People are downright salivating for a new
iPhone, and it looks like the wait is very nearly over.
A buzzy
report
from All Things Digital this week pointed to October 4 --which is now
less than a week and a half away--as the day Apple plans to take the
wraps off the next version of the device, with a release to follow a few
weeks later.
There's one hiccup with that plan, however, which is that both the
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Moscone Center (which are
Apple's usual places for product launches outside of its smaller campus
space) are both booked that week as part of the OracleWorld conference,
ZDNet
notes.
As a frame of reference, Apple announced the current model at Moscone
during last year's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, with photos
and videos of the device having
leaked out months ahead of the event.
On the topic of when consumers will actually get it, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White (via
Fortune) has put together a "days to launch" list for all the previous versions of the iPhone and
iPad, which points out that the last two iterations of the iPhone were released 11 and 17 days after being announced, respectively.
Read on to get the rest of this week's Apple news, rumors, and answers to your questions.
News
Apple stock hits all time high
Apple started out the week on a high, literally. The company's stock hit
an all-time high on Monday, peaking at $413.23 a share, finishing the
day with a market value of $381.62 billion. The stock retreated by the
end of the week, closing at $404.30.
Final Cut Pro X gets first big update, free trial
Apple this week rolled out the first big feature update to its Final Cut
Pro X software, adding a handful of features it says users were asking
for. It also added a free 30-day trial that users can grab through
Apple's Web site.
China gets the iPad 3G
Apple this week began selling a version of its iPad 2 with built-in
3G networking in mainland China, some four months after the Wi-Fi only
version made its debut there. Up until now, customers in the region have
been able to buy only the Wi-Fi version of the device through Apple,
leading some to pick up gray-market 3G models imported from other
countries.
Apple tops two different customer satisfaction surveys
Apple ranked the highest in the results from two separate customer
satisfaction surveys released this week. The first was The American
Customer Satisfaction Index, which had Apple's
Mac computers
topping the charts. The next day, Beyond Philosophy
released the results of its customer satisfaction survey, which listed Apple as having the "most admired customer experience."
Via, Samsung, S3 sue Apple
Apple was sued by a handful of companies this week. On Thursday, Via Technologies
took aim
at the tech giant for allegedly infringing on its patents. The same
day, S3 filed a complaint against Apple for allegedly infringing on two
of its patents, adding to the existing suits between the two companies
with the International Trade Commission. Then there were the
four suits aimed at Apple by Samsung in the Netherlands, reported yesterday by Bloomberg.
Another Thunderbolt-related firmware update
Apple on Monday released a firmware update to its Thunderbolt-equipped
computers that "improves the stability of the Apple Thunderbolt
Display." Apple started shipping out that hardware to customers last
week.
Rumors
T-Mobile exec squashes iPhone 5 rumor
A purportedly leaked shot of T-Mobile's internal blog that was posted
this week had the company's chief marketing officer saying that the
iPhone 5 was not headed to the carrier--at least not this year. The
statement, which T-Mobile officers declined to confirm, does not rule
out the possibility of the carrier getting some other iPhone variant,
which brings us to the next rumor of the week...
(Credit:
Apple)
No iPad 3 this year, but two iPhones?
A note from J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz this week made waves for
two suggestions. The first was that we won't see a new iPad from Apple
within the year, with Moskowitz saying the company is in "no rush" to
release a follow-up while competitors are still working to get their act
together. The second suggestion is that Apple plans to release two
iPhones: an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S that will feature souped-up
internals.
Al Gore mentions "new iPhones" at confab
While talking at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in South Africa
this week, former U.S. Vice President and current Apple board member Al
Gore mentioned that new iPhones would be arriving next month. While Gore
could have just been talking about the device shipping out to people in
multiple units, the mention was of note given the aforementioned rumor
of there being two devices.
White iPod Touch rumor resurfaces
Along with the new iPhone next month, we could be getting a new color of the iPod Touch, Macrumors
claimed
this week. The outlet said this year's refresh is expected to be
"minor" in nature. If you'll remember correctly it took Apple longer
than expected to release the white iPhone 4, though it has offered white
versions of the iPad 2 from the get-go, making this rumor not too much
of a stretch.
Reader question
John J. asks:
I have had my iPhone for almost three years and am
likely switching to an Android on Verizon's LTE network. The only thing
that is really giving me hesitation is the music function. I complain
about iTunes crashing on my PC, but overall it's a fantastic music
manager (unlike Windows Media Player), and I love listening to music on
my iPhone.
Is Android comparable to the iPhone? Does it depend on the carrier or
manufacturer? Are there third-party apps that improve it and/or link to
iTunes?
I've looked around but haven't found anything discussing this in the
last year, and this never seems to crop up in phone reviews. Can you
shed any light on the subject?
An iPhone next to an Android phone.
(Credit:
CNET)
Hey, John,
To answer your first question, the stock
music experience on Android is different from what you have on the
iPhone, but Android arguably offers more flexibility in letting you
shape the sync and music app experience you can ultimately end up with.
On
the phone side, you can install jukebox apps like Winamp, Poweramp, and
Playerpro to act as your primary music player. My colleague Joshua
Goldman rounded up 10 of the best, which you can
take a peek at here.
If
you're looking for an iTunes-like experience that can transfer over
your library--complete with things like playlists and settings--there's
DoubleTwist.
This doubles as a jukebox both on your phone and computer when it comes
to actually listening to music. If you want to stick with iTunes,
there's also
iSyncr, which can ferry files between your phone and iTunes.
For everything else, my colleague Sharon Vaknin has a how-to guide on switching platforms
here, including how to transfer things like photos, videos, SMS messages, and contacts over to your new device.