New paint jobs for Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III mini might be coming soon

The Samsung Galaxy S III launched with only two color options but Samsung added new colors over time. Rumor has it that it’s now turn for the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III mini to get new paintjobs.

The Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III mini will get three new color options each and they’re somewhat different (in name at least) from the colors that the Galaxy S III is available in.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II will get Amber Brown, Topaz Blue and Ruby Wine versions in addition to the currently available Titanium Gray, Marble White. The units with new paintjobs will come out in 2013.

The Galaxy S III mini will get Titanium Gray, Garnet Red and Onyx Black colors, the first two of which match color options for the big Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S III has a black version too, but that’s called Sapphire Black and there might or might not be a difference. Anyway, the new colors for the S III mini will be available in December or early next year.

The new versions for the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III mini haven’t been officially confirmed, but if the rumor is true, they will all be showcased at CES next year.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Steve Jobs return in another epic rap, this time about the iPad mini

A hotly anticipated Apple event will take place later today and the rumor mill is adamant that the star of the show will be the iPad mini. We’ve seen a long, LONG stream of leaks of just about every component of the iPad mini, so let’s unwind with a bit of lighthearted humor before the big event begins.

First, there’s an animated music video that tells the story of the creation of the iPad mini and features a couple of surprising cameos.

In case you missed it, the same people behind this video also made an iPhone 5 parody (where you can see the Steve Jobs rap that the video above refers to).

Then is a mock promo video, which asks a legitimate question – where does the iPad mini fit between the full-size iPad and iPhone/iPod touch.

Jokes aside, we’ll be covering the Apple event (it starts at 6pm GMT / 10am PDT), so make sure to check back with us for info on the iPad mini – and anything else Apple might announce (a 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina display and new Mac Minis are also likely attendees).

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Samsung says it will continue supplying displays to Apple, despite rumors to the contrary

A rumor has suggested Samsung is preparing to stop supplying Apple with touchscreens, however this has since been called "100-percent false" by a Samsung spokesperson. It's the latest in an escalating component supply war between the two companies.

Yesterday, the Korea Times reported that Samsung was to cease suppling screens to Apple next year, due to falling profits and presumably, the continuing animosity between the two companies. Today, Samsung has spoken to CNET to refute the rumor, calling it “100-percent false.”

Sources at Samsung were quoted in the original article as saying “we are unable to supply our flat screens to Apple with huge price discounts. Samsung has already cut our portion of shipments to Apple and next year we will stop shipping displays.” Another source said Samsung sent 3 million displays to Apple over the summer, but that number would halve between October and the end of the year.

Apple is known for driving a hard bargain with its component suppliers, and Samsung is said to feel that the company is “no longer a cash-generator” due to the deeply discounted prices and increased competition.

In response to the claims made by the Korea Times, a Samsung spokesperson made a statement to CNET, calling the post “100-percent false,” and that it was asking the publication to alter the story. Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s not true, just that Samsung would prefer it not to be public knowledge just yet.

Samsung has supplied a wide-range of components to Apple for several years, including the processor, RAM, memory and of course, the screen. However, in the iPhone 5, the flash memory, RAM and the battery are all produced by other companies, indicating Apple also wants to distance itself from its longtime partner. It has also started to rely more on LG and Sharp to produce its touchscreens too.

Even if profits are as tight as Samsung makes out, it’s still going to miss Apple should it eventually decide to stop making components for them. Its hands may be full with its own range of smartphones and tablets, along with a burgeoning relationship with Amazon, but any contract loss always hurts.

Samsung’s denial comes soon after it was revealed Apple intended to cut back on its services for processors too. Even outside the courtroom, the war between Samsung and Apple continues to escalate.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple rumored to be dipping into its savings to acquire Color Labs

After Color Labs was rumored to be closing its doors, the photo-sharing app startup refuted the allegation by saying it was doing no such thing. Now, a new rumor suggests it's be acquired by none other than Apple.

One minute Color Labs, creator of the photo-sharing social app Color, is closing down, then the next it’s not, and now there’s a rumor it’s about to be purchased by Apple. No matter which one is true, it has certainly put then app-the-world-forgot back in the news.

Today’s rumor comes from TheNextWeb.com, where “trusted sources” say Apple is about to hand over a figure in the high tens of millions for company, and perhaps more importantly, its patent portfolio. The patents up for grabs include those related to GPS, battery saving, group content sharing and HD video recording.

Forbes.com points out that Color has a trademark on its name, and an acquisition would also nab the desirable color.com URL. It also says that Google offered to purchase Color before it launched, and suggests that Apple wants to keep the patents out of Google’s hands.

The report says that Color founder Bill Nguyen has thrashed out a deal with Apple thanks in part to an existing relationship with Eddy Cue, Apple’s VP of Internet Software and Services. Apple also purchased Lala, an online music startup and another Nguyen project, back in 2009. It’s said the Color deal is complete, and only needs a few signatures before it’s final.

If the acquisition rumor is true, it clarifies Color’s statement that “Color is not shutting down,” which under the acquisition scenario, it’s not.

An acquisition would also net Apple some more talent, of which there should be plenty inside the company. Just before Color launched, a report in The Wall Street Journal from March 2011 told the story of how Sequoia Capital got involved with the project. They apparently told Nguyen — after a 45-minute demonstration — that the concept was “transformative” and “not since Google have we seen this.”

Throwing $25 million at the company was supposed to accelerate five years of development into one, which would be achieved by hiring the “best-of-the-best engineers who will rapidly iterate and advance this terrific product.”

Apple rarely talks about its acquisitions, but Color may spill the beans, should there be any truth to this new rumor.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Amazon may be looking to buy Texas Instruments’ OMAP business

Making your own chips seems to be all the rage these days – a new rumor claims that Amazon is looking to acquire Texas Instruments’ high-end OMAP chipset manufacturing business.

TI recently announced they’ll be expanding the focus of their chips to “automotive, industrial, enterprise communication, vision and robotics”, but they won’t give up on the mobile phone and tablet market.

Has that changed? And more importantly, why would Amazon, which is a retail and service company, spend billions of dollars to get its own chipset making business?

Amazon recently revealed they are not making any profit on the hardware of the Kindles (they serve more as a storefront), so if they’re the ones making the chipset powering the Kindle Fire tablets (also Barnes&Nobles Nook tablets) they might be able to reduce the manufacturing costs somewhat.

But enough to justify a deal worth billions of dollars? It might, if Amazon was planning to make more than just Kindle tablets. There were rumors of an Amazon phone, but the company might also go the digital video player route a la Apple TV or Nexus Q – they certainly have the multimedia library for it.

What else? Well, Amazon is maintaining a lot of data centers for EC2 and their own needs and ARM-based servers have been gaining popularity lately (and TI’s OMAP 5 that’s based on Cortex-A15 would be a good fit for something like that).

Of course, all this is just speculation – the two companies haven’t even confirmed that such a deal is being discussed. But Amazon is certainly a company that aggressively breaks new ground, so it just might be true.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Instagram updates mobile website: Are full profiles next?

Instagram has rolled out a new design to its mobile website to more closely match its full site's design, adding hope to the rumor that profile updates are next in line.

With the Instagram and Facebook deal finally approved by the Federal Trade Commission, Instagram has unveiled its latest update to its platform. Instagram’s mobile website will now sport a new look and feel that closely reflects what you’d find when viewing photos on Instagram from your desktop browser.

Before this update, users have not been able to interact with the mobile pages on Instagram. But this update changes all that. The “Like” and comment buttons are now larger, making them easier to use. And at the top right hand corner of Instagram’s mobile pages, you’ll find an “Open in App” button which will open the same Instagram page that you’re currently browsing within the native app on your smartphone.

More importantly, it also provides more evidence to the rumor that Instagram has its sights set on porting the functionalities you’d find on its mobile app to the Web.

In June, Instagram silently rolled out a new update to user Web profiles incorporated interactive buttons for liking and commenting on photos. To its user’s disappointment, that update had not yet addressed the demand for a profile page and discovery features, despite the existence of such features on the mobile app.

But that could all change in the near future as the company is now officially a part of Facebook.

In July, web designer, Cole Reinke, noticed a curious feature when logged into his account on Instagram.com. Typically users signed into Instagram’s browser app can only edit their profile information, but Reinke’s account had a non-functional “View Profile” button that disappeared as quickly as it surfaced.

If it’s true that that Instagram was testing out a profile page for the Web, we’re hoping that the complete transition of converting Instagram’s native app to the Web will come in the next update, now that its mobile and desktop pages are now cohesive. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Loose lips sink ships: Why has Tim Cook’s Apple sprung a leak?

The success of this year's iPhone 5 rumor mill proves one thing: Tim Cook no longer has control of Apple's secrets. Why is that?

Welp, the iPhone 5 is here. And, as feared, not a thing about the device was a surprise. Not the screen size. Not the processor. Not the design. Not the name. Not the release date. Not even the freakin’ headphones. We saw all of these details before, in the months leading up to today’s big announcement. In other words, everything about the iPhone 5 leaked, snatching away Apple’s long-held ability to control the message about its own products — a skillful secrecy that has defined the company for the past decade and helped make it such an astounding success.

None of this is to say that the iPhone 5 is a disappointment, nor lacking in any way. If you like the Apple ecosystem, then the iPhone 5 is great, probably the best phone on the market. Nor do I mean that Apple needs to blow our minds with every product — that’s just not how technological innovation works. Yes, the iPhone was groundbreaking in 2007. And the iPad set fire to the tablet form factor, which wallowed in obscurity and uselessness for a decade before receiving an incendiary dose of the Apple magic.

No — what I’m talking about here is the value of secrecy, and what it means to no longer have the ability or will to keep a secret.

At the D10 Conference in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook famously stated that Apple would “double down on secrecy on products.” But if this year’s iPhone rumor season is anything more than a fluke, it would appear that Cook has either decided to scrap that plan altogether, or fundamentally failed the mission.

It is entirely possible that, with the late Steve Jobs no longer in control, Cook decided to lift the iron curtain that has long surrounded Apple for strategic purposes. Some have suggested that, because the new iPhone now has an entirely different dock connector, Apple decided to leak the information in the press as a thinly veiled heads up to third-party accessory makers whose business would be monumentally impacted by the change. But why not simply share this information directly, and demand the same level of secrecy as Apple has historically required? Hasn’t Tim Cook ever heard of a non-disclosure agreement?

The more viable conclusion is that Apple has lost its ability to keep a secret. Why is that?

One theory is that Tim Cook is simply not as feared by Apple’s suppliers as Jobs was. Jobs is infamous for his brutal inflexibility, with employees and business partners alike. Cook, by contrast, is reportedly not nearly as frightening a leader. His wrath not as wrathful. His iron fist a bit rubbery.

Of course, it may simply be that Apple has grown too large for secrecy to remain a viable option. As of 2011, Apple listed (pdf) more than 150 companies in its supply chain. Perhaps this year it reached a breaking point: the list simply grew too long to stay in one solid piece. And out of the cracks flowed the company’s secrets.

Maybe. But I find it difficult to dismiss Cook’s role in it. For whatever reason, Apple’s relationship with its suppliers has drastically changed during his tenure. Leaks of iPhone 5 components were constant and nearly systematic. Nearly every week, for months on end, new tidbits about the device made their way onto the Web. Not just blurry shots of nearly unrecognizable prototypes as we occasionally saw during Jobs’ reign, but full videos of people showing off what we now know to be authentic iPhone 5 components.

Have Foxconn leaders sensed Apple’s new, less-dangerous demeanor, and allowed the many iPhone components to make their to leak into the public for their own purposes? Or perhaps it was LG Display, or Japan Display, where the iPhone 5 screens are made, which saw the weakness and let down its guard?

It’s impossible for me to say where exactly the leaks came from, or whether there was a single source or many. What I can say, however, is that if this is Tim Cook doubling down on Apple’s secrecy, then he just lost that hand.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple’s new dock connector to be called Lightning, will be fast as one too

The new 9-pin dock connector that Apple is rumored to announce today is going to be called “Lightning”, according to 9to5mac sources.

If the naming rumor turns out to be true, it would fit perfectly in Apple’s naming scheme, as the company is already utilizing Thunderbolt in its latest Macbooks models. Rumor has it, the new 9-pin connector is going to cost $20.

Another Apple accessory has also got its name leaked. The new earphones that are going to ship with the new iPhone 5 will be reportedly called “Earpod headphones”. They’ll retail for the same price as the current ones – $29 (at least in the US).

In less than an hour we’ll know for a fact how the new cable and earphones will be called, so stay tuned.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Rumor: Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray includes 30 minutes of new footage

Will the home release of The Dark Knight Rises include a bunch of footage cut from the theatrical version? It seems likely.

There’s a new rumor swirling about the Internet that claims the upcoming Blu-ray release of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Rises will include a full half-hour of footage originally cut from the film for its theatrical release. If that seems like the kind of thing Nolan and the suits at Warner Bros. would likely do, that’s because this concept is not all that uncommon. We already told you about the upcoming Blu-ray release of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers which includes a massive amount of superfluous footage, and the idea of an extended “Director’s Cut” of any given movie is nearly as old as theatrical film releases themselves.

What makes this particular rumor so intriguing though, is that despite a lack of official confirmation that this extra footage might find its way onto a Blu-ray disc, the arguments supporting the idea are very convincing. Those of you who read us regularly may recall a piece we published last month which claimed that Bane’s origin story was originally intended to be a significant part of The Dark Knight Rises, but that it was removed during the movie’s editing process. At the time we posited the idea that this extra content might appear on the movie’s inevitable Blu-ray release, both because that sort of thing is increasingly common, and because Nolan’s departure from making superhero movies will likely push Warner Bros. to “market any extraneous scraps from the movie that were left on the cutting room floor.”

Apparently that idea made a lot of sense to the fine people over at Nuke The Fridge. Not only do they make the same claim in an article published earlier today, but they also claim to have corroboration from an unnamed, supposedly reliable insider source. While that alone wouldn’t be enough to convince us of this rumor’s validity, in reporting on NTF’s claims, the likewise fine people at Collider have offered a crucial thought on the topic:

Nolan is the effective spokesperson of IMAX.  One downside to his love of the format is the time limitation, and that 165-minute runtime pushes right up against the limit of what can fit on 70mm IMAX prints.  So there is a plausible reason for this to be the one Nolan film that could not fit every scene he wanted.

If — and we’re still working in the hypothetical here — Nolan had been stymied in his attempts to tell the full story of The Dark Knight Rises by a physical limitation of his beloved IMAX format, it would only make sense to include the full version of the film on Blu-ray. Those discs have massive capacity, and if the excised footage is just lying around, why wouldn’t Nolan (and more importantly Warner Bros.) want to include it on the film’s official home release? That extra content both appeases fans who want to see more of Nolan’s Batman universe and offers a handy bullet point for the PR people who have to sell the Blu-ray to your average consumer.

Again, this is all rumor and speculation, but we’re growing increasingly inclined to believe the whole thing. Please, draw your own conclusions.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Redesigned Apple earbuds rumored to accompany iPhone 5 release

It's only a rumor at this point, but Apple may be bundling a brand new set of earbuds with the upcoming iPhone 5.

Apple has a lot of great hardware offerings, built and designed with attention and care. In comparison, its ill-fitting, flimsy, and awful-sounding earbuds currently being packed alongside the iPhone 4S are a bit of a nightmare. And while you’re probably sick of hearing about the iPhone 5, we think you’ll be happy to hear Apple might, possibly, probably not, but maybe have a new set of earbuds to accompany its latest iOS device.

Vietnamese site, Tinhte.vn recently posted a video claiming to feature the redesigned headphones in all their glory. Tinhte even compares the alleged new version to the old in case you don’t have your own pair lying around. After taking a listen to the new buds, Tinhte said the sound quality is superior to Apple’s previous offering with more powerful bass, though the overall volume has been reduced. Apparently they are much more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time.

It’s impossible to tell if these are the real thing, but Apple’s unibody signature seems to be present. Plus, there’s the following phrase printed on the cord: “Designed by Apple in California Assembled in Vietnam”. Tinhte claims the buds feel like a cohesive unity with no parts in danger of detaching or falling apart. They’ve also been made more compact, with oval tips replacing the large, round tips that barely funnel sound into your ear. The earphones are cut at an angle so they can slide more easily into the canal and focus their sound. Fabricated wire and other quality finishing materials certainly have Tinhte convinced they’re the real deal. Tinhte also has a proven track record of gaining access to pre-release and prototype Apple devices.

But despite the large number of evidence pointing to the contrary, these rumored earbud replacements could easily be the work of a clever imitator. A lack of in-line microphone and volume control is probably the most compelling evidence against their authenticity, but there’s no way to tell whether the mic has been embedded into the buds somehow. Also, removing a feature that’s been such an integral and useful part of Apple’s original earbuds is like taking a step backward, which doesn’t ring true for Apple.

If they do end up being more than wishful thinking, Apple will finally resolve a glaring flaw in its otherwise well-built products. But as with most rumors, be prepared for all of this to be a distant memory once the truth emerges. It won’t be a long wait at least, with the iPhone 5 announcement rumored to be less than two weeks away.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Rumor: Will Samsung unveil Android-based Galaxy S camera alongside Galaxy Note 2?

Rumor has it Samsung is planning to introduce a Galaxy S camera running Android 4.0 at IFA 2012.

When a major tech event is approaching, the rumor mill tends to go wild with alleged photo leaks and anonymous sources teasing all sorts of unconfirmed devices. The upcoming IFA 2012 is no exception either and the latest tip given to GSM Arena has Samsung launching a new, Android-based camera.

The new device will allegedly be called the Samsung Galaxy S camera and feature a familiar 4.8″ SuperAMOLED screen. It won’t be running some stunted version of Android either, the tipster said it would come preloaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device is described as a “Galaxy S III glued to the back of a point-and-shoot camera”, so bye-bye physical buttons. The camera itself has a 16-megapixel sensor, pop-out Xenon flash, 10x zoom, and a curved right side for easy handling. Reportedly, Samsung will fit all that into a package 1.5 to 2 times thicker than a Galaxy S III. GSM Arena created a realistic-looking photoshop render based on the rumors, which we’ve included above.

In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy S camera will potentially come in two versions: one equipped with Wi-Fi only and one sporting both 3G and Wi-Fi. Don’t expect to replace your smartphone, however, as the device is said to only support mobile data, meaning voice calls and text messaging will be absent. We can’t imagine many people would want to carry around a point-and-shoot as their main device, but it would be nice for photo-enthusiasts to have the option.

The Galaxy S may not be the first Android-powerd camera to reach the market, but it could be the first to get it right. After all, a connected camera would be very popular in today’s sharing-obsessed culture. Just keep in mind this is all speculation until the truth is revealed at IFA in less than a week. It is worth noting, however, that Samsung is known to introduce experimental products at IFA like last year’s Galaxy Note phablet.

For interest’s sake, let’s say the rumor is true. Would you buy an Android-based camera? And would you ever consider using it as your main device if it did support voice and text?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com