MacRumors

With Apple's iPad 2 having been on sale in the U.S. for a week and half already and set to launch in 25 new countries on Friday, other companies are continuing to ramp up their efforts as they seek to bring competitive tablets to the market.

Research in Motion today announced that it has partnered with Best Buy to begin taking orders for Wi-Fi models of the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 7-inch tablet primarily targeted at business users and set to launch on April 19th. Pricing for the Wi-Fi PlayBook will match that of the larger iPad 2 at $499 for the 16 GB model, $599 for the 32 GB model, and $699 for the 64 GB model.

"Tablets are becoming a bigger part of our business everyday and the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook will heighten the level of excitement in this category," said Scott Anderson, head of merchandising for Best Buy Mobile. "RIM has a tremendous history of producing great mobility products for our customers and we are excited to help launch the BlackBerry PlayBook."

Not to be outdone, Samsung today announced new 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch versions of its Galaxy Tab device that will join the existing 7-inch tablet in running Android.

As suggested by an executive earlier this month, Samsung has in fact redesigned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to respond to Apple's iPad 2, dropping the thickness from 10.9 mm to 8.6 mm, making the Galaxy Tab 0.2 mm thinner than the iPad 2. The reduced thickness apparently forced Samsung to shift the rear-facing camera from an 8-megapixel sensor to a 3-megapixel one, although even the lower-resolution camera exceeds that found in the iPad 2.

The first iteration of Galaxy Tab 10.1 measured in at 246.2 x 170.4 x 10.9 mm and weighed 599g; this new, slimmer version is 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm and 595g. In the process the slate has gained a new back panel (to match the 8.9-inch version) and lost some megapixels. The 2-megapixel front camera remains, but the rear camera is a 3-megapixel unit with autofocus and an LED flash (down from 8-megapixels on the previous version). Battery life is up to 10hrs, Samsung claims.

The Wi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is said to go on sale June 8th and like the PlayBook will offer identical price points to the iPad 2 at $499 for the 16 GB model and $599 for the 32 GB model.

The Wi-Fi Galaxy Tab 8.9 will offer essentially identical specs to the larger model down to the same 1280x800 resolution display (although obviously smaller in size) and will launch in "early summer" at $469/$569 price points for 16 GB and 32 GB models.

Mozilla today announced the official release of Firefox 4, the latest version of the organization's popular Internet browser, for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. With support for over 80 languages, Firefox 4 brings speed enhancements as well as a sleek new user interface, increased customizability, and new security and privacy features.

Firefox 4 is the fastest Firefox yet. With dramatic speed and performance advancements across the board, Firefox is between two and six times faster than previous releases. Major enhancements to the JavaScript engine make everything from startup time to page load speed to graphics and JavaScript performance screaming fast in Firefox.

The latest version of Firefox introduces a sleek new look that lets Web content take center stage. With features like App Tabs and Panorama, Firefox makes it easier and more efficient to navigate the Web. Firefox delivers industry-leading privacy and security features like Do Not Track and Content Security Policy to give users control over their personal data and protect them online.

Firefox 4.0 is of course a free download, with the Mac version requiring a minimum of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Bloomberg reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been instructed to provide testimony in the form of a deposition regarding an ongoing antitrust case targeting Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) technology. The deposition, not to exceed two hours, will cover software changes Apple made in 2004 to prevent digital music files from RealNetworks from playing on the iPod.

"The court finds that Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge about the issues at the center of the dispute over RealNetworks software," Lloyd wrote.

The class-action suit was filed in January 2005 by a customer complaining about the exclusive nature of Apple's digital music offerings encoded with FairPlay, preventing users from playing music purchased from the iTunes Store on other companies' music players and other music stores' digital offerings from being played on iPods. In particular, Apple's efforts to thwart RealNetworks' reverse engineering of FairPlay with its own "Harmony" technology served as the impetus for the lawsuit.

RealNetworks, a Seattle-based competitor in the digital- music market, announced July 24, 2004, that it would sell music from its online store that could be played on iPods on a technology it called Harmony. Just five days later, Apple announced software updates to its iPod FairPlay software that would render RealNetworks' Harmony product again inoperable on iPods, according to Lloyds order.

By October of that year, when users were forced to update their iTunes applications and iPods, the digital-music files from RealNetworks' online store were no longer interoperable with Apples iPods, Lloyd wrote.

Apple of course no longer sells DRM-encoded music through the iTunes Store, but the lawsuit argues that Apple sought to build monopolies in the digital music and portable music player markets by integrating its products and services while preventing interoperability with competitors' products.

Apple today officially confirmed that it will launch sales of the iPad in 25 new countries on Friday: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

"While competitors are still struggling to catch up with our first iPad, we've changed the game again with iPad 2," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're experiencing amazing demand for iPad 2 in the US, and customers around the world have told us they can't wait to get their hands on it. We appreciate everyone's patience and we are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone."

As with the U.S. launch, online sales will begin at 1:00 AM Friday in each country, with in-store availability set for 5:00 PM at Apple retail stores and select resellers.

An Apple spokesperson had confirmed yesterday that the UK launch remained on track for Friday amid worries that the company would delay its international launches in the face of short supplies affecting delivery to its U.S. customers.

Apple also announced today that the iPad 2 will launch in Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries in April, with even more countries to follow in the months ahead. Japan had been set to see the iPad 2 debut with the first wave of international launches, but Apple last week delayed the launch there in the wake of the earthquake and associated disasters. Apple has yet to announce a new launch date for the iPad 2 in Japan.

China Times reports (via GadgetsDNA) that the iPhone 5 has entered trial production and is due for production in the 3rd Quarter of this year. Other details from the Chinese newspaper seem to echo previous rumors that the new iPhone 5 will have a metal chassis to improve antenna sensitivity as well as a 4-inch touch screen.

Many of the rumors so far seem to be pointing to an iPhone 4-like frame for the new iPhone 5. Looking back at old rumors, an iPhone 5 parts video that surfaced back in January may have actually been an early look at the iPhone 5 casing (photo above).

That video actually first revealed the new antenna dividers found on the Verizon iPhone, but also included a SIM card slot that does not appear in the Verizon iPhone. It's believed that the iPhone 5 may support both CDMA and GSM networks in one phone. The Verizon iPhone has already been found to use a Qualcomm chip that can support both networks.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has sued Amazon over the use of the term "App Store". Apple filed the complaint on March 18th and is asking for a court order to prevent Amazon from using the "App Store" name.

"Amazon has begun improperly using Apple's App Store mark in connection with Amazon's mobile software developer program," Apple said in the complaint. Amazon also plans to use the name with a mobile software download service, the complaint states.

Amazon is introducing its own marketplace for Android apps and has called it the Amazon Appstore.

Apple originally applied for the "App Store" trademark in 2008 and finally got approval in 2010. Microsoft has been opposed to the mark claiming it is a generic term -- a position that Apple has argued against. Apple claims to have contacted Amazon three times demanding that they change their name, but Amazon has yet to provide a "substantive response". Trademark owners are expected to defend their trademarks against infringement in order to avoid becoming a generic term.

Apple today released Mac OS X 10.6.7, the seventh maintenance update for Snow Leopard, via Software Update. The update offers a number of fixes implemented since the release of Mac OS X 10.6.6 in early January.

The 10.6.7 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

- Improve the reliability of Back to My Mac
- Resolve an issue when transferring files to certain SMB servers
- Address various minor Mac App Store bugs

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4472.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

The public release is the same Build 10J869 that was seeded to developers one week ago.

Direct links for the various downloads on Apple's support pages are still going live:

- Mac OS X v10.6.7 Update (475 MB)
- Mac OS X v10.6.7 Update Combo (1.12 GB)

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 Update (541.21 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 Update Combo (1.15 GB)

- Security Update 2011-001 (Leopard - Client) (241.35 MB)
- Security Update 2011-001 (Leopard - Server) (473.23 MB)

- Server Admin Tools 10.6.7 (241.32 MB)

Update: Apple appears to also be offering a special build for the new Early 2011 MacBook Pro, specifically addressing FaceTime performance issues, graphics stability, and external display compatibility.

The New York Times reports that Apple is in fact looking to deploy a new Qualcomm chip to bring Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities to the iPhone, although the report stops short of claiming that the technology will appear in the fifth-generation iPhone presumably scheduled for launch in the June-July timeframe.

According to two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone - although not necessarily the next one - a chip made by Qualcomm for the phone's processor will also include near-field communication technology, known as N.F.C. This technology enables short-range wireless communications between the phone and an N.F.C reader, and can be used to make mobile payments. It is unclear which version of an iPhone this technology would be built into.

According to one source familiar with the implementation, the NFC technology would be harnessed to allow users to easily make mobile payments tied to their iTunes Store accounts.

Apple's interest in NFC and RFID technologies for mobile applications has been evident for some time based on patent applications and hiring moves, but exactly what the company plans to do with the technology and when it will implement it has remained unclear.

A report from last fall indicated that Apple plans to use it to create wireless "portable remote computing" platforms that could allow users to make their own applications and documents available on other computers. Meanwhile, one analyst claimed in late January that the NFC technology would finally make its appearance in the iPad 2 and iPhone 5, although now that the iPad 2 has been released it is evident that it lacks NFC capabilities.

Reports regarding NFC capabilities have begun to flow in earnest over the past week or so, with one claim that the technology has been pushed back from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6 being countered by a second "friend of a friend" report claiming that the iPhone 5 is expected to have the capabilities.

The new report from The New York Times provides little perspective on whether we can in fact expect NFC capabilities to appear in the next iPhone, but it seems clear that Apple is indeed working hard on the technology and seeking to tie it in to the company's massive database of credit card numbers linked to iTunes Store accounts.

Last month, reports indicated that Apple was seeking to open a new retail store in Manhattan's landmark Grand Central Terminal, with one report suggesting that the store could be Apple's largest yet.

But according to a new report from The New York Observer, Apple has backpedaled from those plans in the face of logistical issues and other constraints.

Apple's plans to bring the world's largest iStore to Grand Central always seemed to defy laws of taste, landmarks preservation and possibly even physics.

Apparently, Apple has reached the same conclusion, because an anonymous source close to the M.T.A. has confirmed that the company has backed out of plans to bring computers to commuters in an 16,000-square-foot store on the balconies of Grand Central's main terminal.

The report notes that the cancelation was teased last week by real estate broker Jeffrey Roseman, although the move was confirmed by sources reporting to The New York Observer.

With tight supplies in the United States and potential production issues related to the effects of the Japanese earthquake, some have wondered whether Apple will be forced to delay its first round of international iPad 2 launches scheduled for this Friday. But according to TechRadar, the launch remains on schedule, at least in the UK.

Many suspected that the launch of the skinny new Apple tablet would be pushed back due to stock demand in the US - a similar thing happened with the launch of the first iPad last year.

However, Apple told us, "Everything that is on the website still holds true; the website says 25 March and that's when it'll be."

Apple previously announced that the first wave of international iPad 2 launches will occur in the following 25 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The company decided last week, however, to delay the Japanese launch as the country seeks to recover from the earthquake and associated disasters.

BGR reports that Apple is set to release iOS 4.3.1 within the next "one to two weeks", bringing several bug fixes for latest version of Apple's operating system for mobile devices.

Here are the changes from iOS 4.3:

- Baseband updates for the 3GS and iPad (original)
- Fixed memory hang that results in memory corruption when reading large files from USIM filesystem
- Fixed problem with NTLM authentication in apps and on websites
- Fixed issue with the Springboard and 3rd party apps not recgonizing the gyroscope on the iPad 2
- Fixed iPad 2 jailbreak vulneratbility [sic]

There is no word from the report's source on whether iOS 4.3.1 will also come to the CDMA iPhone, which has remained on iOS 4.2.6.

BGR has generally offered accurate information about iOS releases in recent months, although the site was off by a day in its claims of an early iOS 4.3 release.

The Daily Mail publishes a lengthy profile of Apple design guru Jonathan Ive, offering a rare peek into the life of the intensely private Brit behind most of Apple's successful product designs over the last decade or so. The interesting article examines Ive's life and his history at Apple, including a look at the design process that has created such iconic devices as the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Ive's lab is Apple's inner sanctum. Here, touch screens control the glass-sided machines in which new products take form. Desks are bare bar the aluminium sheets that slot together to form the familiar lines of iconic products such as the MacBook Air.

Collectively, the designers obsess over each product, stripping away non-essential parts, reworking tiny details such as LED indicators on the sides of laptops and phones. Ive once spent months working solely on the stand for Apple's desktop iMac; he was searching for the sort of organic perfection found in sunflower stalks.

The article also refutes recent claims that Ive may be leaving Apple to return to the UK.

It is hard to know what is the greater intrigue: recent conjecture that he is preparing to walk away from Apple to relocate to his beautiful Grade II-listed mansion in Somerset so his children can be educated in the UK (false - he is not, and the property is now standing empty); that he will step out of the shadows and assume Steve Jobs' role when the great man stands down (highly doubtful); or what - or perhaps more accurately who - propelled him to leave for the U.S. in the first place and deny Britain the talents of one of the most influential designers of the modern age.

While his name has been brought up on occasion, Ive is not considered to be a serious candidate to succeed Steve Jobs as Apple CEO, given his preference to remain behind the scenes and his focus on design work rather than operational aspects of the company.

A lengthy discussion thread on Apple's discussion forum reveals an issue that some new 2011 MacBook Pro owners have been having with their new machines. A MacRumors discussion thread also mirrors some of the complaints. Forum user lithast describes his situation:

Received a new 15" 2.2/6750M MBP last week and have been having some issues with the machine locking up under load.

For example if I boot up a VM using Fusion the temperature will spike up above 90 degrees and the machine will lock up most of the time. The machine appears locked (cannot move the mouse at all and keyboard is unresponsive). I can SSH into the machine still and it still is running however. This is one example but it will freeze under a number of circumstances where the CPU/GPU load is very high (rendering, DJ Software, compiling so far in my travels).

There's been speculation that the issue is related to the graphics driver or power management, and it seems the issue is reliably reproducible. A wiki has been organized to document the issue. Apple is reportedly aware of the issue, but no reliable solution has been provided.

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom AG announced that AT&T would be acquiring T-Mobile USA in a cash and stock transaction worth $39 billion.

"This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nations future," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. "It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America's high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth."

The transaction is said to improve network quality and will expand the reach of LTE to more than 294 million people.

AT&T and T-Mobile customers should see service improvements with improved voice quality due to increased cell tower density and broader network infrastructure. At closing, AT&T will immediately gain cell sites that would otherwise have taken five years to build.

The move will obviously curtail the need for a T-Mobile iPhone which has been rumored from time to time. The iPhone is presently offered on AT&T and Verizon only in the U.S. Existing AT&T and T-Mobile customers will presumably see a consolidation in service and coverage as the deal takes place.

While lines were long for the iPad 2 launch in the United States on Friday of last week, availability has been very scarce in the days since, with hopeful customers lining up outside Apple's retail stores each morning hoping that stock has arrived. And even when stock has arrived, customers have typically had to be very close to the front of the line to even have a chance at securing one of the hard-to-get devices.

Several MacRumors readers have written in and shared photos of the experiences trying to obtain an iPad 2, and frustration seems to abound as the long lines continue even a week after launch. Readers have reported that the line at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan is essentially a perpetual mass of people numbering in the hundreds, with customers camping out and swapping positions in-and-out day after day as they wait for more stock to arrive. Apple has erected barriers to contain the line, and once the line reaches the end of the barriers each day after stock has been distributed, no new customers are permitted to join the line.

Customers are especially keen on trying to pick up iPad 2 units from in-store sales, as shipping estimates for new online orders were quickly pushed out to 4-5 weeks. We've heard that some Apple retail stores are holding iPad 2 shipments received during the day until the following morning, with some stores opening early when they have stock in order to disperse their supplies and customer lines as much as possible before they open for regular business. Some forum readers have also being using inventory tracking features to try to pin down supplies at Target stores around the country.

As noted by The Loop, AT&T has once again slashed pricing on the 3G-capable models of the first-generation iPad, knocking another $100 of the 16 GB and 32 GB models and $200 off of the 64 GB model. On top of the original $100 discount that went into effect when the iPad 2 was announced, pricing is now set at $429 for the 16 GB 3G model and curiously at $529 for either the 32 GB or 64 GB model.

Despite the advertisement, the 32 GB model is currently showing as out of stock on AT&T's website, although it seems obvious that any customers at this point would opt for the 64 GB model at the same price point anyway.

The clearance pricing comes with the caveat that no returns or exchanges are permitted, but any purchases would of course be fully covered by Apple's warranty and Genius Bar support.

Apple's own clearance pricing for first-generation iPad 3G pricing remains at $529/$629/$729 with the original $100 discount.