MacRumors

Despite the hype and expectation surrounding the official Google-branded phone early impressions of the device by Engadget reveal the device is not quite an iPhone killer:

Now, of course everyone seems to have one question about the device -- is this the be-all-end-all Android phone / iPhone eviscerator? In two words: not really.
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Throughout the phone there are also new animations and flourishes which make Android 2.1 feel way more polished than previous iterations (including the Droid's 2.0.1), though it's still got a ways to go to matching something like the iPhone or even Pre in terms of fit and finish.

The Nexus One is a Google branded phone running their Android operating system. The promise of such a phone was a no compromises phone that would presumably be poised to take on the iPhone. The Nexus One is said to be officially launched tomorrow.

The embargo is up for news and reviews on Intel's new Arrandale mobile processors. Arrandale represents the 32-nm die shrink of the Nehalem processors and will represent the first Nehalem processors that are usable in a laptops such as the MacBook Pro. These new chips also offer improved integrated graphics on the same chip. While there was some unconfirmed talk that Apple may skip this generation of chips, they remain the best option to upgrade the MacBook Pro.

Anandtech provides an overview of the newly announced chips which run as fast as 2.66GHz (Dual Core) as a base speed with Turbo speeds as high as 3.33GHz. Direct comparisons of the 2.53GHz Arrandale and the 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo currently used in the MacBook Pro showed notable improvements at the same clock speed:

The performance advantage was even more impressive for Cinebench (38-43%) and x264 HD encoding (26-45%), along with notable improvements of the integrated graphics performance. Anandtech found battery life to be on-par with the current Core 2 Duos, but this is expected to improve with later generations of Arrandale. In conclusion:

From the balanced notebook perspective, Arrandale is awesome. Battery life doesn't improve, but performance goes up tremendously. The end result is better performance for hopefully the same power consumption. If you're stuck with an aging laptop it's worth the wait. If you can wait even longer we expect to see a second rev of Arrandale silicon towards the middle of the year with better power characteristics.

Apple is, of course, expected to use these processors in their next generation MacBook Pros, though the exact timeframe for the adoption remains unknown.

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off this week and analysts are expecting the predominant themes to be connectivity and mobility. Mobile devices such as new Android devices and tablet computers are expected to be a big focus. Meanwhile, outside of CES, Google and Apple are both expected to make announcements regarding their future plans this month.

The launch of the Google Nexus One phone is planned for January 5th, while Apple is rumored to be announcing their tablet device on/around January 26th.

For our part, MacRumors will be attending CES for the first time this year. In the past our focus has been Macworld Expo which has tended to run concurrently with CES. This year, however, Apple withdrew from Macworld which resulted in it being rescheduled into February. We'll be focusing on any relevant Apple-related announcements including new Intel chips, ARM-related technology, notable 3rd party Tablets and more. CES 2010 runs from January 7th - 10th.

While we normally avoid purely speculative pieces here on MacRumors, John Gruber has posted a particularly interesting opinion piece on what void or need the Apple Tablet might fill. Gruber acknowledges that this is not based on inside knowledge, but he is certain that a Tablet project is in the works and describes a "cone of silence" surrounding all those involved in the project.

Exactly what purpose or role an Apple tablet will fulfill is a legitimate question that has been raised on a number of occasions. Since other company's tablets have so far been commercially unsuccessful, what could Apple bring to the table that will suddenly make them a success? Steve Jobs himself has previously questioned what they were good for besides surfing the web in the bathroom.

Gruber believes the upcoming Apple Tablet will replace the low end of Apple's portable computer market which is currently held by the MacBook and instead focus on some core functionality and do it well.

And so in answer to my central question, regarding why buy The Tablet if you already have an iPhone and a MacBook, my best guess is that ultimately, The Tablet is something youll buy instead of a MacBook.

Like all Apple products, The Tablet will do less than we expect but the things it does do, it will do insanely well. It will offer a fraction of the functionality of a MacBook but that fraction will be way more fun.

Apple clearly has been able to reinvent a class of product like they did with the MP3 player (iPod) and mobile phone (iPhone), and people are certainly hoping they will be able to do the same thing with the Tablet. Much of the differentiation of these products was done in software, so we agree with Gruber that the Tablet OS can't and won't simply be a scaled up iPhone OS or scaled down Mac OS.

One common prediction I disagree with is that The Tablet will simply be more or less an iPod Touch with a much bigger display. But in the same way that it made no sense for Apple to design the iPhone OS to run Mac software, it makes little sense for a device with a 7-inch (let alone larger) display to run software designed for a 3.5-inch display.

Exactly how that will be accomplished, of course, is the big secret.

Apple is rumored to be launching their Tablet in 2010 and Steve Jobs has been described as being extremely happy with the upcoming device.

In a pair of articles published over the past week, Hardmac reveals that Apple has been working to fight against fraud perpetrated against the company by third-party authorized service centers. According to the initial report published last week, the fraud was conducted by repair centers both charging customers for out-of-warranty repairs and also reporting to Apple that the machines were under warranty, thus receiving free parts as well as remuneration from Apple for conducting the repairs.

Thus, certain After-Sales Service Centres could pass under guarantee of repairs, machine that were not covered, and also invoiced these repairs to the customer thus ensuring a healthy profit to them.

In yesterday's follow-up article, Hardmac provides a bit more detail on how this was accomplished, using a process known as "stitching" in which vendors utilized the serial numbers of computers under warranty held on file at the repair facility when reporting issues to Apple rather than the actual serial numbers of non-covered equipment brought in for service.

Stitching is the process by which an Apple Service Provider (ASP) technically defrauds Apple. This happens by a customer coming in for an out-of-warranty repair (as an example lets use a macbook top case). The customer's macbook top case is no longer working and they are happy to pay to get it fixed. Instead of the ASP ordering the part from apple as out-of-warranty and making around 15% gross profit margin, the ASP would find a serial number in their database of previous repairs (of an identical model) and order the part as a warranty part from a serial number they have found. This technically allows the ASP to pay nothing for the part, but then make 100% margin.

Apple reportedly discovered the fraud only after several years of experience with its own Genius Bar repair channel, where significantly lower proportions of warranty repairs were seen. Upon conducting audits of its American and then global authorized service centers, the company apparently found a number of cases of significant fraud perpetrated using this method.

According to the report, at least one large service center in the United Kingdom has been entirely closed down in the wake of Apple's fraud investigation, with several others in the "Far East" also possibly meeting the same fate.

In order to address the fraud, Apple has reportedly rolled out enhanced tracking of part numbers in its repair ordering system and deployed software to assist the company in making sure that the proper parts are being installed in the proper computers.

Apple updated an existing patent application today that describes the implementation of a previously dubbed "Magic Wand" remote control to provide a more natural control experience when navigating a product like the Apple TV. Readers will recognize that many of the described technologies work like the Nintendo Wiimote. Similarly, Apple describes the use of a accelerometers as well as fixed points of reference to determine the movement of the remote. Other patent applications in the past have shown us more of this research coming out of Apple.

Naturally, the use of this "Magic Wand" could be used to browse media, fast forward/rewind, rotate images and even zoom in and out by moving the wand closer or further from the screen.

A remote wand for controlling the operations of a media system is provided. The wand may be operative to control the movement of a cursor displayed on screen by the position and orientation at which the wand is held. As the user moves the wand, the on-screen cursor may move. The user may use the wand to control a plurality of operations and applications that may be available from the media system, including for example zoom operations, a keyboard application, an image application, an illustration application, and a media application.

We don't necessarily think Apple would introduce a standalone Wii-like remote system, though there have always been persistent rumors of a much enhanced version of an Apple remote control. Apple has already integrated some advanced remote control features into an iPhone App that takes advantage of gestures and accelerometer controls.

FOXNews.com claims to have received confirmation from a "source inside Apple" that the company will in fact be holding a media event on January 26th in San Francisco. According to the source, the "big" event will focus on the "mobility space", suggesting an iPhone, iPod touch, or, as many people expect, tablet announcement.

Following a Financial Times report that Apple has scheduled a special media event for January 26th in San Francisco, I've spoken to a source inside Apple who confirmed a "big" event for January.

While nothing official has been handed down from the notoriously tight-lipped company, my source took the Financial Times report one step further by saying this event will focus on the mobility space, meaning we'll see something related to the iPhone/Touch product line.

Anticipation has continued to build as Apple appears to be coming closer to the long-rumored release of its tablet device. While the company has remained silent about any possible launch of such a device, rumors and tidbits of information, including recent discoveries suggesting that the device may be called the iSlate or iGuide, have fed the frenzy of anticipation.

Earlier this week, Cloned in China pointed to a Chinese-language article [Google translation] about a blog post apparently from former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee claiming that device will in fact be introduced in January at a price point of under $1000 and will carry a 10.1" multi-touch screen and offer an "amazing user interface", video conferencing capabilities, and e-book offerings in a package described as a "large iPhone". Lee also claims that Apple is expecting first-year sales of 10 million units, far above most observers' expectations at this time.

Lee theoretically could be in a position to have information about the Apple tablet, as his current venture capital company has attracted Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn as an investor. Furthermore, Lee was an executive at Apple during the early 1990s and oversaw development of the Apple Newton handheld device among other projects. Later in the decade, after a stint at SGI, Lee was reportedly personally invited back to Apple by Steve Jobs despite the two never having spoken before, an offer Lee declined in order to return to his native China with Microsoft.

One would think that Lee's reputation and experience in the industry with such heavyweights as Apple, Google, Microsoft and SGI would cause him to refrain from publicly sharing any inside information he might have on such a secret project as the tablet, but it is an intriguing possibility, despite the lack of any new, groundbreaking details.

Earlier this year, several pieces of evidence from the internal computer sales system for Canada's Rogers Wireless suggested that an 8 GB iPhone 3GS was in the works, although Rogers representatives claimed that the listing was an error and no such model has appeared in the months since. Early last month, a new report claiming that AT&T was looking to deploy an 8 GB version of the iPhone 3GS before Christmas also surfaced, but again nothing materialized.

A new report [Google translation] from German forum apfeltalk.de, discovered by Electronista, has revived the speculation with news of a user who ordered a refurbished 8 GB iPhone 3G and received the proper model but in a box carrying a label reading "iPhone 3GS v2.2, 8GB".

After buying a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G, the Hamburg resident received the promised device but with a label on the back pointing to an "iPhone 3GS v2.2, 8GB." The model (A1241) and part number (MB490DN/A) point to the older model, but "iPhone 3GS" appears elsewhere on the packaging and implies that its mention wasn't a mistake.

It is unclear why such a label mentioning "iPhone 3GS" in several locations would appear at this time on a plain white box used for refurbished iPhones.

Anticipation surrounding the much-rumored "Google Phone", now apparently known as the Nexus One, has been growing in recent weeks, and it appears that the rumors were correct: Google has announced an Android-related press conference for January 5th, and all indications point to a launch of the Nexus One at the event.

A source has also provided information to Gizmodo claiming that the Nexus One will be offered at an unsubsidized price of $529.99, or at $179.99 with a two-year agreement on T-Mobile.

- Yeah, it's $530 unsubsidized. Google's not going to be selling the phone at cost, like so many people considered. They're not going to save us from the "making money off of hardware" culture we've got right now, so this is basically just another Android handset, albeit a really good one
- If you want it subsidized, you'll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone

T-Mobile will reportedly offer only a single rate plan for the Nexus One, with unlimited talk, text, and web for $79.99 per month. Subsidized handset pricing is apparently only available to individual subscribers, and family plan and FlexPay subscribers and other special accounts will be required to purchase the Nexus One at the unsubsidized price.

Sources have also indicated to TmoNews that Google will begin taking orders for the Nexus One on January 5th.

The Nexus One has received favorable reviews from those who have been able to handle the new device, but most observers see it as competition for the Motorola Droid within the Android market segment rather than being positioned as a true "iPhone killer".

The legal battle between Nokia and Apple has been ratcheted up another notch today with Nokia's announcement that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging infringement of Nokia-held patents by "virtually all" Apple products, including the iPhone, iPod, and Mac.

The seven Nokia patents in this complaint relate to Nokia's pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products.

Nokia filed suit against Apple in late October over alleged infringement of Nokia's cellular and Wi-Fi patents by the iPhone. Apple responded earlier this month with a countersuit of its own for infringement of its own patents. In its court filing, Apple argued that it was not infringing on Nokia's patents, and even if it were determined by a court that it was infringing, Nokia had not offered fair licensing terms, demanding reciprocal access to iPhone-related patents not relevant to industry standards.

U.S. exclusive iPhone carrier AT&T has received significant criticism for its apparent difficulties in maintaining network performance under heavy demands from iPhone users, but it appears that it is not alone in its struggles. The Financial Times reports that UK carrier O2 has publicly apologized for similar difficulties with its network in London over the past few months as demand has grown there to strain the company's network capacity.

Mr Dunne said O2's network difficulties had been caused by an "explosion" of demand for data services on smartphones but insisted the problems were largely confined to London.

Some O2 customers have periodically been unable to make or receive phone calls, or download material to their handsets, because the network was clogged up by smartphones.

Like AT&T, O2 has been taking steps to address the issue, including working with third-party vendors to improve network traffic management and adding additional mobile sites for increased bandwidth. But in a comment that may be slightly unsettling to heavy data users, O2 CEO Ronan Dunne noted that the company is also talking to Apple and Research in Motion in trying to "learn about" data-intensive applications. Dunne did not elaborate on what O2 might do with that information on data-intensive applications.

Just last week, O2 experienced a significant outage of its data network lasting nearly 48 hours and affecting a significant proportion of its customers.

Just two weeks ago, a suggestion that Apple could sell 10 million iPhones during the current quarter began to make its way around the Mac investor and rumor communities. At the time, the claim was significantly higher than analysts' consensus in the 8-9 million range, and was thus viewed with some skepticism.

Tech Trader Daily today reports on an Apple stock upgrade from Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall, who has done things one better by pushing his quarterly iPhone sales estimates to 11.3 million on the strength of international sales.

Meanwhile, Broadpoint.AmTech analyst Brian Marshall boosted his target this morning to $260, from $235, repeating his Buy rating. Marshall's note focused on explaining his higher-than-consensus estimate for December quarter iPhone sales: he sees 11.3 million units in the quarter, above the Street at an estimated 8.8 million. Marshall sees U.S. units down 20% sequentially, to about 2.5 million units, but with international units more than doubling sequentially to 8.8 million units.

Marshall's view has yet to spread to other industry analysts, however, as consensus iPhone shipments for the quarter remain slightly under 9 million.

Other analysts are upping their overall forecasts for Apple though, as Digital Daily notes that Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Doug Reid has boosted his sales predictions, particularly for the company's iMac line that was revamped in October. Reid's industry checks indicate very strong demand likely leading to yet another outstanding quarter for Apple.

In the wake of today's analyst upgrades, Apple's stock hit a new all-time high of $213.95 before settling back to close at $211.67.

MobileCrunch reports on data from mobile analytics firm Flurry showing very strong App Store download performance coming from iPod touch devices, suggesting a strong holiday season for Apple's premier iPod line. On Christmas Day, Flurry's data saw download volume from iPod touches increase nearly 1,000% from pre-Christmas levels, spiking well above comparable iPhone downloads, which typically lead iPod touch sales by a considerable margin.

Overall, Flurry's data reveals 51% month-to-month growth in App Store downloads for December using forecast data for the remaining days of the month. Google's Android Market also experienced strong month-to-month growth of 22%, but was unable to match Apple's performance, at least in application downloads.

The apparent tremendous boost in iPod touch-based App Store downloads was not unexpected, as similar indicators of strong iPod touch sales were seen last year.