MacRumors

An Xbitlabs report from November provides quotes from NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang about their seemingly permanent exit of the chipset business.

We are not building any more chipsets, we are building SoCs now. We are building Tegra SoCs, and so we are going to take integration to a new level. [...] The chipset business [has] not grown largely this year because we have not really been expanding the sales of it,

We had known that NVIDIA had exited the chipset business due to ongoing litigation with Intel over licensing, but there had been a belief that the issue would be settled. This quote preceded reports of a possible settlement between Intel and NVIDIA in December. That settlement discussion led to speculation that NVIDIA's return to the chipset market could help boost processor speeds in future MacBook Airs and MacBooks.

NVIDIA CEO, however, had this to reveal about Apple's business:

The second thing is the MCP89, the latest and the last generation of Intel chipset that we built was just a really wonderful piece of engineering and the work that we did with Apple was great, and they are going to continue to use that for some time.

The MCP89 is the chipset that has been used in older MacBooks as well as the new MacBook Air. Apple's use of this NVIDIA chipset limits its choice of processors to the previous-generation Core 2 Duo. This tradeoff allows Apple to incorporate the faster integrated graphics cards from NVIDIA in these low-end machines. According to NVIDIA's CEO, Apple plans on continuing to use these older chipsets for some time.

Note that high end MacBook Pros are unaffected as those machines have the luxury of incorporating both the latest Intel processors and discrete graphics cards from 3rd party manufacturers. The tradeoff primarily affects Apple's low end machines.

The NYTimes reports that Google has asked manufacturers to delay introducing new Google TV products at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. CES 2011 was meant to be a big launch venue for Google TV-based products.

But Google has asked the TV makers to delay their introductions, according to people familiar with the companys plans, so that it can refine the software, which has received a lukewarm reception.

Stand alone Google TV set top boxes such as the LogiTech Revue were introduced at $299 and has been met with poor reviews. The Google TV product was seen as a big competitor to Apple's own Apple TV product. Apple has since redesigned the Apple TV to be based on iOS and managed to drop the price to only $99.

At the D8 conference, Steve Jobs was particularly candid about the hurdles that faced all set-top-box manufacturers, and how it was difficult to break into that market:

- On the future of television: "Subsidized set-top boxes have squashed innovation because no one wants to pay for separate boxes...ask TiVo, Roku, us, Google in a few months. The set-top box needs to be torn up and redesigned to get people things they way they want them. And there's no go-to-market strategy for that. With the iPhone, and now the iPad, we could partner with carriers, but television is very balkanized...everything is local.

Apple continues to describe the Apple TV segment as a "hobby" but with the recent integration of iOS, there have been hopes that Apple will eventually introduce an Apple TV App Store as well.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, stock of iWork '09 is running low at retail Apple Stores. Meanwhile, Apple's online store auto-completes "iWork 11" as a possibility when searching for "iWork". While none of these findings are particularly conclusive, we have heard that Apple is planning on launching iWork '11 alongside the Mac App Store.

Apple has since given the date of January 6th, 2011 as the launch date for the Mac App Store. Last we heard, Apple was still debating whether or not they would also offer a retail box version of their productivity suite or keep it a Mac App Store exclusive.

Promotional materials for the Mac App Store have shown the three iWork applications, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, available on an individual basis for $19.99 each, below Apple's current $79 price for the complete retail box suite.

AppleInsider notes that four identical job postings for iOS software engineers were posted on Apple's site yesterday, with each one noting "experience developing navigation software" as one of the "valuable knowledge" criteria by which Apple is looking to judge applicants.

Apple is hiring outstanding engineers to deliver the next generation of Apple products. Seize this ground floor opportunity to help us build the world's best hosted platforms at massive scale.

Requirements
* +3 years' experience with developing high quality, robust software systems
* Expert knowledge of C++
* Excellent problem solving and analytical skills
* Outstanding understanding of data structures and algorithms
* Fully comfortable with base technologies like networking, TCP/IP, HTTP, Sockets, Threads, STL and templates.
* Good interpersonal and communication skills

Valuable knowledge:
* Deep knowledge of Computational Geometry or Graph Theory
* Experience with Linux server-side development of distributed systems
* Experience developing navigation software

While the note is only one among a number of requirements and recommended attributes for job applicants and Apple has previously posted job listings soliciting expertise in maps and other geo-focused skills, the fact the company is hiring four core iOS engineers preferred to have experience specifically in navigation suggests that the company may be looking to make a push into the competitive field of turn-by-turn navigation.

Google introduced free turn-by-turn navigation for Android smartphones in late 2009 and at the time noted that it was working with Apple to bring the functionality to the iPhone. Google later backpedaled from those claims, noting that it has never confirmed that it will bring navigation to the iPhone.

Apple has increasingly looked to beef up its own mapping and geolocation services in an attempt to distance itself from Google, which has provided the core Maps application for the iPhone since the device's 2007 debut. Apple acquired mapping company Placebase in July 2009 and followed that up by purchasing small Canadian mapping firm Poly9 one year later. Apple also moved its location services for iOS in-house with the release of iOS 3.2 on the iPad in April of this year, separating itself from Google-owned Skyhook Wireless for such services.

In November 2009, we noted an Apple job posting specifically looking for an iPhone software engineer "to take Maps to the next level".

We've been following News Corp.'s reported tablet-focused news product, The Daily, for some time as the newspaper industry's most significant foray into digital-only publication looking to harness some of the technological capabilities of tablet devices, but have yet to hear firm word on launch details for the publication.

Despite rumors of a December launch, it appears that The Daily's debut will not occur until early next year, possibly due in part to delays on Apple's side as it prepared iOS 4.2 for release pushing back its work on rolling out iOS support for recurring billing and for automatically pushing content from apps like The Daily to users' devices.

All Things Digital now reports that News Corp. is preparing to launch The Daily during the week of January 17th.

News Corp. plans to launch the publication the week of January 17, multiple sources tell me.

The caveat here is that launch plans have moved around a couple of times in the past few months; until recently, lots of folks expected to see this thing in December. But this latest date looks like a much safer bet.

According to reports, The Daily will be published on a daily basis at a subscription rate of 99 cents per week and offer substantial video and multimedia content, "including some kind of 3-D effect that lots of people are very excited about."

The Daily is also expected to be the first application to use Apple's forthcoming recurring billing feature, allowing users' iTunes Store accounts to be automatically charged on a weekly or monthly basis to keep news content flowing to their devices. Other content-focused apps are obviously expected to quickly adopt the feature once it goes live.

Last month, we reported on an investigation by U.S. regulators into inside information on Apple and other companies' product plans being transmitted to research analysts in the form of "channel checks". At the time, the investigation had just yielded its first arrest, an analyst for a research firm known as Primary Global Research, although the analyst did not appear to have a connection to Apple.

The Wall Street Journal now reports that four additional corporate managers who worked with Primary Global Research on the side have also been charged in connection with the investigation. One of those managers, Walter Shimoon, worked for Apple supplier Flextronics and is alleged to have distributed information on the then-unreleased iPhone 4 and iPad.

In their most significant move yet in a sweeping insider-trading investigation, federal prosecutors charged four corporate managers with peddling financial details about prominent technology companies and with leaking secrets about popular consumer products such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone in exchange for cash.

"The information trafficked by the four 'consultants' went way beyond permissible market research," said Janice Fedarcyk, a Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director in charge. "It was insider information."

Fortune summarizes the key information divulged by Shimoon to a "cooperating witness" for the federal government known as "CW-2".

During this conversation, secretly taped by the FBI and now entered into evidence, Shimoon allegedly gave CW-2 actual third quarter iPhone sales figures -- numbers that wouldn't be publicly released for another two and a half weeks and could, in theory, move the stock.

Then he dropped his two bombshells:

- Apple, he is heard telling CW-2, was "coming out next year" with a new iPhone that's "gonna have two cameras ... It'll be a neat phone because it's gonna have a five-megapixel auto-focus camera and it will have a VGA forward-facing videoconferencing camera." Apple announced the iPhone 4 -- with its two cameras -- eight months later.

- Then he is heard telling CW-2 that "they [Apple] have a code name for something new ... It's ... It's totally ... It's a new category altogether... It doesn't have a camera, what I figured out. So I speculated that it's probably a reader. ... Something like that. Um, let me tell you, it's a very secretive program ... It's called K, K48. That's the internal name. So, you can get, at Apple you can get fired for saying K48." The iPad -- code named K48 -- was unveiled four months later.

According to reports, Shimoon had signed a non-disclosure agreement with respect to his work with Apple through Flextronics, but revealed the information to Primary Global Research, which paid him more than $22,000 for his role as a "consultant" to the firm.

Other corporate managers arrested in conjunction with the information have been alleged to have shared inside information on a number of other companies including Dell, AMD, Seagate, and Western Digital. Federal regulators appear to still be working hard on the case, reportedly working to build cases against even larger Wall Street players including major hedge funds investing in the companies that saw their insider information leaked to outsiders.

In what seems like a rerun of Monday's news, a report has surfaced in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei claiming that Apple and Sharp are partnering to build a 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) plant in China to produce LCD displays for the iPhone.

Sharp Corp (6753.T) will spend about 100 billion yen to build production lines for small and midsize LCDs, with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) slated to purchase bulk of the output for its iPhone, the Nikkei business daily said.

Apple will shoulder a large portion of the 100 billion yen investment and buy most of the panels produced by Sharp, which has supplied LCD panels for Apple's iPod touch music player, the paper reported.

Mass production at the factory would not begin until the second half of 2012.

Monday's report in the same newspaper had claimed that Apple and Toshiba were partnering on a $1.2 billion plant to produce iPhone LCDs and set to come online in the second half of 2011. Toshiba responded to the report, denying any investment by Apple or even a commitment to build a new plant.

With the new report being remarkably similar to the one from earlier this week, it is unclear whether the newspaper is claiming that both companies are pursuing $1.2 billion plants to produce iPhone LCDs with the assistance of Apple or if perhaps the original report pointed to the wrong company, which would obviously represent a significant error.

Last week, DigiTimes reported that suppliers for the backlight unit on the next-generation iPad had been named, quashing rumors that Apple might finally turn to OLED technology for its portable devices.

In a brief commentary on the the overall OLED industry published today, DigiTimes specifically points to supply constraints as one of the primary reasons Apple has yet to shift to the technology.

With backlight unit (BLU) makers set to be suppliers for the second generation of iPad, AMOLED will still be unable to enter Apple's supply chain. Panel makers have noted that a major reason for Apple to overlook AMOLED for iPads is insufficient supplies.

A major challenge for OLED vendors is that manufacturing capacity isn't the only factor holding them back from producing panels for an OLED-based iPad, as the current technology isn't even appropriate for mass production of panels in that size, particularly at competitive price points.

Moreover, the current AMOLED technology is not suitable for volume production of 7- to 11-inch tablet PC panels, and the mass production cost will not be able to compete with TFT-LCD panels.

DigiTimes has been one of the most prominent sources suggesting that Apple has been looking at OLED technology, reporting that sources indicated Apple was considering an OLED display for the second-generation iPad even as it questioned the economic feasibility of the rumor, and also claiming that Apple had investigated using an OLED screen on the iPhone 4.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the digital music download market, demonstrating how Amazon's strategy of deep discounts on certain content has been unable to dent Apple's massive market share held through its iTunes Store. Rather than Amazon taking share from Apple, the two companies appear to be consolidating their leads over smaller competitors.

Amazon's share of the paid digital-download market rose to 13.3% in the third quarter, from 11% the year earlier, according to estimates from research firm NPD Group. Meanwhile, iTunes' share rose to 66.2%, from 63.2%.

Distribution executives at record labels say the disparity between the two may be even steeper, with Amazon commanding just 6% to 10% of the market in any given week, and Apple closer to 90%.

The report points to Amazon's strategy of specific deep discounts, such as offering a new Kid Rock album for only $3.99, as examples of successful promotions run by Amazon to entice customers, but on a day-to-day basis iTunes continues to serve as the place customers turn to for their digital music.

Amazon's deep discounts tend to come in two forms: bargain basement deals such as monthly promotions of $5 albums that generally involve the music industry cutting wholesale prices for Amazon in order to support the pricing, and "Daily Deals" such as the Kid Rock offer in which Amazon pays normal wholesale prices typically in the $7-8 range but charges customers only $3.99, taking a loss in hopes of drawing customers in for additional purchases. Amazon had partnered with certain labels for one-day exclusives on some Daily Deal content, but earlier this year Apple reportedly pressured the labels into reducing their participation in the program and Amazon backtracked on the exclusive offerings. In response, federal investigators launched an antitrust inquiry into the digital music industry, including an examination of Apple's efforts to keep labels from participating in Amazon's program.

Overall, the market for digital download tracks appears to be stagnating, with Billboard seeing only 0.3% growth so far in 2010 with over 1 billion tracks sold. Digital album sales, however, continue to boom, growing 13% this year as sales of physical CD albums have declined 20%.

Last night, QuestVisual has released an eye-catching iOS app called Word Lens. Word Lens is an augmented reality app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (with video camera) which offers real time translation of text. You simply point your device's video camera at a sign and the program translates and superimposes the translated text onto the video in real time. The demo video shows it in action:

Word Lens is a free download to prove its real-time word detection algorithms. In the free version, users can reverse or blank-out text in real time. Meanwhile language packs for Spanish to English and English to Spanish are available for $4.99 each. More language packs are in the works. Translations are done on a word-by-word basis, so context is not taken into account. The translation is also done on-app, so no network connection is required.

Augmented Reality has been a much hyped possibility. Apple introduced the ability for developers to do this real-time video manipulation back in iOS 3.1.

Sony today announced that it is preparing to launch an official PlayStation application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app will be free and will only be available in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands in its first iteration.

The app will offer the following features:

- Check out your PlayStation Network trophies and keep up to date with your friends' games and online --- status.
- Discover all the latest games, news and hardware for your PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2.
- Read all the announcements on the European PlayStation.Blog.
- Share your favourite products or news with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or via e-mail.

The app will require iOS 4 or higher. A version for the Android OS will also be released. Sony's entry into the iOS App Market is interesting given the increasing competition between Sony and Apple in the mobile gaming space. Earlier this year, Sony produced ads specifically dismissing iOS/smart phone games.

Nokia today announced that it has filed four new suits against Apple in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, alleging infringement of an additional 13 Nokia-held patents beyond the 24 cited in existing complaints filed in the United States.

"These actions add 13 further Nokia patents to the 24 already asserted against Apple in the US International Trade Commission and the Delaware and Wisconsin Federal courts," said Paul Melin, vice president, Intellectual Property at Nokia. "The Nokia inventions protected by these patents include several which enable compelling user experiences. For example, using a wiping gesture on a touch screen to navigate content, or enabling access to constantly changing services with an on-device app store, both filed more than ten years before the launch of the iPhone."

Nokia specifically cites the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch as violating its patents.

Nokia filed its first complaint against Apple in October 2009, and the dispute has escalated in the months since then with the two companies filing multiple new claims against each other.

Last night, a number of highly anticipated games made its way out into the App Store ahead of the holiday rush. Among them was Crescent Moon Games's role-playing game Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD. Aralon is an epic open world western RPG that is more comparable to the PC/console game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind than anything else available on the App Store. In fact, the game's art was even done in part by Mark Jones, a contributing artist to Morrowind and other Elder Scrolls RPG's. Aralon features over 30 hours of gameplay, a character creation and customization that is unrivaled by anything else on the platform, mounts to ride, crafting systems, and much more. Our sister site TouchArcade calls it a "masterpiece of an iOS game" in its review:

[Some things] can only be experienced firsthand, like the first time the sun sets and gives way to a breathtaking night sky overlooking the vast land before you. I used to look at my iOS device as a small window into new worlds and fun experiences, and with Aralon I feel like I actually have a fully realized living and breathing universe sitting snugly in my pocket. ... I don't only suggest Aralon for fans of Western RPGs or expansive open-world action games, but I think every iOS gamer needs to pick up this title just to experience what is possible on this constantly expanding mobile platform.

Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD, priced at $6.99, is a universal app optimized for the third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and iPad. Other notable releases include:

World of Goo for iPad. A highly rated PC/Mac game that has been ported to the iPad.

Dungeon Defenders: First Wave - The second game on the App Store based on Epic's Unreal Engine.

Real Racing 2 - A sequel to the highly rated Real Racing for iPhone. This time the game comes with 16 licensed cars and online multi-player.

Foss Patents reports that a joint venture company involving Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and EMC has acquired 882 patents from Novell for a sum of $450 million. Novell is undergoing a transition as it has been acquired by software company Attachmate, and the patent sale is part of the acquisition deal.

Breaking news: Twitter user @VM_gville just pointed me to the website of the German federal antitrust authority ("Bundeskartellamt"), which discloses a merger (or more precisely, joint venture) notification filed a week ago (on 09 December 2010), according to which the four companies behind CPTN Holdings LLC -- the acquirer of 882 Novell patents -- are Microsoft, Apple, EMC, and Oracle. The product market in which the newly formed company plans to operate is defined as "patents".

Three weeks ago I already commented on the recent announcement of Attachmate acquiring Novell and the sale of 882 Novell patents, in exchange for $450 million, to CPTN Holdings LLC. At the time, the full list of CPTN Holdings LLC partners was not known. The entity was described as a "consortium organized by Microsoft."

Apple, which boasts an extensive patent portfolio of its own, has been looking to bolster its arsenal even further as several large blocks of intellectual property have come available in an increasingly litigious technology industry that has seen Apple rank as the most-sued tech company over the last several years. Apple is said to be one of a number of big players bidding to acquire Nortel patents estimated to be worth over $1 billion in total.

Apple yesterday released LED Cinema Display Firmware Update 1.0, addressing audio problems with the company's latest standalone display.

This Firmware Update addresses intermittent audio issues some users have experienced while using the 27-inch LED Cinema Display.

The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder and will be launched automatically. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the update process.

Details of the issue are included in an associated support document:

You may notice that sound from an LED Cinema Display (27-inch) connected to a Mac intermittently becomes inaudible. In some circumstances, you may need to unplug the display and reconnect it or restart the Mac before the sound becomes audible again.

The update weighs in at 957 KB and requires either Mac OS X 10.6.4 plus the LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0 or Mac OS X 10.6.5 or later.

Apple today announced that the Mac App Store will open on Thursday, January 6th, launching in 90 countries and offering free and paid applications.

"The App Store revolutionized mobile apps," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can't wait to get started on January 6."

As with the iOS App Store, developers of paid applications will receive 70% of revenue, while Apple keeps 30%.

Apple announced the Mac App Store at its "Back to the Mac" event in October, saying the store would launch for Mac OS X Snow Leopard users within 90 days. The January 6th opening date meets that schedule with two weeks to spare.