MacRumors

Apple today issued a media alert announcing details for the April 22nd release of its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2009. The results will cover sales from December 28th, 2008 through March 27th, 2009, and will be released at the close of trading (4:00 PM Eastern / 1:00 PM Pacific) on Wednesday. Apple's conference call discussing the results will follow at 2:00 PM Pacific and will be available via a live audio webcast.

At Macworld Expo 2009 early in the quarter, Apple announced the new 17" MacBook Pro, iLife '09, and iWork '09. In early March, Apple introduced new Mac Pros, as well as updated models of the iMac, Mac mini, AirPort Extreme Base Station, and Time Capsule. The iPod shuffle also saw a significant redesign near the end of the quarter.

For the quarter, analysts are predicting net earnings of $1.09 per share on revenue of just under $8 billion, near the high end of or slightly above Apple's guidance of $0.90-$1.00 profit on $7.6-$8.0 billion of revenue. Apple's year-ago results for the second quarter of 2008 included net earnings of $1.16 per share on revenue of $7.51 billion.

The Inquirer recaps the latest netbook rumors coming out of the Commercial Times. The Chinese-language publication is citing sources from within the component supply chain that Apple has already signed a netbook deal with Foxconn:

These are whispering that Cupertino has sealed the deal with contract electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry - or Foxconn - to bang out Apple netbooks.

Netbooks have been a hot topic in the computing industry as much of the recent sales growth has been attributed to the inexpensive portable devices.

Apple has so far resisted the release of such a device and has publicly denied interest in the market. Rumors, however, persist that Apple is planning a 10" netbook with a possible touch screen. If Apple does release such a device, it's unlikely to be priced in-line with currently shipping netbooks from other manufacturers which can run in the $400-$600 range. During a previous Q&A session, Apple has said that "[they] don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk."

A report from PhoneNews.com last week claims that Apple may be planning on integrating High Definition playback in their future iPhones and iPod Touches.

The phone site believes that Apple's recent clearance of Apple Composite AV Cables and Apple Component AV Cables are to make way for a new consolidated cable that will ship ahead of the next generation iPhone.

Apple will remedy this with a cable, which is known simply as the Apple AV Cable. The cable will function similar to the Xbox 360 Component AV Cable. The consolidated cable will support both component and composite output, allowing users to plug in to both HDTV and SDTV displays without the need for multiple cables.

PhoneNews claims the reason for this consolidation will be the incorporation of HD display capabilities on the devices as well as HD video output (720p and 1080i).

What this could mean is that the iPhone or iPod Touch could act as a make-shift Apple TV. They envision plugging your iPhone into an Apple AV Dock connected to your HDTV. This would then be able to stream video over Wi-Fi from your computer's iTunes library. This added functionality would skip the time-consuming step of syncing HD videos to the device itself and replicate some of the behavior of the Apple TV.

We're not sure what to make of this report though the possibilities are intriguing. PhoneNews.com has not been a regular source of Apple rumors and their last try wasn't accurate.

Last week, Steve Capps released an iPhone game to the App Store called AliceX [App Store]. This $1.99 game, however, carries special significance for long time Mac users as AliceX is based on the very first Mac game: Alice: Through the Looking Glass.

Folklore.org has documented the story behind Through the Looking Glass which started as a Lisa game.

"You've got to see the new game that Steve Capps wrote", he told me while he was connecting his hard drive up to my Lisa. He booted up into the Lisa Monitor development system, which featured a character-based UI similar to UCSD Pascal, and launched a program named "Alice". Steve Capps was the second member of the Lisa printing team, who started at Apple in September 1981. I had seen him around but not really met him yet.

The game was even featured in the original Steve Jobs Mac announcement (2min 40sec) back in January, 1984. The iPhone version of the game contains the "classic" Alice pieces as well as "hip hop" and "bush memorial" pieces. Instructions, video and a simple javascript version of the iPhone adaptation of the game is available.

Steve Capps is perhaps most well known for his part in programming the Finder for the original Macintosh and subsequent work on the Newton OS. Capps has since founded a user interface design company called onedoto.

App Store Link: AliceX, $1.99 [Note: not compatible with 1st generation iPod touches]

Apple has released the first new series of 'Get a Mac' ads since Microsoft began it's pointed ad campaign targeting Apple's prices.

Apple continues with the "Mac" and "PC" characters pointing out flaws in Windows with their latest series of ads. The new ads are titled: Biohazard Suit, Legal Copy, Stacks, and Time Traveler. All the videos are also available on Apple's site.

The ads cover "PC" problems such as Windows viruses, increased maintenance, and worse stability as compared to the "Mac". Meanwhile, the Stacks commercial highlights iPhoto's new facial recognition features that come included with the Mac.

Over the past couple of days, users have been digging through the latest iPhone OS 3.0 beta for signs of new features, and World of Apple and AppleInsider have put together some nice screenshot galleries illustrating a number of the findings.

World of Apple's gallery shows a number of features primarily related to music and podcast functionality, including several notable ones:

- Variable scrubbing speed during iPod playback. Provides users with four options to allow them to fine tune navigation within a track.
- Variable playback speed for podcasts. Options include 1/2x, 1x, and 2x speeds.
- Single-tap jump back for podcasts. Tap a single icon to rewind podcast playback by 30 seconds.
- Additional data for podcasts saved on iPhone. Saved podcasts now display run time, time left, and publication date.

AppleInsider highlights several other changes observed in the iPhone 3.0 beta:

- Ability to close all open Safari windows. Previously there was no ability to close the last remaining Safari window, but a red "x" is now functional in the page navigation, allowing users to close the final window, replacing it with a blank page.
- Battery percentage indicators. Allows users to view their remaining battery life as a percentage rather than just as an icon.
- Push notifications preferences. Allows users to toggle whether they want to allow push notifications as sounds, alerts, and/or badges.
- Expanded Data Detectors. Increased ability to automatically detect text such as e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and addresses and activate appropriate actions such as initiating a phone call or adding info to the Address Book when the items are touched.

The Wall Street Journal reports on comments made by Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg on a broad number of topics surrounding the company.

Of interest to readers, however, is the fact that Seidenberg addressed the possibility of Apple's iPhone coming to the Verizon network.

Mr. Seidenberg also addressed the notion of Apple Inc.'s iPhone ever coming to the Verizon Wireless network, saying it is more likely that Apple would be willing to work with the carrier under the fourth-generation, or 4G, network, which follows the same technology standard as AT&T Inc.'s 4G plans. He said Apple never seriously considered making a CDMA version of the iPhone because it didn't have as wide a distribution opportunity.

CDMA is the technology behind Verizon's current cellular network and prevents the current Apple iPhone from running on their network. In order to accommodate Verizon, Apple would have to release a modified (CDMA) iPhone which Seidenberg seems to think was never likely.

Verizon plans to launch their 4G network in 2010, conveniently near the time AT&T's exclusivity expires.

Businessweek's Arik Hesseldahl analyzes Microsoft's latest ad campaign "Laptop Hunters". We've highlighted the ads here which have generated a massive amount of reader discussion. The ads specifically target Apple's Macs as having a higher cost than PCs. Hesseldahl rehashes the usual arguments on cost, but also gets a rare comment from Apple's PR department on the new ads. Apple's Bill Evans said of the ads:

"A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want .... The one thing that both Apple and Microsoft can agree on is that everyone thinks the Mac is cool. With its great designs and advanced software, nothing matches it at any price."

The three ads have generated over 6000 comments here on MacRumors and have also spawned at least one parody ad offering the same laptop deal to a homeless person ("Frank").

Gartner has released a preliminary report detailing U.S. and worldwide PC shipments for the first quarter of 2009. The report pegs Apple's U.S. market share in fourth place among vendors at 7.4%, down from 8.0% in the fourth quarter of 2008. More importantly, the report shows a slight decline in market share over the year-ago quarter, when Apple held 7.5% market share.

Apple's U.S. computer shipments showed a 1.1% decline over the year-ago quarter, compared to an overall U.S. industry decline of 0.3%. Gartner notes that the overall PC market performed better than expected, due in significant part to strong sales of "mini notebooks" or netbooks, a market segment in which Apple does not currently compete. Gartner also suggests that the average selling price of computers sold in the first quarter of 2009 may have shrunk as much as 20% due to this explosion in netbook sales. Consequently, while Apple's market share has apparently slipped, its gross revenue and profits are likely to have held up better than the industry average.

Also of note, HP was able to pass Dell for the top spot among U.S. PC shipments, taking that position for the first time since 2001.

IDC has released a similar report showing Apple with 7.6% market share and a decline in U.S. sales of 1.2% over the year-ago quarter. IDC's numbers, however, are showing a slightly steeper decline in U.S. sales for the overall PC market at 3.1%. Apple remains unable to break into the top five vendors for worldwide PC shipments in either survey, with Toshiba continuing to hold the fifth spot with approximately 5.5% market share, a significant bump over their previous numbers.

Apple has been conducting ongoing research into how to further improve their mobile device interfaces as evidenced by a couple of patent applications published over the past couple of weeks. Two different patent applications reveal a couple of different approaches to movement-aware interfaces found on portable devices.

The first application published a couple of weeks ago actually explores the possibility of using motion as an interface method itself.

One problem with existing portable media devices such as cellular telephones is that users can become distracted from other activities while interfacing with the media device's video display, graphical user interface (GUI), and/or keypad. For example, a runner may carry a personal media device to listen to music or to send/receive cellular telephone calls while running. In a typical personal media device, the runner must look at the device's display to interact with a media application in order to select a song for playing. Also, the user likely must depress the screen or one or more keys on its keypad to perform the song selection. These interactions with the personal media device can divert the user's attention from her surroundings which could be dangerous, force the user to interrupt her other activities, or cause the user to interfere with the activities of others within her surroundings.

Apple proposes the use of motion-based gestures to invoke specific commands rather than relying on on-screen buttons. Examples include the use of gestures such as flicking the phone to step through contacts. Additional uses of onscreen buttons or bezel touch detection could prevent accidental gesturing. Such a system, however, seems somewhat ambitious.

A more practical take on this problem emerges from a patent application published today. In this report, Apple concedes that users may have difficulty using the iPhone's touch interface while performing tasks in motion:

. A user of a device can interact with the graphical user interface by making contact with the touch-sensitive display. The device, being a portable device, can also be carried and used by a user while the user is in motion. While the user and the device is in motion, the user's dexterity with respect to the touch-sensitive display can be disrupted by the motion, detracting form the user's experience with the graphical user interface.

Apple's solution to the problem is to modify the iPhone's interface in real-time if it detects that you are in motion (such as running, jogging).

In this example, they enlarge the size of each contact in response to the detection of motion. Similar user interface adjustments to the iPhone's home screen could be made as well to improve accuracy during activity.

Apple's patent applications generally reveal a very wide-range of possibilities and don't necessarily result in shipping products, but does show the direction of Apple's recent research.

Update: As one reader points out, the patent diagram also depicts a front-facing video camera on the front side of the device (labeled 180). A front facing camera could allow video-chat capabilities in future iPhones.

The other labeled sensors are: proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and accelerometer. Apple also mentions the possible use of a gyroscope (digital compass/magnetometer) -- the implications of which were previously detailed.