MacRumors

Apple today issued a notice to resellers announcing that it has discontinued the boxed versions of its Logic Studio and Logic Express audio software packages effectively immediately, also announcing that the Logic Pro 9 and MainStage 2 components will be moving to the Mac App Store for distribution. It does not appear that Apple will be offering the Soundtrack Pro 3 component of Logic Studio via the Mac App Store.

A report from early September had claimed that Apple was finishing up work on Logic Pro X. The report also indicated that Soundtrack Pro would be discontinued as part of the update as it was with Final Cut update to Final Cut Pro X.

Today's notice to resellers specifically refers to "new" Logic Pro 9 and MainStage 2 coming to the Mac App Store, but it seems odd that Apple would simply move those apps to the Mac App Store while discontinuing Logic Express and Soundtrack Pro and without releasing more substantial updates to Logic Pro and MainStage to address the reworked packages.

Update: Logic Pro is priced at $199.99, down from $499; MainStage is $29.99. The Logic Pro pricing is a significant reduction from the current $499 Logic Studio price, echoing steep price drops on Apple's Final Cut Pro software when it moved to the Mac App Store and the discontinuation of Logic Express ($199).

Logic Pro is available for $199.99 on the Mac App Store [Direct Link], and MainStage is $29.99 [Direct Link].

Apple has released the 2011 edition of its annual iTunes Rewind feature in the iTunes Store. The piece offers a look at what the company has judged to be the best music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts of 2011.

Some of the notable winners:

Apps:
- iPhone App of the Year: Instagram
- iPhone Game of the Year: Tiny Tower
- iPad App of the Year: Snapseed
- iPad Game of the Year: Dead Space for iPad

Music:
- Song of the Year: Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
- Artist of the Year: Adele
- Album of the Year: Wasting Light by Foo Fighters

Books:
- Best Novel: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obeht
- Best Nonfiction: Boomerang by Michael Lewis

It's important to note that these awards are all for the United States iTunes Store. In some cases, Apple gave awards to different items in different countries. For example, Djay was awarded iPad App of the Year honors in the UK, while Tiny Wings won iPhone Game of the Year in the UK and Australia.

Instagram isn't the first photography app to win App of the Year award. In 2010, Hipstamatic took home App of the Year honors. Plants vs. Zombies won the Game of the Year award that year.

MacRumors covered iTunes Rewind in 2010 and 2009, as well.

The next iPad will be introduced in February according to a research note issued by Citi analyst Richard Gardner, obtained by Business Insider.

According to "several sources" the next iPad will launch in February, and it will sport a screen with double the resolution of the current model.

Gardner says, "there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining" to prevent a launch of a high-resolution iPad, despite rumors to the contrary.

Gardner's note echoes prior reports of a mid-Winter launch for the iPad 3.

Some reports had been suggesting that Apple's display suppliers were struggling with mass production of the higher-resolution 2048x1536 displays for the iPad 3, but reports over the past few weeks have indicated that the production is now moving along at Samsung, LG, and Sharp ahead of final iPad 3 assembly scheduled to begin next month at Foxconn.

One issue that has remains unclear is whether the iPad 3 will be thinner or slightly thicker than the iPad 2. Several sources have claimed that the iPad 3 will need to be slightly thicker due to the adoption of a dual light bar system to handle the significant jump in display resolution. But another report from late last month claimed that Apple will be utilizing a new display technology to support the high-resolution without requiring dual light bars, a development that will allow the iPad 3 to be slightly thinner than the current model.

Three-quarters of the way through Apple's holiday quarter, a slew of analysts have increased their calculations of the company's performance, while expecting record iPhone sales on the back of Apple's most successful iPhone launch ever.

Interestingly, Citi analyst Richard Gardner claims to have specifically heard that Apple just last week made a significant boost to its iPhone orders with suppliers, suggesting significant upside for the current quarter.

Our meetings in Taiwan suggest that Apple raised 4CQ11 iPhone orders to suppliers meaningfully just last week. The new iPhone build plan is meaningfully above the low-30’s million figure that we were hearing previously. Given such a significant order increase at this late stage in the quarter, it seems clear that Apple is headed for a meaningful upside surprise on iPhone shipments this quarter.

Other analyst updates include:

- Maynard Um of UBS raised his estimate of iPhones sold on the quarter to 30 million from 28. Um noted that his team believes the 30 million number is still conservative, especially with an iPhone 4S launch in China pending.

- Shaw Wu of Stern Agee raised his iPhone expectations from 26 million to 28 million, though he believes those numbers could run even higher thanks to high demand from Asia.

- William Power of R.W. Baird raised his iPhone estimate to 31.2 million units.

- Mark Moskowitz of JP Morgan raised his iPhone estimates to 28 million units from 25.3 million.

- Mike Walkley of Canaccord Genuity raised his iPhone estimate to 30.5 million from 29 million units, saying "our November checks indicated strong global iPhone sales with Apple share gains versus Android smartphones in the US and Western Europe".

While the iPhone is expected to be a powerhouse this quarter, Power, Moskowitz and Walkley all cut expectations slightly on the iPad.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, on the most recent Apple earnings call in mid-October weighed in with his own expectations, saying his team was "very confident that we will set an all-time record in the December quarter for iPhone sales."

Several MacRumors readers have reported that Apple has rolled out new Apple TV support for streaming purchased television shows in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Users in those countries have been able to rent movies directly on the Apple TV, but purchased content was required to be downloaded to a computer and then streamed to the Apple TV via Home Sharing. With the new update, purchased TV shows are simply stored in iCloud and streamed directly to the Apple TV on demand.

Apple TV streaming of purchased TV shows came to the United States back in August. That addition was accompanied by a new TV Shows section of the purchased items listings in iTunes, allowing users easy access to download purchased shows to any device.

Besides TV show purchases, Apple had previously offered 99-cent rentals of TV episodes. Apple discontinued that offering in August, noting that customers preferred to purchase their shows and that the new iCloud flexibility offered additional benefit to purchases.

Update: It appears that the new menu option may have been released prematurely, as a number of users are reporting that the TV show option is either not functioning or has disappeared completely.

Apple has launched their annual "12 Days of Christmas" iTunes Store holiday promotion for European customers. The free app download gives way free content each day from December 26th to January 6th.

You and your friends can download a fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps and books for free. Each download will only be available for 24 hours. Get our special 12 Days of Christmas app to make it even easier to access your gifts while you’re on the go.

As we noted last year, the promotion has traditionally been limited to European and Canadian iTunes Stores. AppleInsider reports Canadian customers should get their own app soon. [App Store].

For those without an iOS device, Apple says to come back to iTunes on December 26th to download gifts from your computer. Though the U.S. customers are excluded from this promotion, App Store developers frequently use the holidays to hold sales on their apps. AppventCalendar is another daily free app promotion that has already started daily app freebies.

Cloud gaming company OnLive has just announced the release of their playable OnLive client for iPad and iPhone (via TouchArcade and OnLiveInformer).

OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of cloud gaming, announced that it is bringing console-class gaming to tablets and phones with the revolutionary OnLive app for tablet and mobile platforms. The latest, top-tier, high-performance games—previously limited to only consoles and computers—will be available for instant play via the free OnLive app on over 500 million mobile devices over Wi-Fi or mobile networks in the US and UK.

OnLive delivers console-quality games to Macs, PCs, TVs (and now mobile devices) by remotely streaming the game from their central servers. The client device need not be fast enough to render high resolution graphics -- instead it simply has to play back what amounts to a video stream of the game, while user controls are sent back to the central server.

OnLive reports that 25 console-class games have been adapted for touch controls including L.A. Noire and LEGO Batman™: The Videogame. Games can be played using the touch interface or using their mobile-compatible Universal OnLive Wireless Controller ($49.99). Games purchased on one OnLive device can also be instantly be played on another device with full save game data intact.

The OnLive app for iPad should be available as a free download at any moment. TechCrunch reports the iPhone support is "coming soon".

The app itself is free, but users will still need to pay for Onlive games which are available per title or through Onlive’s PlayPack Bundle. It seems most top-tier Android devices are officially supported — but as with most Android apps, other (unsupported) devices will probably get in on the fun as well (see official list below). The app currently works for the iPad with support for the iPhone coming later.

LEGO Batman™: The Videogame will be given free to anyone who downloads the OnLive app.

Japanese blog Mac Otakara claims to have information from an Asian supplier that the next iPad will have a screen of the same physical dimensions as current iPads, and will support the Smart Cover but may be thicker.

According to Asian supplier which provides part for next iPad, next iPad has same size of screen, but case may be thicker by unknown reason. Current iPad cases, which covers backside, will not be compatible with thicker next iPad.

Also the source told, front rounding corner will be same with current iPad, then Smart Cover will be good companion with new iPad.

Though the site doesnt specify, the above image may be of prototype case for the iPad 3.

Mac Otakara has occasionally offered accurate information in the past, although several of its claims also failed to come true. Back in August, the site claimed that the iPhone 4S and iPad 3 would debut at a media event in early October with availability set for late October. iPad 3 rumors had been swirling at the time, but were later discounted as reported indicated that Apple will be pushing the iPad 3 with Retina display back to an early 2012 introduction.

Fierce Wireless reports on comments from Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam in which he acknowledges that the carrier is planning on rolling out shared data plans in 2012.

Depending on how the sharing is implemented, the carrier could allow a single customer with multiple devices such as iPhone and a 3G iPad to draw from a single data monthly allotment rather than requiring separate data plans for each device. Shared data could also show up in family plans, where multiple family members could pull data from a single allotment much as they can today with voice minutes.

McAdam said that customers who are dealing with four or five screens--smartphones, tablets and USB modems for laptops and the like--do not want to pay for all of those devices on separate bills, and neither does Verizon. "I think in 2012 we will see it," McAdam said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. "We have been working on this for a couple of years. Getting to one bill and getting to account-level pricing is our goal."

European carriers have led the way in data allotment sharing with iPhone and iPad plans, and Verizon and AT&T had previously disclosed that they too are working on such offerings but had not offered any timeline for introducing such plans.

Forbes reports on a new research note from Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair suggesting that Apple may bring some aspects of its rumored television set to the iMac with a revision in the first half of next year.

Blair envisions the company pushing the largest screen sizes of the iMac toward the TV market by integrating Apple TV and iCloud features into a slimmer all-in-one PC with TV capabilities.

“We think this makes sense because while we typically think about the newest TV’s hanging on the wall in large form factors, Apple could effectively start with what they already have on the manufacturing line and slowly push their offering from 27 inches and scale up from there to 32 inches and then move on to the 42, 50 and 55 inch market,” he writes. “In short, we believe the initial Apple TV is their iMac computer that can function as a TV, over the iCloud platform.”

While the full context of the claim is not included in the Forbes report, the claim is referred to as "speculation" on Blair's part and no specific evidence to support it is offered.

Apple had previous offered its "Front Row" software for OS X, providing users with a full-screen media display to allow easy access to content while interacting with their Mac via the remote control previously included with most Macs. Front Row debuted on the iMac in 2005 and made its way throughout Apple's Mac lines, but was gradually phased out until it was completely removed in OS X Lion.

Apple is said to be developing a television set product featuring Siri-powered voice input, with a release rumored for late 2012 or 2013. An iMac offering some of that television functionality could bridge the gap to the dedicated television set, with the 21.5-inch and 27-inch screens on the iMac suitable for smaller-scale television settings.