Nah - i'm wondering what the Apple related in store stuff was another macrumor member saw in Nottingham. Didn't see anything of interest Tuesday evening.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/477837/
W00t. 6502 status, and nearly at 300 posts.
A couple of readers have reported that AT&T hotspots are now offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users. AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots at Barnes and Noble as well as Starbucks are now offering iPhone users a custom portal to access free Wi-Fi. A special iPhone formatted page asks for your mobile phone number. Once entered, you can access the Wi-Fi access for free. MacRumors has been able to confirm this finding at a local Barnes and Noble. Blurry photo provided:
AT&T recently partnered with Starbucks to provide Wi-Fi access to Starbucks' 7000 stores nationwide. This partnership allowed existing AT&T broadband customers free access and AT&T promised that it would "soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers", but no official announcement has yet been made
This is the rollout for America to get free wifi, to the Apps Store, as well as to general wifi, and specifically the Starbucks Music store. And it's only the start of May.
The evening gets better?
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...le_advanced_gaming_graphics_into_iphones.html
Slightly amended for size:
v2 iPhone might have exclusive access to advanced graphics core and video decoding technology, thanks to a secret licensing deal between Apple, mobile graphics leader Imagination Technologies, and Samsung, the iPhone's ARM "system on a chip" manufacturer. The result may be an ideal platform for handheld gaming and high definition video playback.
- Imagination's New 3D SGX Core upgraded from the current version of the PowerVR MBX graphics processor core developed by Imagination (e.g. used in the iPhone, Nokia N95).
The PowerVR MBX supports the features of OpenGL ES 1.1. Many mobile chip manufactures have a design license to modify and develop their own SoC parts, which include Imagination's MBX graphics core.
- The PowerVR SGX, introduces OpenGL ES 2.0 support, along with a Universal Scalable Shader Engine that provides mobile devices with highly efficient, shader-based 3D graphics. SGX is not only backwards compatible with code developed for MBX, but also actually runs it with better performance and efficiency.
- Imagination has also developed VXD decoder codec components capable of playing back HD video from a mobile device either directly or output to an external display. The VXD core specializes in highly power efficient decoding, making it possible to handle HD video content with comparable power consumption to existing audio playback chips.
- Imagination licenses both its VXD codec cores and the new SGX graphics processor core designs to chip manufacturers, but access to the latest generation of its intellectual property has been negotiated in a new way.
Samsung's Manufacturing License for SGX and VXD
- In a press release issued earlier today, Imagination announced signed a licence agreement with Samsung "with respect to certain POWERVR SGX graphics and VXD video IP cores." The release noted that the license "enables Samsung to manufacture semiconductor devices which integrate these IP cores from Imagination." According to a source familiar with the agreement, this deal is unique in that it is only a manfacturing licence, and is the first time Imagination has issued one on such terms. The source reports that Samsung does not have a license to design chips that include the cores, only to produce them. This is different from previous licensing agreements related to the MBX graphics core, for which Samsung does have a design license.
The Mysterious Licensee
- Last July, Imagination announced a deal to license its "next generation graphics and video IP cores to an international electronics systems company under a multi-use licensing agreement." The electronics system company was not named. The release stated that "the SoCs to be developed under this license agreement will be produced for this new partner by Imagination’s existing semiconductor partners and/or new chip manufacturing partners."
The fact that this "electronics system company" was both a "new partner" and not itself a chip manufacturer strongly suggests that the international electronics mystery company was in fact, Apple, Inc., which stands among very few other companies as new to mobile graphics core licensing yet dependent upon third party manufacturers who are already Imagination partners.
Combined with knowledge that Samsung is now licensing the next generation SGX and VXD designs for manufacturing, this indicates that Apple has secured unique Imagination technology for its own exclusive use, and is using Samsung to manufacture the new SoC parts for future models.
So, that PA Semi Buy? Bringing Custom SoC Expertise In House
Apple buys PA Semi - a fabless chip design company. As It helps Apple expand its in house chip design expertise. This might be to take its own mobile processor designs that incorporate the latest graphics technology and pairing these with the most appropriate processor cores.
Currently this means processors based on the ARM architecture. But the door is open for Apple to incorporate future versions of Intel's Atom line of mobile processors, which also incorporate Imagination's PowerVR graphics cores.
By licensing Imagination's graphics technology directly, Apple can keep itself flexible to adopt any mobile processor architecture while retaining a competitive edge in graphics performance. The processor agnostic design of OS X allows Apple to outmaneuver existing mobile operating systems, which are often closely tied to specific hardware.
Gaming developers gaming developers gaming developers
The easy to use App Store to deliver mobile apps on demand, combined with potential to have amazing game graphics and sound, with a unique UI, makes it possible that Apple finally is going into gaming. (There are a fair few patents to re-review on this area in light of this announcement).
Artificial Life, Aspyr, Electronic Arts, Feral Interactive, Freeverse, Gameloft, id Software, Pangea, THQ, and Namco Bandai have all confirmed an intent to deliver games for the platform, with Gameloft announcing plans for 15 titles by the end of the year.
How many consoles could claim such a number of games to be delivered in the 1st year?
What does this mean for Apple?
GFLPraxis makes some great points on the same thread.
Why not 801.11y in 2008?
1 Year back
What was the iPhone sold as?
A device with a revolutionary user interface. A leapfrog product.
The interplay of hardware and software
No cluttered bottom 40% - No buttons & controls that can't change.
A giant screen which works with a pointing device we all have.
No stylus - "Who wants a stylus? Yucccck nobody wants a stylus."
It's real thin - it fits beautifully in your hand. 11.6mm
The 2Mpixel camera built in
Simple non-cluttered edges.
Touch your music.
See your music
They want to reinvent the phone -"The killer app is making calls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIJoCw679ks
Jobs in the keynote last year:
iPhone is a quad-band GSM + EDGE phone. We have decided to go with the
most popular international standard which is GSM we're on that bandwagon, heading on that roadmap and plan to make 3G phones and all sorts of other amazing things in the future
He ain't talking Nehalem at that point.
The GSM roadmap being EDGE -> 3G HSDPA --> -->
So what's it going to look like?
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/ does a good general roundup of information, and is usually mashed up on this thread. There take?
- Price: Two versions, $399 (8GB) and $499 (16GB), but AT&T (T) will knock $200 off the price in return for a 2-year contract (Fortune’s Scott Moritz); Apple will charge $599 for unlocked (NYTimes’s Saul Hansell); AT&T will raise the price of its unlimited data plan from $20 to $45, to match what it charges customers using the RIM (RIMM) BlackBerry. (Saul Hansell)
- Form: About the same shape and size, but “somewhat fatter” (Engadget’s Ryan Block); 2.5 mm “thinner” (TGDaily’s Richard Felton); 38 to 48 grams lighter (CENS’s Ken Liu);
- Screen: Same size and resolution (Block); screen shrunk from 3.5 inch to 2.8 inch diagonally (Ken Liu)
- Case: Less “plasticky” (Richard Felton); more plastic, replacing aluminum-magnesium casing (Liu)
- Manufacturer: Hon Hai has orders to make 300,000 3G iPhones initially and 3 million in June (Ken Liu) for a total of 24-25 million in its life cycle (Digitimes‘ Steve Shen). CENS’s Ken Liu goes on to claim that the giant Taiwanese manufacturer took the job away from Foxconn, apparently unaware that Foxconn and Hon Hai are the same company. (link)
How does the iPhone currently realise to switch to WiFi over EDGE?
iLounge has the below pictures from
It references Uniea - a company that announced new iPod nano cases—with correct physical dimensions—before the new iPod nano was ever shown (and the fat-boy nano claims didn't get well acknowledged till the keynote really). But the waters are murkier now.
E.g. A Taiwanese newspaper [irl=http://cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_23229.html]Taiwan Economic News[/url] claimed Hon Hai/Foxconn was making an iPhone with a 2.8” screen, which would present certain
major interface challenges given the way the current iPhone works, and might well be a “mini” iPhone rather than a full sequel to the current model.
Bear in mind this is the same article as above that says: "Industry watchers pointed out that the casing-material change has helped Hon Hai lure the orders away from Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. and Catcher Technology Co. Ltd. with its profession in manufacturing of precision plastic components for information-technology products."
Other sources have said of the below changes:
Similar size, different curves, colors, materials.
Would the “glossy black plastic iPhone” details be accurate? Not if recycling and missing Greenpeace's wrath is anything to do with it.
I'd imagine the plastic, as previously mentioned is there so they can fab the cases easily to distribute for showing dimensions to people - and they're easy enough to make (You could 3D print them, what with Job's new printer...)
The screen size stays the same in this model—3.5” diagonal, with 3” height and 2” width. (Note that the SGOLD3H has the same limit on resolution as the current SGOLD chip)
A possible 2nd camera also shows up, as a separate 3rd sensor (proximity, ambient light and this unknown function one)
Where was the source? Schilllllllllller?
At [url-http://forums.appleinsider.com/showpost.php?p=1246003&postcount=85]appleinsider[/url] corrado7 posted
