BlackBerry co-founders keen on takeover bid

Lazaridis rises.

Mike Lazaradis, the erstwhile-BlackBerry CEO, company-founder and the man who oversaw BlackBerry's rise and fall, is said to be readying a takeover bid for the company.
Partnering with co-founder Doug Fregin, Lazaradis has asked Goldman Sachs to help find potential backers for a $4.7 billion deal. That’s according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US.
The men already own an 8% stake in the failing mobile-maker. They started the firm in 1984, with Lazaradis helping it to become dominant in the pre-iPhone era.
However, his and co-CEO Jim Balsillie’s blasé approach to the threats of Apple and Google helped turn BlackBery into the tech world’s biggest basket case.

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iPhone 5S: champagne and graphite models star in new videos

Golden future.

Apple’s forthcoming champagne and graphite iPhones have starred in a pair of new videos, as their planned September 10th launch date edges ever closer.
The champagne iPhone 5S, filmed by the guys at TLD, highlights the differences with the current iPhone 5. Aside from the colour options, the video also looks at the internal changes, with greater space for the battery, suggesting Apple might have at last cracked its power woes.
In a separate video, the graphite iPhone 5S is shown alongside the current black and white editions of the iPhone 5. But with initial iPhone 5 prototypes having come in this colour, it’s been suggested in some quarters that this version may not go on sale later next month.

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iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S dropping Sept 20th, network leak reveals

Carrier cancels holiday, sparks release-date chatter.

Speculation that the next-generation iPhone and its cheaper stablemate will go on sale on September 20th got a good deal more credible today, amid rumours that one of the largest US networks has cancelled holiday for staff for the period.
Talk of the handsets tipping up on the 20th has been abroad for months now. The date was initially mooted after some keen-minded deduction on the part of the editor of the International Business Times, who based his prediction on Apple’s previous form.
His claim got fresh legs over the weekend when mysterious sources told TmoNews that T-Mobile employees over The Pond have been barred from taking holiday between September 20th and 22nd. This is so that the carrier is able to cope with the huge swell in demand that marks the release of new Apple smartphones.
AT&T is also reported to have issued a blanket ban on holidays over that weekend. However, seemingly anticipating even greater demand than its rival, T-Mo’s competitor is forbidding staff from taking holidays for all remaining days in September too.
Demand for the low-cost iPhone 5C, which features a money-saving plastic shell, is expected to be buoyed by a price point of around £250. This will arguably make the iPhone a viable pay as you go handset for the first time ever.

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Exclusive: iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C parts revealed in new leaked photos

Fourth iPhone 5S colour spied.

New images of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, shared with uSwitch Tech, appear to show a fourth iPhone 5S colour option, as well as a string of new angles of both of Apple’s forthcoming handsets.
The graphite grey iPhone 5S appears alongside the now seemingly nailed-on 'champagne gold' edition of the device. The images suggest it’ll have a slate-coloured central panel, with black panelling along the top and bottom.
Once again, the gold iPhone 5S looks as if it won’t come in a gaudy bullion-colour, but rather a more mute champagne tone.
Other images, from insiders close to Apple’s supply chain, show the iPhone 5C’s plastic shell in a rather natty red/orange colour.
Both the budget iPhone 5C and top-end iPhone 5S are due to be launched on September 10th, with a number of sources close to Apple confirming that date for a special event. The phones will then go on sale on September 20th, according to reports last week.
As those dates near, expect to see plenty more snapshots of the devices leaking out across the web.

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Low-cost ‘plastic’ iPhone imagined in fresh 3D renderings

Yet another concept depicts Apple's much-hyped budget iPhone.

Fresh illustrations depicting what Apple’s long-rumoured ‘cheap’ iPhone could look like have emerged online, giving us yet another vision of a handset that’s effectively a unicorn of the smartphone world.
Designed lovingly by the good folks at Apple Insider, based on recently leaked schematics of the so-called ‘iPhone Light’, the concept reveals a white handset sporting a plastic casing with curved corners at the back, a faux-aluminium rim at the top and ‘pill shaped’ volume controls clearly inspired by the iPod touch.

The physical home button still present-and-correct, along with a four-inch display like the iPhone 5. Though, we presume the screen is probably not of a Retina quality and is more likely a lower-grade LCD to keep costs down.
Looks-wise, it’s unmistakably an iPhone, and as far as we're concerned, certainly doesn’t look as bargain-bin as many budget mobiles do.
With a minimalist design that's integral to the Apple DNA and the freshly announced iOS 7 front-and-centre, the concept very easily completes the illusion that this could very well be a product “Designed by Apple in California”.
The iGiant is widely expected to bring a keenly priced iPhone to market later this year to compete with the hordes of inexpensive Android smartphones, especially in emerging lucrative regions such as China and India.

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iPhone 5S ‘dropping September 20th’, iPhone 6 a few weeks later

Business site names a date.

The next edition of the standard iPhone will beat its much-rumoured low-cost stablemate to market, a leading tech business site forecasts.
Dave Smith, editor of International Business Times, has hung his hat on a September 20th due date for the full-fat, full-featured iPhone 5S. His forecast is based on Apple’s previous release cycles and supply-chain rumbles.
The more affordable handset, which be titled the iPhone 6, will join it on shop shelves not too long after, he claims, with a launch event likely to happen a matter of weeks later.
Smith’s logic derives from Apple’s habit of leaving 100 days between the announcement of a new operating system and the day it is made available to the public, as was the case with iOS 6.
Assuming that happens again (and it’s worth noting here that Apple typically very closely adheres to previous rollout patterns for new devices), it means that iOS 7 will drop on September 18th.
Looking once more to the last iPhone, Smith notes that it was launched two days after iOS 6 landing. If Apple does the same this time, we’re looking at a big bells and whistles event on September 20th to announce the coming on a new handset.

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iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 concept packs 4.5" screen and 12MP camera

Just a hint of the HTC One in the looks department too.

Yet another render of the next iPhone is doing the rounds today, based on what we think we know about Apple's next handset.
Worked up by Giorgi Tedoradze and highlighted by Phones Review, the concept handset sticks fairly closely to the iPhone 5 template in the design stakes with just a tiny suggestion of HTC's unibody dream, the HTC One.
However, in place of the four-inch screen that features on Apple's current-gen kit, there's a 4.5-inch Retina display that means the handset veers into phablet territory.
To make space for the larger display, which has been rumoured for some time among tech-watchers, there's also a thinner bezel around the screen.
Under the bonnet, the slimmer phone (dimensions are 130mm x 60mm x 7mm) is home to a 12-megapixel iSight camera, with a more powerful A7 processor to keep things ticking over.
As purported component leaks in recent weeks appear to indicate, Tedoradze imagines the iPhone 6 coming in a host of colour options, including white, black, grey, black, blue, purple, red, yellow, green and brown.

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Apple site partners with UK carriers for iPhone pay as you go offer

Pay as you go offer until May 9th.

Apple has teamed up with UK carriers to offer Britons pay as you go SIM cards with iPhones directly from its site for the first time ever.
Customers buying an unlocked iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and newest 4S edition in white or black from the site right now get the option to add a SIM card from O2, Vodafone or Three.

Choose O2 and you’ll get £10 of call credit, 300 texts, 500MB data and 500MB of data to be used within 30 days of purchase.
Three’s SIM offers 300 mins, 3000 texts and unlimited data also to be used within 30 days. Go with Voda at £15 and you’re looking at 300 mins, 3000 texts and 500MB of mobile data, which, you’ve guessed it, you’ve got to use within 30 days.
The pay as you go offer, which has the neat bonus of meaning you avoid pesky credit checks that come as standard on contracts, is set to run on the Apple Store until May 9th.

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iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 concept packs 4.5" screen and 12MP camera

Just a hint of the HTC One in the looks department too.

Yet another render of the next iPhone is doing the rounds today, based on what we think we know about Apple's next handset.
Worked up by Giorgi Tedoradze and highlighted by Phones Review, the concept handset sticks fairly closely to the iPhone 5 template in the design stakes with just a tiny suggestion of HTC's unibody dream, the HTC One.
However, in place of the four-inch screen that features on Apple's current-gen kit, there's a 4.5-inch Retina display that means the handset veers into phablet territory.
To make space for the larger display, which has been rumoured for some time among tech-watchers, there's also a thinner bezel around the screen.
Under the bonnet, the slimmer phone (dimensions are 130mm x 60mm x 7mm) is home to a 12-megapixel iSight camera, with a more powerful A7 processor to keep things ticking over.
As purported component leaks in recent weeks appear to indicate, Tedoradze imagines the iPhone 6 coming in a host of colour options, including white, black, grey, black, blue, purple, red, yellow, green and brown.

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iPhone 6 phablet mock-up photos surface

hat-if’ pictures of Apple’s first tilt at a phablet have surfaced online, giving us a tantalising glimpse of what may be in store for us in months to come.
Worked-up by designer Peter Zigich, the snaps depict a handset that retains the design essentials of the current-gen model but shifts instead of a single home button at the foot of the screen there are two on either side of the device.

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