Hasta La Gadget!

The iPhone 5 could end up in short supply, with word that Sharp has apparently experienced delays in mass producing displays for the much-anticipated iOS smartphone. Sharp had intended to begin large scale production and shipping of the new LCD panels in August, an insider whispered to the WSJ, but unspecified manufacturing problems have supposedly scuppered that timescale.

That apparently leaves just two of Apple’s three intended suppliers actually delivering components, LG Display and Japan Display Inc. Both have already begun shipping to Apple, the source says, though Sharp still does not have an estimated date for when its deliveries might begin.

If true, the delay could be potentially very embarrassing for Sharp and key Apple product manufacturer Foxconn, which recently invested significantly into the display firm. It’s not the first time Sharp has supposedly let Apple down, either. The firm was supposedly bypassed initially for new iPad display supplies after its panels failed to live up to Cupertino’s exacting standards.

Apple has declined to comment on the leaks, but the company is expected to launch the iPhone 5 at an event on September 12. Typically, Apple pushes out its new phones roughly a week or so after the official reveal, and it’s unclear whether Sharp’s problems will change that or create a supply bottleneck in the first weeks of availability.

iPhone 5 Sharp screen delay could bottleneck supply is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon is widely assumed to be gearing up for a new Kindle Fire reveal next week, but recent rumors are also telling us that it might launch a new E Ink Kindle as well. If these new images from The Verge are the real deal, then we might be looking at the next E Ink Kindle, which appears to be a refresh of the Kindle Touch. As you can see from the images, Amazon is using the phrase “Paperwhite” to describe this Kindle, but whether or not that’s the name of this new device remains to be seen.

Obviously, the term Paperwhite refers to the new display we can clearly see in the images. This looks to improve on the Pearl E Ink displays we’ve been seeing lately, and in these promotional shots, Amazon is touting “higher contrast, high resolution, integrated lighting, and eight weeks of battery life.” Perhaps most importantly, this new Kindle appears to sport a backlit screen, which you can bet will go over well with consumers.

And why wouldn’t Amazon offer an E Ink Kindle with a backlight? That would align this new Kindle to be the perfect competitor to Barnes and Noble’s Nook SimpleTouch with GlowLight, and with that device on the scene, it makes a lot of sense that Amazon would want to offer a backlit eReader of its own. These images all seem legitimate too, which further reinforces the idea that Amazon is ready to pull the veil off a new Kindle Touch, perhaps alongside the next iteration of the Kindle Fire.

Of course, we’re still hesitant to call it a sure thing, but the good news is that we won’t have much longer to wait until these new devices are revealed. Amazon is holding a press conference on September 6, and all of new reveals are rumored to be going down there. Stay tuned, because we might just come away from that event next week with a number of new Kindle devices to talk about.

‘Paperwhite’ Kindle struts its stuff in leaked images is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The folks from Pantech have remained relatively quite here in the US, aside from the slow rollout of some of their devices on AT&T’s network. Those however have all been budget-friendly smartphones but this latest Pantech leak for AT&T is aiming for the top. This smartphone is packing specs for a top tier device and we have all the details.

According to the tipster providing details to Engadget this will be know as the Pantech Magnus and they are hoping it will be “great” because Magnus in Latin means exactly that. As you can see from the leaked image above the new device has some rather nice styling and on-screen Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich navigation keys — or it could even be Jelly Bean but that is doubtful.

Sources confirm the new handset is rocking the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor just like the Galaxy S III, which is a 1.5 GHz dual-core chip, 1GB of RAM, and rumored and recent benchmarks suggest this smartphone will have a 720p HD display. There’s no actual details on screen size or resolution but looking over the image we can expect 4.3 to 4.5-inches here.

Then as you can see there is a front camera, 8 megapixel rear with LED flash, a speaker grill and some rather odd design humps. This looks like a mix between the DROID Incredible on the rear, with aluminum accents from old HTC smartphones. Either way Pantech is aiming higher this time around and we like it. The more competition the better. Pantech and AT&T haven’t said a word yet but this pretty much makes it official. Hopefully we’ll know more soon on this “great” smartphone.

Pantech Magnus leaks for AT&T with 4G LTE and ICS is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Those rumors about Samsung naming their new Windows Phone lineup the “ATIV” appear to be quite accurate after today’s latest leak. It looks as if Samsung is getting prepared to launch a few new Windows devices and today we have our first look at the 4.8-inch ATIV S Windows Phone 8 smartphone. It isn’t quite the Galaxy S III — but sure comes close.

Samsung plans to be one of if not the first to announce a Windows Phone 8 smartphone, and that is stacking up to be the above pictured ATIV S. This phone will indeed be their flagship WP8 device if rumors are true, and it packs just as much punch as its Android counterpart.

The Samsung ATIV S will be sporting a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with an unknown resolution but most likely 1280 x 720p. Under the hood will be a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor (probably Qualcomm’s S4) along with an 8 megapixel rear camera and 1.9 MP front shooter as well. Other specs have not been detailed or leaked at this time.

The pictures, leaked by The Verge, shows some similarities to the Galaxy S III with a few subtle changes like the speaker being placed down below instead of near the camera. Otherwise they appear to be extremely similar in design, size, and thickness. We are hearing Samsung could possibly unveil this new flagship Windows Phone 8 device at IFA 2012 during their Samsung Unpacked event. That will be starting under the hour so stay tuned for full details as we are here live! Follow along at our IFA Hub for all the news.

Samsung 4.8-inch ATIV S Windows Phone 8 smartphone leaks is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We saw a leaked hint of what was coming for Intel’s Valleyview system-on-a-chip (SoC), but now the full plan appears to have been outed by Chinese blog Expreview. The lineup will feature four models of the 22nm chips, with the D- and M-series looking to replace the Cedar Trail 32nm SoC chips used in current netbook and low-end desktop devices. The I-series is for embedded and industrial use, while the T-series would appear in tablets and other small form-factor devices, according to the leaked slides. That model would supersede the Clover Trail SoCs, which are only just arriving themselves in upcoming Windows 8 slates like the Acer W510 or Asus Tablet 810.

The chips should offer a burly horsepower bump over their predecessors, with up to four cores and clock speeds topping out at 2.4Ghz. The icing on the cake will be the integrated Gen 7 graphics engines of Ivy Bridge fame, featuring the same HD 4000 and HD 2500 GPU‘s as the grownup chips, but with only four “execution units” instead of the 16 you’d find there. That would offload functions like video decoding and 3D rendering from the CPU and allow simultaneous display to a TV or monitor. Bay Trail would also support 8GB of DDR3 RAM, double that of the “last” gen, as well as USB 3.0, SATA 2.0 and a host of other connection options. If the leak is accurate, the processors would arrive sometime next year, we’ll just have to wait and see if that’s soon enough for Intel to take a run at its formidable competition.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets

Intel’s full Atom ‘Bay Trail’ roadmap leaked: 22nm, Ivy Bridge graphics, quad-core originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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