If this report is true, by 2007, we'll have a new contraption to tinker with and love. The China Times reported that Apple's hyped and anticipated iPod cell phone will arrive either on the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2007. According to the said report, the device will merge iPod technology with traditional cell phone capabilities and will reportedly sport a 2 mega pixel camera.

The report also mentioned that Foxconn will begin delivering around 500,000 - 600,000 iPhones per month beginning in February 2007, to the Steve Jobs camp, from their Fushikang manufacturing facility.

This indicates that the Apple mobile thingamajig will initially be available only in a single model. Aside from that, the makers of the iconic iPod reportedly enlisted the guidance and expertise of several component suppliers in the hope that they would bring fresh inputs and ideas to the table.

Some of these tapped "experts" is Foxconn's subsidiary AlusTech, which will be helping out in the fabrication of the digicam module; Largan, which will supply the camera lens; and Micron which will take care of the CMOS image sensor. There were also reports that big-time companies such as Intel, Sharp, Tripod Tech, Broadcom, and Sunrex will also be on board as they will help out in the memory, LCM display, circuit board, baseband chip and keypad. Surely, Apple is not taking any chances on this one.

And since the iPod has become so popular largely because of its sleek design, the Cupertino based company also asked for the help of Catcher Tech to mold and manufacture the phone's outer housing. 

With all that info, we think that the only missing tidbit here is the price tag. Let's wait for more developments as the days come by.

New technology makes its way into our hands so fast that sometimes even the company selling it doesn't have time to update its final published specs. At least that's the way it appears with the new Core 2 Duo iMac. A few users have reported some unexpected details when running Vista on their Core 2 Duo.

What looks wrong here? Namely a network card that supports 802.11n in addition to the advertised b/g standards. A reader identified the card to be a Broadcom card which "works across all 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and draft-802.11n solutions. Intensi-fi is Broadcom's implementation of the 802.11n draft specification and the industry's first draft-802.11n solutions. Intensi-fi technology delivers superior performance and robust wireless connectivity throughout a home or office, enabling next-generation Wi-Fi devices to support voice, video and data applications. Intensi-fi chipsets are also designed to be compatible with existing 802.11a/b/g products."

So why the advertised limitation in Mac OS X? One suggestion was that 802.11n is not supported yet, possibly requiring Vista's latest drivers to unlock 802.11n mode in the Broadcom network card. While this is merely speculation, it's a fact that companies update and replace internal stock hardware with "equal or better" components at time due to availability and cost. So we guess that the moral of this story is to not be surprised if your Core 2 Duo (or other devices) magically start accepting new formats.

Apple's new Mac Pro will have a new AirPort card. For those who aren't familiar with it, the AirPort is a wireless networking card. There's already been an AirPort and an AirPort Extreme. The new card is the "AirPort Express."

Dang it! I keep typing "Airport" instead of "AirPort" ... what the heck is up with naming GadGets and ProgRams with CaPital LetTers StuCk in the MidDle of words! Anyway, back to the AirPort Express.

What will this mean for Apple users?
Apple has chosen to go with Broadcom's 802.11a/g BCM4311 chip for the new AirPort Express. This might be a sign that Apple's gearing up to start supporting the 802.11a WiFi standard. You see, 802.11a operates at around 5GHz, and some people report that the WWDC had a 5.8GHz network up during the keynote. But not everybody likes the faster 802.11a because even though 802.11a is faster, it's not compatible with the already popular 802.11b and 802.11g.

Will Apple use the faster 802.11n?
Not yet. The IEEE (the global Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has scheduled the 802.11n WiFi standard to come out sometime in the middle of 2007. While many believe that Apple will be among the first to try it out, you all just have to learn to wait.

If 802.11a is faster, why doesn't everyone want Apple to fully switch to it?
Both b and g work at 2.4GHz, and this is also the frequency of many cordless phones, so you interference messing up your WiFi. The 802.11a works at around 5GHz so there's no problem with interference, and it also sends and receives more data (usually five times faster than 802.11b).

So if 802.11a is faster, shouldn't it be common sense to adopt it? Not really. For those who are not familiar with the ways of WiFi communication, 802.11b was the standard before 802.11a and 802.11g (we know; it's weird that the version after "b" is called "a," but that's how they did it). The 802.11a is not backwards compatible with the already popular 802.11b, although a lot of new technology has come out that smoothes over the compatibility problems.

The new AirPort Express has Broadcom's 802.11a/g BCM4311 chip, and 802.11g is backwards compatible with the existing 802.11b/g setup that many people have.

It seems as though everyone wants to jump on the Apple bandwagon. Everything labeled as an iPod automatically features that golden Midas touch.

Broadcom is simply one company benefitting from all the attention given to Apple and its popular music players. Broadcom, a company that supplies a decoder chip used in Video iPods, is seeing its stock continue to grow in the wake of the popularity of the new device.

Broadcom Corp. shares surged to a new 52-week high in afternoon trading on Wednesday, boosted by the belief that the company could benefit from video iPod sales, and from heightened demand for video processors.

What is the moral of the story? If Steve Jobs wants to play with you, you would do good in sharing your ball with him. You'll get it back.

[Via, Business Week]