MacRumors

Apple today released Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, addressing issues with certain hard drives on the latest MacBook Pros models. Apple had been reported last week to be working on the issue, which involves intermittent "beeping" noises and occasional brief system freezes on machines using 500 GB, 7200 rpm hard drives.

MacBook Pro Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 reduces certain infrequent noises made by 7200-rpm drives.

These drives shipped with the June 2009 MacBook Pro.

To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/Hard Drive Update.app).

The updater will launch automatically when the installation is complete.

New Hard Drive firmware will be: 0007APM2

As the issue was first gaining attention in the first days after release, it was judged to likely be stemming from the G-Force anti-shock protection mechanism found in the Seagate Momentus drives used by Apple. The G-Force mechanism is essentially redundant to Apple's own Sudden Motion Sensor technology included in its notebook computers, but it is unclear exactly what steps Apple took with this firmware update to address the issue.

MacRumors has received word that a listing for the Mac Box Set version of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard briefly appeared in Apple's online store earlier today. While the page, which listed the box set as shipping within 24 hours, is no longer available on Apple's site, an entry for it is retrieved in Google searches for the product number, MC209Z/A.

The Mac Box Set bundles Mac OS X with iLife '09 and iWork '09. A Leopard version was launched in late January at a price of $169, and a similar version will be available for Snow Leopard at the same price point. Apple has noted that the box set will be required for users looking to upgrade from OS X 10.4 Tiger to Snow Leopard, as the standalone OS X Snow Leopard, priced at $29, will require an existing installation of OS X 10.5 Leopard.

The brief appearance of the Snow Leopard Mac Box Set provides further evidence that the launch of Apple's new operating system is rapidly approaching. Snow Leopard Build 10A432 was reportedly designated the "Golden Master" version to be sent to manufacturing for the public release, and several sources have also claimed that Apple may be releasing Snow Leopard as early as Friday, August 28th, ahead of Apple's previously-announced September launch window. Over the weekend, purported photos of the Snow Leopard packaging also surfaced, indicating that manufacturing has indeed begun.

Update: MacRumors has now received a screenshot of the page:

Earlier this week, MacRumors received several purported screenshots of iTunes 9, as well as a screenshot of a user's Facebook page demonstrating how the rumored social networking integration would automatically post iTunes track and playlist information to Facebook. Interestingly, the screenshots also appear to depict support for third-party media players, in this case a 30 GB Samsung YH-J70.

MacRumors has been unable to confirm the authenticity of the supposed screenshots, but the same source has now provided additional screenshots to Boy Genius Report, revealing an iTunes version number of "9.0b15 (12)".

Update: We have good reason to believe these screenshots are fake.

A recent report that Apple has scheduled a music-focused media event for September 9th has once again sparked speculation that The Beatles may finally be coming to iTunes. The speculation is primarily driven by the scheduling of several other Beatles-related events on the same day.

In March, EMI Group announced that a Beatles version of the popular Rock Band music-themed video game would be released for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii on September 9th. That announcement was followed a month later by news that the entire remastered Beatles catalog would be released on CD on the same day. At the time, EMI Group and Beatles holding company Apple Corps noted only that discussions regarding digital distribution were ongoing.

Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalogue will continue.There is no further information available at this time.

While no further indication from EMI, Apple Corps, or others close to The Beatles or Apple have suggested that an iTunes deal is imminent, the timing of these events has unavoidably resulted in new speculation regarding an agreement.

Rumors of The Beatles coming to iTunes have repeatedly surfaced since Apple's launch of its digital download store. Despite conflict between the two companies over the use of the "Apple" trademark in the music business that stretched into 2007, claims of The Beatles appearing on iTunes have surfaced on a regular basis over the years:

- April 2006: Apple Corps' Neil Aspinall revealed that the company was in the process of remastering the Beatles catalog and preferred not to release Beatles tracks for digital distribution until the remastered versions became available.
- November 2006: Fortune reported that final details of a deal were reportedly being worked out.
- January 2007: Steve Jobs showing Beatles songs during an iPhone demo at Macworld San Francisco and several other unconfirmed reports suggested that a release might occur either on Valentine's Day or Super Bowl Sunday.
- May 2007: Apple announced that Paul McCartney's new solo album would be launched on iTunes, following reports from McCartney himself that The Beatles' catalog would soon be available online.
- August 2007: Speculation that the tag line for Apple's upcoming media event, "The beat goes on," was a reference to The Beatles' final press release renewed rumors of a Beatles-iTunes announcement.
- March 2008: Reports surfaced that Paul McCartney and Apple had struck a $400 million deal to bring The Beatles to iTunes, although the claim was quickly denied by Apple.
- November 2008: McCartney reported that discussions regarding bringing The Beatles to iTunes had "stalled".

Cult of Mac posts an interview with Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge, regarding possible plans for Apple's $1 billion data center due to open in rural Maiden, North Carolina in 2010. At approximately 500,000 square feet and roughly five times the size of the company's existing center in Newark, California, Apple's new data center will be among the largest in the world, sparking questions about what the company plans to do with the capacity.

While public figures closest to the Apple deal acknowledge only that the project will support existing iTunes and MobileMe services, speculation has arisen that Apple may be planning a significant foray into "cloud computing", allowing users to move applications and data to Internet-based locations accessible from any Web-enabled device.

One of the leading theories about the size of the NC project is that Apple is planning future cloud computing services that will require lots of data center storage. Cloud computing is a hot trend, and I'd be surprised if Apple isn't thinking hard - and thinking differently - about cloud computing. Many cloud enthusiasts say that cloud computing will eliminate the need for data centers. In reality, the only thing will change is the owner of the building. All the applications and data that are moving into the cloud will live on servers in brick-and-mortar data centers. The companies that are building the biggest data centers tend to also have the biggest cloud ambitions.

Apple until now has used content delivery networks (CDNs) such as Akamai and Limelight Networks to serve significant amounts of content to users, and some have speculated that the new data center will allow Apple to achieve cost savings by bringing a significant part of that third-party content delivery system in-house. Miller, however, points to Apple's data center's rural location far from the network-dense areas where content delivery centers are typically located as a sign that Apple is pursuing cost and scale efficiency rather than the connectivity most dedicated delivery networks are looking for.

Facebook cited latency to Europe as a key factor in its decision to add data centers in Virginia. Before that, MySpace added a data center in Los Angeles to reduce its reliance on CDNs. But in both cases, those companies sought out Internet hubs where they could connect with dozens of other networks to manage their Internet traffic. You don't get that in rural North Carolina, so Apple seems more focused on cost and scale than on connectivity - which again would suggest a cloud focus.

In a report on the increasing hype surrounding tablet computers focused on Apple's much-anticipated tablet offerings, BusinessWeek cites market researcher Richard Doherty, who claims that Apple has developed two protoype tablet computers: one essentially an oversized iPod touch carrying a 6-inch screen and a second one with a larger screen.

"There's no hotter topic [than tablets] in Asia right now," says Richard Doherty, a director at market researcher Envisioneering Group, who says Apple has developed prototypes of two different tablet machines -- one that resembles a large-sized iPod and boasts a 6-inch screen, and another that features a larger display. Apple may launch one or both devices as early as September, Doherty says. A decision on whether and when Apple takes the tablet plunge lies with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Doherty says.

Doherty's claim that the tablets may launch as early as September comes in opposition to several other reports pointing to an early 2010 launch. Apple has reportedly scheduled a media event for September 9th, where sources have specifically claimed that there will be no mention of a tablet, although that obviously does not preclude a separate tablet introduction at another time.

Doherty also claims that Apple's tablet offerings may begin priced as low as $679 and that the larger tablet may essentially run full Mac OS X while the smaller tablet is more iPod-like and focuses on media and gaming.

One of Apple's prototype devices is able to run all Mac applications, and allows for video and audio editing and graphic animation, Doherty says. Another, which looks like a larger iPod, lends itself to watching videos, playing games, and reading e-books.

Apple has been rumored to have investigated screens for its tablet prototypes ranging from 4 inches to 12 inches, although most rumors have pointed to a screen of approximately 10 inches for Apple's planned launch product.

Reuters reports that recent accounts of exploding iPhones in Europe have prompted Apple to investigate the incidents. According to a spokesperson of the European Commission, these occurrences have been deemed to be "isolated" incidents by Apple at this time. Apple is working on gathering additional information to find out what may have caused them.

One of the more notable incidents in recent news involved a French teenager who received an eye injury when the screen of an iPhone he was holding shattered, sending a piece of glass into his eye. He described that the iPhone had made a "hissing sound" before the screen shattered on its own.

A spokesperson for Apple Europe Ltd is quoted as saying "We are aware of these (media) reports and we are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers. Until we have the full details, we don't have anything further to add."

Market research firm NPD today reports that Apple's iTunes was the number one music retailer in the U.S. for the first half of 2009 with 25% of unit sales. Apple's share of the total market is up from 21% in 2008 and 14% in 2007.

According to NPD MusicWatch, when it comes to the unit-sales volume of music sold at retail - including paid digital music downloads and CDs - Apple iTunes leads in the U.S. with 25 percent of music units sold, which is up from 21 percent in 2008 and 14 percent in 2007. Walmart (including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) remains in second position with 14 percent of music volume sold at their stores and Web sites with Best Buy ranked third.

The move comes as the music industry continues to see a shift from CDs to digital downloads, with digital downloads now accounting for 35% of total sales, up from 30% in 2008 and 20% in 2007. As the trend continues, NPD sees digital download sales equalling CD sales by the end of 2010.

Within the digital download segment, iTunes easily claimed the top spot with 69% of the segment for the first half of 2009, followed by Amazon at 8%. iTunes has led the digital download segment essentially since its inception in 2003.

Apple announced to its employees in April 2008 that it had recently become the #1 overall music retailer in the U.S., and Apple's lead over #2 Walmart has continued to increase since that time.

In an extensive research report on the smartphone industry released this morning, RBC Capital Markets reveals a "new world order" in which smartphones embracing the convergence of communication, computing, and content are becoming the "next wave" of computing. Based on this evidence, RBC sees smartphones, led by Apple, Research in Motion and Palm, taking a larger share of mobile phone sales than previously predicted, and even capturing users, revenue and market share from other markets such as the PC, TV, media player, digital camera, gaming, and navigation markets previously considered discrete market segments.

RBC sees the possibility for 4-5 smartphone "leaders", each carving out a fairly distinct market segment on which to focus. The model sees Apple as having staked out the "media-centric" segment and Research in Motion having grabbed the "productivity-centric" segment, and proposes three other segments that may yet arise: "PIM-centric" focused on personal organization, "cloud-centric" based on data-heavy users taking advantage of web-based e-mail, social networking and other web-based services, and a "specialized" market for devices that excel in one specific area such as e-books, gaming, or navigation.

The report views Apple's installed base of 100+ million iPod users and 300+ million iTunes users as natural leverage for expanding market share, and sees the company continuing to introduce innovations that will further expand the addressable market. Apple's existing smartphone unit market share of 10.8% is expected to grow to 16.3% in 2012, but that growth would occur alongside expected growth of the smartphone share of the overall mobile market from ~10% to 35% over that time. The result is that Apple's overall mobile market share would grow from 1.1% in 2008 to 5.7% in 2012 on unit growth from 13.7 million in 2008 to 82.1 million in 2012.

Based on the total market analysis, RBC has raised its target price for Apple's stock to $250 from a previous target of $190.

We view the iPhone as a 10-year platform, with significant growth and share gains ahead. Our outlook reflects continued share gains in domestic and international markets, driven by distribution expansion, innovations in user experience, and additional iPhone SKUs. Apple's iTunes/iTunes Store/device ecosystem remains a significant source of competitive advantage.

Besides Apple, RBC also sees Research in Motion continuing to succeed with its BlackBerry line of smartphones and Palm possessing the "secret sauce" of management, integration and innovation to leverage its new webOS operating system for future market gains.

All Things Digital reports that Apple has scheduled a media event for Wednesday, September 9th in San Francisco. The event will presumably take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts where similar Apple events have been held in the past, and will be focused on iPod and iTunes updates. The sources claim that no mention will be made of Apple's much-anticipated tablet computer.

The event will be held in San Francisco -- most likely at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where it has occurred in years past -- and is expected to showcase upgrades to the iPod line and an update to iTunes that may involve some sort of social element. Our sources insist it will not involve any discussion whatsoever of the tablet that Apple is reportedly developing.

There is no word yet on whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be presenting for the first time since his return from a medical leave of absence for a liver transplant.

Reports last week pointed to a media event scheduled for sometime during the week of September 7th, and other sources have also claimed that there will be no tablet introduction at the event.