iphone 5 rumour

Welcome to the inaugural session of  Rumor Roundup. Anyone who follows Apple-related news long enough soon discovers that an entire cottage industry of "analysts" has sprung up in the company's wake. These guys come out of nowhere claiming to have inside information on what's soon coming out of the secret underground labs beneath Cupertino -- and their predictions are almost invariably wrong. Sometimes laughably so.

Over the years we've swung between reporting these rumors with a straight face, just like many other sites, or not reporting on them at all. The first road leads to embarrassment; I'll never forgive myself for taking DigiTimes seriously on anything, ever. The second road leads to bad credit loans dozens of emails every week from readers confused about why we haven't reported on something that's all over the other sites they read.
That's what this Rumor Roundup is all about. These are the stories we might have let slip through the cracks before, simply because we considered them so packed solid with B.S. that they just weren't worth the effort. Most of the stories that show up in the Rumor Roundup still aren't good for much other than pointing at them and laughing -- and there will be lots of that sort of thing.
On to the rumors. Fire up your B.S. detectors, because this past week has been chock full of the usual mythical suspects (none of which, it must be stressed, have ever come within five time zones of being confirmed to exist): the Apple HDTV, iPad mini, iPhone nano, and the super-thin Liquidmetal T-1000 iPhone Grande with 4-inch holographic Tupac screen.
If you've been paying attention, these are the same nonexistent products that dominated the rumor scene for all of 2011. Here we are in mid-2012, still with no indication that any of these products exist at all. And does it strike anyone else as supremely unimaginative that most of these rumors revolve around size? A smaller iPhone -- no wait, a bigger one! And a smaller iPad! And a unsecured loans great big TV! Yawn.

Rumors of an iPad mini swirl in China (Kotaku)

I love the "swirl" reference in the headline, because it reminds me of a commode -- which is probably where this rumor came from. A Chinese site I guarantee you've never heard of claims that the long-rumored iPad mini will launch in the third quarter of this year, with prices ranging from US$249 to $299.
B.S. detector reading: 9/10. "Leaks" like this from Asian sites are almost always wrong, and this one is made even more unbelievable by the fact that those prices are in the neighborhood of what Apple charges for the mid- and high-end iPod touch models. As for the iPad mini itself, we've heard so many conflicting rumors about this thing that by now the only source you should believe is Tim Cook's hands holding one onstage.

Release of 'iPad mini' from Apple viewed as 'question of when, not if' (AppleInsider)

This has all the hallmarks of a terrible and ultimately worthless rumor. Some analyst you've never heard of from some firm you've also never heard of makes a bold claim without a shred of evidence, and it's one he can easily back out of if it never comes true. Which it won't.
B.S. detector reading: 10/10. This is a classic example of a rumor that manages to say absolutely nothing, but in the most excited tones possible. "Apple might do this! Maybe! Or it might not! I dunno, but either way I get paid, suckers."

Apple job opening hints at continued 3D technology in iOS (9to5 Mac)

A job posting on Apple's site could point to integration of 3D features in a future iPhone. Or not, as 9to5 Mac itself points out.
B.S. detector reading: 6/10. Apple is obviously looking for someone knowledgable in 3D tech, but extrapolating what that means for future products is pretty much impossible. And can't the 3D fad just die already? Please?

Apple working on new power management technology for future Macs (AppleInsider)

Another story sourced from an Apple job posting. This one makes the bold claim that Apple is investigating ways of improving power management and battery life in its Macs.
B.S. detector reading: 0/10. I mean, come on -- imagine the exact opposite scenario. "Apple poaches Flash Player engineers, investigates ways to make its laptops run batteries flat in five minutes."

Apple plots wireless server hubs at Genius Bars for users to temporarily store, sync content for iOS device replacements (9to5 Mac)

According to "sources," Apple is testing ways of mirroring iOS device backups from iCloud onto in-store servers to streamline the process of exchanging faulty devices at Genius Bars. The system reportedly won't go into wide deployment until late 2013.
B.S. detector reading: 5/10. While this does sound like something Apple could plausibly want to implement, the fact that this unnamed source supposedly leaked info from within Apple's strictly guarded citadel is a red flag. So is the deployment date, which is so far off that we could easily forget all about it if this never actually happens.

Apple predicted to discontinue 17-inch MacBook Pro (Mac Rumors)

Some analyst says the 17-inch MacBook Pro isn't selling very well, so Apple's going to give it the axe. Of course, Apple doesn't break down its sales numbers by individual models, so this "analysis" is at best an educated guess. At worst, it's exactly like hundreds of other analyst predictions regarding Apple: completely uneducated, wild-ass speculation.
B.S. detector reading: 10/10. The Apple of the past 10 years only discontinues product lines under two circumstances: when it has something better as a replacement (iPod mini --> iPod nano), or when sales are just tanking hard (Xserve). With product margins as high as those Apple gets from its Macs, sales have to get pretty freaking low before Apple stops making money on them; the Mac Pro is still hanging around even though Apple sells more iPhones in one day than the number of Mac Pros it'll sell in a year.

Apple's 'iTV' to dominate high-end TV market while other vendors are in 'crisis mode' (BGR)

A nonexistent product will dominate an industry Apple's shown no sign of taking seriously? Tell me more! What's your source? A consumer survey and some analysts? Never mind. Move along, nothing to see here, no matter what brand of TV it's on.

B.S. detector reading: 8/10. When even 9to5 Mac is starting to disbelieve the Apple HDTV fairy tale, things aren't looking good for this perennial and worn-out rumor.

Redesigned Liquidmetal iPhone may debut at WWDC in June (BGR)

Another Asian source claims the next iPhone will be redesigned with a Liquidmetal case. If that rumor sounds familiar, it should, because like most of the rumors on this list, it's a re-run.
B.S. detector reading: 8/10. This is a malodorous combination of a sketchy source from South Korea and a rehashed rumor that's already failed to materialize.

Apple's next iPhone launch could be most important in smartphone history (BGR)

An analyst who apparently has no recollection of the year 2007 claims the next iPhone launch will be the most important launch ever. His evidence? Well, he doesn't really have any.

B.S. detector reading: Off scale high. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence; when you don't provide any evidence whatsoever, your credibility deserves an old-fashioned boot to the bum. And that headline might have been the most hyperbolic in smartphone headline history.

Next-Generation iPhone to Use Thinner In-Cell Technology for Multi-Touch Display? (Mac Rumors)

This rumor has it all. Analysts, Asian supply chains, and "occasionally-reliable Digitimes" (sic). If by "occasionally reliable" you mean "hasn't said one accurate thing since early 2011," then sure. Otherwise, the (sic) stands.
B.S. detector reading: Off scale high due to inclusion of Digitimes as a source. Regardless of whether Apple is planning on using this technology or not, the perfect storm of terrible sources makes this story about as easy to swallow as Jurassic fruitcake.

Entry-level 'iPhone nano' again rumored to launch this year (BGR)

China Times cites unnamed sources within the Asian supply chain claiming the long-rumored so-called "iPhone nano" is in production. "No really. This time for sure. We promise."
B.S. detector reading: 10/10. No one has ever come up with a credible form factor or compelling reason why Apple should bother creating this imaginary product. Also, any report citing "unnamed sources within the Asian supply chain" is about as well-sourced as me just asking my greyhound what Apple's up to. "What's that, girl? Apple's building an iPhone shuffle now? Okay, I'll run with it, but if you're wrong again, no steak for a week."

More mockups make the case for a 4-inch iPhone (9to5 Mac)

Reader-supplied mockups "make the case" for Apple changing the iPhone's screen size. Note that we made mockups of our own over a year ago, yet the iPhone's screen is still 3.5 inches. Odd. It's almost like one of the world's best industrial designers isn't paying attention to the Internet and is sticking with his own ideas instead.

B.S. detector reading: 6/10. As we said 14 months ago, Apple may well change the size of the iPhone's display someday. But doing so comes with so many potential pitfalls and disadvantages that the company needs a more compelling reason than "Gee, if only our real-world product looked even half as terrible as all these hastily-Photoshopped mockups."

Chip delays point to next-gen iPhone launch around October (Ars Technica)

Ars Technica is almost always on the more credible end of the Apple news spectrum, and the site doesn't disappoint this time. Citing a report from Qualcomm, a big-name component supplier whose products are actually fully relevant to the iPhone, Ars Technica claims the next iPhone probably won't launch before October due to shortages of Qualcomm's cellular baseband chips. Those are kind of important, because without them there's no Phone in iPhone.

B.S. detector reading: 0/10. I don't doubt Ars' source or the veracity of its report, and the site helpfully notes that Apple was probably aiming for an October launch in the first place. No credible reports have arisen pointing to a midsummer iPhone refresh this year, so a "delay" to October shouldn't surprise anyone.

Rumor: iPhone 5 Home Buttons Appear for Sale (AppleBitch)

In what must constitute the least exciting parts leak all year, subtly different Home buttons have appeared on a Chinese supplier site. Rather than two small tabs jutting out from the central circle, these new Home buttons have a big, rounded rectangle flange around them. Excited yet? No? What if I told you it's for the iPhone 5?!? Still no? Eh, I tried.

B.S. detector reading: 5/10. Who knows what product these buttons are destined for? More to the point, who cares? The only rise this particular rumor got out of me was, "Maybe this is finally the end of those stupid 'Next iPhone won't have a Home button' rumors."

Apple CEO Tim Cook spotted at video game designer Valve's headquarters (AppleInsider)

Supposedly Tim Cook showed up at Valve earlier this week, and that set off a storm of speculation across the Internet. What could it mean? What could it mean?!

B.S. detector reading: 10/10. After hearing the Apple CEO was on their turf, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell and several other employees emailed back and forth trying to figure out who met with Tim Cook. It turns out no one did, because Tim Cook was never at Valve. I don't know who fed that particular line to AppleInsider, but I hope the site now realizes that the Cook is a lie.

That's a full week's worth of the Apple blogosphere's rumor offal. Come back next Monday for more exciting tales of imaginary and often nonsensical products, brought to you from the finest, drunkest analysts that money can buy.

Unlock any iphone

For some strange reason, SAM for iPhone has been somewhat of an underdog in jailbreaking. This powerful tool has been around for quite a while, and has proved to be of use in a number of scenarios, including the activation of locked devices, fixing iMessage, FaceTime and Push Notifications . Now, however, the usefulness of SAM has reached a whole new level, and it can be used to unlock all jailbroken iPhones, regardless of their original carrier, country or even baseband! The method for doing so might appear a little tricky, but if you follow each step discussed below, everything should work out fine. So, head past the break to find out how you can unlock your iPhone on any baseband and firmware.

  
Please note that the following method will only work with devices which have not been blacklisted by iTunes yet. Also, follow the procedure at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable for any damage to your device as a result of following the instructions provided below.

Requirements:

1. Your iPhone must be jailbroken.
2. Download and install the latest version of iTunes to your computer.
3. It is better if you remove or disable any carrier logos and custom carrier names you might have got on your iPhone.
4. Find out the carrier to which your device is locked to. This can be done by heading to the General menu in the stock Settings app, and looking at the Model in the About section. Now, Google this model number to determine the carrier with which it is associated.
5. Install SAM on your iPhone. You can find it after you add the following repo to the Cydia store
   repo.bingner.com
6. Insert the SIM in your iPhone (the one you intend to use with it after unlocking).

Instructions:

1. Locate SAM’s icon on the Springboard of your device, and launch the app.
2. Go to the Utilities section, and tap the button marked De-Activate iPhone (clear push) located under the Push Utils category.
3. Come back to the main screen of SAM, and make sure that the Enable button is toggled on. Hit the Method menu, and from the list it shows, select By Country and Carrier option.
4. Going back to the main app screen, select the country of the carrier to which your device is locked to, and then proceed to choosing the correct carrier and SIM ID. If there are more than one SIM IDs listed, select any one of them, as this step is based on trial and error.
5. Head to More Information and copy the IMSI code listed under SAM Details. There is one under SIM Details as well, but you need to copy the other one. unsecured loans
6. Hit Spoof Real SIM to SAM, and then the OK button which is sure to come up.
7. Now, go to Method again, and you will observe that the field has automatically been changed to Manual. If that isn’t the case, do so yourself.
8. Following the previous step will make a few new fields appear below Method. From among these fields, go to IMSI and paste the code you copied in step 5.
9. Using your phone’s USB cable, connect it to your computer. Don’t disturb iTunes while it activates the device. Once that has been done successfully, go to your iPhone’s Summary tab and look at the ICCID by clicking the Phone number field. This code should match the ID of your SIM. If that isn’t the case, repeat the whole procedure and this time choose a different SIM ID in step 4.
10. Go to SAM and disable it by toggling off the Enable button if all works out well.
11. Once all has been done, disconnect and reconnect your phone to iTunes. There might be an error, but it will go away when you restart iTunes.

The No Service message will go away after a while, bad credit loans giving way to the signal bars, and if you lose features like push notifications and iMessage, follow the guide we linked at the start of this post.

ZX Spectrums birthday

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was launched 30 years ago today. At the Churchill Hotel, Clive - now Sir Clive - Sinclair stood before reporters and a barrage of camera flashbulbs to unveil the machine, the successor to the popular ZX81, on 23 April 1982.
Comparing the new machine to the BBC Micro Model A - released the previous December - Sinclair said: "It's obvious at a glance that the design of the Spectrum is more elegant. What may not be so obvious is that it also provides more power."

Better looking than a BBC Micro? Sinclair's ZX Spectrum
Source: Wikimedia

Sinclair's previous microcomputer, the ZX81, had been launched just over a year before, on 5 March 1981, and had proved a huge success. By December of that year, Sinclair Research had shifted a quarter of a million of the monochrome micros. But Commodore's Vic-20, which shipped in May 1981 after a late 1980 launch, had already heralded colour computing and it was clear to the Sinclair team that their next machine must be colour capable.
Trading colour for a low price was acceptable in 1981. It would not be so in 1982. Likewise, the new machine would need a proper, moving keyboard like those offered by almost all of its rivals, not another low-cost membrane keyboard like those of the ZX80 and ZX81.
But what to call this new, colour computer? During its development, the Spectrum was, for a time, called the ZX82, the logical successor to ZX80 and ZX81. But the stellar success of the ZX81 prompted Sinclair to consider alternatives.

The name that might have been: ZX81 Colour sample logotypes from 29 September 1981
Source: Rick Dickinson

For a time, the new machine was the ZX81 Colour - aka the ZX81 C - and during September 1981, Sinclair's industrial designer, Rick Dickinson - flattering described by Sinclair User magazine at the time as a "blond, 26-year-old prodigy" - queued up a series of possible logotypes for a computer of that name. 'ZX81 Colour' also appeared on casing design sketches made by Dickinson during October 1981.
It's certainly the case that Clive Sinclair wanted to get the ZX81's follow-on out of the door very quickly, and to that end he wanted the new machine to involve as few internal changes as possible. That concept of the Spectrum as a 'ZX81-plus' may also have informed the early choice of name.

The 'Spectrum' moniker seems to have been a relatively late notion. The handle under which the new computer would be released was in play by February unsecured loans 1982 - it had been the ZX82 up until then - when Dickinson proposed a series of different logotypes and a variety of different approaches to the iconic colour slash across the keyboard.

Designer Rick Dickinson at Sinclair

The keyboard itself was still being revised through February 1982. Interestingly, some of Dickinson's sketches from the time show a roundel-on-square key design that, bad credit loans though absent from the first Spectrum, would appear on the Spectrum+ in October 1984.

Apple ipad 4g

Sweden's consumer protection agency is looking at complaints that Apple does not make it clear that its latest iPad will not work with 4G networks outside the US and Canada.

The move came after Apple said it was to offer all buyers of the new iPad in Australia a refund.
'Serious limitations should be clearly visible in the marketing,' said Hans Lundin, spokesman at the Swedish Consumer Agency, adding the agency had received four complaints.

Any decision on how to proceed with the complaints could be made by the end of next week, he said. That could eventually include asking Apple to change the marketing, he added.

On the Swedish version of Apple's website advertising the new iPad, the company says the tablet can be used on 4G networks around the world, though that sentence has a little '2' after it to refer to a note at the bottom of the web page.

The note clarifies that 4G LTE is supported only in AT&T's  and Verizon's network in the United States. In Canada it is supported on the Bell, Rogers  unsecured loans and Telus networks.

Sweden generally has high consumer protection laws. Apple says on its Swedish website that a consumer can return a product within 14 days for a full refund.

While the iPad is the clear market leader, and the new version with its faster chips, fourth-generation wireless and a sharper display is only expected to bad credit loans cement Apple's lead, the company has hit some bumps in the road.
It is waging a battle with Chinese technology company Proview that claims to own the iPad trademark in China, in a long-running dispute that has threatened to disrupt iPad sales in one of its fastest-growing markets. – Reuters

Microsoft Office bundle is preparing for the next OS

Paul Thurrott, from Windows IT Pro magazine, had access to the technical preview of Office 15, Microsoft's latest iteration of Office, and highlighted its most important features.

The build was distributed a couple of weeks ago to a select number of Microsoft employees, which ultimately signed a non-disclosure agreement, and comes as a pre-beta version.

WinSuperSite reports the software suite will come with a friendlier layout than previous versions, full-screen experience peppered with Metro-style elements, a split view on the first load and also, a new Design tab for Microsoft Word.

This tab is used to configure document themes, watermarks and colours for page and borders. Another interesting thing underlined is that Ribbon unsecured loans is minimized by default, letting users take advantage of a bigger working area, and can be brought into full-state just like in Windows Explorer in Windows 8.

Touch-mode can also be activated using a single button, just bad credit loans like past leaks hinted, allowing the software to be used on portable devices like tablets.

Integration with Microsoft's online ID service is present and can be experienced using services like Windows Live Photo Gallery. SkyDrive is now featured as the first option when choosing where to save a document, letting the user back-up items on the cloud and continue working as if they were on a local drive.
A public beta of Microsoft Office 15 is expected this summer while the software should release later this year.

Instagram bought by facebook

Instagram has been acquired by Facebook for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock. The deal is expected to close later this quarter.

For now, Instagram will remain an independently branded standalone app separate from Facebook. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, "We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other bad credit loans products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure."

Instagram was founded in the fall of 2010 and unsecured loans has since amassed more than 30 million users. The app provides a fun way to share photos with friends. Users can take a photo with their phone and choose a filter to alter the look of the shot before posting it. Users can also comment on photos and “like” them.

Instagram was initially available only for iPhone users, but the app is now available for Android as of last week.
Many Instagram users are apprehensive about the news, expressing concerns about ads and privacy. "It's important to be clear that Instagram is not going away," Instagram said on its website. "We'll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We'll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience."