Those concerned that the iPhone 5 will be more expensive that its predecessors can breathe a sigh of relief as according to a report on 9to5 Mac today, the next iPhone will have the same price points as the iPhone 4S, which leads them to speculate that it will also have the same configurations as the iPhone 4S, e.g., 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. This would tie in with other reports yesterday that said that the new iPhone would have three price points. 9to5 Mac also says that the iPhone 5’s Apple codename is N42, one of two prototypes that it had previously reported Apple as working on, with the other, the N41, having NFC, which Apple has obviously decided not to go for, for reasons as yet unknown, possibly just because it’s too soon for an NFC iPhone. 9to5 Mac thinks that pre-orders will start soon after the announcement next week in the US, with staggered launches in other territories, as is usually the case.

Source: Redesigned iPhone (N42) being announced next week at iPhone 4S price points | 9to5Mac

The US mobile market is dominated by giant carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon but that doesn’t mean that smaller regional carriers don’t exist across the American territory. Seven of them even started providing the iPhone to their customers earlier this year.

Pat Riordan, CEO of small carrier Cellcom, that covers the eastern Wisconsin and northwestern Michigan area, has talked to GigaOM and tried to explain why the company decided to include the iPhone in their portfolio.

Even if Riordan didn’t come forward with any specific sales numbers, he states that selling the iPhone is not really about numbers but about prestige. It makes sense since the Cellcom’s numbers wouldn’t be even close to the one registered by major carriers. Nevertheless since the company decided to bring in the iPhone a lot of customers have signed deals with them.

“Customers were telling us they were simply going to leave us because we didn’t have the iPhone. We know our sales had been falling between the end of the year and April, and we think not having the iPhone was the reason,” explained Riordan.
The article mentions however that another small carrier, Alaska Communications managed to sell 11,000 iPhones for the second quarter of 2012. That’s impressive considering they have a consumer based made up of 120,000 people. Also from Alaska, GCI reported selling 9, 200 iPhones. The company has 141,000 customers. These numbers are tiny in compared to the million devices sold by AT&T or Verizon, but nevertheless to small business they bring a substantial boost in revenue.

By Radu

Source: To small carriers the iPhone is about prestige, not activations — Apple News, Tips and Reviews

With the launch of the iPhone 5 just a few days away, AppleInsider reports that the iPhone brand goes from strength to strength for Apple, with the news that the iPhone sits atop the J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction charts for the eighth time in succession. In fact, the iPhone managed to earn the accolade of a five-star “PowerCircle Rating” from J.D. Power, with an overall points tally of 849 out of a possible 1,000. To put these figures in context, AppleInsider says that Apple was the only company in the 2012 Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Study to receive this accolade. Generally speaking, the iPhone finished way ahead of the chasing pack in the survey, a full 59 points in front of HTC in second place, with a customer satisfaction score of 790. Samsung placed third, with 782 points. For all smartphones, the average score was 783 out of 1,000, reports AppleInsider, although when the likes of Apple and other front runners are removed from the equation, the overall smartphone customer satisfaction score drops to 768 points.

Source: Apple's iPhone tops JD Power satisfaction survey for 8th straight time

AppleInsider reports today that a Virgin Australia passenger has been spotted using the new Passbook app on an iPhone running an iOS 6 beta to board a plane. The news comes from Australian Business Traveller, which says that the passenger was able to check themselves onto a flight via Virgin Australia’s mobile website on his iPhone, which then recognised the digital boarding pass and asked the passenger if they wanted to add the digital pass to Passbook. AppleInsider says that this would seem to indicate that Virgin Australia’s mobile website is using Apple’s new “.pkpass” mime type, which officially only United Airlines is supporting so far. As AppleInsider also notes, clearly other airlines and businesses will soon come on board (pardon the pun!) once iOS 6 is released, and it looks like Virgin Australia is already there. There was no word whether or not the passenger was actually able to get onto their flight using Passbook; possibly not, as the system is not yet officially released so this could be considered a security problem.

Source: Evidence of airline support for Apple's Passbook surfaces ahead of iPhone debut

According to a story in the Telegraph today, Apple is planning to drop the iPhone 3GS when the iPhone 5 is released, making the 8 GB iPhone 4 the entry-level phone. Most likely the 8 GB iPhone 4 will be given away on lower-priced monthly contracts in much the same way as the iPhone 3GS is now. The Telegraph says that it has also heard from its sources that Apple may also be planning to introduce an 8GB iPhone 4S. The sources also went on to say that there will be three versions of the iPhone 5 on sale, with different storage options, although the story was not specific about what these might be (guessing 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, though). And although The Telegraph said that its sources could not confirm whether or not the UK version of the iPhone 5 would be compatible with the faster 4G LTE networks that will be available in the UK on Orange and T-Mobile before the end of the year, they did confirm that the iPhone 5 would be released in the week of September 21, and that the iPhone 5 will be using the new nano sim, meaning that current iPhone users will have to change their current sim if they want to upgrade to an iPhone 5. It should be noted that The Telegraph story is referring to Apple dropping the iPhone 3GS in the UK; it's not known yet if this will also apply in the US and elsewhere in the world, or if Apple will in fact cease to manufacture the iPhone 3GS altogether.

Source: Apple ‘to drop iPhone 3GS’ - Telegraph

PopCap Games announced today that it has just released a major update for its incredibly popular, and just plain incredible, Plants vs. Zombies iOS game. The new update features five new game levels, Last Stand Endless mode, and three new achievements, namely Hammer Time, Still Standing and Stuff of Legends, bringing the total number of achievements in the game to 48 for the iPad version and 47 for the iPhone version. The Last Stand Endless mode is a variation on the classic Endless mode, where you can only use a limited amount of sun.

The new update is available to download for free if you already have the game of course, and there are also several in-app purchase game packs also available, including additional premium content to download. Finally, for the iPad version of the game, full Retina display support has now been added.

Click here to download for $2.99 for the iPhone version: App Store - Plants vs. Zombies

Or here to download the iPad HD version for $6.99: Plants vs. Zombies HD for iPad on the iTunes App Store

Yet more iPhone 5 parts photo leaks today on MacRumors, with some good close-up shots courtesy of Sonny Dickson that clearly show the next iPhone’s assembled front panel, and which have enabled RepairLabs to try and ascertain whether or not the mysterious chip that was previously spotted by Japanese blog Macotakara is in fact, as some thought, something to do with the iPhone 5 having near-field communications (NFC) capabilities. In truth, the rumours of NFC in the next iPhone had been pretty much killed by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, and now RepairLabs puts the nail in the NFC-for-iPhone 5 coffin, according to MacRumors, by saying that it believes that these new photos show clearly that the mysterious chip is in fact the earpiece speaker. One particularly good close-up shot shows the front panel minus bracket and speaker and with the front camera folded back. Nope, no NFC chip in there!

Source: New Photos Indicate Previously-Thought NFC Chip in iPhone 5 is Earpiece Speaker - Mac Rumors

MacRumors reports today on new photos posted by iResQ, following on from yesterday’s leaked iPhone 5 battery-in-situ pictures. These latest pictures show just how much thinner the new iPhone is in comparison to the iPhone 4S. The new pictures posted by iResQ today reveal that the website has now added a front panel to give an even better picture of what the new phone will look like. As you can see from the particular close up that we have posted at the top of this news story, when the iPhone 5 is viewed side by side with an iPhone 4S, it is quite striking how much thinner it is. Previous estimates have said that the iPhone 5 is in fact just 7.6 mm thick, making it 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S. As MacRumors notes, the iPhone 5’s larger, 4-inch screen has enabled Apple to make the phone thinner, by giving it more room to distribute the phone’s internal components.

Source: Closeup Photos Show Clear Difference in Thickness Between iPhone 5 and 4S - Mac Rumors

Revolution Software announced today that its Kickstarter proposal for a new, independently produced Broken Sword game has already managed to raise its target of $400,000 in just 13 days. Charles Cecil, managing director of Revolution, is understandably very happy about the news:

“To reach our target in just 13 days is incredible,” he said. “The generosity of fans and supporters, both in terms of money pledged and the passion that they have displayed on the forums, is absolutely overwhelming. I would like to thank each and every person who has taken the time and trouble to pledge their support – and promise that the game we create will reward their faith.”

“What’s so exciting is that we’ve still got 16 days to go. So we are in the fantastic position of being able to define ‘stretch goals’ which, if achieved, would allow us to realize our wildest ambitions. Stretch goals will include gameplay that had previously ended up on the cutting room floor, exotic new locations to explore, extra characters - some of which will be familiar - as well as a big surprise.”

A clearly very excited Cecil went on to say that more rewards would be announced soon for project backers. Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse, will be available on iOS, Mac, PC, Android, and Linux in early 2013.

Source: Broken Sword - the Serpent's Curse Adventure by Revolution Software — Kickstarter

MacRumors reports on new photos from iResQ today showing the iPhone 5’s battery in place in the phone’s case, as well as situated next to an iPhone 4S for comparison purposes. MacRumors says that the new battery runs at 3.8 volts, boosting capacity from the iPhone 4S’s 3.7-volt 5.30 watt-hour battery to 5.45 watt-hours. With the two batteries placed alongside each other, it becomes obvious that the new battery is a little taller than that belong to the iPhone 4S, as you might expect with the iPhone 5 being taller than the current iPhone. However, the newer battery does not seem to be much thinner than the older one, despite the fact that the iPhone 5 is thinner than the iPhone 4S. MacRumors also notes that the photos show that the iPhone 5’s 9-pin dock connector is now on the other side of the battery, denoting its new position on the iPhone casing.

Source: Photos of iPhone 5 Battery in Rear Shell, Compared to iPhone 4S Battery - Mac Rumors

AppleInsider reports today on a new story on iLounge that says that, initially at least, Apple will be the sole vendor providing the new adaptors and cables required to connect the iPhone 5’s new 9-pin dock connector with legacy accessories. According to iLounge, the new adaptor will cost approximately $10 (or three for $29), and USB cables will be priced at a steep $19. For the time being, this means that there will not be any third-party adaptors on the market. iLounge also said that third-party accessory manufacturers are now concerned that Apple intends to shut them out from this valuable market, just as it did with the MagSafe connectors for MacBooks. Furthermore, iLounge’s source told them that Apple expects to have sold 10 million adapters by the end of this year. The iPhone 5 will be the first Apple device to have the 9-pin dock connector, but it’s thought that other devices such as the iPad and iPod will follow suit when their next versions are released.

Source: Apple adapters for new 9-pin dock to cost $10, cables will be $19 - report

Following on from yesterday’s sensational claims from AntiSec that it had managed to obtain millions of unique device identifiers for iOS devices (UDIDs) from the laptop of an FBI agent, Apple has told John Paczkowski at All Things D that it did not give the FBI the information. Here’s the full statement to All Things D from Apple’s spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris:

“The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization. Additionally, with iOS 6 we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the use of the UDID and will soon be banning the use of UDID.”

As Paczkowski notes, the FBI has also denied the story, saying that it has no evidence whatsoever that an FBI laptop has been “compromised” in this way, or that the FBI has been keeping, or wanting to keep, any such data. So, sighs of relief all round.

Source: Apple: We Didn't Give FBI Any Device IDs - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD