MacRumors

According to analyst Wanli Wang at CIMB Securities, as shared by The Economic Times, Taiwan based electronics manufacturers Inventec and Quanta have won contracts to produce Apple’s iWatch. Wang's supply chain sources indicate that Inventec will produce the majority of the iWatch at 60%, while Quanta will handle the remaining portion of production. The report also claims that the iWatch will sell for an average of $199 and projects shipments of 63.4 million units in the year after its launch.

"Apple is likely to introduce 'iWatch' in 2014. From our channel checks, Inventec is the major assembly source for 'iWatch', with about 60 per cent of order allocation," said CIMB Securities analyst Wanli Wang in a report.

CIMB projects 63.4 million units of "iWatch" shipments in the year after its launch with an average price of around $199, while the "iWatch" project is estimated to contribute 19 per cent of Inventec's earnings in 2014, Wang said.

Supply chain sources do on occasion offer accurate information on Apple's plans, but they are also prone to sharing incorrect or incomplete information, so their reliability is difficult to ascertain.

CIMB's pricing and unit shipments also appear to be based more on speculation and modeling than any specific information, suggesting that they should be taken with considerable skepticism.

In the past couple of months, Apple has been reportedly been ramping up its iWatch effort, hiring new employees with expertise in health sensors, including fitness expert and Nike product consultant Jay Blahnik. Apple has also been filing trademark applications on the iWatch name in a number of countries, and is reportedly looking toward a late 2014 launch for the product as it works to solve numerous technical challenges.

According to a new survey from research firm Forrester (via TechCrunch), Apple's iOS phone platform remains the highest priority for mobile software development teams, followed by the Android phone platform and the iOS tablet platform in second and third place respectively. The survey was done by asking 765 software developers creating mobile applications, and addressed not only iOS and Android but also platforms such as Windows Phone and Blackberry 10.

But while the survey shows that the iPhone remains the highest priority for developers, it also shows that more developers target Android phones somewhere in their plans, with 84% of developers planning Android phone support compared to the iPhone at 77%. A similar split is seen in tablets, with iOS being rated as the top priority by the most developers but Android more developers overall planning to support Android.

Despite iOS getting this first app mover advantage, more developers target Android phones overall than target iPhones (84% rank Android phones as a priority vs 77% for iPhones). This is to be expected, with Android being on so many smartphones at multiple price-points vs Apple’s limited iPhone portfolio. However the iPad does help to expand Apple’s developer mojo, with 27% of respondents ranking the iPad as their second priority device vs around a fifth putting the same level of importance on Android tablets. By contrast Windows RT tablets are being largely ignored by developers, according to Forrester’s data.

Apple is set to release iOS 7, the next version of its mobile operating system, in the next couple of months, likely fairly soon after the company's September 10 media event.

Sonny Dickson has posted several new photos showing the alleged front panel from the next-generation iPad, which is said to carry a slimmer, thinner design similar to the iPad mini. The photos appear to be consistent with a previous leak that depicted the front panel of the black next-generation iPad and an April leak showing the white version, all showing the same narrower side bezels. as well as a pair of flex cables that run along the long edge of the pane that also appear to consistent with prior reports.

As with the black front panel part from earlier this month, this white part includes the integrated digitizer, with a pair of flex cables running along the long edge of the pane. Thosee connectors are somewhat different from those seen in Apple’s current line of iPads, but the company has also been rumored to be making a number of technological changes for the upcoming iPad, such as using the same touch panel technology found in the current-generation iPad mini.

Apple will reportedly release the thinner full-size iPad and the next-generation iPad mini in the final three months of the year. The company is holding an iPhone media event on September 10, and it has been thought that new iPads would appear at a later date, but a report today claims that both iPhone and iPads will be introduced at the September 10 event.

Popular peer-to-peer service BitTorrent has launched BitTorrent Sync for iOS, an app that allows users to sync and backup an unlimited number of files across their devices as well as the ability to share files with other devices. The app allows for syncing of photos and videos with Camera Roll backup integration, and also offers encrypted file transfers and QR code support for peer transfers.

BitTorrent Sync is a brand new product from BitTorrent that lets you sync an unlimited number of files and folders of any size across all of your trusted devices. BitTorrent Sync for iOS gives you access to all of your synced folders when you’re on the go, and introduces a new mobile-to-mobile sharing feature for easily sending your photos and videos to your friends.

Prior to its release on iOS, the app started as an Android-only project released in beta last month. BitTorrent Sync can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

After the latest update to Apple TV disabled the functionality of the popular PlexConnect plugin, which allows Plex to run on non-jailbroken devices, developer Paul Kehrer has posted a detailed tutorial on his personal blog providing instructions on how to fix the issue.

The instructions, although somewhat technical, are fairly easy to follow. Users will require a copy of Apple Configurator (which is currently only available on OS X at the moment) and a micro-USB cable in order to connect their Apple TV to their Mac.

The fix is only intended to be temporary, and it may be disabled in future Apple TV updates. Yesterday, Plex Chief Technology Officer Elan Feingold told MacRumors that the company was "saddened to hear that PlexConnect stopped working" and that "we can only hope that in the future Apple decides to release an SDK for the ATV", citing that interest in the project was "high".

Parallels, the company behind popular virtualization software Parallels, has launched a new iPad app and subscription service called Parallels Access that allows iPad and iPad mini users to remotely access and use their Mac or Windows apps on the device.

With Parallels Access you can increase your productivity by accessing your computers and desktop applications from anywhere. You are able to access your professional business applications and get all your entertainment such as streaming video from your Mac or PC onto your iPad. And do it as though all your Windows and Mac applications were designed for your iPad.

The app allows users to interact with their desktop apps in the same way they would interact with their iPad apps, with the full range of iPad gestures available for compatible apps. Parallels Access translates what would usually be mouse clicks and movements into iPad-friendly alternatives.

Users must download the free Parallels Access Desktop app to their computer of choice in addition to the app on the iPad. They can then access their desktop apps via the Sprinboard-like App Launcher and switch between apps in the iOS-like App Switcher. The apps are only available to use on the iPad in "full screen" mode.

The app, though free, requires a subscription service and costs $79.99 a year per computer running a registered client. Parallels offers a free 14-day trial that allows users to test the app before purchasing.

Parallels Access is available for free for the iPad and iPad mini [Direct Link]

Today's Apple TV update breaks the PlexConnect client that allowed Plex -- the advanced server-client media player -- to run on non-jailbroken Apple TV devices.

Plex allows users to store movie and TV show files on a server and then view those files on a wide variety of client devices including Macs, PCs, a number of smart televisions, the Roku box and the Apple TV. The server also connects to Internet databases to pull IMDB-type metadata on media.

The client, called PlexConnect, used a hack to get video from the Plex Media Server onto the Apple TV. A small Python program on the Mac intercepted DNS requests from the Movie Trailers app on the Apple TV and instead returned a custom XML feed that delivered a list of media and movie streams to the device.

Now, however, Apple has closed the loophole. Previously, the Trailers app used regular HTTP requests and the PlexConnect app intercepted those requests. Now, the Trailers app uses HTTPS and it is likely impossible for the Plex programmers to overcome it.

Plex CTO Elan Feingold told MacRumors that the company was "saddened to hear that PlexConnect stopped working" and that "we can only hope that in the future Apple decides to release an SDK for the ATV". "The level of interest in the project was quite high."

Rovio is planning to debut a new game in its Angry Birds series, entitled Angry Birds Go. Created in partnership with RedBull, the game was first teased in mid-June with a website that featured a bird dashing down a pathway.

Angry Birds Go is unlike Rovio's standard Angry Birds games, which focus on physics-based puzzles solved by flinging birds at various structures. Instead, the game appears to be a kart racing game. As noted by our sister site TouchArcade, Redbull has a multitude of racing games in the App Store already.

The specific game mechanics are unclear, but it does appear that players will race karts against each other. While the video teaser does not mention a specific release date, it does say "All will be revealed soon!"

An unusual patent awarded to Apple today suggests that the company is looking into the possibility of integrating so-called "silent disco" technology into its upcoming devices, according to AppleInsider. The patent, No. 8,521,316, was first filed back in March 2010 and lists Sylvain Louboutin, a former Apple software engineer who now works at Roku as its inventor. It describes a "coordinated group musical experience" in which a "personal communication device" can be used to share music with a group of people.

The patent describes a system whereby musical characteristics such as tempo (BPM) are shared with nearby users and the user's device will automatically select songs that are similar in nature. The system would transmit the digital information of a song being played by one user, or the "roving DJ" as the patent calls it, to any connected devices over the local network. Unlike traditional silent discos, where the same song is transmitted across radio frequencies, this system will use the songs that are already present on a user's device, presumably due to copyright reasons.

The technology is similar to the latest craze dubbed "mobile clubbing", where a group of people get together in one place and dance to their own music. Location, however, is not a deciding factor with Apple's system, as the signals can be transmitted over any means of wireless communication, including the Internet, Bluetooth and local wireless networks.

In other embodiments of the patent, users of the system can "rotate" DJs, so other people can select songs for the group to listen to. The patent notes that the system can be contained within one single application that is downloadable from the App Store.

Although this technology may not be implemented into any upcoming Apple products, it does present an interesting question of sharing music among iTunes users, which may be a key goal for Apple going forward. Its last foray into music-based social networking was Ping, which officially closed at the start of October last year after the service failed to impress its users.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published a patent filed by Apple back in September 2008 which describes the "systems and methods for saving and restoring scenes in a multimedia system" (via AppleInsider). Patent number 8,519,820, which lists Alan Cannistraro, a developer who worked on the original iTunes Remote application for iOS devices, appears to show an intelligent universal remote on a generic Apple device that can connect to a variety of audio-visual components around the user's home or workplace. The system is also capable of connecting to various "smart home" devices such as thermostats, lights and window blinds using either a wireless network, Bluetooth or a a similar wireless protocol.

According to the patent, Apple's system would allow users to control all of their connected devices, and would receive signals from each device based on its current operating state. The system proposed by Apple would automatically recognize each device, with data being transmitted over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a similar wireless protocol.

The system can also detect individual usage patterns and tailor the components to individual requirements. The patent lists an example of a horror movie — a user may want a certain combination of lighting — and this would be recognised by the system. It can also search a list of pre-defined settings that best suits the genre and users will have the option to either accept or reject a suggestion. The patent also describes a system whereby users can stop and restart media when they move around the house — for example, when they move to a room containing another television.

Although the patent was filed back in September 2008, the technology has not yet been implemented on any iOS device. It would also require significant hardware and software commitments by the manufacturers of home audio and visual components, as well as the manufacturers of various "smart home" devices.