Apple supplier Pegatron is set to raise staffing levels by a colossal 40 per cent in the second half of the year, with the new workers rumoured to be assembling Cupertino’s much-hyped budget iPhone.

While Pegatron itself refused to confirm that the extra workforce would be beavering away on Apple’s latest iPhone, sources have told Reuters that the device is already in the works.

The news agency reports that some Japanese suppliers have already started on early production.

Mass production is scheduled to begin in June, with the device now expected to make an official appearance in the autumn, in line with Tim Cook’s promise of ‘exciting products this fall’.

Pegatron’s hiring drive comes just a month after rival Apple supply-chain mainstay Foxconn added 10,000 new employees to its production lines.

That suggests that Apple is going all out to get every supplier it can working at full capacity on a budget iPhone.

The handset is expected to rock a cheap plastic shell, with talk of a larger screen to compete with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy range and HTC’s forthcoming M4.

Whether it can capture the lucrative Chinese and Indian markets, however, remains to be seen

Source:  Reuters

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Apple could ditch its policy of replacing faulty devices with brand new ones in favour of in-store repairs, it has emerged, in a move that could dramatically reduce costs for the purveyor of premium pocket-lint.

According to Apple Insider, the Cupertino-based company now has the capabilities to carry out repairs to iPhones and other iOS devices in-store and has already been shifting to this approach.

Alongside repairs to “speakers, receivers, home buttons, the vibrator motor and battery”, which it currently carries out within branches, from next month Apple will be able to replace displays, camera parts, logic boards and sleep/wake buttons.

An Apple employee told the site: "The way it is now, if almost anything is wrong with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, the entire device is exchanged for a like-new re manufactured (sic) device, whether brought into an Apple store or sent in for mail in repair.

“Now we are starting to actually repair the products and return the same device to the customer."

The change to after-care policy, which was purportedly outlined by Apple Vice President Tara Bunch, will also see Apple adopt for a subscription model for AppleCare.

The move would see customers given training with their iOS device, as well as a 24/7 version of the

AppleCare service. Source:

Apple Insider

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One of the industry's best-connected analysts has dismissed the chance of a new take on the iPhone landing before September, despite some tech sages’ forecasting that a fresh Apple contender will drop as early as next month.

In a typically forthright interview on Bloomberg TV, Jeffries analyst Peter Misek ruled out an iPhone landing at June’s WWDC event. Basing his prediction on supply-chain rumbling that the market research company collates, Misek claims that the earliest we can probably expect the phone is September.

He said: “It typically takes 60-90 days of production before the phone is introduced to retail. And it hasn’t gone into production, yet, so if we assume production starts in June, that would mean the soonest you’d be able to get it would be late August/early September.

“But, we don’t think production is going to start until late June/early July and that’s based on 400+ suppliers that we track.”

Perhaps disappointingly for the iFaithful, Misek also refuted claims that we might get a significantly redesigned kit this time.

According to the number-cruncher, although multiple colours are a possibility, the majority of changes “will be underneath the hood, much like they were with the 4S”.

That suggests the rethought version of iOS that Jony Ive is helming will be the phone’s main sell, along with spec-sheet enhancements such as 12 megapixel camera, faster processor and fingerprint-tracking that have long been mooted on the tech-site rumour mill.

Source:

Gotta Be Mobile

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The next iPhone will make a landmark break from a physical home button, rumours suggest, as Apple calls time on a feature that’s been present since its first handset dropped back in 2007.

According to a report Taiwanese site Technews.tw, which was brought to wider attention by Cult of Mac, the iPhone 5S will drop a physical home button in favour of an on-screen capacitive presser.

It’s not known whether the change, which flies in the face of reports that the seventh-gen iPhone will differ little from the current model, is to allow Apple to equip the handset with a larger screen.

The site does disclose, however, that the new button will be coated in scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass to make it more resistant to the kind of wear and tear that has caused problems with iPhones’ physical buttons in the past.

Apple purportedly also favours sapphire glass because it is compatible with optic sensors.

Industry consensus suggests that the iPhone 5S will land in September. The phone is set to be the first in which the iOS software that powers iPhones is helmed by hardware design hero Jonathan Ive.

Ive is expected to usher in a new iOS era marked by a 'flatter' look and feel and less in the way of cutesy skeuomorphic icons, whereby apps resemble real life objects – for example, the current Notes app that takes on the form of a notebook.

Via:

Cult of Mac

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Apple may be all about premium materials nowadays, but one designer is out to prove a plastic iPhone can look just as impressive as those fashioned from metal.

Produced by Ran Avni and spotted by Cult of Mac, the render illustrates what Apple’s next-generation iPhone could look like if it were made of plastic rather than aluminium and glass like the iPhone 5.

The result is an impressive concept that's proof that despite the perceived inferiority of plastic, it isn’t at odds with the trademark design ethos that’s made Apple’s smartphones so popular around the world.

At first glimpse, Ravni’s handset looks largely similar to the iPhone 5, but at the back it boasts smoother, curvier edges that immediately bring the iPad mini to mind.

While we don’t think that Apple would, or even should, make its flagship kit out of plastic, it certainly wouldn’t be a wrong choice for the more affordable version that’s been a staple of the rumour-mill for some time now.

Unofficially dubbed the iPhone mini, a cheaper Apple smartphone is expected to retain the four-inch display of the iPhone 5, but recycle other parts from older models, such as an A5 processor from the iPhone 4S and an eight-megapixel camera.

Apple is widely tipped to unveil a less costly iPhone alongside its flagship model this year – possibly in summer or autumn.

Would you like to see a cheaper iPhone made of plastic? Share your thoughts in the comments platform below.

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Rumours that Apple will debut at least two new smartphones this year gathered pace today, after a Chinese source claimed to have seen the forthcoming devices.

Posting on micro blogging service, Sina Tech, Old Yao claims his friend at one of Apple’s Chinese parts suppliers has laid eyes on the new edition of the standard-sized iPhone, AKA the iPhone 5S, and the phablet-sized iPhone 6.

According to said insider, the iPhone 5S isn’t too different from the current-gen model in the looks stakes. That tallies with other recent reports suggesting that improvements that the next-generation handset brings will be largely restricted to the phone’s internals.

The iPhone 6, meanwhile, is a different matter and is purportedly longer – Yao claims it packs a five-inch screen - and wider than the iPhone 5, but is also thinner.

Although that’s not a terribly concrete description, it’s sure to add to the clamour of tech voices forecasting that Apple’s 2013 product portfolio will include a tablet-smartphone hybrid aimed at seeing off the challenge from the Samsung’s Note range.

Still, before you get too excited, it’s worth remembering that we can’t set too much store in Old Yao’s claims, given that it’s been hard to verify what kind of industry credentials he’s got. If indeed, he’s got any at all.

Either way, given the Samsung Galaxy Note and Note 2’s huge sales, it seems likely that demand for an Apple phablet would be huge. And with a putative spec sheet that takes in a super HD camera, 128GB of storage and Near Field Communications, it’s not hard to see why.

Via:

CNET
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