Let’s be frank: September was a dog of a month this year. The last month before the holiday season gets going has exactly one thing going for it—nice weather. And at least in the seat of House Gizmodo, it was equal parts sticky and submerged. Not cool, September. Luckily, some great gadgets also came out this month. Here’s a list of some of our favorites. More »
Steve Jobs may not be presiding over this year’s long-awaited iPhone announcement, but that’s not putting a damper on any of the excitement. Rumors of the coveted new mystery product (or products) have been swirling for months, but Apple will finally pull back the curtain at its Oct. 4 event.
Hard and fast details are few and far between, but we’ve got a pretty good track record in predicting new iPhone and MacBook announcements in the past. So we’ve taken a look at what little information there is available, and here’s what we think is waiting for us down at 1 Infinite Loop come Tuesday morning.
Powering the iPhone 5 will likely be an A5 processor, as it’s been spotted in purported photos of the next-gen model’s insides. The latest news also points to the iPhone 5 touting 1 GB of RAM, which makes for better gaming, browsing and more memory-intensive tasks.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
The rear-facing camera could also get a bump up from the current iPhone’s 5 megapixels to a sharper 8 megapixels. That’s the magic number for the industry currently, with Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S II and Motorola Droid 3 already touting as much. Photography is key to the iPhone experience — especially with iOS-only apps like the ever-popular Instagram — and we don’t see Apple skimping out in that area.
Appearance-wise, the iPhone 5 may sport a new metal back, as opposed to the iPhone 4’s glass-covered rear. Case design mock-ups point to a device that’s incredibly thin, with tapered edges and a larger, edge-to-edge display. A number of mock-ups and case designs are showing an elongated hardware home button on the device, which seems a bit odd to us, as we thought Apple would be more likely to remove some hardware and turn that button into a capacitive-touch space.
We were inititally skeptical that Apple would release two iPhones this fall, a new iPhone and an incrementally updated or budget “iPhone 4S.” But hints from different sources suggest that a budget “iPhone 4S” could very likely make an appearance at Apple’s iPhone event.
For one, Apple board member Al Gore used the plural form when he said there would be “iPhones coming out next month” at a conference he spoke at in September.
CEO Tim Cook also previously stated that Apple would not be “ceding any market” and that “price is a big factor in the prepaid market.” Feature phones make up just about two-thirds of the nation’s mobile phone scene (not to mention foreign markets like China and India, where the prepaid phone market is huge). By producing a budget iPhone, with reduced storage capacity and cheaper data plan options, Apple could reach out to a large portion of the market that’s been holding out on purchasing a smartphone.
In an effort to gain ground among the growing legion of Android users, Apple may introduce the iPhone to a third carrier — namely, Sprint — in addition to its existing relationships with AT&T and Verizon.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Increased distribution is a key component of Apple’s marketing strategy, according to Shing Yin of Citadel Securities, a position that wasn’t a major concern when the iPhone initially launched into the smartphone space.
T-Mobile recently confirmed it will not be carrying the iPhone this year. T-Mobile subscribers will have to get their smartphone kicks with Android, which the network is wholly embracing.
We’ve seen an iOS 5 preview at WWDC 2011 earlier this year, and it’s been available to developers in beta form for some time, so there are no surprises here. With iOS 5, the next iPhone will house a number of features currently accomplished by third-party apps. Examples include photo editing (something Camera+ currently excels at), image and document sharing (which falls in the realm of Dropbox) and a “Read Later” functionality (currently performed by Instapaper).
iOS also seamlessly integrates SMS and MMS messaging with iMessage and will allow for FaceTime-ing over a 3G connection rather than just a Wi-Fi connection.
One of the latest bits of exciting news we may be seeing Tuesday is the introduction of voice control on the iPhone. This purportedly comes by way of a feature called Assistant, a piece of software built by Siri, a start-up Apple purchased in 2010. Assistant will only be able to run on the iPhone 5, as it requires its beefed up CPU and additional memory.
Assistant would let you tell your phone something like “Send a text message to Joe Schmoe saying I’m going to be in town next Wednesday,” and then it would complete the task. It would also have a conversation mode to glean more information from the user in order to provide optimal results.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
It’s unlikely that Steve Jobs will make a surprise appearance at this year’s iPhone announcement. Jobs stepped down as CEO. It’s new CEO Tim Cook’s time to shine now, and his place to lead the event. Like past announcements, there will probably be a handful of executives — VPs like Jonathan Ive and Phil Schiller — taking turns introducing and demonstrating the various new and improved features of the phone. But Steve Jobs will not be stepping out from behind a black curtain. If there’s “One more thing…,” Mr. Cook will be the one dangling the carrot on a string.
Image: Manzana/Flickr
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The first quarterly earnings report post-Wake Up Call have just been published for Canada’s own Research in Motion, and while the cash is still flowing, investors and analysts alike aren’t feeling too rosy about the future. Despite Q2 revenue of $4.2 billion and a GAAP net income of $329 million, RIM’s stock plummeted nine percent following the news. Why? That reality was at the lowest end of estimates, and as we’ve seen, it takes a blowout quarter to please the folks on Wall Street. Nevertheless, the company’s touting a subscriber base that ballooned 40 percent year-over-year (surpassing 70m total), and while it’s quick to trumpet the rollout of seven new smartphones, not a one of them managed to astound the QNX-desiring critics. The report also notes that 10.6 million handsets were moved in the quarter, around $780 million was invested as “part of a consortium of companies that successfully bid to acquire intellectual property assets from Nortel,” and it’s forecasting that BlackBerry smartphone shipments in Q3 will grow between 27 percent and 37 percent compared to Q2. Sadly, the company only “shipped” 200,000 PlayBook tablets, with the prevailing thought being that it actually sold far fewer. Moreover, nary a forecast was given for future PlayBook sales.
As for thoughts from the head honcho(s)? Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, stated that “overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand for older models,” further noting that his firm will “continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next generation, QNX-based mobile platform next year.” Next year is a long, long way away, though, and there’s no doubt whatsoever what kind of competition will be in place by the time 2012 rolls around. We’ll be hopping on the analyst call here in a few, and you can look beyond the break for any notable mentions.
RIM’s Q2 earnings report: $329 million in net income, not enough to fend off critics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Not only is Apple shipping the most smartphones, it’s also shipping the best smartphones — if you believe the stats in J.D. Power and Associates’ latest US customer satisfaction survey. It gave the iPhone a score of 838, versus HTC’s handsets in second place with 801 and an industry average of 788. Sammy got a disappointing 777, but we guess it might have fared better if the Galaxy S II had been quicker to cross the Atlantic. Hapless RIM got shunted into fifth place, having come second in 2010. You’ll find plenty more factoids in the PR after the break, including evidence that people just love 4G. Well, we could have told you that.
Continue reading Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia
Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We really, really love gadgets, but nothing brings us greater joy than to see our readers unbox a new toy, especially when it can help improve your experience at school. So this year we’re giving away bags — 15 of them, in fact — each filled with 20 amazing prizes. Each winner will score a laptop, tablet, a killer camera, and even a new dual-core cell phone, along with plenty of other awesome items. We’ll be choosing one commenter from each of our back to school category pages, and one from our main contest announcement, so if you meet the qualifications listed on each post, simply leave a comment to be eligible to win. You won’t be penalized for commenting more than once on each post, but it won’t help your chances, either. And since we’ll be randomly selecting one commenter from each post, enter at each of the 14 pages linked to here, along with this page to boost your odds. We’ll wrap things up at 12PM ET tomorrow, so better get clickin’!
Note: Comments added below will not be eligible, nor will those left on the main back to school page — if you see a long list of terms and conditions above the comments section, then you’ve made it to the right place.
Engadget’s massive back to school 2011 sweepstakes ends tomorrow… find out how to win! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Foxconn posts $943 million net profit for first half of 2011, 20 million iPad 2s coming for Q3? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It all seems a bit for naught, with the earth in obvious upheaval, spawning one natural disaster after another and careening toward a horrible, fiery, and certain end next year. But until that happens, there are some pretty cool gadgets to play with! Here’s the best of bunch from August. More »
Shares of Dell were down nearly eight percent in after-hours trading after the Texas-based PC maker posted lower-than-expected second-quarter results. Still, the company’s revenue was up one percent over last year, totaling $15.66 billion, compared to $15.5 billion in Q2 2010. Net income jumped 63 percent, from $545 million to $890 million, over the year-ago quarter. Corporate and government orders were responsible for the jump in income, according to an AP report, but new sales predictions hint that orders may not be coming in as often as anticipated. Dell expects modest growth of one to five percent for the full year — citing “a more uncertain demand environment” — compared to previous estimates of five to nine percent growth. Jump past the break for the full rundown from Dell.
Dell’s Q2 earnings fall short of estimates: $890 million net income, $15.66 billion revenue originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We make our own truth. That’s how IDC can come up with roughly the same numbers as fellow research firm Canalys and crown Apple the king, when its rival called Android top dog — it’s all about how you slice it. See, where as Canalys bundled all Android handset makers together, IDC has broken them up, which leads to a rather interesting twist — the largest smartphone maker in the world is now Apple. Cupertino’s growth of 141.7-percent in shipments year over year was enough to push it past Nokia (which slipped to number three) and Samsung (which climbed two spots to take the silver medal), while RIM and HTC rounded out the top five. That being said, no one is running away with the lead here, and Sammy’s continued stratospheric rise should keep Apple on guard. Check out the full report after the break.
Apple now the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung checks in at number two originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Back when many of us were gearing up to go back to school, the shopping list was filled with notebooks (the kind without a battery), pens (read: not a stylus), and a few dozen pencils (old-school #2s that required manual sharpening). Maybe, just maybe, we would have a new graphing calculator to look forward to, but if we ever saw ‘smart’ and ‘phone’ in the same sentence, it was probably in a handwritten note from mom begging us to stop making long-distance calls on the landline.
Now, back to school means picking up extra shifts at work to pay for new computers, cameras, smartphones, e-readers, and tablets — not to mention those still-sky-high prices publishers are commanding for textbooks at the college store. We want to relieve some of that burden — for a few of you, at least. This year, we’ve partnered with top manufacturers in nearly every category to bring you one epic giveaway, complete with all of the products we mentioned above, plus a whole lot more! Lucky winners will receive an Engadget-branded messenger bag, overflowing with the latest tech gear. Jump past the break for the full rundown of prizes, along with instructions for entering our back to school giveaway.
Engadget’s back to school 2011 sweepstakes: we’re giving away $3,000 worth of gear… 15 times! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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