MacRumors

Last week, a pair of reports surfaced indicating that Apple is hoping to build a new retail store inside Manhattan's busy and historic Grand Central Terminal. Located less than a mile from the company's flagship Fifth Avenue store, the Grand Central Terminal location is reportedly being viewed as a means to ease the massive customer load on the landmark, but relatively small, Fifth Avenue store.

A new report issued today by Cult of Mac provides additional claims of an Apple retail store coming to Grand Central Terminal, but goes on to claim that the location would offer the company's biggest-yet retail sales floor, larger than those found in the company's Regent Street and Covent Garden stores in London.

While reports of the square footage for Apple's various locations have always been subject to significant variations, the Covent Garden location has been said to offer over 16,000 square feet of publicly-accessible space (with 40,000 square feet of total space including corporate offices) and Regent Square location is said to offer 25,000 square feet of retail space. Consequently, Apple's Grand Central Terminal store would appear to have to be in the range of 25,000 square feet to qualify as the company's largest, making it a significant presence inside the terminal.

The store will open in the fall, likely early September - and it will be Apple's largest retail space in the world.

The store already has a name: Apple Store, Grand Central, according to a source close the company. The source said Apple will be making an internal announcement within the next month or so.

"The company will certainly pull out all the stops on this one," said the source, who asked not to be named.

An early fall opening seems rather ambitious for what seems to be a massive project with historical implications and lease issues that do not appear to have been worked out yet, but the growing number of reports do suggest that Apple is looking at making a significant splash in the terminal.

Update: A look at the Grand Central Terminal leasing plan (PDF) shows few options for an Apple retail store of the rumored size, although Apple could attempt to combine spaces, even over multiple floors where possible, to put together a retail space.

And as mentioned in the earlier report from The New York Observer, selection of tenants for Grand Central Terminal is an open public process involving requests for proposals, casting some doubt on just how far along any such plans from Apple could be, given the absence of any word from Grand Central Terminal management.

A number of reports today are highlighting possible technical improvements for future Apple products, and while much of the information is based on patent applications that may or may not ever see the light of day, it does provide an interesting glimpse into some of Apple's areas of research.

First, 9 to 5 Mac reports on a recent job posting from Apple looking for a host of new engineers focused on display technologies including LCD and/or OLED. OLED technology for Apple's displays has been a popular source of rumors dating back many years, but various technological hurdles have slowed their adoption throughout the industry. But increasing numbers of smartphones are utilizing OLED technology, increasingly the likelihood that Apple is devoting at least some effort to the technology on a test basis to evaluate it against other options.

The job postings come just after a report from Patently Apple summarized a set of OLED-related patent applications filed by Apple over the past several years and published in recent months, indicating that the company is indeed thinking about how the technology could be used in future devices.

A second report today from AppleInsider looks at a newly-published patent application from Apple describing a MagSafe interface capable of providing both power and data connectivity to a device.

Thus, what is needed are circuits, apparatus, and methods that provide a power and data transfer system that can supply both power and data to a laptop or other mobile computing device using a single connection. To reduce the clutter caused by multiple cables, it is further desirable to have a power and data adapter that can provide power and data to the mobile computing device using a single cable. It is also desirable to have a connector system that can connect this single cable to the mobile computing device. To avoid the consequence of laptops being pulled to the ground when a cable is tripped over, it is desirable that the connector system easily disengages when the cable is pulled away from the mobile computing device.

Apple's proposed solution looks very much like the existing MagSafe power connector used on its notebook computers, but with some of its contact pins devoted to data transmission such as fiber optic lines, USB, DisplayPort, or other standards.

Finally, Patently Apple reports on a patent application describing the use of a device's housing as an input/output device, expanding on earlier patents addressing touch-sensitive bezels.

Apple's latest implementation, which could extend to computers, portable devices, and other equipment, extends use of the housing as an input/output device to also allow the device itself to reconfigure itself on a live basis. The reconfiguration would be accomplished by sensing via proximity sensors, RFID/NFC or other means such as events as the approach of a user or peripherals such as USB connectors, allowing the device to light up icons within the housing to offer the user relevant options for input via the housing or direct the user to the necessary external port required for the connector being used.

Further implementations include an entire virtual surface that could display a keyboard or other input methods and allow the user to easily configure operation, such as by moving a virtual number pad or volume controls to a preferred location.

As reported by Bloomberg, Sony today announced that it has launched its "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" streaming service in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, building on debuts in a series of European countries over the past few months. The new service takes aim at Apple's iTunes Store with two tiers of service: a basic tier priced at $3.99 per month that offers music channels, similar to what Pandora currently offers for free; and a premium tier priced at $9.99 per month that offers on-demand access to the service's full catalog of over six million tracks.

Interestingly, All Things Digital notes that the new service offers no compatibility with mobile devices at launch, although Sony is working to add compatibility with Android and has an eye on bringing the service to iOS devices.

A Sony executive made waves last week with his suggestion that Sony could eventually pull its music from Apple's dominant iTunes Store if the Music Unlimited service takes off, but Business Insider reports that another executive has now refuted that idea.

But Sony Network Entertainment COO Brandon Layden says no way:

"Sony Music as I understand it has no intention of withdrawing from iTunes, they're one of our biggest partners in the digital domain. I think those words were either taken out of context or the person who spoke them was unclear on the circumstances."

Whether or not Music Unlimited ever comes to iOS devices may of course be determined by how Sony feels about Apple's new policies requiring App Store developers offering subscription content to utilize Apple's in-app subscription functionality and limit links to external purchasing methods, driving subscription traffic through Apple's channels where the company takes a 30% cut of revenue. Rhapsody, which has long offered a streaming music service similar to the premium tier of Music Unlimited, has noted that the model is "economically untenable" for such services and that it is exploring its legal and business options for responding to Apple's move.

Digitimes reports that Apple has secured nearly 60% of the global touch panel capacity of 2011 in order to fulfill its internal goals of shipping 40 million iPads this year.

Sources from tablet PC makers also pointed out that the component shortage is causing their shipment volumes to be unable to catch up with their orders, especially for second-tier players. Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard (HP) also competing for related components, second-tier players are already out of the game, the sources noted.

So called "second tier" players are seemingly unable to obtain supply due to the high demand from Apple and other companies.

Apple had previously revealed that they had prepaid $3.9 billion to three companies in order to guarantee long term supply of a certain component, but stopped short of revealing which one. This news seems to further indicate that Apple spent its $3.9 billion investment towards securing LCD supply for its future products.

In light of Jobs' medical leave of absence, it is notable that ABC is reporting that Steve Jobs will be meeting with President Obama Thursday evening:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who recently took a medical leave of absence from his company, and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt will be among the attendees of President Obama's event with business leaders in San Francisco Thursday evening, a source familiar with the event tells ABC News.

Steve Jobs and Barack Obama have previously met to discuss issues related to technology and the economy. Obama is also said to be meeting with Google's Eric Schmidt, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, as well as others.

The explosion of rumors that Apple is working on a variety of iPhone designs including smaller ones and iPhones with 4" screens has spawned a significant amount of speculation and mockups about the possibilities.

In particular, the talk of a 4" screen and rumors of an "edge to edge" screen resulted in this mockup by mjay2k which shows that a 4" screen could fit on an existing iPhone 4 sized device by extending the screen to the left/right edges. Similarly a smaller iPhone could use the existing 3.5 screen in a similar fashion.

Another take on the "edge to edge" screen, submitted by a reader. This image tries to look like a "spy" shot, but we believe is just another creative mockup.

Finally, this old design mockup pre-dates the iPhone 4, but shows another take on a large screen format with a reduced prominence of the home button.

Cult of Mac reports that it has received information from a source regarding Apple's efforts to revamp its MobileMe service, suggesting that the company is going well beyond simple cloud-based media streaming to include social and location-based services.

Among the many services Apple is working on are:

- A live video-streaming service like Ustream
- A location-based check-in system like Gowalla or Foursquare
- A geo-tagging system codenamed "Tokens" that tags real-world locations, like Facebook Places on steroids.

According to the report, the focus of the revamped MobileMe will be on a "dynamic webpage" that is constantly updated with the user's latest activity with their iOS device, from locations to photos and videos to music.

"The concept is that you would have you own website that's dynamic, all based on what you are doing at that moment," said our source. "Apple thinks of it as having a webserver in your pocket... everything will be dynamically updated to MobileMe."

With "Tokens", users would be able to tag GPS locations with photos, reviews, and other information that would be available to other MobileMe users visiting those locations.

While Apple is not known for being on the cutting edge of social networking and its Ping component of iTunes has struggled to catch on as a music-focused network, the company has clearly shown interest in developing social features, particularly when it comes to location-based technologies. Over a year ago, the company advertised for a software engineer who could help take the iOS Maps application "to the next level", while more recent job postings have hinted at integrated navigation software. And more recently, builds of iOS 4.3 have hinted at a feature called "Find My Friends" that could easily be a part of the rumored MobileMe revamp.

Differing schools of thought regarding a MobileMe revamp have arisen over the past few days, with some suggesting a very strong focus on true cloud-based services beaming data from Apple's servers to a variety of devices, while others have suggested that the user's own home computer will be the source from which data is disseminated to portable devices.

Over the past few years, much has been made of Apple's reserves of cash and securities, which are now up to approximately $60 billion and growing rapidly. Some observers have suggested the company initiate a stock buyback or issue dividends to reward investors with some of the profits, while others have preferred that the cash remain in Apple's hands to enable the company to reinvest it into the business at some point in the future for greater returns. Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted during the company's October 2010 earnings conference call that Apple is holding onto the cash in order to take advantage of "one or more unique strategic opportunities" that it believes may present itself.

But all of the money may not be available for immediate use, as Fortune reports that Apple is one of a number of U.S. companies with significant profits generated in international markets that continue to sit abroad as the companies prefer to not pay the 35% federal tax charged on such foreign earnings.

To address this situation, Apple and these other major players are reportedly stepping up lobbying efforts to try to get the federal government to offer a one-year "tax holiday" that would allow them to bring the profits back to the United States while only being subjected to 5% tax, with the rationale being that the money could be put to work in the U.S. to stimulate the economy rather than simply sitting in foreign bank accounts.

A group of tech, pharmaceutical and energy giants is readying a major lobbying blitz for a tax holiday that would allow them to bring home the estimated $1 trillion they've got parked overseas at a steeply discounted rate, Fortune has learned.

The campaign is still in its planning stages, but sources close to the effort say Oracle, Cisco, Apple, Duke Energy, and Pfizer are among the major players looking to bankroll a coordinated, sustained pitch to sell policymakers on the idea. Their aim is to win a one-year tax amnesty on their foreign earnings, allowing them to repatriate that money at a tax rate of about 5%, instead of the 35% they face now.

International markets have become increasingly important to Apple as iOS devices have proliferated around the world. In fact, Apple reported that during its most recent quarter, 62% of its revenue came from international sales. Consequently, billions of dollars in profit are being generated overseas each quarter, and Apple has been loathe to turn over 35% of those sums to the U.S. government.

On a possibly related note, Apple recently hired high-profile lobbying firm Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock to assist with government dealings, an unusual move for the company that has typically refrained from significant lobbying in Washington, DC.

Warner Brothers today announced the launch of "App Editions" of its feature films, providing the titles as App Store apps that offer downloadable and streaming versions of the films along with an array of expanded content. The program, which launches today with the release of Inception [App Store] and The Dark Knight [App Store], offers the apps as free downloads with full access to the films and special features available via in-app purchase.

App Editions provide a fully-loaded, connected viewing experience that gives consumers the first five minutes of a feature film and a portion of bonus content that can include games, trivia, soundtracks and soundboards. The entire feature film can be unlocked via an in-app purchase, which enables downloading and unlimited streaming, as well as access to the entire array of bonus content available within the App.

Inception is currently available for an in-app purchase price of $11.99, while The Dark Knight checks in at $9.99.

Beyond the bonus features and flexible delivery options, Warner Brothers touts the new App Editions as a means to offer video to iOS device owners in countries where Apple does not yet offer iTunes Movie Stores.

The apps, which are packaged as universal apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, offer subtitles in a host of languages, as well as a social component that can allow users to interact via Facebook and Twitter. Warner Brothers is planning a host of App Edition releases throughout the year, including both new and back-catalog movies.

BGR reports that sales of the Verizon iPhone have not quite lived up to Apple's and Verizon's expectations, offering exact unit sales data aggregated from five Apple retail store locations showing that Verizon iPhone only barely outsold the AT&T version over the Verizon device's first five days of availability.

Below are unit sales totals from five Apple stores combined (including two very, very prominent Apple stores) showing both Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4 sales during the Verizon iPhone's first five days of availability:

- Thursday: Verizon = 909, AT&T = 539
- Friday: Verizon = 916, AT&T = 680
- Saturday: Verizon = 660, AT&T = 471
- Sunday: Verizon = 796, AT&T = 701
- Monday: Verizon = 711, AT&T = 618

According to the source, pre-orders for the Verizon iPhone came in at about 550,000. And the first few days of in-store availability did in fact see strong Verizon iPhone sales relative to the AT&T iPhone, but that performance quickly tailed off to the point where sales are nearly equal.

Many observers had expected a rush of customers heading from AT&T to Verizon as the new device debuted, even though most AT&T iPhone customers are still currently tied to contracts. But the new data shows that, at least at a handful of Apple stores, AT&T iPhones are selling nearly as quickly as Verizon ones even as the latter should be seeing a huge surge with its debut.

What would possibly have been even more interesting is to see a comparison of this data to sales at the same locations just prior to the Verizon iPhone launch, in order to see just how sales of the AT&T iPhone have been affected by the availability of the Verizon model and to get a gauge of how total U.S. iPhone sales have changed with the new dual-carrier arrangement.

The report also offers statistics on Verizon iPhone purchasers, presumably gathered by Verizon and/or Apple at the time of purchase. According to the report, 14% of Verizon iPhone purchasers were coming over from an AT&T iPhone, while 30% had been Android users and 25% had been BlackBerry users.

Update: According to Bloomberg, a Verizon spokesperson has said that the carrier is pleased with iPhone sales so far, but he declined to share exact sales figures until the company's next earnings report.

With Apple's announcement yesterday of new App Store subscription offerings and policies requiring all content providers to offer at least the option of in-app subscriptions at the same prices as external options, questions have been raised about how providers will respond to the likelihood that significant numbers of customers will likely choose options that require them to hand over 30% of their revenue to Apple.

The Wall Street Journal explores possible antitrust issues, with experts noting that any such case would hinge on the definition of the market, as that would determine how dominant Apple's position is in it.

"My inclination is to be suspect" about Apple's new service, said Shubha Ghosh, an antitrust professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Two key questions in Mr. Ghosh's mind: Whether Apple owns enough of a dominant position in the market to keep competitors out, and whether it is exerting "anticompetitive pressures on price."

Experts note that publishers might be able to argue that tablet devices constitute the market for their offerings, and Apple's dominance in that market could subject it to antitrust investigation. But a broader market encompassing the entire App Store ecosystem and thus smartphones and tablets in their entirety would likely not raise red flags due to Apple's much smaller share of that larger market.

"Millions will be spent litigating how broad the market is," said Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust professor at the University of Iowa College of Law.

Mr. Hovenkamp said digital media is the most plausible market. He said he doubted that Apple, currently, has a sufficiently dominant position in that market to warrant antitrust scrutiny.

All eyes are of course also on the content providers themselves, who would have to raise prices by 43% in order to provide Apple with a 30% cut and still maintain their existing income, should all transactions shift to in-app subscriptions.

While many content providers have yet to respond publicly to Apple's announcement as they weigh their options, music streaming service Rhapsody spoke out yesterday, noting that it will be talking with other companies in its same position in "determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development."

Our philosophy is simple too - an Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 percent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable. The bottom line is we would not be able to offer our service through the iTunes store if subjected to Apple's 30 percent monthly fee vs. a typical 2.5 percent credit card fee.

Publishers of existing App Store applications have until June 30th to comply with Apple's new policies.

AppleInsider reports that production of the new MacBook Pros are already underway and that volume shipments will begin as early as the first week of March.

A person familiar with the matter said the Mac maker currently anticipates an introduction of the new models within about two weeks time, which would represent a delay of just a couple of weeks from when the company initially hoped to usher the new models onto the market.

The MacBook Pros have been due for a refresh and supplies have begun to constrain. An interesting additional note from the rumor site, however, hinted that Sandy Bridge may not be the only change in the laptop model. Apple is reportedly making some additional enhancements, though no specifics were given.

Many have suggested that the new MacBook Pros may take cues from the recently refreshed MacBook Airs.