Apple launching iPhone 5S and another cheaper model: Report

Consumers will get to lay their hands on the new Samsung Galaxy S4 anytime now. Specs-wise, I must admit it is very impressive and I might be tempted to change side. Maybe.

In a bid to increase the company's market share and to catch up with Android-based mobile phone sales, Apple is said to be launching 2 new models of its flagship iPhone, one of which is dubbed iPhone 5S.

Apple is set to launch its next flagship smartphone this summer: Wall Street Journal

As at end-February 2013, Android-based phones dominates the market with more than half of the share, at least in the US:

Android smartphone sales  : 51.2%
Apple iPhone                    : 43.5%
Windows phones              : 4.1%
BlackBerry                       : 0.7%


Apple launching two iPhones this summer

A report in the Wall Street Journal claims that production of the next iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 5S, has already begun in time for its official unveiling this summer and that it will be joined by a cheaper version of the smartphone in order to increase the company's existing market share.

Rumours about both devices have been flying around since the end of 2012. However, when something appears in the Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg, it is taken seriously because, as well as a reputation for secrecy, Apple also has a reputation for 'leaking' stories to those two papers.

Unsurprisingly, unnamed sources reported in the article appear to confirm stories that first started circulating at the beginning of 2013 that suggested the next iPhone would simply be an incremental update of the existing flagship, but that it would be joined by a cheaper model - likened in appearance to an iPod Classic - aimed at emerging markets where Apple's premium price is still a hurdle to growing market share.

News that the next handset will be an incremental improvement will no doubt disappoint any number of analysts and investors who have been calling for the company to innovate for the past 12 months and in the process have driven the company's share price down by more than 50%. In particular, Forrester CEO George Colony will feel very let down.

Despite admitting that he knows very little about the technological mastery involved in achieving such a goal, he took to his Counterintuitive CEO blog this week and, within a post entitled "Apple's Foldable Future," called on Apple to make a seamless folding iPhone that opened out into a paper-thin widescreen tablet and that had a full-body screen without a bezel. - ©AFP/Relaxnews 2013

Source: TechCentral


TheGreenMechanics: More choices for consumers and hopefully cheaper, too.

Mt. Kinabalu from Tuaran

Not the most glamorous town around, but Tuaran is a great stopover if you are traveling to the east coast of Sabah or on your way up to Kinabalu National Parks where Mt. Kinabalu is located.

Mt. Kinabalu is on the background. Taken at a location just before arriving the town from Kota Kinabalu, with iPhone cam and tweaked with in-phone App, Snapseed


About Tuaran

The name Tuaran is believed to have come from the Malay word tawaran which means 'bargaining' or 'sale'. This presumably reflects on the town's earlier role as a market where natives from the hillside villages brought their produce for trading with the coastal Chinese and other indigenous peoples.

It is a town as well as a district located in West Coast Division, in the northwest of Sabah, East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Tuaran district has an area of 1,166 square kilometres and an estimated population of 105,453 in 2010.

About half the population consists of ethnic Dusun, a third ethnic Bajau, and some Chinese. It has a distinctive nine-story Chinese pagoda as a prominent landmark.

Nearby tourist attractions are the Mengkabong Water Village and the Penimbawan Water Village, with stilt houses built by the Bajaus over the shore.


Also read: TuaranTourism, Sabah.

Crows can recognise human faces!

Yes they can.

In fact, scientists say many birds recognise individual humans but they probably do this by using a variety of cues, including height, build, colour, clothes or ways of walking. Crows, however, can actually recognise faces. Amazing, isn't it.

Red-eyed crows of Nexus Resort Karambunai, Sabah. Photo by de engineur

This has been confirmed by experiments in which scientists put on various masks and then trapped a group of wild crows and fixed rings to their legs. After letting the birds go, they walked around recording whom the crows mobbed or scolded with their harsh, warning cries.

The trapped crows, which had previously ignored these individuals, now reacted aggressively to anyone wearing the trappers’ masks, regardless of their size, clothes, or gait.

So, don't underestimate the statement by movie makers who portrayed crow's presence as bad omen and its aggression towards human. LOL, that's from me - don't be bothered.


ref - Sciencefocus