MacRumors

We've received several reports today indicating that Apple's retail stores are quickly running out of stock of the various AirPort and Time Capsule wireless networking products, hinting that a full refresh for the line could take place as part of the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote next Monday.

One source has indicated that his local Apple retail store has completely sold out of both Time Capsule models, as well as the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express base stations. A second source reported that Time Capsules are sold out at a different location, with Apple sales reps indicating that no new shipments appeared to be planned. There was no word on the status of AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express stocks at that location.

It seems now that TUAW has been hearing similar reports. They too have heard that several Apple Stores across the US are low or out of stock of AirPort devices.

A reader let us know that all of the Apple Stores in his area are out of AirPort Express models, and one of our sources confirmed the Apple Store in his area is out of stock on not just the Express, but the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule as well. Another source says supplies at one store are not constrained and never have been, but the store "may have" received a notice to send its AirPort device inventory back.

TUAW acknowledges that WWDC is expected to be a software only event, but also raises the possibility that updates could come somehow be tied to Apple's iCloud offering.

At AllThingsD, Microsoft previewed Windows 8 for the first time. The early look at the upcoming operating system shows some drastic changes.

At the heart of the new interface is a new start screen that draws heavily on the tile-based interface that Microsoft has used with Windows Phone 7. All of a user’s programs can be viewed as tiles and clicked on with a touch of a finger.

The shown Windows 8 screenshot carries over the tile-based appearance of the Windows Mobile phone, but the new operating system is said to support two types of applications. One is the classic Windows application which will run in the familiar desktop interface, while the second type are HTML5/Javascript applications that look more like a full screen mobile application.

Windows 8 is said to have been influenced by the iPad and is meant to scale from touch screen devices to desktop. The prominent "Store" link seems to suggest that Microsoft will be offering a Windows App Store, much like Apple's Mac App Store. Microsoft promises that while the interface is optimized for touch, it should also work equally well with a mouse and keyboard.

Microsoft details many of the changes they demoed:

• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

Microsoft has not yet announced a timeframe for Windows 8's launch.

Apple, of course, is also reintegrating iOS mobile inspired changes into their next major operating system. Mac OS X Lion has been billed as taking "our best thinking from iPad" and bringing it all to the Mac. These features include full screen apps, the Mac App Store, and more. Apple will be presenting more on Mac OS X Lion at next week's WWDC.

Twitter today announced the debut of two new features: photo integration and improved search capabilities.

On the photo front, Twitter has partnered with Photobucket to allow users to attach photos directly to their Tweets rather than having to rely on third-party image-hosting services. The capabilities will be rolling out over the next several weeks to twitter.com and the company's official apps, and the company is working with mobile carriers to allow photos to be sent via MMS.

Over the next several weeks, we'll be releasing a feature to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet right from Twitter.com. And of course, you'll soon be able to easily do this from all of our official mobile apps. A special thanks to our partner Photobucket for hosting these photos behind the scenes.

Twitter's improved search capabilities will bring increased relevance for results and also include related photos and videos directly on the results page. Twitter has also partnered with Firefox to integrate hashtag and username searching directly into the browser's address bar.

Twitter's new features are interesting given rumors that iOS 5 will include substantial integration with Twitter, specifically including the new photo sharing service. While Twitter obviously has made no announcements regarding such capabilities, we may hear more in just a few days as Apple previews iOS 5 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

As we noted yesterday, Apple released Security Update 2011-003 for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a system update addressing the "Mac Defender" malware threat that has been running in the wild under several different variants for the past month. The update provides tools for automatically removing the malware, as well as protection against future infections. But as reported by ZDNet, a new variant of the malware capable of circumventing Apple's update has already appeared. popping up within hours of Apple's software release.

Hours after Apple released this update and the initial set of definitions, a new variation of Mac Defender is in the wild. This one has a new name, Mdinstall.pkg, and it has been specifically formulated to skate past Apple's malware-blocking code.

The file has a date and time stamp from last night at 9:24PM Pacific time. That's less than 8 hours after Apple’s security update was released.

Apple has prepared for this eventuality by including automatic daily updates of malware definitions with the software update, enabling it to quickly deploy protection as new variants and entirely different pieces of malware surface. Consequently, Apple should be able to respond to the new threat relatively quickly, although the speed with which the new variant appeared suggests that those responsible for the malware will not be going away easily.

Unsurprisingly, Patently Apple notes that Apple has filed for a trademark on the term "iCloud" in Europe, staking out its territory as it prepares to introduce its new cloud-based service next Monday at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

Apple has filed their trademark under 12 distinct International Classes covering such matters as delivering digital music by telecommunications, electronic storage, online social networking services, multimedia content for a fee or pre-paid subscription, computer software, electronic books and magazines, entertainment, photographic services, business management and advertising services, games, headgear and digital devices/computers.

In its application, Apple cites an application filed in Jamaica on December 7, 2010 for its priority date of registration.

iCloud trademarks are currently registered in the United States and Europe to Xcerion, the company behind the earlier iCloud service that recently rebranded itself as CloudMe after Apple reportedly purchased the domain and perhaps other rights to the iCloud name.

A new trademark application for iCloud also appeared in the United States last month, but the application appears to be unconnected to Apple itself and instead having been registered by Dane Baker of iOS development firm Villain, perhaps either as an attempt at squatting on the term given rumors of Apple's plans for a service by that name or simply to try to elicit a response from Apple confirming its interest in the name.

AppleInsider reports that it has received information from a source claiming that Apple will offer at least a basic tier of iCloud services free of charge to Mac OS X Lion users, although it remains unclear exactly what would be included in that package.

People familiar with Apple's plans indicated to AppleInsider that at least one of those secrets is expected to be that at least some of the services included in iCloud will be offered for free to Mac users who make the upgrade to Lion. iCloud is expected to replace the company's existing MobileMe service, which offers e-mail and remote file storage, along with syncing of bookmarks, contacts and calendar events, at a price tag of $99 per year.

That price tag may remain for users who do not make the upgrade to Lion, or for Windows users. But it is expected that the cloud services will become free to Mac users who run the latest version of Mac OS X.

One thing the free tier is not expected to offer, however, is music streaming. Apple has been negotiating licensing deals with major music labels and publishers to support that functionality, and those deals come at significant cost that Apple will almost certainly be passing along to users, although the company may offer a free introductory trial period in order to help bring users on board.

A separate, "unproven" source has also indicated that Apple may be planning to offer a relatively low price point for Mac OS X Lion, enticing users to upgrade to the new operating system. That low price could be specifically tied to Mac App Store distribution, offering users an incentive to embrace the company's new iOS-like distribution platform for Mac OS X.

Apple has historically offered new Mac OS X versions priced at $129 for single installations, although Mac OS X Snow Leopard has been priced at only $29 since its 2009 debut due to its relative focus on under-the-hood changes that may have led some users looking for more substantial visual changes to refrain from upgrading at a higher price point. It is unclear whether an "aggressive" price point for Mac OS X Lion as claimed by the source would match the $29 price point of Mac OS X Snow Leopard or if it would simply be below the usual $129 price point for major operating system releases.

Update: 9 to 5 Mac also reports that Apple may be planning to offer special educational pricing for iCloud services.

A source with some success in the past has passed along that iCloud will have educational-tiered pricing, perhaps being free for students and teachers to a certain level or with the purchase of Apple products.

Apple has been said to be announcing its annual back-to-school promotion offering free and discounted iPods (and perhaps discounted iPads) to educational customers purchasing new Macs at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week. The association of WWDC with the back-to-school promotion would be unusual, but would make more sense if it was somehow tied into educational customer pricing for iCloud.

As noted by Fortune, Apple's new data center outside of Maiden, North Carolina is now visible on satellite imagery in Google Maps and Google Earth, lifting some of the veil of secrecy that has surrounded the project.

We knew what it looked like, thanks to the local Fox TV affiliate, a trespassing photographer and a local real estate agent who conducted a couple of video flybys that ended up on YouTube.

But if you asked Google Earth or Google Maps to show you the intersection of U.S. Route 321 and Startown Road -- where the data center is located -- the current satellite imagery stopped a few yards short of the construction site. West of Startown Road, there was, as recently as two weeks ago, nothing but woods and farmland and a bit of driveway that ended abruptly in the middle of a field.

We do know that the new imagery showing the data center was live at least a few days before Apple's announcement regarding an iCloud introduction, however, as we saw it over the weekend but did not make note of it as we had not determined if it was a recent development.

Speculation has suggested that Apple may have specifically been working with Google to keep imagery of the new facility off of Google Maps, but that is far from certain as Google's satellite images are updated only periodically, especially in rural areas such as this. Fueling the speculation was the fact the the facility had been located right on the boundary between satellite image data sets that showed a brief hint of the area under construction along its western edge while the remainder of site was covered by older imagery showing only fields and trees.

The new imagery shows cleared land directly to the southeast of the facility where Apple has proposed long-term plans to double the size of the center. Also shown at the upper right at the corner of Startown Road and Elbow Road is a new Town of Maiden fire station under construction, a facility that Apple required as part of its decision to locate the data center there as the town's main fire station in the center of town a few miles away was deemed too far away for Apple's liking. The fire station is being built on a small plot of land that formerly contained a modest home that Apple purchased for $1.7 million last year.

Digitimes reports that Apple has begun certifying components for the iPad 3 with many Taiwan-based manufacturers actively participating.

Taiwan-based component makers for backlight modules and light bars have received certification from Apple, however, the certification of panels is still in progress, added industry sources.

While there has been talk about Apple considering the use of OLED panels for the next iPad, Digitimes' sources believe that this is unlikely with the iPad 3 and that the next generation iPad will use 9.7" LCD panels.

The timing of the launch for the iPad 3 is in 2012 according to the component makers.

During Eric Schmidt's interview at AllThingsD 9, he revealed that Google had just renewed their Map and Search agreements with Apple. Quote per Engadget:

"We just renewed our Map and Search agreements with Apple, and we hope those continue for a long time."

This confirms rumors that Apple would be continuing to use Google Map data in iOS 5. There had been a number of Apple acquisitions and hirings that have suggested that Apple is actively working in this area. The news also suggests that Google's search remains the default choice rather than Microsoft's Bing which was said to be under consideration at one point.

TechCrunch reports that Apple will be integrating Twitter photo sharing directly into iOS 5:

We've heard from multiple sources that Twitter is likely to have a big-time partner for such a service: Apple. Specifically, we're hearing that Apple's new iOS 5 will come with an option to share images to Twitter baked into the OS. This would be similar to the way you can currently share videos on YouTube with one click in iOS. Obviously, a user would have to enable this feature by logging in with their Twitter credentials in iOS. There would then be a "Send to Twitter" option for pictures stored on your device.

Twitter is said to be offering their own photo-sharing service in the near future. Apple will be detailing iOS 5 during WWDC next week.

DaringFireball's John Gruber adds some comments suggesting that Twitter integration is indeed in iOS 5 and that there is more to it than just photo integration:

So close to the bigger story, but yet so far. Imagine what else the system could provide if your Twitter account was a system-level service.

Patent holding firm Lodsys today published a series of blog posts revealing that the company has filed suit against some App Store developers, accelerating its efforts to extract licensing fees from developers for using in app purchases and upgrade links in their App Store applications. Lodsys had given developers 21 days to negotiate a license before filing suit, but the firm appears to have initiated lawsuits early in order to thwart Apple's efforts to back the developers.

Q: Why did Lodsys sue some App Developers on May 31, 2011?

Lodsys chose to move its litigation timing to an earlier date than originally planned, in response to Apple's threat, in order to preserve its legal options.

Lodsys has also disputed Apple's assertion that developers are "undeniably licensed" for the technology by virtue of an existing licensing arrangement between Apple and Lodsys.

[Apple's] letter was very surprising as Apple and Lodsys were in confidential discussions and there was clearly disagreement on the interpretation of the license terms of Apple's agreement. Before, during and after these interactions, Lodsys has carefully considered this issue and consulted several legal experts to consider Apple's claims. We stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party Developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys' patents and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications. Developers relying on Apple's letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple's own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple's responsibilities to them.

Simultaneous to the blog posting, Lodsys says that is has sent a detailed legal response to Apple, which it has invited the company to publish in its entirety.

Finally, Lodsys has announced that it will reimburse any developer improperly targeted by an infringement notice $1,000 for their troubles, suggesting that the firm is confident in its standing and convinced that it will prevail.

While it is true that Apple and Lodsys have an obvious dispute about the scope of Apple's license to the Lodsys Patents, we are willing to put our money where our mouth is and pay you something if we are wrong. Therefore, Lodsys offers to pay $1,000 to each entity to whom we have sent an infringement notice for infringement on the iOS platform, or that we send a notice to in the future, if it turns out that the scope of Apple's existing license rights apply to fully license you with respect to our claim relating to your App on Apple iOS.

Update: FOSS Patents reveals that Lodsys filed suit against 7 developers.: Combay, Iconfactory, Illusion Labs, Machael G. Karr, Quickoffice, Richard Shinderman, and Wulven Games.