MacRumors

According to Mobileread, Barron's online published an online exclusive (subscription required) reporting on comments by Johnny Chan, a Hong Kong based J.P. Morgan analyst, about the looming possibility of an Apple iPhone.

Last week, a Piper Jaffary analyst claimed they felt there was a 75% chance that Apple would release an iPhone in the next 12 months.

The J.P. Morgan reports adds a bit more substance to that claim. According to the article, Apple is working on "an iPod with phone functions" and is shopping around for a electronics manufacturer. Meanwhile, Taiwan Green Point Enterprises, the current manufacturer for the iPod plastic cases is also said to be in talks with Apple about the phone.

"The chatter about the product is all over the food chain," says Bill Shope, Chan's colleague in New York who follows Apple. He believes Apple will likely introduce a cellphone by the fourth quarter of this year.

Apple has long owned the domain iPhone.org and also trademarked the term "iPhone" in Australia and the UK.

A history of the Apple iPhone rumors are summarized in this Guide page.

Appleinsider notes that resellers where notified approximately one month ago that the 60GB 5G iPod is on Apple's 60 day "at risk" list.

Appleinsider claims that when an item is placed on this list, it could mean that there will be changes to the product in the next 60 days -- this includes replacements or price changes -- so resellers should keep a close eye on inventory of that product.

Apple's 5G iPod was released on October 12, 2005 and represented the first iPod to support Video.

Rumors of a full video iPod have persisted, along with a rush of rumor-inspired concept designs.

The Video iPod is expected to be launched alongside an iTunes Movie service. Evidence of Apple selling movies on iTunes recently emerged with the sale of the first full-length movie on iTunes for $9.99.

Research analyst firm PiperJaffray informed clients that they expected that Apple would release an Apple branded cell phone in the next 12 months.

Additionally, we believe Apple will benefit from the new Intel-based Mac's, along with what we estimate to be a 75 percent chance of a iPhone in the next 12 months."

Rumors of an Apple-branded phone has been ongoing for years. The rumors have slowed down since the release of the Motorola iTunes-capable phone.

Apple trademarked Mobile Me earlier this year, which many have felt could be related to a phone service. Meanwhile, Apple has also filed a trademark for the term Aloha in Hong Kong. This trademark was filed back in December 22, 2004 and based on the classification may simply have been an alternative name for Apple's Bonjour technology but the trademark categories also cover a broad range of devices.

Several readers note that Apple has posted a new iPod TV Ad

The advertisement features the music of Rinrse (iTunes link) and shows album covers stacking together in the form of buildings. The cover art later funnels into an iPod nano and the text displays:

1,000 songs in your pocket

The ad is also being offered in high definition.

The contest to boot Windows XP on the Mac is over. The winners will receive $13,854:

Contest has been won - updates to follow shortly. All further donations will go into an account to sustain the open source project that will be launched with the initial solution.

The instructions to the contest stipulated the following conditions:

- Boot Windows XP on the Intel Mac
- Windows must coexist with Mac OS X and may not interfere with the operation of the other
- Upon starting the computer, the user must be offered a choice of which OS to boot

A photo of the OS selection screen was posted (mirror). Upon booting the Mac, an Apple logo appears on a grey screen. Pressing the down arrow key at this time brings you to a Windows logo on the same grey background. Hitting enter lets you proceed to boot the selected Operating System.

According to this post the final solution will work on the 17" iMac, 20" iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro. The full solution should be posted shortly and appears it will include downloadable bootloader.
Update: The final solution has been posted for downloading, but is receiving a lot of traffic.
Update 2:: Windows on Mac sub-forum has been created to organize discussion and troubleshooting on this topic.
Update 3: Support for the 20" iMac is not yet available. There is a FAQ available with a test version for the 20" iMac.

Melablog.it notices that Apple appears to be advertising under the keyword "MacBook" in Google.it's search results.

The top sponsored result returns the title "Macbook" and a link to the Italy Apple Store. This is not necessarily interesting in itself, but it describes the "Macbook" as starting at 999.

No MacBook Pro starts that low, and the current iBook starts at 1049 in the Italy Apple Store.

(Of note, the Google ad has now been changed from "Macbook" to "MacBook Pro".)

Engadget posts a video of Windows XP booting on the iMac submitted by narf2006. Narf2006 previously posted photos of the WindowsXP on the Mac on Monday as a possible solution to the WinXP on Mac Contest.

The infamous narf2006 has made good on his earlier promise to provide a video of Windows XP booting on an Intel-based iMac. While the video looks fairly convincing, we'll continue to reserve judgment at least until Colin Nederkoorn hands narf a check

The forum hosting the discussion about the contest were temporarily offline due to excess traffic. The solution is reportedly under testing at this time.
Mirror: Youtube video mirror.

Early this morning the first full length movie of was spotted on Apple's iTunes Music Store.

The iTunes link to High School Musical was accessible and offered a 1 hour 39 minute Disney Channel original TV movie. This 487MB file represents the first full length movie content that has appeared on iTunes. The movie was originally available for only $1.99 which was the same price as most iTunes Video content.

This content may have been posted prematurely, as the movie became inaccessible shortly after the original news item was posted. It has reappeared, but is now priced at $9.99.

Apple is widely expected to offer a iTunes Movie service in the coming weeks, but reports indicate that licensing negotiations are holding up the release. Reportedly Jobs wanted to keep a pay-to-own download model rather than a monthly subscription based model. The High School Musical movie is being sold with the traditional iTunes pay-to-own model at $9.99.

More evidence that this represents a conscious shift for Apple into movies comes from the url:

The url to the movie is:

http://phobos.apple.com/..../viewMovie?id=129860770

Older links are as follows:

http://phobos.apple.com/..../viewAlbum?id=xyz
http://phobos.apple.com/..../viewVideo?id=xyz

CBS and Apple announced today that they would be offering the 2006 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship on the iTunes Music Store.

For $1.99, users can individually purchase condensed versions of all of the 2006 NCAA Championship games. Apple is also offering a "Season Pass" which allows people to pre-purchase all 63 games for $19.99. Games will be available the day after they are broadcast.

"We're thrilled to bring all of the 2006 NCAA Tournament action to college basketball fans on iTunes," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "With the new 'Season Pass' feature, fans can purchase and view highlights from every tournament game the day after it airs for just $1.99 per game or $19.99 for the whole tournament."

The semifinal and championship game will be provided as "full-length" versions.

Hrmpf and Appleinsider are posting images from Apple's recent patent applications surrounding their Spotlight search technology.

The images show different versions of Finder/Spotlight than what has shipped with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Both sites speculate that these may be signs of the interface to come in the next version of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Alternatively, they may simply be iterations of Spotlight development that were discarded.

Nested Smart Folders are described in one patent application, extending Smart Folder functionality:

Basically, you create a Smart Folder (say Files modified last week) and then you can create more smart folders within the original folder (like Kind = images) and then create more folders within that subfolder (like Aperture = f7).

One of the most ambitious features is a process to automatically generate Secondary Meta-data for file searches. Apple proposes the use of semantic analysis and even Optical Character Recognition to extract data from photos (Algorithm picture):

This [metadata] is great but its not really accessible - what you really want to know is this the picture I took as a closeup that night? This metdata wont tell you that but what if your computer processed this metadata and added new metadata that better described the photograph (nighttime, closeup and the text from any signs in the photo etc).

Meanwhile, audio analysis of audio files could generate more information about your MP3/AACs. Beyond the usual metadata extraction, Mac OS X could also perform an actual analysis of the songs:

For example .... a frequency analysis (e.g., using spectrum analysis/filtering techniques) may be performed to determine the type of the music (e.g., Jazz or classical), and other audio related information.

Few actual details about Leopard have been revealed. Apple has previous stated that they will be demonstrating Leopard at WWDC -- which takes place in August 2006.

Now that Apple is offering Music Videos, Short Films and TV shows for download on their iTunes Music Store, the transition to selling full length movies is not a technical issue, but more of a marketing / licensing issue.

It appears Apple is now offering the first full-length movie for sale on the iTunes Music Store.

High School Musical (iTunes Link) is a 1 hour 39 minute Disney Channel original TV movie that is available on iTunes. The movie is 487MB and costs $1.99 - the same as all other videos on the iTunes Music Store.

This movie, however, does not appear to be linked from the main iTunes Store.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a distribution deal with the major movie studios, and is expected to launch a full-movie service alongside a Video iPod in the coming weeks.
Update: The movie is no longer available.
Update 2: The movie is back up but now is priced at $9.99. The previous pricing appears to have been a mistake. More details posted here.

Ongoing efforts to boot Windows XP on the recently released Intel Macs appears to be coming within reach. This, despite that last week Microsoft revealed that they did not intend to support Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) in the upcoming release of Windows Vista. Since the new Intel Macs only support EFI (and not BIOS), this was perceived to be a setback for the possibility of dual-booting Windows (Vista) and Mac OS X.

The efforts of a well publicized contest to boot Windows XP on the MacBook Pro, however, appears to be reaching fruition.

Details are spotty right now, but it looks like we will have a winner by the end of this week. This is the latest screen shot from narf2006s flickr account.

While the photos obviously don't prove anything, they are presently looking for testers for the procedure.

Meanwhile, another group is working on a more universal solution by developing their own BIOS (BAMBIOS) which would theoretically allow the Intel Macs to support any legacy BIOS-requiring software (Linux, Windows XP, Vista etc...).

Available via Software Update:

Security Update 2006-002 is recommended for all users and improves the reliability and security of the following components:

apache_mod_php
CoreTypes
LaunchServices
Mail
Safari
rsync

Additionally, this update incorporates Security Update 2006-001, which improves the security of the following components:

apache_mod_php
automount
Bom
Directory Services
iChat
IPSec
LaunchServices
LibSystem
loginwindow
Mail
rsync
Safari
Syndication

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798

Yahoo reports that France is pushing through a law that could result in opening Apple's iTunes songs to other music players

The new law would allow consumers to be able to legally use software to convert digital content into any format.

It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management -- the codes that protect music, films and other content -- if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another

This would allow protected content to be playable on any device. If enacted, some speculate that Apple could shut down the French iTunes store to limit the free distribution of the unprotected songs. To combat the resultant piracy, the law reportedly also adds fines for those who download and distribute material illegally. Meanwhile, individuals who make or sell software for illegal sharing could be subject to jail time.

Citigroup analysts are upgrading their stock recommendation for Apple from hold to buy based on expectations that Apple will complete the Intel transition in August.

According to their research, they expect Apple to release new Dual-Core PowerMacs in August. This would correlate with Apple pushing WWDC back to August this year.

Meanwhile, Citi also expects Intel iBooks "as early as April" along with a new Video iPod in April.

There are expectations that Apple will hold another Media event around their 30th anniversary on April 1, 2006.

Known information available on the upcoming Intel-based Macs are summarized in the Guides: Intel iBook (Rumored) and Intel PowerMac (Rumored).

AppleInsider reports that Apple will hold a media event in conjunction with its 30th anniversary on April 1, but that the date of the event may be just before or after April 1st since the day is a Saturday.

Sources are almost certain the event will play host to a new line of 13-inch widescreen consumer iBook notebooks based on Intel microprocessors. Additional announcements such as a high-end 17-inch MacBook Pro and a high-profile iPod-related product may also be in the cards.

The last media event, on February 28, saw the introduction of the new Intel Mac mini and the iPod Hi-Fi.