iPhone Hill

While I was busy enjoying the subtler UI details, AppleInsider noticed that last night’s iPad commercial debut showed what might be some of the pricing inside the new iBooks Store:

The commercial showed Sen. Edward Kennedy’s “True Compass: A Memoir” for $14.99, the novel “I, Alex Cross” by James Patterson for $12.99, and “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World… One Child at a Time” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for $7.99.

For comparison, “True Compass” currently sells for $19.25 for the Amazon Kindle, “I, Alex Cross” costs $9.99, and “Three Cups of Tea” costs $7.19.

Whether or not that was final, or merely mocked up pricing for the commercial, remains to be seen.

TUAW also notes a New York Times button at the bottom, presumably to access a special New York Times Bestsellers section of the iBooks Store.

Lastly, 9to5Mac notes the My Documents button at the top left of of the Pages iWork touch app (good for PC users?). And — gasp! — another smudge that’s likely still not a camera.

So, did the iPad commercial do it’s job and make anyone more interested in picking up a magical, revolutionary new piece of gear on April 3?

iPad TV Commercial Shows iBooks Pricing, NYT Best Seller Button, My Documents, Smudge/Camera is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Patently Apple brings another interesting Apple proposal to our attention — this one involving using the iPhone camera to detect swipes backward, forward, and the accelerometer to detect pause or play for things like Voice Mail without having to move the iPhone away from your ear. But that’s not all:

Consider the following example of navigating the display screen. If the user wishes to scroll down on a webpage or text document, then the user would simply move their finger across the camera lens in an upward direction (i.e., towards the top of the screen 200). This would be consistent with moving the page “up” so as to bring a bottom portion of the page into view. To move the page down (and thereby bring a top portion of the page into view), the reverse needs to occur, i.e., the user needs to swipe across the lens in a downward direction. Note that navigation on the display screen (using a finger swipe across the camera lens) need not be limited to straight up and down, but rather could be performed in other or additional directions (e.g. left and right). Now that Apple is introducing “iBook” – think of flipping the page of a book using this method so that you don’t even have to move your hands from the iPhone or future camera based iPad.

So now we’ve heard of case gestures, bevel gestures, and camera gestures… Of course Apple patents tons of stuff we haven’t and may never see in real products, but are any of these starting to interest you?

[Patently Apple via MacRumors]

Swipe Backward, Forward, Pause, or Play on Your iPhone via Camera Gestures — Apple Patent Watch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

WhenWillApple has found an interesting screen in the just-released iPhone 3.2 SDK for the iPad — one that once again hints at camera functionality.

We don’t want to set anyone up for anticipointment, so we’re seriously not expecting any last minute camera additions before next months iPad launch, but the regular stream of rumors sure isn’t helping!

UPDATE 1: 9to5Mac has found settings for making a picture your Lock Screen background, Home Screen background, or both.

UPDATE 2: MacRumors has found references to camera flash and zoom in the strings, and shows those accept/decline video iChat we linked to previously.

So, did Apple once again intend to include a camera and pull it at the last minute? Could there be a surprise in March or will we have to wait until the 2nd gen iPad to see it again?

[Thanks Justin for the tip!]

UPDATED: iPhone SDK 3.2 Shows iPad Camera (Again), Camera Flash and Zoom, Video Chat, Wallpaper Choices is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

We learned yesterday that Opera Mini web browser was going it be announced for the iPhone. The real question is will Apple approve the app since it clearly competes with Safari.

Adobe has announced that 7 million users of the iPhone want Flash on their device. Adobe says the 7m users tried to download Flash for iPhone by December 2009.

I have often complained that the camera on the iPhone isn’t that great, but maybe it’s just that I can’t take pictures. A new photo exhibition has opened with photos all taken from the iPhone and only edited using software available on the iPhone and they look great.

According to Mission Repair, Apple’s iPad has a space for an iSight webcam/camera inside the device. Based on parts seemingly obtained through unofficial channels, the frame appears to have a very similar area to the MacBook’s existing iSight webcam enclosure.

If true, this is almost the exact same situation that occurred with the iPod touch G3, which was widely rumored to be getting a camera, ended up being introduced without one, and was torn-down after release to show the area where a camera was ready to go.

In that case, it was said Apple wasn’t pleased with the quality of the cameras they’d received, and so pulled them at the last minute. Could they have received a second bum batch for the iPad? Could they have tested out the awkward camera angle enforced by holding an iPad flat on the lap and decided no one needed to see the undersides of their chine? Seriously, people, we’re running out of ideas as to why there aren’t any cameras on these devices. Let us know what you think!

UPDATED: Did the demo iPad shown off by Steve Jobs have that missing iSight camera? Florian sent us a link to screen shots from the keynote that show… something. Check it out after the break…

[Mission Repair via MacRumors]

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UPDATED: Apple iPad Frame has Space for Missing Front-Facing Camera?

Not content to allow France to hog all the 4th generation iPhone rumor attention, Korea Times claims carrier KT reveals (we read that as wishes rather than knows) the following specs:

They said the coming 4G iPhones will be equipped with organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens on surface and live video chat functionalities, while removable battery is highly likely.

The new 4G iPhone is also going to be loaded with dual core processors and higher and powerful graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions and better “still” images when taking pictures.

Let’s make this clear again up front (lest we be smited), no one outside of a tiny group at Apple and maybe Foxconn brass know exactly what the 4th gen iPhone is going to be, and even then it’s subject to change (like the iPod touch G3 losing it’s camera at the eleventh hour). So, while OLED and a better camera make sense given the competitive environment, multi-core chips are already on the roadmap, and a chat cam is always rumored for each new device, it’s hard to imagine Apple would make a removable batter now given how much effort they’ve put into making long-life, built in batteries for iPods, iPhones, and now MacBooks as well. Carrying extra batteries isn’t a maintream reality.

Still, let us know what you think. We likely know as much as anyone outside the illuminati at this point!

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Korea Gets in on the 4th Gen iPhone Rumors! OLED, iChat Video, Duel-core, More!

AppleInsider is hearing that Apple is looking to acquire LED flash camera components for the 4th generation iPhone, assumed to be announced this June/July during their WWDC event, and perhaps it’s iPhone touch G4 which would come later, in September:

People familiar with Apple’s initiative claim the electronics maker is seeking allotments of LED camera flash components in the tens of millions for delivery during the 2010 calendar year, meaning future iPhones — and possibly the iPod touch — are the most likely recipients of those parts, due to their sales volume. Those same people say that Philips’ Lumileds Lighting sector is believed to be the front-runner for Apple’s business and may have already secured the design win.

The Amsterdam-based firm is well-regarded for its LUXEON LED camera flash technology, which was the first to combine the brightness of regular lighting with the long life and small footprint of LEDs. The technology is commonly coupled with 5+ megapixel cameras and has seen shipments of over 200 million units worldwide.

LED flash would be a competitive move for Apple, since HTC, Nokia, and other manufacturers have been delivering better and brighter versions with each iteration. Now, whether it would be incorporated into a “Glowing Apple Logo” or not remains unknown

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Rumor: Apple Looking at LED Flash for 4th Generation iPhone?

Digitimes is reporting that OmniVision has received an order from Apple for 40-45 million CMOS sensors packing 5 megapixels, bound for next year’s 4th generation iPhone. That’s nearly double the unites — and a huge increase in pixel count — from the iPhone 3GS cameras OmniVision currently supplies.

As with all next-gen iPhone rumors, take this one with an iTablet-sized grain of salt, but it does make competitive sense for Apple to bump the camera next year, among other things (cough iPhone HD cough).

(Personally, I prefer lower pixel counts and higher sensor sizes; cutting them up so much results in bigger pictures, not better. Low light should be the arms race here, manufacturers.)

Of course, we’ll never know for sure until WWDC 2010 when Steve Jobs (or Phil Schiller) hoists it up on stage.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Rumor: 4th Generation iPhone to Pack 5 Megapixel Camera?

Apple is no stranger to lawsuits, and today is no exception as St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants have slapped them with a lawsuit that claims the iPhone infringes upon four digital camera patents that the company holds. The four include the ‘459, ‘219, ‘010 and ‘899 patents.

• 459: Take image contained within lens and store in some type of memory.
• 219: Display the picture that will be taken in some type of display window.
• 010: Push button in order to capture image.
• 899: Make images contained within some type of memory and make them viewable in some sort of digital camera roll.

St. Clair is a veteran of suing over patent infringements as they successfully squeezed 25 million out of Sony back in 2001 and in 2003 they sued Canon and were awarded $34 million in damages. They also have gone after companies such as Fuji, Kyocera, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Casio, Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia, HP, Kodak, LG, Motorola, RIM, Palm, and various others.

[Via Loopinsight]

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Apple Being Sued for iPhone Infringing Four Digital Camera Patents

Like horrible holiday movie sequels, iPod touch camera rumors just keep getting spit out the mill with the same tired old plots and ever weaker impact. This time, the Examiner claims an “inside source” who claims that the iPod touch with camera was delayed last year from quality assurance reasons, but will return this spring with an iPod nano-like video recording capability.

Our take? Yeah, the camera was bumped from last year’s iPod touch G3, but Apple likes its product cycles so we probably won’t see a camera again until the iPod touch G4 is introduced in September 2010 (and we surely hope it’s not the low-res, video-only nano camera by then either — not on the flagship device, no sir!)

[Examiner via 9to5Mac]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPod touch Camera Rumors Return