Steve Jobs

Universal Pictures has released the first official trailer for the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle. The films stars Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak.

"Set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac, 'Steve Jobs' takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter."

Senior Vice President of iOS Scott Forstall took the stand during Apple and Samsung's latest patent dispute. During cross examination by Samsung counsel Kevin Johnson, Forstall was shown a 2011 email sent by Eddy Cue. According to Cue, Steve Jobs was "receptive" to the 7-inch tablet idea after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Jobs called 7-inch tablets "useless" and said they would be "dead on arrival" in 2010. However, the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 have proven there is a market for smaller, more affordable tablets.

Ten years ago, Apple was working on a tablet computer known as 035. Luckily, Steve Jobs didn't like what he saw and he rejected the project before it saw the light of day. The original iPad prototype circa 2002 was not a slim, powerful device like the iPad of today. In fact, the device was three times thicker than the iPad 2 at just under one inch.

With a 12-inch display and no home button, the prototype clearly out-sized and out-weighed current iPad models according to photos appearing on BuzzFeed. Battery life and touch screen sensitivity must have also been sub-par 10 years ago, leading Jobs to shelve the project for later. Even though Apple was initially studying touch screen tablets, Jobs decided to make the iPhone first and the rest is history.

After the iPhone 5/iPhone 4S fiasco I'm not convinced Apple is going to release an iPad mini this year. Apple didn't need a new low-end iPhone to compete with other smartphone manufacturers at the end of 2011 like a lot of analysts predicted they would. The iPhone 4S performed well, and the iPhone 3GS allowed them to compete in the low-to-mid end market without having to release a new affordable phone. However, some analysts still believe Apple will release an iPad mini to compete with the Kindle Fire in 2012.

A Technology Business Research analyst believes Apple plans to release an iPad mini sometime this year. "I believe that's always been in the plan," Ezra Gottheil told Computer World. "Actually that's a good form factor for some users, and although they will also charge a premium above other similar-sized tablets, they want to protect that price flank."

iPad 3 home buttons have popped up in China and 9to5Mac got the fist look at them. As you can see below there is not much of a difference between the iPad 2 and iPad 3, but it does prove that the home button is not going to be larger or totally removed like some rumors have suggested. According to 9to5, the new iPad 3 home buttons are "floating around right now-in large quantities" confirming rumors that the iPad 3 is in production.

Before the holidays we learned that Apple could be aiming for a Feb. 24 iPad 3 launch in honor of Steve Jobs' birthday. Other rumors have suggested either a February or March release. The new 2048 x 1532 iPad 3 panels began shipping in November, and iPad 3 replacement parts have already been spotted for sale online. Hopefully everything goes as planned so we don't have another iPhone 5 disaster on our hands.

According to Focus Taiwan, iPad manufacturers are working overtime to release the iPad 3 on Feb. 24 to mark Steve Jobs' birthday anniversary. OEMs and ODMs are asking their employees to work during the holidays to meet the deadline.

"To meet the iPad3 delivery date, the sources said, main assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry's iPad division will only allow its employees to take five days off during the Lunar New Year holiday, while staff at the company's other divisions will have a longer holiday."