Friday, July 29, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Reports Out Of The Orient Indicate iPhone 5 On Track For September 6 to 15 Release

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:15 AM PDT


A couple of interesting reports out of the Far East this week indicate that the iPhone 5 is on track for a September release, and an iPad 3 will be likely not far behind.

Pegatron Reportedly Outbids Hon Hai (Foxconn) for iPhone 5 And iPad 3 Production Subcontract

CENS Taiwan Economic News’s Steve Chuang reports that after garnering Apple Inc.’s big order for 15 million iPhone 5 units, Pegatron Corp., a Taiwan-based contract manufacturer of electronic products, is also pegged to snap up Apple’s other big order for iPad 3 production, poised to challenge Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.’s status as leader in Apple’s supply chain, according to industry sources.

Chuang’s report notes that exclusively handling assembly of iPhone and iPad and production of related parts, Hon Hai (AKA Foxconn), the world`s largest electronic manufacturer by revenues, has dominated the Apple idevice supply chain for some time, but that changed this year with Pegatron winning Apple`s contract order for iPhone 5 production.

The buzz is that Apple wants to reduce over-dependence on Hon Hai, especially after an explosion accident at the firm’s Chengdu factory in May. disrupted production.

Meanwhile, Pegatron, has optimized its production resources specifically for tablet PCs and built a close partnership with Apple by supplying the iPhone 4 CDMA edition.

China Times correspondent Zhengshu Fang also reports that the long-awaited new iPhone 5 is on track for rollout in the second week of September
(September 6 to 15), with suppliers ramping up to ship trial production of 400,000 units.

Gizmodo Explodes “Spy” Photos of iPhone 5 in the Hands of a Purported Apple Engineer

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 07:49 AM PDT


If anyone knows a legitimate iPhone sighting, its Gizmodo. They are, after all, the tech website that brought us the first glimpses of the iPhone 4, thanks to an inebriated Apple engineer, a quick-thinking barfly, and opportunism. The guys at Gizmodo, after all, have held an iPhone prototype in the palms of their hands — they. more than anyone else, are qualified to bless or explode such a “spy” photo like the one that 9to5Mac rolled out yesterday.

Folks, Gizmodo ain’t buying it.

They begin their case for exploding this as a legitimate sighting by pointing out how unreliable the tipster of this photo really is: “a tipster sent them a few choice shots of someone who was ‘likely an Apple employee’ (no reason given, possibly there’s a black turtleneck under that jacket?) on a train home from San Francisco.” Gizmodo goes on to explain, tongue in cheek, that “the tipster was vetted as someone who ‘has had an iPhone 3GS and currently has an iPhone 4.’ Just like my ma!” In this way, Gizmodo is making the same case that we here on the iPhone 5 News Blog make about rumors that come from managers and customer service reps at AT&T and Verizon stores — how are these people credible?

Gizmodo goes on to make the case that the device in the photo that 9to5Mac claims to be the iPhone 5 in fact resembles that of the iPhone 3Gs: “As you can see, the image above looks a whole lot like, well, a 3GS? Or iPod Touch, maybe? . . . and also that the curved body and shiny volume button seen here are an awful lot like a 3GS.”

You can read the entire Gizmodo piece here.

To be sure, the 9to5mac photos — like any “spy” photos not taken by the CIA — are blurry and nondescript enough to be called into question. Also, Gizmodo reminds us of a very precient detail: “Maybe now is a good time to mention that Apple doesn’t let prototypes out in the wild without a case to disguise it, and there doesn’t seem to be that kind of super-stealth deception here (counterargument: maybe it’s just really good super-stealth).” Given the fact that Gizmodo sees the new device as looking much like the 3Gs, maybe it is the iPhone 5 being disguised?

Regardless, you can count on one thing: once the iPhone 5 is released, the iPhone 5 News Blog will be doing a comprehensive look back at all of these photos and rumors, and calling out all of the news sources that claimed “confirmation” on iPhone 5 details.