MacRumors

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that YouTube is in discussions with several major movie studios to bring streaming movie rentals to the service.

YouTube is talking to Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Sony Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. about charging for new titles on the existing YouTube site. In some cases, these titles might be available on the site on the same day that they come out on DVD.

Sources note that movies would likely be priced at approximately $3.99, comparable to movie rentals through Apple's iTunes Store. While details of the potential agreements reportedly vary from studio to studio, some agreements could allow for free, ad-supported distribution of movies.

It is unclear when the service would be publicly launched, although YouTube is reportedly planning a three-month testing period involving about 10,000 Google employees. That testing period was to begin early this month, but longer-than-expected negotiations with the movie studios involved have pushed the start of testing back by an undetermined amount.

Apple introduced iTunes movie rentals in the U.S. in January 2008 and has added offerings in several other countries since that time. High-definition movie rentals debuted on the Apple TV at the same time and were extended on a limited basis to the iTunes Store in March of this year.

The Loop reports that "very reliable sources" are claiming that there will be no update to the Apple TV at next Wednesday's media event in San Francisco.

The Loop has learned through very reliable sources that an updated Apple TV will definitely not be introduced at next week's event in San Francisco. Apple's invitation states, "It's only rock and roll, but we like it," solidifying the theme for the event will be music.

Research analyst Gene Munster noted yesterday that the shipping date for Apple's 40 GB Apple TV had slipped to 1-2 weeks, leading Munster to speculate that Apple could be introducing a revamped lineup for the device next week.

9 to 5 Mac observed at the launch of Snow Leopard that the Keyboard Viewer feature found in earlier versions of Mac OS X has seen several changes that spark speculation that Snow Leopard may be showing hints of utility for touchscreen hardware such as Apple's much-rumored tablet computer. Notably, the Keyboard Viewer application, used to show keyboard layouts in various languages, can now be enlarged to a size that offers "finger sized" keys.

Cult of Mac has picked up on the finding and extended the case to make a more complete argument for Snow Leopard as a touchscreen operating system. First, the report notes that in addition to the large Keyboard Viewer window, the option to activate the feature has been moved from the relatively obscure "International" section of System Preferences to the more prominent "Keyboard" section, hinting at movement toward considering the feature an input device.

The Mac OS has long contained a virtual keyboard, but previous versions were half-sized (see below). The old virtual keyboard was clearly not designed for actual typing, and was hidden away in the "International" tab of System Preferences. (Yeah, the keyboard could be enlarged by hitting the green button in the upper left of the folder toolbar, but still, it expanded to only three-quarter size).

The new virtual keyboard in Snow Leopard now lives under "Keyboard" in System Preferences, and is clearly put there as an alternative input method.

The virtual keyboard can be made as big as your screen -- 30-inches wide, if you have a big Cinema Display -- by dragging the window resizer at bottom left.

Cult of Mac also points to several new Dock features in Snow Leopard such as application-specific Expos functionality and large icons within Stacks as further indications of an evolution toward touchscreen-friendliness.

A multitude of rumors surrounding an Apple tablet launch later this year or early next year have sprung up recently, but little is known about Apple's software plans for the device. While the operating system would presumably be based on existing Apple technologies, sources have yet to come forward confirming whether the tablet will use a Mac OS X-based or iPhone-based operating system.

AT&T's 3G coverage, which has been the subject of criticism from a number of iPhone users, has seen a boost in several markets recently, as noted by a handful of press releases from the company. The most notable market seeing improvements announced in recent days is the New York City market, including Long Island and New Jersey. That region, along with the San Francisco area, has been the source of significant complaints due to the high density of iPhone users in those markets overwhelming AT&T's infrastructure at times.

The 850 MHz spectrum was deployed for 3G use at more than 1,600 cell sites in metro New York, Long Island and New Jersey. It is considered a high-quality spectrum, which generally results in better in-building coverage. While specific benefits of the additional 3G spectrum will vary by location, AT&T 3G customers should see improved quality and coverage throughout New York City, Long Island and New Jersey where 850 MHz spectrum has been deployed.

AT&T's network has primarily utilized the 1900 MHz spectrum so far, and the recent transition to 850 MHz in these markets should yield better and more consistent performance, particularly indoors.

Other markets seeing announcements of improved 850 MHz 3G coverage this week include Connecticut and Houston, and AT&T has regularly issued news releases citing coverage improvements in other markets throughout the country in the past.

BusinessWeek reports on a note from Wedge Partners research analyst Matt Mathison, who believes that Apple is looking to make a deal with Chinese retailer Di Xing Tong to offer iPhones that could be unlocked for use on the network of China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier.

Despite ongoing talk about possible tie-up with the mother of all cellular carriers, China Mobile, equity research firm Wedge Partners believes Apple may have found a new way to sell iPhones to some of the carrier's half-a-billion subscribers. Wedge's managing principal, Matt Mathison, thinks Apple will ink a deal with a large cell-phone retailer called Di Xing Tong, which owns hundreds of storefronts in China. The chain is owned by Foxconn, the massive contract manufacturer that builds so many of Apple's products.

Following announcement of a deal with China Unicom last week that has been confirmed to be non-exclusive, reports have emerged that Apple is continuing to negotiate with China Mobile despite little success in the multi-year talks so far.

BusinessWeek notes, however, that China Mobile has just announced its own smart phone operating system, Ophone, which may lessen the company's incentive to strike a deal with Apple for the iPhone and make sales of potentially unlockable iPhones through third-party brick-and-mortar retailers more likely for Apple. Mathison is careful to note that, while Apple likely would not directly offer unlocked iPhones, it might be willing to turn a blind eye to the practice in order to reach more customers.

Mathison claims that Apple has concerns about partner China Unicom's marketing prowess and network quality, factors which may push Apple to vigorously continue to pursue distribution on other carriers' networks there. Mathison sees such a deal with Di Xing Tong as possibly doubling the number of iPhones Apple could sell in China in 2010.

The Loop reports on a new research report from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noting that the shipping window on Apple's 40 GB Apple TV has slipped to 1-2 weeks. Coming just eight days before Apple's media event expected to focus on music and iTunes-related content, the change leads Munster to speculate that Apple may be making a change to its Apple TV lineup next week.

Munster is basing his opinion partially on the fact that Apple's online store shows a 1-2 week delivery time for the Apple TV, which he said he finds "puzzling ahead of next week's event."

Munster feels that Apple may phase out the 40GB model and lower the price of the 160GB model to make room in the product category. "A new model is possible given the hardware has been the same for 2+ years," said Munster.

Munster has issued several research reports in recent weeks suggesting that Apple is likely working to launch additional iTunes Store video content, possibly alongside an Apple TV revamp, and may even be pursuing an Apple television set.

In June, we noted that Sun's ZFS file system, previously mentioned by Apple as being included in Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, had been removed from Apple's documentation for the release. The change was ultimately reflected in the released version of Snow Leopard, which does in fact lack support for ZFS.

MacRumors had heard that the removal of support for ZFS, which had even made appearances in Leopard, from Snow Leopard was due to licensing issues, and a recent posting from data storage expert Robin Harris suggests that this may indeed be the case.

But then a couple of sources came in with a new angle: that Sun's licensing demands killed the deal. Sun prefers the CDDL [Common Development and Distribution License] and may have asked for some extra protections, including patent indemnification, that caused Apple to reconsider the business risk of ZFS.

While Sun could elect to release ZFS under a GNU General Public License (GPL) that would enable inclusion of support for it in other settings, the company has yet to do so. Harris notes, however, that Oracle's pending acquisition of Sun could open the door to reconsideration of ZFS licensing issues.

Now that Oracle is acquiring Sun things look brighter. Oracle is already bankrolling a GPL'd ZFS clone - btrfs - that will take years to reach the level of maturity that ZFS now enjoys. Once they own ZFS why wouldn't they GPL it and call it good?

In Harris' view, Sun's apparent reluctance to license ZFS represents a significant missed opportunity for the company and the industry, one which Harris hopes can be rectified in the near future.

The ZFS team has produced a game-changing file system/volume manager. The chance to get it into the hands of 10s of millions of Mac users - and to influence Redmond's file system strategy - seem to this outsider an opportunity of a lifetime.

If the ZFS engineering team opposed this - and I'd love to hear their take - I encourage them to reconsider. Marketers often ask the question "would you prefer 100% of nothing or 40% of something huge?"

TechCrunch points to a blog post from mobile app developer Larva Labs highlighting the company's sales data for its high-ranking Android Market applications and comparing that performance with that of successful iPhone applications.

Larva Labs, which currently holds the #5 and #12 rankings on the Android Market list of top paid applications, brought in an average of $62.39 per day total during the month of August. According to TapTapTap developer John Casasanta, whose Convert app currently holds the #2 spot in the App Store, a comparably ranked #5 iPhone app would sell about 6,500 units a day worldwide. This would translate into earnings of $22,704/day for a $4.99 application (like Larva Labs') or $4,504/day for a $0.99 application.

The posting also cites Trism, the early smash hit on the iPhone that earned its developer $250,000 in its first two months on the App Store, as an example of the wide gap between the App Store and the Android Market. Trism's developers have since ported the popular iPhone application to Android, where it has sold a total of about 500 copies for approximately $1000 in revenue in the nearly three months since its introduction.

It appears this isn't just our problem. To see examples from other companies just look in the market, a sales range is listed right in the summary of the app. A good example is the well known game Trism, which sold over $250,000 in it's first two months on the iPhone. On Android it has sold, to date, less than 500 copies. That's $1,046 total earnings, max. How psyched are those guys that they ported a huge hit to Android and can't even cover a party sub for the release dinner?

Larva Labs also provides data suggesting that a recent AdMob study estimating the Android market size at about $5 million per month, compared to $200 million for the App Store, likely overstates the Android market.

Assuming we are the average though, there would need to be over 2,500 other Android developers to get to $5M total sales. The last estimates I heard put the number of applications at around 12,000, so there's probably around 4,000 developers total. That means over half of the developers need to be earning what we do to reach $5M a month. However, we know from experience that below position 25 on the top selling games the earnings drop off to almost zero so it's very unlikely that anyone below that position is earning much money at all.

So where does the Android Market fall short? Beyond an approximately 15x smaller installed user base than the App Store, Larva Labs points to a lack of screenshots in the Android Market, excessively small application description limits, awkward Google Checkout payment procedures, poor organization making paid applications difficult to find, and intermittent performance issues in the store as contributions to a poor user experience.

Despite the many areas in which the Android Market falls short and the poor sales data, however, Larva Labs remains hopeful that rumored upgrades from Google and the introduction of a number of new handsets will eventually turn the Android Market into a viable business for developers.

Ars Technica's John Siracusa has posted an exhaustive review of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that delves deep into some of the technical changes behind Apple's latest operating system. The 23 page review covers topics that were previously covered under developer non disclosure agreements.

Siracusa covers technical topics such as Grand Central, OpenCL, as well as the typical user interface tweaks. They also explain why Mac OS X 10.6 does not boot into 64-bit mode and why you shouldn't really care:

If it makes you feel better to know that your kernel is operating more efficiently, and that, were you to actually have 96GB of RAM installed, you would not risk starving the kernel of address space, and if you don't have any 32-bit drivers that you absolutely need to use, then by all means, boot into the 64-bit kernel.

For everyone else, my advice is to be glad that K64 will be ready and waiting for you when you eventually do need it -- and please do encourage all the vendors that make kernel extensions that you care about to add K64 support as soon as possible.

Siracusa also explains that many of the underlying changes in Snow Leopard are to push developers into the right path for the future of Mac OS X, and the $29 price is meant to help drive user adoption. He also speculates that Snow Leopard is a prelude to radical new features in the next revision of Mac OS X.

As for the future, it's tempting to view Snow Leopard as the "tick" in a new Intel-style "tick-tock" release strategy for Mac OS X: radical new features in version 10.7 followed by more Snow-Leopard-style refinements in 10.8, and so on, alternating between "feature" and "refinement" releases. Apple has not even hinted that they're considering this type of plan, but I think there's a lot to recommend it.