MacRumors

While today's big acquisition news has been Google's purchase of Sparrow, another prominent Mac and iOS developer has also been swallowed up by a major Silicon Valley company.

Acrylic Software has announced (via The Next Web) that it has been acquired by Facebook, which is bringing on the Acrylic team for its expertise rather than its current products, which include RSS reader Pulp (iPad, Mac) and secure personal database app Wallet (iOS, Mac).

Facebook is an invaluable service that we all use daily, and a company I believe is one of the most innovative and important around today. After visiting late last year, I discovered that we shared many of the same core product design goals and principles, and it soon became obvious that it was a natural fit. Simply put, there’s an opportunity at Facebook to have a big impact in many people’s lives. More importantly, Facebook is full of extremely talented people who will be able to help realize its full potential in the years to come.

Acrylic's apps are not included in the deal, although the developer plans to continue offering them in their current states.

Alternative email client Sparrow has been acquired by Google. From Sparrow's website:

We're excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!

We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience.

Now we're joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.

We’d like to extend a special thanks to all of our users who have supported us, advised us, given us priceless feedback and allowed us to build a better mail application. While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users.

We had an amazing ride and can't thank you enough.

Full speed ahead!

Dom Leca
CEO
Sparrow

Sparrow originally launched on the Mac, but an iPhone version was released earlier this year. Leca also said that Sparrow's products will continue to be made available with "support and critical updates", but Sparrow does not plan to release new features. There's no word whether Push email support -- promised earlier this year -- will make its way to the iOS app or if that has been pushed aside.

Late last year, Google released an iOS Gmail app which was received poorly by users. Google issued this statement on the acquisition, but wouldn't divulge details of the purchase:

The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their email client. We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.

Update: The Verge says Sparrow was acquired for "under $25 million" and that there was no bidding war for the company.

As noted by The Next Web, Apple today launched the third-generation iPad in China to small, orderly crowds, avoiding a repeat of the chaotic iPhone 4S launch back in January that forced Apple to temporarily halt in-store sales of the device in the country.

The iPad launch appears to have gone much more smoothly in part due to a reservation system the company deployed to help minimize lines and thwart scalpers seeking to soak up available supplies and resell the devices for significant profits. Prospective customers were required to pre-register for their in-store purchases by noon yesterday, with customers receiving designated appointment times today to come pick up their iPads.

As of now, today, there is no sign of the scalper contingent, which is typically out in full force for Apple product launches in China – the computer giant’s second largest market.

According to staff at the Sanliutin Apple Store, iPad sales will continue to be reservation-only indefinitely. Customers can reserve the new iPad daily from 9am-12pm and will be assigned a pickup time for the following day or later.

Crowds at the Sanlitun store were sparse under the new reservation system, with the store opening two hours early at 8:00 AM but with only ten people in line by 8:30.

Alongside yesterday's massive international expansion of iTunes in the Cloud for movies, U.S. users also received some new content as 20th Century Fox films are now available through the service.

When iTunes in the Cloud for movies launched back in March, Universal and Fox were not included due to agreements the studios had in place with premium TV channel HBO, with sources indicating within days that negotiations were underway to lift those restrictions.

Universal's films began appearing in iTunes in the Cloud in early April, but it has taken until now for 20th Century Fox's offerings to also be included.

Back in March, the Hickory Daily Record noted that Apple had filed for building permits related to a "tactical data center" to be located at the site of the company's existing data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Our research at the time indicated that the facility was a relatively small building of roughly 20,000 square feet, but it was unclear exactly what it was to be used for.

The Hickory Daily Record now follows up with a new report sharing more details on Apple's plans as culled from additional building permits and planning documents filed in recent weeks.

According to Apple’s design plans on file with Catawba County, the new 21,030-square-foot data center, also referred to as a “tactical” data center, will store clusters of servers. Permits filed with the county list the cost of the new 11-room data center at $1,885,129. [..]

The building will have, what appears to be, tight security measures even though it will be located on a site that already has tight security. The building will be equipped with “man trap” security doors at either end that will force a person to be cleared to go through an additional second door to get inside the main building space. The building also will be surrounded with an 8-foot-high chain-link security fence, according to architectural plans.

Apple's plans for the site ultimately include two 500,000 square-foot data center buildings, only one of which has been constructed. Today's report indicates that this new tactical data center, a separate project, will be adjacent to the existing data center without impinging upon space set aside for the second major building.

The architectural site plans show the small data center t-boned to the 500,000-square-foot existing data center. The plans still show the footprint for a larger data center that would run nearly parallel to the existing one and would t-bone the smaller one currently under construction.

Data Center Knowledge takes a closer look at Apple's plans, suggesting that Apple is deploying a modular facility in order to rapidly increase the server capacity at the site, something the company is already doing at its Prineville, Oregon site in advance of more permanent construction.

The building permits for the new Apple tactical MDC don’t name a particular provider. But Apple is currently deploying modular data centers from NxGen Modular at its new data center in Prineville, Oregon. NxGen has developed next-generation modular designs, with pre-fabricated components that can be assembled into a complete data center, complete with power, cooling and mechanical rooms.

Apple has yet to comment on its intentions for the new tactical data center facility in Maiden, but the project comes as Apple is pursuing major expansions of its server capabilities in North Carolina, Oregon, and Nevada to help support iCloud and other ventures.

In addition to today's iTunes Match expansion to Hungary and Poland, Apple has also undertaken a significant expansion of its iTunes in the Cloud feature, adding movies to the list of eligible items in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

We've heard from several UK users who have reported that only a small fraction of their purchased movies are currently shown as eligible for re-download, through iTunes in the Cloud, but Apple indicates that "most" content should be included in the program.

The expansion marks the first time iTunes in the Cloud has been available for movies outside of the United States. The feature provides additional flexibility for those who have purchased movies through the iTunes Store, allowing them to download the content as needed on any computer, iOS device, or Apple TV.

iTunes in the Cloud for music and music videos is available in over 50 countries around the world, and support for TV shows has also been available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Re-downloads of apps and books are permitted throughout Apple's digital store markets.

Update: Steven Troughton-Smith notes that iTunes in the Cloud for movies is also live in Ireland.

Update 2: The feature has also gone live in many of Apple's Latin American markets, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.

Update 3: Many of Apple's Asia-Pacific markets are also included: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Update 4: In Europe, the following countries are also seeing iTunes in the Cloud for movies: Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.

As noted by CNET, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo made a comment during today's earnings release conference call that many are interpreting as a hint that the next-generation iPhone will be launching in the fourth quarter of this year.

Apple's next iteration of the iPhone could drop in the fourth quarter.

That's according to Verizon CFO Fran Shammo, who hinted at the possible timing during the company's quarterly conference call today with a vague reference to a major phone the carrier expects to launch in the fourth quarter.

Shammo's exact statement was captured by The Verge:

When asked what might have held customers back from upgrading their devices in Q2, Shammo said that "of course there's always that, uh, rumor mill out there with a new phone coming out there in the fourth quarter, so people may be waiting." While there's a chance that he was referring to the next Nexus phone, this felt more like a thinly-veiled reference to the oft-rumored "new iPhone."

Rumors have been pegging the launch of the next-generation iPhone for the September/October timeframe, but with Verizon's fourth quarter not starting until October 1, Shammo's comment would point toward the latter half of the rumored timeframe.

Shammo could pass his comments off as simply an acknowledgment of the circulating rumors with no inside information coloring his perspective, but observers searching for any hints of Apple's plans are clearly wondering whether the timeframe mentioned by Shammo was indeed based on Apple's schedule.

Last year, Shammo spoke out several times on Apple's iPhone plans, confirming that what became the iPhone 4S would be a world-mode phone capable of operating on both GSM and CDMA networks and noting that Verizon would launch the device simultaneously with AT&T despite Verizon having launched the iPhone 4 midway through its lifecycle.

Following a report earlier this week claiming that European carriers have been stockpiling new nano-SIM cards in expectation of Apple using the smaller card in the next-generation iPhone, BGR now reports that carriers are indeed testing the new cards in partnership with Apple.

Multiple carrier sources have exclusively told BGR that Apple is supplying nano-SIM adapters so its carrier partners can test how nano-SIMs work on their networks in standard test devices before they are widely deployed when the new iPhone is introduced. This includes AT&T.

As we noted in the our report earlier this week, a part leak back in early May suggested that Apple would continue to use micro-SIMs in the next-generation iPhone, but with the new nano-SIM standard backed by Apple having been approved last month the company may already be pushing forward to adopt it as a space-saving measure.

Verizon today announced earnings for the second quarter of 2012, providing a first glimpse at Apple's iPhone performance during the quarter. During the conference call associated with the earnings release, Verizon announced iPhone sales of 2.7 million for the quarter, down from 3.2 million in the prior quarter.

A quarterly decline in iPhone sales for Verizon is not necessarily a surprise given the typical lull heading toward new hardware launches. And with Apple's iPhone business increasingly coming from international markets, performance of the main U.S. carriers like AT&T and Verizon is less indicative of Apple's overall sales numbers.

Notably, the 2.7 million iPhones represent 45% of Verizon's total smartphone sales of 5.9 million units, down from roughly 50% in the first quarter and 55% in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple's share of Verizon smartphone sales does, however, remain above its low point of 35% seen in the third quarter of last year just before the launch of the iPhone 4S.

Apple will report its performance for the third fiscal quarter (second calendar quarter) of 2012 next Tuesday, July 24.

Earlier today, we pointed to some grainy photos of an early iPad prototype dating back to the 2002-2004 timeframe, revealing a much bulkier but otherwise fairly similar design to that seen in the device that was ultimately launched in 2010.

BuzzFeed has now posted new photos showing the prototype in full color next to an iPad 2, a comparison which shows the prototype to carry a much larger screen than seen on the iPad to date. Measuring pixel counts against the ruler shown in several of the photos reveals that the prototype device had a display measuring almost exactly 12 inches diagonally.

Compared to the eventually-released iPad's 9.7-inch screen, the prototype device would have had roughly 40% more screen real estate, although it is unknown at what resolution the early device was projected to run.

The prototype otherwise bears a distinct similarity to Apple's iBook of the time, carrying a white plastic shell with rounded corners and a 4:3 aspect ratio for the display. The prototype iPad measures in at just under 1-inch thick, compared to 1.35 inches for the white iBook models and the 0.34-0.50 inch range of the iPad models released to the public so far.

After having an online presence in the United Kingdom for more than 15 years, Apple has finally acquired the Apple.co.uk domain name. Dating back to at least 2003, Apple.co.uk has been owned by Apple Illustration, an illustration agency based in the UK. That company is now located at AppleAgency.co.uk.

.co.uk is the primary commercial second-level domain under the United Kingdom's domain hierarchy with many major companies using it as a base of their UK online operations.

Domain name:
apple.co.uk

Registrant:
Apple Inc.

Registrant type:
Non-UK Corporation

Registrant's address:
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino
CA
95014
United States

Registrar:
Corporation Service Company (UK) Limited [Tag = CSC-CORP-DOMAINS]
URL: http://www.cscprotectsbrands.com

Relevant dates:
Registered on: before Aug-1996
Expiry date: 13-Jan-2014
Last updated: 06-Jul-2012

The transfer in ownership happened early this month, with the website beginning to redirect to Apple in the past few days. We've contacted both Apple and Apple Illustration for comment on how the transfer came about, but have yet to hear back from either company.

Following last week's launch of a hack that allowed users to obtain In App Purchase content free of charge by routing their purchase requests through a server run by a Russian hacker, Apple began taking steps to thwart the method. The hacker has, however, continued to develop his method to skirt around Apple's roadblocks.

One of the suggestions for a method by which Apple could improve the security of In App Purchasing was to include a unique identifier in validation receipts, and we've received word that developers are now seeing something along those lines coming from receipts issued by Apple since late yesterday. The receipts carry a new field called "unique_identifer" that appears to include the Unique Device Identifier (UDID) for the device making the In App Purchase.

As one developer noted to us, apps are no longer supposed to be collecting the UDID and thus it is unclear whether Apple's use of the identifier for this purpose is simply a first step toward a broader implementation of unique receipt identifiers for increased security or if Apple is attempting to identify those users and devices who are sharing their receipts with the Russian hacker to allow the method to function.