Apr 22

Rumor: Apple to Consider Acquisition of ARM

Posted in: Apple, arm, iPhone, mobile, Phones, processors, rumors, Today's Chili

clockApple is rumored to be considering a bid for ARM, the British company that designs the processors found in some smartphones including the iPhone, according to The London Evening Standard.

ARM’s share prices soared to an eight-year high on Wednesday as a result of the rumor, but ARM chief executive Warren East today told The Guardian that there was no necessity for the company, whose market capitalization stands at $4.6 billion, to be acquired.

“Exciting though it is to have the share price pushed up by these rumors, common sense tells us that our standard business model is an excellent way for technology companies to gain access to our technology,” East told the Guardian. “Nobody has to buy the company.”

However, that statement does not deny the rumor, as some publications have suggested. Companies sometimes use statements provided to the press to talk tough and indirectly negotiate with potential buyers, using ambiguous statements such as East’s.

The takeover offer is rumored to be in the $8 billion range, which would be 20 percent of Apple’s $41.7 billion cash reserves, as MacRumors’ Arnold Kim points out.

The benefits of such a buyout are, however, questionable. Some suggest Apple could acquire ARM to shut out competitors wishing to use the processor, but that wouldn’t prevent them from using mobile processors from other companies. Also, Apple purchased chipmaker PA Semi in April 2008, and Steve Jobs has said the purpose of that buyout was to make system-on chips for mobile devices.

“PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods,” Jobs told NY Times in June 2008.

(A teardown of the iPad, however, reveals Apple is still using an ARM-designed processor.)

Also, Apple is ARM’s biggest customer, and ARM pockets royalties for every iPhone and iPad sold, as well as other mobile devices using ARM chips. Given those facts, an ARM acquistion does seem unnecessary indeed.

City aflame with takeover talk of ARM and Xtrata [London Evening Standard]

See Also:

Photo of a DIY digital clock equipped with an ARM processor: htomari/Flickr


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Apr 22

HP takes chisel in hand, mulls over Android and Linux slates

Posted in: Android, hewlett-packard, HewlettPackard, HP, Linux, rumor, rumors, slate, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, windows 7, Windows7

Feelings about the leaked HP Slate notwithstanding, the company’s already considering its tablet PC successors — and if The New York Times‘ sources are right, they may be of Android and Linux varieties. Where the forthcoming HP Slate is, erm, slated to run Windows 7, The Grey Lady reported last week that a six-inch Android tablet was also on the way. Now, a prominent magazine editor reportedly tells the paper a Linux version may also be in development. For its part, HP isn’t denying the claims. “I’m certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us,” said media relations director Marlene Somsak, whose only added caveat was that HP isn’t currently announcing an Android slate.

HP takes chisel in hand, mulls over Android and Linux slates originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 22

Apple rumor roundup: Intrinsity behind the A4, ARM being eyed

Posted in: Apple, arm, business, industry, merger, processor, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili, video

Mama always said that downpours followed Spring showers, and sure enough, the Apple news has been flowing hot and heavy overnight. For starters, an IEEE Spectrum report has people talking once more about Intrinsity; if you’ll recall, rumors flared up earlier in the month about Apple nabbing said company, similar to the way it acquired P.A. Semi way back in the naughties. Now, it seems that round two of those whispers are gaining steam, with some analysts suggesting that without Intrinsity’s expertise, there was simply no way the silicon within the iPad could’ve been pushed to 1GHz in time for launch. In related news, we’re also hearing that Cupertino is interested in acquiring ARM Holdings, and considering just how much business Apple pushes ARM’s way, it’s not illogical to imagine Apple wanting to just bring ARM in-house. If the deal went down, Apple would obviously hold a huge amount of control over whether or not ARM chips ended up in rival products, and if it yanked those Cortex slabs out from the market place, you can bet there would be a mad scramble to create a competitive portfolio to serve those suddenly chip-less product makers. Finally, a new iPhone OS 4 (beta 2) video has surfaced, giving the world a solid look at a new circular side-swapped animation that occurs when switching apps — head on past the break to check it out, and give those links below a visit for more of that succulent nitty-gritty.

Continue reading Apple rumor roundup: Intrinsity behind the A4, ARM being eyed

Apple rumor roundup: Intrinsity behind the A4, ARM being eyed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceLondon Evening Standard, Apple Insider, IEEE Spectrum  | Email this | Comments

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Apr 21

Dell Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone 7 device leaks out

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, exclusive, leak, leaks, rumor, rumors, slider, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, windows phone 7 series, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, WindowsPhone7Series

Hot damn, people. The mother of all Dell leaks just dropped into our laps, and the absolute highlight has to be the Lightning, a Windows Phone 7 portrait slider. That’s right — a portrait slider. The renders on these slides look slick as hell, but they’re no match for the spec sheet, which looks even better: 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor, WVGA 4.1-inch OLED display, AT&T and T-Mobile 3G, five megapixel autofocus camera, 1GB of flash with 512MB RAM plus 8GB of storage on a MicroSD card (non-user-replaceable, we’re assuming), GPS, accelerometer, compass, FM radio, and full Flash support including video playback. We’ll see what happens with that — the ship date is pegged at Q4, indicating this is a WP7 launch device, and Microsoft’s told us Flash won’t make it into the OS initially. Here’s the real kicker, though — other slides in the deck indicate this thing is getting an upgrade to LTE in Q4 of 2011. Are we stoked? Yes, you might say that. Check out all the slides in the gallery below, and check out the rest of this storm of leaks right here.

Gallery: Dell Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone 7 device leaks

Dell Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone 7 device leaks out originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 20

Nintendo 3DS may launch in October, say ‘UK industry sources’

Posted in: 3ds, console, DS, gaming, handheld, leak, nintendo, nintendo 3ds, Nintendo3ds, Release Date, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili, uk

How the mighty have fallen. Where just last year companies like Apple and Nintendo were renowned for their ability to keep completely silent about impending hardware, these days the thrill of exposure and some media pressure go a long, long way. Now, if Computer and Video Games‘ sources are to be believed, Nintendo’s had another leak: an October release date for its autostereoscopic 3DS handheld in the UK. That’s well within the original “before March 2011” timeframe, and apparently a surprise for game publishers currently planning software for Holiday 2010. Besides, since Europe typically gets Nintendo systems after the US and Japan, some lucky dogs might get the system even earlier — we’ll let you know when we see it ourselves at E3 this June.

Nintendo 3DS may launch in October, say ‘UK industry sources’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 20

BlackBerry OS 6.0 screenshots and details leak out

Posted in: att, BlackBerry, leak, leaks, RIM, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

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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Apr 19

Apple’s 4th-generation iPhone revealed

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, leak, leaks, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

Well, we told you so. The fourth-generation iPhone prototype that leaked its way out into the world over the weekend has found its way to Gizmodo, and they’ve examined it exhaustively enough to prove that it’s the real thing. Not only does it show up in iTunes, Xcode, and System Profiler, but it has different product identifiers than the 3G or 3GS, and it’s packed with Apple-labeled components inside. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get it to boot out of recovery mode, but a number of new features and changes are evident just by holding it. Obviously, it’s thinner than the 3GS, with smaller internal components and a larger battery inside the metal frame. There’s also a front-facing camera, a larger and better camera with a flash on the back, a higher-res display that’s slightly smaller than the current models, a second mic for noise cancellation, and that new back, which Giz seems a bit confused about but we’re fairly sure is glass or ceramic. It’s also three grams heavier than a 3GS, with a 16 percent larger battery and the same new MicroSIM slot used in the iPad.

We’re also told the phone was found running iPhone OS 4.0 but that it was remotely killed before Giz could actually see it, and that they can’t get it to boot because it requires a bespoke build of the OS. We’re assuming Apple’s hot on the trail of this thing, so hit the source link while you can and check a couple more pics after the break.

Continue reading Apple’s 4th-generation iPhone revealed

Apple’s 4th-generation iPhone revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 19

Rumor: Photos of Next-Gen iPhone

Posted in: iPhone, Phones, rumors, Today's Chili

iphone4front2

Could these photographs show a hardware prototype of the next generation iPhone? Sent by a reader to Engadget, the pictures are claimed to show a next-gen handset which was found inside a case for an iPhone 3G, and outside a San Jose bar.

The tipster says that the phone was working, but now it won’t boot. This iPhone also has a front-facing camera and a rather odd 80GB of storage. Weirder still is what seems to be a glass back.

Is it real? On the yes side, we have Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, who writes that his sources inside Apple “have confirmed to [him] that the back is made out of some sort of fancy glass”, and further cites a 2006 Apple patent application for a glass-like panel made out of a very tough and scratch resistant ceramic. Why ceramic instead of aluminum? Radio waves go right through it.

Engadget raises the stakes with another picture which it (and Gadget Lab) posted back in January, which showed the the then still secret iPad locked down in a frame. That picture turned out to be legit, and also showed a slightly chunky iPhone, similar to this new shot.

Further, Twitter member The Ultimate Dream posted very similar photos to these new ones on TwitPic back in February. A closer look at his stream of photos shows rather a lot of Chinese “iPhone 4G” knock-offs, so take that one as you will. This is his picture:

67949338-13edfb91721dd01e2a246073e6d8df6f4bcc2973-full

Andy Ihnatko also joins the discussion, calling foul. He points to the rather excellent iPhone knock-offs he saw in China as evidence against this leak, along with a lack of the labels and stickers usually found on prototype hardware.

Next, over at the MacRumors forums, we see yet more pictures, found on Chinese website WeiPhone. They too seem to show the same model, with flat front and rear panels sitting on a rather sharp-edged frame.

156_240783_7c0a24b634991b5

I’m convinced. I’m not sure that the Engadget photo shows the actual production iPhone 4G. It’s far too poorly finished, with those ugly buttons and obvious seams in the case, But it certainly looks like an Apple-like design, reminding us of the original squared-off iPod, today’s sharp-edged MacBook Pros and especially the rather brutal Apple Universal Dock. I expect the final design to be a sleeker version of what we see here.

And the mysterious non-booting iPhone found outside a San Jose bar? The iPhone that worked once, and then suddenly died? Do you think Apple would allow a testing unit in the wild without some kind of remote kill switch? One thing we can all be pretty sure of, though: if this is a real prototype iPhone, lost by an Apple employee on a drunken night out, you can be sure that somebody will be looking for a new job this week.

iPhone 4G: is this it? [Engadget]

iPhone 4G: proof [Engadget]

Apple patent application [USPTO]
The Miraculous Mysterious Engadget iPhone 4G [Andy Ihnatko]

Inside of iPhone 4G [MacRumors]

iPhone 4G? [TwitPic/TUDream]

Tablet Photos Look Like Real Deal [Gadget Lab]


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Apr 15

Nikon DSLR triplets on the horizon?

Posted in: dslr, nikon, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

It’s been quite some time, relatively speaking, since Nikon’s updated its DSLR lineup. Not that we’re complaining about the D3S or D300s (pictured), mind you, but our eyes are perennially fixated on staring into the next big thing. Nikon Rumors seems to think it’s got a handle on three new photo-snappers in the pipeline. While one of the trio is completely shrouded in mystery, another is said to be poised for the an entry level model, likely a successor to the D3000 dubbed — you guessed it — the D4000. The third and final camera of the group is quite detailed in this report: 39 autofocus points, 16 megapixels with 6400 ISO + HI2 position, and 1080p / 24 frames per second video. NR uses the number of AF points to speculate it’d be a new product category, a D700 replacement that sacrifices some fine-tuning for video and more resolution, or a successor to the old favorite D90.

Nikon DSLR triplets on the horizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 15

New iPhone in June, claims SaskTel CEO (updated)

Posted in: Apple, AppleIphone, canada, iPhone, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

Saskatchewan-based SaskTel isn’t the biggest Canadian carrier out there — it’s very regional, along the lines of Cincinnati Bell for the US, in terms of subscribers — but it’s definitely a legit company, and its CEO Robert Watson has casually divulged some potentially major news to the Leader-Post. In a discussion on its 3G network set to launch July 1st, he had this to say: “The good news is that (Apple) is coming out with a new version of the iPhone in the June time-frame and they’re going to put us on that. So we’re quite excited about that.” A new version, you say? We wouldn’t be that surprised, frankly, since new iPhones have launched every summer for the past three years, but there’s still been nary a peep yet from the folks in Cupertino. Is Watson mistaken or speaking way out of turn? The man would be in a position to conceivably have the inside scoop. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Update: Just to be clear, while SaskTel is currently CDMA, the 3G network it’s rolling out is an iPhone-friendly HSPA.

Update 2: Seems SaskTel is now claiming that those comments were actually not confirmation of a forthcoming iPhone. See the full clarification after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading New iPhone in June, claims SaskTel CEO (updated)

New iPhone in June, claims SaskTel CEO (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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