MacRumors

A tipster has broadcast claimed 3G iPhone images to a number of rumor and tech sites in the hope of getting their images published:

MacRumors, Appleinsider CrunchGear and Engadget have all received these photos. The entire set is published in the comment thread. We've moved these images from Page 2 to the front page due to the level of interest it is generating. Anonymously submitted images about unreleased products are rarely legitimate, and we do not necessarily believe these images are accurate, but are posted for interest sake.

CNet interviewed Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and found that Apple may have an interest in Nvidia's CUDA technology:

CUDA is a programming technology that allows software developers to take advantage of the unique parallel processing characteristics of graphics processors such as Nvidia's GeForce 8600M, found in the MacBook Pro.

According to Huang, "Apple knows a lot about CUDA" and may announce support for the technology at next week's' Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

During a demo for CNet, Nvidia engineers demonstrated how a CUDA-enabled version of a program could dramatically speed up converting video from one format to another. Transcoding video can be useful to convert existing video to be played on another device (such as the iPhone).

Engadget claims to have heard from a "reliable source" that a private version of the 3G iPhone's firmware has been dissected revealing the following hardware support:

- Infineon PMB6952 / S-GOLD3 six-band UMTS / HSDPA transceiver
- Murata LMRX3JCA-479 tri-band amplifier (we're assuming for the 3G)
- Sony SP9T - antenna Switch for GSM / UMTS dual mode
- ARM 1176JZF-S - Main CPU (same as in 1st gen iPhone)
- Skyworks 77427 - UMTS / HSDPA tx 1900, rx 2100MHz
- Skyworks 77414 - UMTS / HSDPA 1900
- Skyworks 77413 - UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz
- Internal build model number: n82ap (1st gen iPhone was model m68ap)
- UMTS Power Saving - on or off
- Hooks for Global Locate Library (GLL), software that handles GPS related commands for the host processor

Engadget suggests that this is evidence for GPS support as well as Tri-band HSDPA (3G) support making it compatible with international carriers. Engadget previously reported the new iPhone would offer 3G, GPS and be "only slightly thicker." Meanwhile, GigaOM also recently "confirmed" GPS support was present with the contract going to Broadcom. Also, if these specs are true, the the main processor for the next iPhone would be the same as the existing iPhone.

The 3G-capable iPhone is expected to be announced during Apple's WWDC keynote speech on Monday, June 9th at 10am Pacific.

Anandtech managed to get access to some early versions of Intel's Nehalem processors that are due for release in Q4 2008. We've previously described Nehalem which is expected to be a major jump forward from Intel's current Penryn processors. The key new features in Nehalem are Simultaneous multithreading, QuickConnect, and tri-channel DDR3.

Despite only having access to early chips and early motherboards, Anandtech was impressed:

First keep in mind that these performance numbers are early, and they were run on a partly crippled, very early platform. With that preface, the fact that Nehalem is still able to post these 20 - 50% performance gains says only one thing about Intel's tick-tock cadence: they did it.

Anandtech had access to a 2.66GHz Nehalem processor which they pitted against a 2.66GHz Penryn processor. Performance improvements ranged from 20-50% faster for the Nehalem chip. h.264 video encoding was tested and saw a 44% speed boost on Nehalem vs Penryn on the equally clocked processors. They claim that the 2.66GHz Nehalem outpaces the current top-of-the-line 3.2GHz Penryn. The speed increase comes at a cost of only a 10% increase in total system power consumption.

Apple will certainly adopt the Nehalem processors after they become available. While the first server-grade Nehalem processors are expected in Q4 of 2008, desktop and laptop models won't be available until sometime in 2009.

MacTalk.com.au posts a photo of a box that was reportedly sent to Australian resellers yesterday. The boxes are sealed with a warning:

SUBJECT TO TERMS OF NDA
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TUESDAY JUNE 10TH, 2008

June 10th (in Australia) is the day of the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech where Steve Jobs is expected to announce the 3G capable iPhone. MacTalk speculates that the box may actually contain a demo model of the 3G iPhone.

Our source believes that the iPhone contained within is for promotional purposes, ie. after it's official unveiling at WWDC next week, the iPhone will go on display with a sign saying 'look how cool I am - you can buy me on this date'.

Vodafone and SingTel both announced that they would be bringing the iPhone to Australia later this year.

CrunchGear has posted the first banners at WWDC which promote both "OS X Leopard" and "OS X iPhone". The "OS X Leopard" banner reads "The world's most advanced operating system," while the "OS X iPhone" banner reads "The world's most advanced mobile platform."

Additional photos from the Flickr photo set from Gernot Poetsch. Another photo posted on Flickr shows a large Apple logo in Moscone as viewed from the W Hotel.

Update: MacNN has posted an extensive gallery of images from Moscone:

As reported by AppleInsider, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu informed clients that he believed there is a 50-50 chance that Apple would introduce new form factor multi-touch devices at WWDC next week.

Our sources indicate 4-inch and 7-inch touchscreen devices beyond prototype stage that are a cross between a Mac and iPod touch.

Of course, Wu says the exact timing may change. This simply adds to existing rumors that Apple is working on a mini-tablet or Newton-like device. Of note, Intel did officially introduce its low-power Atom processor this week. The Atom processor has been rumored to be under consideration by Apple for use in an upcoming mini-tablet device.

Meanwhile, TUAW claims that Apple will release Mac OS X 10.5.4 in mid June, only weeks behind 10.5.3 in order to support Mobile Me as well as a new piece of Apple hardware. Such a quick release for another version of Mac OS X would be unprecedented, though TUAW claims the news came from a "reliable" source. Of course, Apple has already started seeding versions of Mac OS X 10.5.4 as of yesterday.

Finally, iLounge publishes photos of what is claimed to be photos of new 3.2" and 2.8" screens to be used in future iPhones.

the first pictures and diagrams of a touchscreen display that a Taiwanese company claims is being used in an upcoming iPhone. Its a 2.8 displayshown here alongside a newer 3.2 versiontwo sizes that would enable Apple to start shrinking both iPhones and touchscreen iPods from the current 3.5 screen size found in its first-generation models.

Despite the photos, iLounge believes there is "zero chance" that the smaller 2.8" screen would be used in the 3G iPhone expected next week, but considers the possibility that Apple may introduce new form factors in the future.

WWDC kicks off on Monday, June 9th. MacRumors.com will be providing live coverage of the keynote speech.

Only one week after the release of Mac OS X 10.5.3, Apple has already started seeding developers with the first version of Mac OS X 10.5.4 (build 9E6). The latest developer seed lists no known issues and details only a handful of fixes to Mac OS X. Apple appears to be aggressively seeding developers with the latest builds of Mac OS X and waiting only days between builds.

This release comes only days head of Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference which is rumored to introduce us to Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Apple's next major Mac OS X version. As typical, Apple will continue to work on bug fixes on the current version of Mac OS X while the new version is readied. There is no known timeframe for the 10.5.4 release but Apple can wait months between these maintenance releases.

The WebKit project announced this week a new and improved JavaScript interpreter, code-named SquirrelFish.

SquirrelFish promises 1.6 times faster JavaScript performance as compared to Webkit/Safari 3.1. This is accomplished by using "a register-based, direct-threaded, high-level bytecode engine" which aims to eliminate the overhead associated with traditional syntax tree walking interpreters like the one currently used in Safari 3.1.x.

The introduction of this open-source effort means these improvements will almost certainly be propagated into future versions of Apple's Safari web browser, however the timing is unknown. Javascript is a scripting language that is commonly used on many websites.

Of note, Safari 3.1 already brought dramatic speed improvements over 3.0.x, indicating Apple has been and continues to be actively engaged in Safari/WebKit JavaScript performance.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has recently published an extensive patent application, seemingly for features related to the 3G iPhone and software version 2.0, both now expected to be released next Monday.

The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.

Also detailed in the application is support for inline media, including Flash and Windows Media. Among the 25 inventors listed is Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Raw Data: Patent Application 20080122796

Arstechnica reports on more details about the next major version of Mac OS X (10.6). According to the news site, the next version of Mac OS X will indeed be an Intel-only release and that it is code named "Snow Leopard".

Ars can also confirm the expected release target of January 2009 as well as a focus on speed and stability:

Snow Leopard is currently on track to come out during next January's Macworld, and it will not contain major OS changes. Instead, the release is heavily focused on performance and nailing down speed and stability.

The author points to future mobile devices as the driving force behind this focus on performance and stability. There is also a suggestion that Apple may move Mac OS X 10.6 to "Cocoa-only", but the full meaning of this remains vague:

There may be some disagreement here as to what exactly "Cocoa-only" means, so take that into account when thinking about this. For example, Apple may only axe Carbon UI stuff.

Update: John Gruber clarifies that "pure Cocoa" does not have anything to do with dropping Carbon from the OS.

Apple also announced today the launch of iTunes movies in the UK.

"We're kicking off movies on the iTunes Store in the UK with over 700 films for purchase and rent," said Eddy Cue, Apples vice president of iTunes. "We think customers in the UK are going to love being able to enjoy their favorite movies on their iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV."

For movie rentals, customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it.

iTunes movies are available at 6.99 for library title purchases and 10.99 for new releases. iTunes movie rentals are 2.49 for library title rentals and 3.49 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at one pound more.