No 3.5" iPod Touch with 3G; 7" iPod Touch With 3G Makes More Sense

I'm gonna make this my thing for the fall until the next iPod touch comes out.  3G access is something I've wanted for the iPod touch but never got and now it's likely Apple is shipping an iPod touch with 3G.  My question is which one.

See, I've been using my iPod touch with my Clearwire iSpot until I bought new Android and iPhone recently.  It was my mobile battle platform if you will.  As a mobile warrior who insisted on taking that extra leap into what I think is the future, a future where there are no voice plan but data only plans, it was a grand experiment.  

My set up was not as robust as I would have liked largely because the VOIP options were spotty.  Now with Apple likely to release a touch with 3G, I reckon Apple should have an option for VOIP in development in the future.  Perhaps, there could be a FaceTime option for just voice.  

So, would this just be a conventional iPod touch upgraded with a 3G modem?  I think not though because the addressable market is just too small.  

I'm going against convention and speculate that the iPod touch as we know it will remain the same while there could be a separate subset of the touch with a bigger screen and form factor to support 3G and a larger battery life.

Just yesteryday I posted the news that Samsung has developed a 7" screen wtih 1024x768 resolution, the same one as the iPad.  To call this an iPod touch 7 would make sense and the resolution would allow Apple to let this 7" touch use iPad apps without requiring developers to rework their apps.

Furthermore, a 7" iPod touch form factor would allow Apple to increase the battery of this new device with similar battery life to that of the iPad.  

So, I'm gonna be looking at the Web to see if there are more evidence to support my assertion.  I promise to show you that Apple has already show us that it could be working on just such a device.  I'll get to it soon enough.

Apple's Gears Command more than 8.5% Web Access - Evidence of Windows Cannibalization

If you add both Mac and iOS shares, you get 8.57% of total Web access  What this means is the likelihood of the iPad making some inroads into the typical browsing behavior of its users and creating spike that could in a couple of years even rivaling the Mac even as Apple's computers continue to grow.

What it does mean is that future share loss will come mostly at the expense of Windows.  And with the new Macbook Air releases that coincided with the release of OS X Lion and back-to-school sales, Apple may further gain market shares.  It isn't inconceivable that we will see Apple's duo of OS X and iOS reach greater than 10%.

And depending on when the iPad 3 comes out with other Macbook Pro updates, well, I don't want to go overboard and speculate just how much higher Apple's Web access share will go.

Source: Macnn.

iPhone 5 (or 4GS) Launch Date A Moving Target; October Launch Now?

I find this information highly suspect given the movements in the retail market, both by Apple and its carrier partners but still, it would be of interest to those looking at the next iPhone as an upgrade.

According to Macrumors, AllThingsDigital sources place Apple's plans to launch the next iPhone in October instead of the early to mid-September date that had been flying around

Though it could happen, it is highly unlike to happen.  This would place the iPhone launch squarely into the iPod update time frame.  And while you might say "that would make sense", all the price drops for the iPhone 4 and free iPhone 3GS (refurbished) are taking place now or could start next week.  

In the past, Apple's carrier partners typically lower their iPhone prices about a month before the next upgrade happened.  

AllthingsD began their post, defiantly declaring "they're wrong" about the September timeframe that other blogs and news posts have been advocating.  

All I know is that a later iPhone launch would make my white iPhone 4 phone feel more fresh and I'm okay with that.  But I would like for us to remember just how right or wrong AllThingsD are with this new date.  

I sense that it's possibly that is a planted information by someone to misdirect the public.  There is just a smell to all this.  Wall Street and blogs will be rattling the bushes this week to see if they can shake up new information to back up this new October launch frame.

Samsung's 7" Screen with 1024x768 Resolutions Opens New Possibilities For Tablets

So for the 7" tablet market is largely confined to the Android flavor running Gingerbread or an even earlier version.  They also sport an across-the-board 1024 x 600 resolution.  And  it is only the most recent version of Honeycomb that will support 7" tablets natively.

And now, Samsung has improved on the 7" screen with a WSVGA resolution 1024 x 768, one that we continue to on LCD and notebook screens.  And this has not only a good chance of being adopted by Android device makers but perhaps even HP.  Or maybe even Apple?

Sharing a common resolution across multiple platforms could be a boom for developers.  Perhaps there are basic frameworks for their developments that can then use across platforms.  

And for HP, it could offer a smaller 7" Touchpad sharing the same resolution as the bigger 10.1" Touchpad.  Developers certainly would be happy about this.  It would allow them to develop one app for two tablets without modification.  

And should Apple follow and use a similar 7" tablet with the same 1024 x 768 resolution as its current iPad, it could open the door for a smaller iPad or a bigger screened iPod touch.  

I remain hopeful that we'll see a bunch of sub-10" tablets in the second half of 2011 to take advantage of the Holiday Season.  And this new screen could pave the way for that to happen.

Source:  Ubergizmo.

Apple's Cash Helps Apple Grow More Cash And Put Distance Between It And Its Competitors

PC Magazine has a pretty good post that I've kept locked away in my Instapaper account for about a week or so that I finally got around to reading.  Then I reread it and thought I share it with you.  With $76 billion in the bank, which is simplifying things a bit, Apple had more cash available to it than the US federal government (until Congress passes the debt ceiling and budget deal worked out by Congressional leadership and the White House).  And instead of wastefully throwing it away as dividend, stock buybacks, or reckless buying up companies, Apple used it to help secure components and reduce costs.

First, Apple uses its cash to help finance building new factories that could build out new technology faster.  When new tech comes to the market, the cost could be prohibitive to adopt.  And because Apple can almost guarantee its that its devices, like the iPhone, will sell in great numbers, Apple can be sure that its investments in this manner is sound.  

Take the iPhone 4's retina display.  To this point, no competitor has been able to adequately compete on the same level or come out with an even greater screen pixel density.  PC World pointed out display technology in another manner:  the capacitive screen worked better on the iPhone because Apple had the tech a year or more before everyone else.

And once competitors gain access to technology that Apple previously enjoy exclusively for a period of time, Apple had prior deals that would allow it to continuously secure components at a discount.  After all, Apple had help financed ability of its suppliers to build factories.  

Here's the interesting part about the post.  PC Magazine acknowledge that Apple does, in fact, build premium devices with futuristic feels to it.  In the past, before the second-coming of Steve Jobs, before the iMac and the iPod, PC Magazine typically lead the charge that Apple's Macintosh computers were overpriced.  

Having said all this, one might say that Apple is pushing innovation forward in ways that fans, rivals, and supporters of its competitors could appreciate.

There is more in the post that I encourage you read if you like to know more about Apple's operations and why it is fighting so hard, as evident in the patent war, to protect its innovations.

Source:  PC Magazine.

Will iCloud Become Apple's Cloud OS?

iCloud, though the public has not seen it, has been regarded as Apple's newest weapon and its best hope to supplant the services offered by Google, Microsoft, and others.  It will be what MobileMe was meant to be.  And it could be Apple's final effort in trying to convince users that it knows what cloud computing is.

Even at this point, iCloud may well be nothing more than a glorified online storage for files, photos, and music.  But as with everything Apple, it offers pinpoint improvements over time and adds new innovative features and apps when they feel it has been baked well enough.

And it could be possible that as iCloud evolves further, it could merge with iOS and OS X further in the coming years.  Just as what we are seeing now, iOS and OS X share features and that could become more so with whatever OS comes after Lion

Google's Chrome OS is a vision that we could see future embedded devices head towards.  And though that could be challenged by Windows and OS X, there is support for this path.  Mozilla's new project "Boot To Gecko" is aimed at the smartphone but just as some earlier netbook makers were anxious to make Android their default OS, don't think "Boot To Gecko" will be used exclusively for mobile phones.

Obviously, this is merely my own speculation.  However, a cloud-based OS where features are "downloaded" and accessed by the user would core OS be updated by Apple more easily.  And then Apple can build apps around it.  I reckon this could also be more efficient.

It was from reading this Yahoo post regarding iTunes getting iCloud integration that made me realize just how important iCloud could become.  It won't be just the core apps like iTunes, iLife, and iWorks but Apple could extend integrations with more advanced features in future updates.

This could lead to faster boot times and smaller footprints for future iOS devices and Macs.  And moreover, Apple could offload heavy lifting by its server farms as well.  

Russia Might iPad Use In Government

The Playbook from Blackberry received approval for use within the US government.  It was given FIPS certification.  And because the iPad was not, it appears that Russia could be looking at the Playbook or even an Android tablet with better security features.

It's likely that Apple will also try to obtain this certification but you can never really tell.  And given Google's interest in pushing for a more prominent role in government, Android could benefit greatly.  

We should know just how all this plays out eventually but this could be a huge victory for RIM.  And it needs every bit of help it can now.  And who will be the next to be certified?  Apple or Google?

Source:  BGR, Financial Post.