MacRumors

Last week, a prototype back panel for Apple's "N94" iPhone surfaced, revealing a nearly identical appearance to the iPhone 4. The part was an "Engineering Verification Test 2" component carrying a date of June 7th, 2011, but questions have continued about whether the device represents the upgraded iPhone 5 or an "iPhone 4S" designed to be a cheaper model based on the iPhone 4 design.

MacPost has now obtained photos of a similar front panel part in black, carrying a similar "Engineering Verification Test 1" designation and dated March 3rd, 2011. The part consists of the entire front assembly for the N94 device, including the digitizer panel itself and the LCD.

The design is entirely consistent with the iPhone 4, showing the same amount of bezel edge on the sides of the screen and a hole for the traditional iPhone home button.

The panel part shows same bezel space on the sides of the display, as well as similar space between the screen and the home button and top ear piece, when compared with iPhone 4. If you compare the digitizer component, it is exactly the same as that of iPhone 4 model. The home button might not be going anywhere and the cut-out area for Home Button is still circular which debunks earlier claim that iPhone 5 will get an elongated Home Button (rather capacitive).

With continued reports of a redesign for the iPhone 5, perhaps with a metallic back, the interpretation of these parts points toward them being from the "iPhone 4S". We have yet to see, however, any leaked parts from the rumored form factor redesign of the iPhone 5.

Nearly a month ago, Australia became the first market to see Apple win a tangible victory over Samsung in the patent dispute between the two companies, with Samsung agreeing to delay the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that country and to provide Apple with samples of a version of the device specific for that country at least one week ahead of the launch.

The Sydney Morning Herald now reports that Samsung has again agreed to delay the launch of the device in Australia, pushing the debut out to at least September 30th. The agreement came after Samsung provided Apple with samples of the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 late last week in anticipation of launching the device at the end of this week. Apple unsurprisingly considered the Australian Galaxy Tab 10.1 to still infringe upon its intellectual property rights and requested new and extended injunctions to prevent Samsung from selling the device until the dispute can be resolved.

Apple's counsel said that while the modified version had "some reduced functionality" it "will still infringe". They sought orders from the court re-affirming the previous block on sales of the US model and asked for a new order to prevent the sale of the Australian version at least until a hearing can take place at the end of September.

For its part, Samsung has indicated that it is looking to invalidate Apple's iPad design patents and will also be filing claims against Apple for infringement by the iPad.

A new formal hearing in Apple's case against Samsung has been scheduled for September 26th and 29th, with "top executives" and others involved in the design process for the iPad and Galaxy Tab potentially appearing either in person or via video link to testify.

PCMag asks the question "How Will Tim Cook Lead Apple?" after the surprise resignation of Steve Jobs last week. They offer some quotes from an ex-Apple employee and a look back at a detailed Fortune profile of Cook from back in 2008.

Fortune's Tim Cook profile came at a time when there were some ongoing health concerns about Steve Jobs which raised the question of who would take over upon Jobs' departure. The Forbes profile describes Cook as "demanding and even-keeled" and credits Cook for keeping Apple running like a finely tuned machine, keeping tabs on supplies, production and product forecasting.

Think of Cook's contribution like this. There are two basic ways to get great profit margins: Charge high prices or reduce costs. Apple does both. The marketing and design drive consumers wild with desire and make them willing to pay a premium; Cook's operational savvy keeps costs under control. Thus Apple is a cash-generating machine. Cook has called the company a place that is "entrepreneurial in its nature but with the mother of all balance sheets."

One ex-Apple employee speaking to PCMag simply states that "Tim Cook is the person who really runs Apple", but that they don't see him as "that visionary guy" to replace one of Steve Jobs' major roles at the company.

It's that role of visionary that many feel will be hard, if not impossible to replace. Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff aptly described Jobs ability to show him the future:

“[Steve Jobs] has probably given me more help and more advice than just about anybody," Benioff said of Jobs. "And when I get in trouble and I kinda get lost in my own vision, I’ve been fortunate to be able to go and see him and he’s been willing to show me the future a couple times.”

The general consensus, of course, is that it's simply not realistic to expect any one person to replace Steve Jobs. From the same 2008 Fortune article, they point out that Cook will simply need people around him to make up for any weaknesses, just as Jobs had Cook around to make up for his.

Digitimes offers a bit of a strange report this morning that just seems to reinforce some details that have been previously reported about the iPhone 5.

The strangest bit, however, is that their report attempts to refute a fake "leak" video that circulated on YouTube earlier this month.

Despite rumors about iPhone 5 featuring a 4.2-inch panel circulating within the IT market for a while, following a leak from Apple's website in Switzerland in early August

The referenced "leak" video was a clear fake. They seem to have taken the video seriously, but at the least they refute the details of the leak citing "upstream panel suppliers."

Instead, their sources indicate the iPhone 5 will include a 3.5 to 3.7-inch panel "with a design to allow the bezel of the panel to become thinner and make the screen look larger." They also report that the glass back of the current iPhone 4 will be changed to a "metal chassis".

Despite the confused nature of the report, these details come at an interesting time, as the vision of the iPhone 5 has become increasing confused.

Last week, we saw a number of part leaks for a device that looks just like the iPhone 4, but carrying an upgraded A5 processor. That device carried an internal name of 'N94' which was previously believed to be the iPhone 5. Over the last few months, multiple conflicting sources have described the iPhone 5 as both thinner and lighter as well as largely identical to the iPhone 4. The "largely identical" report came from Reuters who did say that the new device would have a "bigger touch screen".

The only concrete design that we've seen is one of a leaked design spec but we've not yet seen any related parts leak out into the supply system.

Rumors of an Apple-branded television set were revived earlier this year by a former Apple executive, and we've long seen similar claims in the past. The frequency of these rumors, however, seems to be increasing, now with Venturebeat pointing to multiple sources suggesting the same.

Venture capitalist Stewart Alsop who sits on the board of Sonos and was an early investor in TiVo told the site that "he has heard multiple sources throughout Silicon Valley that the Apple television project is underway."

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster also cites component suppliers as well as an internal Apple source to suggest the same -- that Apple is planning on launching a television in the 2012/2013 timeframe. Munster isn't the only analyst who has predicted an Apple television, and we've heard whispers from others.

It seems that momentum is picking up for rumors that Apple is heading into the television marketplace. Yet as recently as 2010, now Apple CEO Tim Cook had said that Apple had no interest in the TV market, but did feel there is "something there" to the Apple TV, Apple's $99 set-top-box. Later that year, Steve Jobs had also outlined the challenges of infiltrating the television industry.

Jobs, of course, had also denied that Apple had any interest in producing an Apple cell phone back in 2003, four years prior to the launch of the original iPhone.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal briefly reported that Apple is working on "new technology" for pushing video content to televisions, apparently linking that work with revived rumors of a subscription TV service. Rumors of such of a service first surfaced in late 2009, but by the iPad launch in March 2010, Apple had been said to have put the plans on hold in the face of opposition from media companies.

But despite The Wall Street Journal's revival of the rumors yesterday, CNET insists that such an offering will not be coming in the near future, if ever, pointing back to a report earlier this month shooting down rumors of an imminent "iTunes Replay" streaming service for movies. The report also cites today's removal of TV show rentals from iTunes as evidence that Apple is moving backwards on the streaming TV front rather than making progress on any subscription deals.

Now does this sound like the studios are willing to back a new subscription service from Apple or for anyone else for that matter? No. Don't put any stock in the rumors that began circulating today. My sources at the studios said three weeks ago that an Apple subscription service is not coming anytime soon, if ever.

The report goes on to note that while Apple has over the course of negotiations with media companies suggested a number of potential business models, the company has yet to seriously push forward on any subscription TV proposals. The company instead seems to be focused more on basic cloud services that would allow users to download or stream purchased content from Apple's servers as needed.

Apple filed a form 8-K with the SEC because of the changes in corporate leadership at the company. An 8-K is the “current report” companies must file with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about.

In this case, the form notifies investors of the resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO; Jobs' appointment as Chairman of the Board; COO Tim Cook's promotion to CEO; and the appointment of Cook to the Board.

Additionally:

In connection with Mr. Cook's appointment as Chief Executive Officer, the Board awarded Mr. Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units. Fifty percent of the restricted stock units are scheduled to vest on each of August 24, 2016 and August 24, 2021, subject to Mr. Cook's continued employment with Apple through each such date.

This stock award is worth just over $383 million at current prices.

A restricted stock unit, or RSU, is a form of compensation valued in terms of company stock, but the stock is not issued at the time of the grant. In Cook's case, he's getting a promise from Apple to deliver him 500,000 shares of Apple stock in 2016, and 500,000 more shares in 2021 — as long as he stays employed at the company.

In 2010, as COO, Tim Cook received $58 million in salary, bonus and other stock awards.

Apple's New York City retail stores will be closing this weekend ahead of Hurricane Irene's possible landfall over the city. NYC's mass transit system is shutting down by noon on Saturday, which will make it extremely difficult for both employees and customers to get to the stores.

Employees who answered the phone at SoHo, Upper West Side, West 14th Street, and Staten Island confirmed that those stores will be closed all day on Saturday and Sunday.

The Fifth Avenue location, which is famously open 24/7/365, will be closed Saturday and Sunday as well.

As for stores outside the city:

New York:

- On Long Island, Smith Haven, Roosevelt Field, and Walt Whitman all closed until Monday. Manhasset closed Sunday only.

- Palisades in West Nyack, NY - closed until Monday.

- The Westchester - closed until Monday.

New Jersey:

- The Pier in Atlantic City, Bridgewater, Cherry Hill, Sagemore, Rockaway, Short Hills, and Willowbrook are all closed until Monday.

Connecticut:

- Stamford, Greenwich Avenue, and Danbury Fair Mall all closed until Monday.

Delaware:

- Christiana Mall - closed until Monday.

Maryland:

- Bethesda Row - closed until Monday.

Pennsylvania:

- King of Prussia - closed until Monday.

Virginia:

- MacArthur Center in Norfolk - closed until Sunday.

- Short Pump Town Center in Richmond - closed until Monday.

AppleInsider notes that Apple has apparently quietly discontinued its 99-cent TV show rentals, shutting off access to the offerings via iTunes Store and Apple TV.

The option to rent episodes of TV shows is no longer available on either the Apple TV, or when browsing content via Apple's iTunes application. Previously, participating networks offered users the ability to rent a TV episode for 99 cents, with 30 days to begin watching and 48 hours to complete it.

As further evidence that the ability to rent TV shows has been removed completely, an Apple support document entitled "iTunes Store: How to rent TV shows," has been removed from the Web. A Google cache of the page is still available.

The company's Apple TV page has also been updated to remove mention of the option to rent TV shows on the device.

Apple launched 99-cent TV show rentals alongside the revamped Apple TV last September, but networks were reluctant to sign onto the program, finding the pricing too low for their tastes. The program launched with ABC and Fox on board, but Warner Brothers, NBC, Viacom, and other opted out. It appears that Apple has finally decided to cancel the program as it has been unable to bring a critical mass of studios on board.

Update: AllThingsD has a statement from Apple:

“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”

Apple today pushed out several new developer seeds for its OS X platform, continuing to move forward with testing of iCloud. The updates come one week after the previous seeds, which also came alongside the sixth beta version of iOS 5. Among today's new releases for OS X:

- OS X Lion 10.7.2 Update (Build 11C43)
- iCloud for Lion beta 9
- iPhoto 9.2 beta 3

The new OS X Lion 10.7.2 build continues to list no known issues and asks developers to focus their testing on AirPort, AppKit, GraphicsDrivers, iCal, iChat, Mac App Store, Mail, Spotlight, and Time Machine.

There are no new updates posted on the iOS side at this time.

Apple has announced that it will be launching iOS 5 and iCloud this fall. The company has been rumored to be launching new iPhone hardware in early-to-mid October, and iOS 5 and iCloud should be going live right around that same time. Apple will almost certainly be holding a media event a week or two ahead of that launch to introduce the new hardware and give final details on iOS 5 and iCloud.

Thanks, Chanyoon!

A pair of reports from July and earlier this month had claimed that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has begun trial production of Apple's next-generation A6 system-on-chip, with the latter report claiming that the design would be "publicly unveiled" in the second quarter of 2012 at the earliest.

While Apple has only released two generations of the iPad so far, the company has initially appeared to be interested in a yearly update cycle for the device, but the claimed A6 timeline suggested that Apple might be hard-pressed to stick to a March-April release for the iPad 3 should it be based on the A6. But given that April is indeed the beginning of the second quarter, the company could sneak in with its next yearly iPad update if "publicly unveiled" were to refer to a launch inside the next iPad.

CNET now reports, however, that Linley Group analyst Kevin Krewell has issued a research note claiming that full production of the A6 won't begin before the second quarter of 2012, pushing the release of any A6-based hardware out to at least June.

"A final version of the chip will enter production in 2Q12 'at the earliest'... We believe this timing makes sense," Krewell said. "This pace would make the A6 one of the first 28 [nanometer] mobile processors (along with Qualcomm's MSM8960) to enter production. This schedule, however, breaks Apple's annual processor-upgrade cycle and will delay any products using the A6 until at least June 2012."

The report also notes that Apple's A6 chip is expected to sport a quad-core processor and will use "3D" transistor technology analogous to the Tri-Gate technology being used by Intel for its chips.

The rumored A6 is a major step-up in chip design. Not only does it contain four processor cores (the existing Apple A5 has two cores) but will use so-called 3D technology, Linley Group senior analyst Kevin Krewell said this week in a research note, citing a report in the Taiwan Economic News. The 3D tech is roughly analogous to Intel's 3D technology announced in May.

Apple had been rumored to be trying to release an upgraded iPad sometime before the end of 2011, reportedly with a "Retina" display sporting higher resolution than the current iPad. But last week, a report claimed that Apple had pushed back those plans due to difficulty with production on the displays. Days later, The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Apple was working on a new iPad for "early 2012".

Krewell suggests that Apple could release an A5-powered iPad 3 at that time, relying on the upgraded display to drive customer demand. An A6-powered iPad would then come later, although it seems unlikely that Apple would want to wait until 2013 to release an iPad based on the chip.

A site by the name of AppleLeaks today posted photos of what is claimed to be the logic board from a next-generation iPhone model. The report is unsure about whether the board is from an upgraded iPhone 5 model or a cheaper "iPhone 4S" model Apple is also said to be planning to launch, but the images do add more detail to the picture that is beginning to come together.

Comparing the pictures to the ones of the logic boards for the CDMA and GSM iPhone 4 models as seen in teardowns by iFixit (see steps 13 and 14), it is interesting to note that this new logic board carries a form factor more similar to that of the CDMA iPhone 4 but with a SIM-card slot also squeezed onto the board. That inclusion of the SIM-card slot on the new logic board has resulted in a reshuffling of the chip locations on the front of the board, while the back side remains quite similar to the CDMA iPhone 4 logic board.

Notably, the relatively large area on the front of the logic board designed to house the main processor for the device is rectangular in nature on the new board, suggesting that it is designed for the rectangular A5 system-on-a-chip found in the iPad 2 rather than the square A4 chip found in the iPhone 4 and original iPad. Apple is of course expected to use the A5 in the iPhone 5, but there has been some question as to whether Apple would step up to the A5 for its cheaper iPhone 4S model or continue to use the A4 in order to hold costs down.

The iPhone 5 is expected to be a "world-mode" phone capable of running on both GSM and CDMA networks. The presence of a SIM-card slot on the new logic board does indeed confirm GSM compatibility for this device, whether it be an iPhone 5 or 4S, and CDMA compatibility would come from the inclusion of a specific chip supporting the dual standards. Such a chip from Qualcomm is already used on the CDMA iPhone 4, but accommodation for a similar chip on this new logic board can not be confirmed given that the board is unlabeled.

One of the more prominent differences in the actual logic board form factor between the GSM and CDMA iPhone 4 is a semicircular cutout at the bottom of the board. That cutout fits around the new circular vibrator used in the CDMA version, a change from the vibrator used in the GSM version. The presence of the cutout on this new logic board suggests that Apple will continue to use the circular vibrator found in the CDMA iPhone 4.

AppleLeaks also posts of the battery for the iPhone4S/5, in line with photos from other sources seen several times earlier this week.

Right on the heels of our "iPhone 4S" antenna photos, comes even more pieces to the puzzle. This image from MacPost.net offers the first look at the back cover of an upcoming iPhone. This prototype part is labeled "EVT" (Engineering Verification Test) and dated June 7, 2011.

What's most revealing about this part is that it is actually labeled with the internal model number "N94". N94 is the model number for what we believe to be a next-generation iPhone. N94 first appeared in SDK code back in iOS 4.3. At the time, the N94 was identified as supporting an A5 processor -- that's the same processor found in the iPad 2.

Meanwhile, the AT&T iPhone 4 carries the model designation N90 while the Verizon iPhone 4 is called the N92. Both current iPhone 4 models use the slower A4 processor.

We also heard about the N94 in April when BGR claimed that it had a photo of a prototype N94 that supported T-Mobile's 3G service. They showed photos of the device at the time. What's interesting to note now is that as best as we can tell, that prototype iPhone had a visible antenna break at the bottom left, and no antenna break in the top left -- just like the iPhone 4, but also just like the leaked antenna parts we posted yesterday. (Unfortunately, the other side of the device is not visible in any of the shots.)

So, here's what we think we know about the N94, based on the circulating rumors

• It looks like an iPhone 4
• Has a redesigned antenna
• Supports T-Mobile
• A5 Processor

So is the N94 the actual iPhone 5? Possibly. MacPost also published photos of associated parts which include items we've seen before. These have been labeled as "iPhone 5" parts in the past, but now seem to be associated with this particular case design. That means all the part leaks we've seen so far are for this iPhone 4-like design. If so, Reuters may have been right in saying that the iPhone 5 will look "largely similar to the iPhone 4". Could this be the cheaper iPhone 4 variant? Also possible, but that would mean Apple would be supplying A5 processors in their "cheap" version as well.

What of the tapered iPhone 5 designs that we've seen circulating? Those were sourced from a ThisIsMyNext article and subsequent case design leak and actual cases for sale. As we've said before, Chinese case manufacturers have a big financial incentive to get case designs ahead of Apple's launch, but they've been wrong before. As far as we can tell, we've not seen any actual part leaks from that rumored thinner/tapered design.