MacRumors

In the wake of the release of TomTom iPhone GPS navigation applications in numerous countries, Mac4Ever spoke [Google translation] with TomTom public relations manager Yann Lafargue and received clarification that the forthcoming companion car kit will be compatible with the iPod touch and will also support GPS navigation applications by other companies.

"It will work with the iPod touch and will also work with third-party GPS applications."

Lafarque is unable to provide information on when the car kit will be released, although posters to TomTom's official Twitter account have confirmed the announcement made at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that it is scheduled to ship "later this summer" with additional specs and pricing coming closer to the kit's release.

Macworld UK points out a feature article from The Sunday Times profiling Apple CEO Steve Jobs, noting that Apple attempted several times to discourage or block publication of the piece.

Apple hates personality stuff and press intrusion. "We want to discourage profiles," an Apple PR tells me stiffly, apparently unaware she is waving a sackful of red rags at a herd of bulls. Another PR rings the editor of this magazine to try to halt publication of this piece.

The lengthy article provides a comprehensive look at Jobs' personal and professional life over the years, noting his failures and successes, from his recruitment of Pepsi CEO John Sculley that quickly resulted in Jobs being forced out of Apple to his reinvention of Apple upon his return with the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone.

Focus is also placed on Jobs' "narcissistic" personality and his "control freak" tendencies that frustrate many of those who interact with him but also drive the product development that has won the company so many devoted fans.

Jobs is, in the words of the psychiatrist and scholar of leadership Michael Maccoby, "a productive narcissist". To Jobs, the world is an epiphenomenon, a side effect of the existence of Steve. Or rather, it is a pyramid with Jobs at the top, a few bright people just beneath him, and then the rest of us -- the "bozos". The customer bozo is not, to him, always right. In the early days it was said the Apple marketing department consisted of Jobs looking in his mirror and asking himself what he wanted. His customer-relations motto is from Henry Ford: "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." In a world driven by technology, only the technocrats know what we want and need.

The piece also places emphasis on Jobs' health issues over the years, especially his recent medical leave of absence from Apple and liver transplant, and asks whether Apple will be able to continue its momentum once Jobs inevitably leaves the company at some point in the future. While Apple will almost certainly continue to pursue the same business plan and vision under new management, the question remains whether anyone other than Jobs can have the same presence and command the same level of respect that has defined Jobs and Apple over the years.

iPhoneclub.nl reports [Google translation] that four regional versions of TomTom's much-anticipated iPhone GPS application have appeared in Apple's New Zealand App Store: U.S. & Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Pricing is as follows (Users should set their iTunes Store to "New Zealand" prior to clicking the App Store links.):

- U.S. & Canada [App Store]: NZ $124.99 (US $84.41)
- Western Europe [App Store]: NZ $179.99 (US $121.55)
- Australia [App Store]: NZ $104.99 (US $70.90)
- New Zealand [App Store]: NZ $119.99 (US $81.03)

The App Store application prices obviously include only the iPhone application and not the companion car kit that will integrate a car mount, enhanced GPS receiver, built-in speaker, and power cables. The kit will also include an audio output jack, as well as a microphone to enable use of the iPhone as a Bluetooth speakerphone. A package supposedly containing both the hardware and software components appeared for pre-order early last month priced at 99 (US $163.39) plus taxes at UK retailer Handtec, although the legitimacy of the offer remains unclear.

It is unknown whether the applications' appearance on the New Zealand App Store is the first phase of a rollout to multiple countries or if the release was a premature addition.

Update: The four TomTom iPhone applications have now also appeared in the Australian App Store.

Update 2: TomTom iPhone applications have now appeared in a number of European stores. In addition to the standard four applications (Australia, New Zealand, U.S. & Canada, and Western Europe), each European App Store is also carrying a fifth TomTom application offering a more narrowly localized version for the respective countries at a lower price point than the complete Western Europe version.

- Benelux: offered in Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg and covers those three countries
- D-A-CH: offered in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and covers those three countries
- France: offered only in France and covers France, Monaco, and Corsica
- Iberia: offered in Spain and Portugal and covers Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar, and the major islands of the Balearic and Canary Island groups.
- Italy: offered only in Italy and covers Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia), San Marino, and Vatican City
- Nordic: offered in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden and covers those four countries
- U.K. & Ireland - offered only in the U.K. and Ireland

Update 3: TomTom applications have now appeared in the U.S. and Canadian App Stores. Prices in both stores are as follows:

- U.S. & Canada [App Store]: $99.99
- Western Europe [App Store]: $139.99
- Australia [App Store]: $79.99
- New Zealand [App Store]: $94.99

MacRumors has received a set of images claimed to be the retail packaging and disc for Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard. If the images, which appear to depict the Portuguese version of Snow Leopard, are in fact authentic, it would mean that Snow Leopard discs are already in mass production.

Multiple sources claimed earlier this week that Build 10A432 had been designated "Golden Master", meaning that it was considered the final version to be sent to manufacturing for public release. 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.

Earlier this week, MacRumors received a somewhat blurry image claimed to be the next-generation iPod touch. The image depicts a camera centered at the top of device's rear, corresponding with numerous third-party case designs appearing from Chinese manufacturers in recent months.

While we aren't able to confirm the authenticity of the image, the same source has submitted teardown images of the rumored next-generation device to the on-air blog of Covino & Rich, hosts of the Maxim Radio talk radio show on Sirius and XM satellite radio. The blog post includes additional information from the source regarding the origins of the device.

-to show it's real. If you look at the board, it states Apple 2009 very clear. The 2nd gen AKA iPod touch out now, has 2008 on it. They haven't revised the 2008 touch. I will compare them in pic in a sec.

-BTW, these phones NEVER leave Apple and this one left but it was a durability test phone, so that's why the screen is all gridded off and cracked.

-The side by side picture is the inside of the current gen vs the 3rd gen (one coming out in September).

-I acquired this from a guy that I buy parts phones and iPods from. I believe he's a recycler in ***********, so what most likely happened is that Apple threw this away and he some how got it and sold it for parts.

The Covino & Rich blog post includes additional images showing several other angles of the device, as well as some internal shots revealing that the purported next-generation iPod touch appears nearly identical to the current version. The rumored next-generation version does, however, appear to contain a red motherboard in contrast to the typical black circuit boards. The use of red or other alternate colored circuit boards is relatively common in prototype devices.

Apple has been rumored to be holding a media-focused keynote event in early September, where many are expecting to see the launch of new iPod touch models.

Update: Addressing comments that one of the images exhibits pixelation around the camera, suggesting possible Photoshop modification, the blog author has uploaded the original, larger image for examination.

Update 2: A video of the purported device has now been posted:

Update 3: The Covino & Rich blog appears to be down at the moment, so we have posted here an image from the blog entry showing the red motherboard, which is indicative of the device being a prototype.

Two reports published today by RBC/IQ ChangeWave highlight user satisfaction and likes and dislikes of Apple's iPhone 3GS and Palm's Pre. The surveys, both conducted in August, show that iPhone 3GS users are far more satisfied with their device than Palm Pre users are with theirs. Among common likes between the two devices are their touchscreen interfaces and ease of use, while common dislikes include short battery life and the lack of support by corporate IT departments.

When it comes to device satisfaction, 82% of iPhone 3GS users are very satisfied, compared to 45% of Palm Pre users. In terms of user expectations, 38% of users said the iPhone 3GS exceeded their expectations, where only 18% of Pre users made the same claim.

The carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., AT&T, heads the list of dislikes for iPhone 3GS users, with 55% of users citing it as a negative factor. Palm Pre users' only complaint about Sprint, which currently offers the Pre exclusively in the U.S., is that it is the only network on which the Pre can be used - a complaint offered by only 8% of the survey's respondents.

Palm's Pre, largely viewed as one of the premier iPhone competitors of the year, was released in June to early reviews praising its webOS operating system and lamenting its cramped keyboard and short battery life. At release, the Pre was able to sync media through iTunes on a PC or Mac by emulating an iPod. Since then, an iTunes update from Apple disabled Pre synchronization with iTunes and then a subsequent webOS update from Palm re-enabled it. Palm's webOS application store, the App Catalog, is growing but still trails Apple's App Store, which currently features over 60,000 apps, in available software from third-party developers by a wide margin.

Palm has come under fire in recent days in the wake of revelations that the Pre periodically sends what many consumers consider to be personal information, including GPS location and data on app usage, back to Palm's servers. Palm has defended its actions, noting that the company's privacy policy "includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer's information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience."

Microsoft may be trying to draw iPhone and iPod touch developers away to develop apps for the Zune platform. Daring Fireball's John Gruber describes an e-mail he received from an iPhone developer in response to a previous article from Gruber on the Zune HD outlining how Microsoft had offered the developer "a bucket of money" to port his Twitter app to the Zune.

After my post, I got an email from the developer of an iPhone Twitter client. He was contacted by Microsoft a few months ago, with an offer to port his app to the Zune in exchange for "a bucket of money". He turned them down, but assumes, as I do, that Microsoft reached out to the developers of multiple popular iPhone apps.

My source is certain the offer was for the Zune, but because he turned it down early on, he doesn't know the details regarding the OS or SDK. If any other iPhone developers have gotten a similar pitch from Microsoft, I'd love to hear about it.

Officially announced in May, the Zune HD is set to be released on September 15th. It will feature a 3.3-inch OLED touchscreen with multi-touch capability, an integrated HD radio receiver, Wi-Fi, and it will be capable of putting out HD video to a connected HDTV. Coming with either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage, the Zune HD will also have a web browser and is poised to compete directly with Apple's iPod touch. The Zune HD, however, will likely be at a distinct disadvantage relative to the iPod touch given the vast offerings of Apple's App Store that increase the iPod touch's functionality well beyond those of standard digital media players.

The Zune HD is available for pre-order from Amazon at $219.99 for the 16 GB model and $289.99 for the 32 GB model, compared to $299 for the 16 GB iPod touch and $399 for the 32 GB iPod touch. Apple, however, is widely expected to update the iPod touch at a keynote event rumored for early September. Gruber has mentioned that he sees Apple releasing new camera-equipped models in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB capacities at price points of $199, $299, and $399 respectively.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple's Board of Directors will meet next Tuesday to discuss possible replacements for Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who recently resigned due to increasing areas of competition between Apple and Google.

Whoever Apple elects as a director will be closely watched. The current board has been criticized by investors and corporate governance experts for its lack of independence from Mr. Jobs.

One person close to Apple has said in the past that Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook may be appointed to the board in the not-too-distant future. It's unclear whether directors will consider a board seat for Mr. Cook at next Tuesday's session.

Cook has been widely praised for his handling of Apple's day-to-day operations during Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence for the first half of this year and has been viewed as a possible successor to Jobs when the Apple founder officially steps down as CEO.

The Loop reports that "very reliable sources" are claiming that Apple's much-anticipated tablet computer will not be introduced at Apple's keynote event reportedly scheduled for the week of September 7th. While some reports had claimed that the tablet could see an introduction as early as September alongside music-themed announcements, The Loop's sources agree with other reports pointing to an early 2010 launch for the new device.

Very reliable sources familiar with the product have said speculation of the tablet being introduced during the September event are flat out wrong. The Apple tablet, they said, would not see the light of day until the first part of 2010.

The event in September will be focused on music, which means we could see new iPods and perhaps some updates to iTunes. The tablet computer will not even be mentioned as part of the event, my sources said.

MediaMemo reports on claims from music industry sources that Apple is planning a keynote event for the week of September 7th.

Time to get the rumor mill kicked into high gear: Multiple music industry sources say Apple executives have told them the company is planning one of its famed keynote events for the week of Sept. 7.

But in true Apple fashion, the company has been noncommittal about the exact date of the event and what it will be showing off.

Given the apparent inside information held by media executives, the report suggest that the event may highlight Apple's rumored "Cocktail" iTunes album enhancements.

Given that Apple has tipped off music industry executives, its a fair bet that the event will incorporate music in some way. Perhaps it will show off the new Cocktail format that Apple has been working on, which bundles full-length albums with other goodies like album covers and interactive bells and whistles.

iPod updates are another likely possibility, with evidence pointing to the possibility of revised iPod touch and nano models offering built-in cameras. Rumors of Blu-ray support, iPhone app organization and social media integration in iTunes 9 are another possible topic of discussion for the event. Finally, rumors have pointed to the possibility of an announcement regarding Apple's much-rumored tablet computer as early as September.

Apple has traditionally held media-focused keynote event each September to introduce new iTunes features and iPod updates, making the announcement of a similar event this year an unsurprising move.

- 2008: Apple held a "Let's Rock" event to introduce iTunes 8 and new iPod touch, nano, and shuffle models.

- 2007: Apple held a "The Beat Goes On" event introducing the original iPod touch alongside updates to the remainder of the iPod line, an iTunes 7.4 update, and iPhone price drops.

- 2006: Apple offered the "It's Showtime" event introducing iTunes 7 and iPod updates, as well as a sneak peak at the "iTV" that launched several months later as the Apple TV.

- 2005: Apple's "Here We Go Again" event introduced the Motorola ROKR mobile phone with iTunes support alongside the release of iTunes 5 and saw the introduction of the original iPod nano to replace the iPod mini.

Gizmodo reports on details regarding Apple's rumored tablet computer from a source believed to have had access to information on the device. The source reports that the device will look much like a large iPhone, complete with home button and black plastic back, and offer a 10-inch screen. The source claims:

"The device, which I've held mock ups of, is going to have a 10 inch screen, and when I saw it looked just like a giant iPhone, with a black back -- although that design could change at any time" they said, "with the same black resin back, and the familiar home button."

Additional information includes the existence of two models, one including a webcam and one designed for "educational use" presumably lacking a webcam of any sort. The device will also reportedly cost $700-$900 and may have the ability to serve as a secondary display and touchscreen input device for existing Macs.

To make up for that cost and make the device more than just a big iPod there was, this person claimed, there was talk of making the device act as a secondary screen/touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, much like a few of the USB screens that have come out in recent months from Chinese companies. Very interesting.

Microsoft today announced that the next major version of Office for Mac will see the replacement of its Entourage for Mac e-mail client with Outlook for Mac. The company has also deployed a Web Services Edition of Entourage 2008 for Mac beginning today, offering users the ability sync Tasks, Notes and Categories.

Outlook for Mac will bring to the next major version of Office for Mac a number of new features, particularly targeted at enterprise users, designed to enhance productivity.

- Cocoa. Built from the ground up using Cocoa providing users with improved integration with the Mac OS
- New database. A high-speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching
- Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission to access the content

The Loop reports that the next version of Office for Mac is scheduled for launch in the "Holiday season 2010."

Microsoft also announced the introduction of Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, scheduled for release on September 15th. The new edition will replace the existing Standard Edition and Special Media Edition packages with a single suite offering support for Microsoft Exchange. New features in the Business Edition include:

- Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition. Improves performance, brings new features and support for the latest version of Exchange Server
- Microsoft Document Connection for Mac. Helps improve access and browsing to documents on SharePoint Products and Technologies and Microsoft Office Live Workspace
- New art. More than 200 business-related templates and professional clip art
- lynda.com training. Training for beginning to advanced users by lynda.com Inc.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will be available for pre-order beginning August 18th at a price of $399.95 for the full version or $239.95 as an upgrade. The existing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition will continue to be offered at $149.95.