MacRumors

As noticed by 9 to 5 Mac, Apple has posted a new job listing for an iOS Maps Application Developer who can help "radically improve" the Maps application and other location-based services.

Come work for the team that revolutionized the mobile technology industry as it continues define what computing looks like in a post-PC era. The Maps team is looking for an exceptional developer to join us in our mission to radically improve how people interact with maps and location-based services.

The posting is reminiscent of a late 2009 job listing looking for a candidate to help "take Maps to the next level". Apple has also beefed up its maps, navigation and location-based services capabilities with the acquisition of Placebase and Poly9 over the past couple of years. Combining those acquisitions with the moving of location services in-house last year and other job postings for navigation-related positions, it certainly appears that Apple is making a full-scale push into the area.

From the very beginning, Apple has relied on Google's technology for maps and location-based services on iOS devices. But as relations between the two companies have soured among increasing competitiveness in mobile devices, Apple is clearly trying to distance itself from Google somewhat by developing its own unique offerings.

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is set to announce today whether it will reexamine a preliminary decision ruling that Apple and Research in Motion have not infringed upon a Kodak patent related to digital camera technology. Kodak, which remains confident that it will prevail in the dispute, believes that it can extract on the order of $1 billion in licensing fees from the two companies, on par with royalties it received from Samsung and LG following a fight over the same patent.

A decision is scheduled for about 5 p.m. Washington time today on whether the U.S. International Trade Commission will review a judge's findings from January that Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry don't violate Kodak's patent on an image- preview feature in camera phones. Opening a review would revive Kodak's effort to extract compensation from Apple and RIM.

"This is a lot of money, big money," said [Kodak CEO Antonio] Perez, who estimates the royalties may be similar to payments the company received from Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc.

Kodak filed the patent suits against Apple and RIM in January 2010, and the ITC agreed a month later to review the case. Apple struck back with a countersuit against Kodak in April 2010 alleging infringement of a number of patents related to image processing, power management, and memory architectures. The ITC agreed in May 2010 to review that case, but has yet to issue a decision on it.

Update: The ITC today announced that it will in fact reexamine the earlier ruling that had made in Apple's favor, breathing new life into Kodak's case.

Today marks the tenth birthday of Mac OS X, which officially debuted on March 24th, 2001 as Mac OS X 10.0 with an internal codename of "Cheetah". As noted by Macworld, the release in retrospect was a milestone in Apple's transformation from a struggling computer company into the major technology behemoth it is today.

On March 24, 2001, the iMac was less than three years old, the iPod was still more than six months away, and Macs ran at astounding speeds of up to 733MHz. But most importantly, Apple on that day released the first official version of Mac OS X, changing the future of its platform forever.

Though nobody knew it at the time, the release, codenamed Cheetah, was the first step in transforming Apple from a company poised on the verge of disaster into the second most valuable company in the world.

While the impact of Mac OS X on Apple's products and the user experience they provide is undeniable, the early days of the operating system were anything but perfect, from a shaky public beta released in late 2000 through the public launch of Cheetah that necessitated rapid fixes and improvements that led to the release of Mac OS X 10.1 "Puma" just six months later. As Ars Technica noted in an extensive review of Mac OS X 10.0.0, the release showed "tremendous promise" despite obviously still being a work in progress.

Mac OS X shows tremendous promise, which is a nice way of saying that the 10.0 release is not quite ready for prime time. This is most certainly an early adopter's OS release. Interface responsiveness and effective stability are the two biggest fundamental problems, but missing features and compatibility issues rank just as high if you actually intend to use OS X as a full Mac OS 9 replacement: the 10.0 release cannot view DVD movies; printer drivers are still scarce; CD burning is not yet supported, even by Apple's own iTunes CD authoring application; and a lot of hardware (like my G3/400's serial port adapter to which my printer is attached) seem destined to be orphaned forever.

Mac OS X has obviously come a long way in the ten years since its initial release, but Apple has also become much more than a computer company: revolutionizing music consumption with the iPod, recreating the smartphone market with the iPhone, and most recently finally catapulting the tablet market into consumers' awareness with the iPad. In the process, Apple's operating system for mobile devices, iOS, has itself matured and yielded a number of new innovations and features.

Consequently, Apple has chosen to position the next step in the evolution of Mac OS X as "Back to the Mac", an effort to bring some of the most popular features of iOS to the Mac platform for the first time while retaining the familiarity, flexibility, and horsepower of Mac OS X. That next step, Mac OS X Lion, is set to debut sometime this summer, and developers and users should be able to learn much more about Apple's efforts at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference presumably set to occur in June or July.

As noted by The APPera and backed up by reports from our readers, Verizon's corporate-owned retail stores are unloading the last of their stocks of the first-generation iPad with bargain basement prices beginning at $299.99 for the 16 GB model. The 32 GB model comes in at $399.99 with the 64 GB model at $499.99. We've heard that stores are quickly selling through their stock at these prices and so availability may be spotty and customers should be sure that they visit corporate-owned stores for the special pricing as independent Verizon stores are not participating in the offer.

Verizon stores began selling the first-generation Wi-Fi iPad in late October, typically bundling the device with a MiFi mobile hotspot but also offering iPads on their own with no MiFi or data service required. With the launch of the second-generation iPad, Apple now offers CDMA models directly compatible with Verizon's network.

Late last week, AT&T slashed prices on 3G-capable first-generation iPads to $429-$629 with the carrier's online store dropping the 64 GB model even further to $529. As of this writing, AT&T's online store only has availability of 64 GB models at the $529 price point.

As reported by tonymacx86, Apple's new Mac OS X 10.6.7 update for the 2011 MacBook Pro includes support for a number of AMD graphics cards not currently found in Apple's machines. While the development is certainly of interest to Hackintosh fans looking to build their own systems running Mac OS X, the inclusion of the new cards may provide some hints of graphics cards to be included in future Macs such as potential iMac and Mac Pro updates.

The following graphics cards appear to be natively supported:

ATI Radeon HD 5630 Device ID 0x68D8
ATI Radeon HD 5630 Device ID 0x68D9
ATI Radeon HD 5670 Device ID 0x68D8
ATI Radeon HD 5730 Device ID 0x68D8
ATI Radeon HD 5770 Device ID 0x68B8
ATI Radeon HD 5850 Device ID 0x6899
ATI Radeon HD 5870 Device ID 0x6898

AMD Radeon HD 6850 Device ID 0x6739
AMD Radeon HD 6870 Device ID 0x6738
AMD Radeon HD 6970 Device ID 0x6718

Interestingly, the broad range of cards apparently fully supported under Mac OS X 10.6.7 is leading to speculation that Apple may be looking to support more off-the-shelf GPU options as opposed to the Mac-specific cards that have been used to date.

Just hours after the first international online orders for the iPad 2 began with shipping estimates of 2-3 weeks, Apple has shortened estimates for new U.S. orders to 3-4 weeks from the earlier 4-5 week figure that has been in place for nearly ten days.

Reports from MacRumors readers have indicated that shipments of earlier iPad 2 orders are beginning to come through in larger quantities, and we're hearing of more stock making its way to Apple's retail stores, suggesting that supply constraints may be starting to ease just in time for the international launches.

In line with Apple's confirmation earlier this week that online sales of the iPad 2 would begin at 1:00 AM Friday in each of 25 new countries, the device has already gone on sale in New Zealand and Australia.

As may have been expected given current shortages in the United States, new iPad 2 orders in New Zealand and Australia are not shipping immediately but instead come with shipping estimates of 2-3 weeks. Apple could certainly ship units earlier than the stated timeframe, but the company clearly does not want to promise that units will be moving out for distribution immediately.

Apple does typically maintain separate distribution chains for its North American, European, and Asian markets that sometimes result in differences in shipping estimates among countries, so it will be interesting to see the status of deliveries in European countries once sales begin in those countries.

Shipping estimates for new online orders in the U.S. remain at 4-5 weeks.

CNET reports that four U.S. senators have sent a letter to Apple's iPhone software head, Scott Forstall, asking the company to remove from the App Store applications that are designed to allow users to be alerted to checkpoints for sobriety testing.

U.S. Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are named as senders in the letter, which is addressed to Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, Scott Forstall. No specific applications are named, but the letter highlights apps that "contain a database of DUI [driving under the influence] checkpoints updated in real-time" as well as one that sends out real-time alerts about the existence of these checkpoints.

"With more than 10,000 Americans dying in drunk-driving crashes every year, providing access to iPhone and iPad applications that alert users to DUI checkpoints is harmful to public safety," the group wrote. "We know that your company shares our desire to end the scourge of drunk driving and we therefore would ask you to remove these applications from your store."

The same letter was also sent to Google and Research in Motion to encourage those companies to remove similar apps from their application stores. Research in Motion has already agreed to remove applications offering data on DUI checkpoint locations.

While the letter itself does not specifically reference any iOS applications, a press release from Senator Schumer names Trapster and PhantomALERT as examples of free apps offering location information on such checkpoints.

In addition to real-time information on DUI checkpoints, many of the apps in question also offer information on speed traps, red light and speed cameras, accidents, and other traffic conditions, several of which have also been considered controversial, but the senators' letter focuses specifically on the DUI checkpoint functionality.

Bloomberg reports that Apple is considering licensing its AirPlay technology to consumer electronics companies for integration into their products to enable users to stream video content directly to devices such as televisions. Such implementations would bypass the need for a separate set-top box like the Apple TV for streaming video from iOS devices to TVs.

Under the plan, Apple would license its AirPlay software to consumer-electronics makers that could use it in devices for streaming movies, TV shows and other video content, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the plans havent been made public. Apple now only licenses AirPlay for streaming audio. Devices that could be used for video may be available this year, one of the people said.

An expanded AirPlay would let users stream programming wirelessly from an Apple mobile device to a TV that carries the technology. That may spur wider use of Apples services and devices in consumers living rooms.

Apple has already licensed AirPlay to consumer electronics companies such as Pioneer for the purposes of streaming audio from iOS devices directly to receivers and other home audio equipment, with Bloomberg noting that licensees pay Apple $4 for each AirPlay-enabled component sold.

BridgeCo, Apple's partner for deploying AirPlay on a consumer electronics basis for audio, is also interested in video implementations, and an extension of AirPlay licensing to include video could be a major boon to television manufacturers and customers. At the same time, the move could bolster Apple's efforts to move both its products and its iTunes Store content into consumers' living rooms.

DigiTimes reports that Apple is considering offering to increase the price it is willing to pay for touch panel supplies in order to secure a steady flow of the components for its iOS devices as suppliers struggle to recover from the Japanese earthquake. With Apple said to already be soaking up 60% of the entire touch panel market, the move could significantly increase pressure on smaller competitors trying to lock in their own supplies. In particular, Apple is looking to Taiwan-based suppliers whose importance has increased with a number of Japanese plants going offline or operating with reduced production.

In order to secure sufficient supply of touch panels used in the iPad and iPhone, Apple has talked with Taiwan-based makers, considering some room for them to hike quotes, according to these makers.

With Apple's capacity, It is a reasonable strategy from Apple to allow suppliers to hike quotes, and it will be a great help to the overall supply chain, even just for the short term, but will increase pressure to other vendors for tablet PCs and smartphone, touch panel makers believed.

While a handful of components have been determined to be directly vulnerable to shortages caused by the earthquake and related disasters, Apple's manufacturing partners have been said to have several weeks' worth of supplies already on hand and Apple's supply agreements and market position give it significant leverage for obtaining supplies going forward. But given the complex international nature of the electronics production business and Apple's penchant for maintaining lean manufacturing processes, any disruption in the supply chain could have significant effects.

BGR, which reported on Monday that users should expect bug fixes in the form of iOS 4.3.1 to be released in the next week or two, now reports that it has had a few days of hands-on time with the update, confirming that minor bug fixes to seem to be the primary purpose.

But the report also hints that users may be able to sneak a bit more battery life out of their devices with the new update, potentially addressing widespread battery life issues noted under iOS 4.3.

We reported the changes from iOS 4.3 a few days back, and it really does look as if iOS 4.3.1 will simply fix bugs, hence the version numbering. Battery life seems a tad bit better, though that's not scientific at all.

While evidence for improved battery life seems thin at this point in the absence of explicit testing by BGR or others with access to iOS 4.3.1, many users are no doubt hoping that such changes are indeed included.

Despite much testing documented in the thread in our forums, users have been unable to pin down exactly what might be causing decreased battery life. Some have suggested that the Ping functionality from iTunes is at least partially responsible, but others have claimed that turning off the feature leads to battery life improvement that is only marginal at best.

Apple today announced that Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will be departing the company in order to "focus less on products and more on science", although his specific destination remains unknown. Serlet joined Steve Jobs at NeXT in 1989, and transitioned to Apple in 1997 when NeXT was acquired and Jobs brought back to lead Apple.

"I've worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering.

Serlet will be replaced by Craig Federighi, currently Apple's vice president of Mac Software Engineering and who has led Mac OS X engineering for the past two years. Federighi is another former NeXT and Apple employee who spent ten years at Ariba before returning to Apple in 2009. Serlet notes that the transition should be seamless given Federighi's role in leading the current Mac OS X team.

"Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless."

Serlet has occasionally appeared at Apple keynote and media events over the years to introduce Mac OS X-related features, and thus well known to longtime Apple followers. Federighi has made a couple of on-stage appearances since his return to Apple, demoing Mac OS X Snow Leopard at WWDC 2009 and showing off some of the features of Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Lion at last October's "Back to the Mac" event.

Less than two weeks after the release of the Apple TV 4.2 software update, based on iOS 4.3, Apple has issued a minor 4.2.1 update addressing issues with flickering, waking from sleep, and audio output. The highlighted changes are detailed in Apple's support document covering Apple TV software updates.

- TV compatibility: Addresses issues that may cause the screen to flicker or display incorrect color on some older TVs.
- Wake from sleep: Addresses an issue where Apple TV may not wake up from sleep.
- Audio: Addresses an issue where audio may not be heard on some TV models after switching from another input.
- Stability and performance: Apple TV Software Update 4.2.1 includes stability and performance fixes for Apple TV.

While the Apple TV 4.2 software update brought MLB.tv and NBA League Pass video streaming along with other improvements, some users were experiencing flickering issues on televisions that were attempting to convert the Apple TV's 720p output to 1080i format. Apple last week promised that a software update to address the issue would be forthcoming.

A retrospective piece on the history of the iPod published last week brought fresh attention to the idea that Apple may be looking to discontinue the iPod classic, essentially the direct descendant of the original iPod introduced nearly ten years ago. Concerns over the fate of the iPod classic first arose last September when Apple introduced new iPod models for every line except the iPod classic, even as Steve Jobs referred to the revamp as an "all-new" lineup. The iPod classic remains available, but has not been updated since September 2009.

The possibility of new life for the iPod classic received a jumpstart in late January when Toshiba introduced new hard drives topping out at 220 GB in the form factor used by the iPod classic, which currently offers 160 GB of storage space. In the following weeks, supplies of the iPod classic appeared to tighten at a number of retailers, potentially hinting at either an update or discontinuation, although Apple has made no moves since that time.

With the renewed focus on the fate of the iPod classic, one MacRumors reader let us know that he had emailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs back in September after the device failed to receive an update alongside the rest of the iPod line, inquiring about the fate of the high-capacity music player. Jobs responded, indicating that the company has "no plans" to discontinue the iPod classic.

Q: Hello, I've heard a LOT of speculation that Apple is looking to kill the iPod Classic because it wasn't updated on Sept. 1st, and that a lot of people would rather Touch. The iPod Classic is probably the best iPod in the line. PLEASE DON'T KILL IT!!!

A: We have no plans to.

Sent from my iPhone

The claimed email from Jobs does appear to be legitimate, and while Apple's plans may certainly have changed in the six months since the exchange, it does appear that the company has been intending to keep the iPod classic line alive despite the absence of an update in over 18 months.

With the new 220 GB hard drives from Toshiba now available, Apple could conceivably release an updated iPod classic at any time, although the company may wait until its traditional iPod media event in September for the refresh.

As tracked in our Buyer's Guide, the iMac has reached its average update interval, suggesting that we might be able to expect refreshed models to appear some time in the relatively near future. Expectations for revamped iMacs include a move to Sandy Bridge processors and implementation of the new Thunderbolt connectivity standard that debuted in the MacBook Pro last month.

In a series of Tweets (via MacNews.de), CNET's Brian Tong claims to have received word from a reliable source that new iMacs should debut in late April or early May. The updated iMacs are said to feature Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt as expected, but no major cosmetic changes are reported to be included.

- EXCLUSIVE: My Sources: New iMacs en route by ocean to U.S. available end of April or 1st week of May. No major cosmetic changes.

- My sources say New iMacs will feature Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt. No other specifics.

- We'll see if this pans out, but I'm highly confident in my source. If you're looking for a new iMac. WAIT FOR IT!

iMac rumors have been relatively sparse in recent months, although DigiTimes indicated in mid-December that Apple was expected to update both the MacBook Pro and iMac in the first half of 2011 with the iMac featuring a new panel size and price points. Just days before the MacBook Pro update in late February, DigiTimes reiterated its claim that may change the screen size on new iMacs, claiming that the new models could debut alongside or soon after the MacBook Pros.