For the past few weeks, each new day has spawned a bunch of reports pertaining to the Apple iPhone 6. But while, for the most part, the revelations seem to add very little value to the overall picture, today's reports out of Asia suggest that the production wheels are very much in motion. Further to the report originating in China that Pegatron had received a bundle of iPhone 6 orders, it has now emerged that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has prepped the initial lot of Touch ID fingerprint sensors for the next Apple handset, along with the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.
Pegatron, a key manufacturing partner of Apple's in recent years, is reported to have received a mere 15 percent of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6's orders, which is a dramatically smaller slice of the cake than was initially speculated. Even though Apple appears not to be utilizing one of its increasingly close allies in the production of the newer handset, though, Pegatron is still set to play a major role in supplying Cupertino smartphones in 2014, with the report also concluding that a total of 50 million handsets will be produced by Pegatron through this calendar year.
Off the back of recent reports regarding an iOS bug that allowed a hacker to potentially access encrypted email attachments, it has now emerged that a further flaw, existent through Siri, allows users to bypass lock screen security and make calls or send SMS messages using the Apple voice assistant.
In the very latest Apple vs. Samsung court battle, the latter was ordered to pay its rival damages to the sum of almost $120 million, but as one might perhaps have anticipated, the Korean company is having none of it. John Quinn, Samsung's lawyer in this particular case, has noted that the Galaxy maker will request that the award of damages be reduced to zero, which is a rather brazen step given the size of the initial award.
The idea of the Find My iPhone feature, which allows a user to remotely track down a lost, stolen, or otherwise misplaced device, is great in theory. But as one district attorney and ex-police chief describes, a victim being able to track down and locate a thief can, in some cases, lead to a violent confrontation that puts both parties at risk of serious injury.
It has recently become apparent that Apple plans to make a concerted push into the health and fitness market this year, with reports suggesting that the Cupertino company will introduce a "Healthbook" suite with iOS 8. This feature is set to tie in closely with the company's inaugural smartwatch effort that we've also heard a great deal about, and as per a report from Reuters, the fruit company may be planning to build a dedicated, third-party-supported, App Store-like hub for fitness-related services.
Apple prides itself upon its diligent efforts to maintain software that is secure. iOS is generally regarded as the most robust in defense against malicious intrusion and attack, but like any piece of software, it is far from perfect. From time to time, Apple's mobile OS makes the headlines for the wrong reasons, and unfortunately, a claim by the Cupertino that email attachments are encrypted is refutable thanks to a glaring bug that has been lingering in the software for months.
The way things are going it's looking increasingly likely that Apple won't have a great deal to announce when it finally decides to show off the new iPhone 6. A long way from the days where Apple's supply chain was almost unbreachable, it seems that we can't go a whole 24 hours without a new leak cropping up.
The team here loves a good concept video. Some of the best concept videos of all time are the ones with the most outlandish features, and things that are just never going to become reality, at least not in the years to come. Whilst these type of concept videos are good fun - they tend to not pose much value as opposed to just entertainment. Occasionally it's the most simple, most realistic concept videos that make the biggest impact.
The iPhone 5s and 5c have managed to capture the attention and affection of millions of users since launch in the third quarter of last year. However, while both models are powerful devices in their own right, they both represent only slight evolutionary improvements over the previous iPhone 5. The iPhone 6 is Apple's chance to change things. To once again try and invigorate and pump some innovation into the smartphone industry. As expected, interest in the purported iPhone 6 is extremely high, with a number of designers putting together the obligatory concept designs of what we could be about to receive.
