Another day, another Apple’s fourth-gen iPhone spotted in the wild, this time by the Vietnamese guys from Taoviet.com who’ve managed to purchase a prototype of Cupertino’s future device on the black market for a whopping $4,000. And while Gizmodo’s acquired phone had no capacity numbers behind its back, besides the “XXX” caption, this one, on the other hand, indicates a 16GB of internal storage, housing the usual “Bonfire” testing interface, instead of Apple’s coming OS 4 platform – what a pity. Other than that, it apparently packs the same line of hardware (minus the two external screws) we’ve already seen before with a micro SIM slot stuffed to the right side of the box and these dual silver volume buttons placed to the left, while rear and front-face cameras adorn this “magical” bad boy as well, providing a clear evidence to support future arguments about authentication. Hands-on video after the break.

Update1: The guys at Chipworks claim that the “339S0084″ serial number etched on top of the big chip (the one with Apple’s logo) found in Cupertino’s next-gen iPhone during last teardown session, is actually THE Apple A4 chip, fabricated by Samsung as a result of Apple’s design acquisitions of PA Semi and Intrinsity. And if that allegation should be taken seriously, it means that Apple’s fourth generation iPhone will share the same micro-processing capabilities you can find inside the iPad – huzzah!

Update2: We’ve just added two more videos of Apple’s alleged iPhone 4G, posted by the same group of the Vietnamese guys. Check them out after the break.

[via Tinhte]

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Word on the streets is that Apple plans to announce a new iPhone machine, its fourth generation, somewhere around April of this year. A quick look at previous models, compared to what we think a good, viable and essential smartphones should look these days, made us realize there’s A LOT to be accomplished. Checkout the list we’ve made and feel free to add yours:

This is NOT the new iPhone. Please click this link and read all about the new iPhone 4.

1) A 5 megapixel camera (At least) – I mean seriously, 3.2mp camera isn’t enough these days when most mobile devices pack 5mp and even stronger.

2) A better auto-focus camera with a better optical zoom – People hate carrying around so many gadgets in their pockets, so a better camera that can deliver better focus would definitely save most of us the hassle of taking a digital camera with us.

3) Front facing camera (for video chat/skype) – Every simple phone has it, so why not? From one hand, I can hear the mobile companies getting intimidated from the fact that users will actually have live video chats in their phones, something which would probably make them speak less than before, but on the other one, we’d tell them: don’t fight with it, deal with it! (And same goes for the Google voice app).

4) Xenon flash – And closing the camera session, a good flash system would completely make a differece, don’t you think so? Bring the light!

5) Record video in HD 720p – The world is changing, and so does video quality. HD videos are part of our lives now, so a 720p video recording feature, integrated in phones, should be too (period!).

6) Hide app icons – Different people use different apps, and customized platforms are getting very popular these days, so having the ability to make apps like youtube, calender, calculator or others disappear, can definitely be a useful add-on.

7) Revamped design – Some would argue about this one, as the iPhone is hands-down one of the most good looking devices we’ve seen in years, but still there’s a plenty of room for a change, like maybe a bigger display (4-inch anyone?), or a squarish frame – less rounded on the edges.

8 ) Multitasking – Multitasking, multitasking, multitasking. Said enough. everyone’s been yelling this for years and yet nothing. C’mon Apple, we need this one ASAP! In an online environment where most users do several tasks concurrently, it’s crucial to allow apps (IM, music, photos, etc) to run in the background.

9) Silverlight support – Yeah, yeah…we all have our pride here, but lets make things a bit different. The more plugins our phone supports the better it would be – is there anybody listening?

10) Flash support – Same as Silverlight. Enough with the kindergarten games. Both Apple and Adobe should finally seat together and work things out. At the end of the day, it’s about us, the users and how we surf the internet nowadays, and lets face it Cupertino, flash is needed, whether you want it or not.

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It’s been a wild day with big news and one single product – The iPad. Yes guys, Apple’s tablet is officially out, no more rumors, no speculations, no overpriced ($999) guesses or foolish mockups, this time it’s for real, and it would cost only $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB) or $699 (64GB), courtesy of Cupertino. As is, it looks very sexy, only 0.5-inches thin and 1.5 pounds of weight. Display is almost ten inches wide, and to be more accurate, 9.7-inches. Screen resolution is basically like every usual netbook, 1024X768, but the screen itself, as you may have guessed, supports a capacitive multitouch usability, the kind you’d find in an iPhone. It has 802.11n wifi, Bluetooth, and in some models even a 3G cellular connectivity, that will run in AT&T and around the world for a monthly fee og either $14.99 (250MB data) or $29.99 (unlimited package). Steve jobs says they are all UNLOCKED and that the processor inside is powered by Apple’s custom designed A4 chipset (which is speculated to be an Arm Cortex 9 processor). Battery wise, Stevo claims a 10 hours of work and almost a month in standby mode, while UI is basically similar to the iPhone, only revamped to support browsing, emails, photos, video (including Youtube), music, games and ebooks on a larger scale.

Yes, Apple thinks that netbooks are slow and made of low quality, and that’s why they came up with a tablet, which frankly is an hybrid creation of the company’s iPhone and Mac in one single device. Naturally, it comes with a built-in accelerometer, the kind that lets you play top-notch shooting and high speed racing games, joystick free, and GPS system if you were asking, is also part of the deal, so navigation, satellite images and street view topography are now available on the go. Like any light and sophisticated machine, you can send emails, engage your contacts, surf the net and sync music with iTunes – and this is the time to mention it has a USB connector for that mission and other collaborative tasks you can think of. But the iPad, is not just for internet and multimedia consuming, it’s also for book reading, like Yahoo’s Kindle, only with colors. But that’s not all, because Apple like Apple developed an iBook app this purpose, and to make things profitable, there is an online store – just for books – starting today! So there you have it, an all-in-one media device with music, videos, almost 150k optional apps, personal office manager, ebook reader and almost endless usage possibilities. On the down side, it doesn’t have a camera inside and we haven’t seen any HDMI output to pump your vids. The bezel is too wide, there’s no flash supported and last but not least, no multitasking – NO MULTITASKING. Instead you can work on sheets, tables and charts, through iWork, that was tweaked by Apple’s teams to fit the iPad. Want it? this ain’t come free – $9.99.

Update1: There are also some optional accessories to buy, like a standalone dock or one that comes with a keyboard, a camera connection kit, or an iPad case. Checkout the Apple store for more on that.

Update2: The iPad supports wide range of codecs including H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

Update3: Here are the overall prices:

• 16GB with WiFi: $499
• 32GB with WiFi: $599
• 64GB with WiFi: $699
• 16GB with WiFi & 3G: $629
• 32GB with WiFi & 3G: $729
• 64GB with WiFi & 3G: $829

Update4: Apple have partnered with five major publishers, including Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan and Hachett Book Group, to bring into your iPad color or B/W  content.

Update5: Apple PR announcement plus images plus video added after the break.

[Apple]

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