Seth Weintraub

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Apple today seeded OS X Lion 10.7.2 Build 11C62 to developers. Builds continue to come in every 5-6 days with no known issues.  Developers can go here to download.
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Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam

At an investor conference yesterday, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam made the simple argument:

I have taken the position that the AT&T merger with T-Mobile was kind of like gravity. It had to occur, because you had a company with a T-Mobile that had the spectrum but didn’t have the capital to build it out. AT&T needed the spectrum, they didn’t have it in order to take care of their customers, and so that match had to occur.

I don’t think that I’ve heard a rationale for the merger stated more succinctly.

But coming from AT&T and T-Mobile’s biggest rival, you know it is a bunch of horses**t.

Since when does a company CEO say something to the effect of “We want our competitors to be stronger and better equipped to compete with us and take our customers”?

The reason why Verizon is in favor of the deal is because it eliminates a low-cost player in the market and brings the U.S. closer to a telecom duopoly, in which AT&T and Verizon can set prices.  Just recently, Verizon was forced to offer a $50 pre-paid data plan that competes with Sprint’s Virgin and T-Mobile.  With Verizon/AT&T running the show, they won’t need to make moves like that.

It’s pretty obvious to anyone not on an AT&T or Verizon payroll (including fifteen members of Congress led by North Carolina’s Heath Shuler) that a merger would be horrific for wireless competition in this country.

No one with an eighth-grade education really believes that any merger, telecom or otherwise, has ever created jobs or competition in the marketplace which is what AT&T is somehow trying to argue. Hopefully this thing is killed. Soon.

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According to a Nikkei Business report (English), another iPhone carrier exclusive country has fallen. Softbank (in blue, above) in Japan has had a monopoly on the iPhone for the past three years in the world’s third largest economy. However, with the release of next iPhone, KDDI/au will carry the device. Both carriers still trail behind the leader NTT, as you can see in the un-translated image above.

According to the report, the iPhone will hit HDDI/au shops in November, a little later than the US expects to see them. If I’m not mistaken, KDDI operates a CDMA network, which is thought to be built into the upcoming worldphone iPhones.

This could still mean big market share gains for Apple in the country that Android hit by storm over the past two years.

KDDI’s shares were up 2.1% at Y642,000, while Softbank’s shares dropped 7.3% to Y2,413.

As part of the Senate Judiciary hearings today, former FTC official (and new Google employee) Susan Creighton, testified under oath today that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! all bid to become the default search engine on iOS’s Mobile Safari Web Browser. As we know, Google won, and as we can infer, Apple gets some revenue from Google for making it its default search engine. As we know from Apple being Apple, the quality of the search results was probably as big a part of the decision as the relatively small bits of revenue.

But as part of the testimony, Creighton said briefly (before she was cut off) that 2/3rds of mobile search comes from Apple iOS devices. That’s pretty interesting considering the share of Android devices in the market. But not altogether surprising considering the web browser market share which includes those millions and millions of iPads.

Video at 2:24.00 (during very interesting testimony around Apple picking Google as default search)

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image via Walyou

Last week, we heard that iPhone 4S devices, ones identical in appearance to current iPhone 4s, were rolling of the assembly lines in big numbers. The only differences in this model are the 8 Megapixel camera and A5 Processor. Everything else is the exact same. In fact, Apple employees could be carrying these around without anyone knowing. The ‘iPhone 5′ lost in a bar might have looked like an iPhone 4.

The bad news is that we reported that there were design and production delays that could have pushed the iPhone 5 launch back.

It appears that the tear-drop shaped iPhone 5 with larger screen and thinner, rounder body is seeing continued design and production delays, at least on one assembly line (Apple has multiple production sources – Pegatron, Foxconn, etc). We therefore think that iPhone 5 will be delayed slightly at the very least and may see shortages all the way into 2012.

Since then, we’ve also heard that those iPhone 5 delays might push the teardrop iPhone 5 out until 2012. This is from two separate, additional sources who have ties to Apple and its manufacturing partners. We don’t want to believe this but we’re hearing it more and more…
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Clearly, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse knows (whether or not) he’s getting the iPhone in a few weeks. But he’s obviously sworn to secrecy by Apple.

The problem is that he has to tell investors how he’s going to come up with all of the additional money and subscribers that will come with getting the iPhone and offering it on unlimited data plans.  When asked about the “rumored device” he said,

“If we get it–if–we may have to adjust our guidance for that,”

Last week, Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer did the same dance, saying that Sprint’s network could handle the iPhone, not that it was getting it.

It will indeed be interesting to see how Sprint’s network can handle the iPhone, especially with unlimited plans.

In other ‘News’, Al Gore mentioned that Apple would be releasing new iPhones next month.

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Fortune does a nice look back on how long Apple has waited from announcement (which seems to be October 4th at this point) and actual launch of the iPhones and iPads. Initial launch windows are huge because there weren’t really competitors in the space quite yet.

Importantly, the general trend is towards a smaller window.

Ten days out, October 14th, seems like a reasonable projection, doesn’t it?

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From 9to5Toys.com:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgaVYa42BL0]

Ending today, MacUpdate’s latest $49.99 Mac software bundle is headlined by Roxio’s Toast Titanium optical disc authoring tools (which retails for $100 by itself), the bundle includes Data Rescue (fix corrupt drives – also over $100), FX Studio Pro 2 (we reviewed v1 here) photo effects as well as seven other useful applications and one nice bonus… Details below or at MacUpdate.com.

Update: Craig Reid from Austin Texas won our retweet contest.  MacUpdate is offering one more free bundle available to those who retweet this post by midnight.
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We told you late last night that LaCie Thunderbolt disks were arriving in Apple Retail Stores.  Today, LaCie officially announced the availability of its new products which hit the Apple online Store today for $399 (1TB) and $499 (2TB) earlier today.

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That is a $100+ premium over their Firewire drives and you’ll need a $49 Apple Thunderbolt Cable.

The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series sets the new standard for the storage industry. Featuring a pair of 2.5″ drives in a Mac OS RAID configuration, the Little Big Disk delivers stunning read speeds more than 480MB/s in SSD and up to 190MB/s in HDD.

It appears that these drives are limited by the speed of the 2.5-inch drives, not by the bus as the faster SSD blows away the HDD version.  It is curious that they didn’t make a 3.5-inch variety which would have allowed for much greater speed and cost much less.

The SSD version will ship next month.

Promise sells their 4TB Thunderbolt RAID boxes for just over $1000, 8TB for $1500 and 12TB for $2000.

Full Press release follows:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_Iir2SklI]

Security firm SuperEVR posts a video of their exploit which always makes it more real/scary.

I found that Skype also improperly defines the URI scheme used by the built-in webkit browser for Skype. Usually you will see the scheme set to something like, “about:blank” or “skype-randomtoken”, but in this case it is actually set to “file://”. This gives an attacker access to the users file system, and an attacker can access any file that the application itself would be able to access.

File system access is partially mitigated by the iOS Application sandbox that Apple has implemented, preventing an attacker from accessing certain sensitive files. However, every iOS application has access to the users AddressBook, and Skype is no exception.

I imagine the iPad app is also susceptible .

TechCrunch notes:

Skype says it is aware of the security issue, and had issued the following statement:

“We are working hard to fix this reported issue in our next planned release which we hope to roll out imminently. In the meantime we always recommend people exercise caution in only accepting friend requests from people they know and practice common sense internet security as always.”

The non-patronizing first sentence would have been sufficient, Skype.

Skype is on a #Winning streak since it got bought by Microsoft earlier this year.

Among a bunch of Google+ improvements announced today, Google said it would bring Hangouts to mobile phones including iPhone (and iPad 2 and 4G iPod likely).  We’re big fans of Google Hangouts and having it on mobile is going to be really great.  They are also offering Hangout broadcasts which might be fun ways to broadcast a keynote for instance :D

Google announced a bunch of other big Google Plus stuff including open invitations today.  Check full coverage on 9to5Google.com
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The Onion joked that Tim Cook’s first order of business as CEO would be to begin making printers again.  Of course that is a bad idea.  But, let’s say that we’re in some alternate reality.  The above SWYP: See What You Print concept created by Artefact is a very Apple-y solution to printers.  Perhaps the HP/Canon/Epsons of the world should take note.

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We’ve been rambling on about white iPod touches for awhile now. Back in June we postulated that Apple would create a white iPod touch after successive launches of white iPhone and iPad and launched a survey (over 80% of you wanted that guy above).

In July we told you they were coming at the next refresh and then later we showed you the front panel (below).

After that, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo bravely forecasted that a White iPod touch was en route.

Today, MacRumors has joined in with their own information:

MacRumors has received information indicating that the next iPod touch revision will be a very minor change, with the primary addition being the introduction of a new white model. Only minor changes are expected for the existing hardware, with the addition of an oleophobic coating for the display and a revised ambient light sensor seemingly being the main differences. Otherwise, we expect the models to be nearly identical to the current fourth-generation iPod touch model.

Could we put in a request for a better backside camera? Just give us 2-3 megapixels and auto-focus like an early iPhone and we’ll shut up.

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We’re not sure exactly what caused today’s spike, but Apple stock had a huge day ending up 2.8% at $411.65 a share for a Market Cap of $381.62B against a down market. It had reached as high as $413.23 from a morning low of $395.20. Notably, Apple is now worth over $23B more than Exxon and is approaching the combined value of Microsoft and Google.

(flipped)

MacPost..posts..another image of today’s earlier ‘iPhone leak’ which shows much more of the front of the device.  In the time since our original post this morning the iPhone 4 repair experts at iFixyouri have chimed in to note that the grill on the white iPhone front plate is a non-OEM version which likely indicates that this isn’t from Apple.

Apple removed the grated grill during the white iPhone redesign to help with the proximity sensor issues.

Perhaps this one is built from parts floating around Asia, but it isn’t one that Apple would have put together itself – recently anyway.

More below:

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Remember that cool iHub USB device that was briefly selling on M.I.C. Gadget, but then was pulled by Apple’s lawyers? It is back, and at a place you’ll probably feel a bit more familiar with: Amazon. Amazon has a few sellers selling that iHub again for prices (white, black) as low as $12.40. Interestingly, Amazon is fulfilling these orders (free shipping) which indicates that they might be complicit.

The iHub isn’t the only Apple branded device making its way through Amazon’s fulfillment centers. the iAccessory Store has a new look “silver” iHub for $9 (black too) and some questionable iPhone HDD enclosures as well as external speakers that bear the Apple logo.

An unboxing video from Nowhereelse.fr of the iHDD and iAudio below:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFNi9SLFkU]

Not, “put this on my iPhone now” good but “wow, that’s interesting and must’ve taken a lot of hard work” good. Lifehacker explains:

You can now grab the theme via an app on Theme Outlet. Here’s how. (And make sure you have Dreamboard installed, as this is a Dreamboard theme and requires it.)

1. Open Cydia
2. Tap Manage Sources
3. Tap Edit, then Add, then add source fnetdesigns.com/cydia/repo
4. Go to the Changes section and install Theme Outlet
5. Close Cydia, go to your home screen, and open Theme Outlet
6. Browse for OS X Ultimatum and download it from there
7. Open up Dreamboard, browse for the OS X Lion Ultimatum theme, and install it.

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Some interesting news from Netflix this morning: They are spinning off their by mail group, which will also include video games and giving it a new name ‘Qwikster’.

While the video below and the announcement blog post set a conciliatory tone for the way the recent changes (price hikes) happened, those changes are still in place and will continue going forward.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Tn8n5CIPk]

In fact, it sounds like Netflix is set to spin off its old mailing business in the future even though in-house Qwikster now sells game rentals as well as movies and TV shows.

The future of video and gaming is clearly streaming and it appears that Netflix doesn’t want to be associated with that entity.

Apple, for what it is worth, has been shunning optical for years, refusing to put Blu-ray optical discs in its Macs or Apple TV products and instead pushing the streaming of media.

Verizon posted a “Data Disclosure” page today revealing the company’s “throttling” plans for high bandwidth customers which is currently defined as:

As of August 2011, the top 5% of data users were using 2 GB or more of data each month.

We found it particularly interesting because it is likely to affect Verizon iPhone customers who purchased their 3G iPhone 4 unlimited plan at launch.  The policy went into place on September 15th.

Will I be affected by Network Optimization?
Only a small percent of customers will be affected.  To be affected, you must be:

• A data customer on an unlimited data plan;
• Have a 3G Verizon Wireless device (if you have a 4G LTE device you will not be impacted); and
• Among the top 5% of data users in a given month.

Then, you will only be affected:

• When you are on the 3G network; and
• When you are connected to a congested cell site.

If Verizon has 50 million data subscribers (guess:>50% of 95 million subs), that is 2.5 million subscribers.

Interestingly, Verizon is telling customers who are affected to upgrade to a 4G phone.  Apple obviously doesn’t (yet?) offer a 4G iPhone so they will be steering iPhone users to other devices.

Reps are being told to offer these as solutions to customers who want to avoid throttling:

• Upgrade to a 4G LTE smartphone
• Migrate to a usage-based (tiered) data plan
• Use WiFi more often

Verizon says this isn’t officially throttling because it is only put in place on congested cell sites.  However, those who want truly unlimited plans in the US might want to consider a Sprint iPhone which is highly likely to come in a month or so.

We’ve pasted the whole FAQ below:

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Update: Apple has pulled the listing. 

Some eagle-eyed commenters noted that the Support document about Thunderbolt Displays included an interesting addition.  Apple says that iMac (Mid 2011 and Late 2011) can both support two Thunderbolt displays.

There’s only one problem:

Apple hasn’t released a Late 2011 iMac…yet.

Apple released an EDU-only  iMac in August which is sometimes called “Late 2011 iMac” but that device has no Thunderbolt so that wouldn’t make sense.  Apple last updated the iMacs in May to Sandy Bridge processors.

Rumors of a late 2011 MacBook Pro refresh perhaps could also point to an iMac refresh as well.

Here is Apple’s current support doc on how to identify iMacs:

Interesting to say the very least.
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We passed up the New York Times iPhone story earlier because it didn’t really contain any new product information. We’ve been hearing early October for awhile now in terms of when the iPhone gets released.  Therefore, the announcement in ‘weeks’ isn’t news either.

Neither is the 8MP camera which I was on hand to hear Sony CEO Howard Stringer reveal earlier this year.  Nor the A5 processor which isn’t even a small stretch.  And the best bit:

two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Apple’s next-generation iPhones say either the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 will include a new chip that is made by Qualcomm.

Helpful.

But here’s some real info: We’ve heard that there are indeed two different models of iPhone coming out next month (announced this month?)  We still think October 7th is the scheduled release date give or take any delays.  We’ve heard the low-end model, which is essentially an iPhone 4 look-alike (glass front and back), is rolling off the assembly line in big numbers right now.  Apple expects to have 10+ million of these things on hand for launch and full ramped production into the holiday shopping season.  These will be priced aggressively and be everywhere.

They will also be offered in both prepaid and post paid plans (this is a big deal – more to come on that).

But there is some bad news…
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