Apple: come see out latest creation

Official confirmation that Apple will be announcing a new product on January 27 has finally come: Engadget reports that Apple has begun sending out invitations for 10:00 in the morning at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Although there is no information as to what the event will be for, expectations are pretty much universal that Apple will announce its new tablet a week from Wednesday, and that it will begin shipping in a few months.

It had been revealed last month that Apple had reserved the downtown arts center for several days next week. Initial speculation was that the announcement would be made on January 26, but The Wall Street Journal's Jon Paczkowski said at the beginning of this month that his sources said that the date had been fixed as January 27, a week from Wednesday. Apple had often made new product announcements on Tuesdays, but broke that mold last year when it scheduled the "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" event on Wednesday, September 9.

Last month, the Silicon Valley Insider's business page shared reports that developers had been asked to provide larger-sized demos of their apps for a 10-inch tablet screen. The French site Mac4Ever reported that the new iPhone SDK included a sort of "simulator" enabling devs to easily port their apps from the iPhone's screen to a larger screen. Also expected at this even is the announcement of iPhone OS 4.0, which will be the operating system used on the new device.

Most sources predict that the tablet will begin shipping in March.

source: modmyi

iPhone OS 4 on its way

A new report suggests that iPhone OS 4.0 could be close to release, months before it would normally be expected. Apple has heretofore only released new firmware with new phone models. However, CNET reports that a "prominent" app developer says he's got the new SDK and has updated his app already. In the past, Apple has provided developer previews in March for new OS versions that are then released in June or July.

Rick Broida, who writes iPhone Atlas for CNET, noted today that he had gotten an email from a dev claiming that he's got a hold of iPhone OS 4.0:

The message includes the following snippet: "Just wanted to give you a heads up that we've submitted an updated app for the new iPhone OS 4.0 software."
Rumers have swirled ahead of the expected Apple tablet announcement later this month. An event - which is still unscheduled and unconfirmed - is supposedly going to happen at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with the date variously being set as January 26 or January 27. The French site Mac4Ever said that the tablet announcement would be accompanied by an announcement of an iPhone 4.0 beta, which is purported to include a "simulator" mode that would allow apps to be run on larger screens. Some developers were said to have been given beta SDKs ahead of the announcement so that they could prepare demos to be shown at the event.

The website iPodNN had noted speculation on Wednesday that the iPhone OS update was being held back until the tablet was announced because the build contained too many references to the still-unannounced device.

Source: modmyi

iPhone 4G to have a Touch Sensitive Case??

As the tablet becomes (apparently) closer and closer to reality, rumor-mongers are turning their attention to the fourth generation iPhone. As Apple has updated the phone every year since it was first introduced in 2007, the expectation is that there will be a new iPhone this summer. Recent rumors have had the so-called iPhone 4G coming in a Verizon-compatible CDMA model in addition to the current UMTS/GSM device, and with a videoconferencing ability, among other guesses. The latest is somewhat unexpected: that the phone will have multi-touch capabilities built into its case, turning the phone into what is essentially a mobile version of the recently released Magic Mouse.

Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen said, in an interview with Bloomberg, that the new iPhone will have a touch-sensitive plastic case and a five-megapixel camera. Chen, touted by Bloomberg as "a member of Asia’s top-ranked technology hardware research team" says this would bring multi-touch and gesture controls on the rear of the iPhone that are like the Magic Mouse's. “Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” he said.

The analyst also told Bloomberg that he thinks that the phone will go into production in April in time for a June launch, right on track with Apple's historical schedule: the original iPhone was released in June 2007, with the 3G coming in July of 2008 and followed by the 3GS last June.

Though a back-controlled phone seems counter-intuitive, Apple applied for a patent back in 2006 for what it referred to as an "Electronic Device Having Display and Surrounding Touch Sensitive Bezel for User Interface and Control." The patent showed a dual-sided, touch sensitive device that is all display on the front, with the touch-sensitive back and sides of the device used for the controls. It said that by this method, more of the screen can be used for displaying graphics, with control buttons embedded in the touch surface. In certain contexts, though, where using the sides would be impractical because the user is gripping the device, on-screen buttons would be used.

Though the touch-sensitive case rumor is new, other sources have reported that Apple is purchasing five-megapixel sensors from a Taiwanese supplier for use in the next-generation iPhone

Source: Modmyi

Rumors of Dual Core Processor in iPhone 4G

Ahead of the expected mid-year launch of Apple's fourth-generation iPhone, the expected crop of rumors and leaks have begun to surface. Today, in a report in The Korea Times, an anonymous source at the South Korean wireless carrier KT Telecom is saying that the iPhone 4G could arrive as early as April of this year, equipped with a powerful dual-core processor, improved graphics and video-chat capability... and, unexpectedly, with a removable battery.

Quoting a "high ranking executive" at Apple's exclusive South Korean carrier, the Korea Times report asserts that KT and Apple have been in talks over when the device will come to market. KT reportedly wants to sell the new phone to its large corporate clients in April, in what it calls (somewhat confusingly) a "litmus test." It's claimed that an early introduction to the Korean market will be necessary to counter a rush to Android devices. According to the executive, Apple and KT had reached “a broad consensus to introduce the advanced models as early as possible.” After the "test," regular customers would be able to buy the iPhone 4G in June, which is closer to the usual midsummer timeframe for the release of new iPhone models.

The report also claims that the iPhone 4G will have a dual-core processor as well as an upgraded graphics engine, and sport an improved OLED display. Though no specifics were mentioned in the article, it has often been speculated that the next-generation iPhone would use the new ARM Cortex A9 CPU with a PowerVR SGX545 graphics core. The Korea Times article also flags a removable battery as “highly likely”, as well as video-conferencing capability, which would suggest that the phone would include a front-facing camera. An improved still camera is also supposedly on tap for the new device.

Horizontal Scrolling Dock for iPhone

Infinidock, a new project by chpwn, allows you to add additional applications to your iPhone dock and scroll them horizontally. This application is now available through Cydia for $0.99

For anyone who has ever wanted to have more than 5 icons in their dock without it looking silly, this is the tool you need. Simply drag and drop the icons into the Dock. You will then be able to swipe to scroll through the icons as they remain in your dock on each page.

Full dock customization: scrolling, adjustable icon amounts, and more! Add as many icons as you want, and the dock will grow to accommodate them, and set how many you want on every page. The ultimate dock customization tool, by one of the developers of ProSwitcher. Please report all bugs and submit all feature requests via email so we can take a look!