MacRumors

Patently Apple reports on some new patent applications that appeared in China's patent database this week. One diagram (above) clearly shows an Apple iPad with dual 30pin dock connectors allowing both landscape and portrait docking orientations. While the site seems to think this represents the next iPad, we feel it most likely represents existing designs that never made it into the current iPad. While the distinction may be subtle, it could mean that Apple explicitly decided against a dual dock design and we won't ever be seeing it a future model.

In fact, dual dock connectors were strongly rumored for the first generation iPad by iLounge.

According to the site, the tablet will have two dock connectors to allow the device to be docked in either portrait or landscape orientations. This should allow the device some flexibility when docking with 3rd party accessories, avoiding awkward cable positioning.

Patently Apple also identifies the top sensor as a possible front-facing camera, though it seems more likely to represent the iPad's ambient light sensor which is located in that spot.

Following changes to the iTunes Store terms and conditions yesterday that referred to a "Ping Sidebar" for Apple's music-focused social networking platform, Apple has now released iTunes 10.0.1 to enable the new feature and distribute a number of bug fixes.

iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like or Post about music right from your iTunes library. You can also easily see the recent activity of a selected artist in your library, or of all artists and friends you follow on Ping using the new Ping Sidebar.

This release also provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

- Addresses an issue where the picture quality of a video changes depending on whether the on-screen controls are visible.
- Resolves an issue where iTunes may unexpectedly quit while interacting with album artwork viewed in a separate window.
- Fixes a problem that affects the performance of some third-party visualizers.
- Addresses an issue where the iTunes library and playlists appear empty.
- Resolves an issue that created an incompatibility with some third-party shared libraries.

The new Ping functionalities increase the integration of the social networking service with users' iTunes libraries, offering users at-a-glance access to activity from artists and people they follow on Ping. The update also provides dropdown menus next to each song in a user's library to allow them to like or comment on each track and provide quick access to iTunes Store searches for the song, artist, and genre, as well the artist's Ping profile if available.

A significant amount of attention has been focused on orders for the new Apple TV today after it was revealed that Apple had contacted some customers to notify them that their expedited shipping fees were being refunded due to an unspecified "delay". While some sites took the information to mean that those who ordered the new Apple TV and have been expecting on-time shipping previously announced for late this month could be in for delays of up several weeks, that conclusion seemed at best premature to us.

One MacRumors reader took the opportunity to email Steve Jobs about his order status and question whether shipping can be expected in the near future:

Any update on shipment of your hobby project? Looks like it will have to ship early next week for delivery before the end of this month.

The reader claims that Jobs responded with a simple answer:

Yep.

Sent from my iPhone

While Jobs' answer could be considered rather ambiguous, it certainly does appear that he is confirming delivery of the initial round of new Apple TV orders by the end of the month as had been originally expected.

Despite the fact that it is trivial to fabricate legitimate-looking emails as evidenced by some recent cases, our examination of the full headers of the email claimed to be from Jobs and the circumstances of this exchange lead us to believe that the messages are authentic.

The U.S. Department of Justice today announced that it has ordered Apple, Google, and four other companies to refrain from entering into "no solicitation" agreements in which companies agree not to actively seek to hire each other's employees.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with six high technology companies - Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Intuit Inc. and Pixar - that prevents them from entering into no solicitation agreements for employees. The department said that the agreements eliminated a significant form of competition to attract highly skilled employees, and overall diminished competition to the detriment of affected employees who were likely deprived of competitively important information and access to better job opportunities.

The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust complaint accompanied by the proposed settlement in order to formalize the agreement. Among the agreements cited by the Department of Justice are Apple's deals with Google, Adobe, and Pixar to prevent the companies from "directly soliciting" each other's employees.

- Beginning no later than 2006, Apple and Google executives agreed not to cold call each other's employees. Apple placed Google on its internal "Do Not Call List," which instructed employees not to directly solicit employees from the listed companies. Similarly, Google listed Apple among the companies that had special agreements with Google and were part of the "Do Not Cold Call" list;
- Beginning no later than May 2005, senior Apple and Adobe executives agreed not to cold call each other's employees. Apple placed Adobe on its internal "Do Not Call List" and similarly, Adobe included Apple in its internal list of "Companies that are off limits";
- Beginning no later than April 2007, Apple and Pixar executives agreed not to cold call each other's employees. Apple placed Pixar on its internal "Do Not Call List" and senior executives at Pixar instructed human resources personnel to adhere to the agreement and maintain a paper trail;

The report calls the agreements "broader than reasonably necessary" for the purposes of collaboration between companies and notes that they were "formed and actively managed" by senior executives at the companies involved.

The proposed settlement would bar the named companies from engaging in anticompetitive no solicitation agreements for a period of five years and extend beyond the "cold calling" practice typically covered in those agreements to include other forms of solicitation and recruiting. The companies will also be required to maintain records of their compliance.

One week ago, news broke that a settlement was under discussion as all sides fought to avoid a court battle over the issue. Apple's no solicitation agreements came into the spotlight last August when it was revealed that Apple and Google had such a deal and that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had approached Palm about a similar deal.

Aside from the occasional discussion of the Apple-Facebook negotiations prior to the launch of Apple's social networking service for music earlier this month, things have been fairly quiet when it comes to Ping. A change to Apple's iTunes Store terms and conditions today hints, however, that some changes may be afoot.

The new terms and conditions, which customers must agree to before proceeding with new purchases or downloads, mention a feature called "Ping Sidebar" that appears to be related to the serving of recommendations based on a user's activity in their iTunes library. According to the summary of the changes to the terms:

We have changed the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions to provide you with notice that if you have opted in to the Ping social network and use the new Ping Sidebar, iTunes will send information to Apple about the content you select in your iTunes library in order to provide you with Ping personal recommendations. If you do not want iTunes to send this information to Apple, you may hide the Ping Sidebar or opt out of Ping.

The actual changes to the terms include mention of "other users you may want to follow, concerts and related information, or other Products you may want to purchase" as examples of Ping personal recommendations that could be generated from this information sent back to Apple.

While Apple has offered suggestions of artists and other users for Ping users to follow, the "Ping Sidebar" appears to be a new feature offering additional types of recommendations based directly on your own iTunes library, similar in some ways to how the Genius Sidebar in iTunes can offer recommendations for music purchases. The Ping Sidebar has apparently yet to make its appearance in iTunes, however, so the full extent of its capabilities is not yet known.

On another Ping-related note, Fast Company earlier this week reported on the early reaction to Ping on the part of the music industry. According to the report's sources, music labels are miffed that they were not consulted prior to Apple's launching of the service, as the company went straight to the management of selected artists to secure their involvement at launch.

According to several music industry insiders, Ping has so far been a disappointment. "It's not a game changer," said one source, who described reaction to the iTunes' network as indifferent. A reason for this lack of enthusiasm is due to Apple keeping record labels out of the loop. Another music industry source said labels were not briefed on Ping until the day of or day after the service's launch.

"In keeping with their general practice of keeping things really, really tight, [Apple] didn't tell anyone about Ping," the source explains. "I'd say that you had a few annoyed people."

The report points to a music distributor who has reported that Apple is still manually adding artist pages to Ping one-by-one, a process that is slowing expansion of the service.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) on additional comments about Apple's 99-cent TV show rental program made by executives at this week's Goldman Sachs conference. Over the past week, executives from Time Warner and NBC have weighed in with their opinions that the pricing model is not right for them, and executives from Viacom and CBS have now offered public statements regarding their companies' positions.

According to the report, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman similarly cited the rental pricing as the primary issue, noting that it "doesn't work" for the media company that owns such cable channels as Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

"The 99-cent rental is not a good price point," said Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Philippe Dauman at the conference, which was hosted by Goldman Sachs. "It doesn't work for us."

Mr. Dauman noted that Viacom, which owns cable networks like Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, invests heavily to produce its content and plans to increase that investment.

"We value our content a lot," he said. "We don't think Apple has it quite right yet."

Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, offered a glimmer of hope, however, that his company might be open to participating in the program down the road, indicating that he is taking a wait-and-see attitude.

"What we said to them - and the Apple guys are terrific and obviously the application is terrific - is let us see what happens," Mr. Moonves said. "There are two networks in and two networks not in. Let's see what happens and maybe we'll talk again in January, maybe we'll talk again next year."

For the time being, ABC and Fox remain the only two participants in the rental program being promoted alongside the new Apple TV set to launch in the very near future. Both companies have aligned themselves closely with Apple, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the largest individual shareholder of ABC parent Disney while Fox and its parent News Corp have been said to be aggressively courting Apple in attempting to gain a foothold on the rapidly-expanding digital content and tablet markets.

Back in July, security researcher Jeremiah Grossman revealed a security issue that could allow malicious parties to take advantage of Safari's AutoFill feature to extract personal information from users' Address Book entries. At the time, Grossman reported that his report to Apple had gone essentially unacknowledged for nearly a month, but just six days later Apple released Safari 5.0.1 and 4.1.1 to address the problem.

Grossman now reports that he has discovered another similar AutoFill security issue that, while requiring the malicious party to trick users into providing a pair of keystrokes rather than being completely automated as in the previous exploit, offers an even more efficient means for users' personal information to be obtained.

To perform our attack requires tiny bit of end-user trickery. Two button presses to be precise. A malicious website detects (ie: IP address) the country the victim is from. For our purposes here we'll assume the "US." The attacker invisibly (CSS transparency) sets up the aforementioned form and forces the keystroke focus into the country element. Notice how this is done in the video on the right side of the screen, which only visible for demonstration purposes. Next the attacker entices the victim to type "U" (first character of "US") and then press "TAB." And BAM! That's it! Data stolen.

Grossman relates that he notified Apple of the newly-discovered exploit via email on August 10th and again a few days later. One week after that, he received a phone call from an Apple product security engineer with whom he had a "productive chat" about how the original vulnerability report from June had been handled, only to discover at the end of the conversation that the engineer had no idea that Grossman had reported the second issue a week and half prior.

As with the earlier exploit, users can protect themselves by simply turning off the AutoFill option to automatically populate forms with information from their Address Book cards. Grossman notes, however, that he is unsure how Apple plans to address the vulnerability while still maintaining the convenience of the AutoFill feature. While Apple's previous patch allowed Safari to automatically differentiate from the automated JavaScript-simulated keystrokes from real keystrokes, thus thwarting the original exploit, the new exploit relies on tricking the user into actually entering the necessary keystroke, a tactic that could be more difficult to address.

AppleInsider reports that Apple has sent emails to some customers who ordered the new Apple TV with expedited shipping, informing them that it is refunding the extra shipping charges due to a "delay" in meeting their delivery commitments.

"Our records indicate that when you placed your order you paid for upgraded shipping," Apple wrote in the emails. "Due to a delay, we may have not been able to meet our delivery commitment."

The email goes on to say that Apple has "processed a refund for the shipping charge on your order. Please contact your card-issuing bank for information on when the credit will be posted to your account."

It is unclear from the emails whether there is a delay in availability of the new models or if Apple is simply unable to provide expedited shipping for some unknown reason. Apple has in the past refunded fees for expedited shipping, such as with the original iPad launch when all customers were scheduled to receive their shipments on the same day regardless of selected shipping option, but the mention of a "delay" in the new emails suggests that something more may be going on in this situation.

Some reports have jumped on the news and the fact that Apple's online store is now showing shipping estimates of 2-3 weeks for the new Apple TV as evidence that the device is seeing a multi-week delay beyond the late September timeframe originally announced by Apple.

The changes to the Apple Store estimates affect only new orders, however, and customers who placed orders immediately after the new Apple TV was introduced continue to report that their order statuses show shipping dates of "September". In addition, customers have already been seeing credit card charges for their Apple TV orders, suggesting that shipment is indeed imminent.

The Associated Press reports that Target has officially confirmed that it will begin offering availability of the iPad on October 3rd.

The nation's second-largest discount chain says it will start selling touchscreen tablet computer Oct. 3. The iPad will be covered under the retailer's 5 percent discount for store credit-card holders, which rolls out Oct. 17. Target hopes the combination of the hit device and the discount will bring in shoppers during the holidays.

Target will be the largest retail chain to carry the iPad.

The article's author seems to be confused, however, about Apple's lineup for the iPad, claiming that Target will offer four models: the three capacities of Wi-Fi-only iPad and "the Wi-Fi + 3G model". Apple of course offers the 3G-capable iPad in the same three capacities as the Wi-Fi-only models.

Screenshots from Target's inventory system that surfaced earlier this month indicate that all six iPad models will be available.

Update: Multiple media sources are similarly reporting that Target will offer four models of the iPad, and thus it appears that Target may in fact only be offering a single 3G-capable model of unknown capacity.

Update 2: The Associated Press has now corrected its article to indicate that Target will offer all six iPad models.

Chinese rumor site Shanzai.com claims (via 9 to 5 Mac) that Apple's rumored 7-inch iPad is a "finished product" and that its design much more closely resembles that of the iPhone 4 than the current iPad. The report also claims that Apple has been floating around at least five different designs in order to throw off those attempting to learn the details of the device.

Yes there will be a 7" tablet, yes it's well underway in terms of product development and in fact it's a finished product. Yes 5 plus different designs have been floating around to help Apple protect itself from people discovering its next product look and feel but... the final design will in fact bear more resemblance to the iPhone 4 stylings than the original iPad design.

Rumors of a 7-inch tablet from Apple predate even the iPad's introduction, but have obviously yet to come to fruition. Claims of a smaller iPad have continued to circulate in the months since, with the most recent set surfacing last month to claim that the smaller second-generation iPad might make an appearance in time for this year's holiday season.

In a brief tidbit posted today, DigiTimes claims that Apple manufacturing partner Quanta is scheduled to ship 400,000-500,000 "MacBooks" carrying an 11.6-inch screen size before the end of this year, suggesting that a release may be near.

Meanwhile, Quanta has reportedly landed orders for 11.6-inch MacBooks from Apple. Shipments of 11.6-inch MacBooks are expected to top 400,000-500,000 units in 2010.

It is unclear, however, whether the story is referring to the actual MacBook product, as the site had previously claimed that Apple was preparing to launch an 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Apple's MacBook is not necessarily considered due for an update, having just received a spec bump in May. A MacBook Air refresh, however, is long overdue, having last seen a change in June 2009.

Apple has established a pattern of updating its notebook models in the October-November timeframe, with the MacBook specifically seeing refreshed models debut in November 2006, November 2007, October 2008, and October 2009. Consequently, it seems reasonable that we may see at least some new notebook models make an appearance before the end of the year, and while we have claims that there will be at least one model in a smaller 11.6-inch size, uncertainty remains over which product line will gain the new form factor.

The 27" Apple Cinema Display is now available at Apple Stores and being delivered to customers. A few early impressions and photos are being posted to our forums. One user bluesteel compared it to the now discontinued 30" Apple Cinema display:

i liked the aspect ratio of the 30". it seems like it was a lot bigger, well at least a little wider and a lot taller. but with the 27 my neck doesn't hurt from having to tilt it up when using the 30". i also liked the matte display of the 30" so much better than this 27's glossy look. there is a little glare, especially from the shiny black bezel, sort of distracting actually. other than that, i like the 27's cable setup. its a lot less clutter...i'm glad the 30's power brick is gone.

Another user Cynicalone posted a comparison photo between it and the 24" Apple Display:

More impressions are rolling into our forums.

Bloomberg reported today that social networking site Facebook is planning on entering the mobile phone market as early as 2011.

The devices, which will feature Facebook social-networking services, are due to be introduced in Europe in the first half of 2011 and the U.S. in the second half, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans havent been made public.

Facebook is said to be working with mobile-handset manufacturer INQ Mobile Ltd. to produce the hardware for the device. The new phone is said to be based on a "stripped-down version" of Google's Android operating system with Facebook integration.

Despite being based on Android, a Facebook phone would be competition for Google as much as it is for Apple. Google benefits from ad revenue tied to their search and other services which would likely be supplanted by Facebook services on a Facebook-based phone.

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to open up unused portions of the television broadcast frequency spectrum, known as white spaces, for unlicensed uses, paving the way for the development of technologies such as cellular communications and broad-range Wi-Fi networks to take advantage of the frequencies.

The radio waves travel in the spectrum between television channels known as white spaces, and like TV signals they carry far and penetrate walls. Uses may include wireless Internet connections, remote monitoring of industrial systems such as power plants, and taking over some mobile-phone traffic to ease sluggishness for users of devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

PC World takes a look at the potential for white space usage for Wi-Fi networks, calling the possibilities "Wi-Fi on steroids".

Compared to standard wireless networks today that have a range of about a football field--assuming no obstacles are obstructing the signal, the white space networking is like Wi-Fi on steroids. Like television signals, the white space networks will have a range of several miles and can travel through walls.

Many observers are optimistic that the possibility for usage of the television frequencies without requiring FCC licenses will stimulate significant innovation in new technologies for wireless access. Several companies, including Microsoft and Google, have already embraced the new spectrum availability and are quickly pushing forward to deliver new options for wireless data access, beginning with test projects on their own campuses.

A newly-published patent application from Apple is generating some interest today for its description of a means to reduce the size of headphone jacks by using pogo pins instead of the traditional cantilevered metal strips for mediating electrical contacts with headphone plugs.

The invention disclosure comes as Apple continues to shrink the general overall size of its portable devices, with reducing thickness in particular being a focus for the company. As devices continue to shrink, certain physical features become limiting factors for further size reduction, as can be seen in the current iPod shuffle and iPod nano, where the thickness of the devices appears to be approaching the limits imposed by the need to accommodate the headphone jack.

Apple points to the current "cantilever beam" design for headphone jack contacts as requiring significant space in two dimensions to accommodate the contacts while also requiring sufficient length to ensure the necessary leverage to maintain contact with the headphone plug.

Switching from the cantilever beam to a series of spring-loaded pogo pins lined up along the side of the headphone jack could allow the jack to essentially require space in only a single dimension, allowing for thinner device designs.

The pogo pins can be positioned in the audio jack using any suitable orientation. In some embodiments, the pogo pins can be positioned in substantially a single plane such that the pogo pins require space in a single dimension of the audio jack assembly. The pogo pins can be oriented substantially orthogonal to the audio jack cavity (e.g., such that the deflectable tips extend orthogonally into the cavity), or at an angle relative to the cavity walls.

The patent application was filed in June 2009 based on a provisional patent application filed in March of that year and is credited to Apple engineers Sean Murphy and John DiFonzo.

Late last month, we noted that Apple had apparently parted ways with longtime engineering design partner SurfaceInk over the consulting firm's recent efforts to create and design entire products for third parties. The final straw appears to have been a prototype tablet being shopped around by SurfaceInk, a move Apple viewed as a possible competitive threat.

Apple doesn't appear to be going without the services of a number of SurfaceInk's engineers, however, as a number of them appear to have recently moved over to be in the direct employment of Apple. While it has not been uncommon for SurfaceInk employees to make the transition directly to Apple over the years, there certainly appears to be a significant number of them making the move just as Apple drops its partnership with SurfaceInk itself.

According to LinkedIn profiles, we've identified four engineers from SurfaceInk who became Apple employees as of August 2010: Paul Yuan and Alex Yeung (Product Design Engineers), Jared Kole (Product Development Engineer), and Craig Leong (R&D, Mechanical Engineer). In addition, Josh Pong and Margie Duffy moved in August from SurfaceInk to become Product Development Engineers at Apple through staffing firm Ryzen Solutions, while William Yarak took a Consulting Product Design Engineer position with Apple just this month.

In total, we have documented at least seven former SurfaceInk employees who have reported moving to Apple in just the past few weeks, with several more appearing to have moved earlier this year. Consequently, it appears that Apple may have picked up for itself a substantial portion of the SurfaceInk expertise it had been relying upon for collaborations on engineering design for its products.