MacRumors

Apple has finally started offering a Back to School promo for U.K. customers. The new promotion kicked off today, just as the U.S. promotion ended.

U.K. customers who purchase a Mac (excluding the Mac Mini) and an iPod (Nano or Touch) get a rebate of 95. The rebate does not quite offset the cost of the iPods which start at 109. The promotion runs until October 31st and is open to students, teachers and education professionals.

Eligible customers can buy through the Online Apple Store. A FAQ and Terms and Conditions are available.

Update: Similar promos are also being advertised in Apple's country-specific online stores in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

After weeks of developer seeds, Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.5 to customers. The latest upgrade to Leopard is available through your Mac OS X Software Update.

The 10.5.5 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

Apple details the updates at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2405 as well as Security changes at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Highlights of the improvements include:

- Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
- Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
- Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
- In MobileMe: improves overall sync and Back to My Mac reliability.
- Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

The 10.5.5 update is available for free to all Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) customers.

Barrons reports on an analyst note from Citigroup's Richard Gardner who claims to have received confirmation that new MacBooks are shipping.

The report cites "field checks" as the source of the information and describes the new MacBooks with a "very thin aluminum casing, an LED-backlit display and an aggressive entry-level price point."

This description matches many of the circulating rumors, including photos that claimed to depict the new MacBook. Also, the "aggressive" price point could also represent the lower margins that Apple predicted for future quarters during their Q3 2008 Financial Results. At that time, Apple described a "future product transition" which could impact margins.

The most recent claims have pinpointed October 14th as the possible day for the MacBook release.

A NY Times blog entry reports that Apple is indeed working on its own variant of the ARM processor for the iPhone. The information verifies what has long been speculated based on Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi earlier this year and announcements by both ARM and Steve Jobs.

Former P.A. Semi engineer Wei-han Lien lists his current position as "Senior Manager Chip CPU Architect at Apple" in his Linkedin profile. His specialties include high performance microprocessor architecture/micro-architecture and verification. According to his published profile, his present job is managing the "ARM CPU architecture team for iPhone".

Apple presently uses several ARM processors for the existing iPhones but after the company's acquisition of P.A. Semi, Steve Jobs revealed that P.A. Semi would be working on custom chips for iPhones and iPods. Additional speculation pointed to the possibility that Apple had become a major architectural licensee of ARM which would allow them to have more control over the design of the handsets. By developing their own versions of the chips found in the iPhone, Apple could benefit from cost savings and competitive advantages:

By developing its own ARM variant, Apple could create a processor that meets the specific needs of the iPhone and iPod, building support for functions such as the touch screen or scroll wheel into silicon and possibly savings on costs by reducing the number of processors needed in each device. In addition, Apple will be able to maintain tighter controls on who knows what about its future products by disposing of an outside chip supplier.

Apple released the long awaited iPhone 2.1 firmware upgrade on Friday. The release has been met primarily with praise from MacRumors commenters. Many existing issues have been addressed including the highly publicized security issue, stability issues and app crashing.

While Apple has provided a official changelog of new features and fixes, forum user justinomg has compiled an extensive list (with screenshots) of additional undocumented changes in the latest iPhone firmware.

Some of these findings include:

- Pause application installations by tapping on the icon.
- Triple clicking on the headset button goes to the previous track
- Podcasts listings indicate partially listened to items.
- iPod song listings show artist and album name
- Improved compatibility with certain bluetooth headsets.

Additionally, some 3rd party apps have had compatibility issues with the 2.1 firmware. A list of affected apps has been compiled by yoman.

Only one feature that was originally promised for a September release has not yet been delivered: "Push" notifications. These notifications would allow dormant 3rd party applications to process and display background events. Apple removed the feature from late iPhone 2.1 developer releases and has given no indication when it would be reintroduced.

Forum user pismodude2 was able to confirm that the 2nd generation iPod Touch will allow microphone input and work with existing microphone-enabled applications. He was able to use a 3rd party microphone headset to input audio into his new iPod Touch.

We had previously reported that Apple's new microphone headsets were listed to be compatible with the 2nd Generation iPod Touch, although we had initially expressed some skepticism as this feature was not listed in any other location.

Allowing users to conveniently add an external microphone to the iPod touch opens up the possibility of using the iPod Touch as a telephone over Wi-Fi connections (VOIP).

When the App Store was first introduced, Apple specified that apps would have to be approved before being allowed into the App Store. The reasoning for this approval process was to weed out applications that were against Apple's terms of service. This was said to include potentially abusive and inappropriate apps. While there have been a few applications that have been rejected on these grounds, there is increasing concern about App Store rejections due to overly vague reasons.

The most recent case is from a developer who created an application called Podcaster. Podcaster is an application which allows you to subscribe, manage, stream and download podcasts directly to your iPhone and iPod Touch. A video demo of the application can be seen at NextDayOff.com. Podcaster was rejected for inclusion into the App Store.

The developer published the rejection letter which cites duplication of iTunes functionality for the reason for rejection:

Apple Rep says: Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.

DaringFireball sums up the concern amongst some developers about this policy:

If you only find out at the end of the development process that your app has been rejected not for a technical problem that you can address but because Apple deems the entire concept to be out of bounds then who is going to put serious time and talent into an iPhone app?

Developer Fraser Speirs is amongst the developers outraged by this policy and offers suggestions on how Apple should address this. Some of the suggestions include clear exclusion rules, an App Store evangelist, and the ability for developers to get pre-authorization for application ideas.

As promised, Apple has released the iPhone 2.1 firmware through iTunes this morning. The iPhone 2.1 firmware contains the following updates as listed by Apple:

- decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
- significantly improve battery life for most users
- dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- improve email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
- faster installation of 3rd party applications
- fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
- improved performance in text messaging
- faster loading and searching of contacts
- improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
- repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
- option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
- Genius playlist creation

The 2.1 firmware is build 5F136 and can be directly downloaded through iTunes. The new firmware also contains a number of security fixes including the well publicized passcode flaw.

Update: Users report that Netshare still works.

Tonight, Microsoft aired the second of a series of new ads featuring Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The long version of the ad (4m 30s) is embedded above via YouTube and a high quality version is available at Microsoft.com.

The first installment of the ad campaign showed Bill Gates and Seinfeld at a shoe store. The new installment shows Gates and Seinfeld living with "real people".

While we don't plan on getting into a habit of posting news stories for every new Microsoft ad, the original ad story generated a remarkable amount of feedback and interest. Future ads may be reported on our Page 2 which is also linked from the left sidebar.

At the "Let's Rock" media event, Steve Jobs announced that NBC had returned to iTunes after being absent from the online store for almost a year. The removal of NBC shows from iTunes was the result of a very public dispute between the the two companies.

Apple announced in August of 2007 that they would no longer be selling NBC television shows because NBC wanted "double the wholesale price" for each episode. NBC later disputed this claim by saying that they simply wanted flexible pricing. In the end, Apple and NBC were unable to come to an agreement until this week.

After Tuesday's announcement, NBC executives claimed that Apple had conceded to its demands about pricing and packaging shows together. NBC is now offering some catalog titles for $0.99 as well as package deals that could offer customers a bulk discount. Apple's Eddie Cue, however, has since denied that these claims are true. According to Cue, lower prices have always been an option for networks.

"We've never told anyone they can't lower prices," Cue said.

Cue also pointed out that the higher $2.99 price introduced on Tuesday is simply their standard price for High Definition content.

IDG World Expo has announced that registration for Macworld San Francisco 2009 (MWSF) has opened for attendees.

Macworld San Francisco is an annual Apple-focused expo taking place between January 5th-9th, 2009 and at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Early/discounted registration is available until December 1st.

While no announcements have been made, Steve Jobs traditionally gives the opening Keynote address which will likely take place on the morning of Tuesday, January 6th. MacRumors will be at the expo to provide keynote and ongoing coverage of the event.

At the last Macworld expo, Apple introduced the MacBook Air, iTunes Movie Rentals, iPod Touch Software Update and iPhone Software Update and SDK announcement, and Time Capsule. We'd previously heard that Apple is preparing for Cinema Display updates at this year's Macworld. Other hints have suggested that this year's MWSF will be a more Mac-focused event.