Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to This Week In Apple Rumors, our regular look back at all of the week's unconfirmed gossip, questionably-sourced reports, and blatant speculation about future Apple products from around the Web! Let's take a look back at what the various Apple blogs and websites were excited about in the past two weeks, from December 16 -29. Check out our previous edition of Apple rumors here, and for all the latest you can follow me on Twitter right here.
The iPad Turns 5 (Generations)
The iPad 5(!) and iPad Mini 2 Are On Their Way...This March?(01 of04)
It's the final This Week In Apple Rumors of 2012! Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday we were getting prepared for an Apple-made television, and excited for the final year of Barack Obama's presidency, and now look at us. We've grown so, so much. We'll start this week's TWIAR with some iPad rumors, which, thanks to the debut of the iPad mini this fall, now runs double-duty, with equal speculation for the iPad Mini 2 and the iPad 5(!). They grow up so fast, don't they?We've already heard that the iPad Mini 2 will ship with a Retina display, upping the display-quality of the first-generation iPad mini considerably. That's a given, and if the second iPad mini does NOT have a Retina display, you can shave my backside and call me Hester Prynne, because that would be the biggest surprise, and let-down, we've seen from Apple and some time. Now, though, we're hearing whispers that Apple could push up the release date of that Retina iPad mini, as well as a thinner, lighter fifth-generation iPad, all the way up to March. The iPad mini 1, and iPad 4, were just released in November, so that would be quite quick, compared to Apple's customary one-year schedule. Apple, however, has shown some flexibility lately, launching iPad 4 just eight months after iPad 3, and both Japanese Apple site Macotakara and RBC Capital Markets Analyst Doug Freedman wrote this past week that Apple's suppliers are already gearing up for a launch, perhaps in March, per Macotakara. Macotakara has a few supposed specs for the iPad 5 -- basically, it'll be slimmer and lighter -- though 9to5Mac throws some cold water on its claims here.The big "news," if you can call it that, from these two rumors is the truncated release schedule. For the past few years, Apple has been super-predictable in its release dates, generally outing a new product a year after the most recent one debuted. Apple brass has complained, however, that rumor sites -- and, too, the company's predictability -- has hurt sales somewhat as customers wait for the next-gen model to come out, so perhaps Apple is ready to mix things up somewhat in 2013. (I know I am). For more on the iPad mini 2 and iPad 5, check 9to5Mac translating Macotakara from the Japanese here and CNET here for the latest. To sum up, though: You could be drunkenly breaking your iPad mini 2 or iPad 5 by St. Patrick's Day 2013. (credit:AP)
Could An Apple iWatch Be Months Away From Release?(02 of04)
Here's a curious one that we'll dog-ear for 2013's list of Inaccurate Apple Rumors of the Year: A report from the Chinese-language website iphone.tgbus.com claims that Apple is readying an iWatch, or a connected device that you wear around your wrist. Details are as skimpy as you'd expect them to be, but according to "sources on the supply chain," Apple is collaborating with chipmaker Intel to produce a wristwatch with a 1.5-inch OLED screen that would connect to your iPhone and, among other things, allow you to answer incoming phone calls with the press of a watch button. The iWatch, as everyone is naturally calling it, is expected to drop in the first half of 2013, per the report. This is just about the first time anyone has ever claimed Apple was producing a smart wristwatch (If you want an idea of what one might do, you might check out Sony's smartwatch, or the incredibly successful Kickstarter graduate Pebble watch). A few outlets -- most prominently The Verge and 9to5mac -- have urged Apple to translate its design success with the iPod nano into a watch, but we haven't heard any whispers that it was actually, you know, doing that. Thus far, it's been all fantasy, no reality, like Anthony Edwards' sex life at the beginning of Revenge of the Nerds. And, you know, it might still be just fantasy. We're talking about a thinly-sourced report from a web publication with little reliability. But for folks calling for Apple to switch things up, and surprise us with a new gadget or gizmo outside the categories it's already dominating, the idea of a surprise iWatch must be intriguing. It's not an HD television set or anything, but it's still something.Hey, speaking of which... (credit:Getty Images)
That Apple Television? Not Coming In 2013, No Matter How Bad You Want It(03 of04)
Every three months for the past four years, it seems, financial analysts who cover Apple come together to predict, in unison, that the company will release a television set, or iTV, very soon, and that we can expect Apple to start dominating TVs the way it does smartphones and tablets. And every three months for the past four years or so, those same analysts have been wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong: As of December 30, 2012, Apple has not yet released a television set, in spite of these promises to the contrary.And while at least one analyst has already called for an iTV to finally reveal itself in all of its glory in 2013 (even a a broken clock...), a recent report out of the supply chain in Asia is shedding doubt, yet again, on the analyst's call. Though Apple is indeed testing out prototypes of a high-def television set, the report claims, we shouldn't expect the iTV to appear in 2013. 2014 seems more likely. At this point, there is so little certainty surrounding the Apple television, it's probably best to just treat all rumors, from both the "It's coming!" side and the "Not happening!" as baseless speculation. All that is clear is that Apple is experimenting with different prototypes, and that it has "intense interest" in the television space. That's it and that's all. Until we hear more -- well, it's probably safe to go buy a Sony, Vizio or [GASP] Samsung TV set. (credit:AllThingsD: Jeremy Allaire)
New MacBook Air and MacBook Pro To Debut Next Summer?(04 of04)
And finally: The last Apple rumor of 2012! And this one seems almost plausible! We've come so far, you guys!Digitimes, a Taiwanese trade paper that is renowned for spewing out occasionally-accurate predictions about forthcoming technology seemingly at random, reports that a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will be released next summer, with similar designs but faster processors. Digitimes also expects a price cut on the Air, down from its current $999 basement level, which could be bad news for Windows 8 and Intel's Ultrabooks. Like the iTV, we're too far out to know if we should give this rumor any credence. For now, let's just pop some champagne, put some Macklemore on the stereo and celebrate the year that was! Everybody dance now!That's all for This Week In Apple Rumors. Make sure you check back next week, when I will be writing this column from the on-screen keyboard on my brand new iWatch. Or, if you can't wait until next week, you can always get up-to-the-minute Apple rumors by following me on Twitter right here. (credit:Getty Images)
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