By ModMyI.com

According to a new report, AT&T confirms to employees that next generation iPhone will launch in June. “The phone will be available for purchase in June, not July, and from what we’ve heard, it won’t even be late June,” the report said. This confirms a separate report from late April, saying that iPhone will launch very early June with the possibility of the device being available in stores the same day on the announcement. In addition, AT&T put a block on employees taking vacations in June. The company followed similar policies the last two years for the month the iPhone was launched. Apple is expected to announce the new device during the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference. The event will be held June 7 through June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. iPhone’s announcement might be more complicated this year due to the misplaced/lost/stolen? next generation iPhone prototype saga.

by macrumours.com

Apple’s next update to the blockbuster iPhone handset is expected by one prominent analyst to have a lower total cost of ownership, and to also include new gesture-based functionality.

Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley maintains that the biggest barrier to greater iPhone adoption is the cost of the hardware, followed by the service plan. The investment in the device has been its biggest issue in both developed markets like the U.S. and emerging ones like China.

But Huberty expects Apple to address that in June, by introducing a new model that will be economically friendly to even more consumers.

“We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology,” she wrote in a new note to investors Friday.

In 2009, when Apple introduced the new iPhone 3GS, the company also dropped the price of the previous year’s iPhone 3G to $99. However, despite the lower price point, the high end iPhone 3GS was still the most popular option for consumers.

In addition to lower cost of ownership for the iPhone, Huberty remains bullish on AAPL stock because of the forthcoming iPad launch in March. Here she is particularly optimistic, projecting shipments of 6 million devices in the 2010 calendar year, versus Wall Street’s average projections of 3 million to 4 million.

“We expect Apple to ship its first iPad and announce additional content deals in late March to better than expected demand,” Huberty wrote. “We see the iPad targeting the sub-$800 consumer notebook market which equates to 30M annual units just in the US (120M globally.”

Morgan Stanley has maintained its “overweight” rating for AAPL stock, with a price target of $250.

In the past, Huberty was notoriously negative on AAPL stock, suggesting the iPhone was too expensive even at a $199 price point. In late 2008, she predicted that iPhone sales would suffer because Apple had priced the product too high.

But last year, Huberty turned positive on Apple, stating that the company had become the “clear leader in the battle over the mobile Internet.”

by appleinsider.com

Two recently published patent applications from Apple caught our attention for their craftiness. One shows how to use the iPhone’s camera as an alternate gesture input method; the other details a system using a uniquely shaped signet to log in to a computer.

The first patent, “Camera as Input Interface,” adds alternate input methods for a touchscreen phone, particularly useful when the touchscreen is pressed against your face during a phone call. The patent describes a method using the built-in camera as a gesture detector, recognizing “swiping” up, down, left, or right using a finger. The gestures could be used to control voicemail, for instance, by swiping “forward” or “back” to skip to the next or previous message. The input could be augmented with accelerometer data to recognize a “tap” as well, according to the patent application.

MacRumors notes that Apple has filed a number of alternate input methods for the iPhone, including a rear surface or an outer bezel that are also touch-sensitive.

The second patent, “Shape Detecting Input Device,” describes a system using a touchscreen to recognize uniquely shaped signets, and to perform actions associated with a specific shape. One application would be to log in a unique user based on the recognized shape. This is similar to the now-defunct practice of stamping a seal from a signet ring into sealing wax to verify a document’s authenticity or source. If such a signet were indeed on a ring, it could also be used to unlock an iPhone.

Apple’s patent suggests that unique signet shapes could be embedded in a ring, a tag, a card, a stamp, or even a key. Other suggested actions initiated by the signet shape recognition include configuring a system to a unique user’s needs, launching certain applications, or encrypting or decrypting messages or other content, making the signet like a modern, high-tech decoder ring.

by arstechnica.com

1) The next version of the iPad is getting a camera. This is the least immediately helpful possibility, but it also sounds completely likely. A lot of tech pundits assumed the first-gen iPad would include a camera, so I’d bet on seeing it next time around.

2) Multitasking is coming to the iPhone sooner rather than later. Although a video call and another task at once might be a lot to ask on the small screen – and not that useful, either – we can at least hope that the next software update brings the ability to run third-party apps in the background. The iPad already has wicked multitasking potential, with the introduction of new popover windows that don’t take up the entire screen.

Another useful new feature rumored for 3.2 is the ability to download and locally store files using Safari, and open them in other apps. The lack of access to the iPhone’s filesystem is one of the biggest reasons that fans of more open mobile operating systems scoff at Apple, and, although this wouldn’t totally shut down that line of criticism, it would be a step in the right direction. File uploading is also reportedly included in the update.

Business Week is running quite an interesting story regarding ongoing talks between Apple and Microsoft that would make Bing as the default search engine on the iPhone, replacing Google. Citing sources familiar to the matter, the said talks have been going on for a week now. This is interesting because it not only shows the growing rivalry between Google and Apple but also because Apple and Microsoft used to be rivals, or remains to be rivals in the computer market.

Of course we all know what triggered Apple’s decision to replace Google with Bing as the iPhone’s default search engine. Google’s entry to the smartphone market with the Nexus One. The Nexus One phone and Google’s total business model for it including the Android OS, despite its shortcomings and flaws, have been hailed as one of the worthiest iPhone killer if not worthiest opponent.

Obviously, Apple did not like Google’s latest foray and will not just take it sitting down. Hence, the for its first salvo, replacing the iPhone’s search engine into Bing.

But would Microsoft agree this deal? And would this deal be on a long-term basis or is Apple just buying some time before it comes up with its own mobile search engine?

The answers to these questions depend on how far the Apple – Microsoft deal would go. There are many kinks to be ironed out if such deal is to push through. More particularly on revenue sharing derived from mobile search ads.

For Apple is purely about retaliating against Google. For Microsoft, it’s more of giving its Bing search engine a boost in terms of possible increase usage and mobile search market share. Both companies are sure to benefit from this deal. But did Apple even considered the loyal iPhone users who prefer Google as their phone’s search engine?

Let’s see what will come up from this deal. Who knows it might work to Google’s advantage?

10.00am, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San-Francisco

Apple officially alerted the world Monday that it is ready to unveil its latest tinkerings — which many in the tech industry are betting will be a multimedia tablet computing slate — on the morning of Jan. 27.

The media hordes and analysts are being invited to San Francisco, where it is presumed company CEO Steve Jobs will show off the latest gadgets and services from Apple.

The invitation is as vague as it is inviting. “Come see our latest creation,” the mass e-mail read.

Although the company has officially declined to comment, industry insiders and analysts have been speculating for weeks that Apple will be entering the market for a lightweight, portable tablet computer, designed for consumers to interact with digital games, books, movies and other types of content.

It is expected to be priced in the $800 to $1,000 range. Numerous sources point to a March ship date for the new device.

Several companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Redmond-based Microsoft and Lenovo, already have tablets on the market, while Seattle-based Amazon.com and other companies are seeing favorable sales of e-readers, which are tabletlike devices designed specifically for reading books.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating with Apple to make electronic books available for Apple’s tablet, a move that would pose a new challenge to Amazon.

Evidence continues to suggest Apple could soon introduce a new version of the iPhone operating system, this time with an alleged high-profile developer claiming their software was just updated for iPhone OS 4.0.

Rick Broida with CNet’s iPhone Atlas said Friday that he received an e-mail from a “prominent app developer” regarding an update to the iPhone operating system. “Just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve submitted an updated app for the new iPhone OS 4.0 software,” the e-mail allegedly said. Additional details on the supposed software were not given.

Earlier this month, it was alleged that Apple’s rumored Jan. 27 event could include the introduction of iPhone OS 4.0. One report claimed the new software developer kit includes a “simulator” that makes it easy for developers to adapt to different screen resolutions.

Apple is widely expected to introduce its long-rumored tablet device at the event later this month. This week, one rumor claimed that Apple has not issued any updates for the iPhone in some time because the next version has many tablet-related references that the company did not want to leak in advance of its planned unveiling.

Also this week, one developer contacted AppleInsider when a single handset using iPhone OS 4.2 appeared in his Pinch Media statistics for an iPhone application. The identifier could theoretically have been faked, and it’s not clear why a new version of the iPhone OS being tested would skip the 4.0 distinction.