MacRumors

Apple today issued a media alert announcing details for the April 20th release of its financial results for the second fiscal quarter and first calendar quarter of 2010. The results will be released after the close of trading on Tuesday at approximately 4:30 PM Eastern / 1:30 PM Pacific. Apple's conference call discussing the results will follow at 2:00 PM Pacific and will be available via a live audio webcast. MacRumors will provide running coverage of the conference call highlights.

Apple offered no major product releases during the quarter, as most of the company's attention was focused on the iPad. The tablet device was introduced in late January, but did not launch until April 3rd, just after the end of the quarter. And even so, the launch was limited to Wi-Fi models in the United States. Availability of 3G-capable models in the United States is expected later this month, while Apple this week announced that availability of all models in its initial set of international markets has been delayed until late May due to high demand in the U.S.

For the quarter, analysts are predicting net earnings of $2.43 per share on revenue of $12.03 billion, above Apple's guidance of $2.06-$2.18 profit on $11.0-$11.4 billion of revenue. Apple's year-ago results for the second fiscal quarter of 2009 initially included net earnings of $1.33 per share on revenue of $8.16 billion. Those calculations were based, however, on earlier accounting methods that utilized "subscription accounting" for iPhone and Apple TV revenue. Apple adopted revised accounting standards at the beginning of fiscal 2010, and after retrospective application (PDF) of the new standards, the year-ago quarter yielded net earnings of $1.79 per share on revenue of $9.08 billion.

In a report on forthcoming challengers looking to rival Apple's iPad, The New York Times notes that Google is reportedly preparing to launch its own Android-based entrant into the field as Nokia, HP and Microsoft also move forward on their own plans for devices in the emerging industry segment.

Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, told friends at a recent party in Los Angeles about the new device, which would exclusively run the Android operating system. People with direct knowledge of the project -- who did not want to be named because they said they were unauthorized to speak publicly about the device -- said the company had been experimenting in "stealth mode" with a few publishers to explore delivery of books, magazines and other content on a tablet.

After reportedly holding back to see what Apple would do with the iPad, competitors such as HP and others have been hard at work developing their own answers to Apple's challenge.

The rivalry between Apple and Google has become increasingly personal as the two companies have begun to compete in a growing number of areas. Google's Android operating system has been a fast-growing alternative to the iPhone in the smartphone market, with Apple signaling that it is taking the threat seriously by filing a patent infringement lawsuit against handset maker HTC in what has been seen as an indirect assault on Google's smartphone offerings.

While an unsurprising development given Google's and Apple's increasing overlap, a Google tablet would offer yet another area of direct competition between the two companies and likely escalate tensions even further.

Just in case there was any doubt regarding Apple's plans to not support the original iPhone with iPhone OS 4, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has now weighed in on the matter with one of his typically terse emails. MacStories reports that a Twitter user sent an email to Jobs asking about future support for the original iPhone, to which Jobs responded "Sorry, no."

Apple's preview page for iPhone OS 4 also omits compatibility for the first-generation iPod touch. The iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch (which includes the 8 GB model still available for sale today) will be compatible with iPhone OS 4, but will lack support for certain features such as multitasking. Only the iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch (and future hardware) will support all of the features of iPhone OS 4.

As part of a lengthy post discussing Apple's nearly singular focus on iPhone OS 4 over the past few months, Daring Fireball's John Gruber reports that he is hearing that resources have been diverted from the Mac OS X team to the iPhone OS team. Consequently, Gruber offers an "educated guess" that Mac OS X 10.7 may not be introduced to developers until mid-2011.

A few months ago, I heard suggestions that Apple had tentative plans to release a developer beta of Mac OS X 10.7 at WWDC this June. That is no longer the case. Mac OS X 10.7 development continues, but with a reduced team and an unknown schedule. It's my educated guess that there will be no 10.7 news at WWDC this year, and probably none until WWDC 2011.

Evidence of Apple's work on Mac OS X 10.7 surfaced last November. By January when Gruber reported that he was hearing of a possible developer release for Mac OS X 10.7 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2010, usage of the next-generation operating system already seemed to be on the rise within Apple's campus.

The time between major Mac OS X releases has been increasing as the operating system matures, with a nearly 30-month gap between Tiger and Leopard being followed by a 22-month wait for Snow Leopard, which Apple positioned primarily as a refinement of Leopard. With Mac OS X Snow Leopard having been released less than eight months ago, it would not be surprising to see Mac OS X 10.7 not make its public debut until late 2011 or beyond, even without iPhone OS 4 putting pressure on development.

Bloomberg reports that Palm has placed itself up for sale, working with several partners to find a buyer for the struggling company.

The company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, said the people, who declined to be identified because a sale hasn't been announced. Taiwan's HTC Corp. and China's Lenovo Group Ltd. have looked at the company and may make offers, said the people.

Palm's stock, which had seen its target price cut to as low as zero by some analysts in recent weeks after poor financial performance, received a boost late last week on rumors of a buyout.

Palm and Apple have been sharing frosty relations in recent years, as Palm has attempted to recruit a number of former Apple executives and employees to ride the company's new webOS back to prominence. The company's launch model, the Palm Pre, was met, however, with veiled threats from Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook over its swiping and pinching multi-touch gestures. The two companies further sparred over iTunes media syncing for the Pre, with the companies engaging in a software game of cat-and-mouse and filing complaints to regulatory bodies over the issue.

Today, Adobe unveiled their latest Creative Suite 5 which includes products such as Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Premier Pro CS5, Dreamweaver CS5, Flash Professional CS5.

Focusing on interactivity, performance and maximizing the impact of digital content and marketing campaigns across media and devices, the Creative Suite 5 product line brings exciting full version upgrades of flagship creative tools while delivering significant workflow enhancements to designers and developers.

Creative Suite 5 also introduces Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5, a new design tool that allows you to create web application interfaces without writing code.

Using Flash Catalyst CS5, designers can easily add interactive Flash content to Web sites and applications by transforming native Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator artwork, as well as files from Adobe Fireworks CS5, into functional content and user interfaces (UI).

One of the most eye catching new features of Adobe Photoshop CS5 is content-aware fill which was demoed on video late last month:

Adobe will be offering an first look streaming preview of the many new features starting at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern time today (Monday, April 12th). Adobe's Creative Suite 5 products are expected to ship in the next 30 days.

In a series of emails reportedly between Steve Jobs and Greg Slepak, Jobs responds to questions about Apple's recent move to ban tools that allow cross-compilation from other languages into iPhone OS native code. The change in terms effectively blocks Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone compiler and could affect other similar developer tools.

Jobs reportedly points to John Gruber's analysis of why Apple might have implemented this. Gruber argues that Apple wants control over native iPhone OS development and cross platform solutions would dilute iPhone-exclusive and iPhone native apps.

If that were to happen, there's no lock-in advantage. If, say, a mobile Flash software platform -- which encompassed multiple lower-level platforms, running on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry -- were established, that app market would not give people a reason to prefer the iPhone.
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And, obviously, such a meta-platform would be out of Apple's control. Consider a world where some other company's cross-platform toolkit proved wildly popular. Then Apple releases major new features to iPhone OS, and that other company's toolkit is slow to adopt them. At that point, it's the other company that controls when third-party apps can make use of these features.

Gruber also believes that these cross platform compilers rarely produce high quality native apps. Steve Jobs reiterated this point in a followup email:

We've been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.

After months of speculation, it appears Apple is finally going to deliver new MacBook Pro systems to customers. The above screenshot shows part numbers that Microcenter has received for new Mac systems. We've since received independent confirmation from another source besides Microcenter that those part numbers are real, and that we should expect new 15" and 17" MacBook Pros very soon. The image shows 4 different systems:

Apple System Good-USA $1799.99
Mac system #1 Best-USA $2199.99
Mac system #2 Best-USA $2299.99
Mac system Better-USA $1999.99

These seem to correspond with three 15" MacBook Pros and a 17" MacBook Pro ($2299.99). The new machines are likely using Intel's Core i7 and i5 mobile processors.

While previous rumors have pinpointed April 13th as the likely day, other reports we've received are less certain of that date. Regardless, we feel reasonably confident that the new MacBook Pros will come very soon.

Developers will be pleased to learn that Apple has removed a controversial "Rate on Delete" feature from iPhone 4. Starting in iPhone 2.2, when a user deleted an App from their iPhone, the operating system would ask the user to rate a App using the 1-5 star rating system in the App Store. The move was presumably meant to increase rating participation in the App Store.

However, many developers were unhappy with the system as they felt it skewed the ratings downwards. The system increased the number of ratings from customers who were likely unhappy with an app, while those who kept an app on their iPhone would never be prompted for a rating.

Apple's decision to alter its iPhone developer licensing agreement yesterday to apparently exclude such offerings as Adobe's forthcoming Packager function of Flash Professional CS5 that would allow developers to export Flash content into the native iPhone format has continued to rumble throughout the industry today, with voices weighing in from all over about the impact of the decision and Apple's motivation for making the change.

Lee Brimelow, a "platform evangelist" for Adobe, shares his thoughts (via TiPb) on his semi-official TheFlashBlog, referring to Apple's decision as a slap in the face to developers.

What they are saying is that they won't allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe.

An additional claim that "Apple has timed this purposely to hurt sales of CS5" has been redacted from Brimelow's blog entry at the request of Adobe, but not before it was captured by TiPb. Adobe's Creative Suite 5, of which Flash Professional CS5 will be a part, is scheduled for introduction next Monday.

Brimelow notes that he has decided to boycott Apple products "until there is a leadership change over there" and states in no uncertain terms how he feels about the situation.

Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

But whether Apple's move is solely a shot directed at Adobe as Brimelow and others have contended appears to be up for debate, as AppleInsider notes that it may have more to do with the multitasking features being deployed in iPhone OS 4.

The primary reason for the change, say sources familiar with Apple's plans, is to support sophisticated new multitasking APIs in iPhone 4.0. The system will now be evaluating apps as they run in order to implement smart multitasking. It can't do this if apps are running within a runtime or are cross compiled with a foreign structure that doesn't behave identically to a native C/C++/Obj-C app.

"[The operating system] can't swap out resources, it can't pause some threads while allowing others to run, it can't selectively notify, etc. Apple needs full access to a properly-compiled app to do the pull off the tricks they are with this new OS," wrote one reader under the name Ktappe.

Whatever the reason for Apple's adjustment of its licensing terms, tempers are certainly flaring in the protracted dispute between the two companies.

Bloomberg reports that a new quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing from Adobe reveals for the first time that Apple's refusal to adopt Adobe's Flash platform for the iPhone and iPad could pose a material threat to Adobe's business.

The admission comes as part of the "Risk Factors" section of the report that typically offers "doom and gloom" scenarios in which the company's business could experience difficulty, but makes specific mention of Apple's potential effect on the company.

Additionally, to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed.

Bloomberg notes that earlier SEC filings from Adobe contained language noting that it wished to work with Apple on the iPhone platform but required cooperation from Apple in order to do so.

The dispute between Adobe and Apple over the inability for the iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad to handle media in the Flash format has been well-known ever since the iPhone's original introduction in 2007, and thus it seems to be no surprise that Adobe may consider the situation at an impasse and consequently have adopted stronger language regarding the risk it poses to the company's business.

Interestingly, the filing comes just one day after Apple's iPhone OS 4 preview event alongside which the company released a modified developer licensing agreement that appears to prohibit the use of a feature in Adobe's forthcoming Flash Professional CS5 to export Flash content into the native iPhone format. Flash Professional CS5 is set to be introduced as part of Creative Suite 5 next Monday, and Adobe is reportedly looking into the change in Apple's developer licensing terms to understand how it affects the company's plans.

Apple engineers Anders Carlsson and Sam Weinig yesterday announced the forthcoming release of a new web framework known as "WebKit2" that will build upon the existing engine that powers the company's Safari browser as well as a number of other browser applications including Google Chrome. Notably, WebKit2 will support running various browser elements in different processes, "sandboxing" them to prevent problems with a single element from crashing the entire browser.

WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process. This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it.

The team behind WebKit2 has also posted documentation outlining some of the changes coming in WebKit2 and how its split process model differs from that used in Chromium and Google Chrome, building the functionality directly into the framework rather than putting it in the application layer where considerable work would be required for porting or reusing the functionality.

CNET notes that Apple's announcement has ruffled some feathers in the WebKit community, as it is being seen as rolling out a major revamp of the engine without the input of the rest of the community. Apple's Maciej Stachowiak responded to the criticism, noting that existing ports will continue to work and that the new tools are in a very early stage that is appropriate for review and discussion by the community.

We picked the name "WebKit2" in the hopes of picking something really bland. Apparently that backfired, because it seems to make this project seem like a bigger deal than it is. Basically, you can think of this as a new port-specific API [application programming interface]. But we're trying to put some general mechanisms in this API, so other ports can use it if they choose. We are also welcoming input from the whole WebKit community on the design, architecture and direction of this work. It is at a very early stage, barely enough that you can build a trivial demo browser on top of it. We decided that our proof of concept was far enough along at that point that we should make the code public for community review and input.

Initial versions of WebKit2 have been developed for Mac and Windows, and the developers invite others to submit patches for additional ports.

Another SDK release from Apple means more hints to uncover about their future plans. Today's iPhone OS 4 release was no exception, though the hints it reveals seem to be familiar. The iPad SDK first revealed tons of evidence that Apple had, in fact, been working on support for video conferencing iChat as well as support for a front-facing camera.

While the iPad didn't implement these features, it seems likely that the next iPhone will. A report from John Gruber last week claimed that the next generation iPhone would carry the following features:

- A4-family CPU system-on-a-chip
- 960x640 double-resolution display
- second front facing camera
- 3rd party multitasking in iPhone 4

3rd party multitasking came true during today's keynote, and SDK 4 evidence continues to contain references to "front facing" cameras.

Meanwhile TUAW posts evidence of an "iChatAgent" process running on the new operating system (pictured above). Apple is expected to release a new iPhone sometime this summer. Rumors have also suggested that the next iPhone may make its way to the Verizon network as well.

Daring Fireball notes a very specific change in the iPhone OS 4 SDK that will directly thwart Adobe's efforts to directly compile Flash applications onto the iPhone. The new terms dictate the following:

Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

This seems to go directly against Adobe's plans to release Flash Professional CS5 that would have allowed developers to export native iPhone applications from Flash. Adobe had hoped to provide this compatibility layer to allow their Flash developers to write once and then deploy to multiple platforms.

Adobe has acknowledged the change to the New York Times, but doesn't have any change in plans just yet.

We are aware of Apple's new SDK language and are looking into it. We continue to develop our Packager for iPhone OS technology, which we plan to debut in Flash CS5.

Apple has posted a QuickTime stream of today's event. Here's a summary of the events:

- Apple Announces Multitasking in iPhone 4.0
- Apple Introduces iAds Mobile Advertising Platform
- Apple Introduces Game Center for Leaderboards and Achievements
- iPhone OS 4 to Bring iBooks to iPhone and iPod Touch
- Apple Enhances Email and Enterprise Features in iPhone OS 4

With iPhone 4 seeded to developers, videos and screenshots of the new operating system are already appearing. Here's one video (in Polish) walking through multitasking and folders (via MyApple.pl):

Some early screenshots from Gamecenter, 5x Digital Zoom in Camera App and More posted to 9to5Mac.

We've discovered references to Camera Flash in the iPhone SDK (again), suggesting that Apple is working on a physical camera flash for future versions of the iPhone. Apple has also integrated Grand Central Dispatch into the iPhone OS -- a technology introduced with Snow Leopard to ease the use of multi-core processors. The current iPhone currently only has single core processors, though there have been long-standing rumors that Apple might use the multi-core Cortex A9 in the future.