Early last year we saw a patent that indicated that NFC (near field communication) was heading to the iPhone 4. This of course didn’t happen which then led to speculation that the iPhone 5 might be the device which sees NFC implanted inside it.
Bloomberg is reporting today that Apple appears likely to add NFC to the iPhone 5 and the iPad 2 making them into mobile payment systems.
The main goal for Apple would be to get a piece of the $6.2 trillion Americans spend each year on goods and services, Crone said. Today, the company pays credit-card processing fees on every purchase from iTunes. By encouraging consumers to use cheaper methods — such as tapping their bank accounts directly, which is how many purchases are made via PayPal — Apple could cut its own costs and those of retailers selling Apple products.
Some digging around the latest SDK from Apple has revealed that the iPad 2 might get a camera similar, if not the same, as the current generation iPod touch. This means it will be somewhere in the region of 0.7 to 1 Megapixels. This is referring to the camera on the back of the iPad. As for the iPad camera on the front, expect it to be of VGA quality.
When Verizon announced the iPhone 4 recently, a couple of subtle changes were spotted. These revolved around the top left side of the phone where the volume buttons and mute switch are. With the slight change to the antenna on the Verizon model, the mute switch was pushed down slightly as were the up and down volume buttons. This raised a few questions about cases and what will happen.
Some pictures (renders) of the new Palm webOS based tablets have leaked. What we understand is that HP will soon announce the Topaz and Opal tablets.
As well as finding out that the new multitasking gestures in iOS 4.3 will not be made available in the public release, we also find out that camera icons have been included in the new iOS 4.3 beta 2 update.
With the release of iOS 4.3 Beta 2 yesterday, Apple also announced that the multitouch gestures introduced in the beta versions will not make it to the public release.
Apple held an earnings call yesterday that indicated that a healthy 366,666 iOS devices are now activated per day.
Another new iPad 2 case has been found at a Chinese accessory supplier. This particular case is different from the other 
Engadget managed to get some interesting info on the upcoming iPad 2 and iPhone 5. The details indicate that a shift to Qualcomm chipsets will be used. This shift will also be done on the next generation Apple TV from what we understand.
Since the launch of iOS 4.3 beta 1 a couple of days ago, a number of people have been snooping around the SDK and files to see what is available. A lot of hints can be found in the SDK that reveal what’s coming soon so to speak.
While playing around with the new iOS 4.3 beta on the iPad, we came across an interesting menu item in the settings app that lets you now change what the Mute button does. You now have the option of switching it back to a lock rotation button.
