iPhones Will Feature A Kill Switch to Stop Apple Picking

Looks like Apple remains a first at something. Three days before a scheduled meeting between authorities and smartphone companies over the issue of mobile-devices robberies, Apple announced its iPhones will feature a kill switch, allowing the user to turn it off and track it using a GPS.

Whereas most people have been debating whether or not the iOS 7 design of icons and overall colorful theme are cool enough or not, some new useful features the new firmware is set to implement were put aside. For instance, iOS 7 will implement a kill switch in your iPhone to help you keep tabs on it when it gets lost or is picked by a robber. This makes Apple the first smartphone company to take action following recent law enforcement attempts to limit smartphone robberies.

“We think this is going to be a really powerful theft deterrent” said Craig Federighi, senior vice president at Apple, during the iOS 7 debut at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Based on the details released during the conference, the kill switch can remotely erase all content via a website and prevents the robber from turning off “Find My iPhone” by requesting an Apple ID and password.

“Apple picking is a huge epidemic in the United States” reads a joint statement by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman following Apple’s announcement which was released just ahead of a meeting that aimed to find ways of limiting or preventing mobile-device robberies. “We are appreciative of the gesture made by Apple to address smart-phone theft”.

Apple picking has been so thriving lately that New York has a special police unit dealing particularly with mobile-device robberies. According to a statement by Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne, “if you subtracted just the increase in Apple product thefts, we would have had an overall decrease in crime in New York”.

Rumor Has It Cheap iPhone 6 Will Feature Wireless Charging

The rumor mill goes on and on about Apple’s upcoming iPhones, particularly those regarding the cheap version, meant to boost sales in Asia, where despite all of Apple’s intensive marketing, cheaper competition is by far the market leader. Rumor has it, that the cheap iPhone 6 will have features particularly meant for the Japanese market.

In the US, wireless charging is something that most of us only dare to dream off, although just recently this year Duracell Powermat introduced the first wireless charging solution for iPhone 5 (you can read a full review of the iPhone 5 battery case and charging mat here). With that product release, most of us found for the first time that wireless charging has been around for quite some time now. In fact, there are over 8.5 million devices compatible with or for wireless charging sold worldwide. 

Asia is where QI (the standard for wireless charging technologies for mobile devices) is all the rage. So releasing an iPhone that is meant to revolutionize those markets without wireless charging isn’t exactly the right business strategy. In fact, to withstand the aggressive competition in that region, Apple needs good-quality, very affordable price and appealing technologies.

There’s been a lot said about iPhone 6, but it seems wireless charging is an essential feature, whether it’s going to be an in-built feature or an added functionality via an external accessory. “Apple is likely to adopt the wireless charging technology developed internally, but it remains unknown if the next-generation iPhone will come with built-in wireless charging capability or with other attached accessories” reads a report by DigiTimes.

As for the US market, prepare to get rid of charging cables and accessories, because as of 2014 we are definitely going to see a lot more wireless charging solutions. AT&T has announced earlier this year that it had requested all of its device suppliers to provide integrated wireless charging solutions by 2014. And it’s only getting better. Already there are more than 100 major device vendors that have joined the Wireless Power Consortium and the first mobile products with built-in wireless charging have already been announced for release in the US. The first to be rolled out is a Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 920 that is actually the first US smartphone with built-in wireless charging.

Apple’s Low-Cost iPhone 6 Will Feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon Single-Chip

When it comes to the latest Apple rumors, there’s always more than one thing that draws interest, although as we’ve seen lately with this company, its latest-generation products aren’t exactly game-changers. What would definitely be revolutionary is for Apple to actually release a low-cost iPhone and according to the more recent rumors that’s one dream that should come true. In fact, analysts at Detwiler Fenton believe the cheap iPhone 6 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon single-chip.

“It is likely that the work with QCOM is being driven by AAPL’s concern regarding maintaining gross margins as well as the need to differentiate the product by performance” reads Detwiler Fenton’s research note. “AAPL would not want a value priced iPhone to offer the same kind of graphics and video support, processing power etc. that its premium priced device would, therefore a less powerful and lower-end Snapdragon integrated solution would help segment the product” the note adds.

What this means effectively for you? The Qualcomm Snapdragon single-chip will not be able to run premium features such as 4G LTE, although it is very possible Apple will release two versions of its cheap iPhone 6 since Qualcomm makes separate chips for 3G and LTE.

A report by China Times confirms the analysts’ research note, with news from an insider saying that Apple has hired TSMC for the production of Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. It’s been rumored that TSMC is currently testing A6X chips for Apple, for which production is expected to begin as of next year.

A recent statement by Morris Chang, Chairman and CEO of TSMC, was interpreted as a strong hit that TSMC will produce Qualcomm Snapdragon chips for iPhone 6. “Enough discussions have taken place, with enough customers who have large requirements (on 20nm) to lead us to believe that the volume will be very large” he said talking about the company’s 20 and 28 nanometer process technologies.