Apple iPad

As expected Apple has made the iPad available for pre-order in the US today. Those looking to purchase an iPad in the US can pre-order both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G. WiFi versions will be delivered on April 3 with the Wi-Fi + 3G version available late April.

iPad is a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds — thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March starting at the breakthrough price of just $499.

iPad is available for $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad will be available in late April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model.

Apple describes the update as delivering:

Safari 4.0.5 is available via software update or Apple’s website.

The Core i7-980x is due for release from Intel this coming Tuesday and will mark Intel’s first six-core processor running at 3.33GHz (TurboBoost to 3.6GHz) and based on 32nm technology.

9to5 Mac is speculating that the release will be tomorrow.

Steve Jobs at the 2010 Oscars | Photo by Zadi Diaz - http://flic.kr/p/7JgA4C

Today Forbes published its list of world billionaires, crowning a new richest person with Carlos Slim Helu beating Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to the top. This year Steve Jobs ranked 136th on the world rich list with an increased estimated wealth of $5.5 billion up from $3.9 billion in 2009. Jobs also significantly improved his placing moving down from 178th on the 2009 list.

The list of course is only an estimate and upon publication has become quickly outdated, Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog reminds us that since February 12th 2010 Steve Jobs is $580 million richer on paper. Steve Jobs holds 5.426 million shares in Apple and 138 million shares in Disney.

iPhone SDK 3.2 provides support for developing iPad applications. This beta of iPhone SDK 3.2 includes the complete set of Xcode 3.2.2 tools, compilers, and frameworks for creating applications for iPhone OS and Mac OS X. These tools include the Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool among many others.

With this software you can develop applications that run on iPad using the included iPhone Simulator, which runs iPhone OS 3.2. Additionally, you can develop applications for iPhone and iPod touch, which run on iPhone OS 3.1.3. (This software does not include all of the iPhone OS 2.x SDKs.) Installing the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta requires a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard) or later.

The latest build of iPhone SDK 3.2 is labelled beta 4 (10M2144).

Developers used to pay either $499 or $3,499 for either “Select” or “Premier” ADC accounts. These two tiers of developer program are no longer available and sees the removal of hardware discounts and WWDC access for developers.

The new $99 developer program allows access to “pre-release Mac OS X software” and allow developers to “to begin incorporating the latest technologies into their development process, test for compatibility, and report bugs.”

Access to Xcode tools remains available for free developer accounts.

During the 82nd Annual Academy Awards which took place last night Apple aired the first advert for the iPad which goes on sale April 3 in the U.S. The 30 second spot entitled “Meet iPad” features The Blue Van’s song “There goes my love”.

The iPad advert quickly demonstrates handfuls of features of the iPad whilst also showing the gestures used on the large multi-touch display. Features of the iPad shown in the advert include Maps, Mobile Safari, iBook Store and an eBook, email, iWork’s Pages and multiple clips of the Star Wars movie playing.

The advert simply ends with “April 3″.

On related note Steve Jobs was in attendance at the Academy Awards last night and was snapped by an AP photographer on the red carpet.

Mac OX 10.6.3 build 10D567 weighs in at 718.7MB as a delta download, 783.3MB as a combo update.

Attached notes below. Mac OS X 10.6.3 continues to contain no known issues. Developers are asked to focus their attention on Graphics Drivers, iChat, QuickTime, Printing and Rosetta.

The 10.6.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

• improve the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X
• address compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
• address an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
• resolve an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications
• resolve an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers
• improve performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode
• improve sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand
• address a color issue in iMovie with HD content
• improve printing reliability
• resolve issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
• improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
• fix glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera

Apple iPad running New York Times app

Apple has announced today that the iPad will ship in the US on April 3 with WiFi+3G models following in late April. Apple also said that all models of iPad would be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

US customers can begin pre-order both WiFi and WiFi+3G iPad models starting March 12 or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

International pricing will be available in April.

Upper West Side, Apple Store | Image courtesy of Apple

For the third consecutive year Apple has come on top of Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” and this year has increased the margin of its win to the largest in the 10-year history of the survey.

The ranking is based on a survey of 4,200 executives, directors and industry analysts.

Apple is followed by Google, Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson and Johnson and Amazon.

What makes Apple so admired? Product, product, product. This is the company that changed the way we do everything from buy music to design products to engage with the world around us. Its track record for innovation and fierce consumer loyalty translates into tremendous respect across business’ highest ranks.

As BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer puts it, “The whole world held its breath before the iPad was announced. That’s brand management at its very best.”

Apple iPad

During the official launch of the iPad in January, Apple said that the iPad would go on sale worldwide at the end of March.

Mac Rumors is now reporting that it has heard that the official on sale date is Friday, March 26th at 6PM.

The report corroborates with a blog post from the Examiner which claims that the iPad will go on sale on March 26th and Apple store employees will begin training on March 10th. The post also reveals that advertising for the iPad will begin March 15th and early adopters will receive a “special gift”.

The folks at Cupertino provide plenty of options with just the base OS. Apple Mail gives access to your email, iCal helps manage one’s calendar, iPhoto organizes your cherished memories, there’s even iMovie – for those Cameron wanna bes and much more. There is plenty of good stuff to keep the neophyte Mac user busy.

One program not included that some people may require is an office suite. That can be easily addressed by downloading and installing the always free OpenOffice.org package. This suite includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program and also features a database management program, vector graphic editor and a math equation editor. It is compatible with Microsoft Office files except for the newest proprietary save format used by Microsoft Office 2007 for PC and 2008 for Mac.

With all this being said, most people don’t just run OS X by itself, they want to do other things. Today we will discuss some applications that will make life even easier and possibly more productive for the Mac user. The following are the five OS X applications that I tell people they shouldn’t live without.

Dropbox

The first program I like to recommend is Dropbox which is actually a service that is a cross-platform cloud-based storage system. With it you are able to store and sync locally housed files online between computers.

Basically Dropbox creates a designated folder, which syncs with the Dropbox servers and any other Dropbox clients registered to that account. Save a file on your MacBook Pro and it will show up in your iMac’s Dropbox hard drive within seconds as long as you have Internet access.

Dropbox

It is a free service for up to 2 GB of storage and if you refer enough people you can get an additional 1 GB. Each referral get both the referrer and referee an additional 250 MB. Here is my referral link if anyone is interested. If you wish to have a larger storage capacity of up to 50 or 100GB then Dropbox becomes a pay service with a monthly fee.

Dropbox offers numerous “hacks” for syncing program data across all your machines such as the ones described here or listed here. For instance, if you wish to sync your Firefox bookmarks using Dropbox that can be easily done. Programs such as one password, things, iCal, address book can all share one database file across multiple Macs using Dropbox. The beauty of this is changes made on one machine are reflected along other almost instantly.

What makes Dropbox especially handy is its ability to sync a program’s database file so that it can be used across multiple machines. This allows the settings and any changes made on one machine to be reflected on all others. In fact there are numerous Dropbox “hacks”

More details about Dropbox can be found in this review.

1Password3

My next recommended program works particularly well when used in conjunction with Dropbox. For those of us who have trouble-maintaining track of all their logins and passwords, then a program created by Agile Web Solutions called 1Password3 is what you need to get.

1Password3 by Agile Web Solutions

By storing your 1Password keychain in your Dropbox folder and directing your 1Password preferences on all your machines to that folder location you will have all 1Password data synced across all your Macs. I wrote more about this terrific program in my review.

Things

For those who have trouble keeping track of tasks, to dos and various lists then this next program is exactly what you need. Things is a program from the folks at Cultured Code and is a task management software solution.

Most task management solutions are arduous to use, the beauty of Things is that it feels like you are using any other Apple program. It is laid out like iTunes or Apple Mail and is easy to navigate and work in. A review of Things written by myself can be viewed here.

What adds to the power of Things is that it works in conjunction with its own iPhone app. If you need to add an entry to your Things categories or check off a completed task while out and about this can be done on your iPhone. Once you get home, you can wirelessly sync these entries between your Mac and iPhone. Naturally, Things can also be synced across Macs using what else; Dropbox of course.

Quicksilver

Next on my must install queue is a program called Quicksilver, which is a freeware launcher for OS X. This simple looking program is immensely powerful as it allows the performance of such tasks such as starting applications searching for files, opening websites and running scripts. It uses keyboard combinations, mouse gestures or menu selections to perform actions on your Mac.

Quicksilver is a very powerful program and is dependent on the user to unleash its maximum potential by learning all its nuances. I primarily use Quicksilver for launching applications instead of scrolling down lists to find the desired program. A wonderful detailed write up of Quicksilver can be seen here.

Evernote

The latest program to join my must install cadre is Evernote. This is another online service, which allows users to collect notes, thoughts and ideas and then sort and tag them.

Evernote

Notes can be edited on your Mac and then viewed on any of the devices I just listed. When used with an iPhone Evernote supports image captured from the built-in camera and the recording of voice notes.

Evernote comes as a free service with basic options such as 40 MB monthly upload allowance. The Premium account costs five dollars per month or $45 for the year and allows 500 MB to be uploaded monthly as well as searches within PDFs, offline notebooks and lack of advertisements.

For more info on Evernote and an in depth review check out this write up.

There are numerous great Mac programs on the market and these five are just a few of the great ones. They are the five OS X applications that I can’t live without and recommend to all my friends and colleagues.

What are your favorite Mac applications that you would immediately install on your brand new Apple machine? Please feel free to leave your comments below. If we get enough input we will do a readers Mac OS X applications must install article.

This is a guest post from Tomas Ratas over at TestFreaks.

According to PC World Window Synder began work at Apple this week, Synder has in the past also worked at Mozilla and was said to be credited with “professionalizing the Firefox security response team, at a time when the open-source browser was increasingly coming under attack from hackers.”

It is unknown what products Snyder will be working on but Apple is the third browser-maker to hirer her in the last five years.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Engadget offers a brief breakdown of the patents Apple claims HTC has infringed.

• The ‘331 Patent, entitled “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States,” was duly and legally issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• The ‘949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,” was duly and legally issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘949 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit B.
• The ‘849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” was duly and legally issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘849 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit C.
• The ‘381 Patent, entitled “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display,” was duly and legally issued on December 23, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘381 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit D.
• The ‘726 Patent, entitled “System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device,” was duly and legally issued on July 6, 1999 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘726 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit E.
• The ‘076 Patent, entitled “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices,” was duly and legally issued on December 15, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘076 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit F.
• The ‘105 Patent, entitled “GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality,” was duly and legally issued on December 8, 1998 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘105 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit G.
• The ‘453 Patent, entitled “Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor,” was duly and legally issued on June 3, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘453 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit H.
• The ‘599 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Graphic System,” was duly and legally issued on October 3, 1995 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘599 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit I.
• The ‘354 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods,” was duly and legally issued on July 23, 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘354 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit J.

Complete USITC and Deleware Court filings below.

Delaware Filing

USITC Filing

Apple Aperture 3

Apple has issued a minor update to tackle stability issues in Aperture 3 which was released earlier this month.

Aperture 3.0.1 – 29.41MB

This update improves overall stability and addresses a number of issues in Aperture 3, including:

This update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.

Apple also updated Camera RAW for better compatibility.

Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.1 – 6.77MB

This update extends RAW image compatibility for Aperture 3 and iPhoto 09 for the following cameras:

Apple HQ, 1 Infinite Loop | Photo by Wysz - Flickr

Yesterday afternoon Apple held its annual shareholder meeting at its Cupertino headquarters. This year discussions focused primarily on the company’s financial situation and environmental issues.

At the meeting the shareholders re-elected Jobs and the Apple board of directors. The topic of previous board member Eric Schimdt came up when one shareholder asked if the Google CEO had conducted properly while serving on Apple’s board. Jobs said that “Eric Schmidt conducted himself appropriately and recused himself on matters that might involve conflict”.

Also approved was Ernst and Young as Apple’s public accounting firm for the year 2010.

During the meeting two shareholder proposals were voted down, in-line with board recommendations. The first proposal read as follows, “Shareholders request that the Board of Directors prepare a sustainability report describing corporate strategies regarding climate change, specifically to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address other environmental and social impacts such as toxics, recycling and employee and product safety.”

The board rebutted with, Apple “is already substantially fulfilling—and in many respects exceeding—the request for information in Proposal No. 6″.

On the second opposed and denied proposal was for Apple to amend the bylaws to establish a sustainability committee “to ensure our corporation’s sustained viability”…”responding to changing conditions and knowledge of the natural environment, including but not limited to, natural resource limitations, energy use, waste disposal, and climate change.”

The board opposed the proposal with the following, “[Apple] takes environmental sustainability very seriously, and the Company has made significant progress in reducing the environmental impact of the Company’s operations and products, as described in the Company’s statement in opposition to Proposal No. 6, above. However, the Board does not believe a Board committee dedicated to this issue is necessary”.

After all the proposals were out of the way Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer fielded some questions.

One shareholder asked if Jobs has returned to Apple in a limited capacity, the CEO simply replied with “No” adding that while he was out, “Tim took the helm and Apple didn’t miss a beat.”

Other areas of interest mention include Jobs’ view on Apple’s financial situation. A present shareholder asked if Apple would use it’s current $40 billion cash and short-term investments to pay dividends, Jobs refuted saying that Apple is holding cash to take “big, bold” risks.

Jobs said that China is a market with lots of promise and said that Apple would open 25 retail stores in the near future.

Related: Apple’s 2010 Proxy statement.

Apple iPad

Apple has yet to reveal UK iPad pricing stating that it will do so nearer the time of release. Today Geeky Gadgets has published a tip claiming that iPad pricing will begin at £389.

In addition to pricing the site states that despite Apple expecting a March release for the iPad in the UK it will more likely be April.

• iPad 16GB WiFi – £389
• iPad 32GB WiFi – £439
• iPad 64GB WiFi – £489

Geeky Gadgets provided no pricing for 3G+WiFi iPad models.

In a press release Apple stated that the 10 billionth song, “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. Sulcer will win a $10,000 iTunes store gift card.

“We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”

Earlier this week Apple COO Tim Cook who led the company during Steve Jobs’ time off in early 2009 spoke candidly about Apple. During the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference Cook gave a talk about Apple including some interesting details about the company’s products.

During the 40 minute talk—which can be listened to on Apple’s website and read in full below—Cook discussed how Apple TV remains a hobby to Apple and the company will use custom silicone in future products.

Cook also discussed Apple retail stores saying that new stores opening this year in London and Shanghai will “make your jaw drop.”

Paraphrased transcript courtesy of Silicon Alley Insider

4:08 Clapton’s “Change the World” is playing leading up the presentation. Now “Sunny Came Home.”

4:09 Getting underway. Tim Cook reads disclosure.

4:10 Q&A begins. Steve Jobs was very clear about leadership in mobile devices. Is that how we should think about Apple at this point? Tim Cook: Yes. Let me elaborate. If you look at Dec. quarter results, which included revenues of almost $15.7 billion, as we compared ourselves to every other company in the world, including Sony and Nokia and Samsung, which now have huge mobile device businesses, we found out we were the largest in the world, measured by revenues.

4:11 How are you channeling resources differently? Transition to mobile devices began in 1991 with first introduction of portable product for Apple with introduction of the TFT screen. During that time, the Mac business has become a predominantly mobile device business. Huge difference between us and the balance of the industry in portable share.

4:12 Ah, a history lesson. Going through all the mobile devices Apple has ever launched. Vast majority of Apple’s revenue now comes from mobile devices and content purchased for those devices. Believe we’re well positioned to do extremely well because we can seamlessly offer software and hardware.

4:13 Who are biggest competitors and who are biggest partners? Tim Cook: I wish the world were that simple. Many people you can’t cleanly put in one or another. Take Microsoft. In Microsoft, we love the Mac Office division. They do a great product and we partner with them and work with them very tightly. Most of the balance of Microsoft we compete vigorously against, in OS, in mobile OS, etc. If you look at Google, I would say Google is similar in that respect. We partner with them in maps, in search for most of our products, but we also compete with them in the mobile OS space and now in the hardware phone space. So, it’s difficult to put people in one camp or the other always. There are some companies like the media companies where we partnered with so well that Apple is now selling billions of dollars of digital content.

4:15 Also companies like carriers where we partnered with to bring iPhone to in 86 countries. Ones that draw the most attention are the ones that are more complex, where we’re both competitors and partners.

4:16 Apple TV is still a hobby. We’ve been very clear about that. The reason that we call it a hobby… if you look at the other businesses we’re in, these businesses are all in huge markets. The unit volumes in these things is huge. Apple TV is in a market that’s very small. Today. Apple TV did grow in the quarter we just finished by 35% in a unit basis year-over-year.

4:17 No interest in going into the TV market. But still think there’s something there. So we continue to invest in this as a hobby.

4:18 iMac is very key, will continue to be very key. I think people will continue to want a very gorgeous large screen, all-in-one, simple to use, very elegant machine, we’re going to continue to deliver it.

4:19 Where growth coming from going forward? Here’s the exciting thing. If you take a look at the Mac, the Mac has outgrown the market 20 of the last 21 quarters. 5 years in a row. Has outgrown the market. And in many of those quarters, outgrew it by multiple. The PC industry is over 300 million units per year. Last fiscal year, Mac did over 10 million units. Ceiling is far above. Continue to invest in enormous amount of energy and talent in the Mac. Doesn’t take Market growth. 50% of customers in Apple store are from Windows.

4:20 iPod touch has been a runaway hit, and it helps the platform that you’re talking about. If you look at the iPod touch, it grew 100% last fiscal year. 55% y/y last quarter. Each fuels more app sales, more developers. iPad? Haven’t sold one yet. A lot of interest in it. I’ve been using one for 6 months or so, I’ll tell you the experience is just absolutely incredible. Can’t wait to start shipping it.

4:21 iPhone, I feel we’ve just gotten started.

4:22 Over 3 billion downloads on app store, over 140,000 apps for sale, these are incredible numbers. Who would have dreamed of these? I see opportunity all over the place.

4:23 The word “complete” is not in our dictionary. We’re all about innovation. Many times that means we’re all about obsoleting ourselves. Going to continue to make things better and going to continue to innovate. I’d say the ecosystem is really good, the platform is really good. Certainly all the foundation is in place. Will it get better? Clearly yes. But great now.

4:24 iPad new use case or replacement for netbooks? We haven’t sold one. I’m a paranoid guy by nature, but I’m not losing any sleep over cannibalization, to be honest with you. Who would buy it? I’ve been very clear about my view of netbooks. I think they are an experience that most people will not want to continue to have. People were interested in the price and they got it home and used it and went ‘Why did I buy this?’ so I think when somebody looks at iPad and compares it to a netbook, I find it hard to believe that people are going to buy netbooks. Not everyone will make the comparison so I’m not suggesting that. But I think what I’d rather do with this question is report back to you.

4:26 iPad will launch in direct channel first, and indirect channels where we have assisted sales, such as store-in-store at Best Buy, and Internationally, Apple Premium Resellers. Initially, it will be around places with really great assisted sales. Over time, it will expand. Where it goes and how fast it goes, we’ll see.

4:27 Why so cheap? We didn’t want to leave pricing umbrella for competition. For those who haven’t focused on this, it has best browsing experience you could ever imagine. Very anxious to start getting it out.

4:28 Extended key partnership with AT&T. Can you talk about advantages and disadvantages of having exclusive agreement? The primary advantages on a single carrier model, and I’ll talk about the iPhone, is simplicity and in some cases, we’re able to innovate along with the carrier and provide a feature it would be difficult to work with multiple carriers and provide. We brought visual voicemail to market, which took innovation from Apple and carrier partner. On a multi-carrier model, the question is, can you sell more units? And so what that gets at is, in some countries, carriers have very sticky relationships with their countries, so having more carriers and more distribution allows you to sell more units. If you look where are from the end of our Q1 in December, if you looked at top 10 iPhone countries, 5 were single carrier countries. 3 of those we had a contractual exclusivity, 2 we can add carriers when we desire. Across 2009, we added carriers in France, UK, Singapore, several Scandinavian countries. A great deal of our work on distribution side was expanding carriers in existing countries. Pleasantly surprised that in every single country, our units increased significantly, and our share with it. Feel like we made really good decisions. Not saying we would do it in every country. But that was our experience with the ones we did it in 2009. We do it on country by country basis.

4:32 Would another carrier need to match pricing on iPad to become carrier for it? I think AT&T’s pricing is revolutionary. (Unlimited data for $30/month, 250 MB for $15/month.)

4:33 Talked a little before about virtuous cycle we have with devs. How do you protect user experience as developers go out and develop products? This is the privilege and curse of technology. Same as you’d see in PC world; at some point, if you include every hardware you’ve ever shipped, you stifle innovation. Because we’ve done this for so long, I feel like we’ve come to a really intelligent conclusion on these each time. I think that’s part of our knowledge and heritage as a platform provider.

4:35 Which way is OS market moving? I don’t see it as this or that — iPhone vs. Mac — or this over that. I think there is a place for both. What you’re seeing for Apple is that the Mac OS is very scalable. Huge competitive advantage for Apple. Use the Mac OS in a lot of products. Don’t think there’s another company that can use the foundation of their OS that way. Move at a fast speed with many fewer people than it would take if we were geographically north. (Slap at Microsoft.)

4:36 Our surveys indicate Mac and iPhone are attracting significant interest in enterprise. What are you doing?

4:36 For the iPhone, 70% of Fortune 100 companies in US are either deploying iPhone or currently testing for deployment. 50% of the FT 100 are doing the same thing. Huge uplift in interest as we went to iPhone 2.0 software and then 3.0 because we put a number of enterprise features in the software. We clearly see this continuing. On Mac side, amazing how many CIOs are now visiting Apple and are interested in the Mac. We haven’t put on a huge channel, and don’t have a huge sales force, but many CIOs that once thought standardization was the most important thing in life, they now look at salaries of people and the importance of having peoples’ creativity at peak, and are increasingly allowing employees to decide. This helps Apple immensely.

4:39 I think people in general and they think enterprise is bigger than consumer. But it’s not. In PCs, it’s 10%, which is sizable, but consumers are over 50%. Our heart and soul and DNA is in consumer. It just so happens there are consumers working in enterprises who want to use these products.

4:41 People are looking at this differently. At least the people with a lot of vision are.

4:41 Just short of 300 stores. Ron Johnson has built a retail team Bar None. We went into retail not as a test, not as pilot, but to sell to consumers, because many wanted it. We knew we’d never have enough stores to cover the world. So after we got going, we set a range of 25-50, reasonable range we could execute really well. Made a strategic call in 2008, we thought we’d see many more opportunities — some top properties would come on the market with better economics. And guess what? Now, there’s a lot of great properties on the market. So we’re going to do about 50 this year. We’ve always had the team to do 50. It’s not easy to do, it’s very hard to do. But we’re going to do it. We didn’t lower the bar at all. These stores are among the best we’ve ever done. If you haven’t been to NYC Upper West Side store, it will make your jaw drop. Next time you’re in Paris, go to the Louvre; it’s just amazing. Another store in China in Shanghai in the summer that is mind blowing. Another one in London that will also drop your jaw.

4:45 New chip. Apple has been in silicon design business for years. Not new to us to be in silicon design business. As we looked at some of the products that we are doing like the iPad, and some we will do in the future, we felt that we had the best knowledge of what we wanted the silicon to do. And were in the best ability to deliver that ourselves versus going out to somebody else and buying something that wasn’t exactly what they wanted.

4:47 Acquisition strategy: Historically, we have acquired companies for technology and talent. And they have been on the small size. We’ve looked at large companies, but we have not had a large company pass a strategic and a financial test. We don’t let our money burn a hole in our pocket. Unless we find something that really makes sense for Apple shareholders, we’re not going to do it. The small ones have been incredibly valuable for us, mainly from the talent POV, but also from technology. If we find a large one, we won’t be shy about it. But we won’t do it to do it. We have never been about being the biggest, we’ve always been about making the best products. Not having highest market share or most revenue. Acquiring something that makes our revenue go higher wouldn’t be a reason why we’d buy a company.

4:49 How do you stop hubris from creeping in? Executive team in the company spends a lot of time thinking and discussing how to retain and recruit the best talent in the world. At the end of the day, I know it’s a cliche, but people are our most important asset in the world by far. It’s people who deliver innovation. We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple’s revenue last year was $40 billion. I think any other company that could say that is an oil company. That’s not just saying yes to the right products, it’s saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones. I think this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris you talk about that happens to companies that are successful and sole role in life is to get bigger, I can tell you the management team at Apple would never let that happen. That’s not what we’re about. Small list of things to focus on.

Of note Mac OS X 10.6.3 10D561 is different to previous builds and indicative of a nearing release as the download is now available to developers in both delta and combo formats, which is the method of delivery to the public upon release. The delta download size is reported to be 787MB.

Seed notes below.

Included in this update

• Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic
• Addresses compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
• Includes changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability, improve compatibility and address security
• Improves printing reliability and compatibility with 3rd party printers
• Addresses an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling
• Resolves an issue that prevented files with the # or & in their names from opening in Rosetta
• Resolves an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows shares
• Resolves an issue that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly
• Resolves an issue with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server

Known Issues

• none

Focus Areas

• Bluetooth
• GraphicsDrivers
• iChat
• QuickTime
• USB

It has been revealed that a new category is available for Apps but not yet visible to the public. The category available to developers submitting Apps is labelled “Explicit” which has since been removed.

The addition suggests that Apple could wish to add Apps to the store which are beyond a 17+ rating.

Since the iTunes Store opened in April 2003 Apple has led a major change to the music industry and today celebrated the sale of the 10 billionth song from the online store.

Apple celebrated the sale of 1 billion songs in February 2006 and 3 billion in July of 2007.

The person who downloaded the 10 billionth song will win a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

The 10 billionth song download coincides with Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ 55th birthday.

CBS is looking to experiment with the pricing on TV shows on the iTunes to see if a lower price will spur a sales increase. CBS is looking to sell some TV shows through iTunes for as little as $0.99 according to the New York Times.

One anonymous TV network executive said, “We’re willing to try anything, but the key word is ‘try,’ “.

The price cut will only effect standard definition versions of TV shows with HD versions staying at $2.99.

Last week some other networks lowered pricing with NBC recaps of Olympic events and episodes of the PBS Kids shows “Arthur,” “Martha Speaks” and “WordGirl” all available for $0.99.

Andrew Russell, a senior vice president of PBS said that it was a three-week experiment to “generate buzz”. Adding, “At this point we still feel the $1.99 price point is right for us, our audiences and our producers to help support creation of more outstanding kids’ content,”

ThesMac.gr has published a screenshot of memory modules listed for use in a “MacBook Pro 2010″. The listing unfortunately contains numerous errors, listing the RAM type as DDR3 running at 1333MHz, which would not be compatible with the expected processors.

On the other hand the part numbers are inline with expectations and the part has begun working its way to other retailers.

The discovery raises the probability of a MacBook Pro refresh in the near future.

A furore began towards the end of last week when it became apparent that Apple had begun removing up to 5,000 apps from the App Store for containing “overtly sexual” content.

The change in policy has caused some confusion and some apps remain untouched despite still containing questionable content. The New York Times spoke to Apple worldwide product marketing head Phil Schiller who helped clarify the situation.

According to Schiller, “It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see”.

Despite this an app from Sports Illustrated that shows bikini-clad women is still in the App Store. When questioned on this Mr. Schiller outlined that Apple looks at the intent of the content, “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format”.

When asked about the needs of developers who have had there revenue stream pulled from underneath them Schiller said that Apple needs to “put the needs of the kids and parents first”.

A video posted on Data Center Knowledge now reveals the extent of the construction visible from a helicopter.

Apple’s plan for one of the worlds largest data centres remains unknown although speculation revolves around cloud computing.

The first ad called “Hold Us” shows off the iPhones ability to multitask whilst on the phone, including purchasing from the App Store and playing games.

The second shows capturing video, sending it via an MMS message and conference calling with multiple people.

Steve Jobs uses iPad during unveiling keynote. Apple iPad Event by mattbuchanan, on Flickr

Rumours suggest that when Apple CEO Steve Jobs met with Wall Street Journal editors to show off the iPad the subject quickly turned to Adobe Flash and the lack of compatibility.

The details published by Valleywag say that during the meeting Jobs defended Apple’s decisions by calling Flash “a CPU hog” and is full of “security holes” adding that Apple doesn’t “spend a lot of energy on old technology.”

Jobs who has a history of abandoning technologies is also rumoured to have said that playing videos in Flash would reduce the iPads battery from 10 hours to 1.5 hours recommending that the WSJ abandon Flash in a “trivial” move and adopt H.264.

The latest build labelled 10D558 and weighing in at 710.5MB has been delivered in close proximity to the last build and the attached notes remain unchanged. Sources continue to insist to World of Apple that a release is imminent.

Seed notes below.

Included in this update

• Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic
• Addresses compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
• Includes changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability, improve compatibility and address security
• Improves printing reliability and compatibility with 3rd party printers
• Addresses an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling
• Resolves an issue that prevented files with the # or & in their names from opening in Rosetta
• Resolves an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows shares
• Resolves an issue that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly
• Resolves an issue with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server

Known Issues

• none

Focus Areas

• AFP
• AirPort
• GraphicsDrivers
• QuickTime

Previously Apps downloaded from the App Store would have to be downloaded using WiFi if over 10MB, this limit is now 20MB and is said to not only apply to Apps but podcasts and videos too.

The investigation is based on a complaint filed by Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, NY, on January 14, 2010. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain mobile telephones and wireless communication devices featuring digital cameras and components thereof that infringe a patent asserted by Kodak. The complainant requests that the USITC issue an exclusion order and cease and desist orders.

Kodak alleges that the iPhone and Blackberry use technologies that infringe patents and has asked the ITC to ban the imports of units in the United State.

The USITC will offer a “final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time.”

Tipped by a worker outside the Longhua complex that a nearby Foxconn plant was manufacturing parts for Apple too, our correspondent hopped in a taxi for a visit to the facility in Guanlan, which makes products for a range of companies.

As he stood on the public road taking photos of the front gate and security checkpoint, a guard shouted. The reporter continued snapping photos before jumping into a waiting taxi. The guard blocked the vehicle and ordered the driver to stop, threatening to strip him of his taxi license.

The correspondent got out and insisted he was within his rights as he was on the main road. The guard grabbed his arm. A second guard ran over, and with a crowd of Foxconn workers watching, they tried dragging him into the factory.

The reporter asked to be let go. When that didn’t happen, he jerked himself free and started walking off. The older guard kicked him in the leg, while the second threatened to hit him again if he moved. A few minutes later, a Foxconn security car came along but the reporter refused to board it. He called the police instead.

After the authorities arrived and mediated, the guards apologized and the matter was settled. The reporter left without filing a complaint, though the police gave him the option of doing so.

“You’re free to do what you want,” the policeman explained, “But this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand.”

The article also revealed that Apple often carries out spot checks of manufacturers to ensure security is tight, adding that several suppliers have been warned about losing their contracts if leaks continue.

Apple is also said to use a lot of custom parts, request tight lead times whilst supplying different manufacturers with different parts of a product to limit how much they can discover about the device.

Symptoms are described as a flashing question mark on the screen at which point Apple will “examine the hard drive to confirm if it is eligible for a replacement, free of charge, under this program.”

More specifically the issue that seems to effect MacBooks with Seagate hard drives is said to only prevail on 13-inch MacBooks with a processor speed of 1.83GHz, 2GHz, or 2.16GHz and one of the following hard drive capacities 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB, or 160GB.

iPhone 3GS | Image courtesy of Apple

Apple has been officially awarded the “IPHONE” trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under number 3,746,840 covering International Classes 9, 28 and 38.

Of interest from the award which covers both the name and logo is that the trademark includes classes 9, 28 and 38. The most interesting of the three being class 28 which covers “Handheld unit for playing electronic games.”

View the full patent certificate here, awarded on February 9, 2010.

Steve Jobs presents the MacBook Air at Macworld 2008 | © World of Apple 2008

The New York Times is reporting that Steve Jobs will participate with an author in writing an authorised biography of the Apple CEO’s life.

According to the report the book is still in early stages on planning but Jobs has invited author Walter Isaacson to tour his childhood home. Isaacson is a former managing director of Time magazine and is currently working at the Aspen Institute. Isaacson has two best-selling biographies “Einstein: His Life and Universe” and “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.” Both published by Simon & Schuster.

People familiar with the plans say that the book will cover Jobs’ entire life from youth through to his years at Apple.

Both Isaacson and Job’s closest assistant Katie Cotton declined to comment to the New York Times.

Apple issued an update yesterday with an aim to fix the issue is available through software update. The 1.6MB download is described by Apple to “reduces processor utilization during audio activities, such as playing or recording music.”

Since the store opened in April 2003 it has reached multiple milestones, iTunes reached its first billion songs downloaded in February 2006 and 3 billion songs in July of 2007.

Apple website read, “iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs downloaded”.

Apple TV Interface | Image courtesy of Apple

Apple today released a software update for the Apple TV but has yet to reveal any details of the update. Apple TV 3.0.2 is said by users who have updated to make no noticeable changes.

Until Apple releases a related support article smart speculation suggests that the update simply brings compatibility with Aperture 3 which was released yesterday.

Apple TV 3.0 was released in October last year bringing major UI changes and iTunes LP playback capabilities.

2009 Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0

This firmware update improves battery performance of the 2009 Aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other Bluetooth devices (example. Magic Mouse, Bluetooth headsets).

This review makes a comparison of what are considered to five of the best and most popular iPhone Instant Messaging (IM) applications around today.

I will be looking at three of the more expensive applications such as IM+ With PUSH, BeejiveIM and Agile. I will also compare two of the most popular lower priced applications and see how these compare to the higher priced applications. These applications are eBuddy and Palringo.

One of the best features of the iPhone that puts it above other smart phones is the push notification service. This service allows applications to update you in real time using badges, sounds or custom text alerts without having to be running in the background. This service was made by Apple but is ran by the third party applications so the quality can vary. This is quite an important feature for IM applications as it allows people to keep in touch with their friends and colleagues, whenever and wherever they are. All of these applications include push notifications, so it is worth seeing how the quality varies between these applications.

Developer – Shape Services

IM+ with Push – £5.99($9.99) – iTunes

IM+ with Push covers an excellent choice of IM services, which includes Skype, AOL, MSN, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber, ICQ and MySpace. This IM client is laid out appropriately, with the sort of tabs that you would expect for efficient movement around a well designed application.

The application is open for easy management of your accounts where you can set your status, delete or add contacts, and even allows you to update your status with a GPS location link, so people know where abouts you are at the time. If you have a large amount of friends then you can order them into groups or even put your best friends into a favourite tab. Along with this there is landscape view and the inbox stores all your past conversation threads for easy access. When reading through conversation threads you can hide the keyboard by simply tapping the conversation thread.

This application has the largest array of emoticons that I have ever seen. It has a category for all the emoticons that you could ever need for use in MSN etc, but then it has a lot more for use when chatting to another person with IM+.

Something you may have noticed about this application is that it includes twitter within it’s list of services. Now if you use twitter you may think this would be quite a useful idea to have everything under one roof. But to be honest, this application is clearly designed for IM services, which twitter is not. Saying that it does have its upside. It allows you to check twitter whilst you’re amidst conversations with your friends. It’s not as intuitive to twitter as applications that are made for twitter but it makes it easier to check if you are using this application at the time. It also allows you to have your twitter @replies and DMs pushed to your phone. So although not useful as a primary application to check twitter, it does come in handy when needed along with the push notifications.

The application also includes an In-app web browser, which means that you can easily check links that people send you or just browse the web, without having to leave the application.

Pros

• Easily manage your accounts
• Well designed layout
• In app web browser
• Large choice of services
• Push notification for Twitter

Cons

• Push has been somewhat unreliable
• Not ideal as primary twitter client

Developer – Beejive

Beejive – £5.99($9.99) – iTunes

Beejive allows you to receive push notifications for up to seven days after you close the application, which means your not going to be losing contact to anyone anytime soon. It stores your conversations so you can continue from where you left off. Beejive integrates all of your favourite IM services including AIM/MobileMe, Google Talk ICQ, Jabber, MSN Messenger, Myspace IM, Yahoo! Messenger and Facebook IM.

There’s room for customisation with a choice of aesthetically pleasing backgrounds or anything from your own library. Beejive also allows you to manage your accounts such as adding and removing contacts, changing your nicknames, accepting friend requests and blocking contacts. You can also put your friends into groups, if you have a lot of friends to make it easier to find those that you speak to more often.

The application comes with standard features such as landscape mode and a large panoply of emoticons. You can also add friends to a favourites list similar to that of the phone book favourites. Push notifications last for up to 7 days after you close the application, which is longer than any of the other applications that I have tested.

Not only does this application give you everything most necessary for an IM client but it also has sharp interface that feels smooth to use and the application has logical settings and menu layouts. If you have some friends with multiple IM accounts then meta chat allows you to put all of the chats into one thread so it is easier to look through past conversations. With the in built web browser it is possible to browse the web and go to links that people send you without having to keep opening and closing the application.

Pros

• Push notifications for up to 7 days
• Saves chat history
• Smooth interface
• Meta chats between different accounts
• In built web browser

Cons

• None

Developer – Agilemobile

Agile – £5.99($9.99) – iTunes

Agile is probably one of my least favourite premium IM applications. It does a good job but I feel that when it was designed, there wasn’t much thought in to what the most important features for an IM client would require. It does have some brilliant quirky features such as the ability to use the cameras live footage as the background so that you can chat and browse through the application on the move. I have tested this out and it does work quite well.

the applications interface and design seems unintuitive and the application feels limited when compared to what other premium iPhone applications have to offer. It is limited on the number of services that it offers, which are ICQ, MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, Jabber and Google. The application only allows for up to 12 hours after closing for push notifications.

Agile mobile for the iPhone is known for its push notifications being a bit hit or miss at times. I found that sometimes I just wasn’t receiving any push notifications at some point, which is not what you want from an application that claims to have this ability.

On the up side the application runs very smoothly and does do its job as an IM client. It even includes Unicode support for chatting to people in any language, which is more than the applications feature.

Pros

• Camera Footage for on the go
• Support for all languages
• Application tends to lag

Cons

• Only 12 hours of push notifications after close
• Small selection of IM services
• Push quality unreliable
• No inclusion of an in-built browser

Developer – eBuddy

eBuddy Pro – £2.99($4.99) – iTunes

This application comes as half the price of the premium applications and for that reason I expected to let myself in for disappointment. This application does its job but it doesn’t give you any of the perks that the more expensive applications have to offer, which is fair enough.

You are required to set up an eBuddy account to use this application but that is all very quick and simple to do. Once you do this you are away, with the ability to easily chat to your friends or colleagues, All integrated into one list. Push notification services last for up to three days after you have exited the application, so you won’t miss any important gossip.

The application also includes some common features nowadays such as landscape mode for the keyboard and all the regular emoticons. You can send pictures to friends and send a buzzer by shaking your phone. You can also change your display picture from your camera or from your photo library. The application saves your chat history and allows for support for many services such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, GTalk, Facebook, ICQ, MySpace and Hyves.

I was disappointed to find that the application only included the most basic emoticons and also didn’t correct any of my spelling mistakes, which I thought was odd considering that spell correction is common in nearly all applications today. This meant that my messages were very hard to read at times. I also found that when people would contact me through Facebook chat, the application would give me their user number instead of a name, so I wouldn’t actually know who it was. This is a basic error that is one of many small reasons why I would pay more for one of the premium applications, which don’t have this problem.

This is a great application but I can now see after reviewing why it is  down there in the lower price bracket. It does everything that I expect an iPhone IM client to do but at the same time, it is missing a lot of features that would put it up there with the premium rate clients. It also didn’t feel as fluid to use as Beejive and IM+ with Push. I found that scrolling through chats sometimes you would end up moving into a different chat by mistake. The way the application allows you to simply flick between chat logs could have been set up better. I imagine it to have a flow somewhat like the home screen and how you flick between pages of applications.

Pros

• Wide range of services
• Includes push notifications
• Reasonable price for what it offers

Cons

• Small amount of Emoticons
• No inclusion of names with Facebook chat
• No in-built web browser

Developer – Palringo

Palringo £2.99($4.99 ) – iTunes

Palringo is another company that has been making IM applications for various platforms other than the iPhone. It prices up as half that of some of the premium apps but does it meet up to the same expectations?

It allows a wide choice of services such as Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, IChat/MobileMe and Gadu-Gadu. This application actually offers little more than an IM client. It doesn’t include spelling correction, which I thought was common to all third party applications nowadays. It does keep a record of chat history and does include basic features such as themes and landscape mode. The application has a terrible layout that is very confusing to get around and uses pinch zoom in the most unnecessary places.

The application allows for you to send picture messages to friends and share your location with friends. You can create groups so that you can easily send messages to multiple people at the same time.

This application is by far my least favourite and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. If you are really wanting a cheap application then definitely choose eBuddy over this.

Pros

• Low priced
• Push notification

Cons

• Poor quality design

Verdict

Truth be told, these applications vary in quality a lot more than I expected, which means that deciding on the best app isn’t too difficult for me. IM+ with push and Beejive are definitely the best two and really choice depends on what you are looking for in an IM client. IM+ had a lot of room for personalisation and included the largest variety of IM clients. IM+ offers push for twitter, which could be pretty handy if you’re a heavy IM and Twitter user. Beejive just felt a step better in terms of speed, reliability and intuitive design. Beejive also allows you to get push notifications for the longest period of time, which is very useful. AgileMobile was close behind these two because it met up to most standards and included some clever extra features such as the background camera screen and the large selection of UNICODE. Agile failed on the interface and the general ease of movement around the application didn’t feel as comfortable to use as with the others along with a lack of a web browser.

Overall Beejive is the winner for me as it is my favourite IM client and I am more of a casual user. I hope that you have found this review useful but if you feel that there is anything I have missed out then feel free to mention it as I have spent a lot of time with these applications so I should be able to answer most queries.

To be able to use Facebook chat with these applications, Facebook will require you to verify your date of birth. Each application deal with this in different ways and isn’t difficult to sort out, but it did have me confused at first so I thought it was worth a mention.

According to comScore Apple’s share grew to 25.3% up from 24.1% in the previous quarter in the U.S. At the same time Research in Motions’s share fell to 41.6% from 42.6%.

IDC also reported that in the worldwide market Apple gained significantly to reach a 16% share during 4Q09 with unit shipments of 8.7 million. IDC also offered market share information for the whole of 2009 showing Apple in a dominant third place behind Nokia and RIM. During 2009 Apple’s market share almost doubled from 9.1% to 14.4%.