MacRumors

Boy Genius Report briefly claims that AT&T has confirmed to its employees that the next-generation iPhone will launch in June, with hints that availability could even come well before the end of that month.

Title says it all, but you didn't really need a confirmation, did you? The phone will be available for purchase in June, not July, and from what we've heard, it won't even be late June.

Boy Genius Report previously noted that AT&T had instituted a block on employee vacations for the month of June, a move indicating a likely iPhone launch during that time as evidenced by similar blocks in previous years.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to formally introduce the next-generation iPhone on June 7th during his keynote address at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Earlier rumors had suggested that Apple is looking to push the next iPhone's actual launch as close as possible to that date, perhaps even making it available before the conference concludes.

In the less-than-three months since Apple first passed Wal-Mart to hold the third highest market capitalization among U.S. companies, Apple's stock price has continued to increase while second-place Microsoft has seen its shares drift downward. The combination of events has quickly closed the gap between the two companies, and today Apple finally surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization for the first time in 20 years, although second-by-second fluctuations currently see the two companies frequently swapping positions.

Market capitalization is a popular metric for assessing the size of a company as a representation of the investing public's notion of the company's worth. The figure is derived by simply multiplying the number of outstanding shares of the company's stock by the share price.

In the case of Apple, slightly over 900 million shares outstanding times over $250 per share yields a market capitalization of about $228 billion. Microsoft, meanwhile, has a share price of only slightly over $26.00 but over 8.75 billion shares outstanding, giving it a nearly equal market capitalization to Apple.

With Apple and Microsoft now neck-and-neck, only Exxon Mobil's $282 billion market capitalization remains significantly ahead of Apple's among U.S. companies. Exxon Mobil's shares have dropped significantly over the past month, bringing its market capitalization down from a high of over $325 billion.

As noted by Kotaku, Valve Software is set to launch the Mac OS X version of Half-Life 2 today, with follow-up sequels Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two also seeing their public release for the platform.

Valve announced in early March that it would be bringing its Steam game distribution platform and library of games to Mac OS X, with the public release going live earlier this month. Among the 60 launch titles for Mac OS X was Valve's Portal, which was available for free until earlier this week.

Valve will continue to roll out new titles for the Mac on a regular basis, with the Half-Life 2 package representing the next step in that process. To celebrate the launch of Half-Life 2, Valve has remade a portion of Apple's iconic 1984 Super Bowl commercial in a Half-Life 2-inspired theme, with series protagonist Alyx Vance serving as the main character in the promo. Several frames of the remake were used in one of six leaked teaser images sent to MacRumors and other sites ahead of Valve's official Mac announcement.

Update: The three Half-Life 2 titles have now been updated, with support for Mac OS X obviously being the most significant item of interest for Mac users. The titles are temporarily on sale at 30% off, with Half-Life 2 priced at $6.99 (down from $9.99) and Episode One and Two available for $5.59 each (down from $7.99).

Wired has launched their first iPad app version of their digital magazine. Wired has been one of the publications that has long been exploring the possibility of a digital distribution on Apple's iPad -- even before the iPad was ever officially acknowledged. They had worked extensively with Adobe at the time who had been promoting their digital publishing system.

The final product may have seen some delays, however. Due to Apple's strong stance against 3rd party cross compilers, Conde Nast and Adobe reportedly had to go back to the drawing board to rewrite the original Flash-based app into Objective C.

Wired seems happy with the app and explained how they are taking advantage of the medium:

The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. We can offer you a history of Mars landings that lets you explore the red planet yourself. We can take you inside Trent Reznors recording studio and let you listen to snippets of his work in progress. And we can show you exactly how Pixar crafted each frame of its new movie, Toy Story 3.

Wired's video of the app (video does not appear to support iPad/iPhone):

The Wired Magazine app is presently available in the App Store for $4.99.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has made its first public statement since a series of suicides at manufacturing partner Foxconn's sprawling manufacturing facility in China began gaining public notice, expressing sadness at the events and promising that it is "independently evaluating" Foxconn's response while also continuing its facility inspections summarized in its annual supplier responsibility progress report.

"We're in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously," said Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman. "A team from Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address these tragic events and we will continue our ongoing inspections of the facilities where our products are made."

Apple is "saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn," he said.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, has been a key manufacturing partner for Apple for many years and notably produces the company's iPhone and iPad models for worldwide distribution.

According to today's report, there have been nine suicides and two attempted suicides at Foxconn's Chinese facility so far this year. The events come after Foxconn received considerable publicity last year when an employee who reportedly lost a next-generation prototype iPhone also committed suicide.

Foxconn's manufacturing complex in Longhua, China reportedly employs approximately 400,000 people, leading some observers to suggest that the number of suicides experienced at the facility this year is not out of the ordinary considering suicide rates in the general population in that country. Still, general concern over quality of life issues for employees who live and work at Foxconn's facility, as well as for other companies in other locations in China, has led to an outcry over whether companies are treating their employees in an ethical manner.

For its part, Foxconn denies that its facilities should be classified as sweatshops and notes that it has hired dozens of counselors and established other resources to assist its employees. The company has also moved to open its factory to the media in an attempt to provide a glimpse into working conditions on its assembly lines.

In an apparent replay of a 2006 investigation into possible price fixing in the digital music industry dominated by Apple's iTunes Store, The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice is in the early stages of another antitrust inquiry focused on digital music sales.

The Justice Department is examining Apple's tactics in the market for digital music, and its staff members have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies, according to several people briefed on the conversations.

The antitrust inquiry is in the early stages, these people say, and the conversations have revolved broadly around the dynamics of selling music online.

In particular, the inquiry is said to be looking at claims that Apple has been pressuring music labels over their participating in Amazon's "Daily Deal" program in its MP3 download store.

The report notes Apple's dominant position in the U.S. digital download market, where it holds 69% market share. In overall U.S. music sales, Apple leads the pack with 26.7% of the market, more than double its closest competitor.

The new inquiry from the Department of Justice is the latest of a number of recent incidents involving Apple and regulatory authorities. The Department of Justice last year reportedly began looking into an informal agreement between Apple and Google not to poach each others' employees, while in recent weeks Apple has been revealed to be the subject of an Adobe-requested inquiry over its ban on Flash-to-iPhone compilers and additional scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission over its newly-announced iAd mobile advertising system.

VMWare has just launched the latest update to their popular virtualization program for the Mac. VMWare Fusion allows users to run Windows applications alongside Mac OS X applications on their Intel Macs. Version 3.1 represents a major update with a focus on performance. According to VMWare, the new version is 35% faster overall than the previous 3.0 release with 3D graphics seeing up to 5X speed boosts.

Take advantage of faster than ever end-to-end performance and improved 3D graphics. Greatly improved Windows Aero performance and OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 delivers up to 5X better 3D graphics performance. Experience faster application launching, more seamless scrolling, quicker resume from suspend, and better overall disk performance. Additional improvements to make your experience more simple and Mac-like include support for overlapping Unity windows in Expos and Dock Expos, as well as the new USB EasyConnect feature to easily assign USB devices to your PC or Mac.

A full list of new features can be found VMWare's site. The 3.1 update is free for existing 3.0 customers. Customers with an earlier version of VMWare Fusion can upgrade for $39.99 while the price for brand new customers is $79.99. A free demo is also available.

Note: Purchases through these links financially benefit this site

Just a week after the last seed, Apple has delivered another new version of Mac OS X 10.6.4, designated Build 10F58, to developers. The build is the fifth to be seeded to developers since late April.

Like the last build, Apple lists no known issues with the new version and asks developers to focus their testing on Graphics Drivers, SMB, USB, Voice Over, and VPN. Those familiar with the new build note that Apple has not documented in the seed notes any additional changes since the previous build.

It is unknown when we can expect a public release of Mac OS X 10.6.4, as Apple's development schedule is unpredictable, although the fact that the new build offers no major documented changes and again contains no known issues suggests that Apple may be wrapping up work on the fourth maintenance update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

With Friday's launch of the iPad in nine new countries right around the corner, Apple and others are making preparations for the big day. On Apple's front, the company has announced that its retail stores in the launch countries will be opening at 8:00 AM to accommodate the expected crowds looking to get their hands on the company's tablet device. Eight of the nine countries seeing iPad launches on Friday have Apple-owned retail stores, with Spain being the only exception.

In the UK, a report from Times Online indicates that 139 retail stores owned by DSGi, including Currys, PC World, and Dixons Travel, will also be offering the iPad at launch

Meanwhile, UK wireless carrier 3 has announced two monthly recurring iPad 3G service plans priced at 7.50 (1 GB) and 15.00 (10 GB). Orange and O2 released UK data pricing earlier this month.

Numerous MacRumors readers who pre-ordered iPads in the nine new launch countries have reported over the past few days that their orders have shipped and are expected to be delivered on time.

A pair of announcements from Apple's competitors are making the rounds today, headlined by comments from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealing that the Kindle will remain focused on the e-reading market for now rather than branching out into multi-purpose devices like the iPad.

"The Kindle will compete with these LCD devices like the iPad by being a very focused product," Bezos said at the meeting, which was webcast. "Serious readers are going to want a purpose-built device, because it's an important activity for them."

When pressed on when consumers might be able to expect a color Kindle, Bezos noted that competitive color displays using the E Ink technology found in the Kindle are "still some ways out", indicating the company does not plan to move to LCD display technology.

Speculation regarding Amazon's future Kindle plans has been stoked by the company's release of a software development kit to allow developers to create applications for the platform and by its recent acquisition of Touchco, a company specializing in multi-touch technology.

Meanwhile, Dell today officially announced the Streak, a 5-inch mini-tablet running Google's Android operating system. A prototype of the Dell Streak was shown off at CES back in January, with the company now revealing that the device will initially launch in the United Kingdom early next month.

Dell has partnered with wireless carrier O2 to provide service for the device there, although device and data plan pricing have yet to be announced. The Streak is scheduled to come to the United States "later this summer".

The Dell Streak is a hybrid device that lives in the space between a smartphone and other larger tablets or netbooks that you might be using right now. We designed it to provide a wide range of users flexibility to do what they need with a mobile device.

With a 5-inch display carrying an 800 x 480 resolution, Dell positions the device has having a significantly better video and browsing experience than most smartphones. While the Streak may carry a physically larger display than a smartphone, those devices are increasingly coming with higher pixel densities that match or exceed the Streak, as the Motorola Droid shipped last fall with an 854 x 480 display and the next-generation iPhone's display has been rumored to offer as high as a 960 x 680 display.

The Dell Streak will also offer a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and flash, front-facing camera for future video chat functionality, microSD slot, 3G/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, and a user-replaceable battery.

DaringFireball's John Gruber appears to have slyly hinted that Apple may be planning to open the door to browser extensions on Safari at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) early next month. Gruber's comments come in the form of an apparent random musing that appears as part of a post on Google Chrome for Mac and Linux advancing out of the beta channel carrying support for thousands of extensions.

The other big thing that's missing (compared to both Chrome and Firefox) is a proper extension API. If only Apple had an imminent developer conference where they could unveil such a thing.

As is common with Gruber's hints, the tidbit is phrased more as a "what if" statement than an outright declaration that we should expect such an announcement, but it seems reasonable to guess that he may have some inside knowledge of Apple's work in this area.

Browser extensions are software add-ons designed to offer new functionality beyond that offered in the basic browser package or alter the way tasks are handled or content displayed. Application programming interfaces (APIs) for browser extensions provide a means for third-party developers to create their own add-ons, opening the door to significant modification of browsers' capabilities.

Apple has in the past used WWDC has a stage for Safari-related announcements. In 2007, the company announced the first beta versions of Safari 3, extending the browser onto Windows for the first time. A year later, as part of its early ramping of developer previews of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the company began seeding beta versions of Safari 4 during WWDC. And in 2009, Apple officially brought Safari 4 out of beta at the conference.

Google today announced that it has released its first "stable" version of its Chrome browser for the Mac platform, finally deeming the application complete enough and having undergone enough testing to promote a beta version to the top level of the company's three-tier development cycle. Chrome for Linux similarly made its first stable channel appearance today.

Today, I'm happy to announce that Google Chrome for Mac is being promoted out of beta to our stable channel. We believe that it provides not only the stability, performance and polish that every Mac user expects, but also a seamless native Mac application experience that Mac users will feel instantly at home with.

The release brings a number of highly-requested features that have been testing, including access to over 4,500 extensions, full-screen mode, bookmarks management, and bookmark and preference syncing across computers.

As noted in its broader blog posting on the Chrome updates, the new release offers support for a number of new HTML5 features, including geolocation and file drag-and-drop. The company also notes that the integrated Flash Player plug-in currently available in beta versions of Chrome has not been included in the new stable channel release, but will be released alongside the full Flash Player 10.1 when that becomes available.

Fortune notes that Intel's forthcoming Google TV hardware platform to be found in Sony TVs and Blu-ray players and in a standalone set-top box from Logitech utilizes the same PowerVR SGX535 graphics processor used in the iPad.

GoogleTV is manufactured by Logitech and Sony and contains a System on Chip (SoC) designed by Intel. The iPad's SoC is an ARM design made by Apple (though manufacturing is outsourced to Samsung). However, both of these SoCs use a PowerVR graphics processor from a small UK-based company called Imagination.

The same graphics processor is also used in the iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch.

Apple and Intel are both significant investors in Imagination Technologies, the company behind the PowerVR series of graphics processors, so it is not entirely surprising that both companies are tapping Imagination for their products.

Rumors and speculation, backed in part by a job posting earlier this year, have suggested that Apple is considering extending the iPhone OS to new platforms, possibly including the Apple TV. Hardware similarities between Google's television offering and Apple's mobile devices further reinforces the idea that such a transition could be relatively feasible.

Microsoft is continuing to push forward with work on Office for Mac 2011, issuing a third beta release of the productivity suite in advance of a final release scheduled for launch around the end of the year. With Office 2011's features and functionality becoming firmed up, Microsoft has begun putting more effort into some of the finishing touches that offer some obvious visual changes.

Some of those changes included in the latest beta version are new icons and splash screens for the Office applications, as well as minor tweaks to several toolbar and ribbon icons. Application interfaces otherwise appear largely the same as in earlier beta versions, although Microsoft is undoubtedly continuing to refine its flagship productivity suite with functionality fixes and enhancements.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for information on more substantial functional changes included in the latest beta as testers put it through its paces.

As predicted in a brief note yesterday, Apple has launched its annual "Back to School" promotion targeted at college and university students in the U.S. and Canada. The promotion offers customers qualifying to purchase through the company's education channel in those countries rebates of up to US$199 or C$219 for the purchase of a qualifying Mac and iPod on the same sales receipt.

New standard and build-to-order configurations of all Macs except the Mac mini qualify for the purposes of the offer, with a variety of rebates available for various iPod models. Refurbished Macs and iPods are not eligible for the offer, and no rebates are available for iPhone or iPad purchases.

Maximum U.S rebate amounts:

- iPod touch: $199
- iPod classic 160 GB: $199
- iPod nano 16 GB: $179
- iPod nano 8 GB: $149
- iPod shuffle 4 GB (stainless steel): $99
- iPod shuffle 4 GB: $79

The promotion runs through September 7th, 2010, and customers are limited to five rebates per household. Full details on the program are available in the Terms and Conditions for programs in the U.S. and Canada.

Engadget reports that Apple has already started filming new ads featuring the next generation iPhone. The new ads are reportedly being directed by Sam Mendes.

According to the site's source, the new iPhone is referred to internally as Mammoth / N90. At least one scene from the ad is said to be featuring a video chat conversation between a mother and daughter using the iPhone's new front-facing camera. Engadget also cites a few recent tweets from actors who have revealed they have been auditioning for the new Apple ads.

Video conferencing has been a long discussed possibility for Apple's iPhone, though it has not yet been a very popular feature across many other phones. We've put together this poll to ask how appealing a feature it really is for the next iPhone: