Apple Still in Talks With Sharp Over its IGZO Display Panels For iOS Devices

DigiTimes reports that Apple is still in talks with Sharp over its IGZO panels, which the company plans to use in future iOS devices. Specifically, Apple’s concerned about Sharp’s ability to produce these panels in enough quantities for iPads, iPad minis and iPhones.

IGZO (Indium gallium zinc oxide) panels allow for high resolution displays to be compact, energy efficient and cheaper to manufacture. While Sharp had started manufacturing such displays earlier this year, its ability to deliver to Apple’s scale (hundreds of millions of devices in a year) and its troubled financial state are both issues of concern for Apple.

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Siri Finally Coming to iPad in iOS 6?

9to5Mac reports that Apple will finally bring Siri to iPad in iOS 6. According to 9to5Mac, it will be one of the major features for the iPad in iOS 6.

Siri - Apple's intelligent personal assistant feature is currently available exclusively for iPhone 4S users. Apple's new iPad that was introduced few months back, surprisingly only got Siri's dictation feature.

9to5Mac provides the following details of how Sir will work on the iPad:

Unlike on the iPhone 4S, Siri for iPad is not a full screen experience. This makes sense given the device’s larger, 9.7-inch display. Siri on the iPad is activated by a quick hold of the home button, just like on the iPhone 4S. The interface slides up from below the display with a clever animation. Siri is built into the iPad as a small window on top of whatever interface the user is currently interacting with. This Siri window with rounded corners sits at the bottom center of the display, as you can see in our mockup above. The Siri iPad interface takes very little space over the iPad interface currently in use, and is designed with the same linen texture as on the iPhone 4S. Siri for iPad also works from the lock screen.

They've also created the following mockup based on information they've received from their trusted sources.

But don't get your hopes up, as 9to5Mac is not sure if Siri will work on iPad 3, iPad 2 and iPad 1. Their sources are currently tell them that it could be available exclusively on the new iPad.

It is also rumored that iOS 6 will include an all-new Maps app with 3D mode, which is supposed to be quite incredible, some features from OS X Mountain Lion such as iCloud Tab support, Mail VIPs, "Do not Disturb" toggle for Notifications, and redesigned version of App Store, iTunes and iBookstore apps.

Apple is widely expected to give us a preview of iOS 6 at next week's WWDC Keynote, followed by the launch of the beta version. Apple is expected to release iOS 6 to the public only in October along with the next generation iPhone.

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iOS 6 to Get OS X Mountain Lion Features Such as iCloud Tabs Support, “Do Not Disturb” Toggle For Notifications, Mail VIPs

9to5Mac continue to leak more information about the features in iOS 6.

They've just reported that some of the new features from OS X Mountain Lion such as iCloud Tabs support, Mail VIPs, "Do Not Disturb" toggle for notifications will make their way to iOS 6.

OS X Mountain Lion will include a number of popular apps and features such as Messages, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay Mirroring from iPad, so it is not surprisingly to see some of the new features introduced in ninth and next major release of OS X are coming to iOS 6.

Here's how some of the new OS X Mountain Lion features will work in iOS 6, according to Mark Guman of 9to5Mac:

Cloud Tabs:

iCloud Tabs is a feature that allows iCloud users to view a list of tabs opened in the Safari web browser across multiple iOS devices and Macs. Although previously rumored, iCloud Tabs is not a feature – in its initial implementation in iOS 6 and Mountain Lion – that syncs your entire current web browser work across devices. When the iCloud Tabs button is clicked on an iOS 6 device (or Mac), all the tabs opened on each device are simply shown in a synchronized list. From here, users can quickly pickup individual tabs that they were working on across their Apple devices. The iCloud Tabs button on the iPhone and iPod touch is hidden behind the Bookmarks toolbar.

Mail VIPs:

Like in Mountain Lion, Mail VIPs in iOS 6 puts a star next to emails received from a specified group of people. VIPs assigned to iCloud accounts will sync with iCloud across iOS 6 iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and OS X Mountain Lion Macs. OS X Mountain Lion users have so-far praised the feature, as many users find themselves constantly looking for email from a select group of contacts.

Do Not Disturb toggle:

The Do Not Disturb toggle will allows users to block incoming alerts and banners. When we wrote about this feature coming to OS X Mountain, we were hoping that it comes to iOS 6. So good to know that it is also coming to iOS 6.

According to 9to5Mac, the Do Not Disturb toggle is stationed like the Airplane Mode button in the Settings app as seen in the mockup below.

With Apple adding such useful toggles in the Settings, we wonder when they will introduce SBSettings-like functionality so that we can access them quickly from any app without having to go through the hassle of exiting the current app, launching the Settings app and then enabling or disabling the toggle.

Let us know what you think about the possibility of features such as iCloud Tabs support, Mail VIPs, "Do Not Disturb" toggle for notifications coming to iOS 6. What's on your iOS 6 wish list?

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More Details About Facebook Integration in iOS 6

Few days back, TechCrunch reported that Facebook will be finally deeply integrated into iOS 6. Apple's CEO Tim Cook had hinted at the possibility of integrating with Facebook during AllThingsD's D10 Conference.

9to5Mac has got access to some more information about how the Facebook integration will work in iOS 6.

Mark Guman of 9to5Mac writes:

According to sources familiar with the Facebook integration into iOS 6, the integration will be very similar to Twitter’s integration that launched with iOS 5. The integration’s biggest presence will be in the iOS Photos application. Like you are able to send photos to Twitter from the Photos application, you will be able to post photos to Facebook. A single sign-on section for all Facebook connected applications is present in the iOS 6 system settings application. Like with Twitter, a new “social sheet,” as some people familiar with the matter call it, will appear for an accompanying status message.

Mockup of Facebook sharing in iPhone Photos app (Image Credit - 9to5Mac)

According to 9to5Mac, not surprisingly, users will also be able to like apps either by using a "Like" button in the built-in App Store on their iOS devices.

Besides content sharing, Apple is also relying on Facebook for a big new social change for the built-in App Store: a feature called “App Liking.” Discoverability has always been a major downside of the Apple mobile apps market with hundreds-of-thousands of software apps, but Apple will by relying on the world’s largest social network to help fix that problem. Inside individual application pages on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch App Store will be a standard Facebook “Like” button. If a user is logged into Facebook via iOS Settings, these app “Likes” will be sent to their Facebook Timelines. Accompanying status messages will also be an option.

We're not sure how Apple will fix the discoverability issues in the App Store with the "App Liking" feature. While Apple could give a higher rank to apps that are shared are Facebook, it is something that can be easily manipulated by developers.

Things should be more clear next week, as Apple is widely expected to give us a preview of iOS 6 at next week's WWDC Keynote, followed by the launch of the beta version. Apple is expected to release iOS 6 to the public only in October along with the next generation iPhone.

According to recent rumors, iOS 6 will include an all-new Maps app with 3D mode, which is supposed to be quite incredible and redesigned version of App Store, iTunes and iBookstore apps.

Via: iphonehacks

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iOS 6 to Get Redesigned iTunes Store, App Store And iBookstore

As we get closer to the WWDC 2012 Keynote, where Apple is widely expected to give us a preview of iOS 6, more details about the upcoming major iOS software update seems to be leaking out.

So far we've heard that iOS 6 will include an all-new Maps app with an incredible 3D-mode and Facebook integration.

9to5Mac now reports that iOS 6 will also feature redesigned iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore.

According to sources familiar with Apple’s upcoming iOS 6 mobile software offering, the company’s three major`digital stores will see design overhauls. The overhauls are said to be major and they focus on improved interactivity when making purchases in iTunes, the App Store, and the iBookstore. Social is a big piece of the store overhauls, and Facebook integration is being tested in the iTunes Store portion, at least.

But 9to5Mac also notes that the redesigned apps won't offer improved discoverability. You may remember that Apple had acquired Chomp - an app search engine earlier in the year. We were expecting Apple to use Chomp's technology to improve App Store search and recommendations. But according to 9to5Mac's source, it may not happen in iOS 6, which would be a pity as discoverability of apps is quite a pain with more than 600,000 apps in the App Store.

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Apple to Include Baidu Search in iOS in China

Chinese website Sina Tech via Tech in Asia reports that according to their "knowledgeable sources", Apple is planning to include Baidu as one of the search engines in iOS.

This doesn't come as a major surprise as Baidu is the no. 1 search engine in China, controlling over 80% of the market share.

According to Sina Tech, Baidu will be included as one of the search engines to mobile Safari via an iOS software update next month. It's not clear whether Apple plans to replace Google with Baidu as the default search engine for users in China or it is simply adding Baidu to list of search engines users can choose from.

If it is the former than it would be a major blow to Google as it will shrink its market share in China even further. As you may know, Google had taken the extreme step of redirecting China search features to Google Hong Kong  as it did not have the same laws of censorship of political content as the Mainland.

While it is seen as a move by Apple to reduce its dependence on Google, it must be noted that Google pays Apple quite a significant fee to be the default search engine on iOS devices.

It would be a good move to make Baidu the default search engine from users point of view as based on Baidu's marketshare it is quite clear than Chinese users prefer it over Google.

But you never know, Apple could be using Baidu as the "pawn" in its growing rivalry with Google.

[Sina Tech via Tech in Asia]

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Apple Has Already Started Testing iOS 6.0

While we wait eagerly for Apple to release iOS 5.1, we have just received news that Apple has already started testing iOS 6.0 - Apple's next generation mobile operating system (not very surprising).

Ars Technica reports that they've observed iPads running iOS 6.0 originating from Apple's headquarters visiting their website, based on the browser user agents in their server logs.

we began looking at iPad user agents coming from Apple's corporate IP block in Cupertino and discovered that Apple appears to be surfing the Web using iPads running what looks like iOS 6.0. The whole listing shows iPads running iOS 5, iOS 5.0.1 (the current public release), iOS 5.1 (the upcoming release currently available to developers), and iOS 6. The iPads that appear to be running iOS 6 are also using a slightly newer build of WebKit—the older OSes all show WebKit 534.46, while the ones claiming to be iOS 6 show WebKit build 535.8

.

Last year, Apple gave a preview of iOS 5 and also released the beta version of the iOS 5 to developers during the 2011 WWDC in June and released it to the public in October.  So we expect Apple to follow a similar schedule this year as well.

However, Ars Technica speculates that Apple could give us a preview of iOS 6.0 at the iPad 3 media event. We won't bet on it as we expect Apple to preview iOS 5.1 at next week's media event.

Apple's next generation iPad - iPad 3 that will be unveiled at the media event on March 7th is expected to come pre-installed with iOS 5.1 and Apple is also expected to release iOS 5.1 to the public on or around March 9th.

Ars Technica has also observed device with a screen resolution of 2048x1536 visiting their website, which is the same resolution rumored for iPad 3's Retina Display.

What's on your iOS 6.0 wish list?

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AT&T Planning to Allow App Developers to Pay For Your iPhone Data Usage

The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T is working on a new service that will allow developers of mobile apps and content providers to pay for users data usage charges to the wireless carrier.

John Donovan - AT&T's network and technology head provided the details of the service to WSJ  at the Mobile Congress 2012 that kicked off today. He compared the service to the toll-free calling for mobile broadband.

Last week, a study revealed that messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook (Messenger) may have cost carriers $13.9 billion in lost SMS revenues in 2011. So it is not surprising to see carriers like AT&T trying to figure out new ways to generate revenue from the data traffic to augment the loss in revenue from the traditional sources of income.

Wall Street Journal reports:

"A feature that we're hoping to have out sometime next year is the equivalent of 800 numbers that would say, if you take this app, this app will come without any network usage," Mr. Donovan said on the sidelines of a mobile-industry conference here. 

It's far from clear how willing technology companies would be to pay wireless carriers for data use. Mr. Donovan said there was interest from companies who could use the feature to drum up new business from customers wary of using data-heavy services like mobile video. 

Donovan believes that content publishers could use the service as an incentive to customers to download a movie without eating into their monthly data limits. He compared it to free shipping offered by online retailers. In this case, the customer would pay the regular price for the movie, while the cost of the data usage for downloading the movie will be paid by the app developer or content publisher to the carrier.

It is not clear if AT&T has Apple's backing and how it will be implemented in iOS.

While AT&T it sounds good from a customer point of view as the cost of the data usage for downloading the movie will be paid by the content publisher, we've a creepy feeling that the cost will be ultimately passed on to the customer and it would be like paying a tax for downloading content. It also sounds terrible from developers point of view as it will be become even more expensive to develop and support an app, which will hurt us as customers as it could stifle innovation.

Do you think AT&T's new service will be good for customers?

[via WSJ]

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Pre-GM Seed of iOS 5.1 Leaked?

Folks at BlogdoiPhone claim that they've got their hands on a pre-GM version of iOS 5.1 software update. The Golden Master (GM) version is the shipping version of the software.

BlogdoiPhone claim that they've discovered two changes in the pre-GM version of iOS 5.1.

• In iOS 5, Apple had introduced a lock screen shortcut button for the Camera app, which is accessible when you double tap on the home button. According to BlogdoiPhone, the lock screen shortcut for the Camera app does not need to enabled by the double tapping the home button in the pre-GM version of iOS 5.1, it is available at all times. It also looks like Apple plans to replace the button with a slider. So sliding up on the camera icon gives you instant access to the Camera app to take photos, instead of tapping on Camera icon, which currently launches the Camera app. It seems to be an quicker method to access the Camera app.
• As rumored, Apple seems to have added support for Japanese language to Siri in this pre-GM version of iOS 5.1.

Apple has seeded developers with three beta versions of iOS 5.1 (beta 1, beta 2, beta 3) so far, with the last one seeded on January 9th. Apple is widely speculated to release iOS 5.1 along with iPad 3 that is expected to be unveiled on March 7th.

[source MacRumors]

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Apple Maybe Working On An NFC Based Payment System For The Next iPhoneApple Maybe Working On An NFC Based Payment System For The Next iPhone

A Fast Company interview with a MasterCard executive seems to indicate that Apple is speaking to various companies, including MasterCard, about its long rumored NFC based iPhone.

The executive didn't confirm anything outright when asked about NFC and Apple, citing confidentiality agreements:

"I don't know of a handset manufacturer that isn't in process of making sure their stuff is PayPass [MasterCard's wireless payment solution] ready."
So that would include Apple then?
"Um, there are...like I say, [I don't know of] any handset maker out there," McLaughlin says. "Now, when we have discussions with our partners, and they ask us not to disclose them, we don't."
[...]
I asked whether the contactless payments industry needs Apple to hit critical mass.
"Well, anytime someone with a major base moves forward, it advances what you're doing. So of course," McLaughlin says.
But how important is it that Apple in particular enters the game?
"I look at it the other way," answers McLaughlin, who did not mention "Apple" even once by name. "I think as merchants provide these better interfaces for consumers--a better way of transacting--I think any consumer-focused technology provider would want to take advantage of it."

Additionally 9 to 5 Mac spoke with a developer at Macworld who seems to be fairly confident about NFC making it to the next iPhone:

We had some time to talk to a well-connected developer at Macworld who was building an app that— among other capabilities— includes NFC reading for the purpose of mobile transactions.  We were obviously curious why they would do that, noting that third party NFC readers for iPhone were not popular (aside from the recently announced Moneto, above).  The developer told us that he had no hardware knowledge, but he had spoken to Apple iOS engineers on multiple occasions, and they are “heavy into NFC.”
I asked how confident he was, and he said, “Enough to bet the app development on.”

Numerous rumors about the fifth generation iPhone coming with an NFC chip were proved wrong, when Apple launched the iPhone 4S without NFC support. It did, however, take a step forward in the offline payments space by introducing the Apple Store 2.0 app, which allowed customers to self-checkout via an "EasyPay" mechanism.

As we noted earlier:

If Apple can make its 200 million credit card holding customers comfortable with the idea of using their iTunes account for real world purchases, NFC would just be another technology that works behind the scenes.

Right now Apple's payment solution is only being used in Apple Stores, and if an NFC equipped iPhone is launched in the near future, Apple needs to start talking with potential partners and convince them to support its payment solution. And this is what the company seems to be doing, as evident from the MasterCard exec's interview.

[via Fast Company, 9 to 5 Mac]

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Imagination Technologies Unveils Next Generation GPU For iOS Devices; 20 Times More Powerful And 5 Times More Efficient

UK based Imagination Technologies, the maker of graphics processing unit has unveiled their next generation GPU - PowerVR Series 6 at CES 2012.

The Verge reports that Imagination claims that the sixth generation of its GPU's will provide 20 times or more performance improvements, while also being 5 times more efficient.

The Verge reports:

The PowerVR Series 6 is starting off with two core designs, the G6400 and G6200, but will continue to expand into "a growing family." Imagination claims the sixth generation of its graphics core can deliver "20x or more" the performance of current-gen hardware, while also being five times more efficient. That's thanks to producing the highest GFLOPS both per mW and per square millimeter.

The maximum computational performance is said to "reach the teraFLOPS range," though it's not entirely clear whether either of the particular core designs introduced today are capable of it. The difference between them is that the G6400 has four of Imagination's new compute clusters, whereas the G6200 only has two.

 

Apple holds a 3.9% stake in the company and has used their chips in iOS devices for the last few years, for example - Apple is currently using PowerVR SGX543MP2 in the A5 system-on-a-chip that powers iPad 2 and iPhone 4S so it is very likely that these next generation GPU's will make it to Apple's A6 system on chip that is expected to power iPad 3 and the sixth generation iPhone that will be launched later this year.

[source The Verge]

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