MacRumors

Princeton University has detailed wireless issues with Apple's iPad that have resulted in the university blocking several of the devices from its wireless network. While frequently invisible to end users and apparently unrelated to most early complaints from iPad owners about Wi-Fi connectivity issues, the iPad issue documented by Princeton can result in interference of network usage by other devices.

Princeton reports that they have seen a number of iPads with errors in their Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) protocol.

The malfunction we see is that the iPad uses DHCP to obtain a lease, renews the lease zero or more times (as expected), but then continues using the IP address without renewing the lease further. The iPad allows the DHCP lease to expire, but it continues using the IP address after allowing the lease to expire. The incident continues for some time (typically hours); usually it ends when the iPad asks for a new DHCP lease, or the iPad disconnects from the network.

Essentially, the iPad is continuing to use IP addresses that have already been reclaimed by the university's routers. Similar problems could explain certain issues that users have been seeing in their own personal use of the device, although user complaints regarding Wi-Fi performance have primarily focused on poor signal strength and inconsistent connections.

As of April 19th, 25 of the 41 iPads on the campus network had shown this issue while 9 have been blocked due to repeated problems. Princeton is reportedly working with Apple to address this issue, but has developed a tentative workaround to assist with the problems. Some of the nine blocked iPads have since been unblocked after the owners performed the suggested workaround. Princeton's current policy with respect to iPads is to allow them onto their network, and in the case of DHCP lease issues, notify the user and point them to the workaround. Only if problems continue after that point would a specific device be blocked.

Boy Genius Report claims that AT&T has instituted a block on all employee vacations for the month of June, signaling a possible iPhone release sometime during the month. In the past, such policies have been reliable indicators of iPhone launches.

Same story as last year and the year before, but we've confirmed with multiple AT&T sources that the carrier has now put a block on employees taking vacations in June. The only time AT&T does a straight block like this is for iPhone launches.

Apple has typically launched its new iPhone models in June of each year, although the iPhone 3G did not launch until July 11th, 2008, just inside the window predicted by AT&T's vacation block that year.

For the past two iPhone releases, Apple has introduced the new iPhone hardware at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco and launched sales of the new models 32 days (3G in 2008) and 11 days (3GS in 2009) later. Despite the fact that Apple has yet to announce dates for this year's WWDC, a number of hints and rumors have pointed to a late June timeframe for the event. Such scheduling would make for a short interval between the next-generation iPhone's presumed introduction at WWDC and its launch by the end of the month.

AppleInsider reports that Apple and AMD are in "advanced discussions" to bring the chipmaker's processors to upcoming Macs, potentially breaking the exclusive relationship Apple has held with Intel since moving away from PowerPC processors in 2006.

Representatives for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD have recently been seen on Apple's Commuter Coach buses, and executives for the chipmaker have been spotted on their way out of meetings with members of Apple's top brass, according to people familiar with the matter.

The meetings have reportedly included briefings by AMD that have since enabled Apple to begin working with AMD processors in its labs as part of an initiative to position the chips inside some of the company's forthcoming products.

According to the report, Apple is looking at using AMD's chips in its Mac lines, seeking to increase its flexibility for sourcing chips going forward. In particular, recent shortages of new notebook chips from Intel that reportedly led to a delay in the release of new MacBook Pros and licensing issues that have hindered graphics chipmaker NVIDIA's ability to work with Intel's processors have reportedly caused Apple to adopt a growing sense of dissatisfaction with Intel.

AMD's chip offerings are currently considered subpar when compared to those from Intel, but the report suggests that lower pricing and the ability to bundle AMD processors with ATI graphics chips (ATI is owned by AMD) as possible reasons for bringing a switch under consideration. In addition, Apple may have inside knowledge of forthcoming offerings from AMD that could make the chipmaker more competitive with Intel, or AMD might be more willing to offer custom solutions for Apple than Intel currently is. Finally, the report concedes that the talks could simply be a leveraging tool to assist Apple in its dealings with Intel.

Information Removed at Request of Apple Legal

Apple's 11-character serial number system has utilized an alphanumeric format of PPYWWSSSCCC, comprising two digits "PP" denoting a plant code where the product was produced, a single digit "Y" denoting the year of manufacturing, two digits "WW" signifying the week of the year in which the machine was produced, a three-digit unique identifier "SSS" to distinguish between machines that would otherwise have the same serial numbers, and a final three digits "CCC" specifying the model.

The new 12-digit serial number format makes a few minor tweaks to the format, which we have been able to decipher. The increase in length for the new format, which takes on the sequence PPPYWSSSCCCC, can be attributed to changes to the length of the "P", "W", and "C" portions of the code.

The addition of a third "P" digit to assist in identifying the manufacturing location is a fairly straightforward change, although it remains to be seen whether existing plant codes will simply have a character such as a "0" appended to them or if the system is being entirely reworked. The difference in the "W" component is more significant, however, including a shift to alphanumeric codes that will make it a bit more difficult to decipher a machine's manufacturing at a simple glance. The "W" change is also related to a difference in how the "Y" component is used.

Under the previous format, the "Y" component of the serial number was simply the last digit of the year of manufacture, meaning that a machine produced this year would carry a "0" in that position. The number in that position would obviously recycle every ten years, but it should be relatively clear from Apple's product release history whether a given machine was produced in 2000 or 2010.

While leaving the length the same at one character, Apple has modified the "Y" component to include a letter code instead of a number, and the new system will reflect in that code not only the year of manufacture, but also whether it was manufactured in the first or second half of the year. Apple has elected to use 20 different letters in this position, omitting vowels A, E, I, O, and U, as well as B. As with the previous system, letters in this position will recycle every ten years. For 2010, machines with a "C" in this position will have been manufactured in weeks 1-26, while machines with a "D" will have been manufactured in weeks 27-52 or 53. Next year will see the use of codes "F" and "G", and so on.

With the reduction of the "W" component of the serial number to a single alphanumeric digit, Apple has had to roll out a new system for identifying the week in which a given machine was produced. Previously, the two-digit code simply reflected the week of the year, beginning with "01" and moving on through "52" or "53".

The new format utilizes one of 27 alphanumeric characters to denote the week of manufacture, beginning with 1-9 and moving on to letters, omitting 0, vowels A, E, I, O, and U, as well as B, S, and Z. Because the 27 possible characters can not account for all of the weeks in the year, the "W" component must be paired with the "Y" component to determine whether the machine was manufactured in the first or second half of the year, with the "W" codes recycling every six months.

The three-character alphanumeric "S" code for unique product identification remains the same under the new system, while the alphanumeric "C" code for identifying model numbers has been expanded from three characters to four.

The ability to decipher Apple's serial number code to ascertain when a given machine was produced has been used by many customers wishing to learn more about the age of their machines, particularly when it comes to production issues. Understanding whether production date makes a difference in whether machines do or do not suffer from a given issue can help pinpoint when fixes might have been deployed and either alert or reassure customers attempting to determine whether their machines might be affected.

Exploded view of new 15" Core i5 MacBook Pro

AirPort/Bluetooth card with antenna routed along optical drive opening

Otherwise, iFixit notes a slight redesign to the speaker casing and the lack of heat sink contact for the chipset hub, as well as the slightly increased capacity of the battery, but otherwise finds the internals extremely similar to that of the previous-generation MacBook Pro.

Research firms Gartner and IDC yesterday both released preliminary reports detailing U.S. and worldwide PC shipments for the first quarter of 2010, and the two firms interesting offer very different pictures of Apple's U.S. performance during the quarter.

According to Gartner's report, Apple placed fifth among U.S. computer shipments with an 8.0% market share on unit growth of 34.0% over the year-ago quarter. Apple's market share was up significantly from the previous quarter's 7.5% share and from 7.2% in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year increase moved Apple to its highest share first-quarter market share in recent years, in what is traditionally a light quarter for industry sales.

Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-1Q10 (Gartner)

Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)

It is unclear from where the discrepancy in data for Apple's shipments comes in the two reports, although most research analysts are expecting in the range of 25-50% year-over-growth in Mac sales for the quarter. While Apple's U.S. sales growth measured by Gartner and IDC may differ from global sales growth being predicted by the analysts, Gartner's analysis appears at this time to be a more realistic assessment of Apple's performance. We should learn more on Apple's sales next Tuesday, when the company releases its quarterly earnings report.

Fortune today released its 2010 list of Fortune 500 companies, ranking the United States' largest companies by revenues. Apple placed 56th in this year's rankings, up from 71st in last year's edition. Apple's 2009 revenues of approximately $36.5 billion were enough to place it one spot ahead of Disney, which features Apple CEO Steve Jobs as its largest individual shareholder.

With 2009 profits of $5.7 billion, Apple also ranked 26th overall by that metric. And in the Computers and Office Equipment category, Apple ranked third behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell according to revenue. Apple also scored highly in several other categories, including easily taking the top spot in shareholder returns over the past five years with an average return of 45.6%.

Wal-Mart topped this year's list, displacing Exxon Mobil at the head of the pack. One of those two companies has led the rankings every year since Exxon Mobil grabbed the top spot from General Motors in 2001.

Ilya Vedrashko of advertising agency Hill Holliday yesterday published an interesting blog post discussing a visit to his firm by Apple's iAd team where the parties talked over details of Apple's forthcoming plans for mobile advertising. Among the items discussed in the meeting were Apple's philosophy and approach to targeting consumers, ad pricing, and the user experience.

On the pricing front, Vedrashko is unable to share specifics but notes that Apple will unsurprisingly position the iAd platform as a "premium" service, offering its innovative system to those with high-quality ads who are willing to pay for the privilege.

To answer the burning question -- yes, we did talk about the price. Unfortunately, we can't share much on this either. The pricing isn't that of remnant inventory, obviously -- it is what you would expect from a premier online property. The pricing scheme struck me as very straightforward and elegant.

The report also hints at Apple's plans for targeting consumers. With access to significant amount of users' data from their devices such as iTunes content, App Store downloads, and more, Apple has a unique opportunity to build thorough profiles of its users and use behavioral targeting to more efficiently connect advertisers and consumers with similar interests.

The Hill Holliday team appears to be excited by Apple's plans for iAd and the company's willingness to move beyond what has been perceived as stagnant mobile ad development from Google and others and create a true integrated advertising system within applications that can harness the power of the iPhone OS.

As Apple's iAd platform begins to spin up, however, observers are interested in how other advertising networks such as Google will be affected by the move. MediaMemo reports on another change to Apple's developer terms that has the potential to cripple competing ad networks by preventing analytics companies such as AdMob and Flurry from receiving data on customer ad usage.

As I understand it, Apple is arguing that app makers can't pass along information that incorporates each phone's "unique device identifier" to ad networks and measurement companies.

This doesn't expressly prohibit ad networks from selling ads, but it prevents them from selling targeted advertising, which is close to the same thing when it comes to mobile devices. The same problem would plague analytics companies, which might be able to compile very broad usage info about apps, but little else.

Analytics are a crucial tool for mobile advertising companies that allow them to measure performance. As one mobile executive quoted in the report notes, "Can't measure it, can't bill for it."

For the moment, mobile analytics companies are still trying to figure out just what the change in Apple's terms means and how they might be able to work with Apple on the issue, and it remains to be seen how things will play out.

Create Digital Music reports that the iPad may be able to support the use of USB audio interfaces via the Camera Connection Kit offered as an accessory by Apple and set to begin shipping later this month. Such a move would make the iPad much more appealing to music professionals looking for a portable device to interface with their equipment.

According to second-hand sources and a post to a public mailing list, the upcoming Apple iPad accessory adapter for cameras, the iPad Camera Connection Kit, will support audio interfaces that are compatible with the USB Audio Class. I don't have official confirmation from Apple, and the adapter itself appears not to be shipping until later this month, so file this as "likely, but unconfirmed." But it's one to watch, and comes as a surprise to me. (Generally, camera accessory kits aren't a way of providing audio expansion.)

The report points to a mailing list posting apparently from Apple software engineering manager Bill Stewart outlining his team's efforts in this regard.

While the report notes that most pro audio interfaces are not compatible with USB Audio Class and instead use custom drivers, there are a few devices on the market that should be compatible and more would be likely to come in the future as a market for class-compliant interfaces becomes established.

Apple today continues its barrage of updates with the release of a pair of firmware updates for its 27-inch iMac models addressing a trio of issues.

27-inch iMac EFI FW Update 1.0, weighing in at 2.1 MB and requiring Mac OS X 10.6.3, is recommended for all quad-core 27-inch iMacs and addresses a pair of issues related to high processor usage and display backlighting.

- Resolves an issue that sometimes caused high processor utilization while playing audio through the headphone output mini-jack.

- Resolves an issue that prevented the display backlight from turning on after powering on the iMac.

The 27-inch iMacs are not the only current Mac models to have experienced problems with processor performance during audio-related tasks, as Apple's Mac Pro line received a software update in mid-February to address its own issues with heat and performance while handling audio-related tasks.

Apple's other firmware release for the 27-inch iMac today, known as 27-inch iMac SMC Firmware Update 1.0, makes unspecified compatibility fixes to Target Display Mode. The feature, currently available only on 27-inch iMacs, allows the machine to be used as a secondary display via its Mini DisplayPort connector. The update weighs in at 397 KB and requires Mac OS X 10.6.3 and the 27-inch iMac EFI Update 1.0 also released today.