MacRumors

Apple announced today that they've launched television sales for the iTunes Store in Canada.

"We're thrilled to bring television programming to the iTunes Store in Canada in time for the holiday season," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're off to a great start with hit shows from CBC, CTV, Comedy Central and MTV Networks, along with the best of classic and current NHL action."

Shows are available for CAN$1.99 per episode. Show availability includes:

- CBC's comedy programs "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and "The Rick Mercer Report," reality programming "No Opportunity Wasted" and "Dragon's Den;"
- CTV's smash hit comedy "Corner Gas," dramas "Instant Star," "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and "Robson Arms;"
- Comedy Central's "Drawn Together," "The Sarah Silverman Program" and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "South Park;"
- MTV Networks programs "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Hills;"
- NHL Games of the Year, including top NHL games in their entirety for the 2007-2008 season, as well as Stanley Cup Classics, a five-game bundle of great Stanley Cup Final games.

Sprint will be "soft-launching" their new WiMax wireless network known as XOHM later this week, according to MacNN. The initial plans will make make WiMax networks available in downtown Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

The official launch is reported to be in the 2nd quarter of 2008 when a number of WiMax enabled laptops are expected to be released. Sprint expects 100 million Americans to be within WiMax range by the end of 2008.

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a next generation wireless technology that promises inexpensive wireless broadband. A USAToday article discussing the new technology reveals that that the network will be "open" with no long term service contracts and customers will be allowed to use any WiMax device on the network. Critics of the service, however, believe that existing 3G cellular technologies, such as HSPA, already fill this need.

Of particular interest is that Intel has been a strong proponent of the technology and will start building WiMax enabled chipsets for its upcoming Montevina platform which replaces Santa Rosa. This is no guarantee that Apple will necessarily use Intel's wireless chipset, as they are not using them in the current iteration of MacBooks.

While Apple has made no public commitments to WiMax technology, the possible introduction of sub-notebook MacBook so close to WiMax's launch has surely raised these possibilities at Apple headquarters. This, however, all remains speculative, as no credible rumors have yet placed WiMax technology in Apple hardware.

Arstechnica sources are pinpointing this week for the launch of television shows via iTunes in Canada.

The company plans to begin adding shows quietly to the store as early as [Tuesday] afternoon or evening, with an official launch expected for Wednesday if things go smoothly

Ars notes that upon launch, the store will only contain a modest amount of content, including shows from CBC, CTV, and some US TV shows (excluding content from NBC, of course).

Canada will make the third country with TV programming available via iTunes, in addition to the US and the UK.

Update: 11th Application (iWow 2 - $11.99 value) added for all purchasers of the bundle. Buy Bundle - $49.99.

MacRumors has partnered with MacUpdate to promote their latest Mac application bundle. Bundle sales through these links benefit MacRumors.com financially, and provide a way for readers to directly support this site.

The latest bundle delivers up to 10 Mac applications for $49.99 ($646.75 if bought separately) and are detailed here:

Forklift - file manager, FTP client
RapidWeaver - web design software
SwiftPublisher - desktop publishing and layout
Marine Aquarium - virtual aquarium
Xslimmer - save space by reducing application file sizes
MemoryMiner - digital storytelling application
Yep - "iPhoto for your PDFs"
XMIND 2008 Pro - brainstorming, mind mapping
iStabilize - software video stabilizer, remove shaky motion from your videos
PulpMotion - create fun animations

As is typical in these time-limited bundles, several applications are held back as "locked" applications which are not part of the bundle until enough sales are generated. All 10 applications are now available for everyone who has purchased the bundle. Total value of all 10 applications together is $646.75, and can be purchased for $49.99. The sale has been extended until December 20th, with promises of more surprises in store.

Update: All 10 applications (including PulpMotion) are now 'unlocked', which means that all 10 applications are available for the $49.99 price.

As rumors start to build for Macworld San Francisco 2008, the most consistent rumor appears to be one of an ultra-portable Apple notebook computer.

These rumors started back in March 2006 by MacScoop who indicated that "very reliable" sources had indicated that Apple was planning on releasing an "ultra-thin 12 inch Mac Book Pro". More confirmation came from an analyst, Benjamin Reitzes in June, 2006 with expectations that an "ultra-portable" Mac could be delivered as early as Macworld San Francisco 2007. Reitzes also suggested that these new ultra-portables would use NAND flash memory, either in combination with a traditional hard drive or using NAND flash alone.

Indeed, earlier in 2006, Digitimes had first reported that Apple and Intel were researching the use of NAND flash in portables to improve boot time and battery life. MacScoop later detailed the thin-laptop to be a $1700-$1800 12" MacBook Pro with dual core processor and still retain an optical drive.

Macworld San Francisco 2007, of course, came and went with no new ultra-portable, but in February, more claims emerged from Appleinsider confirming that Apple was working on a mini-MacBook "lighter and more compact than any other Mac portable Apple has put forth in recent years". These specs claimed that the new laptop would exclude a built-in optical drive and would indeed use NAND flash memory.

9to5mac added a report in September that an aluminum MacBook prototype had been spotted that was "considerably slimmer" than the current MacBook Pros, with a thinner bezel around the screen and "something strange about the touchpad".

Finally, as we approach 2008's Macworld, some more confident reports have emerged with Appleinsider now believing that the new ultra-portable laptop will be released at Macworld as a 13" aluminum notebook with NAND flash, no optical drive, and LED backlit screens. Even CNBC now has their own sources claiming that a 12" sub-portable MacBook Pro with Flash memory only (no hard drive) would be introduced and retail for around $1500 at Macworld.

Based on the confidence and number of reports, it seem very likely that some sort of ultra-portable laptop will be arriving from Apple in January. To sum up claims:

MacScoop: 12", Ultra-Thin, Optical Drive, Dual Core, $1700-$1800
Appleinsider: 13", aluminum, 50% lighter, Slim, NAND Flash, LED backlit, No Optical Drive
CNBC: 12", 50% Thinner, NAND Flash only (no HDD). $1500
9to5mac: "something strange about the touchpad"

To be fair, MacScoop's reports were from a year ago, so details may have changed in the interim. It's also conceivable that Apple may have more than one product in the works that could explain some of the discrepancies.

To give some perspective on what might be possible, readers are reminded of a prototype Intel laptop (Metro) that was revealed in May of this year. The concept design was said to go into production near the end of 2007 and offered the following specs:

- 2.25 lbs
- 0.7 inches thick
- 14 hours battery life
- NAND Flash
- WiMax, Cellular, WiFi support

As a concept design with no regard to cost, all of these features may not be included in a theoretical Mac laptop, but it does provide an idea of what might be possible with current technology.

Though mostly speculative, Timesonline.co.uk profiles Apple's Vice-President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, as a possible successor CEO to Steve Jobs.

The author suggests that there has been some call for a plan for 'Apple after Steve Jobs', who is currently 52 years old. Jonathan Ive might be the man to take that place. Ive and Jobs are said to share a similar perfectionist attitude and are in close contact on a daily basis.

I think Steve Jobs has found somebody in Jony who knows how to complete or even exceed his vision, and do it time and time again, said Chee Pearlman, who hosted the event at which Mr Ive spoke four years ago.

Of course, some doubt that Ive has the charisma to replace Jobs as CEO, in what has been a very public role.

The question of Steve Jobs successor has been raised before, with one suggestion that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt might have taken a temporary role as Apple CEO during the option-backdating scandal.

CompUSA announced today that it will sell or shut down its remaining stores. Stores remaining open through the holiday season will feature heavy discounts on products to clear inventory.

CompUSA was once one of Apple's largest resellers until Apple began pilot programs with Best Buy and CompUSA began downsizing earlier this year.

The retail chain had received approximately $2 billion in investment since 1999, however it was unable to return to profitability amongst fierce competition.

Apple's West 14th Street Store in New York will have its grand opening tonight at 6 pm EST.

"We are thrilled to open our third and largest store in Manhattan on West 14th Street," said Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of Retail. "We think New Yorkers will love this stunning new location and the incredibly talented team we've assembled to make the Apple Store West 14th Street a place where people can shop, learn and truly be inspired."

The store is Apples first three-story store with two floors dedicated to products and a third dedicated to services, including a 46-foot Genius Bar and specially designed areas for workshops and personal training.

ifoAppleStore is on location, and reports on rumors that Apple will be giving out free laptops to the first 10 people in line (there were 62 in line as of their post).

How the giveaways work:

...visitors will be given a mystery gift, and upon opening it they will learn if theyre a winner. Prizes are entirely random over the entire evening.

With the West 14th Street store, there are now 3 New York City stores, including the glass-cube 5th Avenue store and the original SoHo store.

Photos of the new Apple Store.

A Fortune blog explores what Apple could be doing with their $15 billion cash reserve that they have accumulated in the past few years.

When asked about Apple's plans, chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer simply stated that having a few billion on hand helps to fund big projects, though there reportedly had been discussion about buying back shares or issuing dividends to Apple stock holders.

Apple could use the money to make strategic acquisitions. In the recent past, Apple has acquired a number of companies, including PowerSchool, Emagic, Nothing Real, Zayante, and Fingerworks. Apple also has plans to expand into a new campus which could take up to $500 million to fund.

Forrester Research, Inc has released a new research study that is critical of Apple's iTunes video attempts, and states there is room for competition in the industry.

The iTunes video experiment of selling TV shows for $1.99 and movies for upwards of $9.99 although a great service to the 4% of online adults who regularly buy video on iTunes is not a mainstream model. Importantly, it wont translate into what Apple really wants: increased demand for sophisticated hardware like the iPod touch and Apple TV.

Forrester conducted an online survey of 5,379 US and Canadian individuals aged 18 to 88. Forrester believes that only 4% of the online population buys iTunes videos, in contrast to 19% iTunes store usage. Forrester acknowledges that while those 4% are satisfied with their service, the iTunes video store will remain a curiosity rather than a game-changer.

One of the pitfalls mentioned is that there are currently easier ways to get [free] TV shows, including consumer DVR's and services like NBC Direct. Furthermore, Forrester calls out Apple's lack of a catalogue of hit movies. One result of Apple's video misfortunes is that although awareness of the AppleTV is at 45%, the purchase intent is only at 3%.

In an open letter to Apple, Forrester suggests it's time to change their video game plan, including winning NBC back (background), adding a movie rental model (rumored), funneling more web content into iTunes, and supporting an advertising model for TV shows.

Editor Update: The validity of the 4% video usage is in question, since both U.S. and Canada customers were surveyed. Canadians do not have TV or Movies available to them in the iTunes store. This would skew the results.