MacRumors

Apple today released iTunes 8.2 via Software Update. The update adds support for iPhone OS 3.0, which is expected to be featured at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week and be released in the near future.

iTunes 8.2 now supports iPhone or iPod touch with the iPhone 3.0 Software Update. iTunes 8.2 also includes many accessibility improvements and bug fixes.

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

Registered iPhone developers have been using pre-release versions of iTunes 8.2 since late April in order to test iPhone OS 3.0 betas.

Apple has also released QuickTime 7.6.2, which offers several security and performance fixes.

QuickTime 7.6.2 includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security. This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3520.

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

Best Buy is reported to have issued a memo indicating that iPhone 3G supplies were now in constraint, according to AppleInsider. The reports follows other claims that 16GB iPhone had been "end of life'd" in Australia.

In addition to these reports, Digitimes reported last week that 5 Taiwan-based circuit board manufacturers had already started shipping parts for the new iPhone which is expected in June. Taken together, there seems to be increasing evidence that a new iPhone will be revised at or around WWDC. Over the weekend, even some possible screen photos of the new iPhone were revealed from a Hong Kong based site but were quickly removed.

Meanwhile, analysts are still speculating about what processor might drive the new iPhone. Most expect that Apple will still be using off-the-shelf parts as they are unlikely to have yet had the time to ramp up their own custom chip production. For what it's worth, MacRumors has heard that Apple will indeed be using the ARM Cortex for the next iPhone. This is the same class of processor used in the upcoming Palm Pre.

ComputerWorld points out a little publicized fact that iPhone 3.0's Safari browser will support Geolocation services. This means that websites will be able to request your current location (if you give them permission).

How many times have you had to put in your Zip code in your browser to tell it where you are? Looking for restaurants? Bank branches? Auto repair shops? This can now be built into the browser.

This certainly hasn't been a secret to developers who were notified by Apple in March of the support:

Safari also supports the Geolocation JavaScript classes, which work with the onboard location services to retrieve the current location of the device.

The possibilities, however, came to the forefront last week when Google demoed (via SlashGear) their Latitude location service on the iPhone through a web browser alone:

Google said they will be launching the Latitude website for iPhone after the 3.0 OS is released.

The iPhone Blog reports that in the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, users are being told that may not re-download applications over-the-air without being charged. The dialog box (shown above), however, does indicate that users may still re-download applications for free through their computer.

This is a distinct change from how things currently work. In the current version of the operating system, iPhones and iPod Touches may re-download applications both over-the-air and on their computer without charge.

Update: While we first speculated that the reason behind the move is likely to prevent the illegal sharing of applications in the 3.0 firmware, further testing indicates that the results are sporadic. So, we're not sure the reasoning behind the change, but it should be clearer when 3.0 is released.

Yesterday's claimed leak of the next generation iPhone has generated a lot of attention, resulting in the original site (UMPCFever) going down from the traffic. One 9to5Mac reader provides an manual translation of the entry which provides a bit more detail and insight behind the story. The fully translated entry with a mirror of the original pictures has been organized here and is much easier to follow. It starts:

It's already 3am, and I totally cannot sleep. 'Cuz I just came home after meeting a friend from the U.S. This friend brought me something, and it's not H1N1. Instead, it is a item that will be under the world's spotlights -- a third generation iPhone prototype. This friend is a mysterious person. Even this 3rd Gen iPhone is also very mysterious. He said one can only take fuzzy snapshots of it, and not clear shots. 'Cuz it's still not officially released. So, in regards to the fuzzy photos below, I apologize!

Also, since this is a prototype, the styling of the phone absolutely cannot be disclosed. And there is also a high likelihood that the final product will differ in look. So, there will not be any photos here that compare the old and new iPhone in terms of appearance.

The following images show a comparison of photos taken with the current iPhone (left) and the new iPhone (right), meant to demonstrate the superiority of the Auto-Focus camera in the new iPhone.

The article also describes the built-in compass funtionality: "Upon press of a button, the direction is immediately displayed. It will be very useful when travel or mountain hiking." The rest of the screenshots seem to depict features that have been known to be coming in iPhone 3.0. The compass interface, however, has not been previously seen, nor has the auto-focus "square" depicted here.

A few items we neglected to post from the past week include a new flickr gallery that depicts screenshots from the latest Snow Leopard build (10A354) as well as a Chinese handwriting recognition video (embedded below). The flickr poster writes:

Anything I didn't snap a shot of was because it didn't seem like anything had changed.

Some additional observations:
- Initial setup now warns you if you don't choose a password hint.
- Time Machine menu bar icon is now grayed-out if Time Machine is not configured.
- Clean Up icons command in the Finder now "slides" icons into place instead of them just moving instantly. It's a neat visual effect.
- There is no QuickTime preference pane, and no preferences within the application itself. I theorize that Apple is going to do away with QuickTime Pro entirely.
- Quick Look now works from Open and Save dialogs.

The poster of the images also claims that Snow Leopard will be released in October with the rumored "marble" interface, but that may simply be based on circulating rumors, than on any particular inside knowledge.

Some images highlights include QuickTime Player, QuickTime Share to iTunes, split Terminal, Screen Recording, Scanner Sharing, Text Replacement and much more.

Meanwhile, this YouTube video shows the trackpad handwriting recognition found in the latest build of Snow Leopard:

A Chinese-language blog UMPCFever posted what it claims are the first photos of the next generation iPhone in action. According to the rough automated translation these images show the new iPhone but as it is a prototype the external design may change is not therefore not featured.

According to the report, the new iPhone does contain an autofocus camera that is uses an on-screen square that can be moved by the tap of a finger to chose the object of focus. Also shown is the long rumored digital compass as well as compass software (pictured above). Those features seem to be specific to the next generation iPhone, though the site also demos MMS and Copy/Paste with Images.

We've never heard of any reports from UMPCFever, so we can't judge their credibility, but the features shown seem consistent with circulating rumors as well as leaked video recording interface found in the Beta 3.0 software.

BoyGeniusReport publishes the first hands on review of the upcoming Palm Pre. Palm has been especially secretive about allowing media access to their device, so this represents one of the most detailed looks of the device.

BoyGeniusReport breaks down the review into Screen, Keyboard, Size, Feel, OS, Multimedia, Battery Life, Browser, and Apps. Some aspects were difficult to test at this early stage including Apps, Multimedia and Battery life. The site gave the phone high marks for the operating system and screen but found both the keyboard and feel of the device to be poor. Specifically, the physical keyboard which distinguishes itself from the iPhone's soft keyboard was described as disappointing:

It's really not good. My hands aren't that big (I can type faster than you could ever dream on a BlackBerry, iPhone or E71) and my thumb literally takes up 3 or 4 keys on the keyboard. There's less space in between each key than say, a BlackBerry Curve 8300 keyboard, and the texture takes some time to get used to.
....
You can't compete with RIM in the keyboard area and you can't compete with Apple in the soft-keyboard area, so how are people going to enjoy using your product when the data entry isn't perfection?

Still, the reviewer was enthusiastic about the OS and expects the device to be successful.

AppleInsider reports that Apple has begun internal training of its AppleCare staff to prepare for the deployment of wireless movie and TV downloads in the forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0. The report comes on the heels of a blog entry posted last week showing screenshots of a testing version of the iTunes Store download pages.

Now however, AppleInsider has learned from people familiar with Apple's training program that new self-guided training materials being distributed to familiarize AppleCare agents with the features of iPhone 3.0 software "definitely covered" the ability to directly download movies and TV shows on the device itself, rather than just syncing video content through iTunes.

Those people noted that the advanced training was unique, saying that "Apple never puts out product training this far ahead of a product launch. This training material is roughly 6 weeks early, they said, having arrived in the form of a single training module on Tuesday.

AppleInsider speculates that wireless movie and TV downloads may initially be limited to Wi-Fi due to bandwidth constraints on AT&T's cellular network. Similar restrictions were initially placed on wireless song downloads from the iTunes Store, although Apple expanded availability of the downloads to cellular networks as part of changes announced at Macworld Expo 2009.

The news broke yesterday that Palm's anticipated Pre phone will seamlessly sync with iTunes for both Mac and Windows, allowing users to transfer non copy-protected content to the new Palm phone. While there has been speculation on how this had been accomplished, Jon Johansen explains in a blog post what Palm must have done, and why he believes it won't last.

According to Johansen, the Palm Pre must be specifically presenting itself as an Apple iPod to trick iTunes into syncing data with it. This is why iTunes displays "Syncing iPod" rather than "Syncing Pre" during the demos.

So how is Palm doing this? Its pretty simple, really. Well start with the most basic question that doesnt even involve the Pre: To a PC, whats the difference between an iPod and a Kingston memory stick? The iPod has a specific USB Vendor Id that identifies it as being an Apple product and a USB Product Id that identifies it as being a specific iPod model.

Aside from transmitting Apple-specific Vendor Ids and Product Ids, the Palm Pre must also be responding to custom USB commands sent by iTunes to gather information about the device. Johansen also believes that there will likely be enough differences in the implementation that Apple will be able to break this compatibility with the next iTunes release.

Johansen, of course, is intimately familiar with media/device syncing as he is the co-founder of doubleTwist, a free alternative media syncing application for both Mac and PC. We covered doubleTwist's Mac beta launch back in February. Johansen conveniently points out that they will be offering Pre sync support in doubleTwist.

Gizmodo posted this hands on video of the upcoming Zune HD which is positioned to compete directly against the Apple iPod Touch.

According to the gadget site, the Zune HD is "tighter and more physically beautiful than the iPod Touch and it's got a better UI". Engadget also had some hands on time with the unit and found it has "a nice, solid feel, with good heft to it and a surprisingly thin profile." The OLED screen was described as "stunning".

The existence of the Zune HD was confirmed yesterday and is due for launch later this year.

Computerworld digs up evidence that the 13" Aluminum MacBook appears to have gotten a quiet screen upgrade as of late April. The blog post references findings by MacRumors forum members fuz10n and hellfire88. Hellfire88 had access to both a Unibody MacBook from November as well as one of the newer ones and posted comparison shots. The two screen model numbers are 9C89 and 9CA5 respectively.

It can be hard to see the differences in the photos, but the user also describes them in day to day use:

I personally see a difference in person when I use them both, but others may not. The newer one seems to have much deeper blacks and better contrast. I'm not sure its as good as the screens in the uMBP's but IMHO its definately a "step-up" from the original uMB screens.

Computerworld reports that the new screens are similar to, if not exactly the same, as the screens found in the MacBook Air. Retail Apple Stores that have been checked seem to still have the original (worse screen) units on display.

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