iPhone 3GS finally coming to India on 15th March? [Rumors]

There are rumors that iPhone 3GS may finally be hitting Indian shores officially as soon (late?) as Monday 15th March 2010.

Apparently, the phone will be available from 4 operators – Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel & Reliance and will be locked to the respective networks for 1 or 2 years.

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Apple looking to buy EA! [Rumors]

I just read over at Kotaku that there is a rumor going around financial types that Apple is planning to buy EA! I believe Kotaku when they say it’s crazy, interesting and most likely meaningless at the same time. But what if it does happen?

Whereas Apple is known for all the innovations in the industry, EA is infamous for minting money out of recycling old franchises and publishing the famous ones again and again with minor updates. It’d be interesting to see EA being as creative and innovative as Apple. Maybe we’ll get more games like Mirror’s Edge (with a better story) and Dead Space.

On the bad side Apple might start forcing you to buy an iPod for all your Sims.

Anyway, I’m eagerly waiting!

[via – Kotaku]

iPhone (next gen) rumor roundup

Here are the current rumors floating around the web around the next gen iPhone:

1. Apple has increased next gen iPhone production – This might be true owing to the much hype the iPhone OS 3.0 has created.
2. iPhone to have FM receiver & transmitter – We would love to have this ability in the next gen iPhone. For many people, FM plays a key role in deciding whether to go for the phone or not. The added benefit of the FM transmitter will be truly awesome for listening to music in your car.
3. Video recording – This has to come. People have been asking for this and Apple must pay attention to this.
4. Auto focus in camera – Although not a nccessity, this will be a welcomed feature. This will let amateurs take awesome pictures using the iphone.
5. Magnatometer (digital compass) – I seriously doubt this one.
6. Voice control – Dunno what this is. If its voice commands, then yeah, bring it on.

[Via iPhoneIndia]

Apple rumor roundup

Here are the current Apple rumors floating around the web:

1. iPhone OS 3.0 To Finally Bring Copy & Paste – This one has been leaked by Kevin Ross of digg fame. He says that there is a possibility that Apple might release the Copy & Paste feature in the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware upgrade. We are waiting Apple.
2. A premium App Store is on its way – This is because there are too many apps on the app store now. There are numerous apps that do the same thing. It is extremely difficult to find the best among them. The premium store will help users select the best app by providing them limited options which will be the cream of the lot.
3. Malwares for jailbroken iPhones – This may be inevitable. There are rumors that jailbroken iPhones are vulnerable to malware attacks. Go ahead. I ain’t afraid. Its not Windows. Norton/McAfee – you guys seeing this?

iPhone rumors roundup

There are two major iPhone rumors floating around these days:

1. Introduction of background processes – This might come as a surprise, but yes, Apple might just introduce the very thing it made fun of when it explained the Push notification service in one of its keynotes. Here is what macrumors have to say:

By now, it’s clear that something is holding up the Push notification service. While we aren’t sure what the specific issues are, we’ve heard that as an alternative Apple is considering allowing apps to run as user selectable background processes. If so, this feature would likely come in the rumored iPhone 3.0 software update but would be limited to only one or two processes on current hardware. The next generation iPhone, however, would likely see less restricted background process support due to its improved hardware.

2. Next gen iPhone by June 2009 – AppleInsider thinks that the next gen iPhone might be launched as early as June 2009. Here is what they have to say:

The source of the June comment is not entirely clear, but appears to have come by way of Davis. That said, industry watchers generally expect Apple to take the wraps off its next-generation touchscreen handset in June, approximately one year after the iPhone 3G made its debut.

[Via Macrumors & AppleInsider]

iPhone Nano Rumor roundup

It all started when an iPhone case manufacturer XSKN posted details of a new case for iPhone Nano on their website. They also posted the following picture which further led to spreading of rumor on all the tech sites:

Apparently, they are now taking online orders for the case. This is probably a one of a kind situation where the protective cases of a gadget are available for sale even before the gadget is announced.

The interesting thing to note is that all this is happening a few days before Macworld. And being Apple’s last Macworld, people are expecting a lot out of it. Maybe this is the reason people are still buying into this rumor.

In case you are interested in buying the case for the rumored iPhone Nano, click here.

[Via AppleInsider]

What is Sony upto?

According to Sony’s New Zealand website, Sony is about to revolutionize the way we look at laptops. This is probably a hype for the much anticipated launch of Sony Vaio Netbooks.

Here is what the wesite has to say:

No word on what they might be upto. We can only wait and watch .

[Via Gizmodo]

BigFlix starting game rentals soon?

There are rumors floating around that the ADAG owned BigFlix movie rental service in India is going to start game rentals soon.

According to an employee at one of the BigFlix stores, the service will be combined with the current movie rentals service and there will be no extra charge to rent games. Users can log into their accounts online and queue up movie as well as game DVDs. The same terms and conditions will apply for game rentals as well.  The existing users of the movie rental service will be able to rent games without paying any extra charges. The service is gonna launch pretty soon (about a month).

If this is true, it will be a great news for gamers in India who are hesitant to buy game consoles owing to high price of games.

Snow Leopard Release Set For Q1 2009 [Unconfirmed]

There are unconfirmed rumors floating around that the next version of Apple’s Mac OS X, the Snow Leopard is set for release in Q1 of 2009. That’s like a month away !

A couple of key features in Snow Leopard:

1. Microsoft Exchange Support
2. Multicore
3. 64-bit support
4. QuickTime X
5. OpenCL (Open Computing Language)

Here is what Apple’s official page for Snow leopard has to say:

Since 2001, Mac OS X has delivered more than a thousand innovative new features. With Snow Leopard, the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system, Mac OS X changes more than its spots, it changes focus. Taking a break from adding new features, Snow Leopard — scheduled to ship in about a year — builds on Leopard’s enormous innovations by delivering a new generation of core software technologies that will streamline Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos.

[Via Gizmodo]

Apple getting into Search?

Popular tech blog Techcrunch suspects that Apple might be getting into the search business. Apparently, Safari’s 6 – 7% market share and the users of personal productivity tools through Mobile Me provide a lot of search traffic for Google via Apple’s servers and they might be thinking of milking it themselves.

However, since they are not hiring any search professionals, it seems that they just might be into developing some sort of an extra rosy UI layer on top of Google search results. Basically, the folks in Mountain View do not believe in the same stuff as those over at Infinite Loop when it comes to UI. Google’s interfaces are plain vanilla simple whereas Apple puts in a lot of eye candy. Apparently, the Google search results interface isn’t good enough for Apple. They might be building a more Appley way to present these search results to the users.

Another news which is running around is that Eric Schmidt might be leaving as an Apple board of director soon. Looks like Apple is not happy with the competition it is getting from Android.

[Via TechCrunch]