MacRumors

Last week, Apple confirmed rumors that the White iPhone 4 would finally be launching soon. Multiple sources pegged the release by the end of April, and iPhoneItalia now reports that April 26th will be the day.

The white iPhone 4 was first announced alongside the black model when the iPhone 4 was first introduced. Production issues with the white paint, however, have since held up its release.

Two weeks after pulling channels from Viacom, Discovery, and Fox from its new iPad application that allows the company's cable and Internet subscribers to watch live TV on the device, Time Warner has announced that Discovery and Fox have rejoined the lineup. Time Warner filed suit against Viacom last week, and that dispute remains unresolved.

The new channels include Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet from Discovery, and National Geographic, FX, and Fox News from Fox.

Time Warner has been steadily adding channels to its iPad application since its debut one month ago, and the lineup now numbers over 50 channels depending on market and cable subscription package.

While Time Warner was the first traditional cable company to launch a live TV application for the iPad, Cablevision rolled out its own app earlier this month that allows subscribers access to as many as 300 channels, as well as support for a number of other features. Cablevision is attempting to skirt the objections of content providers by distributing feeds directly through its digital cable system and then wirelessly broadcasting them to the iPad rather than sending content over the Internet.

All Things Digital reports that Google is having difficulties as it works to develop its own iTunes competitor, describing the company's talks with major record labels as "going backwards". Google has been working since last year to roll out a music service that would also integrate with the company's Android platform in an attempt to rival the iTunes-iOS mobile media combination and move into cloud-based storage.

Google's negotiations with the big music labels are "broken," says a source familiar with the search giant's thinking: "There's definitely a problem with the Google music conversations." Another industry source says Google's top executives are reconsidering their music plans altogether. "They've gone backwards," I'm told.

Some label sources have suggested that Google is continuing to negotiate and that things are moving forward, but there appears to be growing discontentment at other labels due in part to Google potentially changing its demands at the last minute and label concerns over Amazon's new cloud-based storage service and music player launched late last month.

Apple of course is widely rumored to be working on a revamp of its MobileMe services that would allow users to store their media in the cloud and access it from any Internet-connected Apple device. The company has been said to be talking with record labels for many months now, working to get labels on board for the service that they have repeatedly said is not a permitted usage under current distribution contracts.

Apple has apparently just pushed out an update to its Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 initially released late last month. While the changes included in the update obviously fall short of qualifying for an entirely new "Developer Preview 3", it is unknown exactly what tweaks have been made with the new update.

Download the Update by Running Software Update.
From systems that have developer preview 2 of Lion or Lion Server installed, run Software Update and download Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 Update. You must also download Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 3 available from the Mac Dev Center to build apps with this version of Lion.

If you have not yet downloaded developer preview 2 of Lion and Lion Server, get your redemption code from the Mac Dev Center then proceed to the Mac App Store to redeem your code and download Lion.

The update is appearing in Software Update for those with the Lion Developer Preview 2 installed, and Apple has sent out an email alerting all Mac OS X developers about the release. We've been told that the new build is 11A430e, compared to 11A419 for the original Developer Preview 2.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that Cirrus Logic, Apple's long-time supplier for audio chips in its iOS devices, has disclosed manufacturing issues with a new device, presumed to be an Apple product, that went into high-volume production last month.

Cirrus supplies analog chips for use in various energy and audio applications, most notably Apple devices such as the iPod and iPad. Apple makes up about half of Cirrus's revenue, helping the semiconductor company post strong sales and increased profitability in recent quarters as the popularity of Apple devices continued to rise.

But Cirrus late Thursday said it had determined an earlier test for a particular function of a new audio product--which analysts assume is for Apple--was insufficient to guarantee that all products met a certain standard. After a more rigorous test was developed, Cirrus found fewer working chips than previously expected, with that yield loss rising as volumes increased.

While Cirrus has reportedly addressed the issue without meaningfully impacting any device launch, the company has taken a charge against its earnings that will result in decreased gross margins reported for the first quarter of 2011.

Speculation suggests that the device in question may have been the iPad 2, which was in very short supply in the first few weeks of availability and has only recently begun to see shipping times and in-store availability improve. While demand for the iPad 2 has clearly been high, there have been claims that certain issues with components such as the device's display have slowed production and contributed to the shortages.

Analysts have, however, left open the possibility that the device experiencing issues could be an unreleased device, although one of the primary candidates, the fifth-generation iPhone, is not expected to be released in its usual June timeframe this year and appears to have not gone into production yet.

Last December, we reported on survey results showing that users of portable games are increasingly defecting from dedicated devices such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP to smartphones such as the iPhone.

New data from analytics firm Flurry comparing overall video game market share in 2009 and 2010 reveals a similar trend, with iOS and Android combining to take 8% of the overall market and a full 34% of the portable gaming market as measure by revenue. In the overall market, console games continue to dominate, growing from 71% to 76% on only a slight increase in total video game revenue.

From 2009 to 2010, iOS and Android game sales increased from 5% to 8% market share within the U.S. video game market. Specifically, we estimate that iOS and Android game revenue increased from $500 million in 2009 to more $800 million in 2010. Of this, the significant majority of revenue was generated by iPhone games.

But setting aside the console market, the success of iOS and Android (primarily iOS according to Flurry's data) as gaming platforms is more obvious in the portable market, where the smartphone platforms have increased their share of revenue from 19% in 2009 to 34% in 2010 at the expense of Nintendo's and Sony's offerings.

From 2009 to 2010, iOS and Android game sales have spiked significantly, resulting in nearly a doubling of their market share. With both Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable shrinking in sales, while smart-device game sales simultaneously grew by more than 60%, iOS and Android games now represent more than one third of the portable game category.

It is also important to note that the surge in revenue share for smartphone platforms comes at a significantly lower average price point than for dedicated devices, meaning that even the strong growth from those platforms has eaten into the total portable gaming market, which dropped from $2.7 billion in 2009 to $2.4 billion in 2010. The "race to the bottom" has long been one of the main concerns for smartphone application developers, particularly traditional game developers who have been accustomed to the pricing model for dedicated gaming devices. But users are clearly shifting toward more casual gaming at lower price points on their smartphones, and developers that have embraced that market are in many cases seeing solid results.

A group of Apple employees have released a new video contribution to the It Gets Better Project, a website and movement seeking to help LGBT teens to deal with bullying and other issues in an attempt to prevent suicides by sharing stories and encouragement about how their lives will improve as they get older.

The movement, which coordinates with a support hotline known as The Trevor Project, has garnered thousands of videos from people of all sexual orientations, including a number of prominent celebrities and organizations.

The new video from Apple's employees was released just ahead of today's observance of the Day of Silence, a national event seeking to bring attention to the bullying and harassment of LGBT teens. The six-minute video features a number of Apple employees, including a brief appearance by Randy Ubillos, Apple's head of video applications who may be recognizable to many observers from his on-stage demos of applications such as Final Cut Pro and iMovie at several high-profile Apple media events.

Apple is far from the only company whose employees have contributed to the It Gets Better Project, with groups from a number of other high-profile tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, Yahoo, and Cisco having already shared their own videos.

GreenM3's Dave Ohara reports (via Data Center Knowledge) that Apple has hired Kevin Timmons, formerly the general manager of Microsoft's data center group. Timmons had served in the role at Microsoft for less than two years after spending well over a decade in operations at GeoCities/Yahoo.

News that a bunch of us have been discussing is Apple hiring Kevin Timmons (GM of Microsoft's data center services group). Don't expect any press releases from Apple or Microsoft on this one. ... The position Kevin is going to fill is not known and is not the position vacated by the departed Olivier Sanche. Olivier's position has been filled by another data center operations executive.

Sanche, Apple's previous data center boss, passed away in November from a heart attack. And given that that position has already been filled internally, it appears that Timmons may be taking on other projects related to data center operations or even outside that scope.

All Things Digital offers a similar report indicating that Timmons may be taking on a role larger than traditional data center management, possibly including deployment of cloud-based services such as those rumored for a revamp of Apple's MobileMe subscription service.

Timmons left Microsoft this week and the company has confirmed his departure, though it declined to say why he left or where he was headed. But sources in position to know confirm hes hired on with Apple.

Details on Timmons's responsibilities there are slim, though I'm told his role may extend beyond his datacenter expertise. Which is interesting to hear in light of recent chatter about Apple's rumored cloud initiatives.

Apple of course is preparing to open (or has already opened) its massive new data center in North Carolina, a facility the company has said will be used to support iTunes and MobileMe. But rumors and speculation have gone well beyond Apple's current slate of data services to include "digital lockers" to allow users to store music, video, and photos in the cloud and even a video subscription service to take on Netflix.

Alongside today's release of iOS 4.3.2, Apple has also pushed out Safari 5.0.5 and Security Update 2011-002 for Mac OS X. The updates are available through Apple's download pages and through Software Update.

Apple's download notes for Safari 5.0.5 indicate only that the update includes the latest security updates.

Security Update 2011-002 is available as a small update for Snow Leopard systems, while the Leopard versions are much larger and incorporate additional changes that were previously made to Snow Leopard.

- Security Update 2011-002 (Snow Leopard) (4.43 MB)
- Security Update 2011-002 (Leopard - Client) (241.35 MB)
- Security Update 2011-002 (Leopard - Server) (473.19 MB)

Apple today released iOS 4.3.2, bringing several minor fixes and improvements to Apple's operating system for mobile devices. The build number is 8H7 for the majority of devices, with the CDMA iPad 2 receiving Build 8H8. A separate iOS 4.2.7 build 8E303 is also available for the CDMA iPhone 4.

This update contains improvements and other bug fixes including:

- Fixes an issue that occasionally caused blank or frozen video during a FaceTime call
- Fixes an issue that prevented some international users from connecting to 3G networks on iPad Wi-Fi + 3G
- Contains the latest security updates

BGR noted one week ago that iOS 4.3.2 was expected to debut within two weeks and reported earlier this week that the update would fix the issue with CDMA iPad 2 connectivity and FaceTime glitches.

CNET reports that Intel has publicly committed to supporting both USB 3.0 and the company's new Thunderbolt connectivity standard developed in cooperation with Apple on its forthcoming "Ivy Bridge" platform due for introduction next year.

"Intel is going to support USB 3.0 in the 2012 client platform. We're going to support Thunderbolt capability. We believe they're complementary," said Kirk Skaugen, a vice president at the Intel Architecture Group, speaking at Intel's developer conference in Beijing today. The event was streamed over the Web.

The "2012 client platform" that Skaugen referred to is known more commonly by the code name "Ivy Bridge," which is the family of chips that will follow the "Sandy Bridge" processors shipping in PCs today.

USB 3.0 offers ten times the speed of current USB technology, but has not yet been embraced in Intel's current platforms, leaving USB 3.0 compatibility a fairly rare feature for most Intel-based computers given the need to rely on a separate part from NEC rather than having it built directly into Intel's silicon.

Intel is still encouraging peripherals developers to embrace Thunderbolt, which can support data and video on a single cable and made its debut in Apple's new MacBook Pros introduced earlier this year. Notably, Apple was recently granted a patent for a new iOS device dock connector that could support both Thunderbolt/DisplayPort and USB 3.0 connectivity, as well as the existing USB 2.0 standard.

Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media today announced that release of its March 2011 "Mobile Mix" report, revealing that Apple's iOS has benefited from the launch of the Verizon iPhone, with its share of the smartphone/connected device operating system market for ad impressions growing by 11% to 31%. iOS continues to trail Android's 48% share, but Android's share has been falling for the last several months after having risen to over 50% of the market.

According to the report, the Verizon iPhone accounted for 8.2% of all iPhone ad impressions during the month as iOS impressions grew by 29% compared to 23% for Android.

When it comes to revenue generated by application platform, iOS holds the top spot at 47%, well ahead of second-place Android at 36%. The success of iOS has been driven in large part by the iPad, which saw its revenue double month-over-month based on increased sales and adoption of Millennial's platform.

Just as it did last quarter, Apple appears to have once again demonstrated year-over-year Mac sales growth for the first quarter of 2011 while the rest of the industry has been mired in a slump reportedly due in no small part to a shift in consumer interest to new media tablets dominated by Apple's iPad. The data comes from research firms Gartner and IDC.

According to Gartner's report, Apple once again checked in in fifth place in the U.S. market, grabbing a 9.3% share that marks a significant rise from a 7.3% share in the prior-year quarter. The number is down slightly, however, from a 9.7% share in the previous quarter and marks the second consecutive decline in Mac sales share, although Apple's market share does tend toward cyclical fluctuations that have led the company's share to still be significantly higher than it was in the first quarter of 2010.

"Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers. Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We're investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market."

Gartner's report pegged Apple's year-over-year unit growth in the United States at 18.9%, outpacing fourth-place Toshiba's 10.9% growth as all other top manufacturers saw declines that led to an overall decline of 6.1% in the U.S. PC market.

IDC's report tells a somewhat similar story, although that firm pegs Apple's year-over-year unit growth in the U.S. at only 9.6%, behind that of Toshiba at 10.4%. But IDC also sees a much steeper drop-off for Acer than Gartner sees, with IDC showing a 42% drop in unit sales that bumps Acer down from third place to fifth place and allows Apple to rise to fourth place with 8.5% of the market.

As usual, neither Gartner nor IDC covered Apple's worldwide performance for the quarter, as the company does not rank in the top five by global shipments. Both reports did, however, record year-over-year declines in the worldwide market similar to those seen for the United States, with Gartner seeing a 1.1% decline in sales while IDC tracked a 3.2% drop.