Been wondering how fast the smartphone standard-setting Apple A6 processor is? Already, we knew the A6 is two times faster than the A5, 22 percent smaller, and has twice the GPU power, and also that it also helps with noise reduction, faster camera capture and better low light performance. Now, AnandTech has more details regarding the processor that’s powering the 4-Inch iPhone.
According to the website:
Quick analysis of the A6 SoC photos from the iPhone 5 launch event tells us all we need to know about the memory interface, speed and bandwidth of the new platform. As always, the A6 features a PoP stack combining the SoC itself and its DRAM. The package-stacked DRAM helps save space, which comes at a premium inside a device as small as a smartphone. PoP stacks are quite common in all modern smartphones.
Through crafty navigation of Samsung’s product guide, Brian Klug got us the details. The K3P tells us we’re looking at a dual-channel LPDDR2 package with 32-bit channels. The E7E7 gives us the density of each of the two DRAM die (512MB per die, 1GB total). The final two characters in the part number give us the cycle time/data rate, which in this case is 1066MHz.
AnandTech put all the information together in the below chart, which shows “iDevice memory bandwidth vs. generation.”
It’s all in the chart …
The iPhone 5 packs around 33 percent more memory bandwidth than the iPhone 4S. Clearly, this will help with the under-the-hood performance optimizations and, of course, that taller, 4-Inch display.
Perhaps he thought the iPhone 5 would already be there.
Who can imagine why someone would risk the sensitive fenders of his BMW to drive straight through the front window of the Apple Store in Temecula, Calif.?
And yet here is footage of a smash, a grab, and a slight thoughtlessness, given that the robbers seemed not to have factored in the security cameras.
Some will be impressed that the thieves appeared to have chosen the smaller items, rather than the MacBooks.
However, I am sure many of the Apple faithful will be depressed at the sheer mess that these people made. Didn't they understand that you can steal from an Apple Store without having to ram your car backward and forward into the pristine tables? Isn't that what Samsung was accused of?
Look at that poor severed table leg. It's not as if it could have moved out of the way. Didn't they know how many design hours went into creating that beautiful thing?
Still, this story has a peculiar ending.
The security gates behind the car appear to have come down and hampered the thieves' exit. The car's tires allegedly suffered, as did the license plate.
Police now accuse 22-year-old Equonne Howard, after he had allegedly abandoned the car and then returned either to fix the flats or to retrieve a license plate he allegedly left behind.
He pleaded not guilty last Wednesday, the very same day the iPhone 5 was revealed.
Samsung may have lost the patent battle against Apple, but that doesn’t the Korean electronics giant has quieted down.
In a new ad shown to Mashable that will start running in various national and regional papers on Sunday, Samsung has stacked the specs of its Galaxy S III smartphone against the newly-announced iPhone 5.
What’s first noticeable about the ad is its tagline, which is an obvious jab at Apple: “It doesn’t take a genius.” Not only does this reference Apple’s “genius” retail employees, Samsung also implies that deciding between the two devices is a piece of cake.
The Galaxy S III’s list of features is much longer than the iPhone 5, and its specs beat Apple’s latest smartphone in terms of HD resolution, talk time and RAM. It also features near-field communications (NFC) technology — not included in the iPhone 5 — which allows users to pay at checkout with a mobile phone.
The ad also pokes fun at the iPhone 5′s specs wording, dismissing Apple’s new Lightning dock as a “a totally different plug.”
Jon R. is back to tackle the biggest tech rumors of this week! It looks like the Apple vs. Samsung legal dispute is all but over. Samsung has retaliated by suing Apple for their recently released iPhone 5 – apparently Apple’s infringed on some of Samsung’s lovely patents. All this and much much more in this episode of Rumor Round Up!
It’s a good time to be a Microsoft employee. At its annual company meeting yesterday, the software giant announced that all full-time employees — of which there are over 90,000 — will soon receive a Surface RT tablet, a Windows Phone 8 smartphone, and a Windows 8 work machine absolutely free.
According to The Verge, the Windows 8 machines have already started being distributed to some employees, while Surface and Windows Phone 8 devices will follow in the “coming weeks.”
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has handed its employees free products, of course. Back in 2010, when Windows Phone 7 made its debut, all employees were given a new smartphone powered by the company’s brand new platform.
Not only is this a great morale boost, but it allows Microsoft employees to become accustomed to the company’s latest devices. For retail staff in particular, this has huge benefits, because it means those selling the devices know them inside out, and that they’re better prepared for dealing with your technical issues.
The Apple Store is currently down, as iPhone 5-hungry consumers get ready to place preorders for the next-generation smartphone.
As is tradition before major Apple releases, visitors to the online store looking to purchase phones, MP3 players, or Macs are instead greeted with a message saying, "We'll be back." The downtime allows Apple to retool the site for the new product -- in this case, the much-anticipated iPhone 5.
The new phone, which was unveiled yesterday at an event in San Francisco, will feature a 4-inch Retina display and support for 4G LTE service. The iPhone 5 is expected to hit consumers' hands on September 21.
In addition to Apple's online store, the iPhone 5 is also available for preorder starting tomorrow morning at Wal-Mart, which is selling the long-awaited phone for $189.97, as opposed to the $199 price tag offered by Apple.
The company also revealed is prices for unlocked iPhones -- devices unencumbered by carrier contracts -- although those offers are not expected to be available to consumers for a few weeks.
Although
iOS 6 won't see an official release until September 19th, you can
install the final version right now even if you're not a developer
thanks to some anonymous public postings of the software update files.
Here's how. Note: We updated a handful of iDevices using
these files and encountered no issues, but because we're unable to
verify them all we don't know problems won't arise. This process worked
for us when we tested with an iPad, and iPod touch, and an iPhone, but
there's always a chance you could run into an issue. Please be aware
that there's some risk involved before you upgrade.
Backup First!
Before
you do anything, back up your iDevice with iTunes. In the past, the
early upgrade process worked for some but not for everyone. The results
may be the same this time around, though we've upgraded to the final
version of iOS 6 without issue. Regardless of whether or not things work
out you will need to restore your device so back it up!
Download iOS 6
Thanks
to a public posting on RapidShare, you can download the Golden Master
version (essentially identical to the final release coming next week) of
iOS 6 for your device without logging into the Apple Developer Center.
Here are the download links. Choose the type of device you want to
update:
The iOS 6 update may require a later version of iTunes than you have installed. Update your copy before moving on.
Install the Update
To install iOS 6 on your device, follow these instructions:
Open
up the disk image (.dmg) and find the iPhone Software Update file
(.ipsw) for your device. Drag it to the desktop, or a folder of your
choosing. (Windows users will need a tool like 7-Zip to do this, and will need to open the .hfs inside the .dmg as well.)
Open iTunes and connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, to your computer.
If your device isn't automatically selected in iTunes, select it and go to the "Summary" tab.
Hold
down the option key (OS X) or the shift key (Windows) and click the
Restore button. Browse to the .ipsw file you downloaded, select it, and
wait for the update to finish.
If necessary, restore your device from backup and sync with iTunes.
That's it. If you follow those steps, you'll be up and running iOS 6 in no time.
Rest in peace, iPhone 3GS. Apple revealed recently that it will
discontinue the third model of its iconic smartphone once the existing
stock has dried up. The Cupertino-based company told Pocket-Lint in a statement that it will only continue to sell the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the new iPhone 5.
We’re not surprised, Apple always kills off the oldest member of its
iPhone family and decreases the prices of the existing models. The
iPhone 4 is now available for free with a new two-year contract, the
price point the iPhone 3GS held after the iPhone 4S was announced, and
the iPhone 4S will be available for $99 with a new contract. The iPhone
5, meanwhile, can be pre-ordered this Friday starting at $199.99. It
will be offered by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless in the United
States.
RIP iPhone 3GS. You were a solid upgrade and treated us well until the iPhone 4 introduced an entirely new design.
Dr Pepper set off a heated debate over evolution on Thursday after
posting an advertisement to its Facebook page, which showed an ape
evolving into a man thanks to the discovery of a can of Dr Pepper.
“My ancestors were created in the Garden of Eden,” one user posted in
response to the advertisement. “I ain’t no freaking chimp. No more Dr
Pepper for my household. God Bless y’all,” Another complained: “this is
showing the theory of men evolving from apes. I have lost all respect
for Dr Pepper and if Dr Pepper wants business from thousands of people
they will need to apologize.” (Spellings have been corrected
throughout.)
Others shot back, including a couple commenters who posted, “The day
your faith gets shaken by a Dr Pepper ad is the day you should probably
start reconsidering your faith.”
Since the post
went up three hours ago, it has been liked more than 15,000 times and
received more than 1,100 comments. The post has also been picked up in
an atheism forum on Reddit, which has only fueled the Facebook debate even more.
Dr Pepper isn’t the first brand to court controversy on its Facebook
page. Earlier this year, Kraft’s Oreos put up a status update in favor
of gay marriage, which led to a heated dialogue among their Facebook
fans.
Then there was Chick-Fil-A, which used its Facebook page to respond to criticism after its president denounced gay marriage.
Here’s the advertisement that Dr Pepper posted to its Facebook page earlier today:
U.S. travelers had visiting scenic landscapes on their mind this summer, as the top three Google Maps searches for vacation destinations were park regions in the West: Death Valley National Park, Redwood National Park and Yosemite National Park.
Google Maps has released an infographic that details how those in the U.S. and across the Northern Hemisphere traveled from May to September 2012. National parks occupied the top six spots on the list — with the Grand Canyon surprisingly coming it only at no. 6 — followed by the Empire State Building (no. 7), Myrtle Beach (no. 8), Niagara Falls (no. 9) and Times Square (no. 10)
Overall, North Americans had their sights set on the best local beaches, while those in Spain, Italy and France searched for community swimming pools. In the U.K., indoor activities such as squash, bars and going to the gym were most searched on Google Maps.
Searching for camping was popular among multiple countries, with France (no. 1), U.S. (no. 2) and Canada (no. 3) taking the top spots.
For a full look at how people searched for travel, check out the infographic below
Have your sights set on the iPhone 5 and can’t wait any longer? Those itching to get their hands on Apple’s next-generation smartphone will be able to pre-order it starting at 12:01 a.m. PT on Friday, September 14.
Apple told Techshack that it will open its online store for eager customers one minute after midnight on the West Coast. Because of the time change, brave East Coasters will have to wait until 3:01 a.m. ET to be among the first to pre-order the iPhone 5.
While that means a late night for some Apple fanatics, at least they’ll be able to make their purchases in the comfort of their own pajamas instead of dealing with the long lines expected to hit Apple retail stores at 8 a.m. nationwide on Friday, September 21.
Sprint and Verizon are also planning to take pre-orders in the early morning hours — Sprint will match Apple at 12:01 a.m. PT, while Verizon will take pre-orders a minute earlier at 12:00 a.m. PT. AT&T has not yet announced when it will start selling the iPhone 5.
Will you be among the first to pre-order the iPhone 5?
Everything right down to the font and familiar rounded look is designed to fool uninitiated folks into purchasing a brick. There are a few hints — no box IMEI, a raised Samsung logo, fake back — that indicate you’ve received a bad unit, but otherwise it looks like what you’d buy at your favorite wireless store.
Samsung’s immensely popular Galaxy S III is currently the industry’s pride and joy, so it’s no surprise there are companies out there trying to manufacture fake units. This is just a cautionary tale to always get your gear from a source you trust, and closely investigate a device (like, say, from Craigslist) before buying.
GoDaddy spectacularly went offline earlier this week, and with it went millions of popular websites around the Internet. To make up for the incident, the Web hosting company sent out emails to customers apologizing with a one-month free service offer as a way to snuff out any remaining fires.
CEO Scott Wagner said the outage was due to a “series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables,” and not a result of Anonymous hackery. The company also ensured that it identified the problem quickly, and was able to get back online with services fully restored. “Monday, we fell short of [our] expectations,” Wagner said. “We have learned from this event and will use it to drive improvement in our services.”
The best news is that GoDaddy claims no sensitive customer information was compromised in the outage, so credit card data, addresses and passwords are all currently safe. A one-month credit is a nice gesture, but GoDaddy still may have some damage control to perform as the week wages on. You can’t mess with the people’s precious Internet.
Bizarre details about a YouTube film trailer that’s continuing to fuel protests around the Middle East began to emerge late Wednesday evening.
The 14-minute trailer for the film, titled “Innocence of Islam,” angered many Muslims across the world because of its derogatory stance towards Islam and its depiction of the Prophet Mohammad as a barbarian and abuser of women.
Early reports indicated that Sam Bacile, a California-based Israeli-American real estate developer, was behind the film. Bacile, who allegedly made the film to condemn Islam, was quoted as calling the religion a “cancer.”
However, as the day went on, some wondered if the “Sam Bacile” name was an alias. One indictator that something was amiss, for example, was that there was no record of a registered real estate broker named Sam Bacile in the state of California.
On Wednesday afternoon, an associate of Bacile who claims to have worked on the film, Sam Klein, told The Atlantic that “Sam Bacile” was indeed a pseudonym and Bacile wasn’t Israeli and probably wasn’t Jewish. Klein was later identified as “a former Marine and longtime religious-right activist.”
Terry Jones, the controversial Florida pastor whose support for the film helped propel it into the media spotlight this week, also told the Associated Press that “Sam Bacile” was a pseudonym.
“I have not met him. Sam Bacile, that is not his real name,” Jones told the AP. “I just talked to him on the phone. He is definitely in hiding and does not reveal his identity. He was quite honestly fairly shook up concerning the events and what is happening. A lot of people are not supporting him. He was generally a little shook up concerning this situation.”
Wednesday evening, the AP published a story suggesting that Bacile is, in reality, a California Coptic Christian named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Nakoula told the AP he was a manager for the company producing the film, but denied being the filmmaker known as Bacile. However, a record check done by the AP connected Nakoula to the Bacile alias.
According to the AP, Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was fined more than $790,000. He was also sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison and commanded not to use computers or the Internet for five years without prior approval from his probation officer.
The story gets weirder: As BuzzFeed pointed out, the trailer itself is poorly produced and several lines are overdubbed, signs that the actors involved were not aware of the filmmaker’s final intentions and that the film likely cost far less than the initially reported $5 million figure.
Indeed, the actors in the film issued a joint statement claiming edits made in post-production drastically changed the meaning of the movie.
“The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer,” said the actors. “We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.”
One actress in the film, originally titled Desert Warriors, told Gawker that she thought the movie was essentially a straight-laced historical piece.
“It was going to be a film based on how things were 2,000 years ago,” Cindy Lee Garcia told Gawker. “It wasn’t based on anything to do with religion, it was just on how things were run in Egypt. There wasn’t anything about Mohammad or Muslims or anything.”
It remains unknown if a full version of the film actually exists.
Protests related to the YouTube clip sparked protests in Egypt and Libya overnight after translated versions were broadcast on local media. Assailants targeting the American consolate in Benghazi, Libya on Tuesday reportedly used the demonstrations as cover for their assault, which claimed the life of an American ambassador and three of his staff members.
YouTube has since blocked the clip in Egypt and Libya.
Apple may be
riding a buzz wave after its highly anticipated event today, but another
patent battle may be just around the corner. This time it’s against the
freshly announced long-term evolution ( LTE) capability in the iPhone 5. After the devastating $1 billion verdict in Apple v. Samsung in August, Samsung promised in a media briefing last month that it would sue Apple if it released an LTE-capable iPhone.
Today, Apple confirmed that its newest smartphone will carry LTE on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and several global carriers. Samsung has decided to sue Apple for patent infringement over its
reported use of LTE connectivity in the
next-generation smartphones.
At this moment we have contacted Samsung and yet to have a reply
U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender said Thursday
that "clear and convincing means something to me," addressing the
guidelines for determining whether a patent should have been issued. "I
have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid."
LTE is a next-generation wireless broadband technology with extremely
high speeds that are ideal for web browsing and video streaming. And it
has been one area where Apple has simply lagged behind. (Apple’s iPad
is already LTE-compatible, but only on Verizon and AT&T networks.)
“LTE is the most complicated technology ever brought to this Earth,”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said during his presentation at the iPhone 5 event
today.
While several companies already hold the necessary patents for LTE —
Nokia at the top with 18.9% — Samsung has a claim on 12.2% of those
patents. Until now, those LTE speeds on the Galaxy Note and Galaxy X III
have given the manufacturer sturdy fighting ground in its head-to-head
smartphone sales battle with Apple.
The wraps were taken off what is the fastest, thinnest iPhone, at an event in San Francisco.
It sports a 4-inch "retina" display, ability to surf a high-speed 4G LTE wireless network, and is 20 per cent lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.
NEW PROCESSOR
The iPhone 5 comes with Apple's newest "A6" processor, which executives claimed runs twice as fast as the previous generation.
The new iPhone has three microphones instead of two. They are located on the back, the front and the bottom. It also comes with a noise-cancelling earpiece for better sound.
The phone will have a battery with eight hours of talk time and eight hours of web browsing.
NEW CAMERA
It will have an 8-megapixel camera, with special features to eliminate noise in images and perform better in low light. There's also a feature that lets you stitch multiple images of a landscape for a panoramic view.
NEW CONNECTOR
One big change: The iPhone is getting a new connector to attach to computers and chargers.
It had been using the same one from the iPod. Senior Apple executive Phil Schiller says the old connector has "served us well for nearly a decade, but so much has changed."
That means the new iPhone won't be compatible with old accessories, though Schiller says accessory makers are already working to update their products. Apple will sell an adapter to work with older accessories.
NEW EMAIL, PASSBOOK, SIRI
The new phone's software - iOS 6 - promises enhancements to email. You can deem certain people "VIPs" and flag emails from them so you can go back to them more easily.
Apple has also demonstrated Passbook, a central place to keep your boarding passes, tickets and gift cards.
It's improving Siri, which is supposed to get better at fielding questions about movies, restaurants and other things. Apple is partnering with OpenTable Inc to make reservations, for instance.
The new software also has a better tie-in with Facebook. You can talk to Siri to post a status update.
And Facetime video calls will work over cellular networks for the first time. It had been limited to Wi-Fi connections.
The new phone will come in black and white.
iOS 6
Older phones will get Apple iOS 6 upgrade for free next Thursday (NZT). Apple has said it will be available for the 3GS, 4 and 4S models, though some new features won't work on them.
It will also be available on last year's and this year's iPad models and newer iPod Touch devices.
SIRI FOR IPAD, IPOD TOUCH, NEW 'EARPODS'
Siri, the virtual assistant launched on the iPhone last year, is coming to the iPod Touch for the first time. Apple already has said Siri will appear on the iPad with the new software update.
Meanwhile, the iconic white earbuds are getting an update. Now called earpods, they sport an earpiece that is more cylindrical.
Apple says they were built to meld to the shape of your ear.
The earpods will go on sale as a stand-alone accessory and will be included with new devices out in October.
IPOD TOUCH TWEAKED, NEW NANO
Apple is updating the iPod Touch - essentially an iPhone without the ability to make calls. Like the new iPhone and the new iPod Nano, it will use the new connector, which Apple calls Lightning.
It will have a 5-megapixel camera and the same panorama feature as the new iPhone. It will be possible to edit photos on the Touch for the first time.
Apple is also refreshing its iPod Nano.
The seventh generation of the device is thinner than the previous one, with a bigger display.
It now has a home button similar to that on the iPhone and the iPad. It also will come with Bluetooth wireless capability, allowing you to stream music.
ITUNES UPGRADE
Apple also unveiled a new version of its iTunes software for traditional computers.
There are new ways to create playlists and to decide what to listen to next. It also promises improved search - as you type the name of an album, for instance, those in your music library will be suggested.
The iTunes software comes with a new mini player - a small window from which you can play songs while you are still in your music library.
The new software will come out in late October.
A video via YouTube Tech Vlogger SoldierKnowsBest during the iPhone Release
