Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these. No word yet on a street date for the iPad 3 (assuming that’s what it’s called), though my guess is retail availability will follow roughly the same schedule as that of the iPad 2: Available for purchase a week or so after the event.

Apple last year introduced the iPad 2 on March 2, which was followed up by a launch just 9 days later. Consequently, it’s reasonable to expect the iPad 3 to launch by mid-March at the absolute latest.

Regarding the iPad 3 itself, the report confirm earlier iPad 3 reports pointing to a faster chip – likely the A6 – along with a 2048×1536 Retina Display.

Canada’s largest telecommunications companies are squaring off in a fight about the future of television.

Rogers Communications Inc. RCI.B-T and BCE Inc. BCE-T are in talks with Apple Inc. AAPL-Q to become Canadian launch partners for its much-hyped Apple iTV, a product that has the potential to revolutionize TV viewing by turning conventional televisions into gigantic iPads.

While the iTV product remains cloaked in secrecy, sources say Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has approached Rogers and Bell as it actively pursues partnerships with Canadian carriers.

“They’re not closed to doing it with one [company] or doing it with two,” said one source who is familiar with the talks. “They’re looking for a partner. They’re looking for someone with wireless and broadband capabilities.”

Another source, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Rogers and Bell already have the product in their labs.

Peter Misek with Jefferies presented his “what if” analyses related to content on the so-called “iTV” in a note to investors on Monday. In what he sees as the most likely scenario, Apple could gain access to non-exclusive content for its television set and forge deals with existing cable providers.

By potentially partnering with carriers and cable operators, Apple could enter the market on a level playing field with everyone else for content. With access to a variety of content through existing providers, as well as the content already available on the iTunes Store, Misek believes that Apple could package everything with a “superior user interface and ecosystem” and beat out the competition.

Some other options laid out by Misek include Apple hosting exclusive content a’la Netflix and their deal with Arrested Development, or perhaps becoming a “Hollywood studio and produce its own content.”

I don’t think Peter Misek has any idea what he’s talking about.

The big box wants to know how you feel about it based on some proposed promotional verbiage which boasts that “Apple finally reinvents what a TV can do,” saying that it’ll run iOS, support iCloud, be controllable from an iPhone or iPad, and have access to Netflix, YouTube, and Flickr — in other words, it’s an Apple TV wrapped in an actual television set, exactly as you’d expect.

Slightly stranger, though, is that Best Buy says it’ll have an “iSight” camera — a brand Apple hasn’t actively used in some time for its webcams — and that it’ll be ready for Skype, which probably isn’t the way Cupertino would want to position the TV’s video call capabilities with FaceTime on deck. Best Buy pegs the set at 42 inches and slaps a $1,499 price tag on it, a fairly hefty premium over models from top tier manufacturers in the same size class; even many 46-inch models retail for less.

via The Verge

The iPhone 5 will continue to utilize glass to glass (G/G) touch panel technology which will benefit current touch panel suppliers TPK Holding and Wintek, the paper quoted the securities house as saying.

It’s admittedly too early to tell what production timeline Apple is operating under, but feature wise, the iPhone 5 is rumored to sport an A6 processor while also including support for 4G LTE networks.

“We recently spoke to a major TV component supplier who has been contacted by Apple regarding various capabilities of their television display components,” Muster writes. “We are confident that Apple will enter the connected TV market, but timing remains uncertain. More specifically, the hardware could be ready quickly, but the timing and scope of a revamped TV content solution is unclear.”

So Apple will enter the TV market but the timing remains uncertain? Hmm, I could have told you that without talking to anyone.

Munster has long been a proponent for an Apple HDTV set going as far back as 2009 when he predicted that Apple would enter the TV market within 5 years. Now it’s very likely that his prediction will come to fruition, but in all seriousness, a prediction with a 5-year window is a bit absurd.

Munster also notes that Apple is investing in manufacturing facilities capable of churning out displays as small as 3.5 inches and as large as 50 inches. A few weeks ago, the USA Today said that Apple’s HDTV efforts were well underway but that they were having trouble securing licensing deals. What’s more, the report claimed that Apple is currently exploring 42 and 50-inch LCD sets with embedded Wi-Fi functionality. More recently, and take this with a grain of salt, Technobuffalo reported that Apple is working on a 42-inch OLED set with built-in face recognition.

Software wise, Munster anticipates Apple could implement a few solutions to distinguish its product from an already saturated HDTV market.

• Apple could enable its television to manage a consumer’s live TV service from within a unified interface, like TiVo, but without a set-top box.
• Apple could offer access to live TV from network programming in combination with Web-based video services.
• Apple could offer monthly subscriptions on an a-la-carte basis for live TV packages with content from content providers; this is the most challenging scenario due to existing licensing arrangements, he notes.

“We believe that Apple only enters mature markets with the goal of revolutionizing them, as it did with the smartphone,” Munster adds. “In television, we see an opportunity for Apple to reinvent how consumers discover and enjoy video on their TVs and mobile devices (live TV, previously aired shows, movies, user generated content, etc.). Without a revamped TV content solution, we do not think Apple enters the TV market. Since we know Apple is exploring television hardware, we are therefore led to conclude that the company is exploring a solution for live TV, and this solution could be one that has not yet been taken mainstream.”

Rumors surrounding an Apple HDTV reached a fever pitch a few months ago when Steve Jobs, in his biography, noted to Walter Isaacson that he had ‘finally cracked’ the challenge of delivering an integrated TV set.

via AppleInsider

The move would ramp up the pressure on the company’s domestic rivals in the fight to win more subscribers to the third-generation (3G) network service.

In a news release on Monday, Beijing Telecom Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Telecom, said the CDMA-version iPhone 4S is likely to hit the domestic market by the end of February, or at the beginning of March. However, no pricing details were disclosed.

“China Telecom has already started preparatory work for the launch of the iPhone 4S,” according to the press release.

Experts pointed out that it is possible for China Telecom to present the iPhone 4S as soon as possible, since the device, built for the company’s CDMA2000 network, has already obtained all three required operating licenses.

While we don’t know if the set will be running it’s own version of iOS, we do know that will have deep integration with devices running the popular operating system. They’ll also sport Siri style voice controls as well as facial recognition software, and plans for the TV’s voice control system are said to far exceed what’s currently in use on the iPhone 4S. And if the user opts to not use voice, an iOS device can be used as a stand in remote. Apple execs are reportedly describing the new product line as a “hub” to your life, replacing the PC as the most-used device in a consumer’s home. Welcome to the “Post-PC Era.”

Our source said Apple is exploring the notion of using the set to control other connected devices in the home; think along the lines of ovens that pre-heat while you’re watching TV before dinner, and garage doors that can be closed by voice command while you sit on the couch. No details were given as to whether Apple would consider manufacturing such devices, though given their history, a “Made for iPod” style accessory program would be a natural fit for a TV-based connected home system.

Our source also said the controls for the television set would be unconventional and unique. The TV will follow the Apple tradition of going into power-saving sleep mode more often than actually turning off. Thanks to facial recognition software, something we’ve known Apple has been playing around with for some time now, the television will reawaken when someone it recognizes walks in the room. Should two recognized users be present in the room at the same time, an iOS app can be used to tell the set which person should be given control.

Well the report certainly sounded credible at first, no? But we quickly became skeptical, to put it mildly, when we saw mention of ovens and garage doors. A 42-inch OLED though? Intriguing. The only question, though, is price. There are no shortage of amazing HDTV sets on the market. A quick trip to Best Buy reveals a plethora of incredible LED sets from the likes of Samsung and LG. OLED is nice, but Apple will need more than an incredible picture to compete in an aggressive market with already paper-thin margins.

Citing a reliable source at Foxconn, Weintraub writes that iPhone 5 production is set to begin and that sample devices are already making the rounds there. A few varied form factors are reportedly floating about, yet a few features are reportedly common between all of them.

4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them).

No teardrop-shaped devices, as rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness (also longer/wider).

Neither of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor.

Neither of the devices are the final versions.

While this of course extremely speculative, it does jibe with some previous iPhone 5 rumors we’ve seen, namely that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will sport  larger screen and come in an entirely new form factor. And it’s nice to see that that teardrop mumbo jumbo is no longer a talking point. Sure, it might look good as a prototype, but ergonomically it’s probably not terribly conducive to an enjoyable user experience.

Anywhoo, John Gruber of Daring Fireball typically has some solid sources within Apple and he takes issue with Weintraub’s report that iPhone production is about to commence, simply stating, “No it’s not.’

As for the report of a longer and wider form factor?

Gruber notes:

Longer and wider? Sounds like bullshit. I can see Apple putting a bigger display on a device of the same size. I can’t see them making a bigger device.

A few months back we reported on how Apple reportedly made a $800 million offer to acquire Dropbox, an offer which Dropbox refused on account of their desire to remain an independent company.

In any event, Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston sat down for a chat with Wired at the DLD conference in Munich today and dropped some interesting tidbits about Apple’s interest in cloud computing and internal efforts to incorporate Dropbox style functionality into OS X.

The Next Web reports:

Apple’s MobileMe could have had a Dropbox-style feature built into the OS X Finder, but it was nixed by internal Apple politics, according to Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston.

Houston said that apparently the team behind the failed cloud service MobileMe wanted to add a Dropbox-style feature directly into OS X (for use with MobileMe) but that the team responsible for the OS X Finder app “wouldn’t prioritize it, or wouldn’t build it” for them. MobileMe’s replacement, iCloud, also lacks any kind of direct OS X Finder interaction as yet.

The MobileMe team apparently talked to Dropbox in 2009 as they were interested in how it worked. “It was a little confusing to us,” admitted Houston, as the two teams probably sat 50 feet from each other.