MacRumors

The Financial Times reports that Apple has signed a deal with the 20th Century Fox studio to launch an online video-on-demand service "that could change the way people pay for online film content." The new service is set to launch at Macworld Expo, which kicks off on January 15th with Steve Jobs' keynote speech. The service will allow consumers to rent the latest Fox DVD releases by downloading a copy from iTunes for a limited time.

Rumors of Apple adopting a rental-model for movies have been circulating since last year. While no pricing information is provided with today's rumor, the Financial Times claimed in June that Apple was negotiating a rental service for $2.99/film for a 30-day rental. Pricing details, however, may have changed since negotiations first began.

Meanwhile, a digitally protected version of a film is also expected be included with DVD releases, allowing users to copy the movie easily to their iPods and iPhones, without resorting to "ripping" or otherwise converting the DVD to another format. This digital version would employ the same FairPlay copy-protection system used by Apple on their iTunes store purchases, though the details of the restrictions are unknown at this time. This move would help cement Apple's iPod and iPhone as the standard devices for mobile video content.

MacRumors receives many rumor submissions every month -- most of which can't be verified, and many are outright fake. Here's a collection of rejected or unconfirmed rumors from 2007 that we publish for interest alone, and are not necessarily believed to be real. In the past, some rumors from our rumor reject list have later become true.

- Since June 07, Merrill Lynch is preparing Apple's acquisition by Google and indeed of everybody's expectations of the new gadgets arrival, this will become a main news that Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs are delivering on the MacWorld Expo.

- [A Friend of submitter] told me that Apple is designing a replacement for the iSight. He won't say any more other than that it is to be attached to the screen in "an unusual manner".

- The new MacBook Pro will have 32 gigs of flash RAM installed IN the screen. The screen will be removable and will have touch capability, like a tablet PC. The screen will also have an 8 hour battery and will weigh less than one pound. It will be much easier to use than a tablet PC, however, as it uses some kind of special software that mixes iPhone-like touching and something no one has seen yet. Speech recognition plays a big part in this device's functionality. It is possible that it integrates with the iPhone as a new communication device. Internal codeword is iDub.

- Apple is trying hard to enlist teen-pop legend Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana to do some kind of iPod (or iPhone?) advertisement of some kind! The logic to this is that the typical target audience for Hannah are the exact same teens (11 to 17 year old girls, maybe boys too) who coincidentally are the same market segment who are big fans/users/believers of the iPod and iTunes as well.

We typically collect these minor news items and questionable rumors on our Page 2 (RSS).

DailyMail.co.uk reports on a recent Apple patent application that describes how Apple could automatically adjust maximum volumes on their iPod devices to help protect the listeners from developing any long-term hearing damage.

A new patent reveals that the next iPods and iPhones could automatically calculate how long a person has been listening and at what volume, before gradually reducing the sound level.

The maximum safe level would be determined by how loud the iPod had been playing and the amount of quiet time since last play. This is not the first time that this potential problem has been in the news.

In February 2006, a man sued Apple over the risk for iPod-related hearing loss. Apple addressed this potential issue in a software update in March 2006 which allowed users to set their own personal maximum volume limit.

The L.A. Times cites sources in-the-know that claim that ThinkSecret's Nick Ciarelli did indeed receive some amount of monetary compensation from Apple as part of their final settlement.

[Ciarelli] also received a payment from Apple, according to a person familiar with the case. Both sides declined to discuss details of the agreement.

There has been a tremendous amount of speculation that this may have been the case, but no real confirmation.

ThinkSecret issued a statement late last week that they had reached an amicable settlement with Apple over an almost 3 year old lawsuit accusing ThinkSecret of illegally obtaining and disseminating Apple trade secrets. The only details of the settlement revealed were that ThinkSecret would not reveal their sources, and would no longer be published. Later comments from Ciarelli's lawyer suggested that Apple settled to avoid potentially losing the case if it were pursued. Apple, however, has made no public comments settlement.

Apple has updated Security Update 2007-009 to v1.1, available in 10.4.11 PPC and Universal and 10.5.1 Universal flavors.

According to Apple's documentation, the new version does not affect the security content of the original update, but addresses an issue that may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit when browsing to certain websites.

Apple initially released Security Update 2007-009 earlier this week, which included a host of security updates for both 10.4.11 and 10.5.1.

The U.S. Army believes that diversifying its computing platforms, in part by integrating more Macs, will make it more secure against cyberattacks like the ones that occurred over the summer to the Pentagon and a number of defense contractors.

According to Forbes, the Army has quietly begun to integrate Macs into its systems. While Macs currently only make up around 20,000 of the Army's 700,000 computers, Macs are currently entering the Army at a rate of approximately 2,000 per year.

The previous barriers to Apples entering the Army have recently been overcome by Common Access Card (CAC) software development efforts by a Texas developer (CAC's are used extensively by the military) and security concerns outweighing cost concerns.

"A leaked deployment order, for instance, might reveal the path of a supply truck and the points where it could be sabotaged [...] This is information that affects the lives of soldiers and the civilians we're trying protect [...] It has to be safeguarded."

Every now and then questions rise about the security of Mac OS X. Earlier this year was the Month of Apple Bugs, and just this week was an article claiming that Mac OS X had 5 times more flaws than Windows over the past year. However, developments like this seem to indicate that Apple's security reputation remains positive amongst IT professionals.

9to5mac claims that Apple will reach approximately 5 million in iPhone sales by Macworld San Francisco in January 2008 which would bring them half way to their goal of 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008.

According to 9to5mac's sources, approximately 1 million of these sales are through Europe, despite reports of sluggish sales. The news comes shortly after reports that iPhone's sales have exceeded Windows mobile marketshare by capturing approximately 27% of the smartphone market this past quarter.

These rumored sales numbers are difficult to verify, but would represent a significant acceleration of sales since their one millionth sale, which took place in September. Apple's iPhone sales, however, may have been spurred by the $200 price drop that also took place in September. If these numbers are true, Steve Jobs will likely announce them during the Macworld Expo Keynote on January 15th.

Appleinsider claims that Apple will be adopting Intel's upcoming "Menlow" Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform for multiple new devices in 2008.

Menlow incorporates a 45-nanometer low-power "Silverthorne" chip that promises to utilize only between half a watt to 2 watts of electrical power, making it ideal for future mobile phones and ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs). Other features to be included in the platform include WiFi, 3G, and WiMAX technologies.

Menlow is expected to be delivered by Intel in the 1st half of 2008. Appleinsider is uncertain when Apple will announce products based on the new platform, but suggests that it is under consideration for next-generation iPhones or in the rumored Apple tablet/PDA.

DigiTimes had previously disclosed that Apple was looking into Intel's most advanced mobile system-on-a-chip, Moorestown. Intel claims Moorestown will be even more efficient than the Menlow platform, however it isn't due until 2009.

Ultra-mobile PCs were in the spotlight in early 2006 when Microsoft revealed their Origami Project which introduced a line of UMPCs into the marketplace. The adoption of such mobile devices has so far been limited.

A Computerworld article provides reaction from ThinkSecret's lawyer on today's announcement that ThinkSecret had settled with Apple and would no longer be published.

Terry Gross of Gross & Belsky LLP told Computerworld, "The First Amendment has prevailed and every Internet journalist should feel some strength from what's happened", claiming that it was clear that Apple was going to lose if they continued to pursue the case. Gross goes on to state that it was settled because Nick Ciarelli was ready to move on to other projects after running ThinkSecret for the past 9 years, since age 13.

Gross challenges that he "would have loved for Apple to go forward on this" and that "Apple would have caved."

In an earlier statement to MacRumors, Ciarelli had said "I'm very satisfied with the settlement".

The US Patent Office has revealed a number of recent patent filings by Apple.

The first notable filing deals with automatic shutdown of a device and/or host after certain conditions are met, such as after a portable media player's battery is finished charging, or after a file transfer is complete. Apple suggests a scenario where an iPod or iPhone is plugged into an iMac to charge, but the user wishes for both to go to sleep or shutdown after the charge is complete (which may take several hours). The application, #20070294546, initially filed June 19, 2006 was made public today.

The other filing, patent application #20070288886, deals with attempts to fight software piracy.

A digital rights management system permits an application owner to cause code to be injected into the application's run-time instruction stream so as to restrict execution of that application to specific hardware platforms. In a first phase, an authorizing entity (e.g., an application owner or platform manufacturer) authorizes one or more applications to execute on a given hardware platform. Later, during application run-time, code is injected that performs periodic checks are made to determine if the application continues to run on the previously authorized hardware platform. If a periodic check fails, at least part of the application's execution string is terminated--effectively rendering the application non-usable. The periodic check is transparent to the user and difficult to circumvent.

Apple has thus-far resisted industry trends towards activation of software, and currently only uses such methods in some of its most costly professional software. While it is clear that Apple has been working on methods to combat piracy, it remains to be seen how far Apple will employ the methods in its software. Readers are reminded that only a portion of the applications filed end up making it to shipping products.jeff

is this the same http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/10/0022201?

arn

no... new patent.

Macenstein publishes a screenshot from the latest build of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 that reveals that Apple has included a List-View into Stacks. Stacks is a file organization feature introduced in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

Users are also given the option of displaying a traditional Folder icon instead of the "stack" of icons in the Dock. These changes address a number of criticisms about Apple's initial Stacks implementation:

There's just not enough room in a single Dock tile for a stack of icons to convey any meaningful information. Only the top one, two, maybe three items have any visual impact. And those few items may be misleading (e.g., the home folder appearing to be the Desktop folder) or completely generic (e.g., the Pictures and Movies folders showing up as plain folder icons.) Seriously, Apple, this is a bad idea.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 was seeded to developers on Tuesday night. It is not yet available to the general public.

Apple has released 2 new iPod games, Peggle and Bomberman. (iTunes Links)

Peggle is published by Popcap and is also available as a free trial download for the Mac.

Apple has also made Pac-Man, Sims Bowling, and Sims Pool, previously only available for the 5th generation iPod, available for the iPod classic and 3rd generation iPod Nano as well.

Apple rumor site, ThinkSecret, issued a statement today indicating that they would no longer be published due to terms of a confidential settlement with Apple.

Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret's publisher, said "I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits."

ThinkSecret has been one of the longest running Apple rumor sites, started in 1999. Apple sued ThinkSecret in January of 2005 for "posting Apple trade secrets and encouraging and inducing persons to provide product information in breach of agreements." Today's settlement brings a close to this lawsuit.

When contacted, Nick Ciarelli was unable to provide any further details but said, "I'm very satisfied with the settlement" and wished to thank the Electronic Frontier Foundation and his attorney, Terry Gross of Gross & Belsky, for their support.