Rumor: MacBook Airs, OS X Lion to Arrive Wednesday

Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud at WWDC 2011. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple may be preparing to release two major products simultaneously this week: upgrades for its MacBook Air subnotebook and Mac OS X Lion, the latest Mac operating system.

The MacBook Air refresh and the arrival of OS X Lion will arrive Wednesday, possibly at 8:30am EST, sources told AppleInsider. The tip comes in line with a report last week published by All Things Digital, which also claimed the products would debut sometime this week.

The MacBook Air last got a reboot in October 2010 as a 13.3-inch and an 11.6-inch model with super slim silhouettes (0.68 inches at their thickest point, to be exact). OS X Lion, which was announced at Apple's Back to the Mac event and previewed at WWDC 2011, is supposed to marry iOS and OS X, merging some of the more successful features in iOS into their new desktop platform. (However, early reviews have not been promising.)

The new MacBook Airs will feature backlit keyboards and Thunderbolt ports, like their MacBook Pro big brothers, according to AppleInsider. They'll also include Sandy Bridge processors and come standard with 4 GB of RAM and a minimum of 128-GB storage capacity — the better to run OS X Lion with.

Apple's Steve Jobs last year said that both OS Lion and the super slim MacBook Air are taking lessons learned from the iPad and rolling them into a PC system. Indeed, Lion will incorporate some characteristics from the iPad with new multitouch gestures and a Launchpad for opening apps, which resembles the iPad's home screen. The MacBook Air's long battery life and usage of flash memory also mimic the iPad. These two products symbolize the gradual convergence between PCs and mobile products as traditional laptops become thinner, lighter, more low-powered and more dependent on web-based storage.
source: Gadget Lab

Rumor: New "iPhone 4S" Launching on T-Mobile and Sprint, Too?

Apple rumormongering: Go! A new research note from Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek suggests that Apple isn't going to be performing a significant upgrade to the connection capabilities of its new, to-be-released iPhone—namely, no 4G LTE support.

Whenever the next version of Apple's smartphone hits the market—we're already nearing the one-year anniversary of the iPhone 4's launch with no hint of a new product in sight—Misek suggests that the device will only have incremental upgrades compared to the iPhone 4's specifications. Heck, it's practically keeping the same name.

"We believe the likelihood of the iPhone 5 launch in September including LTE [Long-Term Evolution] is now remote," wrote Misek in a research note on May 13. "According to our industry checks, the device should be called iPhone 4S and include minor cosmetic changes, better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ [EvolvedHigh-Speed Packet Access] support."

The bigger news on Apple's side is Misek's suggestion that the company will be pursuing an expanded carrier lineup for its iPhones. His "industry checks" indicate that Apple will be launching the iPhone on both Sprint and T-Mobile in time for the holidays—remember, although the latter is in the process of being purchased by AT&T, T-Mobile currently remains a separate company from the larger carrier. In other words, no iPhone… yet.

As for when the new iPhone is expected to actually hit the market—looking cosmetically similar to the iPhone 4, as indicated by current rumors—that's anyone's guess. While anonymous sources speaking to Reuters in an April 2011 article suggest that the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S) is expected to drop in September of this year, other rumors peg the next version of Apple's smartphone to ship just in time for the holidays.

So why new carriers, but not LTE support for the new iPhone-whatever? In actuality, Apple was allegedly planning to support full-fledged LTE in the iPhone via a Qualcomm chipset, but Misek says that chip yields just haven't been strong enough for Apple to be able bring LTE support into the picture just yet. While not explicitly stated by Misek, the iPhone 4S seems like it was Apple's "backup plan" in case a full LTE-enhanced iPhone couldn't come to pass.

PCmag

Dodgy rumor claims iPad 3 is a 'dead cert' for 3D video

An unconventional rumor claimed that Apple was focusing the third-generation iPad on 3D. A woman billed as a movie industry insider claimed to RCR that it was a "dead cert" and that studios were supposedly preparing 3D movies and other content for iTunes. Multiple sources from Foxconn were supposedly corroborating leaks of early production plans.

The details of how it would work weren't given. Recording 3D is relatively straightforward as it requires two cameras to produce the stereoscopic effect. Tablets like the LG Optimus Pad can already produce it. Displaying 3D is much more difficult, however, and tablets like the Optimus Pad have to include glasses because of the costs and performance needed for larger glasses-free screens. Phones like the HTC Evo 3D and LG Optimus 3D can show glasses-free 3D only because of their size.

The rumor is uncorroborated by other sources and would fly against Apple's own typical conservatism relating to video. It remains one of the few computer builders to pass on Blu-ray, owing to the complication of getting it implemented, and so far hasn't included 3D video either in its devices or in its pro video creation tools. Apple usually only adopts technology if it believes the technology can be kept simple and would very likely reject any plan requiring glasses, just as it rejected the need for pen input on the iPhone.

Customer acceptance may also be a major problem. Nielsen in a study late last year showed 59 percent of Americans actively avoiding 3D, not just skipping past it. Modern 3D, even with glasses-free 3D like the Nintendo 3DS, both carries a noticeable price premium and often induces eyestrain. Some can't see the effect at all.

Electronista