MacRumors

Reuters reports that Sony Corp is working on a cellphone/game player hybrid to better compete with Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone.

Sony plans to set up a project team as early as July to develop a new product that combines functions of its portable game player and Sony Ericsson's mobile phones, the Nikkei said.

Sony appears to be considering a number of different moves to go head-to-head with Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone platform. An earlier report claims Sony was talking to major recording companies about providing downloadable music to the Playstation Portable (PSP). While Apple's devices aren't dedicated gaming machines, there is a notable overlap in audiences and the App Store has started attracting major gaming developers such as Capcom, id Software, and Square Enix.

The PSP has sold over 50 million units worldwide in the past 4 years, while Apple has already reached over 40 million units sold in the past 2 years.

Apple today seeded a new version of OS X Snow Leopard, Build 10A394, to developers. The new build was distributed via Software Update and weighs in at 655.3 MB. The update's description simply states that the new build contains fixes for stability, compatibility, and security.

Early reports say that the Dock Expos feature demonstrated at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month is present in the latest build. Users can activate Dock Expos by clicking and holding on a running application's Dock icon to show only that application's windows in Expos. Users can then click the icon of any other running application to switch to that application's Expos windows. Users can also preview any window within Expos by hitting the spacebar while the desired window is highlighted, providing a full-resolution view of the window without actually activating it.

Apple has posted an online database to allow potential iPhone 3GS customers in the U.S. to check stock levels for the various models at Apple Retail Stores. Availability is updated at least hourly. Apple deployed similar tools for both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G, although these previous versions only updated nightly with stock levels for opening the following day.

Apple's database is currently showing solid availability, with nearly 90% of Apple's over 200 stores having stock of all four models. Only five stores are completely sold out of all models at the moment.

AppleInsider reports that Apple is considering dropping the price points for its iMac line alongside the introduction of next-generation models later this year. The cuts, which Apple is rumored to be considering in the 7-10% range, would be in line with the significant price cuts seen in Apple's latest notebook offerings introduced earlier this month at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

iMacs were just recently refreshed in March but will see another update by fall, at which time they'll also be repositioned as more affordable offerings. Apple is reportedly mulling similar 7% - 10% price reductions alongside the introduction of those models, people familiar with the company's thinking say.

AppleInsider had reported in late April that Apple was considering price cuts for its Mac lineup, targeting the MacBook and iMac as likely candidates for the new pricing. While the MacBook price cuts did come to fruition as part of the broader notebook price drops and reorganization, the iMac has yet to see any such changes.

After the news broke that the first iPhone application with nudity was released, the app was quickly removed from the App Store. Despite the developer initially claiming that it was removed voluntarily to relieve server load, it seems that Apple may have had an active role in its removal. Apple PR told CNN that the app had been removed and that Apple will not distribute "porn" or other inappropriate content:

Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography. The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.

To call this particular application "porn" is a bit of a stretch but made for good headlines across the web. The removal by Apple is is interesting, however, as Apple's rating system does seem to allow for "nudity" specifically.

Macworld recently took a look at the newest MacBook Air models that were introduced at WWDC. The MacBook Air received processor speed bumps as well as a dramatic $300-$700 price drop. Despite the clock speed increase, Macworld found that the new MacBook Airs were actually slower than their predecessors:

What's weird about the new high-end MacBook Air model is that although it cost dramatically less than its immediate predecessor, it was also slower than that model. The late-2008 1.86GHz MacBook Air was faster than the new top-of-the-line model in 11 of our 18 tests, and as a result, the old system's final Speedmark score was slightly higher. The low-end 1.86GHz model did a better job versus its predecessor, besting it on most tests and improving on its Speedmark score.

They speculate that it could, in part, be due to aggressive thermal management in the higher speed models, but don't have a definitive answer.

The conclusion, however, remains the same as it always has for the MacBook Air. According to Macworld, "if the Air always struck you as being overpriced and underpowered, these aren't the laptops you're looking for.".... "But if the specs that matter most to you are light weight and small size, the MacBook Air is the system for you."

Imagination Technologies has announced that Apple has raised its stake in the company to 9.5% following recent share purchases. The news comes days after news that Intel has raised their stake in the company to 16%. Imagination Technologies is the company behind the PowerVR graphics chips that are used in the iPhone and iPod Touch.

One analyst notes that this increasing ownership by Apple and Intel can cause some concern amongst competitors who also license Imagination Technologies' hardware:

"Too high a stake by Apple or Intel could well cause some existing or potential licensees to think twice about having Imagination's technologies at the core of their roadmaps. We understand that management has already received concerned phone calls from existing licensees."

The PowerVR SGX graphics chip used in the new iPhone is responsible for much of the improved performance seen over the previous model.

Google today announced that daily YouTube uploads directly from mobile devices have increased 400% since the release of the iPhone 3GS last Friday. The iPhone 3GS includes the ability to record video and provides for easy uploading directly to YouTube from within the Camera Roll section of the Photos application.

YouTube also notes, however, that the spike generated by the release of the iPhone 3GS is also the acceleration of a trend that has seen the upload rate grow by 1700% over the past six months.

This growth represents three things coming together: new video-enabled phones on the market, improvements to the upload flow when you post a video to YouTube from your phone, and a new feature on YouTube that allows your videos to be quickly and effortlessly shared through your social networks. It takes just a minute to connect your YouTube account to your Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader accounts. Complete a simple, one-time connection on our upload page to allow all your friends and followers to get a real-time stream of your uploads to YouTube, which can be essential in this age of citizen reporting and ubiquitous sharing.

In its May 2009 Mobile Metrics report released today, mobile advertising firm AdMob revealed that the iPhone and iPod touch now account for 69% of the U.S. smartphone traffic on its ad network. The figure is up from 59% in April and 50% in March. Worldwide, the iPhone and iPod touch now account for 49% of smartphone ad requests.

In a separate report issued earlier this week, AdMob disclosed that 44% of iPhone ad requests through its network on Saturday, June 20th came from devices running iPhone OS 3.0, demonstrating significant adoption of the new operating system.

Conversely, only 1% of iPod touch ad requests on that date came from devices running iPhone OS 3.0, signaling the chilling effect of the $9.95 upgrade fee on adoption rates. iPod touch users also have less incentive to upgrade from a feature-based perspective, as many of the high-publicity upgrades found in iPhone OS 3.0 are limited to the iPhone hardware.

As always, readers should note that this data is from a single advertising source (albeit the world's largest) and tracks ad requests, which is only one measure of wireless phone traffic. In fact, in a separate study of iPhone OS 3.0 adoption rates released this week, one iPhone developer saw up to 80% of its iPhone customers and 50% of its iPod touch customers using iPhone OS 3.0 by this past Monday.

Despite the fact that it seems to be common knowledge that the iPhone 3GS uses the latest PowerVR SGX graphics processors, the specifics have remained a bit of a mystery. In an in-depth "under the hood" analysis, Anandtech guessed that Apple uses the low end 520 model in the iPhone 3GS. The PowerVR SGX chips, however, have a range of models which each carry a different set of performance characteristics.

SGX520 (7 MPolys/s, 250Mpx/s) for the handheld mobile market
SGX530/1 (14 MPolys/s) for the handheld mobile market
SGX535 and SGX540 (28 MPolys/s) for handheld high end mobile, portable, MID, UMPC, consumer, and automotive devices
SGX540 (1000M pix/s, 20-35M Polys/s), SGX545, SGX555

The Palm Pre, for example, uses the SGX 530 designed for the handheld mobile market.

iPhone developers, however, have discovered that the iPhone 3GS has extension files named "IMGSGX535GLDriver" suggesting that the new iPhone uses the more powerful graphics processor intended for "high end" mobile devices. This may not be entirely conclusive evidence by itself but it is consistent with a report from a Anandtech commenter who claims to have heard directly from Apple engineers at WWDC that the iPhone 3GS does indeed use the SGX 535. As seen from the above list, the 535 seems to deliver much greater performance over the originally believed 520 model as well as the 530 model found in the Palm Pre.

We reported back in May that Apple might loosen the App Store content restrictions once the iPhone 3.0 software became available. iPhone 3.0 offers parental controls which allows you to set what level of content is permissible in your iPhone's Movies, TV Shows, Music and Apps.

Macenstein playfully reports "And then there was porn" pointing out Hottest Girls ($1.99) as the first iPhone App to have nudity.

We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity, writes Hottest Girls developer Allen Leung.

The App does carry a 17+ Rating for "Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity" and "Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes".

Parental restrictions can be turned on in Settings -> General -> Restrictions in your iPhone. If an App falls outside of the allowed rating they will simply disappear off your home screen. Once you turn the restrictions off again, the affected apps reappear. This system would have avoided the issue with NiN's app rejection in May. NiN's app was eventually accepted.

Update: Hottest Girls is currently unavailable for purchase. According to an announcement posted on the developer's site, the application has temporarily been pulled due to its popularity placing strain on the image server. The developer promises that the app will return shortly with the adult content continuing to be included.

iPhone developer Ziconic has already started taking advantage of the new iPhone 3GS's digital compass in a prototype build of its AirCoaster 3D iPhone application.

AirCoaster 3D is an existing application that allows users to design and ride 3D roller coasters on their iPhones and iPod touches. They've since posted a video of a prototype version that takes advantage of the iPhone 3GS's digital compass:

This version of the app allows the user to move the iPhone around in real life to obtain a different view out of the in-app roller coaster. This feature is expected to come in a future update to the application.

App Store Link: Air Coaster, $0.99 (no compass support in current version)