Well, here it is. After months of rumors, leaks and whispered secrets from anonymous sources, the new iPhone has arrived.

The Apple rumor mill has been churning out iPhone rumors for the last eight months, and now the wait is over. Well, nearly. Launched today at a special event at Apple’s Cupertino HQ, the iPhone 4S will be available from October 14 (with pre-orders starting Friday), will be available through AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and will cost between $199 and $399, depending how much space you need. It’ll be available in black and white and in 16GB ($199), 32GB ($299) and 64GB ($399) capacities. For those wondering, no, there’s no iPhone 5.

Read more…

Sprint announced last August that the company would begin selling iPhones to their customers when the latest model – the iPhone 5 – becomes available. Though, at the time the board approved the deal, Sprint Chief Dan Hesse admitted that they would probably lose money on it until at least 2014, information as to precisely why was scarce.

Today, more details about the agreement between Sprint and Apple became available, and they’re staggering. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal requires Sprint to buy a minimum of 30.5 million iPhones through 2015. That’s a financial commitment of more than 20 billion dollars, an amount equal to more than 2/3 of their total revenue in 2010. Though the board ultimately approved the plan, it was admitted that Sprint is betting literally everything on the success of iPhone sales.

Though the numbers involved are enormous, the risks make a lot of sense. The biggest single factor cited by departing Sprint customers is a lack of access to iPhone and it’s no secret that Verizon’s and AT&T’s market dominance is based on their ability to deliver essentially exclusive access to the popular status symbol gadget. Clearly, something radical needs to happen if they want to avoid being gobbled up and the obvious solution is for Sprint to strike their own deal with Apple to sell iPhones. But will it really pay off? As one board member noted when debating the agreement, in order to make a profit, they either need to convert all existing members to iPhones or double their membership.

It’s entirely possible that Sprint’s cheaper price per subscription will lure back customers who want an iPhone, but bristle at Verizon’s and AT&T’s infamously awful customer service and stingily meted out data. It’s also possible that Sprint’s relatively poor coverage will be its own deterrent and that Sprint customers can look forward to the joys of being a Verizon-Sprint member by 2016.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Current Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg wasn’t leading the company back when Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, but he still has some opinions about how it should have reacted to the phone’s debut.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal today, Nordberg said, “it’s safe to say that Sony Ericsson should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007.” He has nothing but praise for the company’s commitment to Android, however, saying that “our Android strategy has been successful and the best choice we could have made,” and that he “wouldn’t feel comfortable investing in a platform that isn’t as good as the one that we currently use.”

That last bit was in response to a question about Windows Phone, and it may sound like a complete slam if not for the fact that he went on to admit he is “quite curious” it. Exactly what that means isn’t clear, but it sounds like the door still at least isn’t completely shut for the OS it once toyed around with. Hit the source link below for the full interview.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Every retailers involved are preparing themselves for the massive sales that will hit them once Apple announce their new iPhone(s), and it seemed that in US, almost all carriers will have the new iPhone in their lineup, unlike last year’s launch where we see only AT&T had the iPhone 4 (followed few months later by Verizon).

If this screenshot, apparently culled from Radio Shack’s inventory system, is any indication, Sprint will indeed be among the carriers offering the iPhone 5. That lines up just right with previous reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, slating the phone to hit the Now Network in mid-October. There’s no indication of actual dates at this point, but if Sprint’s getting Apple’s next-gen iPhone, we’re guessing we’ll hear more about it on Tuesday.

SOURCE via 9to5mac

The truth about Apple’s next generation will be unveiled in less than 48 hours, but that’s not stopping the speculation train from churning out its last steam to its final destination. Here’s a screenshot of Apple’s iPhone 4 placeholder at the website of Cincinnati Bell’s pre-paid service, i-Wireless, accompanied by a $639.99 price tag and a handful of specs: 32GB, 4-inch screen and 4G data speeds. Our friends over at TUAW have also procured a screenshot (after the break) from the same site, displaying a $99.99 16GB iPhone 4S, sporting a 5MP camera, 3.5-inch screen and an A5 processor. Of course, there’s also a chance these are just placeholders, but we’re hoping Tuesday’s announcement will bear dual fruits, nonetheless. Read more…

With just two business days to go before Apple’s scheduled October 4 event at its Cupertino HQ, the rumor mill is kicking into overdrive. While we know that it’s an iPhone event, Apple has not confirmed anything regarding an iPhone 5, an iPhone 4S, or even, given that the fall event is traditionally for iPods, if it will be making any changes to the iPod line. However, a few recent additions to the company’s inventory system suggest that all three of the above rumors might be true.

9to5Mac reports that three new iPod models have cropped up in Apple’s inventory system with the codename N81A. N81 being the codename for the 4th generation iPod touch, 9to5 believes that these N81A models are the same device with a minor tweak: The color. Yep, the main theory is that this is just the 4th generation iPod touch in white. Thrilling!

More interesting is the appearance of a modified iPhone 4. This model carries the N90A codename, which is just a small difference from the iPhone 4′s N90 moniker. Considering the iPhone codename ‘N94′ has appeared in the iOS SDK several times, we’re going to assume that N90A refers to something close to the iPhone 4 while N94 is the iPhone 5.

If you’re not a fan of the iPhone 4, you might be interested in learning that the iPhone 5 has also cropped up in Apple’s inventory system. 9to5Mac has since reported that the next generation of iPhone, under the N94 moniker, has appeared in the inventory system. Roll on Tuesday!

SOURCE via 9to5mac

We know that Apple won’t be unveiling its next superphone for a few more days, but we may have a tasty tidbit about the iPhone 5 ahead of schedule. So the story goes, China Unicom’s Deputy Director Huang Wenlian was making a presentation at Macworld Asia, and stated that the new iPhone would utilize the company’s HSPA+ 21Mbps network. Now, we aren’t saying it’s a sure thing, but it appears that Tim Cook could deliver a handset with thrice the data speeds of its predecessor next week. Then again, remember that AT&T was fitting an Apple Store with some LTE equipment? And yet there was a contradicting report way back earlier in the beginning of the year that Apple’s Tim Cook mentioned that Apple will not be looking into LTE as of yet. Anyway, all will be known this coming Tuesday.

SOURCE via Impress Japan

See the picture above? The date shows ‘4^th’ which falls on Tuesday, and that’s next Tuesday which is the 4^th of October, the time is 10AM sharp, and the map shows 280, which is actually the location for Apple’s headquarter, the One Infinite Loop, which is at Infinite Loop Street. And oh, there’s one miss call, I wonder who called. And well, the all important thing in this picture is the tagline, which says “Let’s talk iPhone”. Yes, it’s the launch event of Apple’s next iPhone.

Talks about the next iPhone begin since early this year, and boy the rumors sure went wild flying. Originally thought to be launching in June during WWDC (because that’s Apple’s traditional iPhone refresh period), the company has remained quiet about its iPhone plans all year, leading to months of rumors regarding the iPhone 5 (and possibly even iPhone 4S). However, it seems Apple is finally ready to introduce us to Cupertino’s next breed of smartphone.

Apple today confirmed the previously-rumored October 4 press event. As we’d heard before, the event will be taking place at Apple headquarters, as opposed to the usual San Francisco location that is the Buena Vista Center for the Arts. Apple didn’t say much in the invite, but we do know that it’s an iPhone event just by looking at the ‘Let’s talk iPhone’ tagline.

Indeed, a red curtain that seemed to be covering a cage that contains a white parrot, or is it a white phone with a logo that resembles a fruit? Frankly speaking, the tagline “End the rumors” is strong enough to conclude that this would most probably be the launching of Apple’s next iPhone, but who knows; maybe it’ll be exactly the opposite, something from the opposite camp?

SOURCE via Vodafone

If Apple is to keep in line with the rumor-mill’s predictions, the company will have to announce the iPhone 4S/5 very soon. Rumors have been thrown all over the place, but the latest would be that Apple is going to hold an event on the 4^th of October, so the safest bet would be an early October announcement and mid/late October launch. This time, there’s yet another person who has something to say about the highly anticipated iPhone, but it comes from the oddest of them all, and that is Al Gore.

According to PC World, Gore made reference to the rumored new Apple smartphones, the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, earlier this week. While at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday, the former VP was speaking about environmental issues when he said, “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month,” before pausing and adding, “That was a plug.”

Several people in attendance claim to have heard the comments, and PC World’s Ian Paul said he was present when he listened to a recording of the event. So, it’s not a case of whether or not he actually said it, but whether or not it’s true, and where he got his information from. Perhaps he’s just saying after receiving the same report about the Apple event in early October.

However, the fact that he sits on Apple’s board should not be overlooked. Certainly, if anyone knew about a new iPhone (or iPhones) coming out next month, it would be a member of Apple’s board of directors, right? Time will tell…

SOURCE via PC World