New iPhone rumors seem to be at a fever pitch this month, especially with the rumored September 12 Apple media event now three weeks away. While we're going to wait for Apple to make it official, it seems the carrier leaks have begun, with at least one German provider mentioning a new iPhone in an email to customers today. Looking for some stories with a little more meat on their bones? Then keep reading our recap for this Tuesday, August 21, 2012.
Skype's The Big Blog announced a new version 4.1 of their iPhone/iPod touch and iPad apps today, allowing users to share photos with loved ones while also tweaking performance so the apps no longer sip so much battery life while sitting idle in the background. "The new Photo Share feature will let you send photos you've shot on your iPad or iPhone directly to friends or family members via Skype," the blog notes. "There's no limit on the size of the file you can send, so you can send photos without reaching email size limits or paying expensive MMS charges." Version 4.1 also "improves the app start and the contact list loads even faster," so jump over the to App Store and grab the update to take advantage of the changes.
Bloomberg is reporting that Best Buy's second-quarter financials show an astounding 91 percent drop in net income to only $12 million compared to the same quarter last year when the company raked in $128 million profit. Best Buy is feeling the pain as consumers buy fewer HDTVs and notebook computers amid accusations that shoppers are simply using their stores as showrooms for buying through e-tailers such as Amazon.com. Best Buy announced a new CEO this week and plans to suspend forecasting its profits for the remainder of the year as a result. “This is really a bad signal about the business, implying much more promotion than in the past,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter remarked. “The factors leading to the decline don’t look like they’re going to decline any time soon.”
9to5Mac is reporting that German carrier Mobilecom Debitel appears to have outed a new iPhone in an email to its customers, which falls right in line with leading speculation that Apple will be releasing the new handset next month. “In September, it’s finally time for a new generation of smartphone to go on sale," a translation of the email reads. "Mobilcom-debitel allows you to find free e-mail about everything worth knowing about iPhone," going on to suggest that the handset "is expected in September." At this point it seems like the sixth-generation iPhone is going to be the worst-kept secret in Cupertino history, second only to that wayward iPhone 4 which wound up in Gizmodo's hands…
Microsoft's Office Web Apps blog announced this week that touch input has been added to the web-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Needless to say, the web apps fully support Internet Explorer on Windows 8, but it's a nice surprise to discover that they also work with Mobile Safari on iOS as well. Microsoft has baked in some "simple and intuitive touch manipulations" for the Office Web Apps Preview, which is available on SkyDrive.com or via Office 365 Preview for anyone with a Microsoft ID, which includes former Hotmail or Live.com users. Hit the blog to read all the details about the work Microsoft put into the new touch-enabled web apps.
The Verge is reporting that Samsung may planning to give its flagship Google device a spec bump in the very near future. Better known as the Galaxy Nexus, the GT-I9260 will remain identical on the outside, bumping the processor from 1.2GHz to 1.5GHz while giving the front and rear cameras a much-needed boost to 1.9MP and 8.0MP, respectively. There's just one potential flaw in the report, however: A spec sheet from SamMobile claims the refreshed Galaxy Nexus will come sporting an SD card slot, which Google has thus far frowned upon on its Nexus devices. Time will tell, but the Galaxy Nexus will already be a year old come November, so it all seems to make sense.
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