MacRumors

Apple yesterday launched the iPad 2 in China, officially bringing its six Wi-Fi capable models (three black and three white) to the country for the first time. M.I.C gadget has an extensive gallery of photos from the launch at Apple's Sanlitun retail store in Beijing, where hundreds of customers waited in line for the 8:00 AM launch and supplies sold out in just four hours.

Apple also launched sales through its online store in China, debuting with shipping estimates of 1-2 weeks. But even those supplies quickly dried up and the company's online store has stopped taking orders for all six models of the device, simply noting "no supply" as a shipping estimate.

Pricing for the new Wi-Fi iPad 2 models in China is set approximately 15% higher than in the United States, with 16 GB models coming in at 3,688 yuan ($568), 32 GB models at 4,488 yuan ($691), and 64 GB models at 5,288 yuan ($814).

Apple has placed considerable focus on building out its presence in China, with the company's four retail stores in the country ranking as the highest-grossing locations in the company's chain of over 300 stores. The company publicly stated in early 2010 that it planned to open up to 25 retail stores in China over the following two years, although the company has reportedly scaled back on the planned number and slowed the development slightly as it has shifted its strategy toward larger, more iconic stores.

Last October, the company opened a Chinese version of its online store as well as a Chinese-language edition of the App Store.

SemiAccurate claims to have heard that Apple will be transitioning from Intel processors to ARM processors in the not too distant future.

The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible.

The site seems to believe that the transition will take place after ARM has moved to full 64-bit cores which won't likely be until at least mid-2013.

At that point, Apple can move to ARM without worrying about obsoleting code with an [instruction set architecture] that is on the verge of changing, and no memory overhead worries either. Basically, it looks like the perfect time. Ironically, SemiAccurates moles tell us that the boys on infinite loop are planning to move laptops to ARM at about that time. Coincidence? Nope.

Apple has made a heavy investment in the ARM architecture which presently powers their iOS line of products. Apple even made the bold move to take ARM processor design in house with the acquisition P.A. Semi and Intrinsity.

Still, a transition of their Mac line over to a different processor architecture is hard to accept. While Apple did previously succeed in such a transition in the past with the PowerPC to Intel transition, it was not without an incredible amount of engineering to ease the process. Existing Mac applications would be unable to run on the new ARM processors without some sort of emulation layer. Mac applications would have to be recompiled to support the ARM processors.

While ARM is known for their low power processors, last year they announced plans to move into high-performance computing in the future, and has been rumored to moving into the 64-bit space as well.

Codenamed "Eagle," the A15 architecture is ostensibly aimed at netbooks and tablets, but a look at the spec sheet leaves no doubt that ARM is absolutely gunning for the server market that Intel and AMD currently dominate.

SemiAccurate has not been a frequent source of Apple-related rumors, but they do point out they were correct in predicting that Apple would move away from NVIDIA GPUs in their computers.

Fortune today released its annual "Fortune 500" rankings of America's largest companies by revenue, revealing that Apple leapt 21 spots this year to land at #35 with over $65 billion in revenue.

Apple climbed 21 slots into the top 50 of the Fortune 500 this year. How'd it get there? The company not only continues to expand its reach in existing markets, it also keeps creating new ones.

Take the iPad, which showed the world the power of tablet computing when it was introduced last year. iPad 2 followed, and was one of the most highly anticipated electronic products this year. CEO Steve Jobs' appearance at its debut in March reassured shareholders worried about his most recent medical leave. Regardless of who's in charge, though, investors have plenty of reason to believe Apple's magic spell on consumers can continue.

Apple's profits of $14 billion in 2010 also made it the 8th most profitable company, up from 26th place last year. In the Computer and Office Equipment category, Apple passed Dell in overall revenue to move into second place behind HP. Apple leads that category in profits by a wide margin.

Apple was also cited as one of the seven biggest hirers of 2010, adding 12,600 employees during the year to reach nearly 50,000 total employees. Apple also leads the Fortune 500 in average annual investment returns over the past decade, averaging 45.8% annual growth.

Overall, Wal-Mart repeated as the world's largest company with $421 billion in revenue, well ahead of second-place Exxon Mobil's $354 billion figure.

Research firm IDC today announced the results of its survey of smartphone shipment data for the first quarter of 2011, following up on last week's release of data on the broader mobile phone market.

According to the new smartphone data, Apple continues to hold second place among the world's top smartphone manufacturers with 18.7% market, with unit sales up 114% year-over-year and its share rising by three percentage from the year-ago quarter. That rise, combined with rapid declines in market-leader Nokia's smartphone share, has allowed Apple to move within six percentage points of the top spot.

Apple reached a new record shipment volume in a single quarter, and inched closer to market leader Nokia with fewer than six million units separating the two companies. The company posted market-beating year-over-year growth and recorded triple-digit growth in two key markets: the United States, with the release of its CDMA-enabled iPhone, and Greater China. Additionally, the company enlisted South Korean Telecom and Saudi Telecom as carrier providers of the iPhone.

Overall, worldwide smartphone sales grew by nearly 80% year-over-year, with several Android-focused manufacturers including Samsung and HTC joining Apple in leading the way while Nokia and third-place Research in Motion significantly lagged the overall market growth.

DigiTimes reports that Apple is in discussions with two Taiwan-based integrated circuit design firms, Integrated Memory Logic (iML) and Capella Microsystems, for sourcing of components for the company's iOS devices.

The more interesting of the two claims appears to be related Capella, which is said to have delivered new ambient light sensors to Apple for testing and verification. According to the report, Capella could be in a position to begin supplying Apple with such sensors for the iPhone by the end of the year and that the components would likely represent an improvement over existing sensors.

Capella, which ships over one million ambient-light sensors to HTC a month currently, has reportedly delivered its products to Apple for verification as the ambient-light sensors currently used by iPhone 4 have been criticized for some problems, said the sources, noting that Capella may received Apple's orders before the end of the year at the earliest.

iML is said to be in discussions to provide Apple with programmable gamma buffers for the iPad, components which help regulate the luminance of the LCD displays.

As noted by tonymacx86 (via 9 to 5 Mac), iFixit's teardown of the new iMac released earlier this week reveals that the machine utilizes Intel's BD82Z68 platform controller. The inclusion is notable in part because the Z68 chipset is reportedly not set for public introduction until next week.

Apple use of the Z68 chipset marks yet another exclusive for the company, which has occasionally been granted early access to forthcoming chip components ahead of public unveilings and competitors' offerings.

The Z68 chipset is also notable because it supports SSD caching, a system that marries conventional hard drives to small solid-state drives (SSDs) to provide a seamless user experience with increased performance as the most frequently-accessed files are placed on the speedy SSD.

Apple of course offers SSD options in its iMacs, either as a replacement for or in addition to the traditional hard drive included as standard. The iMac's SSD, however, is a full 256 GB drive rather than the much smaller-capacity drives envisioned for SSD caching. And while Apple doesn't seem to be supporting true SSD caching in the new iMacs, the company achieves a similar but less seamless effect by installing the operating system and applications on the SSD while leaving the traditional hard drive for media on systems configured with both types of drives.

Intel is reportedly preparing to launch its own "Larsen Creek" line of SSDs with capacities around 20 GB and specifically designed to support seamless SSD caching when paired with a traditional hard drive and a compatible chipset such as the Z68. It is unclear if Apple will be looking to incorporate such systems in future hardware, but the company is clearly interested in pursing SSD technology for its performance benefits.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Hearst Corporation has agreed to Apple's terms for in app subscriptions, making plans to begin selling subscriptions to several of its magazine titles beginning with their July issues.

Starting with their July issues, iPad apps for Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine, will be available through a service from Apple that allows customers to sign up for subscriptions inside the apps and get billed automatically. Subscriptions to all three publications will be sold for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year.

Only a few publications have begun using Apple's iTunes subscription service, launched in February. Hearst is the first major magazine publisher to commit to selling subscriptions to multiple titles through it.

Hearst noted that it will also offer subscription access to its newspaper titles and other content in the future.

The development marks another significant victory for Apple in its push to bring magazine content to the iPad. Just days ago, it was revealed that Apple and Time Inc. have struck a deal to allow subscribers to the print editions of Sports Illustrated, Time, and Fortune to access the digital editions of those titles on the iPad free of charge. Time has yet to commit, however, to offering standalone iPad subscriptions for those titles.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple is negotiating with Verizon about delivering over-the-air iOS updates starting with iOS 5.

Multiple sources say the new feature will debut in iOS 5, meaning iOS 5 will not come over-the-air but following point updates to it will. Just like tethering in iOS 3, Apple has the technology but cannot just unleash it everywhere. Apple and Verizon Wireless are said to have been in talks over these wireless software updates since early this year.

An over-the-air update system would allow users to download the iOS update directly to their phone over 3G or Wi-Fi and update their phone to the latest version without connecting to iTunes. Android devices already offer this feature.

Due to the high bandwidth requirement, it seems Apple needs to negotiate deals with individual carriers to allow such a system to take place. We should note that Apple's iOS is partially capable of this functionality already. The Apple TV which is based on iOS 4 offers "over the air" updates with no iTunes syncing required. The Apple TV, however, stores little customer data so backups are not as critical as with iPhone and iPad devices.

RCR Wireless claims to have multiple sources telling it that Apple is planning on incorporating 3D technology into the next-generation iPad.

The fact that the iPad 3 is 3D is a dead cert, one Hollywood insider close to the big movie studios told RCR, adding that the screen would be the real magic. She went on to say that the big film studios were currently running around like blue arsed flies trying to gear up to release plenty of 3D content in time for Apples next launch.

Besides this "Hollywood insider", they also cite sources from iPad manufacturer Foxconn about the 3D plans.

We're not sure about the reliability of these sources, but Apple has clearly been exploring 3D technology over the years as evidenced by numerous patent applications. Not all of this research has been in the typical 3D technology found in recent movies and television sets. Some of the research has been in pseudo-3D technologies that involve head tracking that was effectively demoed in a recent iPad app. 3D, of course, has also been a big recent trend with the release of many 3D TVs, 3D movies, and Nintendo's 3DS handheld gaming console.

Also interesting is that this isn't the first time this has been suggested. Earlier this year, Japanese blog Mac Otakara cited their own sources who said that Apple's LCD supplier was beginning to manufacture small glasses-free 3D LCD panels for the iPod touch, though they suggested it might involve user head-tracking to accomplish the effect.

Several MacRumors have informed us in recent days that they have received email invitations to join "Apple Customer Pulse", a program designed to allow customers to provide survey feedback about their product purchases to Apple.

Apple values your opinion and invites you to participate in a survey about your Apple products. Your responses will remain completely confidential, and results will be viewed only in aggregate. The survey should take five minutes or less to complete.

According to one of the readers who received an invitation, the program allows users to receive up to two surveys per month to assess their usage of and thoughts on Apple products on an ongoing basis.

Apple has occasionally reached out to customers for survey feedback on their purchases, but this new program appears to be a more extensive, ongoing market research project for the company. The Apple Customer Pulse site is being administered by Socratic Technolgies, a San Francisco-based market research firm that has worked with other tech companies such as Adobe to gather customer input.

According to Whois database information, the applecustomerpulse.com domain was registered in late January, although the site did not appear on reporting services such as Netcraft until last month. The domain is registered to MarkMonitor, the branding company that Apple routinely uses for such purposes, and the administrative contact is Apple's Ken Eddings, who has appeared on many such listings including the one for me.com that revealed Apple's plans for a transition from the company's .Mac service to the current MobileMe. The new survey site is, however, hosted on Socratic's servers and not Apple's.

AppleInsider reports that it has learned that Apple is planning to utilize the Mac App Store as the "preferred" mechanism for distribution of Mac OS X Lion when it is released to the public later this year.

The Mac App Store, available to all users running the most recent version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, will become the de facto method for obtaining the Lion upgrade, people familiar with the matter have revealed. Users will be able to upgrade instantly without the need for physical media by purchasing Lion through the Mac App Store.

Apple is said to presumably be planning to also release Mac OS X Lion on physical media to support users who are running older Mac OS X versions incompatible with the Mac App Store or who have slow Internet connections that would make downloading the large update unwieldy.

Distribution of Mac OS X Lion through the Mac App Store would of course not be a surprise, as Apple has been working to position the marketplace as the future of app distribution on the Mac platform and has even been distributing developer builds of Lion through the store.

Options for physical media distribution could include the traditional optical disc or even USB keys such as those that ship with the MacBook Air for providing system software. The lack of an optical drive on the popular new MacBook Air provides an opportunity for Apple to push alternative distribution methods such as direct download or USB keys, although the MacBook Air is also capable of wirelessly using optical drives on nearby Macs and PCs for software installation.

Law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein today announced the filing of a class-action lawsuit against Apple and other tech companies over "no solicitation" agreements that prevented the companies from attempting to hire away each others' employees. The lawsuit, filed by former Lucasfilm engineer Siddharth Hariharan, contends that the anti-poaching agreements limited career opportunities for and instituted artificial salary caps on employees at the companies involved.

"My colleagues at Lucasfilm and I applied our skills, knowledge, and creativity to make the company an industry leader," stated Mr. Hariharan. "It's disappointing that, while we were working hard to make terrific products that resulted in enormous profits for Lucasfilm, senior executives of the company cut deals with other premiere high tech companies to eliminate competition and cap pay for skilled employees."

"Competition in the labor market results in better salaries, enhanced career opportunities for employees, and better products for consumers," stated [attorney Joseph] Saveri. "We estimate that because of reduced competition for their services, compensation for skilled employees at Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar was reduced by 10 to 15 percent. These companies owe their tremendous successes to the sacrifices and hard work of their employees, and must take responsibility for their misconduct."

The lawsuit alleges that the "no solicitation" agreements first surfaced in 2005 between Lucasfilm and Pixar, with Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, and Intuit all joining the coalition that remained in place until at least 2009. The complaint seeks restitution for lost compensation and treble damages as punishment for the anti-competitive actions.

Specific claims of Apple's involvement in such anti-poaching agreements surfaced in August 2009 when a deal with Google was revealed. The U.S. Department of Justice finalized a settlement in September 2010 that barred Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar from participating in such arrangements.

Apple today released iOS 4.3.3, bringing several fixes and improvements to Apple's operating system for mobile devices, including addressing bugs cited in the recent location-tracking controversy. The build number is 8J2 for the majority of devices, with the CDMA iPad 2 receiving Build 8J3. A separate iOS 4.2.8 build 8E401 is also available for the CDMA iPhone 4.

This update contains changes to the iOS crowd-sourced location database cache including:

- Reduces the size of the cache
- No longer backs the cache up to iTunes
- Deletes the cache entirely when Location Services is turned off

BGR reported just two days ago that it had gotten its hands on iOS 4.3.3, claiming that the update also brings battery life improvements and iPod bug fixes.