MacRumors

Just after a fresh set of rumors suggesting that the next-generation iPod touch may be set to gain a front-facing camera in addition to a number of other features inherited from the iPhone 4, 9 to 5 Mac points to several merchants on Chinese trade site Alibaba.com offering claimed parts for the device showing a hole in the front plate that appears to be for a front-facing camera.

The first listing claims to be for an LCD and digitizer for the next-generation iPod touch and clearly shows a hole in the center of the front panel which would most likely be to accommodate a camera.

The second listing is for the digitizer portion only, with no LCD included, and also shows the same camera hole.

Both parts show the camera hole centered near the top of the device's front, a design feature that would seem to make for a more natural FaceTime experience than the off-center camera found in the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4's earpiece, however, prevents its camera module from being centered. With the iPod touch lacking an earpiece for traditional calling, Apple is free to center the front-facing camera.

Another interesting aspect related to our earlier post on iPod touch rumors concerns a possible rear-facing camera. Prototypes of the current-generation iPod touch contained a rear-facing camera centered near the top edge of the device, unlike the iPhone that has consistently seen its rear-facing camera placed in the corner of the device. Should Apple be planning to include both front- and rear-facing cameras on the next-generation iPod touch, a centered front-facing camera would seem to preclude a centered rear-facing camera given the physical design constraints faced by Apple in trying to squeeze in a high-resolution rear-facing camera, much less back-to-back with a front-facing one.

Electricpig.co.uk reports that prominent UK retailer John Lewis has shared what it believes to be details of a forthcoming refresh to Apple's iPod touch line scheduled for a September release. The information, shared at the company's "Xmas in July" event in London, is reportedly based "noises we're hearing from suppliers", and while we consider it fairly speculative in nature, the report is gaining a fair amount of traction today.

John Lewis claims that the next-generation iPod touch will gain a 5-megapixel camera with flash, as well as the same HD video recording capabilities found in the iPhone 4. And while the company's information does not specifically address whether the next iPod touch will have a front-facing camera, it does claim that Apple's FaceTime video calling feature will be included, making such a camera a necessity. Finally, the retailer claims that the iPod touch will gain a gyroscope, as found in the iPhone 4, for more sensitive controls for gaming, augmented reality, and other types of applications.

The report is silent on whether the next-generation iPod touch will adopt the high-resolution "Retina" display found in the iPhone 4, although it seems likely Apple will want to bring the key screen improvement to its iPod line. Also unaddressed is what the brains behind the new device will be, but Apple will almost certainly shift to the in-house Apple A4 system-on-a-chip used in the iPad and iPhone 4.

It is interesting to note that the current iPod touch had been widely expected to carry a rear-facing camera similar to that found in the iPhone 3GS, but the feature, which was seen in multiple prototypes of the device, was removed before the design was finalized. While the reason for the removal of the camera from the final iPod touch design has never been officially confirmed, it appears that Apple may have discovered that the device's thinner profile compared to that of the iPhone did not allow enough room for the higher-quality rear-facing camera found in the iPhone 3GS and felt that an iPod nano-style low-resolution camera taking video only was not an acceptably performing feature in such a device.

It is unclear whether the next-generation iPod touch will face a similar issue incorporating the camera used in the iPhone 4, as the camera module does appear to be fairly thick. Apple could obviously address the issue by increasing the overall thickness of the device, which would also allow room for other features such as an increased battery size, but it is unknown whether the company would be willing to compromise the iPod touch's sleek profile. Alternatively, adopting a more "squared off" design such as that used for the iPhone 4 could provide Apple with the needed additional space at the top of the device when compared to the existing tapered design.

In weighing the next-generation iPod touch's camera chances with design challenges in mind, it in fact appears that a front-facing camera may be even more likely than a rear-facing camera. The lower-resolution front-facing camera found on the iPhone 4 would certainly be thin enough to fit into the iPod touch's existing profile and would deliver FaceTime video calling capabilities, an important feature for the Wi-Fi only device.

Supporting the idea of a FaceTime-enabled iPod touch is a slide presented by Steve Jobs at Apple's introduction of the iPhone 4 indicating that the company expects to ship tens of millions of "FaceTime devices" this year. As noted by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, Apple's decision to use the term "FaceTime devices" rather than simply addressing the iPhone 4 suggests that the company has more in store for the feature, with the iPod touch being an obvious possibility.

YouTube has announced that it has revamped its mobile YouTube site to support a complete YouTube browsing experience on modern mobile phones, including the iPhone. Of the changes to http://m.youtube.com, YouTube notes:

- It's really fast.
- The user interface incorporates larger, more touch-friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
- It incorporates the features and functionality youve come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists, the ability to designate favorite, like or unlike videos directly from your device.
- As we make improvements to Youtube.com, youll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.

In many ways the new mobile site now makes the native iPhone YouTube app obsolete. Like the native app, the mobile YouTube serves iPhone-friendly h.264 video that can be played right in mobile Safari. Every since 2007, YouTube has been encoding their videos in both Flash format as well as h.264 (for AppleTV and iPhone).

As noted by ifoAppleStore earlier today, Apple has begun removing the wraps from the cylindrical glass tower at its new retail store in the Pudong district of Shanghai. Like the company's flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the Pudong store is located below ground level and utilizes the glass tower as an iconic entryway with a glass stairway descending to the store below.

Flickr user Lesh51 has posted several photos from the site, including an interesting aerial view showing the glass tower rising out of a central plaza at the International Finance Center.

The Pudong store is set to open this Saturday at 10:00 AM.

M.I.C. gadget posts a series of photos showing Apple's forthcoming white iPhone 4, as well as the device's box, which appears identical to that of the black iPhone 4 with the exception of the color of the iPhone on the front of the box.

The photos come courtesy of a Japanese source who was able to obtain one through unknown means.

The white iPhone 4 was has been unavailable since Apple began taking pre-orders for the device in its launch markets in mid-June. The company announced just prior to the initial iPhone 4 launch late last month that availability of the white models will be delayed until the second half of this month due to manufacturing challenges.

Immediately after the iPhone 4 was released, Michael D'Ulisse of MoreBluSky came up with the idea to make an app that used the iPhone 4's camera flash as a Flashlight. Apparently, he wasn't alone as a number of other Flashlight apps were apparently also submitted to the App Store. Despite submitting his app the day following the iPhone 4's release, however, the app hadn't been quickly approved by Apple.

D'Ulisse contacted Apple about the delay and was told that such apps would be rejected as "inappropriate use of hardware". The developer then reached out to Apple's Phil Schiller who promised to meet with the App Review department to review their policy. D'Ulisse's arguments must have been convincing as after some consideration, Apple has approved MoreBluSky's Flashlight - For iPhone 4 app as well as the many other iPhone 4 flashlight apps in their approval queue. Each app, however, must include a disclaimer that continued use of the iPhone's LED may dramatically decrease battery life.

Yesterday, we reported that a number of iPhone 4 users around the United States have been experiencing severely crippled upload speeds on AT&T's 3G network since the holiday weekend.

At the time it was unclear whether the issue, which limited upload speeds in many markets to 100 kbps, was an intentional cap placed by AT&T or if there was some sort of network issue or maintenance operation causing the slowdown. AT&T has finally responded with an official statement acknowledging that the slowdown is due to a software defect in Alcatel-Lucent equipment affecting users in certain markets under certain conditions.

AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect - triggered under certain conditions - that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices.

There is no word on a timeframe for deployment of the software fix for Alcatel-Lucent's equipment.

Mozilla yesterday announced the release of Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not all of the changes scheduled for Firefox 4 are available on Mac and Linux yet, however, as major visual changes including the move of tabs to the top of the window (a feature tested and discarded by Apple in a Safari 4 public beta last year) and implementation of the Firefox button for quick access to commonly-used actions are Windows-only for the time being.

There is a lot more to this beta than a facelift on Windows, including:

- New Add-Ons Manager: gives you more space to manage your Add-Ons, Themes and Plugins. Customizing your browser has never been easier!
- HD Video: Watch hardware-accelerated, super-smooth, HD-quality HTML5 video on YouTube using the new WebM format.
- Privacy improvements: Mozilla always puts privacy first, and this latest beta fixes flaws in some Web standards that could expose your browser history.
- Crash Protection: Experience uninterrupted browsing (now available on all platforms) - when a plugin crashes or freezes, you can resume browsing by simply refreshing the page.
- Performance: We know that performance is important. In this version, we focused on improving responsiveness at start-up and during page loads. This is just the beginning for performance improvements in Firefox 4.

Firefox 4 also includes a number of under-the-hood enhancements to assist web developers with their projects. Finally, the new beta integrates a new Feedback Add-On that allows users to quickly send input back to Mozilla and to anonymously participate in Mozilla studies of web usage if they so choose.

Bloomberg Businessweek profiles the rapidly-growing impact of Apple's iPad in the business world, showing how lessons in data security and other aspects important in corporate settings learned by the company with the iPhone have allowed the iPad to quickly gain popularity with an array of companies in various industries.

Apple, known for courting consumers with sleek designs and easy-to-use software, is making inroads with corporations that say the iPad can make workers more productive without putting sensitive customer information at risk. SAP (SAP), Tellabs (TLAB), and Daimler's (DAI:GR) Mercedes-Benz are using the tablet-style computer for tasks as varied as accessing work e-mail, approving shipping orders, and calling up on-the-spot auto-finance options.

Analysts note that companies have been reluctant to adopt tablet-based computers until now due to their typically underpowered nature and inability to multitask. The appeal of the iPad has, however, caused companies to rethink how tablets can be used and to experiment with the iPad in their businesses.

Reservations aside, Wells Fargo saw early on how quickly the iPad might take hold among business clients the weekend the device was released. Finance executives of large companies - those that generate more than $50 million in revenue - accessed corporate Wells Fargo accounts with iPads, says Amy Johnson, a Wells Fargo vice-president who works on the company's online portal and mobile strategy. A finance official or account representative could use a mobile device like the iPad to approve multimillion-dollar wire transfers, she explains.

The report also highlights Daimler's Mercedes-Benz unit, which has rolled out iPads to 40 of its U.S. dealerships to allow sales representatives to share financing options with customers as they wander around the showroom. The company has also released an iPhone application to allow customers to manage their finance accounts and make payments on their vehicles, signaling the company's growing presence on Apple's iOS platform.

In mid-May, Apple launched a beta version of a revised MobileMe Mail web application. The updated version went live along with an update application switcher in mid-June.

Mail is not the only MobileMe web application getting an overhaul, however, as Apple has announced a similar beta program for a revamped Calendar web application. As with the Mail beta, testing of the new Calendar application requires that users request an invitation through the MobileMe site, and Apple will be rolling out invites over the next several weeks.

The Calendar beta includes a new web application at me.com with great-looking calendar views. You'll find redesigned day, week, and month views, as well as a new list view to make scanning your events easier. Your calendars will also load faster, thanks to improved performance. The new web application works best with Safari 5, Firefox 3.6, and Internet Explorer 8.

Other improvements include new tools for sharing calendars among MobileMe members, publication of read-only public calendars viewable by anyone, event invitations with RSVPs, and compatibility with the CalDAV standard to allow viewing and editing on calendar applications on both Macs and Apple's iOS devices.

Apple has posted several support documents about the Calendar beta, including an FAQ and a list of known issues.

iPhone cases have always been a very popular accessory amongst readers, but has gained even more attention with the iPhone 4 as it can help alleviate some of signal issues you might encounter.

Our iPhone accessories forum has been active with photos and user reviews of the current options. iLounge, however, has taken a more formal approach to reviewing the early iPhone 4 cases and has posted some first impressions. Unfortunately, early case designs can have problems as Apple does not share upcoming product device dimensions with accessory manufacturers before the official announcement. As a result, most of the early in-store case designs were based on the rumored iPhone 4 specs. According to iLounge, this shows:

Developers really rushed out the first handful of cases in order to get early options into AT&T and Best Buy stores, and in some cases are going back and fixing problems they discovered only after the iPhone 4 became available. Issues with the iPhone 4 flash have been most widely discussed, particularly in cases from iFrogz that have mysteriously not arrived here for testing, but also in other cases with backs that werent cut to allow the flash enough room to fire.

Incipio was singled out as one of the manufacturers with good early cases, while iLounge felt that Apple's bumper cases weren't worth recommending at all. They point out a common issue with the bumper cases that only work with the newer slimmer connection cables that Apple has been recently shipping.

Now that accessory manufacturers have the iPhone 4 in hand, we should expect to see improved cases over time. We also hope to see some more creative accessories and add ons in time.

iFixit's teardown revealed that the iPhone 4's glass back slides right off after only removing the two bottom screws. Such a trivial replacement procedure could open the door to 3rd party replacements for the iPhone 4's back.

Clayton Morris provides some details about the App Store ranking fraud reported over the weekend. As previously reported, developer Thuat Nguyen's apps had been removed from the App Store after it became apparent that he was manipulating the App Store rankings by using compromised iTunes accounts to purchase his own apps.

Morris received confirmation from Apple that approximately 400 iTunes accounts were affected and that iTunes servers were not hacked in any way. The total number of iTunes users number about 150 million according to Morris. Apple is said to be increasing security to help minimize this fraud by asking users to enter their credit card security code more often. If not compromised at iTunes, itself, then users likely revealed the passwords inadvertently through phishing attempts, keyloggers, or easy to guess passwords.

While compromised iTunes accounts have been reported for years, this is the first reported time that a developer has tried to use them to their advantage.

Apple has updated its MobileMe iDisk application with a number of significant enhancements, most notably including a shift to a universal application to support both the iPhone/iPod touch and the iPad. In addition, the update brings multitasking support for devices running iOS 4, as well as integration of outside applications for opening documents and sharing enhancements.

- Designed for both iPhone and iPad
- Multitasking support for iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (iOS 4 required).
* Quickly switch to another app and back to iDisk
* Play audio from your iDisk while using another app
- When app is opened, the last file or directory viewed is displayed
- Open to open iDisk documents in compatible apps such as iBooks
- When sharing a file, an email can be sent from any configured email account
- The URL for a shared file can be copied and pasted
- Various stability improvements

MobileMe iDisk was released for the iPhone and iPod touch nearly a year ago and received its first significant update in December.

Apple's iMovie application for iPhone 4 [App Store, $4.99] has also received a minor update, delivering improved reliability during exporting and a fix for an issue with music playback within a project, as well as other miscellaneous performance and reliability enhancements.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has released a new research note looking at NPD's data for Mac and iPod sales for April and May. According to Munster, Apple is continuing to see strong growth of Mac sales ahead of analysts' expectations, with little cannibalization by the iPad seen so far. The iPod, however, is still underperforming relative to Wall Street expectations, although sales seem to have improved since an earlier survey covering only April's data.

Mac retail sales in the U.S. are up 37% year-over-year for the quarter through May, according to NPD Group data analyzed by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, who just published the new data in a note.

That's better than the 19% year-over-year growth (3.1 million units) the Street is predicting for the June quarter. So unless Mac sales hit a wall in June, Apple should have some Mac upside in the June quarter, plus all the benefit of the iPad.

The earlier survey covering only April had shown Mac sales up 39% year-over-year, with the new report adding in May data showing only a slight slip in overall growth for the quarter from the earlier data, but still nearly double that currently expected by Wall Street analysts.

The iPod line is a different story, however, as the maturing product line is being overtaken in sales and publicity by the iPhone as strong sales of the iPod touch are only just struggling to offset declines in the traditional iPod segment. NPD's new data shows a decline of about 13% year-over-year in the iPod line, roughly in line with Wall Street expectations of sales of 9-10 million for the quarter and slightly worse than Munster's prediction of a 9% decline. The 13% decline marks an improvement from the April data alone, however, which showed iPod sales down 17% year-over-year. Munster also notes the NPD's data, which tracks only U.S. sales, is less reliable for iPods than Macs due to the higher mix of international sales for iPods.

Engadget reports that Apple has issued a statement on strange App Store rankings over the weekend that saw one Vietnamese developer grab nearly all of the top 50 positions in the App Store's Books category. While initial reports wondered if the App Store itself may have been hacked, in actuality it appears that a relatively small number of iTunes Store accounts compromised through other means were used to purchase the applications to drive their increase in ranking.

According to the statement released by Apple, the developer in question has been removed from the App Store for violation of the developer terms. The company also reminds users who have had their iTunes Store accounts or credit card numbers compromised to contact their financial institutions to request chargebacks and to change their passwords. Apple's statement reads:

The developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns.

Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded.

If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately. For more information on best practices for password security visit http://www.apple.com/support/itunes.

With over 100 million iTunes Store accounts, it is inevitable that some number of accounts will be compromised through any of a variety of reasons, from random guessing of passwords to social engineering tactics such as phishing. A concerted effort could easily gather information for a very small proportion of accounts, but still offer the ability to affect rankings in low-traffic App Store categories such as Books.

In a rapidly-growing thread started in our forums over the weekend, iPhone 4 users from a number of locations around the United States have been reporting significant drops in data upload speeds on AT&T's 3G network. As noted by Gizmodo, many of these users are seeing upload speeds maxing out at only 100 kbps, far below the 1500 kbps these same users were seeing before the weekend on their HSUPA-compatible devices.

Users in several dozen metro areas scattered across the country, including Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Seattle among others, have reported the issue. The issue does not appear to be nationwide, however, as users in a number of locations including Atlanta, Richmond, and Raleigh, as well as some customers even in markets where other users are affected, are not experiencing slow upload speeds.

A couple of posters in our forums have reported speaking with AT&T service representatives who have indicated that the company is in fact experiencing data issues in much of the country. While it is disconcerting that the issue has been affecting users for several days now, it seems likely that the holiday weekend in the United States may have slowed the company's response.

Bloomberg takes a look at Apple's new iAd platform and how the company is using its vast database of customer information to target advertising campaigns and get a leg up on Google in the mobile advertising space.

Relying on the music, videos and apps that customers are downloading from its iTunes, App Store and iBooks helps Apple sketch a behavioral profile that can be paired with appropriate promotional messages. On its website, Apple says its "standard targeting options" include demographics, application preferences, music passions, movie genre interests, television genre interests and location.

Google, which has made its search business in large part on its ability to deliver targeted ads, has similar capabilities to Apple, with its search results, email offerings, and Android platform serving as sources for customer information that it could use for targeting mobile ads. But what it doesn't have is access to Apple's ecosystem administered through the iTunes Store, a limitation that gives Apple a significant advantage on its own iOS platform that has reportedly surpassed 100 million devices sold.

Today's report points to Unilever's "Dove Men+Care" soap campaign, one of the launch iAd campaigns, as an example of Apple's iAd program in action.

Unilever, which began working with Apple in May on a campaign for its Dove Men+Care soap, is using iAd to zero in on married men who are in their late 30s and have children.

"Apple then overlays that with the iTunes information and targets quite well and quite surgically," said Rob Candelino, marketing director at Unilever, based in London and Rotterdam.

Apple doesn't share information on individuals, Candelino said. Instead, Unilever can choose to advertise in certain "buckets" of applications, such as those on news or entertainment, based on characteristics of its users.

Despite comments from Apple CEO Steve Jobs last month revealing that the company has already locked up $60 million in iAd commitments for the second half of this year, a number of questions remain about the program, ranging from privacy and antitrust concerns to worries about whether it can live up to the hype and deliver the kind of customer response advertisers are expecting and for which they are paying top dollar.