MacRumors

Media research firm Nielsen today released its lists of top U.S. mobile phones, sites, and brands for the first ten months of 2009, and the iPhone 3G took the top spot among mobile phones with 4.0% of the market. The iPhone placed slightly ahead of Research in Motion's BlackBerry 8300 series at 3.7%, and well ahead of the remainder of the pack, which was led by Motorola's RAZR V3 series at 2.3%.

Apple also made an appearance on Nielsen's list of top ten brands accessed via mobile networks for the January-September 2009 timeframe, taking tenth place on a list topped by Yahoo! and Google.

Anandtech spent some time with Epic Games' Mark Rein last week and was shown a demo of the Unreal Engine 3 running on a 3rd Generation iPod Touch. The demo included a flythrough as well as a playable level from Unreal Tournament.

It's using a modified Unreal Tournament level previously shown off at GDC. A virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen controls your movement, while tracking your thumb in the lower right corner of the screen controls the camera. Just tap the screen to shoot. Mark said this is a tech test bed and theyre experimenting with several different control schemes including ones with tilt.

The Unreal Engine 3 is a modern 3D gaming engine which powers games such as Bioshock, Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3.

The game engine requires OpenGL 2.0 so this will restrict the game to 3rd generation iPod Touches and iPhone 3GSs only. Epic is planning on making the engine available to licensees at some point, opening the door eventually to Unreal-powered iPhone games.

Last week we saw the first evidence that iPhone 4.0 was in testing with reports that it was already being spotted in web site logs. We pointed out at the time that while interesting, such user agent logs could easily be faked. This week, we've received slightly more evidence that iPhone OS 4.0 is indeed undergoing testing.

One iPhone developer has since noted a single instance of iPhone OS 4.0 being used in their Pinch Media analytics.

The new operating system first appeared this week in their application's logs. While such data can still be faked, it seems less likely to be. Testing of iPhone OS 4.0 may correspond with reports of new iPhone hardware also being tested. Any new iPhone would require a new version of the iPhone operating system to support the new hardware. Apple is widely expected to release a new iPhone in the summer around WWDC 2010.

TechCrunch reports that a U.S. federal court judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit brought against Apple for reported failure to disclose manufacturing defects present in the company's iMac models.

The lawsuit stated that unwanted vertical lines would appear on the devices after the warranty period had expired and that Apple "internally recognizes and concedes" the defect, but did nothing to warn consumers.

As noted by AppleInsider, the suit was brought by a customer who purchased an iMac G5 in October 2006 and noticed vertical lines appearing on his display in March 2008. The dismissal of the class action suit reportedly stems from the plantiff's attempt to include all iMac customers in the class covered by the suit, even those who had experienced no problems and thus suffered no injury.

"These type of class actions are not suitable for actions where recovery of money damages is the primary relief sought by the plaintiff," Fogel wrote. "The purpose of this lawsuit is money damages. These pleading deficiencies are present despite the fact that Hovsepian has been given two opportunities to amend his complaint. Accordingly, the class actions will be struck without prejudice."

The class action suit and its dismissal are unrelated to the firmware update issued by Apple yesterday to address certain graphics issues on the company's latest 27" iMac models.

In a lengthy BusinessWeek article, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega again attempts to clarify the company's plans for dealing with high-usage iPhone data customers by emphasizing incentives for shifting traffic off of its network rather than implementing tiered pricing as had been suggested earlier this month. The comments mark the second time a major media outlet has gone public with de la Vega's efforts to clarify his earlier comments.

Industry analysts have been figuring that AT&T would inevitably move from its $30-a-month, unlimited data plan for iPhone users to a "tiered pricing" model that charges according to usage. De la Vega says that no such move is imminent. "There are things people say I said that I didn't say. We have not made any decision to implement tiered pricing," he says -- repeating the last part for emphasis.

De la Vega's comments to BusinessWeek were made in a December 16th interview, which appears to coincide with the interview cited in the earlier Wall Street Journal report, although the latest report provides additional perspective on the misinterpretation of de la Vega's original comments that sparked the controversy.

Within hours the Web was filled with articles that said Ma Bell was about to raise prices or slap consumers with restrictive monthly usage limits. "There were no follow-up questions, so I figured everyone understood what I was saying," de la Vegas said in a Dec. 16 interview. "I guess I should have been more clear."

As noted in the earlier report, AT&T is looking to such solutions as free Wi-Fi hotspots and 3G MicroCell network extenders to shift data traffic to the Internet. The strategy sees Wi-Fi as a "lifeline" for overloaded cellular networks, whereas it had previously been seen as a threat to cellular companies.

It's a lifeline that AT&T plans to use heavily. On Dec. 15, AT&T announced a deal with McDonalds (MCD) by which the fast-food giant will waive for two hours a $2.95 Wi-Fi charge for customers at 11,000 restaurants. "Now customers can go to McDonalds and stay online as long as they want," says de la Vega. The agreement follows earlier deals with such retailers as Starbucks (SBUX) and Barnes & Noble (BKS).

AT&T has taken heat for apparent cuts in infrastructure spending, even as the iPhone has continued to drive increasing demand. Network performance monitoring companies, as well as more informal testing, have shown, however, increased performance for AT&T's 3G network, putting it on par with or better than its competitors.

The Wall Street Journal reports that CBS and Walt Disney are considering participating in an upcoming plan by Apple to offer television subscription services over the Internet.

The proposed service by the maker of iPhones and iPod music players could, in at least some scenarios, offer access to some TV shows from a selection of major U.S. television networks for a monthly fee, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Apple is hoping to introduce the service in 2010.

The news comes as there is increasing evidence that Apple is looking to revamp its iTunes services. The recent acquisition of Lala Media has raised the possibility that Apple is seriously looking at subscription services as the future for iTunes. This approach is said to also fit in with Apple's tablet plans, which are being described as "a multimedia gadget" according to The Wall Street Journal's sources.

Apple is said to be seeing early resistance, however, from other content providers, potentially limiting the offerings of the service. Content providers seem to be apprehensive about cutting off existing revenue streams depending on the terms of the deal with Apple.

Apple today released 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0, addressing recent complaints of screen flickering on the company's newest iMac models.

About 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0
Updates the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering.

Installation instructions for the firmware update, which weighs in at 683 KB and requires Mac OS X 10.6.2, are available in the associated support document for the release.

Apple's new 27-inch iMac models have been plagued with reports of issues since their launch beginning in late October. Early reports of Flash performance issues were fixed with the release of Mac OS X 10.6.2, but more recent reports have revealed machines being delivered in a non-functional state or with cracked screens.

As part of its January 2010 issue, the Harvard Business Review released its list of the top-performing CEOs in the world, placing Apple CEO Steve Jobs first among CEOs ranked by performance throughout their tenures.

The #1 CEO on the list, Steve Jobs, delivered a whopping 3,188% industry-adjusted return (34% compounded annually) after he rejoined Apple as CEO in 1997, when the company was in dire shape. From that time until the end of September 2009, Apples market value increased by $150 billion.

The study included 1,999 CEOs who assumed their positions no earlier than 1995 and measured shareholder return as the key metric, with corrections included for general country-specific and/or industry-wide performance gains. A number of prominent CEOs, such as Microsoft's Bill Gates and Oracle's Larry Ellison, were not included in the study because they took office prior to the 1995 cutoff.

Our ranking combines three measures: country-adjusted return, industry-adjusted return, and change in market capitalization during tenure. Of course, shareholder return is not the only measure of performance, and it omits contributions companies make to a wide group of stakeholders. But it is the fundamental scorecard for CEOs of public companies. And it's the same scorecard for everyone.

In analyzing the data to attempt to discern qualities common to the most successful leaders, the report found that while country and industry affiliations had little affect on performance, the most successful CEOs tended to be company insiders, hold MBAs, and have taken over struggling companies.

Jobs was followed in the rankings by Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung, Alexey Miller of Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, John Chambers of Cisco, and Mukesh Ambani of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries.

In the first of a three-part series on Apple's App Store, the Financial Times reports that the phenomenal success of the iPhone application marketplace has topped even the initial expectations of those within Apple.

Already, the app eruption has superseded all the sober predictions of Apple executives and outside champions like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that created the first investment fund aimed solely at backing iPhone app developers.

"We had no idea there would be 2bn downloads by October," says Kleiner Perkins partner Matt Murphy, manager of the then $100m fund. "Most people within Apple, if you had told them it would be a fifth of that by now, they would have been pretty happy."

Part one of the series primarily serves as an introduction to the App Store, detailing its evolution as an an outgrowth of iTunes, which had already helped remake the music industry and provided an entry point into the larger community of Windows users. Beyond that, the report points to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' ability to negotiate eye-popping iPhone subsidies from wireless carriers and the rights to distribute application content to iPhone users as setting the stage for the Apple's tremendous success in the industry.

He argued that the iPhone was a computer, not a phone, and that consumers expected to be able to do many things with computers.

History had shown that this kind of freedom was what drove the more profitable "ecosystems" of computers - where sales of hardware were dependent on a wide variety of useable software.

The conclusion of the report, however, hints at some of the pitfalls of the App Store set to be discussed in the second installment tomorrow, citing the "gold rush mentality" that has made it increasingly difficult for developers to create hit applications that stand out from the crowd.

Reuters reports on iPhone developer Tapulous, the team behind the popular Tap Tap Revenge applications, noting that the small company is reportedly bringing in nearly $1 million per month in revenue. The success of Tapulous, which boasts only 20 employees, illustrates the ability of small development firms dedicated to the iPhone to carve out profitable niches for themselves in the App Store.

Tapulous -- with a mere 20 employees -- said its "Tap Tap Revenge" game series has now been installed more than 20 million times, with more than 600 million total games played.

Earlier this year, research group comScore said the game had been installed by one-third of Apple app users.

Tapulous' business model relies on a combination of revenue sources: paid application downloads, ads, and paid downloadable song content within applications.

The report notes that Tapulous has raised $2.8 million from investors and is now profitable. While the vast majority of iPhone applications come from small developers lacking the support of outside investors, a number of companies, including Smule and Ngmoco, have been able to capture the imaginations of angel and venture capital investors. With the backing of these investors, these developers have been able to create well-financed startup development houses looking to develop dedicated iPhone application pipelines and sustainable business models.

A tweet and article (and forum post) have pointed out that Moscone's summer schedule has blocked out June 28th-July 2nd as the likely dates for Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2010.

The schedule lists a "Corporate Event" occupying Moscone West during those dates. For the past two years this "Corporate Event" placeholder has accurately predicted the dates for WWDC (2008, 2009). Apple tends not to announce the official dates of WWDC until well into the new year.

WWDC has become of increasing importance to Apple as it now represents the only regularly scheduled launch event for the company. In the past, Macworld San Francisco anchored the January date as a second regular launch venue, but Apple will no longer be attending Macworld. Apple has launched a new iPhone model during the past two WWDC keynotes, and Phil Schiller even defined the iPhone's annual product cycle as a June revision.

Yesterday, we reported on a story quoting a Psystar attorney claiming that the unauthorized Mac clone manufacturer was in the process of winding down its business in the wake of a permanent injunction issued against it by a federal court judge earlier this month.

A new report from Computerworld, however, suggests that the company is not yet finished.

However, Camara told Computerworld by e-mail today, "Regrettably, Mr. Action was misquoted in an early story that seems to have been picked up elsewhere. Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."

The earlier report had noted the Psystar was planning to file an appeal of the judgment against it, although at the time it appeared that the company would be shutting down entirely until the appeal was heard at a minimum.

Psystar has several legal moves left to make, Camara said today. "Psystar will proceed to litigate the legality of Rebel EFI through the motion process described in Judge Alsup's order," Camara said. "Psystar will also proceed with its antitrust case in Miami."

Psystar's web site, which was down for nearly two days, has been restored. The company's online store currently offers only its Rebel EFI and has eliminated all mention of hardware sales, although even the Rebel EFI software is currently listed as "out of stock".

It seems 2010 is going to be the year of the tablet with or without Apple. While Apple is rumored to be pursuing the market later in the year, other consumer electronic companies aren't going to wait and see. A number of non-Apple tablet announcements are expected at CES this year with Notion Ink's announcement arriving a bit prematurely.

Details of Notion Ink's "Smartpad" tablet was released by Slashgear today and carries an impressive spec sheet. The 10.1" sized device also is one of the first to use Pixel Qi's 3qi screen we detailed as a possible candidate for the Apple tablet. The specs for the unreleased device can give you an idea of what might be possible in an upcoming Apple tablet:

- 6.3 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches
- 1.7 lbs
- WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, UMTS/HSDPA (3G)
- Digital Compass, Accelerometer, Proximity, Ambient light, Water sensors
- USB, HDMI, 3-megapixel autofocus camera, Video Recording
- 32GB SSD, SD Slot
- Android OS with Gesture Support.
- 1024x600 Pixel Qi display
- 48 hrs standby battery, 8 hrs HD video playback, 16 hrs internet surfing over WiFi

No price was given, and the system appears to be based on the NVIDIA Tegra T20 chipset. The Pixel Qi display which we detailed in the past is said to offer significant power savings to these portable devices as well as clear viewing in sunlight.

Apple is rumored to be bringing a tablet of roughly the same size to market later in 2010. Apple's version is expected to be based on the iPhone operating system.