iPhone 5 Due for Release in September-October Timeframe?

Japanese blog Macotakara today reports that it has learned from a "reliable" source that Apple is targeting another September or October release for the iPhone this year, continuing a shift away from the mid-year launches seen prior to 2011 and yielding an approximately 12-month upgrade cycle for the iPhone 4S. The report also claims that Apple intends for the later timeframe to be part of Apple's long-term plans for iPhone launches.

According to Asian reliable source, next iPhone will be released in September or October , and this cycle seems to be kept for years. MacRumors has similarly heard from a representative of a supplier known to provide parts for the iPhone that Apple's ordering plans are pointing toward a launch of new hardware in the September. A third source also claimed to iMore last week that Apple is targeting an October launch for an LTE-enabled iPhone 5, with that source also apparently having accurately named March 7 as the date of Apple's iPad 3 media event. Apple has yet to officially announce that iPad 3 event, but the date has been confirmed as accurate by the well-connected Jim Dalrymple at The Loop. The claims of a September or October launch for the iPhone 5 directly contradict several previous rumors that had claimed Apple would be releasing the iPhone this summer, presumably at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. That event that may be held during the week of June 11-15 this year, meaning that a product launch in the weeks after such an introduction would result in a very short lifecycle of only eight months for the iPhone 4S. Consequently, many have believed that Apple will indeed hold off on the iPhone 5 launch until later in the year as it did in 2011.

Get a Free $10 iTunes Card

Click on http://bit.ly/uConce to download JunoWallet and earn $0.25 JunoCredits. Enter my Invite Code 'AB19969' when prompted.

Siri Support for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Russian Languages Coming Next Month?

Tech in Asia reports on an article [Google translation] from Chinese information technology website DoNews claiming that Apple is preparing to bring support for the Chinese language to Siri on the iPhone 4S next month. According to the report, Apple is also preparing to launch support for Japanese and Russian, but the initial Chinese support will only include Mandarin, with Cantonese and other dialects being left out for the time being.
The Chinese tech site DoNews claims to have heard from an Apple engineer who’s working on the Chinese-language version of Siri, the clever voice assistant on the iPhone 4S. From this source it claims that Siri will launch in Chinese next month, and is already undergoing internal testing this month. [...]   The rumor also contends that the Chinese version will only support the standard Mandarin (aka: putonghua) Chinese, which would leave out Cantonese-speaking people, as well as some Taiwan folk who effectively speak in a different dialect. Plus, it alleges that Japanese and Russian will arrive next month as well
Siri currently supports only English (United States, United Kingdom and Australia), French, and German but in Apple's Siri FAQ the company promise support for additional languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish, this year. 

Chinese support for Siri is likely a high priority for Apple, given the strong growth the company is experiencing in the country. The iPhone 4S launched on partner carrier China Unicom last month and rumors are swirling that it may debut on China Telecom in the very near future. 

Japan is another key market for Apple, with the company having enjoyed long-standing popularity with users and where the iPhone 4S debuted as part of the first round of launches in mid-October. Apple has placed less emphasis on Russia, but along with Brazil, India, and China the country is considered to have one of the world's up-and-coming economies where Apple would certainly like gain momentum. The iPhone 4S launched there in mid-December.

ARM-Based MacBook Air Unlikely Based on Analyst Talk with Tim Cook

There had been some interesting claims last year that Apple had been actively testing an ARM (A5) based MacBook Air. The ARM processor is the same one that is used in the iPhone and iPad. An ARM-based MacBook Air, however, would raise a number of questions about what kind of device it might actually be. Would it run OS X, or iOS? Would it be closer to a Mac or an iOS device? One of the main advantages of using an ARM processor would be a reduction in power-requirements, but with a corresponding drop in computing power. Using ARM, however, would abandon binary compatibility with existing Mac OS X applications. 




CNet reports on a research note from Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner who was able to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer on Thursday. Gardner addresses this question in his note with the following:"Tim Cook reiterated his view that rapid innovation on the iOS platform (and mobile OS platforms in general) will significantly broaden the use case for tablets, eventually pushing annual tablet volumes above those of traditional PCs. We have wondered whether Apple might offer an ARM-based version of MacBook Air at some point; we walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels iPad satisfies--or will soon satisfy--the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product."

Based on his conversations with the Apple executives, it seems Gardner believes that the iPad will evolve to meet any needs that might be met with an ARM-based MacBook air. 

Rumors have suggested that the iPad will likely be getting a significant upgrade in the near future, with a faster processor, improved graphics capabilities and the long rumored Retina display. Of course, Cook is unlikely to divulge specific product plans at analyst meetings, but a complete Apple transition to ARM processors seemed an unlikely prospect regardless.

iTunes Match

Some iTunes Match users are encountering difficulties when attempting to download songs they have previously uploaded to iTunes Match. Matched songs appear unaffected for most users. Threads on both the MacRumors Forums and the Apple Support Communitiesdetail the issues. 

I keep getting the "error = -2114" and "Please check that the connection to the network is active and try again." It then moves to the next download and most times is succsesful. I am getting this error in the last few hours and to about 10-20% of my downloads.
The Verge confirms that the issue occurs in both iTunes 10.5.2 and 10.5.3, and on both Snow Leopard and Lion. 

There has been no word from Apple about the outage and the iCloud System Status pagedoes not reflect any current issues. 

This isn't the first issue that Apple has run into with iTunes Match in recent days. Apple is reportedly investigating a problem with songs with explicit lyrics being converted from "explicit" to "clean" after being matched.

iPhone 5 Cases Suggest a Much Larger Device with a 4" Screen

While we've seen a number of possible "iPhone 4S" parts based on the iPhone 4 design in recent weeks, the design of the iPhone 5 has remained unclear with little concrete evidence of the device's design having yet surfaced. The first claim of a radical redesign surfaced back in April, suggesting that the iPhone 5 would adopt a "teardrop" form factor tapering in thickness from top to bottom.

By late July, a purported design document for the iPhone 5 surfaced and began to make its way to third-party case manufacturers, who apparently placed enough faith in its accuracy to begin making cases based on the design.


Based on that same design document, we commissioned a set of renderings in an attempt to get an idea of what the iPhone 5 might look like. Our designer took measurements of this imaginary device using the dock port as a standard measurement and produced the document shown above. Based on that extrapolation, the iPhone 5 design should have had dimensions of 4.33" x 2.36", suggesting a shorter but only slightly wider design. In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are 4.5" x 2.31".

What we can't explain, however, is that the actual third-party cases circulating are significantly longer and wider than what the design document would have suggested.

Measurements

We ordered a pair of these third-party iPhone 5 cases, confirming they are available for public sale and subjecting them to a series of measurements.


While accurate measurements were difficult to achieve due to open ends and overhangs on the sides of the case, we estimate the size of the phone at approximately 4.7" x 2.6". Measuring the expected thickness of the device is more challenging given uncertainty about exactly how the case snaps onto it along the sides, but the device certainly appears to be below .30" at its thickest and tapering by approximately .065" from top to bottom.


The following images show an iPhone 4 inside this iPhone 5 case with substantial room on all sides, illustrating the increased size of the iPhone 5. The much thinner profile of the iPhone 5 compared to the iPhone 4 is also visible in a side shot.




Macitynet.it also provides a nice gallery of size comparisons against an iPhone 4 with a soft iPhone 5 case.

Even a second-generation iPod touch, which measures in at a thickness of .33", is significantly thicker than the iPhone 5.



Screen Size at Least 4"

The iPhone 4's 3.5" (measured on the diagonal) screen measures approximately 1.95" in width within a total device width of 2.31", leaving approximately 0.36" for margins/bezel.

Assuming a comparable margin on the iPhone 5, the device's display would be approximately 2.24" wide, making the display approximately 4" on the diagonal. It seems unlikely that Apple would make the margins of the iPhone 5 screen larger than on the iPhone 4, so if this does represent the final case design, the iPhone 5's screen would have to be at least 4". Of course, this contradicts a recent report from DigiTimes claiming that the iPhone 5's screen would be between 3.5"-3.7".

Conclusion

Unfortunately, we don't have any definitive answers. Depending on which evidence you believe, there are several possibilities.

If you believe these cases represent the final iPhone 5 design, then you also have to believe that the iPhone 5 will be much larger than the iPhone 4 and is certain to have at least a 4" screen. We still can't reconcile this data with the extrapolated dimensions from our designer that suggested a much smaller phone. Those dimensions match up more closely with the circulating rumors of a screen closer to 3.5"-3.7".

Apple is expected to reveal the iPhone 5 later this month for a possible October launch.

Apple releases itunes 10.4.1 with assorted bug fixes

Apple today released iTunes 10.4.1, bringing a handful of bug fixes to the company's media management and syncing software. The bug fixes target a number of areas, including media keys on third-party keyboards, artwork addition, movie purchasing, responsiveness, and VoiceOver.
iTunes 10.4.1 provides a number of improvements, including:

- Fixes a problem where the media keys on some third-party keyboards work inconsistently with iTunes
- Addresses issues with adding artwork to songs and videos
- Resolves an issue which may cause iTunes to become unresponsive when purchasing an HD movie
- Fixes a problem where iTunes may take longer than expected to open after waking your Mac from sleep
- Addresses issues with VoiceOver support

iTunes 10.4.1 is available via Software Update, Apple's downloads page, or the iTunes download page. Versions are available for Mac, 32-bit Windows, and 64-bit Windows.