MacRumors

GreenM3's Dave Ohara reports (via Data Center Knowledge) that Apple has hired Kevin Timmons, formerly the general manager of Microsoft's data center group. Timmons had served in the role at Microsoft for less than two years after spending well over a decade in operations at GeoCities/Yahoo.

News that a bunch of us have been discussing is Apple hiring Kevin Timmons (GM of Microsoft's data center services group). Don't expect any press releases from Apple or Microsoft on this one. ... The position Kevin is going to fill is not known and is not the position vacated by the departed Olivier Sanche. Olivier's position has been filled by another data center operations executive.

Sanche, Apple's previous data center boss, passed away in November from a heart attack. And given that that position has already been filled internally, it appears that Timmons may be taking on other projects related to data center operations or even outside that scope.

All Things Digital offers a similar report indicating that Timmons may be taking on a role larger than traditional data center management, possibly including deployment of cloud-based services such as those rumored for a revamp of Apple's MobileMe subscription service.

Timmons left Microsoft this week and the company has confirmed his departure, though it declined to say why he left or where he was headed. But sources in position to know confirm hes hired on with Apple.

Details on Timmons's responsibilities there are slim, though I'm told his role may extend beyond his datacenter expertise. Which is interesting to hear in light of recent chatter about Apple's rumored cloud initiatives.

Apple of course is preparing to open (or has already opened) its massive new data center in North Carolina, a facility the company has said will be used to support iTunes and MobileMe. But rumors and speculation have gone well beyond Apple's current slate of data services to include "digital lockers" to allow users to store music, video, and photos in the cloud and even a video subscription service to take on Netflix.

Alongside today's release of iOS 4.3.2, Apple has also pushed out Safari 5.0.5 and Security Update 2011-002 for Mac OS X. The updates are available through Apple's download pages and through Software Update.

Apple's download notes for Safari 5.0.5 indicate only that the update includes the latest security updates.

Security Update 2011-002 is available as a small update for Snow Leopard systems, while the Leopard versions are much larger and incorporate additional changes that were previously made to Snow Leopard.

- Security Update 2011-002 (Snow Leopard) (4.43 MB)
- Security Update 2011-002 (Leopard - Client) (241.35 MB)
- Security Update 2011-002 (Leopard - Server) (473.19 MB)

Apple today released iOS 4.3.2, bringing several minor fixes and improvements to Apple's operating system for mobile devices. The build number is 8H7 for the majority of devices, with the CDMA iPad 2 receiving Build 8H8. A separate iOS 4.2.7 build 8E303 is also available for the CDMA iPhone 4.

This update contains improvements and other bug fixes including:

- Fixes an issue that occasionally caused blank or frozen video during a FaceTime call
- Fixes an issue that prevented some international users from connecting to 3G networks on iPad Wi-Fi + 3G
- Contains the latest security updates

BGR noted one week ago that iOS 4.3.2 was expected to debut within two weeks and reported earlier this week that the update would fix the issue with CDMA iPad 2 connectivity and FaceTime glitches.

CNET reports that Intel has publicly committed to supporting both USB 3.0 and the company's new Thunderbolt connectivity standard developed in cooperation with Apple on its forthcoming "Ivy Bridge" platform due for introduction next year.

"Intel is going to support USB 3.0 in the 2012 client platform. We're going to support Thunderbolt capability. We believe they're complementary," said Kirk Skaugen, a vice president at the Intel Architecture Group, speaking at Intel's developer conference in Beijing today. The event was streamed over the Web.

The "2012 client platform" that Skaugen referred to is known more commonly by the code name "Ivy Bridge," which is the family of chips that will follow the "Sandy Bridge" processors shipping in PCs today.

USB 3.0 offers ten times the speed of current USB technology, but has not yet been embraced in Intel's current platforms, leaving USB 3.0 compatibility a fairly rare feature for most Intel-based computers given the need to rely on a separate part from NEC rather than having it built directly into Intel's silicon.

Intel is still encouraging peripherals developers to embrace Thunderbolt, which can support data and video on a single cable and made its debut in Apple's new MacBook Pros introduced earlier this year. Notably, Apple was recently granted a patent for a new iOS device dock connector that could support both Thunderbolt/DisplayPort and USB 3.0 connectivity, as well as the existing USB 2.0 standard.

Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media today announced that release of its March 2011 "Mobile Mix" report, revealing that Apple's iOS has benefited from the launch of the Verizon iPhone, with its share of the smartphone/connected device operating system market for ad impressions growing by 11% to 31%. iOS continues to trail Android's 48% share, but Android's share has been falling for the last several months after having risen to over 50% of the market.

According to the report, the Verizon iPhone accounted for 8.2% of all iPhone ad impressions during the month as iOS impressions grew by 29% compared to 23% for Android.

When it comes to revenue generated by application platform, iOS holds the top spot at 47%, well ahead of second-place Android at 36%. The success of iOS has been driven in large part by the iPad, which saw its revenue double month-over-month based on increased sales and adoption of Millennial's platform.

Just as it did last quarter, Apple appears to have once again demonstrated year-over-year Mac sales growth for the first quarter of 2011 while the rest of the industry has been mired in a slump reportedly due in no small part to a shift in consumer interest to new media tablets dominated by Apple's iPad. The data comes from research firms Gartner and IDC.

According to Gartner's report, Apple once again checked in in fifth place in the U.S. market, grabbing a 9.3% share that marks a significant rise from a 7.3% share in the prior-year quarter. The number is down slightly, however, from a 9.7% share in the previous quarter and marks the second consecutive decline in Mac sales share, although Apple's market share does tend toward cyclical fluctuations that have led the company's share to still be significantly higher than it was in the first quarter of 2010.

"Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers. Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We're investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market."

Gartner's report pegged Apple's year-over-year unit growth in the United States at 18.9%, outpacing fourth-place Toshiba's 10.9% growth as all other top manufacturers saw declines that led to an overall decline of 6.1% in the U.S. PC market.

IDC's report tells a somewhat similar story, although that firm pegs Apple's year-over-year unit growth in the U.S. at only 9.6%, behind that of Toshiba at 10.4%. But IDC also sees a much steeper drop-off for Acer than Gartner sees, with IDC showing a 42% drop in unit sales that bumps Acer down from third place to fifth place and allows Apple to rise to fourth place with 8.5% of the market.

As usual, neither Gartner nor IDC covered Apple's worldwide performance for the quarter, as the company does not rank in the top five by global shipments. Both reports did, however, record year-over-year declines in the worldwide market similar to those seen for the United States, with Gartner seeing a 1.1% decline in sales while IDC tracked a 3.2% drop.

Panic developer Cabel Sasser noticed a strange bug in the iTunes App Store this evening. As part of the hardware requirements on several new apps, a placeholder name "ix.Mac.MarketingName" has appeared on several apps' iTunes listings.

The listing appears on Panic's new universal SSH client for iOS called Prompt [App Store] which appeared in the App Store this evening as well as many other Universal apps in the App Store.

It's clearly a glitch that will be corrected quickly, but it's led some to speculate that it's a placeholder for another unknown device.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has added a "do-not-track" privacy tool to the latest test version of their web browser Safari found in Mac OS X Lion.

The tool is included within the latest test release of Lion, a version of Apple's Mac OS X operating system that is currently available only to developers. The final version of the operating system is scheduled to be released to the public this summer. Mentions of the do-not-track feature in Apple's Safari browser began to appear recently in online discussion forums and on Twitter.

Mac OS X Lion is currently in private developer seeding and is due to the public later this summer.

This "do-not-track" feature was originally proposed by the FTC and is a voluntary system in which web browsers broadcast this "do-not-track" preference but its up to advertising companies to actually comply with the request.

Do-not-track tools in browsers automatically send out messages to websites and online-advertising networks requesting that users' movements around the Web not be tracked. The system will only work if Web companies agree to respect peoples' tracking preferences.

According to the WSJ, major online ad networks have yet to agree on how to honor the system.

Apple's Safari is the 3rd major browser to support this initiative, following Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox. Google's Chrome has yet to commit support to the feature.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple will finally deliver the white iPhone 4 by the end of April after a 10 month wait.

The new version will be available from AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless by the end of April, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't public. The release was stalled as Apple resolved manufacturing challenges, including paint that peeled under heat, one person said.

Bloomberg's sources reveal that the issue that had caused the delay involved the white paint peeling under heat. After the initial delays, Apple had said the white iPhone would ship by Spring 2011. The new model may help boost sales of the iPhone 4 which has been on the market since June of 2010. Bloomberg also confirms previous reports that Apple is not planning on introducing a new iPhone at WWDC, possibly waiting until later this year to introduce the iPhone 5.

Update: Reuters offers a similar update, claiming that the Apple has begun production on a white iPhone that will be released "within a month".

Suppliers to Apple Inc have begun production of white iPhones after a delay of almost 10 months, pointing to a launch date of within a month, two people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

Update 2: According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has confirmed that the white iPhone delays are nearly over and reiterates its previous position that the device will be launched this spring.

Apple Inc. said Thursday that delays keeping the white iPhone from store shelves are nearly ended and that the device is on track for spring release, reiterating the projection that the company made in October.

Apple declined to comment about which carrier would initially carry the white iPhone 4.

While unofficial video of yesterday's Final Cut Pro X sneak peek has already surfaced, prominent trainer and consultant Larry Jordan has also posted an excellent overview, entitled "The Sound of 1,700 Jaws Dropping", describing the overhaul for Apple's professional-level video editing package.

The new Final Cut Pro is a bold move - a totally redesigned interface, 64-bit memory addressing, multi-processor support, tight integration of metadata in the project file with metadata stored in the clip not just in the project, heavy use of automation to simplify tedious tasks, and a rethinking of the entire concept of what it means to edit.

I can't think of any other company that could so totally redefine what a non-linear video editor is than Apple. Since the release of Final Cut Pro 1, each version of FCP has contained incremental improvements. This is a complete restatement at every possible level.

As Phil Schiller, senior VP for world-wide marketing for Apple told me after the presentation, "This is a total rethinking of how we tell stories visually."

Apple has yet to update its website with any information on the new Final Cut Pro, and may not do so for some time yet given that the event was an early demo of the software and not an official launch, but many of the features detailed in the demo have already been noted in our coverage of the event.

Jordan reports, however, that the Final Cut Pro X build used in the demo was in fact an old one that had been used in February for a small invitation-only preview on Apple's campus and that many more improvements have been made since that time.

While the slide show was identical to the February meeting, the demo was not. Randy Ubillos, who did the demo, added more features and additional explanations on effects (see the screen shot above). However, I was told later that the build that was demoed was the same build that was shown in February - and that the application has moved significantly forward since that time.

In other words, what we saw tonight was nowhere near the final form of the application.

And just as we noted Apple's comments to The Loop last night suggesting that Apple will share more information on the other components of Final Cut Studio in due time, Jordan reports that despite drawing heavily on many of those components for Final Cut Pro X itself, Apple indeed says that there is more to come.

After the presentation, I spoke with Richard Townhill, Director of Pro Video Product Marketing for Apple (who served as the host for Apple's presentation) who told me that "the purpose of today is to focus exclusively on Final Cut Pro, highlight some of the new features, and give people a chance to see and comment on the new interface. We will have much more to say about both Final Cut and our other applications in the future."

Final Cut has been rewritten from the ground up and borrows a lot from other siblings in the suite. The audio cleanup and processing borrows heavily from Soundtrack Pro, primary and secondary color correction tools are taken from Color (see the screen shot below), and some of the motion effects techniques are taken from Motion.

However, this does not mean these other applications are dead - simply that Apple is not talking about them... yet.

Final Cut Pro X is set to launch in June and will be priced at $299.

As relayed by AppleInsider, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White has issued a new research note discussing the possibility of Apple releasing a "Smart TV" as soon as later this year. White's speculation comes from "data points" picked up at a Chinese electronics trade show being held this week.

"Our research suggests this Smart TV would go well beyond the miniature $99 second-generation Apple TV that the company released last fall and provide a full-blown TV product for consumers," White said.

He went on to say that although Apple has long been projected by company watchers to enter the HDTV market, the Mac maker now appears to be "moving down this pace at a faster pace than the market expected."

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been the most vocal proponent of the idea of an Apple-branded television set integrating iTunes-focused video subscription services, but even Munster has typically seen such a release happening a bit further down the road than pegged in White's new claims.

Apple executives have said in the past that the company has no interest in the television market given slim profit margins and an already-crowded field, but Munster has remained steadfast in his belief that Apple does have plans for this market, and White now appears to be joining him.

As noted in our forums, YouTube user machineurs has posted a pair of videos (1, 2) showing most of yesterday's Final Cut Pro X sneak peek. The introduction took place at the Final Cut Pro User Group Network SuperMeet held in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters' NAB Show 2011 in Las Vegas.

While the videos are not the professionally-produced broadcasts created by Apple for its higher-profile media events, they are of fairly high quality with consistent views of the slides and action on stage and solid audio quality.

Final Cut Pro X is set to launch in June and will be available through the Mac App Store for $299. Information on new versions of the other applications in the Final Cut Studio suite will be released in the future.

DigiTimes reports that touch panel suppliers for Apple's iPhone continue to dedicate their capacity to the existing iPhone 4 with no timeline for shifting production to a fifth-generation model, lending credence to claims that Apple will not introduce a new iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference in early June but still leaving open the question of when users can expect such a debut.

Apple has not yet released a production roadmap for iPhone 5 as shipment volumes of iPhone 4 have continued to mount and related suppliers are not yet ready to shift their production lines for new products, according to sources at Taiwan-based touch panel makers. … While acknowledging there should be a roadmap for each generation of products, the sources insisted that touch panel shipments for iPhone 4 have remained steady, and that they have not seen a timetable to stop current production in preparation for the next-generation of iPhone.

Increasing numbers of claims are pointing to a new iPhone roughly in the September timeframe, with recent speculation citing Apple's annual September media event traditionally focused on iPods for a potential iPhone introduction.

IDG News reports that Intel has announced that it will release developer kits for Thunderbolt, its new high-speed data connection standard, sometime this quarter, accelerating deployment of the standard that so far has been limited to Apple's new MacBook Pro and a small handful of peripherals companies.

Intel is already working with some partners to develop products as it tries to build out an ecosystem around the interconnect. LaCie and Western Digital have already demonstrated portable storage products, but are not yet selling devices. Companies including Canon have announced support for Thunderbolt, and products from AJA, BlackMagic, Matrox and Sonnet are being shown at the NAB trade show, which is going on in Las Vegas through April 14.

According to the report, Sony is also firmly behind the standard but has yet to announce plans for bringing it to its products. Other computer manufacturers such as HP are continuing to evaluate Thunderbolt before committing to it.

High-speed data transfer protocols such as Thunderbolt are of course key for moving large files quickly, meaning that the standard will likely play an integral role as power users gear up with the latest hardware and look to deploy such cutting edge software as Apple's forthcoming Final Cut Pro X.