Bluetooth 4.0 Coming Later This Year

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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) said on Wednesday that version 4.0 of the wireless specification may be incorporated into devices by the end of the year. The new spec will bring Bluetooth to a whole new set of gadgets including watches, pedometers, and all other low-power devices that run on coin-cell batteries.

This is a huge step considering that Bluetooth only resided in devices that used triple-A or larger capacity batteries. Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, said that 4.0 combines both the high-speed data transfer capabilities provided by Bluetooth 3.0 with the new ability to transmit small bursts of data over short ranges.

The IGD News Service reports that Bluetooth 4.0 won't offer users a major improvement in actual battery life-- only a nominal improvement at best. Foley provided an example, saying that Bluetooth 4.0 radios will see the same battery drain as Bluetooth 3.0 radios when used to sync headphones to music players, or to connect smartphones to laptops.

Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that Bluetooth 4.0 will be better than the competition because it can be deployed across a wide variety of devices, giving the tech a head start over the other technologies. Unfortunately, the data transfer rate hasn't improved: Bluetooth still shoots data from device to device at a maximum rate of 24Mb/s (BT 3.0 + HS).

iPhone 5 production starting in September, cheaper iPhone model coming

A new rumor claims that the Apple iPhone 5 will go into production in September 2011. Furthermore, Apple may be developing a cheaper iPhone model with lower specifications. That's according to Avian Securities, which makes its claims based on conversations with a "key component supplier" to Apple.

This rumor is interesting because it lines up with a few other ones. In respect to the lower-spec/lower-price iPhone, we're still skeptical about this one, which has been rumored since February, but we do believe Apple could pull it off. It would be difficult for Cupertino to differentiate multiple devices while still touting the iPhone as a premium smartphone, but it's definitely possible. Business Insider has the full note:

Supporting out comments over the last month, conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone-5 will begin in September. This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario. In addition, our conversations also indicate the existence of a lower-spec/lower-priced iPhone in Apple's roadmap. However, while our contacts have seen the placeholder in the Apple roadmap, they do not yet have insight into specs or production timing. This leads us to believe that any launch is likely a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event. As a reminder, Avian has uncovered several data-points in recent months pointing to the existence of a lower-spec/lower-price iPhone. A lower-spec/lower-price iPhone has also been speculated in the press and gadget blogs, though we do not believe consensus currently discounts the existence of such a model.

In regards to the iPhone 5, we think that it will indeed be delayed. This is the third time we're hearing that it won't arrive in June.

Apple may not have announced a release date for the iPhone 5, but it was largely expected to arrive two months from now, given the iPhone's history. The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. The iPhone 3G was introduced on June 9, 2008. The iPhone 3GS was announced on June 8, 2009 and arrived on June 19, 2009 in the first countries. The iPhone 4 was announced on June 7, 2010 and released on June 24, 2010.

As such, we think Apple will either have the iPhone 5 ready for this holiday season, or will push it back till 2012. Either way, it will likely ship with a larger screen, thinner bezel and possibly an 8MP camera from Sony.

Samsung Galaxy Player devices coming to the US this spring

As expected, Samsung has announced an expansion of the Galaxy Family of portable devices with the addition of the Galaxy Player. The device is the first in a new category of Android-based mobile devices that strip out the 3G and calling functionality of a Galaxy S phone. There are two models, one with a 4" Super Clear WVGA LCD screen and one with a 5" LCD WVGA screen, and both allow the user to enjoy games, music, videos, social media, and e-books.

The 4" and 5" screen models of the Galaxy Player weigh just 5 and 7 ounces, respectively. Both devices boast Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity, front and rear cameras (including flash on the 5" model) for videoconferencing or photography, a microphone for VoIP calls over a WiFi via Qik, stereo speakers with Virtual 5.1 surround sound and Samsung's SoundAlive post-processing technology, and support for Adobe Flash 10.1. Both devices run Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) and will be upgradeable to Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread). Here's a brief comparison chart for the two:

Both Galaxy Players support numerous multimedia formats natively, eliminating the need to transcode files: audio (MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, and Flac) as well as video (DivX, Xvid, WMV, MPEG4, and H.264). Drag 'N Play support means files can be simply dragged from a PC right onto the player; installing special software of any kind on the PC is not required. A MicroSD slot allows 32 GB of extra storage, supplementing the 8GB on-board storage.

Galaxy Players are DLNA Certified and suport AllShare, meaning content can be streamed to and from a PC or television without wires. Last but not least, they have Google certification, so they can access the 100,000+ Android apps in the Android Market.

"Our Galaxy Family – including Galaxy S mobile phones and Galaxy Tab – has been a success because we give people what they truly wish for – access to thousands of Android Apps coupled with Samsung's sleek design," Tim Baxter, President of the Consumer Business Division at Samsung Electronics America, said in a statement. "Our new Galaxy Players deliver that same experience in two terrific, ultra-portable form factors – without incurring fees for a monthly data plan."