Hasta La Gadget!

The other day we reported that Apple would be building an advanced sapphire manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona, where GT Advanced Technologies would be responsible for the production. The move was partly due to Apple wanting to bring back some production from overseas and help provide locals with job opportunities, but at the same time we were wondering if this could hint at something more. Well it looks like GT Advanced Technologies might be hinting the same thing. During the company’s earnings call, GT Advanced Technologies stated that they expect that 80% of their revenue of $600 million to $800 million to come from sapphire alone, thanks to the partnership with Apple.

This is pretty significant considering that GT Advanced Technologies typically expects 11% of its sales to come from sapphire, suggesting that massive orders are going to be placed by Apple. It also hints that Apple is ramping up the production of sapphire, although we’re not sure if it is to simply meet the demand of the iPhone 5s where sapphire is used for the camera lens and cover for Touch ID, or if the Cupertino company has bigger plans, such as replacing Gorilla Glass with sapphire instead. It is also possible that sapphire could be used in the rumored iWatch which is pegged for a release in 2014.

Apple’s Sapphire Manufacturing Partner Hints At Bigger Plans original content from Ubergizmo.

Apple typically releases one iPhone a year, usually the main iPhone the first year, and a small follow up the second year, rinse and repeat. However this year was slightly different as Apple had unveiled not just one, but two iPhones in the form of the iPhone 5s, the successor to the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 5c, a slightly cheaper and more colorful iPhone. With that being said, will Apple continue this trend of releasing two phones a year from now on? Or will Apple sit back and judge the success of the iPhone 5c before deciding if an iPhone 6c is worth purusing?

While it remains to be seen if a iPhone 6c will be released, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty published a note to investors, stating that following her conversations with Apple’s CEO and CFO, she believes that Apple will be conducting multiple refreshes of their iPhone every year, something along the lines of the iPad 3 and iPad 4 launching in 2012, with one launched in the early part of the year while the other was launched later in the year. In fact it has been suggested that perhaps one of the launches might be for a higher-end device, while the second launch will be for a mid-ranged one, sort of like splitting the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launch into two separate events.

Will this be a wise move for Apple? We guess we will have to wait and see, but what do you guys think? Would you like to see multiple iPhone refreshes within a year?

Analyst Predicts Multiple iPhone Refreshes A Year original content from Ubergizmo.

Today Pebble unveiled its software update with deeper integration with iOS7and its brand new SDK 2.0.

Pebble became very famous when the company raised over 10.2 million dollars from over 69,000 backers on Kickstarter. Since the product started to ship in January 2013, 190,000 Pebble watches are now worn by happy users and over 50 applications are available in iTunes and Google Play, a total of 2,200 apps and faces are on mypebblefaces.com and 80,000 watchfaces were created on watchfacegenerator.de.

Basically the update will allow Pebblers with iPhones running iOS 7 to see all the notifications from the Notification Center on their watches. Before, they would only get sms, email and caller ID notifications.

Now, when users enable the notifications they want in the Notification Center on the phone, such as Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Evernote, Path, Flickr, Dropbox, WhatsApp, Flipboard, they will appear on the Pebble screen.

Developers will be happy to get the SDK 2.0 which will make their lives easier, thanks to the four new APIs: Javascript, Accelerometer, Data Logging and Persistent Storage:

(more…)

Pebble Smart Watch Update for IOS 7 and SDK 2.0 original content from Ubergizmo.

With 28 speakers blasting around 125 watts, the original Wall of Sound made for an obnoxious home stereo system—let alone an iPod dock. But its creators have returned with a bigger and better solution: the Wall of Sound 2.0 that adds an extra 16 speakers, bringing the total to 44 (in addition to a pair of subs) for more decibels and bass than an iPhone dock ever needs.

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When it comes to smartphone platforms, without a doubt Android is the clear winner and is very obviously dominating the market with a pretty huge slice of the pie. However when broken down into companies and different OEMs, such as Samsung, HTC, LG, and etc., comScore reports that as far as smartphone OEMs in the US are concerned, Apple is leading the pack and according to their findings, Apple sits at 40.6% of the US market share in September, with Samsung taking second place with 24.9%.

The numbers have also revealed that Samsung is beating the Android competition by a huge margin, with third place being HTC with a market share of 7.1%, followed by Motorola at 6.8%, and finally LG at 6.6% (no word on Sony). Like we said when it comes to smartphone platform market share, Android is the clear winner and comScore’s numbers prove it. In September 2013, Android’s market share is at 51.8% in the US, followed by Apple’s iOS at 40.6%, and with BlackBerry at 3.8%, followed by Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform in fourth place with 3.3%, and lastly Symbian at 0.3%.

The distance between BlackBerry and Windows Phone compared to iOS and Android is pretty huge and we have to wonder how long it will take before they catchup, but what do you guys think? Do these numbers seem about right to you?

Apple Still Top Smartphone OEM In The US, According To Latest comScore Report original content from Ubergizmo.