Pegatron will start production of low-cost iPhones and iPad Mini 2 in August

Regulars component suppliers in Taiwan have new details about upcoming Apple products. It appears that Asian company Pegatron will begin to deliver iPhones  low budget and  iPad Mini 2 models in August .

Pegatron has received orders for Apple phones, the version with plastic housing and low price, while the iPad Mini 2 will come with Retina display.

 Apple shipped 37.4 million iPhones in the first quarter and 19.5 million iPad models and the iPad Mini has reached 12 million units, while the 9.7 inch iPad reached 7 million, approximately. The components providers for the iPhone and iPad will come into action in July, and among companies include Casetek that will handle the cases. In the main series iPhone and iPad, they will arrive in early 2014, according to the same sources. 

 

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Apple confirms iWatch

Tim Cook, the successor of Steve Jobs at Apple just confirmed the company's interest for iWatch. In an interview in the famous D11 event, organized by the prestigious Wall Street Journal, Tim Cook confirmed that he and the entire company are absolutely enthusiastic about the concept of "wereable computing" (computers that you can wear).

The director of the company seems to recognize that Apple studied the problem in detail, even in market research and impact studies. Tim Cook seems to be somehow disappointed by the lack of impact that resulted from these studies.

On the other hand, Cook commented that, if you want to attract the user to the concept of "wereable computing" will certainly not convince him to put something on the eyes: " I wear glasses because I can't see without them". Then he said that "the wrist is naturally" the first step, first goal that should be conquered in this area.

It's clear that Apple has studied in detail the possibility of launching such a product. Remains to see when!

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HTC might use Liquidmetal technology

HTC is looking into using Liquidmetal technology for its future cellular phones, according to sources within the supply chain. They are set to cooperate with Taiwanese firm Jabon International. 

Apple recently signed a 2 year contract with the US Liquidmetal Intellectual company and starting working on chassis based on this technology. They do make a bunch of stuff from Liquidmetal, like the tiny SIM key that comes with the iPhones. HTC is supposedly trying to release a Liquidmetal phone before Apple and they already went ahead and recruited an R&D team from Japan to assist them with their task.

The team is working with Jabon and it’s likely that HTC have the upper hand here, since Apple may be held in place by its partnerships with metal chassis makes like Catcher Technology, Foxconn and Casetek. They handle the aluminium alloy unibody chassis and the demand for those is quite strong right now.

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Umeox X5 measures 5.6 mm in thickness - the world's thinnest device

Umeox is an Asian company famous for its very thin phone that’s been leaking lately. We are talking about a very thin handset, that measures merely 5.6 mm in thickness and today we get some pictures of it.

This product is called the Umeox X5 and could debut soon, beating the Huawei and Oppo ultraslim models. Right now Umeox have a solid range of Android handsets, some of them sold in Europe under the Thomson Mobile phone brand and their features include the innovative Technicolor imagine technology. Sadly, the 5.6 mm thick Umeox X5 is pretty much a mystery, as far as specs are concerned.

We do know it runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and it’s expected to launch sometime in July.  

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Foxconn is trial manufacturing Apple upcoming iWatch

With Apple’s “iWatch” likely to release this year, we are starting to hear rumors about components being cobbled together just before the company starts ramping up production of the device. The latest news came in from Taiwan Media Economic Times, Foxconn has received 1000 trial products of the iWatch from Apple. The company is looking into using 1.5-inch display panels for its upcoming smartwatch. Early rumors claimed that iWatch would have a 1.8-inch display, so it seems that Apple may be thinking of reducing the device’s size to make it look good on your wrist. The displays are being manufactured by the organic EL panel maker RiT display of Taiwan with touch sensors integrated right into the display, rather than there being a separate multitouch layer. The new iWatch is using bluetooth connection, so we believe it’s able to sync data and info from iPhone and iPad. The news also pointed out that Apple will be released the iPhone 6 first, no release schedule for the iWatch yet.

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Sony Xperia UL officially announced for Japan (video)

After a FCC leak and some speculations, the new Xperia from Sony is here. The Sony Xperia UL is now official thanks to a launch from its maker and it appears to debuting in Japan ahead of everyone else.

The cellular phone packs a quad core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU. We probably also get 2 GB of RAM on board and a 5 inch 1080p display. At the back we have a 13 MP Exmor RS camera with the ability to capture 15 FPS in burst shot mode.

NFC is here as well, plus the Felica wireless payment system. Sony Xperia UL has a physical camera button and water/dust resilient by the IPX standards. You should expect this model to debut on Japanese carrier KDDI starting this week, in black, white and hot pink. I guess that we should get 16 or 32 GB of storage on board. The back isn’t glass like on the Xperia Z and the battery seems removable.

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Samsung Galaxy Note III is coming to IFA in September

Samsung chief executive JK Shin made some statements regarding Samsung’s products yesterday, finally clearing the air around the Note III. He also mentioned that the Galaxy S4 is expected to soon reach the 10 million devices sold threshold.

The new model is selling much faster than its predecessor, said Shin at an industry forum. The same official claimed that Samsung will debut the new Note with a 5.9 inch OLED display at IFA 2013 in Germany, this September. The rumors say that the new device will adopt the same design language as the Galaxy S4, with glazed polycarbonate plastic and a dotted back pattern.

Samsung got 95% of profits in the Android ecosystem in the first quarter of the year.

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Samsung Galaxy S IV - major differences between theAmerican version and the Korean version

If I remember right Samsung Galaxy S II hadfour different versions in the U.S when it was released. Now the Galaxy S IV gets a differentiation, but one globally between Korean version and American version.

Those from IHS Suppli dissected the two versions of the device's. Let's see what they found!

First of all, the American version with a memory of 16 GB costs $237 and the Korean version costs $252. It looks like Galaxy S IV would have 4 different versions globally. One of the major differences between the two versions is that the U.S version has Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad core ( $20 ) and the Korean version has a Octa Core Exynos 5 ( $28 ).

You will find all the differences in the above table. 

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The process of the New HTC One (video)

We are used to see production videos from Apple with Jony Ive talking designing and details of making a new i-product. HTC is taking design just as serious as the Cupertino company.

The new HTC One is probably the most beautiful looking smartphone on the market right now. We shouldn’t be surprised that a beautiful phone has some serious design process. In a public video, HTC’s design team talks about the process of turning a slab of metal into their high-end handset. The Taiwan handset maker is taking the opportunity to assure prospective users to go for their quality product. 

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iPhone 6 with a 4.5 inch screen in a new concept (Video)

I have seen many concepts for iOS 7 and iWatch until now. I expected to see a new  concept for the iPhone 6 and here it is. The video shows us an iPhone 6 with a 4.5 inch screen and casing made of aluminum  and glass. The interesting part is that the height is smaller than the iPhone 5 and apparently the device would be thinner and lighter than its predecessor.

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