9to5 Staff

If you look at the Apple Store today, you’ll notice that Apple has updated the white polycarbonate MacBook.  Interestingly, they’ve also started using the name "MacBook White" (see below).  This might be the new brand name we’ve been hearing about.  Specs across the board have been updated:

• 2.0 -> 2.13 GHz processor
• Hard Drive 120 GB -> 160 GB, build to order now includes 500GB option from 320GB before and it it the only MacBook so far to offer the 500GB option (from Apple)
• RAM speed 667 MHz -> 800 MHz
• Battery goes from 4.5 -> 5 hours
• Improved Energy Star Ratings

We sort of knew it was coming but we were kinda hoping against hope Microsoft would just kill it before it got started.  They didn’t and today, as of the AllThingsD conference, it is official.  The specs: 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output (utilizing a new dock — not on-board) and it looks like we thought (unfortunately).

Seriously, that thing is something only a Ballmer could love.  Press release follows:

Microsoft Announces the Expansion of the Zune Entertainment Service to New Platform and Markets; Confirms New Zune HD Portable Media Player

Premium Zune digital entertainment service to be available internationally on Xbox LIVE.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 26, 2009 – Microsoft Corp. today announced the evolution of Zune, the company’s end-to-end music and entertainment service, to a new platform and new markets. Zune will extend its video service to Xbox LIVE internationally this fall. This marks an important development in the Zune strategy and brings the Zune brand to more than 17 million international Xbox LIVE subscribers. In addition, Microsoft confirmed the next generation of the Zune portable media player, Zune HD. Available in the U.S. this fall, Zune HD is the first portable media player that combines a built-in HD Radio receiver, high-definition (HD) video output capabilities, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Wi-Fi and an Internet browser.

"The Zune music player is an integral part of the overall Zune experience, and we’re proud to be growing and extending our offering beyond the device," said Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV, Video and Music Business Group. "Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world."

Zune Service Expands to New Platform

Zune will be a premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, bringing an exciting catalog of TV and film to the platform. Zune will occupy the first slot within the Xbox user interface in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of new consumers for the first time. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) next week, attendees will see firsthand how Zune integrates into Xbox LIVE to create a game-changing entertainment experience.

Introducing Zune HD

Zune HD is the next iteration of the Zune device family and brings a new level of listening and viewing experiences to the portable media player category.

• Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
• The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
• The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.*
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

More information on Zune and related images is available at http://www.zune.net/press and http://www.zune.net/ZuneHD.

About Zune

Zune is Microsoft’s music and entertainment brand that provides an integrated digital entertainment experience. The Zune platform includes a line of portable digital media players, elegant software, the Zune Marketplace online store, Zune Pass music subscription service, and the Zune Social online music community, created to help people discover more music. Zune is part of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division and supports the company’s software-based services vision to help drive innovation in the digital entertainment space. More information can be found online at http://www.zune.net/en-us/press.

About Xbox LIVE

Xbox LIVE connects more than 17 million members across 26 countries to each other and the entertainment they love. Home of more content from one remote than can be found from any device connected to the television, Xbox LIVE is also a unified online social network bringing friends together, no matter where they are – in the living room or across the world. More information and Xbox LIVE membership can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* Supported 720p HD video files play on the device, downscaled to fit the screen at 480 x 272 – not HD resolution. Zune HD and AV Dock, and an HDTV (all sold separately) are required to view video at HD resolution.

HD Radio™ and the HD Radio logo are proprietary trademarks of iBiquity Digital Corp.

Seeking Alpha is reporting that Sirius XM radio will now be coming to the iPhone…over IP.  While evidence is still a bit thin, they’ve noticed that Reach MD Medical Radio channel 160 has gone to the iTunes App Store and many more should follow.

Rather than create one Sirius app for the iPhone, each individual channel can create their own app for specific listening of iPhone/iPod touch owners.  This App-per-channel approach is somewhat like Scrollmotion’s app-per-book approach to books.  From Seeking Alpha:

An alert Satwaves reader has sent in this link which links to Apple’s iTunes store. The application is described as:

‘Reach MD Medical Radio delivers world class medical content directly from Reach MD, the leader in medical education and information for medical professionals. All of the programming is broadcast on their exclusive Sirius XM channel 160…”

According to Distorted Loop, Apple is seeking a pan-EU deal for licensing and distributing music through the iTunes Music Store.  Rather than deal with each country individually, Apple is seeking to create one iTunes Zone for all of the countries within the EU.

The news is revealed within a series of documents published by the European Union today, following last year’s historic European meeting on pan-European music licensing rights.  European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes has welcomed progress made towards pan-European music licensing following discussions in the Online Commerce Roundtable.

This will obviously simplify the distribution model for media delivery among the nations of the EU and allow the economics of scale to deliver more value to EU consumers while saving Apple distribution costs.  It will also open new markets for distribution of iTunes content.

At the September Roundtable, all participants recognised the potential for Europe-wide music licensing in the online environment, and that this was hindered by rights generally being territorial and usually licensed for certain territories only.

Currently, it’s impossible for consumers in some countries, such as Poland, Bulgaria and Slovenia, to buy digital music from any iTunes store in Europe.

More from Ars.

Photo from 2008 EU Rountable

There is some social commentary in here somewhere…if we read more, we’d be on top of it.

http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1910868&fullscreen=1

It wasn’t hard to see this coming.  In fact, many will wonder why it took so long. Psystar, the unauthorized Apple Clone-maker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week.  While the Miami-based business may or may not have been successful selling Apple clones, its biggest expenses were most likely Apple’s lawsuit-related fees. 

Apple had insinuated during previous statements that it believed Psystar had some nefarious legal backing from a third party.  The bankruptcy filing means that their backers likely pulled out or aren’t rich enough to take Apple to court.  That doesn’t mean that they won’t be outted at some point.

The Florida court will hold a hearing on June 5 where Psystar’s equity creditors will be revealed — which means if there have been deep pockets behind the company’s fight against Apple, those names will finally come out of the shadows.

Psystar’s bankruptcy filing will temporarily slow down Apple’s case in northern California because all legal actions involving the PC maker are automatically put on hold while the bankruptcy court begins its proceedings. The judge overseeing the case will, however, most likely lift that stay within a few months, allowing Apple’s case to start moving forward again.

Even as Psystar is closing (well, not yet), yet another Apple Clone-maker, AppleOpenUSA, is opening up shop. 

iLounge is agreeing with an earlier report by French site MacBidouille, saying that the next generation iPod Nanos will have cameras built-in.  They’ve drawn a mockup which also includes a wider screen and smaller scroll wheel.  Notice the somewhat strange placement of the camera on the rear of the device, below. 

While the Nano-cams will certainly have a novelty appeal, we are most excited about the iPod Touch having a camera and the addition of interesting Internet/Apps capabilities that the iPhone currently enjoys.

iLounge also has information on the iPhone front.  They note that there will be three different iPhones based on the type of wireless provider.  These include a Chinese only edition, a 3.6Mb 3.5G version and a 7.2Mb 3.75G version for countries with advanced HSDPA bandwidth.  All regions should have 32GB/16GB options.

Perhaps AT&T can work on a special New York City version which gets 56K speed and hangs up after 30 seconds of talking.  Oh wait.  They already have one.

If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then the mobile industry has the highest of praise for the iTunes App Store.  Nokia has followed Blackberry, WinMob and Android in releasing their very own App Store called Ovi. 

..owners of around 50 different Nokia devices can download applications, games, videos and podcasts. The store consolidates services, including Download!, MOSH and WidSets into a one-stop-shop for free and paid content. The store offers 20,000 different items, and can be accessed by 50 million Nokia device owners, the company said. Visitors to the store can choose to view all items, or only those compatible with their phone. The necessary software client is available in English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. There is support for operator billing in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain and the U.K. In the rest of the world users pay using credit cards. U.S. mobile operator AT&T Inc. will offer integrated support for the Ovi store later this year.

The only "advantage" we can see here is that Ovi is integrated with the carriers so apps can be put on the telephone bill. We use quotes because we wouldn’t want it this way but there are those out there who might.

 Tech Crunch mentions that the rollout isn’t going so well.

You illustrators might not want to throw away that $5000 Mac Pro/Adobe CS4 rig just yet, but this story makes it seem like one day that might be an option.  Jorge Colombo drew this week’s New Yorker magazine cover using Brushes ($5 iTunes store link), an application for the iPhone, while standing for an hour outside Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Times Square.  Passers-by just assumed he was checking his email.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1827871374

“I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself,” says Colombo, who first published his drawings in The New Yorker in 1994. Colombo has been drawing since he was seven, but he discovered an advantage of digital drawing on a nighttime drive to Vermont. “Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner’s hat, I could not draw in the dark.” (When the sun is up, it’s a bit harder, “because of the glare on the phone,” he says.) It also allows him to draw without being noticed; most pedestrians assume he’s checking his e-mail.

via TUAW

Engadget got the lowdown on Apple’s newest competitor on the AT&T network.  The specs aren’t too special and the processor is a bit last generation, but it does mark the first direct carrier competition between Google and Apple.  Due in August, it will have a special AT&T’ed up version of Android on it, which of course, will be horrific. Also, we’re not sure if it is a misprint, but it says the resolution will be 240×320, half the picels of the iPhone.

You’ll be able to throw a non-AT&T version of Android on there once you get it home so you don’t have to click thru 8 AT&T pay-ware apps to check your email.

From the Toys Section:

Best Buy offers the Western Digital Caviar GP 2TB Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive, model no. WD20000CSRTL, for $249.99 with free shipping ($0.12/GB). That’s the lowest total price we could find for this model by $11. Sales tax is added where applicable. This "green" product promises reduced power consumption compared to other models by up to 40%. It features a 32MB cache and runs at a variable rate of 5400 rpm to 7200 rpm

Yesterday it was Tmobile Austria.  Today, AT&T’s website (update: tradups isn’t AT&T affiliated) is referencing a 32 GB iPhones in a tradeup program.  Anyone out there left who doesn’t think we’ll see a 32GB iPhone in the coming months?

According to the graphic below, AT&T will take $335 for the 32GB iPhone.  We’re thinking there aren’t going to be too many people trading in new iPhones for Blackberry Bolds.

via Phone Arena

Seriously weird commercial from Adobe to send you soaring into the weekend…

Orange announced today that it sold its one millionth iPhone.  While that is a significant number for the nation of 60+million, there are lots of non Orange iPhones running around the country as well.  Until the iPhone was launched in November of 2007, many unlocked iPhonees were floating around the country (including ours;).  Then, at the end of last year, France’s competition council ruled that the iPhone must be carried by all vendors.   All of the other mobile vendors are now carrying the iPhone and have for the last six months.

Apple doesn’t break any of its iPhone numbers out by countrybut it is pretty clear that it has been a success internationally.

Orange is celebrating the occasion by giving its customers a free live coverage French Open Tennis app.

While we all wait and see what Apple plans to do with those 10-inch touch screens, others are taking a more proactive approach. Enter the Sony VAIO UX390 UMPC Hackintosh.  If nothing else, it proves that OSX runs pretty darn well on UMPC hardware.  It might even run better than Windows. via Crunchgear

Tmobile’s Austrian website (since corrected) briefly displayed a placeholder for a 32GB iPhone.  Tmobile is the official iPhone carrier in Austria.

In other "Apple’s about to update its iPhones news", Vodaphone Australia is out of 16GB iPhones and they’ve been EOL’d by their supplier.  Is this the begining of the early summer global iPhone shortages?  If so (and you need one), you might want to grab a quick refurbished iPhone 3G at half off before they run out.

Someone has to be right here.  Yesterday Gene Munster said no Apple tablets until 2010.  Today Digitimes’ Cage Chao and Meiling Chen said the Apple tablet products should hit the streets by the end of 2009.

Wintek has been selected as the panel module supplier for Apple’s upcoming e-book form factor netbook product, according to Taiwan notebook related IC designers.

Taiwan IC designers are optimistic about demand for notebook related products in the second half of 2009 as more diversified products will hit the market during that time.

This is another confirmation (there were three others) of Apple ordering a Wintek touch screens for H2 2009.  We think Apple would love to have these things on store shelves this holiday season, if not earlier. How bout you?

John Gruber, is also predicting faster processor, more battery life, better camera and digital compass for the iPhone 3.  While nothing new is noted on the iPhone, he adds another voice to the changes we’ve been hearing for awhile now.  He also agrees that a major feature of the next touch devices from Apple will be the cameras.

Based on our information, we believe the next iPhone chip will be the S5PC100.(Google it).

He also thinks that 13-inch aluminum Macbooks will all now be called MacBook Pros (not Airs of course) and we’ll see minor updates to the MacBook Pro line at WWDC.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which hosts CES in Las Vegas every January, said Thursday that the trade show will expand its Apple section from 4,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet.  Frankly, 4,000 square feet isn’t really that much to begin with (imagine a 50×80 foot room).  There is still cause for some interest from the Apple community.

You’ll recall that the reason Apple bowed out of future Macworld Expos was that it wasn’t going to be part of big tradeshows anymore and it was going to deal with its customers at its stores and during its developer conferences.  That being said, we’re 100% positive that this news will have some people wondering if Apple will make an appearance at CES.

Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T’s mobility and consumer business, told Rueters that AT&T is indeed considering a discounted iPhone rate plan.  However, this discounted plan will only be for limited, tiered data plans and would cause iPhone users to be conscientious of how much data they were using.

The executive said it would be costly for AT&T to cut the price of its unlimited Web surfing service. The minimum plan for iPhone users is $70 a month, which includes unlimited Web surfing and a certain amount of voice calls.

Instead, AT&T could offer more limited Web surfing on cellphones for a lower fee, similar to its trial offer of 200 megabytes of data downloads for wireless netbook users for $40 a month in Atlanta and in Philadelphia. 

"Right now we continue to study what is the best thing that is available, not just from an iPhone point of view, but what you can do to stimulate additional demand," said de la Vega, who is responsible for all of AT&T’s consumer sales along with his role as chief executive of the mobile business..

As someone who has racked up absurd data roaming bills overseas by just letting my IMAP email sync, I can tell you this isn’t going to fly well.  iPhones are notorious for using many times more data than other smartphones and worrying about data ruins just about every fun and cool aspect of the device. 

De la Vega also announced:

• They wouldn’t be selling a Data-only iPhone plan
• AT&T would be expanding its netbook (tablet?) selling to all of its stores
• Getting hairplugs can totally fool people into thinking you aren’t bald