MacRumors

Following up on yesterday's report from Bloomberg that has rekindled discussion of Apple potentially making a switch from Intel's processors to custom ARM-based chips for its Mac lines, AllThingsD takes a closer look at the landscape to analyze the benefits and challenges of such a move.

The report contrasts Intel's focus on performance with ARM's focus on power efficiency and notes that there is no inherent reason why Apple couldn't push ARM technology more toward the performance end of the spectrum to make the chips more suitable for desktops and notebooks.

If a company decided it wanted to design an ARM chip that was, as [analyst Nathan] Brookwood put it, “hell-bent on performance,” it could be done. “You could get a pretty fast machine,” he says.

Trouble is, it would have to be not only be fast, but have a really excellent roadmap lasting well into the future that not only met but exceeded that of Intel. That’s a tall, tall order.

The report points to ARM's just-announced 64-bit processor designs as being key to any move into the Mac, and notes that Russian company Elbrus Technologies has developed a Rosetta-like emulation technology that could allow ARM chips to run software written for Intel processors.

On the flip side, Intel has a long track record of being at the forefront of processor performance and a strong history with Apple since the company's Mac lines transitioned from PowerPC chips seven years ago. As a result, any decision to switch from Intel to ARM obviously can not be made lightly, and Apple is clearly taking an extended timeframe to examine the possibility. But with Bob Mansfield now heading up a division of Apple dedicated new technologies in wireless and semiconductors, it seems that there may be a renewed focus on pushing the boundaries of the ARM platform even further.

Apple is considering dropping Intel CPUs in favor of its own chip design, according to a report from Bloomberg. It was rumored last year that Apple was considering switching from Intel to ARM processors in future laptops.

Apple engineers have grown confident that the chip designs used for its mobile devices will one day be powerful enough to run its desktops and laptops, said three people with knowledge of the work, who asked to remain anonymous because the plans are confidential. Apple began using Intel chips for Macs in 2005.

While Apple is now committed to Intel in computers and is unlikely to switch in the next few years, some engineers say a shift to its own designs is inevitable as the features of mobile devices and PCs become more similar, two people said. Any change would be a blow to Intel, the world’s largest processor maker, which has already been hurt by a stagnating market for computers running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software and its failure to gain a foothold in mobile gadgets.

Apple has recently moved away from using off the shelf chips in its iOS devices in recent years, launching its latest A6 and A6X chips based on custom designs. The company has acquired a number of hardware firms to ramp up its expertise in integrated circuit design.

Apple acquired chip designer P.A. Semi in 2008 for $278 million, ARM specialist Intrinsity in 2010, and most recently, Israeli flash memory firm Anobit earlier this year.

Apple first announced its move to Intel processors back in 2005, dropping PowerPC chips because of issues with power consumption and limited availability of high-performance processors.

Research firm IDC today released its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the third quarter of 2012, finding that several Android tablet manufacturers saw very strong growth as Apple stagnated during the lead-up to the iPad mini launch. As a result, Apple's share of the market fell to 50.4% from 59.7% in the year-ago quarter and 68.2% in the second quarter of this year.

"After a very strong second quarter, Apple saw growth slow as both consumer and commercial (including education) shipments declined, and rumors of a forthcoming iPad mini began to heat up," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Tablets at IDC. "We believe a sizeable percentage of consumers interested in buying an Apple tablet sat out the third quarter in anticipation of an announcement about the new iPad mini. Now that the new mini, and a fourth-generation full-sized iPad, are both shipping we expect Apple to have a very good quarter. However, we believe the mini's relatively high $329 starting price leaves plenty of room for Android vendors to build upon the success they achieved in the third quarter."

Second-place Samsung saw its shipments more than quadruple year-over-year and more than double from just the previous quarter. Amazon has also experienced strong growth with the Kindle Fire and its successors, moving rapidly to secure nearly 10% of the market.

Historically, tablet shipment numbers have been viewed as flawed as each new iPad competitor flooded the market with shipments only to see the devices languish on store shelves. But with Samsung, Amazon and others now beginning to establish some track records and momentum in the tablet market, these shipment numbers are likely to be increasingly reflective of customer preference.

Much of the discussion about the iPad mini has centered around the device's display, which reportedly represents 43% of the overall cost of manufacturing. While the display is said to take advantage of new "GF2" technology to allow for a thinner, high-quality display, it does not carry the Retina-level resolution users have become accustomed to in the iPhone and iPad.

DisplayMate's Ray Soneira has now put the iPad mini's display through its paces, publishing a new iPad mini Display Technology Shoot-Out comparing its performance to that of the full-size iPad, as well as Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7. Overall, Soneira found that the iPad mini's display is "very capable", but surprisingly falls short of competing devices in a number of areas.

The iPad mini is certainly a very capable small Tablet, but it does not follow in Apple’s tradition of providing the best display, or at least a great display – it has just a very capable display. What’s more, the displays on existing mini Tablets from Amazon and Google outperform the iPad mini in most of our Lab tests as documented below in the Shoot-Out Comparison Table. Some of this results from constraints within the iPad product line, and some to realistic constraints on display technology and costs, but much of it is due to a number of poor choices and compromises.

Among the issues Soneira found with the iPad mini's display:

- Lower resolution: This is obviously not a surprise given the cost and power requirements of putting in a full Retina-level display at 326 pixels per inch (ppi), but the 163 ppi screen of the iPad mini even falls short compared to the 216 ppi displays of the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7.

- Reflectance: The iPad mini's screen reflectance measures at a "surprisingly high" 9.0%, meaning that the iPad mini's display reflects 53% more ambient light than the Nexus 7's display and 41% more than the Kindle Fire HD's screen. Both of the competitors also offer better contrast under high ambient light.

- Color gamut: The iPad mini's color gamut registers at 62%, on par with the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4, but below the 100% figure for latest iPhone and full-size iPad models and below the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 at 86%.

While the iPad mini's display falls short of its larger sibling and more direct competitors on pure specs, Soneira does note that the display holds up fairly well in real-world usage due to excellent calibration and color management processing.

A detailed comparison among the iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD, and Nexus 7 can be found in the table accompanying the report.

In the wake of Apple's move to replace the Google-powered Maps app with its own app in iOS 6, Google has been reported by numerous sources to be working on a standalone version of its service to be submitted to the App Store.

But while Apple has been willing to advertise a number of alternative mapping solutions while it works to improve its own Maps app, The Guardian reports that sources within Google believe it is "unlikely" Apple will approve Google's app for inclusion in the App Store.

Sources at Google familiar with its mapping plans say they are "not optimistic" that Apple will ever approve a dedicated Google Maps iOS app. Though the app is reportedly in development and should be ready to ship by the end of the year, the sources say their plans are only proceeding in "the unlikely event" that Apple will choose to approve the app.

According to sources within Google, who appear to be split as to whether the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall will improve Google's chances, there is little evidence that Apple is interested in embracing Google-based mapping solutions.

Specifically, they point to the lack of any mapping app in the "Find maps for your iPhone" section of the App Store - accessible only via iPhones or iPads - that use the Google Maps APIs to call wirelessly for location, routing or point-of-interest (POI) data. [...]

Apps such as the free Maps+ app, which uses Google Places APIs and Google Maps tiles to bring Google Maps back to the iPhone, and the £3 app Quick Route, which mashes Google's directions and locations database with Apple's Maps tiles, are noticeably absent from it, even though a Google source says they are the two apps that would give back many of the capabilities lost with the advent of Apple's Maps in iOS 6.

The Google sources reportedly believe that these omissions are deliberate in order to minimize the visibility of Google-based mapping apps, although Apple CEO Tim Cook did mention the web-based version of Google Maps as an alternative in his open letter addressing the Maps issue.

While a number of vendors have been launching unofficial Lightning accessories while Apple works to bring official partners up to speed on the new standard, Belkin today became the first official vendor to introduce accessories using the Lightning connector.

“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.”

Belkin's first two products include a car charger and a Charge + Sync Dock, each priced at $29.99. Belkin is currently accepting pre-orders for the new accessories, which will begin shipping by November 15.

The car charger is the only one of the two products to actually include a Lightning connector from Belkin, as the dock simply accommodates the standard Lightning to USB cable offered by Apple.

Over the past several months, we've been following the situation with a court case in the United Kingdom in which Apple was ordered to post an acknowledgement on its website and place advertisements in newspapers and magazines acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe upon the protected iPad design with its line of Galaxy Tab devices.

The original statement published by Apple playfully quoted statements from the judge's ruling saying that the Samsung Galaxy Tab was "not as cool" as the iPad and noted that it had won cases against Samsung in other jurisdictions, but the court did not take kindly to Apple's additions to the required text.

Apple has now posted revised text linked from its main UK page, with the new text appearing to be in compliance with the court's order. But as The Next Web points out, Apple has added a bit of code to its site to ensure that the notice can not be seen by users unless they scroll down the page.

This code essentially ensures that the iPad mini advertisement takes up the whole page. In other words, no matter your resolution, you won’t see the statement without scrolling down the page. It’s no wonder that it took Apple so long to post the second apology; the company was likely looking for loopholes. [...]

What this does show, however, is that Apple is very unhappy with the verdict in the UK. The company is doing everything it can to ensure as few people know about the issue as possible. Yet it’s antics like this one that bring the verdict more and more into the spotlight.

In our testing, a Safari window with the toolbar, bookmark bar, tab bar, and status bar turned on would have to be over 1700 pixels tall before the full Samsung text at the bottom of the page would be visible without scrolling.

The code is actually being used on a number of Apple's international sites that do not include the Samsung acknowledgement, giving the company the ability to claim that it was not specifically deployed to hide the statement, but it is not present on the main apple.com front page. It is also not the first time Apple has used such vertically responsive design, as it used similar scripts to adjust the layout of the main pages when the iPhone 5 was being featured.

AllThingsD reports on an iPad mini teardown from research firm IHS iSuppli estimating the component costs for Apple's new iPad mini at $188 for the 16 GB model.

The base model, a Wi-Fi-only 16 gigabyte iPad mini, which sells for a starting retail price of $329, costs about $188 to build. Adding additional memory — the options are 32GB and 64GB — adds only incremental cost but a fair amount of profit, amounting to an additional $90 for the 32GB version and $162 per unit on the 64GB model.

The report notes that approximately 43% of the device cost is related to the display, which adopts an expensive new process known as GF2 to reduce the part's thickness, although costs are expected to come down as the production process is refined.

The bill of materials estimate provides support for Apple CEO Tim Cook's claim that the iPad mini has been priced aggressively with a profit margin significantly below the company's average. While the entry-level iPad mini is priced at $329 for a product that costs Apple $199 to build, the iPhone 5 costs Apple just $10 more to build but sells for $649. The iPad mini is, however, more in line with the full-size iPad, which IHS iSuppli estimated to carry a bill of materials of $306 for the entry-level third-generation model at its launch earlier this year.

9to5Mac reports that among the new features included in the iOS 6.1 beta seeded to developers late last week is the ability to purchase movie tickets through Siri. The feature, which is currently limited to the United States, integrates with Fandango to facilitate purchases.

When a user asks for movie tickets for a certain movie, the applicable showtimes and theater information will be shown. Then, a user can click the buy movie tickets button and they will be routed to finish their purchase via the Fandango app from the App Store. If the user does not have Fandango installed, Siri provides a button to download the Fandango app.

Apple says that the feature is currently exclusive to users in the U.S. Additionally, developers who have used the feature say that it is not compatible with all theaters. Compatible theaters listed by Siri are accompanied by a small movie tickets icon.

Siri already offers some movie theater features, including the ability to look up showtimes, access reviews, and play trailers, and Fandango integration marks an expansion of Apple's partnerships with third-party apps such as Yelp and OpenTable to extend Siri's functionality.

Apple today announced that it has sold a total of three million iPads since the launch of the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad on Friday. The number was not broken down into separate counts of iPad and iPad mini sales.

Apple today announced it has sold three million iPads in just three days since the launch of its new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad—double the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models sold for the third generation iPad in March. The Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad will ship in a few weeks in the US and in many more countries later this year.

“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We're working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White has also released a new research report indicating that the iPad mini was completely sold out at 60% of surveyed U.S. Apple retail stores this weekend, with 16 GB models in both colors sold out at 100% of surveyed stores.

Of those stores that still had some iPad mini stock available, the 16GB in Black & Slate and White & Silver were 100% sold out, while 90% of the 32GB in Black & Slate were sold out and 76% of the White & Silver 32GB were sold out. Finally, only 14% of the 64GB of the Black & Slate were sold out at those stores with stock available and just 10% for the 64GB White & Silver.

White survey of New York City launch weekend customers found that white and black models were roughly equally popular, while 53% of customers opted for 16 GB models.

With the launch of the iPad mini today, Apple has started running a new television ad for the device that it showed off during the media event last week.

The ad -- entitled 'Piano' -- doesn't have any voiceover; instead, it shows GarageBand running on the full-size iPad playing one hand of the two-hand duet from 'Heart and Soul'. The song is an easy-to-learn piece popular with beginner pianists. Moments later, the iPad mini appears, playing the second part of the duet.

AnandTech reports on an examination of the A6X chip found in the fourth-generation iPad. The work, performed by Kishonti Informatics, reveals that Apple has adopted Imagination Technologies' quad-core PowerVR SGX 554MP4 graphics in the new chip.

The A6X retains the 128-bit wide memory interface of the A5X (and it keeps the memory controller interface adjacent to the GPU cores and not the CPU cores as is the case in the A5/A6). It also integrates two of Apple's new Swift cores running at up to 1.4GHz (a slight increase from the 1.3GHz cores in the iPhone 5's A6). The big news today is what happens on the GPU side. A quick look at the GLBenchmark results for the new iPad 4 tells us all we need to know. The A6X moves to a newer GPU core: the PowerVR SGX 554.

Unsurprisingly, the SGX 554MP4 represents a significant improvement over the quad-core SGX 543MP4 used in the A5X chip of the third-generation iPad and the triple-core SGX 543MP3 used in the A6 chip of the iPhone 5.

A full suite of graphics benchmarks reveals improvements of 15-100% compared to the third-generation iPad, with frame rates in the Egypt HD benchmark jumping from 25 frames per second (fps) on the third-generation iPad to nearly 52 fps on the fourth-generation iPad.

Ultimately it looks like the A6X is the SoC that the iPad needed to really deliver good gaming performance at its native resolution. I would not be surprised to see more game developers default to 2048 x 1536 on the new iPad rather than picking a lower resolution and enabling anti-aliasing. The bar has been set for this generation and we've seen what ARM's latest GPU can do, now the question is whether or not NVIDIA will finally be able to challenge Imagination Technologies when it releases Wayne/Tegra 4 next year.

The A6X is one of several enhancements to the fourth-generation iPad, including a new FaceTime HD camera and Apple's new Lightning connector, although the device appears nearly identical to its predecessor from the outside.

While reports have indicated that launch-day lines for the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad have been shorter than seen for many previous Apple product launches, some Apple retail stores are still seeing long lines. Fortune notes that despite the impact of Hurricane Sandy in the northeastern United States, Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan saw over 800 people in line as the store opened at 10:00 AM, two hours later than originally planned.

According to the records Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster has been keeping since 2008 (see below), that's more customers than turned out for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S.

And by 9:56 a.m. -- four minutes before the doors finally opened -- I counted 801 men, women and children. Only the iPhone 4 (1,300) and iPad 2 (1,190) drew bigger crowds.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White is also at the Fifth Avenue store and has been monitoring availability of the various models. According to White, all three models of the white Wi-Fi iPad mini sold out in a little over an hour, with the black models following suit after about two hours. No additional shipments are expected at the store today.

We are at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City and our checks now indicate that all of the White & Silver iPad mini models sold out at around 11:15 AM. We estimate that the 16GB and 64GB were sold out by 10:30 AM ET and the 32GB sold out at around 11:15 AM ET. [...]

As of 11:40 AM ET, both the 16GB and 32GB Black & Slate iPad mini models were sold out at the Fifth Avenue NYC store; while we estimate the 64GB iPad mini sold out at around 12:10 PM ET.

A similar pattern was seen in online pre-orders, with the white models selling out in just 17 minutes and the black models taking a few days to run out of availability.

Just as Apple begins sales of the fourth-generation iPad and the iPad mini today, the embargo has lifted on reviews of Google's Nexus 10 tablet announced earlier this week. The device, which is manufactured by Samsung, builds on the relative success of the Nexus 7 to go head-to-head with the full-size iPad with a screen packing even more pixels than Apple's iPad Retina display.

While tablet manufacturers have been able to make inroads on the market by targeting smaller 7-inch screen sizes, they have had less success competing directly against the full-size iPad. But as each new device packs in the latest features and specs, it is interesting to see how they compare to the iPad, which Apple has tried to keep at the head of the pack with its latest update offering double the performance compared to its predecessor.

Engadget

We'll type it again just because it's kind of neat: 2,560 x 1,600. That's an awful, awful lot of pixels in just a 10.1-inch PLS LCD panel -- way more than a 1080p HDTV contains. That it's in something that comfortably can be carried around, and that can be acquired for under $400, is quite a marvelous feat. It's good to live in the future.

And, indeed, things look fantastically sharp here. Text is rendered incredibly crisply and the UI looks better than ever. The first-party icons are all crisp and clean, though many third-party app icons do look like they could use a new, higher-resolution rendering. Thankfully, the apps themselves overwhelmingly look fine.

The Verge

The Nexus 10 feels like Google's open letter to developers. "Look how great Android tablets can be," the company seems to be saying, "if only you'd make great apps!" The Nexus 10's display is every bit the Retina's equal, the build quality is excellent, and it even has a half-decent set of speakers. Android 4.2 is more stable than ever, and Android does a lot of great things iOS simply doesn't. But you take it out of the box, say it's beautiful and fast... then what? Apple's tablet has 250,000-plus other apps that look and work great on a huge, high-res screen, and Android's ecosystem is leagues behind. The Nexus 10 is a great way to watch movies, but there's absolutely no way it's going to replace your laptop the way the iPad could.

ReadWrite

The Nexus 10, built by go-to Google partner Samsung, feels like it’s built for working and playing. It’s grippy and rubbery, and the edges have this gentle slope that fits in hands in a variety of ways. You can hold it with one hand. I found my favorite way to use it was resting on the palm of one hand, like a painter’s palette, using it with the other hand. I’d never do that with an iPad.

TechCrunch

It’s time for Google to step up to the plate and control the entire experience of Android and hardware. Does that mean that other hardware manufacturers should get the shaft? Maybe not, but I think Apple’s #1 genius move is that it controls the hardware and software.

Apple has an advantage, but Google is right there on the cusp of something amazing. Maybe you don’t agree with my statement that Android has a leg up for the tablet experience, but it’s worth thinking about.

Overall, reviewers seem to feel that the Nexus 10 is a quality tablet that is still being held back by issues with Android and content, although TechCrunch remains impressed by the tablet experience on Android. With pricing starting at $399 for a 16 GB model, those looking for an iPad alternative are hoping that momentum at the 7-inch size will help drive developers to better optimize the Android tablet experience and provide a viable competitor for the full-size iPad.