MacRumors

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Taiwanese LCD manufacturer Chi Mei Optoelectronics has agreed to pay a $220 million fine to address criminal charges stemming from extensive price fixing in the LCD industry from 2001 through 2006 that affected a number of companies, including Apple. Chi Mei becomes the sixth company to plead guilty in the conspiracy over the past year.

The department said the conspiracy affected some of the world's largest computer and television manufacturers, including Apple Inc. (AAPL), Dell Inc. (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).

Prosecutors said Chi Mei and its co-conspirators participated in meetings in Taiwan, South Korea and the U.S. in which they agreed to fix LCD prices. The companies later shared sales data with each other to ensure all conspirators were adhering to the price-fixing agreement, prosecutors alleged.

Prosecutors didn't say how much the price-fixing victims might have paid in inflated LCD prices.

The criminal charges were brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, which has levied a total of $860 million in fines against the six companies.

Chi Mei has been a supplier of LCD displays for several of Apple's notebook models, and just last month agreed to a merger with rival Innolux, itself a subsidiary of long-time Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn. Apple, however, partnered with LG early this year on a five-year deal to lock in a long-term strategic alliance with what was already Apple's largest LCD supplier.

The Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is looking at an "overhaul of the way it sells and stores music" and how to extend that service into the web. According to "people familiar with the matter", Apple is considering using Lala's recently acquired engineers and technologies to accomplish that.

Lala currently allows users to buy and listen to music through their web browser. An Apple version of the service would operate the same way, with music being streamed to users from a central server. This is in stark contrast to Apple's current iTunes model, where songs are purchased and downloaded locally. Record company executives are said to be optimistic about the prospect, but wary at giving Apple more power.

Such a move, however, would be a big departure for Apple, who has previously insisted that customers wish to own their music. This on-demand streaming raises issues of long-term ownership as well as technical issues if rights holders or providers go out of business in the future.

Overall, the article adds little new information but does seem to confirm much of the speculation that Apple might translate Lala's exact business model over to iTunes.

Despite some paltry sales during the first weekend, China Unicom announced today that they have now sold more than 100,000 iPhones since the October 30th launch in China.

These results indicate sales picked up since the opening weekend which only had 5000 in sales reported. Still, analysts report that the 100,000 figure remains disappointing given China Unicom's 144 million subscribers.

High price, lack of Wi-Fi, and a strong gray market for iPhones in China seem to be contributing to the relatively low carrier sales.

One of the touted features of Google's Chrome browser, which finally saw the release of an official beta version for Mac yesterday, has been its speed in loading and rendering pages. In investigating that aspect of its performance, Computerworld has found that, while Chrome performs extremely well in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarking test, it only comes in a close second to Apple's Safari browser.

According to tests run by Computerworld, the Chrome beta, which Google launched yesterday, is the second fastest of four Mac browsers tested. Chrome renders JavaScript 10 times faster than Opera 10.10 and almost twice as fast as Firefox 3.6 Beta 4, the most recently-released Mac version of Mozilla's open-source browser.

But Chrome can't match Safari 4.0.4's speed: Apple's browser is approximately 12% faster than Google's beta.

This contrasts with the Windows platform, where Computerworld previously found Chrome to be the top performing browser in the same testing suite, clocking in at 30% faster than Safari for Windows.

JavaScript performance has become a key indicator of browser speed in recent years, with Computerworld noting that the release of Firefox's TraceMonkey JavaScript engine last year set the stage for an arms race in JavaScript performance, one that is currently being led by WebKit-based browsers such as Safari and Chrome.

Silicon Alley Insider reports on a research note from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who cites fellow analyst Chris Larsen as giving Apple a 70% chance of launching an iPhone on Verizon sometime next year. According to Silicon Alley Insider, there are a number of good reasons to expect Apple to make the move to Verizon:

- Because Verizon is the biggest U.S. carrier, and could help Apple sell millions more phones per year.
- Because Apple is no doubt aware that AT&T, its current iPhone partner, is majorly flaking on network quality in big markets like New York and San Francisco.
- Because Verizon would otherwise continue to invest heavily in Apple rivals like Google Android and RIM BlackBerry.
- Because the smartphone market is a platform land grab and Apple can't afford to lose ground -- even at the risk of complicating their product line or back-end systems.

There are, however, a number of reasons why such a deal may not occur in 2010, such as difficulties reaching a revenue sharing agreement, increased handset subsidies from AT&T to maintain its exclusivity agreement, and the apparently tenuous relationship between Verizon and Apple as the iPhone maker stands by its U.S. partner AT&T in its ongoing spat with Verizon.

Reports have also centered on the need for Apple to produce different iPhone hardware if it wishes to offer 3G connectivity on Verizon's network due to differences between Verizon's system and that used by all current iPhone carriers. Some speculators have claimed that Apple would be more likely to wait for the converged roll-out of 4G technology that would allow for a single type of hardware across all providers, possibly delaying a Verizon iPhone roll-out until 2011 or 2012 when the carrier achieves broad 4G coverage.

But Silicon Alley Insider notes that even then the iPhone would almost certainly need the capability of falling back to 3G networks where 4G is not yet available, necessitating multiple hardware models or possibly a multi-mode hybrid chip currently under development by Qualcomm that could support both types of 3G networks.

Offering a different perspective on Piper Jaffray's report, Fortune points to other strategies Apple could be looking to employ for the 2010 revision of the iPhone: battery improvements and RFID-enabled payment technology.

-Give the iPhone a battery that lasts longer than one day. "Apple has introduced advanced battery technology with its portable Macs," he writes, "and we expect the company to dramatically improve the iPhone battery life with the next several hardware launches."
-Turn the iPhone into a digital wallet. Munster predicts that future iPhones will have built-in RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology, allowing them to make retail payments with a single swipe.

Patently Apple points to a new trademark application from Apple filed on November 30th regarding the "Think Different" advertising slogan used by the company from 1997 until 2002. While the application follows close on the heels of a renewal of an earlier trademark issued for the slogan and could conceivably simply be related to Apple looking to preserve its long-standing trademark, the report notes that Apple's new application specifically extends coverage of the trademark to music players such as the iPod and other electronic devices that could conceivably include a future tablet device.

In 1997 there wasn't an iPod and this may be one of the main reasons for Apple's new trademark application for Think Different. However, Apple's International Classification 009 now covers the iPod under MP3 audio players in addition to generically covering "Portable and handheld digital electronic devices" so as to cover any future tablet Apple may be contemplating in the future. Is Apple gearing up for something?

Beyond the new trademark application, 9 to 5 Mac notes that Apple has begun using the "Think Different" phrase on the packaging of its new 21.5" and 27" iMac models. While the change may again simply be a result of Apple moving to exhibit continued commercial usage of the trademark in support of its renewal applications for protection, 9 to 5 Mac also reports on unconfirmed chatter out of Apple's ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day regarding the slogan, although no specific word of a related ad campaign has surfaced.

TechCrunch reports that Apple has rolled out a new feature through its iTunes Facebook page allowing users to create customizable digital gift cards. The feature, which is currently limited to U.S. iTunes Store customers, allows gift givers to choose from six digital gift card designs and iTunes credits ranging from $5 to $50. Gift givers can then enter a gift message and specify a delivery date for their recipient to receive their gift card electronically.

This appears to be one of the only ways to purchase a digital iTunes giftcard -- the Apple site itself only offers physical versions, and sites like Gifts.com and Giftcards.com don't have them either. Aside from this Facebook app, the only place we're seeing the option is from within the iTunes desktop app itself.

The report notes that the Facebook application's interface was designed by GroupCard, while the back-end is driven by Blackhawk Network, which has a long-standing relationship with Apple and is a prominent player in the gift card processing industry.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega noted at an investor conference today that the company is continuing to work to address network issues in Manhattan and San Francisco, areas with high densities of iPhone and other smartphone users who have been experiencing subpar performance.

Those two cities see especially high smart-phone penetration, which has put pressure on AT&T's data network. The company expects to see gradual improvements in New York and plans to replace some microcells in San Francisco, he said.

"This is going to get fixed," Mr. de la Vega said. "In both of those markets, I am very confident that you're going to see significant progress."

Despite recent improvements centered around deployment of the 850 MHz spectrum in many of AT&T's markets, complaints have continued to surface, with Apple support staff even apparently acknowledging that a dropped call rate of 30% was considered normal in New York City.

De la Vega also addressed the ongoing issue of high-bandwidth smartphone customers, noting frequently-cited data showing that 3% of smartphone users are responsible for 40% of data traffic. In response to this issue, de la Vega reiterated AT&T's general plan to "incentivize" customers to reduce their data usage.

With about 3% of smart-phone customers driving 40% of data traffic, AT&T is considering incentives to keep those subscribers from hampering the experience for everyone else, he said. "You can rest assured that we're very sure we can address it in a way that's consistent with net-neutrality and FCC regulations."

While specific plans have yet to be rolled out, de la Vega suggested that simply offering users greater insight into their bandwidth usage has been shown to reduce their demand. Over the longer term, however, AT&T is likely to shift to usage-based pricing, although any such changes would be based on industry standards and competition and on regulatory guidelines.

TechCrunch notes that Apple has approved Ustream Live Broadcaster [App Store, Free], offering users the ability to stream live video directly from their iPhones via Wi-Fi and 3G.

While one of the key features of the iPhone 3GS was video recording capabilities, that was limited to recordings that were captured on your device and could be uploaded to the web after they were done recording. With the Ustream Live Broadcaster, you can easily record videos right to the web, and allow others to watch them as they're being recorded. These videos can also be archived so that people can watch them later, if they choose.

The application also offers a number of other features, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube integration, viewer chatting and polling, and geolocation.

The debut of Ustream Live Broadcasting marks the second approval of a video streaming application for the iPhone in recent days, following Apple CEO Steve Jobs' apparent personal involvement in the approval of Knocking Live Video. Knocking, however, offers only iPhone-to-iPhone one-on-one streaming, while Ustream supports streaming to the Internet for multiple viewers.

Ustream is no stranger to the App Store, having debuted an application for viewing Ustream videos early this year.

MarketWatch reports on a new research note from Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Yair Reiner predicting, based on industry checks, that Apple will begin mass production of its much-rumored tablet computer in February ahead of a launch in late March or April.

The report claims that the device will include a 10.1" multi-touch LCD screen, specifically countering a recent rumor that the device's launch would be delayed to the second half of next year and would include a model sporting an OLED screen.

Another claim included in the report is that Apple has begun contacting book publishers about distributing their books through Apple for consumption on the new device. Apple is reportedly proposing a similar business model to its App Store, where Apple would retain 30% of each download's sale price with 70% going to the publishers. This model is seen to be a significantly more attractive deal to publishers than that offered by Amazon for its Kindle Store, where sales are split 50-50 between Amazon and the publishers.

Book publishers may not be the only ones looking to get on board with Apple's tablet launch, as a coalition of magazine publishers just yesterday launched a joint venture to develop standards and business models for digital distribution of their content. Magazine publishers have also been designing prototypes of how their content might be presented on tablet devices.

Reiner estimates that Apple may sell 1-1.5 million tablets per quarter at an estimated price of $1,000, contributing $0.22-$0.38 of profit to Apple's quarterly per-share earnings based on a margin of 22%.

AppleInsider reports that Apple is preparing to begin seeding builds of Mac OS X 10.6.3, the next maintenance release for Snow Leopard, to developers as soon as this week.

People familiar with the matter say the forthcoming builds are likely to be released to some developers in the next 48 hours, and carry the expected prefix of 10Dxx. It is not yet known what issues Apple hopes to address with the latest update.

While Mac OS X 10.6.2, the most recent update, saw an approximately one-month interval between its first developer seed and its public release, development times can vary significantly as Apple works to address both known issues and new ones that crop up throughout the process.

Through job listings and and interview comments, it's clear that Apple has finally taken an active interest in the gaming market. The company has been positioning the iPod touch as a gaming device in their advertisements both on the web and on television. Meanwhile, a recent job listing seeking a game developer raised the question of whether or not Apple might take matters into their own hands with game development.

Some weren't convinced that the game developer job listing necessarily meant that Apple would actually develop their own games, but another recently-discovered job listing further suggests that they may. In October, Apple posted a job listing specifically for a "Video Game Artist".

The interactive media group is looking for a skilled artist who wants to work as part of a small highly motivated team to work on interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The position on the team is to help design, visualize, enable and implement interface, 3D characters/environments, animation, texturing as well as original concept artwork.

The candidate must be able to model and animate 3D scene graph environments and be a strong environment and character concept artist. While you could argue that a game developer may simply be used to help Apple support their 3rd party developers, Apple's hiring of a gaming artist/modeler seems more telling.

Meanwhile, another Apple job listing reveals that Apple has been recruiting for an internal team called the "iPhone Games Group".

Nuance Communications today announced the release of Dragon Dictation [App Store, Free for a limited time], a new voice transcription application for the iPhone. The application, which relies on the Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition engine to transcribe voice input to text, allows users to easily send transcribed text to new e-mail or text messages or save it to the clipboard for pasting into other applications.

With the Dragon Dictation App, spoken words are instantly transcribed using the world-renowned power of Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition, giving anyone the power to simply "say anything" up to five times faster than typing. Dragon Dictation allows users to speak anything from a one-line text message or status update for Facebook, to a multi-paragraph e-mail. For instance, simply say, "We should meet at the restaurant at 7 and then go to the movies. I'll pick up Scott in Cupertino after he gets off work. See you then." Users can start and stop as needed or just speak free form to capture a quick brainstorm idea or reminder. It's completely up to you.

The application works by transmitting spoken input to Nuance's central servers, where it is processed by the transcription algorithms and returned to the user's device. Consequently, the application does requires a data connection in order to function.

The application offers editing options including alternative suggestions for misinterpreted phrases and built-in keyboard functionality for manual editing of text. The application also offers voice corrections, allowing users to highlight a selected portion of text and replace it with newly-spoken phrases.

Several users have noted a potential privacy issue with Dragon Dictation, however, with a number of iTunes Store user reviews noting that the license agreement for the application reveals that data from users' lists of contacts will be sent to Nuance and stored on its servers.

Dragon Dictation is free for a limited time, and Nuance will in the near future be releasing Dragon Search, a second iPhone application allowing users to conduct voice searches of a number of sources including search engines, YouTube, Twitter, iTunes, and Wikipedia.

Update: Nuance has responded to the privacy concerns, noting that the use of users' contacts is limited to only names and is used to aid in transcribing those names when spoken.

As you may have experienced already, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone goes through your contact list on your iPhone and uploads the names to our server. We do this for a pretty simple reason: we found that people are often dictating names from their address book and expect the names to be recognized. We take this information and create an anonymous user profile for your device that understands what names are likely to dictate into a document. It's important to note that we only upload the names, not the e-mail addresses, phone numbers or any other personally identifying information from your contacts.

Five major magazine publishers today announced the creation of a joint venture to develop standards for a digital content storefront and viewing on portable devices.

Cond Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc. today jointly announced that they have entered into an independent venture to develop open standards for a new digital storefront and related technology that will allow consumers to enjoy their favorite media content on portable digital devices.

Rumors of collaboration among major magazine publishers looking to prepare for Apple's much-rumored entrance into the tablet market have been circulating in recent months, with word of the specific joint venture appearing late last month.

While today's press release provides little specific information on plans for the new venture, it offers four goals for creating a flexible and robust framework to allow magazine publishers to offer their content and advertising on a variety of portable devices.

The goal of this digital initiative is fourfold, to create: a highly featured common reading application capable of rendering the distinctive look and feel of each publication; a robust publishing platform optimized for multiple devices, operating systems and screen sizes; a consumer storefront offering an extensive selection of reading options; and a rich array of innovative advertising opportunities.

With a growing number of devices capable of accessing media content, from the iPhone and other smartphones to dedicated e-readers to Apple's forthcoming tablet, publishers have recognized the potential for new revenue streams as well as the need to streamline the process for offering content for this wide variety of devices.