MacRumors

In a brief tidbit posted today, DigiTimes claims that Apple manufacturing partner Quanta is scheduled to ship 400,000-500,000 "MacBooks" carrying an 11.6-inch screen size before the end of this year, suggesting that a release may be near.

Meanwhile, Quanta has reportedly landed orders for 11.6-inch MacBooks from Apple. Shipments of 11.6-inch MacBooks are expected to top 400,000-500,000 units in 2010.

It is unclear, however, whether the story is referring to the actual MacBook product, as the site had previously claimed that Apple was preparing to launch an 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Apple's MacBook is not necessarily considered due for an update, having just received a spec bump in May. A MacBook Air refresh, however, is long overdue, having last seen a change in June 2009.

Apple has established a pattern of updating its notebook models in the October-November timeframe, with the MacBook specifically seeing refreshed models debut in November 2006, November 2007, October 2008, and October 2009. Consequently, it seems reasonable that we may see at least some new notebook models make an appearance before the end of the year, and while we have claims that there will be at least one model in a smaller 11.6-inch size, uncertainty remains over which product line will gain the new form factor.

The 27" Apple Cinema Display is now available at Apple Stores and being delivered to customers. A few early impressions and photos are being posted to our forums. One user bluesteel compared it to the now discontinued 30" Apple Cinema display:

i liked the aspect ratio of the 30". it seems like it was a lot bigger, well at least a little wider and a lot taller. but with the 27 my neck doesn't hurt from having to tilt it up when using the 30". i also liked the matte display of the 30" so much better than this 27's glossy look. there is a little glare, especially from the shiny black bezel, sort of distracting actually. other than that, i like the 27's cable setup. its a lot less clutter...i'm glad the 30's power brick is gone.

Another user Cynicalone posted a comparison photo between it and the 24" Apple Display:

More impressions are rolling into our forums.

Bloomberg reported today that social networking site Facebook is planning on entering the mobile phone market as early as 2011.

The devices, which will feature Facebook social-networking services, are due to be introduced in Europe in the first half of 2011 and the U.S. in the second half, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans havent been made public.

Facebook is said to be working with mobile-handset manufacturer INQ Mobile Ltd. to produce the hardware for the device. The new phone is said to be based on a "stripped-down version" of Google's Android operating system with Facebook integration.

Despite being based on Android, a Facebook phone would be competition for Google as much as it is for Apple. Google benefits from ad revenue tied to their search and other services which would likely be supplanted by Facebook services on a Facebook-based phone.

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to open up unused portions of the television broadcast frequency spectrum, known as white spaces, for unlicensed uses, paving the way for the development of technologies such as cellular communications and broad-range Wi-Fi networks to take advantage of the frequencies.

The radio waves travel in the spectrum between television channels known as white spaces, and like TV signals they carry far and penetrate walls. Uses may include wireless Internet connections, remote monitoring of industrial systems such as power plants, and taking over some mobile-phone traffic to ease sluggishness for users of devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

PC World takes a look at the potential for white space usage for Wi-Fi networks, calling the possibilities "Wi-Fi on steroids".

Compared to standard wireless networks today that have a range of about a football field--assuming no obstacles are obstructing the signal, the white space networking is like Wi-Fi on steroids. Like television signals, the white space networks will have a range of several miles and can travel through walls.

Many observers are optimistic that the possibility for usage of the television frequencies without requiring FCC licenses will stimulate significant innovation in new technologies for wireless access. Several companies, including Microsoft and Google, have already embraced the new spectrum availability and are quickly pushing forward to deliver new options for wireless data access, beginning with test projects on their own campuses.

A newly-published patent application from Apple is generating some interest today for its description of a means to reduce the size of headphone jacks by using pogo pins instead of the traditional cantilevered metal strips for mediating electrical contacts with headphone plugs.

The invention disclosure comes as Apple continues to shrink the general overall size of its portable devices, with reducing thickness in particular being a focus for the company. As devices continue to shrink, certain physical features become limiting factors for further size reduction, as can be seen in the current iPod shuffle and iPod nano, where the thickness of the devices appears to be approaching the limits imposed by the need to accommodate the headphone jack.

Apple points to the current "cantilever beam" design for headphone jack contacts as requiring significant space in two dimensions to accommodate the contacts while also requiring sufficient length to ensure the necessary leverage to maintain contact with the headphone plug.

Switching from the cantilever beam to a series of spring-loaded pogo pins lined up along the side of the headphone jack could allow the jack to essentially require space in only a single dimension, allowing for thinner device designs.

The pogo pins can be positioned in the audio jack using any suitable orientation. In some embodiments, the pogo pins can be positioned in substantially a single plane such that the pogo pins require space in a single dimension of the audio jack assembly. The pogo pins can be oriented substantially orthogonal to the audio jack cavity (e.g., such that the deflectable tips extend orthogonally into the cavity), or at an angle relative to the cavity walls.

The patent application was filed in June 2009 based on a provisional patent application filed in March of that year and is credited to Apple engineers Sean Murphy and John DiFonzo.

Late last month, we noted that Apple had apparently parted ways with longtime engineering design partner SurfaceInk over the consulting firm's recent efforts to create and design entire products for third parties. The final straw appears to have been a prototype tablet being shopped around by SurfaceInk, a move Apple viewed as a possible competitive threat.

Apple doesn't appear to be going without the services of a number of SurfaceInk's engineers, however, as a number of them appear to have recently moved over to be in the direct employment of Apple. While it has not been uncommon for SurfaceInk employees to make the transition directly to Apple over the years, there certainly appears to be a significant number of them making the move just as Apple drops its partnership with SurfaceInk itself.

According to LinkedIn profiles, we've identified four engineers from SurfaceInk who became Apple employees as of August 2010: Paul Yuan and Alex Yeung (Product Design Engineers), Jared Kole (Product Development Engineer), and Craig Leong (R&D, Mechanical Engineer). In addition, Josh Pong and Margie Duffy moved in August from SurfaceInk to become Product Development Engineers at Apple through staffing firm Ryzen Solutions, while William Yarak took a Consulting Product Design Engineer position with Apple just this month.

In total, we have documented at least seven former SurfaceInk employees who have reported moving to Apple in just the past few weeks, with several more appearing to have moved earlier this year. Consequently, it appears that Apple may have picked up for itself a substantial portion of the SurfaceInk expertise it had been relying upon for collaborations on engineering design for its products.

While claims continue to build regarding a release for a Verizon iPhone early next year, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is continuing to play things close to the vest by once again refusing to acknowledge that any deal might be imminent. In fact, Seidenberg is going as far as to say that he hopes the carrier's 4G network that it is preparing to launch in the next few months will be the impetus to bring Apple on board.

Speaking to an investor conference Thursday, Seidenberg said nothing about an iPhone for the company's current network, but said he hopes Apple Inc. will come around and allow Verizon to sell the phone for a new network it's building. The "4G" network hasn't yet opened for service and won't be complete next year.

Seidenberg would of course not reveal any news regarding a Verizon iPhone launch prior to an official launch, which would presumably involve Apple and Steve Jobs in some manner. Consequently, it is difficult to take his comments at face value, as the companies are almost certainly working more closely together than he is suggesting in his comments.

The Verizon CEO has noted several times in the past that Verizon is interested in carrying the iPhone, claiming in October 2009 that the decision was "exclusively in Apple's court" and confirming for the first time back in April that the carrier had specifically requested the right to carry the iPhone.

Seidenberg is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at next January's CES 2011 conference, leading to speculation that an announcement regarding a Verizon iPhone could take place there.

Update: Seidenberg also noted that Verizon will shift to tiered pricing for cellular data access within the next four-to-six months, following in the footsteps of AT&T's shift made at the time of the iPhone 4 launch earlier this year. One report had pegged Verizon's change to tiered pricing as set to occur as early as this past July, but it has yet to make an appearance.

Update 2: All Things Digital offers an interesting direct quote from Seidenberg about Verizon's need to "earn" the right to offer the iPhone:

"We don't feel like we have an iPhone deficit. We would love to carry it, but we have to earn it. I can't speak for Apple."

Forbes has released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs checks in in 42nd place with a net worth of approximately $6.1 billion. Jobs gained $1 billion in net worth over last year's calculations, but moved up only one position in the rankings.

In January he unveiled Apple's iPad tablet amid a media frenzy; the device has so far beaten the hype with more than 3 million sold since April. In May Apple's market cap overtook Microsoft's to become the most valuable tech company in the world. Despite a super-publicized antenna problem, Apple's latest iPhone sold 1.7 million units 3 days after launch. Majority of fortune comes from Disney; as largest shareholder owns about $4.4 billion of stock. Reed College dropout founded Apple 1976.

Jobs' new net worth of $6.1 billion appears to be his highest to-date after a brief dip last year from highs of $5.7 billion in the 2007 and 2008 surveys.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates remains at the top of the list for the 17th consecutive year with a net worth of $54 billion, up $4 billion from last year but still below his recent high of $59 billion in 2007. The report also notes that Gates has poured $28 billion into charity, primarily through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As we noted earlier today, software updates released by Apple today indicated that the release of the company's new 27-inch LED Cinema Display appeared imminent. We can now push things one step further, as customers have begun receiving shipping notices for their orders, some with delivery set for as early as tomorrow.

Apple's shipping department is also gearing up to start pushing out the new Apple TVs as well, as we've heard from a number of customers who have seen their credit cards being charged for their orders, a sign that shipment should occur in the very near future.

Apple has issued version updates to their iPad productivity apps Keynote, Numbers, and Pages. The updates offer a number of bug fixes and improvements but also adds a number of new features. The new features are listed here:

Keynote
- Export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT) format.
- Copy presentations between Keynote and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
- Support for audio in builds when importing Keynote '09 presentations.
- Ability to group and ungroup objects.
- Add animated builds to grouped objects.
- Lens Flare, Spin and Wipe build animations.
- Revolving Door, Swoosh and Wipe slide transition animations.

Numbers
- Export spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel (.XLS) format.
- Copy spreadsheets between Numbers and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
- Ability to group and ungroup objects.
- Open CSV files from Mail and other apps.

Pages
- Copy documents between Pages and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
- Option to display the word count for your document.
- Support for opening .txt files from Mail.
- Ability to group and ungroup objects.
- Import and export existing footnotes, endnotes, sections and tables of contents.
- Import and export Pages '09 tables with image background fills in cells.

Each app is priced at $9.99 and is iPad-only.

Availability of Apple's new 27" LED Cinema Display appears imminent, as the company has just released several software updates to support the new display. The new display went on sale last Friday with estimated shipping times of 1-2 weeks, a timeframe that still holds for new orders as of today.

LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0 weighs in at 75.79 MB and requires Mac OS X 10.6.4. According to a support document for the release, the update makes several tweaks to users' System Preferences options for the new display, including for ambient light sensor settings and for routing sound output to the display's speakers.

For Windows users, Apple has expanded its driver package for the Magic Trackpad to also include support for the new display. The update appears set to come in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, although all of Apple's pages have not yet been updated to properly reflect the revised version just now coming available.

Last week, we presented our belief that the new iOS-based Apple TV was designed to eventually accept third-party apps from its own App Store. Steve Jobs even suggested that Apple was poised to launch an Apple TV App Store when the time was right.

The launch of Apple TV-specific apps would make some sense as Apple continues to find itself competing against Google. Google's recently-announced Google TV offers developers an opportunity to deploy their own applications to that device. We don't expect the Apple TV App Store to allow customers to run existing iOS apps on the device, but instead to open the door to Apple TV-specific apps.

Adding a bit to the evidence is a LinkedIn profile showing a recent Apple intern describing their summer position as an "Apple TV Apps Engineer". While this could represent work on the built-in Apple-supplied functionality, the internal view that the Apple TV is simply a collection of apps seems to be in line with future third-party expansion.

Last month, we shared the story of one developer who participated in a trial of Apple's iAd for Developers program only to find that the experiment was not cost-effective for his 99-cent application given Apple's pricing structure for iAds.

The Los Angeles Times follows up with a more expansive look at the iAd for Developers program, finding that while many developers feel that the pricing leaves something to be desired, the financials are beginning to improve as the program matures.

"It's moderately successful, and cost effectiveness is increasing," Clive Downie, Ngmoco's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "We use many advertising streams so finding the perfect place for iAd in the overall life cycle of a product is still an objective for us."

Still, nearly a dozen iAd developers who spoke with The Times said they were enthusiastic about the fledgling program.

According to Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris, 75% of developers participating in the iAd program either renew their trial period of increase spending commitment, suggesting at least some level of satisfaction with the performance.

"We're thrilled by the response to the iAd for Developers program, which is a great way for developers to advertise their own apps to millions of users," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.

"It's fairly early to deem successful, but so far we've seen tremendous traction, and we do plan to continue running," said Tina Couch, spokeswoman for textbook rental service Chegg.com.

While Apple is said to charge traditional advertisers per-impression fees as well as $2 per click for their interactive ads, the iAd for Developers program offers a simpler interface and a more budget-conscious alternative for iOS developers, with pricing reportedly set at a flat 25 cents per click.

Reuters reports on comments from NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker suggesting that the studio is not interested in joining Apple's new 99-cent TV show rental program, citing concerns over pricing.

Offering NBC's shows for that price on the Apple TV service would undermine the value of their shows, he said.

"We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content. ... We thought it would devalue our content," Zucker said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference.

He pointed to the fact NBC shows are already available for $1.99 for download on Apple's iTunes service.

Zucker's concerns over Apple's pricing proposition echo those of Time Warner CEO Barry Meyer shared in comments made late last week.

For the time being, Apple's TV show rental program includes only shows from ABC and Fox. Chase Carey, President of Fox parent News Corp, also confirmed earlier reports that the current rental program is only a "short-term test" before the companies involved decided whether to commit fully to the venture.

Apple subsidiary Filemaker today announced substantial updates to its Filemaker Go and Filemaker Go for iPad applications in the App Store, adding a number of new features that had been highly requested by users.

Several of the primary enhancements are related to new tools for enhanced sharing possibilities. Users can now create PDFs of their databases directly within Filemaker Go and store them on their mobile devices or email them to others. The new feature offers simple creation of reports and invoices while on the go. Users can now also save complete copies of their databases and share them with others via email, eliminating the need to sync with a computer for direct database transfer.

The new updates also bring tools for working with photos and other media:

The update also delivers new ways to work more efficiently with photos and other media and information. FileMaker Go users can capture photos on an iPhone, or take photos that are already in the photo library of an iPhone or iPad, and insert them directly into a FileMaker Go database. Photos stored in a database can be emailed out later using FileMaker Go.

Additional enhancements include the ability to import records from other databases using script steps and support for a newly-enhanced Filemaker URL protocol that developers of other iOS applications can use to interface with Filemaker Go.

Filemaker Go for iPhone and iPod touch is priced at $19.99 while Filemaker Go for iPad is priced at $39.99. The new updates are of course free for existing users.

The Wall Street Journal reports on comments from Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen made during the company's earnings conference call indicating that Apple's recent decision to relax restrictions on third-party development tools for iOS app creation has had only a "muted" effect on Adobe product sales.

Narayen said in June the public squabble with Apple had not hurt sales of the company's software packages. But there was no denying that it had hurt the company's share price, which started the year around $37 but in June dropped below $27.

Earlier this month, Apple relaxed restrictions on developers of applications for its iPhones and iPads, opening up its popular App Store to products written in Flash.

However, the short-term impact of the change on product sales "was muted," Narayen said.

Adobe included in its new Flash Professional CS5 a feature known as "Packager for iPhone" that allowed developers to export Flash content in an iOS-compatible format to allow them to easily port their Flash apps for submission to the App Store. Just prior to the Adobe's product release, however, Apple modified its developer terms to ban such third-party development tools from being used for App Store submissions.

With Apple now lifting the restrictions, developers are free to use the existing Packager for iPhone feature and Adobe has said that it will resume work on the feature for future updates.

Despite strong performance during the previous quarter, Adobe's earnings guidance for the upcoming quarter fell below analysts' and investors' expectations, and the stock is down 20% today in response.

AppleInsider reports on a research note from Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro, who claims that checks with Apple's suppliers indicate that the company is gearing up for an initial production run of 3 million CDMA iPhones in December of this year. The assertion concurs with a report from last month claiming that Apple had ordered CDMA chips for just such a December production run.

The CDMA phones would allow Apple to extend the iPhone to carriers such as Verizon in the United States that run on the alternative cellular technology to the GSM standard used by all of the company's existing iPhone partners. Reports have claimed that Apple is looking to launch a Verizon iPhone in January 2011.

Analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro with Susquehanna Financial Group said in a note to investors on Wednesday that checks with overseas suppliers indicated Apple is prepared to build 3 million CDMA iPhones in December, keeping the device on track for an early 2011 launch. That would put total GSM and CDMA iPhone production for the quarter at between 21 million and 22 million.

Fidacaro also weighed in on Apple's production for several other products this quarter, including the iPad, MacBook, iPod, and new Apple TV. According to Fidacaro, Apple will likely see production of 7 million iPads this quarter, shipping about 4.75 million of them to customers while the rest are used to fill sales channels that have remained essentially empty as company has struggled to meet demand.

MacBook production rates are said to be above 3 million units for the quarter, which seems rather high considering that Apple sold just under 2.5 million units of all of its portable computers last quarter. While Apple did see 29% quarter-to-quarter growth in portables during the same time last year, which would result in 3.2 million portables sold this quarter if the performance was repeated, only a fraction of those sales would be MacBooks. It is possible, however, that Fidacaro's "MacBook" reference was meant to imply the entire line of portables.

The report also shares expectations of a record 11.6 million iPhones sold during the quarter, along with production of 12 million iPods, although some of that will also be dedicated to channel fill of the new models. Finally, the report claims production of several hundred thousand units of the new Apple TV at launch, increasing to a million in December.