Seth Weintraub

It appears that FaceTime is getting a FaceLift (see what I did there?) with the release of the MacBook Pros tomorrow.  Along with coming out of beta, it is likely to support those FaceTime HD™ cameras.  Thanks Twipster.

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Another below! Thanks TJ!

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Of course Apple has a succession plan in place for when Steve Jobs steps down as CEO.  But revealing that is probably not a great idea.  Plus, isn’t it pretty obvious by now?  AAPL investors agree.

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple investors voted down a proposal Wednesday that would force the tech giant to reveal its succession plan.

As a result, the company is under no obligation to disclose its plans about how the company would be run if CEO Steve Jobs had to step down.

Investors have expressed concern regarding the future of Apple leadership after, Jobs, who will turn 56 Thursday, announced a medical leave from the company last month.

Jobs did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.

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A Japanese blog is publishing pictures of what it claims are accurate mockups of the iPad 2.   Roughly translated:

Our monthly meeting of the parts procurement and manufacturing of original products repair, go to Shenzhen in the case or buying accessories. This city has a variety of products and components are distributed in the city say the head temple of PCs and mobile phones.In some cases manufacturing plant next to the city in December 2010 iPad (iPad 2) model (a simple reproduction of original size) seen.In some cases the factory since then have seen a product called iPad2 case.

Closeups reveal that the models are much thinner than current iPads.

Much more below:

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Uh oh, bad news to report.  You  can no longer use the excuse that you don’t have any cash to get out of buying a truckload of Girl Scout cookies.  Now, Girl Scouts of NorthEast Ohio (my home turf :()  will be collecting payments via Intuit’s GoPayment platform on iOS and Android.

To celebrate the Girl Scouts upcoming 99^th anniversary in March, Intuit Inc. has equipped the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio with its GoPayment mobile payment app, including a free Intuit credit card reader, and reduced pricing on transaction fees. GoPayment provides them with an easy and affordable way to process credit card payments on their mobile devices while protecting sensitive credit card information with industry-leading data encryption.

“We’re glad to put the latest mobile technology in the hands of America’s future business leaders to help them increase cookie sales,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “For this generation of girls in particular, running a business and being able to take payments anywhere with mobile apps like GoPayment will become second nature. We’re eager to see how sales will increase now that they take credit cards with GoPayment.”

Thin Mints!
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The no frills airline is now slangin iTunes media as it looks to satiate its customers in-flight entertainment needs, according to Variety magazine.

The airline has launched InAirtainment as a website that sells music, TV shows and movies through Apple’s iTunes Store.

Southwest said it receives a small percentage of the sales generated by each download. Apple’s iTunes Affiliates program typically pays a 5% commission for revenue generated by links to the iTunes store from websites and emails.

“We want our customers to be able to find all their travel needs at Southwest.com and a big part of traveling is loading up on songs, movies, and all the television you’ve missed during the week,” Southwest spokesperson Whitney Eichinger told Variety. “Our new InAirtainment page allows customers an easy in to iTunes and we offer special deals to customers booking through our site like the 20 free songs we are offering with the announcement.”

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According to Jim at Loopinsight.com, Apple has begun officially sending out invites to the iPad 2 event which will indeed be held on March 2nd.

According to the invitation received by The Loop, the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at 10:00 am. This is the same venue Apple has used to introduce a number of products in recent years.

The invite, above, clearly shows an iPad which is conveniently covering the area where a camera would be.

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The bad news about upgrading the new low end MacBook Pro to a Core i5 2410M processor is that it will only have the Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated GPU.  From various benchmarks, this integrated GPU is roughly equivalent to the previous generation NVIDIA 310, and falls short of the current (until tomorrow) generation Intel Core Duo CPU with NVIDIA GeForce 320M.

Notebook Check says:

The performance of the Intel HD Graphics 3000 can indeed be called impressive. In many older and current gaming titles it competes at a level of entry-level graphics cards like the Geforce G 310M, the GT 220M or the ATI HD5470. It multiplies the performance of the previous Intel GMA HD solution. In practice this means that older games can be played at high graphics settings and current games mostly at low graphics details.

The loss of GPU power however, will likely be offset by the much faster Core i5 2410M Sandy Bridge processor which blows away the two-generations-behind Core 2 Duo.

There was some question, during the previous MacBook Pro upgrade in April if Apple was aware of the tradeoff in GPU vs. CPU. A 9to5mac reader sent Steve Jobs an email to which he replied “Far faster graphics and 10-hour battery life trump 10-20% faster CPU.”  The man had a point.

But it is now clear that a 50% faster CPU trumps faster graphics, at least to Apple (low end gamers might not agree).

Apple has no choice in this matter unfortunately.  Intel squeezed NVIDIA out of making Intel chipsets going forward (they are only able to make Core 2 Duo chipsets).   Apple couldn’t have stayed with Core 2s for another generation.

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To broaden the appeal of iAd and let smaller companies advertise on the platform, Apple has cut the minimum amount of spend to $500,000 reports AllThingsD.

This should bring more ads into Apple’s platform, which according to some recent reports has had trouble filling developer’s ad spaces.  With more and smaller campaigns, Apple can also better target apps that can bring in revenues to developers.

Only $500K? Signs us up!

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So it appears pretty likely that the new base MacBook Pro will have a Intel Core i5 processor called the Intel Core i5 2410M which appears in red, above.  The 2410M is a speedy Sandy Bridge-class processor that runs at 2.3GHz with Turbo Boost pushing it up to 2.6 GHz (2 cores active) and 2.9 GHz (1 core active).  It offers Hyperthreading to handle 4 threads at once (for a better usage of the pipeline). Compared to the faster Core i7, the i5 offers a smaller L3 cache of 3MB.

Sony’s Vaio S, announced yesterday, also uses this processor.
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In the New MacBook Pro leaked box picture it said that the Thunderbolt port was also the Mini DisplayPort.  So that makes the below picture a bit more manageable on the brain.  Notice the Thunderbolt is where the Display port is/used to be:

(click twice for full sized image)

We’re still trying to wrap our heads around this.  Will there be a new MiniDisplayPort switch/cable that connects to your monitor and then connects to other devices?    Discuss below…

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German Apple site fscklog.com got their hands on a blurrycam shot of the new MacBook Pro specs.  Most notable is that the new Light Peak port will be called ‘Thunderbolt’ with the logo below.

New Core would allow the Sandy Bridge i5, the 1333 RAM, Intel HD 3000 graphics, the FaceTime HD camera (but just as the current iSight accordingly could exact), the Thunderbolt connection for new adapters joys and the XC on SD slot – all other specs listed are unchanged.

So Intel HD 3000 Graphics, SDXC slot (with Cards that go up to 2TB and beyond), “FaceTimeHD” and otherwise pretty normal on the low end.

Full specs from MacBidouille:
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We first detailed Apple Joint Venture service a year ago and it appears that Apple is getting ready to launch the service. BGR is reporting that Apple is readying the Joint Venture small businesses services:

Joint Venture is an extension of Apple’s current Genius Bar services that is aimed at small businesses and prosumers. Subscribers of the new service will be able to speak with a store-based Apple technician — lovingly referred to as Geniuses — over the phone for one-on-one consultation and troubleshooting, or they can request an on-site visit. Currently, Apple’s Geniuses are not allowed to provide support remotely via the phone or in-person outside of Apple’s retail locations. A source has confirmed that Apple will reveal these plans to retail employees this Sunday, explaining how to properly position, explain, and sell the new offering.

It will be interesting to see how this affects small to mid-sized Apple IT shops who often serve the market Apple will be targeting with ‘Joint Venture’.

Some of the verbiage from the original trademark, below:

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Apple has hired Terry Gilton the founder of a small app company called pSiFlow to be their Senior Director of  Sensor Technology.  Dr. Gilton who has a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from UCSB joined Apple this month, though he is still listed as residing in Boise Idaho.

His company, which makes apps for iOS is still listed as being active, so it isn’t clear if Apple purchased the company or just hired off its Founder/CEO.

pSiFlow Technologies describes itself as an integrator of analytical data (for example water quality) aquired on mobile devices with realtime trending, treatment reccomendation and messaging.

Before pSiFlow, Gilton spent almost two decades working at Aptima Imaging.

There is an almost unlimited amount of things Apple can do with a sensor expert (beyond checking your pool).  It will be interesting to see what Apple does with Dr. Gilton.
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AllThingsD is predicting that the iPad 2 announcement will be held on March 2nd in San Francisco.

Recent reports had said that the iPad was to be delayed, then other reports said that those reprts were fals(-ified?).

According to several sources close to the situation, the Wednesday date in a little more than a week is firm and will take place in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events.

In that case, the venue is likely to be the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

I wouldn’t book that plane ride just yet however. Kara Swisher swung and missed on the last big Apple event which was held on September 1st.  She originally said that it wold be held “Mid-September”.

Update: The NYTimes and Reuters both confirm.  Go buy your plane tickets.

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At least someone behind their Twitter account disputes the earlier claim.

Update: Reuters has  now posted a brief story. LoopInsight also reports that both of the earlier late reports are false and Apple is expecting to deliver its products “on-time” at least according to its internal schedule.

It is interesting that both of these “late” reports were from investment bankers – ahead of the opening of trading – who could potentially benefit from market manipulation.  Something smells fishy.

AAPL started significantly down – over 10 points this morning but has recovered somewhat.

Apple’s iTunes ecosystem has another strong competitor today with the launch of Amazon’s Prime Streaming service.

The new offering starts with a 5000 movie and TV show catalog and is offered for free to its Prime customers who currently receive the unrelated free shipping on products.  Prime membership is $80 a year but starts with a month free.

An initial viewing of the library looks pretty weak, but this type of service could catch on pretty quickly.  Especially since Amazon video players start at around just $60.
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Reuters  reports that a group of Wintek employees that were poisoned during the manufacture of Apple products by the N-Hexane cleaners that their company used are making a direct appeal to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

“From when hexyl hydride was used, monthly profits at Apple and Wintek have gone up by tens of millions every month, the accumulated outcome of workers’ lives and health,” said the letter, signed by five workers claiming to represent employees.

Wintek said it had used the chemical, which evaporates faster than alcohol, to speed up production of touch screens for Apple products. It has since gone back to using alcohol.

Apple noted that Wintek had used the chemical in its yearly Supplier Responsibility Progress Report and the company had discontinued its use.  Apple declined to comment on the workers’ letter and referred a reporter back to its supplier report.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the workers were after.  The note, addressed to Apple’s CEO is pasted below:
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We’re pretty sure we are going to see new MacBook Pros this week, but Digitimes says that an iMac refresh might also be in the cards.

In addition to notebooks, the supply chain sources also pointed out that Apple may also launch its new iMac along with its MacBook, and the company may also make some changes over the screen size to allow panel cutting to reach its optimization.

While MacBook Pros are sold out or in short supply the world over, iMacs and Mac Minis, since we are on the subject, are in plentiful supply, though there is precedent for iMacs and MacBook Pros to be updated at the same time.

In another report, Digitimes says that iPhone 5 will…wait for it… come in white.

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CNN is reporting that Apple is in discussions with the labels to offer higher quality recordings at perhaps a premium pricing in the near future (September-ish?). Music is currently distributed in 16-bit files through CDs and are further compressed when made into MP3s (unless lossless compressors are used).

Professional music producers generally capture studio recordings in a 24-bit, high-fidelity audio format. Before the originals, or “masters” in industry parlance, are pressed onto CDs or distributed to digital sellers like Apple’s iTunes, they’re downgraded to 16-bit files.

It appears that such a change would be a wholesale move for the whole industry.

“We’ve gone back now at Universal, and we’re changing our pipes to 24 bit. And Apple has been great,” Iovine said. “We’re working with them and other digital services — download services — to change to 24 bit. And some of their electronic devices are going to be changed as well. So we have a long road ahead of us.”

This might be Apple’s response/differentiator to the subscription model where Spotify, Sony and others (maybe even Apple and Google soon) are finding success.  While Macs can play the new high quality 24-bit recordings, apparantly iPhones and iPods (and AppleTV/iPads?) currently aren’t built to do so.

To make the jump to higher-quality music attractive for Apple, the Cupertino, California, company would have to retool future versions of iPods and iPhones so they can play higher-quality files.

What does the extra 24-bit sound buy you?
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Dr. Dreng writes up a lengthy review of four of the big iOS notetaking apps (via DF).

Simplenote (Free w/ads, $20/year), Elements($4.99), PlainText(Free-ads, $4.99w/o), and Nebulous Notes ($1.99) all hit the mat.   Spoiler alert:
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