MacRumors

Late last week, 9 to 5 Mac noted that a number of users have reported a Mac OS X Snow Leopard bug apparently related to Guest accounts that is resulting in a complete loss of user data. The problem appears to manifest itself on machines which had the Guest account option enabled under Leopard and were subsequently upgraded to Snow Leopard. Users booting their machines have reported that upon start-up, they have been logged into the Guest account. Upon switching to their regular account, the affected users have been finding all of their user data missing and unrecoverable except from a backup.

Further investigation revealed initial reports of the problem in early September, soon after Snow Leopard's launch.

This could be due to a bug in how guest accounts are managed since data and settings are deleted from these accounts upon logout, but also could be from some corruption in the guest account. So far, it does not seem to be a widespread problem.

If this happens to you, immediately restore using your latest Time Machine backup (or other full system backup), and then go to the Accounts system preferences and disable log-in on the guest account.

One suggestion for preventing data deletion is for users who had Guest accounts enabled under Leopard and then upgraded to Snow Leopard to disable the Guest account and then reenable it. This results in fresh Guest account settings created under Snow Leopard, reportedly eliminating the problem.

Several threads on the issue have popped up on Apple's support forums, but Apple has yet to make an official acknowledgement of the problem.

Update: CNET reports that Apple has acknowledged the issue and is working on a solution.

"We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix," an Apple representative said in a prepared statement Monday.

It's the first time Apple has said it is looking into the issue.

Google today announced that former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson has stepped down from the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately, after five years in the position. Levinson has also served as a member of Apple's Board of Directors since 2000.

Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt described Levinson as a good friend and valued colleague. "Art has been a key part of Google's success these past five years, offering unvarnished advice and vital counsel on every big issue and opportunity Google has faced," Schmidt said. "Though he leaves as a member of our Board, Art will always have a special place at Google."

"Working with Eric, Larry, Sergey and the whole Google team has been a remarkable experience for me. I greatly admire what they've built and have no doubt that Google has a terrific future," said Levinson.

Levinson's positions on the Apple's and Google's boards gained publicity after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating corporate ties between the two companies as they began to compete in an increasing number of areas while continuing to share close ties.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt had been a member of Apple's Board of Directors, but resigned in early August due to limitations on his effectiveness as he was forced to recuse himself from Board discussions related to the increasing number of areas of competition. The FTC commended the two companies for recognizing Schmidt's conflict of interest, but indicated that it would continue to investigate ties between the two companies.

Update: The New York Times reports on comments from FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz indicating that the agency may be satisfied with the respective resignations of Schmidt and Levinson and no longer be investigating Apple and Google.

Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the trade commission, praised the decision by Mr. Levinson and the companies. "Google, Apple, and Mr. Levinson should be commended for recognizing that overlapping board members between competing companies raise serious antitrust issues and for their willingness to resolve our concerns without the need for litigation," Mr. Leibowitz said in a statement. "Beyond this matter, we will continue to monitor companies that share board members and take enforcement actions where appropriate."

Just four days after the first developer build of Mac OS X 10.6.2 was seeded through Apple's developer program, a second build termed 10C519f has been pushed to the community for evaluation and testing. The new update, which weighs in at 456.8 MB, brings several new refinements as Apple continues to press forward on the second maintenance update to Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Apple reportedly notes approximately a dozen areas of change addressed in the new build, on top of the nearly four dozen changes included in the previous build. Apple also lists nearly 150 specific focus areas upon which developers are asked to place their testing efforts. As for outstanding known issues yet to be addressed, Apple apparently addresses four such items, including issues with video corruption, Core Data output, and System Preferences hanging.

Recombu publicizes complaints from App Store developers about other users "squatting" on application names, taking advantage of Apple's policy requiring that each application have a unique name to claim certain names for themselves without actually releasing an application. The issue was brought to light by iPhone game developers at Atomic Antelope who recently discovered that the name they desired for their latest iPhone game was unavailable despite there being no application by that name in the App Store.

Having spent months developing an app called 'Twitch', when it came to Atomic Antelope registering the app's name, it couldn't. Someone else had registered the name 'Twitch' but when Atomic Antelope looked to see if it could find it on the app store, it couldn't. Worse still, unlike domain names, Antomic Antelope had no way of contacting the person who had registered the name.

The issue arises because iTunes Connect allows users to partially submit an application at any time without requiring that an application binary be submitted. Consequently, a developer need only register for the iPhone Developer Program, select a unique application title, and add entries for a few required data fields.

This practice is certainly not new, but is just now starting to receive significant attention. Recombu points to one developer who almost a year ago realized what was happening and decided to grab "dozens and dozens of good sounding applications names." Unlike domain squatting in which users have financial incentive to hoard domain names in hopes of selling the rights to them, the anonymous nature of this App Store name squatting suggests that users may simply be hoarding "good" application names "just in case" they end up developing an appropriate iPhone application. Many of these applications may never come to be, forcing other developers with actual apps into second or third choice names.

The reason for Apple allowing names to be registered before binaries are submitted is clear, as the application's name will almost certainly be featured in numerous locations throughout the application, requiring the developer to have the name already claimed before submitting the final application. But the question remains whether Apple can or should adjust its policies in some way to reduce instances of name squatting.

Apple today posted a support document outlining several changes made today to its MobileMe subscription-based services. A number of the changes affect the viewing of and access to members' iDisk Public folders.

- New Public folder page located at http://public.me.com/{membername} now matches the look of me.com and supports drag and drop of files between folders (when enabled for visitors)
- Allowing visitors to upload, move, and delete files on your Public folder can now be set from www.me.com/idisk
- An iDisk Public folder password can now be set from www.me.com/idisk
- When logging in to a password-protected Public folder with a web browser, entering the generic username "public" is no longer required
- Adds ability to connect to another member's Public folder while viewing your own iDisk at me.com

Other updates include the addition of a "Find My iPhone" icon on the me.com navigation toolbar and the addition of a direct URL to allow users to quickly access the "Find My iPhone" feature. Finally, the update addresses a bug related to export of multiple contacts.

DigiTimes reports that Apple's iPhone and iPod models have continued to put pressure on worldwide supplies of NAND flash memory, soaking up enough of the industry capacity that demand now exceeds supply. The shortage is expected to continue through the remainder of 2009, corresponding with the holiday season that should drive sales of Apple's devices.

Taiwan-based memory module houses are moving to diversify their NAND flash suppliers to minimize procurement risk, according to industry sources. NAND flash supply has reportedly become tighter as major chip producers Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Micron and Hynix Semiconductor favor demand for Apple devices.

Taiwan's module makers have relied heavily on Samsung for NAND flash supply, but they are likely to increase their orders to IM Flash now, the sources commented.

A brief rebound is expected in early 2010 that would allow supplies to again exceed demand, but forecasts show another, larger dip into negative territory for supply/demand ratios later in 2010 as smartphone sales are expected to increase amid improving economic conditions.

Apple today released iPhone OS 3.1.2, addressing several issues regarding waking from sleep, network service disruption, and crashing during video streaming. iPhone users should connect their iPhones to iTunes and click the "Check for Update" button to obtain the new version.

This update contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

- Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep
- Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
- Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming

The update is compatible with all iPhone models and weighs in at approximately 240 MB. Apple introduced iPhone OS 3.1 almost exactly one month ago, bringing a number of new features including Genius recommendation for applications, Genius Mixes for music and purchasing of pre-cut ringtones.

Update: A corresponding update is also available for the iPod touch.

Also, the iPhone OS 3.1.2 update for iPhone in U.S. is accompanied by an update to AT&T's carrier settings file, which brings the settings to version 5.6.

ZDnet reports on NVIDIA's announcement yesterday that it will "postpone further chipset investments" in the wake of licensing issues involving Intel's Nehalem and Core processors. NVIDIA's chipsets including integrated graphics processors are currently used throughout Apple's low-end lines, and the shift to NVIDIA was seen as a significant improvement over Intel's similar chipset offerings.

Intel claims that its four-year-old chipset license with NVIDIA doesn't cover the Nehalem or Core series of CPUs. NVIDIA naturally disagrees with this and as a result is that both parties will fight it out in court sometime in 2010.

Sources claimed in early July that Apple would be dropping NVIDIA's chipset from its computers amid dissatisfaction over manufacturing defects in recent products, although the claim was quickly refuted by other sources. Regardless of Apple and NVIDIA's relationship, however, the dispute with Intel over licensing appears to be signaling an end to their chipset partnership.

In addition to the Intel issue, NVIDIA is also ceasing development of chipsets for AMD processors, noting a lack of demand for such products. Finally, a recent report claims that NVIDIA is also exiting the mid- and high-end standalone graphics card market, although the company has apparently called the rumor "patently untrue".

TomTom's much-anticipated iPhone GPS car kit has once again appeared on a number of European Apple online stores, including the UK store. Currently scheduled to ship in 1-2 weeks, the kit is again priced at 99.95 in the UK and 99.95 Euro in other European countries. TomTom has disclosed that the kit will be priced at $119.95 in the U.S., although it is not yet listed in Apple's U.S. online store.

Unlike the earlier listings, which mistakenly listed the TomTom iPhone application as being included in the price and were quickly pulled, the new postings explicitly note that the application is not included and therefore must be purchased separately.

**Note: The TomTom app for iPhone is not included with this TomTom Car Kit. The Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, but the TomTom app only works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G

TomTom's car kit contains an external GPS receiver and other hardware features such as a speaker and built-in hands-free calling support and has been claimed to be compatible with the iPod touch and other GPS iPhone applications from other vendors, but Apple's product description still makes no mention of compatibility with those offerings.

The car kit had been expected to launch this summer, but was pushed back to October as of early September.

TechCrunch reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a trademark for the "Mighty Mouse" term in its "computer cursor control devices" category to Man & Machine, a Landover, Maryland company specializing in waterproof keyboards and mice for medical and industrial settings.

Man & Machine has offered several generations of its Mighty Mouse product, claiming a priority date in its trademark application of March 16th, 2004 as the company's first use of the term in commerce. Apple introduced its original Mighty Mouse in August 2005.

The company has a press release for the trademark decision; clearly, they are jazzed about the win.

And they should be. Though they never mention Apple by name, they do say that "Others have used the name Mighty Mouse for their computer mice and have sought registration of that trademark, but now the United States government has spoken."

Apple is widely expected to introduce a new mouse in the near future, with drawings of a new Bluetooth keyboard and mouse having appeared on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's website for a brief period last week before being removed.