MacRumors

Alongside today's announcement of its new in-app subscription program and policies, Apple also updated its iOS App Store Guidelines to reflect the requirements laid out in the press release.

But Apple also made several other additions to the guidelines, with the most notable one being new language aimed to help Apple crack down on developers who "cheat the system". The new language appears as a bullet point in the introductory portion of the document, making it one the key points being stressed by Apple.

If you attempt to cheat the system (for example, by trying to trick the review process, steal data from users, copy another developer's work, or manipulate the ratings) your apps will be removed from the store and you will be expelled from the developer program.

The addition gives Apple more ammunition to help it address growing issues regarding easter eggs carrying hidden functionalities, "counterfeit" applications stealing content from other developers, and manipulation of app ratings through the use of shill accounts and other tactics.

Other notable additions to the review guidelines include language directing developers to submit apps that are simply songs, movies, or books to the iTunes Store or iBookstore rather than to the the App Store, and prohibition of arbitrary geographic or carrier restrictions on who may use a given app.

AppleBitch reports that Best Buy's Mexican arm is advertising a special in-store event for this Saturday, February 19th, where users can visit stores to learn about how to use the "new iWork '11". iWork '11 of course has not yet been released, although reports from late last year had suggested that work on it was wrapping up and that it could debut early this year, possibly as a Mac App Store exclusive.

The webpage describes an event where you can "visit Best Buy on February 19th and find out what you can do with iWork '11". While this is obviously not an official announcement from Apple, this event is a good indication that iWork '11 is nearing release. We hope it is at least, otherwise there's going to be a fairly unhappy crowd at a Best Buy in Mexico on February 19th.

The iWork '11 event is currently listed on the front page of Best Buy Mexico, with the entry linking to the feature page with the broader description.

Update: The feature page and front page event listing have both been removed from Best Buy's site.

Social Apples details a change employed in an update to Apple's iBooks application released last week that detects whether a device has been jailbroken using one of several tools, and if the device has been found to be jailbroken, refuses to open content purchased from Apple's iBookstore.

Since using the greenpois0n jailbreak, I have been unable to open some of my iBooks that I rightfully purchased from the iBook Store. I thought it was a problem with the downloaded books, so I re-downloaded them. That didnt work so I removed the iBooks from my iPhone and re-syncd them from my computer... still no luck. Then I stumbled on a tweet from @comex tonight that really blew my mind.

According to noted jailbreak author @comex, whenever a user attempts to open an eBook purchased from the iBookstore and containing digital rights management code, the new iBooks tries to run unsigned or improperly signed binaries as a test to see if the device is jailbroken. If those binaries run successfully, the device is flagged as having been jailbroken and the eBook refuses to open.

Users of devices jailbroken by one of the methods that allows Apple's test binaries to successfully run who attempt to open content purchased from the iBookstore are met with the following error message:

There is a problem with the configuration of your iPhone. Please restore with iTunes and reinstall iBooks.

Restoring a device from iTunes obviously removes the jailbreak, again rendering the device in compliance with Apple's standards.

Apple's tactics are of course drawing some scrutiny from jailbreak fans, many of whom are pointing to recent actions by the U.S. government to explicitly allow jailbreaking. Consequently, Apple's move to prevent access to legitimately purchased iBookstore content just because the user attempts to view it on a jailbroken device is seen as interference with legal usage.

Update: Reports have clarified that the jailbreaking detection mechanism has been present since iOS 4.0 and is part of the fairplayd DRM check. It has only recently been generating attention as newer jailbreak methods such as greenpois0n have opened up Apple's restrictions enough to trigger the blocks.

AppleInsider reports that a customer survey from Apple gauging user satisfaction with the company's new MacBook Air contains several questions related to 3G connectivity, suggesting that Apple may be considering adding the feature as a built-in option on future models.

Perhaps most telling are a number of questions in the survey related to 3G data use and connectivity. The MacBook Air comes with integrated Wi-Fi, but does not have a built-in 3G radio.

Apple's survey asks users whether they have connected their MacBook Air to a 3G network, how often they do so, where they connect to 3G, what type of device they use to connect to a 3G network (MiFi, USB device, or tethering with a cell phone).

As long ago as the MacBook Air's introduction in January 2008, a lack of built-in 3G mobile connectivity was seen as a deal-breaker by some, although the proliferation of devices and plans for tethering and personal hotspot data services in subsequent years have tempered those objections.

Many users have continued to hope, however, that Apple builds 3G access directly into a future model of the MacBook Air in order to make it a self-contained always-connected portable machine. An Apple job posting in mid-2009 hinted at the possibility that the company was looking at built-in 3G for portable Macs, and a rumor suggesting just that surfaced just weeks later, although no such device has yet appeared.

While the MacBook Air received a significant redesign, including the addition of an 11.6-inch model, just this past October, observers are already looking forward to a rumored update to Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors as early as June of this year.

With rumors suggesting that Apple may add near field communication (NFC) capabilities to the fifth-generation iPhone to enable mobile payments, observers have been looking for additional signs of the such an addition.

According to Phone Scoop, Deutsche Telekom today gave a presentation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona outlining its adoption of NFC technology for mobile payments, and during the course of the presentation noted that it expects an NFC-enabled device from Apple to debut sometime this year.

Deutsche Telekom announced that it expects NFC phones in 2011 from Apple, Samsung in Q2, and RIM & LG in Q3. The company expects mobile payments replacing cash to be the most popular use for NFC technology, followed by mobile ticketing for services such as public transportation.

Engadget clarified with the report's author that the mention of Apple was included on a slide in the presentation, although Apple was not included in a press release from Deutsche Telekom describing its mobile payments initiative among other topics associated with Mobile World Congress.

It is of course unknown whether Deutsche Telekom representatives were simply speculating based on the existing NFC-enabled iPhone rumors, or if they have additional information that may have been gleaned from testing with the new device.

Apple today announced the debut of subscriptions for the App Store, opening the door for developers offering a wide range of content, including magazines, newspapers, music, and video, to use the same recurring billing mechanism introduced earlier this month with The Daily.

Subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will be sold using the same App Store billing system that has been used to buy billions of apps and In-App Purchases. Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Then with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription and are automatically charged based on their chosen length of commitment (weekly, monthly, etc.). Customers can review and manage all of their subscriptions from their personal account page, including canceling the automatic renewal of a subscription. Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases.

Answering questions about whether content may also be offered outside of the in-app purchasing mechanism, Apple CEO notes that publishers are free to offer content outside of the application but that the same or better offer must also be available within the application.

"Our philosophy is simple - when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers."

Apple of course expects that many customers will want to utilize the in-app mechanism for ease of activation and simple direct billing to their iTunes Store accounts. Content providers will of course prefer that customers use external subscriptions so as to not have to send 30% of their revenue to Apple.

The announcement offers no word on the release of iOS 4.3, which developers have indicated contains the API hooks required for in-app subscriptions.

Update: According to All Things Digital, publishers of existing App Store apps have until June 30th to comply with the new requirements regarding the offering of in-app subscription options.

Rumors are flowing fast for the next generation iPhones. Digitimes is now claiming that the next generation iPhone will use a 4-inch screen to better compete with Google Android.

The component suppliers noted that the production lines for Apple's next generation iPhone have begun testing, and Apple is interesting in expanding the screen size to 4-inches to support the tablet PC market as the vendor only has a 9.7-inch iPad in the market.

The news is interesting given the recent rumors of a smaller iPhone as well. The iPhone has always used a 3.5-inch screen since its launch, while several Android phones have launched at larger screen sizes.

Digitimes has a bit of an on-again off-again reliability with Apple-related rumors. They have certainly made some legitimate predictions, but has also detailed 7-inch iPad and 22-inch touch-screen iMac. It's believed that Apple prototypes several different designs for testing purposes but may also be the source of the some the false rumors we've seen in the past.

Taiwanese site Apple.pro reports (via AppleInsider) that Apple has been testing three separate prototypes for the fifth-generation iPhone, including one with a slide-out keyboard.

There are three iPhone5 prototype
one is a sliding cover which
Is the introduction of the keyboard after the side cover

Other prototypes are said to be similar to the iPhone 4 except with an upgraded battery and apparently an 8-megapixel camera, up from the 5-megapixel sensor found on the iPhone 4's rear-facing camera. The report likens those prototypes to the transition from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS, with the same basic design augmented primarily by improvements in the device's internals.

As for claims of a slide-out keyboard, the rumor seems incongruous with Apple's devotion to multi-touch functionality with on-screen virtual keyboards. Normally, we would simply cast such suggestions aside, but Apple.pro has a strong track record of providing leaked information from Apple's product pipeline. Most recently, the site posted photos of a small Apple-branded touchscreen that appeared a few months later in the company's latest iPod nano.

The site also notes several times that these are prototypes, suggesting that the model sporting a slide-out keyboard could simply a design put together by Apple for the purposes of testing out various form factors, and may never be intended for a public release.

Today's report from Apple.pro also reiterates ongoing claims that the next-generation iPad will be thinner and will carry at least one built-in camera.

As noted by Macerkopf.de [Google translation], free access to the new iPad news publication The Daily has been extended beyond the original two-week trial period, pushing the free access window out to February 28th. The change comes as we continue to await the public release of iOS 4.3, which will bring support for the in-app recurring subscriptions to be used by The Daily.

With its February 2nd debut carrying a two-week free trial from Verizon, The Daily sparked speculation that a public release of iOS 4.3, and possibly even an introduction of the next-generation iPad, would occur within that two-week period. In particular, one rumor claimed that iOS 4.3 would appear today, a move that appears unlikely to happen given that Apple's usual iOS release time of 10:00 AM Pacific Time has already passed.

Even without a release today, the broader two-week window for an iOS 4.3 is in fact rapidly drawing to a close, and this extension of free access to The Daily suggests that we may have to wait a little while longer for the software update to make its public debut.

Dow Jones Newswires briefly reports on an article from the Korea Economic Daily claiming that Apple is set to sign contracts that would see Samsung providing $7.8 billion in parts for Apple's mobile devices this year, making Apple the Korean company's largest customer.

The paper also said that Samsung will supply Apple with liquid crystal displays, mobile application processors and NAND flash memory chips used for the U.S. company's iPhones and iPads.

If the contract pushes through, Apple will become Samsung's largest customer, the paper added.

The Apple-Samsung relationship is an interesting one, given its size and the growing competition between the two companies with devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Android-powered smartphones going head-to-head against the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung has long provided an array of parts for Apple's iOS devices, including displays, flash memory, and even Apple's A4 chip. The company's Super PLS display technology has been rumored to be under consideration for use by Apple in upcoming iPad models, although Apple has also been rumored to be locking in multiple other vendors for displays for upcoming devices.

The Loop's Jim Dalrymple offers his thoughts on the rumored forthcoming MobileMe overhaul, sharing his belief that rather than utilizing a true "cloud-based" strategy in which Apple hosts all of a user's data on its own servers and sends it to devices as needed, MobileMe will instead become the "brains" of a service that taps the user's own home computer for hosting the content.

Is Apple going to give us all 100GB of cloud storage to host our music, backups and sync data? That seems a bit much to me. Here's what I think will happen with Apple's new MobileMe service.

Instead of trying to provide everyone with cloud storage, I believe Apple will use MobileMe as the brain of the cloud service. The actual storage will be on our individual machines. In effect, in the cloud.

Dalrymple suggests that this sort of personal cloud will include the expected audio and video media, but also files and documents, along with a syncing service to allow changes made on any device to be automatically reflected across all machines. He also suggests that rumors of the service becoming free may not entirely come to fruition, with portions of the functionality likely still requiring a paid subscription.

We have questions about how such a service would be embraced by increasingly mobile computer users who are likely to use notebook not always awake and connected to the Internet as their primary machines, but it certainly appears that Apple has something up its sleeve to help users deal with their growing arsenals of connected devices.

Following up on recent reports of a smaller, cheaper iPhone, Cult of Mac claims that Apple will cut costs on the smaller iPhone in large part by drastically slashing the on-board memory of the device and relying on cloud-based content delivery.

Apple decided to lose some of the memory, which is by far the most expensive component of the iPhone (up to one-quarter of the devices cost, according to iSuppli estimates).

By "some" of the memory, we mean ALL of the memory. The iPhone nano will have no memory for onboard storage of media, our source says. It will have only enough memory to buffer media streamed from the cloud.

"I'm talking strictly storage memory here," said our source.

According to the report, the smaller iPhone would pull essentially all of its media through a revamped MobileMe service, reducing the need for significant on-board storage in the same way that the Apple has been able to slash storage on the second-generation Apple TV by shifting to a streaming model.

The report notes that some on-board storage would clearly be required for the operating system itself and other critical system data, including caching of data handed down from the cloud and perhaps storage of photos and videos taken by the device should it include a camera.

We also suspect that such a device would not be able to support the App Store, as Apps depend on locally-stored content, and would thus require significant modification to run from the cloud. Apple may avoid the potential user interface issues of a smaller, lower-resolution screen by simply not allowing third-party apps at all, and opting to use only built-in apps specifically designed for the smaller screen. But given the runaway success of the platform, it would still be surprising for Apple to shift away from an App Store-focused ecosystem for the new device.

The Wall Street Journal has added more details about the rumored MobileMe revamp that is potentially due this summer.

The new service would give users access to their iTunes libraries from, say an iPhone or iPad, instead of requiring that the devices be synced by cable with a computer and use space to store the actual files, the people said. The new service likely would be compatible with the iPhone 4, one of the people said.

The newspaper indicates that users will finally be able to access their iTunes libraries without syncing to their computer. Instead, files would be served wirelessly. There's been a lot of speculation that Apple might move towards "cloud" based music sync and services. Licensing issues are apparently holding up the debut of the service which was originally planned for last year.

Steve Jobs has said in the past that wireless sync services would come eventually.

The Wall Street Journal has updated their previous story, adding some new details about the rumored smaller iPhone.

The person who saw the prototype of the new iPhone said the device was significantly lighter than the iPhone 4 and had an edge-to-edge screen that could be manipulated by touch, as well as a virtual keyboard and voice-based navigation. The person said Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., also plans to upgrade the iPhone 4.

The new phone is said to have an "edge to edge" screen with (obviously) a touch interface. The one possibly new feature appears to be "voice navigation". Apple already offers some rudimentary Voice Control with the current iPhone, so it's not clear if this voice navigation is something really new. The newspaper also adds that the iPhone 4 is also expected to be updated.

The Wall Street Journal seems to confirm an earlier Bloomberg report that Apple is working on a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone due this summer:

One of the people, who saw a prototype of a new iPhone several months ago, said the new device is intended to be sold alongside the current line of iPhones and would be about half the size of the iPhone 4. The phone, one of its codenames is N97, would be available to mobile carriers at about half the price of Apple's main line of iPhones, the person said.

The previous Bloomberg report claimed the price of the smaller iPhone would be $200 without contract, opening the door to the phone possibly being discounted to free with contract. The iPhone Nano rumor has been circulating for years with various case designs and enclosures suggesting at least prototype work had been done on it over the years.

Next, The Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is also working to revamp its MobileMe service. Apple is reportedly considering making MobileMe a free service. The new free service could serve as a digital "locker" for photos and video, or become the focal point for online music.

Both the new smaller iPhone and revamped MobileMe service are expected this summer.

As we approach the expected updates for the MacBook Pro line, we tend to start hearing about possible release dates. There are typically some false starts, so it's hard to be sure, but the first contender for this round appears to be March 1st.

Danish blogger KennethLund.dk claims to have heard from a source in one of the major Danish Apple resellers that MacBook Pro models are on tight supply but that the newly updated models will arrive on March 1st.

March 1st falls on a Tuesday which is typical for Apple's releases. The MacBook Pro was last updated in April of 2010 and is due for an update. While there had been some concern that the new models would be delayed by Intel's manufacturing issues, the latest reports claim that any delay will be minimal.

The MacBook Pro will likely adopt Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors. Many also expect that some of the models may take design cues from the MacBook Airs. The latest MacBook Air moved away from traditional hard drives and are now using smaller SSD sticks to save on space. The MacBook Air has also never included a built-in optical drive in another effort to reduce weight and space.