases the DSC-KW1. A camera that looks like perfume bottle.
sony
KW1 comes with a 3.3-inch OLED display to go with a 19.2 MP camera. The camera is equipped with a 21mm f2.0 lens that can be rotated 180 degrees.

16) Google on track for releasing Android One next month. Android One is supposed to be capable of offering the most recent, powerful software experience to low-end specced phones. Specs go, expect 5 MP camera, 1700 mAh battery, 1 GB RAM, and a Snapdragon 400-ish processor. The price these devices will be sold at will span from $115 to $165.

17) Moto G2 specs revealed – screen 5 inch 720p, thinner bezels, 8mp camera, micro sd, front speakers, snapdragon 400, 1gb ram, changeable back covers – bargain phone
Moto-G2-teaser-580-90

18) Via Appleinsider – Apple has a new patent granted by the USPTO that describes various control mechanisms that could be used with flexible displays, to replace components such as physical buttons with more durable and resilient alternatives, and to create alternate means for detecting sound output, providing haptic feedback and even performing other tricks like making it easier to open a MacBook lid.

19) Huawei to launch the Ascend Mate 7 at IFA 2014 – a 6 inch phablet, with fingerprint recognition and car integration. Other specs include 8 GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 2 GB RAM, 13 MP camera at the front and a 5 MP rear shooter along with Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Huawei is also said to be launching a sapphire display version of the Ascend P7 at the IFA

20) Bloomberg reports – Apple to release massive 12.9 inch iPad in early 2015. Now would you buy this huge tablet? Certainly seems like Apple is not going to let Samsung take control of this larger tablet size too.

21) Amazon Fire Phone likely to only have sold 35,000 units. Source Engadget.

22) Archos launches ahead of IFA 2014 connected weather station, light bulbs and beanies. The weather station will monitor temp inside and outside, include plant sensors. The Weather station will track temperature, humidity, air quality, atmospheric pressure, and noise levels. The Archos Weather Station system is expected to be available in September for $149. Sounds similar to the Netatmo Weather station. The Archos Music Light is a combination LED bulb and Bluetooth speaker that screws into an standard Edison socket for both illumination and tunes for $49. Only the music can be controlled.

23) Archos has announced some budget phones.The 5-inch 50b Platinum smartphone available next month for £119. The smaller 45c Platinum will launch around the same time for £99, and the 101 Oxygen will be following up in October for £199. The Platinum will run Android KitKat, have a quad-core processor, dual SIM support, and an 8 megapixel primary camera. The 101 Oxygen will have a 1080p display, 1.5 GB of RAM, and run on a quad-core A17 ARM processor. More info at Archos http://www.archos.com/gb/products/smartphones/index.html?#idplatinum
archos_50bplatinum

September Gadget and Smartphone Madness Begins Today

There are going to be an outrageous amount of leaks, rumours and then a wave of new hardware being announced. Rather than clog up the news with individual posts over the next few weeks I am going to try an experiment and create a single concise post summarising all the tech snippets.

This single post will go live everyday at 6.30am UK time.

Obviously, if there is any new hardware worthy of an individual post then this be created.

In addition, there will be lots of new hardware device reviews in the months of September and October. So stay tuned.

Phones Show Chat 5th Anniversary – Podcast & Hangout

Yesterday, I was a guest along with a number of other people on the Phones Show Chat Podcast, number 253. This was also the 5th Anniversary podcast, so a special Video Hangouts On Air was produced.

If you wish to just listen to the audio only, click here for all the info and download links. http://stevelitchfield.com/sshow/chat.html

Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast is now live – Please RT

As you know, I co-host a weekly podcast with David from UKMobileTech called Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast. It is a light hearted tech podcast broadcast bi-weekly. To subscribe click here for iTunes or copy and paste this link into your favourite podcast app.

Episode 22 is now live for your listening pleasure.

Google Photo Sphere Camera app for iPhone – download link and details

Google has launched Photo Sphere Camera app for iOS iPhone users. Already available for android users since 2012, it finally has landed on iOS. The app is optimised for the iPhone 5S, but will work from the iPhone 4S running iOS 7 and upwards.

iPhone users can now take panoramic 360-degree photos and post them on Google Maps. So head over to the iTunes App Store https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/photo-sphere-camera/id904418768?mt=8

Revised Royalty Payments to hurt Apple and Beats Music?

Via Appleinsider.com

“The U.S. Justice Department is in the process of deciding whether to revise the laws regarding music royalty rates — changes that could have an effect on Apple’s streaming music offerings Beats Music and iTunes Radio.

The music industry is currently trying to overturn the current licensing rules, which are heavily regulated by the government. At the moment, the industry is required to license songs to anyone who wishes to rebroadcast at a reasonable rate.

The two performance-rights organizations that represent the music industry are the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and Broadcast Music, Inc., both of which have been around for decades. Restrictions were originally placed on the companies around World War II because of monopolistic practices, but now both ASCAP and BMI are attempting to have some of those restrictions limited, which would give them more flexibility in setting the prices for music rights.

If ASCAP and BMI are successful, analyst Rod Hall of J.P. Morgan expects the outcome to hurt Apple, which is attempting to gain a stronghold on the streaming music market with its iTunes Radio streaming service, and Beats Music on-demand subscription offering.

“Upward pressure on streaming costs could be a negative for Apple’s newly acquired Beats Music unit,” Hall said in a note to investors on Friday, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider. “Typically, attempting to pass this sort of cost increase through to customers after the low price Genie is out of the bottle is tough in a competitive environment.”

As the DOJ weighs the case, GigaOm this week offered a summary of how relaxing regulation on BMI and ASCAP would hurt streaming services like Apple’s, along with market leader Pandora. Currently, the controlled royalty rates are at 1.7 percent of revenues for terrestrial radio stations, and 1.85 percent for Pandora.

But Pandora actually paid about 53 percent of its total revenue in royalties in 2013, because services like it and iTunes Radio must also pay for “sound recording rights.” Terrestrial radio stations have avoided such fees thanks to their longstanding stature in American society and accompanying political clout.”

This will be interesting to see where this case goes.

iPhone 6 – new possible storage options

Based on leaked schematics, it is possible that the new iPhone will be available in 128gb storage option.

Whats more interesting is that the 32gb version may be dropped. So that means 16gb, 64gb and 128gb. If this sounds odd it is not as peculiar as you think. Many Chinese Phone manufacturers offer either 16gb or 64gb storage phones.

9th September cannot come quick enough to see what exactly Apple has in store for everyone.

Apple iPhone 6 – more information

iphone6

The above depicts what the iPhone 6 could look like using the screen and frame panels. Based on the latest iOS 8 beta, we could be looking at a homescreen with an extra column and maybe one or two more rows. Based on Field & Yolks calculations, the iPhone 6 could have resolution of 960 x 1704. The current iPhone display resolution is 640 x 1136. If that is the case, that only translates into 359 PPI. As a bit of perspective the 5.5 inch screen on the LG G3 has 540 PPI. Somehow, I doubt the authenticity of the models and calculations. If this is the case, then the next iPhone will be way behind some of its competitors screens.

So what do you think?

Source – http://www.macrumors.com/2014/08/19/iphone-6-front-panel-rear-shell-assembled/

Has Apple redesigned the USB connector and made it reversible?

cable

Apple leaker Sonny Dickson is claiming that Apple’s new Lightning cables could get reversible on both ends.

The next standard for USB has reversible cables in mind, but Apple’s new cables instead of having pins that take up roughly half of the connector’s mouth, the new cables appear to have a thinner layer of pins that floats in the centre of the connector. If this is true this is a rather neat modification.

Why I won’t buy another android phone unless it has 32gb internal storage

Google and it’s latest version of software KitKat changed how external micro sd card can be used.

What does this mean? External micro sd cards can really only be used for your music, photos, films and documents so long as the app has been updated properly. There was a lot of negative noise about this change but I believe it is for the best. Delete an app, and it also deletes all it’s contents on its dedicated folders both in internal and external storage. It also provides better security as an app can only read content from its own folders.

Anyway, I currently have the LG G3 with 32gb storage/3gb ram and with a 64gb micro sd card. That will soon be a 128gb card giving me 160gb storage.

But the key is the internal memory. This is needed for installing apps and in some cases the apps databases which might only work on the internal storage. It’s worth remembering that if you buy a phone with 16gb storage it will only have somewhere between 8-11gb free. From memory my 32gb G3 had about 25gb free. One of my previous devices was a Samsung Note 3. This had about 24gb free. And boy what a difference it makes having this amount of space free with the added expansion of the micro sd card.

So having a large amount of storage is a wonderful feeling. You’re find me dancing in the streets so happy I’ve got all the free storage. Well figuratively speaking 🙂

Yesterday, I had some spare time, so I looked at my Google Play wish list of apps, games and media. After a few hours I had downloaded several decent games and mapping software. All in all with the size of the games, apps and their respective databases I needed about 2gb. The mapping software in particular was a significant download for the offline terrain maps of Dartmoor. So I checked after installing everything and my storage stats showed I had used 16gb for apps and games with another 4gb for the caches. If I hadn’t had the extra storage provided by a 32gb device there is no way in a million years I could have the current software setup.

My LG G3 key software setup comprises gps and mapping, weather and weather station management, home automation, gaming and game controllers, camera and advanced photo editing, social networking, office and office documents, shopping services, health and fitness devices and tracking and web browsing and news gathering. There are a few other smaller functions like using the G3 as my infra red remote control for my TV etc… But with all this functionality is the need for storage.

So I have vowed never to buy an android phone unless it’s 32gb with micro sd card expansion. I actually now realise that a 64gb iPhone 6 would not allow me enough space to manage my phone requirements, hence why it’s not on my current short list. And if Apple realise a 128gb iPhone it will just be too expensive.