MacRumors

Yesterday, we received word from Rob Gloess of Computer LogicX, the company behind the Mix & Mash and Mix & Mash LITE applications for iOS, that he had received legal documents threatening a patent lawsuit over the use of an "upgrade" button in the lite version of his application linking users to the App Store where they could purchase the full version.

Our app, Mix & Mash, has the common model of a limited free, lite, version and a full version that contains all the features. We were told that the button that users click on to upgrade the app, or rather link to the full version on the app store was in breach of US patent no 7222078, we couldn't believe it, the upgrade button!?!

The patent in question was filed in December 2003 as part of series of continuations on earlier patent applications dating back to 1992. The patent is credited to Dan Abelow, who sold his extensive portfolio of patents to holding firm Lodsys in 2004. Lodsys is indeed the company issuing the threats of a lawsuit regarding the patent in question.

Computer LogiX is not the only App Store developer being hit with threats of a lawsuit, as Cult of Mac notes that James Thomson, the developer behind PCalc, has been hit with a similar notice. While Thomson has not identified the company pursuing the action, the timing and details suggest that Lodsys is also responsible.

"Just got hit by very worrying threat of patent infringement lawsuit for using in-app purchase in PCalc Lite. Legal docs arrived via fedex," Thomson wrote.

"No idea what to do... They seem to be effectively claiming the rights to in-app purchase, but going after me, not Apple."

Thomson has reached out to Apple for guidance, and it remains to be seen how things will play out. According to Thomson, the patent holder is demanding that a license be negotiated within 21 days or a lawsuit will be filed.

At least one other developer is cited in the report as receiving similar notice of patent infringement, and that total will almost certainly grow as awareness of the situation increases, so it appears that the action is a relatively widespread one by Lodsys.

Notably, Lodsys cited the same patent, among others, when it filed suit against a host of major printer companies earlier this year.

TUAW notes that Samsung is ready to demonstrate the industry's first 2560 x 1600 10.1" LCD next week at the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium.

The prototype demonstration marks the first time this resolution has been available for the tablet market in the popular – 10.1-inch – format, rivaling the highest resolution smartphone displays now on the market. Samsung expects to have commercial availability of this technology for tablet applications later this year.

The screen comes in at a screen density of 300dpi and is expected to become available for tablets later this year.

Such a high resolution display could pave the way for a true Retina display in a future iPad. We all got very excited earlier this year when it seemed that Apple was already prepping artwork for a double-resolution iPad of 2048x1536. At the time, one of the arguments against it was the lack of availability of such high density displays. TUAW points out that this particular display isn't likely to be used in an iPad, but proves that such high density displays are just around the corner.

For what it's worth at least two analysts have predicted that the iPad 3 will indeed get a pixel-doubled Retina display.

Patently Apple reports on an interesting new patent application from Apple describing the use of environmental sensors to generate screen saver content for mobile devices such as the iPod nano. As an example, the device could sense such environmental characteristics as motion, sound, temperature, or even camera input, using that information to provide the users with screen saver content relevant to the setting.

As one example of the technology in practice, Apple describes a screen saver displaying raindrops falling down the screen. By employing the environmental sensing, the device could automatically determine which way is down regardless of the device's orientation, allowing the screen saver to always display the raindrops falling downward.

Apple's figures for the patent application show a device that appears nearly identical to the current iPod nano, a square device with a touch screen displaying up to four icons on a home screen. With the text and images included in the patent application also addressing the possibility of using images taken by an onboard camera to inform screen saver activity, it offers additional evidence that Apple is considering adding a camera to the diminutive iPod nano.

Interestingly, Apple's patent application was filed in November 2009, nearly a year before the sixth-generation iPod nano debuted with the form factor depicted in the drawings.

Fortune reports on an interesting phenomenon being observed in Apple's stock price related to the weekly options market, the trading of rights to purchase stock at a given price at the end of a specified period. According to the report, Apple's stock is consistently seeing suspicious price changes on Fridays as those options are set to expire, activity that makes a significant of traders lose any potential gains as the stock price moves to meet the strike price for that week's options. In many cases, that activity serves to depress the overall stock price, thereby also negatively impacting regular traders as well.

It was 3:48 p.m. on Friday April 29 and traders who had purchased Apple (AAPL) April 29 $350 "calls" -- options that gave them the right to buy Apple shares in blocks of 100 for $350 per share -- were sitting pretty. The stock was trading around $353.50 and those calls were worth more [than] $350 apiece (the difference between the price of the stock and the so-called "strike price" of the option times 100).

Then, in an extraordinary burst of trading -- exacerbated by the rebalancing of the NASDAQ-100 scheduled for the following Monday -- more than 15 million shares changed hands and the stock dropped below the $350 strike price just before the closing bell. Result: The value of those calls disappeared like a puff of smoke.

Fortune went back and charted the daily closing prices for Apple stock over the past eight weeks, comparing the Friday closes to the "max pain" price at which options on both sides of the equation (puts and calls) have the least value in aggregate. Throughout the time period, Apple's stock consistently moved toward the max pain point on each Friday, sometimes over a period of only minutes as trading came to a close for the week.

While the phenomenon is not new and not unique to Apple, the reasons for it are not entirely clear. Some have argued that normal hedging activity is responsible for the drifts in stock price, but scientific studies have shown that such stock price behavior would not be accounted for by simple hedging and is thus indicative of stock price manipulation, which is illegal under U.S. securities law.

Apple is obviously one of the most closely watched stocks these days, and with the second-largest market capitalization in the U.S. markets has the potential to significantly influence trading. And so an apparently consistent manipulation of Apple's stock price makes for an interesting story, even if it is not yet clear who is responsible for the activity and how it is being accomplished.

Media research firm Nielsen yesterday revealed that overall music sales in the United States are up 1.6% year-over-year so far in 2011, driven in large part by a 12.4% surge in digital music sales that appears to coincide with the debut of The Beatles on iTunes last November.

While physical albums saw a decline in year-over-year sales from the same period in 2010, digital album and track purchases went up 16.8 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Digital retailers received more than half of all music transactions, propelling a 12.4 percent growth in sales over last year.

Catalog album sales are up 5.4 percent in 2011, thanks in part to a long-awaited 2010 deal allowing digital distribution of The Beatles’ albums for the first time.

As noted by All Things Digital, however, it seems hard to believe that The Beatles are responsible for the continued bump in digital sales still being seen six months after the group's iTunes debut. Regardless, music executives are undoubtedly happy that music sales are at least holding steady after what has been an extended decline in overall sales and a flattening out of digital sales, although it will obviously take some time to determine if this is a true shift in sales momentum or simply a brief respite.

As noted by Other World Computing, Apple has implemented a new temperature sensor system on its latest iMac models that significantly hampers the ability of users to replace their original hard drives in the case of failure or a desire to upgrade. Without the custom 7-pin hard drive cable and proprietary firmware included on stock hard drives in the new machines, the new iMacs' fans spin to full speed and the machines fail to pass the Apple Hardware Test.

For the main 3.5" SATA hard drive bay in the new 2011 machines, Apple has altered the SATA power connector itself from a standard 4-pin power configuration to a 7-pin configuration. Hard drive temperature control is regulated by a combination of this cable and Apple proprietary firmware on the hard drive itself. From our testing, we've found that removing this drive from the system, or even from that bay itself, causes the machine's hard drive fans to spin at maximum speed and replacing the drive with any non-Apple original drive will result in the iMac failing the Apple Hardware Test (AHT).

As the report notes, the change does mean that anyone seeking to replace the hard drive in a new iMac will have to go through Apple, limiting options and increasing costs.

It is not a matter of "if" but rather a matter of "when" your hard drive is going to fail. We preach this all the time in regards to having a proper backup strategy in place to prepare from when that failure happens. But it seems now, that when that happens to the main drive on your iMac, you're left with two options - buy a new drive from Apple and have them install it via one of their Authorized Service Centers, or enjoy the rather large Apple logoed paperweight on your desk. Want a 3.5" drive larger than 2TB? Too bad - Apple doesn't offer them.

Apple has not officially supported do-it-yourself hard drive replacements on the iMac for many years, but many users have still elected to take on the task themselves or have others not specifically authorized by Apple perform the swap for them.

This morning we've launched a long awaited MacRumors redesign as well as a number of under-the-hood improvements. It may take some time for the new design to propagate completely, so if you aren't seeing it, please be patient.

If you have any specific issues with the new design, please email us any bugs reports and we'll try to address them as quickly as possible. Here are some of the new features and changes:

• Full RSS Feeds - All existing RSS subscribers have been automatically upgraded to full content feeds. If for some reason you prefer the truncated feed, we are continuing to offer that at this url.
• Fixed or Fluid - The default view for the site is now a fixed-width design. For those who prefer a fluid (variable) width design, you can turn it On or Off. If you change your mind later, the links for those settings are at the bottom of this page.
• Page Load Times - Pages will load faster and the site will be able to handle more traffic.
• Content Changes - The content of the MacRumors front page will remain the same. As always, it will highlight the most significant iOS and Mac news and rumors. Page 2 has been retired and has evolved into a Mac Blog, and our iPhone Blog will expand to cover iOS and iPad topics.

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• Front Page - Existing subscribers have been upgraded to this feed.
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• @MacRumors on Twitter - our comprehensive Twitter feed. We also offer individual components at @MacRumorsFP, @MacRumorsMac, @MacRumorsiOS
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Update: Turn off "Minimal" MacRumors extension as it conflicts with the design. We've also added a "Fluid HD" option for those who want the design to stretch to a super-wide width.

In a pair of reports today, DigiTimes claims that Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn is experiencing shortages of both labor and component supplies required for iPhone and iPad production, with Apple also being among the companies still scrambling to secure component supplies in the face of increasing supply chain tightness resulting from the Japanese earthquake that has seen suppliers nearly run through any cushion they may have had.

Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reportedly facing a shortage of both labor and materials at its plants in Chengdu, China, which is likely to affect shipments of iPad 2 and iPhone 4 orders in the second quarter, according to sources from upstream component makers.

According to the reports, Foxconn had planned 52 iPad production lines at its Chengdu plants capable of pumping out a total of at least 40 million units per year, but the component shortages and labor issues have meant that the manufacturer is falling short of Apple's current demands for 2.5-3 million units per month.

The component shortages stemming from the effects of the Japanese earthquake and the resulting country-wide power issues are said to have led to electronics manufacturers seeking to stockpile existing supplies of components while attempting to play down those moves lest suppliers realize the extent of the shortages and increase prices.

The sources pointed out that PC- and smartphone-related players have all claimed to have not seen any supply issues after the earthquake because of concerns that it might cause upstream players to panic and even raise their product prices, while trying to prevent the subject from impacting their new product launches. However, most of these makers have all been working on stocking their component inventory behind the scenes, the sources added.

The sources noted that several component suppliers are already close to having shortages with the real challenge expected to hit in June. The shortage crisis is also expected to bring issues such as rising costs and an increased rate of defective products in the future.

Apple shipped 4.69 million iPads during the first quarter of 2011, well below what most observers were expecting. The shortfall was reportedly due to the production transition from the original iPad to the iPad 2, with several technical challenges including light leakage on displays from LG and speaker production issues also affecting shipments.

Last week, Forbes writer Jeff Bercovici asked what was it that changed that prompted Hearst and Conde Nast to suddenly agree to Apple's terms for iPad magazine subscriptions. The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple. Publishers had previously argued that the lack of subscriber information from iPad subscriptions was even a bigger hurdle than the 30% revenue share. Instead of automatically sharing the data, Apple asks individual subscribers to opt in. As it turns out, up to 50% of users agree.

Initially, publishers were worried, reasonably enough, that users would overwhelmingly say no. But they don't. In fact, about 50 percent opt in.

Apple's Eddy Cue confirmed the figure according to Bercovici. The author credits the trust in the App Store as the reason for the high opt-in rate.

Apple today issued a new software update for the second-generation Apple TV, moving the software version to 4.2.2 as reported by the device. Apple's servers, however, register the update as a new build of iOS 4.3 carrying a build number of 8F305.

There is no word yet on changes included in the update, as Apple has yet to publish documentation on the new version.

Update: Apple's notes on the changes include:

- Audio: Addresses an issue in which audio is not output when playing some video content.
- Video playback: Addresses an issue in which video is not displayed when playing some content.
- Audio output setting: Adds an audio output setting for switching to 16-bit audio for compatibility with some TVs and AV receivers.
- Live FF/RW improvements: Improves the performance of fast-forwarding and rewinding live events.
- Movie description: Addresses an issue in which the description information is not displayed for some movies.
- YouTube video order: Addresses an issue in which YouTube subscription videos were not ordered by date.

On the second day of its I/O conference, Google has announced the June 15th launch of Chromebooks, small web-only notebooks running the company's browser-based Chrome OS.

These are not typical notebooks. With a Chromebook you won't wait minutes for your computer to boot and browser to start. You'll be reading your email in seconds. Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will get faster over time. Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won't need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files. Chromebooks will last a day of use on a single charge, so you don't need to carry a power cord everywhere. And with optional 3G, just like your phone, you'll have the web when you need it.

Chromebooks will initially launch with models from Samsung and Acer, typically checking in as dual-core Atom-based machines with displays in the 11-12 inch range and limited onboard storage of 16 GB. Pricing for early models is said to begin at $350 and range up to $500 for a Samsung model with integrated 3G connectivity and limited monthly data allowances from Verizon. Google is also offering monthly subscription pricing for students ($20) and businesses ($28), providing them with a manageable fee that includes full support, software updates, and even hardware upgrades.

According to Mashable, Google is "fully focused on notebooks" when it comes to Chrome OS, suggesting that the company will continue to utilize Android to drive tablet products, despite long-standing rumblings and evidence indicating that the company is contemplating bringing Chrome OS to tablet devices.

When asked about Google's future plans for Chrome OS beyond the notebook, Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai said that Chrome OS is "agnostic" to the hardware it runs on. In other words, Chrome OS can easily be ported to tablets, desktops and other Internet-connected devices.

With that said, Pichai made it clear that Google is laser focused on Chrome OS for the notebook. He noted that Google wants to reach the greatest amount of people possible, and most people use notebooks rather than tablets or desktops. "We are fully focused on notebooks," Pichai said.

Google's Chrome OS has been looked to as a lightweight operating system potentially capable of revolutionizing the netbook and tablet industries. Apple of course has continued moving forward with its own products in these areas, launching and even updating the iPad in the tablet market and sticking to the high end of the "netbook" market with its newly-redesigned MacBook Air finally extending into the sub-12 inch display range since Google first previewed Chrome OS in late 2009.

With Amazon and now Google having rolled out cloud-based music hosting services without the consent of music labels, CNET reports that the labels are reportedly now looking for Apple to become the driving force to bring those companies back to the negotiating table for broader licensing deals.

Since neither company was either able or willing to obtain licenses from the four major labels, neither of them could deliver the same range of options that Apple will be able to offer with its upcoming cloud service, according to multiple music industry sources.

Exactly what those options are, the sources wouldn't say. Nonetheless, the hope in the music industry is that Apple's music service will make the competing offerings look shabby by comparison and force Amazon and Google to pay the licensing rates the labels are asking.

The major labels are reportedly hoping that Apple plans to unveil its licensed version of cloud-based music hosting at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) set for early next month, moving quickly to market with what many hope will be a superior offering before Amazon and Google's services can become entrenched.