MacRumors

The mammoth 358 page patent application incorporates patent applications filed as far back as September 2006 and has been previously dubbed "The iPhone Patent" by some. The application details the implementation of Multi-Touch on the iPhone alongside numerous diagrams of the device itself:

A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command.

Steve Jobs is prominently listed amongst the inventors along with other notable individuals such as Scott Forstall and Wayne Westerman.

Apple announced this morning that iLife '09 will start becoming available on January 27th at Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized retailers. Several readers, however, have been able to pick up early copies at local Best Buy stores. One reader details that you must simply ask for in-store pickup if available:

I'm an inventory manager at Best Buy and we should be getting today. Some of the east coast stores already have it. Go to www.bestbuy.com, type in ILIFE 09 in the search bar, add the item to your cart and pick STORE PICKUP and then search by state. Maine has some already and Penn.

UPS or fedex normally arrives between 10am and 12pm, so call you stores and have them check with their inventory dept to receive this product asap.

iLife '09 brings major updates to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand and is priced at $79.

Our Mac Applications forum will handle ongoing questions, discussion and troubleshooting for the software.

Update: A few reports indicate that some Best Buys will not give out copies early at the request of Apple.

AppleInsider relays the latest analyst report from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu claims that the iMac delays could relate to both technical and strategic decisions from Apple.

First, the analyst claims that even at this late date, Apple is still grappling with core design decisions:

Apple is in the midst of figuring out whether to power the new iMac with Intel quad-core processors or more high-powered dual-core processors with larger caches"

Wu also relays circulating speculation that the iMac cooling systems may see a redesign to deal with the higher heat dissipation of the quad-core processors. From a strategic perspective, Apple is said to be debating the use of Quad-Core processors to avoid cannibalization of the low end Mac Pro, but AppleInsider points out that this reasoning makes little sense given that Apple recently admitted that their desktop business is "primarily iMac".

Unfortunately, Wu's report reads as if it were based on circulating speculation about the iMac rather than any particular insight into the new machine's manufacturing process. Our tracking of Wu's previous predictions has shown a very poor track record.

Several MacRumors readers are reporting that their orders for iLife '09, which had been announced at MacWorld as scheduled for a late January release, have been shipped.

iLife '09 brings major updates to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and also offers iDVD and an updated version of iWeb. It is priced at $79 for a single license or $99 for a family pack that permits installation on up to five computers in a single household. Users who purchased new or refurbished Macs on or after January 6th, 2009 may qualify for Apple's $9.95 Up-to-Date program.

Update: Apple has posted a press release announcing that iLife '09 will officially be available on Tuesday, January 27th.

"There wasn't a person in the room who didn't think this was history happening," recalled Richard Doherty, analyst with the Envisioneering Group, who was there.

Computerworld recaps some of the history surrounding the original Mac project which was originally considered just a "research project":

After the failure of the Apple III, the Apple board had reservations about allowing Jobs to manage another high-profile project. When Jobs asked to take over the Mac project, the board allowed him to do so, feeling that the relatively unknown project wasn't critical to Apple's wellbeing.
....
The result was a resolution by Jobs and his Mac team not only to make a "baby Lisa" but also to turn the Mac into a product that could advance the computing industry as much as or more than the Apple II had done -- or, as Jobs has been quoted as saying, to "put a dent in the universe."

The introduction of the Macintosh was also marked by the broadcast of Apple's famous 1984 commercial (YouTube Video) during that year's Super Bowl.

Readers interested in more of the history of the original Mac should visit Folklore.org which has collected anecdotes about the original Macintosh project and the people who created it. Meanwhile, Mac512.com has posted video from a 1984 VHS tape produced by Apple to showcase the Macintosh as well as the new Mouse/Desktop interface.

CNBC reports that Apple is in the process of settling a class-action lawsuit against the company filed in 2005. The lawsuit charged that the first generation iPod nano's screen scratched "excessively during normal usage".

According to CNBC, the settlement calls for Apple to set aside $22 million to refund eligible iPod nano users who apply:

According to a notice sent out to nano owners this week, "Apple has agreed to provide a cash settlement fund of $22.5 million," and for those consumers who did not receive a "slip case from Apple when you purchased your iPod nano, you may be entitled to a cash payment of $25. If you received a slip case, you may be entitled to a cash payment of $15."

While Apple has agreed to these terms, a judge still needs to sign off on the terms on April 28th. More details are available at iPodNanoSettlement.com and eligible customers include owners of "uncoated First Generation iPod nanos".

In the Q&A section of yesterday's earnings conference call, the first question unsurprisingly addressed Steve Jobs' leave of absence and how that would affect the way Apple is being run. Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer noted that Jobs remains CEO and that he will continue to be involved in strategic decisions. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who is overseeing Apple's day-to-day operations during Jobs' absence, then took the opportunity to share his perspective on Apple's company philosophy.

There is an extraordinary breadth and depth and tenure among the Apple executive team, and these executives lead over 35,000 employees that I would call "all wicked smart". And that's in all areas of the company, from engineering to marketing to operations and sales and all the rest. And the values of our company are extremely well entrenched.

We believe that we're on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that's not changing. We're constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

And frankly, we don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change. And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.

Fortune's Adam Lashinsky examines what he is calling the "Cook Doctrine" as a unique look into the mind of Tim Cook, who was previously profiled by Lashinsky as "intensely private" and "demanding and unemotional."

This is fascinating at a number of levels. Some of it is stuff you'd expect from anyone in Apple's senior management. Some ideas have been articulated at Apple for years. But this shows an executive who has given tons of thought to what it means to lead Apple. He couldn't have been clearer that he's in charge, at least for now. It also was a show of strength, as when Cook later threatened Palm (PALM) with patent litigation.

It raised so many questions too. Other than the company's proprietary operating systems, what technologies was Cook referring to? What are some projects Apple has considered and rejected? When has the company been wrong -- and been "self-honest" about it? What's an example of the culture being so embedded that things work, even when Jobs isn't involved?

Lashinsky notes that much of Apple's talent has been overshadowed by Steve Jobs over the years, and it is only now in Jobs' absence that some of these executives will be able to receive significant media exposure, attention that is revealing Cook to be "eloquent, forceful and passionate about Apple."

Gary Hustwit posts a rare photo of Apple's Jonathan Ive inside Apple's design studio.

We did a follow-up interview with Jony Ive at Apple in California last week, and enjoyed the opportunity of filming inside Apples design facilities. I felt like Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, except everything was made of shiny aluminum instead of candy. And there were no oompa loompas.

The movie called Objectified is an independent documentary about industrial design that will debut in March at South by Southwest:

It's a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It's about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It's about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Apple, of course, is amongst the companies featured.

A security alert posted this morning by antivirus vendor Intego reveals that the company has discovered a new Trojan horse that is being carried by pirated copies of iWork '09 circulating on a number of torrent sites.

The Trojan, which Intego has classified as a "serious" risk and named OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, allows a malicious user to connect to an infected machine and perform various functions, as well as download additional software to the machine.

This software is installed as a startup item (in /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices, a location reserved normally for Apple startup items), where it has read-write-execute permissions for root. The malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet; this means that a malicious user will be alerted that this Trojan horse is installed on different Macs, and will have the ability to connect to them and perform various actions remotely. The Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.

Intego reports that over 20,000 users had downloaded the package as of 6:00 AM Eastern time this morning, and an update to an entry posted on Intego's Mac Security Blog notes that the Trojan now appears to be actively downloading new code to infected machines and using them to carry out denial-of-service attacks on certain websites.

Update: Despite significant publicity surrounding this incident today, the infected iWork package remains active in the torrent community. In light of this continued activity, we have moved this report from Page 2 to our front page and are providing instructions for deactivating and removing the Trojan from infected systems.

1) (open Terminal.app)
2) sudo su (enter password)
3) rm -r /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices
4) rm /private/tmp/.iWorkServices
5) rm /usr/bin/iWorkServices
6) rm -r /Library/Receipts/iWorkServices.pkg
7) killall -9 iWorkServices

OSX.Trojan.iServices.A appears to be the first significant OS X Trojan to advance beyond the proof-of-concept or pranking stage to engage in truly malicious behavior.

Update 2: MacScan has released a free utility to remove the Trojan from infected systems.

For instance, a user who adjusts the volume of a mobile phone ring tone for a loud environment may later move to a quieter environment, where the loud ring will be disruptive. Similarly, powering up a laptop computer in a quiet lecture hall or home may result in an inappropriately loud and disruptive boot sound. Alternatively, a volume level which is optimized for a quiet environment may not be detectable if the associated device is moved to a louder environment, which can result in a missed audio signal.

The July 2007 patent application, credited to illumination specialist Peter Mahowald, describes a number of different measurements, including maximum, minimum, or average sound level and frequency or type of sound, that could be used as a basis for automatic audio output adjustments. The application also describes an adaptive learning component in which the system would monitor whether a user overrides the system's automatic settings in a given environment and would incorporate the user's preferred settings into its future actions.

While Apple has given no indication that they plan to incorporate this technology into their products, the company already makes extensive use of similar ambient light sensors in the iPhone, iPod touch, and many of their computers.