Now that Apple's on an iOS-like yearly update schedule for the Mac's OS X operating system, it'd be big news if we didn't start to see traces of the next version, OS X 10.9, start appearing in server logs sometime that is soonish. Well, no cause for concern, because the next big cat is out of the bag and stealthily surfing the web. Seth Weintraub from 9to5Mac posted this morning that he'd been seeing 10.9 in his logs, so I checked iMore's and sure enough, it's there too.

We probably won't hear much more about 10.9 until Apple formally announces the beta sometime next year. But if nothing else, you can rest assured newly anointed SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Frederighi and company are already hard at work on it.

And since they might be reading this very post, why not take a minute and let them know what you'd like to see in OS X 10.9? Per-app AirPlay so we can work on one app while mirroring another? iBooks for OS X? Reupholstering of the linen and stitched leather to something more Ive-inspired, like aluminium? Documents in the Cloud that aren't tied to specific apps but can be accessed via a unified repository? A much better, much more social Game Center?

What's on top of your OS X hit-list?

If you've got an iPhone 4S that's out of warranty and the vibration function has stopped working or is very faint, odds are you need a new vibrator assembly. A DIY repair isn't too terribly difficult and will cost you far less than a new iPhone.

Follow along and we'll help you replace the vibrator assembly and keep your iPhone 4S going strong for even longer.

Disclaimer: As with any repair, neither iMore nor The Pod Drop can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It's also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don't feel comfortable opening your device, don't. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.

Not comfortable with DIY repair? Leave it to the pros

If you aren't comfortable performing a DIY repair on your own, don't. It is possible to cause more damage or run into issues you aren't ready for. In this case, it's probably better to either pay the money for a replacement device from Apple or use a local or mail-in service that will handle the repair and any issues that may arise for you.

The Pod Drop has many locations in the midwest and is a rapidly growing company. You can check for a Pod Drop location near you, mail it in, or use another third party repair service. For more information on mail-in repairs or possible Pod Drop locations near you, you can visit their website.

• Pod Drop locations and mail-in options

If you are comfortable with repairing your own device, put your ninja pants on and keep reading!

What you'll need to DIY replace an iPhone 4S vibrator assembly

The Pod Drop recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs. You will find links to the specific parts you'll need for this repair in the list below.

• iPhone 4S (any variant)
• Replacement vibrator assembly - Link to part
• #00 Phillips screwdriver - Link to part
• Security screwdriver - Link to part
• Spudger tool - Link to part
• SIM removal tool or paperclip

Video walkthrough

While the video walkthrough is pretty detailed, we still recommend using it in correlation with the written steps below. The video above is a complete teardown and you don't need to complete all the steps in order to replace the vibrator assembly.

Power off your iPhone 4S

Before performing any repair you should always power off your device before opening it up.

Remove the back plate

1. Using your security screwdriver, remove the 2 screws on either side of the dock connector port.

2. Set them aside. They are both the exact same size and length so it does not matter if you mix them up. They are interchangeable.
3. Gently slide up the back plate by applying a bit of pressure along the bottom with your thumbs and sliding upwards.

4. Now lift off the back plate and set it aside.

Remove the battery and grounding clip

1. Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the two screws holding the battery in place.

2. These screws are different lengths so make sure you remember which one goes where. The one that is slightly larger is the bottom screw.
3. There is a tiny grounding clip underneath the battery clip where the first screw is located. Use your spudger tool or finger to remove it before prying the clip up. Many times it can go flying if you don't remove it first and then you'll have difficulty locating it so it's best to remove it first.

4. Now use your spudger tool and at the bottom of the battery clip, gently pry upwards so the clip pops up.

5. Move to the edge of the iPhone where the volume buttons are located and use your spudger tool to carefully pry up the battery. It is stuck down with a good amount of adhesive so be careful when prying upwards that you don't bend the battery. This is why I do not use the plastic tab that is provided. It typically rips or bends the battery. If one part is resistant move your pry tool a little further down and gently start prying it up in different places taking care not to come too close to the volume button cables towards the top.

6. Once you've gotten the battery pulled out of the iPhone 4S we can move on to inserting the replacement battery.

Remove the top logic board shields

1. Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the four screws that hold the top silver shield in place and the one screw that holds the small black shield in place.

2. Now use your spudger or pry tool to gently lift the silver shield out of the iPhone.

3. Use your spudger or pry tool to lift the black shield out of the iPhone.

4. Set both shields aside and make sure your screws are organized for reassembly later.

Unclip the top logic board cables & remove the rear-facing camera

Using your spudger or pry tool carefully disconnect all the cables at the top of the logic board. There are seven cables total. One of the cables lies underneath the bottom most cable so you'll need to disconnect the cable over it before folding it back and revealing the shorter cable underneath.

Once you unclip the seven cables, you can lift the rear-facing camera directly out of the iPhone. It was only connected by one cable.

Disconnect the dock connector

1. Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver remove the shield that is covering the dock connector cable towards the middle left of the iPhone. Remember which screw came from where as they are different sizes. Gently lift the shield out of the iPhone and set it aside.

2. Take your spudger tool and gently pry up the dock connector cable and peel it back as shown below. Perform this step with caution as there is adhesive on the underside of the cable. Take care not to rip the cable by pulling up to quickly.

3. Leave the cable in this position and move on to the next section.

Pry up the Wi-Fi antenna

1. Using your spudger toolcarefully pry up the round connection for the cellular antenna. It should come up easily so pry up gently.

2. You'll notice that it is wrapped around a metal clip. Gently unwrap it so it's sticking upwards and leave it in this position.

Remove the SIM card and tray

Using a SIM removal tool or a bent paper clip, eject the SIM tray and set it, and the SIM card aside.

Remove the logic board

1. Remove the three #00 Phillips screws at the top, middle, and bottom left of the logic board with your #00 Phillips screwdriver. The top screw has a piece of tape over it you'll need to peel back. After removing it you'll also notice a gold grounding clip underneath it. Make sure you don't lose it as you'll need it for reassembly.

2. There are two more screws holding the logic board in place and you'll need to remove them with your flat head screwdriver. They are located at the top right and bottom of the logic board.
3. Now you should be able to lift the logic board out of the iPhone. Use the area that the rear-facing camera was located and the bottom of the logic board to lift it straight out.

Replace the vibrator assembly

1. The vibrator assembly in the iPhone 4S is only held down with adhesive. Use your pry tool to gently pry it up from the mid-frame of the device. Just take care not to bend it.
2. Next, gently lift the old vibrator assembly out of the device.
3. Your replacement vibrator assembly should come equipped with adhesive on the bottom. Just peel off the backing and carefully replace the vibrator assembly. Be sure you line it up with the screw hold as well as straight along the bottom where the speaker housing will sit.
4. If your new vibrator assembly didn't come with adhesive, any type of thin two sided adhesive will work. You don't need much. Just enough to keep it in place.

Reassemble your iPhone 4S

To reassemble your iPhone 4S you can follow all these steps in reverse order or you can watch our reassembly video guide above. We recommend using both in conjunction with each other. The reassembly video is a complete teardown from the screen down so you won't need to watch the entire thing to complete reassembly of your iPhone 4S. You'll only need to watch from about 5:35 to the end.

And ...done!

Now that you've completely finished reassembling your iPhone 4S you can go ahead and press the power button to turn it back on. Once it completely boots up, test the vibrator function by flipping the vibrate switch. If all went well, you should now have vibrator functionality again. If for some reason it still isn't vibrating, check to make sure the vibrator assembly is lined up correctly.

We hope you don't, but if you do run into issues with this repair, you can check out our DIY and mod forums for answers to many questions or e-mail me directly with your questions.

Additional resources:

• How to replace a shattered or unresponsive iPhone 4S screen
• How to replace the battery in an iPhone 4S
• How to replace the dock connector in an iPhone 4S
• Even more DIY repair guides for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Regulators in the European Union are reportedly ready to accept the offer made by Apple and four book publishers, bringing an end to an antitrust probe regarding ebook pricing. Apple and these publishers made the offer back in September, and regulators are expected to announce their acceptance of the deal next month. The deal with European regulators addresses aspects of pricing and contracts that prevent lower pricing at rival retailers. Foo Yun Chee of Reuters reports:

The case underscores the battle between retailers and publishers over pricing control of e-books, which publishers hope will boost revenue and increase customers.

Apple and the publishers have offered to let retailers set their own prices or discounts for a period of two years, and also to suspend "most-favored nation" contracts for five years, the sources said.

Previously, publishers have sought to increase their control over ebook prices, trying to prevent retailers, like Amazon, from setting lower prices on ebooks. For a long time, Amazon ebooks usually sold at a maximum of $9.99, until publishers started demanding higher prices to increase profits. Apple's issue in this is that it had these so-called "most-favored nation" contracts with publishers, preventing publishers from negotiating lower ebook prices with other retailers. The antitrust issue here is not one of monopoly, but of collusion. Specifically, did Apple and the book publishers conspire to break Amazon's hold on ebook pricing? In Europe at least, the answer seems to be "Yes". The US Department of Justice settled a similar case with publishers last month, which resulted in publishers agreeing to pay a certain amount of credit per ebook to Amazon customers who payed higher prices for books than they would have without publishers interference.

Source: Reuters

Newsstand, Apple's own subscription service for magazines and newspapers, allows you to read all your content in one place without having to mess with physical print content any longer. It's super easy to subscribe to publications but what about when you want to unsubscribe to something?

You can always use iTunes on your computer to manage subscriptions but why go through all that trouble if you can unsubscribe from Newsstand content straight from your iPhone and iPad as well. Here's how.

1. Launch Settings from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap on iTunes & App Stores.

3. Here you'll see your Apple ID at the very top in the form of your e-mail address. Tap on it.

4. A pop-up will come up. Choose View Apple ID.

5. You'll be prompted to type in your password. Type it in and then hit OK.

6. Under the Subscriptions section, tap on Manage.

7. You'll see a list of anything you've subscribed to that requires a yearly or monthly renewal. Find the magazine or newspaper subscription you want to renew or cancel and tap on the name.

8. Here you'll see renewal options. You can choose to cancel auto-renewal if you haven't already or renew the subscription further. Make your choices and enter your information.

9. Once you're done managing all your subscriptions you can simply tapDone in the upper right hand corner.

That's all there is to it. Your subscription settings will be updated and become affective immediately or for your next billing cycle.

Nokia and AT&T have announced that the new Lumia 820 and the Lumia 920 will be available for $49 and $99 respectively when they launch this Friday. That puts the more modest Lumia 820 smack in the middle of the free iPhone 4 and $99 iPhone 4S, and the flagship Lumia 920 at exactly the same price point as the iPhone 4S, Apple's year old phone, and fully $100 cheaper than the $299 price for Apple's flagship iPhone 5 with a similar 32GB of storage. Daniel Rubino from WPCentral has all your info:

There is little doubt in our mind that AT&T is making the Lumia 920 the best option with heavy subsidies. Coming in with 32GB of memory, the Lumia 920 is significantly cheaper than the same offering of the iPhone 5 with comparable memory ($299). Throw in a free wireless charging pad and for $99, users are getting a very good bargain for what is arguably one of the most powerful devices on the market today.

Undercutting Apple on price is nothing new. AT&T and Nokia launched the previous generation Lumia 900 for $99 as well and, sadly, it ended up being barely a blip on the radar. The problem with Windows Phone has never been price. It's been a) Microsoft not wanting to market it as something better than the incredibly bad Windows Phone brand, b) carrier reps not wanting to push it over Android, and c) customers not wanting to buy it over iPhone.

Right now, I'm not sure a free price point would move substantially more units of the much larger, heavier, thicker, far better camera equipped, but still very app-contrained Windows Phones.

That's why it remains flabbergasting to me that, even with Halo 4 launching this week, Microsoft still couldn't pull the trigger on Xphone Halo Edition. They couldn't figure out a single way to leverage any of the Halo 4 hype for their mobile platform.

Imagine the phone-branded equivalent to this sitting on shelves between Android and iPhone (or the empty spot where sold-out units would have been.)

Source: WPCentral

Today Only: Buy the Cruzerlite SPI-Force Case for iPhone 5 and save $14.95!

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I'm Canadian, so I care about the U.S. election only in so far as which candidate is less likely to invade us for our rich, tasty maple syrup reserves, and more likely to keep sending us movies, TV shows, and video games, all now the property of Disney Corp. Yet I understand a lot of you are U.S. citizens and care very much about the next 4 years of leadership in your country. So -- GET OUT AND VOTE.

Then, once you're done, come on back to iMore and we'll return to arguing about things from which there's never respite -- Apple vs. Google. iPhone vs. iPad. Marvel vs. DC. Coke vs. Pepsi. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. The Beatles vs. Elvis. Tastes great vs. less filling. Jackie Chan vs. Bruce Lee. Boxers vs. briefs. Cases vs. naked. Patents vs. no patents. Sparrow vs. Mailplane. 5 Guys vs. In-and-Out. East coast vs. West siyeeeeeeed. And shaved vs. unshaved (hey, it's MOvember!)

Because remember folks, we're all in this together. We all have to make this work.

Well known accessory manufacturer "Belkin" has announced that it will soon be shipping the first official third party accessories based on Apple's Lightning connector cable. The first accessories will be a rather innovative charge and sync dock and a car charger.

Belkin was the first third-party manufacturer to develop accessories for the 30-pin connector back in 2003, and we are thrilled to be first to market again with solutions for the new Lightning connector," said Martin Avila, general manager of Belkin's core division. "People are eager for Lightning accessories and Belkin's give them a reliable way to keep their new iPhone 5, iPad 4th generation, iPad mini or iPod touch charged, protected, and ready to go.

The Belkin Charge and Sync Dock can be used with or without a case on your iPhone 5 and comes complete with a folding Aux jack. The jack enable you to dock you iPhone 5 but still listen to music via headphones as the dock has its own Aux Port at the back. If you don't want to use the Aux Port you simply fold it down out of the way. The dock will be available on November 15th and costs $29.99; you will have to use your own Lightning cable as it doesn't come with its own.

The Car Charger with Lightning connector is simply a car charger with a Lightning connector. It does offer a one piece solution for your car charging needs and has a rating of 2.1 amps; so it should charge your iPhone 5 in a timely manner. The Car Charger will again be available on November 15th and will also cost $29.99.

It is good to see a high profile manufacturer eventually getting some Lightning accessories out of the door, it seems like it has been a long wait for things to happen so hopefully this will be the first of many more to come.

Source: Belkin PR

Instagram, the extremely popular photo sharing service for iPhones and other mobile devices, has started rolling out web profiles to its users. Previously, the only thing that could be viewed on the web was individual photos, but now entire profiles can be viewed from your favorite desktop (or mobile) browser. The profiles follow the same look and feel of the profile pages on the iPhone app, just on a larger scale.

Your web profile features a selection of your recently shared photographs just above your profile photo and bio, giving others a snapshot of the photos you share on Instagram. In addition, you can follow users, comment & like photos and edit your profile easily and directly from the web. It's a beautiful new way to share your Instagram photos!

To see a user's profile, simply navigate to instagram.com/username. For example, you can see @adidas26usa's profile at http://www.instagram.com/adidas26usa. If your photos are set to private, then only users who are logged in and been approved by you to see your photos will be able to view them. If your photos are set to public, then anyone will be able to view your profile and photos, even if they are not Instagram account holders.

It's interesting to see this mobile service slowly become more friendly to non-mobile visitors, but Instagram has assured that their focus is still on the mobile community.

Instagram is focused on the production of photos from mobile devices so users are not currently able to upload from the web. We're excited about how Web Profiles will make it easier to browse and share content on the web for all our users.

Instagram just started the rollout, today, and will have all profiles available by the end of the week. You will receive a notification in the Instagram iPhone app when yours becomes available.

What do you think of the new Instagram user profiles? I, for one, am a huge fan. Having the option to browse through someone's Instagram photos from my desktop is great.

Source: Instagram

Facebook has just updated their app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to version 5.1 which brings with it updates to make chat easier to access, a way to add favorites to the top of your chat panel, multi-photo upload, and more. Unfortunately, many users are reporting multiple issues with the new update as well.

The update release notes are as follows -

Now it's easier to chat with your friends and share multiple photos. - Swipe left anywhere in the app to quickly see who's available and send a message - Add friends you message most to the top of your Favorites - Share multiple photos fast - Give real gifts to your friends using Facebook Gifts (US-only) - When sending messages, see who's active so you and your friends know how soon to expect a reply

While the ability to upload multiple photos at once may be cause for celebration for some Facebook users, others are wishing they wouldn't have updated at all. We've received several reports from readers claiming that after the update they were unable to log in at all or the "Recent Updates" section of the update was blank.

Some users have reported that uninstalling the app and re-installing it fixed the issue while others aren't having any luck. If you've updated Facebook for iOS to version 5.1, are you experiencing any issues? If so, let us know what issues you're having in the comments.

Just like Apple once investigated Intel processors for Macs back when they were still all-in on PowerPC, so once again do we hear about Apple mulling customer processors for their Mac line. This time the story's spun around the new technologies group, headed by Bob Mansfield, and reports they're working on new, custom processors for desktops and laptops that are variations of the A-series processors found in iOS devices. Adam Satariano of Bloomberg reports:

To be sure, no final decision has been made and Apple may opt to continue working with Intel for years to come. For Apple, the risk of turning its back on Intel is a repeat of its situation in 2005, when it had to abandon the PowerPC chips -- made by Motorola and IBM -- it had used in its Mac line. At the time, its processors had fallen so far behind Intel's in performance that it decided to team up with the chipmaker. The first Mac models running Intel chips were unveiled in January 2006.

Apple is known for planning ahead and exploring its options. Before the switch from PowerPC to Intel chips was revealed in 2005, Apple had various versions of OS X running on Intel-based machines for a couple of years. Just because they're exploring it doesn't mean it will happen anytime soon, if it happens at all. However, we also have to remember that Apple wants to rely on as few outside companies as possible when making their products. Keep in mind that in relying on Intel chips, any advances Apple might wish to make are subject to Intel's release schedule, and they get the same processors as everyone else. Making their own chips would allow Apple to more tightly integrate OS X with their hardware, and may even allow more interoperability between OS X and iOS.

Source: Bloomberg