The iPhone 5 Was Scrapped at the Last Minute - Source

As it turns out, Apple was planning to launch a radically redesigned iPhone this year, but Steve Jobs didn’t like the screen size so they cancelled it a few months before the iPhone 4S announcement, according to person with inside knowledge. The device, boasting a complete redesign and a 10 megapixel camera, should be on Apple’s roadmap still.

An industry source who has been accurate on Apple matters in the past is telling Business Insider that the “iPhone 5” was “real and it was scrapped only months before the iPhone 4S was announced.”

The source alleges that Apple’s prototype iPhone 5 had some killer specs, including an aluminum back with a tapered design, a 4-inch (diagonal) screen, the previously rumored touch-based home button, a 10 megapixel camera, and incredibly fast performance.

The source also said that Apple wanted to use "liquid-metal" technology to make colored iPhones, and Siri was supposedly called “Assistant” during testing.

Word among Apple employees is that iPhone 5 never made it to the October 4 event because Steve Jobs had a problem with the four-inch screen.

Allegedly, the late Apple co-founder believed the bigger screen “fragmented” iPhones -  a popular belief at Apple when referring to Google’s Android operating system that runs on multiple types of hardware, with different screen sizes.

Apple will most likely introduce this new version of the iPhone next year, either at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (around summer), or at a fall event much like this year.

Numerous Apple fans were disappointed by this year’s incremental iPhone 4S upgrade. Nonetheless, the phone is selling well, with Apple reporting that it shipped four million units in the first weekend since launch.

The iPhone 4S flagship and exclusive feature is Siri, a voice-powered personal assistant that gets stuff done for you only by asking. The assistant understands not just words, but context as well.

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Intel Core i7-3960X Review Published by Chinese Website

Chinese websites have made a habit of not respecting anyone's NDA's so it doesn't come as a huge surprise to see that the first Sandy Bridge-E review is already out.

Published on the Inpai website, the review is the real deal as it includes a wide range of benchmarks scores, power consumption figures as well as other info about the upcoming Core i7-3960X.

Just as expected, most of the tests run show Intel's new chip to surpass anything in its path, including the Core i7-2600K based on the “regular” Sandy Bridge Core.

Take a look at some of the results achieved by this processor in the gallery enclosed after this port, or check the original Chinese website to see even more benchmarks.

Also, if you want to find out more about Sandy Bridge-E, make sure to keep an eye, since there isn't that much time left until our own Intel Core i7-3960X review will come out.

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Nokia to Deliver Camera Improvements for N9 and Lumia 800

Nokia's MeeGo-based Nokia N9 and the new Windows Phone-powered Lumia 800 share the same design, and also pack similar hardware, which makes them similar in many aspects. 

However, there are some who consider the camera on Lumia 800 to be inferior to the one in N9, and it seems that Nokia is already taking steps in this direction.

Some early reports on various issues with the camera on Lumia 800 already emerged, and it seems that they might actually be only software related, and that the fix for them is near.

Furthermore, the company is also considering improving the camera on Nokia N9, something that would occur courtesy of software updates it plans for the device.

“Working on sw updates to both to improve performance, no further details for now,” Damian Dinning, Nokia's imaging “guru” notes in a recent tweet, posted as response to a question regarding Lumia 800's camera performance.

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Apple iPhone 4S Might Be Banned After All

Samsung and Apple have been smashing heads together for a while now and, after several victories for the latter, the former is gaining the upper hand.

Samsung may, in fact, succeed in proving that Apple's iPhone 4S infringes at least one of its 3G patents.

An account of the of the hearing, from Florian Mueller, reveals how two of Samsung's patents were deemed valid as motives to ban some of Apple's products, especially the iPhone 4S.

January 20 and January 27, 2012, are the dates when those two patents will be discussed again.

Until then, Apple will have to put everything it has into improving its own case, after failing to convince the judge to take into account 'narrowed' definitions of Samsung's patents.

That's about as intelligible as patent discussions can get. Go over to FOSS Patents if you want to read all the details.

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RIM Releases Updated BBM Music Application

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion announced the release of a new application and service for its BlackBerry users only a few days ago, namely BBM Music, and the company has already released the first update for the mobile client. 

Unfortunately, RIM did not offer specific info on what was updated in the new application release, but some users suggest that the new flavor of the software does not deliver the “region not supported” error message anymore.

The new application iteration, namely BBM Music 1.0.0.134, is available for download via the BlackBerry App World here, and is available for all devices that run under the BlackBerry OS 5.0.0 or newer.

For those out of the loop, we should note that BBM Music, the service that RIM unveiled to the world back in August, is meant to provide users with access to millions of songs that can be downloaded on devices for a monthly fee.

When creating a BBM Music profile, users are offered access to 50 free songs, which can be shared with other friends that use the service.

Some of the main features that the service comes with include:

• Create your music profile from a catalogue of millions of songs and keep it fresh by swapping songs every month
• Make friends and listen to their music selections
• Play single songs or entire playlists created by friends. Listen to a giant playlist that includes all tracks from all your friends
• Create playlists that are all your own – using songs from all your friends’ profiles
• Post comments about your friends’ music and chat with them about music in real-time
• Discover what your friends are doing by watching the timeline - friends adding friends, new songs, playlists, comments
• Listen offline, while not connected to the wireless network (listen on subway, airplane, cottage, etc.)

The application is available for free, though he service isn't. However, users will be offered with a limited free trial, RIM announced.

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ASUS Transformer Prime Gets Put Through Its Paces Already

The ASUS Transformer Prime tablet isn't something people would expect to see tested already, but the device, or at least an early engineering sample, did, in fact, get an early hands-on test. 

The Prime is already turning out to be one of the few products of 2011 that succeeds in living up to its hype.

Already it is getting praised for its audio and performance, even while still as an engineering sample.

Like pretty much everyone else, we didn't really expect such a fast hands-on test, even one like this one, which wasn't overly in-depth.

After all, NVIDIA's mighty Kal-El Tegra 3 platform only showed up a few days ago.

Nevertheless, Mr. Henrique Martin form ZTOP got the prime somehow and, besides making the video above, also wrote a few things about the test here.

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