MacRumors

Two weeks after Apple announced that all MobileMe systems were up and operational after a rocky transition, there continue to be sporadic reports around the web of various service outages inclusive of a 4.5 hour mail outage yesterday. But has MobileMe gotten more reliable?

According to Apple's MobileMe status history, there have been approximately 13.5 hours of various downtime over the past two weeks (336 hours); that is, MobileMe has a 96% overall uptime over the past two weeks.

Determining whether 96% is good or bad can be subjective to the user. This editor and user of MobileMe has hardly been affected by the outages but other users may have been more affected by the timing or the content of the outages. In general we would consider a consumer-oriented service such as MobileMe to have an uptime of at least 98% which would effectively half the downtime that MobileMe currently experiences.

Walt Mossberg has expressed similar sentiments, saying that currently MobileMe is far too flawed to be reliable.

Last week an analyst report speculated that Apple would hold some sort of media event this September to refresh the iPod line as well as introduce updates to both the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.

While the report appeared to be mostly speculative, Apple has been predictably updating their iPods in September for the past couple of years. Combined with circulating rumors of iPod revisions and the end of the Back to School promo, it seems probable that late September will bring us new Apple products.

While rumors have focused on new iPod nanos, MacRumors has heard whispers that an iPod Touch update is also likely in the same timeframe.

Given the likelihood of updates, readers should be cautious about buying a new Apple notebook or iPod at this time.

AlleyInsider publishes an unconfirmed rumor that Apple will be incorporating QuickTime encoding/decoding chips into their products in the coming months. AlleyInsider's Dan Frommer describes it as "pure speculation" but felt it plausible enough to publish for discussion.

Our understanding is that a QuickTime encoding/decoding chip would handle the grunt work of processing video, presumably in the H.264 format, so that Mac computers' processors wouldn't have to do as much heavy lifting. That could be used in any number of cirumstances, such as a live, hi-def iChat AV video chat, watching HD video off the Web, or faster encoding HD video for distribution. (Perhaps the iSight cameras built into MacBooks and iMacs might get a HD upgrade, too.)

The rumor actually mirrors an old claim by Robert Cringely from 2007 that describes the same details:

Now comes the rumor I have heard, that I believe to be a fact, that has simply yet to be confirmed. I have heard that Apple plans to add hardware video decoding to ALL of its new computers beginning fairly soon, certainly this year.

The significance of this rumor is somewhat unclear as many modern day graphics cards already contain dedicated H.264 decoding hardware. The addition of encoding hardware, however, may be of benefit for low end and mobile configurations.

Incidentally, H.264 is one of the codecs used in Blu-Ray high definition video discs which Apple has yet to adopt.

In an interview with Steve Jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports that the iTunes App Store has delivered over 60 million programs to customers over the course of the first month. While most of those applications were free, Jobs does reveal that Apple has sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for a total of $30 million in sales over the first month. Jobs says he's "never seen anything like this in my career for software."

Some of the big winners amongst the sales include Sega's Super Monkey Ball [App Store] which saw over 300,000 downloads in the first 20 days. This represents over $2 million in net revenue for this $9.99 game alone. Meanwhile, the popular medical reference Epocrates [App Store] has seen over 125,000 downloads during its short time in the App Store. This compares quite favorably to Epocrates previously installed base of 500,000 other mobile users.

Also addressed is the recent discussion surrounding application removals. An Apple spokesperson described the pulling of the I am Rich application as a "judgement call".

Finally, Jobs confirms the ability to remotely disable an application:

"Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull"

Intel has announced that the upcoming Nehalem processor will be officially known as the Core i7.

Nehalem has been the code name for Intel's upcoming processors first due in Q4 2008. Nehalem represents a major overhaul of Intel's processor technology and introduces a number of improvements over existing process bottlenecks.

Intel's choice of name seems to be arbitrary but will reportedly fit into the naming scheme for the full line of chips, as explained by TGDaily.com:

Intel told us that i7 was simply chosen because it is short and sweet. The company showed some understanding for our confusion over this name choice and promised that i7 would make sense down the road when additional new identifiers are introduced.

Intel is expected to reveal more information about the Core i7 at the Intel Developer Forum on August 19th. At the conference, Intel will also detail a new energy saving technique in the i7:

Intel would not reveal the nature of the new energy efficiency feature in the Core i7 chips. A company spokesman said it is not a direct evolution of the Intel's SpeedStep technology that automates frequency scaling based on workloads.

While the first of the Core i7 processors will be introduced in Q4 2008, mainstream desktop and mobile versions of the processor will be delayed until well into 2009.

IBM has launched a website previewing their forthcoming version of specialized Lotus Notes access for the iPhone.

Dubbed IBM Lotus iNotes 'Ultralite', the web-based application built on Lotus Domino Web Access will provide corporate email, calendar, and contacts in a specially formatted iPhone version. Several preliminary screenshots are available, though IBM notes they are subject to change. We've mirrored a few here:

The software has been expected since January and will be released later this year.

Moconews.net reports that according to "multiple sources", T-Mobile is planning to launch an app store across their entire lineup of phones.

Think of *Apples* App store, but for the entire carriers handset line-up from smartphone to feature phone. As one developer, who was briefed on the matter, said: The App store was a big deal, but thats one phone. This is an entire carrier.

According to Moconews, developers will submit their applications online and receive a revenue-share agreement based on how much network resources are consumed. A video streaming application, for example, would require a higher percentage to T-Mobile. The site again emphasizes that the store will apply across all different platforms including Android, Java, Sidekick and Windows Mobile.

The store, of course, will draw comparisons to Apple's recently launched App Store which offers developers a fixed 70%/30% split with 70% going to developers.

Despite some early assurances, it appears that Nullriver's NetShare application may not return to the U.S. App Store at all. NetShare was an iPhone application that appeared briefly in the iTunes App Store before its removal. The application allowed users to share their iPhone's cellular internet connection with their laptop over Wi-Fi.

In speaking to Wired.com, the developer reports that Apple is currently reviewing user contracts with their mobile phone providers, including AT&T. Wired got hold of an AT&T spokesperson who confirmed that tethering is not allowed in the AT&T terms of service.

As a result, it seems unlikely that NetShare will return to the U.S. App Store but it does leave open the possibility that it will be available to international customers whose mobile carriers do not have such restrictions. Despite the removal of the application from the App Store, customers who purchased the application prior to its removal can continue to use it on their iPhones.