MacRumors

Spotify is finally (almost) ready to launch in the U.S., closing deals with three of the four big music labels -- Warner Music, predictably, is the lone holdout -- and a massive funding round, raising $100 million at a $1 billion valuation.

Spotify is a freemium music service, offering both free and paid subscription offerings, similar to Pandora. Spotify lets users listen to whatever songs they wish, in whatever order they wish, rather than building "channels" of like music on Pandora.

Spotify has a significant presence in Europe, with more than 1 million paid subscribers and 6 million ad-supported free users. In the US, it may face a more uphill climb with heavy new competition from from Google, Amazon, and Apple, plus there are existing music services from Rhapsody and the aforementioned Pandora. In fact, Apple has been rumored to have made efforts to prevent Spotify from being able to launch in the U.S.

Spotify plans to charge around $10 per month for its premium service, and allows users to stream millions of songs they don't own.

The company, founded in Sweden but based in London, raised $100 million from Digital Sky Technologies, Accel and Kleiner Perkins, all heavy hitters in the venture game. DST is a major investor in Facebook, which might help the two companies to make a deal. Spotify and Facebook are working on a "significant integration" according to All Things D's Peter Kafka, though that isn't tied to the U.S. launch. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a known Spotify fan.

Spotify has a decent war-chest, plus proven success and buzz from its European operations. If it can ink a deal with Warner, it might actually, finally, launch on this side of the pond.

Earlier this week, we noted that Apple had filed a response to Samsung's patent countersuit, calling a recent motion by Samsung to gain access to unreleased iOS hardware an "attempt to harass" and irrelevant to the case at hand. The filing came just ahead ahead of a deadline for Samsung to share its unreleased hardware with Apple.

Apple yesterday made another move in the chess match, amending its complaint against Samsung to strengthen the language and to include a number of new Samsung models, including some of those set to be turned over to Apple today, as infringing products.

Many of the changes are designed to portray Samsung's alleged infringement as an incredibly outrageous act of copying. The original complaint already accused Samsung of "slavishly copying" Apple's designs. The amended one stresses that Samsung "has been even bolder" than other competitors emulating Apple's products and has created "products that blatantly imitate the appearance of Apple's products to capitalize on Apple's success."

In addition to the original 15 Samsung models cited in Apple's lawsuit, the following models have been added: Droid Charge, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S (i9000), Gravity, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, Sidekick, Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Galaxy S II. Apple has also tweaked some of the patent claims included in the lawsuit, removing a few assertions and adding other patents to the mix.

Apple's dispute with Samsung is being closely watched for a number of reasons, including Samsung's recent strong growth with the Android platform, Samsung's role as a prominent supplier for components of Apple's iOS devices, and the vociferousness of Apple's claims of outright copying by Samsung accompanied by numerous side-by-side comparisons in support of the claims.

The New York Times reports that Facebook is finally set to release a free iPad app "in coming weeks", remedying a curious omission for the social networking service that touts over 600 million users worldwide.

People briefed on Facebook's plans say that in coming weeks the company plans to introduce a free iPad application that has been carefully designed and optimized for the tablet.

The app has been in production at Facebook for almost a year, going through several design iterations, and is now in the final stages of testing, according to these people, who declined to be named because they were discussing confidential product plans.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who along with other company executives noted last November that the company was still been trying to decide how best to handle the iPad, is said to have been "heavily involved" in the app's development.

People who have seen the application said it has a slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. Facebook developers and designers have also overhauled the Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features for the application. And the app will go beyond the features available on the Facebook Web site by allowing users to shoot and upload photos and videos directly from the iPad’s built-in cameras.

Facebook's iPad app comes just as TechCrunch reports that the company is preparing to launch a new HTML5-based mobile platform codenamed "Project Spartan" that would take on iOS on its home turf by running within the mobile Safari browser.

As of right now, there are believed to be 80 or so outside developers working with Facebook on Project Spartan. These teams are working on apps for the platform that range from games to news-reading apps. Some of the names should be familiar: Zynga and Huffington Post (owned by our parent AOL), for example. The goal is to have these apps ready to roll in the next few weeks for a formal unveiling shortly thereafter.

Facebook's vision for Project Spartan reportedly includes integration of its Facebook Credits payment system that would allow developers to offer paid apps and in app purchases directly through the web-based platform.

Earlier in the week it was reported that PowerPC-emulation software Rosetta will be killed off in OS X Lion. This is of particular concern to users of older apps like Quicken 2007 (which is still for sale) which some users favor because the current version of Quicken Essentials for Mac is missing numerous features that the 2007 version had.

Aaron Patzer, VP/GM of Intuit's Personal Finance Group spoke with The Mac Observer about the intricacies of Intuit's codebase.

Mr. Patzer explained that the PowerPC codebase for Quicken For Mac 2007 was started decades ago and has many intricacies -- including its own custom-built database engine -- that are very much PowerPC specific. Simply porting this code over to Intel is not possible and would require a significant amount of work. So much so that Intuit decided to focus those resources on developing an entirely new application, Quicken Essentials for Mac.

But what of Rosetta and Quicken 2007 and OS X Lion? Intuit is reportedly working with Apple to embed the necessary parts of Rosetta in Quicken 2007 to get it to run on Lion.

The project has been underway for the past few months, with Intuit working to possibly embed specific Rosetta libraries into Quicken For Mac 2007 to get it to run. This, too, is not a simple project and may never come to fruition.

It's a massive project and may never work, but they are working on it. We should know more by the end of the summer.

iTunes Match was Steve Jobs' "One More Thing at WWDC this year. It allows users to get the same backup and "download anywhere" benefits from legitimate iTunes purchases as well as any other music they might have, regardless of where it was acquired. Or, as All Things Digital's Peter Kafka put it:

Apple will take the songs you've stolen, and turn them into legit files, with big music's blessing.

Big music might have agreed to Apple's pirate amnesty scheme, but little music may not fall in line quite so quietly.

Rob Sevier, owner of Chicago-based Numero Group -- a tiny record label that specializes in old Soul music -- thinks iTunes Match is a raw deal. In a chat with Ars Technica's Chris Foresman, Sevier explained the effect of piracy on a small record label like Numero.

[M]any of Numero's releases sell in the range of about 10,000 copies total, including physical and digital formats. Yet, the label has found copies of tracks from its albums on sharing sites such as MediaFire or RapidShare with download counts that far exceed sales numbers.

"People will rip your album and upload them, and you can see how many people are downloading it," Sevier explained. "And in some cases people are downloading our stuff like 80,000 times or more. We have seen, on average, anything from 10 to 20 times more downloads than legitimate sales."

"There's no way that we're not going to see matching that exceeds what we're selling legitimately," Sevier said.

This is nothing new. Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Grokster and StreamCast "induced users to violate copyrights and chose not to take the simple steps available to prevent it." The Economist, writing about the case in 2005, noted "the challenge for content providers is to use new technology to create value for customers, and to make those who use content illegally feel bad about it."

If, as Sevier claims, Match is bad for the artist and the record company, then it must be good for the consumer. Sevier, for one, thinks so:

[iTunes Match is] brilliant. I will definitely use the free version since I'll be able to access all of the stuff I've bought from iTunes and not have to permanently store it all on my computer.

But clearly some of the big record execs like it too. Labels hope iTunes Match will supply them with three important things: Some amount of revenue for pirated music is better than nothing; labels will get more feedback about the types of music that consumers are listening to; and, they hope, iTunes Match will get customers into the habit of paying for music again -- at least in a subscription form.

Lodsys, the patent holding company currently taking on App Store developers over their use of in app purchasing and upgrade buttons, is under increasing attack as it continues to push forward with its own actions while its targets have begun to fight back. Last week, we noted that the first legal challenge had been brought seeking to invalidate Lodsys' patents, and three other companies, including the parent company of The New York Times, have since filed similar suits against Lodsys.

But while Apple has stepped forward and asked to intervene in Lodsys' case against the App Store developers, arguing that Apple's own license extends to developers using its tools, the company has not joined the effort to have the patents themselves invalidated. FOSS Patents now reports that Apple (and Google, whose developer ecosystem is also being targeted by Lodsys) may actually be barred from challenging the patents by virtue of their licensing agreements already in place with Lodsys.

None of the attorneys I talked to knows the language of the license agreement Apple and Google signed with Intellectual Ventures while the four patents later acquired by Lodsys belonged to that entity. But they and I concur that it's highly likely that Apple and Google are contractually precluded from challenging Lodsys's patents because such license agreements often come with clauses under which a licensee will lose a license once he participates in an effort to invalidate any of the related patents (in addition to possibly having to pay contractual penalties).

So even if Apple and Google had wanted to attack Lodsys's patents proactively, they would have lost their license -- at least to any patent they attack; more likely to all four Lodsys patents; and possibly even to any or all of the more than 30,000 patents they licensed from Intellectual Ventures, a patent aggregator in which those companies (alongside many other industry players) invested.

Consequently, Apple may be limited to simply defending App Store developers with respect to the terms of Apple's licensing, and not able to directly attack the patents themselves.

But that does not mean that Lodsys' patents are safe by any means. In addition to the four invalidation lawsuits already filed against Lodsys, CNET reports that crowdsourcing intellectual property research firm Article One Partners has launched a series of bounties for information on prior art or other issues that could help in the effort to invalidate Lodsys' patents.

Article One Partners, a business that crowdsources intellectual property (IP) research, has launched three new studies into patents held by Lodsys. Each offers a reward to the party that finds prior art, or examples of pre-existing technologies or other IP that could be used as evidence to invalidate one or more of Lodsys' patents.

Each of the three studies carries a $5,000 bounty guaranteed to be paid out to the researchers who submit what is judged to be the "highest quality prior art" to be used in attacking Lodsys' patents.

It is unknown who is funding the bounties on Lodsys' patents, as that information is not disclosed by Article One Partners. Article One is, however, an established company with a community of around one million people participating in crowdsourced intellectual property research on a variety of topics.

AppleInsider reports that it has received word that Apple is holding back on releasing updated Mac models in order to wait for work on OS X Lion to be completed. Apple is reportedly "so pumped up" about Lion that it wants to ship the new machines with Lion preinstalled rather than forcing users to upgrade on their own once the new operating system is released next month.

For instance, new Thunderbolt-enabled Sandy Bridge MacBook Air models expected to go into production this month have been ready and waiting for some time, according to people familiar with the matter. But management is currently unwilling to usher the new models into the market with the current Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system.

Instead, the Mac maker is said to be locked on waiting till it can image the new notebooks with a Gold Master build of Lion so that buyers are afforded the latest and greatest Apple experience.

Thunderbolt-equipped Mac minis and LED Cinema Displays are also said to be on hold as Apple puts the finishing touches on OS X Lion.

Apple has only announced that OS X Lion will launch in July, declining to share an exact release date so far. The release will be a Mac App Store exclusive, and will be priced at $29.99. Through the Lion Up-to-Date program, users who purchase or have purchased a Mac between June 6th and the official Lion release will receive a free upgrade to Lion.

Consequently, Apple's desire to hold back on releasing updated Macs is not related to saving customers money on the upgrade but instead seems focused on offering customers the latest and greatest software experience right out of the box and removing any inconvenience associated with upgrading.

Patently Apple reports that another newly-published patent application from Apple reveals a hint at what could be the future of the company's "Find My iPhone" functionality. The proposed enhancements offer a device's owner a great deal more control over how it can be used once it is lost or stolen, as well as providing the device with smarter capabilities for detecting unauthorized usage. Among the interesting features:

- Unauthorized usage detection: A passcode-enabled device could be programmed to automatically increase its security level after a certain number of incorrect passcode entries, moving to further secure sensitive information stored on the device or entering a surveillance mode in which it could begin collecting and transmitting audio, video, position, and other information that might help in identifying the person in possession of the device and reuniting it with its owner.

- Selective data scrambling and wiping: The system could offer device owners a high level of customization regarding actions to be taken when a device is identified as lost or stolen. Beyond the basic remote lock and remote wipe features available with "Find My iPhone" today, the system could allow users to selectively wipe or scramble select content such as emails, contacts and passwords. Such a system could help a user avoid the need to completely wipe their device remotely, allowing other device functions to continue and increasing the chances of recovery.

- Limiting device functions: In addition to scrambling or wiping of data, the system could allow users to selectively turn on or off access to certain features and capabilities on a lost or stolen device. For example, the user could turn off phone, texting, or cellular data capabilities, features that could otherwise result in charges being made to the owner's account. Additional security features such as the disabling of VPN capabilities can also help protect corporate networks from intrusion in the event that a device is lost or stolen.

ifoAppleStore reports that Apple has begun work on a $6.6 million project to revamp the plaza at its flagship Fifth Avenue retail store in Manhattan, home of the iconic glass cube entrance leading to the underground retail space. As part of the project, Apple will be temporarily removing the glass cube to install new pavers on the plaza.

Workers reportedly appeared on site last night and began fencing off areas around the store to begin work on the project.

Building permits issued on June 13th state the work will also include removing protective bollards, installing new pavers around the cube's perimeter, and removing and reinstalling surrounding water drains. According to the permits, the work could be finished by early November.

It is unclear whether Apple will be replacing the glass panels of the cube or making other changes to the structure, or simply temporarily removing the cube to facilitate other drainage and paver work on the plaza.

Apple's Fifth Avenue store opened in mid-2006 as the gleaming flagship of the chain, operating 24 hours a day. Despite the company having opened a number of significantly larger flagship stores around the world in the following years, the Fifth Avenue store has maintained its position as one of the busiest and most-visited stores in the company's retail chain.

Update: ifoAppleStore has added a couple of photos of the gray plywood barriers around the plaza.

With the explosive growth of Facebook and Twitter, social networking has been the biggest trend in the recent years. Apple has already tried delve into this market a bit with its iTunes network Ping, though with limited success.

Based on a new patent application published today, it seems Apple has been exploring far more ambitious attempts using the iPhone, location-based services and interest matching. The result is the possibility that your iPhone could find you your next friend, business partner or date. Apple sets up the scenario in the patent filing:

Social networks are a well known phenomenon, and various electronic systems to support social networking are known. Growing a social network can mean that a person needs to discover like-minded or compatible people who have similar interests or experiences to him or her. Identifying like-minded people, however, often requires a substantial amount of and time and effort because identifying new persons with common interests for friendships is difficult. For example, when two strangers meet, it may take a long and awkward conversation to discover their common interests or experiences.

So, instead of "awkward conversation", Apple proposes that individuals' interests can be determined manually by questionnaires (interests, books, etc...) but also automatically by mining various data found in their iPhone device. You will be able to find others in your immediate vicinity that might match your interests and introduce yourself to them through your iPhone.

Common interests and experiences of two or more users located close to each other can be identified from content, including automatically created usage data of the mobile devices. Usage data of a mobile device can be created based on activities performed on the mobile device (e.g., songs downloaded), a trajectory of the mobile device (e.g., places traveled), or other public data available from the mobile device (e.g., pictures shared).

Of course, all this would be opt-in only to avoid any privacy concerns. For example. GPS tracking could identify people who have traveled to the same locations. Phone numbers and contacts can be compared, as well as common bookmarks or games played on device. Overall the application is a fascinating read. They even suggest that facial recognition features could be used to identify common contacts.

Now, patent applications tend to be overambitious descriptions of what could be, and Apple is known to dabble in various areas that they don't necessarily plan on pursuing. That said, location-services and social network are rapidly growing markets, so it wouldn't be surprising for Apple to make some efforts in those areas. In fact, we've already seen references to a "Find My Friends" features in developer builds of iOS.

Apple has finally launched the Back to School promotion for 2011.

When you buy a new qualifying Mac with Apple education pricing* from June 16, 2011, through September 20, 2011, you'll get a $100 Back to School Card to use on the Mac App Store, the App Store, the iTunes Store, and the iBookstore.

As reported, this year's back to school promotion offers a $100 iTunes/App Store Gift Card with the purchase of a qualifying Mac. The promotion starts today and ends on September 20, 2011. International Apple Stores have also launched their local equivalents (65 British Pounds in UK, 75 Euro in Europe).

You must be a college student, student accepted to college, parent of college student or faculty/staff at any grade level. Qualifying computers include the MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, and Mac Pro. Readers should also note that any Mac purchased now will also get OS X Lion for free.

Update: Apple has posted the terms and conditions. When the new MacBook Airs are released, they will also qualify.