MacRumors

Apple on Wednesday invited select press to a special press conference to be held this Friday in California. Apple would only say that the press conference would be regarding the iPhone 4. No other information was available when I spoke with them tonight.

The topic of discussion, of course, is the iPhone 4 which has received much press over the past few weeks regarding a signal loss issue when it is held in certain ways. A Consumer Reports article reignited discussion of this issue earlier this week.

Aside from the signal bar changes, Apple has also made a number of other small improvements to iOS in their latest beta which was released to developers tonight.

Game Center returns to the beta releases with a brand new look (screenshot above). Game Center is Apple's matchmaking and leaderboard social network for iOS games. The lack of Game Center in the official iOS 4.0 release caused some confusion, but Apple had never intended Gamecenter to be launched alongside 4.0. Instead, Apple had promised Game Center to come out later this year.

It remains in beta testing for now with no announced release date. The style of the app, however, has been dramatically changed from the original release.

We've also collected a list of other changes that users have noticed in the 4.1 beta.

We'll continue to update as we collect more reports.

To address the issue, Apple will be issuing a software update "within a few weeks" that will adjust how signal strength bars are calculated and displayed. The change will adopt a recently recommended formula from AT&T that will more accurately display actual signal strength at any given time. The update will also increase the size of the smaller bars (1, 2, and 3) to make them easier to see.

The new signal bars appear slightly taller than the previous ones, and presumably Apple's calculations regarding signal strength has been revised.

The modem firmware has been updated to 02.07.01 from 01.59.00. No word on if people are having any actual signal improvements beyond the cosmetic changes.

Update: Early reports indicate no change in the reception loss experienced by some users.

Many users have been waiting for a promised iOS software update to address signal strength display issues on the iPhone 4, but it is likely that Apple is planning to push out a smaller update specifically addressing issue rather than waiting for iOS 4.1 and all of the associated developer testing before releasing it.

Computerworld reports that Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner today compared Apple's iPhone to his company's much-maligned Vista operating system, suggesting that Apple might be headed for a similar experience to that of Microsoft in terms of customer response and criticism.

"It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that," said Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, in a keynote speech at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), which runs through Thursday in Washington, D.C.

According to the report, Turner also took the opportunity to poke fun at the iPhone 4's signal issues in promoting Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system.

"One of the things I want to make sure you know today is that you're going to be able to use a Windows Phone 7 and not have to worry about how you're holding it to make a phone call," Turner said, referring to the Microsoft mobile operating system set to debut on smartphones this fall.

Turner's comment follows a full-page ad in The New York Times from Verizon and Motorola promoting the Droid X by poking fun at Apple CEO Steve Jobs' recommendation that iPhone 4 users "just avoid holding it in that way."

Meanwhile, a new survey from ChangeWave Research shows just 2% of respondents who are planning to buy a new smartphone in the June-August timeframe looking to buy a Windows Mobile phone, while 50% are planning to purchase an iPhone. The survey was, however, conducted before the iPhone 4 was released and its signal issues became known.

Market research firm NPD today announced the results of a recent survey of iTunes Store customers regarding their interest in a free or paid streaming service that would allow them to access content on a variety of devices. According to the survey, about 15% of the 50 million U.S. iTunes Store customers would be interested in a paid model, with that number nearly doubling if the service were to be free.

Between seven million and eight million iTunes users in the U.S. would have strong interest in one of the paid subscription options, according to the report. These consumers indicated a willingness to pay a minimum monthly fee of $10 -- either for streaming music or access to their personal music libraries on multiple devices. NPD estimates that there are 50 million iTunes users in the U.S. According to NPD's music industry research, a model that offers iTunes users free access to their own music libraries would attract in the range of 13 to 15 million subscribers.

The report notes that if the consumers indicating a strong interest in a paid subscription service were to sign for such a service priced at $10 per month, it would represent a $1 billion market opportunity in the first year. The market would be expected to increase as customers purchase Internet-connected devices in greater numbers and the benefits of a cloud-based service become more clear.

Rumors of cloud-based iTunes media content have been circulating for some time now, although reports have indicated that music labels are not yet on board with the idea.

According to Apple, the changes are designed to increase customer access and satisfaction in the Family Room by employing something of an "all hands on deck" approach to ensure quick response to customer demand. Among the tactics being employed:

- Active queue management: Retail stores will monitor customer demand for the Genius Bar from both reservations and walk-ins, reassigning qualified employees from other areas of the store as needed to open up new queues to ensure that staffing meets demand. Apple's goal is for all walk-in Genius Bar customers to be served within 30 minutes while obviously still meeting commitments for customers who have made reservations.

- Multitasking: Genius Bar technicians are being asked to serve multiple support customers at one time, using downtime during appointments such as during reboots or while diagnostic tests are running to assist another customer. Support staff are encouraged to use reservation notes left by customers in the Concierge system to help match customers with similar issues or to slip in a customer expected to need only a quick fix while a more complicated diagnosis is underway.

- Overnight repairs: Retail stores are expected to place a renewed focus on completing overnight repairs, but somewhat at the expense of "While You Wait" repairs. While Genius Bar technicians will still be able to offer "While You Wait" repairs to customers if support demand is low, the focus will be on moving repairs to night time shifts where Geniuses can focus on the tasks at hand and have customers' machines ready for pick-up first thing the following morning. Retail stores will gauge the number of repairs to be completed on a given day and schedule Geniuses to stay after store closing (up until a limit of midnight) to conduct repairs on machines brought in that day. Any repairs unable to be completed with the scheduled time and staffing after closing will be finished up by Geniuses arriving before store opening the following morning.

When it comes to mobile devices, Apple is broadening its approach of providing mobile support to customers, utilizing iPod touch devices loaded with Apple's MobileGenius software to help provide support anywhere in the store. The strategy comes with dual benefits: Reducing clutter at the Genius Bar allows for focus on Mac support there and conducting mobile device support on the sales floor offers retail store staff an opportunity to show off Apple's other products and hopefully generate additional sales.

While Apple is pitching the changes as a significant enhancement to support services in its retail stores, others are not so sure. One Apple retail store employee familiar with the changes noted that the company is trying to "do more with less", pulling in less-qualified Creatives and offering less personal attention through multitasking in order to deal with customer demand rather than hiring new staff. The employee also expressed concern about low stocks of parts available at retail stores and how without a change in how parts are allocated and delivered many repairs will not be able to be completed overnight as planned.

Regardless of how the changes play out, Apple clearly feels that it is simply unable to maintain the status quo in its retail stores by merely adding staff. As Apple's retail stores, many of which are relatively small, continue to see tremendous customer growth, the company is looking for ways to process customers more efficiently with regard to both timing and floor space within the store.

On a possibly related note, we and others have separately heard that a teaser has gone out on Apple's internal Retail News Network (RNN) for its retail store employees noting that something "big" is coming. While we can't definitively say that the teaser is referencing the Family Room changes we've learned about, RNN is frequently used to share information about changes in retail store operational policies and so it seems possible that these two items may be related.

MacDailyNews points to a report [Google translation] from French language newspaper Le Soleil in Quebec City, Canada claiming that Apple has acquired Web mapping firm Poly9.

In recent years, especially, Poly9 has given birth to programming interfaces (APIs) for several large clients such as Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, MSNBC and NORAD. Poly9 based in part on the base maps of Google Earth, Google Maps, MapQuest, of Platial, Urban Mapping and many others to give birth to its applications.

The report notes that neither Apple nor Poly9 would comment on the acquisition but that the majority of the small company's employees have already moved to Cupertino to join Apple's team. When contacted by the paper, Poly9 employees indicated that they were unable to speak on the acquisition due to confidentiality agreements. Poly9's website has also been blanked.

Nevertheless, observers of the computing scene contacted Tuesday by The Sun were not surprised to learn of the transaction. "Apple has made a very good move by acquiring these agile Web ninjas", said the magazine editor-Media.com's Baliza Luc Vaillancourt.

According to him, Poly9 employees were recognized in the industry first for their talents and creativity without limits. "These guys are virtuosos who can work on projects of very high flying in the Web universe. Apple has put its hand on Quebec's high-quality brains," he added.

Just a year ago, Apple acquired Placebase, another online mapping company. An Apple job posting from last November looking for someone to to take the iPhone Maps application "to the next level" sparked further interest in the possibility of Apple looking to roll out its own mapping solution for iOS in order to reduce its reliance on Google.

TechCrunch noted that Apple's Senior Vice President of iPhone Software Scott Forstall has created a Twitter account at http://twitter.com/forstall. The account has been labeled as "Verified" which means that Twitter has authenticated the identity of the user.

Forstall hasn't tweeted yet, and who knows if he actually will. But what I do know is that his account has been verified by Twitter -- meaning it is actually him. And I also know that there's no way Twitter would have verified the account unless he (or someone at Apple on his behalf) asked Twitter to.

The move is strange for a company as secretive as Apple. Forstall is a high profile executive at Apple, frequently featured during Steve Jobs' keynotes. Apple has been said to actively discourage blogging or other forms of communication from its employees. Forstall's identification as a verified account as well as his official Apple position suggests his plans for the account are not simply personal.

Update: The account is no longer listed as "verified", though Twitter had confirmed they had verified the account for Forstall. It appears the loss of verified flag is simply a security measure by Twitter when someone changes their account info (Forstall changed his profile to read iOS rather than iPhone):

For security reasons, changes made to your profile result in the loss of the badge. If you've lost your verified badge, just log into your account and re-apply here.

Update 2: He's verified again.

AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui (right) speaks with CNBC's Jon Fortt at MobileBeat 2010 (Credit: CNET)

AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui acknowledged that the change threatened AdMob's existence on the iOS platform and thus significant potential revenue streams for developers, even as Apple prepared to roll out its own iAd mobile advertising platform. At the time, Hamoui noted that AdMob would be speaking with Apple in an attempt to resolve its concerns over the new policy.

CNET today reports on new comments from Hamoui revealing that Apple has yet to enforce the new terms that would shut AdMob out of the iOS platform.

"They haven't been enforcing (the new regulations) yet. We're very appreciative of that," he said at the MobileBeat 2010 conference here.

The news is not unexpected, of course, as developers have reported that they have been able to continue using AdMob's services in their applications, but Hamoui's comments mark the first acknowledgement by Apple, Google or AdMob that AdMob's service is continuing uninterrupted for the time being. But Hamoui did not address the state of talks between Apple and AdMob and whether a more permanent resolution to the issue is in the works or if the status quo of simple non-enforcement on the part of Apple might be the policy going forward.

Hamoui also noted that he is pleased by Apple's iAd effort as it works to bring more publicity to the concept of mobile advertising.

"The really rich pretty ads they're doing are making advertisers and agencies think about what mobile means," Hamoui said. "Anybody getting advertisers interested in mobile is a good thing. It's not at all a zero-sum game."

Google and AdMob are of course interested in what Apple is doing as a competitor, and Google itself has suggested that it too is looking at "interactive video ads" as the future of mobile advertising.

We'll soon be launching the Safari Extensions Gallery, a new destination that provides you with an opportunity to increase the visibility of your Safari extension beyond your website.

The Safari Extensions Gallery will feature selected extensions that offer an innovative user experience. And a one-click installation process will allow users to seamlessly install extensions from a developer's website without ever having to leave the Gallery.

Have your extension considered for the Safari Extensions Gallery. Submit your extension download URL and supporting metadata today.

Apple released Safari 5 at its Worldwide Developers Conference just over a month ago. Among other enhancements, Safari 5 includes support for extensions, add-ons created by third-party developers to offer new functionalities within the browser. Several early extensions have already been released, but Apple is still preparing the official launch of the feature with its gallery of featured extensions in the near future.

In mid-June, the company officially invited developers to submit their Safari extensions, noting that the gallery would be coming "later this summer". While still has not provided an official date for the launch, it does appear to be approaching in the relatively near future.

Interested developers can find out more in Apple's Safari Dev Center.

"Apple will be forced to do a recall of this product," said Professor Matthew Seeger, an expert in crisis communication. "It's critically important. The brand image is the most important thing Apple has. This is potentially devastating."

Crisis communication experts contacted by CultofMac.com, including Chris Lehane, former Clinton White House "Master of Disaster," agree: the iPhone 4 reception issue presents a Toyota-style PR crisis for Apple, and the company must respond with a more meaningful fix than a software patch.

Apple issued a press release earlier this month claiming that the problem is merely a software issue that causes the onscreen signal strength display to overstate the actual signal strength, also noting that some attenuation of signal while the device is being held is normal. But Consumer Reports and others have determined through their own testing that the iPhone 4 does in fact suffer more significant signal attenuation than other devices, an issue that would not be remedied by a simple software fix to signal strength displays.

Apple has consequently been taking criticism for not coming clean about the issue or tackling these reports of demonstrable signal laws head-on. In fact, Apple has been going so far as to delete threads in its support forums pointing to the Consumer Reports article rather than allowing an open discussion of the topic or addressing the claims. Meanwhile, some observers hope that Apple's seemingly extended timeframe for pushing out the promised software update to address the signal strength display issue could indicate that the company is quietly working on more substantial software changes to address the issue in some way if at all possible.

DigiTimes today reports on rumors that Apple is looking to launch its second-generation iPad as soon as the fourth quarter of this year, adding OLED-based 5.6-inch and 7-inch models to its existing 9.7-inch LED display model.

The sources noted that Apple has recently placed new iPad orders to Taiwan-based component makers for the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 with 9.7-inch, 5.6-inch and 7-inch models all included.

The 9.7-inch model will see some minor changes, while Apple will add Chimei Innolux (CMI) as one of its panel suppliers.

The new 5.6- and 7-inch iPads will mainly target the e-book reader market, separating them from the 9.7-inch model, which mainly targets multimedia entertainment, the sources stated.

The report also suggests that Taiwanese manufacturer Compal will be producing the new iPads, a surprise given earlier expectations that Pegatron would be the manufacturer brought on board to supplement Apple's existing production for iOS devices through Foxconn.

DigiTimes' own research analyst , Mingchi Kuo, casts some doubt on the rumors, however, claiming that Samsung, the world's dominant OLED manufacturer, can't even keep up with demand from its own product lines, and even with new investments in production there appears to be no way the company could ramp up production to the levels needed by Apple within the timeframe indicated.

Kuo also claims that Compal would be unlikely to be interested in producing the new iPad models given the scant profit margins available on the device in relation to its current profitable work assembling netbooks.

While claims of OLED displays for a number of Apple products have been around for many years without coming to fruition, DigiTimes in April specifically floated the idea of an OLED display for the second-generation iPad, but noted that pricing and production volume issues were likely to preclude the possibility. DigiTimes has also reported in April that Apple was looking to launch a smaller iPad in the 5- to 7-inch range as soon as the first quarter of next year.

Earlier today, a Consumer Reports post made headlines after they concluded that they simply could not recommend the iPhone 4 due to the widely reported signal issues related to touching the lower-left corner of the device. This single issue alone has prevented them from fully recommending the iPhone 4. However, their formal testing otherwise revealed that the iPhone 4 ranked the highest amongst all smartphones in their testing.

AllThingsD (via LoopInsight) summarizes the report (subscription required).

The [iPhone 4] scored 76 out of 100 points -- two points ahead of its closest rivals, the iPhone 3Gs and the HTC Evo 4G.
...
The product evaluation agency rated the iPhone 4 "Excellent" in its display, navigation, Web browsing, multimedia and battery life categories, "Very Good" in phoning and messaging and "Good" in voice quality.

The iPhone 4 beat out the HTC Evo as well as all the other Smartphones and had the highest score of 76/100. The signal issue described is that holding the lower-left corner of the iPhone 4 can reduce cell phone signal and affect calls in areas with lower reception. The issue depends on your local coverage and can be alleviated with a phone case.