Component Suppliers Say Apple Has Ordered Parts for 10 Million 'iPad Minis' in 4Q 2012

While some sources have indicated that production challenges with components for Apple's forthcoming "iPad mini" will limit launch supplies of the device, The Wall Street Journal now reports that many component suppliers are moving ahead to meet Apple's plans to build more than 10 million units of the device during the fourth quarter.

Some component suppliers to Apple in Asia say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter. That is roughly double the order that were placed for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets in the same quarter, these suppliers say.

The figure indicates that Apple believes demand for the product will be strong, despite stiff competition in the market.

Mockup of 7.85-inch "iPad mini" (courtesy of CiccareseDesign)
Just last week, the publication reported that mass production of the iPad mini had begun ahead of an introduction said to be coming at a media event sometime this month. One recent rumor has claimed that invitations for the media event will be going out this Wednesday, with the event presumably following approximately one week later.

Average Wait Time for Mac App Store App Reviews Rising Significantly

iOS developer training firm Shiny Development has been tracking review times for iOS and Mac App Store submissions for some time, crowdsourcing data from developers disclosing their waits in Tweets. The tools provide an interesting look at how review times have varied over time, and they reveal that there has been a substantial increase in those times for Mac App Store submissions over the past six months.

Shiny Development's annual trend graph for Mac apps shows average review times of a few days to a week through approximately April 1 of this year, after which time the trend began a fairly steady rise. That rise has accelerated in recent weeks, with developer reports now indicating that their apps are spending an average of nearly a month in review.


The sample size is admittedly small for Shiny Development's Mac App Store calculations, with 62 reports having been collected over the past 30 days, but the firm reports that the data is generally fairly indicative of broader trends in their experience.

The averages on this site are based only on the data gathered from Twitter which are a very small subset of the total number of apps which go through review each day. However in our experience it does give a reasonable indication of how review times are changing over time.

The trend for iOS apps is less severe and is based on more substantial data as would be expected for the larger iOS App Store, with 471 data points being included from the past 30 days. Average iOS App Store review times have been within a range of 3-11 days over the past year and currently sit at one week after declining from their peak roughly two months ago.

Developers interested in contributing to the project can find tweet their waiting times using the respective #iosreviewtime and #macreviewtime hashtags, and Shiny Development offers a few guidelines on how times should be calculated.

Apple iPhone 4 Photos vs iPhone 5 Photos

Soon after the release of the iPhone 5, some users began noticing a purple flare or halo showing up in photos taken with the device's camera pointed at or near bright light sources. The issue is certainly not unique to the iPhone 5, but it has caused concern for some users.



Photos with purple flare taken by iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 (Source: The Next Web)
Last week, Gizmodo reported that Apple had responded to address the issue, with Apple's support staff providing an emailed response to a user inquiring about the purple flare. According to Apple's engineers, the issue is indeed normal and users are advised to point their phones away from bright light sources when taking photos.

Our engineering team just gave me this information and we recommend that you angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures. The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for iPhone 5's camera.

Following that private email response regarding the issue, Apple has now posted a public support document recommending similar action to minimize the issue.

Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.

The iPhone 5 uses a similar camera to that found in the iPhone 4S, although Apple reduced the camera's thickness by 20% in order to fit into the thinner body of the iPhone 5. Apple did, however, add a several enhancements to the camera in the iPhone 5, moving to a sapphire lens cover, improved image signal processing and noise reduction, and a new dynamic low-light mode.