New iPhone to land in US on 7 June

Posted in Mobile, 25th May 2010 12:25 GMT

June 7 is now a near-certainty to be the launch date for the latest iPhone, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicking off the firm's Worldwide Developers' Conference on that day (and with US retailer Wal-Mart halving the prices of the current iPhone 3GS in readiness). That would suggest that the new handset would hit the shelves in early July.

The pattern is a familiar one, since the original iPhone launch in June 2007, but the big difference is that Google is now Apple's avowed enemy, not close ally. Google executives used the firm's own developer conference last week to attack Apple at every turn, and Jobs is likely to respond during his own keynote. In a weekend open email, he said there was "not a chance" that Android could surpass Apple on the technology front, says Gizmodo.

Amid speculation over whether Verizon would get an iPhone this time around (and even some rumors that Sprint would gain a CDMA version instead), research by Morgan Stanley found that an Apple handset would benefit Verizon, with 17 per cent of its subscribers "very likely" to purchase the device if offered. That compares with 14.6 per cent of AT&T customers who express interest in the product.

Wal-Mart is to cut the price on the entry level iPhone 3GS, with 16Gb of memory, by $100 to $97 with a two-year AT&T contract. When Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS last June, it cut the price of the older iPhone 3G to $99.

Copyright © 2010, Wireless Watch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/25/iphone_date/

White iPhone 4G Images Leak Online, Next-gen iPhone to Look Slick

Images of a white-coloured iPhone 4G have been leaked on the internet. The images, first released by Apple.pro, a Chinese site, show the white iPhone 4G along with the black iPhone 4G. Parts of the phone, such as the front-facing camera, can be clearly seen on the white iPhone. Still, the phone in the pictures doesn’t seem to be assembled very well as there is a large gap near the home button which is yet to be snapped in properly.

Rumours of the existence of a white iPhone 4G model have already been floating on the internet. They were supported further by pictures of a white front panel for the phone as well as white home buttons being leaked online.

However, even the most recent leak does not officially confirm that a white iPhone 4G model will surely be launched by Apple or whether the device will look exactly as seen in the pictures. The company started selling white coloured iPhones with the iPhone 3G model and continued the trend into the iPhone 3GS model. The white iPhone 3GS also gained a lot of popularity.

No other iPhone till date has been leaked as much as the iPhone 4G. The leaks have certainly lessened the element of surprise that was expected before Apple officially launches the device at the WWDC event to be held in two weeks.

Apple's iPhone 4G 'found on bar floor'

TOP-SECRET photos of Apple's new iPhone have been leaked on the internet by technology news website Engadget.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/apples-iphone-4g-found-on-bar-floor/story-e6frfro0-1225855322237

Gizmodo Grabs Early Hands On Photos and Video of Apple’s Next iPhone

In an unprecedented breach for a notoriously secrecy-obsessed company, what appears to be a late-stage prototype of a next-generation iPhone has surfaced in the wild
In an unprecedented lapse for one of the world’s most secretive companies, Apple has lost control of what appears to be a late-stage prototype of the next version of the iPhone. And unluckily for them, the lost bird found its way into Gizmodo’s hands. They’ve splayed it open for all to see, similar to how Steve Jobs is now hoping to splay open whomever lost his top-secret phone.

Photos of the phone, found by a third party “lost in a bar in Redwood City,” popped up on Engadget over the weekend. Gizmodo claims to have had what is most certainly the same phone “for about a week” and has posted videos and photos of their own today.

What we see is nice: a new, less rounded case with a flat back housing a new front-facing camera, an improved main camera with flash, dedicated buttons for volume on the side and, supposedly, a higher-resolution display, even though no photos are present of the device turned on–Apple has apparently remotely wiped the phone’s memory. Upon taking it apart, Apple-branded components and an exceptionally finished feel seem to verify that it’s not an Asian counterfeit, as was initially speculated upon the first photos’ release.

It will be incredibly interesting to see what happens next. It is likely that the phone was paid for; Gizmodo’s owner Nick Denton has made no secret of offering such ransoms in the past (Gawker, a sister site, publicly offered $100,000 for hands-on time with Apple’s then-rumored tablet). It is also likely, as others have pointed out, that Apple views this as paying for stolen goods, and not as an accident. Having never been confronted with such a thorough and tangible breach, it’s not clear how Apple will react. Will they alter the finished phone in some way in the context of the leak? Will they/have they already murdered the employee responsible and his family? Will the early reveal put a damper on Apple’s uniquely powerful new-product hype storm? Will Gizmodo still be Steve Jobs’s favorite gadget blog?

Whatever happens, I’m glad I’m not sitting down the hall from Steve Jobs today.

[Gizmodo]