MacRumors

The iPhone blog notes that Apple has launched movie bundles in the iTunes Store, offering consumers the opportunity to purchase a limited number of themed movie multi-pack downloads at discount pricing.

For example, the Godfather I & II bundle [iTunes Store] is offered at $14.99, while the films are available individually for $9.99 each. Some bundles carry even steeper discounts, with the Dirty Dancing bundle [iTunes Store] and several other two-packs priced at $9.99, essentially offering buy-one-get-one-free pricing.

The movie bundles are not limited to two-packs, however, with offerings available up to quad-packs, such as X-Men Quadrilogy [iTunes Store], which is priced at $29.99, a 33% discount over individual pricing.

Finally, Apple has included a pair of HD download bundles in the new offerings in W. / Religulous [iTunes Store, $27.99 HD/$14.99 SD] and a Jason Statham "Action Pack: [iTunes Store, $34.99 HD/$24.99 SD] including Crank 2, Transporter 3, and The Bank Job.

iTunes Movie Bundles currently appear to be limited to the U.S. and Canadian stores, with approximately 30-40 bundles currently available in each store.

A notice posted earlier this month in the forums of VideoLAN, the open-source team behind the popular VLC media player, reveals that a lack of Mac volunteer developers for the software has forced the project organizers to consider new plans for the Mac version of VLC going forward. The forum post, which has since been replaced with a static page, explains that the lack of manpower on the Mac front has resulted in lagging development, primarily on the user interface.

Indeed we have a kind of lack of manpower on the Mac interface of VLC.

The VLC core (in C) and most other plugins work pretty fine, just not the OS X GUI (1% of the code of VLC) in Objective-C.

That explains the issues you have seen in latest version of VLC 1.0.x on mac, and the drop of 64bits version in 1.0.3

VideoLAN hints at a couple of tactics for addressing the problem, including a possible shift to the use of an alternative Qt interface. The organizers interestingly note, however, that Apple has apparently been uncooperative in relation to the VLC project, offering roadblocks to the application's development. Aside from VLC's competition with Apple's QuickTime Player, it remains unclear exactly what Apple's objections are.

While perhaps not as glamorous as 3D display technology, a couple of other patent applications from Apple reveal that the company is working on improving the audio/video experience of their iPod and iPhones.

Apple describes how they might keep track of individual playback characteristics of songs on an iPod in order to improve the overall user experience. Apple could, for example, track a user's preferences for volume, start time, equalizer settings and other factors and apply those automatically in the future. As an example, Apple gives the start time of a track:

For example, the usage metadata may indicate that a user skips, on average, the first 22 seconds of a particular song so the next time that song is played, the first 22 seconds will automatically be skipped.

In another example, Apple suggests that skipped songs which are rarely listened to might be dimmed out or otherwise obscured in favor of songs that the user prefers.

Meanwhile, another application suggests that the iPod or iPhone could actively determine if there is enough battery life to play the selected video. If not, the user could be given a warning as well as options to degrade the video settings or reduce backlighting in order to prolong battery life enough to watch the entire selection. When not enough battery life is detected, a warning dialog would pop up giving the user an option to simply proceed or make the desired adjustments:

The System Does not Have Sufficient Power for Playing the Entire Selected Video Segment.

Choose "Adjust Settings" for Lowering Power Consumption or Otherwise Choose "View Video" to View Selected Video for the Remaining Time.

It seems this would be a welcome feature for travelers to avoid missing the last bit of a movie due to a low-running battery.

Apple's patent applications always provide an interesting peek into what Apple researchers have been working on. In one of the more interesting patent applications we've discovered, Apple appears to be researching 3D displays in which the user will be able to look around an object.

In order to view a 3D object from various angles on your screen at present, you are required to use the mouse or keyboard to manipulate the object. This might simply involve clicking and dragging to pan or rotate an object. While functional, Apple considers this to be unintuitive and potentially frustrating to new users.

Apple proposes that a display could change the perspective of the 3D objects based on the users' relative position. Said display would detect the user's position through any suitable approach (such as video, infrared, electromagnetic fields etc...). Video, of course, is the most likely possibility with a camera mounted at the top of the display itself, thus allowing the computer to determine the user's location and position. The user could then move their head left and right to look around a 3D object as shown in the example image above. Apple also suggests that it could also be applied to 2D objects like windows to provide some added depth to traditionally flat objects:

In fact, Apple suggests that software could be so advanced as to incorporate elements of the user's environments into the scene on the display.

For example, the electronic device may define visual properties of different surfaces of the displayed object (e.g., reflection and refraction characteristics), and apply the visual properties to the portions of the detected image mapped on each surface. Using this approach, surfaces with low reflectivity (e.g., plastic surfaces) may not reflect the environment, but may reflect light, while surfaces with high reflectivity (e.g., polished metal or chrome) may reflect both the environment (e.g., the user's face as detected by the camera) and light. To further enhance the user's experience, the detected environment may be reflected differently along curved surfaces of a displayed object (e.g., as if the user were actually moving around the displayed object and seeing his reflection based on his position and the portion of the object reflecting the image).

Apple has been researching these sorts of novel display types for years. Back in 1995, they had even had a similar system built in the lab and referred to these displays as "Hyper Reality" displays. Apple, of course, is not the only company working on such technology. This YouTube video shows this system in action (thanks djellison) on a make-shift Wii system, demoed by Johnny Lee:

Fortune reports on a newly-published research effort from Morgan Stanley which analyzes the mobile Internet industry and in the process points to the iPhone's tremendous early growth and Apple's leadership position in the industry.

Based on past performance, according to Morgan Stanley, Apple is in the "pole position" in the race to dominate mobile Internet computing, which is supposed to be for the 2000s what desktop Internet computing was for the 1990s, personal computing for the 1980s, mini computing for the 1970s, and mainframe computing for the 1960s.

According to Fortune's report, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty sees the iPhone's massive installed base and application offerings as giving Apple a "two or three-year lead" on the rest of the industry. The iPhone's rapid early growth, which has easily surpassed that of other revolutionary Internet offerings, is seen as evidence of the game-changing nature of the device and the potential for continued leadership throughout the rapidly-evolving industry.

The report also provides data backing up what many have previously observed: that iPhone users' heavy use of data in comparison to that of other smartphone users is revolutionizing the mobile Internet industry and driving innovation and growth in excess of the device's market share. According to the study, the iPhone holds only 17% global smartphone market while claiming 50% of mobile app usage and a full 65% of mobile Web browsing.

While it remains to be seen whether Apple can continue its explosive growth in the face of increasing competition in the mobile Internet space, it seems clear that Apple holds a number of advantages that offer it the opportunity to drive the industry for the foreseeable future.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that it has filed suit against Intel, claiming that the company has "illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly." The complaint focuses not only on Intel's actions in the CPU market to shut out competitors such as AMD, but also on newer, similar actions in the graphics chip market.

The FTC's administrative complaint charges that Intel carried out its anticompetitive campaign using threats and rewards aimed at the world's largest computer manufacturers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, to coerce them not to buy rival computer CPU chips. Intel also used this practice, known as exclusive or restrictive dealing, to prevent computer makers from marketing any machines with non-Intel computer chips.

In addition, allegedly, Intel secretly redesigned key software, known as a compiler, in a way that deliberately stunted the performance of competitors' CPU chips. Intel told its customers and the public that software performed better on Intel CPUs than on competitors' CPUs, but the company deceived them by failing to disclose that these differences were due largely or entirely to Intel's compiler design.

The FTC is seeking a variety of remedies in the lawsuit against Intel, including orders preventing the company from using threats, bundled pricing, and other tactics to hamper competition or manipulate prices.

The news comes as Intel prepares for a preview event tomorrow highlighting forthcoming Arrandale processors. Speculation as centered on Apple's possible use of these chips in the next generation of its notebook computers, although a recent report claimed that Apple has refused to accept Intel's standard Arrandale package incorporating the company's integrated graphics chipset.

It seems Apple is continuing to invest in advancing web-based technologies to provide a more full feature experienced on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Daring Fireball's John Gruber describes in detail an impressive web framework called PastryKit that was developed by Apple and deployed in their iPhone User Guide web page (when viewed from an iPhone). (Video demonstration)

The article is somewhat technical for casual readers, but essentially, Apple has implemented a few key interface features in Javascript that could make web-apps feel much more like native iPhone apps. These include:

- Completely hiding the address bar
- Allowing for fixed-position toolbars that don't move when you scroll
- Allows for scrolling with momentum so you can quickly scroll long lists

Any iPhone web apps you might have used before have likely demonstrated the same fixed scrolling speed inherent in mobile Safari, and were unable to keep a dedicated toolbar at the top or bottom of the pages. These small changes go a long way towards making web apps feel more natural on the iPhone.

Since these features have been implemented by Apple in Javascript, they could be available to any web developer. Despite big strides in Javascript performance in mobile Safari, however, the performance of their framework still lags on older generation devices.

In the future, it seems likely that we'll see more and more functionality move to the mobile web. In fact, Google Engineering vice president predicted that the mobile web would become the dominant mobile application development platform of the future, despite Apple's massive success with the App Store. Indeed, over the past year we've seen advancements in HTML5/CSS which include support for CSS animations, OpenGL 2.0/WebGL, accelerometers, and even GPS support.

As these technologies become more common and iPhones continue to become faster, it's easy to see how the future web applications could replace some of the current native App Store apps.

On Tuesday, Apple won a permanent injunction against Psystar following summary judgement in favor of Apple's claims of copyright infringement and violation of the DMCA. (court document PDF). The court orders that Psystar is now prevented from the following:

1. Copying, selling, offering to sell, distributing, or creating derivative works of plaintiff's copyrighted Mac OS X software without authorization from the copyright holder;
2. Intentionally inducing, aiding, assisting, abetting, or encouraging any other person or entity to infringe plaintiff's copyrighted Mac OS X software;
3. Circumventing any technological measure that effectively controls access to plaintiff's copyrighted Mac OS X software, including, but not limited to, the technological measure used by Apple to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X on non-Apple computers;
4. Manufacturing, importing, offering to the public, providing, or otherwise trafficking in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof that is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to plaintiff's copyrighted Mac OS X software, including, but not limited to, the technological measure used by Apple to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X on non-Apple computers;
5. Manufacturing, importing, offering to the public, providing, or otherwise trafficking in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof that is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively protects the rights held by plaintiff under the Copyright Act with respect to its copyrighted Mac OS X software.

Psystar must come into compliance by December 31, 2009 at the latest and take the quickest path to compliance. It seems this order marks the end of Psystar as well as the hope of any other company from following in their footsteps.

Psystar made headlines back in April when it started advertising unauthorized Mac OS X compatible PCs. Apple subsequently sued Psystar on grounds of copyright infringement as well as DMCA claims. Apple had won summary judgement in November.

Earlier this week, Newsweek's Dan Lyons as part of his popular "Fake Steve Jobs" blog proposed "Operation Chokehold", a plan for AT&T iPhone users to simultaneously use their devices to place high demand on the carrier's network at a specified time this coming Friday. The proposal comes in response to AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega's comments last week regarding poor network performance in Manhattan and San Francisco and the company's plans to attempt to rein in high-usage data customers.

On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. THe idea is we'll create a digital flash mob. We're calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!

Cult of Mac reached out to AT&T for comment on the proposed action, and the wireless carrier unsurprisingly noted that it was unimpressed with the tactic, calling it "totally irresponsible".

We understand that fakesteve.net is primarily a satirical forum, but there is nothing amusing about advocating that customers attempt to deliberately degrade service on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers. We know that the vast majority of customers will see this action for what it is: an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog.

Cult of Mac notes that a Facebook page devoted to Operation Chokehold has gathered only approximately 300 interested users, suggesting that the plan may have a difficult time succeeding.

Computerworld reports on data from research firm Net Applications showing that Google's Chrome browser has slipped past Apple's Safari to snag third place in worldwide Internet browser market share behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. The surge comes on the heels of the official release of beta versions of Chrome for both Mac and Linux.

According to Net Applications, which tracks the browser habits of 160 million unique visitors each month to the 40,000 sites it monitors for customers, Chrome's share jumped to 4.4% for the week of Dec. 6-12, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over Google's slice of the browser pie for the month of November.

Chrome's share during the week topped Safari's 4.37%, said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of Net Applications. "It appears that Chrome has made a substantial surge in usage market share," Vizzaccaro said in an e-mail.

Chrome reportedly experienced a four-fold jump in market share on Mac with the release of the beta version, which marked a milestone release for a product that had previously been available only as developer preview releases. Some of the growth is undoubtedly due to curious users simply trying out Chrome for the first time before switching back to their primary browser, but Chrome's official beta status will likely continue to attract new users going forward.

Benchmarks have shown that Chrome, which is based on the same WebKit engine used by Safari, performs well when it comes to speed on Mac OS X, but is lacking a number of features that will not make their appearances until later beta releases.

Toshiba announced (via 9to5Mac) that they have launched a 64 gigabyte (GB) embedded NAND flash memory module. The new chip offers 64GB on a single chip and will start mass production in the first quarter of 2010.

The reason the largest iPhone (32GB) currently has 1/2 the memory of the largest iPod touch (64GB) is that the iPhone can only house a single NAND flash chip while the iPod touch can accommodate two. The additional space in the iPhone is taken up by its communication hardware. This new advancement should allow for 64GB iPhones and 128GB iPod touches in 2010.

Last year, Toshiba first announced their 32GB NAND flash modules which apparently ended up being used in the latest iPhone revision. iSuppli's teardown identified Toshiba as the supplier of the iPhone 3GS's flash memory.

Chinese site PCOnline.com.cn (via HardMac) leaked details about the upcoming Gulftown 6-core processor that is expected to be used in Mac Pros in early 2010. The processor has been previously referred as the Core i9, though it seems it will instead be designated an extreme (X) Core i7.

The slide confirms that the new processor will be based on a 32nm process with 6 cores and 12 threads. This means a dual configured Mac Pro will have 12 physical cores and 24 logical cores. Also revealed is that the processor will reach a frequency of 3.33GHz. This new 6-core processor should arrive by March 2010, giving a possible timeframe for the next Mac Pro refresh.