MacRumors

TechCrunch noted that Qualcomm had recently released their Augmented Reality Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS. The SDK had originally been available for Android but Qualcomm had promised its release in July for iOS. The SDK should make it easier for developers to integrate virtual content with real content such as images captured by cameras found on many portable devices.

Augmented reality applications are nothing new for iOS, with Apple having introduced support for the technology in iPhone OS 3.1 nearly two years ago and a number of applications such as Layar Reality Browser and Word Lens having embraced it, but Qualcomm's tools will make for easier cross-platform adoption that could increase developer interest.

Qualcomm had held an Augmented Reality Application Developer Challenge last year to promote the use of their SDK. The video above shows the winners from that contest. The first version of the iOS SDK is said to support iPhone 4, iPad 2, and 4th Generation iPod Touch.

Earlier this week, a purported case design for the iPhone 5 surfaced showing tapered edges more reminiscent of pre-iPhone 4 designs along with a possible larger screen and gesture area around the home button.

That schematic is not merely a random design drawing, however, as 9 to 5 Mac has received photos of an actual case apparently manufactured based on that design, which has reportedly been shopped around to manufacturers.

The new case does appear to portend a thinner design if it is indeed for the iPhone 5, but is unable to address claims of a larger screen or gesture area due a lack of covering on the front of the device. Placement of the physical features on the purported iPhone 5 appears nearly identical to the current iPhone, with the exception of what appears to a movement of the mute switch to the opposite side. This places the switch adjacent to the device's rear camera on the right side of the device as viewed from the front, as opposed to above the volume buttons on the left side.

Accommodations for the power and volume buttons are indeed present on the purported iPhone 5 case, although difficult to see in the photos as the case utilizes only small nubs of silicone covering the buttons rather than holes allowing direct access to them. Notably, the volume controls appear more like the elongated buttons found on the current iPod touch than the round individual buttons of the iPhone 4, a change which would make sense with an iPod touch-like tapered design for the new iPhone.

This latest case design is not the first to be claimed to be for the iPhone 5, however, as cases suggesting a nearly identical design to the iPhone 4 appeared in March while others apparently showing the rear camera flash moved to the opposite side away from the camera lens itself showed up in May.

John Christman purchased OS X Lion on July 23, and paid $31.79 after sales tax. Then, his PayPal account was charged $31.79 an additional 121 times, for a total of $3,878.40.

Clearly Mr. Christman didn't need 122 copies of Lion, and something has gone awry. John got in touch with both PayPal and Apple support, but said both sides pointed fingers at each other. "Apple Blames PayPal, PayPal blames Apple. They both are claiming to investigate, but I am stuck broke for three days now."

Christman thinks it is related to the new iCloud feature that allows iTunes to automatically download previous purchases:

I fresh installed Lion, because the upgrade caused a lot of problems. My system needed as fresh start anyway.

I logged into our developer account and got the latest iTunes Beta, and installed it. iTunes has a cool new feature to download all your purchased apps for you.
I clicked download all.

As each download started it charged me $31.79. Some apps came fast, some took longer, but the timing was directly related to when a new app started to download.

He downloaded 116 apps total, but noted that several apps failed to download and needed to be restarted. 116 apps downloaded and 121 extra charges seems too close to be mere coincidence.

Christman isn't the only person to face these issues surrounding Lion and PayPal. There is a lengthy discussion on Apple's support website about the issue, and other bloggers have run into similar problems.

Even though the purchases above say "refunded", Christman says he hasn't seen a dime. "Apple claims there was only one transaction. When I told PayPal to dispute them, they closed the cases and marked the items as refunded on the 23rd. Bear in mind all this money was taken and never returned yet."

"My mortgage is due in 2 days, and thanks to them, I don't have the money."

MacRumors reached out to Apple for comment, who said they would work with John directly to try to get his issues resolved.

Earlier this week, shopping comparison site PriceGrabber released the results of a survey of nearly 3,000 U.S. online consumers conducted earlier this month, revealing that 35% of respondents intend to purchase the next-generation iPhone. The strong consumer interest comes even as Apple has to yet announce or even acknowledge such a device and with rumors offering conflicting information on what users can expect from the next-generation iPhone.

Anticipation in the consumer electronics world is soaring for the launch of Apple's iPhone 5, which is rumored to be hitting store shelves this fall. PriceGrabber, a part of Experian, just released the results of its iPhone 5 survey, revealing that 35 percent of consumers plan to purchase the latest iPhone upon its release. Of these respondents, 51 percent indicated that they will buy the smartphone within the first year of release, 30 percent will purchase it before the end of 2011, 14 percent will buy it within the first month, and 7 percent will buy it within the first week. Conducted from July 1-11, 2011, the survey includes responses from 2,852 U.S. online consumers.

Apple leads the smartphone pack among the surveyed customers, with 48% of respondents stating that they "prefer" iOS and Android coming in at a distant second place with 19%.

For the next-generation iPhone, consumers most frequently cited improved battery life as a key feature they'd like to see, with 59% of respondents selecting the option in the survey. Measuring in close behind at 56% was a lower price point. Other popular desired features include a larger screen and an improved camera.

Interestingly, 46% of respondents indicated that "4G" compatibility is an important feature for the next iPhone, even with a separate survey recently revealing that one-third of current iPhone users mistakenly think that they already have 4G compatibility. The "4G" marketing term has come to embrace both HSPA+ and LTE network standards, and while the next-generation iPhone is expected to feature HSPA+ compatibility, Apple has been said to be holding off on LTE compatibility until more appropriate chips are available.

DigiTimes reports that Apple and Samsung are both "evaluating" the use of solar cells in future consumer products, with the process having advanced as far as discussions with several Taiwanese solar firms about the technology. Any such products are said to be some time off, however, with projects still in the research stage as vendors work toward increasing efficiency of energy conversion.

Samsung and Apple have been evaluating the possible niche market for solar-powered consumer products and considering the inclusion of Taiwan-based solar firms in their respective supply chains. However, according to Taiwan-based solar firms, these niche markets will need a longer time to develop.

Apple has expressed interest in solar power for a number of years, with a patent application published in 2008 discussing the possibility of placing solar cells underneath a mobile device's screen. A more recent one discussed building solar cells into the external surface of an iPod-like device and integrating a power management system to balance battery and solar power generation to compensate for changes in light input due to environmental factors or certain panels being obscured by the user's hand.

Even more recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on "a new way of charging" for next year's iPhone. Speculation has naturally centered on some form of wireless induction charging given that technology is already mature enough to have made it into the consumer market, but at the very least Apple seems to be seriously considering alternatives to traditional power production mechanisms for its future devices.

Apple is working on a 15" ultra-thin Mac notebook, MacRumors has learned. We aren't certain if it will be called a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but we do know that it is already in late testing stages at Apple.

Apple's notebook lineup has received a significant revamp over the past two years, and the introduction of the MacBook Air seems to have finally edged out the low-end MacBook design. While originally priced as a premium product, the Air seems to have found a more mainstream market as its starting price dropped to only $999.

Many now expect that Apple's design choices in the Air will eventually make their way to the MacBook Pro product, with the use of integrated SSD and lack of optical drive being the most notable changes allowing for such a thin design. While we don't know for a fact, we expect that any future "ultra thin" laptop from Apple will also dispense with a built-in optical drive. As evidenced by its recent release of the optical drive-less Mac mini, Apple has no problem leaving physical media behind.

The ultra-thin market is also about to get much more competitive this fall as Intel's partners begin launching their Ultrabook notebooks.

The timing of an ultra-thin 15" Apple notebook remains a mystery to us as Apple just revamped the MacBook Air with new 11" and 13" models. Meanwhile the MacBook Pro line was refreshed in February, likely pushing the next release out to at least very late in the year.

Update: TUAW corroborates our claim and also adds that they believe that this new notebook will fall under the "MacBook Pro" branding alongside a thin 17" model. Also, they believe it might be available in time for Christmas.

MobileFun.co.uk publishes two case designs that are claimed to be for the upcoming iPhone 5. The new designs seem to show that the iPhone 5 will carry a number of changes including a larger screen, curved/sloped back, and larger home button area.

These design aspects were previously reported in April by ThisIsMyNext. Their report at the time claimed many of the same features:

the home button is doing double duty as a gesture area; this falls in line with testing we’ve seen for gestures on the iPad, and our sources say that gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS. The home button will likely be enlarged, but not scrapped altogether. Furthermore, we’re hearing that the screen on the device will occupy the entire (or near to it) front of the phone, meaning almost no bezel. Our source says the company is doing very “interesting things” with bonded glass technology, and has been exploring designs where the earpiece and sensors are somehow behind the screen itself, making for a device where the display is actually edge-to-edge.

The images do seem to be circulating from Chinese case manufacturers. The above image was posted by a Norwegian accessory manufacturer just the other day. This is the same image that MobileFun.co.uk also received and posted.

We suspect all of the images and information are coming from a common source, but we don't necessarily believe it to be true. At the time of ThisIsMyNext's posting, we received a reliable tip that this is not what the iPhone 5 will look like. As well, several other credible news outlets have said that the iPhone 5 will "look largely similar to the current iPhone 4".

Bloomberg reports that HTC has expressed willingness to strike a deal with Apple in the patent dispute between the two companies that has seen Apple score an initial victory in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission while HTC has increased its firepower by acquiring a company that had already won a decision against Apple.

“We have to sit down and figure it out,” Winston Yung, chief financial officer of the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, said by phone today. “We’re open to having discussions.”

HTC on July 6 announced a $300 million deal to buy S3 Graphics Co., less than a week after that company won an ITC ruling against Apple over two patents. In a July 15 initial determination, the same commission ruled in Apple’s favor on two other patents.

“We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable,” Yung said. “On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg notes in a separate report that the battle between Apple and Google in the patent market is continuing to heat up following Apple's $2.6 billion contribution to a consortium that outbid Google to obtain Nortel's patent portfolio for a total of $4.5 billion. The new report indicates that with Google and Apple both considering bidding for the patent assets of mobile technology firm InterDigital, the eventual sale price for that company may come at a 50% premium over its already-high levels.

InterDigital, whose engineers invented some of the technology for high-speed mobile phone networks now used by the world’s biggest handset makers, has gained $1.4 billion since saying last week it hired banks to explore options including a sale. The $3.2 billion company, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, may cost more than $5 billion, Algorithm Capital and Dougherty & Co. said. That would be the most expensive deal in the wireless equipment industry relative to earnings in more than a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

InterDigital holds 8,800 patents, about 15% of which are said to be related to mobile phone technologies and some of which have not been licensed, which increases their value. Some analysts have said that those wireless patents may indeed be worth more than Nortel's 4G LTE patents included in the package sold to the Apple consortium.

Several months ago, we noted that Apple appeared to be using two different suppliers, Samsung and Toshiba, for the solid-state drives (SSDs) on its MacBook Air models. Notably, the Samsung SSDs registered significantly faster read and write speeds than the Toshiba SSDs. User reports indicated that Apple was indeed using both suppliers simultaneously, rather making it a luck of the draw as to which SSD a user received in a given machine.

Engadget now points to a new video produced by TLD Today indicating that Apple is continuing to employ this dual-supplier strategy for SSDs in the new MacBook Air, with the Samsung SSDs continuing to provide substantially better performance than the Toshiba drives.

Jonathan over at TLD discovered a fairly significant discrepancy when benchmarking both MacBook Air models over the weekend. The 128GB Samsung SSD in his 11-inch Air was able to achieve 246 MB/s write and 264 MB/s read speeds. When he switched to the 13-inch model, however, speeds dropped to 156 MB/s and 208 MB/s, respectively, using that notebook's 128GB Toshiba SSD.

The report indicates that users are unlikely to notice any difference in day-to-day usage between machines running the drives, although the substantial performance difference does suggest that it may be noticeable for certain high-intensity tasks.

Digitimes reports on several Taiwan-based companies that have been picked to supply parts for the upcoming iPad 3.

Taiwan-based IC design houses Novatek Microelectronics, Richtek Technology, Capella Microsystems (Taiwan) and Integrated Memory Logic (iML) have reportedly entered the supply chain for iPad 3, according to industry sources.

The exact companies aren't likely of much interest to our readers, but Digitimes also claims that Apple seems more willing to use integrated circuits from Taiwan-based manufacturers "as it is adjusting the cost structure for iPad tablets in order to compete with an array of tablet PCs to be launched by rivals in the second half of 2011."

It's not entirely clear what this will mean to the customer in the end. Lower cost parts may mean less expensive iPads, but it may simply offer more capabilities at the same price. Apple's roadmap for the iPad 3 remains unclear as there have been numerous conflicting reports about the iPad 3's capabilities and release date.

Apple today released a series of Mac OS X 10.6.8 releases, apparently revising the original version as well as offering a "supplemental update" to patch systems that have already been upgraded to the latest version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

The Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and resolves issues with:

- Transferring personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion
- Certain network printers that pause print jobs immediately and fail to complete
- System audio that stops working when using HDMI or optical audio out

Available downloads include:

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update (10.19 MB) - for users already on Mac OS X 10.6.8
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v.1.1 (453.55 MB) - delta release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X 10.6.8
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 (1.09 GB) - combo release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X 10.6.8

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Server Supplemental Update (10.23 MB) - for users already on Mac OS X Server 10.6.8
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update v1.1 (518.28 MB) - delta release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X Server 10.6.8
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 (1.18 GB) - combo release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X Server 10.6.8

Only ten days after releasing iOS 4.3.4, Apple has just pushed out iOS 4.3.5 to address a security issue with certificate validation.

iOS 4.3.5 Software Update

Fixes a security vulnerability with certificate validation.

The new version checks in as Build 8L1, and is for the GSM iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, all iPads, and the third- and-fourth-generation iPod touch. A separate iOS 4.2.10 (Build 8E600) is available for the CDMA iPhone.

Direct download links:
- iPhone 4 GSM
- iPhone 4 CDMA (iOS 4.2.10)
- iPhone 3GS
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi
- iPad 2 GSM
- iPad 2 CDMA
- Original iPad
- iPod touch (fourth-generation)
- iPod touch (third-generation)

Update: Some users are reporting receiving errors when attempting to connect to Apple's servers for the update, but with repeated attempts it seems as though users are able to get through.

Update 2: Apple has now posted a support document describing the security issue patched in the update. The issue has been given an identifier of CVE-2011-0228.

Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS

Description: A certificate chain validation issue existed in the handling of X.509 certificates. An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS. Other attacks involving X.509 certificate validation may also be possible. This issue is addressed through improved validation of X.509 certificate chains.