MacRumors

Computerworld notes that unauthorized Mac clone manufacturer Psystar has stopped offering its line of PC hardware with Mac OS X preinstalled in the wake of a settlement agreement with Apple. All models are currently listed as "Out of Stock" on the company's website, although it continues to offer its Rebel EFI software solution to enable customers to install Mac OS X on their own, marking a shift in its business tactics in response to Apple's legal challenges.

Psystar has not given up its fight, however, as it has vowed to appeal a federal court judge's ruling in favor of Apple in its copyright infringement suit against Psystar. Under the terms of the $2.7 million settlement, Psystar is not required to make financial payments until all appeals have been heard.

"We will take the case up with the Ninth Circuit," said Psystar's chief attorney K.A.D. Camera of the Houston firm Camera & Sibley LLP. In an interview late Tuesday, Camera said Psystar will file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over a Nov. 13 summary judgment by federal Judge William Alsup, who said Psystar violated Apple's copyright as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when it installed Apple's operating system on the clones it sells.

"We think that Judge Alsup got it wrong," said Camera. "The effect [of the settlement] is to allow the case to be heard by the Ninth Circuit," he continued, and characterized the settlement as "extremely favorable" to Psystar.

While the current case in California centers on Psystar's inclusion of Mac OS X Leopard on its systems, a second lawsuit is also pending in Florida, where Psystar has claimed that Apple is in violation of antitrust laws by limiting use of Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Apple hardware. That case is unaffected by the recent decision in the original California case or by the settlement agreement between the two companies.

Still pending in the California case is Apple's request for a permanent injunction that would formally prevent Psystar from offering Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware. The court will hear arguments on that request on December 14th and will then decide whether to grant the injunction, and if so, whether it will extend only to systems with Leopard pre-installed or whether to include Snow Leopard-based systems and even Psystar's standalone Rebel EFI software.

ifoAppleStore reports that Apple is considering commercializing its new iPod touch-based EasyPay retail store checkout system. The move comes as the company, which had intended for the system to remain proprietary, has been "deluged" with inquiries from parties interested in adopting the technology.

Since the debut of the iPod POS, inquires have been coming from all directions, including from end-user small businesses, larger chains and system integrators. Until now, Apple's response has been that the iPod POS is a proprietary product, unavailable for sale.

But now, tipsters say, Apple retail executives have asked the retail store business specialists to collect contact information from anyone who inquires about the iPod touch system, apparently to create a database of potential customers if Apple decides to commercialize the product.

The EasyPay system is composed of an iPod touch running custom point-of-sale software housed within a hard plastic shell integrating the device with a barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader, as well as a rechargeable battery to power the auxiliary hardware. Apple began rolling out the new devices to its retail stores earlier this month, replacing the previous Windows CE-based systems used by its employees.

Earlier today, we reported on a preliminary settlement between Apple and Psystar regarding the former's lawsuit over copyright infringement by Psystar in selling PC hardware preinstalled with Mac OS X Leopard. Engadget now reports on a new court filing outlining the settlement agreement that sees Psystar scheduled to pay approximately $1.34 million to Apple and a like amount in attorneys' fees.

The agreement covers payments related to five claims made by Apple for which the court ruled in its favor earlier this month. In return, Apple has agreed to drop an additional half-dozen claims primarily related to trademark infringement and not addressed in the earlier judgment. Financial payments are also not required to be made by Psystar until all legal appeals have been processed.

Now, considering Apple and Psystar are currently engaged in pretty much the exact same case in Florida over Snow Leopard, we'd say that this agreement isn't much more than a way for both sides to save money and move on to that fight: Apple's already won the bulk of its case against Psystar in California, and spending money to litigate trademark claims we thought were weak when we first read them doesn't really buy Steve any leverage he doesn't already have, while Psystar probably needs to scrimp all the coin it can right now.

Still at issue is the permanent injunction requested by Apple that would explicitly prohibit Psystar from selling computer hardware with Mac OS X preinstalled. Psystar's court filings indicate that it is prepared to shift the burden of Mac OS X installation to the consumer and instead refocus its business on selling hardware and software to enable that process. Whether such an arrangement will be considered permissible is in significant doubt and will certainly be addressed in future proceedings.

Fudzilla claims that Intel is planning on launching three Arrandale-based processors on January 3rd, 2010. These Arrandale processors are based on the advanced Nehalem architecture first introduced into desktop Macs earlier this year, and should represent a significant performance improvement over the Core 2 Duo processors that are currently found in Apple's MacBook Pros.

The three new processors will be branded under the "Core i5" and "Core i7" names and range from 2.4GHz to 2.66GHz with prices ranging from $225 to $332 in quantities of 1000. While Fudzilla describes their TDP (thermal design power) of 35W as "not so attractive", it matches up with the current high-end processors used in the MacBook Pro. This means Apple could use these processors in a new MacBook Pro update.

These new mobile processors are said to eventually also come in low-voltage variants that will also make them suitable for ultra-thin notebooks such as the MacBook Air.

MediaMemo reports that Google is looking to enter the business of offering paid television content, a move which would add a new competitor to Apple's iTunes Store TV offerings. Google's service, however, is reportedly planned to utilize a streaming delivery method via YouTube rather than the download model used by Apple.

YouTube already lets users watch a smattering of TV shows for free, with advertising. Now it envisions something similar to what Apple and Amazon already offer: First-run shows, without commercials, for $1.99 an episode, available the day after they air on broadcast or cable.

Sources say the site's negotiations with the networks and studios that own the shows are preliminary. But both sides seem optimistic, since models for such deals already exist. No comment from YouTube.

One possible question with Google's plan is whether consumers will accept streaming delivery over the more familiar download delivery generally favored for paid content. While executives have cited studies showing that most purchasers of downloaded TV content watch each show only once, convincing the public to rely on streaming video for the same $1.99 they have traditionally paid for downloadable content may not be easy.

But the networks and studios, which control pricing, will want to sell the streamed shows at the same price as downloads; they fear that offering them at a different price will force them to go back and rework their existing deals.

Another tactic possibly under consideration is for Google to offer less popular TV shows that are currently unavailable through other digital outlets, providing the company with additional flexibility in its pricing model.

Computerworld reports on a motion filed in federal court yesterday by unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar noting that it has reached a partial settlement with Apple over the company's copyright infringement case filed against Psystar in 2008.

The settlement, which requires Psystar to pay Apple an as-yet-unspecified amount of damages, would not be awarded until Psystar has exhausted all appeals.

"Psystar and Apple today entered into a partial settlement that is embodied in a stipulation that will be filed with the Court tomorrow," Psystar's motion of Monday began. "Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple's copyright claims in exchange for Apple's agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded. Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this Court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple's copyright claims."

Apple last week requested a permanent injunction preventing Psystar from selling non-Apple computers with Mac OS X preinstalled. In its motion filed yesterday, however, Psystar argues that its Rebel EFI software released last month that allows consumers to perform their own OS X installation on Psystar's or other certified non-Apple hardware should not be included in any injunction awarded by the court.

By excluding Rebel EFI from any injunction, Psystar seems to be conceding Apple's copyright victory, and that it can live with a ban on preinstalling Snow Leopard. If that tactic works, Psystar's plan appears to be to shift the responsibility of installing Mac OS X onto customers. Psystar would presumably sell Rebel EFI to customers without a corresponding copy of Mac OS X, require those customers to obtain a copy of the operating system elsewhere, and then use the utility to install and run the purchased copy of Snow Leopard.

Psystar spelled out its argument for letting it continue to market Rebel EFI, and presumably Snow Leopard-ready computers that, with Rebel EFI's help, could be configured to run Mac OS X.

With Apple having already won a judgment against Psystar for copyright infringement, Psystar's tactic of shifting the burden of OS X installation to the customer appears to be its new primary strategy for attempting to remain in business. More information is scheduled to be filed with the court later today.

Earlier this month, reports surfaced reviving claims that Google is in the process of developing its own smart phone based on its Android operating system. Gizmodo today follows up with new claims of Google phone prototypes running a new version of Android beginning to appear on Google's campus. The existence of the device is called a "certainty" by the report's source.

Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They'll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android -- either Flan or the version of Android beyond it -- which our source spotted running on Google's handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn't Chrome OS, we were assured.)

In another interesting tidbit, the "trusted source" claims that the Android operating system seen so far in such devices as the original T-Mobile G1 through to the new Motorola Droid is not the "real" Android. Exactly what, however, the "real" Android offers is unknown at this time.

In a report posted yesterday, TechCrunch points to a Twitter posting from Mike Pinkerton of the Chrome for Mac team noting that there were only eight bugs remaining to be addressed before the Mac beta of Chrome is ready for its launch expected for some time in the next month.

"8 remaining M4 Mac beta blockers! Go team! #chrome"

This means that there are only 8 things standing in the way of Chrome for Mac going beta. "M4" stands for "milestone 4," which is how they phrase "version 4," which the Mac beta build of Chrome will be (the current dev channel version is 4.0.249.12, for example).

Speculation on the eight bugs noted by Pinkerton centers on this list, which is already down to four outstanding issues.

In a follow-up article, TechCrunch looks at the features for Chrome that will not be included in the initial beta release and have been pushed out to the next beta version in order to allow Google to meet its goal of releasing the initial beta before the end of the year.

- Bookmark Manager
- App Mode (allows Chrome to run Web apps in their own simplified windows)
- Task Manager
- Gears (offline support for Web apps; apparently being scrapped entirely in favor of HTML5)
- Bookmark syncing
- Multi-touch gestures
- 64-bit support
- Full support for extensions
- Full screen mode (possibly)

Developer builds of Chrome for Mac have been available for several months, but the move to a beta version suggests that users can expect to see a fairly stable browser with a number of significant features included. Work will continue on Chrome with additional Developer Preview releases occurring on a regular basis. Refined versions will then periodically be released as new additions to Chrome's Beta channel. Releases will eventually make their way to Chrome's "Stable" channel, which will offer "rock solid" performance without the inclusion of features still under development and testing.

The Korea Times reports on growing complaints within the flash memory industry that Apple, which holds a dominant position due to its extensive use of flash in the iPhone and iPods, is using its increasing leverage to inappropriately manipulate the market to its advantage.

The summary of the arguments goes as this -- Apple is contributing to the suppression in flash memory prices by ordering more chips from semiconductor makers than the amount it actually buys from them.

Apple's strategy reportedly involves requesting that memory manufacturers produce a certain amount of flash memory, but ultimately purchases a lesser amount than that requested. The reduction in purchase amount relative to industry projections based on Apple's supply requests creates an oversupply of the flash chips, driving prices down and allowing Apple to lock in its orders at a lower price as suppliers compete to unload their chips.

"Apple should certainly be blamed for deteriorating the supply and demand cycle in the global NAND flash market," a senior industry official told The Korea Times, refusing to be named.

"Apple has asked Korean semiconductor makers to produce a certain amount of chips for its digital products, only to actually purchase a smaller volume eventually. The company doesn't make immediate purchases, but waits until chip prices to fall to the level the company has internally targeted."

The report notes that there is little that leading flash memory manufacturers Samsung and Hynix, who provide the chips to Apple, can directly do for the moment to combat Apple's strategy. Apple's tactics, however, are likely to erode relationships with the third-party suppliers it relies on for its devices, suggesting that it may not be a viable long-term strategy and may be an attempt by Apple to boost its ability to offer price-competitive devices in the short-term ahead of continued expansion of offerings from other platforms such as Android.

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:

- One story that made headlines was a report that implied that Microsoft had Silverlight working on the iPhone. Silverlight is Microsoft's Flash-competitor. The headline, however, was a bit misleading as the technology demonstrated simply involved Microsoft converting Silverlight video realtime into a format already supported by the iPhone. No actual on-iPhone software actually supported Silverlight.
- Handbrake 0.9.4 - A major update to a popular Mac video encoding application was released. The latest version of Handbrake delivered improvements to H.264 encoding as well as 64-bit support. Detailed discussion of the latest build has been talking place in our forums.
- ComScore released results from Black Friday's online sales and found that online spending was up 11% over the previous year with an estimated $595 Million spent. Apple.com was singled out as one of the top 5 online retailers. Apple reportedly saw traffic growth of 39% year-over-year.
- CyberMonday sales have kicked in and remain summarized in our sales chart. There are still significant discounts on Macs available for today.

A couple of years ago, a company called Axiotron announced an aftermarket modification for the MacBook that converted the Apple laptop into a tablet. The modification remains for sale at $699 and takes a stock MacBook, removes the keyboard and screen, and adds a Wacom pen-based screen to give the device a tablet form factor.

Axiotron originally began marketing the devices as a "TabletMac" as referenced in this 2007 press release and filed a trademark for the term. Sometime in the past year, however, the trademark was transferred from Axiotron to Apple, and Apple is now listed as the owner of the trademark.

Transfer of ownership may not mean Apple has plans on using the term. Apple may have simply contested the trademark due to the potential for confusion between "TabletMac" and their own trademarks. But now Apple could potentially release a product called the TabletMac, and given the overwhelming number of reports of an Apple-branded tablet device, it certainly raises that question.

Still, we're not so sure Apple would really use this term for the rumored device, as the most recent reports have suggested that Apple's rumored tablet will be running a version of iPhone OS rather than Mac OS. It also seems likely that Apple would choose a platform agnostic name if the device was targeted at the broad consumer market.

HardMac reports that Polish website PCLab prematurely leaked performance numbers on Intel's upcoming Xeon Gulftown (Core i9). The results have since been pulled but is summarized by HardMac:

First figures indicate that this CPU is very promising. At equivalent clock speed, it is 50% faster than the corresponding quad core Xeon for parallel tasks. Despite having 50% more transistors, the CPU strongly benefits from 32-nm engraving as it drains 50% less power in idle mode and 10% less in full loading mode.

According to their sources, Apple is planning on using the Gulftown processor in a future Mac Pro revision due in early 2010. When placed in a dual-processor configuration, this would give the Mac Pro 12 physical and 24 logical cores. Such massively multi-core designs have been expected for some time with under-the-hood changes in Snow Leopard specifically preparing for such a possibility.

The use of the high-end Gulftown processor in the Mac Pros make more sense now that we've seen Apple using the Core i7 processors in the iMacs. Benchmarks have shown that the performance of these high-end iMac rivals that of the entry level Mac Pros which cost considerably more. The use of Gulftown would presumably reestablish a larger performance gap between Apple's consumer and professional desktop computers.

iPhone developer Pandav has informed MacRumors that they have spotted usage records for an unreleased iPhone in their app's analytics. The app used was iBART [Free / Paid], a public transportation guide for the San Francisco train system.

PinchMedia who provides the analytics for the application breaks down customer usage including what specific devices are being used. This list of devices is reported to developers using internal device identification numbers assigned by Apple. In this case, "iPhone3,1" was first spotted in Pandav's usage logs in November. This "iPhone3,1" identifier does not match up with any shipping iPhones. The last iPhone released to the public was the iPhone 3GS which carries the identification string "iPhone2,1".

References to "iPhone3,1" was first discovered in the iPhone firmware files back in August, but this seems to be the first time that it has been spotted "in the wild". Apple similarly began testing the iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) back in October of 2008 about 8 months ahead of its launch. At the time, the usage was similarly focused in the San Francisco Bay Area where Apple is located.

There have been few details about what the next generation iPhone might include, though early rumors had pegged a multi-core processor that could enhance performance significantly. There have also been rumors of Verizon compatibility as early as mid 2010.

MacRumors has found a new Apple job listing seeking an iPhone Software Engineer to join the iPhone and iPod Touch Maps team with the goal of taking the iPhone's built-in Maps App to "the next level":

We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We've only just started.

The specificity of the job description is somewhat unusual for Apple, and particularly interesting given recent events.

Apple and Google have increasingly become competitors in the mobile space while Google's mapping data remains an integral part of the iPhone's Maps application. Google has recently stepped up even further with the introduction of many new features for their Android mapping application. This included advanced features such as plain english search, voice search and more. Although Apple and Google are said to be working on bringing the same technology to the iPhone, there's been evidence that Apple is working on their own mapping technology.

Apple recently acquired a mapping company called Placebase which had been known for differentiating itself from Google's offerings. The former CEO of Placebase is now part of the "Geo Team" at Apple, which has led to speculation that Apple is looking to separate itself from their dependence on Google maps.