9to5 Staff

On the eve of the Google I/O summit, Google’s CEO talked to Reuters about Google’s relationship with Apple, specifically as it related to iAds and Admob.

Some points:

• Google has been at a disadvantage because the FTC investigation has left  Admob in hiatus while other ad networks (iAds) heats up.
• Google is prepared to fight the U.S. government “very hard” if regulators block the search leader’s acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob.  “We’re likely to fight very hard,” he said. “It’s a very strategic acquisition for Google.”.
• Apple blocking Adobe’s Flash also is being looked at by the FTC
• Schmidt said Apple’s changes in terms of services “discriminatory against other partners.”  Apple doesn’t let other advertising networks access the same data that Apple has access to, so advertisers can’t target or get analytics from their ads.
•  He insisted that he and Apple CEO Steve Jobs remain good friends and that the two companies will remain both rivals and collaborators in different business areas.  “The relationship will continue to be complicated,” he said.
  

Well, we didn’t think we’d ever see this.  AT&T is tethering in iPhone OS4 beta 4!  We are finally going to get tethering here in the US this summer.  Shut up, everyone else!

Just for giggles, we called. “AT&T doesn’t offer tethering at this time” and the website just takes you to your account.

This week’s iPhone 4 release features new wallpapers. (Silent Yay!). We’ll post any other new ‘revolutionary’ and ‘groundbreaking’ features we find. Let us know if you stumble upon anything OK?

More below…

iPhoneOS 4 Beta 4 10M2252 just hit the developer center.  Developers please feel free to share changes.  Kthx.

image via Macworld

Apple has posted a MobileMe Beta FAQ. According to a few readers, the beta is now live for those who initially signed up.  FAQ and signup below:

What is the MobileMe Mail beta?

What features are new?

How do I request an invitation to the beta?

I received an invitation. How do I join the beta?

What languages are supported?

What browsers are supporting the beta?

Do  I need to change any settings in Mac OS X Mail, or on my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch?

Are there changes to how push email works on my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch?

If I have a Family Pack account and my account is enrolled in the beta, will anything change for the other accounts set up on my Family Pack subscription?

I already have rules in Mac OS X Mail; will they work in the beta?

I’d like to stop using the beta, what do I need to do? 

How do I report issues and give feedback during the beta?

Are there keyboard shortcuts to use in the MobileMe Mail Beta? 

http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf

When it comes to technology decisions, the man is money…But when it comes to financial decisions, at least one big one after the dot com bust in 2003, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is anything but.

According to Marketwatch, Jobs and other Apple employees traded far riskier options in for safer ones that would be more likely to yield profits.

The cost of the swap in today’s money?  $10.3 Billion.  Ouchy.

Let’s keep in mind that the reason that those options were so valuable was because Jobs brought Apple back from the brink to its current prosperity.  So the better he did, the more he ‘lost’.

Apple updated its Mac Java engine today, only for Intel machines running 10.6.3.

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 supersedes the previous Java for Mac OS X v10.6.

Loren Brichter’s Tweetie application is now the free official Twitter for iPhone app.  As it propagates through the Internet you’ll eventually be able to find it here.

via MacStories

Nike will launch a heart monitor in its Nike+ iPod range on June 1, a thread on the company

Google opens its developer conference in San Francisco this week, setting the stage for another intensification of its battle with Apple for the future of technology.

Apple must respond to Google’s front room ploy, or run the risk of tacitly ceding control of the front room to another. This seems unlikely. Read more.

The latest Retrevo survey

While the focus switches to Apple versus Google and Apple versus Adobe, don

We do like the sound of Air Display, a new solution from Avatron which turns your iPad into a mini-monitor for your Mac.

Once you

Is Twitter preparing to introduce its very own Twitter app for the iPhone? Signals suggest this is the case, as popular client Tweetie 2 has disappeared from the App Store, shortly after Twitter acquired the app.

The genius of the Onion is often how close to reality they stray.  Stick around for the Yahoo dig at the end.(Non Flash here)

http://media.theonion.com/flash/video/onn_player.swf

Bullish reports on Apple this morning, with former ThinkEquity analyst, Vijay Rakesh, commencing coverage on the company with a $300 target for new brokerage, Sterne Agee.

A second report somewhat contentiously predicts Apple and Google will be the only likely survivors of the smartphone OS wars. That prediction underlines the intense nature of the battle between the two former allies. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, sat on Apple’s board until last year.

Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw, made this assertion in a note to clients released last night. A few bullet points from Barrons report:

• Apple
  

Apple this morning quietly introduced an updated configuration of its entry-level MacBook.

As previewed by the Vietnamese leak, Apple boosted speed and introduced longer battery life (up to ten hours) to its MacBook range. The price remains the same at $999 and the processor has been upgraded to 2.4GHz (Up from 2.26GHz).

The previous model possessed a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and used NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics. This model also offers WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as standard, together with Gigabit ethernet, a Mini DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports and audio in/out.

At these specs this model is almost identical to the bottom end 13-inch MacBook Pro, which only betters it with 4GB of RAM and an SD card slot.

The new models are now visible on Apple’s UK and US stores, though product specifications in the write-up hadn’t yet been upgraded.

Tech specs include:

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB DDR3 memory
• 250GB hard drive
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics
• Built-in 10-hour battery
• Polycarbonate unibody enclosure

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_c0sK8lclk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Business Insider takes a look at lobbying spending from big tech companies. Google’s lobbying is half what it spends on advertising, ” Apple spends the least on lobbying as percent of revenue”.

Data comes from the Senate Office of Public Affairs database. We also graphed lobbying spend as a percent of revenue. Read more.

Since the 1980’s, Apple’s financial bread and butter was the Macintosh — really, the company’s only major source of revenue. Since 2001, when the iPod was introduced, the iPod and iTunes Store have turned into asecond significant revenue stream for the company. In the past three years, since it launched in 2007, the iPhone has exploded as a source of cash for Apple, Inc. So successful in fact, that the iPhone counts for nearly as much revenue as the Macintosh and the iPod divisions combined.

For the most recent fiscal quarter, ending in March 2010, iPhone sales of a record 8.75 million units accounted for 40 percent of revenue at Apple: $5.45 billion of $13.5 billion in total revenue. The Macintosh (2.94 million units) and iPod (10.89 million units) combined brought in $5.62 billion. Not a bad haul, and it shows just how important the iPhone is to Apple’s future.

The obvious next question: what percentage of revenue will the iPad make up next quarter?

(Data courtesy Apple, Inc.)

US Mac sales climbed 39 percent (Y-o-Y) in April, the latest Piper Jaffray report based on NPD Group data explains.

Apple 2.0 tells us about the latest Gene Munster report which says that April has been an excellent month for the computer company, he says. His 39 percent Mac sales boost translates into between 3.1-3.2 million Macs for Apple

Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie has slammed Apple for having “a very device-focused play and a closed system”, but admits to