MacRumors

Apple today sent out an email to users registered for its iWork.com beta noting that it will be discontinuing the service as of July 31. The discontinuation comes as Apple places its focus on iCloud, which offers users ways to keep documents in sync among their various iOS devices.

Dear iWork.com user,

Thanks for participating in the iWork.com public beta.

Last year, we launched iCloud, a service that stores your music, photos, documents, and more and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. Today, there are already over 40 million documents stored on iCloud by millions of iWork customers. Learn more about iCloud.

With a new way to share iWork documents between your devices using iCloud, the iWork.com public beta service will no longer be available. As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the web.

We recommend that you sign in to iWork.com before July 31, 2012, and download all your documents to your computer. For detailed instructions on how to save a copy of your documents on your computer, read this support article at Apple.com.

Sincerely,
The iWork team

iWork.com launched as a free beta in January 2009, with Apple eventually intending to offer the service with tools for collaboration on iWork documents for a fee. The service never exited beta, however, and with iCloud offering new options for moving documents around the company has decided to eliminate the program. But while iCloud does offer a number of new features, it does not offer the level of collaboration tools envisioned for iWork.com.

The elimination of iWork.com will come a month after Apple officially shuts down its MobileMe services. Apple has continued to support MobileMe since the introduction of iCloud last year in order to give users time to move over to the new service. But as of June 30, MobileMe and several of its features such as iDisk, Gallery, and iWeb publishing will no longer be available.

As highlighted by SlashGear yesterday, the Wi-Fi + 4G iPad announced by Apple on Wednesday and launching in ten countries next Friday will not be compatible with LTE networks under development in most of the launch countries. Apple's LTE discussion during the media event focused on five carriers in the United States (AT&T and Verizon) and Canada (Bell, Rogers, and Telus), noting that international markets would have other options available for cellular connectivity.

The issue with international LTE availability stems from the fact that the AT&T version of the new 4G iPad released in the United States supports LTE on the 700 Mhz and 2100 MHz frequency bands. Apple is distributing that same model to its international markets, but LTE implementations in most of those countries are utilizing 800 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, and 2600 MHz bands that are not supported by the device.

The new iPad WiFi + 4G put up for pre-order in Europe yesterday supports the same 700MHz and 2100MHz LTE bands as the AT&T version in the US; however, actual LTE roll-out in Europe is expected to use the 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands.

That means, even if commercial LTE networks become more commonplace in Europe – which has for the most part remained using the faster variants of 3G technology, such as DC-HSDPA, which the new iPad also supports – the Apple tablet is unlikely to be compatible with them.

Apple has confirmed to The Verge that those international 4G iPad models can be used on AT&T's LTE network in the United States by travelers, even though they will not have LTE support at home. According to Apple:

iPads sold internationally will be able to connect to AT&Ts LTE network when in the US with the appropriate SIM and plan.

The iPad 4G LTE model sold for Verizon in the United States is an exclusive to that carrier for at least the time being, with its LTE compatibility limited to only the 700 MHz band in line with the carrier's implementation of the technology.

Apple has now completely sold out of its launch day iPad allotment in its U.S. online store, with all 18 models now offering shipping estimates of March 19 for new orders. Accounting for shipment time, customers placing orders now shouldn't expect them to arrive until the middle of the week following the device's launch next Friday.

A similar situation exists in the Canadian online store, while the stores for Australia and Singapore quote shipping dates of March 22 for all models. Stores for Apple's European launch countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK) and Japan are all quoting shipping estimates of 2-3 weeks for new orders.

Apple is planning to launch the new iPad in 25 additional countries on March 23, but with new orders in the first round of launches already bumping up against that window, Apple may be hard-pressed to have sufficient stock available to meet launch demand in the second round of debuts.

IDG News reports that Intel is currently working on shifting its Thunderbolt standard to the PCI-Express 3.0 protocol, a move that could allow the company to double data transfer speeds over existing implementations based on PCIe 2.0.

Intel in the future will support the PCI-Express 3.0 protocol to shuttle data faster between host devices and peripherals, an Intel spokesman said in an email. Computers with Thunderbolt interconnect currently communicate with external devices using the older PCI-Express 2.0 technology.

The company will incorporate PCI-Express 3.0 in Thunderbolt, but could not provide a time frame for when it will be accomplished.

PCIe 3.0 offers a 60% boost in raw data transfer speed compared to PCIe 2.0, going from 5 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) to 8 GT/s. But significantly lower overheard requirements in PCIe 3.0 mean that the effective bandwidth can be doubled by moving to the latest standard.

PCIe 3.0 is already making an appearance in Intel's chip products, including the just-launched Xeon E5 chips that could power updated Mac Pro models, as well as the forthcoming Ivy Bridge chips for notebooks and desktops. It will, however, take some time to move Thunderbolt over to PCIe 3.0 and get peripheral manufacturers onboard with the standard.

Apple and Intel debuted Thunderbolt technology with a MacBook Pro update in February 2011, and the standard has rolled out to Apple's entire Mac product line with the exception of the Mac Pro, which has not been updated since mid-2010.

Tech of the Hub notes (via Wired) that the new upgrades to the iTunes in the Cloud services to include movies purchased from the iTunes Store have another benefit: matching of iTunes Digital Copies that are sometimes included with the purchase of films on DVD or Blu-ray.

I purchased the 2009 release of Star Trek on Blu-ray which came with a digital copy on an additional physical disc. A while ago, I loaded that digital copy on my iMac. [...] I can now stream the movie directly from Apple’s cloud. Star Trek shows up under my purchased titles and the iCloud icon appears with it.

The feature is of course limited to those films which are currently available through the iTunes Store, but for those that are it provides a convenient way to access bundled digital copies from any iCloud-connected Apple device.

Ars Technica takes a look at the new 1080p content available on the iTunes Store, showing how a "High" compression profile for H.264-encoded content on the iPhone 4S and new iPad and Apple TV are minimizing the increase in file size needed to move from 720p to 1080p.

In a survey of several titles now available in 1080p on the iTunes Store, the report found that file sizes generally increased by 15-25% over their respective 720p versions, despite the number of pixels more than doubling to reach the higher standard.

The reason that the 1080p versions of the iTunes Store videos can be a good deal better without doubling the file size—or worse—can be found in the tech specs of the new AppleTV and the new iPad. The AppleTV now supports H.264 compression for 1920x1080 resolution video at 30 frames per second using High or Main Profile up to level 4.0, the iPad and the iPhone 4S the same up to level 4.1. The profile indicates what kind of decompression algorithms the H.264 decoder has on board—the "High" profile obviously has some tricks up its sleeve that the "Main" or "Baseline" profiles known to previous devices don't support. The level value indicates how many blocks or bits per second a device can handle.

The report also offers a comparison of video quality between the 720p and 1080p formats on the iTunes Store, noting that the increase in image quality for 1080p content is minor in many cases, but more significant in brighter scenes.

The State of Texas today announced that Apple has committed to spend $304 million to expand its operations in Austin, seeking to add 3,600 employees to its facilities there.

The new campus will more than double the size of Apple's workforce in Texas over the next decade, supporting the company's growing operations in the Americas with expanded customer support, sales and accounting functions for the region. In exchange for Apple's commitment to create these new jobs in Texas, the state has offered Apple an investment of $21 million over ten years through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF).

While Apple's Austin campus focuses primarily on customer support and other administrative functions, it does also house some engineering functions primarily related to chip design. Samsung's chip factory where it produces Apple's A-series chips for its iOS devices is also located in Austin and recently underwent a major expansion itself to support Apple's products.

Update: The City of Austin has also proposed an $8.6 million grant investment in the project should Apple meet certain performance metrics presumably tied to campus development and hiring. Apple is required to invest $56.5 million in new facilities and equipment by the end of 2015, with an additional $226 million investment coming by the end of 2021. Apple has also committed to retaining its existing 3,100 jobs in Austin and adding at least 3,635 new jobs, with yearly hiring targets for each of the ten years following the opening of its Phase I expansion.

We've received word from several customers in the UK who ordered the new iPad immediately after launch that their orders have been delayed by several days. While at least one of these customers was initially quoted delivery for March 16 and another had been quoted a shipping window of March 16-19, Apple has now pushed back delivery for these customers to March 20 or 21.

Despite our best efforts and those of our shipping partners to get your order to you on time, we want to inform you that it will not arrive on its originally scheduled delivery date.
Your new delivery date is 20/03/2012.

Once you receive your Shipment Notification email, you can check the delivery status of your order by clicking the Track Shipment button, or by visiting the Apple Store and clicking Account.

We regret the delay and apologise for the inconvenience.

Kind regards,
Apple Online Store

Meanwhile, numerous customers in the United States are reporting that they have received shipment notifications for their iPad orders.

As with previous launches, however, Apple will almost certainly be coordinating with its shipping partners to have the orders delivered on March 16, and shipping information for these customers does indeed reflect this date. It is possible, however, that a handful deliveries may slip through to reach customers a bit early as we have seen in the past.

As for new orders, availability continues to slip model-by-model as Apple runs out of its launch stock for the new device. In the United States, the white 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad has become the first Wi-Fi model to see its date slip, now showing a shipping date of March 19. A number of AT&T 4G LTE models are also listed as shipping on that date.

In line with its previous announcement, China Telecom today launched the iPhone 4S, becoming the second carrier in the country to officially offer the iPhone for sale. With its 129 million mobile subscribers, China Telecom is a major new addition for Apple and the largest carrier to offer the iPhone on a CDMA network.

M.I.C. gadget has a roundup of the launch events, with China Telecom having announced a greater-than-expected 200,000 pre-orders for the device.

China Telecom is actually playing Verizon’s iPhone role in China. As far as we know, China Telecom now has close to 130 million subscribers, and the carrier also boasts about having the largest CDMA network in the world by installed base. With over 200,000 pre-orders placed for the iPhone 4S, China Telecom is likely to emerge the victor in a looming iPhone war with China Unicom by offering both better prices and service.

As a CDMA device, the iPhone 4S on China Telecom possesses some of the same limitations seen with the device running on Verizon, including somewhat slower maximum data rates on 3G compared to GSM networks and a lack of support for simultaneous voice and data. China Telecom's iPhone 4S, which ships with iOS 5.1 pre-installed, also requires the use of a micro UIM card. The card is analogous to the micro-SIM card used on GSM devices, although many other CDMA carriers such as Verizon do not use such removable cards and instead rely on subscriber information being stored directly on the device.

China Telecom offers a variety of monthly plans for the iPhone 4S, with the 16 GB model being offered for free on plans as low as 389 yuan ($62) per month for a two-year contract or 289 yuan ($46) per month for a three-year contract.

Last December, Intuit announced that it would be developing a version of its Quicken 2007 for Mac software compatible with OS X Lion, targeting "early spring" for a release. Quicken 2007 has remained a popular option for users of personal finance software despite its age, as Intuit opted to deploy a stripped-down Quicken Essentials for Mac in 2010 rather than continuing to update the full Quicken product for Mac. But with Apple's discontinuation of Rosetta in OS X Lion, applications such as Quicken 2007 that had been written for PowerPC-based Macs are incompatible with the latest operating system.

As quietly noted its Quicken for Lion FAQ updated today, the software is now available directly from Intuit. Priced at $14.99, Lion-compatible Quicken 2007 for Mac is available either by direct download or on CD.

Quicken Mac 2005 – 2007 data files will automatically convert into the Lion compatible version. If you're currently running Quicken Essentials for Mac on OS X 10.7 Lion, and have previously converted from Quicken 2005, 2006 or 2007 for Mac, you'll be able to migrate your Quicken Essentials transaction data to Quicken Mac 2007 OS X Lion compatible.

Migration of Quicken Essentials data into the Lion-compatible version Quicken 2007 for Mac is outlined in a support document.

Intuit's lack of support for the Quicken for Mac product line has sent customers searching for alternatives, with a number of other products such as iBank and Intuit's own Mint.com seeing some success in the market, although each of the products offers a slightly different set of features.

Intuit is clearly trying to keep some of its Quicken for Mac customers using the software under Lion, but it is unclear whether the company has a long-term plan to advance a Quicken product for Mac that offers features beyond those found in Quicken Essentials. Given that even the Quicken 2007 for Mac page recommends that new Quicken users opt for Quicken Essentials, it appears that the company is still planning to push the stripped-down Essentials package as its primary Mac offering for at least the time being.

Thanks, Marck!

Over the past couple of months, we've been covering OnLive's efforts to bring remote virtualization of Windows applications to the iPad, offering access to Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, and Flash-enabled web browsing through Windows 7. OnLive may, however, be running into some difficulties with Microsoft over its offerings, with ZDNet pointing to a Microsoft blog post discussing licensing arrangements for remote desktop streaming and its belief that OnLive is not meeting these requirements.

Companies are permitted to offer some "desktop-like functionality" to users via remote hosting, but Windows 7 itself and Office provided through a hosted Windows 7 installation are specifically excluded. An alternative method allowing for full remote hosting would require that the end user hold a license with Microsoft for the software and that the remote hardware used to host the Windows installation be dedicated to that specific customer. OnLive's services certainly do not seem to meet either of these paths to compliance, and Microsoft notes that it is "committed to seeing this issue is resolved."

Some inquiries about these scenarios have been raised as a result of recent media coverage related to OnLive’s Desktop and Desktop Plus services. Additionally, the analyst firm Gartner raised questions regarding the compliance of these services last week. We are actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario, and we are committed to seeing this issue is resolved.

OnLive has apparently yet to issue any public statements on the situation.

GottaBeMobile reports that Verizon has officially announced that its data plans for the new iPad Wi-Fi + 4G will include mobile hotspot functionality at no additional charge. The feature allows users to share the device's cellular connection, broadcasting it as Wi-Fi signal that can be used to provide data connectivity for notebook computers and other devices.

What I didn’t see when I went looking for [details] is how much extra mobile hotspot costs. On Verizon, adding this feature on phones adds an extra $20/month but also an extra 2GB of data, meaning you can get up to 12GB in a month if you’re willing to pay $100.

However, a Verizon Wireless spokesperson informed me that for tablets (including the new iPad), the mobile hotspot feature is included in the data plan’s price. iPad owners won’t have to pay extra to activate mobile hotspot, even with the 1GB plan.

AT&T has yet to announce specific plans for mobile hotspot functionality on the new iPad, as a statement provided to 9to5Mac indicates that the carrier is "working with Apple" on the issue, but isn't offering this capability at all at the moment.