MacRumors

With yesterday's developer seed of the rumored OS X Snow Leopard "Golden Master" (Build 10A432), users with access to the latest version have been examining it for changes. Among the most obvious modifications, as noted by Gear Live, is a change in the install icon from Leopard's "galaxy" image to one portraying a snow leopard. The change likely reveals the art to be included on the physical installation media.

Brazilian site MacMagazine.com.br also shares [Google translation] several screenshots of the installer application, noting several changes to the installation process when compared to Leopard, including the movement of Rosetta and QuickTime 7 to optional installs. The source also offers a video highlighting the Snow Leopard installer.

Notably, the source indicates several minor issues both in the installer and in the Snow Leopard build, leading MacMagazine.com.br to speculate that, contrary to numerous other reports, Build 10A432 may not in fact by the Golden Master version to be released to manufacturing.

Finally, both Daring Fireball's John Gruber and MacDailyNews have been hearing that Mac OS X Snow Leopard may be released on Friday, August 28th, ahead of Apple's previously-announced September launch window.

International Business Times covers reports from Chinese-language media claiming that wireless carrier China Unicom has purchased 5 million China-specific iPhones from Apple and will begin selling them next month.

China Unicom, the potential exclusive distributor of iPhones in China, has poured 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) to buy 5 million units from Apple, ready to sell the first batch in September, local media reported on Wednesday.

China Unicom had already paid Apple 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) for 5 million WCDMA standard iPhones with unit price of 2,000 yuan ($293), CBN news said, citing a well-informed source.

The report also notes that Apple has given up its traditional business model of sharing in "profit dividends" from its distributors, apparently referring to a lack of subsidies from the carrier that in other countries boost Apple's sales price for entry-level iPhone models by several hundred dollars.

Apple made compromises in the China market because of its great demand and intense competition, but Apple can still make profits from each unit from 1,000 yuan and 1,100 yuan as China Unicom offers a good price for each unit.

The iPhone will reportedly be offered to customers at about 2,400 yuan ($351) for the 8 GB model, with the 16 GB model possibly priced at 4,800 yuan ($702).

The news comes on the heels of a reported trip to China by Apple vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing Greg Joswiak and other executives last week in order to finalize details with China Unicom.

Apple has seeded Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Build 10A432 to developers tonight. The 10A432 build has been rumored to be the Golden Master build for Snow Leopard. This designation indicates that it would be the final shipping build when it is ultimatly launched.

Snow Leopard represents the next major version of Mac OS X to be released to consumers and has been officially scheduled for September, though there has been some suggestion that it could appear later this month. Snow Leopard will provide a number of "under the hood" enhancements that should improve performance and stability.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be priced at $29 for current OS X Leopard owners, and users purchasing a new Mac on June 8th, 2009 or later can receive the updated operating system for $9.95 though Apple's "Up to Date" program.

AppleInsider has received information detailing a number of changes to the installation process for Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard in comparison to the process for OS X Leopard. Notable changes include the preservation of minor point updates upon reinstallation, a shifting of Rosetta and QuickTime 7 to optional installs, and removal of the "Erase and Install" and "Archive and Install" options from the basic installer to reduce user confusion, although the options are still available via Disk Utility.

- Although Rosetta and Quicktime 7 are both included on the Mac OS X 10.6 installation DVD, both are designated as optional installs by default. However, if Mac OS X 10.6 is being installed on a Mac that contains a registration a key for Quicktime 7 Pro, the installer will install Quicktime 7 automatically.

- Options to "Erase and Install" and "Archive and Install" are no longer present in the Mac OS X 10.6 installer. According to those familiar with the software, this was done for convenience, so that users do not accidentally erase and install their Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard partitions. However, "Erase and Install" remains available through Disk Utility, which is also included on the installation DVD.

- If you need to reinstall 10.6, it automatically archives and installs for you.

- A reinstallation will not affect your Mac OS X version number. In other words, reinstallation of Mac OS X 10.6 on a Mac that contains Mac OS X 10.6.1 (when it becomes available) will not overwrite any new components delivered by 10.6.1. So when the re-install is complete, you will still be running Mac OS X 10.6.1. This will save users considerable time.

Additionally, the installer will copy a large chunk of data from the installation disc to the user's hard drive at the beginning of the installation process, allowing the bulk of the process to occur on the user's drive rather than constantly transferring data from the optical media. The Snow Leopard installer will also sequester existing applications known to be incompatible with the updated operating system, allowing for more reliable system behavior upon upgrading.

Finally, the report notes that word of a Snow Leopard release as early as August 24th has been suggested, although there is no confirmation of that information at this time. Apple has previously stated that it is scheduling a September launch of the new operating system.

A new Mac OS X Snow Leopard build (10A432) has reportedly been designated "Golden Master", paving the way for manufacturing of optical media for retail distribution. Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be priced at $29 for current OS X Leopard owners, and users purchasing a new Mac on June 8th, 2009 or later can receive the updated operating system for $9.95 though Apple's "Up to Date" program.

Apple today released Security Update 2009-004 for both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger via Software Update and Apple's downloads page. The release comes just one week after the release of Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Tiger Security Update 2009-003.

- Security Update 2009-004 (Leopard) (166 MB)

- Security Update 2009-004 (Tiger Intel) (166 MB)
- Security Update 2009-004 (Tiger PPC) (130 MB)
- Security Update 2009-004 (Server Tiger Universal) (204 MB)
- Security Update 2009-004 (Server Tiger PPC) (130.97 MB)

According to the associated security support document, the update addresses a vulnerability in the BIND suite of Unix utilities that works with the Domain Name System (DNS). There is reportedly a public exploit of the vulnerability in "wide circulation" at this time.

Gizmodo has received a supposed screenshot from Rogers Wireless' internal sales systems for hardware upgrades listing an 8 GB iPhone 3GS model. Based on the screenshot and comments from the alleged Rogers employee who submitted it, the 8 GB iPhone 3GS will be offered at the same $99 price point of the current iPhone 3G under the standard three-year contract with data plan offered by Rogers or at $299 without a data plan. According to the source:

It clearly shows that an 8GB 3GS has been added to our stock list and is the same price as the 3G coming in at 99$...

The first listing is showing 74.00$ (promo price with data plan and minus customers 25$ discount)

The second listing shows the phone if the customer does not choose a data plan, which is normall 299$ minus said $25 discount, so 274$

I think that when 3G stock runs out they are going to build 99$ 3GSs since those are the parts they are ordering, might as well keep the parts list minimal...

The news follows an initial report of alleged screenshots from Rogers' sales system last week, and the appearance of an iPhone comparison chart listing the model on Rogers' public website. Rogers, however, claimed that the public listing was an error and that there was no such model.

Research firm Gartner today released a report detailing mobile phone sales for the second quarter of 2009. While Apple does not rank among the top five worldwide vendors for all phones, the report also highlights the smaller smartphone segment, where Apple held the third position in unit sales with 13.3% of that market. Apple's market share is up from 10.8% in the first quarter of this year and from only 2.8% in the year-ago quarter.

The significant increase in the year-over-year data is due in large part to the timing of Apple's product releases. Because the iPhone 3G was not launched until July 2008, Apple's sales number for the second quarter of that year reflected potential customers holding out for the new model and did not include the sales numbers generated at the device's launch. With the iPhone 3GS launching in June of this year, the initial sales bump, which included one million iPhone 3G models sold in the launch weekend and continued brisk sales in the remaining week of the month, was included in Gartner's data. Gartner also notes that the early June iPhone 3G price drop to $99 contributed to increased sales for Apple.

Apple's expansion into a larger number of countries in the past year has produced a clear effect on sales volumes, as have the recent price adjustments on the 8GB 3G iPhone. Sales of 5.4 million units in the second quarter of 2009 indicated a 51 per cent growth in shipments and helped Apple maintain the No. 3 position in the smartphone market, where it has stayed since the third quarter of 2008. Apple brought its much-anticipated new device -- the iPhone 3G S -- to market at the end of the second quarter of 2009, but its full potential will only start to show in the sales figures in the second half of 2009.

Panic co-founder Steven Frank recently detailed his outrage at Apple's rejection of the Google Voice application and other controversial App Store policies. Given that there's been no signs of improvement after a year, Frank decided to personally boycott the iPhone:

I've reached a point where I can no longer just sit back and watch this. The iPhone ecosystem is toxic, and I can't participate any more until it is fixed. As people have told me so many times: It's Apple's ballgame, and Apple gets to make the rules, and if I don't like it, I can leave. So, I don't like it, and I'm leaving.

Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller has since personally responded to Frank to provide him some reassurance that Apple was listening to his feedback.

I haven't sought Phil's explicit permission to republish the letter, so I won't do so here. But to summarize, he said: "we're listening to your feedback". Not all of my suggested solutions were viable, he said, but they were taking it all in as they continue to evolve the app store.

He went on to say that the rumors of widespread e-book app rejection I'd heard were false -- that specifically one e-book app had been rejected because it facilitated iPhone-to-iPhone sharing of (potentially copyrighted) books. But that otherwise, there was no sweeping ban on e-book readers.

The email seemed to provide some reassurace to Frank that Apple was taking the App Store criticisms seriously and will hopefully address them in the near future. Schiller also recently personally responded to Daring Fireball's John Gruber addressing some other App Store criticisms.

Apple today released Safari 4.0.3 via Software Update, offering fixes for several stability and performance issues, as well as security updates. The new version is also available on Apple's Safari download page.

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to stability, compatibility and security including:

- Stability improvements for webpages that use the HTML 5 video tag
- Fixes an issue that prevented some users from logging into iWork.com
- Fixes an issue that could cause web content to be displayed in greyscale instead of color

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

According to the associated security support document, the update addresses a half-dozen security vulnerabilities, two of which are specific to Windows affecting CoreGraphics and ImageIO and the remainder affecting Safari and WebKit on all platforms.

Mac4Ever has received [Google translation] multiple tips claiming that Mac OS X Snow Leopard has reached "Golden Master" status, meaning that it has been finalized and is ready to be released to manufacturing for the public launch. The build number of the Golden Master is reportedly 10A432, compared to the last known developer seed (Build 10A421a) released over two weeks ago.

Several knowledgeable sources (Do not mess with it) believe that Snow Leopard (10A432) have finally reached the stage of Golden Master. Clearly, unless a blocking problem is the version currently distributed internally to serve as a basis for pressing DVD.

Commenters on the Mac4Ever report note the recent appearance of several benchmarks for Build 10A432 appearing in the Geekbench database, although the entries have since been removed.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is slated for a September release and will be priced at $29 for current OS X Leopard owners. Users purchasing a new Mac on June 8th, 2009 or later can receive the updated operating system for $9.95 though Apple's "Up to Date" program.

Update: We've heard additional confirmation that 10A432 is likely the Golden Master build.

The Times reported over the weekend that the "big four" record labels are planning a November launch of a new digital album format known as "CMX" that will compete with Apple's rumored "Cocktail" offering reportedly scheduled for a September release.

The world's big four record companies are to go head-to-head with Apple with the launch of a new form of album download that will include a digitised version of a record sleeve.

Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are putting the finishing touches to an album format that will give music fans a computerised version of the sleeve notes that come as standard with a CD, including lyrics and artwork, and videos.

The report puts a different spin on the developments than that revealed in the initial report about Cocktail from the Financial Times. While the earlier report suggested that Apple and the record labels were working closely together on Cocktail, The Times now claims that Apple rebuffed the record labels' suggestion of the project and only began developing Cocktail once the labels decided to press ahead with their own CMX project.

It is understood that the record labels approached Apple, maker of the iPod, about 18 months ago with the plan to revitalise album downloads by bundling together extra features in a single download.

Industry insiders say that their project, with the working title CMX, was rebuffed by Apple. The technology giant is now understood to be working on its own format, codenamed Cocktail, which it hopes to launch within two months.

One senior record label insider said: "Apple at first told us that they were not interested, but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on."

The CMX project reportedly is looking to develop album "files" that when opened will provide a "launch page" offering access to an album's tracks, as well as related artwork, video, and mobile content.