WSJ corroborates iPad mini like design, touchscreen tech for iPad 5

Various sources have been mulling for months that Apple’s fifth-generation 9.7-inch iPad will adopt the overall appearance of the iPad mini, including its skinnier side bezels and thinner, lighter enclosure. And as if you ever needed more proof, now the credulous Wall Street Journal is finally out with its own report.

Corroborating the rumor-mill chatter, the story reaffirms the notion that the iPad 5 partially owns its slimmer and lighter form factor to a new touchscreen technology borrowed from its little brother. Read on for the full reveal…

Per The Journal:

The same touch-panel technology that made the iPad mini thin and light will likely feature in the next iPad, which is currently being produced by Apple Inc.’s Asian suppliers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The publication is talking about the thin-film touchscreen technology called GF Ditto (also known as GF2), currently utilized on the iPad mini. As recently reported by DisplaySearch, all upcoming iPads will adopt GF2 tech.

GF2, a double-sided ITO film, has allowed for the iPad mini’s much thinner and significantly lighter enclosure versus the bulkier iPad 4 that uses a glass-based touch panel called G/G touchscreen.

“Following the iPad mini’s success, Apple plans to use the film-based touch panel in its next regular-size iPad”, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

Here’s a video from Youku which purportedly depicts a partially assembled iPad 5.

The Journal educates us on the benefits of GF2 vs G/G screen assembly:

For device makers, the option of using a film-based touch panel is becoming more attractive than before, as the film material has largely overcome previous technical disadvantages against glass, and it has advantages in terms of thickness and weight, said DisplaySearch analyst Shoko Oi.

Because Apple is the world’s largest vendor of tablet computers, what technologies it uses to produce iPads could have a significant impact on component suppliers. More demand for film-based touch panels is good news for manufacturers of PET films that are used to produce such panels.

For what it’s worth, it was iLounge’s Jeremy Horwitz who back in January first called for the iPad 5′s iPad mini-like design. Based on a physical model he had apparently seen, Horwitz wrote that the next full-size iPad could be “a lot smaller than one would guess was possible”with “virtually no left or right bezels”.

At any rate, the bulkiness, the added weight and the overheating non-issue plaguing the current Retina iPads are all about to become a thing of the past, should Apple engineers have their way.

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Apple may have bought into chip plant to perhaps build processors in-house

The SemiAccurate blog is known for a mixed track report in terms of hardware news (hence the name).

For instance, it correctly predicted Apple would switch back to Nvidia’s graphics processors for 2012 MacBooks, but got it all wrong calling for an Intel-to-ARM transition for the Mac lineup by early 2013.

Today’s exclusive story, hidden behind a $1,000 paywall, claims Apple has made the unthinkable by buying into a third-party chip plant.

The semiconductor facility is believed to be operated by United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a Taiwan-based chipmaker established more than thirty years ago…

According to the first paragraph of the report:

Apple has just done something that SemiAccurate has been expecting for months and entered the fab industry. No we are not joking, Apple just bought into a fab, and not in a trivial way either.

The rest is hidden behind the paywall.

As one of the story tags mentions ‘UMC,’ silicon watchers promptly presumed a mysterious partner has got to be Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corporation.

For what it’s worth, SemiAccurate reported back in January that Apple had hired a full GPU design team away from AMD, which proved true.

The A6X chip floorplan by Chipworks.

If there’s any substance to today’s story, this could be a prelude to bigger moves leading up to Apple not only designing, but also producing its mobile processors in-house under the guidance of its hardware wizard, SVP Bob Mansfield.

As part of the August 2012 management shakeup, the then hardware chief Bob Mansfield assumed new responsibilities after Tim Cook had appointed him to lead Technologies, a newly formed group which encompasses semiconductor and wireless teams across the company.

Cook wrote in a memo to employees that Technologies will “foster innovation” in terms of semiconductor and wireless technology “at an even higher level”. Apple’s semiconductor teams, the CEO noted at the time, “have ambitious plans for the future”.

Just what those ambitions might had been had remained unanswered until Bloomberg two months later posted a story which painted Apple as secretly plotting a transition away from Intel processors across the Mac lineup.

Specifically, sources told Bloomberg that Mansfield & Co. have been seeking ways to take in-house designed iOS processors and put them inside Macs by 2017.

Apple engineers have grown confident that the chip designs used for its mobile devices will one day be powerful enough to run its desktops and laptops, said three people with knowledge of the work, who asked to remain anonymous because the plans are confidential.

I’m just speculating here, but a power-savvy iOS processor of the future coupled with battery technology advances and performance improvements in software (like we’re seeing now with OS X Mavericks) might result in a breakthrough Mac notebook that could run for 24 or more hours on a single charge.

The main selling point of mid-2013 MacBook Airs: better battery life.

But why would Apple drop Intel and embark on such a risky business venture as silicon plant ownership? When I come to think of it, this presumed strategy makes a heck of sense.

Apple has recently signed a contract with TSMC to start producing some iDevice chips starting next year, part of Apple’s expected distancing from smartphone rival Samsung. Prior to that, Apple had reduced Samsung component orders for screens and NAND memory chips by increasing reliance alternative suppliers.

Samsung until recently has been an exclusive manufacturer of iOS processors. Building these chips according to Apple’s designs gave the South Korean conglomerate distinct advantage in unfairly obtaining a unique insight into Apple’s technology roadmap.

Therefore, it stands to reason that Apple can’t totally control its chip destiny unless it figures out a way to control the fabbing process by either pouring billions of dollars into its own semiconductor plant or buying a stake in one of the existing foundries.

As TSMC, the world’s largest independent semiconductor foundry turned down Apple’s $1 billion offer for exclusive access to its production output, it’s not surprising Apple may have just bought its way into the chip making biz by partnering with UMC.

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Apple moves to trademark ‘iWatch’ in Japan

If you needed proof that Apple is actively researching a wearable device akin to a smartwatch, look no further than a Japan Patent Office filing from early June for an ‘iWatch’ trademark. As discovered by Bloomberg, the filing specifically mentions a “watch device” and a “handheld computer”. While this by no means such a product will see the light of day, it certainly fuels speculation that an Apple-branded smartwatch is in the works…

The report has it:

The maker of iPhones is seeking protection for the name which is categorized as being for products including a handheld computer or watch device, according to a June 3 filing with the Japan Patent Office that was made public last week.

Yahoo Japan has this image of the ‘iWatch’ trademark.

Keep in mind that Bloomberg reported back in February that Apple has a team of at least a hundred engineers tasked with the iWatch project.

The news organization also said in April that Apple was facing hurdles in terms of battery life due to the decision to power the smartwatch by a version of iOS. The device is said to include biometric sensors and double as a life monitoring accessory akin to the Nike Fuleband and similar types of gadgets.

It was discovered last month that Apple also applied for an ‘iWatch’ trademark in Japan.

The firm typically files for ownership of product names before their official announcement so this could be a sold proof that the rumored wearable device project is more than an afterthought.

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iOS 7 Beta 3 could drop on July 8

On Monday, Apple seeded iOS 7 Beta 2 to its registered iOS developers. The second beta arrived precisely two weeks after the launch of iOS 7 Beta 1, which was made availableright following the June 10 WWDC 2013 keynote.

Now, you might recall that an hour before Beta 2 hit Apple’s servers we ran an article saying the software could drop that day. The same source that called for it is at it again, now claiming the third beta of iOS 7 will see release on Monday, July 8.

It’s kinda bad news for developers who must be looking to some time off for Independence Day. If true, July 8 would make iOS 7 Beta 3 available exactly two weeks following the launch of the current iteration of the software. Starting to notice a pattern here?

BGR has the story:

BGR has been informed by trusted sources that iOS 7 beta 3 is currently scheduled to be made available to carriers for testing on July 8th.

These are the same sources who accurately foretold the release timing of Apple’s last iOS 7 beta, and just like iOS 7 beta 2, it is likely that the new software will be released to developers on the same day it reaches carriers.

The two-week interval between the first three betas also matches up nicely with last year’s iOS 6 betas.

iOS 6 Beta 1 – lasted 14.75 days
iOS 6 Beta 2 – lasted 15.4 days
iOS 6 Beta 3 – lasted 15 days
iOS 6 Beta 4 – lasted 18.6 days
iOS 6 Beta 5 – lasted 17.8 days
iOS 6 Beta 6 – lasted 11 days

According to the well-known iOS hacker states, iOS 7 Beta 2 expires on Thursday, August 8, 2013 at 12am GMT.

Subsequent betas will smooth out the rough edges and refine the iOS 7 design and visual language, while possibly introducing new tweaks and features.

For example, iOS 7 Beta 2 brought us the iPad interface with HDR photography and theMemos app, along with a bunch of refinements and new goodies like the ability to control the interface using head movement, direct Google Contacts sync, Messages improvements,male and female Siri voices and other perks.

And as a Fall launch draws near, we’re expecting to see major changes to the Apple TV software stemming from the new technologies that make iOS 7 possible.

Per usual, count on iDB keeping you in the loop.

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iPhone 5S may sport sapphire crystal capacitive Home button with fingerprint sensor

The Home button has got to be one of the defining features of the iPhone’s clean rounded rectangular design. Whereas some other manufacturers add a bunch of physical buttons to their gadgets, Apple instead has moved all controls to the iOS software, leaving only the Home button on the iPhone’s face.

That could change with the iPhone 5S, the next iPhone refresh expected later this year. If a new rumor is to be believed, Apple will for the first time replace the iPhone’s Home button – prone to failure after long periods of use – with its capacitive counterpart.

This isn’t new: many Android handsets have touch-enabled “buttons” like Samsung’s Galaxy S series, for example. Apple’s innovation, the story goes, involves using sapphire crystal to prevent scratches and dings and protect the integrated fingerprint sensor…

Taiwanese publication TechNews Tuesday (via Cult of Mac) quoted Apple supply chain sources who are adamant that Apple has opted to use sapphire crystal for the Home button on the iPhone 5S.

Analysts think fingerprint scanning is one of the killer features of the iPhone 5S. Just yesterday, PayPal said it expected the next iPhone to kill passwords once and for all by focusing on a more reliable and stronger fingerprint-based authentication method.

Replacing the current Home button with a non-moving counterpart wouldn’t be out of character for Apple. Remember, the company replaced the original iPod’s mechanical click wheel with a touch-sensitive variant on the second-generation model.

Notably, Apple currently uses sapphire crystal to protect the iPhone 5′s back camera lens from scratches.

Sapphire crystal has a hardness second only to diamond and is used because of its compatibility with optic sensors, Apple explains on the iPhone 5 web page:

Although the surface of the iSight camera is as clear as glass, it’s not made of glass. It’s actually sapphire crystal, whose hardness is second only to diamond on the scale of transparent materials. That means the surface of the lens is far less likely to scratch.

The rumor actually makes a whole lot of sense.

If Apple is to integrate fingerprint sensor right underneath the Home button, as rumored, while at the same time move to a capacitive touch-enabled Home button variant, protecting the whole sensitive assembly from physical damage would be prudent.

What do you think?

Do you see the iPhone 5S having an all-new capacitive Home button?

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Google ostensibly close to buying WhatsApp for $1 billion

WhatsApp, the cross-platform instant messaging application for smartphones, is rumored to be close to negotiating a landmark acquisition deal with Google. Sources reportedly close to the negotiations claim the Internet giant is considering dropping a whopping one billion dollars on the popular service that as of March 2013 had a cool 200 million users, a hundred million ones on Android alone.

The report ties nicely with talk of a new instant messaging brand from Google called Babble, and even more so given Facebook with its new Home UI layer for select Android devices is basically encouraging its one billion users to use its Messenger service right from their Lock screen or from whichever app they happen to be using at any give moment…

DigitalTrends reports that while the deal started four or five weeks ago, “we’ve been told that WhatsApp is ‘playing hardball’ and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is ‘close to’ $1 billion right now.”

The acquisition might make sense for both parties.

For WhatsApp, Google’s scale and reach would mean rapid adoption, especially on Android devices. More importantly, the software would probably gain video chatting, a feature it’s been conspicuously missing.

WhatsApp’s 200 million users come from more than a hundred countries and across an astounding 750 mobile networks.The number one paid app in more than a hundred countries, WhatsApp on New Years Eve 2012 alone saw a record eighteen billion messages processed in a day.

DigitalTrends lets us in on WhatsApp’s business model, said to pull in about $100 million in revenue:

WhatsApp has a proven monetization scheme. Its yearly but nominal $0.99 subscription fee keeps the service ad-free. Behind the scenes however, WhatsApp also generates revenue through profitable partnerships with international telecommunications companies.

For instance WhatsApp’s monthly local plan in Hong Kong with mobile operator 3 HK costs just $8HK ($1.03 USD) and an international package will run for $48HK ($6.18 USD) per day. And whatever Whatsapp is doing is working: The app has even had a direct hand in declining SMS usage around the world. 

It’s interesting that although Google played its cards well with Android, it somehow has managed to drop the ball when it comes to the mobile instant messaging playground.

The company is now rumored to be consolidating its many instant messaging offerings under the new Babble brand so it could certainly use a standout app such as WhatsApp to drive people away from rival offerings and give them another reason to go Android.

The search giant’s Nikhyl Singhal told GigaOM last June that “we have done an incredibly poor job of servicing our users here.”

WhatsApp is thought to be toying with a subscription model on iOS and has suffered its share or privacy-related hiccups. Google previously acquired some other popular developers who made names for themselves creating popular apps for Apple’s iPhone, iPod, iPad and Mac.

Most notably, it boughtemail client Sparrow last Jul and mobile productivity suite QuickOffice in June 2012. Last September, the company unexpectedly acquired Nik Software, the maker of the popular photo editing software Snapseed.

Viber, another popular IM app, has for some time been in a neck and neck race with WhatsApp over which service gets to become the default cross-platform messaging solution on mobile devices.

But taking advantage of Viber’s feature shortages and slow pace of development, WhatsApp zoomed past its rival, which as of February 26, 2013 had 175 million users.

Which one do you prefer for cross-platform messaging, Viber or WhatsApp?

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Apple won’t use Samsung screens for iPad 5 and iPad mini 2

In another hint of Apple distancing itself from Samsung by procuring crucial gadget components from alternative suppliers, we hear the Cupertino firm may have already dropped Samsung entirely as the maker of next-gen panels for a fifth-generation iPad and a second-generation iPad mini.

Both devices are rumored to arrive later this year, allegedly sporting the high-resolution Retina display technology and sharing a light aluminum chassis with thinner appearance and chamfered edges…

Seoul-based Korea Economic Daily cites industry reports claiming Apple sent out its requests for quotation for new Retina screens to LG Display, Sharp, Japan Display and AU Optronics, but not to Samsung Display.

In case you didn’t know, a request for quotation is a document firms like Apple send to component suppliers. In it, the buyer (Apple) inquires about prices quotations for specified components and parts.

As this document is usually sent five-ten months prior to a product’s launch (to give suppliers ample time to deliver the order), it’s the first step of the component purchase process and as such a credible hint of the upcoming changes in Apple’s manufacturing process.

On the other hand, iNews, South Korea’s tech news site, mentions that Samsung and Apple have not yet begun the separation process on mobile screens.

The publication quotes Samsung president Kim Ki-nam as saying the rumor is “not necessarily true.” Interestingly enough, the guy added that a possibility of Apple adopting Samsung components still exists, though I’d bet my shirt that was just his wishful thinking.

Samsung’s acquisition of a three percent stake in Apple’s screen supplier Sharp was probably the last straw.

Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn has been trying to buy eleven percent of Sharp for months, but has cancelled all acquisition talks after learning about Sharp going to bed with Samsung.

The fact that Sharp has now begun shipping its 32-inch panels to Samsung certainly won’t help improve the rocky Apple-Samsung relationship. What’s more, thanks to Samsung’s LCD panel orders, Sharp is now expected to turn an operating profit by the end of its fiscal 2012, which concludes on March 31.

According to market research firm DisplaySearch, LG Display accounted for 28 percent of the global LCD sales versus Samsung Display’s 25.1 percent share, the first time LG Display surpassed Samsung in the LCD market since 2005.

DisplaySearch also estimates Samsung’s display supplies have decreased from 12.8 percent of the total supplied to Apple in the second quarter of 2012 to just 0.90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Apple is also said to have decreased the proportion of Samsung’s supply of SSDs for MacBooks this year.

And IHS iSuppli, another credible market research firm, yesterday acknowledged an 81 percent drop in 9.7-inch panel shipments in January. At the same time, panels measuring 7.9 inches diagonally, like the one used on the iPad mini, climbed fourteen percent.

It’s another proof that the iPad mini is outselling its bigger brother faster than Apple anticipated.

As for Apple’s chip making contract with Samsung, it’s set to expire in June 2014 – conveniently coinciding with talk of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (andpossibly Intel) starting to fab Apple’s next-generation iPhone and iPad processors early next year.

TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, in particular, is expected to tape out Apple’s A7 processor on a 20nm process later this month, possibly moving the chip into risk production in May-June.

If true, this would pave the way for commercial shipments of the TSMC-made A7 chip some time in the first quarter of 2014.

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Chatter hints June 20 iPhone 5S, budget iPhone launch

With Apple’s annual developers conference approaching fast, we’re starting to see some credible leaks pertaining to the iPhone 5S, Apple’s seventh-generation iPhone. We’ve already seen the leaked Home button and vibrator parts earlier this week and claimed speaker parts from before. And with analysts predicting a June launch for the device and Macotakara claiming earlier this month that Foxconn has already started the iPhone 5S production, now the same Japanese blog issues a new report that gives as the reportedly official announcement date for both the iPhone 5S and a more affordable model for emerging markets: Thursday, June 20…

Macotakara claims to have quality insider knowledge on this and goes on to mention that the iPhone 5S would go on sale shortly after, in early July.

That sounds like Apple.

The June 20 keynote would also see a preview of iOS 7 as the software apparently isn’t ready for prime time yet. Finally, the event should also see the unveiling of a less-pricey iPhone featuring a polycarbonate body, with the device going on sale in August.

Note that Macotakara has some decent sources in Apple’s supply chain. The publication has established a pretty decent track record reporting on the Apple rumors and has been increasingly accurate lately with these things.

Another Japanese web site, MacFan, corroborated Macotakara’s report.

Budget iPhone rendering courtesy of 3D artist Martin Hajek.

Another credible hint: TechCrunch yesterday ran a story reportedly based on a confidential Foxconn presentation that points to a firm June 2013 launch for the iPhone 5S. “It is some of the most convincing data we’ve seen relating to new Apple launches,” the publication assures us.

But that’s not all, the internal document allegedly highlights a few new cases and chargers for iPhone devices, including a Qi-enabled wireless chargers and dongles for the iPhone 5.

Furthermore, TechCrunch singled out one third-party vendor with an interesting inside track to Foxconn which is apparently working with Foxconn directly to launch its product immediately upon the launch of the new iPhones.

This sort of leak – a launch date, direct contact to a certified manufacturer, and mention of direct cooperation with Foxconn – is fairly unique in the world of Apple news.

It also suggests a certain lack of fear in manufacturers as they approach a new, post-Steve Jobs Apple.

Apple hasn’t announced WWDC 2013 yet, but with Google’s I/O scheduled to take place May 15-17 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, Apple for sure won’t be waiting for too long to reveal its cards.

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