WSJ: Apple ‘developing new iPhone,’ plus another for Verizon (update: iPhone HD, front-facing camera?)

You heard right, folks — according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is currently “developing a new iPhone to debut this summer,” and as if that weren’t enough, it’s also “working on another model for US mobile phone operator Verizon Wireless.” As of this moment, details about the break are nowhere to be found, but it’s not like either tidbit is shocking. This summer will mark the one-year anniversary of the iPhone 3GS, and if the Cupertino-based company keeps with its historical refresh pattern, we’re just a few months out from seeing the latest and greatest iPhone. There’s also been no shortage of iPhone-to-Verizon rumors over the years, with the latest of ’em happening during the run-up to the iPad’s launch.

Update: We’re now learning that the “next iPhone is being manufactured by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry,” which just so happens to be the same outfit responsible for crafting all prior iPhones. That’s according to “people briefed on the matter” and sourced by the WSJ. It’s also stated that the world’s first CDMA iPhone will be manufactured by Pegatron Technology, which we caught just last week dabbling in some of NVIDIA’s Tegra 2-based wares. If all goes well, Pegatron could begin mass production of the CDMA iPhone (exact model not disclosed) this September, so it’s hard to say if Sprint or Verizon would have access before the all-too-lucrative holiday season. As for quotes on the matter? Most everyone involved wouldn’t say a word, but an AT&T spokesman did utter the following: “There has been lots of incorrect speculation on CDMA iPhones for a long time. We haven’t seen one yet and only Apple knows when that might occur.

On a week that couldn’t possibly get any bigger for Apple, that’s exactly what just happened. Everyone suspected that a fourth-generation iPhone was in the works, but having an outlet like the WSJ confirm it just makes the summer that much harder to wait for. There’s also the possibility that 2010 will be the final year that AT&T retains its death-grip on the iPhone, but by the sound of this report, it still seems as if the nation’s largest GSM carrier may nab exclusive rights on the latest iPhone. We also can’t help but wonder about the future of a true 4G iPhone — will Sprint manage to grab a WiMAX-enabled version? Will Verizon get its grubby paws on an LTE model? We figured only Jobs would know, but now… there might just be someone else out there willing to spill the beans.

Update 2: Soon after the news broke, we were informed that the next-generation iPhone would be announced on June 22nd (a Tuesday, naturally) and would be dubbed the iPhone HD (a name that has been tossed around before). That certainly makes sense given that Apple almost certainly has to up the pixel count in order to rival the EVO 4G, HD2 and all of those other high-res handsets, but we’re still reserving judgment until we see that fateful media invite hit our inbox.

Update 3: John Gruber’s just weighed in with some more tidbits, in his characteristically polite way. Gruber says the next model will have an A4-class SoC, a 960 x 640 display, a front-facing camera, and that iPhone OS 4.0 will enable third-party multitasking. A pretty safe set of predictions, in all, but Gruber’s done pretty well in the past, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

[Thanks, Chris]

WSJ: Apple ‘developing new iPhone,’ plus another for Verizon (update: iPhone HD, front-facing camera?) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple confirms Best Buy iPads at launch, what time you’ll need to be there

Apple confirms Best Buy iPads at launch, what time you'll need to be there

We’re nearly there. The mystical, magical iPad experience starts this Saturday, April 3, and if you haven’t already pre-ordered your only way to get one for the weekend is going to be to fight the rush at retail. Apple has confirmed that all 221 of its Apple Stores will have the wunder-tablets on sale, and has also confirmed the Best Buy rumors, indicating that “most” of the big-box retailer’s locations will have them. Stores are set to open at 9:00am, so we figure you can probably roll on over there at 8:45 or so and get a good spot in line.

Apple confirms Best Buy iPads at launch, what time you’ll need to be there originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zune HD 64 makes surprise appearance

The link’s dead now, but there’s no mistaking the appearance of a Zune HD 64 on the official Zune website. Hey Microsoft, got something you want to tell us? A 64GB Zune HD, perhaps, doubling the capacity of your previous top-ender? How about global availability? Click the source link to see for yourselves… go ‘head, don’t cost nothing.

[Thanks, David H.]

Zune HD 64 makes surprise appearance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC HD2 gets early Windows Phone 7 OS port, could be released before official devices (updated: videos!)

Don’t look surprised. With the Windows Phone 7 Series dev tools now out in the open the pent up demand for that elusive HD2 upgrade was bound to be a priority for some well-meaning developers, somewhere… namely, Russia. Now we’ve got what looks to be the first screenies of the WP7S OS running on an HD2. Better yet, htcpedia claims that almost everything is working including WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. However, the graphics driver is still showing problems and there is noticeable device lag. Nevertheless, the team is planning a beta release soon. Imagine it, an HD2 WP7S ROM available before Microsoft and its partners can even launch an official device, with its 5 buttons or not — now that would be something. One more grab after the break, the rest at the source below.

Update: Video evidence after the break. For what it’s worth, the folks at XDA also think it’s legit.

Update 2: Yet another video has surfaced… beta please.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC HD2 gets early Windows Phone 7 OS port, could be released before official devices (updated: videos!)

HTC HD2 gets early Windows Phone 7 OS port, could be released before official devices (updated: videos!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N8-00 gets first official mention with Symbian^3 and nHD display

Simmer down, we don’t have official pics yet (just the supposed leaks) but we do have the first official mention of what looks to be Nokia’s first Symbian^3 handset. The culprit is the “NN8-00r100-3G” XML file sitting pretty on nokia.com right now. The first notables are a “N8-00” model and the “Symbian/3” string listed in the agent header that seemingly confirm that the N8-00 will run Symbian^3. Next is a “360 x 640 pixel” screen size. Note that the N8-00 display is rumored to be 3.5-inches making this a very similar nHD display to the one found on Nokia’s current N-series flagship: the N97. The difference this time is that we’re expecting Nokia’s newest flagship to opt for a capacitive touchscreen display to match Symbian^3’s more finger friendly UI. Unfortunately, we’re not seeing any mention of the rumored 12 megapixel camera and the only keyboard mentioned is a “PhoneKeyPad” — in other words, no QWERTY not that we were expecting one. We do see Bluetooth 2.0 and radios for WiFi and GPRS/EGPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA among the other details. Feel free to sleuth the file for yourselves in the source link below while we wait for the mid-April announcement.

[Thanks, Glenn]

Nokia N8-00 gets first official mention with Symbian^3 and nHD display originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leaked image says iPad lands at Best Buy… on launch day

We’d heard buzzing for some time now around the internet that Apple planned to sell its iPad in more than just its own stores, and usually the name Best Buy was mentioned in the same breath… but now we’ve got some photographic evidence. The above shot comes from what looks to be an internal memo from the big box retailer, not only stating that the stores will be getting the iPad, but that they’ll be getting the iPad on launch day. Now, there’s no way for us to confirm that is 100 percent the real deal, but we speculated this could be coming back in mid-February, and there’s lots of corroborating evidence to suggest this is no joke (such as COO Tim Cook explicitly mentioning the device would be sold at Best Buy) — we just didn’t expect to see it day one. We’re digging for more info on this story, so stay tuned.

Update:
Best Buy’s iPad playbook is certainly looking legit at this point. Our tipster sent us another two screenshots (they’re after the break) showing off BB’s new retail display which includes the iPad. Interestingly, they also tell us that the iPads are set to be delivered to stores on the night of April 2nd, and that quantities will be limited to about five of each model on launch. TUAW has also just published more of the playbook if you want to head over there and check it out.

Continue reading Leaked image says iPad lands at Best Buy… on launch day

Leaked image says iPad lands at Best Buy… on launch day originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Mar 2010 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 ‘tessellation monsters’

Let’s get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case’s cooling with 215W of hotness.

NVIDIA’s first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they’re competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we’ve yet seen. After the break you’ll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.

Continue reading NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 ‘tessellation monsters’

NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 ‘tessellation monsters’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad App Store screenshots leaked

Well, look at this. If you’ve been desperate to know what your App Store experience would be like on the iPad, here’s a chance to live the dream. Apparently these shots were discovered while the App Annie folks (an app tracking and analytics site) were “searching for clues” on the device and this “actual feed” was stumbled upon. While that’s all very unclear, what isn’t unclear is that Apple will be using the HD moniker to denote applications that have either been tweaked in a special iPad version, or have had their resolution upped so they wouldn’t just be scaled standard apps. Additionally, we’re seeing some applications that aren’t even available on the iPhone right now, such as the $49.99 OmniGraffle, which we’re assuming will be very close to its desktop counterpart — a good sign that iPad apps are majorly upping the functionality. One more long shot after the break for your viewing pleasure.

Update: Looks like App Advice has even more screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading iPad App Store screenshots leaked

iPad App Store screenshots leaked originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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USB mass storage support coming to Xbox 360 on April 6th

We had a pretty firm idea that this was happening, but now Major Nelson has gone and made it official: mass storage is coming the Xbox 360 at long last. There will be a system update on April 6th, which will allow up to two simultaneous USB flash drives plugged into the system, which will be capable of storing profiles, game saves, demos, “and more.” The maximum size supported is 16GB, and even though regular USB hard drives will be supported, they’ll be up against the same size cap, and performance will suffer as well. You’ll have to manually format a USB device for use in this way when plugging it into the 360, but Microsoft will be partnering with SanDisk for a branded drive in May that will come preconfigured. Also tweaked is the new memory management screen (what convenient timing!) which should make shuffling around these files less of a chore. Check out some screenshots below.

[Thanks, Jeff]

USB mass storage support coming to Xbox 360 on April 6th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget app for Android is finally, really here!

Everyone, stop what you’re doing. The day you’ve been patiently waiting for has finally come. That’s right, the Engadget app is now available for the Android platform… totally free, of course. Can you believe it? Owners of Android 1.5 devices and up will finally have access to the unedited, unrestrained application, which allows quick access to Engadget, Engadget Mobile, and Engadget HD, podcasts, the Engadget Show, galleries, and more. Just as in the iPhone and webOS versions of the app, you’ve got full support for commenting, options to tip us, and lots of ways to share news with friends, family, or mortal enemies. We’re also constantly updating, and we have plans for some changes right out of the gate — like a homescreen widget that should be coming in the next version, so you can always stay on top of Engadget news. Keep in mind, we’re still going to be cranking away on all our other versions too (the BlackBerry and webOS apps have just recently been updated) — so expect more good stuff coming your way. Okay, less talk more rock — the app, er… prog, is available for download right now from the Android Market. Go get it!

The Engadget app for Android is finally, really here! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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