MacRumors

Back in July, Dutch site AppleSpot.nl revived long-standing hopes and rumors regarding an iPod touch with 3G capabilities, claiming that Apple is planning to introduce the device this month alongside a new iPhone.

AppleNApps is now adding its voice to the rumors with its own claims that a 3G-capable iPod touch is indeed in development, and while Apple is reportedly planning for a launch this September, the report does note that there are "no guarantees" and that Apple's plans are of course subject to change.

After talking with multiple people over the past few weeks, we had a lengthy chat with one person who gave us great news about the next iPod Touch. We’ve used this person in the past, but they did qualify their remarks, saying that the iPod Touch changes should make it, but there’s no guarantee the changes will be ready for fall. The 3G iPod Touch idea intrigued us so much back in July, and we’ve been trying to find one of our contacts who can give some credence to the idea. A few have declined to comment, while others honestly have no idea, but the source for this report says that Apple is indeed working on a 3G iPod Touch. Apple is intent on announcing the device during their September event which they usually save for their iPod line, but will include the iPhone as well this year.

According to the report, Apple has already worked with wireless carriers to line up data-only service plans similar to those used for the iPad. Voice plans would not be available, although many users would certainly be interested in using any of the numerous VoIP services to add calling functionality to their devices.

Apple's new iCloud service has naturally increased chatter about a possible 3G-capable iPod touch, with speculation suggesting that Apple would like to provide as many of its iOS devices as possible with "always-on" data connectivity while on the go. Concrete evidence for a such a device has yet to appear, however, with many recent rumors for the next-generation iPod touch pegging it as a minor refresh of the existing model, perhaps with the addition of white as a color option.

Potential evidence of Apple considering the forthcoming iPod touch refresh to be a minor one surfaced back in June with the discovery of a new "iPod4,2" model mentioned in property list files in early iOS 5 builds. Its designation as a minor "4,2" evolution of the existing iPod4,1 rather than being a full "iPod5,1" update suggested that the forthcoming iPod touch could be fairly similar to the fourth-generation iPod touch currently available from Apple.

AppleNApps has yet to establish a significant track record of Apple-related rumors, and so we continue to express a fair amount of skepticism about the general claims of a 3G iPod touch until more evidence surfaces.

Pocketnow.com reports that it has discovered a new photo that may have been taken by an iPhone 5. According to the report, EXIF data indicates that the photo was taken by an iPhone 4, but the original image checked in at nearly 8 megapixels prior to cropping, higher than the iPhone 4's 5-megapixel resolution and in line with rumors for the iPhone 5.

This (very attractive) photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235x2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264x2448 -- or just shy of eight megapixels. What's more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4's actual 3.85mm f/2.8.

Further fueling the rumor is the purported backstory on the image, which includes claims that the picture was taken by an Apple engineer eating lunch at work.

Claimed part leaks from the "iPhone 5" revealed a rear camera essentially identical to that from the iPhone 4, but these leaks appear to be from Apple's "N94" iPhone that seems to be the so-called "iPhone 4S" based on the iPhone 4 rather than a redesigned iPhone 5.

Update: The original image was posted on Flickr (now pulled) by an Apple software engineer working on Safari and WebKit for iOS.

Intuit today announced the forthcoming debut of QuickBooks for Mac 2012, the latest version of the company's financial management software for small businesses. The new OS X Lion-optimized version is set to ship on September 26th and will offer over 50 new features and enhancements.

"As more and more small businesses adopt Macs, we see increased adoption of QuickBooks for Mac," said Dan Wernikoff, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's Financial Management Solutions division. "In response, we've recommitted ourselves to making the product even better. With Apple's new Lion OS, we focused on a simple, elegant and easy to use native experience, while continuing to add new features that save small businesses time."

Among the enhancements included in QuickBooks for Mac 2012:

- Faster access to information enabled by improved search tools, customer and vendor history panels and transactions lists
- Simplifications for multi-step tasks, including batch processing for online banking transactions and new invoicing options

QuickBooks for Mac 2012 will be available through Intuit beginning September 26th and a number of other third-party retailers, including Apple's online and retail stores, as of October 9th. Pricing is set at $229.95 for a single user, with 2-user pricing coming in at $439.95 and 3-user pricing at $599.95. Additional licenses are available for $209.95 each.

Adobe today announced that its Digital Publishing Suite will incorporate support for Apple's forthcoming Newsstand feature for iOS 5. Newsstand is intended to serve as the organization hub for digital subscriptions in iOS 5, offering users easy access to the latest content downloaded in the background.

Adobe's software will allow publishers to create digital editions of their magazine and newspaper applications that automatically deliver content to the Newsstand application on iOS devices. The compatibility will launch "soon after" Apple debuts iOS 5, which is expected sometime this fall.

Publishers will be able to use Digital Publishing Suite to create files that are detected by Newsstand and automatically downloaded to the Newsstand shelf, eliminating long download times which can present a barrier to reading content on iPad devices. Applications built with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and enabled for Newsstand will allow publishers to better merchandise their content with support for Newsstand push notifications and icon covers displayed on the Newsstand shelf, reflecting the latest issue of the magazine or newspaper.

A number of publishers including Condé Nast and Reader's Digest have utilized Adobe's publishing tools to bring their content to the iPad, making Newsstand compatibility for Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite an important step toward making Newsstand the one-stop place for users to manage their digital subscription content on their iOS devices.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple has seeded certain mobile carriers with a "near-final" build of iOS 5. Most notably, these builds are different from the developer seeds we have seen so far, with the enabling of Nuance's Speech to Text as a system-wide service:

According to a source testing the feature, it works almost identically (video above) to the Android operating system’s speech-to-text feature. It’s also very polished, quick, and accurate said the source – which is obvious for being an Apple product but also is indicative of the product being nearly complete.

We'd previously reported on the microphone button that appears next to the spacebar hidden in the depths of iOS 5. This presumably allows users to dictate rather than type. Android has a similar system already implemented, as seen in the video above.

Reports of Apple's ongoing negotiations with Nuance date as far back as May, with some claiming it was still coming in iOS 5. iOS 5 is due for public release "this fall".

If all true, Apple must be planning on launching their Nuance dictation system alongside the public release of iOS 5. Apple is widely expected to hold a media event sometime this month.

MacRumors has learned that Apple is beginning to ship the new 27" Thunderbolt Display to stores and resellers this week. This means that customers should be able to see and buy the devices very soon. We haven't yet heard any news about early customer orders shipping, but expect those to follow closely.

The new 27" Display adds Thunderbolt compatibility, allowing the displays to act as a docking station using a single Thunderbolt cable. The new display includes a built-in FaceTime HD camera, 2.1 speaker system, three USB ports, one Firewire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a second Thunderbolt port to enable daisy chaining.

The new display also allows the ability to run two displays off of a single Thunderbolt port on Macs offering enough graphics horsepower to support the pixel load.

Apple introduced the new display back in July. It is presently available for pre-order for $999.

Taiwan Economic News reports (via BGR) that Apple has contracted with suppliers Simplo and Dynapack for a thinner and lighter battery for the iPad 3, either opening the door for a thinner design or making room for a potentially thicker high-resolution Retina display.

According to the report, the new batteries will cost Apple 20-30% more than the current iPad batteries and are said to offer a greater service life and increased safety.

With the upcoming iPad 3 to feature a thinner, lighter battery module that is widely believed to be priced 20-30% higher than iPad 2’s, Simplo Technology Co. and Dynapack International Technology Corp., both Apple Inc.’s contract suppliers of iPad and Macbook battery packs, will hence secure a surefire profit drive for the near future.

Institutional investors pointed out that the battery pack for iPad 3, scheduled to be massively produced in the first quarter of next year, has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter with a longer service life than iPad 2 edition’s.

Initial deliveries of the new batteries are said to be set for the fourth quarter of this year, with mass production beginning in the first quarter of next year.

A number of rumors had suggested that Apple might be trying to release the iPad 3 before the end of this year, but recent reports have claimed that Apple and its partners are continuing to refine the Retina display rumored for inclusion in the device, pushing the iPad 3's launch to early next year.

Less than a week after the U.S. government moved to block the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, Sprint today announced that it too has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the merger on antitrust grounds.

The lawsuit names AT&T, AT&T Mobility, Deutsche Telekom, and T-Mobile, and has been filed as a related case to the U.S. government's own complaint filed last week.

“Sprint opposes AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile,” said Susan Z. Haller, vice president-Litigation, Sprint. “With today’s legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal.”

Sprint’s lawsuit focuses on the competitive and consumer harms which would result from a takeover of T-Mobile by AT&T. The proposed takeover would:

- Harm retail consumers and corporate customers by causing higher prices and less innovation.

- Entrench the duopoly control of AT&T and Verizon, the two "Ma Bell" descendants, of the almost one-quarter of a trillion dollar wireless market. As a result of the transaction, AT&T and Verizon would control more than three-quarters of that market and 90 percent of the profits.

- Harm Sprint and the other independent wireless carriers. If the transaction were to be allowed, a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have the ability to use its control over backhaul, roaming and spectrum, and its increased market position to exclude competitors, raise their costs, restrict their access to handsets, damage their businesses and ultimately to lessen competition.

AT&T has touted the proposed merger as a way to provide 4G LTE service to a greater number of customers than possible under current arrangements, utilizing T-Mobile's wireless spectrum to help deploy the new technology. The company has also argued that the merger would result in lower prices and better service while also committing to bring thousands of call center jobs back to the United States and divesting of any portions of T-Mobile USA required in order to satisfy concerns over the deal.

Apple's redesigned MacBook Air has proven popular with consumers, with the company reportedly pushing out up to 500,000 units per month to satisfy demand. The product's success has drawn the interest of Intel and Windows PC manufacturers, who are beginning to roll out their own "Ultrabook" models to compete with the MacBook Air. But a new report from Digitimes claims that those manufacturers are merely testing the waters, limiting initial shipments to a combined 50,000 units.

First-tier notebook brand vendors Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asustek Computer, understanding that demand for notebooks is unlikely to recover in the fourth quarter, while Apple's products are taking up all the glory in the market, will limit their initial Ultrabook shipment volume to below 50,000 units for testing the water, according to sources from notebook makers.

Intel has been pushing the Ultrabook concept as the future of notebook computers, but manufacturers have been having difficulties bringing costs to the point where they can compete with the MacBook Air. Intel has been pushing for Ultrabook pricing to begin at under $1000, and while some models may reach that goal, manufacturers and Intel have been at odds over how to cut costs to reach that target.