“Most Comprehensive Assembly” iPhone 5 Leaks With Purported NFC Chip

The first purported sightings of NFC hardware have shown up on what it being touted as

the most complete leak of the iPhone 5 yet. Could iWallet really see full implementation

in 2012 after all?
The summer of 2012 has featured part after part of the purported iPhone 5 coming out

in drips and drabs. One of the most conspicuous absences in these photos, however,

has been the inclusion of chips, which would ostensibly give us a much better view of

what to expect from this year’s iPhone. A newly leaked photo, however, seems to be

showing off a small chip that could very well be NFC, all amidst a new parts dump that

is being called the most complete leak we’ve seen yet.
According to SlashGear:
The photos of the apparently assembled front panel of the new smartphone,

discovered on a Photobucket account, include a hitherto-unseen square component

covered with EMI shielding, that’s tipped to be a near-field communications chip. . .

Macotakara identified the potential component, with AppleInsider suggesting the

dimensions fit with super-compact chips such as the 5 x 5 mm models offered by NXP.

That company already supplies Samsung for the Galaxy Nexus’ NFC implementation

and is believed to also power Sony’s NFC-enabled phones.”
What I find most compelling about the chip is its placement. If you recall from previous

articles where we posted photos of Apple’s NFC patents, the NFC hardware technology

was always represented as being positioned somewhere near the top of the device.

The difference with this current leak and schematics on the patents is only that the

current NFC chip appears to be right of the earpiece — in the original drawings, they

represented it on the left. But one could imagine that this shift could be superfluous.

Still not present in any of these leaked photos is a glimpse of the processor. A

discussion of the main chip for the iPhone 5 has largely disappeared from the

conversation, after a lot of conjecture about it after the release of the iPad 3 and its A5X

chip. The New iPad features a dual-core CPU and quad-core GPU in order to process

its retina display. It still remains to be seen if Apple will deploy quad-core technology in

the iPhone 5 or not.

It’s strange — just how many things are strange this iPhone season — how Apple

would allow the NFC component of the iPhone 5 to leak, but not the processor. For

those who are anticipating the iPhone 5, it can be said that NFC would make more of a

splash feature-wise than, say, a retina display, since users have already had a chance

to see the retina display in action on the New iPad and MacBook Pros.

Either te iPhone 5 fakes are getting more elaborate, or Apple has doubled down on

losing control of its own product development security.
It’s also not hard to imagine that the claim that the iPhone 5 will feature a headphone

jack on the bottom of the device could have something to do with the inclusion of the

NFC hardware at the top of the device. The logic here might be that when users point

their device at an NFC receiver, they’ll do it with the top of the phone, not the bottom.

And if the NFC hardware in the top of the device is bulky enough, it could have been the

motivating design factor in moving the headphone jack to the bottom.

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September 12th iPhone 5 & iPad Mini Announcement: Fact Or Fiction?

It’s amazing to me how the form factor and features of the iPhone 5, the advent of the iPad Mini, and the September 12th announcement date that will herald them all into existence, are all not a foregone conclusion for the tech media — and have been for some time. Perhaps it is simply that the media and tech users have reached some kind of psychic breaking point in their wait for the elusive iPhone 5, and that the tacit acceptance of these rumors as facts is some kind of variant on Stockholm Syndrome: we’ve been held hostage by Apple for so long that now we’re prepared to believe anything.
Each passing week has revealed a new part or sighting of the elongated iPhone 5 specs which, combined with a crescendo of mass production reports coming out of Asia, has constructed some sort of consensus that what we’re seeing is what we’re going to get. It’s certainly possible — we had glimpses of the iPad 3 that turned out to be largely accurate. At the same time, the source and presentation of the parts have been just sketchy enough to leave a lingering measure of doubt. Could it be that the scammers are just getting better and better at scamming us?
Even more puzzling is the belief in the iPad Mini. Though production reports and leaked photos have been scarce throughout the tech world, media sources insist that Apple will indeed unveil the long-rumored mini tablet alongside the iPhone 5, in a move that is so decidedly un-Apple and un-Steve Jobs. If Apple co-releases these products, then it will mark a profound sea change in the Jobsian approach to hyping and marketing Apple products.
And if all the iPhone 5 leaks turn out to be true, even moreso.
But what about this September 12th announcement date? It too has become cemented into the story of the iPhone 5. Can we rely on September 12th to truly be “the event we’ve all been waiting for?” (Kind of like how WWDC 2012 was “the week we’ve all been waiting for”?)

Some folks have asked me about my consumer electronics accessories sources in Asia, and what they are saying. They are all in on these rumors, just like the rest of the tech community. Cases are being tooled for the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini, and September 12th is D-Day for the launch of marketing campaigns in order to be first to market with new iPhone 5 and iPad Mini gear. But where are they getting their information from? From the bits of iPhone 5 flotsam and jetsam that have leaked into the rumor mill out of shady mainland China?

Moreover, why are we locked into September 12?

So far as I can tell, the September 12th announcement date stands as a result of this article from iMore, published on July 30th:

iMore has learned that Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past.

The iPad mini will be announced at the same September 12 event, as will the new iPod nano. We haven’t heard a release date for the iPad mini yet, but it could be the same as the iPhone 5. It seems likely the new iPod touch will make an appearance on September 12 as well, though we haven’t heard any specific information about that yet either.

Dig deeper into the article, and you start to realize that iMore’s September 12th claim seems more like a deduction based on a rumor posted on a French website citing Chinese sources: “Last week, App4Phone.fr, citing Chinese manufacturing sources, reported the September 21 release date.”

Then, iMore seeks to bolster its claim by citing the agreement of some tech media heavyweights: “Update 2: Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has added his trademark “yep”. Update 3: The Verge is now reporting the September 12, 2012 date as well.”

Interestingly enough, The Verge is where the notion of the elongated iPhone 5 screen first appeared.

Apple is certainly able to call a press conference at its headquarters in Cupertino, but looking at the Moscone Center’s schedule for September, it seems unlikely that there is any way the event could take place there on September 12th:

moscone center schedule september 2012
Intel, which is one of Apple’s key partners, has an event that straddles the 12th, its their big convention/tradeshow for the year. Would Apple have an event to release three new devices — iPhone 5, iPad Mini, and new iPods — and completely suck the air out of Intel’s gig down the street? Maybe.
If Apple is really going to do this on September 12th, it would stand to reason that they would need to get invitations out by September 1st or so, in order to give the mainstream media ample time to get their schedules in place to attend. With that weekend being the Labor Day weekend in the U.S., and the start-up of school the following week, that’s an awfully awkward time to have this landmark event, isn’t it? Last year’s October event was much better positioned, since most people had already settled down into a routine — and were ready to spend some money.
Just as I am not 100% sold on all of this iPhone 5 and iPad Mini stuff going into the announcement, I’m also not 100% sold on the date of the announcement, either. Apple has shown us that anything is possible. But if all this comes true, it seems to make a lot less sense than we’re used to Apple making when it comes to product releases.

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iPhone 5 Front Panel & Screen Leak Looks Like Previous Parts

iphone 5 with serial numbersWe’re being treated once again to what is said to be a glimpse of the iPhone 5, depicting the screen and panel at close range.
Unlike some of the more recent sightings of leaked iPhone 5 parts that have come from Asian-based parts resellers and repair facilities, we now have a sighting of the purported “long body” iPhone 5 from a website called Ubreakifix.com. I agree with MacRumors, who says that “The parts don’t appear to be particularly revealing. We’ve seen similar components before . . .” Those “similar components” would be the overall design of the next iPhone, which leaked parts seem to corroborate that the longer aspect ratio rumor is set to come true.

As you can see in these new photos, the screen and front panel are the same dimensions. There’s also a close-up of the screen, wherein we get a gander at some of the component’s serial numbers
Because UbreakiFix is a U.S. company with some level of trust and authority — they bear the Better Business Bureau badge and have a several offices throughout the country — it perhaps lends a level of credence to the veracity of the rumor. But let’s not forget that Case-Mate, an even larger, more established company, leaked iPhone 5 cases last year as well (much to their own embarrassment).
The question I always ask is, how did the leaker get these parts? I understand that keeping sources anonymous is a key ingredient to getting leaked information, but for a U.S. company like UbreakiFix, it’d be nice to know if the parts came from an Asian reseller, or if these parts came direct from the same source or sources that have been supplying other rumor mills.
So, I looked on the UbreakiFix website to see if I could get a better scoop on the story than what MacRumors and others have been reporting. This is what I found out:
iphone 5 front
For as much as UbreakiFix went out of their way to emblazon their logo across all of their purported leaked photos, there is no mention of the findings on their website! Nothing! I thought, “well, they have a blog, at least. Surely they’ll have a blog posting of the photos.” Again, nothing. Search “iPhone 5? on their site — still nothing.
It’s as if the parts were never found on the website. To me, that’s dubious.
My question at this point is, what did UbreakiFix know, and when did they know it? (Not really — I’ve just always wanted to have a good excuse to type that question, since I think it’s hilarious.) But seriously, where are these parts coming from? How about “Kwe Co.,” the other brand on the photos? Well, I looked up Kwe Co. on Google Hong Kong and found KWE Technologies Group, which “specializes in Custom Control Panels, Building Automation, PCB Services, and Systronik flue gas Analyzers.” Definitely “right church,” but “wrong pew.” Who are these guys?

Until someone can shed some light on how these parts are making it into the open, a show will continue to be cast on the entire scope of these leaked parts. It isn’t to say that they are patently fake or false — to be sure, the preponderance of evidence would suggest they are in fact real. But with every new leak seems to come some awkward detail that keeps a lingering doubt into the minds of many hopeful iPhone 5'ers.

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El Cheap-o iPad Mini Cases Finally Show Up Along El Cheap-o iPhone 5 Cases

ipad-mini-el-cheap-case-1

Plenty of iPhone 5 flotsam and jetsam is floating around the rumor mill, but where is all of the iPad mini junk? Now, some el cheap-o iPad Mini cases have surfaced. But does this really prove anything?

Ah yes, the iPad Mini. Much like the abominable snowman, chupacabra, or bigfoot, it has been long speculated on, sometimes sighted (as in within Cupertino’s secret labs), but at present, nothing has really been seen in the Apple rumor mill pipeline — until now.

According to Tapscape, a couple of el cheap-o polycarbonate plastic shell cases for the purported iPad Mini have surfaced out of China’s dollar-store manufacturing machine, along with the customary iPhone 5 cases that may — or very well may not — have anything to do with the iPhone 5 that Apple officially releases in 2012. Tapscape explains:

New iPad Mini photo leaks emerged this week which served to reconfirm collective agreement that a 7-inch Apple tablet launch is on the horizon. The iPad Mini is speculated to feature a 7-7.85 inch screen and may ship with a non-retina display in order to bring down the price to a level that is competitive with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Those “photo leaks” of the iPad Mini, which were also commented on by 9to5Mac, are just about as sketchy as they come, which makes any synergy between those photos and these new cases tenuous at best.

ipad-mini-el-cheap-o-case-2

Notwithstanding the fact that these two supposed iPad Mini cases are absolutely hideous, the cutouts and dimensions immediately inspire scrutiny. I won’t take all of the fun away from iPhone 5 News Blogcommentors, but Tapscape makes a few observations: “The iPad Mini case photos reveal circular openings for a rear-facing camera and a separate space for a rear-located mic. The bottom of the iPad Mini cases also have a space for the Mini Dock connector, which is widely expected to replace the current 30-pin connector in all future Apple iOS devices.”

The bottom of the clear case has an opening at the bottom, but it looks wide enough to accommodate a 500-pin dock connector. I have an old dot matrix printer in my attic — maybe I’ll go up there, salvage the serial cable connected to it, and plug it in to see if Apple is bringing back old school connectivity.

Tapscape does take these new el cheap-o cases in stride, however, adding:

Case manufacturers have a habit of prefabricating thousands of iPhone cases before the launch of a new model in hopes of being first-to-market. We saw a similar event in the lead-up to the release of the iPhone 4S – but none of the expected changes eventuated. There is a good chance that these iPhone 5 cases and iPad Mini case photos may just represent ambitious speculation based on existing rumors, but there is also a chance that they may in-fact be based on actual final-build models.

Aside from a very poor set of photos, there has been very few iPad Mini parts sightings — a bad sign that it will actually be co-released with the iPhone 5. Considering that the el cheap-o cases of 2011 were totally off-base, as were the dual release rumors of last year, it can be assumed that a report like this one not only fails to confirm the iPad Mini, but also makes the current iPhone 5 design look sketchy since, if this case manufacturer claims to have an inside track on the as-yet-unseen iPad Mini, how reliable is their information on the iPhone 5's form factor?

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The Fakest-Looking Part Of The Purported iPhone 5

If the glimpses of the purported iPhone 5 units that we’ve seen thus far are all fakes, then they are the best fakes we’ve seen to date. But there’s one angle to these supposed sightings of the New iPhone that look off to me.
The more and more we hear about iPhone 5 sightings, parts, “proof” in the iOS 6 beta code, and beyond, consumers, the media, and even case designers are increasingly believing the hype. The feeling is that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and the fact that so many of these parts are showing up, and all of them appear to match up with one another, point to consensus.
Skeptical holdouts have pointed to the odd elongated screen as a red flag for the iPhone 5 prototypes’ authenticity. Another eyebrow-raiser has been the slightly mismatched metal on the backs of both the white and black iPhone 5 prototypes that suggests to some that Apple tends to try to make their form factors look streamlined and seamless. But these arguments, while legitimate, are debatable as well: Apple could very well see their longer-but-not-wider display as a compromise between a larger screen that still maintains the profile of the classic iPhone dimensions. And the slightly mismatched metal could be an aesthetic flair to show off the fact that the iPhone 5 will have a metal back — maybe even made out of the now-mythic LiquidMetal.
I can actually buy both of those arguments. But there is another aspect of the iPhone 5 sightings that, to me, looks really bogus, and no one has ever brought it up. In fact, it’s an angle that gets shown off regularly. Take a look:
iphone 5 bottom
The bottom of these iPhone 5 units, to me, look really “off.” And it’s not just a gut feeling, either. First off, have we not heard that the MagSafe is coming to the iPhone 5's dock connector, and that it will be somewhere in the 9-pin range? I’m not exactly sure that the MagSafe is ready to be able to transfer both power and energy, but even if it is, take a look at the MagSafe on a MacBook: you can clearly see the pins, and the socket itself is rather shallow — nothing like the gaping hole depicted above. It could be that this particular photo only shows the form factor and does not contain the innards, but even the purported “fully assembled” iPhone 5 sightings have looked like this.
Second, what’s with the headphone jack on the bottom of the device? Does it not seem rather odd that Apple would move it from top to the bottom? Perhaps it’s because of NFC hardware that could be positioned in the upper left quadrant of the device, but I’m still doubtful of that. And again, the hole for the jack looks nothing like it does on the iPhone 4 and 4S, which has a fine circle around it. The new jack looks like a “plain” 1/8? jack that you would see on a Magnavox walkman from the mid 80s.
Third, what’s with the asymmetrical number of speaker holes in the bottom? I get it — the presence of the headphone jack reduces the lefthand number of holes to only five. But does Apple do asymmetry like this? The bottom speaker screens on the current iPhone are elegant — they look like mini versions of something Bose would create. The asymmetrical, clumsy look of the speaker array on this model is homely by Apple’s standards.

To make a truly believable iPhone 5, one would have to be a kind of “master sculptor,” taking into account every possible angle of the device, and crafting it in such a way that rings true as an Apple design. In my opinion, there are just enough questionable angles to this iPhone 5 to keep it in question up to the very day that Tim Cook walks out on stage with it — or not.

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Report: iOS 6 Accommodates Rumored Longer iPhone 5 Display

Skeptics of the purported iPhone 5 prototypes have suggested that the longer display and stretched aspect ratio would cause mayhem in the app world. But new evidence shows that iOS 6 can accommodate the elongated screen.

Among people who are skeptical of the iPhone 5 sightings first released by 9to5Mac, there tends to be two camps: the “I don’t like it” camp” and the “it cannot be done” camp. Those in the former group are acting on personal preference, and imagining that Apple would not dare elongate the iPhone 5's display on account of their not liking the idea. But for the latter, many say that the likelihood of an altered aspect ratio for the iPhone 5 is low, since a chance in aspect ratio would run the risk of fragmenting the all-important app market that already exists for iOS devices.

A new report from 9to5Mac today, however, indicates that there are clues within iOS 6 beta that suggests it can handle the change in aspect ratio, thus bridging the gap between the old iPhone display dimensions and the new 640 x 1136 display rumors that continue to persist.

9to5Mac reports that:

Thanks to some tweaks to the iOS Simulator application that is included in the iOS development tools, we were able to run the simulator at the rumored next-generation iPhone display resolution of 640 x 1136. We did this running both the current public release of iOS 5.1 and the upcoming iOS 6.0 The iOS 5.1 simulator displayed the home screen with a stretched set of four rows of icons. On the other hand, iOS 6 displayed five complete rows – as our sources said Apple was testing for taller iPhone displays.

To be sure, skeptics will point to the fact that this test is far from being completely empirical, considering that the experiment was done by tweaking the iOS simulator. It very well may be that the simulator was altered to give 9to5Mac the results they are looking for — a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if the simulator was tweaked to display 640 x 1136, could it also be tweaked to accommodate the aspect ratio of a Samsung Galaxy S 3, or some other competing device?

9to5Mac seems to have anticipated this critique, and added the following:

Perhaps even more interesting is that the simulator will not correctly display five rows of icons at resolutions other than 640 x 1136. At other resolutions, the icons will scale to an iPad-like home screen layout, not at the proportions and spacing of the current iPhone and iPod touch display. This may just add another layer of proof that the next-gen iPhone display will come in at a resolution of 640 x 1136.

It may, but because the “tweaks” are relatively unexplained in the article, it’s hard to necessarily call this a “smoking gun” piece of evidence for the longer display. In other words, the ability to alter the simulator does not necessarily prove that Apple is developing the long-screened iPhone 5. Or at least as far as we know from the article.

However, what this test does do is give us a sneak peak into what the UI effect would be of such an innovation. 9to5Mac was kind enough to render the displays side by side, so that we could compare and contrast the dimensions:

iphone 5 aspect ratio

What’s also interesting here is that the longer-screened upgrade is seen as a kind of improvement to the UI experience by adding more icons and gesture area — not simply a means of improving video viewing.

The legacy of the long screen has been perhaps the most intriguing rumored feature of the 2012 iPhone 5 rumor mill. From its early inception in the Verge forums (which immediately was characterized as Apple’s attempt at floating the idea to the general public) to 9to5Mac’s photos, and now this — we seem to being led down a path towards adoption of this new screen and aspect ratio. If in the end the iPhone 5 turned out to look exactly like the images we’re seeing in the rumor mill, then I think it’s safe to say that Apple allowed these leaks of the iPhone 5 in order for the new screen and aspect ratio to sick in before the official unveiling.

The question is, are you buying into it?

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Kicking The Google Habit: iPhone 5, iOS 6 To Drop YouTube Support

iphone 5 and iOS 6 with no youtube supportIn the wake of Apple dropping Google Maps from iOS 6 and replacing it with its own in-house technology, new news that YouTube native support will be dropped as well. Will iOS be Google-free by 2013?

News broke yesterday that the native YouTube app for iOS 6 will be going the way of the do-do. The statement from Apple was posted originally on The Verge: “Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.”

For iOS 5 device users who love the YouTube app (which seem to be few and far between), it appears that the loss of the native support will only be for iOS 6 devices, and that older devices will be grandfathered in: “Engadget has also heard from Apple and learned that while iOS 6 devices will lose the stock YouTube app, iOS 5 devices will not. It seems that either Google’s licensing agreement permits it to stay on the older OS, Apple didn’t want to go to the trouble to push out a point update that takes away a feature, or some combination of both.”

To clarify, Google and YouTube won’t be going completely away from iOS — Google has explicitly stated that it will develop an app for their streaming video service, giving iOS users the option of adding the feature back into their mobile computing experience.

The general perception of the native YouTube support on iOS is that it stinks — there isn’t a great deal of heartache on the part of iPhone and iPad users over the loss of the YouTube app. But perhaps the reason why this is a big story worth thinking about is that the dropping of YouTube from iOS 6 and beyond is yet another example of how Apple appears to be scrubbing YouTube services out of their products.

The dropping of YouTube begs the question: will we see an Apple version of YouTube — perhaps through iTunes — sometime in the near future, in a bid to compete with Google’s services? We’ve already seen the replacement of the poorly-supported Google Maps with what promises to be an impressive Apple Maps interface. Now, with the eventual dropping of YouTube, Apple appears to feel as though they can offer their users some kind of replacement down the line.

I have also written more than once about what I believe to be Apple’s semi-clandestine attempt to someday compete against Google search with Siri. Evidence such as its heavy reliance on search engine Wolfram Alpha and its vast repository of data centers suggests that Apple is already in the search business, and offering Siri users a different kind of search engine that leverages stored data, as opposed to Google Search’s indexing of web pages across the internet.

I now wonder if it is possible to imagine that 2013 iOS devices could see the dropping of Google Search as well? The further development of Siri on iOS 6 will perhaps give us a better sense of how close something like that could be.

Post Script: Hard Times For Google

You may not know it, but Google is having a bit of a rough patch right now with its revenues. The losses are coming as a direct result of the degradation of its AdWords business (the ads that appear on this blog as well as in Google Search, YouTube, Maps, and other Google services). This, from Slashdot, really lays out Google’s recent decline:

“Rebecca Greenfield writes that during their recent earnings call, Google reported a 16 percent decline in Cost-per-Click (CPC), meaning the value of each advertisement clicked has gone down. This follows a 12 percent drop last quarter and 8 percent the quarter before that showing an unfortunate reality of online advertising.”

I would not be shocked if Wall Street has a big October surprise in the fall over Google’s earnings.

The cause of Google’s drop in ad revenues has a lot to do with search engine optimization, or SEO as it is commonly known, which is being used by small online businesses in place of Google “pay-per-click” (PPC) ads. Whatever the case, Apple might see this opportunity to jump into the ad game for itself in the upcoming years — since there is no other ad system that currently competes with AdWords — as well as an opportunity to really stick it to Google. Imagine for a moment how fewer ad impressions Google’s AdWords will receive once Maps, YouTube, and maybe even Search is gone from iOS devices.

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