MacRumors

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.

The wide-ranging intellectual property battle between Apple and Samsung has continued in recent days, with one of the more notable events taking place in Germany, where Apple won a new preliminary injunction against Samsung requiring the company to remove its new Galaxy Tab 7.7 from the expo floor at the IFA show in Berlin as part of a broader ban against sale and promotion of the device.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's second-biggest handset maker, unveiled the Galaxy Tab 7.7 for the first time at the annual trade fair, known as the IFA, which kicked off on Friday for a six-day run in Berlin.

But Samsung pulled the tablet computer out of the show after a Dusseldorf court accepted on Friday Apple's request to ban sales and marketing of the product in Germany, the company said.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is being pressured to reveal specific iPad sales numbers in the United States and United Kingdom as part of its case against Samsung in Australia. The judge in that case is requesting that sales data from markets where Samsung has launched its Galaxy Tab products in order to ascertain whether Apple's sales have been hampered by the Galaxy Tab's introduction.

Apple’s claim that the Samsung tablet’s release in Australia will hurt iPad sales may carry little weight if it doesn’t provide the numbers, Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett said in Sydney Federal Court today.

“Unless Apple puts on evidence showing the impact in the U.S. or U.K., I can’t draw any positive assumptions,” Bennett said.

Despite a request by Samsung, Bennett is not requiring Apple to disclose such figures, but failure to do so would seem to substantially harm Apple's case.

Specific disclosure of iPad and iPad 2 sales in the United States and United Kingdom would be an interesting look into Apple's performance, as the company typically provides little detail on its iOS device sales, only reporting the total number of units sold each quarter on a worldwide basis. Such numbers are considered key competitive information, so much so that Samsung has decided to stop reporting mobile phone sales entirely.

About six weeks ago, it was revealed that Apple had passed Nokia and held off Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone vendor as measured by shipments during the second quarter of 2011, even if Nokia reportedly held off Apple in sales to end users.

Digitimes Research now reports that it is projecting Apple to take the top spot among global smartphone vendors for the entire calendar year of 2011, leading the way with nearly 19% of the market at 86.4 million units. Apple is projected to easily top Nokia, whose shipments appear set to drop 25% to under 75 million.

Apple is expected to overtake Nokia as the top ranking vendor in terms of shipment volume in 2011, while Huawei Technologies will enjoy robust growth in shipments enabling the China-based company to close its gap with Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

Apple's smartphone shipments are projected to top 86.4 million units in 2011, up 82% from 47.5 million units in 2010. In contrast, Nokia's smartphone shipments in 2011 will decline to 74.4 million units from over 100 million in 2010, said Luke Lin, analyst for Digitimes Research.

Samsung's strong growth on the popularity of several of its Android-based handsets should see it leap over both HTC and Research in Motion, but will not yet be enough to catch either Nokia or Apple in full-year shipments.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has received certification to sell the 3G iPad 2 in mainland China. Up until now, Apple has only been allowed to sell the Wi-Fi models of the iPad 2 in China.

According to China's Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center, a device by Apple with third-generation high-speed wireless data capabilities was issued the network access license needed for the company to begin official sales in China. The device, listed under model number "A1396," is compatible with the 3G standard WCDMA, and would work with the cellular network operated by Apple's local iPhone partner, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Model number A1396 is Apple's model number for the 3G iPad 2 that was released in the U.S. in March.

Separately, Penn Olson reported that Apple's official China site had listed 3G iPad 2s for sale for the first time yesterday (now removed). Shipping was listed as within 2 or 3 weeks. The site explains that Apple's 3G products are always slower to enter the Chinese market.

In related news, Apple officially confirmed that Apple's first Hong Kong retail store would be opening this quarter in the International Finance Center's IFC mall. Photos of the beginnings of the store have been sent in to us and other sites. Engadget China reports the store will open on September 24th.

Apple's rapid expansion in its Greater China market of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan has been well documented with 6x year over year growth reported in July. At the time, now Apple CEO Tim Cook said they believe that Greater China is "a substantial opportunity for Apple and we're just scratching the surface."

Thanks Rickin