MacRumors

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities today reported to AppleInsider that Apple's manufacturing partners are scheduled to pump out nearly 400,000 units of revamped MacBook Air models this month as the company looks toward a refresh of the popular ultra-thin notebook.

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo exclusively told AppleInsider that the Mac maker has placed orders for the production of a total of 380,000 Sandy Bridge-based 11.6 and 13.3-inch MacBook Airs this month.

The analyst, whose industry checks have long provided accurate insight into the Cupertino-based company's future hardware plans, notes that roughly 55 percent (or 209,000) of those MacBook Airs will be of the 11.6-inch varieties, which have proven slightly more popular than the 13.3-inch offerings due to their more attractive entry-level price points.

Rumors of a MacBook Air refresh in the near future have been circulating for some time, with rumors dating as far back as mid-February indicating that Apple was planning a June update for the line. Kuo weighed in in late April to say that Apple would begin production of the new models in May, while another claim from last month pegged the refresh for the June-July timeframe.

Apple's new MacBook Air models are expected to be powered by Intel's Sandy Bridge platform, a significant upgrade over the Core 2 Duo processors found in the current models.

Outcome:MacBook Airs did launch in July. We presume this report was correct.

Yesterday, we began to hear word that Apple had intercepted certain iPad 2 orders while in transit, with FedEx tracking having shown the orders nearly reaching their destination before being updated with a "package returned to shipper notice". 9 to 5 Mac received similar information and discovered that the issue is affecting quite a few orders, although seemingly limited to Verizon models.

According to one Apple retail store employee, the company's stores have also been provided with a list of serial numbers of Verizon iPads that are to be pulled from inventory and returned to Apple, suggesting that the issue is not in fact limited to engraved units.

Apple has given all the stores a list of serial numbers to scan, if it's a match we were told to set aside and ship back to Apple, these are only for Verizon ipads. This was to be done on Monday and continue to scan all shipments thru June 11. I had over one hundred to send back.

Based on updated information, it appears that the issue may be a malfunction causing Verizon iPad 2s that have had cellular service activated to be unable to bring up account information for viewing and editing.

Customers calling FedEx and Apple to inquire about their order statuses are apparently being given conflicting information, although the overall picture does seem to be that Apple has pulled the order mid-shipment and is sending out replacements. The reason for the withdrawal of Verizon iPad 2 units is unknown at this time, although it seems reasonable to speculate that Apple has identified a bad batch of units containing some sort of defect.

Some affected customers have reported requesting and receiving credits or free accessories from Apple as compensation for the delays in receiving orders due to the issue, although it is unclear whether this is a specific company policy in place regarding the issue or simply customer service representatives acting at their own discretion within general policy guidelines.

Update: An Apple Store employee has informed us that the issue stems from Verizon having accidentally duplicated Mobile Equipment Identifiers (MEIDs), issuing on the bad batch MEIDs that had been previously used on other Verizon iPads. When users with iPads carrying duplicate MEIDs attempt to set up cellular data accounts, the system sees their devices as having already been set up.

FOSS Patents reports that Apple has filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuits Lodsys has filed against seven iOS developers.

Apple Inc. ("Apple") hereby respectfully moves to intervene as a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff in the above-captioned action brought by plaintiff Lodsys, LLC ("Lodsys") against seven software application developers (collectively, "Developers"), forallegedly infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 7,222,078 (the "078 patent") and 7,620,565 (the "565 patent" and, collectively, the "patents in suit"). Apple seeks to intervene because it is expresslyl icensed to provide to the Developers products and services that embody the patents in suit, free from claims of infringement of those patents.

With the move, Apple is trying to interject itself in the lawsuits that it has otherwise not been a participant in. FOSS Patents believes its likely that Apple will be allowed in, though Lodsys can oppose the motion.

Also, while there's been no public confirmation, the site believes its likely that Apple has agreed to cover the defendant's costs and potential risks as "it's hard to imagine how else this could work."

Apple states explicitly that the sued app developers are "are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and [...] lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple's rights under its license agreement."

Overall, it's good news for the developers affected by the lawsuit, but is still just the beginning of the process.

According to 9 to 5 Mac, trusted source Mr. X has indicated that supplies of the server models of Apple's Mac mini and Mac Pro lines are officially listed as constrained, suggesting that Apple may be drawing down supplies ahead of a refresh.

In addition to OS X Lion, our sources are already expecting new MacBook Airs and Time Capsules fairly soon - due to supply shortages and now Mr. X tells 9to5Mac that Apple's Mac mini Server and Mac Pro Server are constrained with no shipment date yet in place for new models.

Apple introduced the Mac mini server option, which substitutes a second hard drive for the usual optical drive, in late 2009. The Mac Pro server configuration debuted last November as the company announced the pending discontinuation of its Xserve rackmountable server. A report earlier this year indicated that Apple was developing a smaller, narrower Mac Pro that could be rackmounted, although much larger than the previous Xserve.

It seems reasonable to assume that the all models of the Mac mini and Mac Pro could see updates alongside refreshes of the server models, as the machines share the vast majority of their specs.

Music licensing agreements will keep iTunes In The Cloud and iTunes Match out of the hands of UK iTunes users until "at least" the first quarter of next year according to a spokesman for the Performing Right Society, a UK-based organization that represents composers, songwriters and music publishers in that country.

Quoted in The Telegraph, that spokesman said negotiations with Apple were in a "very early stage," and that parties were "a long way off from any deals being signed." A music executive at a major UK record label said "no one expects to see the cloud music service live on this side of the pond until 2012."

Vice president and research director at Forrester Research told The Telegraph "the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything."

The wait for iTunes In The Cloud will be similar in other international countries. For comparison, it took 8 months for the iTunes Music Store to go international after it launched in the United States in October 2003. iTunes Stores in France, Germany and the United Kingdom opened in June 2004 with a further EU expansion following in October of that year.

iOS 5 appears to unlock new 1080p capabilities for the iPad 2, allowing video in the 1080p format to be synced and played directly on the device. While the iPad 2 is of course unable to directly display full 1080p content on its own screen, many users are interested in outputting such content to larger screens, and it also opens the door to a true 1080p Apple TV.

Yesterday, 9to5Mac reported that under iOS 5, Apple's video player will now play back and sync 1080p content. Cult of Mac now speculates on that development to suggest that Apple is preparing to support 1080p output on the next-generation iPhone and Apple TV, devices that will presumably be based on the A5 chip found in the iPad 2.

What's interesting to us about this feature is that it implies that Apple is happy enough with the processing speeds of its A5 chip that they are going to enable 1080p video on devices with an A5 minimum spec. For right now, that's just the iPad 2, but come iOS 5's release in September, two other devices will fit the bill: the iPhone 4S and the next Apple TV.

The current Apple TV, which is based on the same A4 chip found in the iPhone 4, is only capable of outputting 720p video, leaving some consumers hoping for more on a device that should be dedicated to a high-quality television viewing experience. The original rumor regarding the second-generation Apple TV as an A4-based streaming device had pegged it as supporting 1080p and with 16 GB of storage. The released product does not, however, support the higher-resolution content and comes with only 8 GB of storage for the operating system and content caching.

Apple's iOS devices have supported 1080p output in some form for several generations, with the iPad 2 currently able to generate 1080p graphics and output at that resolution to external displays. The device can not, however, officially support 1080p video files under the iOS 4.x software. Other users have been able to demonstrate 1080p video output on the iPhone 4 and even the iPhone 3GS, but the high-resolution content has not been supported through iTunes and the iOS devices' built-in video player from Apple.

As noted by MacStories earlier this week, Apple's new re-downloading feature in iCloud allows users to obtain previously-purchased applications that are no longer available in the App Store. Engadget was even able to download Tris, an old Tetris clone that was removed from the App Store nearly three years ago.

While handy for grabbing apps that have become unavailable, the feature does appear to be limited to applications removed from sale by the developers and not applications removed by Apple for infringement, violations of App Store policies that had escaped the notice of reviewers, or other reasons.

But even those apps that were voluntarily removed (such as Tris) for legal reasons may soon not be available for re-download. A number of iOS developers have reported another change in the iTunes Connect app management platform to record these legally-requested removals. Upon logging into iTunes Connect following Monday's keynote, developers were met with a screen asking whether any of their applications "may have a legal issue".

Developers responding "yes" to the question are then presented with a list of their applications and their version histories and asked to identify which applications have legal issues associated with them. Apple appears to be using this information to identify applications that should not be made available for re-download through the listings of previously-purchased items.

Select each app that may have a legal issue. You will be presented with a list of versions to choose from for each app that you select. Any app versions you choose will become unavailable to be restored and/or downloaded as a previous purchase by App Store customers.

Going forward, similar questions are presented in the submission process for each application update, as outlined in the revised iTunes Connect Developer Guide (PDF), beginning on page 74.

Dot Weekly posts a list (via TechCrunch) of fifty new domain names registered by Apple on Monday in association with its announcements made at its WWDC keynote. While none of them appear to be a surprise given the features and products announced at the event, the list does provide an interesting glimpse at how Apple is locking up web references to its products.

airplaymirroring.com, appleairplaymirroring.com, appledocumentsinthecloud.com, applegestures.com, appleicloudphotos.com, appleicloudphotostream.com, appleimessage.com, appleimessaging.com, appleiosv.com, appleitunesinthecloud.com, appleitunesmatch.com, applelaunchpad.com, applemailconversationview.com, applepcfree.com, applephotostream.com, appleversions.com, conversationview.com, icloudstorageapi.com, icloudstorageapi.com, icloudstorageapis.com, icloudstorageapis.com, ios5newsstand.com, ios5pcfree.com, ipaddocumentsinthecloud.com, ipadimessage.com, ipadpcfree.com, iphonedocumentsinthecloud.com, iphoneimessage.com, iphonepcfree.com, itunesinthecloud.com, itunesmatching.com, macairdrop.com, macgestures.com, macmailconversationview.com, macosxlionairdrop.com, macosxlionlaunchpad.com, macosxlionmissioncontrol.com, macosxlionresume.com, macosxlionversions.com, macosxversions.com, mailconversationview.com, osxlionairdrop.com, osxlionconversationview.com, osxliongestures.com, osxlionlaunchpad.com, osxlionresume.com, osxlionversions.com, osxresume.com, pcfreeipad.com, pcfreeiphone.com

The new registrations are of course accompanied by icloud.com, which Apple acquired from Swedish company Xcerion as that firm rebranded its cloud services as CloudMe. Apple apparently also acquired icloud.org from Xcerion as part of that deal, although that domain continues to redirect to Xcerion's CloudMe services instead of Apple's iCloud pages.

Apple has quietly changed its guidelines on the pricing of In-App Subscriptions on the App Store. There are no longer any requirements that a subscription be the "same price or less than it is offered outside the app". There are no longer any guidelines about price at all. Apple also removed the requirement that external subscriptions must be also offered as an in-app purchase.

UPDATE 12:15 PDT: An Apple spokesperson confirmed to Dow Jones Newswire that the company had, in fact, revised its policies regarding In-App Subscriptions.

Content providers may offer In-App subscriptions at whatever price they wish and they are not required to offer an in-app subscription simply because they sell a subscription outside the App Store as well.

This past February, Apple introduced App Store Subscriptions. This opened the door to a wide range of in-app subscription services such as magazines and newspapers. Just last month, Conde Nast rolled out iPad magazine subscriptions for a number of its periodicals.

When Apple rolled out the new subscription plan, however, it placed several requirements on app developers -- via the App Store Review Guidelines -- with regard to pricing of subscriptions. Enforcement of the new policies were to go into effect on June 30 of this year. By far the most controversial was section 11.13:

11.13 Apps can read or play approved content (magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video) that is sold outside of the app, for which Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues, provided that the same content is also offered in the app using IAP at the same price or less than it is offered outside the app. This applies to both purchased content and subscriptions. [Emphasis added]

Apple also emphasized these points in its press release announcing the In-App Subscription service. For publishers who choose to "sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app."

However, this left publishers with the requirement that App Store users be given the lowest possible pricing on all subscriptions. Just this week, the business newspaper the Financial Times dropped its iOS App in favor of a web app to give it more control over subscription pricing. The guidelines were also somewhat vague on whether companies like Netflix, Hulu or Rhapsody were required to implement an in-app purchasing mechanism and meet the pricing guidelines Apple put forth.

With the enforcement deadline looming, this week Apple introduced updated App Store Review Guidelines, of which MacRumors has obtained a copy. The corresponding 11.13 (now 11.14) section is significantly different:

11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app

The new section 11.14 states that apps can play content "subscribed to or purchased outside of the app" as long as the app doesn't include a way for users to go directly from the app to the outside purchasing mechanism. That is, these apps can't have a "buy" button that takes users to an external subscription page.

According to these new guidelines, existing subscription services such as Netflix may continue to function without offering in-app purchases. Content providers are now also free to charge whatever price they wish. For example, they could offer in-app subscriptions with a premium to cover Apple's 30% cut for In-App Subscription payments.

This is a significant reversal from Apple's position in February, and it will have a major impact on the strategy of content providers regarding the App Store.

Thanks to Armin for the tip, and to Heise Online's Mac & i blog

The City of Cupertino has responded to Apple's stunning new campus proposal. In the statement, Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong states "there is no chance we are saying no" to the new Apple campus. Apple proposal will still have to go through an environmental and a public hearing, but Wong says they are willing to bring on more staff to accommodate the process.

Apple's Steve Jobs spoke to the Cupertino City Council earlier this week about the new 4-story building which is expected to be completed in 2015. Jobs described it as a spaceship-like structure that will be able to hold 12,000 employees. Jobs also focused on the positive impact of the new campus which will increase the number of trees and landscaping.

Progress of the project can be followed at Cupertino.org/apple where they've also posted a PDF of Jobs' presentation slides.

Apple's Mac App Store-only strategy for the release of OS X Lion has brought consternation to some, particularly those in rural areas without reliable high-speed Internet and folks in enterprise and educational IT departments. However, for a large group of Mac users -- those outside the US and Canada -- the Mac App Store is a boon for the wallet.

Apple made significant price cuts to Lion compared to what the company charged for Snow Leopard. Because the price didn't change much in the US or Canada -- it rose 3% from $29 to $29.99 -- we can assume the main reason for the change in pricing is cost savings from digital delivery.

To get pricing for Lion and Snow Leopard, we examined each country's Apple Online Store and Lion launch pages. Some countries we looked at, notably China, Hong Kong, and South Korea, had no pricing announced for Lion so we skipped them.

Pricing was compared within individual countries so any VAT or taxation should be identical.

Update: As a commenter Halluxxx correctly points out, the pricing of Snow Leopard in Japan is Y3,300, not Y4,400. We regret the error.