MacRumors

Today, Netflix unveiled a Roku designed $100 set top box that delivers streaming movies to your television.

The Roku box is about the size of a paperback book, has no hard drive, and simply streams video through an ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. For the best possible viewing experience, Netflix recommends an Internet speed of at least 1.5 Mbps.

There is no additional monthly fee for use beyond Netflix's usual monthly charge (minimum $9/month) to have unlimited access to Netflix's 10,000 streamable movies.

Comparisons have already been made to the Apple TV, which offers a $229 set to box which allows you to purchase or rent movies on a per item basis. Forbes directly compares the two devices which appear to be targeting different markets. Apple's solution provides fewer (~1000) movies, but offers new-release titles and high definition content. Netflix's 10,000 titles consist mostly of older library titles and presently offers only standard definition video and stereo audio. Netflix's box, however, is said to be upgradable to High Definition and surround sound through a future software update. Like the Apple TV, Netflix is also planning to allow their device to accept non-Netflix content in the future. Gizmodo provides an early review of the unit.

Some of these differences are likely related to movie studio's willingness to license specific content in certain ways (sales, rentals, vs unlimited subscription model).

Gizmodo claims to have received confirmation from "sources close to the 3G iPhone launch" that the 3G-capable iPhone will indeed be introduced at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference.

The news comes as no surprise with the avalanche of evidence that has been suggesting the same. Gizmodo, however, pinpoints June 18th at the specific launch day for Spain, and expects world wide availability shortly after the June 9th WWDC launch.

They also suggest that the next iPhone will be offered with more traditional discounts and incentives rather then the fixed price point Apple had been offering with the original iPhone. No specific details have been leaked, though there have been rumors that even AT&T might offer a subsidy on the upcoming 3G iPhone.

eWeek first reported on an interesting breakdown of Apple's retail marketshare. According to numbers from the NPD Group, Apple's Q1 2008 retail (brick and mortar) reached 14%. Note that by limiting it to retail, they've excluded online sales and institutional/enterprise sales.

More surprising, however, is if you limit the data to computers priced above $1,000, Apple represents 66% of all retail computer sales.

Apple's success above $1,000 defies some of the conventional retail thinking about PCs, where the emphasis is on lower pricing and greater features. "Consumers don't care about features," Stephen asserted. "People see a value proposition in an offering that gives them a great experience."

As with all statistics, it's difficult to take these raw numbers at face value. Instead, the most revealing finding is how quickly this market share has been increasing. Fortune reports that Apple's $1,000+ January 2006 marketshare was only 18%. Their share grew to 57% by September 2007 and finally to 66% in the 1st quarter of this year. These numbers confirm Apple's reporting of large year-over-year growth of Mac sales during their financial results.

One long term question becomes whether or not the saturation of their target market ($1,000+ computers) will limit Apple's future growth. If more customers aren't attracted to this high-end market over time, Apple's Mac sales growth will necessarily stall. Meanwhile, up until now, Apple has been resistant to compete in the low margin market. Apple's only sub-$1,000 offering, the Mac mini, has been rumored to be just hanging on to life.

This phenomenon could explain Apple's willingness to experiment in seemingly niche markets that were not previously satisfied by Apple's offerings. A product like the MacBook Air might be able to further expand their already-large marketshare amongst customers in the $1,000+ market. If Apple's success continues, however, there will be no where else to look but to the sub $1000 market for additional customers.

A company called XSKN has revealed a case design described as an "iPhone 3G" case. The 3G version of the case is shown here, followed by the Original iPhone case:

The differences are slight, but correspond to the leaked specs given to case manufacturers. It also appears to be slightly thicker which was also previously claimed. The image of the iPhone itself appears to be a stock photo of the original iPhone, so no conclusions can be drawn from the icons and interface seen.

TheRegister.co.uk reports that Apple will continue to provide PA Semi's low-power PowerPC chip to existing customers, despite the acquisition:

PA Semi's staff has started notifying a limited set of customers that the company's existing dual-core processor will enjoy long-term support. Apple will employ a number of old PA Semi staffers just for this task, which is good news for folks making missiles, mine-sweeping gear and storage boxes.

Apple acquired PA Semi in April, but had no interest in its existing product line. PA Semi had originally told customers that they would be unable to guarantee a supply of their chips in the future. PA Semi's PWRficient processor had reportedly seen quick adoption in a number of Department of Defense projects.

NYTimes' Technology blog reports that Apple is currently in active negotiations with music labels about providing more mobile music content on their iTunes store.

One executive quoted specifically states that "[Apple wants] a big launch in June", presumably referring to the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) scheduled to start on June 9th 2008. However, since negotiations only started a few weeks ago, the deals may not be in place in time for a WWDC announcement.

Apple reportedly wants to expand its Ringtone library and introduce the sale of "Answer Tones". Answer Tones are customized sounds played to callers instead of the traditional ringing sound.

Another area of negotiation is the distribution of iTunes songs over the cellular network. For now, the iPhone allows you to purchase iTunes music only over Wi-fi networks. This had been thought to be a limitation of the slower EDGE data network, but it appears this mobile music distribution must be specifically negotiated with the record labels. Traditionally, these over-the-air cellular music sales have carried a premium over the traditional internet distribution, and the music labels are requesting a higher price for these sales. The expected addition of faster 3G data service on the upcoming iPhone will certainly increase consumer demand for over-the-air iTunes downloads.

While users wait for Apple to implement a full desktop version of Multitouch for Mac OS X, some enterprising users have begun development of a 3rd party framework for full screen multitouch interaction.

Lux, a 3rd party framework developed by Christian Moore, provides "true multitouch interaction" in Mac OS X and other operating systems. Developed using Flash and C++ (flash for rapid development), Moore says the framework is open-source.

Apple's UITouch its very, very well designed. It runs at the core level, while ours is more a free environment to develop on top... to learn about multitouch and share code.

Gizmodo provides an interview with the principal developer and a video demonstration. The actual multi-touch hardware is self made.

Marketwatch relays a Commercial Times report that suggests we will see the next MacBook revisions in Q3 2008 (July-September).

According to the newspaper, AU Optronics Corp.and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. received orders for flat-panel displays to be used in the next MacBook.

Taiwan's top two flat-panel makers by revenue, have obtained flat-panel orders for Apple Inc.'s new MacBook, the Commercial Times reported Friday, citing industry sources.

The shipment target for this new MacBook is said to be in the 3rd quarter of 2008 for up to 3 million units.

The MacBook was last updated ahead of expectations in late February. Those updates were relatively modest, primarily replacing the MacBook processor with the new Penryn chips. A 3rd Quarter release would put the next MacBook revisions behind the introduction of the Montevina platform which is due in June. Other reports have claimed that the next MacBook would see "major design changes" with a transition from plastic to aluminum and stainless steel.

A much publicized patent application published in December 2007 revealed that Apple had explored allowing handheld owners (such as the iPhone) to place orders from local stores. The system would, for example, allow customers to order a drink with the press of a button on their iPhone which would then notify them when their order was ready.

A new patent application today expands that concept to different types of local content, including events, movies, concerts and could even present you with general information and reviews about local restaurants. This location-based content could also include ordering food as detailed in the previous patent application, but also movie tickets and music purchasing.

Beyond this, it appears local content could be customized, with businesses publishing content themselves to be distributed to passers by. A particularly useful example would be at an Airport where flight schedules, maps, weather, and city information could be offered. Presumably, those with a properly equipped iPhones (or other devices) would be able to access this content simply by connecting to their local Wifi network.

Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog notes that Intel has now denied the statements published by ZDnet.de yesterday. Specifically, they claim that the Intel Germany's CEO was making general remarks about the kind of mobile devices that the Atom might power in the future. They go on to claim they know "nothing" about future products from other manufacturers. Fscklog also contacted an Intel Germany spokesperson who also claims that this statement never happened.

The confusion, however, is not one of poor German-to-English translation, as the original ZDnet article clearly stated what was reported. In fact, ZDNet's original article is now linking to another account of the same event. PCGamesHardware.de confirms statements like these were made, though without direct quotes the exact interpretation of it remains up for debate (translated by Leo from Fscklog):

PCGH-Editor Daniel Waadt was there as well an can attest, that Schwaderer referred to the iPhone as an example for the use of the atom-processor from Intel. The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.

Update: Golem.de claims to have also been at the talk and they did not find any iPhone-related news in his talk:

Golem.de, too, was present at last night's intel-event, however, our hardware editor - who is at AMD channel summit in Dresden right now - did not find anything related to the iPhone in Schwaderer's comment.

Apple confirmed to Macworld that the 2008 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) has sold out for the first time.

"Response to this year's WWDC has been off the charts and we are delighted with the show of enthusiasm and support from the developer community for the new iPhone SDK," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld. "The conference is now sold out. For those unable to attend WWDC, session videos will be available to purchase on iTunes shortly after the conference."

Apple declined to provide an exact tally for the record-breaking attendance. Certainly, opening the conference up to iPhone developers has increased interest in Apple's developer conference.