MacRumors

Australian Macworld reports that it has received information claiming that Apple is set to release updated MacBook Pros and possibly MacBook Airs next Tuesday. The unidentified source of the claim is said to be "familiar with Apple product cycles and inventory levels".

The source said that an update to every MacBook Pro model was expected on Tuesday, 13 April, but was unsure about the MacBook Air. The source was also unsure of any further information regarding a local date for the iPad release, but agrees that 24 April is likely.

An update to Apple's MacBook Pro line has been expected for several months now, with several claims of imminent or "next Tuesday" releases having been made with no results. A report earlier this week indicated that new models are expected sometime this month after having been delayed slightly due to shortages of Intel's latest mobile processors.

Advertising firm Chitika earlier this week rolled out a running tally calculating the number of iPads accessing the Internet via the device's Safari browser based on unique hits to its network of advertisements. According to current tallies, over 500,000 iPads have now been sold.

In a blog post, Chitika researcher Dan Ruby notes that the company's numbers have been registering significantly lower than official and estimated sales numbers, a phenomenon Ruby has attributed to some users not accessing the Internet. For example, by midday Monday, Chitika had registered nearly 270,000 iPads on its network, while Apple had already announced "over 300,000" iPads sold on Saturday with more sales obviously rolling in Sunday and early Monday. We've even heard that Apple may have sold over 750,000 iPads already.

We've also learned that the WiFi iPad may not be seen as primarily an Internet surfing device. With estimates of over 300,000 iPads sold on release day and perhaps as many as 700,000 sold over the weekend, that only around 40% are showing up on the Internet may imply that people are buying the iPad for the apps, and spending most of their browsing time in the App Store.

While Chitika's methods may offer only a crude approximation of iPad sales, they do provide an interesting glimpse into the device's market growth. Beyond overall sales numbers, the report also provides data on new iPads appearing each day and breaks down sales and percentages by state.

Done21 reports on the curious discovery of a new Web-based framework used in the iPad that allows web pages to behave in ways much more akin to native applications than previously observed. The framework, dubbed 'AdLib' by the report's author after the name of the file containing the code, was first noticed in action when navigating to Apple's iPad User Guide using the iPad's mobile version of Safari. It allows the user guide, which is simply a web page, to be offered in a split-pane view with scrollbars and with a native app-like feel.

What's particularly interesting is that it does something that shouldn't really be possible in Mobile Webkit: It includes scrolling panes that can be manipulated with a single finger, complete with the signature iPhone OS "scroll bars" and elastic transitions. If you have ever worked with Safari on the iPhone, you know that having scrolling boxes of content is sort of possible, but requires a special two-finger gesture to scroll.

Curiosity got the best of me, so I loaded the page in Safari on my laptop (and changed Safari's user agent to mimic the iPad) and got to work with the developer tools. After extracting the JavaScript and de-minifying it, my suspicions were confirmed. Apple was manually reading the touch events, calculating the inertia of the scrolling, and manually drawing the scroll bars. It was incredible that it worked so smoothly in the browser.

The framework, which weighs in at about 4,300 lines of code, permits Mobile Safari to display the native-like user guide simply using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, the basic web technologies supported by the iPhone and iPad. It appears similar in some respects to the PastryKit framework described by John Gruber last December, although AdLib appears to be a more advanced version that incorporates iPad-specific references.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will release the custom API for use by third-developers, but despite an absence of documentation, the report notes that the framework is "extremely well thought out and complete" and could be of significant utility to developers.

Update: For those interested in the actual code, a commented version has been discovered on Apple's developer site.

A convention calendar (PDF) hosted on a Japan-focused site for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau reveals scheduled dates for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for 2010 through 2015. While the list carries a "last update" stamp of May 2009 and lists incorrect dates for Macworld 2011, listings for many other future conventions do appear to be accurate and thus the listings for WWDC may represent tentative schedules for future years.

Tentative WWDC Dates:
2010: June 27th - July 2nd
2011: June 5th - June 10th
2012: June 10th - June 15th
2013: June 9th - June 14th
2014: June 1st - June 6th
2015: June 7th - June 12th

The 2010 dates match closely to speculation based on a "Corporate Event" listing for Moscone West in the June 28th - July 2nd timeframe. While that entry has since been removed from the Moscone Center's calendar, similar entries have accurately represented WWDC dates in previous years.

WWDC 2009 was held from June 8th - 12th, and Apple announced the schedule in late March, suggesting that we may soon see an official announcement of dates for the 2010 conference.

Just two weeks after Apple introduced the iPad at a special media event, research firm iSuppli estimated the component costs for the entry-level 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad at about $219, compared to its retail price of $499. iSuppli's estimates offered some indication of a healthy profit margin for Apple on the device, although numerous other expenses such as research and development, marketing, and licensing were not included in the study.

Now that the iPad has been released in the United States, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that iSuppli has been able to actually tear the device apart to generate a revised estimate of nearly $260 for the entry-level model's component costs. The $40 increase over earlier estimates is due to several factors, including the use of more chips than originally thought.

Once it took one apart, iSuppli found more silicon chips than it had expected powering interactions with the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. Apple uses three chips to control the iPad's touchscreen, for example. "Because of the sheer scale of this device, we're seeing more here than we expected to," says Rassweiler.

The most significant single price bump, however, appears to be the iPad's touchscreen, which checks in as a $95 part and up $15 from the company's earlier estimates.

iSuppli last week predicted that the iPad could sell 7.1 million units worldwide in 2010, increasing to 14.4 million in 2011 and 20.1 million in 2012. The estimate, which the company calls "conservative", is based on a belief that compelling new applications will rapidly come to the iPad while features are added and price points decline over time.

MediaMemo reports on an interesting confluence of events involving the mobile advertising industry, noting how Apple's media event tomorrow could help Google in its bid to gain regulatory approval for its acquisition of AdMob.

Late last month, a report surfaced claiming that Apple was set to introduce a mobile advertising system dubbed "iAd" on April 7th, which is today. With Monday's announcement of an iPhone OS 4.0 media event scheduled for tomorrow, rumors from MediaMemo's sources and others have unsurprisingly shifted the iAd introduction to that date.

Apple is likely to introduce its mobile ad platform Thursday at its iPhone developer event, say sources familiar with the company's plans.

Apple's iAd platform is expected to be based on its January acquisition of ad firm Quattro Wireless. That purchase came relatively soon after Google's announcement that it had agreed to purchase AdMob, which Apple had also reportedly considered purchasing.

Insiders have reported that Google's pursuit of AdMob was primarily a ploy to keep the ad company out of Apple's hands, with Google offering a 25% premium over Apple's offer in order to seal the deal. While the technique succeeded and Apple was forced to move on to Quattro in its bid to snap up a major mobile advertising industry player, Google's AdMob acquisition has been held up by regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and a Wall Street Journal report (subscription required) today indicates that the FTC is gearing up to formally oppose the acquisition on antitrust grounds.

As a result of the FTC's scrutiny of the Google-AdMob deal, Google has reportedly been playing up Apple's moves in the mobile advertising space in hopes of convincing regulators that healthy competition will continue to exist in the marketplace even if the acquisition is approved. MediaMemo notes:

Last month, when MediaPost wrote a story speculating about Apple's mobile ad plans -- the publication dubbed the platform "iAd," but I'm not sure that Apple intends to go with that name -- Google sent reporters an email link to the story. "If true, it would be more evidence of how competitive and quickly-evolving the mobile ad space is," wrote Adam Kovacevich, a manager at the company's public affairs group.

Consequently, an "iAd" introduction by Apple tomorrow could be a significant weapon for Google to have in its arsenal as it continues to seek approval for its deal with AdMob.

In a brief article, the Associated Press reports that Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg yesterday revealed that his company has explicitly told Apple that it would like to carry the iPhone on its network.

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg says the company has told Apple that it wants to carry the iPhone. But he declined to say when -- or even if -- the popular smart phone will be available for Verizon Wireless customers.

The topic of the iPhone on Verizon in the U.S. has been popular ever since the device's exclusive release on AT&T's network, and the company has repeatedly mentioned its interest in bringing the popular device to its network. Seidenberg noted last October that the decision was "exclusively in Apple's court", but today's report seems to the first time he has publicly admitted that Verizon has directly asked Apple for the rights to the iPhone. The company has claimed that it is prepared to handle the network traffic should it be permitted to offer the iPhone.

Interest in a Verizon iPhone spiked again late last month after a Wall Street Journal report claiming that a Verizon-compatible iPhone is in the works.

The teardown experts at iFixit have been busy with the iPad over the past few days, beginning with an analysis of internal photos of the device posted to the FCC's website last Friday and continuing with a teardown of the actual device on Saturday.

Late yesterday, iFixit announced that it had partnered with chip reverse engineering firm Chipworks to open up the iPad's A4 chip, the custom Apple solution that serves as the brains of the device. The project, which is documented in a full iFixit-style teardown, involved both x-ray imaging of the iPad's components and physical cross-sectioning of the A4 chip.

According to the report, the analysis confirms that the chip utilizes a single-core processor, likely the Cortex A8, in a "package-on-package" design that offers Apple the flexibility of separate layers for the microprocessor and the integrated RAM.

There's nothing revolutionary here. In fact, the A4 is quite similar to the Samsung processor Apple uses in the iPhone. The primary focus of this design was minimizing power consumption and cost.

The full Chipworks teardown offers a number of interesting photos of the process used to crack open and examine tiny components like the A4 and confirms much of what has already been determined from iFixit's larger-scale teardown and software methods.

TechCrunch reports that it has received information claiming that Apple is set to roll out support for Facebook Connect in iTunes, making it easier for users to share items and information with their friends and extending the social aspects of the iTunes Store to broaden its reach.

It certainly adds up. Over the last few weeks, iTunes has been building out its Facebook Page at Facebook.com/iTunes, which now includes polls, featured items, and is being promoted in iTunes itself. And Lala, which was acquired by Apple in December, has extensive experience working with Facebook Connect (they also power Facebook's song gifting feature).

Apple introduced Facebook and Twitter sharing to the iTunes Store with the release of iTunes 9 last September, but TechCrunch notes that Facebook Connect integration would bring more powerful tools for enhancing the social aspects of the iTunes Store.

With the iPad's U.S. release to the masses on Saturday, several complaints have arisen from users experiencing difficulties with their new devices. Two of the highest-profile complaints in the early days have been weak Wi-Fi signals and confusion over USB charging of the device.

Apple's discussion forums have received a significant amount of activity regarding the Wi-Fi issue, which typically results in users receiving a significantly lower signal than computers or iPhones held in the same location relative to the access point. The reduced signal is resulting in slower performance and smaller range for many of these users. Users have also reported seeing significant fluctuations in signal.

Speculation has centered around the iPad's external shell and power-saving measures as possible reasons for the Wi-Fi performance issues. While Apple has strategically placed the iPad's Wi-Fi antennas to provide optimal reception, the device's aluminum rear enclosure almost certainly shields reception to some degree. Additionally, some users have wondered whether Apple is supplying reduced power to the Wi-Fi hardware as part of its power-saving techniques that have enabled the iPad to meet or exceed its stated 10-hour battery life in many cases. Regardless of the cause, Apple has yet to comment on the Wi-Fi situation, although it has in the past quietly addressed similar issues through software updates when possible.

A second issue experienced by users has been difficulty with charging the iPad via USB. A number of users have discovered that their iPads refuse to charge when connected to USB ports on some computers, an issue that Apple has stated is due to the required power draw for the device. In a support document posted on the issue, Apple recommends that users charge their iPads by using either the included power outlet adapter or high-power USB 2.0 ports.

When attached to a computer via a standard USB port (most PCs or older Mac computers) iPad will charge, but only when it's in sleep mode. Make sure your computer is on while charging iPad via USB. If iPad is connected to a computer thats turned off or is in sleep or standby mode, the iPad battery will continue to drain.

The iPad's charging demand stems from its large battery that drives a significantly hungrier device than most mobile handhelds users are accustomed to charging via USB. Consequently, lower-power USB ports have difficulty keeping up with the iPad's draw, especially when the device is not in sleep mode.

Gizmodo reports that Apple has sent out media invitations for a preview event scheduled for this Thursday, April 8th, to show off iPhone OS 4.0. The event is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM Pacific Time in the Town Hall on Apple's Cupertino, California campus.

Reports of iPhone OS 4.0 features began to surface in January ahead of the iPad media event, but the software was not included in that presentation. At the time, claims of new multi-touch gesture support, multitasking, and a user interface refresh were making the rounds. Multitasking has been the focus of a number of subsequent reports, with a recent one noting that iPhone OS 4.0 will carry an implementation similar to that of Expos in Mac OS X. Other rumored features include a unified inbox for multiple email accounts and the ability to place contacts directly on the home screen.

Evidence of iPhone OS 4.0 in testing appeared late last year, and the new operating system is presumed to be introduced alongside new iPhone hardware sometime in the June-July timeframe.