The weekly WrapUp - 02 Dec 12

After a short hiatus (sorry, work keeps me very busy!) we are back for a new edition of WrapUp. Here's the most interesting news of the week:

• Rumors of a cheap iPhone are here... again! According to the analysts Apple could create a cheap model exclusive to the emerging market, where they failed to gain a big market share due to the premium price of the device. As you know Cupertino strategy and low prices don't match but we are talking of a 3 billion people market: it could be worth some thought.. 
• A Google self-branded Chromebook is in the works and could reach the market in Q1 2013 under the Nexus family name. The Chrome OS device is said to be going into production at Compal and Wintek by the end of the year to be presented around CES, to feature a  touchscreen and to be launched at a bargain price. Is anyone thinking that this is the first step toward the presentation of Android 5 and the realization of Eric Schmidt words that "Android and Chrome OS could eventually converge"?
• Google bought delivery startup BufferBox. That's a strange acquisition for the search giant but it could be consistent with the increasing selling of physical goods in the Play Store. And let's not forget, as TechCrunch points out, that some of the most innovative Google products came out of such strange acquisitions
• Facebook has Instant Upload rip off. The feature, straight from the Google+ Instant Upload, was launched without any fanfare and could bring to the social network billions of photos and related metadata and delete one of the most interesting selling points of the Google competitor. The feature is nice in itself but given Facebook history regarding privacy and change of policies that make your data go public I won't sign up anytime soon.
• Surface Pro pricing will be starting at 899$ in January. As you may know the Surface RT is selling below Microsoft's expectations and the full fledged version of the tablet could help cleaning up the mess. Anyway the deal breaker could be the battery life that is supposed to be half of the RT version's and quite short for a tablet... will I have to change my mind again about my next computer?  
• Intel will solder CPUs to the motherboards starting with Broadwell in 2014. That will allow chipzilla to reduce volume and other optimization but, to you, it will mean no more CPU upgrades (unless you are familiar with soldering of course) and changing all the PC if something inside fails. To be fair something like that is already happening in the ultrabook space with other parts, such as RAM, that come soldered and no more interchangeable.