Rumours

Lion launch tomorrow (Maybe)

First everyone thought it would be last week, then the weekend but now the rumours suggest that OS X Lion will go on sale tomorrow afternoon here in the UK. According to tweets we received from individuals claiming to work for Apple retail stores there will be a temporary scheduled closure of stores at 4:30pm tomorrow (20th July) so that displays and advertising can be updated. After which time Lion will be available through the App Store and, we expect, the new MacBook Air will also go on sale.

I’ll be in London tomorrow afternoon so will be heading over the Regent Street store to see what’s going down. I’ll be here with a report soon after. Lets hope everyone is right this time!

Posted by: Matt

New MacBook Air to get SSD and CPU boost

OK, so we expected the MacBook Air to go on sale after this weeks Apple Store outage and at the same time as Lion. Obviously that didn’t happen in the end and we’re still waiting for the release of OS X Lion but we’re pretty sure it’s imminent.

However, we’re still expecting to see new hardware from Apple soon and the clever money is on a MacBook Air and Mac Mini refresh. An inside source that suggests there will be a SSD and CPU boost for both the 11.6″ and 13.3″ Air models.

11.6in MacBook Airs will incorporate 128GB SSDs across the range and arrive with 4GB of memory as standard and there will be 1.6GHz Core i5-2467M, 1.7GHz Core i7-2637M and 1.8GHz Core i7-2677M processors models available.

The 13.3″ version already had a 128GB SSD but will also benefit from a RAM increase and other CPU options.

Both versions are likely to have Sandy Bridge and the new Thunderbolt port. I’d also expect to see similarly spec’ed Mac Mini’s launched on or around the same time.

Don’t expect to see anything until OS X Lion goes live as anything new is likely to ship with Lion pre-installed.

Posted by: Matt

Apple TV Bluetooth unlocked by iOS 5

As discussed several times in the past, Apple’s little set top box, the Apple TV, is kinda like a iPhone in a box and even runs a version of iOS. The beta version of iOS 5 brings display mirroring over Air Play to the mix, very handy for presentations or if you want to use your iPad 2’s web browser on a large TV screen.

Just like the iPhone, the Apple TV already sports Bluetooth hardware but this currently lies dormant under the existing version of the iOS. According to the chaps over at 9to5mac iOS 5 is going to enable the Bluetooth hardware that lies within and you’ll be able to turn this on or off via settings. We’re not 100% sure what Apple have in mind for Bluetooth on the Apple TV, perhaps to make it easier to connect your iPhone or iPad to it or maybe for keyboard and mouse support?

Personally I’m really hoping for the keyboard and mouse support and for Apple to include Safari in later versions of the Apple TV, I’d love to be able to use the web on my lounge TV!

Off to dig through the latest beta now…

Posted by: Matt

Amazon tablet coming this year?

Is there any hardware manufacturer out there that isn’t developing or releasing a tablet this year? Seems that almost everyone is releasing their version of what they hope will be the next big thing in the tablet market. Apple are light years ahead with their iPad at the moment leaving all the others very much out in the cold.

So enter Amazon. Amazon have already had some success with several flavours of their eBook reader, the Kindle so are arguable in a good place to develop their own answer to the iPad. Amazon certainly have the exposure and the branding to pull it off. The clever money suggests that Amazon will have their tablet ready for the end of Q3 or beginning of Q4 of this year to ensure that they maximise the Christmas sales.

Amazon themselves have been extremely tight lipped about the possible Tablet so there is certainly nothing close to concrete when it comes to specification but I’m guessing it will be Android based. In any case I’m sure that Amazon will have been watching and learning from all the other tablets on the market, each one has come with its own share of problems and mistakes and perhaps the most important lesson is simplicity. My daughter could use an iPad from age 2 so if a 2 year old can use it the UI must be beyond intuitive, it must be innate. If Amazon, or anyone for that matter, can come up with a UI that can rival the iPad then maybe they have half a chance.

There is one other thing that Amazon could do to make an impact and that would be to use their whisper sync technology on a tablet. Imagine buying a tablet with built in 3G connectivity and never having to pay a subscription just as with the 3G Kindle. Perhaps unlikely for now but maybe it’s coming!?

As always we’ll be watching closely and will return with updates as we get them.

Posted by: Matt

Apple to release 2 new iPhones in September

The rumour mill is back in full swing again and almost everyone is speculating about the new iPhone that Apple is expected to release later this year. I think almost all sources are pointing to a September launch of the iPhone 5.

Of course no one knows exactly what the iPhone 5 will look like and what its eventual spec will be, however, I would expect to see it with the same A5 dual-core chip from the iPad 2, probably with more ram and a version with 64GB of storage. I also personally think the design will be much more like the iPad 2 with curved aluminium back and probably thinner than the existing iPhone 4.

US-based blog 9 to 5 mac say that they have sources close to Apple and claim that September will not only see the launch of the iPhone 5 but also another iPhone handset in the same announcement. It’s thought that this phone with be the iPhone 4GS. The new iPhone 4GS is expected to be a cheaper and lower spec phone to compete with those low-end Android phones that are flooding the market.

Apple could make a less expensive iPhone by taking existing iPhone 4 technology and putting it in a cheaper aluminium body and replacing the screen for a non-IPS model.

If Apple do mange to pull this off and come up with an iPhone 4GS and iPhone 5 line-up then they are really on to a winner. Cant wait to see what September holds!

Posted by: Matt

OS X Lion coming July 14th?

Many of us are waiting for the official release of OS X Lion with bated breath and as yet there is no clear release date for it. However there are a number of sites speculating that the release will take place on the 14th July, Thursday of next week.

The guys at 9to5Mac claim to have evidence that this is going to happen as Apple have called for all retail stores to make overnight changes to signage which is expected to be all about Lion.

OS X Lion include over 250 enhancements over the current Snow Leopard version of the OS with some significant UI changes that some feel bring it closer to iOS. OS X Lion will be a App Store download via the Mac and will only cost a little over £20, something of a bargain.

It’s also likely that the 2011 version of the MacBook Air will be released within the next few weeks. The new version is expected to have the same Sandy Bridge chipset as the iMac and MacBook Pro and, therefore, to include the new high-speed Thunderbolt port.

Fingers crossed!

Posted by: Matt

RIM Rumours Playbook 10 and take over

While the 10 inch version of the BlackBerry PlayBook was only a rumour itself, the new rumour is that the plans for it have been cancelled. There has been light speculation that in the next year RIM will be purchased by another company.

RIM have such a massive share of the market and the corporate uptake for the devices is enough that it’s probably quite safe to brush any takeover news under the carpet. The Playbook 10″ however is a different story. Perhaps with the less that stellar sales for both Android tablets and the Playbook RIM might just hold back on the 10″ and see how the ride goes for the &” currently braving the market.

Source BGR

Posted by: Gareth

Three teasing us with an August launch of the BlackBerry 9900

We still don’t know for sure when the forthcoming BlackBerry Bold 9900 is actually going to be on sale.  Over on the ‘coming soon’ section of the Three website they have the 9900 listed as having an arrival of August. Do Three know something we don’t?

Anyway, many sites have said that the BlackBerry 9900 is not likely to be with us until September time which I personally think is a little too far off.

With Apple updating to iOS5 later in the year and a probable iPhone 5 too, RIM really have got to get this new flagship device out as soon as possible. We all know that RIM are loosing market share to iOS and Android on a global basis so the sooner this new BlackBerry is out the more chance they have of retaining customers.

RIM clearly know this so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the BlackBerry 9900 sooner rather than later.

Posted by: James

More BlackBerry leaks

BGR has done it again, not once but twice. In the last day or so they have posted photos of the BlackBerry Bold Touch and also the BlackBerry Torch 2. Now clearly both these devices and the BlackBerry Touch that we mentioned earlier in the week are not yet officially announced by RIM but it looks pretty clear that they are all coming later this year at some point.

Spec wise the handsets look to have had a bit of a boost with both allegedly using a 1.2 GHz processor. That will make things pretty nippy.

You can see a few photos of the devices below.

9 new Android phones from Sony Ericsson this year?

Sony Ericsson have definitely been busy over the past few months. At MWC we saw 4 new devices announced, the XPERIA Play, XPERIA Arc, XPERIA Neo and XPERIA Pro.

According to several sources on the web and a few email tips that we’ve had, Sony Ericsson are planning a total of NINE new handsets for the US in 2011. It’s claimed that they will all be android powered too.

I’m sure that the XPERIA Play will be a roaring success, baring the Playstation name has to be a real boon and something that many are going to be talking about, a ‘true mobile gaming experience’. The Play is expected to be in the shops on the 31st March here in the UK (I personally think that’s a bit optimistic) so I’d expect the shipping date in the US to be pretty close to that too.

So what of the other 5 handsets coming up? We’ve no confirmation of the names or spec or even if they exist but we’ll certainly be digging for the others. When Gareth spoke with Sony Ericsson at MWC there was a vague suggestion that there were other things on the horizon but of course they didn’t reply to questions about that.

Let’s see what the next few months have in store!

Posted by: Matt