MacRumors

Apple appears to be sending out weekly seeds of the newest version of Mac OS X 10.5.5 to developers. The prior seed was released on August 7th.

This new version (Build 9F13) details 10 more bug fixes and unlike prior builds, Apple lists no known issues.

It's difficult to predict when the next version of Mac OS X will be released to the public, but it should be a free upgrade and include a number of bug fixes.

According to a new article from BusinessWeek.com, additional sources have corroborated an analyst's claim that recent iPhone 3G connection issues are the result of issues with the Infineon chipset used to provide 3G connectivity in the iPhone. The sources indicate that Apple plans to address the issue through a software update rather than a hardware recall.

Two sources say Apple will likely issue a software update by the end of Septemberif not by the end of this monthto resolve the issues. Apple and Infineon are currently testing the fix, which will be included in a broader update of the iPhone's software.

The exact problem with the Infineon chipset remains the subject of speculation, with one source claiming that the fault rests with the chipset struggling to keep up with the popularity and data consumption of the iPhone 3G. However, additional speculation suggests that Apple has been overly conservative with its software settings for determining whether the 3G signal and bandwidth is sufficient to support 3G functions at any given time.

Part of the role of the Infineon chip is to check whether there's enough 3G bandwidth available in a given area. If 3G isn't available or there isn't enough bandwidth, the iPhone will be shifted to a slower network. One source says Apple programmed the Infineon chip to demand a more powerful 3G signal than the iPhone really requires. So if too many people try to make a call or go on the Internet in a given area, some of the devices will decide there's insufficient power and switch to the slower networkeven if there is enough 3G bandwidth available.

The source claims that this issue primarily arises in areas of high iPhone density such as "the San Francisco Bay area, Boston, and certain overseas locales."

In contrast, however, an MSNBC.com article cites a report from Ny Teknik, a Swedish technical magazine, claiming that the issues are in fact hardware-related.

The report said the most likely cause of the 3G problems is defective adjustments between the antenna and an amplifier that captures very weak signals from the antenna. This could lead to poor 3G connectivity and slower data speeds.

Apple has not yet acknowledged the existence of 3G connection issues with the new iPhone and declined to comment for either article, leaving the details of the problem and Apple's plans for addressing it uncertain and subject to speculation for the time being.

Apple announced today that movies from major film studios are now available on the iTunes Store in Australia and New Zealand. Both movie purchases and rentals are available from studies including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate.

The iTunes Store in Australia and New Zealand have over 700 films available for rent or purchase with new release titles available for purchase on the same day as DVD release.

Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store, said Eddy Cue, Apples vice president of Internet Services. iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the worlds most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday.

iTunes movies in Australia start at A$9.99 for catalog title purchases, A$17.99 for recent releases and A$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are A$3.99 for library title rentals and A$5.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more.

iTunes movies in New Zealand start at NZ$9.99 for catalog title purchases, NZ$17.99 for recent releases and NZ$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are NZ$4.99 for library title rentals and NZ$6.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more.

Update: Movie rentals appear to be 48 hours, unlike the U.S. rentals which are 24 hours.

setteB.IT reports that the Apple TV is now cheaper in Australia at AU$330 for the 40GB model and AU$450 for the 160GB model, down from AU$450 and AU$580, respectively. New Zealand prices for the Apple TV have remained the same.

Digital Daily notes that Apple's market capitalization at $159.37 billion is now worth more than Google's which is at $157.56 billion. Apple's market cap first exceeded $100 billion in May of 2007. Apple was included into the S&P 100 index at that time. For interest, MacDailyNews compiled a list of the market values of other notable companies:

- Microsoft (MSFT) - $255,648,204,000
- IBM (IBM) - $169,964,678,000
- Apple (AAPL) - $157,012,662,240
- Google (GOOG) - $156,392,862,560
- Cisco (CSCO) - $142,125,692,160
- Intel (INTC) - $135,658,860,000
- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) - $111,866,423,760
- Nokia (NOK) - $97,746,699,520
- Research In Motion (RIMM) - $71,143,935,000
- Disney (DIS) - $59,257,501,500
- Dell (DELL) - $50,483,256,060

The practical significance of this ranking of market cap is little, but does always revive a famous comment by Michael Dell in 1997 when asked about what he would do to fix the then money-losing Apple:

"What would I do? I'd shut [Apple] down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.

Apple released the first month's sales reports to iPhone and iPod Touch developers earlier this week. These numbers represent the cumulative sales from the iTunes App Store launch on July 11th for the month of July. While Apple had started providing daily download stats for developers, the stats for the lucrative first couple of weeks had been a mystery.

iPhone developer Tap Tap Tap has published their first month's (July 11-Aug 2) sales numbers for their applications: Where To? [$2.99, App Store] and Tipulator [$0.99, App Store].

The bulk of their revenue came from Where To, a $2.99 application that uses GPS that helps "you find points of interest around you." This one application brought in $50,597.40 in net revenue to the developer after Apple's 30% cut. While much has been said about the success of Sega's Super Monkey Ball and other high profile applications, Where To's numbers reveal the success of an app that has held a popularity ranking in the 50-70s amongst paid apps (ranked in 300s amongst all apps).

Meanwhile, MintApps is a small iPhone developer who provides another point of data with sales from their nutritional facts application called Mint Nutrition [$4.99, App Store]. Mint Nutrition has generated over $1,900 of net revenue after becoming first available on July 21st. The $1900 in sales covers a 12 day period between July 21st through August 2nd. The app's popularity currently ranks only in the 800s amongst all apps and has not broken into the top 100 paid apps. Yet this still represents an average sales of 45 apps/day or $158/day.

Tap Tap Tap's John Casasanta notes that the relative popularity rank influences sales significantly:

We were teetering around the 50th rank for Where To but then slipped under it. It seems that once you drop past that, youre on a free-fall since the App Store on the iPhone only shows 50 in its top list, compared to 100 in iTunes on the computer.

Ranking stats obtained from Medialets

ZDNet Australia reports that banking "giant" HSBC is considering ditching the BlackBerry and switching over to the iPhone for its staff. HSBC has about 300,000 staff worldwide and this transition could result in 200,000 iPhone orders.

"We are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective ... and when I say that, I mean globally," HSBC's Australia and New Zealand chief information officer Brenton Hush told ZDNet.com.au yesterday.

While Apple has not released official sales numbers for the iPhone 3G beyond the first weekend, analysts are predicting that Apple will sell at least 4.47 million iPhones this quarter. This estimate reportedly doesn't take into account Apple's international iPhone in 22 additional countries later this month.

A few more details about the fire at Apple headquarters have been revealed that we first reported last night on Page 2. MSNBC reports that firefighters battled the blaze for more than 3 hours and was finally extinguished Wednesday morning. No injuries were reported.

The Mercury News reports that the fire may have started under an air conditioning unit on the second floor. The fire was first reported shortly after 10 p.m. local time. Over 60 firefighters responded.

While some sites are reporting that the building was a research and development (R&D) building based on a passing mention at Engadget, several commenters have disputed this claim.

CBS5 has some raw video from the scene. Additional photos: Associated Press, MSNBC. Flickr/Jessicaspacekat

Update: More claims indicate that this building housed Apple's Information Systems and Technology department, not research and development.

Best Buy is expected to announce that they will begin selling the iPhone 3G next month, according to AppleInsider.

The announcement should come as early as Wednesday and represents the first time a 3rd party U.S. retailer will be selling Apple's iPhone. The iPhone will reportedly be sold in 970 Best Buy stores in addition to 16 Best Buy Mobile specialty outlets starting on September 7th.

Rumors of Best Buy's interest in the iPhone began over a year ago. More recently, Boy Genius Report had heard that both Best Buy and Radio Shack had been working on iPhone distribution. There has been no further word on any distribution deals with Radio Shack, however.

Update: BestBuy has officially announced that they will be selling the iPhone 3G starting on September 7th.

"We had a lot of work to do, obviously, to get in a position where Apple and AT&T would feel good about Best Buy Mobile carrying it, and that's what we've done in the last 18 months," said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile.

There are a number of reports of iPhone 3G users having problems with inconsistent cellular connections with their new phones. CNet points to a growing discussion thread at Apple's forums detailing the problems.

Specifically, some users have having problems with frequent dropped calls on 3G networks. One customer describes his experience:

"I was driving down Folsom Street in San Francisco, and I got a dropped call 10 times. I get dropped calls just standing in one place," said Yarbrough, a 34-year-old accountant. "I'm extremely annoyed, but I'm hopeful a software update will fix it."

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, has said that they are looking into individual cases, but claims that the iPhone 3G has not generated an unusual number of complaints:

"How a device performs in individual situations depends on circumstances like where you are in the 3G coverage, how close you are to a cell site. Things like terrain and buildings all come into play," Siegel said. "I'm not denying that people are having a less than satisfactory experience, but overall, the phone is doing great."

CNet points out that it can be difficult to determine the scope of a problem based on online complaints alone. Some reports have claimed simply replacing the SIM card has corrected the problems, while one analyst has claimed that the problems could be related to the 3G chipset that Apple used.

A new analyst report from Piper Jaffray claims that Apple's September announcement will reveal a new iPod Touch and new MacBooks.

Analyst Mike Olson predicts that the iPod Touch will be tweaked to resemble Apple's new iPhone 3G and also raises the possibility of price drops and/or capacity increases. Recent Firmware hints have suggested the iPod Touch could see feature upgrades as well. The expectation of a new iPod Touch is also consistent with whispers we've heard.

Olson also points to slimmer MacBooks which could also have newly designed keyboards. This prediction may have been inspired by circulating rumors and photos depicting an aluminum MacBook. Apple has been rumored to be introducing "major design changes" to their notebook computers this fall.

Apple's choice of processors for a new MacBook revision will certainly be Intel's upgraded Penryn processors which were introduced alongside the Montevina platform in July. The latest Intel processors boost processor speeds up to 3.06GHz and also increase bus speeds to 1066MHz (from 800MHz). The new MacBooks will likely also benefit from upgraded integrated graphics with the GMA X4500. The GMA X4500 benchmarks significantly faster than the GMA X3100 found in current MacBooks. While there has been some talk that Apple will migrate to a 3rd party chipset, the implications of such a move remain unclear.