MacRumors

While it seems reports that Best Buy was holding iPad 2 stock were true, it was apparently not due to a contract dispute with Apple. Best Buy released this statement to BGR:

"Best Buy continues to receive iPad 2 inventory from Apple on a regular basis. As we've said previously, we are fulfilling customer reservations first. Our stores have been asked to temporarily hold non-reserved iPad 2 inventory for an upcoming promotion. This is a customary practice for us when there are supply constraints. Best Buy enjoys a great partnership with Apple, and we're delighted by customer response to iPad 2."

The above screenshot does show that Best Buy asked employees to hold sales of the iPad 2 at this time, but no other details are provided. A CrunchGear reader even received an email reply from Apple acting-CEO Tim Cook who denied any knowledge of any issue.

Engadget reports that Time Warner Cable has taken Viacom to court to ask for declaratory judgement over the usage of cable content.

Time Warner Cable announced this afternoon it has filed a request in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for a declaratory judgement regarding Viacom's cable networks. Time Warner continues to maintain its carriage agreements give it the right to allow subscribers access on any screen in their home, not just the TV and is apparently ready to prove that in court -- or at least drive Viacom, Discovery, Fox and other complaining networks towards more favorable negotiations.

Viacom, of course, disagrees with that assessment and claims that existing content agreements don't cover the streaming of cable television to devices like the iPad.

The controversy began after Time Warner launched a free app for cable providers that allowed customers to stream cable television to their iPads. Time Warner, however, had to quickly pull several channels from the app due to complaints by several networks. Meanwhile, Cablevision followed up with their own app that offers 100% of their channels. Cablevision claims that this usage of content is fully permissible based on current content agreements. They claim that broadcasting onto additional screens within the home is permissible as the content is never streamed over the internet.

The other interesting patent application coming out of Apple yesterday was one of a hybrid e-Paper/Video iOS display.

Apple's second patent surprise of the day is all about Apple devising a next generation iPhone that would effectively offer us a smart hybrid display that could switch between a standard LCD and an e-Paper display. In fact, it's so smart that the display could actually subdivide itself into quadrants that could intelligently switch display types depending on the content that the user is running.

E-Ink displays have been popular on early eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle. E-Ink displays are unbacklit high resolution displays that offer superior readability in direct sunlight. Amazon even ran TV ads promoting this feature over Apple's iPad. Fans of e-Ink also claim the displays are less fatiguing on the eyes over long periods of reading.

Apple's new research into a hybrid e-Ink/Video display is reminiscent of technology from 3Qi who also offers a dual-mode LCD screen that offers both reflective e-ink as well as a the traditional emissive video mode.

CrunchGear reports that BestBuy may have stepped into some trouble with Apple due its handling of iPad 2 sales:

A reader who works at Best Buy just told us that there's been a bit of a misunderstanding between the electronics retailer and Apple. Apparently, Best Buy was holding off on selling the iPad 2s it had in stock, telling customers there weren't any when in fact they had just reached their quota of sales for the day.

According to CrunchGear, Tim Cook is involved in ongoing negotiations about the issue. Meanwhile TUAW posts a very similar account from another anonymous tipster:

He claims that until further notice, the mammoth electronics retailer has had all stock except demo units pulled.

Valve Software has sent out teaser images to a least some of the Mac media with very little other information. The emails came from Valve's co-founder Gabe Newell. MacRumors received the following image tonight:

Our friends at Macworld also received an image, posted by @chartier

The last time Valve released teaser images to the Mac media, it was to promote the announcement of Steam for the Mac platform. We expect this set of images is related to the Portal Alternative Reality Game likely promoting their imminent Portal 2 game launch. Here is the early teaser for Portal 2:

The original Portal game was an incredibly fun and well received game featuring physics based puzzles in which the player manipulated two different teleporting portal entrances. Portal 2 will launch on April 19th for the Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, and XBox 360.

Update: More pieces of the puzzle are being documented at ValveArg.com's Wiki.

Atari has released a new emulator for the iPhone and iPad called Atari's Greatest Hits [iTunes]. The free universal download comes with Pong and also offers a selection of 100 classic Atari arcade and 2600 console games for in-app purchase. The full list of games can be seen here but include Asteroids, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Star Raiders, Missile Command, Tempest, Battlezone, and much more. Each 4-pack is offered for $0.99 or all 100 games can be purchased for $14.99.

The package has been well received at sister site TouchArcade, but perhaps most promising is that Atari had previously announced support for the iCade iPad gaming accessory.

The iCade began as an 2010 April Fools joke but based on the response was developed as an actual product. The iCade is a miniature arcade cabinet that allows you to slide an iPad in as the screen. The iCade then provides a joystick and buttons for gameplay.

Asteroids had been demoed on the iCade at CES, but Atari had also promised a "huge suite" of classic games to market the device. It appears that has suite has arrived. The iCade is currently in production and is expected to be available for ordering in June.

DigiTimes reports that RIM's PlayBook tablet PC is set to launch on April 19th, but that this date was a month behind the original target date. Besides ongoing software testing, RIM was also unable to procure enough touch panels since "Apple already booked up most of the available capacity".

Apple is believed to have invested $3.9 billion in order to guarantee long term supply of LCDs for the next few years. Apple had already suffered from shortages during the first iPad's launch and likely recognized it as a strategic long-term investment, much like their long term flash-memory purchase in 2005.

The move already seems to be affecting supply of competitors including the RIM playbook. While the Playbook uses a smaller 7" screen than the iPad's 10", there are only so many companies that supply touch panel displays and it seems Apple has saturated their production capabilities.

PatentlyApple reveals a new Apple patent application which details how the iPhone might get a new "smart bezel" which offers the ability to display additional indicators in the device's border.

Apple intends to introduce a method that employs a very cool secondary display scheme that utilizes a printed segmented electroluminescence display. Apple intends to use the secondary display to introduce a set of new illuminated indicators that are able morph into various controls for work and play. Illuminated gaming and productivity controls could be built into the face-side of the bezel and/or selected back-side areas of iOS devices like the iPad.

The reasoning behind embedding these indicators in the bezel itself is to provide the user visual instruction or guidance without taking up valuable screen real estate.

Apple's patent covers systems and methods for selectively illuminating a secondary display. An electronic device could include a primary display (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen) and a secondary display (e.g., a printed segmented electroluminescence display). The primary display could be used to convey visual content to a user, and the secondary display could be used to guide a user providing inputs to the device. For example, the secondary display could be selectively illuminated to provide one or more indicators that represent where or how a user can provide inputs to the device.

The side indicators could be composed of a number of elements to allow developers to "draw" different icons. Figure 3A shows all elements in an "off" position. Figure 3B shows a + or cross, 3C a gamepad icon and 3D an up arrow.

ModMyI claims that Toys R' Us will begin selling the iPad 2 next month.

And there's photographic evidence to back up the claim. Obtained during an employee training session, the pic clearly illustrates the iPad 2 presented in some form of employee training and testing process - something that would naturally take place shortly before a new product launch.

The move would further expand Apple's retail presence for the iPad 2. The iPad is already being sold in 3rd party retailers Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target as well as Apple's own retail stores.

iPad 2 supplies seem to be improving with ship times having decreased to 2-3 weeks. But supply is still short in several parts of the country with reports of morning lines still forming at several Apple stores.

BGR claims that Apple is already working on another 4.3.x release that is due in the next two weeks.

Its said to include a few enhancements, address security issues, and it will also fix several bugs that have affected users. Were told to expect the software update for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in about two weeks.

Few details are provided. iOS 4.3.1 was just released March 25th and brought minor bug fixes and improvements.

Business Insider reports on a research note from Deutsche Bank estimating sales of Motorola's Android-based Xoom tablet at only about 100,000 units since its late February launch, based on Android developer statistics showing that only 0.2% of Android devices accessing the Android Market during the second half of March had the Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" operating system installed. The Xoom is currently the only device on the market running Honeycomb.

The Guardian runs through the calculation, finding 100,000 units to be a reasonable result for Xoom sales based on piecing together data from publicly-available sources on usage and market share, although the number could be a bit higher.

Mobile advertising firm Chitika has seen similar indications in its tracking of Internet browsing habits via its extensive ad network, finding the iPad outnumbering the Xoom 65-to 1 on its network.

Taken on its own, 100,000 units in a little over a month on the market for the Xoom is not a terrible number, especially considering that the device has only been launched in the United States, but it certainly appears to pale in comparison to the iPad and suggests that competitors have yet to launch a tablet product to capture consumers' imaginations anywhere nearly as successfully as Apple has.

Apple sold 300,000 iPads (including pre-orders) on its launch day in April 2010, reaching the one million mark after just 28 days. All told, Apple shipped nearly 15 million iPads in 2010 and has already released the second-generation iPad, although the company has yet to release sales numbers for the new model. Surveys have continued to show, however, strong consumer preference for the iPad over competing tablet products.

StorageNewsletter.com reports (via AppleInsider) that Apple has placed a massive order with Isilon Systems for up to 12 petabytes of storage to support iTunes video offerings.

Apple ordered as much as 12PB of capacity from Isilon Systems, notably to manage the video download of its customers using iTunes, according to an inside source of the new division of EMC.

According to the report, the order is likely to make Apple the largest of Isilon's 1,500 worldwide customers.

Apple is of course set to bring its massive new data center outside of Maiden, North Carolina online any day now, and Apple has reported that the facility will be used to support iTunes and MobileMe services. The company has, however, reportedly also been looking to deploy new cloud-based services that would allow users store music, video, and photos on Apple's servers for access from multiple Internet-connected devices.

The Loop reports that Microsoft is preparing to release Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 sometime next week, bringing a number of fixes, enhancements and new features to the company's flagship productivity suite. The most significant new features are said to come in Outlook, including support for syncing calendars to iOS devices via Sync Services.

The update will enable calendar syncing between Outlook for Mac and Apple's Sync Services. This means you can now sync your Outlook calendars, as well as your contacts, notes and tasks with any service or device that supports Sync Services.

That includes your iPhone and iPad. Microsoft's Senior Director of Product Management, Pat Fox, told The Loop that this was one of the most requested features from Office for Mac 2011 users.

Unfortunately, Apple is discontinuing support for MobileMe calendar syncing via Sync Services as of May 5th, preventing users from utilizing direct Outlook-MobileMe syncing.

Outlook will see a number of other new features, including support for server-side rules in Exchange, redirect and resend buttons for mail, and editing of existing messages. Excel will reportedly also see new integration of Solver functionalities.

Update: Microsoft has published a blog post offering additional detail on some of the new features coming in Office for Mac 2011 SP1.

As reported by Fudzilla and HardMac, Intel is about to launch its next generation Sandy Bridge ultra low voltage CPUs suitable for the MacBook Air.

Due to the MacBook Air's thin form factor, it has required the use of particularly low power CPUs from Intel. Apple has stuck with Core 2 Duo processors with a maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 10-17W. Apple is believed to have continued to use this older processor design in order to keep NVIDIA's graphics chips powering their ultracompact notebook. Due to licensing disputes, NVIDIA was prohibited from building newer chipsets that supported Intel's newest processors.

With the release of Sandy Bridge, Intel upgraded the performance of their integrated graphics chipset. This was good enough for Apple to offer in their latest 13" MacBook Pros, so we expect it will be good enough for the upcoming MacBook Airs as well. Apple had been previously rumored to be introducing the "Sandy Bridge" MacBook Airs this June.

HardMac pinpoints the Core i5 2537M (17W) as the possible chip to be used, at least in the 13" model:

Fortunately, Intel has low consumption processors, well for now, one processor, the Core i5 2537M. It is clocked at 1.4 GHz and features an impressive turbo mode reaching 2.3 GHz. It would be a huge gap with the power currently offered in the MacBook Air, even in the 13" model. Plus the bus is now 1333 MHZ, while it is only 800 MHz currently.

Meanwhile, the current 11" MacBook air uses an even lower power (10W) processor, but it's not clear how much power savings is offered by removing the need for the NVIDIA graphics chipset, as the Intel solution is integrated within the processor itself.

According to DigiTimes, Apple's manufacturing partners provided the company with approximately 2.4-2.6 million iPad 2 units during the month of March, with most of those presumably having made it through to customer's hands given the tight supplies seen at Apple and other retailers.

The company also appears to be ramping production for the second quarter, with the report claiming a "conservative estimate" of 4.0-4.3 million iPad 2 units per month for total shipments of over 12 million during the quarter.

Sales of iPad 2 are running at a rate faster than its predecessor, and Apple took delivery of 2.4-2.6 million units in March, the sources noted.

Based on a conservative estimate, Apple is likely to take delivery of 4-4.3 million units a month, or a total of over 12 million units, of iPad 2 tablets in the second quarter, said the sources.

Apple has been silent about sales of the iPad 2 since the device launched in the United States early last month and followed suit in over two dozen other countries a few weeks later. While supplies have been selling out as quickly as they can be replenished, it has been unclear whether particularly strong demand or weak initial supplies has been the primary cause of the shortages.

Earlier this week, Apple's shipping estimates for new iPad 2 orders made through its online stores for countries where the device has launched improved to 2-3 weeks, suggesting that the company may finally be starting to get a handle on its supply-demand balance. Shipping estimates had ballooned to as much as 4-5 weeks almost immediately after the device's launch, although a number of customers have reported that their orders shipped significantly faster than the stated timeframe.

ProVideoCoalition claims to have heard rumors that Apple is planning to use the Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet to announce the next version of Final Cut Pro.

Philip Bloom just confirmed with me that Canon has canceled his appearance at the Supermeet. Canon was told last night that Apple has demanded ALL lecturn or stage time exclusively. Some sponsors who were not using presenters may continue to sponsor the Vegas event, but none of them will be presenting on the stage.

The post goes on to talk about other sponsors including Avid that have had their sponsorship canceled for the event.

Apple has been known to be prepping a new version of Final Cut Pro and according to early reports the changes were described as "dramatic and ambitious". While the SuperMeet seems a strange venue for Apple to announce a new product, Apple has been taking a somewhat unusual approach to promoting and previewing this product. Earlier this year, Apple invited individuals including Final Cut Pro author Larry Jordon to a hands on. Jordan describes what he can of the preview meeting:

I've Seen The New Version of Final Cut Pro... and it's a jaw-dropper. Last week, Apple invited a few folks, including me, to a short meeting in Cupertino where they previewed the up-coming version of Final Cut Pro. While I am under NDA and cant talk about what I saw, I CAN tell you the meeting happened and that it showcased the new Final Cut Pro. While the invited crowd was small, it was a Who's Who of leaders in the post-production community. I felt like I was standing on the red carpet at an awards show, watching all the stars walk past.

The 2011 NAB also kicks off starting on April 9th and runs until April 14th. (Thanks, Charlie Sanchez)