Hasta La Gadget!

We took apart the next iPhone.

There are a number of interesting facts gained from the dissection, the most important of which is more concrete confirmation (as if we needed any more) that this phone is from Apple. There are three separate places, inside the case, where “APPLE” is written prominently.

Upon unscrewing the bottom two screws — just like with the 3GS — you can use a suction cup and pry off the back portion of the phone, not the front like on iFixit’s 3GS teardown. Once open, you’ll notice that the battery takes up around 50 percent of the phone, give or take. Very impressive.

Diving deeper becomes much trickier. There are a total of around 40 to 50 screws inside the phone, positioned at various angles that are almost frustratingly impossible to get to. Components can be removed and detached from other components. There are a handful of pieces like this, but you don’t know which ones are meant to detach, because you don’t have the manual. Once you get all the screws off and pry off the pieces that connect the micro-SIM, the camera, the on/off switch and volume buttons, you’re ready to access the brains.

The leaks, they keep coming. Boy Genius has some new images and details on BlackBerry OS 6.0 today, and while we’ve got our fair share of questions, there’s no denying that what we’re seeing looks like a substantial and much-needed improvement to the platform. First off, it appears that RIM’s acquisition of Torch Mobile has paid off with a totally new WebKit-based browser, complete with tab switching, redesigned favorites, and pinch-to-zoom. About time, we’d say. Pinch-to-zoom and multitouch are also said to be present system-wide, along with kinetic scrolling, and long-pressing on the screen brings up a new modal context menu. That’s definitely intriguing. The media player, photo viewer, and messaging apps have all also been re-done, and we’re told the new inbox offers Facebook, Twitter, and RSS integration. The best part? BGR says this is all due out in June / July, “100%.”

Now, here’s the interesting parts. First, it’s obvious that this system is made for and being demoed on a touchscreen device, yet BGR says it was being shown off by an “AT&T connect.” That suggests Ol’ Blue is about to get a touchscreen BlackBerry of its own to counter Verizon’s Storm sometime soon — perhaps that leaked slider? We can’t say for sure. What we can say for sure is that this is the third set of 6.0 leaks we’ve seen that have content about San Francisco and the earthquake in Haiti displayed on the screen — and while RIM has said the previous two leaks were just mockups, it’s more than a little odd that SF / Haiti has become a theme here. What does it all mean? We may never know, but whatever — just hit us with that new browser and we’ll stop asking questions.

BlackBerry OS 6.0 screenshots and details leak out originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve only ever seen the HP Slate in extremely controlled demonstrations and cheesy videos until now, but it looks like the Windows 7 tablet just spent a little bit of time in the wild — Conecti.ca‘s posted up a full hands-on and mini-review. Their conclusion? “The official verdict is meh.” Yeah, ouch. Apparently the Slate’s biggest strength is also its greatest weakness — it’s essentially a touchscreen netbook, and that means that while it can run everything including Flash, it can be “slow and annoying.” Unfortunately there’s not a lot of info on how well HP’s TouchSmart Windows 7 skin works, so we’ll wait till we play with one before we make a decision, but man — we definitely weren’t expecting this thing to look so chunky in the photos. No wonder the press pics and other demos are so carefully arranged — it really does look like a chopped up netbook. At least the HDMI dock is somewhat sexy, we suppose. Couple more pics after the break.

[Thanks, WikiWarrior]

Continue reading HP Slate leaks its way into the wild: ‘meh’

HP Slate leaks its way into the wild: ‘meh’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well what do you know about this? With all those rumors flying around that the iPhone 4G we’d spotted was no more than a Japanese knock-off of an Apple product, it was starting to look like this thing was too good to be true. That is until one of the Engadget editors spotted what seems to be solid proof that this is — in fact — the next iPhone. If you’ll recall, the night before the iPad was revealed, we had leaked shots of the device from what appeared to be an Apple test lab. Upon further inspection of these pictures today, the aforementioned editor discovered that the new iPhone 4G we’ve just gotten photos of is actually sitting on the table beside the iPad prototype! Imagine how blown our minds were when we realized we have had a photo of the next iPhone for months! As you can see in the pic above, the left side of the new device is clearly visible on this table in the upper right hand corner, and since we believe that these photos come directly from an Apple testbed, it’s hard to deny that the phone you’ve just seen is in fact the real deal. Not only that, but we suspect that the device on the tablet itself is also a version of the new phone (you can see what looks like aluminum along the bottom) which seems to be housed in some type of iPhone 3G-like case.

Additionally, a source — who confirms this is the next Apple iPhone — also tells us that the device apparently does have a higher res screen on-board, a front-facing camera, a higher resolution camera with flash, and takes MicroSIM cards (that’s the little “button” around the side you see in the Twitpic which is floating around the internet). We’re working on uncovering more info, but right now you can take a look at the proof above for yourself, and in the gallery below.

Note: The device we’re talking about can be clearly seen in the UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE PHOTO, you know, with the arrow pointing to it.

Update: A Mac Rumors forum member has just posted pictures from Chinese site WeiPhone of what appears to be the guts of this device. These images line up with what we know right now. We’ve added a gallery of the shots below.

Update 2: In response to commenters and tipsters questioning the differences between the Twitpic and WeiPhone pics and the “San Jose” photos; these are likely handmade demo units, therefore there will be minor differences between them such as the screws appearing and then not appearing. We believe the models which will roll off of the production lines in China will look like these devices, likely with some minor physical tweaks, but they will look like these phones. Other major design decisions are already set in stone, such as the rumored glass back, which is present on both of these devices (Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber mentions them here). Yes, there are very minor discrepancies between these photos, but you need to understand they are from a very small pool of hand-built tester units. It is incredibly likely that the next version of the iPhone will look like the photos you see in the gallery below, and we certainly wouldn’t claim that if we didn’t have good reason to believe it.

Update 3: Gruber has expanded on the info concerning a glass backing for these new devices, and he’s dug up a 2006 Apple patent application on a ceramic enclosure for handheld devices which is also (ding ding ding), radio transparent.

iPhone 4G: proof originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, Microsoft is not even trying to be coy with its Pink launch tomorrow — these happy and attractive young people pictured on the livestream page are clearly being delighted by the “Turtle” portrait slider that keeps leaking all over the place. Or maybe they’re just stoked they can use SanDisk microSD cards with it — that’s how the kids react to removable storage nowadays, right?

In other news, Reuters says the phones won’t actually be called Pink, and that they’re likely scheduled to ship this summer, so that’s something, we suppose. Honestly, we just don’t know what Microsoft is going to offer here that’ll be more attractive to teens than Windows Phone 7 — we’re still hoping to be wowed tomorrow, but we’ve got a suspicion we’ll just be confused and sad. Which isn’t a bad way to market something to teens, we suppose. Microsoft Pink: it’s like having bad feelings.

P.S.- If you squint just right, that dude totally looks like a young Bill Gates. He also loves cuddles.

Continue reading Microsoft Pink livestream page offers glimpse of Turtle, Pink name changing at launch

Microsoft Pink livestream page offers glimpse of Turtle, Pink name changing at launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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