Apple tablet

I was getting tired of using sentences like — Much Awaited — when talking about iPad. Now, it is the new device, a Wi-Fi iPad which is available for pre-order for customers from the US.

Of course, the April 3 date only applies to the Wi-Fi-only models. If you’re holding out for the 3G versions, you’ll have to wait until late April. And those customers outside the U.S.–Apple specifically mentions Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.K.–will have to wait until late April for either model.

Pricing for those countries is still unknown, though Apple said that it would be announced in April. The company also said that the iPad would ship in additional countries later this year, so if you’re not in one of the above locations, keep your fingers crossed.

On March 12, customers will be able to either pre-order either the Wi-Fi or 3G models from the Apple online store, or they can put their dibs down on a Wi-Fi model and pick it up from their local Apple Store. As previously announced, the Wi-Fi models will run $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB, while the respective models including 3G will cost $629, $729, and $829.

It has been more than a week since Apple launched there most speculated iPad. Soon after iPad was announced, there were rumors lurking about a second iPad with a Camera. How far is it true or is it even credible – Well, lets wait and watch.

Nevertheless, the most credible evidence to date that a camera is in the works came from Mission:Repair, an Olathe, Kan., service company that repairs Apple products. The company wrote in its blog that its first shipment of iPad parts included metal internal frames with an embedded spot for a camera.

The company found that a camera taken from an Apple MacBook fits perfectly in the iPad frame.

“The camera slips in the frame, the lens fits in the hole, the LED (light) that indicates that the camera is on, fits, and the ambient light sensor hole is also correct,” the company said Monday. “It appears that the plans to have camera in the iPad is a reality.”

Mission:Repair speculates that the camera will likely appear in the next version of the iPad. Apple does not comment on future product plans, so fans will have to wait until the company is ready to make an announcement.

In the meantime, despite being described as “magical” by pitchman Jobs, the iPad has its critics. Reviewers working off the specifications released by Apple have complained about the lack of a camera, the device’s inability to run multiple applications at the same time, and the lack of Adobe Flash support and a high-definition video port.

The next gauntlet Apple will have to run will occur when it releases the device to reviewers. With so much attention on the iPad, critics are sure to dissect each feature.

Well, this is the age of Green Energy. From what we heard at TechGiraffe, Apple is all focused on solar powered iPods as of now. Apples had applied for a patent relating to powering electronic devices using integrated solar cells. This application was filed in August 2008, however was made public on Thursday, this week

Solar Power House - Front Panel

It appears, though, that it’s not the first Apple patent application relating to solar-powered gadgets. In October 2006, a more general patent under the title “Solar Cells on Portable Devices” was filed by at least one of the same people. When that application was published in 2008, it was traced back to Apple iPod engineers.

Rather than have a separate solar panel, the 2006 patent application envisions a small device, such as an iPod, with a transparent solar cell on its surfaces.

The more recent patent application deals with power electronics for managing electricity flow from multiple solar cells on a device. For example, the patent application outlines methods for ensuring that there is sufficient voltage from solar cells to power the device or charge its battery.

Disclosure of the solar-power-related patent application comes a week after a patent application from Apple relating to home energy management surfaced. In that case, Apple engineers described a method for powering multiple electronic devices efficiently using a home’s wiring to manage the flow of power and data.

The fourth generation iPhone has already been spotted in the wild. It will debut on June 28 . It will have a 5-megapixel camera. And it will contribute to the 40-45 million iPhones that Apple plans to sell next year along with the much awaited Apple Tablet.

Or so says a flurry of recent reports.

From MacRumors comes word than one iPhone developer has spotted a reference to “iPhone 4″ in their Pinch Media analytics report. Pinch Media supplies devs with info that, among other things, tells them upon what operating systems their mobile apps are running. The appearance of iPhone 4 – an ID first reported last week by The Boy Genius Report – indicates that some Cupertino engineer out there is walking around with a next-gen iPhone.

Of course – as MacRumors is quick to concede – such reports and logs aren’t difficult to falsify. But the timing is just about right for test units to be out and about. Mark us down as cautiously intrigued.

Last year, the event calendar at San Francisco’s Moscone Center gave the first hints as to the dates of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which has been the coming-out party for iPhone upgrades.

This year, the same calendar lists a “Corporate Event” for June 28 through July 2. A) that vague event title is what Apple used last year to ineffectively mask its WWDC dates, B) the month is iPhone June, and C) the length of the event is appropriate for WWDC.

We see a fourth generation iPhone being announced from the Moscone keynote stage by Mr. CEO of the Decade, Best-Performer Steve Jobs on June 28.

Although next to nothing has been mooted about the next-gen iPhone, a Wednesday report by the Taiwanese market-watchers at DigiTimes gets the ball rolling. According to DT’s “industry sources,” the manufacturer of the 3.2-megapixel camera in the iPhone 3GS has secured orders from Apple for 40 to 45 million 5-megapixel cameras for the next-gen iPhone model which, the rumor-mongers monger, “will hit shelves sometime during the second half of 2010.”

A 5-megapixel camera would be a nice step up, but note for a moment that 40 to 45 million figure – that’s double the 20 to 21 million 3.2-megapixel cameras that the supplier, OmniVision, sold to Cupertino this year

With the news that Apple has rented a stage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for a major January announcement comes renewed speculation that the debut of the long-awaited Apple tablet device is at hand.

It doesn’t take much to get the Apple rumor mill spinning at full tilt, especially when it comes to hints and suggestions over the company’s long anticipated, never-officially-confirmed tablet device. While speculation has grown (and peaked, and subsided, and grown again) over the past couple of years, Apple has managed to successfully suppress any official details of the supposed tablet. However, the news that Apple has rented out a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco has generated speculation that Apple is gearing up to announce a tablet-like device.

The report in the Financial Times blog quoted unnamed inside sources that said Apple rented the stage for several days toward the end of January, in preparation for “a major product announcement” on January 26, a Tuesday. Other recent reports, including a research note by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who said there is a 75 percent likelihood that Apple will have an event in January and a 50 percent chance that it would be held to launch the Apple Tablet, and a report in The Wall Street Journal which said Apple is briefing major media companies like CBS and Disney on a tablet-like device, suggest Apple may release the device during the first quarter of 2010.

Earlier this year, Munster issued a report suggesting that the tablet would feature a 7- to 10-inch screen and retail for between $500 and $700, effectively filling a strategic gap for Apple between the iPod Touch and its low-end Mac desktops. Munster wrote, “We believe an Apple tablet would be priced 30 to 50 percent below the $999 MacBook, and would offer best-in-class Web, e-mail and media software. In other words, we believe Apple’s tablet would compete well in the netbook category even though it would not be a netbook.”

Munster suggested that an Apple tablet’s operating system would resemble either the iPhone OS, with multitasking capability and applications designed specifically for a device with a larger screen, or else a multitouch-enabled version of Mac OS X. However, he wrote, “We expect Apple to build on the multitouch technology built into the iPhone and iPod Touch along with the App Store ecosystem, with an OS more comparable to the iPhone’s, not the Mac’s.”

Apple may also integrate a mobile data feature such as 3G wireless into the device, and could even subsidize the device through a wireless carrier, Munster added. He cited the trend toward subsidized netbooks, for example Verizon’s partnership with Hewlett-Packard to carry the HP Mini 1151NR. The Apple tablet could also challenge Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader if Apple accompanies the device with a push to sell digital books through the iTunes store.

Is Apple iPhone killing the total mobile traffic data Globally? Recent studies have proved that Apple’s slice of mobile data traffic has grown to now exceed 50% share in the US, UK and in global figures. Despite Apple’s lead in rank and growth, the new report now focuses much of its attention on Google’s third place Android and RIM’s fourth ranking BlackBerry. The new report also comments on second place Symbian and the fifth place Windows Mobile, without making any detailed comments about the iPhone and iPod touch at all.

Global changes from September

In the worldwide market, AdMob notes that Apple advanced its lead in smartphone traffic share from 43% last month to an even 50%. Symbian slipped from 29% to 25%, while third place Android grew from 10% to 11%. RIM’s share fell slightly from 8% to 7%, Windows Mobile dropped from 5% to 3%. Octobers’ worldwide figures for hardware manufactures closely reflected those platform numbers; Apple’s hardware numbers as the only iPhone vendor are identical at 50%, while Nokia phones represented nearly all of the Symbian traffic, and HTC accounted for almost all of the Android and Windows Mobile share. RIM and Palm also act as the exclusive providers of their own platforms as well.

This indicates that actual smartphone use is closely tied to the top four hardware vendors and their respective software platforms, erasing the conventional idea that a large number of significant hardware manufacturers are behind licensed platforms such as Symbian, Android, and Windows Mobile.