MacRumors

A brief report from the Associated Press cites comments from Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer revealing that the company's refusal to join Apple's new 99-cent TV show rental program is based on pricing concerns and fears that individual show rentals will hurt sales of full-season packages.

Chief Executive Barry Meyer says Warner Bros. didn't participate in Apple Inc.'s plan to offer TV show rentals for 99 cents because the price was too low and would have hurt sales of full seasons.

Meyer made the comments Thursday at an investor conference hosted by Merrill Lynch in Newport Beach, Calif.

According to Meyer, Apple's pricing proposition was not seen as a good value for the content provider given its existing purchase-based offerings in the iTunes Store priced at $2.99.

Apple introduced the TV show rental program alongside the revamped Apple TV earlier this month, touting ABC and Fox as initial launch partners. At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that he expected that other content providers would quickly see the light and join the program. Rumors about the TV show rental program had circulated prior to Apple's announcement, with clear signs of divided opinions among the content providers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is in "advanced" talks with Apple, Google, and several other large tech companies looking to reach a settlement over an investigation of anti-poaching agreements made with each other.

Several of the U.S.'s largest technology companies are in advanced talks with the Justice Department to avoid a court battle over whether they colluded to hold down wages by agreeing not to poach each other's employees.

The companies, which include Google Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and Walt Disney Co. unit Pixar Animation, are in the final stages of negotiations with the government, according to people familiar with the matter.

The report notes that some of the companies are expressing more willingness than others to settle with the government over antitrust issues, but that all parties are hoping to avoid a court battle over the issue.

As the Justice Department was beginning its investigation last year, it was reported that Apple and Google had had an informal agreement not to cold-call each others' employees in efforts to lure them away, but that employee-initiated job moves between the companies were permitted. Apple CEO Steve Jobs had reportedly offered a similar proposal to Palm, which then-CEO Ed Colligan rejected.

The companies involved have argued that the no-poaching agreements are key for fostering innovation, as they allow the companies to collaborate on projects while offering some measure of reassurance that their partners won't seek to hire away their key employees. The Department of Justice argues, however, that even the banning of the cold-calling practice seen in the least restrictive of the deals between companies has an adverse effect on employee wages and job mobility, as such head-hunting is a primary method of hiring in the tech industry.

One of the most anticipated features in iOS 4.2 is the introduction of AirPlay for Apple TV. AirPlay will allow you to stream audio and video from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad directly to your Apple TV.

With AirPlay, you can stream it all from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, too. So if you feel like watching a movie you have on one of your devices, you don't need to rent or buy it again. Just tap to start playing content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then tap again to instantly stream whatever youre watching -- or listening to -- directly to Apple TV.

The just released 4.2 beta has some early support for AirPlay built in -- enough to generate some excitement about the possibilities.

Every standard iOS audio/video playback interface in Beta 4.2 now shows an AirPlay button that allows you to stream audio to an AirPlay enabled device. Forum user spimp31 successfully (audio) streamed the following apps from his iPad to his Airport Express:

- Safari (videos embedded from YT and Vimeo, audio files)
- YouTube
- Netflix
- Videos
- iPod
- BBC News
- MLB

As there are no shipping 2nd generation Apple TVs yet, no one has been able to confirm video playback from 3rd party apps yet. In theory, any streams that can play in the standard iOS video player should be able to be streamed/played to the new Apple TV (which also runs iOS). What's not so clear, however, is how protected content works such as Hulu. In additional, Hulu has been notoriously stubborn about allowing their content to be played anywhere other than their intended devices, so we expect they will limit this functionality if at all possible.

Also, since this is beta software, things could change drastically between now and release. One customer even emailed Steve Jobs if AirPlay will work for every video playback or just stuff from the iTunes library. Jobs simply replied "everything played in the Videos app."

Yesterday's confirmation that the new Apple TV shares the same iOS codebase as the Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad has resparked discussion about the possibility of Apple TV Apps in the near future. Several sites are suggesting that the Apple TV will be the target of Jailbreakers who will try to open the device to 3rd party apps, though we suspect Apple already has their own plans in the works.

If you remember, Engadget predicted that the new Apple TV would be based on the A4 processor, focus on streaming technology and be priced at only $99. They followed up with further claims that the AppleTV would indeed get Apps:

Furthermore, the device will be getting apps and presumably an App Store entry, though it's unclear if there will be cross-pollination between iPad and iPhone / iPod touch offerings and new Apple TV applications.

Overall, their predictions and descriptions of the device were quite accurate. Two predictions didn't come true: the iTV rename and the arrival of an Apple TV App Store. However, even the possibility of an iTV rename generated backlash from UK television network ITV, so it seems possible the rebranding could have been derailed at the last minute.

Now, an Apple TV App Store remains a distinct possibility. Apple originally launched the iPhone without Apps and introduced the App Store a full year later. If the rest of Engadget's report is to be believed, the new Apple TV should have 16GB of flash storage that will be able to be used for future App storage. The new Apple TVs have not started shipping but we'll be able to confirm its internal storage once it gets in customer's hands.

Digitimes reports that touch panel and glass suppliers are completing validation for Apple's second generation iPad.

Apple is expected to launch the second-generation iPad in the first-quarter of 2011, the suppliers noted.

Component shipments are expected in the beginning of 2011 with product launch in the 1st Quarter of the year.

Apple has been expected to add a front-facing camera to the next generation iPad to offer FaceTime video conferencing across all their mobile devices.

As anticipated, Apple has started selling the 27" Apple LED Cinema Display on their online store.

Connect the 27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display to your Mac and supersize your view with an incredible 2560-by-1440 resolution, LED backlighting for instant-on brightness, and an amazing 178-degree viewing angle.

The 27" display was first announced back in July and effectively replaces Apple's 30" Cinema Display. The 27" monitor has an estimated ship time of 1-2 weeks and retails for $999.

FierceWireless reports that U.S. iPhone carrier partner AT&T is on track to deploy its "4G" LTE cellular network by mid-2011, with plans to cover 70-75 million people by the end of 2011. The carrier has also stressed that it is investing in significant upgrades to its 3G network to support interim service improvements and as fallback for customers who will not receive 4G coverage until later in the roll-out process.

AT&T has said it wanted to wait for the LTE market to mature before moving forward with a full-scale deployment. Stankey said AT&T is working on a different kind of implementation for LTE than other carriers, and needs to carry forward its UMTS services to ensure that voice and data services can work simultaneously on both UMTS and LTE. The company is spending $700 million in capital expenditures on LTE this year and "will go far beyond that" in 2011, Stankey said.

AT&T announced in January that it had completed upgrading all of its 3G cell sites to accommodate HSPA 7.2 data speeds but that upgrades to backhaul connections were required before the carrier would actually be able to support the higher speeds. AT&T reports that it continues to deploy the backhaul upgrades around the country to support that effort.

But even beyond HSPA 7.2, AT&T is also pushing forward with HSPA+ on the way to 4G. HSPA+ technology will reportedly allow AT&T to offer real-world speeds of 7 Mbps, considerably faster that the real-world speeds offered under the HSPA 7.2 standard still rolling out now.

AT&T announced in February that it had partnered with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to provide equipment for its LTE network, and the carrier appears to be sticking to its planned schedule of a significant 2011 launch for the technology.

One week ago, Apple announced changes to its App Store rules regarding app development using third-party tools, also moving to provide an open look at the guidelines for the app review process. Together the moves appear to have significantly lifted the veil of secrecy over the App Store review process and offered a broader array of developers the opportunity to access the iOS platform.

The Los Angeles Times reports on some of the developers who have been pleased to see their long-stalled app submissions suddenly come back to life with Apple's new, more developer-friendly philosophy.

Bryan Bartow, a software developer in Austin, Texas, invented an iPhone application he called MePing and submitted to Apple Inc. in March.

Six months later, it was still in limbo, neither approved nor rejected.

"It just waited in review forever," Bartow said. "I just assumed it wasn't going to be approved, and moved on."

Then, last week, Bartow got a surprise e-mail from Apple. MePing had been approved.

"It magically came through," he said.

Several other developers who had ported their Flash-created apps to iOS and submitted them to Apple months ago are also noted as having seen sudden approvals finally coming through in the past week.

Soon after Apple's announcements, we reported on Sean Kovacs, whose GV Mobile application offering an interface to Google Voice had been pulled from the App Store in summer 2009 for "duplicating features that come with the iPhone". Under the newly-public App Store review guidelines, Kovacs noted that he felt that his application complied with all rules and had received word from Apple that his application would likely be approved if he resubmitted.

Kovacs did just that, and his new GV Mobile+ application is now awaiting approval from Apple. We've taken a look at the newly-revamped application now in Apple's hands, and it seems to offer a highly-polished interface for Google Voice users.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week on the prevalence of gadgets over traditional computers and TVs for the upcoming holiday shopping season, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn is quoted as saying that his company is seeing the iPad cannibalizing sales of traditional notebook PCs by "as much as 50%".

Best Buy said smartphone sales continued to rise compared with a year ago, as did portable computer totals, buoyed by the iPad.

However, television sales fell despite the rollout of new 3D models, with both average prices and total volumes notching "low-double digit" declines compared with last year. Mr. Dunn also said internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%.

"It's a very different environment now," said Stephen Baker, the chief electronics analyst for market researcher NPD Group Inc. "The real cool stuff now will be the tablets, e-readers and probably the higher-end digital cameras."

Several reports in recent months have indicated that the iPad may be cannibalizing some notebook sales. But the degree to which Best Buy, a major retailer even if only a single data point, is seeing such cannibalization appears rather startling. Just days ago, Best Buy announced that it will be expanding in-store iPad sales to its entire network of nearly 1,100 U.S. stores and also increasing the variety of iPad accessories available for purchase as it seeks to ride the device's wave of popularity amid increasing supplies.

Analysts have long been interested in seeing whether the iPad cannibalizes Apple's other products. During the most recent quarter, however, Apple reported record Mac sales of 3.47 million while still pushing out 3.27 million iPads. During the conference call for that earnings release, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that with Apple's share of the computer market remaining relatively low despite strong growth over an extended period of time, the company would be happy to see some cannibalization, because there are "a lot of PCs out there" to be cannibalized.

Update: According to CNBC, Best Buy representatives are disputing The Wall Street Journal's claim regarding Dunn's comments:

Here's what Best Buy tells me: Dunn said there's some replacement of low-end netbooks by iPads, but Best Buy doesn't yet know how much.

"What Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said was that we had no firm numbers, but that we speculated there was some replacement of netbooks by iPads going on," said spokeswoman Paula Baldwin. "We did not provide specifics because we do not presently have the hard numbers on which to base those specifics."

Update 2: Best Buy has released an official statement further clarifying Dunn's comments.

TUAW reports that configuration files within the new iOS 4.2 beta reveal that Apple's "iProd2,1" device that had been spotted in earlier iOS versions and presumed to be the next-generation iPad is actually the company's forthcoming Apple TV revision.

We've received a tip from an iPhone developer who was looking through the USB device configuration list in the new iOS 4.2 beta. Our source found the fascinating configuration descriptor shown above. Noted as iProd in the device configuration, this slip shows that this instance of iProd is the new Apple TV, not a new, unannounced iPad.

The entry for iProd2,1 first showed up in iPhone OS 3.2 back in April. At the time, it was presumed to be a next-generation iPad, as the original iPad had initially carried an "iProd1,1" designation early in its testing process.

Interestingly, iProd2,1 once again made an appearance just a month ago in configuration files that were apparently designed to allow the device to be auto-activated without having to be connected to iTunes, reportedly to ease the process of carrier testing for new iOS hardware. Coming alongside identifiers for unreleased iPhone models, the information again suggested that iProd2,1 was a new iPad model with cellular capabilities. Just days later, iProd2,1 reared its head again, this time in a configuration file explicitly identifying it with a Product ID number of 4765, again with the assumption that it was an iPad.

All of those thoughts have been turned on their heads with today's revelation, however, as TUAW's source shares information clearly indicating that the device bearing Product ID number 4765 is now being referred to as "AppleTV2,1" rather than iProd2,1. The new perspective implies that the interpretation of the auto-activation configuration code as being for carrier testing purposes was incorrect or at least incomplete, as the Apple TV offers no cellular connectivity.

Adobe yesterday announced the release of a beta preview version of Flash Player for Mac, Windows, and Linux offering 64-bit support. The new release, codenamed "Square", has been found to be fully functional as far as content compatibility and stable enough for broad testing so far, but Adobe of course encourages feedback on performance.

The community has been very vocal around the need for native 64-bit support and we've heard you loud and clear. Today we're also sharing a refresh of the Linux 64-bit version of Flash Player together with the first preview of both the 64-bit Windows and Mac versions. If you're using a 64-bit browser, I encourage you to install a 64-bit version of Flash Player and give it try.

Downloads of the various preview versions of Flash Player "Square" are available through Adobe Labs. Adobe has also put together an FAQ (PDF) discussing some of the details of the move to 64-bit support.

Reuters publishes an interview with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz touching on a number of different topics, briefly including the burgeoning mobile advertising market and Apple's role in it through its iAd program. In Bartz's view, Apple's demands for total control over the program will ultimately be its downfall, as advertisers eventually rebel against the non-traditional framework in favor of the greater flexibility offered by other channels.

Mobile advertising, although still a nascent market, has become the next battleground pitting Yahoo against Google and Apple.

Earlier this year Apple introduced its iAd service to create premium ads for marketers on the iPhone.

"That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz said about Apple's iAd service. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."

Apple's iAd program went live on July 1st with only a small handful of prominent brands ready for the launch. Despite the fact that the few early adopters have been happy with the results so far, rollout of the ads has been slowed by Apple's firm control over the entire process, including the creative and development aspects that advertisers have been accustomed to having control over themselves.

In late July, Apple announced a new 27" LED Cinema Display, set for launch in the "September" timeframe to replace the existing 24" LED Cinema Display and 30" Cinema Display, which are seeing remaining stock being depleted before being officially discontinued. With September now half over, customers have been anxious for an update on the possible release of the new 27" display, and signs are beginning to appear hinting at a release in the near future.

As noted by 9 to 5 Mac a few days ago, the customization pages for Mac Pro orders placed through Apple's online store were displaying updated descriptions advertising the 27-inch display as an option, despite the fact that only the 24" and 30" models remained available as selections. While Apple's site has since been reverted to omit descriptions of the 27" display, it is clear that some adjustments were going on behind the scenes that suggest preparations for launch of the new display may be underway.

That hint has now been followed by the apparent complete discontinuation of the 24" and 30" displays in several international online Apple stores such as those for Australia and New Zealand. While the models showed availability of "within 24 hours" just a day or two ago, the stores now list the models as "Currently Unavailable".

Officially, Apple continues to list the 27" display as "Coming September" in the U.S. and a number of other markets, while Apple's sites for Australia and New Zealand simply note that the new model is "Coming Soon". It appears, however, that based on the continuing changes to Apple's online store listing and availabilities, Apple may be preparing to take orders for the new 27" LED display in the very near future.

One of the text notes accompanying AppAdvice's video walkthrough of the new iOS 4.2 for iPad suggests that the physical switch on the iPad's side for locking the screen orientation has been repurposed as a mute switch. The change has been confirmed by posters in our forums.

With the change, screen orientation locking is now accomplished within the multitasking tray as on the iPhone under iOS 4. Interestingly, the switch had been originally planned to be a mute switch but was repurposed as an orientation lock as revealed in publicity materials published just weeks before the device's launch.

It is unknown whether Apple had originally planned for iOS 4 to be available for the iPad in time to its initial launch so as to support multitasking tray-based screen orientation locking, or if the changes over time have simply been adjustments to fluctuating priorities and development of new software solutions for certain tasks.