MacRumors

Apple has today announced that the release of MacOS X 10.5 Leopard will be delayed until October due to the development of iPhone.

iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.

Apple goes on to state that while Leopard will be feature-complete by WWDC, they could not "deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us." As if to demonstrate that point, Apple recently released a new build of Leopard which continued to contain a long-list of known issues.

Developers will be given a "near-final" beta copy of Leopard at the Worldwide Developers Conference in early June.

A patent application by Apple, released today, indicates that the company is continuing to explore new ways for users to command their Macs.

Patent Application number 20070080945 details a mouse having a button-less pan and scroll switch. Apple details that instead of using a traditional scroll wheel (or scroll ball in the case of the Mighty Mouse), the mouse would sense different hand positions and act in different ways according to how it is being held.

In one embodiment, the first mode of operation of the mouse may be a cursor control mode and the first operations on the display screen may be cursor movements on the display screen. Additionally, the second mode of operation of the mouse may be a pan and/or scroll control mode and the second operations on the display screen may be scrolling and/or panning movements on the display screen.

Patent applications can provide interesting insight into what concepts or technologies Apple is working on in their labs, however readers are reminded that only a subset of these applications will make it into final shipping products.

Apple officially posted two new Get a Mac ads on their website tonight: Flashback and Computer Cart.

'Flashback' shows Mac and PC in their youth while 'Computer Cart' targets cryptic error messages on PCs.

'Flashback' was spotted and posted by MacRumors user Rocketman earlier tonight.

CNN Money's Media Biz blog reports that they have heard that Apple may be interested in joining the subscription service model for their popular iTunes store.

According to the blog, Les Ottolenghi, CEO of INTENT MediaWorks, has had meetings with Apple and believes that they will be launching a subscription service for iTunes in the next six months:

"I think Apple is seriously considering a subscription offering right now even though they will probably tell you otherwise"

INTENT MediaWorks is described as "a digital distribution system that works with peer-to-peer networks".

Apple's official stance has always been against the subscription model for music sales, but with the introduction of movies, TV shows and the Apple TV, they may be revisiting this idea.

CNet's Gadget blog had previously reported that Sling Media was working to get their SlingBox working with the Apple TV. A Sling Media employee confirms that this was accurate:

Yes, I can confirm this is accurate. (I work for Sling Media.) The Slingbox currently supports over 3,000 AV devices (cable boxes, DVRs, DVD players, etc) via IR and weve got many more in the pipeline. For Apple TV, youd use the component pass-thru on a Slingbox Pro with HD Connect to remotely view, or listen, to your content. Our SlingPlayer software (computer and mobile) offers an audio-only mode, so were not just talking iTV video here Select an iTunes playlist, switch to audio-only if youd like (reducing bandwidth), and listen to your music anywhere youve got Internet.

SlingBox is media box that allows users to watch and control their home TV, DVR, or home theatre setup on a Mac or PC over the internet. CNet's Gadget blog also notes that Sling Media has been offering the ability to stream content to your mobile phone and speculates that Apple's iPhone support could be in the works.

This functionality would allow you to have your entire iTunes library available to you on your internet enabled phone (iPhone or not) without directly syncing your entire library to your phone.

MGM and United Artists movies have started appearing on Apple's iTunes Store this evening. The new movies are listed amongst the New Releases (iTunes link) on iTunes.

Popular MGM Titles include (iTunes links) Mad Max, Bulletproof Monk, Rocky, Pieces of April, The Thomas Crown Affair, Dances with Wolves, and Robocop. Meanwhile, only one United Artists movie (Ronin) has been added so far.

United Artists and MGM have now joined Lionsgate, Paramount and Disney in selling movies on Apple's iTunes Store. With the release of the Apple TV, additional movie content for the iTunes Store has likely become a priority for Apple. When the iTunes Movie sales originally launched, Disney was the only studio that had participated. There had been rumors that Wal-mart and other retailers were threatened by Apple's entry into the movie-market. Even now, these new studio's movies appear to represent older "catalog" movies, rather than "new" releases.

An official press release from Apple should be expected later today.

According to ThinkSecret, Apple is at work overhauling QuickTime and OpenGL components in Mac OS X in order to improve video and 3D performance. The site's sources reportedly claim that Apple is working hard to make sure that both enhancements are included with Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard", although they caution that the QuickTime enhancements may be pushed back beyond Leopard.

For QuickTime, Apple is reportedly building a new API which would deliver many of the improvements said to be included in the software. "While QuickTime from a end-users perspective is not expected to undergo any substantial improvements, the new API will take years of legacy QuickTime code and replace it with a more modern and efficient architecture to deliver improved performance and maintainability." The site claims that such an API would likely fall under Apple's "Core" mantra ("Core Video").

As for OpenGL, ThinkSecret reports that separate sources claim that substantial improvements are on track for Leopard's implementation of OpenGL which should enable Mac OS X to perform more on par with similarly configured PC systems, especially with respect to games.

Apple has been actively involved in implementing multi-threaded OpenGL, having introduced it in Mac OS 10.4.8 for Intel. PowerPC support for multi-threaded OpenGL should arrive with Leopard.

Apple has begun airing a new ad for its newly released Apple TV. The ad has not yet been posted to Apple's website, but forum member Rocketman was able to capture the ad using his Sony DSC-P10 camcorder and post it to Google Video (update: Improved video capture posted via YouTube):

Additional reader reports indicate that the ad is airing on multiple networks, including CNBC, ESPN, and MTV.

Update: Video updated to direct capture. Thanks to sminmin86.

Update 2: Apple has posted the ad to their website.

Apple announced via a press release today that it has sold its 100 millionth iPod. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle.

At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success, said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and were thrilled to be a part of that.

The iPod has also sparked an unprecedented ecosystem of over 4,000 accessories made specifically for the iPod that range from fashionable cases to speaker systems, and more than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

I take my running shoes and my iPod with me everywhere, said Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France champion. I listen to music when I run. Having my music with me is really motivating.

Update: sminman posts a photo of a full page advertisement that Apple took out in today's Wall Street Journal celebrating the 100,000,000 iPod sales.

With the release of the new Mac Pro, it appears that Apple UK Store is offering Mac OS X 10.4 Server (10-Client) for free with the purchase of a new Mac Pro.

The Mac OS X Server software typically costs 349 for the 10-Client version at the UK Store, while the Unlimited-Client typically costs 699. On the Mac Pro order form, however, the OS X Server 10-Client is a free upgrade, with the Unlimited Client discounted to 349.

In fact, this discounted option is reflected in all of the European stores, but U.S/Canada customers still have to pay full retail price.

Since there has been no official announcement of this "deal", it remains possible this may be an error on Apple's website... so readers should order at their own risk.

With the flurry of hacks surrounding the Apple TV, including the ability to run a full version of Mac OS X, there's been some concern and unfounded speculation that Apple may be specifically disabling these hacks.

The most official word available comes from Engadget with a report that Apple has let them know that they are not actively involved in shutting down hacked Apple TVs.

Apple's stance, it claims, is more along the lines of: it's your box, do with it what you please -- but be mindful of voiding that warranty.

MacNN reports that the 3GHz Xeon (Clovertown) processor that was introduced in the 8-core Mac Pro is a currently unannounced model.

According to comments by Intel's Bill Kircos: "We are indeed shipping a 3.0GHz Xeon version [and] expect to see faster gigahertz speeds for our high-end [Core 2] Extreme PCs very soon, too. For now, the product is in limited production and Apple has chosen to adopt it. We will introduce another 3.0GHz Xeon SKU later on as well."

Indeed, it appears Apple had waited for the 3GHz Quad-Core Xeon to become available before launching the 8-Core Mac Pro.

While rumors of an 8-core Mac Pro began back in October, the available chips at that time maxed out at 2.66Ghz. Only in March was it revealed by Intel that a 3GHz version would be coming "later this year".

It appears Apple is the first to use the as-yet unannounced 3GHz Xeon (Clovertown) chips.

Appleinsider points to a recent patent application published from Apple which explores the use of different sized icons within one window. The relative size differences in the interface are said to reflect the relative importance of each icon.

Right now, users can globally change icon sizes in Mac OS X in all windows, but with the newly described system icon sizes could be used to adjusted based on user preference.

"To this end," Apple wrote, "a user's arbitrary sizing of various icons in accordance with the present invention generates icon representations that can advantageously represent categorization of application or file importance, and/or the size of a file represented by an icon."

Apple's files patents for many ideas that are never actually implemented, but Apple's early multi-touch patents did first reveal technologies that made their way into the Apple iPhone.