We’re about as certain as it gets regarding something you haven’t seen that the iPhone 5 will have a big ‘ol screen. There’s been prior evidence—and this might be more: a leaked screen protector and possibly-revealing case. More »
HTC Bliss to be called the Rhyme, launching September 20? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Are you a Sprint subscriber? Super stoked about possibly getting your hands on an iPhone? It seems as though you’re finally about to be in business. After a chat with a freshly-briefed, forthcoming sales associate, TUAW is reporting that the carrier will start offering an Apple device of some sort next month alongside existing data plans — providing some confirmation for the recent Wall Street Journal report. Things get a bit cloudy after that in regards to exactly which handset the carrier will obtain, but the sales force is currently getting familiar with the iPhone 4. Regardless of which iPhone Sprint ends up procuring, it’s getting fairly impossible to shake the (seemingly) obvious. We’ll see in a month, eh?
Sprint begins iPhone briefings, exact model number remains questionable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Actual report: “Nikon understands that some article appeared in the media regarding Nikon’s imaging product. Please note that Nikon has made no announcement in this regards.”
Translation: “We don’t always reject rumors. But when we do, we reject ones you’ve never heard of.”
The exhaustive press release can be found in its entirety after the break.
[Thanks, PJ]
Continue reading Nikon announces that it has announced nothing
Nikon announces that it has announced nothing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This week, as always, was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of September 5, 2011:
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 5, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Verizon iPhone 4 allowed the iPhone to act like a phone again. Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com
The iPhone undoubtedly is among the most popular phones ever, and yet another survey shows it continues resonating with consumers.
In J.D. Powers’ semi-annual customer satisfaction survey, Apple’s iPhone takes the top spot yet again, making it the top smartphone brand five years running. Apple scored an 838 on the survey’s measure of performance, ease of operation, features, and physical design. HTC scored second place with 801.
“Our results are based on consumer experience. The intuitiveness of the device itself and ease of operation are important factors, and are cornerstones to most of Apple’s products,” says Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.
The online survey uses daily interviews to poll current owners of branded smartphones and people who don’t own a smartphone. The data is then collapsed into six month periods, so if you get a phone that’s well received, that manufacturer’s score rises accordingly.
“HTC and Motorola’s scores were closer overall to Apple last year than this year,” said Parsons.
“The iPhone is a beautiful jewel of a device, and it works just the way it should. It’s intuitive, and it’s dead simple,” says Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of Cult of Mac (and a former Wired.com managing editor and news editor). “It’s taken the pain out of personal computing in so many different ways.”
The iPhone has helped propel Apple to record revenues since its debut, breaking several sales records along the way. It was among the first smartphones to successfully implement a touchscreen and ditch the keyboard, making it utterly unlike peers like the first generation Sidekick phones, which featured QWERTY keyboards and no onscreen touch controls. With the introduction, and continued popularity, of the Apple App Store, the iOS solidified itself as a robust, capable platform on the iPhone.
Although the endless stream of rumors can get tiresome, the iPhone remains a buzz magnet because Apple’s upcoming products and technological developments are so closely guarded.
“Apple is so secretive. It’s such an aggressive company. There’s this great anticipation that they’re going to push the state of the art even further,” Kahney says. According to J.D. Powers and Associates, that certainly helps Apple stay at the top of the rankings.
“It’s not unexpected that satisfaction is higher for devices that have new technological advances or features,” said Parsons in the press release.
Or that consumer anticipation rises when those new technological advances get close to their release date.
For instance, reports of the iPhone coming to Sprint in October have persisted for the last few months, with analysts corroborating the move. But it now looks like Sprint not only will have the iPhone, they’ll be offering up unlimited data plans for the handset, too. Competitors Verizon and AT&T already have killed their unlimited data plans. Sprint currently offers a $100 unlimited data plan for BlackBerry smartphones and the HTC Evo.
Reports that ship times for the iPhone 4 were delayed, followed by the removal of shipping times on the Apple website’s product pages, the feeling that the next chapter in the iPhone saga is near has become practically palpable.
Here’s the word straight from Bloomberg‘s unnamed sources: Sprint’s not only getting the elusive iPhone 5 — it’s keeping an unlimited data plan around just to sway buyers who may otherwise spring for the AT&T / Verizon Wireless variants. Furthermore, these folks in-the-know have good reason to believe that it’ll be launched “next month,” which gives Apple a shockingly small amount of time to invite us over for a west coast reveal. As it stands, the only folks who’ll get limitless data with an iPhone 5 on its existing US carriers are those with grandfathered plans; any new customers on Ma Bell or Big Red will be forced to select one of many tiered options. Not surprisingly, neither Sprint nor Apple are commenting on the story, but if it all proves true, Sprint can definitely hang its hat on having one serious competitive advantage.
[Thanks, Prhime]
Sprint rumored to retain unlimited data with iPhone 5 launch, prove unicorns are indeed legit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks about the future of Windows at CES 2010. Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com
We may finally get a look at Microsoft’s first Windows 8 tablet.
Samsung and Microsoft are set to introduce a brand-spankin’-new Windows 8 tablet next week at Microsoft’s BUILD conference, the Korea Economic Daily reports. The device is expected to house a quad-core ARM processor.
And tech blog This Is My Next says conference attendees will get the tablet for free.
We first got wind of Microsoft’s plan to release Windows 8 tablets when Steve Ballmer accidentally detailed the company’s roadmap in May, saying, “As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.” Other reports indicated Microsoft may deliver a Windows-branded tablet, but that seemed unlikely.
Windows 8 is designed to run on desktops and tablet PCs, unlike Apple’s mobile operating system iOS and Windows Phone 7. It shares its tile-based interface with Windows 7, and users will be able to purchase apps through a dedicated Windows 8 app store.
Last year, Microsoft gave away Windows Phone 7 devices as a perk to conference attendees. But seeing how Windows 8 isn’t even out yet, a complimentary Windows 8 tablet (likely running a pre-release or dev build), would be an extra nifty gift.
So far, Windows’ only foray into the tablet space has been the Windows Phone 7-running Lenovo IdeaPad K1. A previous tablet project, Microsoft Courier, never saw the light of day.
This unassuming plate of sushi appears to have been captured at Apple HQ with an iPhone 5. Image: PocketNow
This isn’t just any photo of a plate of sushi.
Although the EXIF data for this photo says it was shot with an iPhone 4, the rest of the data says otherwise. According to the data, it was shot with an 8-megapixel camera, as it originally had a resolution of 3264 x 2448 before being cropped to a 5.12-megapixel size of 2235 x 2291. It’s also fishy that the photo was taken at 4.3mm f/2.4, which is decidedly more point-and-shoot-like than the 3.85mm f/2.8 lens setting of the iPhone 4.
The last bit of proof that this shot wasn’t actually taken with an iPhone 4? It’s geotagged location is none other than the first building at 1 Infinite Loop, Apple’s headquarters.
You know the rumors. The iPhone 5 is expected to have an 8-megapixel camera, an A5 processor and a slightly larger, flatter form factor . Previous guesstimates had the newest iPhone coming this month, but it looks like we’ll see the iPhone 5 in October, and it’ll be available on Sprint in addition to Verizon and AT&T.
Caveats: It is possible the EXIF data isn’t entirely truthful. The photo also could have been taken with just about any prototype Apple device — like that iPhone 4S also rumored to debut at the same time as the iPhone 5.
Regardless, the photo looks great. So does that uni.
Samsung Stratosphere aims to be Verizon’s first QWERTY-packing LTE device originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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