MacRumors

This weekend, Microsoft entered the iPhone market with their first application called Seadragon Mobile [App Store]. The free application is a product of Microsoft Live Labs and offers iPhone users the ability to view ultra-high resolution images on your iPhone:

Seadragon is designed to provide next-generation visual experiences, regardless of the size of the screen, size of the file or speed of your network. It's already available on a number of platforms, including Microsoft Surface, and in Photosynth and Silverlight. Now we're bringing that same graphical smoothness right to the iPhone in your pocket.

The application comes with a set of sample content, though they offer tools to create your own content.

One of the major criticisms of the App Store has been a seemingly arbitrary rejection policy on the part of Apple. Air-o-Matic was one of the developers rejected by Apple for the reason of "limited utility" for his humor app "Pull My Finger". Sam of Air-o-Matic contacted us to let us know that Apple has now accepted "Pull My Finger" into the App Store [link, $0.99].

Sam apparently got a call from Apple about his app:

[Apple] told me that they are going to start approving a whole new "genre" of apps, and that Pull My Finger will be the first to be accepted in this genre. As of now Pull My Finger is available in the app store.

The very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn't want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this "genre" of apps were going to be handled. She told me they'd be lifting the restriction on them, and more apps will follow that may have been previously not allowed.

The App now appears in the App Store but without any special designation. Coincidentally, Apple also recently allowed in a game called Amateur Surgeon which was rated for ages 17+.

Adage points to a major new ad campaign from Apple which is currently running on http://games.yahoo.com/. Apple's latest web ad goes outside the usual bounds of traditional banner ads by affecting other portions of Yahoo's page (the ad must be initiated by the visitor).

Apple's newest online ad has a pretty cool media placement -- something that we're starting to see more and more. Its agency, TBWA/Media Arts Lab, created an iPhone ad for Yahoo Games, where the iPhone action -- in this case, gameplay -- begins to move all the elements on the page.

A sample of the ad is embedded below:

Besides the uniqueness of ad placement, it also demonstrates that Apple is continuing to push the iPod Touch as a gaming platform. Games continue to be the largest portion of the App Store and one iPhone game (Fieldrunners) was even chosen by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 games of 2008. TouchArcade.com covers the emerging iPhone and iPod Touch gaming scene which has seen some recent notable releases including Dropship (Ngmoco), Hero of Sparta (Gameloft), and Centipede (Atari).

Apple has seeded yet another build of Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55) to developers. This latest seed reveals no known issues and has addressed a few outstanding issues.

Beyond this, we have heard that Apple has started distributing this particular seed internally outside of the usual developer circles. This would indicate that this is the final version of Mac OS X 10.5.6 before public release. We had also heard unconfirmed whispers that the new version would be made available to the public on Friday, and this new information certainly makes that plausible.

Mac OS X 10.5.6 should be a free update available to all Mac OS X 10.5 customers upon its release.

Dozens of Apple patent applications were published today revealing research that Apple had done in 2007 on many topics encompassing future versions of Mac OS X. The most intriguing is a series of patent applications which describe a "Multidimensional" user interface. Apple has essentially been working on true 3D desktop environments.

Disclosed herein are systems, aparatus and methods, including a multidimensional desktop graphical user interface.

In one titled Multidimensional Desktop, Apple includes a number of diagrams depicting what such a desktop might look like and how it would work.

This figure (above) shows a multidimensional desktop environment alongside what Apple describes as a multidimensional application environment. Along the side are a number of three-dimensional "function" icons that may trigger certain commands on each surface. These icons can be manipulated in 3D with a physics model so the icons can appropriately "fall" if displaced.

This figure (above) shows that windows could be dragged or displaced across multiple surfaces. Each surface could have its own characteristics and cause icons or windows to display different information:

For example, on the bottom surface, icons and other system object representations can be displayed according to a large scale; on the side surface, icons and system object representations can be displayed according to small scale; on the back surface, icons and other system object representations can be displayed in a list format

It's not clear when and if Apple will decide to implement these design ideas into a future version of Mac OS X. Apple's next major version of Mac OS X (10.6) is due in the first quarter of 2009 and will primarily focus on "under the hood" changes to boost performance. Apple has not been the only one working on 3D desktops. One popular YouTube video demos a 3D desktop in action. Sun's Project Looking Glass also demonstrates a currently functional 3D desktop for linux and Solaris x86.

Apple today released a number of firmware updates for the "Late 2008" MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. Each model requires two separate firmware updates.

EFI Firmware Updates: The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) specifies the interface between a computer's firmware and the operating system. These updates address several issues related to system stability. Further information and installation instructions can be found on Apple's support page.

SMC Firmware Updates: The System Management Controller (SMC) controls various power-related functions. According to Apple, these updates address the "sensing and accuracy of the MagSafe Power Adapter indicator light, and the battery charge indicator lights." General information and installation instructions for SMC updates can be found on Apple's support page.

MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.3 (1.8 MB)
MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.2 (556 KB)

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.6 (1.9 MB)
MacBook Pro 15-inch SMC Firmware Update 1.2 (559 KB)

MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 1.1 (2.4 MB)
MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update 1.1 (556 KB)

While the iTunes App Store has been a huge success in terms of iPhone app distribution, there have been lingering complaints that the current structure encourages a "race to the bottom" with massive competition dropping the price of apps towards $0.99. The most vocal complaint about the current system comes from Craig Hockenberry who published an open letter to Steve Jobs on the issue:

As an iPhone developer who's been in the App Store since its launch, I'm starting to see a trend that concerns me: developers are lowering prices to the lowest possible level in order to get favorable placement in iTunes. This proliferation of 99 cent "ringtone apps" is affecting our product development.

Hockenberry claims that these $0.99 "ringtone apps" prevent developers from working on more substantial and creative applications, instead trying to cash in on the latest fad.

Jesse Farmer of 20bits, however, disagrees with Hokenberry's letter and distinguishes that while the App Store is a very good distribution channel, developers should not rely on it as their only marketing channel.

Distribution and marketing aren't one and the same, and this tension is why developers are feeling pinched.

Distribution is the "how," as in, how do you get your product to your customer? .... Marketing is the "why," as in, why do your customers want to buy your product?

Farmer suggests that developers should look for creative ways outside the app store itself to stimulate demand. He points out that lower prices aren't what convinces people to buy Beyonce's album, but instead the multi-million dollar marketing campaigns surrounding the brand.

CNet explains the reason behind a Macworld report last week that several movies had disappeared from the iTunes Store.

Frequent Macworld contributor Kirk McElhearn noticed something interesting when he went to grab a movie from the iTunes Store. Of the 15 films he had bookmarked for later viewing, an astounding nine were no longer available for purchase. Or rental. Nor, for that matter, did they seem to exist anywhere on the iTunes Store at all.

CNet explains that this is due to licensing agreements between the movie studios and Apple.

Typically, movies have set distribution windows that are followed in order: theaters, DVDs, pay-per-view (and iTunes) and finally, broadcast TV. As movies cross over into broadcast TV distribution, they are being removed from Apple (and Netflix) distribution.

Normally, release windows don't affect retailers or video-rental services after they've begun selling or renting films. Warner Bros. doesn't go into Best Buy and pull DVDs off the shelf when Comcast airs Casablanca. The corner Mom and Pop video store doesn't surrender copies of Gladiator to Universal Studios when the film appears on ABC. But Internet stores are being treated differently. What this means for iTunes and Netflix customers is that movies will pop in and out of the services.

Those who have already purchased these films will, of course, be able to continue to watch them.

On Monday, Mozilla released the latest beta version of Firefox 3.1. This "Beta 2" version of the popular web browser adds a number of new features across all supported platforms including:

- Private Browsing Mode
- Faster JavaScript engine
- Improved rendering
- Support for new web technologies.

But one feature unique to the Mac build is support for Apple's multi-touch trackpad which has been shipping in notebooks since January of this year. While Apple's Safari supports multi-touch gestures for common web browsing tasks (back, forward, resize text), support had been absent from Firefox. Experimental Firefox support for the multi-touch trackpad was first introduced in a pre-Beta build back in October by Mozilla's Edward Lee. The changes have since made it into the official Beta 2 released on Monday and is expected to be released with the final 3.1 version of Firefox.

Supported gestures are even more robust than Safari's support and include ("Swipe" refers to 3-finger Swipe):

- Swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Cmd to open it in a tab)
- Swipe Right: Go forward in history
- Swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
- Swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
- Pinch Together: Zoom out
- Pinch Apart: Zoom in
- Twist Right: Next tab
- Twist Left: Previous tab

Mozilla warns that the beta version of Firefox is intended for testing use only. There's no known release date for the final release of Firefox 3.1.

The Inquirer presents evidence that they believe the current 15" MacBook Pro may continue to suffer from faulty graphics chips. NVIDIA previously reported manufacturing defects in July that were later found to affect some MacBook Pros. The issue was thought to have been resolved.

In a seemingly thorough analysis, however, The Inquirer claims that NVIDIA 9600 graphics chips found in an off-the-shelf 15" MacBook Pro also contains similar defects.

So, what does this all mean? It suggests that there are 15-inch Macbook Pros being sold with 'bad bumps', the same materials that brought down so many HP, Dell and Apple parts, both laptop and desktop. For some odd reason, Nvidia really does not want you to know this.

NVIDIA's Mike Hara, however, denied the association and had the following comment:

The GeForce 9600 GPU in the MacBook Pro does not have bad bumps. The material set (combination of underfill and bump) that is being used is similar to the material set that has been shipped in 100s of millions of chipsets by the world's largest semiconductor company."

The article suggests that the problem could be related to the "black screen of death" issue that some MacBook Pro users have seen during gaming sessions.

The Khronos group announced the ratification and public release of the OpenCL 1.0 specification described as the first open, royalty-free standard for cross-platform, parallel programming of modern processors found in personal computers, servers and handheld/embedded devices.

OpenCL provides programmers tools to speed up a wide variety of applications by taking advantage of untapped GPU processors and multi-core processors found in modern computers. Apple originally proposed OpenCL as part of their upcoming Snow Leopard operating system, and their release deadline helped accelerate the adoption of the specification. OpenCL has been developed and ratified by a number of industry companies including Apple, NVIDIA, ARM, Intel, and many others.

We are excited about the industry-wide support for OpenCL, said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. Apple developed OpenCL so that any application in Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X, can harness an amazing amount of computing power previously available only to graphics applications.

For the end user, this should allow developers to more easily take advantage of existing hardware (GPUs, CPUs) to deliver faster software performance.

Apple's Snow Leopard operating system (Mac OS X 10.6) is due for release in 2009 with recent hints pointing to the 1st quarter.

A couple of speculative reports have come out about what plans Apple might have for its ARM-based processors in the coming year. Apple is rumored to be a major architectual licensee for ARM. This would offer Apple an added level of control and ownership over its processors. Apple presently uses the ARM processor in the iPhone and iPod Touch. Additional evidence has pointed to the fact that Apple acquired P.A. Semi specifically for their expertise in low-power processor development.

Computerworld blogger Seth Weintraub recently spoke with Bob Morris, director of platform enablement for ARM's mobile processor group, and believes that Apple will incorporate ARM processors in future netbooks and/or tablets. The newest ARM processors are said to have equal performance to Intel's Atom processors but dramatically lower power consumption:

We are talking Apples and Oranges here. Not double, but an order of magnitude better for ARM. Some ARM chips routinely use 10-20 times less power than Intel for similar operations. Battery usage with ARM chips in prospective netbooks could be measured in days, not hours much like smartphones.

Meanwhile, Global Equities Research analyst takes it a step further by claiming that Apple will launch "a completely new device category" in the second half of 2009 based on chips produced by P.A. Semiconductor. Unfortunately, the credibility of the report is somewhat marred by the seemingly nonsensical statement that the new processors "will have the Objective-C instruction set built into the chip".

Regardless, Apple seems to have made some major moves in terms of custom processor development in 2008. While it's been assumed that these investments have been directed at the iPhone and iPod Touch, it's conceivable the technology will trickle to future devices.

Last week Apple seeded developers with Build 9G52 of Mac OS X 10.5.6. The latest seeds ask developers to continue testing Mobile Me syncing and Mail character sets and continues to list a number of fixes from previous versions. Apple is expected to release Mac OS X 10.5.6 in the near future.

HMBT.org also publishes seed notes from the latest Snow Leopard build (10A222) which was also released to developers last week. The newest seed offers new additions to Grand Central, which provides developers an easier way to harness the power of multiple processor cores.

Separately, we've heard that the newest version of Snow Leopard makes Rosetta an optional installation. Rosetta is Apple's PowerPC emulator for their Intel Macs, allowing Intel Mac owners to run legacy software that has not been upgraded for the Intel platform. This news comes shortly after an announcement that IBM had purchased Transitive, the company behind Rosetta's technology. The final release of Snow Leopard is also rumored to require an Intel Mac, thereby being the first version of Mac OS X to drop PowerPC support.

Apple first announced its transition from PowerPC to Intel processors in June, 2005.

Last week, Boy Genius Report cited an unconfirmed source that Wal-Mart may begin selling a 4GB iPhone for only $99. Based on available Wal-Mart training materials and advertising (pictured above) we've received, however, it seems that this rumor is unlikely. The advertising shown only lists 8GB iPhones for sale at $197, without any hints of a cheaper model. The iPhone will go on sale at Wal-Mart beginning on December 28th.

This information also correlates with MacBlogz' AT&T sources who claim the 4GB rumors were untrue.