Apple Refocusing Final Cut Pro? Jobs says "Next Release Will Be Awesome"

Apple is said to be revamping their Final Cut Pro product to appeal to a more mainstream audience rather than high end professionals. After layoffs in 2007, Apple has reportedly reorganized the Final Cut Pro team under the lead of Randy Ubillos, the developer who completely redesigned iMovie in 2008. The new iMovie was drastic departure from the original iMovie codebase.

According to a report from AppleInsider, the goal of the new Final Cut Pro is to make it "more appealing and useful to the needs of prosumers".

Currently, Final Cut Pro is targeted at advanced professionals with a scaled down, less expensive Final Cut Express version sold to users who don't need all of its high end features. Because Apple now primarily sells the Express version, the company wants to rethink Final Cut Studio and scale its overall development to better fit the majority of its customers.

Steve Jobs was recently questioned about the fate of Final Cut Pro. MacSoda sent an email to Jobs asking about layoffs and the future of the application. Jobs replied:

We certainly do [care about Pro apps]. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.

'We have never, ever abandoned Apple,' Adobe co-founder says

Adobe has continued to push back against Apple's opposition to Flash, insisting that the Web format is open, and dismissing a suggestion from Steve Jobs that Adobe abandoned Apple.

Adobe co-founder Chuck Geschke spoke with John Paczkowski of Digital Daily this week, just after his company had unveiled an open letter and new advertising campaign related to its ongoing dispute with Apple. Adobe's campaign is largely in response to an open letter published by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs last month, in which he argued that Flash is not suitable for the current generation of mobile devices.

Paszckowski asked Geschke about one line in particular from Jobs' letter: "Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products." Paszckowski said he felt the Apple CEO was implying that Adobe had abandoned Apple in its time of need.

"We never abandoned Apple," Geschke responded. "Apple now seems to be abandoning at least one aspect of our product line right now. No, we never abandoned them. We've always ported our apps simultaneously to both platforms."

He continued: "There have been times when Apple has changed its strategy on hardware or on operating systems that didn’t meet our product cycle, so there have been periods of maybe six months where we didn't keep up with their latest release. But that’s our own business model; we can only afford to re-implement our products at a certain rate. We have never, ever abandoned Apple and we don’t want to abandon them today."

Geschke was also asked why Flash isn't an "open standard," a question that the Adobe co-founder took issue with. He argued that Flash is open because Adobe published the SWF format and removed a previous requirement for a license to use it.

"No, we haven't put Flash out to a standards body yet as we have with PDF and Postscript," he said. "But I wouldn't be shocked if we do someday when it makes sense."

It doesn't make sense now, he said, because he isn't interested in having Flash being stuck with "design by committee." He pointed to HTML5, the open standard that Apple has embraced, and noted that it is taking a great deal of time to become finalized because "there are an awful lot of vested interests trying to influence its development."

Finally, Geschke said he thinks the iPad is "neat," though he has no interest in one personally. He said his company knows a number of developers who want to create applications for the iPad, but are frustrated by the prospect of having to learn to write for a new device rather than sticking with one language they're already familiar with.

Geschke's interview was part of a new public relations campaign Adobe has waged to fight Apple. On Thursday, the company began a new ad campaign in which it says it "loves" Apple, but dislikes "anybody taking away your freedom to use the Web openly. Geschke, along with co-founder John Warnock, penned a letter in which they asserted that a "single company" does not control the Web.

"We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web -- the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time," they wrote.

While Apple has banned Flash from its devices powered by the iPhone OS, including the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, it has embraced HTML5. The exclusion of Flash has been pegged by Apple on the Web format's alleged instability and high power consumption in mobile devices. The fight between the two companies has been a matter of considerable debate, but many major Web sites have turned to HTML5 since the release of the iPad.

In addition to banning Flash from its mobile Web browsers, Apple also changed the iPhone developer agreement to ban third-party tools that would allow software to be ported from other formats, like Adobe Flash, to native iPhone OS software. Jobs said such tools would result in substandard applications on the Apple-controlled App Store. Those changes have come under federal scrutiny, as the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are considering an antitrust inquiry into the matter.

Adobe-Apple war on Flash reminiscent of PostScript struggle

Three years of mounting tensions between Apple and Adobe Systems over the availability of Flash on devices running the iPhone OS have exploded into a battle of scathing attacks in both directions. Adobe is now advertising its "love" for Apple, despite enumerating the company's sins that it hates.

The character of the attacks in today's Flash Wars seems extraordinary, but is certainly not unprecedented, as sources familiar with the events from two decades ago remind us. That's because this latest skirmish isn't the first time Apple has sent Adobe into wildly frothy hysterics due to a perceived jilting.

This All Happened Before

Back in the late 80s, Adobe had a very different software monopoly in place. Rather than controlling the platform for creating and delivering dynamic content on the web with Flash, Adobe was sitting upon PostScript, a platform for creating and delivering digital content via print.

PostScript was Adobe's original product, taken from Xerox PARC's hotbed of innovation and commercialized by company founders John Warnock and Charles Geschke. Three years after launching Adobe, Steve Jobs created a partnership with the company that licensed its PostScript page description technology to drive Apple's new LaserWriter, with Apple also investing $2.5 million in Adobe for a 15% stake in the company.

Paul Brainerd started a third company to pioneer this emerging desktop publishing market; it was named Aldus and its flagship product was PageMaker, running on Apple's Macs and using PostScript to create high resolution print output via the LaserWriter. Apple actually announced the LaserWriter on the same day Aldus unveiled PageMaker. Together, Apple, Aldus and Adobe created the emerging market for desktop publishing.

As a middleware platform, Adobe's PostScript became so essential to desktop publishing and the Mac that Adobe could charge pretty much whatever it wanted for the software and the "Type 1" fonts it used. In 1989, Apple's replacement for Jobs, Jean-Louis Gassée, approached Adobe seeking a cheaper version of PostScript for use on Apple's new low-priced Macs then in the product pipeline. Adobe refused. This prompted Apple to seek market-based solution to Adobe's greed: it began to investigate alternatives to PostScript.

Microsoft had acquired TrueImage, a PostScript clone that could replace Adobe's language in laser printers. Apple itself had developed an operating system font scaling technology it called TrueType, for drawing smooth fonts on the screen that could be rendered at high resolution on a printer. The two companies agreed to cross license their technologies to make both widely available across the Mac and Windows platforms, erasing any need for anyone to keep paying for Adobe's overpriced PostScript software and the Type 1 fonts it required.

Adobe's scorn, vilification and trash talking from 20 years ago

At the Seybold Desktop Publishing Conference in San Francisco on September 20, 1989, Apple and Microsoft jointly presented their new TrueType partnership. Adobe's Warnock was enraged. He publicly castigated Apple and Microsoft, saying, "That's the biggest bunch of garbage and mumbo jumbo," and speaking on the verge of tears, he emphatically added, "What those people are selling you is snake oil!"

The TrueType announcement seemed to eviscerate Adobe's future prospects. Apple dumped its holdings in Adobe as the company's stock price plummeted. Apple still ended up profiting $79 million on its original investment in Adobe, according to Jim Carlton's book "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders."

Following the fallout between Apple and Adobe, Adobe rushed its new Adobe Type Manager to market to enable its Type 1 PostScript fonts to be used on the Mac desktop just like TrueType fonts. Adobe also eased up on its prices and negotiated with Apple new terms to keep PostScript on its LaserWriters. In the PC world, TrueType and PostScript-clone printers became more popular, despite being problematic, because they were cheaper. Apple's continued exclusive licensing of Adobe's PostScript for its LaserWriters eventually helped drive Apple out of the printer business as cheaper alternatives became available. Adobe's lock on desktop publishing with PostScript had been broken.

Adobe branches out into apps

Despite continuing to do most of its business with Apple, Adobe strengthened its position with Windows to hedge its bets in application software. It also began making efforts to build a portfolio of creative apps to join its own Illustrator drawing tool. It first eyed Aldus, which not only sold the popular PageMaker, but also sold a competitor to Adobe's Illustrator named FreeHand.

Adobe had earlier "unwittingly given a nearly free and unlimited PostScript license" to FreeHand, according to an early Aldus employee familiar with the events. Aldus FreeHand was now trouncing Adobe's Illustrator, so Adobe planned to buy Aldus in 1994 and simply erase its competitor in the market for professional drawing applications.

The problem, as Adobe later discovered, was that FreeHand wasn't actually owned by Aldus; Altsys, its developer, only sold the title through Aldus, so the deal couldn't take FreeHand off the market, much to Adobe's chagrin. FreeHand's developer subsequently sold itself to Macromedia in 1995, which became Adobe's primary competitor in digital creative apps over the next decade. Adobe wouldn't subsequently take FreeHand off the market until 2005, when it purchased Macromedia. That $3.4 billion deal also gave Adobe more than just creative apps: it gave it a new PostScript-like platform: Flash.

Incidentally, a reader adds: "freefreehand.org has been setup to recruit members and raise funds to try to convince Adobe through legal means to divest itself of FreeHand, which they are trying to let die a slow death. Fortunately this skirmish with Apple has helped shed a tad of light on how hypocritical Adobe is regarding 'healthy competition' and all the other drivel they are spouting regarding Apple spurning Flash."

Affidavit in prototype iPhone case reveals Steve Jobs contacted Gizmodo

After Gizmodo paid $5,000 to obtain a prototype iPhone that was lost by an Apple engineer, the company's chief executive personally contacted the website's editor to request that the phone be returned.

The affidavit in the case was unsealed Friday by Judge Clifford Cretan in San Mateo County, Calif. CNet had a first look at the document, which revealed the phone call between Steve Jobs and Gizmodo editor Brian Lam.

"... after Gizmodo.com released its story regarding the iPhone prototype on or about 4/19/2010, Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) contacted the editor of Gizmodo.com, Brian Lam," the document reads. "Jobs requested that Lam return the phone to Apple. Lam responded via the e-mail address...that he would return the iPhone on the condition that Apple provided him with a letter stating the iPhone belonged to Apple."

The affidavit also reveals the story already known publicly: that an Apple engineer lost the iPhone, and it was obtained by another individual who sold the phone to Gizmodo for $5,000. It specifically named Brian Hogan as the individual who "found or stole a prototype iPhone 4G."

"Upon receiving the stolen property, Chen disassembled the iPhone, thereby causing it to be damaged," the document reads. "Chen created copies of the iPhone prototype in the form of digital images and video, which were subsequently published on the Internet based magazine Gizmodo.com."

Earlier this month, a number of media outlets asked the court to unseal the affidavit in the prototype iPhone case. The warrant was used to seize the computers of Chen, the Gizmodo editor. Media outlets said the affidavit needed to be made public to determine whether the police raid was legal.

Similar documents are typically made public within 10 days, but the paperwork related to the raid, which occurred on April 23, remained sealed by the court until Friday afternoon. Cretan decided Friday to unseal the documents as the judge determined that making their contents public would not compromise the ongoing investigation.

Gizmodo affidavit says roommate's tip led police to iPhone

Police were alerted to investigate Brian Hogan's possession of the prototype iPhone after his roommate called Apple Security out of fear she might be considered an accomplice in the theft.

A new report by Kim Zetter published by Wired identified the roommate named in the affidavit, and reported that she contacted contacted Apple after Hogan connected the prototype iPhone to her computer.

The investigating detective wrote in the affidavit that "[The roommate] contacted Apple in order to absolve herself of criminal responsibility.” The tip resulted in police preparing a search warrant for Hogan's apartment.

Zetter reported that the roommate contacted police again two days later, before the search warrant had been served, as Hogan and his other roommate, Thomas Warner, were preparing to remove evidence from their home, including a desktop computer, serial number stickers from the iPhone, a thumb drive and a memory card.

That tip sent police on a chase following both Hogan and Warner in different directions. The police found Hogan at his parents house, and Hogan then called Warner. Both men eventually cooperated in divulging the location of the items, which were scattered in various locations: the PC had been left at a church, while the stickers were dropped at a gas station and the other items had been thrown in a bush.

The roommate had also reported to Apple "that Hogan had found the phone and had been offering it to news outlets in exchange for a payment, despite having identified Powell as the rightful owner from a Facebook page visible on the phone’s display when he found it."

In contrast with Wired's original report which suggested Hogan was diligently working to find a news organization that could help him return the phone, the affidavit says Hogan reportedly told his roommate, "Sucks for him [the Apple engineer]. He lost his phone. Shouldn't have lost his phone."

The roommate also revealed that Hogan had told her he had obtained a total of $8,500 from the stolen phone, and that he was expecting another bonus from Gizmodo once Apple officially announced the product. Wired's earlier report described Hogan's transaction as "sharing."

After selling the prototype to Gizmodo, the affidavit revealed that Steve Jobs contacted the site's editor, Brian Lam, to ask for its return. Lam "responded via the e-mail address...that he would return the iPhone on the condition that Apple provided him with a letter stating the iPhone belonged to Apple."

The affidavit also notes that Apple reported that the iPhone prototype was "invaluable" and that "the publication of Gizmodo’s story was 'immensely damaging' to the company, because consumers would stop buying current generation iPhones in anticipation of the upcoming product," according to Zetter's report.

Apple also complains in the affidavit that Gizmodo's disassembly of the prototype left it damaged. The affidavit also says that the photos Gizmodo took and published were an act of copying trade secrets, and that Gizmodo's Jason Chen was under investigation for receipt of stolen property.

That indicates that the affidavit used for the search warrant was not merely an attempt to discern Chen's sources as a journalist, but rather the investigation of criminal conduct, which shield laws can not absolve journalists from.

Zetter noted that the affidavit "supports the story, offered by Gizmodo and Hogan’s attorney, that the phone was found, and not stolen from the Apple employee," noting that the engineer said it was "possible, but unlikely, that it was stolen from the bag" he had placed it in.

"However," Zetter added, "it’s generally considered theft under California law if one 'finds lost property under circumstances that give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner' and yet appropriates the property for his own use 'without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him.'"

Foxconn to ship 24M next-gen iPhones with improved displays in 2010

Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple's fourth-generation iPhone, will ship 24 million units in 2010, with new LCD displays that include IPS and FFS technology for improved e-book reading capabilities, according to component makers.

Industry sources shared the information with Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst with Digitimes. The Taiwanese industry publication reported Monday that Apple's next-generation iPhone will adopt the same in-plane switching (IPS) technology for superior viewing angles on its LCD display as the iPad. The new iPhone display will also reportedly include fringe-field switching, or FFS, technology.

"By incorporating FFS technology, which enables a wider viewing angle and clearer visual quality under in sunlight, Apple is aiming to improve the handset's e-book reader functions and promote its iBooks store," the report said. "HTC's Hero smartphone has already adopted this technology."

Foxconn is expected to ship 4.5 million next-generation handsets in June alone. The report also reconfirmed that the next iPhone will have a 960x640 pixel double-resolution display. Screens will reportedly be supplied by LG Display and Prime View International.

But the report also claimed that the next-generation iPhone will include 512MB of RAM from Samsung. That specifically contradicts the markings on a leaked iPhone prototype from Vietnam that was dismantled and pictured last week. The labels on that phone's A4 processor indicated that it included 256MB of system RAM -- the same amount found in the recently released iPad.

Finally, Kuo said suppliers indicated the new iPhone's display panel is 33 percent thinner than previous generation devices, which will allow more space within the handset for larger battery modules, supplied by Simplo Technology and Dynapack International Technology. The larger battery was confirmed in Gizmodo's teardown of an obtained iPhone prototype, which found a battery 19 percent larger than the current iPhone's power supply.

AT&T says high-speed HSPA+ will reach 250M Americans in 2010

AT&T this week announced that its high-speed HSPA+ data network upgrade will bring theoretical maximum 14.4Mbps download speeds to more than 250 million Americans by the end of 2010.

The exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S. plans to cover most of America with its network upgrade, which will double speeds on the company's existing 3G network, AT&T Operations CEO John Stankey disclosed at a Reuters event. According to Engadget, the upgrade could realistically offer most users download speeds between 7.2Mbps and 14.4Mbps.

Currently, the theoretical maximum speed for AT&T's 3G network is 7.2Mbps, thanks to an upgrade that was initiated last year with the launch of the iPhone 3GS. High Speed Packet Access 7.2 rollout began in late 2009, with initial expansion to six major U.S. cities. The theoretical maximum bandwidth is only possible under ideal conditions, and does not mean that most users will attain those speeds on their mobile device.

Last year, AT&T said it planned to offer HSPA 7.2 speeds in 25 of the nation's 30 largest markets by the end of 2010, but this week's announcement -- while not offering any specifics on which cities will receive the upgrade -- suggests that AT&T is ahead of schedule in deploying the high-speed 3G network. The iPhone 3GS is a HSPA 7.2-compatible phone.

Of course, HSPA+ is just a step on the transition to LTE, or Long Term Evolution, a next-generation 4G data network that AT&T plans to begin deploying in 2011. In February, AT&T revealed that it had partnered with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson in preparation for next year's commercial deployment of the high-speed 4G network, which will require the installation of new equipment.

The coming transition to LTE networks, of which AT&T competitor Verizon will also be a part, is expected to cost U.S. carriers an estimated $1.78 billion each in the first year alone. AT&T's 2010 network expansions, which include HSPA+ rollout and preparation for LTE, will be a part of between $18 billion and $19 billion in capital expenditures for the company this year.

Another leak from Vietnam reveals Apple's 13-inch MacBook refresh

Apple's entry-level MacBook will soon receive a refresh with a 2.4GHz processor and Nvidia 320M mobile graphics and an LED backlit display, as revealed in a new leak.

The new MacBook was obtained by Tinte, the same website that also got their hands on a prototype of Apple's next-generation iPhone this week. The new MacBook (identified as model MacBook7,1) uses a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, up from the existing 2.26GHz model.

It also gets the same Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM as the MacBook Pro. That's an update from the existing GeForce 9400M of the "MacBook6,1" entry level white MacBook.

The new model also gets the improved, streamlined MagSafe connector as the latest MacBook Pro models, which points the adapter cord backward rather than perpendicular from the body. It has the same 1280x800 pixel widescreen display, a 250GB 5400 RPM hard drive, and 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM from the previous MacBook update.

Apple last updated its entry level MacBook line in October of 2009, giving the $999 machine a polycarbonate unibody design, LED-backlit display, multi-touch trackpad, and built-in battery with 7 hours of run time.

AppleInsider published an in-depth review of the latest MacBook Pros released last month detailing the CPU and graphics changes that now appear to be making their way into the entry level MacBook.

Apple edges Motorola with 3% global cell phone market share

Apple moved ahead of rival Motorola in unit sales in the first quarter of 2010, with the iPhone taking a 3 percent share of the total cell phone market.

Apple's 8.75 million iPhones shipped in the first three months of 2010 managed to edge Motorola, which sold 8.5 million handsets during the same period, according to new data from iSuppli. Apple during the quarter was the No. 6 overall cell phone maker in the world, while Motorola came in at 8. iSuppli called Apple's growth in the global market a "changing of the guard" in the cell phone industry.

Apple was propelled by 130.7 percent year-over-year growth, up significantly from the 3.79 million iPhones sold in the first quarter of 2009. The Cupertino, Calif., company still remains behind Research in Motion, which has 3.6 percent of the market with 10.47 million BlackBerrys sold in the first quarter of 2010.

The numbers serve to illustrate what a small portion smartphones are of the overall cell phone market. The top global brand during the quarter was Nokia, which sold a total of 107.8 million cell phones and smartphones during the quarter. Competitors Apple and RIM, however, do not sell traditional cell phones.

"Smart phones represent the hottest segment of the cell phone market, with unit shipment growth of 35.5 percent expected in 2010, compared to 11.3 percent for the overall mobile handset business,” noted Tina Teng, senior analyst, wireless communications, for iSuppli. "Because of this, companies that are exclusively focused on this area, like RIM and Apple, have managed to move up to near the top-tier of the global cell phone business. This shows that the smart phone is reshaping the competitive landscape of the wireless business."

The latest numbers also demonstrate how far Motorola has fallen: In the first quarter of 2007, the company was the second-largest cell phone shipper in the world, behind only Nokia. Recently, Motorola has shifted its focus to higher margin smartphones, like the Droid.

"While Motorola’s ranking and share declined in the first quarter, the company did manage to make significant improvement in profit during the period, with its margin rising by 19 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2009," Teng said. "This shows that Motorola is on the right track in its product mix, focusing on more profitable devices like Droid."

The report noted that the smartphone market is expected to continue to grow, which could result in both RIM and Apple ousting some of the biggest players in the global cell phone market. Within their sights is No. 4 Sony Ericsson, which has 3.6 percent of the market, but fell 27.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.

"It will be interesting to see how much more market share RIM and Apple can gain in 2010," Teng said.

NPD data shows Apple on pace to sell 3.2M Macs in June quarter

NPD unit sales for April -- the first month of the June quarter -- show that domestic Mac sales were up 39 percent year over year, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. He now believes Mac sales will grow over 2009 between 19 percent and 23 percent.

At the current pace, Apple would sell between 3.1 million and 3.2 million Macs in the June quarter, while Wall Street consensus is 3.1 million, or 19 percent. The NPD numbers suggest that the April launch of the iPad had a minimal effect on Mac sales.

"April NPD data gives us the first sign of the degree to which the iPad cannibalizes iPod or Mac sales," Munster wrote. "From the early NPD data, it appears that the iPad has a minimal cannibalization impact on Mac sales, and it could be slightly cannibalizing iPod sales."

He noted that Apple has "successfully limited" the functionality of the iPad to ensure that it serves primarily as a content consumption device. That means consumers will still have to turn to the Mac for content creation.

But in Munster's eyes, the cannibalization of iPod sales is a good thing: The iPad has an average selling price four times higher than the iPod, and it is expected to have a significant profit margin, making any consumer transition a positive for Apple's bottom line.

GQ magazine iPad sales start slow, but publisher has high hopes

Publisher Conde Nast contacted AppleInsider Tuesday to point to a story from Peter Kafka at MediaMemo, in which it was revealed that GQ saw a spike in application sales when the iPad and iPad 3G were launched. However, the publisher did not give specific numbers, because they don't have an iPad-specific app. The application has sold 57,000 total copies since it debuted in December.

Pete Hunsinger, vice president and publisher of GQ, told Min Online that the December 2009 "Men of the Year" issue of the magazine earned $1,091.35 in total sales. But the publisher said the iPad edition costs his magazine nothing, and he believes that the sales will become more significant in the future.

"This costs us nothing extra, no printing or postage," he said. "Everything is profit, and I look forward to the time when iPad issue sales become a major component to our circulation."

In fact, Hunsinger expects sales to pick up quickly, starting with the upcoming June issue featuring model Miranda Kerr on the cover. He added that the iPad brings "added value to advertisers."

The GQ application on the App Store costs $2.99, and includes the current issue in the iPhone- and iPad-compatible software. Additional in-app purchases of other issues are available for $1.99 each. Those prices are lower than the $4.99 newsstand price.

Even before it was formally announced, publishers showed great interest in the iPad. Some in the print world have viewed the new device as a possible new revenue opportunity as the print business continues to struggle with declining readership and increasing cost of print.

Apple releases updated $999 MacBook with GeForce 320M graphics

The new hardware packs many of the same features as the MacBook redesign released in 2009, including an LED-backlit display, polycarbonate unibody enclosure, and a built-in battery. The hardware also comes standard with 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 RAM, a 250GB 5400 RPM hard drive, 1280x800 pixel widescreen display, and an 8x double-layer SuperDrive.

The new MacBook, with its updated processor and mobile graphics, is said to achieve up to 10 hours of uptime with its built-in battery. It also gets the improved, streamlined MagSafe connector found in the latest MacBook Pro models, which points the adapter cord backward rather than perpendicular from the body. The $999 hardware is available immediately.

The new MacBook was leaked over the weekend by a Vietnamese website that got their hands on the final model, including packaging. It was obtained by the same site that also received a prototype of Apple's next-generation iPhone.

Apple last updated its entry level MacBook line in October of 2009, giving the $999 machine a polycarbonate unibody design, LED-backlit display, multi-touch trackpad, and built-in battery with 7 hours of run time

Hulu subscription plan for Apple iPad to arrive later than expected

In April, The Los Angeles Times reported that Hulu's new service, dubbed Hulu Plus, would arrive as soon as May 24. But on Tuesday, Peter Kafka of MediaMemo cited people familiar with the online streaming service who said there is "no way" Hulu Plus will become available next week.

The company plans to charge a monthly subscription for access to Hulu on the iPad through a forthcoming application to be released on the App Store. Hulu executives were initially hopeful that they could release an application -- and corresponding subscription plan -- potentially alongside the debut of the iPad.

But Kafka said Tuesday that it's likely the service remains in negotiations with content holders. He did say, however, that he believes the main partners -- including Fox, ABC and NBC -- have agreed to the basics of the subscription plan, including a $10-per-month fee for access to "a deeper catalog of broadcast shows plus access to the services like Apple's iPad."

"And even if Hulu and all of its partners are seeing eye-to-eye -- not a given -- getting the rights from various programming partners to sell their shows could be a slog," Kafka wrote.

But people pushing Hulu's subscription plan behind the scenes did reportedly say that the new service will be "revolutionary."

One feature that the new Hulu won't support: HTML5. Last week, the company revealed on its official blog that it doesn't see HTML5 in its immediate future. The current player on the website is built on Adobe Flash, which is used to stream video, secure content, and handle reporting for advertisers, among many other tasks.

Hulu's iPad application is expected to be similar to the existing ABC and Netflix streaming players available for download on the App Store. The popular ABC application shows programs like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" for free, with ad support. And that free product has apparently caused concern for Hulu and its subscription plans.

Reports have suggested that Hulu will incentivize its subscription plan by offering streaming to Apple's iPad, as well as by including a "window" where content is available to subscribers before it can be seen for free by the general public. It is said that Hulu's business partners have pressured the service into subscription plans to "train" viewers that they should pay for online access to content.

Apple supplier Wintek says it treated workers for chemical exposure

Wintek announced through the Taiwan Stock Exchange this week that it stopped using the dangerous chemical known as n-hexane, and all affected workers have been examined and treated, according to DigiTimes. The company said those exposed to the chemical are recovering and some have returned to work.

The Taiwanese company said it has taken proper measures in response to the incident including medical treatment for all of those who were exposed to n-hexane. The chemical can cause nerve damage and paralysis in humans.

Last week, it was revealed that 44 workers of Wintek's plant in Suzhou, China, plan to sue the company. It was reported that at least 62 Wintek workers were hospitalized since August of 2009 after exposure to n-hexane.

The Chinese workers claim that they were forced to use n-hexane instead of alcohol to clean display panels because the chemical dries faster and leaves fewer streaks on glass. The factory manager who allegedly forced the workers to use n-hexane has since been fired.

Wintek is a major manufacturing partner of Apple. The company recently landed a contract to produce new iPad screens to help offset a reported shortage. Wintek is also rumored to be responsible for 40 percent of the touch panels in Apple's next-generation iPhone. The device is expected to be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled to begin June 7 at San Francisco's Moscone West.

The alleged chemical exposure was the subject of a violent strike at the Wintek plant earlier this year. More than 2,000 workers in Suzhou destroyed their equipment and damaged vehicles at the plant in response to a number of deaths allegedly from overexposure to toxic chemicals. The strike was eventually settled days later with bonuses offered to workers, and production of products from the plant went unaffected.

Wintek also came under fire in 2009, as workers at the company took their case directly to Apple over what they saw as illegal and abusive working conditions. Members of the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Taiwan protested in front of Apple's Taipei offices last May, hoping the Mac maker would influence Wintek.

Apple has not been immune to scrutiny for its overseas partnerships for manufacturing. A 2009 audit of factories Apple contracts with in China found that more than half were not paying valid overtime rates for those that qualified, and 23 of the 83 surveyed factories weren't even paying their workers China's minimum wage.

Steve Jobs missed out on $10 billion from stock options adjustment

Had Apple co-founder Steve Jobs not cancelled his stock options in exchange for $75 million in shares in 2003, he would have an extra $10.3 billion in profits today.

The revelation comes courtesy of a new column Tuesday from Brett Arends of MarketWatch. He noted that the tech bubble burst in 2000 had left many companies hurting, including Apple, which dropped from a peak of $36 down to $7.

In 2003, stock options granted to employees "seemed completely worthless," he wrote. "After all, Apple stock would have to climb all the way back up to those giddy heights before the options even started to show a profit again."

Apple employees were allowed to exchange their options for a smaller number that became valuable at a lower price. Jobs canceled his options in return for $75 million in shares, a move that was said to allow the company to offer more options to other staff, and reportedly was not done due to the diminished stock price.

"Jobs held 15 million options at an exercise price of $9.15, which meant they started to gain value only if Apple stock exceeded that price, and 40 million options at an exercise price of $21.80," Arends wrote. "Apple at the time was little more than $7 a share. (These prices have been adjusted to reflect the subsequent stock split.) Total value: $12.8 billion."

"In other words," he continued, "Steve Jobs missed out on $10.3 billion in extra profits."

Of course, Jobs' 10 million shares are still worth about $2.5 billion today. And last year, he was named the No. 43 wealthiest American with a net worth of $5.1 billion by Forbes.

The chief executive famously takes a salary of only $1 for his work at Apple, but receives millions in compensation in the form of stock options.

While Arends suggested Jobs' move in 2003 was the "dumbest trade ever," Jobs has also been behind some quite profitable deals. Perhaps his best move was purchasing Pixar from filmmaker George Lucas in 1986 for $10 million. He sold the company to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock, and was also given a seat on the Disney Board of Directors.

Apple's fourth beta of Mac OS X 10.6.4 is clear of issues

Apple on Tuesday issued yet another beta of its forthcoming 10.6.4 update for the Snow Leopard operating system, with the latest release reportedly containing no known issues.

The latest build, dubbed 10F54, is the first of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6.4 betas that does not contain any issues, according to people familiar with the matter. It also includes the same list of fixes found in the previous build, issued to developers last week.

The most recent build, seeded to developers Tuesday afternoon, is said to be a 576.1MB download.

Previous builds had issues related to incorrectly formatted marketing text, though build 10F54 has apparently resolved that problem. Focus areas are said to remain Graphics Drivers, SMB, USB, Voice Over and VPN.

Previous builds also addressed issues that could cause the keyboard or trackpad to become responsive, and also addresses a problem that prevented some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from loading.

Also on Tuesday, Apple issued updates for Java for Mac OS X in both Snow Leopard and Leopard. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_20. The 78MB download is available from Apple.

Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 7 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating J2SE 5.0 to 1.5.0_24, and updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_20 for 64-bit capable Intel-based Macs. It is a 122MB update. J2SE 1.4.2 is no longer being updated to fix bugs or security issues and remains disabled by default in this update.

Revised 2010 MacBook now supports HDMI with audio output

Apple's updated entry level white MacBook now supports audio and video output via its Mini DisplayPort, enabling users to drive an HDMI HDTV using a single cable or adapter.

Support for audio output over the Mini DisplayPort connector debuted with the latest generation of MacBook Pros. Apple now sells a revised VESA-compliant adapter for HDMI output that extracts both audio and video signals from the Mini DisplayPort connector.

A support document for the new model indicates the 2010 MacBook's Mini DisplayPort connector can be used to "connect to an external display, projection device, or TV that uses a DVI, HDMI (audio and video) or VGA connector with a separate adapter. You can purchase adapters for supported video formats from Apple."

Third parties are also able to sell Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters (or complete cables) that deliver both audio and video signals, although some existing Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables do not yet support audio, so buyers need to be aware of the signals supported by a given cable or adapter.

Previous Mac models with Mini DisplayPort required a separate cable to deliver audio output to a TV in addition to using HDMI to deliver video, either using the optical or analog minijack output or alternatively a USB port delivering digital audio output using a more expensive USB+Mini DisplayPort hybrid adapter.

Internet Tethering for AT&T Customers to Finally Arrive with iPhone OS 4.0?

One item spotted in the latest iPhone 4.0 Beta is a new configuration page for Internet Tethering. The page alerts AT&T customers that in order to set up internet tethering, you need to contact AT&T at 611 or visit AT&T's website. The new message seems to indicate that AT&T may finally be ready to deliver tethering to U.S. customers.

Internet tethering was a feature introduced in iPhone OS 3.0 and is supported by many international carriers. It allows users to share their iPhone's 3G internet connection to other devices such as their laptops over Bluetooth or USB. AT&T, however, has been slow to roll out the feature to its customers due to concerns about increasing strain on their networks. iPhone 4.0 is due for public release this summer.

State of iPhone Linux

So the methodology has currently been trying to proceed as quickly as possible, trying to get every device working and aiming for breadth instead of stability. This allows me to do more high-value tasks like reverse engineering, rapidly gaining understanding of the platform instead of just getting bogged down debugging every single thing. Unfortunately, we're paying a bit for it now as I try to get things into gear to put together applications.

First thing is, I don't really trust the current memory structure. For one thing, it's WEIRD. It seems like even if I turn the MMU off, 0x0 is still mapped to 0x18000000. I know the MMU is working, somewhat, because if I allow the heap to run into the place I put my pagetable, bad things happen. =P I understand there's not going to be enough devices or memory to fill out the entire 32-bit address space, though, so maybe there was already some sort of static mapping. I also believe 0x9000000 (the range used by iboot's file transfer facility) is mapped to 0x18100000. That is, 0x0 == 0x80000000 == 0x18000000. The problem is that there are no such mappings in the page table. 0x80000000 to 0x180000000 is set cacheable and bufferable, but is identity mapped. Anyone have enough experience with the hardware to tell me if this makes sense? I mean, maybe it's just that the top 4 bits are just completely ignored by the memory controller.

Second thing is, sometimes I get random freeze-ups and I don't know why. Maybe I'm just hallucinating or screwing up somewhere, or maybe it's just me failing at C (wouldn't be the first time this happened). Anyway, the upshot is, I want to go back through and clean up/refactor the code into its final form. I tried to follow best programming practices as much as possible the first time around, but sometimes it just was too inefficient to do so when dealing with only half-way reverse engineered device drivers.

The third thing is what I'm working on currently. I need openiboot to replace iBoot. I currently have written a pretty simple chainloader. All it does is warm up all the devices as usual, and then load iBoot from NOR and then jumps to it. iBoot is relocateable and should be able to get itself to the right place. Now this works fine from a copy of openiboot that is started from iBoot using "go", but after I flash openiboot onto the "ibot" image in NOR, the device goes straight to DFU. Now either I'm screwing up hardware initialization or there is some additional verification (checksums, probably not signatures) done before LLB wants to load iboot. It may be that the latter is more likely, since I end up in DFU mode rather than a hung device. Not sure if the device is intelligent enough to recognize a failed boot if I don't say, update the powernvram.

After I get this working, the next thing is to see if the gamma table stuff works then (and if not, fix it). After that, the boot menu I talked about can be written. The next thing I want to work on is NAND FTL. That's the last piece before we reach the end of the "openiboot" phase and can move into the Linux phase. Pretty much all the drivers people expect will be ready and the fun can begin.

I know it seems like we're still very far, but I think we've made very concrete and tremendous progress in a fairly reasonable period of time. A lot of things are now clear and the biggest obstacles are not Apple's protections, or a lack of understanding, but merely my own stupid mistakes and typos.

Speaking of horribly stupid mistakes, my next post will be the story of how I almost bricked my phone yesterday night (but not really :P).

Nike+ heart rate monitor for Apple iPod coming June 1

The news comes from a "Nike+ Pro" on the shoemaker's official forums. While the person did not reveal why the hardware has taken so long to arrive, they did announce the U.S. release, which will be followed by other international releases this summer.

"It will officially launch (in the U.S.) on June 1, 2010, although it may reach some retail outlets slightly sooner," the Nike official, named Clover, wrote. "It will reach Canadian markets in June and will launch internationally in summer 2010, exact date to be determined."

The person said they were not able to reveal the product's price, color, or device compatibility. However, an update to the Nike + iPod user guide last September stated that only the fifth-generation iPod nano was compatible with the new heart rate monitor.

Last year, people familiar with the matter told AppleInsider that the accessory was initially expected to launch alongside the new iPod nano. However, it was delayed until June for unknown reasons.

Evidence of the heart rate monitor can be found in the Nike+ menu on an iPod. The "Heart Rate Monitor" selection is available under the Nike + iPod settings. There, users can wirelessly link the device to their iPod nano.

Released last year, the latest iPod nano has a built-in pedometer for fitness-minded users. The device's built-in accelerometer helps to keep track of steps and meet fitness goals, with options for daily goals or constant step counting. Users can also track their runs and performance through the Nike + iPod sport kit, which includes a wireless sensor to be placed in the insole of a runner's shoe.