MacRumors

Microsoft has been particularly aggressive in attacking Apple specifically in their latest television ad campaign as well as commissioning a report detailing what it calls the "Apple Tax".

The latest television advertisement continues the "Laptop Hunters" theme in which a mother and son are tasked with finding a speedy sub-$1500 laptop with a large hard drive that is also good for gaming. Like the previous ads, they specifically point to higher cost of the Apple machines:

In a somewhat controversial report, Microsoft commissioned (PDF) Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates to document what they describe as the "Apple Tax". The report details the price comparison between Apple and PC products and the relative difference.

While few would argue that Apple's machines don't indeed carry some premium, CNet's Ina Fried took a closer look and found the numbers additionally padded in favor of the PC.

Microsoft first started touting this idea of an Apple Tax in an interview last October. I'd argue, as I have, that the tax exists, but it is one that the average buyer knowingly pays for what they perceive as the differences between the PC and Mac experiences. In any case, the economic differences, while large, aren't as big as Kay and Microsoft make them out to be in this study.

Microsoft's aggressive marketing against Apple suggests they are particularly concerned about Apple's growth despite their relatively small overall PC marketshare.

Microsoft's VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing specifically said that they felt that Apple's "I'm a Mac" campaign had an impact and that they were planning on countering it.

Apple today announced that two legacy tools associated with .Mac, HomePage and Groups, will no longer be offered as of July 7, 2009. The two services are not currently offered as part of MobileMe but were still accessible to former .Mac users whose accounts had been transitioned to MobileMe at its launch last year.

.Mac HomePage is a web hosting service that made its debut as part of Apple's iTools package in January 2000. The service was significantly upgraded when iTools was turned into a subscription-based service and renamed .Mac in 2002. Apple's landing page for HomePage currently displays a splash page announcing the discontinuation.

On July 7, 2009, we are retiring .Mac HomePage. Your published pages will remain live on the web for as long as you wish after this date, but you will not be able to edit or delete them using HomePage. If you want to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7.

Going forward, we recommend MobileMe Gallery for online photo and movie sharing, and iWeb for custom websites and blogs. Please visit this FAQ for more information.

.Mac Groups is a service that allowed .Mac users to set up "a group page, email address, and iDisk space for clubs, teams, and other groups of people. Similar to HomePage, the Groups landing page is currently displaying a splash page regarding the discontinuation of the service.

On July 7, 2009, .Mac Groups will be discontinued. After this date, all Groups features, including group pages, group message boards, group email addresses, and the "Groups" iDisk folder will no longer be available.

Any files contained in the "Groups" iDisk folder will be moved on July 7 into a new folder titled "Groups Archive" where they will remain accessible by the group owner, as long as the group owner remains a MobileMe member. Please visit this FAQ for more information.

A patent application published today reveals that Apple may still be working on a video "answering machine" technology for inclusion with iChat. The technology made a brief partial appearance in early OS X Leopard developer seeds in December 2006, but was omitted from the finished product.

The patent application, filed in October 2007, describes the use of pre-recorded video messages that can be enabled and offered in response to video chat requests from other users. The pre-recorded video message could be displayed to the caller in response to a "do not disturb" status message on the part of the receiver or after a set period of time without a response from the receiver.

The invention also includes possible additional features of allowing the original caller to leave their own video message for the receiver and a user interface for viewing the message at a later time. Incoming messages could either be stored locally on the receiver's computer or on a central server, allowing both outgoing and incoming messages to be stored for later delivery even when the receiver's computer is offline.

The use of pre-recorded video clips was also a concept employed in early prototypes of the iPhone. In that case, it was planned that iPhone users would be able to "call ahead", sending a pre-recorded video message to their intended recipient to be viewed before the recipient answered the call. With increasing evidence for video camera functionality in the next-generation iPhone, the possibility exists that the "video answering machine" technology could also make its way into Apple's mobile devices.

A couple of new reports indicate that Apple has started mobilizing parts for their next generation iPhone. A Commercial Times report claims that Taiwan-based component suppliers have started shipping parts for the new Apple iPhone that is expected to begin shipping in June.

Meanwhile, DigiTimes claims that Apple has already placed orders for 100 million 8 Gigabit NAND Flash chips (mostly) from Samsung Electronics. This large order could tighten worldwide supplies of Flash memory.

While the iPhone was not specifically cited as the reason for the large order, the timing seems to correspond to rumors of a new iPhone refresh this summer.

Just after Apple instituted variable pricing for music in the iTunes Store, Electronista noticed that Amazon and Wal-Mart have followed suit in their MP3 download stores.

The quiet price hike confirms that Apple's unofficial switchover date for variable pricing on its store is part of a larger move to raise prices across the industry. Concerns had been raised that the music industry might target Apple specifically after an initial comparison of prices this morning had suggested only iTunes was carrying the higher prices. Major music labels have publicly expressed a desire for such pricing after the emphasis on single downloads over albums, as well as plummeting CD sales, hurt the traditional music industry as a whole.

Amazon, which had previously offered a standard $0.99 price point, is now offering approximately eight of its top 100 bestselling tracks at $1.29, with a handful of others priced at $0.79 and the vast majority still priced at $0.99. Wal-Mart, which had previously offered individual tracks for $0.94 and late last year began offering its top hits at $0.74, has also adopted a three-tiered model with $1.24, $0.94 and $0.64 price points. Approximately 15 of its Top 100 Singles are currently priced at $1.24.

As Seth Weintraub points out at Computerworld, tracks are not necessarily offered at the same relative price points across the different stores. Apple currently has a significantly greater percentage of its tracks priced at $1.29, with many of these same tracks still being offered at $0.99 (or even $0.79 in some cases) at Amazon or $0.94 at Wal-Mart, suggesting that Apple is receiving different pricing from the record labels than its competitors.

Sources at Apple tell me that Apple is getting different prices than Amazon from the recording idustry. The record companies are, and have been for awhile, favoring Amazon. In fact, Amazon is selling songs for less than the price that Apple pays for them in some cases.

The discovery that Apple's next iPhone might contain both video input as well as a magnetometer (digital compass) opens up some interesting possibilities for future iPhone applications.

Over at TouchArcade, game researcher Blair MacIntyre demonstrated an example of an Augmented Reality application that was in testing on the iPhone. Augmented Reality is described as a combination of real-world and computer-generated data, where computer graphics objects are blended into video footage in real time.

The example shown demonstrated the realtime overlaying graphics on top of video on the iPhone:

A more sophisticated example of a Zombie shooter was also shown using non-iPhone hardware. Due to a current lack of SDK video support, these apps would not be allowed in the App Store at this time, but both of these would be possible on the new iPhone if the rumors hold true.

The inclusion of a magnetometer (Digital Compass) will also introduce a number of new possibilities. Unlike accelerometers, a 3-axis magnetometer can determine absolute position. A Nokia blog post details what this could mean:

A traditional compass only works when it is held horizontally. As Paul Coulton recently described in his Forum Nokia Blogs posting, the Nokia 6210 includes a 3-axis magnetometer. Through some calculations, it is possible to find out the absolute direction in which the phone is facing, no matter how the phone is oriented.

Examples of how this could be used include pointing your iPhone's camera at a building and the phone telling you what building it is by combining GPS, accelerometer and compass information. The iPhone could even overlay graphics and text on top of the image to provide additional information. Another application described is the ability to show information about stars and constellations simply by pointing your iPhone towards the sky.

These sensors could also make this mockup/concept application a reality as well:

Such an application is not possible with the current iPhone's accelerometers alone.

As rumored, Apple has updated its Xserve line of servers to the latest Intel Nehalem processors. Apple claims the new Xserves deliver up to twice the performance of the previous system.

Using Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture, the 1U rack-optimized Xserve delivers up to an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt. Xserve is available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors and industry-leading storage options that include a low-power solid state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. Starting at $2,999, Xserve includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.

The new Xserve is available immediately from the Apple Store. The standard $2,999 configuration includes a 2.26GHZ Quad-Core Xeon 5500 processor and build to order options include dual 2.26 GHz, 2.66 GHz or 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors. Apple has also included a Solid State Drive (SSD) as an option.

Since the release of Apple's iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, users have been scouring the configuration files looking for evidence of future iPhone capabilities. The possibility of video recording has seemed increasingly certain with files for video uploading and editing having been discovered.

A new finding, however, should put to rest any doubts about whether or not Apple is planning to include video recording in future iPhones. This screenshot, which was discovered in the latest iPhone 3.0 beta, shows the interface Apple will provide for video recording:

The interface shows the normal iPhone camera interface but with a switch on the bottom right which toggles between still camera photography and video recording. The video recording is not presently functional in iPhone 3.0 beta, and the interface is not accessible by default. Only when configuration files were modified telling the firmware that a Video Camera was present will this interface appear.

Other interesting capabilities found in the configuration files include "auto-focus camera", "magnetometer" (digital compass), and "Voice Control".

Apple is expected to release the final version of iPhone 3.0 this summer, and many believe that Apple will also introduce an updated iPhone around that time as well.

As previously reported, Apple has deployed variable pricing on the iTunes App Store today. This means songs can be priced at $0.69, $0.99 or $1.29 based on the artists' popularity.

True to supply-and-demand economics, the price of music downloads will be geared to the artist's popularity. Releases from new artists would receive the lower pricing, while tracks from popular acts would get slapped with the higher rate. Even classics, such as Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," could retail for the higher price. Most of the 10 million songs in the iTunes catalog are expected to remain at 99 cents.

Apple announced this plan at Macworld San Francisco. The record labels have long requested variable pricing and, in exchange, Apple has been allowed to transition all their music content to DRM-free (no copy protection).

In addition, it appears Apple has greatly expanded the countries that iTunes now supports (screenshot).