Before giving the iPhone HD/iPhone 4G back to Apple, Gizmodo have done a tear-down and provided plenty of pictures of what they’ve found inside, including 50% of the space being taken up by the battery (which is not user-removable), and a drastically smaller, metal cased logic board. (Not to mention screws aplenty).

They didn’t want to break open the board, so no word on whether it has an Apple A4 or related system-on-chip (SoC) like the iPad, or how much RAM is inside, and no word yet on NAND Flash storage capacity either.

(And yes, they did put it back together again, dozens and dozens of screws and all).

Anyone see anything else interesting in the parts?

iPhone HD/iPhone 4G tear-down is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Yesterday we looked at the iPhone HD/iPhone 4G design, today we look at what that design embodied — the iPhone HD/iPhone 4G hardware and specs. A lot of what was revealed in the Engadget pics and Gizmodo hands-on seems to confirm past rumors, a lot more still remains a mystery. One thing’s for certain — as much as Apple jumpstarted the smartphone space in 2007 with the original iPhone 2G, the competition has blown past them when it comes to hardware specs to date. That changes in 2010 with the iPhone HD.

We’ll cover the internals, the CPU and GPU, RAM and capacity in a future post, but in terms of what could easily be discerned so far, let’s break it down as follows:

Screen resolution

The original iPhone (and all iPhone models since) sported a 480×320 multitouch display. That display remains the absolute best multitouch screen on the market, bar none, but the resolution has been eclipsed by Android and Windows Phone where 800(+)x480 has become the new norm on the high end. HD2, Droid, Nexus One, Desire, EVO 4G, the list of obscenely large displays on competing platforms seems to be growing monthly. We were wondering (read: hoping) Apple would match that last year, even though we thought it would cause problems for developers (the way it has for Android). Apple didn’t. They kept the iPhone 3GS at the same 480×320. This year we again hoped they’d match it. According to rumors, Apple won’t — they’re going to exceed it.

Gizmodo couldn’t see anything other than the connect-to-iTunes screen, so we don’t know for certain what the actual resolution will be, but they claimed to be unable to see the pictures, but Daring Fireball has said a whopping 960×640 is what’s supposed to be on the iPhone HD (hence the name TiPb predicted back in 2009 and Engadget hears just might be the name in 2010). That’s twice the vertical and twice the horizontal pixel count as all the previous generations of iPhone. It’s also over 300dpi at the physical size Gizmodo showed off. Daring Fireball points out, and our own past experience tells us, that’s past fair quality print resolution, especially for color work. With Apple’s sub-pixel anti-aliasing (where the red, green, and blue components of each pixel can be fired independently), it might just look as good as a high-end glossy magazine, and that would be incredible.

Being twice the current iPhone resolution also ties remarkably well into something Apple announced for the iPad and its larger, if less dense 1024×768 screen — pixel doubling. Every pixel on the iPhone can be doubled to occupy four pixels (2 vertical x 2 horizontal) on the iPhone HD and at 300dpi look pretty much identical. No blurry double-chunky like on the iPad, and no problem for older iPhone apps. No fragmentation. (And when developers update with universal binaries for iPhone, they should look fantastic, and should also work at 1x at the same size as current iPhone apps work at 2x on the iPad). In other words, it solves a lot of problems for Apple and developers.

Front-facing camera

When the iPhone 2G shipped without Mobile iChat it was a source of speculation (conspiracy theorists thinking AT&T didn’t want anything cutting into their lucrative SMS business). Since then there have been persistent rumors that not only was Mobile iChat coming, Mobile iChat video was coming with it. Of course, that would mean a front-facing camera — a webcam or chat-cam. While it didn’t appear on either the iPhone 3G or the iPhone 3GS, it is on the iPhone HD and strings for iChat have been showing up in the software starting in iPhone 3.2 for iPad and continuing into iPhone OS 4 beta 1.

Sprint’s upcoming Android EVO 4G will have a front-facing camera when it ships, and will be working on a fast WiMax connection. Whether or not AT&T, which still faces data issues in some markets, will allow iChat video over their 3G network is unknown. If not, like movie downloads on current iPhones, it could be restricted to Wi-Fi only use, where cell bandwidth is no issue. Perhaps it will be similar to how streaming video is handled today — lower quality of 3G, higher quality over Wi-Fi.

Bigger rear-facing camera

Gizmodo also noted that the camera on the back of the iPhone HD was “bigger”. 5 megapixels would be nice. The new Verizon Droid Incredible has an 8 megapixel camera but if the point-and-shoot wars have taught us anything it’s that pixel size… well, it matters, but it matters less than lens quality. We’d take a great 5 megapixel lens that doesn’t cut up the sensor too much and gives better low-light sensitivity than a bigger, worse camera (ahem, Droid).

Camera flash

There looks to also be a flash, which would match with rumors of Apple looking for LED flash components. No, it’s not built into a glowing Apple logo, but it’s there.

Many other phones have had this for a long time, and while it wouldn’t excite us as much as a quality low-light lens, we’re not upset to see it.

Secondary mic

In addition to the same mic on the bottom of the device found in all previous iPhones, the iPhone HD looks to have a small mic on the top as well. Gizmodo theorizes that this is like the Nexus One — a noise cancelation mic that reads ambient sound and removes it from the main audio channel making you sound clearer to the person on the other end.

If there’s a top mounted iChat camera, however, could it also serve (or serve double duty) for chat?

Battery

The aluminum band around the iPhone HD is oddly broken at the bottom making it into two discreet pieces. Some have suggested this is so that the device can be easily opened and the battery swapped out. The EU is mandating user-swappable batteries, which is part of where the logic behind this line of thinking lies. There’s also a break up top, so we’re not even sure how far that logic goes.

Anything is possible, but given the size and type of batteries Apple is making lately, and the life they’re getting out of them, we’re not getting our hopes up. Gizmodo pegs the iPhone HD battery as 16% larger already — 5.25 WHr at 3.7V vs. the current 4.51 WHr at 3.7V.

For the most part we have external chargers. Unless we could swap the battery for one that supported inductive charging, that is…

UPDATE: Gizmodo has done an iPhone HD tear-down and the battery in NOT removable. (So here’s hoping those breaks in the aluminum are).

MicroSIM

Like iPad, the iPhone HD will use a MicroSIM as opposed to the MiniSIM found in current iPhones and almost all other phones. They’re a standard and they’re likely to become more common in the future, especially with Apple supporting them. (AT&T, Vodafone UK, Orange UK, O2, and Rogers have already announced support for the iPad).

They’re also compatible with MiniSIM so you can cut down a MiniSIM to use it in a MicroSIM device, or put a “jacket” on a MicroSIM and use it in a MiniSIM device.

It’ll make frequent SIM-switchers’ lives more difficult for a while, no doubt, which might be part of the plan, but if it saves space inside for more battery, we won’t complain too much.

Ceramic/glass back

The first iPhone 2G used aluminum for the back, with a plastic stripe to allow radio reception. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS went full on plastic. The iPhone HD seems to have a more glass-like back, but what that means exactly is uncertain. Certainly glass on the front and back would double the breakable surface area of the iPhone HD.

Mention has been made of an Apple patent for ceramics that would be glass-like, tough, and radio transparent. According to a source who claims familiarity with past Apple ceramic initiatives, however, that’s unlikely for two reasons: pricing and rigidity. While there are ways around the rigidity, that drives up pricing. The flat backing, if final design, would be cheaper to deliver than something like the iPhone 3GS’ curved back, but it wouldn’t solve the rigidity problem. Apple has been so determined to keep their price-point down, raising it to cover the costs of a ceramic back might not make sense yet. Rather, something akin to Gorilla Glass could be used for the actual screen itself.

We’re not super-smart chemists/alchemists, so whether or not Apple has solved those problems, or come up with some other material, there’s no way to know.

Conclusion

So there it is — a lot of rumor, a little hands-on, and just over a month to go before Steve Jobs takes the WWDC stage and almost certainly shows us all the final iPhone HD (or iPhone 4G, or whatever they call it). Like an episode of Lost, every answer until then will likely only leave us with more questions. We’ve shared our thoughts, now it’s your turn. What do you think of the 4th generation iPhone specs seen and rumored so far?

Regarding the iPhone HD/iPhone 4G hardware specs is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has announced their Q2 2010 financial results, including sales of 8.75 million iPhones, 10.89 million iPods, and $13.50 billion in revenue. We’re now listening in to their conference call and updating any particularly relevant iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad news below:

• Call beginning. Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer (Apple COO and CFO are there). No Steve Jobs (CEO)
• Best non-holiday quarter ever (again)
• Highest iPhone sales quarter ever. (wow).
• Almost 3 million Macs. Starting with those. We’ll take a nap until iPhone comes up…
• iPod touch sales 63% year to year. Strong performance. Strongest growth rate in a while. Still over 70% share.
• iTunes sales 1.1 billion, strong on music, video, apps.
• 185,000 apps, over 4 billion downloads
• iPhone grows more than 3x more than smartphone estimates over all.
• Best quarter ever for iPhone (wow repeat).
• 151 carriers in 88 countries.
• IPhone again ranked first in JD Powers.
• iPhone OS 4 this summer, developers thrilled.
• iPad 3G on track to ship April 30 US, end of May international
• Apple Retail up again as well.
• (Retail results remind us why Apple doesn’t need tradeshows anymore).
• Strong iPhone and accessory mix contributed to results.
• Over $40 billion in the bank now, up over $1 billion. Still keeping it in the bank.
• (Going over numbers, we’re waiting for the Q&A…)
• Next quarter will include iPad revenue.
• Q&A time!
• What impact has the iPad had on the Mac? Any cannibalization? Cook: No obvious impact last quarter on Mac or iPod. iPad sales have exceeded expectations.
• March step down due to iPad anticipation? Cook: [Not really.]
• Any word on mix of iPad Wifi vs. 3G sales? Cook: Too early.
• Low guidance for next quarter result of product change for iPhone (sneaky!): Oppenheimer: [long list of factors] Not much experience on seasonality of iPhone yet. Will report in July. iPad, thrilled… [yada yada boilerplate....]
• Why was iPhone so strong? International? Cook: Inventory was flat. Staggering growth rates Asia Pac (474%), Japan (183%), Europe (133%). Added 8 carriers in key countries, Vodafone in UK, Ireland. Existing carriers strong. Greater China (PRC, HK, Taiwan) up year over year, 800 more points of distribution. 1st half 2010 revenue was $1.3 billion up 200%.
• App Store and higher priced iPad apps? Oppenheimer: thrilled, [yada yada boilerplate]. 3500 iPad apps.
• Production demand? Can produce, can ramp up? Cook: no production problem per se. Demand stronger than predicted. Had to push out international launch to get iPad 3G out in US. We’ll see. Level of demand has shocked Apple.
• iAd is profit or break even like App Store? Oppenheimer: putting toes in water, learning, building foundation.
• AT&T network improvement plan? Cook: looking forward to continued improvement.
• How much of growth came from new carriers? Cook: don’t break that out but important.
• Exclusive carrier thinking? How important is availability to any carrier in any country? Cook: 3 main countries with contractual exclusive US, Germany, Spain. Others have smaller, co-exclusive. Over last year, moved some from exclusive to non, in each case sales of increased and so has market share, but doesn’t mean that’ll be the same everywhere. Think carefully everywhere, what’s in Apple’s best interest.
• iPad has dramatically lower margins than company average? Cook: don’t give out specific product margins, but priced iPad aggressively to deliver value. Thinks market size for iPad is very large, want to capitalize on first mover advantage. Good track record of riding out cost curves. That’s been their experience.
• iPad subscription accounting like iPhone or regular like iPod? Oppenheimer: Will discuss that in July quarter when they discuss iPad revenue.
• New hardware, new products, iPhone OS 4, new distribution, great marketing
• Apple is more aggressive in protecting patents, legal expenses? Oppenheimer: factored into guidance.
• International carriers 75% for last quarter? Learned anything about international market ramp-up? Cook: Smartphone market is great market to be in, high growth rate, iPhone outgrew market by 3x, even better outside US. Won’t say anymore, doesn’t want anyone to copy (zing!)
• Apple TV, any update? Cook: up 34% year-over-year, still small, still a hobby. Market is much smaller than PC, smartphone, MP3 player. Those are enormous. Apple TV is not in a market that large yet. However, they love product, use it, think something’s there.
• iAd could be source of significant incremental earnings? Oppenheimer: toes in the water, don’t expect much this calendar year, learning for future.
• Will iPad cannibalize iPod touch or competing netbooks? Cook: nothing obvious in iPod or Mac numbers to suggest cannibalization but hadn’t started selling yet so don’t know yet. Can’t answer netbook, to Cook its not brainer, 100 to 0, can’t think of a single thing netbook does well. Cook addicted, couldn’t live without it.
• Why is iPad independent market? Why will Apple outpace other tablets, ebook readers? Cook: Steve positioned it extremely well, between notebook and smartphone. His personal use, variety of things he’d put on that list. Email, browsing, music, videos, tv shows, reading books, list goes on. App Store, ecosystem, games, large canvas, serious apps, less serious apps. More room to do cool things. Is new category. Early but really like what they see. Had high hopes, exceeded those.
• With low end $99 iPhone, can Apple influence carriers on plan costs, TCO? Cook: do everything that they can to try and get best deal possible for consumer. iPhone 3GS mix was high, and that starts at $199. Price is important but people also want innovative product, apps, os, ecosystem, incredible hardware.
• iPad attach rates for accessories relative to iPhone, iPod? Oppenheimer: accessory portfolio is good for us, 5000 accessories for iPhone, iPod largely work for iPad. Apple has some great ones. Developers rallying as well. Give it a little time.
• [discussing Apple Store growth]
• iPad will be reported similar to iPhone, line item on data summary. Revenue will be reported for unit and for accessories, also similar to iPhone.
• iPad apps being bought differently than iPhone? Oppenheimer: very early days. Getting apps, getting books, great thing. Will talk more in future. Not focused on making a lot of money on App Store, run a bit over break even.
• iPhone halo in Europe? Oppenheimer: Don’t break it down.
• iPhone is sales value in quarter of sale, no carrier payments, accessories, etc.
• iPad bringing any new kinds of customers to Apple? Cook: too small a time, not something that could be read into.
• Other extraordinary products in pipeline, new or updates? Oppenheimer: won’t help competitors by answering.
• That’s it folks, thanks!

Apple Q2 2010 conference call – live notes is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has posted their Q2 2010 financial results and once again its the best non-holiday quarter even, including $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share. iPhone sales were 8.75 million (up 131%) and iPod sales of 10.89 million (down 1%). Says CEO Steve Jobs:

"We're thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent. We've launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year."

We’ll be listening in to their conference call and providing our usual special brand of TiPb commentary, so join us over in that post for more.

Apple sells 8.75 million iPhones, 10.89 million iPods, $13.50 billion in revenue is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has just released iPhone OS 4 SDK beta 2 on developer.apple.com for developers.

It’s great to see the 2 week schedule is being kept up, which means there should be several more leading up to a final, gold master seed at WWDC in 2010 and public release sometime to follow — probably alongside the 4th generation iPhone.

For more on iPhone OS 4, see TiPb’s complete iPhone OS 4 preview and feature walkthrough. No doubt code-diggers are already at work looking for even more in the newest release, so we’ll update when the finds come in.

If you notice anything, let us know in the comments!

iPhone OS 4 SDK beta 2 now available is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

In the category of no good deed goes unpunished, a man went to get a iPad for a friend and not only had the iPad stolen from him but also lost his pinkie finger.

He had been asked by a co-worker in Canada to pick him up a iPad. As he was leaving the store with the new iPad, two thieves grabbed for the iPad bag and began to yank. Unfortunately, though the man tried to let go, the thick Apple bag’s cord stayed stuck around his fingers and would not release.

Gore alert: the cord ended up shearing the flesh and tendons from the 59 year old victim’s finger. The only thing that remained was the bone which had to be amputated later at the hospital. The whole incident was captured on surveillance but as of writing this, no arrests have been made.

The victim did have a few choice words for the thieves, however, saying that they had changed his life forever for a piece of technology which will be junk in a couple of years.

Sadly, the victim had moved from New Jersey to Colorado to get away from a crime that had been committed 15 years ago.

[Engadget via CBS4Denver]

Thieves steal iPad, take man’s finger with it is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

If you’re looking to protect your big, beautiful iPad screen from scratches or just cut down on the glare, here’s a quick how-to on applying a screen protector to your iPad.

It’s a simple process but one that needs to be done right, so take your time and check out the step-by-steps and video after the break!

[Sponsored by the TiPb iPad accessory store]

1. Make sure your hands are clean, then make sure your iPad screen is clean. Use a good quality cleaning solution like iKlenz if you have one, and a microfiber cloth. Compressed air can help eradicate any lingering dust.
2. Make sure your hands are still clean (we really can’t stress that enough) and then carefully get the protector ready. It will depend on the exact brand (the TiPb iPad accessory store has several in stock) but usually this involves carefully peeling the backing off the application side of the screen.
3. Begin applying the screen protector to the Home button edge first, this will give you an extra guiding point. Take your time and peel back if needed to make sure you get a clean, straight fit.
4. Slowly lower more of the protector into place. Don’t worry about bubbles yet. As long as there’s no dust (you made sure of that, right?) you’ll be fine.
5. When the iPad screen protector is fully in place, gently start working out the bubbles. A credit card edge or your microfiber cloth can help with this.

That’s it. You now have a screen protector properly installed on your iPad, with all the scratch-resistance and anti-glare (depending on model) goodness that goes with it.

Check out the TiPb iPad accessory store for more on iPad screen protectors…

YouTube link

How to apply a screen protector to your iPad [sponsored] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has shown off iPhone OS 4 and now BGR has the first preview of BlackBerry’s attempt to maintain their messaging advantage and close the web-browsing and UI gap with BBOS 6.0.

BlackBerry is an email and BBM monster, no two ways about it, but until now we’ve been able to make fun of their ridiculously bad web browser and their inability (like Android) to store a large amount of large-sized apps (infinite app potential, tiny little onboard storage). And their java-based OS.

The bad news (for BlackBerry-faithful, good news for Apple) is that RIM doesn’t seem to have fixed the core problems behind the increasingly outdated OS, but the good news (for BlackBerry, decidedly not for Apple) is that they seem to have done more than enough to make those problems theoretical and almost complete non-issues for current users. (There don’t seem to be enough large apps to make the app limit a problem yet either — we’ll see when they get their texture-mapped OpenGL games on).

The biggest news looks to be the WebKit browser, based on the same engine Apple uses for Safari, along with complete OS-wide support for rubber-banding, pinch to zoom, and other multitouch gestures and user interaction behaviors. (Which raises the interesting issue of whether or not Apple decides to sue RIM the way they’re using HTC, or if RIM has enough patents to hold them off, like Palm presumably does).

There’s a lot more as well, including swipe-able homescreens, RSS in email, etc.

So what do you think? Did either Apple or RIM take a new-OS leap over the other, or will 2010 be much like 2009 — two devices still top of their respective categories, keeping up but not taking the lead?

[BGR via CrackBerry]

BlackBerry OS 6.0 coming soon, includes WebKit browser, multitouch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple announced today that the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models would indeed be available in the US in “late April”, technically the latest April date available — April 30:

Wi-Fi + 3G models of [Apple's] magical iPad will be delivered to US customers who've pre-ordered on Friday, April 30, and will be available in Apple retail stores the same day starting at 5:00 p.m.

iPad Wi-Fi + 3G is identical to the Wi-Fi only models that shipped on April 3 (see TiPb’s iPad review), but include an unlocked 3G radio for connectivity on the go, and aggressive AT&T plans for contract-free data at $14.99 for 256MB and $30 for unlimited.

That just leaves international iPads, which are still scheduled for pre-order starting May 10 and release starting “late May” in several additional countries, including Australia and Canada.

If you’ve go confirmation of your iPad Wi-Fi + 3G shipment, or plan on lining up at an Apple Store near you to grab one, let us know!

iPad Wi-Fi + 3G available in the US starting April 30 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is once again hitting the send button and lighting the internet on fire, this time telling someone who would prefer parental controls over outright bans that if he wants porn, he can go Android. (Is that what the kids are calling it these days?)

The email from Matthew Browing, who also expressed concern over the initial rejection of Mark Fiore’s political satire app:

I'm all for keeping porn out of kids hands. Heck – I'm all for ensuring that I don't have to see it unless I want to. But… that's what parental controls are for. Put these types of apps into categories and allow them to be blocked by their parents should they want to.

The response from Steve Jobs:

Fiore's app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and Android phone.

Or, as the cliche goes, just launch Mobile Safari on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad…

This isn’t the first time Jobs has linked Android to porn; he did so during the iPhone OS 4 sneak preview event’s Q&A session in response to a question about why Apple doesn’t allow side-loading of apps:

You know, there's a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That's a place we don't want to go – so we're not going to go there.

We’re shocked and appalled to find this out, of course, and if that’s the case, we wonder how our good buddy Phil from Android Central manages to get any reviews done…

[via Techcrunch]

Steve Jobs: want porn, go to Android is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog