9to5mac is reporting that their reliable source at Foxconn in China has informed them the iPhone 5 is ready for production. There are various sample devices floating around at Foxconn with following features:

• 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them)
• No teardrop-shaped devices as were rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness. Also longer/wider.
• None of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor
• None of the devices are final versions

According to 9to5mac, if we follow past iPhone production patterns that go from prototypes to final product in about five months, “it would appear that Apple is back on its new iPhone launch for Summer/WWDC pattern that it maintained until last year.”

We have also heard from various sources that Apple will again start following the summer iPhone launch schedule with the upcoming iPhone 5. However, we have heard different things about design of next generation iPhone.

Nokia today announced one of the most significant milestones in its history with the sale of its 1.5 billionth Series 40 mobile phone. The device was sold to a female consumer in the Brazilian city of São Paulo and represents a historic moment as Nokia continues its strategy of connecting the next billion.

The 1.5 billionth phone was a Nokia Asha 303, a stunning touch screen handset with QWERTY keypad designed for web browsing, social networking and gaming, that features pre-installed entertainment and applications such as Angry Birds Lite.

The first Series 40 phone was the Nokia 7110 developed in 1999, when it was Nokia’s top of the line operating system. Now Nokia ships low-end smartphones like handsets based on the Series 40 OS.

Mary McDowell, Executive Vice President for Mobile Phones at Nokia, said: “We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products. At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world – it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people’s lives for the better.”

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 first quarter, which spanned 14 weeks and ended December 31, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 44.7 percent compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

Sony today announced that it has developed a new next generation back-illuminated CMOS image sensor called stacked CMOS image sensor. This new image sensor layers the pixel section containing formations of back-illuminated structure pixels onto chips containing the circuit section for signal processing, which is in place of supporting substrates for conventional back-illuminated CMOS image sensors. According to Sony, this structure achieves further enhancement in image quality, superior functionalities and a more compact size that will lead to enhanced camera evolution.

Few of the main features of stacked CMOS image sensor:

• Large-scale signal processing circuits required for higher image quality and better functionality are built-in
• More compact image sensor chip size
• Even higher image quality of the pixel section by adopting manufacturing processes specialized for superior image quality
• Faster speeds and lower power consumption by adopting the leading process for the circuit section

Sony says the new image sensor is designed to meet increasing demands put on smartphone cameras and it offers higher pixel count, superior image quality and faster speeds. Sony has also developed new “RGBW Coding” function, which facilitates low noise, high quality image capture even in low light condition, and the proprietary “HDR (High Dynamic Range) Movie” function, which achieves brilliant color even when taking pictures against bright light.

Sony has succeeded in establishing a structure that layers the pixel section containing formations of back-illuminated structure pixels over the chip affixed with mounted circuits for signal processing, which is in place of supporting substrates used for conventional back-illuminated CMOS image sensors. By this stacked structure, large-scale circuits can now be mounted keeping small chip size. Furthermore, as the pixel section and circuit section are formed as independent chips, a manufacturing process can be adopted, enabling the pixel section to be specialized for higher image quality while the circuit section can be specialized for higher functionality, thus simultaneously achieving higher image quality, superior functionality and a more compact size. In addition, faster signal processing and lower power consumption can also be achieved through the use of leading process for the chip containing the circuits.

Sony has started sampling the new stacked CMOS image sensor and smartphones based on the new sensor would come to the market in second half of this year.

Apple has been ahead of rest of the PC industry in adopting new WiFi standards for faster and better wireless connectivity. And AppleInsider is now reporting that the company will continue doing that with the new 1.3 gigabit 802.11 ac WiFi standard. Daniel Eran Dilger wrote on AppleInsider:

Apple is expected to rapidly deploy support for the new 802.11ac specification this year, adding so called "Gigabit WiFi" to new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices.

The new 802.11ac standard achieves much faster wireless networking speeds than the existing 802.11n specification (in use on the latest Mac, AirPort and iOS devices) by using 2 to 4 times the frequency bandwidth (from 80 to 160MHz), more efficient data transfers through sophisticated modulation, and more antennas (up to 8; existing standards support up to 4, while Apple's Macs currently use up to 3).

The new 802.11ac isn't expected to be fully approved as a finished standard until late next year, but Apple is poised to adopt it well before then. The tremendous speed gains possible with 802.11ac will continue to make Apple's wireless technologies from AirPlay to Time Machine faster and more efficient, virtually erasing any advantage in using wired network cabling in most cases.

Broadcom has already shown their new chipsets supporting 802.11ac standard at CES two weeks back. And these chips will go in mass production in second quarter of this year. Indicating that the upcoming Apple’s computer lineup refresh based on Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors would adopt the new gigabit 802.11ac WiFi standard.

Susquehanna Financial analyst Chris Caso has reignited bigger display rumors for upcoming iPhone 5. He wrote in a note to clients “With respect to iPhone 5, we continue to estimate production to begin around June 2012 and believe this phone will feature a larger 4.”

Rumors about iPhone getting a bigger display started last year before iPhone 4S was released with the same 3.5-inch screen as iPhone 4. According to International Business Times, speculations are rife that iPhone 5 would sport a 3.7 to 4.0 inches Quantum Dot LED curved glass edge-to-edge display. However, our sources say that IBT is wrong about the curved glass rumors for next generation iPhone.

We have heard quite a few new things about LCD display on next generation iPhone 5 from our sources, which we will be posting over the weekend stay tuned.

Apple today announced iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U App aimed at reinventing education. iBooks now features iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don't weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. iBooks also offers features like fast, fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore with most priced at $14.99 or less.

For creating iBooks textbooks Apple has released iBooks Author, a free download from the Mac App Store that lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore. Authors and publishers of any size can start creating with Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. iBooks Author lets you add your own text and images by simply dragging and dropping, and with the Multi-Touch widgets you can easily add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations and 3D objects.

The all-new iTunes U app gives educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to teach and take entire courses. The all-new iTunes U app lets teachers create and manage courses including essential components such as lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses and offer them to millions of iOS users around the world. The iTunes U app gives iOS users access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content from top universities including Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, and starting today any K-12 school district can offer full courses through the iTunes U app.

Digitimes is reporting that Apple’s LCD partners LG Display and Sharp began production of ultra high resolution QXGA (2048 x 1536) LCD panel for iPad 3 in fourth quarter of 2012 and will increase production this quarter. While production of QXGA panels for iPad 3 will increase, Apple plans to decrease production of LCD panels for iPad 2. Rebecca Kuo wrote on Digitimes:

As Apple has selected Sharp, LG Display and Sharp as the suppliers of 9.7-inch QXGA (2,048 x 1,536) panels for use in a new version of the iPad, shipments of such high-resolution panels began in the fourth quarter of 2011 and will exceed those of XGA panels used in iPad 2 in the second quarter of 2012, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

With fewer than one million panels shipped in the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple will keep increasing the shipment volume of panels for use in the new version of iPad to 6.0-7.0 million panels in the first quarter and 10.0 million units in the third quarter of 2012, the sources pointed out.

In other iPad related news, Macotakara is reporting that Apple is planning to hold an event in February to launch iPad 3 that will ship in March. Danbo posted on Macotakara that according to Asian suppliers and their source in US, Apple will hold a special event in early February. However, iPad 3 will be available in stores starting in March because of the delay caused by Chinese New Year holiday in late January.

It is already rumored that January 19th Apple media event will be all about Textbooks and iTunes U. And today Wall Street Journal reported that McGraw-Hill will likely partner-up with Apple for this announcement. Shara Tibken wrote on WSJ:

McGraw-Hill has been working with Apple on its announcement since June, a person familiar with the matter said. It wasn't known whether Pearson and Houghton Mifflin also would participate.

Cengage Learning, one of the world's largest higher-education textbook publishers, has partnered with Apple in the past and will be attending the event. The company declined to say what its role is in Apple's announcement this week.

"Apple today clearly has a strong position in hardware, and companies like Cengage Learning have a very strong position on the content side," said Bill Rieders, Cengage executive vice president of global strategy and business development. "To the extent there's a combination there, that could be exciting."

In other January 19th Apple event related news, Ars Technica is reporting that Apple will announce tools and platform for digital textbook publishing. Ars Technica’s Chris Foresman posted:

While speculation has so far centered on digital textbooks, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Ars that Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the "GarageBand for e-books," so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.

At the same time, however, authoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand.

Our sources say Apple will announce such a tool on Thursday.

Overall it looks like Thursday’s Apple media event will be all about textbooks and e-books publishing. It will be interesting to see what kind of innovations Apple brings to the education world.