MacRumors

With Apple launching a broad international roll-out of iTunes Match yesterday to well over a dozen new countries, it appears that the expansion has come with some growing pains for the cloud-based music service. The service had started to prematurely go live for some users the day before, and several hours after the international expansion users around the world reported temporary problems accessing iTunes Store and iCloud services due to usernames and passwords being rejected.

While those technical issues appear to have been resolved, demand appears to still remain high for new iTunes Match subscriptions, and we've been hearing word that Apple has temporarily shut down new subscription signups in some of the new countries. Customers attempting to subscribe to the service are reportedly being met with the following message:

New subscriptions are currently unavailable.

iTunes Match is temporarily not accepting new subscribers. Check back later.

So far we have heard of new subscriptions being halted in Canada and the UK, two of the countries that saw the service debut yesterday. Apple instituted a similar temporary pause in new subscription signups following the U.S. launch last month.

As noted in an extensive chart from setteB.IT, iTunes Match rolled out in a total of sixteen new countries yesterday: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. The new countries join the United States and Brazil in offering the service.

Twentieth Century Fox today announced the upcoming debut of an exclusive iTunes Extras special edition version of the film Avatar, bringing several new interactive features including the ability to deconstruct scenes to see how they were made and a "Green Screen X-ray" that allows users to easily see the original green screen footage behind certain scenes.

Fans can experience the global box office sensation like never before as they control scene deconstructions in simultaneous views. This new feature will also enable consumers to interact with the performance capture and visual effects levels in 17 of the film’s scenes. For the first time ever, Green Screen X-ray gives users an interactive look through the visual effects levels to see the original green screen footage behind a pivotal scene.

Other extras include screenplay content from James Cameron and a gallery of over 1,700 images related to the film.

Avatar [iTunes Store] is available for pre-order now and will debut on December 20th. Pricing is set at $19.99 for the HD version and $14.99 for standard definition.

A basic version of Avatar was available in the iTunes Store for several months last year, but was pulled from iTunes and other digital marketplaces as an extended collector's edition of the film debuted on Blu-ray and DVD in November 2010.

Fortune reports on comments from Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson suggesting that he may not yet be finished working on the book, with Isaacson currently considering several ideas for expanding the authorized biography. Among the ideas are an addendum more fully describing the events surrounding Jobs' death in early October or adding extensive annotations to the existing content to flesh out the story with additional information.

The author discussed potential plans for expanding the already 630-page book in the future. One possibility is doing an extensively annotated version. Another is writing an addendum that addresses the period surrounding Jobs' death. Fleshing out the details seems like a logical next step, since Isaacson believes the Apple (AAPL) CEO's story will be told for decades or a century to come. "This is the first or second draft," he said, referring to his book's role in documenting Jobs' life. "It's not the final draft."

Isaacson's biography of Jobs recently became Amazon's best-selling print book in 2011 and named the company's best-selling new release of 2011 for combined print and digital sales, both remarkable achievements given that the book was not published until late October.

In line with our report from earlier this month, Apple has launched the iPhone 4S in a number of new countries today. Based on an examination of Apple's site and those of its carrier partners, we have found over 20 countries where the device appears to have debuted today.

The list of new countries includes: Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

As we noted in our earlier report, pricing in Brazil is indeed very high due to the import duties imposed on such devices there, one major reason why Apple and Foxconn are working on ramping up production of iOS devices in the country. Pricing for the iPhone 4S through Apple's Brazilian online store starts at the equivalent of $1410 for the 16 GB model and moves up to $1628 for the 32 GB model and $1845 for the 64 GB model.

Pricing is also rather high in Russia, with carrier partner MTC offering the iPhone 4S at prices ranging from the equivalent of $1131 to $1350.

Many other countries seeing iPhone 4S launches have pricing much more in line with Apple's base pricing in the United States and other major markets. Of the new introductions today, Apple also directly sells the iPhone 4S through its online stores in Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, with pricing coming in roughly around $700/$800/$900 in those markets. Pricing for unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4S models in the United States is set at $649/$749/$849.

Earlier this year, Apple introduced a new version of Bluetooth in some of their products. This new version of Bluetooth is known as "Bluetooth Low Energy" or Bluetooth 4.0. The Mac mini and MacBook Air were the first to support the new standard with the iPhone 4S quickly following.

The Bluetooth Low Energy specification promises a low-power and low-latency implementation that opens the door to a number of new kinds of Bluetooth-powered devices. The expectation is that low power Bluetooth transmitters/receivers will be able to send data to and from your iPhone without complicated setup. Possible examples included a special watch that could receive notifications, proximity detectors, health monitors and more.

A company called FMC Smart has just launched a Kickstarter for the first Bluetooth Low Energy App and companion module for the iPhone 4S.

'Find My Car Smart' is a Bluetooth 4.0 take on tracking where you had parked your car. While a number of these applications already exist, those require the manual launching and marking of your car. Find My Car Smart works by pairing up against a Bluetooth 4.0 transmitter in your car and automatically tracks its last parked location.

Right now, there are apps on the iPhone that will save the location of my car, but I have to manually launch the app to drop a pin each and every time I have parked my car. Stopping to launch an app when I'm running into work or trying to catch a plane is a complete waste of time and totally annoying. So I developed an app that allows the iPhone 4S to remember the last place I parked and the only time I have to launch the app is after I've lost my car, not before.

The company posts a nice FAQ which details some of the common questions and how the product works.

You need to install a small USB-powered Bluetooth proximity adapter in your car, which pairs with your iPhone. This proximity adapter talks to your iPhone's Find My Car Smart App running in the background. When you leave your car, it remembers this last GPS location automatically. No manual intervention is required. They claim there is only a small decrease in battery life of your iPhone due to the background operations, especially if you are only parking your car a few times a day. More extensive drivers may see more of a battery drain.

Note that as a Kickstarter project, the Bluetooth dongles won't ship until they reach their funding goal, so we haven't been able to test the product nor are we endorsing it. The App Store companion app, however, has been approved by Apple and is already available in the App Store [$0.99]. We have downloaded that app which is shown above in screenshots.

We should expect to see more Low Energy Bluetooth accessories and applications in the future. For now, the iPhone 4S is the only iOS device that supports the new standard.

iTunes and iCloud customers trying to log into their accounts early this morning found that their Apple IDs are not working. They were greeted with the following error message:

"The Apple ID you entered couldn't be found or your password was incorrect. Please try again."

A quick search of Twitter shows the problem is widespread, affecting customers all over the world. There are a few scattered reports that some people's Apple IDs seem to be working. Apple's iCloud system status shows no issues at the time of this writing. Trying to change your Apple ID password results in a "Fatal internal error" on Apple's support pages.

Apple ID accounts are required to download apps from iTunes as well as access your iCloud.com data. The wide scale of the problem indicates its a problem with Apple's servers rather than your individual Apple ID account. Apple is likely working to fix the problem.

Update: Many are reporting that Apple IDs are working again.

Reuters reports that Samsung, Apple's manufacturing partner for a number of components in its iOS devices, has completed work on a new factory in Austin, Texas that is handling production of the A5 system-on-a-chip found in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Samsung had announced the $3.6 billion project in June 2010, but has not publicly admitted that the facility is dedicated to producing components for Apple.

The A5 processor - the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 - is now made in a sprawling 1.6 million square feet factory in Austin owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics, according to people familiar with the operation.

One of the few major components to be sourced from within the United States, the A5 processor is built by Samsung in a newly constructed $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line that reached full production in early December.

The report's source indicates that nearly all of the factory's production, which encompasses non-memory chips such as the A5, is dedicated to Apple. The new factory is said to have resulted in 1,100 new employees being brought on by Samsung, which also employees 2,400 employees at a NAND flash memory factory in Austin.

Samsung's significant investment in Austin to provide Apple with chips for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S signals the importance the company places on the supply relationship even as the two companies are locked in a global intellectual property dispute involving Apple's iOS devices and Samsung's own Android-based mobile hardware.

Apple had been said to be moving production of its future A6 and A7 chips for iOS devices to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, but more recent reports have claimed that Apple will be sticking with Samsung for at least the A6 and that Samsung is already ramping up production of the A6 at the Austin facility.

With Samsung's Austin facility now fully online, the company appears poised to meet Apple's surging demand for iPhone and iPad products as it is already preparing for the next generations of those devices to land sometime next year, almost certainly to be led by the iPad 3 early in 2012.

Digitimes once again revives talk of a 7.85-Inch iPad. According to the site, Apple is likely to launch a 7.85-inch iPad prior to 4th quarter of 2012 in addition to a new iPad at the end of the 1st quarter. Apple reportedly is looking to take on the increasing number of competitors such as Android's 7-inch Kindle Fire:

However, in order to cope with increasing market competition including the 7-inch Kindle Fire from Amazon and the launch of large-size smartphones from handset vendors, Apple has been persuaded into the development of 7.85-inch iPads, the sources indicated.

There's been enough talk of such a device that it seems certain that Apple has at least been prototyping one over the past year. This previous mockup of such a device was discussed a year ago as a possibility:

Previous rumors have suggested that a 7.85-inch iPad would carry the same resolution (1024x768) as the current iPad. This would open the door to Apple differentiating their new iPad with a much higher resolution Retina display, while offering the old resolution on a physically smaller device.

Given the number of ongoing rumors, it seems certain that Apple has been experimenting with a 7.85-inch iPad. We'd guess its ultimate arrival will depend on how the market responds to the Kindle Fire and similar tablets in the coming year.

Following last night's premature access to iTunes Match some users in international markets were able to achieve through their iTunes Store account pages, the service now appears to officially be going live in several countries.

MacRumors readers in a number of countries have been reporting over the past few hours that they are being presented with updated terms and conditions for the iTunes Store mentioning iTunes Match. And now prominent links to iTunes Match have appeared on the front page of the iTunes Store in at least Canada, Ireland, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Users in those countries are reporting successful sign-ups for the service, and we're waiting to hear confirmation on whether it is indeed fully functional at this time.

Update: We're also receiving reports of iTunes Match links going live on iTunes Stores in Australia, France, New Zealand, and Spain.

Update 2: Users are reporting that the iTunes Match does appear to be working in the new countries, with subscribers' libraries being matched.

Yesterday, we noted that iTunes Match was appearing to go live in a number of countries around the world, with users being able to sign up for the service in their local currencies but reporting that the feature was not yet functioning properly. The rollout appears to have been premature, as Apple has been refunding early customers and notifying them that the service is currently available only in the United States and Brazil.

Apple now appears, however, to moving closer to an official launch in a number of countries, as users are beginning to report that they are being prompted to accept new iTunes Store Terms and Conditions addressing iTunes Match legalities today.

Terms and Conditions and Apple Privacy Policy

The changes we have made to the terms and conditions include the following:

- Notification of an additional type of previously-purchased content that may be subsequently downloaded to certain computers and devices as an accommodation to you, subject to existing association rules; and that such content may be played back on certain devices that are not subject to existing association rules, with limitations;

- New terms have been added that govern your use of iTunes Match, whereby you may pay a subscription fee to access certain content remotely, subject to existing association rules and usage rules, and explain that such content may be accessed on certain devices that are not subject to existing association rules, with limitations; and

- New terms have been added that explain that use of iTunes Match requires collection of certain information from your iTunes library which shall be associated with your Account.

So far we've seen reports of the new conditions rolling out in Canada and the UK.

iTunes Match debuted in the United States in mid-November and expanded to Brazil earlier this week as part of a broader Latin American expansion for iTunes Store music and movie content.

Update: We've also received reports of the new terms and conditions going live in Germany and the Czech Republic. In addition, the "iTunes Match" link on the front page of the iTunes Store has now gone live in Canada and the UK.

As long ago as mid-July, the first claimed iPad 3 parts leaked with photos of a dock connector and ribbon cable. Since that time, at least one other claimed iPad 3 part in the form of a power button flex cable has also appeared.

Cydia Blog notes that a third iPad 3 part appears to have joined the leaks with the appearance of a microphone flex cable. All three parts are currently available through Chinese parts retailer TVC-Mall.com.

The new part, when compared with iPad 2, shows a different arrangement in internal circuitry, hinting a major re-design. The tail end of the part makes a “U-turn”, whereas the iPad 2′s Microphone Mic Flex Cable makes almost 90-degree turn both ways. Except for few details, the leaked part so far doesn’t offer a tantalizing tease.

But even major changes to the internal components of Apple's devices doesn't necessarily indicate significant changes to their overall appearance. For example, the internal design of many of the iPhone components changed with the introduction of the CDMA iPhone 4, which was actually a significant internal reworking of the GSM version. Most of those changes made for the CDMA iPhone 4 also made their way into the world-mode iPhone 4S without substantial differences among the three models visible from the exterior.

Apple's manufacturing partners are said to already be receiving display panels for the iPad 3, with an aim to begin assembly in January ahead of a launch in the following couple of months. The iPad 3 is said to offer a new "Retina" display offering twice the resolution of the current iPad in both the horizontal and vertical resolution, allowing for much sharper image quality.

Apple today released a software update for the second-generation Apple TV, bringing the set-top box to version 4.4.4. The update arrives as Build 9A406a, but it is not yet clear what improvements are included in the release.

Apple TV software 4.4.3 was released last month and added support for Netflix streaming in Mexico and an audio output issue when the connected television set is turned off.

Curiously, Apple also appears to have released a slightly tweaked version of iOS 5.0.1 for the iPhone 4S [Direct Link]. The new version arrives as Build 9A406, an increment of one over the original release of iOS 5.0.1 last month.

The tweaked version of iOS 5.0.1 does not appear to be being offered to users currently running the original version of the software, but would be downloaded by any users upgrading to iOS 5.0.1 from this point on. Consequently, any change appears to be a minor one that Apple would like to pass along to users and can easily do so for new iOS 5.0.1 users with the tweaked update, but for which an entirely separate iOS 5.0.2 release is not warranted. The company is presumably bundling the changes into the forthcoming iOS 5.1 update that is currently in developer testing, and at that point all users would receive it as part of the larger update.

One possibility is that the tweaked update contains minor changes needed for the next round of international launches occurring tomorrow. iPhones sold in those countries may come with only iOS 5.0 installed, and users immediately updating to iOS 5.0.1 in those countries would receive the tweaked version updated for their markets.

Update: Apple has updated its Apple TV software release notes to report that the 4.4.4 update is a bug fix update that does not appear to bring any new features or compatibility.

Stability and performance: Apple TV software version 4.4.4 includes general performance and stability improvements, including a fix for an issue that displayed an error when playing some video content.

Google has released its annual Zeitgeist feature for 2011, highlighting some of the top trends in search during the year. As in previous years, Apple and its products appear in a number of contexts within this year's results.

In the highest-profile ranking included in the survey, the term "iPhone 5" ranked sixth among fastest-rising searches on a global basis. Driven by considerable speculation and rumors about the device and Apple's later-than-usual release for this year's iPhone, consumer interest in Apple's follow-up to the iPhone 4 remained at high levels for many months in 2011.

Consumers and analysts alike anticipated the release of Apple’s newest smartphone many months prior to its arrival. Rumored features included a larger screen, edge-to-edge glass, an 8 megapixel camera, and extensive voice controls. Many believed the phone would be called the iPhone 5.

Google notes that searches for "iPhone 5" rose 1,658% between 2010 and 2011, with the peak coming in the week of September 25th, just ahead of Apple's iPhone media event. To encapsulate the popularity of the "iPhone 5", Google requested our permission to use the mockups of the rumored design we commissioned from CiccareseDesign based on leaked case designs.

Apple of course released the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5 at the event, to the disappointment of many who had been hoping for a significant exterior redesign, hopes that had been fueled by the leaked case designs and rumors of a thinner, teardrop form factor.

As far as Google's Zeitgeist 2011, Apple made several other appearances in high-profile rankings, with Steve Jobs taking ninth place in fastest-rising searches and the iPad 2 taking tenth. Among fastest rising consumer electronics, the iPhone 4S took second place to Amazon's Kindle Fire, with the iPad 2 coming in in sixth place and the so-far unreleased iPad 3 taking tenth.

Jobs site Glassdoor yesterday announced the release of its annual list of the 50 best places to work. While consulting companies Bain and McKinsey topped the list, Apple grabbed 10th place in the survey with an average employee rating of 3.9 out of 5. Apple's performance marked a significant increase over the previous three years that saw the company ranking around 20th place in the survey.

Facebook, last year's #1 company, took third in this year's survey while Google jumped from #30 to #5 to place ahead of Apple among high-profile tech companies.

In tech company employee ratings of their CEOs, Apple's Tim Cook placed third with an approval rating of 96%, one point lower than Steve Jobs' approval rating in last year's survey. This year's CEO survey was led by National Instruments' James Truchard and NetApp's Tom Georgens, who both scored 100% approval ratings.

With the preliminary injunction banning sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia now lifted, Samsung is turning the dispute with Apple to its advantage, noting that the lawsuits have made Samsung a "household name" according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

"At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would've been based on the investment that we would've put into it from a marketing perspective," [Samsung Australia vice president of telecommunications Tyler McGee] said.

Asked how many units of the Galaxy Tab Samsung was bringing in, McGee said "as many units as we can" but warned "there will probably be short supply against the demand".

Apple was granted an injunction blocking the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia back in mid-October, with Samsung reporting that it may scrap the device's launch entirely there if the injunction was not lifted in time for the holiday shopping season. The injunction was indeed lifted in late November, but Apple won a one-week extension that carried the ban through to December 9th as it unsuccessfully tried to appeal the lifting of the injunction. The case will proceed to full trial next year.

Meanwhile, Engadget points to a Tweet from @maungle showing a new Galaxy Tab 10.1 newspaper ad from Samsung carrying the tagline "The Tablet Apple Tried to Stop," illustrating how Samsung is seeking to tie its advertising to the lawsuit and portray the tablet device as so significant a threat that Apple felt the need to prevent it from going on sale.