MacRumors

Apple today pushed out the sixth beta version of iOS 5 to developers, marking yet another step in the development process leading up to the public release of iOS 5 later this year. The release, which is labeled as Build 9A5302b, comes nearly two weeks after the surprise Saturday release of the fifth beta version earlier this month.

The over-the-air version of iOS 5 beta 6 for the iPhone checks in at 144 MB. (Thanks, Parker!)

In addition to iOS 5 beta 6, Apple has also released a new beta version of iTunes 10.5 and a new preview version of Xcode 4.2 to support the release.

Apple is expected to release iOS 5 for existing hardware around the time of the iPhone 5 launch, with rumors for the debut now coalescing around early October.

Update: Apple has also pushed out iWork for iOS beta 2 and a new "beta 5" of the Apple TV software.

Update 2: As noted by It's All Tech, Apple on the Mac side has pushed out a new developer seed of OS X 10.7.2 (Build 11C40), iCloud for OS X Lion beta 8, and a new build of Safari 5.1.1, all to be used for testing out iCloud.

Update 3: iLounge notes that Apple appears to have disabled Nike+ syncing through iTunes for iOS 5 users with the new beta, forcing them to use the wireless syncing option that debuted in iOS 4.1.

Reuters reports on a lawsuit filed by Apple against a pair of stores in New York City for their sale of unauthorized counterfeit Apple products. The trademark infringement suit was filed last month but has remained sealed until now in order to facilitate seizure of the counterfeit items from the two stores in the Chinatown section of Flushing in Queens.

According to a court filing from Apple, the company sent representatives to Apple Story and Fun Zone in Flushing on "multiple occasions over several weeks," where they bought an assortment of iPod, iPhone and iPad cases, as well as stereo headsets designed for use with iPhones.

All of the purchased goods carried an Apple trademark, according to the amended complaint. They were also marked with the phrase "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China," and included markings similar to those found on genuine Apple goods.

The headsets came with packaging that was "nearly an exact duplicate" of that for genuine Apple goods, the lawsuit said.

Apple was granted a warrant to seize the counterfeit products on July 27th, and the courts have granted a preliminary injunction barring the two stores from selling the knockoff products. Apple has also requested that one of the stores, Apple Story, change its name in order to prevent confusion with Apple's own stores and branding, but the court has yet to rule on that issue. A settlement between Apple and the stores' owners is said to be under negotiation.

Apple's case appears to extend beyond the two stores, however, as the lawsuit seeks to include people and businesses engaged in the production, sale, and distribution of the products, although those defendants have yet to be identified.

Last week, Apple was granted a preliminary injunction (since partially suspended) preventing Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in all countries of the European Union except the Netherlands following a complaint of intellectual property infringement. The Netherlands was specifically excluded from the case because Apple had a separate lawsuit underway in that country.

Computerworld now reports on the content of that Dutch lawsuit, which reportedly seeks a ban on the sale of all Galaxy smartphones and tablets by Samsung throughout the European Union.

Apple's complaint, seen by Webwereld, a Dutch IDG publication, seeks an injunction for the entire Galaxy series. This includes smartphones -- the Galaxy Ace, Galaxy S and Galaxy SII -- and tablets: the Galaxy Tab 7 and Galaxy Tab 10.1. Other Galaxy devices, like the Gio, Nexus, 551, Europa, Apollo and Mini are also involved, albeit only in a footnote in which Apple states, "It is expected that these devices are also covered by one or more of the patent rights invoked."

Apple demands an extensive ban on these devices, covering manufacturing, stocking, importing, distributing, trading or selling by Samsung Korea and its Dutch subsidiaries, which include Samsung Logistics BV and Samsung Overseas BV.

Apple has demanded that Samsung request recalls of all stock within 14 days and provide compensation to vendors in its distribution channels while also putting the vendors on notice that refusal to return stocks would put them in violation of Apple's intellectual property rights.

The court in The Hague is scheduled to rule on the case on September 15th, with any potential injunctions not to take effect before October 13th.

BGR briefly reports that an AT&T vice president has confirmed to some employees that the iPhone 5 is indeed slated to launch in early October as has recently been rumored by several sources.

Additionally, the VP communicated the following to a group of managers: “Expect things to get really, really busy in the next 35-50 days, so prepare your teams accordingly.”

Apple's carrier partners are frequently kept in the dark about Apple's exact launch plans, although AT&T has proven to be one of Apple's closer partners and hints from the carrier such as employee vacation blackouts have in the past narrowed down iPhone launch dates.

Update: The Loop's well-connected Jim Dalrymple just quoted the BGR report and added a single word response of his own: "Yep."

Dalrymple is known to have solid sources within Apple and has at times almost appeared to be an unofficial outlet for the company as when he quickly debunked last week's claim of a September 7th media event.

HP's startling disclosure yesterday that it is looking into a sale or spinoff of its PC business and is discontinuing its webOS-based hardware program has sent shock waves through the industry. One of the more curious aspects of the move is HP's plans for webOS, the company's mobile operating system that it obtained with last year's $1.2 billion purchase of Palm and relaunched on new Pre smartphones and the TouchPad tablet just months ago.

According to This is my next..., HP informed its webOS team during an all-hands meeting yesterday that it remains committed to the platform, although it is unclear exactly how the company will look to capitalize on it, whether through potential licensing or other means.

In the meeting, webOS GBU VP Stephen DeWitt made it clear that HP intends to continue to work on webOS and likely intends to license it. DeWitt was adamant, saying several times “We are not walking away from webOS.” He detailed a plan to try to determine what the platform’s future will look like within the next two weeks, although he admitted that “Clearly, we don’t have all the answers today.”

HP executive Todd Bradley noted that with webOS currently designed to work only on Qualcomm-based hardware, potential licensees would most likely be interested in seeing webOS modified to run on other chipsets if HP were to pursue that route.

But many have questioned whether HP will even be able to license webOS to third parties, given that neither Palm nor HP has been able to gain consumer traction with the platform. For its part, HP claims that it sees promise in the software that has been hampered by poor hardware.

On that note, The Next Web reports that HP engineers had gone as far as to test webOS running on an iPad, finding that the operating system ran "over twice as fast" on the iPad 2 as it did on the TouchPad for which it had been designed. Even running as a web app within the iPad 2's Safari browser yielded substantially better performance than on the TouchPad.

The hardware reportedly stopped the team from innovating beyond certain points because it was slow and imposed constraints, which was highlighted when webOS was loaded on to Apple’s iPad device and found to run the platform significantly faster than the device for which it was originally developed.

With a focus on web technologies, webOS could be deployed in the iPad’s Mobile Safari browser as a web-app; this produced similar results, with it running many times faster in the browser than it did on the TouchPad.

The report notes that the TouchPad hardware had essentially already been designed when HP acquired Palm last year, with the engineers tasked with getting webOS running on the existing design. The resulting handicap of outdated hardware reportedly crippled the webOS team's ability to innovate for the tablet platform and ultimately led to the poor market reception.

Regardless of the reasons, the TouchPad clearly did not take off as HP had hoped, and the company quickly pulled the plug on the project as part of its dramatic shift in business focus. The shift leaves the future of webOS unsettled, and while speculation has centered around whether a company like Amazon might be interested in acquiring it for its own use, others have suggested that HP might be better off simply selling off the patent portfolio associated with web OS, a move that could actually result in a profit relative to the company's $1.2 billion acquisition price for Palm.

In case you still had doubts, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is indeed working on its next generation iPad for early 2012. The newspaper also seems to confirm the 2048x1536 Retina display that has been long rumored.

The next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution display - 2048 by 1536 compared with 1024 by 768 in the iPad 2 - and Apple's suppliers have already shipped small quantities of components for the sampling of the iPad 3. Suppliers said Apple has placed orders for a 9.7-inch screen device.

According to "people familiar with the situation", Apple is aiming to launch the iPad 3 in early 2012.

The Wall Street Journal's sources also indicate that a trial run will begin in October and that Apple has already started placing orders for many of the key components for the next iPad.

While the report doesn't seem to add much new information, it does add a more credible voice to the rumors coming out of China about Apple's iPad 3.

Digitimes reports that the production of the next generation iPad's high resolution Retina Display continues to be a problem, resulting in Chimei Innolux failing certification to become an LCD supplier for Apple's next tablet.

CMI has cut into the supply chain of iPad 2, which uses IPS panels, but the new Apple tablet is more demanding in terms of resolution, the sources said. The iPad 3 will feature a 9.7-inch panel with resolution of 2,048x1,536 compared to the iPad 2's 1,024x768.

Chimei Innolux is presently believed to be a display supplier for the currently shipping iPad 2.

The iPad 3, however, is believed to carry a 2048x1536 high resolution display that is double the linear resolution of the current iPad 2 screen of 1024x768. We first wrote of the possibility earlier this year when it was discovered that a version of Apple's iBooks application for the iPad already contained the necessarily double resolution (x2) artwork. Apple similarly doubled the iPhone's resolution from 480x320 to 960x640 when they introduced the iPhone 4.

Chimei Innolux is not alone in having yield difficulties with the new display. Samsung and LG are also said to have run into challenges. A previous report even claimed that it was these poor display yields which pushed the iPad 3's launch to 2012.

As big a jump as a 9.7" Retina Display sounds like, there has already been at least one official announcement of this level of high resolution tablet display. Samsung demoed a 2560x1600 10.1" LCD back in May, though based on somewhat different technology.

The original iPad's display was said to be the most constrained part for Apple, resulting in delays in shipments. As a result, Apple is believed to have invested $3.7 billion in display manufacturers in order to lock up access to LCD production facilities. The production from the earliest of those factory investments (Toshiba) are said to ramping as early as late 2011, while Sharp's new factories were to begin producing displays in 2012. The timing could fit with the next generation iPad.

The New York Post reports that Apple has signed a lease for 45,000 square feet of space in a Fifth Avenue office building in New York City near Union Square. The company has been running its iAd program out of a 10,000 square-foot space in the building on a short-term lease, but is significantly expanding its presence there with the new long-term lease.

According to Business Insider, the larger space will be used not only for the iAd team but also corporate-level efforts focused on "new business projects".

Apple already leased a 10,000 square-foot chunk of the Kaufman building back in January for the iAd group, and now it is taking a bigger chunk of the building for its first executive office in NYC.

Apple will use the space to launch new business projects. The office will look and feel like the retail stores with an all-white lobby, sleek elevators and LED lights.

Apple is also said to retain options on other floors in the building.

Apple's iAd initiative has been somewhat slower to take off than many would have liked and may be entering a period of flux as Quattro Wireless founder Andy Miller, who joined Apple as a vice president to lead the iAd team when Apple acquired Quattro last year, is reportedly leaving the company to join a venture capital firm.

Bloomberg reports that HP is set to announce plans to spin off its PC business in order to focus on cloud-based software and services. The plans come as HP is reportedly looking to acquire enterprise software company Autonomy Corp. for $10 billion.

Hewlett-Packard may announce the plans as early as today, said the people, who asked not to be identified before a statement. The Palo Alto, California-based company is scheduled to report quarterly earnings today after markets close.

Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker has said he wants to expand in software and services that help customers deliver computing over the Internet, through the so-called cloud. Hewlett-Packard has been aiming to lessen its dependence on lower-margin PCs, where growth has stalled as consumers flock to tablet-style computers like those made by Apple Inc. (AAPL).

HP has long been a leading PC manufacturer, but has only recently stepped into the mobile market with its acquisition of Palm last year, pushing out several smartphones based on webOS and just last month officially launching its TouchPad tablet. The TouchPad had been regarded as one of the leading potential challengers to the iPad, but sales have reportedly been slow. Today's report does not mention whether HP's mobile efforts will be included in the PC spinoff company or remain with the core HP company.

Meanwhile, PC growth has stagnated or even reversed with weakness in the global economy over the past few years. Apple has, however, been able to maintain strong forward momentum amidst the weak overall market, and has further eaten into PC growth by launching the successful iPad as an alternative to the traditional PC for some customers. Earlier today, research firm DisplaySearch released data showing Apple handily leading the market for mobile PCs when tablets are included.

Update: According to The Wall Street Journal, HP will be exiting the tablet and smartphone hardware business, although it will continue work on webOS and presumably license it out to third-party manufacturers.

As part of Hewlett-Packard's planned spin off of its personal computer business, it will keep the webOS software business but let go of the hardware, meaning H-P is shutting down its tablets business, people familiar with the matter said. H-P's tablet is the TouchPad, an iPad rival that went on sale in July starting at $499. Earlier this month, H-P cut its price 20%.

H-P got webOS when it acquired Palm Inc. in April 2010 for $1.2 billion. H-P may license the webOS software to others, the people added.

Update 2: HP confirms the rumors.

HP also reported that it plans to announce that its board of directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG). HP will consider a broad range of options that may include, among others, a full or partial separation of PSG from HP through a spin-off or other transaction.

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

Research firm DisplaySearch today released the results of its estimates of mobile PC sales for the second quarter of 2011. The study includes both traditional notebooks and tablets, and Apple was able to ride the strength of the iPad to the top of the list with 21.1% of the market on 13.6 million units shipped. Apple comfortably topped second-place HP, which came in at 15% share with 9.7 million units shipped.

The report notes that Samsung and Dell led the way in year-over-year shipment growth among notebook PCs, but that performance was overshadowed by Apple's iPad growth, which saw unit shipments more than double year-over-year.

On the tablet front, quarterly shipments of non-Apple tablets have quickly risen to 5.6 million units, although many manufacturers appear to be having difficulty translating those shipments into actual sales to customers. Overall, tablet shipments were up 70% quarter-over-quarter and 400% year-over-year.

While reports have surfaced claiming that Apple and China Mobile have struck a deal to bring the iPhone to the world's largest mobile phone carrier, the two companies have yet to confirm that such a deal is in place. But according to a new report from Reuters, China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou has confirmed that those talks have included Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

The world's largest mobile operator by subscribers said it has met with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs several times on introducing an iPhone based on its home-grown TDSCDMA network standard.

The companies hope to launch an iPhone as soon as possible, China Mobile's Chairman Wang Jianzhou said, without giving any timeframe.

...

"I met Steve Jobs several times already, but we haven't come to an agreement yet," China Mobile's Wang told a news conference. "All I can say is, it's a common wish of China Mobile and Apple to come to an agreement as soon as possible."

Bloomberg also reports that Wang has confirmed that Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook's visit to China Mobile in June was regarding a potential iPhone deal.

The two companies have reportedly also already struck a deal to develop a future iPhone model based on China Mobile's homegrown 4G TD-LTE standard, a variant of the LTE standard that has been said to not be included in the iPhone 5.

China Unicom is currently the only official iPhone carrier in China, although both China Mobile and China Telecom are said to be working hard to strike deals for the device. China Unicom is apparently not sitting still on its current deal, however, as company executives have reportedly recently traveled to the United States to meet with Apple about the iPhone, potentially securing a deal for the upcoming iPhone 5.

Late yesterday, Engadget reported that AT&T will be eliminating its $10/month texting plan offering 1000 text messages, leaving the carrier's unlimited texting plan for $20/month as the only option for new customers. Within hours, an AT&T spokesperson confirmed that the change is coming on August 21st and that existing customers can keep their current texting plans, even when upgrading devices.

Starting August 21, we're streamlining our text messaging plans for new customers and will offer an unlimited plan for individuals for $20 per month and an unlimited plan for families of up to five lines for $30 per month. The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers. Existing customers don't have to change any messaging plan they have today, even when changing handsets."

Just this past January, AT&T dropped its texting plan options from three to two by eliminating its $5/200 text and $15/1500 text plans and replacing them with the $10 plan offering 1000 texts. But just eight months later, the company is now doing away with that option as well and pushing new customers into unlimited text messaging plans.

The Santa Monica Dispatch's Peggy Clifford attended yesterday's Santa Monica Planning Commission meeting and reports that Apple's new Third Street Promenade building was quickly approved, without even discussion.

The surprise was that the staff put the project on the Consent Calendar. I cannot remember any large, complex commercial project ever going on the Consent Calendar. Apple was the only item on last night’s Calendar. And, under the rules, the Consent Calendar is approved as a whole – unless someone wishes to pull at item for discussion.

And in that crucial blink, the commissioners approved the Consent Calendar (aka Apple Glass House), and that was that – except for a staff report on the redesign of the Project Case List, after which they adjourned.

The proposal first came to light yesterday, and detailed a new 8,084 glass-roofed Apple Store to be built on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. The store will be built in the space of an old Borders Bookstore.