Sapphire is only second to diamond in strength, and a screen made with sapphire can withstand scratches and dropping, making it a much more durable investment at a price. However, producers of man made sapphire project that the technology will become cheap enough to be used on high end smartphones in the next few years.

Currently, Gorilla glass costs much cheaper to use at $3 per phone compared to sapphire screens which costs $30 per phone. Sapphire optimists are projecting a $10 decrease in cost over the next few years which would make the material a lot more competitive, especially for phone users who want more resilient screens.

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The iPad Mini press event is only 5 days away, and as anticipation increases about the launch the blogosphere has turned its attention away from the press event and started trying to figure out when we might get our hands on Apple’s newest tablet.

This kind of speculation is the favorite hobby of gadget bloggers, and sometimes our sources oblige us with real info. Geeky Gadgets is reporting today that the iPad Mini will be on store shelves the week after next: continued…

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There’s still little proof that the iPad Mini has anything more than a faux existence, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping the rumor mill. Fortune is reporting that invites are going to be sent to the press on October 10th for an event which will unveil the iPad Mini. continued…

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You’re not going to see this iPad either.

If you can tear your attention away from the Nook HD news today, then I have a new iPad rumor for you.

Examiner.com is reporting that Apple’s next iPad, the one which is expected to be unveiled next spring, could have a new screen geometry.

There are many sites that have speculated that Apple should eventually prepare a widescreen iPad. The iPhone 5 screen recently went widescreen and now Los Angeles industry analyst Paul Mueller claims that Apple could be preparing a widescreen iPad. continued…

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But most importantly, Amazon didn’t go with either Open Street Maps or Google Maps. Instead the retail giant teamed with Nokia, and according to sources the KF’s mapping ability will be provided in partnership with Nokia.

The exact details of the deal haven’t been explained, and that tends to make me doubt this rumor. While Nokia makes smartphones of all sorts, they don’t strike me as the company who would provide this single service for the Kindle Fire. To me it feels like there’s either more or less to the story than we are being told, and until the new Kindle Fire is launched we won’t know which option is the real one.

In any case, I’m looking forward to Thursday. All will be revealed then.

via Reuters

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Bloomberg now has multiple sources telling them that the new ipad Mini is going to debut next month.

Apple will use screens from AU Optronics and LG Display for a smaller version of the iPad to be released in October, according to four people familiar with the plans.

That’s about all Bloomberg can tell us today, but just for the sake of being told no they also asked the rps for the various rumored parts suppliers for comment, and none were willing to say anything.

While I’m pretty certain that this is a solid rumor, I’m almost looking forward to the possibility it might not be true. Many, many, many bloggers and analysts are focused on the certainty that this device exists and is coming next month.

If it doesn’t then the size and magnitude of the collective error will be the greatest since the housing bubble, when far too many people invested far too much money in over-priced real estate.

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A couple different sources are now reporting that Apple plans not one but 2 events this fall. The iPhone is still rumored to be launching on 12 September, while the iPad Mini is now rumored to be getting its own event later in the year. continued…

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KnowYourMobile has turned up photo of what it is saying is the next Samsung Galaxy Note. According to their sources, the new phone will have a 5.5″ screen, not the 5.3″ screen found on the current Galaxy Note. The new phone, like the Samsung Galaxy S3, is expected to have a quad-core CPU as well as 2GB of RAM and Samsung’s next-generation S-Pen technology. That pen technology is what they’re most famous for at the moment, and it’s ben incorporated into Samsung’s Note 10.1 tablet s well.

There’s no word on when it will be released, but the Galaxy Note 2 is expected to launch with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean sometime next quarter. We don’t know the price either, but the current model costs well over $500, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the new phone costs the same.

Update: This photo is now thought to be a fake.

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Their sources have indicated that the iPad Mini schematics which leaked last month, and were widely believed to be fake, might indeed be the real thing: continued…

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This is the all important bit of circuitry that makes a phone work as a phone. Without it the iPhone is just a paperweight.

This photo showed up on a Chinese forum, and while the poster doesn’t actually say it, he seems to be implying that this belongs in the new iPhone. He could be right; the logic board lacks any identifying marks but  the screw mounting holes do look like they would fit the  screws seen inside the leaked iPhone case. continued…

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The image at right comes from install or not, a gadget blog. It’s one of a bunch of aftermarket hard shell cases. IorN is reporting that these are the cases for the iPad Mini itself, but if you look through the photos you’ll note that the cases are far too flimsy and don’t have any of the internal work you’d expect. Also, a couple photos show pink shells. Yeah, I don’t think Apple would make a pink iPad Mini.

But if you regard them as simply one accessory maker’s best guess about the iPad Mini, they’re kinda cool.  Look at the cutouts for the buttons, camera, speaker at the bottom,  and more. It’s almost as if this manufacturer read the same iPad Mini rumors that I do.

via install or not

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According to Ebay, submissions to its trade-in program spiked 70% this week over the previous week. Cnet has more detail:

The company says that during that span “nearly” 100,000 smartphones were offered up for trade-in by people using the company’s Instant Sale program. Among the Apple phones that people offered to trade-in, eBay says the 16GB model of the iPhone 4S tops the list, followed by the 8GB iPhone 4 and 32GB iPhone 4S.

Ebay hasn’t seen a similar spike in trade-ins since last year. Apple unveiled the new iPhone in early October and close to 375 thousand smartphones were traded-in in the next several days.

Cnet

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The WSJ has sources telling them that the next iPhone will have a thinner screen thanks to some new tech that’s being developed in Japan.

Japanese liquid-crystal-display makers Sharp and Japan Display Inc.—a new company that combined three Japanese electronics makers’ display units—as well as South Korea’s LG Display Co. are currently mass producing panels for the next iPhone using so-called in-cell technology, the people said.

The trick here is that rather than add the touchscreen as a separate component, the screen manufacturers are reportedly embedding the touch sensors inside the LCD screen itself. This is more difficult to manufacture, but in the long run it’s going to simplify Apple’s supply chain and result in an iPhone that might be as much as a millimeter thinner than the current model.

To be honest, I’m not sure it really matters. The iPhone is quite svelte as it is; if it got any thinner you would be able to fold it up and carry it in your wallet.

via WSJ

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Another day, another leaked Apple product.

Late last week, I posted what looked like a prototype iPhone 5, but new leaks today are casting it into doubt. A Chinese gadget blog is claiming to have found new photos of the faceplate for the iPhone 5. As you can see from the images at right, there are both black and white versions, and most importantly, this particular leak has the camera centered over the speaker.

That would tend to disprove last week’s prototype, but to be honest I don’t see a sign of a camera on that unit at all. But today’s leak does tend to agree with other past leaks like the one from 9to5Mac. That one looks quite similar to the faceplates above.

Then again, folks, I think we might want to take these rumors with a grain of salt. I’m enjoying writing about them, and there’s always the chance that someone else enjoyed making them up.

via Apple.pro

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