Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Wednesday:
MobileMe, Please: With its iPad 2 announcement behind it, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is already preparing its next big product unveiling, according to a Tuesday report from Macerkopf.de.. The German website said Tuesday that a “confident source” indicated that Apple will host a media event to introduce the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5, as well as a brand new version of its MobileMe suite of subscription-based services. The new MobileMe has been rumored in a number of reports this year. On Feb. 17, The New York Times said Apple was preparing a version of MobileMe that would introduce “voice navigation.” A Wall Street Journal report from Feb. 13, however indicated that the new MobileMe would come alongside a new smaller, cheaper model of the company’s iPhone.
TiVo Live App in the Works: Digital video recorder maker TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) is plotting to bring live streaming television services to Apple’s iPad tablet PC, according to a Wednesday report from Electronista. A customer survey was sent to current TiVo users asking whether they would be interested in watching live television and recorded shows via the Tivo application on the iPad. This would be a reverse of the existing television functionality in the iPad, where users can stream iTunes-purchased movies and shows to their televisions through the Apple TV set top box, but not the other way around. There is also an existing TiVo iPad app but it is only for using the tablet as a remote control for TiVo set top boxes.
Chip Switch: It’s bad news for Samsung if a Wednesday rumor originating at EE Times proves true. The website’s sources say Apple has partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to provide the proprietary A5 processor chip found in the new iPad 2. Samsung produced the A4 processor chip in the original iPad and was expected to produce the chip in the tablet’s successor.
Taiwanese outlet DigiTimes also claimed in February that TSMC could begin acting as the sole producer of Apple’s A4/A5 processor. It’s unclear why Apple has turned away from Samsung for its chip production, but the companies’ relationship as competitors in both the smartphone and tablet markets may have something to do with it. A Dow Jones Newswires article from February said that contracts with Samsung would see Apple spending $7.8 billion on the company, money that was in part fueling Samsung’s commercial interests.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
