MacRumors

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking a close look at the proposed deal between cable giant Comcast and film and television company NBC Universal, reportedly looking to impose restrictions on what would be a Comcast-controlled NBC company that would prevent it from favoring Comcast's online video distribution services over those of third parties such as Apple's iTunes Store and Netflix.

Few observers expect either the Justice Department or the Federal Communications Commission to block outright the roughly $13.75 billion deal to purchase 51% of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. One reason: Because the two companies aren't direct competitors, it's harder to mount an antitrust challenge.

Both agencies, however, are likely to impose significant conditions to prevent Comcast from withholding, or threatening to withhold, NBC Universal's programming from competitors, including companies that distribute TV shows and movies over the Internet, such as Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

NBC and Apple have had a rocky relationship in the past, with the two companies facing off in a pricing dispute that saw the iTunes Store stop offering downloads of new NBC shows in the fall 2007 season and not resume offering new content until a year later.

More recently, NBC declined to join Apple's pilot program to allow TV show rentals for 99 cents, with NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker claiming that such a move would "devalue" the network's content.

Over the weekend, Apple turned on access to its Ping social networking service via the iPad, adding a new tab within the iTunes application to allow users to quickly access the same functions available through the desktop and iPhone/iPod touch iTunes application.

Just like the iPhone version of Ping, the new iPad version offers three tabs, an "Activity" tab showing the latest posts from artists and friends the user has chosen to follow, a "People" tab to view and manage artists and friends following and being followed by the user, and a "My Profile" tab to show the user's own activity along with a link to a "Concerts" panel showing upcoming concerts from Ping artists in the user's area.

The new iPad functionality for Ping comes just days after Apple and Twitter teamed up to offer integration between their two social services, allowing Ping users to automatically Tweet their latest activity and integrating the display and previewing of iTunes Store content directly on Twitter.com.

Rumored release dates for iOS 4.2 continue to fly fast and furious, with The Telegraph now reporting that the update is set to launch on November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving in the United States.

The iOS 4.2 software update had been expected today, but Apple has delayed it release until Nov 24, a reliable source has told the Telegraph.

Apple has refused to comment on the speculation, stating only that it had said the software update would be released in November.

But a source that works closely with Apple said that the company had shelved its original plan to release the software update today, and had instead pushed back the launch until later this month.

The report comes as Apple appears to have pushed out a tweaked version of the iOS 4.2 golden master for iPad to developers, moving from Build 8C134 seeded to developers on November 1st to a new Build 8C134b.

Apple had been rumored to be releasing iOS 4.2 today, but a pair of reports published late yesterday indicated that a public launch would not occur until at least next Tuesday. Rumors had pointed to issues with Wi-Fi connectivity on the iPad as reasons for pushing the public release back from Apple's initial internal plans, and the appearance of a new iPad build today could lend some credence to that claim.

Apple today released iTunes 10.1, bringing compatibility with AirPlay and support for iOS 4.2.

What's new in iTunes 10.1

- Use AirPlay to instantly and wirelessly stream videos from iTunes to the all-new Apple TV.
- Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.2.
- Provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

iTunes 10.1 is available for Mac OS X 10.5 and higher and Windows (32-bit and 64 bit).

There is no sign yet of iOS 4.2 being available for download, and rumors have suggested that it may not come until at least next week.

The Wall Street Journal reports that many of Apple's competitors in the mobile advertising business, rather than seeing declines since the introduction of the iAd program, are instead seeing surges in their business as Apple's entry into the market has dramatically increased awareness of and interest in mobile advertising on the part of advertisers.

Apple has "brought sexiness to mobile ads," said Carnet Williams, chief executive of San Francisco-based Sprout Inc., which helps create and deliver interactive ads. Mr. Williams said it has gotten roughly four times as many calls from publishers and agencies since Apple turned the spotlight on iAds.

In particular, mobile advertising companies are finding significant business opportunities with companies unwilling or unable to meet Apple's reported $1 million commitment to participate in the primary iAd program or who are unsatisfied with the iAd program and Apple's demands for creative control in the process.

New York-based Medialets, for one, benefited when luxury brand Chanel SA dropped plans this summer to launch an iAd. Medialets, which sells mobile ads with video and other interactive elements, stepped in and said it was able to offer Chanel the same experience as an iAd plus more.

Apple is not standing still, however, as the report claims that the company is increasing iAd staff, streamlining the ad development process, and loosening some of its grip on the entire process to allow more freedom for advertisers and their partners.

9 to 5 Mac reports that iPhone 3G owners have been struck with yet another blow, this time with the apparent removal of AirPlay functionality in the golden master version of iOS 4.2. The feature had been functional on the iPhone 3G in earlier developer builds, but appears to have been removed in the homestretch.

After speaking to multiple developers and users testing out the iOS 4.2 betas, we have determined that AirPlay did in fact work on the iPhone 3G at one point, meaning the AirPlay functionality was definitely removed from Apple's two-year-old iPhone at its GM stage.

The report notes that Apple's product page for the Apple TV claims that AirPlay functionality is coming on "all iOS 4 devices", but the company has apparently changed its mind about iPhone 3G compatibility for unknown reasons.

The change is not the first to see the iPhone 3G lose access to a feature that had been enabled in the development process. Early developer builds of iOS 4.1 offered access to Game Center functionality for all iOS 4-compatible devices, but Apple later disabled the feature for the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch before finally restoring compatibility for the second-generation iPod touch but leaving it out of the public release for the iPhone 3G.

Apple and Oracle today announced a partnership to bring Oracle's OpenJDK project, and thus a Java SE 7 implementation, to Mac OS X.

Oracle and Apple today announced the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X. Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client. OpenJDK will make Apple's Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.

Apple also noted that it will continue to support the current Java SE 6 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion.

"We are excited to welcome Apple as a significant contributor in the growing OpenJDK community," said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle's senior vice president of Development. "The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform. The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future. Combined with last month's announcement of IBM joining the OpenJDK, the project now has the backing of three of the biggest names in software."

Apple made waves last month with the revelation that is planning to deprecate its own line of custom-ported Java packages, sparking fears of a complete discontinuation of support for the platform. In an email response to a customer's question, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly noted that Apple's Java version was always a step behind the latest version from Sun/Oracle and that the status quo "may not be the best way to do it."

Contradicting a report from earlier this week that correctly predicted the release of Mac OS X 10.6.5 yesterday and also claimed that iOS 4.2 will be released tomorrow, iPhoneHellas reports [Google translation] that iOS 4.2 will not launch tomorrow and may debut next Tuesday, November 16th.

iPhoneHellas has offered correct information on iOS releases several times in the past, including accurately pinpointing the release of iPhone OS 2.2 ten days ahead of time and iOS 4.0.1 several hours before its launch.

iOS 4.2 will finally unify Apple's iOS devices on iOS 4, bringing such features as multitasking, home screen folders, and Game Center to the iPad for the first time while also delivering AirPrint, AirPlay, and a number of other enhancements to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Update: MacStories reports that iOS 4.2 may be seeing delays due to issues with Wi-Fi connectivity on the iPad.

Basically, even if the iPad manages to successfully connect to a local network, the connection is lost after a few minutes. This seems to be the most common problem among users, although some can't simply use Safari at all. The bug has been reported to Apple, and they apparently decided to delay the release of iOS 4.2 to fix the bug.

According to the report, Apple may release a new golden master version of iOS 4.2 as early as Friday, but a public release would come later than the previously-rumored Friday debut.

With today's announcement of integration between Twitter and Apple's social networking service Ping, some observers have noted that the Tweets being generated from Ping are including awkwardly-long URLs.

One MacRumors reader realized that the new integration with Twitter could make a good opportunity for Apple to deploy its own link shortener to help fit its links into the character restrictions imposed by Twitter. The reader let us know that he had discovered that iTun.es forwards to Apple's site and theorized that the domain could be used by Apple for just such a service.

We dug into the situation a bit further and determined that the iTun.es domain is in fact registered to Apple via MarkMonitor, the brand management firm Apple uses to handle all of its domain registrations. The domain was registered to Apple in December 2006, meaning that Apple has not just recently moved to lock down the domain as a link shortener, but the new tie-in with Twitter does provide an excellent opportunity for Apple to roll out a service using the domain.

Since yesterday's release of Mac OS X 10.6.5, users have been testing out the updated version of Snow Leopard to find out what has changed, and we've collected a few notes on what has been found.

- exFAT Support: Apple began including support for the exFAT file system in builds of Mac OS X 10.6.4 shipping on some of the company's latest iMacs and Mac minis with SDXC card slots, but Mac OS X 10.6.5 extends compatibility to all Macs.

- AirPrint: As had been rumored, Apple at the last minute removed support for printing via AirPrint from iOS 4.2 devices to printers shared on Macs running Mac OS X 10.6.5. The feature had been touted by Apple in its initial AirPrint press release and was present in early developer builds of Mac OS X 10.6.5, but was removed for unspecified reasons. Note that the basic AirPrint functionality, including direct printing to compatible HP printers, is included in Mac OS X 10.6.5.

We've heard claims of technical or legal/patent issues being behind the removal of support for shared printers, but have not received confirmation of any single reason for the change. Notably, those developers who installed earlier developer builds of Mac OS X 10.6.5 have retained access to the shared printing feature even with the public release, and one developer has outlined a process by which users can add the capability.

- Flash Player Vulnerabilities Fixed: Apple's attempts to distance itself from Adobe's Flash technology are well-known, and the list of security issues addressed in Mac OS X 10.6.5 is only adding fuel to that fire. Of a massive 134 security issues addressed in the update, 41% of them are directly attributable to Flash, the largest single source of security holes patched in the update. The second largest source of security flaws patched in Mac OS X 10.6.5 is X11, the optional install that allows Macs to run certain windowed Unix applications, with 12% of the total fixes.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs' responses to customer emails are well-known and given great attention as official "from the horse's mouth" statements regarding Apple's products and plans, despite the fact that many of his statements are brief and vague enough to give away little information. According to The Seattle Times, however, Jobs has gone a step further and telephoned a developer who wrote him an email after having his iPad application rejected from the App Store for using a private application programming interface (API).

Frustrated by Apple's rejection of his iPad app, Seattle developer Ram Arumugam e-mailed Chief Executive Steve Jobs. Two hours later, he picked up a phone call and heard: "Ram, this is Steve." Jobs was on the other end.

The two talked about Arumugam's app, called "Economy for iPad," and why it was rejected by Apple.

Arumugam, a former Microsoft employee now heading up a company developing iOS applications, and Jobs discussed the developer's usage of a private API to deal with what Arumugam considered to be a bug in the behavior of the iPad's on-screen keyboard. At the conclusion of the discussion, Arumugam agreed to remove the private API, and Economy for iPad was quickly accepted into the App Store.

Jobs' phone call is not the first time an Apple executive has directly intervened in the App Store review process, as senior vice president Phil Schiller has been known to reply via email and telephone in rare cases related to App Store issues.

Twitter today announced new integration with Apple's "Ping" music-focused social networking service, allowing users to easily share music and convenient previewing and purchasing links.

Starting today Ping, iTunes' new social network for music, and Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.

The feature allows users to sign into Twitter from Ping, linking their accounts and allowing them to find people they already follow on Twitter who are also on Ping.

Once you've linked the accounts, whenever you Post, Like, Review, or tell your friends why you purchased a song or album on Ping, this activity will also be tweeted to your Twitter followers - complete with playable song previews and links to purchase and download music from iTunes.

Furthermore, those browsing Tweets sent via Ping on Twitter.com can click on the Tweet to see details on the song or album right on the page, complete with song previews in the 23 countries where Apple offers music via the iTunes Store.

Apple and Facebook have reportedly been in discussions about working together in some capacity, despite some early squabbles over Ping's apparently-unauthorized integration with Facebook Connect, a feature that was yanked within hours of Ping's debut in September. The two companies have apparently yet to strike a deal, however, to bring their services together in any form.

iLounge noted yesterday that Apple has begun selling gift cards specifically for its iBookstore, offering convenient $25 and $50 options for gift givers. While existing iTunes Store gift cards can reportedly be used in the iBookstore, the new iBooks-specific cards offer a new option for those looking to focus their gifts on books as opposed to other iTunes Store content.

Based on an Apple Support Discussions thread from earlier in the year, it appears as though users were able to purchase standard iTunes Gift Cards for use in the iBookstore; the new cards remove any ambiguity customers may have had about whether or not an iTunes GC would be usable in the iBookstore, and will likely be popular add-ons to those purchasing iPads as a gift.

The report notes that the new gift cards are available in Apple's retail stores, but we have also seen them in our local Target store.

Update: To clarify since there has been a bit of confusion in our forums, the new iBooks gift cards are the same as the existing iTunes Store gift cards, allowing users to purchase any iTunes Store, App Store, or iBookstore content they desire. But the new option allows gift givers to place an emphasis on giving the gift of books rather than just offering the recipient a iTunes Store gift card. Apple has similarly offered App Store gift cards, which also offer access to all content, for some time.

GigaOM takes a look at so-called "freemium" iPhone apps: applications that are free to download and offer basic functionality but generate revenue through the use of In App Purchase content. According to the report, freemium apps are becoming increasing popular with developers, who are finding it a viable business model, and the number of such apps generating sufficient revenue to rank among the top-grossing App Store titles is increasing.

A look at the top-grossing iPhone apps today finds 34 of the top 100 apps are free, but make their money through in-app purchases of mostly virtual currencies as well as other premium features. Remco van den Elzen, CEO of analytics firm Distimo, said he believes in-app purchases now represent about 30 percent of all iPhone App Store revenue. "We're seeing more developers implement more in app-purchases especially with games," he said. "Freemium Apps are also picking up significantly. A lot of developers realize it's a successful model."

Another analytics firm tracking such data revealed that in January only two freemium iPhone apps ranked in the top 50 grossing apps, a number which rose to 10 by the end of October and stands at over 20 today.

The striking success of freemium iPhone apps comes even as their prevalence in the App Store remains low, with only about 1.34% of iPhone apps using the model during the third quarter of this year.

Interestingly, the freemium business model has yet to catch on with iPad applications, as none of the top 200 grossing iPad apps utilize the strategy on a platform where higher purchase prices for applications are the norm.

As the report notes, iPhone developers are learning how to offer a solid app experience for their free versions while also pushing attractive upgrade options via In App Purchase, finding that the strategy can be more lucrative than offering ads in their applications and attract a more loyal base of customers.