Apple rumor round up: 15-inch Macbook Air, Face recognition coming to iOS, solar-powered iPhones

By Ricardo Bilton | July 27, 2011, 10:24am PDT

Summary

a 15-inch Macbook Air, solar-powered iPhones, and face recognition are all the stuff of the latest round of Apple rumors.

Blogger Info

Ricardo Bilton

Gloria Sin

Apple may have announced a bunch of new products last week, but that doesn’t mean the rumor mill has any intention of taking a rest.

Macbook Air goes Pro with 15-inch screen

Right on the heels of Apples’ recent Macbook Air upgrades comes speculation that Apple plans to release a 15-inch version of the notebook. This slice of heaven device is likely to add a number of the Macbook Air’s most significant features - the SSD and lack of optical drive, most notably - in a effort to become both thin and powerful. The lack of an optical drive is seen as particularly likely, considering Apple’s already-proven penchant to dispense with it in the effort to lighten up their devices.

Rumors point to the Macbook Air Pro (or whatever) seeing a release as early as this fall, putting it in direct competition with Intel’s Ultrabooks.

Would the move make sense? Definitely. In fact, it was a bit of a surprise to many that Apple didn’t release such a product with its announcements last week. A 15-inch Macbook Air would be the perfect formula for those who want a ultra-thin computer but who aren’t willing to sacrifice screen size to get it. Of course, the question is, can a thinned-out Macbook Pro maintain the same level of performance as the current line of Pro’s? Let’s hope so.

iOs saves face with face recognition

Last year Apple bought out Polar Rose, a Swedish company specializing in face recognition algorithms. Recent speculation, reported via 9-to-5 Mac, points to that technology making its way to iOS 5 in a significant way - as a public developer API. This means that any developer would be able to create applications based on facial recognition, a possibility that blows open the possibilities for the technology. Face-based authentication? That can happen.

An iPhone with the power of the sun

Echoing previous speculation that Apple is working on new forms of charging technology for the iPhone 6, recent rumors say that future Apple products could harness the power of the sun. Or at least that’s the story according to DigiTimes, which says Apple is currently in the evaluative stages for using solar panels in future products. The catch? Developing a usable form for the technology takes time, which likely means we won’t see a solar-powered iPhone anytime soon.

Previous round ups:

Apple rumor round up: New MacBook Air, Lion July 13th, iPad HD this fall, iPod Touch getting 3G

Apple rumor round up: iPhone 5 this September, hi-res iPad 3, Apple-branded televisions?

Apple rumor round up: iPhone 5 hard to make, wireless charging coming to iPhone 6

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/apple-rumor-round-up-15-inch-macbook-air-face-recognition-coming-to-ios-solar-powered-iphones/26568?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE

AT&T preps for September iPhone 5 launch

By Ricardo Bilton | July 25, 2011, 9:19am PDT

Summary

AT&T is preparing for a September iPhone 5 release. Let’s hope they don’t come out disappointed.

Blogger Info

Ricardo Bilton

Gloria Sin

While the iPhone 5 has been an elusive thing, most recent speculation has pointed to a September release for the device. That speculation is gaining a bit of steam now, as BGR reports that AT&T is preparing internally for the iPhone 5’s September reveal.

That preparation so far consists largely of AT&T telling employees, especially those in retail, to finish employee training ahead of the expected September launch. AT&T, it seems, is going to need all the man power it can get.

Of course, it’s also likely that AT&T knows about as the rest of us regarding when, exactly, the iPhone 5 is coming. After all, Verizon itself was surprised to find that the iPhone 5 didn’t drop earlier this summer, a confusion that had some effects on its bottom line. Thus it’s certainly possible that AT&T knows very little about the iPhone 5 launch except for the all-too-certain fact that it is, at some point soon, happening. And it’s better to be safe than sorry.

[BGR]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/at-t-preps-for-september-iphone-5-launch/26472?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE

AT&T's Q2: 3.6 million iPhone activations; Android diversification effort underway

By Larry Dignan | July 21, 2011, 4:45am PDT

Summary

AT&T’s smartphone diversification effort appears to be paying off as the company added 331,000 net postpaid subscribers, activated 3.6 million iPhones and doubled Android device sales from a year ago.

Blogger Info

Larry Dignan

Andrew Nusca

Rachel King

Vendor HotSpot

Here to help you with your Document Management Needs

AT&T’s smartphone diversification effort appears to be paying off as the company added 331,000 net postpaid subscribers, activated 3.6 million iPhones and doubled Android device sales from a year ago.

The telecom giant reported second quarter earnings of $3.6 billion, or 60 cents a share, on revenue of $31.5 billion, up 2.2 percent from a year ago. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 59 cents a share. AT&T’s earnings were down from $4 billion, or 67 cents a share, in the second quarter a year ago.

Going into the earnings report, most analysts were focused on AT&T’s postpaid additions. On that front, AT&T had a respectable showing. The company added 1.1 million total wireless subscribers to reach the 98.6 million mark. Of that sum, AT&T added 331,000 postpaid additions. Excluding migrations of Alltel and Centennial, AT&T said net postpaid adds would have been 504,000. Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe was expecting 200,000 postpaid subscriber additions and Morgan Stanley’s Simon Flannery was looking for 130,000.

Analysts are also going to focus on the T-Mobile purchase given that opposition is starting to emerge. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who heads up the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, asked regulators to shoot down the deal.

The company, which indicated that its acquisition of T-Mobile was on track, said that it added 137,000 prepaid subscribers and 379,000 connected devices such as the Kindle and iPad. Overall, AT&T said the results indicate broad adoption of smartphones.

Indeed, smartphones were nearly 70 percent of AT&T’s postpaid sales. The company said it sold 5.6 million smartphones, up 43 percent from a year ago. Of those smartphone sales, Android and other devices were 40 percent of the mix.

AT&T didn’t offer a breakdown between the non-iPhone devices. Other devices include BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

By the numbers:

• Half of AT&T’s 68.4 million postpaid subscribers had smartphones up from 35.8 percent a year ago. Of those smartphones subscribers, 85 percent have FamilyTalk or business plans.
• Total wireless revenue for the second quarter was $15.6 billion. Data revenue was up 23.4 percent from a year ago to $5.4 billion.
• AT&T said total churn for the second quarter was 1.43 percent, up from 1.29 percent a year ago. Postpaid churn was 1.15 percent, up from 1.01 percent a year ago. That churn rate is stable, but does indicate AT&T is losing a few customers.
• Wireline revenue for the second quarter was $5.4 billion, up slightly from a year ago. AT&T added 202,000 U-verse TV customers and now has 3.4 million subscribers. Most of those customers have U-Verse Internet access too. Overall, AT&T added 439,000 U-Verse broadband subscribers in the second quarter.
• The company’s business revenue remains a challenge. Second quarter revenue was $9.3 billion, down 4.1 percent from a year ago. AT&T is losing out in its traditional voice and data accounts and trying to offset those losses with services such VPNs, hosting, IP conferencing and application services.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/at-ts-q2-36-million-iphone-activations-android-diversification-effort-underway/52925