The iPhone 5 is headed toward production for a summer debut, according to a report in 9 to 5 Mac.

The information comes from an anonymous source: the same Foxconn employee who last fall accurately disclosed that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was planning a revamped iPhone 4, the 4S, rather than the iPhone 5, according to the publication.

This time around, the employee said that a few versions of the new handset have been considered, so it’s difficult to know exactly what the design will look like.

Many of the design updates the smartphones had in common were similar to the rumors that preceded the iPhone 4S. For instance, the new phone will have a four-inch display, an increase from the three-and-a-half-inch screen that iPhones currently have, according to the report.

The phone is also not expected to be a teardrop shape and will be longer and wider than the present model.

If Apple continues to follow its production and shipping patterns, the company needs about a five-month lead time to complete manufacturing and get the phones to stores. Assuming the sourc is accurate and the finished product is gearing toward production, that would give the iPhone 5 a summer launch. Until the iPhone 4S made its debut last October, summer had been the preferred iPhone release season for Apple since 2007.

Apple didn’t respond to our requests for comment.

Not in a Hurry

Apple released record quarterly earnings this week, driven largely by sky-high sales of the iPhone 4S, so the company perhaps doesn’t feel a need to rush out the iPhone 5 before it’s ready. However, it likely doesn’t want to keep customers waiting too long either.

“Summer makes sense. The 4S was late in most people’s minds, compared to their previous releases. But at this point, they can’t not do a larger screen or some kind of 4G LTE technology, so it’s probably going to be summer unless some kind of hiccup comes up,” John Feland, CEO and founder of Argus Insights, told MacNewsWorld.

A larger screen would be the line’s first screen size change since the iPhone first came out in 2007. Many competing phones, particularlyAndroid phones by Samsung and Motorola, feature larger screens.

“Nearly five years later, consumer taste has evolved closer to four inches, and in some cases five inches or more. I think it’s great that the iPhone as it is can fit in your pocket, but so can most four-inch smartphones too, and it’s still comfortable in the hand to type in,” Ramon T. Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC Mobile Devices Technology and Trends, told MacNewsWorld.

As customers start using their smartphones for more communication and multitasking purposes, the demand for a larger screens increases, especially when larger — and often more affordable — phones from competitors are on the market.

“We are seeing screen size be a detractor for iPhone 4S users. Of the top 10 most discussed features, it’s number 10 with a net negative sentiment. On the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung and the Droid Razr by Motorola, [the discussions] are overwhelmingly positive. In fact, a majority of the user commentary for these two new phones is about the screen size,” said Feland.

Keeping Customers Happy

“At the end of the day, Apple needs something with a screen size between the iPad and the current generation of iPhones, given their continued push as a content provider,” Feland continued. “We’re far enough on the cost curve that these issues are no longer barriers for Apple to go big this next round of the iPhone. As evidenced by the Android users that love their bigger screens, this shift will delight an already deliriously happy customer set.”

Before the iPhone 4S came out, customers expected a larger screen. The immediate response to that product appeared lukewarm. Though Apple’s earnings report is clear evidence that the device bounced back from that early reaction, customers have come to expect Apple to be on top of its game when it releases a new product.

“Recall the mild disappointment when the iPhone 4S was announced and there was no larger — or smaller — screen. With this upcoming iPhone, be it summertime or sometime else, users will most likely come back anticipating a bigger screen and 4G LTE, as these features have become expectations, and not nice-to-haves, on smartphones,” said Llamas.

source form: technewsworld

Need to tweak that presentation before the all important meeting but only have your iPhone in your pocket? No problem. Just download the Keynote App for iOS from iTunes for $9.99 (or free for exisiting iWork or iPad customers) and get working. The app version of Pages and Numbers were also launched today.

By incorporating its multi-touch interface into the popular iWork suite previously only available for Mac, and adapting it for mobile devices with limited screen real estate, Apple wants to help you “create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” according to Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

• Keynote: Create multimedia presentations complete with animated charts and transitions. You can play your presentation in full screen view on your iOS device or connect to a projector or HDTV. There is also a Keynote Remote app on iTunes that transforms your iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control for your presentation ($0.99).
  
• Pages: When working on complex documents that are often much bigger than the display of your iOS device, Smart Zoom automatically zooms in to follow the cursor while you’re editing and zooms back out when you’re done.
  
• Numbers: Multi-touch gestures, a virtual keyboard, SmartZoom and over 250 functions make it easier to create and navigate spreadsheets/tables/charts on a mobile device.
  

The Keynote, Pages and Numbers apps are compatible with iWork for Mac and Microsoft Office documents. You can manage files more easily by using “intuitive gestures” to move and organize digital content in thumbnail images. Files can also be shared without exiting the app by clicking on the “Tools” button in the toolbar, according to the press release. They will work on everything from iPad (1& 2 running iOS 4.2.8), iPhone (3GS & 4) to iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation only).

I don’t expect most users will be creating complex newsletters from scratch using the Pages app on their iPod touch but these apps will probably come in handy for minor and on-the-go fixes and edits. I think the more tactile interface could make these apps very intuitive to use — for example, touching a particular cell on a spreadsheet rather than moving a cursor via mouse clicks seems to make much more sense. At the same time, fingers on a multi-layered document on a small display could cause more problems than it solves. These apps may make more sense on the iPad than on the touch.

Give the Keynote, Pages and Numbers app a try and let me know if they run as well as they sound?

source from: zdnet

It was a wide-ranging assessment by Clinton, whose administration (1993-2001) played a largely hands-off role when it came to e-commerce. The forum was organized by VeriSign Inc. to mark the anniversary of the March 15, 1985 registration of Symbolics.com, a computer company. The anniversary event ranged from sweeping to whimsical, all of which characterized Clinton’s talk.

Clinton offered a grim take on mainstream media when asked by VeriSign CEO Mark McLaughlin about his favorite Web sites. In response, he ticked off several political sites, including Politico , The Daily Beast and Huffington Post , as well as a few “right wing ones” to get both sides of the political debate. . But Clinton said that many of the political sites “don’t have to do what a newspaper does every day,” which is why he is “really worried about our ability to maintain any newspapers” or anything that “serves as a standard of objectivity.”

“It’s almost impossible given the economics of the modern world for newspapers to continue…,” said Clinton.

Asked by VeriSign CEO Mark McLaughlin what his favorite device is, Clinton named the iPhone, “because I can get so much stuff on it.” The former president also has a Blackberry, but no e-reader .

“I don’t even own a Kindle, yet,” said Clinton, who still prefers physical books.

As for his administration’s role in shaping Internet policy, Clinton said that its most important discovery was the realization “that this was going to be the dominant mode of the communication in the 21st Century,” he said. “Realizing (the Internet’s) importance led to everything else,” he said.

The Clinton administration set out a federal role for the Net in a 1997 report, “Framework for Global Electronic Commerce.” Its overarching conclusion: that “for electronic commerce to flourish, the private sector must continue to lead.”

Even so, he said that the broadband access framework proposed by the Federal Communications Commission may be needed. The deregulation approach helped the U.S. move ahead quicker than some other nations, “but a lot of our competitors now have better cell phone coverage than we do because they had some regulation to guarantee a framework of universal access.

“In general, our entrepreneurial approach is the best one,” said Clinton, but “there are limits to it and sometimes we need a framework to make sure the markets can continue to grow by having more universal access. So I’m hoping the FCC proposals will do that.”

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld . Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick’s RSS feed . His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com .

Source:itnews.com

Earlier this week, Intel, Microsoft and Apple said they were investigating the issue, which people are complaining about on an Apple forum. The problem seems to be mainly affecting Windows 7 64-bit users with Intel P55 chipsets, and it prevents them from synching their iPhones with their computers.

On Friday, a few people posted on the forum that they’d downloaded the new BIOS from Gigabyte, a motherboard maker, and it solved the problem. In the description of the update, Gigabyte calls it a Beta BIOS and says that it fixes the iPhone sync issue, among other enhancements.

The BIOS update will help people who have the Gigabyte motherboard in their systems, but it won’t help other people who have the problem, such as those with an Asus motherboard.

Earlier this week, Microsoft also said it was looking into the problem and recommended that people visit its help page for updates. It does not appear to have posted any information there and did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the Gigabyte update.

Though an Apple employee asked people on the forum to send details of the issue, it does not appear to have posted further information about the fix yet.

Intel said it could not comment on the Gigabyte BIOS update.

Source:itnews.com