Steve Jobs Wanted Original iPhone to Have No SIM Card Slot, Says Former iPod VP
Rumors have suggested Apple could soon release an iPhone without a physical SIM card slot, and it turns out that if that’s accurate, Apple would be realizing Steve Jobs’ vision for the original iPhone, according to former iPod VP Tony Fadell.
Fadell was recently interviewed by journalist Joanna Stern for a special event at the Computer History Museum to promote his new book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, and during the conversation Fadell revealed that Steve Jobs wanted the iPhone to be a seamless device that didn’t include a SIM card slot.
Instead of relying on GSM cellular technology, Jobs was apparently more interested in using CDMA to connect iPhones to cell towers and cited Verizon’s nascent use of the technology, which allows supporting phones to link directly to the carrier’s network.
Fadell said he had to show Jobs market data to convince the former Apple CEO that CDMA adoption was too low for it to be a feasible option for the iPhone.
In fact, Apple did eventually release a SIM-less iPhone, but not until midway through the normal iPhone release cycle in January 2011, when it launched a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 for the Verizon network. The SIM card slot returned on the CDMA-equipped iPhone 4S, but the slot wasn’t supported by Verizon.
Late last year, Brazilian website Blog do iPhone claimed that iPhone 15 Pro models might not have a physical SIM card slot in at least some countries and regions.
Soon after the story broke, MacRumors received a seemingly legitimate document from an anonymous tipster indicating that Apple had advised major U.S. carriers to prepare for the launch of eSIM-only smartphones as soon as September 2022.
From Macrumors
Google confrims Pixel 6a pricing for more regions
Pixel 6a price | |
| US | USD 449 |
| Canada | CAD 599 |
| UK | GBP 399 |
| Australia | AUD 749 |
| Ireland | EUR 459 |
| Germany | EUR 459 |
| France | EUR 459 |
| Italy | EUR 459 |
| Spain | EUR 459 |
| Singapore | SGD 749 |
| Taiwan | NTD 13,990 |
| Japan | JPY 53,900 |
Google has priced the Pixel 6a fairly competitive in Europe with a €459 asking price for the single 6/128GB trim. Buyers in Singapore and Ireland will only get access to the Charcoal black color while all other regions will also get Sage and Chalk options. Pixel 6a is also expected to arrive to India though Google has not yet provided pricing and availability details.
From Gsmarena
Moto G82 is official with 50MP OIS camera
Motorola introduced its latest midranger dubbed the Moto G82. The phone brings a 50MP main camera with OIS, an OLED screen and a big battery as its key selling points.
The Moto G82 is built around a 6.6” OLED screen with Full HD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Motorola also says the panel offers 100% DCI-P3 gamut coverage.
The chipset of the Moto G82 is Snapdragon 695, and the Western European market is getting a version with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage (expandable through a micro SD slot).
The OLED display does allow a fingerprint scanner underneath, but the Moto G82 has it on the right-hand side, doubling as a power key.
Around the back the 50MP main camera comes complete with optical image stabilization. Alongside it are an 8 MP ultrawide shooter with 118-degree FoV and a 2MP macro snapper. The selfie camera mounted inside a punch hole has a 16MP sensor.
The battery capacity is 5,000mAh and it can be topped at rates up to 30W over the TurboPower standard. Better yet, the Moto G82 will have the required charger in the retail box.
Other features of the Motorola phone include dual SIM support with a separate slot for the micro SD, a 3.5mm audio jack, and Android 12 that can be customized through My UX.
The Moto G82 is offered in Gray and White colors and costs €329.99 in Europe. The new device will also roll out to selected markets in Latin America, Asia, India, and the Middle East.
From Gsmarena
OnePlus Ace Speed Edition incoming, will launch on May 17
OnePlus announced the Ace smartphone last month, and now it is getting a new sibling that is likely to be a more affordable alternative. The new phone will be called OnePlus Ace Speed Edition and will arrive on May 17, as confirmed by the company.
The announcement on Weibo confirms the launch will be in China, which is no surprise seeing how the Ace is exclusive to its home market. However, it might still make it overseas under a new name.
From Gsmarena
vivo S15, S15 Pro, and TWS Air are launching on May 19
A couple of days ago, vivo said that it would introduce the S15 and S15 Pro in China today, but it turns out the company was referring to announcing the launch date of both smartphones, which is May 19.
The S15 and S15 Pro will be unveiled at 7PM local time in China next Thursday, and these will be joined by new wireless earphones, dubbed vivo TWS Air.
vivo hasn’t divulged much about the S15 or S15 Pro yet, but the poster shared by the company today shows us one of the smartphones.
From Gsmarena
Apple sending notice to developers invited to special WWDC 2022 in-person event
Apple last month announced WWDC 2022, another edition of its annual developer conference. This year, however, Apple let developers register for an in-person event at Apple Park. Now the company is sending the notice to developers who have been chosen to join the special event.
In-person Apple events had been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, although WWDC 2022 will be pre-recorded and all online, Apple will open its campus to a limited number of developers who can watch the opening keynote along with the company’s engineers and designers.
Similar to registration for other WWDC events before the pandemic, developers interested in attending the event had to register via the Apple Developer website. Due to multiple restrictions, which include inviting fewer people to avoid COVID-19 spreading, registration for this special WWDC 2022 event was free.
Submissions to join the event were open from May 9 to May 11. Now Apple is notifying developers whether or not they were invited – which the company claims was a “random selection process.”
From 9to5Mac
Elon Musk Puts $44 Billion Twitter Deal ‘On Hold’
Elon Musk is putting his $44 billion takeover of Twitter “temporarily on hold” after the company claimed that less than 5% of its users are spam or fake accounts.
The Tesla chief tweeted on Friday that the deal was being frozen while he waited for details backing up Twitter’s claim:
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.
Musk linked his decision to a May 2 Reuters report referring to a filing with the US financial regulator, in which Twitter asserted that fake and spam accounts represented less than 5% of its daily average users:
We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter. The false or spam accounts for a period represents the average of false or spam accounts in the samples during each monthly analysis period during the quarter. In making this determination, we applied significant judgment, so our estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts, and the actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated.
Following Musk’s announcement in April that he was offering to buy Twitter, the Tesla CEO said that he wanted to make the social media platform “better than ever” with new product features that will defeat spam bots and authenticate all humans.
From Macrumors
Abandoned apps policy could see one-third of apps removed from App Store and Google Play
The “‘abandoned apps” crackdown last month announced by Apple – and a similar move by Google – could see a total of 1.5 million apps removed across the two app stores.
That would, according to a new report, amount to around a third of all available apps …
From 9to5Mac
Indian food delivery giant Swiggy is acquiring Dineout for $200 million
Swiggy has amassed millions of users in India, helping them order food and grocery online in the country. The seven-year-old startup, India’s most valued food tech, is now looking to reach those who go out to eat.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup said on Friday it has reached a definitive agreement with the Indian conglomerate Times Internet to acquire Dineout, a popular dining out and restaurant tech platform.
Neither of the startups shared the financial terms of the acquisition, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch the deal values Dineout at $200 million and it’s an all-equity deal.
From Techcrunch
Simulation meets observation in first image of the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s center
As countless science and general news outlets have reported today, the image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, is a fabulous scientific achievement. But one aspect that hasn’t gotten quite as much attention is the central role played by simulations and synthetic data in the discovery.
If you haven’t read about this awesome science news yet, the Event Horizon Telescope’s own post is a great place to get the gist. Based on years of observations from around the globe, a huge team at over a hundred institutions managed to assemble an image of the black hole around which our galaxy rotates, despite its relative closeness and the interference from light-years worth of dust, nebulae and other vagaries of the void.
But this wasn’t just a matter of pointing the telescope in the right direction at the right time. Black holes can’t be observed directly using something like the Hubble or even the still-warming-up Webb. Instead, all kinds of other direct and indirect measurements of the object must be made — how radiation and gravity bend around it and so on.
From Techcrunch
