Today I spent a chunk of my morning writing time explaining how an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic relates to Apple’s legal fight with Samsung and the general state of the smartphone and tablet market.
I. Love. My. Job.
LTE would make next-gen iPhone too fat
Photo: Apple, with some expert doctoring in MSPaint
The next version of the iPhone, which is expected to be unveiled in September, won’t likely come equipped with 4G-LTE capabilities, because the necessary hardware would make the iPhone too fat.
In a teardown analysis of the LTE-ready HTC Thunderbolt, IHS iSuppli found that the iPhone would need to add several new components to be able to connect to an LTE network: An LTE baseband processor, the supporting chipset, as well as special power amplifiers, radio frequency components and switches would all need to be added.
On a conference call with investors in April, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that the technology that the Thunderbolt uses would force Apple to make “a lot of design compromises with the handset,” which the company was “just not willing to make.”
The Thunderbolt was designed before Qualcomm unveiled its new processor, which combines 3G and 4G network connections onto a single chip. Use of that new chip will make future LTE-capable phones much thinner and more efficient.
But it won’t be available until the Spring of 2012. And even still, the additional components that LTE requires will likely have to come down in size before Apple can squeeze them all into its ultra-thin iPhone. -David
Speaking as a Thunderbolt user, I like my bulky phone. I don’t even see it as bulky, just substantial. I’ve never been a fan of ultra thin phones because they do not feel right in my hands. I loved the HTC Evo because it had substance and the curves on it just made it feel right. Same goes for the Thunderbolt. The iPhone 4 doesn’t feel right at all. Right angles are not comfortable. That design is already compromised — thickness won’t make it worse.
iPhone 5 rumor roundup.
(via techspotlight)
Every day, I feel a little worse that I didn’t stand in line for two days to pick up a phone that I paid hundreds of dollars for just so I could be called a moron by the CEO of the company and then given a $30 rubber band free of charge.
Apple. Think Different.
How the iPhone 4 story has gone so far...
- Gizmodo: check out this prototype iphone we "found".
- Steve Jobs: that's not an iPhone *dials police*.
- Sometime later....
- Steve Jobs: masses, listen to me, this is the best phone ever, again.
- Consumers: gimme gimme.
- Steve Jobs: wooo done it again.
- Consumers: wait..... If I hold my phone like this *claws at phone* it drops all the signal.
- Steve Jobs: there is nothing wrong with it.
- Consumers: seriously, this is broken.
- Steve Jobs: no it's a software problem, thats why when you touch the "hardware", it stops working.
- Consumers: bollocks, fix it!
- Steve Jobs: hold it differently!
- Consumers: no!
- Steve Jobs: okay, fine, free cases and refunds for everyone...but it still isn't broken.
iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 3GS lightsaber battle. Yes, really. Made with the iPhone 4 and iMovie. Deets here.
And, for obvious reasons, the glass back raises concerns about the iPhone 4’s droppability. With previous iPhones, it was liking dropping a piece of buttered toast — there was a lucky and unlucky side on which it could land. With the iPhone 4, it’s like dropping a piece of toast that’s been buttered on both sides.
