9to5 Staff

Apple’s WebKit has taken a higher profile in Web Standards terms, following the appointment of the company’s WebKit manager, Maciej Stachowiak, to the World Wide Web Consortium’s HTML Working Group.

Stachowiak has become a co-chairman of the group standardizing HTML, giving Apple a higher-profile role at a crucial time for development of the language used to build Web pages.

Until now the HTML Working Group had been led by IBM’s Sam Ruby and Microsoft’s Chris Wilson, who has stepped down to be replaced by Apple’s Stachowiak and also Paul Cotton, who manages the Microsoft Web services standards team.

The news was announced by email today by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee. He wrote: “Stachowiak is Manager of the WebKit WebApps Team at Apple, and a longtime developer on the WebKit open source browser engine. He was one of the earliest engineers on the Safari project. Maciej has been contributing to Web standards for some time, most notably HTML5, and the various specifications of the Web Apps Working Group. He is also a member of the WHATWG steering committee.”

(What’s also pretty interesting here is that these words confirm Apple’s high degree of interest in the multimedia-friendly HTML 5 standard, which we think we’ll be hearing a whole lot more about in future. Interestingly, Microsoft only began HTML 5 discussion in earnest earlier this month.)

Berners-Lee continues: “Why three co-Chairs? Clearly, there is a lot of work to do. Sam, Paul, and Maciej bring particular skills to the job (whether it is Maciej’s experience with WebKit or Paul’s with Working Group processes). I am confident that these three will work out a chairing protocol where progress is consistent with this group’s culture.

“The work of this group is tremendously important to the Web. I am pleased that all three co-Chairs have taken on the responsibility for working closely with the editor and group to make HTML 5 a success.”

Some may recall future versions of the BlackBerry browser are intended to support HTML 5.

TechCrunch has some purported Apple tablet interface photos.  Blurrycam?  Check.  Sketchy source?  Check.  Fake? Ch—well?  More below:

From Techcrunch:

…our source tells us these are very early screens of something that “Steve wants,” suggesting that the iPad is more movie watching device than anything else.I looked up some of the trailers and found that the language on the All About Steve one is true to the language used by the studios. As we see there is an AppleTV-esque drilldown interface along with a full on-screen keyboard – helpfully marked “keyboard” – and a Cover Flow interface for browsing video.Again, unless we get an Apple cease and desist I’m going to ask you to take this with a bucket of salt and a fresh batch of rumor cookies served up with some GTFO juice.

more screenshots at Techcrunch

It’s all about mind-share, and Apple’s mojo’s rising with UK computer buyers flocking to the company’s retail outlets when they want to buy a new PC, or should we say, Mac.

Don’t believe us? Then mosey over to independent consumer’s association title, Which? Computing, which has declared Apple Retail Stores to be the favourite choice for British consumers looking to buy a new computer.

And shoppers like what they find in-store. Apple retail in the UK has an overall approval rating of 88 per cent, with the company at number one on the customer satisfaction table, based on a survey of 7,683 online panel members.

As we reported some time back, the survey also rated the best laptop and desktop brands, with Apple again leading the pack in the desktop category with a customer score of 94%.

“Although there are only a small number of Apple shops across the UK, they were praised for providing customers with all the information required, and for the availability of sales staff,” the report notes.

This is probably why Apple’s currently hiring some of the brightest and best retail executives to spear-head future European expansion of its highly-successful retail initiatives.

Compare consumer sentiment concerning Apple with that surrounding the big name UK PC sellers. Computer high street PC giant PC World was ranked in bottom place in a recent survey of technology retailers achieving a disappointing customer score of just 42%. Currys was also languishing near the bottom with 45%.

Does anybody out there think Microsoft will do a better job than that done by its long-term ‘partners’ in PC retail when it launches its own chain of corner computer shops?

While Microsoft attempts to woo Apple iPhone App developers, it’s pretty clear the subject of Redmond’s paid-for passions are on an Apple gravy train, despite continued inconsistencies in App Store approvals.

The latest stats from AdMob claim the App Store economy is already worth $2.4 billion – bigger than Android or any other contender.

AdMob serves up ads within iPhone/iPod touch and Android apps. Based on a survey of 1,000 users the company released data for July today which suggests $200 million (value) in apps are downloaded every month. This means the App Store business worth around $2.4 billion a year – and the business is growing. (Expect a further shot in its arm when the fabled Apple tablet ships).

Android grabs a paltry $60 million in app sales each year at this point in its development….Why the difference? Put simply, it is because the iPhone represents 60 per cent of US smartphone usage. Not bad for a product family that’s only existed for a single digit sum of years.

The forgotten element in Apple’s App Store story is the iPod touch, owners of which download on average 18 apps each and every month (iPhone/Android users grab just ten, AdMob claims).

AdMob is also advising App developers to create free versions of their apps, as these stimulate sales of full versions. Additionally, iPod touch owners download twice as many free apps as Android/iPhone owners.

More stats:

– App Store customers are extremely likely to purchase at least one app each month.

– Fifty per cent of iPhone users and 40% of iPod touch users buy at least one app per month. Just 19% of Android users do the same.

– Over 90% of users browse through Apps on their mobile device.

– Over 50 per cent of Android and iPhone users spend over 30 minutes a day using applications.

– Users who regularly purchase paid apps spend an average of $9 on about 5 paid apps per month.

– The most-cited ways of discovering apps are browsing the Store Rankings and searching for a specific type of app.

Check out the full report here.

Via: GigaOm.

 Jason O’Grady thinks that this commercial looks kind of Apple-y and then goes on to all kinds of wild speculation about how there might be some sort of connection between the Fab 4 and Apple.  What do you think?

Apple’s next-generation iPods – including the iPod touch, nano and classic – will carry 3.2 megapixel cameras supplied by Taiwan’s, OmniVision.

As 9to5Mac reported last week, the new generation iPods are expected to be introduced at an Apple special event on September 9

Reports this morning claim OmniVision has secured CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders for the upcoming products.

Though we’ve heard, over and over again, that the new Touch and Nanos would have cameras, this is the first we’ve heard that the iPod classics would also be with-camera (let alone still exist next month).

It will supply “3.2-megapixel CIS products for the new iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod touch models which will be launched in September,”  sources claim.

The company is one of the 3.2-megapixel CIS suppliers for the iPhone 3GS and is expected to ship 18 million CIS products to Apple per quarter.

Apple is also expected to introduce a new version of iTunes, equipped with social networking features including the capacity to depatch songs played to Facebook, iLike and Last.fm. The new software is also expected to support direct import of Digital Copy movies from Blu-ray discs. Some speculate on updates to the Apple TV at the event.

Wall Street Journal technology correspondent, Walt Mossberg, is claiming that Snow Leopard will install on Macs running the previous Tiger OS without requiring installation of Leopard, contrary to Apple’s previous claims.

“For owners of Intel-based Macs who are still using the older Tiger version of the Mac OS, Apple is officially making Mac OS X Snow Leopard available only in a “boxed set” that includes other software and costs $169,” Mossberg explains.

“The reasoning is that these folks never paid the $129 back in 2007 to upgrade to Leopard. But here’s a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140.”

If this is true – and we’re interested to test the claim – then Apple will likely attract a deluge of sales from Mac users who have until now been laid back in moving to the latest upgrade.

Snow Leopard ships tomorrow and the first batch of delighted reviews are coming in, reviews which pit the new OS firmly ahead of Microsoft’s latest attempt at an OS, Windows 7 .

The software sits at the top of the Amazon sales charts at this time, with pre-orders through all retailers at an all time high. Analysts now expect Apple to sell five million copies of the new OS within the year. We think sales are going to be far higher.

Mossberg notes a few hidden gems inside the upgrade:

– “Substitutions,” which is like the auto-correct feature in Microsoft Word, but extends the concept to Apple’s email and other programs;
– the ability for Snow Leopard to automatically reset the time zone on the Mac’s clock based on your location while traveling;
– and a new built-in function in QuickTime that allows you to record videos of actions you take on the Mac’s screen.”

Microsoft’s attempt to regain control of the OS market seems on shaky ground, with the company’s channel partners recently confessing just how impressed they are with Apple’s incremental – yet powerful – new OS.

Order yourself a copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard hereand support 9to5Mac. Or take a look at thishand-picked selection of guides to the new OS, boost your knowledge.

Apple’s Chinese deal may – or may not, given the stop/start nature of negotiations so far – be reaching closure, with some reports suggesting an official announcement confirming China Unicom as carrier, perhaps as soon as this Friday.

Following months of rumour, Reuters cites an unnamed analyst who claims the deal between Apple and China Unicom for provision of the iPhone in China will be revealed this Friday. That’s a huge deal, opening up the world’s largest mobile market.

China Unicom didn’t deny the claim, but would only say the device would “undoubtedly” be discussed this Friday when the carrier announces its financial results.

The device is being manufactured by Hon Hai, and while it doesn’t offer WiFI it is capable of operating on the carrier’s WCDMA 3G network.

Previous reports have claimed China Unicom to have purchased five million iPhones for sale in China at a cost of c.$1.5 billion.

The first batch of iPhones will appear in China Unicom 3G stalls at Carrefour and some large retail outlets run by China Unicom in September, said Zhou Youmeng, vice general manager of China Unicom, speaking earlier this month.

With two days left until Snow Leopard hits the streets, major publications are starting to release their Snow Leopard reviews. 

For what it is worth, I’ve been running Snow Leoaprd through the last few builds.  It just feels SNAPPIER™.

The net effect for most people will be the same as a point update coupled with a faster machine.  A real deal for $25.

I don’t think we are going to see the true benefit of Apple’s two years of work for another few months when new hardware is released.

Here are other slightly longer and more thought out reviews:

Computerworld | Engadget | Gizmodo | Macworld | CNET | Mossberg |  NYTimes | SunTimes

Videos below 

http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf

More from yesterday’s revelation that Snow Leopard is protecting Mac users against certain file types.  Xprotect is the name of the plist file that Snow Leopard uses to look for malware.  It can be found here:

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.plist

Currently there are two files that Snow Leopard is looking for.  OSX.RPlug.A and OSX.iservice (described as a very low threat by Symantec) are trojans that can be attached as payloads on shady bittorrent installs like the iWork and CS4 files discovered earlier this year.  They need users to purposefully install them after entering administrator credentials.

The file is below:

Although a baby step, this is Apple’s first forray into OS protection.  Apple could (and probably will) update this file as new threats emerge with Security Updates however .  Apple administrators could also edit this file, "protecting" users against bittorrent installers and other corporate "no-nos".

It looks like Vonage is looking to get its own iPhone application through the App Store approval process.  According to Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris, the application has been submitted but there are still some technical issues to be resolved. 

Vonage would be the second high profile VoIP application on the iPhone after Skype along with many lower profile apps like Nimbuzz and iCall.  Apple’s placement of Google Voice into App Store purgatory has fueled a lot of industry critism and an FCC investigation.

Apple has stated time and again that it can’t let VoIP applications go over AT&T (or other carrier networks).  Jailbroken iPhones can circumvent this artificial limitation, however.

We very much like this form factor.  Sure seems like a lot of Android mini-tablets landing recently.  We’re hoping to see one from Cupertino that will make us forget all about this one.

http://video.3conline.com/player/pcplayer_2.swf

Via

More trouble from France, with fresh reports claiming spontaneous explosions afflicting iPhones there.

Crux of the issue are a new batch of half a dozen reports from France claiming instances in which customers have been injured when their iPhone screens spontaneously shattered for no reason at all. At least two French folk claim to have been hurt when this took place.

An 80-year-old pensioner from the Paris suburbs said Wednesday his iPhone screen cracked up in his hands, a day after a supermarket watchman claimed he was hurt in the eye when his screen suddenly shattered this week. Eight French consumers so far have claimed to have been afflicted by this.

Apple’s chief European PR, Alan Hely, said: "We are aware of these reports and we are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers. Until we have the full details, we don’t have anything further to add."

Apple has previously described these as "isolated incidents", and is looking into the problem, though some reports have claimed the company has tried to still reports of the problem.

"An investigation is under way. We have been alerted to the problem and we are looking into it closely," an Apple spokesman said Tuesday. European Commission watchdogs have reassured that Apple is cooperating with the investigation.

Psst! There’s been some rumours claiming Apple intends introducing new breed ultra-thin MacBooks – now there’s a shred of evidence to back-up these claims…

As we all know, you can’t have an ultra-thin yet full-featured laptop without an ultra-thin yet effective optical drive. Granted, this may not be entirely true – the MacBook Air proves you can offer an ultra-thin sans optical drive device, so perhaps that’s the future of the MacBook.

That of course assumes MacBook isn’t the name that’s been grabbed back for use on the e-reader friendly Mac OS X application-running much speculated upon Apple tablet, but we digress.

New news from far away Taiwan claims Quanta Storage has successfully developed “super-slim optical disk drives for use in ultra-thin notebooks”.

Citing sources, DigiTimes continues to explain that these super-slim drives have already been certified by “potential clients”, with shipments expected to begin as early as Q4 09.

If reports of a “design refresh in near future” on the MacBook range are true (and, let’s face it, most every single Apple product is going to get some kind of re-tooling across the next 12-18 months), then is it possible Quanta’s new teensy-weensy optical drive could be part of the design?

Certainly, the introduction of the drive could help the Jonathan Ive-led design teams put together a MacBook with, “a slimmer, lighter enclosure and restructured internal architecture”.

At present, Apple only offers one single white polycarbonate MacBook, with previous models hosting the name now included under the MacBook Pro umbrella.

True or false, one thing’s clear – laptop sales are booming relative to the rest of the industry, with a second DigiTimes report claiming “Taiwan notebook related IC design houses all have seen orders from notebook makers increase and are expected to enjoy growth through the fourth quarter, according to market sources.”
 

Update: Nack has now said that Photoshop CS3 is compatible – at the very least.

Adobe has confirmed that its applications are for the most part compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, while also warning it has not tested the new OS with previous generations of its professionally-priced Creative Suite products.

John Nack’s blog reveals, “Apple and Adobe have worked closely together (as always with new OS releases) to test compatibility.

"As for Adobe Creative Suite 4 , everything is good with the exception of auto-updates to Flash panels (which I guarantee you’re not using) and Adobe Drive/Version Cue (which doesn’t work at the moment on 10.6). CS3 & earlier haven’t been tested.”

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium is a relatively recent release which caused some of Nack’s readers to question the company’s testing methods. Answering these complaints, Nack states: “I’d frankly be shocked if people at Adobe & Apple really hadn’t tested CS3 on 10.6. I *think* it’s just some corporate conservatism at work here, and Adobe doesn’t want to over-promise anything. As I say, though, I’ll try to find out more.”

However, Adobe’s tech support briefing warns: “You may therefore experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).”

The company does however promise available trial versions of its software will be compatible with Snow Leopard.

Adobe recently confirmed future versions of the Creative Suite will run only on Intel-based Macs.

UPDATE: John Nack has now updated his original blog, saying "No one said anything about CS3 being ‘not supported’ on Snow Leopard. The plan, however, is not to take resources away from other efforts (e.g. porting Photoshop to Cocoa) in order to modify 2.5-year-old software in response to changes Apple makes in the OS foundation."

We do note the problem when allocating resources at one of the world’s biggest software developers, but we also note the commitment in Adobe’s tech support briefing which said when we looked, "Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)." This suggests if Snow Leopard causes any unexpected problems, Adobe at this time doesn’t plan to address them. We’ve a feeling a lot of creative shops running older Macs and older installations of Adobe’s creative apps will be somewhat frustrated at this, as they have been each time Adobe has been recalcitrant in similar matters in the past.

Reports of the demise of the Apple iPod have been greatly exaggerated, new research published last night shows – meanwhile, at the other end of the Apple product matrix, it looks like the iPhone 3GS has sold out in Ireland.

New research from FTN Equity Capital Markets analyst Bill Fearnley Jr. suggests most retailers saw iPod sales exceed their expectations in July. This claim’s based on a survey of US retailers, 27 per cent of which said iPod sales were above expectation in July. These sales have been enhanced by Apple’s back to school offer, which has been driving students to part with the cash for a Mac, getting a free iPod as part of the deal.

Speculation the iPod classic may be retired seems negated on the news that 62 per cent of retailers said it, or the iPod touch, were the best-selling iPod products in July.

An NPD report contested these new figures, claiming iPod sales were down 17 per cent year-over-year in July. However, it is worth pointing out the latest figures reflect actual sales by retailers, rather than spreadsheet-based analyst speculation.

Also worth a mention is the likely positive impact of Apple’s anticipated September 9 iPod and iTunes upgrades…

Moving to the iPhone and US retailers continue to struggle to meet demand, though supplies are improving. It is not just in the US the product’s in short supply, news this morning from Ireland claims O2 Ireland is experiencing shortages of the product, with customers reportedly waiting weeks to get their hands on the device. Supplies aren’t expected to improve until next month.

An O2 Ireland spokesman said: “Quite simply there has been huge demand for the iPhone 3G S since it launched, so we continue to work with Apple to secure regular flows of stock into the country.”

Microsoft is big, really big, and because it is so big it has lots of ‘friends’, some of which it calls ‘Channel Partners’. And many of those Channel Partner ‘friends’ seem pretty impressed…by Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard (which ships Friday, folks).

Vista wasn’t so much a view as a disaster, with consumer and business users preferring to stay safe with Windows XP. And while Windows 7 promises more, there’s work ahead for Redmond, observed on of the company’s friends..

"Performance in Windows Vista was a disaster, but in spite of that, Microsoft had 64-bit support and multicore processor support," said Ron Herardian, president of Global System Services. "With Snow Leopard, Apple intends to far exceed the performance of Windows 7 on 64-bit and multicore hardware, and that’s a major strategic advantage."

Gary Dailey, president of Daystar Technology, an Atlanta-based solution provider that sells PCs and Macs, says the performance boost Snow Leopard offers won’t go unnoticed by Microsoft or its partners. "There’s just so much under the covers with Snow Leopard. Apple realizes it has a very mature OS but is still choosing to enhance it, while Microsoft is still trying to get past the Vista experience," he told Channel Web.

The Channel Web report also has the usual statements saying Apple has raised the bar on competition, noting one of Microsoft’s friends who said, “Competition is exactly what Microsoft needs and responds to best.”

Is it really? Let’s take a look at the Zune, which grabbed 2 per cent of the US MP3 player market in June (NPD claims) as compared to Apple’s, erm, Seventy-three per cent (73%).

Microsoft’s anti-Apple MP3 player plans have been through myriad forms. Recall, if you will, the company’s ‘Plays for Sure’ branding (which didn’t) and its host of other attempts to grab a larger slice of the music player crown. Well, now Redmond is attempting to lure iPhone developers to the Zune HD by the simple expedient of paying them cold hard cash…

“One developer of a popular iPhone application for reading Twitter messages says Microsoft recently approached him about re-creating the software to run on Zune, with Microsoft footing the bill for development costs,” reports BusinessWeek. (BTW, the dev declined).

It’s no longer about the device, but the service, Microsoft now claims, according to the report. "The business is entertainment," says Brian Seitz, group marketing manager with Microsoft Zune. "The mobile device or the MP3 player is just one screen that can use the service. To erase the iPod is not what the vision was. The business is the service."

Interesting Microsoft is attempting to make a business out of a service providing media, music and other downloads at a time the music and media industries are wondering just how to create a viable business plan for themselves, but why digress?

Anyway – the new Zune HD is coming and the company’s pinning its hopes on the device. Which hasn’t particularly impressed Needham & Co analyst, Charlie Wolf (one of the better analysts, BTW, who presciently predicted the extent of the iPod-driven switch to Mac once Apple shipped Boot Camp).

His advice to Microsoft? "If I were Microsoft, I’d just drop it.”

Sure, Microsoft is considering opening its Zune marketplace doors to users of other devices, and sure it hopes to boost its place in the mobile devices market with Windows Mobile and Windows 7, but as both reports show, the company really is chasing the tail of its competition.

By the way, if you are one of the many Windows users planning the switch to Mac, you may find Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition a really helpful thing.

So here’s the latest and possibly greatest (if slightly creepy) iPhone ad parody, like, ever… “What’s great about the iPhone is if you want to check where your ex-girlfriend is, there’s an App for that.”

Look, we’re not saying this is the right way forward for all you lonely broken-hearted souls out there (just keep going, people), but there’s something to like about this clip.

Big shout to creator, Adam Thinks, who notes on his blog, “There really is an app for almost anything.  Even when there shouldn’t be.”

Via: Mashable

Contrary to some far-fetched reports from last week, it looks like the retail version of Snow Leopard will be 10A432 – the one which has been circulating on the torrents for awhile now.   A Twitter and Tumblr user named Pedro10 has posted more retail packaging and installation reports including the build number 10A432.  More picts below.

Pedro10 via Applesfera via MacRumors

According to iPhone Asia, Foxconn is readying two iPhones for the Chinese market.  One will be the Wifi-less one we’ve heard about before.  Another one will have Wifi according to their source.

 … The same Foxconn source whispers that another special iPhone model for China is under development. This second model iPhone for China is a WiFi/WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI)-capable prototype (presumably Model A1325), which may be ready for mass production by late 2009. Note: Model A1325 will support bandwidth 2400 – 2483.5 MHz (see image below). This band is currently used for a variety of technologies today, including Bluetooth, cordless phones, and 802.11 (WiFi).

iPhone Asia has the whole China iPhone saga mapped here.

 He’s the guy who started Weblogs Inc. (Engadget, TUAW, etc) btw.