MacRumors

One of the recent changes in Apple's iPhone SDK terms of service was limitation on collecting and sending analytics data. Many had speculated that Apple may be trying to limit competition from other ad networks, however, Steve Jobs is blaming analytics company Flurry for the change.

According to Jobs, it was a privacy issue:

Well we learned this really interesting thing. Some company called Flurry had data on devices that we were using on our campus -- new devices. They were getting this info by getting developers to put software in their apps that sent info back to this company! So we went through the roof. It's violating our privacy policies, and it's pissing us off! So we said we're only going to allow analytics that don't give our device info -- only for the purpose of advertising.

The incident that Jobs was referring to is likely a report from January in which Flurry pinpointed approximately 50 "tablet devices" that were being used on Apple campus.

Using Flurry Analytics, the company identified approximately 50 devices that match the characteristics of Apple's rumored tablet device. Because Flurry could reliably "place" these devices geographically on Apple's Cupertino campus, we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing. Testing of this device increased dramatically in January, with observed signs of life as early as October of last year. Apple appears to be going through its cycle of testing and polish, which is expected from any hardware or software company as it nears launch.

During tonight's All Things D Interview with Steve Jobs, Walt Mossberg asked about Apple's intentions of getting into the search space and possibly competing with Google.

Jobs was insistent that they aren't going to search and that the Siri acquisition had nothing to do with search:

Steve: [Siri is] not a search company. They're an AI company. We have no plans to go into the search business. We don't care about it -- other people do it well.

We profiled Siri when it was acquired by Apple. Siri was focused on personal assistant technology that serves to help users accomplish tasks.

Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) represent the next generation interaction paradigm for the Internet. In today's paradigm, we follow links on search results. With a VPA, we interact by having a conversation. We tell the assistant what we want to do, and it applies multiple services and information sources to help accomplish our task. Like a real assistant, a VPA is personal; it uses information about an individual's preferences and interaction history to help solve specific tasks, and it gets better with experience.

During tonight's All Things D Interview, Steve Jobs indicated that he was not going to let the stolen/lost iPhone prototype incident "slide":

Steve: You know, when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got advice from people who said 'you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn't go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.' And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit.

In April, Gizmodo purchased an iPhone prototype and posted several news stories about the device. There has been an ongoing investigation on the incident which resulted in a search warrant for Gizmodo editor Jason Chen.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is at the D8 Conference this evening, participating in an opening session involving a sit-down interview with All Things Digital's Kara Swisher. John Paczkowski is officially liveblogging tonight's interview while Engadget and CNET are also offering live coverage, and we'll be keeping track of any significant revelations coming out of the event. While Jobs is not expected to make any product announcements, the format will likely allow for some informal discussion and insight into Apple and Jobs that could prove interesting.

The opening session is just getting underway, with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch currently giving some opening remarks before turning things over to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Jobs' Comments:
- On Apple's market capitalization passing Microsoft's: "It doesn't matter very much. It's not what's important. It's not what makes you come to work in the morning...It is a little surreal."

- On his return to Apple in the '90s: "Apple was about 90 days from going bankrupt. It was much worse than I thought back then. I expected all the good people had left, but I found many of them still there, and I asked them, "Why are you still here?" They said it was because they believed in Apple."

- On the Adobe Flash controversy: "Apple doesn't have the resources others have, and we have to choose which horses to ride. We try to ride those that are on the way up. If you choose wisely, you save yourself an enormous amount of work." Points to the move to 3.5-inch floppies, the discontinuation of floppy drives, removal of serial and parallel ports, adoption of USB, removal of optical drive in MacBook Air. "Sometimes people call us crazy."

"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash. We made a technical decision. But it wasn't until the iPad that Adobe raised a stink about it." Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash" was a response made only after Apple grew tired of Adobe trashing it in the press. "We have the courage of our convictions. We're going to take the heat because we want to make the best products in the world for our customers. If we succeed they'll buy them, and if we don't they won't. So far they're liking the iPad...we're selling one every three seconds."

- On email correspondences: Refers to exchange with Gawker's Ryan Tate..."He never identified himself as a journalist. I was up late and working and this guy starts sending me obnoxious emails... and I wanted to straighten this guy out. I'm just enough of a sucker... and he publishes it!"

- On the lost next-generation iPhone: "There's an ongoing investigation, but I can tell you what I do know. To make a wireless product, you have to test it. You can't just keep it in the lab. There's a debate about whether it was left in a bar or stolen out of his bag, but the person who found it tried to sell it. It's a great story...it's got theft, buying stolen property, extortion. Probably sex in there somewhere...someone should make a movie out of this.

- On Foxconn suicides: "We're all over this. We do one of the best jobs in any industry of understanding suppliers' working conditions. Foxconn is not a sweatshop, it's a factory. 13 suicides out of 400,000 workers this year is less than the U.S. rate of 11 per 100,000, but it's still troubling. We're trying to understand things right now and we have people over there."

- On the future of Apple and "platform wars" with Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.: "I don't see it. We never saw ourselves in a platform war with MSFT, and maybe that's why we lost. We think about the competition, but we're focused on building a better product."

- On WebKit, particularly for mobile devices: "Almost every modern browser is based on it...Nokia, Palm, Android, RIM. We've created a real competitor to Internet Explorer. It's #1 in mobile."

- On Google: "They decided to compete with us. We didn't go into the search business!" Not going to remove Google from the iPhone. "We want to create better products than them. If people like our products, we get to come to work for tomorrow. Just because we're competing doesn't mean we have to be rude."

- On acquisition of Siri: "It's an AI (artificial intelligence) company. We're not going into the search business."

- On AT&T's network: "iPhone is the first phone where we separated the carrier from the hardware. They worry about the network, while we worry about the phone. They're improving, but they do have some issues. Remember that they're handling way more traffic than all other competitors combined."

- On possible expansion to other U.S. carriers: "There might be advantages." When asked if it might happen in the near future, he responds, "You know I can't comment on that." And getting back to AT&T specifically, "We changed the business model for phones, and AT&T took a big chance with us."

- On tablets: "We did something similar to what we did with the iPhone. We started from scratch and threw out the existing paradigm of handwriting recognition." Acknowledges that tablet project actually came before phone, but realized that phone was more important.

- On the iPad's ability to save journalism: "The foundation of a free society is free press, and some of the newspapers are in real trouble. I don't want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. I'm all for anything that can help newspapers with new ways of expressing themselves and getting paid. We need editorial oversight now more than ever." Jobs notes that iPad opens up way to offer much more than print or static webpages. But should charge less than print... "The biggest lesson Apple has learned is price it aggressively and go for volume."

- On Apple's entry into eBooks causing price increases: "The new structure allows pricing to be more sensitive to consumers and should allow prices to eventually go down."

- On whether tablets will replace PCs: Compares to vehicles..."When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that's what you needed on the farms. But cars eventually became more prevalent is people moved to cities. PCs will be like trucks...they are still going to be around, but there is a transformation coming, and it will make some people uneasy. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years from now?"

- On the iPad: "People laugh at me because I describe the iPad as magical. We've stripped away what's between you and the computer. We're just scratching the surface with the kinds of apps that can be built." Regarding the lack of a keyboard hindering content creation, "When I am going to write that 35-page analyst report I am going to want my bluetooth keyboard. That's one percent of the time. These machines will grow to be able to more things...time takes care of lots of these things. Productivity apps, video editing, etc."

- On flexible displays: "We don't have the technology and it's not on the horizon. A lot of people have tried and are continuing to try, but probably several years away still."

- On control of the App Store ecosystem: "We have two platforms we support. One is completely open and uncontrolled and that is HTML 5. We support HTML 5. We have the best support for HTML 5 of anyone in the world. Then there's the curated App Store platform. We've got a few rules (function as advertised, can't crash, can't use undocumented APIs), but we approve 95% of apps within a week...thousands per week."

Regarding rejected political cartoon content, Jobs notes, "We had a rule that said you can't defame people. By definition, they defame people. We didn't think of that. That was an unintended consequence. We had actually changed the rule several months earlier, but made a mistake. We're doing the best we can and fixing mistakes as fast as we can. But sometimes people lie and run to the press. We take it on the chin and don't call them out."

- On Jobs' typical workday: "I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to come in and work with some of the most brilliant people in the world. We play in the best sandbox. We're structured like a start-up. We're the biggest start-up on the planet. And we all meet once a week to discuss our business...and there's tremendous teamwork at the top and that filters down to the other employees.

- On the next ten years: "You know, when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got advice from people who said 'you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn't go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.' And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit."

"The company is a little more experienced and a little more beat up, but Apple is still the same company it was 5 or 10 years ago in terms of values. We're still trying to build the best products. Nothing makes my day more than getting a random email from someone talking about how cool the iPad is. That's what keeps me going. That's what kept me going back then, and now, and will keep me going in the future."

- On entering the ad business: "We want to help our developers make money. We're not going to make much money on this. People's behavior on phones is very different than on computers...less searching and more apps. So you put ads in the apps to help developers make money. Sure, someone else could do it, but they're not. We can build it right into the OS."

- On user privacy: "We take privacy very seriously." Points to location-based apps having to call up iPhone OS panel to request permission to access data. "That's one of the reasons we have the curated app store. A lot of the people in the Valley think we're old fashioned about this. But we take it seriously."

Q&A
- On whether he would change anything about his 2005 Stanford commencement speech: "Probably I would just turn up the volume on it. The last few years have reminded me that life is fragile."

- On ad analytics controversy: "Some company called Flurry had data on devices that we were using on our campus -- new devices. They were getting this info by getting developers to put software in their apps that sent info back to this company! So we went through the roof. It's violating our privacy policies, and it's pissing us off! So we said we're only going to allow analytics that don't give our device info -- only for the purpose of advertising." When pressed about legitimate uses of analytics data on device usage, Jobs noted that Apple would be willing to sit down with analytics firms, "but it's not today".

- On balance shifts in content: "The way we market movies is changing. It used to be TV advertising with trailers, but now it's the Web. Content providers used to think their customers were movie theaters, record stores, etc. But they need to recognize that it's the viewer and you need to let them watch whenever, wherever they want. It's starting to happen in television, and even now in film."

- On content syncing to the cloud: "We need to better on letting people share content amongst their own various devices." When pressed on a timeline, Jobs noted, "We're working on it."

- On iPhone dropped calls: "Credible people tell me that things get worse before they get better as the carriers switch things around to make improvements. If you believe that, things should get a lot better soon. Should be better by end of summer. We'll see."

- On HDCP/content protection: "The content providers are afraid of a Napster repeat, and they set the rules. Apple tries to persuade, but if they can't convince providers, they have to either accept the limitations or go without the content."

- On vision for social gaming on iPhone OS: "Clearly iPhone plus iPod touch have created a new class of gaming. It's a subset of casual gaming. But it's surprising how good some of them are. They're almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics. Console games the software is $30 or $40 a game. It's cheaper on iPhone, so the market has exploded."

- 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.

==End of Session==

When the first images of the next generation iPhone were released in April, the first reaction of many readers was that it must be a iPhone counterfeit or clone from China. As more details emerged, it became clear that the leaked phone was definitely an Apple prototype and ultimately returned to Apple.

Based on the numerous leaks, the real Chinese counterfeiters have had time to ramp up their efforts and create this 4th generation iPhone clone. This one's officially called "GPS-PHONE" accoding to PCOnline.com.cn and offers a number of features including a front facing camera, a TV antenna, mini USB interface, and camera flash.

The device even comes with its own iPhone-like interface and supports installation of Java apps.

For reference, images of the actual iPhone prototype can be found here.

Parts for the next-generation iPhone continue to surface as the device's expected introduction at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week approaches. The latest part to make an appearance on Taiwanese site Apple.pro is the device's battery, and while it appears that no additional info can be gleaned from the new images beyond that disclosed in reports based on prototypes that surfaced in the hands of Gizmodo and a Vietnamese mobile phone dealer, it does appear to offer another example of Apple's supply chain leaking out parts for an unreleased product.

As first disclosed by Gizmodo, the new images show that the next-generation iPhone's battery carries a capacity of 5.25 watt-hours, a nearly 16.5% increase from the 4.51 watt-hour battery in the iPhone 3GS. The Vietnamese leaked prototype, however, carried a 5.00 watt-hour battery.

The site has also posted a photo of the forthcoming iPhone's dock connector and cable, which differ somewhat in appearance from the design used in the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

Antivirus company Intego today announced that it has discovered a new spyware application capable of infecting computers running Mac OS X. The spyware, known as "OSX/OpinionSpy", is downloaded and installed on users' computers via the installation process for unrelated applications hosted on several popular download sites.

This spyware, OSX/OpinionSpy, performs a number of malicious actions, from scanning files to recording user activity, as well as sending information about this activity to remote servers and opening a backdoor on infected Macs.

OSX/OpinionSpy is installed by a number of applications and screen savers that are distributed on sites such as MacUpdate, VersionTracker and Softpedia. The spyware itself is not contained in these applications, but is downloaded during the installation process.

According to the report, the installation instructions for the seemingly harmless media converter software and screensavers that serve as the vehicle for the spyware in some cases require the user to accept installation of a "market research" add-on that actually opens a backdoor on the infected computer, scans files, and transmits data to remote servers.

Users have no way of knowing exactly what data is collected and sent to remote servers; such data may include user names, passwords, credit card numbers and more. The risk of this data being collected and used without users' permission makes this spyware particularly dangerous to users' privacy.

Full details on the malware's actions are available on Intego's site.

OSX/OpinionSpy is a new Mac OS X version of Windows malware that has been floating around since 2008.

To celebrate its 10 Millionth Forum Post MacRumors is holding a contest.

All forum users are eligible to compete in the Ten Million Post Avatar Contest starting today, through June 13. Demonstrate your skill and creativity and have some fun!

Winners, selected by a vote among forum users, will earn a permanent place in MacRumors history and in an avatar gallery. The winning avatars from the Five Million Post Avatar Contest in 2008 are showcased in the Five Million Post Avatar Contest Gallery.

To enter the contest, see the contest description and rules. To see new contest entries as they are submitted, watch the Ten Million Post Contest forum.

Adobe today announced the launch of its new Digital Publishing Platform, integrating the company's InDesign CS5 with other publishing tools to assist print publishers with converting their content for digital consumption on devices such as the iPad. The company points to its experience revamping Wired's iPad application that made its strong debut last week as an example of the power of its technology.

"Adobe's work with WIRED has resulted in a digital magazine format that creates an immersive experience, allowing a publication's unique content, look and feel and advertising to stand out in the digital realm," said David Burkett, vice president and general manager, Creative Solutions at Adobe. "We aim to make our digital viewer software available to all publishers soon and plan to deliver versions that work across multiple hardware platforms. It's safe to say that if you are already working in InDesign CS5, you'll be well on your way to producing a beautiful digital version of your publication."

Adobe touts the features included in its new platform, including embedded video and slideshows, 360-degree interactive images, touch gesture support, and zooming modes. In addition, Adobe's platform facilitates the integration of advertising into digital productions, offering much of the same level of interactivity to spur new ways of reaching customers.

Adobe's Digital Publishing Platform is specifically targeting tablets, smartphones, and other similar devices, and the company plans to make available on its Adobe Labs site "soon" tools to assist publishers in moving from InDesign layouts to digital applications.

Following the schedule announced in late April, music streaming service Lala Media permanently shut down as of late yesterday, bringing an end to the popular service that was acquired by Apple late last year.

Apple has been rumored to be tapping the Lala team for assistance in rolling out a cloud-based version of iTunes that would allow users to upload their media collections to Apple's servers and stream the content to their computers and portable devices, reducing local storage requirements and eliminating the need to specifically sync content between devices. Such a move would require, however, that Apple strike new deals with content providers, and music industry sources indicate that there has not been much activity on this front, suggesting that an announcement of a cloud-based iTunes is likely some time off.

As noted on Lala's site, customers who held purchase credit through the site's service will receive new iTunes Store credits by June 14th.

If you purchased web songs on Lala or had an outstanding wallet balance as of May 31st, 2010, an iTunes Store credit code will automatically be sent to your member email address no later than June 14th, 2010.

Credit amounts will be based on your account activity as of May 31, 2010. iTunes Store credit amounts will be rounded up to the nearest $1 for refunds under $10, or to the nearest $5 for refunds greater than $10.

Members can also request refund checks to be sent to their shipping address on file with the company.

At this point, we have a very good idea of what the next generation iPhone will look like. It seems specs and spare parts of the device are also readily available in Chinese markets. We still can't be sure if these specs are entirely legitimate or not. The Apple iPod/iPhone accessory market is huge so there is enormous financial incentive for accessory companies to begin production as soon as possible.

Ideal-case recently sent out an email to customers advertising their new "iPhone 4GS" case which resembles the leaked design. We suspect Ideal Case's announcement is based on these early design/part leaks and they are simply trying to cash in on the early hype.

We've seen this wishful thinking gone wrong in the past with the iPod Touch with camera cases that were leaked in 2009. While the iPod touch with camera was an actual prototype device, it's not the one that made it into final production.

Meanwhile, iPhone Portugal was able to actually purchase parts from China of the edge casing for what is believed to be the next generation iPhone.

These parts were purchased in China by one of our readers (weren't stolen or found) then delivered to us. We will not reveal the price. Are those parts genuine? We can not know but we can tell for sure those parts are perfect, have no defects, not faulty at all, there is not even one single difference between the 2 copies we have.

They shot this video of the pieces in detail to demonstrate the high quality workmanship of the parts:

Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone at next week's WWDC event.

Google is phasing out the use of Windows company-wide due to security concerns. The move comes after news in January that Google was hacked in an attack originating in China. Those attacks used a security vulnerability in Internet Explorer for Windows. News of the report comes from FT.com who cites several Google employees.

"We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort," said one Google employee.

The majority of those moving away from Windows PCs are moving to Mac OS according to another Google employee. New hires are given the option to run Mac OS or a Linux-based machine.

Google employs over 10,000 individuals worldwide.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take the stage on Tuesday night at All Things D. The interview will be conducted by Kara Swisher who has hinted at the topics of discussion:

There is much to talk to Jobs about, obviously, including the new iPad, the mobile market and the iPhone, its tense relationship with Google (GOOG) and the next innovations from the Silicon Valley computer icon.

Steve Jobs' last appearance was at D5 in 2007 shortly after the announcement of the original iPhone.

Other speakers include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and HTC CEO Peter Chou.

A number of high profile suicides amongst Foxconn workers has generated a lot of headlines over the past few weeks. The incidents have resulted in increasing scrutiny of the company prompting a number of investigations. Foxconn is a manufacturing partner for a number of U.S. companies including Apple. Apple has announced that it will be conducting its own independent review of the working conditions at the Foxconn factories.

Today, a report from Chinese site Zol.com.cn indicates that Apple will be providing financial rewards to Foxconn workers producing Apple products. Micgadget provides a translation:

A tech site in China has reported, Apple will provide financial subsidies to Foxconn's employees, the amount will roughly be 1 to 2% of the profits from Apple products. Apple has conducted investigation on Foxconn, and they believe the main reason for the suicide jumps is related to the employees' low wages. In order to solve the problem, Apple decides to offer a direct financial subsidies for the workers in Foxconn, it will first start from the iPad production line.

Apple has not yet made any announcements about their investigation, and has not confirmed this report of worker subsidies.

Apple today announced that it has sold over two million iPads sold in less than 60 days since the device's initial launch in the U.S. on April 3rd.

Apple today announced that iPad sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3. Apple began shipping iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK this past weekend. iPad will be available in nine more countries in July and additional countries later this year.

"Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone."

Apple has continued to deal with shortages of the iPad as it seeks to keep up with demand in the United States while also increasing distribution to additional countries.

For comparison purposes, it took over two years for Apple to sell its first two million iPods, while the original iPhone took on the order of four months to reach the two million milestone.

A newly leaked Intel processor roadmap reveals that the company will be releasing a speed-bumped Core i7 processor this fall. The upcoming Core i7-640M will run at a base frequency of 2.8GHz with "turbo boost" speeds up to 3.46GHz. This new processor draws the same power as the current MacBook Pro processors so should be a natural upgrade for Apple.

The MacBook Pro presently tops out at 2.66GHz with the Core i7 processor. It is available in both 15" and 17" models. Apple last updated the MacBook Pro this past April. It's unlikely that Apple will refresh the whole lineup this fall, but could offer the new processor as a build-to-order option. They've done these quiet upgrades in the recent past with the the Mac Pro.

The Skype app for iPhone [App Store] has been updated to allow voice calls to be made over 3G data networks. Skype is a popular VOIP (voice over IP) application that allows users to make phone calls from their computer or mobile phone over a network connection. This avoids using up any allotment of "voice minutes" from cell phone providers. Instead, the calls are routed over the data network which are traditionally offered in an unlimited monthly block.

In the past, AT&T has restricted these applications to Wi-Fi networks only to avoid piggybacking on their 3G service. AT&T, however, changed their position on this back in January but it has taken this long for Skype to release an update that supports this feature.

Skype indicates that this feature is free until at least the end of August, but at that time a small monthly fee will be initiated. It's not clear how much they plan on charging.