MacRumors

As hinted at earlier this week, Apple has now released Mac OS X 10.6.8, the eighth maintenance update for Snow Leopard, via Software Update. The update offers a number of fixes implemented since the release of Mac OS X 10.6.7 in late March.

The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

- Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
- Resolve an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit
- Improve support for IPv6
- Improve VPN reliability
- Identify and remove known variants of Mac Defender

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4561.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

The public release is the same Build 10K540 that was seeded to developers one week ago.

Direct links for the various downloads on Apple's support pages include:

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update (474.2 MB)
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo (1.09 GB)

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update (542 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update Combo (1.27 GB)

- Security Update 2011-004 (Leopard) (256.4 MB)
- Security Update 2011-004 (Leopard Server) (499.8 MB)

- Server Admin Tools 10.6.8 (255.9 MB)

Thanks to MacUpdate for the heads-up!

Daniel Spitler pleaded guilty Thursday to two felony charges related to the publishing of 120,000 AT&T customers' email addresses on Gawker.com. One other member of hacking group "Goatse Security", Andrew Auernheimer, was charged as well and is still in plea bargain negotiations. Spitler's plea agreement recommends a 12-18 month sentence.

According to reports and court filings, they wrote a script that guessed the ICC-ID numbers (used to identify the iPad's SIM card) and then queried AT&T's website until it returned an e-mail address. Spitler had been accused of co-authoring this software, called "iPad 3G Account Slurper."

The original breach occurred in June of last year. The hackers discovered a security hole on AT&T's website that allowed users to plug in a SIM card identifier called an ICC-ID, and receive back the email address connected to that SIM card.

More than 114,000 email addresses were disclosed including the personal email addresses of a number of high-profile political and business figures, though it appears no actual damage occurred beyond the exposure of the email addresses.

Back in March, cable provider Time Warner launched an iPad app that allowed subscribers to the company's TV and Internet services to access live TV from a number of channels via their iPads while on their home Wi-Fi networks. The cable company was forced, however, to quickly pull channels from several content providers who objected to the usage. Disputes with Fox and Discovery were resolved within weeks, while Time Warner filed suit against Viacom over the issue, claiming that its contract did allow the cable provider to broadcast channels such as Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon to iPads.

In the meantime, Cablevision launched its own iPad app bringing full access to the cable company's cable lineup as well as on-demand content. In the process, Cablevision took content providers head-on with statements laying out its position that such an offering was allowable under carriage contracts for the various channels.

Things had been quiet for the past several months, but a couple of developments yesterday and today are reigniting the debate. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Time Warner and Viacom have placed their legal dispute on hold as they work toward a settlement.

The two companies said in a court filing made public Wednesday that they had reached a "standstill agreement," which put all the litigation on hold as of June 17. "In an attempt to resolve this and other litigation and potential litigation, the parties have entered into a standstill agreement," the parties said in the agreement.

The two companies are currently in talks over whether to return channels like MTV to the Time Warner Cable app, but it is unclear what the outcome of those talks will be, according to people familiar with the matter.

While there may be hope for some sort of resolution for Time Warner, Viacom has actually ratcheted up the pressure on Cablevision, as Reuters reports that Viacom has filed a lawsuit against Cablevision over its live TV app for iPad. The Wall Street Journal provides more detail on the lawsuit:

In the suit Thursday, Viacom said it is "committed to meeting consumer demand for broadband delivery of its programming."

"To this end, Viacom has reached reasonable agreements with several emerging and established digital media distributors so that they can stream Viacom's content and also provide an outstanding user experience.

"What Viacom cannot do, however, is permit one of its contracting partners, Cablevision, to unilaterally change the terms of its contractual relationship," it said in the lawsuit.

Apple's iPad has become a popular way for users to consume video, with streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu experiencing strong success on the platform. Live television is yet another step forward for iPad video consumption, with some networks such as ESPN putting out their own apps for live video while cable providers such as Time Warner and Cablevision have been attempting to bring a breadth of channel offerings to their customers.

comScore today released a new report detailing its new metric for tracking web traffic by device and connection type. According to the data, Apple's iPad was responsible for 89% of worldwide tablet traffic in May, continuing to dominate the market it defined last year.

The iPad is currently the dominant tablet device across all geographies, contributing more than 89 percent of tablet traffic across all markets. The iPad's contribution to total non-computer device traffic is highest in Canada (33.5 percent). Brazil has the second highest non-computer device share of traffic coming from the iPad at 31.8 percent, although non-computer devices account for less than 1 percent of total traffic in the country. In Singapore, where non-computer devices comprise nearly 6 percent of total traffic, the iPad accounts for 26.2 percent of this traffic.

Calculations on comScore's data for share of non-computer traffic in the United States peg the iPad at a nearly 97% share, with Android taking nearly all of the rest of the market.

In the U.S., comScore finds that 53% of non-computer device traffic comes from Apple devices: 23.5% from iPhone, 21.8% from iPad, and 7.8% from iPod touch. Android follows in second place with over 36% of the market, nearly all from smartphones. comScore's report finds an interestingly wide variation in traffic patterns among countries, with Canada seemingly leading the way in iOS adoption, where Apple's platform is responsible for 83% of the non-computer device traffic.

iPad competitors, most of them based on Android, are continuing to flood the tablet market, but none have yet been able to break Apple's stranglehold. Upcoming high-profile tablet entries include HP next week and Amazon reportedly within the next few months.

Even as a judge is expressing skepticism over whether Apple can win its case against Amazon regarding the "App Store" trademark, Apple continues to send out cease and desist letters to other entities using the term in their businesses.

Earlier this week, open source startup Amahi reported on its blog (via The Next Web) that Apple had served the company with a cease and desist letter demanding that it stop using an "App Store" section heading on its website. Apple has demanded that Amahi cease using the "App Store" term on its website and to "refrain from such uses in the future."

Why Amahi? Why pick on such a small target when there are so many people using the app store term? Amahi is a Open Source startup, and is not even in the mobile space. We may never know ...

We're still trying to determine what is the best course of action, however, this looks like a rather heavy handed move. Amahi being literally nothing next to Apple (sigh) we do not have the resources to fight this battle.

Amahi has launched a "name the store" contest to allow its users to help create a new, non-infringing name for the company's application marketplace. For the time being, Amahi has cleverly begun using a randomized list of names such as "App Depot", "Appalog", "App Market", "Addons", "Amahi Apps", "Appmahi", and many more on the tab that previously contained the "App Store" term.

But Apple has been targeting even smaller entities as well, as we just heard from the owner of pcappstore.com, who says that Apple yesterday sent him a cease and desist email, with the official paperwork still on its way to him. In this case, Apple has gone beyond a simple cease and desist order and additionally demanded that the owner turn over the pcappstore.com domain to Apple, citing the potential for customer confusion.

The site owner notes that he has owned the domain since November 2008, after Apple debuted its App Store earlier in the year.

Apple has yet to even officially be granted the registered "App Store" trademark, having applied for it in July 2008 as the marketplace debuted. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tentatively granted Apple the trademark in January 2010 and published it for opposition, and Microsoft has been leading an effort to have the mark denied.

Trademark registration is not required, however, although registration does convey significant benefits and privileges within the law. Even as the trademark registration process remains ongoing, Apple feels compelled to protect the mark lest it become considered a generic term deemed ineligible for protection. Microsoft, Amazon, and others are of course arguing that "App Store" is inherently a generic term.

Despite statements by Google's former CEO that Apple had "just" renewed their Map partnership with Google, there appears to be evidence that Apple has been working on its own mapping solution in iOS 5.

It's certainly no secret that Apple is actively working on some sort of mapping solution. In the past few years, Apple has acquired two mapping companies Placebase and Poly9. The company has also been actively recruiting for job applicants with navigation software experience and has even revealed work on a future crowds-sourced traffic database.

Now, a look at the legal disclaimers found in iOS 5 reveal a new section called "Map Data". (full text) This section lists licenses from an extensive number of third party companies that provide mapping data and related services.

This entire section is new in iOS 5's legal section and does not appear to be related to Google's own mapping data licenses. Google's own legal terms for their map data is distinct, and many of the companies do not overlap. In fact, one of the listed traffic-data companies is a competitor to Google's Maps.

The companies listed in iOS 5's legal notices include the following diverse companies under the "Map Data" section:

• CoreLogic offers Parcel data which marks boundaries for of properties to provide positional accuracy in location-based solutions.
• Getchee provides location and market data on China, India and Southeast Asia.
• Increment P Corp provides location and traffic data for Japan.
• Localeze provides local business listings.
• MapData Sciences Pty Ltd. Inc provides mapping data for Australia and New Zealand.
• DMTI provides postal code data for Canada.
• TomTom offers global TeleAtlas mapping data which is also licensed by Google for their map solution.
• Urban Mapping provides in-depth neighborhood data such as crime, demographics, school performance, economic indicators and more.
• Waze offers real-time maps and traffic information based on crowd sourced data.

The last two companies are perhaps the most interesting. Urban Mapping offers extensive additional data over traditional mapping products. The company was even a partner of Placebase's back in 2007 before Apple's acquisition. Meanwhile, Waze seems to be exactly what Apple was talking about when they hinted at crowd-sourced traffic data. Waze offers mobile apps that can be used to send data back to a central database to show realtime traffic data.

Given the news of Apple's recent agreement with Google, it may be that Apple's own solution wasn't ready for iOS 5, so we may have to wait a while before we see what Apple's been working on.

Thanks @_Craigy

Digitimes claims that the upcoming iPhone 5 will incorporate a dual LED Flash.

Recent market rumors have indicated that Apple's iPhone 5 is likely to come with a dual-LED flash with Taiwan-based LED packaging firms Everlight Electronics, Edison Opto and Lite-On Technology being pinpointed as potential suppliers. All related companies have denied they are involved in the production of dual-LED flashes.

The advantage of a dual LED flash appears to be brighter and more expansive lighting for your photographs. Back in 2008 Zomgitscj showed differences between the dual LED flash and a single LED flash found on his Nokia N96 and Nokia N95. One is shown above but the site has several other examples for the phone at varying distances.

We'd already seen rumors that Apple may be separating the Flash away from the camera sensor in the iPhone 5.

A federal judge has hinted she will deny a motion from Apple asking the court to prevent Amazon.com from using the term "Appstore" for its Android app marketplace while a lawsuit over Amazon's use of the term continues. Apple initially sued Amazon this past March.

Bloomberg quoted U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton saying Apple had not demonstrated "real evidence of actual confusion" among customers trying to differentiate between Apple and Amazon's stores, and this was a "stumbling block for Apple." The judge continued, saying she was "troubled by the showing that you've made so far, but that's where you're likely not to prevail at this early juncture."

There was no indication from the judge how quickly she intends to rule on the matter.

M.I.C gadget notes that a reporter from Chinese newspaper First Financial Daily reported seeing Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook in the lobby of China Mobile's headquarters earlier today. According to the reporter, who was also able to snap a photo of Cook although it only shows him from the rear:

This morning, around 10, Apple COO Tim Cook is spotted in the lobby of China Mobile’s HQ, accompanied by 7-8 people. Probably Cook is talking with executives from China Mobile to discuss bilateral cooperation for the iPhone. Both China and America flags are seen in the lobby, and Cook seems to be happy.

China Mobile is far and away the world's largest mobile phone carrier with over 600 million customers, making it a major potential partner for Apple. The carrier has long been interested in offering the iPhone, but Apple has so far been unwilling to build customized hardware capable of running on China Mobile's homegrown TD-SCDMA network standard.

Reports last month indicated that Apple and China Mobile had reached or were nearing an agreement that would see a future iPhone developed for the carrier's TD-LTE 4G network. Reports have indicated that the same chips could be used for both LTE and TD-LTE, meaning that Apple could conceivably release a future iPhone capable of running on either standard. Complicating the issue, however, is a lack of full LTE coverage looking out over the next several years, and the consequent difficulties of providing fallback 3G compatibility for different standards.

If Cook is indeed in China talking to executives at China Mobile, it seems likely that significant discussions are underway. While any negotiations of this size would likely take place at the senior executive level, Cook's role as Chief Operating Officer currently in charge of Apple's day-to-day operations in the absence of Steve Jobs would suggest that his direct involvement signals negotiations of the highest importance.

As briefly noted by Patently Apple yesterday, Apple has finally been awarded a key patent related to the iOS user interface as implemented on the original iPhone. Originally filed in December 2007, the patent application incorporated several previous provisional patent applications dating back to January 2007 when Apple first unveiled the iPhone six months ahead of its launch.

While the newly-granted patent does not reach the scale of "The iPhone Patent", a 358-page monster patent granted in January 2009 and carrying Steve Jobs' name as an inventor, it does specifically address some basic multi-touch functionality including providing users with the ability to pan around the screen while touching the screen with some number of fingers but panning around a specific frame within the displayed content using a different number of fingers. In essence, the patent describes the basic concept of navigating around webpages with a one-finger touch while also being able to to use a two-finger touch to independently scroll within an embedded frame.

PC Magazine takes a look at the implications of the granted patent, noting that the covered material is broad enough to pose potential problems for other smartphone manufacturers employing capacitive multitouch interfaces on their devices.

It gets quite a bit more technical in its full form, but there's one thing patent experts consulted by PCMag agree on -- Apple has been awarded an incredibly broad patent that could prove to be hugely problematic for other makers of capacitive touch-screen smartphones.

Apple's patent essentially gives it ownership of the capacitive multitouch interface the company pioneered with its iPhone, said one source who has been involved in intellectual property litigation on similar matters.

Apple's patent is also written broadly enough to apply to non-smartphone devices such as tablets and iPod touch-like media players, giving Apple significant clout in protecting its technology.

Apple has already filed infringement lawsuits against a number of its competitors in the smartphone industry including HTC and Samsung, making good on promises that the company would aggressively defend its intellectual property behind the iPhone.

Update: There has been some dispute over just how broadly-applicable Apple's patent is, with a number of readers taking exception to PC Mag's claims of the patent being "hugely problematic" to Apple's competitors. We agree that the scope of the patent is considerably narrower than it would appear from PC Mag's statements and refer readers back to our description of what the patent does in fact cover: the recognition of differing numbers of fingers used as input for scrolling or panning around displayed content either in its entirety or in a smaller subset embedded with a frame.

While the patent doesn't nearly cover the entire graphical interface and multitouch functionality of iOS, it is one more piece in a puzzle of patents that Apple has pieced together to protect a significant portion of the iPhone's functionality.

DigiTimes reports that Amazon is set to launch its own tablet device within the next few months, adding yet another iPad competitor to the mix, but one with the ability to deliver significant media integration due to its existing businesses in the music and video markets. According to the report, Amazon is trying to bring the device to market well ahead of the holiday sales rush and will be shooting for aggressive shipments of 700,000-800,000 units per month with a goal of selling four million units before the end of the year.

The timing of launch is to meet the peak sales period prior to Thanksgiving in the US and the year-end holidays in the US and Europe, the sources pointed out.

Amazon adopts processors developed by Texas Instruments, with Taiwan-based Wintek to supply touch panels, ILI Technology to supply LCD driver ICs and Quanta Computer responsible for assembly, the sources indicated.

The report specifically mentions that Amazon will integrate streaming movie services with the new tablet, although the company's new Cloud Player for music should also make it simple for tablet owners to listen to their music on the device. It is unknown what platform Amazon will use for its tablet, but most observers presume that the device will be based on Android considering Amazon's existing offerings for the platform such as its Appstore for Android.

While competitors have been slow to react to the iPad's success and even in aggregate have still been unable to dethrone Apple's tablet from its dominant market position, new tablets are now appearing on a regular basis with most of the major computer and electronics players staking out their positions. And like Amazon, other companies such as HP are doing what they can to duplicate portions of Apple's integrated iOS ecosystem by moving to cloud-based media services that will allow music and other content to be easily accessed across devices.

Bloomberg reaffirms the circulating rumors that Apple will launch a new iPhone in September of this year and is working on a high resolution iPad 3.

They cite two people "familiar with the plans" who indicate that the new iPhone will carry a faster processor and more advanced camera:

The device will include the A5 processor, the more powerful chip that Apple added to the iPad 2 earlier this year, along with an 8-megapixel camera, up from the 5-megapixel model in the iPhone 4, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public.

The new iPhone is said to closely resemble the iPhone 4. As expected, the new iPhone will run iOS 5 which is reportedly codenamed "Telluride".

Bloomberg's sources also report that Apple is testing a version of the iPad that has a "higher resolution screen, similar to the one now used in the iPhone 4". From here, Bloomberg references older rumors that Apple might be working on a cheaper iPhone aimed at attracting customers in developing countries. They seem to believe that work is continuing on this low-end iPhone.

Finally, they report that the resolution of the new iPad would be "about one-third higher" than the iPad 2. Such a small increase would be a surprise as Apple's method for increasing resolution on the iPhone was to double each dimension to offer simple scaling for apps. It's been expected that Apple might adopt the same technique in the iPad 3, though technical hurdles may exist for such high resolution displays.