Tag: Apple

HD Graphics For iPhone 4G?

Last Friday at the CES show in Las Vegas a new graphics chip was announced by the company who provides the chip for every iPhone. The HD-capable chip, the PowerVR SGX545 GPU has full OpenCL and OpenGL 3.2 support and can render 40 million polygons per second at 200MHz. Rumour has it that this chip will be found in the new iPhone 4G, this of course all makes sense as Apple market the iPod Touch and iPhone as both gaming devices and this would certainly make for some interesting games.

The PowerVR SGX545 GPU not only has HD-Capablity but also supports multithreading, so to enhance the performance it could me installed along side a multi-core CPU such as the ARM Cortex-A9, which is rumoured to be in the next generation of the iPhone.

Combining our many years of experience in the embedded, mobile and PC-based DirectX graphics worlds, PowerVR SGX 545 takes the possibilities of hand-held graphics to a new level by delivering a full DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.x feature set as well as delivering GPU powered OpenCL heterogeneous parallel processing capabilities for the mobile and embedded markets. This makes PowerVR SGX545 a compelling solution for application processor SoC designers targeting the next generation of netbook and MID mobile products demanding exceptional graphics capabilities.

So we will be seeing a multi-core HD iPhone? Only time will tell.

App Store Downloads Reach Three Billion

Apple today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. Thats around 5.5 million downloads per day!

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months—this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Hacker Sends Warning To iPhoneUnlockUK Customers

Customers who had used the controversial unlocking service, iPhoneUnlockUK.com recieved an unexpected email recently informing them that the company had been using unlicensed software and that their personal details, including email and physical addresses has been compromised.

The hackers had broken into the web server back in February, where they gained access to the personal information of several users who had illegally unlock their iPhone. The hacker sent emails that the software iPhoneUnlockUK was selling for profit had been stolen, suggesting the customers demand a refund from the fraudulent company. Some people might of thought the iPhone Dev Team, who put a huge amount of work into unlocking the iPhone could of been involved but the hacker made it clear that they were not.

The breach in February is the only one currently known, when the hackers copied the personal details of customers and defaced the website. Since then, iPhoneUnlockUK moved web hosts and claim they have not suffered any more attacks. No financial details were believed to have been compromised during the breach, as all the credit card transactions were handled by a third party company.

iPhone 4G To Have 802.11n WiFi?

A recent job opening which was posted on the Apple website may hint at the possibility of 802.11n WiFi in the next gen iPhone.

It has been suspected that the iPhone 4G would support 802.11n WiFi since the third generation iPod Touch was found to contain the Broadcom BCM4329 chip, capable of 802.11n (but only enabled for 802.11g). The job posting is looking for a software engineer specializing in WiFi protocols to join the iPhone tem.

The job specifications:
* Implementation of 802.11 a/b/g/n & related specifications.
* 802.11i/802.1x Security protocols
* Good understanding of wireless RF technologies & co-existence issues of 802.11 PHYs with other Wireless interfaces like Bluetooth.

Apple Patent For Location Sharing

Location Sharing is one of latest technologies recently released into the mainstream by Google in the form of Latitude, last year Google tried to put the application on the iPhone but Apple rejected the app, maybe this patent shows the reasoning behind that.

Apple’s method of location sharing involves sending SMS messages between phones. The message would be encoded in such a way that the phone can then extract your current location. Locating sharing is only part of the package — another patent titled ‘position fix indicator’ focuses on ways of displaying the user’s location, and the location of people that you’re connected with.

The diagram also seems to suggest a forward-facing camera, something that was speculated for the iPhone 3GS but turned out false, perhaps meaning the iPhone 4G will have this feature. It’s possible the diagram is just a placeholder (it looks identical to the one used in other patents), but it could be indicative of a forward-facing camera in the iPhone 4G arriving later this year.

iPhone 4G To Have 5 Megapixel Camera With LED Flash?

OmniVision technologies has secured a deal with Apple for 5-megapixel camera sensors for the upcoming next-geniPhone. Sources report that OmniVision Technologies is expected to supply Apple with 40-45 million 5 megapixel sensors in 2010.

It’s reported that Apple is looking for a large quantity of LED camera flash components, suspected for the upcoming iPhone. Apple is seeking tens of millions of LED camera flash components for delivery in the 2010 calendar year, to go with the 5 megapixel camera sensors perhaps?

The same sources believe that the Philips’ Lumileds Lighting sector may have already secured the contract, and it’s thought that Apple will use the Philips LUXEON LED camera flash technology which combines the brightness of regular lighting with the long life and tiny size of LEDs.
Another interesting piece of information is that this flash is usually used with 5 megapixel or above camera sensors, which would confirm the use of 5 megapixel camera sensors in the new model.

7 inch Apple Tablet is Being Announced in January?

A source has told BGR that they have solid info about Apple’s upcoming tablet. It has been widely reported recentlythat the size of the tablet is 10 inches but the source, who is very connected, says there is also a 7 inch model.
There connection said there is definitely a 7 inch Apple Tablet, that will be announced in January. There might be a 10 inch model too but there source had no information on that.

The Financial Times also believes the announcement for the Apple Tablet will come in January. The WSJ points to a March release date.

Vodafone UK To Offer iPhone January 14th

Orange & Tesco Mobile are soon to be joined by Vodafone as one the iPhone carriers in the UK. They have announced that the iPhone will be on their networking starting January 14th.

The plans start at £30 a month for 24 months, with additional handset charges ranging from £59 (iPhone 3G 8GB) to £239 (3GS 32GB). However, if you sign onto a £35 a month contract for 24 months the 8GB iPhone 3G is free.

Unlike Orange, O2 and Tesco Mobile; Vodafone don’t appear to be offering a Pay As You Go option for its customers.

There has been some concerns whether or not the network would be able to handle the major increase in traffic, but Guy Laurence, chief executive of Vodafone UK, says the company has been preparing for the launch for over a year, strengthening their infrastructure for the release.

Evidence of iPhone OS 4.0 Found In Pinch Media Analytics

We recently saw evidence that the iPhone OS 4.0 is in testing, as shown by web site logs. However this week the newOSseems to be undergoing more testing, as one iPhone developer has since noted a single instance of the iPhone OS 4.0 being used in their Pinch Media Analytics.

The testing may correspond with reports of the new iPhone 4G being tested. Apple is expected to release this new hardware in the late summer months of 2010.

Related:
Apple To Announce New iPhone At The End Of June?
Apple Testing iPhone OS 3.1.3 and 4.0

Apple To Announce New iPhone At The End Of June?

AppleInsider have noticed that The Moscone Center Calendar lists a “Corporate Event” from June 28th to July 2nd2010. Previous Apple events have been listed in the same name and the conference is usually used to introduce new iPhone models.

If the new iPhone is released in June/July then it would keep to the usual iPhone release cycle and would seem to fit the same release pattern of when the new iPhone model is tested. As the iPhone 3GS was tested 8 months prior to release and a reference to the iPhone3,1 has been found recently so this would fit the same pattern.

Related:
Apple Testing iPhone OS 3.1.3 and 4.0
iPhone 4G Coming Next Year?
iPhone 3,1 In Testing?