Well, that was fast.
Just a few days after reports surfaced that the new iPhone 5 would be arriving September 21 come new reports that Apple will announce its next-gen 4-inch, 4G LTE model (and maybe the iPad Mini) on September 12. This date jibes perfectly if Apple and its carriers start selling the new phone on September 21.
But the news isn't all good in new iPhone land. According to Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, the folks making the new in-cell display panels. In-cell screens are thinner (which means a thinner iPhone), more touch-sensitive and more magical - but apparently more difficult to make. According to the report, the yield - how many good ones make it through the manufacturing process compared to bad ones - isn't as good as expect. Bottom line: if this report is true, Apple may have trouble keeping up with iPhone 5 demand.
In other Apple news, Apple TV owners now have access to Hulu Plus. No need to upgrade - the app icon should have just popped onto your screen. If you're already a subscriber, just sign in. If you're not, check out what you can access on the service (a LOT of TV shows) you can get a free week as a trial before deciding to spring for $7.99 a month.
Other super phone news
Last week I brought you reports of T-Mobile getting the HTC One+. Now the fourth largest cell provider will be selling the Samsung Galaxy S Note 5.3-inch phablet starting August 8 for either $200 or $250 (reports differ on the price) - perhaps just a month before the Galaxy S Note II will be announced.
Now that T-Mobile will be selling the HTC One+, AT&T Wireless has decided to halve the price of the HTC One X from $200 (with a two-year contract) to $100 (with a two-year contract).
And The Verge reports Samsung has inadvertently revealed it's readying two Windows Phone 8 smartphones in documents presented in its intellectual property smartphone design court battle with Apple.
This next tidbit isn't exactly smartphone news, but I discovered this excellent PC Magazine round-up of smartphone parental control applications, FYI.
New email services
Hotmail, the free email service from Microsoft and which suffers a nasty reputation for being too easy to clone and spam, has gotten a Windows 8-inspired facelift and a new name - Outlook Mail.
Several folks provide positive Outlook.mail reviews, including Katherine Boehret at the Wall Street Journal's All Things D, Peter Bright at ArsTechnica and Dana Wollman at Engadget, who offers the most extensive examination.
In other free email news, Yahoo Mail was apparently supposed to get gotten a refresh. But TechCrunch reports the update not only didn't happen, but users were blocked from getting their mail. Oops.
Android music updates
Your Android phone now provides a couple of new ways for you to listen to music.
Amazon has matched Apple's iTunes Match service, a music scan-and-match service as part of its Cloud Player service. Now both Apple and Amazon can store your music in the cloud so you and can stream it to any Internet-connected device, obviating the need for storing all your music in your device's limited memory.
If you're interested, there's a fine instructional article for the new music match service over at CNET.
And, Android owners who are Spotify subscribers can now access the free Spotify radio service, which has been available on iPhone since June.
And that's all the tech news I've decided to post this week.
