MacRumors

Apple released a new iPad television advertisement tonight called "We'll Always" which shows off the iPad in many different uses.

We'll never stop sharing our memories. Or getting lost in a good book. We'll always cook dinner and cheer for our favorite team. We'll still go to meetings, make home movies, and learn new things. But how we do all this will never be the same.

As with previous iPad ads, Apple is focusing on the user experience by demonstrating various iPad apps.

Apple sneaks a plug for OS X Lion in the ad as well:

The apps shown in the ad include: Photos (built in), iBooks, The Photo Cookbook, MLB, Fuze HD, iMovie, Alphabet Fun

Apple seeded developers with OS X 10.7.2 alongside a new iCloud for Lion Beta 5. The 10.7.2 seed appears to only contain changes to support iCloud Beta 5 as Apple has not yet made any mention of 10.7.1. OS X Lion was just released last week, and we expect that 10.7.1 will be delivered shortly as an initial bug fix to customers.

Apple's iCloud service was announced at WWDC and will be launched this fall alongside iOS 5.

Apple appears to be increasing staffing in U.S. Retail Apple Stores too this fall. Previous reports had shown Apple Retail staff recruitment from August through October in the U.K.

We've now learned that at least some U.S. Apple Retail stores are also recruiting former employees to return as part time employees for Holidays, new Product Launches and Back to School time. A former employee received emails asking to return between August 15 and September 15th.

The simplest explanation for the increased staffing is to handle the back to school influx as U.S. students begin the fall semester. As with the U.K. retail staffing recruitment, however, the dates also correspond to Apple's expected iPhone 5 launch. Apple's widely expected to launch the iPhone 5 this Fall alongside iOS 5.

Apple will have an extensive voice recognition service in a future version of iOS called 'Assistant', according to a report on 9to5Mac.

It has been rumored that Apple was planning to include voice-related features from its acquisition of personal assistant company Siri, and a partnership with speech-to-text specialists Nuance. Apple, however, didn't mention any such features when it first demonstrated iOS 5 at WWDC in June.

This new "Assistant" feature in iOS 5 is claimed to take voice input along with other user-specific information, such as location and contacts, to provide a powerful service to the user:

We can imagine a user asking their iPhone “Assistant” to setup a movie with one of their friends. The user might say “setup movie with Mark” and based on Mark’s contact info and the user’s location data, will be able to offer tickets to a local theater and send Mark the information.

9to5Mac notes that development of the feature is ongoing and may not be finished in-time for iOS 5, but did find mention of 'Assistant' in buried in the iOS SDK.

"ASSISTANT_ENABLE_WARNING" = "Assistant uses your voice input and other information like your contact names, song names, and location to understand your requests. This data will be sent to Apple to process your request and to improve Apple products and services."

The feature sounds just like what Siri had been working on prior to its acquisition. Their iOS app Siri Assistant remains available on the App Store for download. Siri focused on a concept called "Virtual Personal Assistants" (VPAs) that would accomplish tasks for the user.

Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) represent the next generation interaction paradigm for the Internet. In today's paradigm, we follow links on search results. With a VPA, we interact by having a conversation. We tell the assistant what we want to do, and it applies multiple services and information sources to help accomplish our task. Like a real assistant, a VPA is personal; it uses information about an individual's preferences and interaction history to help solve specific tasks, and it gets better with experience.

Siri's implementation used Nuance's voice recognition engine to translate spoken requests to text which would then be processed. Apple has been rumored to be working closely with Nuance to provide the same transcription service to iOS users.

The Register reports on some of the new security improvements in OS X Lion, with researchers calling the changes a "major overhaul" that goes far beyond the minor security tweaks Apple made going from Mac OS X Leopard to Snow Leopard.

"It's a significant improvement, and the best way that I've described the level of security in Lion is that it's Windows 7, plus, plus," said Dino Dai Zovi, principal of security consultancy Trail of Bits and the coauthor of The Mac Hacker's Handbook. "I generally tell Mac users that if they care about security, they should upgrade to Lion sooner rather than later, and the same goes for Windows users, too."

In particular, the report points to such features as full support for address space layout randomization (ASLR), application sandboxing, and a revamped FileVault encryption system as being key to Lion's improved security.

"When they went from Leopard to Snow Leopard, as far as I'm concerned, there really wasn't any change," said Charlie Miller, principal research consultant at security firm Accuvant and the other coauthor of The Mac Hacker's Handbook. "They might have said there was more security and it was better, but at a low functionality level there really wasn't any difference. Now, they've made significant changes and it's going to be harder to exploit."

Miller isn't only interested in operating system and core application vulnerabilities, however, as evidenced by his recent discovery of a vulnerability in the chips that control the batteries in Apple's notebooks. That vulnerability could be exploited on a basic level to harm battery function or with additional effort to implant malware that could reinfect computers multiple times.

The batteries' chips are shipped with default passwords, such that anyone who discovers that password and learns to control the chips' firmware can potentially hijack them to do anything the hacker wants. That includes permanently ruining batteries at will, and may enable nastier tricks like implanting them with hidden malware that infects the computer no matter how many times software is reinstalled or even potentially causing the batteries to heat up, catch fire or explode. "These batteries just aren't designed with the idea that people will mess with them," Miller says. "What I'm showing is that it's possible to use them to do something really bad."

Miller plans to officially announce his discoveries at next month's Black Hat conference, and he will also be releasing a new "Caulkgun" tool to allow Mac notebook users to change their batteries' default passwords to randomized strings. That move would help keep hackers out of the batteries, but also prevent Apple from issuing its own upgrades and fixes for the battery firmware. Miller has also been in touch with Apple and Texas Instruments regarding the vulnerability.

InsanelyGreatMac posts the above video showing the new iOS 5 Beta 4 over the air (OTA) updating in action. As we noted the OTA update also saves bandwidth as it only sends changes rather than the entire OS image.

• @MuscleNerd reports that OTA update won't work on Jailbroken devices.

• We reported that iPhones must have 50% charge or be plugged into a power source to download the OTA update, but @johnheimkes reports this requirement is not enforced on the iPad which allowed the update to occur with only 12% charge.

• Settings app displays a badge when an over the air update is available.

• Apple has added a "Documents and Data" toggle for iCloud which allows you to turn on/off the ability for apps to save data and documents to the iCloud. There is also a way to chose whether these updates occur over 3G or only over Wi-Fi. This allows Apps to save their own data and user data to the iCloud so that it is available across devices, and backed up into the cloud.
• The OTA update downloads over Wi-Fi or 3G connections.

Apple has begun sending emails about a new hard drive recall, called the iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program:

Apple has determined that a very small number of Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems, may fail under certain conditions. These systems were sold between May 2011 and July 2011.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) will replace affected hard drives free of charge.

Apple is contacting affected iMac owners who provided a valid email address during the product registration process to let them know about this program. If you have not been contacted, but think you have a 1TB Seagate hard drive, you can enter your serial number below to see if it's part of this program.

Apple encourages owners with affected computers to go to an Apple Retail Store, an Apple Authorized Service Provider or contact 800-APL-CARE.

The recall will continue for one year: "Apple will replace affected Seagate hard drives, free of charge, until July 23rd, 2012. Apple will continue to evaluate service data and will provide further extensions to this program as needed."

iOS 5 Beta 4 is the first software update to be downloadable using Apple's new over-the-air updating system. As noted by @iam_lost, "iOS 5 beta 4 over-the-air update is a mere 133 MB, compared to the chunky 824 MB .ipsw file."

The over-the-air software update only downloads code that has changed or been updated in the update, thus making for a much smaller download. In this case, 691 MB smaller.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta version of iOS 5 to developers, continuing progress on the next-generation mobile operating system for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch set for public release in the fall alongside iCloud. The new version is listed as Build 9A5274d.

We've yet to hear word of specific changes in the release, although it does appear that Apple has also issued it as an over-the-air update for those running iOS 5 Beta 3, although users are reporting errors when trying to access it via that method. We'll provide updates as more information surfaces.

Update: Over-the-air updating seems to be working now, and saves nearly 700MB of downloading vs. the full size download.

Update: BGR has the full change log.

Update: Several readers pointed out that to perform an over-the-air software upgrade, the iOS device must have at least 50% battery life left, or be plugged into the wall charger or a computer.

Incoming Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, speaking on CNBC today, noted that revenue growth in the past quarter had been impacted because the next iPhone hasn't been released yet.

We had assumed that we would see an iPhone early in the summertime as it's been usually, and that's going to be a little bit later in the year now.

In a conference call with analysts today, McAdam suggested analysts check with Apple on when the next iPhone will come out -- but expected it this fall:

We are probably what I would view as maybe a quarter behind what we had talked about in January, primarily because we expected an iPhone 5 refresh sometime this summer.

We don't know when the next one is going to come out. You will have to ask Apple that, but we expect that probably sometime in the fall, and I think you will see a significant jump there when we get to that point.

Later in the CNBC interview, McAdam discusses Verizon's switch to tiered data plans for smartphones, noting that streaming video is the main reason they dropped unlimited data plans:

We just converted over to tiered pricing, data tiered pricing, because we see a huge wave of video coming. That's going to take a lot more capacity in the individual networks, and so I think for a lot of customers that won't be an issue from a revenue perspective. But, for the heavy users, we do see the revenue go up significantly.

Lowell McAdam is the current COO of Verizon and will be replacing current CEO Ivan Seidenberg.

Last month, T-Mobile USA revealed that it had over one million iPhones running on its network, despite not being officially sanctioned by Apple and the handsets not being able to take advantage of 3G data speeds due to differences in the carrier's network standard compared to other GSM networks. T-Mobile customers had also needed to trim down their T-Mobile SIM cards to fit into the iPhone's micro-SIM slot, as the carrier had not yet begun offering the smaller cards.

As noted by App Advice late yesterday, T-Mobile USA has now rolled out micro-SIMs and has specifically targeted iPhone owners on its page promoting the new cards.

Already have a GSM phone or iPhone that you need to activate—or have an unlocked GSM phone you want to use on the T-Mobile network? Just get a Micro SIM card and choose a plan. Slip the ready-to-use Micro SIM Card into your phone and you’re ready to go.

T-Mobile is offering the new micro-SIM free of charge with a two-year contract when purchased via the carrier's website.

T-Mobile USA has been rumored for some time to be preparing to offer the iPhone, although AT&T is currently in the process of trying to acquire the carrier. That potential acquisition has received some opposition, however, and regulatory authorities are still examining the proposed deal. But even with an acquisition, AT&T has said that T-Mobile and AT&T will operate somewhat independently for several years as the combined carrier works to integrate its systems, meaning that an iPhone specific to T-Mobile is likely still of interest.

Just like the MacBook Air yesterday, iFixit has also conducted a teardown of the new Mac mini. While the internals are very similar to the previous generation, the teardown does reveal that users may be able to install a second hard drive on their own if a proper cable can be found.

The possibility of adding a second hard drive is made possible by Apple's removal of the optical drive from all models of the Mac mini, leaving enough space for a traditional hard drive or solid-state drive to be installed. From iFixit's blog post on the teardown:

Apple has done away with the optical drive and replaced it with some good old-fashioned emptiness. We found that hole (as well as the empty extra SATA connection on the logic board) to be perfect for adding a secondary hard drive — essentially bypassing the $400 premium over the “server” model. The only snag in this master plan is being able to find another hard drive cable to hook it up to the logic board, something we’ll work on sourcing.

Apple of course already offers the option of two hard drives on the server model of the Mac mini, although that model also brings other upgrades including a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor that push the price to $999, a $400 premium over the entry-level model.

With the Mac mini being relatively easy to open up and service, users looking to add a second hard drive to their Mac mini without going all in on the server model may in fact be able to do so, provided that an appropriate hard drive cable can be found for purchase.

Like the new MacBook Air, the revised Mac mini also includes a new Bluetooth 4.0 chip and Thunderbolt capabilities, as well as some other minor updates to components