Category Archives: Rumors
Latest Apple TVs have smaller A5 chip
When Apple tweaked its third generation Apple TV earlier this year, rumors suggested it might use Apple’s A5X chip instead of the A5 chip. However it’s now been confirmed that the tweaked Apple TV uses an A5 chip, although it’s slightly smaller than the A5 chip found in the previous model.
MacRumors cracked one of the new Apple TVs open and found the smaller A5 chip. The 2012 Apple TV’s chip measured 8.19 mm by 8.68 mm, while the new 2013 model’s chip measures just 6 mm by 6 mm.
Apple’s ‘microslot antennas’ could embed antennas into iPhone’s casing
An interesting patent has been uncovered that shows Apple is working on a way for integrating a device’s antenna directly into the body of the device. The patent “Microslot antennas for electronic devices” was first discovered by AppleInsider and granted to Apple on Tuesday.
The patent describes a technique that allows Wi-Fi and cellular antennas to be made only microns wide. Best of all, because the antennas are so narrow (in addition to being invisible to the naked eye) they eliminate extra space needed outside the device to fit current antennas and inside the device to support their connectors. This means potentially slimmer devices with no breaks or openings in the device’s body to allow for signals to reach an internal antenna. In the image above you can see how large current antennas and their housing device’s are.
Job posting suggests that 802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi coming to Apple products
Yesterday AppleBitch noted that Apple had posted a job opening looking for a System Test Engineer for Wi-Fi. The company wants a candidate who’s knowledgable with all 802.11 standards, including the new AC standard that triples current 802.11n speeds. The inclusion of an engineer versed in 802.11ac suggests that Apple is actively working with the standard. The original job posting read:
Apple is not buying Waze
You know how TechCrunch reported yesterday that Apple is buying Waze to beef up its Maps app? Yeah, that’s not happening. And it never was.
As several other sites did, we reported on TechCrunch’s news, too. But to be fair, our Steve Sande warned readers: “Neither Apple nor Waze has said anything solid about a deal at this point, so like many ‘news’ items that we’re hearing these days before CES and Macworld/iWorld, it’s simply a rumor.”
Apple’s iBookstore to hit Japan this year
Before Apple rolled out the iBookstore in Japan in 2010, it failed to negotiate the necessary contracts with Japan’s biggest book publishers. As a result, the iBookstore in Japan was stocked predominately with free, public domain e-books. The only paid e-books in the store have been from very small publishers or self-published authors. That’s set to change later this year, according to AllThingsD.
Citing “sources with knowledge of the situation,” AllThingsD follows up on an earlier report by Nekkie, which claims that books from major Japanese publishers will be on sale on the iBookstore later this month. Now, AllThingsD says a January launch date is “far too optimistic a date for launch.” However, they claim that Apple’s conversations with publishers Kodansha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa are “going well” and that the companies will have deals settled “soon.”
