iPad 2 Smart Covers inspired by Japanese bath tub lids?

veryone following the iPad 2 announcement is aware of the new Smart Covers for the iPad 2. These flap-like covers attach to the iPad using a magnet and have an accordion-style look. The covers, amusingly enough, also resemble a style of Japanese bath tub lids!

The resemblance is so uncanny that the unveiling of these new cases caused a flurry of bath tub lid comments among Japanese Apple fans (our Rick Martin points to Asiajin's note that the caption above translates as 'Completely Identical,' a common Japanese web meme similar to the English 'Separated at Birth'). Makes you wonder how many unsuspecting Westerners will be the target of quiet snickering when they whip out their Smart Cover-adorned iPad 2 the next time they are in Tokyo.

via: www.tuaw.com

Is this it?? iPad 2

What do you guys think???

Apple iPad 2 to debut March 2 in San Francisco, report says

Apple's next-generation iPad -- unofficially known as iPad 2 -- will be unveiled March 2 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, according to a report.
The Cupertino-based tech giant has sent out no invites as of yet, but the News Corp. website AllThingsD reported Tuesday morning that it had confirmed the date and location.





The first iPad was revealed at a media event, also at the Yerba Buena Center, by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Jan. 27, 2010, and hit stores last April. So far, Apple has sold more than 15 million iPads.
The report offered no word on whether or not Jobs will attend the unveiling of the next iPad.
In January, Jobs announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence to deal with health issues. Jobs remains CEO, but has handed most of his day-to-day duties to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.
Jobs did attend a dinner with President Obama last week, along with a handful of other California tech leaders.
The iPad 2 is widely expected to be thinner and lighter than the current version and add new features such as a front-facing camera for video chatting using Apple's FaceTime software, as well as a possible SD-card slot and camera on the back for shooting video and photos.
Officials at Apple and the Yerba Buena Center were unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Whenever it arrives, the iPad 2 will face a much more competitive market than when the first iPad hit retail outlets.
Google is rolling out its first version of its Android operating system designed for tablets -- called Honeycomb -- Thursday on the Motorola Xoom. By the end of the year, Honeycomb is likely to be on dozens of tablets.
Hewlett-Packard also showed off its HP TouchPad recently, running on its HP WebOS software, and Research In Motion is prepping to release the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet soon as well.

Via: http://www.latimes.com/

WWDC 2011, iPhone 5? iOS 5? to be announced June 5-9? #Retweet

Moscone Center has a “Corporate Meeting” scheduled for June 5 – June 9, 2011 which looks to be the only period long enough to fit in Apple’s annual WWDC(World Wide Developers Conference) event where iPhone 5 and the final version ofiOS 5 would likely be announced. Of course there’s always the possibility of misdirection or last-minute shuffling so until Apple opens up registration we won’t know for sure. Still, it’s something.

Given the typical keynote structure, we’d then be looking for Steve Jobs (or an assortment of Apple execs including Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, etc.) to take the stage on Monday, June 6, a year and a day following the iPhone 4 announcement in 2010.

Yeah, the Verizon iPhone has barely started launching, we haven’t even gotten aniPad 2 announcement or iOS 5 beta preview yet, so it’s a little early to be dreaming about iPhone 5 but still…

Leaks Leaks Leaks Everywhere!!!

www.umpcfever.com [Google translation link] has posted what just might be the first pictures taken of the next generation iPhone… taking pictures. Highlights include the new auto-focus, both how it looks in action and the results of photos taken with it compared to the original iPhone 2G. The new digital compass, and a CPU log are also featured, along with some other new features we’ve already seen from 3.0 running on current iPhone 3G hardware.

Are these for real? We’d guess all of this was merely surfaced in iPhone 3.0 on iPhone 3G… except the iPhone 3G doesn’t have a digital compass and it’s camera doesn’t auto-focus. So, either it’s a combo-ruse, or we have just seen the first images of the next generation iPhone in the wild.

A few more pics below, hit up the source article for all of them…

Something is Leaking at Best Buy!!!

PhoneArena (via Engagdget) was sent a tip that Best Buy has 3 mysterious new product SKU’s listed in their system as “PROJECT CHARLIE”. Why is this important and what does it have to do with iPhones?

ZOMG! We’re 3 weeks before WWDC here people! Everything is iPhone!

Okay, in all fairness, Best Buy is one of the very few big iPhone retailers (aside from Apple, AT&T, and Walmart) and even if they have no direct info from Apple, they could be prepping themselves for a similar launch as last year (iPhone 3G in 8GB, 16GB Black, and 16GB white).

But for the Lost fans among us — 3 SKUs, for the 3rd gen iPhone, 3 weeks beforeWWDC and iPhone OS 3.0? Cue creepy music

UPDATE: Our friend Phil over at WMExperts, throws in a plot twist: what if they’re new Windows Phones?!

Rumors.. iPhone Video Camera Coming??

MacRumors has scored the scoop, showcasing what looks to be actual screen-shot caliber evidence of video recording in iPhone 3.0, and other information showing digital compass technology and voice control coming as well.

Most of these rumors have been around for a while, especially the camera and video recording bumps. A digital compass, like the Android G1 uses to automatically rotate Google Street View when you physically turn the device around, would likely require the next gen iPhone hardware pretty much everyone expects to see come WWDC in June anway. Voice control, especially voice dialing, would be another box checked off the old “missing features” straw-man we — and everyone else — likes to batter about.

With lots of exciting new features still being “discovered”, what other goodies will 3.0 code diving reveal?

Copy and Paste is coming in iPhone 3.0

Here's a short video from SXSW with DiggNation hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose, where Rose goes through a laundry list of iPhone 3.0 features that will allegedly be announced tomorrow during the Apple Press Event.

iTunes iPhone App Management concepts... I need this..

One of my biggest annoyances with my iPhone involves the difficulty of managing my applications. Springboard, the iPhone application that actually displays the different pages of apps, clearly wasn't designed with the intention of managing so many apps. I've long thought, like with other aspects of organizing content on the iPhone, that app management should be possible in iTunes.

Apparently I'm not alone, because this video by svdomer9 shows a nice mockup of how such an iTunes-based app management scheme might work. I really like the idea in general, though I would suggest that there also ought to be a kind of well at the bottom which would hold the applications until they've been assigned to a specific page. Naturally, it would be nice to see a bit more sophistication on the iPhone side as well so that it would be easy to go directly to a given screen (via the roller interface, perhaps) as well as directly send Apps to a given page (e.g. a pop-up menu that would appear when you hold your finger on an App for a few seconds).

Whatever the particulars, it seems that we need something like this on the iPhone going forward. If you had Apple's ear, how would you do it?

[via @pogue]

Is This a Sneak Peek at Google Latitude for the iPhone?

Google recently announced their Latitude service, which lets you and your friends share your location, and while they’ve made it available to some platforms, the iPhone version hasn’t surfaced yet… Or has it?

A tipster has sent us a photo of what looks to be Latitude integrated into the iPhone Map App. Now, we know that Apple, not Google created the Map app. Based on Google’s back-end data, to be sure, but Apple made the interface. So, if Latitude is coming by way of Maps, Apple is going to have to be the one who releases it — and that means it won’t be until another firmware update (2.3 at the earliest, 3.0 at the outside).

However, last we heard Google was going to release it themselves, as part of their awesome (yet controversial) Google Mobile App. If that’s the case, unless they’re planning a massive redesign that happens to look just like the Maps app, then we’re not sure what we’re really looking at up there.

What do you think? Real? Real fake?

And either way, would Latitude be better combined with Maps than with Google Mobile?

via The iPhone Blog

New iPhone Case???

Still months away from June when the next generation of iPhone is expected to be announced/released possible leaked pics of casing design are already popping up on the web. 

If these images are real it appears that the next generation iPhone will do away with the glossy casing and have a matte finish instead. The finish is textured for better gripping. It is also rumored that the rear casing is going to be returning to metal instead of the cheap plastic casing used in the iPhone 3g which has caused many complaints and class action lawsuits due to cracking. Also to note from the pictures it is probable that the next iPhone will have a 16 GB size option -- the question is will that be paired with a 32 GB or a 8 GB. 

Is Microsoft Office coming for iPhone?

Dataviz, well-known for their Palm OS software, are promising to bring MS Office editing to the iPhone via their new app, DocumentsToGo. The app will be demoed at the Mobile World Congress which runs February 16-19 in Barcelona. The app will also run on Android.

Pricing information has not been released, but the app for Palm OS runs $89.99 in its fullest form, with two lighter version at $49.99 (doesn't support Outlook on that version) and $29.99 (missing a ton of features, like Mac-created doc support). It'd be interesting to see if they stay at that price point or try to go lower - they really have no competition in this arena.

The closest competitor at the moment is MobileFiles Pro by Quickoffice, which only allows for editing of Excel files, and reading of other MS Office documents. That app sells for $9.99.

Looks like we'll know more come MWC - we'll let you know then, too. ;)

Premium Game Section in the App Store??

Up until now, Apple has maintained a hands-off approach to the App Store with the theory that the better apps will rise to the top on their own, but that may be about to change. Rumors are circulating that they are going to start a new section in the App Store for premium games, all of which will be priced at $19.99 each.

PocketGamer.biz, who first reported the story, says that the offer would only be open to a select few chosen "large publishers" of iPhone games. They don't have any details on when such plans will be put in place but say the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) may be one possible date.

Apple refused to comment on the rumor (as usual), as did EA Mobile and Gameloft, two prominent iPhone game developers.

If true, this may be a sign that Apple is paying attention to the criticisms they have been getting from developers of apps, many of whom claim the abundance of $0.99 single-task apps has created a sort of natural price ceiling, making the development of higher-quality but more expensive apps unprofitable.

Slide to Play was able to get more confirmation and some additional details while talking to an unnamed publisher representative, who said that the section will be for "PSP-quality" games:

When we asked what Apple meant by “PSP-quality,” our source indicated that premium games are likely to have much larger file sizes than most of the games we’ve been seeing; Apple also wants the section to attract prominent franchises that publishers have been reluctant to bring to the platform thus far.

While it may bring in some higher-quality games from big titles, smaller indie developers are concerned that it may push them out of the loop and create a barrier for success between large and small devs. Still, as John Carmack said back around the time the App Store first launched, the iPhone has a lot of gaming potential.

“The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox,” he says. “The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher. … You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can’t support that yet.”

Rumor: iPhone Nano Coming in June… But NOT to the USA?

We’re still considering these iPhone nano rumors to be way over on the far side of fetched, by they just keep on keeping on, so here’s the latest (via MacRumors):

DigiTimes highlights a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News stating that two chip manufacturers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and United Microelectronics Corporation, are expected to receive chip orders for Apple’s rumored iPhone nano. The report states that orders would likely come in March, leading to a June release of the iPhone nano at the earliest. [...] Meanwhile, American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshall believes that the iPhone nano will not initially be launched in the United States.

Marshall (via International Business Times) bases this claim on no word of AT&T testing an iPhone nano, and then leaps to the speculation that China would be a likely place to the launch the new device.

Aiya.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog

Multi-Core iPhone Coming Alongside OS X iPhone 3.0?

Jason O'Grady at ZDNet has picked up on an interesting rumor here at Macword. According to him, Apple is currently working on a four-core iPhone running OS X iPhone 3.0. The 3.0 software is said to be required on the iPhone "quad."

O'Grady also points out that Imagination Technology will be announcing their first multi-core general-purpose graphics processor

tomorrow at CES. The chip may be suitable for the iPhone and can theoretically scale to an unlimited number of cores.

However, Arnold Kim at MacRumors believes that the ARM Cortex A9 multi-core processor would be a more likely candidate for Apple. Apple currently uses ARM-based chips in the iPhone and iPod touch, and it's likely that they're an ARM architectural licensee.

MacRumors has also heard independent rumors that iPhone 3.0 will include multi-core support.

[via ZDNet]

Rumor: AT&T Considering Reducing iPhone Tethering Plan to $10?

We’ve reported on the iPhone tethering situation, both unofficial and official, before, and last we heard AT&T was considering it as a $30 addition service charge. Now comes a rumor via MacBlogz that the price point is being reconsidered — down to $10:

The biggest piece of information we learned was that AT&T is playing around with a $10 price-point. This made my eyes light up and I asked them how they could get away with charging a third of what was initially reported, here’s the response I got. “iPhone tethering is primarily an AT&T offering, but it involves Apple at least wanting or allowing the service, which they do. If it doesn’t function as expected, I know of a few people who may lose their jobs,” my colleague explained. “While you may think it’s as easy as streamlining our Blackberry tethering service over to the iPhone, it’s not. Connection may be tied into iTunes, and Apple is incredibly controlling when it comes to this space.”

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.