MacRumors

A few sites have posted their impressions and reviews of the Apple TV 'Take 2' update that was released just yesterday. Besides the new interface and computer-less design, the biggest new update to the Apple TV is the availability of High Definition iTunes rental content. This is an Apple TV-only feature at the moment, and only available in Rentals, not purchases. Anecdotal reports have ranged from good to great quality of the HD content. Gizmodo subjectively felt the HD quality was "better than DVD" but not "true" HD.

iLounge went a step further and made direct comparisons (with screenshots) between the Apple TV, Blu-Ray, DVD and HD Cable. The movie they chose was Live Free or Die Hard. Their results:

- Blu-Ray clear winner but surprised by how well Apple TV did
- Very little motion blur or artifacts in Apple TV
- "Because of its cleaner motion and audio, we felt that the Apple experience was better in both overall audio and video quality than the HD cable experience, and for most users, superior to renting a standard DVD as well."

Note that individual experiences may vary depending on the movie due to differences in source material and encoding. It's been said that the Apple TV HD movie previews don't necessarily reflect the quality of the actual HD movie rentals.

Apple has released the Take 2 update for the Apple TV today. The software update is available for download from your Apple TV itself. The free software update allows Apple TV owners to rent movies without the use of a computer in standard and high definition formats. Library titles cost $2.99 and new releases are $3.99. High definition versions add $1 to the price of rental. Movies can be kept for 30 days, but expire within 24 hours of playback.

Apple provides a guided tour of the new features of Apple TV.

Now that some readers have installed the latest Apple TV update, here are some interesting notes plucked from the discussion thread.

- New startup video when booting Apple TV (Youtube video)
- Apple TV can now be used with AirTunes, replicating Airport Express behavior. Will also stream Title, and Album cover. You can also control the iTunes music via the Apple TV (with the remote). Also supports streaming radio.
- Login to Youtube now supported, with subscriptions and favorites
- Fastforward and rewind performance has been improved
- You still need a TV that can accept Component or HDMI
- Anecdotal reports of better decoding performance.
- 1080p signal output, but max resolution Apple TV can display is still 720p
- Apple TV Setup Manual (PDF) posted.
- The Apple TV hardware remains the same. This is a software upgrade only.
- HD Movie Previews not necessarily representative of rental quality. (link)

Further discussion in our Apple TV forum.

Apple has announced iTunes Live: London Sessions (via Macworld UK).

Over 11 magical evenings, starting on Thursday February 21st, 2008, iTunes will host a series of unique recording sessions. More than 25 of the worlds most talented musicians including KT Tunstall, Jos Gonzlez, Tom Baxter, Rosn Murphy, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Spiritualized and many more will perform solo and collaborative sets in Londons legendary AIR Studios.

The event is being held in AIR Studios in North London. Tickets are being raffled via the iTunes Store. Of course, Apple will be recording the event and be releasing them in March via iTunes.

Apple announced Aperture 2, the next major release of its photo editing and management software. The new version contains over 100 new features with a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine. Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery for viewing on the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV.

Many of the most respected photographers on assignment all over the world trust Aperture to organize, edit and deliver their images, said Rob Schoeben, Apples vice president of Applications Product Marketing. With its simpler interface and lower price, anyone can take full advantage of Apertures power.

Aperture is now priced at $199 and available immediately through the online Apple Store. More details at apple.com/aperture.

A free trial download is now available. Recent purchasers of Aperture 1.5 (Jan 1-Mar 14, 2008) can upgrade for $9.95.

Gearlive claims that according to a "reliable source", the iPhone will be getting Adobe Flash support "very, very soon". The site speculates that the release may come alongside the Software Development Kit (SDK) release that is due later this month -- but this timeframe is just guesswork.

Adobe's Flash plug-in is required to play Flash content which is commonly used in certain aspects of web design and web-hosted videos. Apple has managed to get around this requirement with Youtube by converting Youtube content into h.264, which the iPhone supports natively.

Lack of Safari support for the popular Flash plug-in generated a lot of early criticism for the Apple iPhone. Walt Mossberg first revealed in July that Apple planned on adding Flash support in a future software update, but this feature has not yet been seen.

GearLive has not been a regular source of Apple rumors, but notably, they were responsible for the early leak of iPhone 1.1.3 firmware, which turned out to be legitimate.

Apple has released the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard update. The 180MB download is now available via Software Update, and a restart is required after installation:

The 10.5.2 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307109.
For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798.

A number of improvements are detailed, but some highlights are listed here:

- Airport: Improves connection reliability and stability
- Back to my Mac: Adds support for more third-party routers, as detailed in this article.
- Dock: Updates Stacks with a List view option, a Folder view option, and an updated background for Grid view.
- Desktop: Addresses legibility issues with the menu bar with an option to turn off transparency in Desktop & Screen Saver preferences.
- Desktop: Adjusts menus to be slightly-less translucent overall.
- iSync: Adds support for Samsung D600E and D900i phones.
- RAW Image: Adds RAW image support for several cameras, as detailed in this article.
- Safari: Addresses issues with Safari reliably resolving certain domains.
- Time Machine: Adds a menu bar option for accessing Time Machine features (the menu extra can be enabled in Time Machine preferences).
- Time Machine: Improves backup reliability when computer name contains slash or non-ASCII characters.
- Time Machine: Addresses issues in which some external drives are not recognized by Time Machine.

The final build number of Mac OS X 10.5.2 is 9C31, the same as the last developer's build. Once you install Mac OS X 10.5.2, readers should recheck their software update, as the Leopard Graphics Update appears once 10.5.2 is installed.

Standalone Combo Updater (353MB) is also available.

Please add undocumented issues in the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Fixes, Bugs and Problems guide. For discussion, questions and issues, please post to our Mac OS X forum.

Mac OS X Server 10.5.2
Mac OS X 10.5.2 Server has also been released. With the following changes:

Software Update Server
Addresses an issue which could prevent Software Update Server from working properly on a system that had been upgraded from Mac OS X Server 10.4.x.

Mail Server
Addresses an issue in which Virtual Mail users were required to have short names configured in order to become active.

Password Server
Addresses an issue that could block object changes from being propagated to Open Directory replica servers.

Discuss the Server release our Mac OS X Server forum.

Starbucks announced that they are partnering with AT&T to supply Wifi access to Starbuck's 7000 stores nationwide. Starbucks had previously partnered with T-Mobile to provide pay-Wifi access in their stores. AT&T's new service offers free access to specific customers:

Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can enjoy up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verseSM Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service. In addition, more than 5 million of AT&T's remote access services business customers will be able to access Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations. AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.

Outside of these situations, AT&T's Wifi service costs $3.99 for a two-hour session, or $19.99 for monthly access. Existing T-Mobile HotSpot customers should be unaffected. T-Mobile customers will continue to get free Wifi access at Starbucks due to an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile.

Of interest, AT&T states that it "will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers", suggesting that iPhone users will also get Wifi access in the future. AT&T currently provides exclusive wireless service for the Apple iPhone.

Trademork notes that Apple has filed to extend their Apple trademark into new areas, covering:

Toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games

The filing took place on February 5th, 2008.

Apple's iPods have always contained a few built-in games, but in 2006, Apple extended this to allow 3rd party developers release downloadable games through iTunes. The trademark application, however, will certainly reignite rumors that Apple is seriously pursing its own game development or even its own game console.

Apple has been known to be recruiting game developers back in 2006, and has authored a number of the existing iPod games. In the mid 90's, Apple did launch a short lived game console called Pippin.

Update: Game Developer Job listing from Apple, via 9to5.

Video Game Design and Production. Successful candidate possesses a proven track-record of producing and designing great video games.

This may not mean much, as Apple has already written and released a number of iPod games.

9to5Mac believes that the iPhone and iPod touch will be seeing $100 price drops in the next two months, simultaneously discontinuing the low capacity models.

Their belief is that the 8GB Touch and 8GB iPhone will be discontinued, leaving a 16GB iPhone at $399, 16GB Touch at $299, and 32GB Touch at $399.

The move would be reminiscent of the $200 iPhone price drop and discontinuation of the 4GB iPhone that took place in September, 2007. The surprise iPhone price drop -- only 3 months after the introduction of the iPhone -- caused an outcry amongst early adopters. The outcry was so great, that Steve Jobs posted an open letter to explain the decision and gave existing iPhone owners a $100 Apple store credit.

Based on this experience, it seems Apple would be reluctant to make a similar move when they could have easily timed the price drop to coincide with iPhone/Touch updates last week. This being said, the iPhone is still expected to receive further updates this year with the introduction of a 3G model in 2008. It's possible that any future price drops could correlate with the introduction of the 3G iPhone. AT&T has already committed to expand their 3G network to more U.S. cities in 2008.

While 9to5mac had an excellent early rumor record, their record has not been perfect, with their recent claims of 5 million iPhones sold by Macworld failing to come true.

Computerworld notes that the latest Webkit nightly builds offer considerable performance boosts over the current public Safari build (3.0.4) -- with Javascript benchmarks over 2.5x faster in some instances.

While these performace boosts in Webkit date to at least November 2007, Weintraub speculates that the optimizations will find its way into the just-beta'd Safari 3.1.

Indeed, we've managed to track down Sunspider Javascript benchmark results from the same build that Weintraub used (r30090) vs Safari 3.1 (Beta) on a Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz. The results:

Shorter times are faster.

Webkit Build r30090: 3495.8ms
Safari 3.1 Beta: 3408.0ms
Safari 3.0.4: 9302.3ms (extrapolated)

Amongst other improvements, the latest Safari beta does seem to incorporate the speed optimizations found in the latest Webkit builds. Webkit is an open source project that serves as the basis for Apple's Safari browser. Webkit's nightly builds offer end-users access to the latest (potentially unstable) Webkit updates. A number of other browsers also use Webkit and will also benefit from these improvements.

Reports emerged today that Yahoo's board will be formally rejecting Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo on Monday, according to "a person familiar with the situation",

Formal details will be revealed Monday but one of the claims is that the bid "massively undervalues" Yahoo. Analysts, however, say that the Yahoo board is obligated to reject Microsoft's first offer as a duty to their shareholders to get the best possible price for the company.

"You would expect Yahoo's board to reject Microsoft at first," Marlin said. "If they didn't, they would be accused of malfeasance."

Others speculate that Microsoft is prepared to up their bid from $31/share to as high as $35/share as part of the negotiation. This being said, its been no secret that Yahoo's co-founder and CEO, Jerry Yang, is reluctant for his company to join Microsoft.

If this rejection is final, however, Microsoft has the option of taking the matter directly to the shareholders, and bypass the board of directors entirely.