glass iphone

According to a new report, Apple is set to produce enough sapphire glass for the displays of both its expected iPhone 6 devices as well as its oft-rumored iWatch in 2014, according to analyst Matt Margolis for Seeking Alpha.

As a result of my most recent supply chain check I believe that the Mesa sapphire operations will have ample supply to cover the iWatch, the 4.7″ iPhone and the 5.5″ iPhone with full sapphire cover glass in 2014. Additionally, the maximum sapphire screen capacity of the Mesa facility is likely to exceed 200m annual units.

Margolis states that GT Advanced, the company responsible for producing sapphire glass for Apple in Mesa, AZ, has installed more than 2,500 sapphire glass furnaces and is expected to be working with sapphire boules weighing between 200 and 235kg. The Mesa plant is said to be waiting for its final prepayment from Apple in order to finish construction and secure equipment, which is expected to be received by the end of this month.

It was previously reported that Apple was gearing up for the production of 100 million sapphire display units at around 5-inches each based on the facilities at GT Advanced. This latest supply chain check by Margolis suggests that a much larger yield of 200 million units or more could be achieved, suggesting that Apple could use the glass for both its rumored 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 as well as a potential iWatch device.

Sapphire glass on iDevices could be a boon to many consumers as it provides increased strength and scratch resistance. We all know smartphone screens are prone to shattering if dropped and any improvements in this area would be welcomed with open arms. Adding scratch resistant glass to a smartwatch is also likely to be a good idea given that it will be exposed most of the time and therefore open to being accidentally damaged. I just hope that the cost of producing sapphire glass isn’t passed on to consumers.

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dell adamo pearl admire Leptop

We're used to seeing cheap and cheerful laptops from Dell, but the company's latest ultra-portable, the Adamo Admire, is far more luxurious.

Our review sample came in black, though it's also available in silver, and weighs just 1.8kg. The slender metal enclosure is only 18mm thick and feels very robust and rigid, barely flexing at all under heavy pressure.

The minimalist design hides all the ports away on the back, rather than on the sides where they'd be easier to reach. There are three USB ports, one of which doubles as an eSATA connector, as well as DisplayPort and headphone sockets. There's no memory card reader or, given the limited space, ExpressCard slot.

The Adamo owes its slender lines to its non-user replaceable battery, the lack of a built-in optical drive and its 128GB solid state disk (SSD) which is more compact than a hard disk. SSDs are more rugged and use less power than hard disks since they don't have moving parts. However, this SSD's limited capacity mean it's ill-suited for storing a large media library.

Another major power-saving component is the low voltage 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 processor. Its overall speed of 39 in our applications benchmarks means it isn't very quick at demanding tasks such as video encoding, but it's still faster than almost all the netbooks we've seen. As expected, the integrated Intel graphics chip isn't up to playing the latest games.

Despite these power-saving components, the Adamo's battery life is disappointing. It lasted just over five hours in our light-usage test which is respectable for an ultra-portable, but newer and cheaper ultra-portables based on Intel's latest low voltage processors last longer.

We were immediately taken with the 13.4in widescreen display. It's very bright with accurate, vivid colours and wide viewing angles. There's plenty of contrast too, but the glossy finish can cause glare. An external monitor can be connected via the DisplayPort socket, while non-DisplayPort monitors will require a VGA or DVI adaptor, for around £25.

The keyboard is spacious, with no undersized keys and it's also backlit, making it easier to type in dim conditions. Unfortunately, the keys have very little travel, so it's not always obvious if you've pressed one or not. The touchpad buttons feel stiff, requiring too much pressure to use, but the large pad feels accurate.

Dell's Adamo is an undeniably desirable ultra-portable laptop and at £1,000 it's cheaper than other similarly specified ultra-portables, such as Apple's MacBook Air. Its comparatively short battery life and uncomfortable keyboard limits its usefulness, though.

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apple ipad mini 2

The 7.9in Apple iPad Mini made a jaw-dropping first impression when it arrived last year and a disappointing, nose-scrunching second one. Cooing over the slim, light and elegant design we could hardly believe our luck, brain cells frantically bashing into one another to try to make sense of tablet hardware this impeccable. Until we turned it on, that is. And saw a 1024x768 iOS homescreen of comparatively fuzzy icons and text – the likes of which we thought we’d left behind with the iPhone 3GS.

We understood that Apple had to do something to keep costs from spiralling out of control, but we were also a little heartbroken. Cupertino had given us a taste of this smaller, leaner iSlate and as soon as we had it in our hands, we knew exactly what we wanted: an iPad Mini with a Retina display. Not a slightly faster iPad 4 or iPad 5. A Retina Mini.What. More. Can. We. Say? The Mini was such a phenomenal piece of design – as important to Apple’s future slates as the iPhone 4 was to its smartphones – that not only is it almost identical on the second Mini but the 9.7in iPad Air is now just an oversized version of the smaller tab too.

With the cool-to-the-touch aluminium build, rounded edges and machined speaker grilles come the sheer terror of scratching or knocking it against your laptop, coffee cup or stray bony elbows. It’s also smooth enough to slip from the hand if you don’t rest those corners firmly in your palm creases. Everything becomes the enemy, your own butter fingers included. That’s why, criminal as it is, most Mini buyers will probably end up housing the iPad Mini’s famous form (now in Space Grey and Silver) in a case – at least Apple’s own Smart Case doesn’t add too much bulk.

It’s a touch heavier and a smidgeon thicker than last year’s model – 331g and 7.5mm versus the originals’ vital stats of 312g and 7.2mm. You honestly won’t notice either of these changes to the dimensions as they’re fairly tiny. What you will notice is the bump in speed thanks to the A7 chip and the bigger battery, which are no doubt responsible for the extra grams and micrometers.

CHECK OUT OUR IPAD MINI WITH RETINA GALLERY HERE. 

As with the Air there’s no Touch ID fingerprint scanning for the Mini. But compared to the bigger iPad, this is a much niftier bit of kit. The Air is now thinner and lighter, but there’s no denying a 9.7in screen still takes up a fair bit of space. Occasionally you’re going to decide it’s too big to take out and will leave it on the bedside table at home. Not so the Mini.

Just remember, this isn’t a 7in tablet. It’s not quite as pocketable as the Google Nexus 7 or Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7in (the two main rivals we’ve been comparing it to). It’s not quite as light, either - though all three are light enough to hold for much longer periods than a 10in tab. And both 7in slates are more comfortable to type on with two hands than the Mini, too. So why are we sticking by the Mini? Because that extra screen space, especially the big vertical chunk, really does change how you use the iPad compared to its Android rivals.

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