9to5 Staff

Telecom Italia has confirmed it will announce the launch date for the iPhone in Italy following the Apple keynote at WWDC, by Tuesday morning "at the latest," Reuters Italia reports.

This news clinches expectation Apple will announce its latest 3G iPhone next week, and suggests an international ring of networks will clarify the actual shipping dates for the device in their countries next week.

A Telecom Italia spokesperson reportedly said the network must wait until after the keynote to announce the news, saying "We must wait for them." The network previously promised the product will ship by the end of June. Pricing and most other details regarding the new model remain unknown, though it is thought iPhone buyers in Italy will only be locked to their choice of carrier (Vodafone or Telecom Italia, both of which have announced plans to ship iPhone in Italy) for nine months, under local law.

This news comes out as reports intensify claiming Quanta Computer has begun shipping unmarked boxes in small quantities using multiple vehicles, suggesting Apple and its manufacturing partner to be distributing new product to Apple retail stores, generating further speculation the company may already be supplying iPhones to retailers. Similar claims from Australia would suggest some possibility of a simultaneous global launch, though the logistics of simply keeping confidentiality over such a move makes that unlikely.

Illusions that tech isn’t colourful were blasted last night when it emerged the boss of a company whose chips are used in almost every Apple product was involved in drugs, prostitution and financial double-dealing that would make Harvey Keital’s character in Bad Lieutenant look like an innocent schoolboy.

Yes, it’s true, Broadcom co-founder and former CEO Henry Nicholas has been charged with maintaining and distributing drugs from his various homes, spiking customer and employee drinks with ecstasy, and more. He’s also facing charges of stock options backdating to the tune of $2.2 billion – the largest such case in US history.

You can read the drugs indictment here, thanks to The Register, which explains: "The indictment also claims Nicholas constructed an underground room and tunnel beneath his Rodeo residence for drug use."

In one incident, which sounds like an event from a Hunter S. Thompson novel or Cheech and Chong movie, it has been alleged Nicholas and others smoked so much marijuana during a flight on his private plane between Orange County and Las Vegas that the pilot had to put on an oxygen mask.

Drug distribution involved his home, a hired warehouse and a Las Vegas condominium, from which drugs including ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamine were supplied.

Nicholas is also accused of spiking the drinks of industry executives and employees of Broadcom customers (though it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have noticed this). He faces 20 years in jail on the drugs charges, and more for the stock options backdating.

What makes this case so tragic is that Nicholas has been widely involved in a host of philanthropic causes, with a particular focus on supporting victim’s rights. His Henry T. Nicholas, III, Foundation, focuses on improving the quality of life through various investments in education, youth sports, medicine and more, including supporting education and scholarships for children.

Interestingly, Broadcom recently secured a deal to provide GPS chips for the 3G iPhone, a feature the device reportedly must carry because of pressure from the FCC. 

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is keeping a close eye on iPhone development as the importance of its strategy for mobile computing continues to unfurl. Jobs is taking Apple’s future so seriously he’s effectively handed over more control to fellow exec, Tim Cook, who now oversees the work of the Mac engineering teams.

Well, not exactly – Apple has added two new faces to its executive team, Scott Forstall (pictured, now senior vice president, iPhone software) and Bob Mansfield (now senior vice president, Mac hardware engineering). 

Forstall reports directly to Jobs, and is responsible for the development of iPhone software, "including the user interface, applications, frameworks and the operating system," according to Apple, at least.

Mac engineering leader Bon Mansfield will be reporting instead to Tim Cook, (who himself answers to Jobs). Mansfield’s the man who led the teams building the MacBook Air and the all-in-one iMac.

While all these men now sit on the executive board (so communications between all parties should be better than ever before) we do think the move represents just how important Jobs & Co. consider the company’s iPhone developments.

Mansfield and Forstall were each awarded a grant for 25,000 restricted Apple shares as part of their promotion, worth over $4.17 million as of May 30, but not scheduled to vest until March 2010.

Apple’s next-gen iPhone is going to light a fire under the mobile TV market, with the potential to become the de facto standard for mobile TV among consumers.  We know Sling will make an appearance at some point….but that isn’t all.

"The iPhone could become the mobile video delivery device of choice for many consumers, by providing a compelling mobile TV and video proposition before mobile broadcasting networks, such as DVB-H become widely available", said Analysys Mason analyst, Mark Heath, in a report titled, "iPhone Shows the Way for Mobile TV".

The analyst notes that while many operators already offer mobile TV using their 3G networks, such services suffer poor quality and coverage problems. That’s partially because 3G only supports "relatively low penetrations of mobile TV users," the analyst said.

But research reveals iPhone users are already accessing television and video content more widely than users of other mobiles – suggesting the future addition of 3G support in the device will kick-start mobile TV consumption.

The iPhone’s high-quality widescreen, low battery consumption and substantial memory will make the device perfect for such uses; while the iTunes Store is already expanding the reach of TV shows to mobile devices. 

Chief advantage for Apple is the future iPhone’s ability to support multiple methods of delivering TV and video content, including sideloading (ie. iTunes), WiFi and 3G, minimising the amount of TV and video traffic that needs to be carried on 3G networks.

"If the iPhone is able to achieve significant worldwide market share, it will be well-positioned to have a significant impact on the way mobile subscribers purchase and watch mobile TV and video content," added report co-author, Dr. Alastair Brydon.

Is it us or does that MacBook Air have the 16:9, 14 inch dispaly we were talking about earlier today?  Yea, thought so!

Naw, maybe it is shortened?

Strangeley, everything else in the picture is not stretched.  And that speaker looks like it wouldn’t be stretched….what do you think?

New Photos emerging from Moscone reveal a new branding strategy for Apple’s OSX.  Take a gander:

Some things to note: Is that MacBook Air is using a 16:9 14 inch display we mentioned earlier? To the right you see the little accelerometer icon.  And what is that iPod Touch orange icon?  Is that the new iPhone?

Cirrus Logic shares took a hike North today on strength of market rumours that company’s audio codec chips will be deployed in future Apple iPods, including the iPod touch.

The scene it seems means, “Apple could become a meaningful revenue contributor to Cirrus starting in the second quarter of fiscal 2009,” well, that’s what Roth Capital Partners analyst, Jay Srivatska said.

He added:

“In our recent trip to Asia, our channel checks at consumer electronics manufacturers confirmed that Cirrus has been designed into next-generation Apple’s Classic, touch and nano iPods," according to the AP. 

If true, this deal’s going to iPour around $20 million in revenue for the company, “over the next 12 months”, the report says. Odd really, as the analyst in question added, "While the company is not commenting on these two design wins, we believe Apple could become a meaningful revenue contributor to Cirrus starting in the second quarter of fiscal 2009."

Apple has used Wolfson Microelectronics’ as supplier of low power Codec’s in every iPod, though that company last March admitted to losing Apple’s business.

The immediate effect of the analyst claims has been a 5.43% hike in Cirrus Logic shares shares, up 36-cents to $6.99 each at time of writing.  

As we reported in January, Apple is (officially) opening a store in the Louvre according to French Language NanoBlog.  It will be France’s first official AppleStore, complimenting the Store within a store model that Apple has with electronics retailer FNAC.

Google Translated:

Now gaze at our clever artwork…

Apple’s move to field more environmentally-friendly LED displays seems set to yield a much larger field of so-equipped Macs, with news this morning that AU Optronics has announced a full range of 16:9 LCD panels for displays.

We know that AU Optronics is one of two display manufacturers contracted to produce screens for the new MacBook models, which are expected to ship in the third quarter of 2008.

The new displays even include a 21.5-inch 1080p full HD resolution panel – large enough for Apple to potentially introduce the technology into iMacs and a small Apple display,

The new products are set for demonstration at Display Taiwan 2008 next week, and the display range includes screens which could soon appear in MacBooks and MacBook pros – even the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

"To meet the fast growing trend of digital content, AUO’s new 16:9 widescreen series include four MoniTV LCD panels: 24-inch Full HD, 21.5-inch Full HD, 18.5-inch and 15-inch. There are also two LED notebook LCD panels: 15.6-inch and 14-inch," the company said.

Both 15.6-inch and 14-inch TFT LCDs are equipped with an LED backlight, HD resolutions, 500:1 contrast and 60% colour saturation. The panels’ PCB structure has also been "designed to reduce noise when wireless networking, the company highlighted".

16:9 widescreen LCD panels are the trend for information technology display applications, and it is one of our focuses at Display Taiwan 2008 exhibition," said Michael Tsai, General Manager of IT Display Business Group of AUO. "The migration from 16:10 to 16:9 in widescreen market has gone fast. After AUO launched the 24-inch 16:9 Full HD LCD panel for desktop in the first quarter this year which became a big hit in the market, we released another 3 models for desktop in the second quarter; we will complete our 16:9 lineups for desktop with 27-inch model by the end of this year. In the near future, we plan to utilize LED-backlit green LCD panels for 16:9 desktop products. For notebook PC application, AUO aims to be the forerunner of 16:9 widescreen LCD panels with LED backlight. We will release another 4 LED-backlit panels: 10.1-inch, 11.6-inch, 13.3-inch, and

17.3-inch by the first half of 2009. AUO will take the lead in 16:9 aspect in IT display area, so as to provide consumers better enjoyment in digital media and Full HD contents such as Blue Ray DVD playback or high definition TV broadcasting."

With the technology now available, we think it’s time to commence speculation on a new MacBook with a 14-inch 16:9 display capable of playing Blu-ray as it should be played, and a MacBook Pro with a similar, larger display.

This is pure speculation, of course…

 Research In Motion’s BlackBerry remains the darling in corporate America, but recent price cuts and the imminent arrival of enterprise-class support in the iPhone means Apple’s a growing contender for corporate purchases.

A May ChangeWave survey of 2,049 respondents reveals a still soft corporate technology spending environment in which Research In Motion continues to dominate the smart phone market. The survey was conducted among respondents with purchasing responsibility at their firms.

BlackBerry grew its lead, climbing three points to secure 76 per cent of the market, Palm its already vast lead (76%; up 3-pts) in the corporate smart phone market. Second-place Palm lost one point to take 17 per cent, "and shows no signs of halting its long-term decline," the researchers said.

Looking to the coming quarter’s planned corporate purchases, RIM has overwhelming momentum, with 82 per cent of respondents buying smart phones next quarter saying they’ll purchase BlackBerries – a five-pt jump since the previous survey in February.

"When you’re hot, you’re hot, and the latest results for RIM are scorching," said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave and editor of ChangeWave Investing.  "If every product had such market dominance, it would be easy to pick the winners in each space," added Smith.

Despite the good news for RIM, it looks like Apple’s beginning to make its mark. iPhone sales climbed 2 points on the previous quarter, grabbing 13 per cent of the market, with the company now ranking second in terms of planned corporate purchases, according to Changewave. Pity Palm, which seems on the edge of becoming the third-place contender with just 8 per cent of purchasers confirming their company plans to purchase a Palm device.

When asked if their overall IT spending was on track thus far in the 2nd Quarter, 11 per cent of respondents said their company had spent "More than Planned" – up 1-point since February.  Another 27 per cent say they’ve spent "Less than Planned" – unchanged from previously. Which means things haven’t got worse, even if they haven’t yet recovered, the researchers said, though moving forward 24 per cent of respondents confirmed their spending will decrease in the coming third quarter.

"While the slowdown in overall spending may finally be stabilizing, this survey suggests that IT spending will remain anemic for the rest of the year," said Smith. "The one exception here is RIM, which just keeps on rolling."

(IMAGE FROM SLATE)

 Remember the Times report which claimed the 3G iPhone will cost £100 in the UK, as it’s to be subsidised? Now comes a new report which adds weight to that earlier speculation.

Telefonica SA’s Movistar brand will be the sole distributor of the iPhone in Spain, the company revealed last night. Local Spanish press reports claim the new device will be sold for under €100 to customers prepared to sign a 24-36-month contract with the company.

The report – straight outta Madrid and carried by Thomson Financial – also informs: "The Spanish telecom group will sell the third generation of the iPhone, which has a video camera and GPS."

…yeah wtf does that mean?

It has arrived. The limited-edition (500-only) Joy Division Zune, carrying artwork derived from Factory Records design guru, Peter Saville’s, Unknown Pleasures.

It goes on sale when the Joy Division documentary ships on June 17, with all 500 units shipping pre-loaded with the film.

Is this a fitting epitaph to iconic Joy Division singer, Ian Curtis? Is it the sign of Microsoft’s New Order in the music player space, or is it an Unknown Pleasure because no one cares about Zune?

In the spirit of American Idol, you get to decide. Say your piece in the comments below…

Thanks to Pitchfork.

Apple has quietly introduced film (movie) downloads through the UK and Canadian arms of its iTunes Store.

The UK service was quietly put into effect early Wednesday morning. At that time there was no link to Films on the iTunes front page, users instead needed to click on any one of the iTunes Store categories (Music, Music Videos etc.) in order to see the link that takes you to the new Films page.

Since we ran this story this morning, Apple’s released information offering more detail about the service: Films from major studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK are available now.

A catalog of 700+ film titles available now include "Team America, World Police", "300", "Manchurian Candidate", "Matrix", "School of Rock", "An Inconvenient Truth", "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest", "Reservoir Dogs". Films appear available for rental and purchase (sometimes one or the other). Apple will release new titles through its service on the same day as they ship on DVD, the company said.

“We’re kicking off movies on the iTunes Store in the UK with over 700 films for purchase and rent”, said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think customers in the UK are going to love being able to enjoy their favorite movies on their iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV”.

Films cost £6.99 for library titles and £10.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are £2.49 for library titles and £3.49 for new releases, while high definition versions are priced at just one pound more. And, unlike in the US, UK users have 48-hours in which to complete watching of a film once they begin playing it.

 Wake up, it’s Wednesday — and if you live in Canada or the UK, you can avoid waking up and watch a movie purchased or rented from iTunes instead. Those of us not doing that have a few tasty morsels surfacing across the Mac Web today.

Here we go: WWDC developers will get an early bird seed of Mac OS X 10.6 (yes, Apple still makes Macs, doubters); more info on the future of .Mac; Yahoo faces more trouble over Microsoft deal denial; speaking of monopoly, Electronic Arts has released its Monopoly game for iPods; Third-party iPhone Apps will launch on Monday (presumably through the Apps Store); oh, and with the next-gen iPhone imminent, Cult of Mac has a handy primer on how to sell your iPhone online. More later…

WWDC: Introducing Mac OS X update

OK it’s just a rumour, but TUAW reckons a source let it know Apple may seed developers with an early build of Mac OS X 10.6 at WWDC next week. If this is correct, expect 64-bit support at the expense of PowerPC support. That’s gone. (Though another report claims Apple’s set to release 10.5.4, possibly ushering in a slew of iPhone features and support for the .Mac transubstantiation.

.Mac is MobileMe

Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but things are looking good for a rebranding. Expect Web-based interfaces for all the .Mac apps, over-the-air iPhone syncing, potential Windows support and a bevy of other features here. (We just want to store our Home folder safely and securely in ‘the cloud’).

Yahoo faces hurricane Icahn

Well, Yahoo’s shifted its annual shareholder meeting to August , while a billionaire investor threatens to force the issue, running his own ten candidates for the board – he wants to sell Yahoo to Microsoft, and is making his mission personal, threatening to oust Yahoo boss, Jerry Yang.

Monopoly games

iPod users can now play Monopoly as the game’s this week been made available for sale through iTunes. Monopoly is such a great game – you can sit down and play it with your closest friends, and still have a bitter argument. This version lets you play against AI or against your friends in ‘pass-along’ mode – just don’t throw your iPod at the wall when you land on a hotel, OK?

App Store a-coming

Here’s the deal – at least one iPhone software developer believes they’ll be selling their applications starting Monday next week. This same source also told the highly respectable Tom Kravits the new iPhone will offer support for GPS.

Sell-out

Look – if you own an iPhone already you’ll be interested in upgrading to the new model. Think about when, how and where to sell your current much-loved mobile, don’t forget to erase your personal details, perhaps you should sell it pre-jailbroken? Useful advice here for those who do.

Small businesses, more than their larger counterparts, have really been able to take advantage of Software as a Service (Saas) applications to handle large parts of their technology needs. Salesforce and Highrise handle CRM. Basecamp handles project management. Recently, Microsoft and, to a much large extent, Google Apps are handling enterprise style messaging and calendaring.

However, no one has been able to replace that big server in the closet that serves up files and backs up the desktop computers.

Until now…

Now a new startup is planning on putting that last bit of server hardware out into "the Cloud". Sunnyvale based Egnyte lets small businesses (read: 3-15 employees) operate their file server and backups outside of their local offices.

According to Egnyte’s CEO, Vineet Jain, more than half of their customers are Mac users. Of course, you’d expect to see small creative design shops using a tool like Egnyte, but he says he also sees a lot of people from the medical field that share, exchange and backup huge medical imaging files. He also sees video outfits who want to share large/HD videos with their clients in their original form, not compressed for YouTube or Revver streaming.

The company is small and nimble at this point but they have large ambitions. Just like the Basecamp and Google Apps crowd, they intend to service the millions of small businesses around the world that would like to offload some of their IT infrastructure to service providers.

How does it work? You sign up for a special URL on their webpage. The process is quick and you are ready to go in a minute. You can then upload files to the website like an FTP server. However, this is all web-based for those clients that can’t get their head around the FTP process. In a matter of minutes, I was able to upload a 350 megabyte video file from a web page using my hotel’s shotty Internet connection. I could then download the file quickly onto another computer. The Egnyte interface can also generate a public URL that you can pass along to your clients.

Although recent improvements to Egnyte’s web interface allow multiple file and folder uploads, most people want a more "Desktop-like Experience." Egnyte also has you covered in this area. You can download a 9mb application that creates a share in either Windows or Mac just like a server share using the secure WebDAV protocol. You can also set Egnyte to backup your desktop and servers this way.

The application asks you to put in your company URL name and your username and password. Once successfully authenticated, you can set up your machine to do a granular backup using the web interface. You will also see a mounted share that contains the same directories that the web interface shows. It is all really, really easy.

Testing from Europe the speed was blazingly fast. From my Paris apartment on 100mb fiber, I uploaded a 700mb video in under five minutes. From our firm’s New York Office, files were downloaded from the web even quicker. Egnyte compresses files using the web interface to speed uncompressed files.

The downside is that this service, like all web services, exists outside of your office and largely outside of your control. If the Internet goes down, you are separated from all of your files. Egnyte is working on offering an appliance to its larger customers that will be an rsynced duplicate of their cloud shares.

There is also the small, outside risk of this company going under. Egnyte hopes to quell these fear with a 30-day guarantee. If they are canceling your acount or going offline for any reason, they will give their customers 30 days to download their information off of the servers.

The performance of this service also depends largely on your company’s (and clients’) Internet speed. Normal DSL broadband will be a little clunky uploading and backing up files. You’ll want to be as high end as possible to get the best performance out of Egnyte.

Overall, this is a fantastic service for small organizations. If I had any requests, it’d be that Egnyte work with Basecamp and Google Apps APIs or my company’s LDAP server to authenticate users so two directories don’t need to be created and transparency to users could be implemented.

It’s crystal clear now that Apple is going to be in Spain this year.  On again,  off again news that Spain’s Telefonica Movistar unit will be offering the iPhone in Spain – went official today.

Telefonica this morning confirmed it will begin selling the iPhone in Spain this year. The company owns UK network, O2, which sells the device in Ireland and the UK.

At the end of March, Telefonica had 23 million users in Spain, where it is the leading mobile phone firm. 

Also in Europe, it recently emerged Apple  will offer the iPhone in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia through TeliaSonera AB. It is in talks with Royal KPN NV to distribute iPhone in the Netherlands.

Same story, different Carrier/Country.  Softbank announces that they will carry the 3G iPhone on their UMTS 3G Network later this year…

"?????????????????????????????????iPhone??????????????????????????????????????"

Since they don’t mention exclusivity, NTT Docomo, KDDI and the rest still have a shot – so don’t go dropping your current provider just yet!

Another day, another tale or two: The 3G iPhone will be thinner and cheaper, confirms Cult of Mac; one analyst doesn’t believe the 3G iPhone subsidy chatter; Apple has officially launched its Back to School promotion in the US, offering a free iPod touch or iPod nano to students;  a batch of new universities join iTunes U; Radiohead catalogue hits iTunes; Firefox to grab 20 per cent or more of the browser market next month. Read on…

3G iPhone

Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney has the information. Citing a supersecretsource, the veteran Mac writer claims Apple’s new 3G iPhone will be thinner, host GPS and 3G and will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions. Oh yeah, and he claims the iPhone will be subsidized in the US and UK (at least)…

Subsidy no way…

Always rely on an analyst to, well, analystisize the latest topics (did’ja know some analysts get a bonus payment whenever they’re cited in the media?) Not saying that analyst Roger Entner at Nielsen/IAG, got paid, but he’s been quoted saying, "There’s no need to upgrade the device’s capabilities and lower its cost at the same time." He doesn’t think AT&T will subsidise iPhone after all; fortunately a batch of other analysts think it will. We’re heading to the melting pot of rumour now, we reckon. Now let’s begin prognosticating the iPhone nano…

Touching offer

Apple is offering rebates up to $299 against the cost of an iPod touch or iPod nano to education purchasers buying a new Mac between June 3 to September 15. This deal’s going to massively expand the number of iPod touch users on US college campuses, we think. And the deal is available in Canada too, helpful reader Kev Orng let us know.

iTunes U

iTunes U is Apple’s education-focused service offering podcasts, lectures, video and other content from higher education institutions. The service has always had a US bias, but that’s now changed with the addition of content from two UK and one Irish university; three Australian higher education institutions and a batch of new US colleges. If you haven’t spent time exploring what’s available in iTunes U, you should – it’s a rich resource for learning.

Radiohead’s iTunes connection

Yes, it’s true. Radiohead has made its music catalogue available through iTunes in the UK and US (and probably beyond), with much of the band’s music being made available in DRM-free iTunes Plus format. This is a hugely significant step, as Radiohead have determinedly resisted the notion of allowing the band’s music to be sold on a per-song basis, pointing to the album as an art form. 

Firefox wins through

Firefox will grab in excess of 20 per cent of the web browser market by the end of July, Net Applications believes – and could exceed that with the release of Firefox 3 set for this month, and the SpreadFirefox campaign’s attempt to get the release into the Guinness Book of Records as the most software downloaded in 24-hours.

Which other tales have caught your eyes today? Let us know in the comments below.

New research confirms Macs have 33 per cent fewer problems than Windows PCs in a business environment – and that it’s easier to resolve Mac problems than those with Windows.

Nucleus Research has been conducting an in-depth study on Mac versus PC in the enterprise. Ian Campbell, CEO of the company, writes: "We’ve been investigating the ROI from Macs versus PCs in the business environment. I was reviewing the data from a case study one of our analysts is completing and the results are interesting."

He continues: "This particular company has approximately 1700 employees with a mixed environment of PC users and Mac users. Here’s the interesting data point: On a per user basis, for every 3 trouble tickets the help desk opens for PC users they only open 2 for Mac users. In addition, the Mac trouble tickets are closed 30% quicker. To net it out, in this company the Macs have 1/3 fewer problems and the problems are solved a lot quicker."

While the CEO freely admits the data only comes from one company, he calls it a "fair comparison of sophisticated users in a roughly balanced Mac versus PC environment."

The researchers are investigating numerous similar deployments, and will publish additional findings as and when case study work is complete, Campbell said.

The cost of investment is higher for Windows, too, as Computerworld suggested last year when it found that the true cost to put together a BTO Dell laptop to be as well featured as a MacBook Pro cost $650 more from Dell than the equivalent Apple laptop.