Apple : iPod touch and iPhone 5 1136x640 display and panorama mode leaked

iPod touch and iPhone 5 1136x640 display and panorama mode leaked
iPhone 5 won't grab market share with ease, analyst says
Rumor: iPhone 5 pre-orders to start Sept. 14
New YouTube iOS app arrives, gives service a home on iPhone 5
Apple ID leak traced back to app developer BlueToad, not FBI
Judge says HTC patents probably valid, could stifle iPhone 5 in US

iPod touch and iPhone 5 1136x640 display and panorama mode leaked

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A wealth of information on the new iPods rumored to be launching this week has come to light, including hints of a panorama camera mode for the new iPod touch and iPhone 5.

If the rumors are true, panorama mode will allow the new iPhone 5 and iPod touch to automatically stitch together multiple images for extra-wide panoramic shots.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, the iPhone's main competitor, already boasts panorama functionality, and various third-party peripherals (like the Kogeto Dot and Pixeet 360) have previously enabled the iPhone to take panorama pictures and videos.

So panoramas coming to the new iPhone 5 and iPod touch natively makes perfect sense.

New iPod codenames

The slew of new iPods set to launch this week alongside the iPhone 5 were first hinted at last week.

Days later, more details about the new iPods emerged that claimed they would take the form of new iPod touch, iPod shuffle and iPod nano models, in varying colors and sizes (even the iPod touch, previously just black or white) and possibly with massively revamped features.

Now 9to5mac is claiming that the new iPod touch carries the internal codename "N78," while the iPod nano is "N31" and the new iPod shuffle is "N12B."

The new iPhone 5, meanwhile, has reportedly been known as the "N42" for some time now.

iPhone and iPod touch display resolution

Additionally, the Apple news blog claims to have received information about the new iPod touch and iPhone 5's display resolutions.

Both devices will sport a resolution of 1136x640, according to the report, beating the displays of the current iPod touch and iPhone 4S by almost 200 pixels.

That suggests that like the iPhone 5, the new iPod touch will feature a larger screen, likely 4 inches.

No matter what, all is likely to be revealed on Sept. 12, when the new iPhone 5 and any new iPods will almost certainly be unveiled.

iPhone 5 won't grab market share with ease, analyst says

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With just one more day to go, everyone and their mothers seem to be gearing up for the iPhone 5 launch going down Wednesday.

But at least one analyst is staying a bit more reserved in his enthusiasm, who claimed that the iPhone 5 might not be the market wrecking ball its predecessors were.

"The iPhone 5 will launch into a U.S. smartphone market with very different dynamics than the launch window of the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S," wrote NPD analyst Stephen Baker in a blog post.

"While the new iPhone may be a gigantic success around the world," he continued, "the inevitability of similar success in the U.S. is not quite so pre-determined."

The impact of new iPhones

Baker cited a recent NPD report that U.S. smartphones experienced a mere 9 percent growth in Q2 2012, and most of that growth can be attributed to prepaid devices.

Industry growth is slowing down, and existing iPhones are already available on most major carriers. The iPhone 5 doesn't have any easy niches left to fill.

On top of that, Apple and Samsung combined already have more than 50 percent of the market.

With few easy targets in the smartphone industry left for Apple to knock down, the new iPhone may not have the same explosive impact that past iPhone releases have had.

The iPhone 5 will still make a splash

Though it may not prove an industry nuke, the iPhone 5 will surely still at least make a splash upon its impending release, Baker said.

"None of this should of course be construed that Apple can't, or won't, have an extremely successful launch in the U.S. when the iPhone 5 comes to market," he wrote.

"Apple will have a highly successful launch, of that there can be no doubt," he concluded.

"But the inevitability of easy market share gains in the U.S. is not quite so apparent this time around."

Rumor: iPhone 5 pre-orders to start Sept. 14

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The release of Apple's iPhone 5 is all but a given at this point, but with one day to go until Apple's big unveiling event, there are still a few unanswered questions.

Chief among them: when will the eager public be able to start pre-ordering the iPhone 5?

Initially, TechRadar reported pre-orders would begin Wednesday (Sept. 12), just after Apple had revealed their latest iOS handset.

However, new rumors point to pre-orders for the eagerly anticipated iPhone not opening up until this Friday, Sept. 14.

All hands on deck

According to a published report, Apple is prepping for a massive influx of pre-orders by increasing the amount of staff the online support centers have on hand.

Though it's still not clear just when pre-orders will begin, the staff increase is expected to begin with the 6 a.m. EDT shifts.

Whether that means pre-orders will begin promptly at 6 a.m. EDT, or the staff is expected to be on hand early for a bit of a later start, is unknown.

The supposed staff increases may also be occurring to help out in case Apple also opens pre-orders for the rumored iPad Mini, which may also be revealed Wednesday.

There's less than 24 hours until Apple's event (kicking off at 10 a.m. PDT), so we won't have to wait much longer to find out when and where we'll be able to get our hands on the company's latest iDevices.

Check in with TechRadar for live event coverage plus a hands on review of what is sure to be an interesting iPhone.

New YouTube iOS app arrives, gives service a home on iPhone 5

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YouTube is set to be without a home on the iPhone 5, so Google has released a new version of the service for iOS.

The app brings advertising to the service for the first time on iOS and is available from the Apple Appstore now.

Speaking about the app, Google said on its blog: "The new app is built by YouTube engineers, to give our iPhone and iPod touch users the best mobile experience."

NewTube

New features on the app include tens of thousands more videos, new YouTube channel guide, faster search functionality and better sharing.

At the moment, the app is for iPhone and iPod users but there will be an iPad optimised version "in the coming months" according to Google.

Back in August, Apple confirmed that it was severing ties with YouTube and would no longer pre-load the app on to its devices when iOS 6 rolled out.

This prompted Google to create a new app and have it downloadable from the app store.

This isn't the first time Apple has shunned Google – it also revealed back at WWDC, when it first announced iOS 6, that it was no longer using Google Maps, preferring to partner with TomTom for its own version of the software.

TechRadar is expecting iOS 6 to be released in the wild when the iPhone 5 is announced September 12.

Apple ID leak traced back to app developer BlueToad, not FBI

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The two-week old mystery of where AntiSec obtained the 1 million Apple device IDs it leaked to the Internet has been solved and it appears as if the FBI is off the hook. The real source of the unique device IDs, or UDIDs, is a Florida-based app company called BlueToad.

The hacker group claimed to have lifted the unique iOS device identifiers from an FBI laptop. However, the FBI quickly denied even possessing UDIDs, never mind being the target of a hack via a known Java vulnerability.

Still, this sparked conspiracy fears that made it seem as if the FBI was collecting and storing millions of Apple UDIDs for tracking purposes. AntiSec published more than 1 million of these device identifiers and said that it had 12 million more of them from the same FBI source.

When the FBI strongly rebuffed reports of its involvement, AntiSec said: "The fact that the FBI has no 'evidence' of a data breach on one of their notebooks, does not allow the conclusion that it never happened."

BlueToad, now speaking out, backs up the FBI's account, however.

Leak Source: BlueToad

BlueToad CEO Paul DeHart came forward, telling NBC News that his app publishing company's database was the source of the leaked UDIDs. Forensic analysis by the company shows that a breach occurred "in the past two weeks."

"That's 100 percent confidence level, it's our data," DeHart said after running tests that proved a near-perfect match. "As soon as we found out we were involved and victimized, we approached the appropriate law enforcement officials, and we began to take steps to come forward, clear the record and take responsibility for this."

On its website, BlueToad describes itself as a technology provider in the digital publishing industry and has more than 5,000 publisher with more than 10,000 titles. Specific clients were not revealed by DeHart, according to NBC News, but the apologetic CEO did say his business partners do include household names.

We may never know the names of BlueToad's clients. DeHart said that this company won't be informing its app downloaders of the UDID data breach. It's up to the individual clients to inform their readers.

How important are UDIDs?

The only mystery that remains is how important UDIDs are to privacy. DeHart downplayed the potential risk of exposing this information, yet it's enough of a privacy concern that the newest versions of BlueToad's software do not collect this personal information and has been rejecting apps that collect UDIDs since March.

Oddly enough, rallying against UDIDs appears to be AntiSec's objective in all of this. It said in an earlier statement: "We never liked the concept of UDIDs since the beginning indeed. Really bad decision from Apple. Fishy thingie."

Judge says HTC patents probably valid, could stifle iPhone 5 in US

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HTC's chairperson Cher Wang wasn't kidding around when she said her company had "no intentions" of settling with Apple after Samsung was handed a defeat in their patent lawsuit against the iPhone maker.

The Taiwanese manufacturer is continuing to pursue legal action, as HTC believes Apple is violating two of their patents regarding LTE technology.

Despite having been down a similar road with HTC before, this time around Apple may have a more difficult time earning a victory.

Apple will have to prove the HTC patents are invalid, which an ITC judge believes will be hard to prove.

Regarding the idea that a patent shouldn't have been issued, Judge Thomas Pender said, "Clear and convincing means something to me. I have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid."

A victory for HTC could mean trouble for the iPhone 5

If HTC's patents for LTE technology prove to be valid, Apple could find themselves in a bit of trouble in regards to its use in any of their devices.

With both the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini set to possibly use the 4G wireless technology, it's entirely possible the importing of said devices could be banned in the U.S.

The court filings reveal HTC purchased the patents from ADC Telecommunications Inc for $75 million "to protect itself and its customers from these aggressive tactics and to preserve its ability to compete in the United States."

Despite the path to ownership, Judge Pender believes HTC still has a healthy claim to the patents.

Speaking to Apple's lawyer Michael McKeon, of Fish & Richardson in Washington, Judge Pender said, "I don't care if they bought these patents to sue you or not. They are a property right."

The patent battles continue

This isn't the first time HTC and Apple have tussled over patents, and it certainly isn't the first time Apple has been involved in a patent infringement lawsuit.

However, this outcome of this decision could have a major impact on Apple's success throughout the rest of this year and into 2013.

Additionally, major carriers like Verizon and AT&T, who are anticipating a large push for the rumored upcoming Apple products, could be affected adversely as well.

If previous events are any indication, it's unlikely the issue will be resolved any time soon.

We'll be following the case closely, and will continue to keep you updated on the latest developments.

Yahuui Blog

Tuesday, September 11, 2012