9to5 Staff

From 9to5toys.com:

Getting the holiday shopping season started a little early this year, MacConnection is offering 9to5Mac readers the base model MacBook Air for the lowest price we’ve ever seen it: $899 (10% off) when bundled with a significantly discounted AppleCare which is just $199 (20% off).  The total $1099 price is $150 below the $1250 you’d pay at the Apple Store and over $60 less than we could find it anywhere else.

This latest MacBook Air includes an Intel Core i5 1.6GHz Sandy Bridge dual-core processor, 11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AirPort Extreme (802.11n wireless), Bluetooth 4.0, Facetime camera, Thunderbolt port, and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.  AppleCare provides Apple’s three year warranty.

Use code 9-5AIRCARE at checkout to get the deal.   Limit 2 per customer, and this will run out soon.

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No, it’s not a typo in the headline. Appcessories, third-party hardware add-ons for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad that interact with your device through dedicated apps, could soon be featured more prominently in Apple Stores, if there’s any substance to T3‘s report. Citing Jawbone’s vice president and head of special projects Bandar Antabi, the publication speculates Apple could in the near future expand its retail experience with a new section dedicated to app-connected hardware. According to Antabi:

Appcessories are going to play a significant role in the future of smartphones and applications. We will begin to see more and more companies integrate applications with accessories and other devices that can complement your smartphone experience. […] There is a lot of motivation for retailers to create specific appcessory sections within their storefronts to better promote this growing range of products.

Disregarding the craziness of the appcessories term itself, it would indeed be prudent of Apple to promote app-connected hardware, as they have done in the past with similar sections dedicated to the iPod lifestyle. Still, take this report with a pinch of salt because T3‘s track record is not so great. Also, it’s not like Jawbone’s executive would be informed of Apple’s retail strategy, let alone comment publicly on it.

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Ron Johnson, Apple’s former vice president of retail and the creator of the Apple Store, left for J.C. Penney November 1 and already he is picking industry veterans to join his leadership team at the Plano, Texas-headquartered department store chain. The Wall Street Journal reports that Johnson is tapping former Apple talent, including former chief financial office of Apple Retail Michael Kramer and Apple’s chief talent officer Daniel Walker.

Interestingly, it was Walker who helped Steve Jobs hire Ron Johnson to head Apple’s retail efforts. Both men served at Apple from 2000 to 2005. Granted, Walker and Kramer are both long-exited Apple people, but the temptation for current Apple talent to somehow make its way to Penney will always linger.

Sure, you might say who would  rather work at J.C. Penney rather than the most powerful, cool technology company in the world. But on a granular level, there might be high paying jobs with Johnson that Apple won’t match that could draw some top Apple talent.  Johnson himself is probably the best example of that.

There is also likely a non-compete clause in Ron Johnson’s severance agreement barring him from poaching Apple employees, but those are easily circumvented.  Just as Steve Jobs poached a bunch of his top Apple engineers to build out NeXT…

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UPDATE [Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 3:31pm ET]
A comment from iFixit added to the article bottom clarifies that Siri functionality regarding the iPhone 4S’s proximity sensor is likely software-based rather than stemming from hardware changes, as implied in the headline.

Ongoing efforts to port Siri to other iOS devices (here and here) have given hope to enthusiasts eager to port the iPhone 4S-exclusive digital assistant to prior iPhone models. But while the Siri port may eventually prove feasible, the full experience will not be possible on any other iOS device apart from the new iPhone 4S. iFixit discovered today that iPhone 4S features a tweaked proximity sensor, basically an infrared LED light which can tell when the user brings up the device to their face in order to turn the screen and touch interface off. But what’s so special about the proximity sensor in iPhone 4S compared to other iPhones?

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Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has updated its official app for Apple’s iPhone (available since last Fall) with new features and released a brand new shopping software for iPad that lets you browse, search and buy our quality products at “unbeatable prices”.

As up to 92 percent of customers at Walmart’s U.S. stores bring lists when they shop, their iOS apps make it easy to sort through the retailer’s huge offering, check prices, see if an item is in stock and search for any coupons available.

You can also create shopping list and the app will guide you to the right aisle at your local store to pick items on your list. Both the iPhone app and the iPad app are free downloads from the App Store. Go past the break for release notes for the iPad version.

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UPDATE [Wednesday, November 9, 10:15am ET]
Adobe has confirmed the news in a blog post, saying “HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively” (perhaps a not-so-subtle hint at iOS?)

The unthinkable could happen this morning, if there’s any substance to ZDNet’s report asserting that Adobe is about to cease development on Flash for mobile devices in order to refocus its efforts on HTML5 while suggesting that Flash developers re-package their content as AIR apps. Sources leaked the following announcement, allegedly waiting to be made official later today:

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.

Metaphorically speaking, Steve Jobs gets the last laugh. Adobe also axed 750 jobs as part of its strategy shift, sending shares down 7 percent to $28.27 in afternoon trading. Meanwhile, sources told ZDNet that Microsoft might follow Adobe and pull the plug on its Silverlight run-time, which has been living on life support anyway (even though it’s used in places like Netflix):

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UPDATE [Wednesday, November 9 at 12:10am ET]
The article has been updated with an analyst quote in the fourth paragraph.

Asian trade publication DigiTimes known for its notoriously mixed track record, reported Wednesday, citing a Commercial Times report, that Apple is asking parts suppliers to delay a portion of their shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012. The report blames the decision on the shortages in the supply chain and, interestingly, lower-than-expected pre-sales of iPhone 4S:

Apple is likely to adjust downward its shipments of iPhones and iPads from related suppliers by 10-15% in the fourth quarter. […] Some international IC players have also indicated that their revenues are likely to slide by 10-15% in the fourth quarter due to the shipment adjustments for iPhone 4S.

The affected suppliers are said to include cases and camera lens makers as well as ODM assemblers. It is also possible that Apple was simply forced to delay some of the shipments because other suppliers couldn’t fulfill their orders fully in time.

However, UBS analyst Maynard Um says the Commercial Times report of order cutbacks is wrong. His checks with suppliers confirm that the “iPhone 4S is still selling out and experiencing 1-2 week waits for online orders with demand also driven by accelerated carrier/country launches”. He also noted most suppliers projected strong fourth quarter shipments.

Even though some supplier of parts used in Apple’s mobile devices did report October revenues lower compared to those in September, iPhone 4S broke all previous records as Apple sold four million pre-orders during the launch weekend, more than double the iPhone launch. Pre-orders in Hong Kong sold out in ten minutes of going on sale and Deutsche Bank pegged daily stock-outs at Apple Stores at a whopping 85 percent.

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From 9to5Toys.com:

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Today only, Amazon has the Pioneer VSX-1020-K Home Theater Receiver for $299 with free shipping.  That’s close to half off the list price of this 770W 7.1 3D iPod/iPhone/iPad-controlled stereo system which features include six HDMI 1.4 inputs, 110 watts of power into seven channels, subwoofer output, and more.

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We covered the VSX-1020-K when it was launched last year for $549.  Since then it has been superseded by newer Pioneer products with Airplay.
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Table courtesy of AnandTech

AnandTech is first out of the gate with a review of Lacie’s SSD-enabled Little Big Disk drive. The new Lacie drives arrived in Apple Stores last month in both HDD and SSD flavors, featuring two Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining. With Thunderbolt deployed across this year’s Mac lineup (with the notable exception of  the Mac Pro that lingers in a state of limbo), Lacie’s external SSD storage is a compelling external storage solution, especially for 2011 Mac notebooks updated with Thunderbolt I/O.

Sadly, it comes at a steep prince point so even the most die-hard fans could have an issue paying $899 for just 240GB of external SSD storage. For comparison, OWC’s 240GB internal SSD costs $580 and Promise’s external Pegasus R4 4TB RAID-5 HDD drive is just a hundred more than Lacie’s 240GB SSD. Furthermore, the Little Big Disk lacks native RAID-0 and TRIMM support and instead relies on OS X’s Disk Utility to manage RAID-0 configuration.

More importantly, it uses Intel’s SATA 2 3GBps SSD 320 chip, which is slower compared to internal 6GBps upgrades such as OWC’s Mercury Auro Pro Express or Samsung’s updated SSDs (all of which utilize the faster SATA 3 interface). Promise is faster, but way more expensive so the purchasing decision comes down to this:

If you want to spend over $1000 you go with Promise. Spending under $1000? Go with LaCie.

As for the speediness, the drive performed pretty much as expected…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/?v=_-4lNOz_Os8]

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There has been some concern over the exterior of iPhone 4S, which shares the same glass and stainless steel enclosure with its predecessor. Because of that, pundits questioned whether iPhone 4S was a repeat of the iPhone 4’s “flawed” antenna design. In addition to being a world-phone (allowing GSM and CDMA customers to roam worldwide on GSM networks) “it’s the world’s first phone to intelligently switch between two antennas to transmit and receive calls”, hardware head Bob Mansfield says in a product video.

Can you say Antennagate?

Not so fast.

Consumer Reports, a U.S. monthly influencing purchasing decisions with its reviews and comparisons of consumer products, now recommends the new iPhone 4S as “it doesn’t suffer the reception problem we found in its predecessor in special tests in our labs”.

They explained:

In special reception tests of the iPhone 4S that duplicated those we did on the iPhone 4, the newer phone did not display the same reception flaw, which involves a loss of signal strength when you touch a spot on the phone’s lower left side while you’re in an area with a weak signal. (The iPhone 4, which is still available, continues to exhibit that problem, we confirmed in tests of new samples of the phone. Because of the flaw, we continue to omit the iPhone 4 from our list of recommended models, despite its otherwise fine performance).

iPhone 4S also scored Very Good in batter life tests (it displayed “no notable battery problems”) despite criticism aimed at its battery-sucking performance, a software flaw Apple says iOS 5.0.1 will fix. They also praise Siri, the A5 chip and the new camera system. Nevertheless, in Consumer Reports’ updated smartphone ratings Apple’s device did not fare better compared to high-end Android phones like the G2 and Bionic. Go past the break for another quote:

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State-owned China Unicom, the world’s third-largest carrier and Apple’s sole iPhone partner in the country, has dropped both the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4 model and will be introducing the 8GB iPhone 4 later this month. The move comes in anticipation of the iPhone 4S launch on the China Unicom network, due by the year’s end. iPhone 4S is currently pending regulatory approval in the country. The move would indicate that China Unicom will focus on the new iPhone 4S and carry the 8GB iPhone 4 as an inexpensive entry-level handset.

Apple, as always, will benefit the most (the older the iPhone, the better the margin). According to a SoHu report (via The Next Web) referencing the carrier’s general manager Lu Yimin, China Unicom executives visited Apple in the Cupertino, California headquarters in order to negotiate terms. A final agreement has been reportedly reached, but everything is now in the hands of the Chinese government’s regulators tasked with issuing 3G certificates and network licenses for devices operating in the Chinese market.

China Unicom’s deputy director of research recently showed a slide at a conference depicting a next-gen iPhone with HSPA+ capabilities (21Mbps), but it turned out to be just a guessing game. Meanwhile, gray market of unlocked iPhones continues to thrive in China. China Mobile, the world’s leading carrier by revenue, doesn’t offer Apple’s handset as they allegedly want some of App Store revenue. Nevertheless, China Mobile is signing up users outside of Apple’s blessed carrier model. Of course, because the iPhone doesn’t yet support China Mobile’s flavor of 3G called TD-SCDMA, iPhone users on their network use data via WiFi hotspots or through the older 2G frequency.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/?v=mXS5VHw7rwA]

For all the talk about a hyped networked television set allegedly in the works at Apple, we’re way more comfortable pondering on a dozen convincing reasons why such a device wouldn’t make much sense from the business standpoint (even though true fans would no doubt embrace it). In his 2008 talk at the D8 conference with the Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, Steve gave some memorable quotes as to why nobody had cracked the TV yet.

He first likened the state of the TV industry to being kinda “Tower of Bableish”, actually “balkanized”, before remarking how folks go to TV to turn their brain off. Interactive TV sets just don’t lend themselves to this passive medium, he observed. Jobs also recalled how he used to think TV networks conspired to dumb as down, but later figured out they’re just giving us what we want – light entertainment not requiring heavy thinking.

Funny how Jobs’s thoughts nowadays hold ground pretty much on their own. What’s truly remarkable, Steve came to those realizations at least 15 years ago. From the Internet archives (thus explaining poor quality), have a look at the above 1998 clip with Jobs in full swing mode educating devotees on the future of television. And while you’re at it, go past the fold for his take on the state of the TV industry dated 2008.

He’s literally saying same things, just wording them slightly differently. We’re eager to hear your opinion. What the two clips mean for the prospect of an Apple-branded HDTV set? Hit us in comments. And here’s everything Steve Jobs has ever said about television.

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Apple’s digital secretary named Siri was recently painted by Google chairman Eric Schmidt in a statement to the U.S. Senate antitrust subcommittee as a “competitive threat”. It’s been deconstructed as an effort to downplay Google’s dominance in search, where the company controls two-thirds of the market share. On the other hand, as always, something bigger could be at work.

Schmidt’s key remark from the statement:

History shows that popular technology is often supplanted by entirely new models. Even in the few weeks since the hearing, Apple has launched an entirely new approach to search technology with Siri, its voice-activated search and task-completion service built into the iPhone 4S.

Schmidt’s statement also refers to web reports, including a TechCrunch article by MG Siegler titled ‘Why So Siri-ous?’ and a Forbes story by Erica Jackson titled ‘Why Siri Is a Google Killer’. When reminded of his last September statement saying Bing, not Apple or Facebook, was the enemy, Schmidt said he was “clearly wrong”, adding they sometimes “fail to anticipate the competitive threat posed by new methods of accessing information”:

Apple’s Siri is a significant development — a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search.

Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com, thinks Schmidt would say whatever was needed in order to avoid being labeled a search monopoly by Uncle Sam. Sullivan tweeted “Of course Schmidt said Siri is threat. Said same of Bing in the past. Will say same of anything that makes Google seem weak”. Forbes, along with many other outlets, shared a similar notion.

The thinking has its merits, provided one accepts to believe a Google chairman would dare lying in a Congressional hearing. Can Siri affect Google’s position in the marketplace, as Schmidt asserted? And will Google’s revenue from search-based advertising suffer as a result from Apple’s advanced technology?

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Apple began taking reservations for its iPhone 4S in Hong Kong and 14 additional countries this past Friday, but pre-orders sold out in ten minutes (even though Siri does not speak yet Mandarin or Cantonese), according to a research note by Ticonderoga analyst Brian White. Faced with shortages, users then turned to South Korea, Chosun reported, where they pre-ordered about 200,000 handsets at SK Telekom and KT, the country’s two largest carriers.

Due to low taxes, Hong Kong and Shanghai (where Apple operates beautiful stores) are among the best places to buy Apple gear. This is certainly good news as iPhone 4S heads to store shelves in Hong Kong this coming Friday. White says the device will also hit mainland China in December (Siri will support Chinese in 2012, Apple says).

China is important because it earned Apple one in six dollars of revenue last quarter.  Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore says high demand for iPhone 4S is evident elsewhere, with daily stock-outs at Apple Stores hitting 85 percent:

Our retail checks reveal Apple is experiencing daily stock outs at ~85-90% of the ~30 retail stores we called. Apple employees are directing customers to make an online appointment (first come first serve) for next day pick up at nearby Apple retail stores as stocks appear to be refreshed daily at most locations.

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Various tablet market surveys give Apple’s iPad a different lead on rivals, mostly in the 60+ percent range. For example, Strategy Analytics pegged iPad’s market share in the September quarter at 67 percent (Canalys, too). A new estimate by research firm Canaccord Genuity has iPad selling a cool fourteen million units during the holiday quarter, an improvement over the 11.12 million units sold in the previous quarter, but perhaps not so much as Apple’s original projections.

Of an estimated 102.3 million tablets next year (60.3 million in 2011), they see Apple shipping 58.8 million to account for a 57 percent market share, down from 65 percent this year. Samsung should double its shipments from five million units this year to ten million in 2012 for a ten percent market share, the only non-Apple vendor with an estimated two-digit share.

Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley believes that Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet will change the dynamics, but affect other Android devices rather than iPad, which will be the top device in terms of sell-through:

While new entrants such as Amazon could disrupt the completive dynamics into holiday sales, we view low-priced 7-inch models as a threat to other Android OEMs rather than to the iPad. As such, given our updated iPad estimates, we anticipate Apple will command roughly 65 percent of the tablet units sold into the channel during C2011. However, we believe Apple’s sell-through share of the tablet market will exceed 75 percent during C2011.

Amazon, however, will emerge as the #3 tablet vendor on shipments of two million units in 2011 (they are launching the Fire tablet November 15) and five million in 2012, when they’re expected to expand the Kindle tablet family with an 8.9-inch model. Apple is also expected to update its iPad next year with features such as a faster processor (Apple’s in-house A6 chip) and high-resolution Retina Display.

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Until Siri learns to take pictures with your iPhone on your behalf, snapping up that perfect group shot remains a messy affair involving camera apps that incorporate the timer feature (such as Camera+​), which never yields the desired results. Accessory maker Belkin has taken it upon themselves to address this issue, designing an iPhone accessory that enables you to remotely release your handset’s camera shutter.

It will work with their free LiveAction app and over Bluetooth, you just press the red button on the remote controller trigger to capture a photo or video. In addition, the accessory will sport a detachable stand for propping your phone up on a variety of surfaces, reports Engadget, which spotted an FCC filing for the device.

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Per DigiTimes, an Asian trade publication, Apple is considering two alternative backlight solutions for the iPad 3’s rumored Retina Display because the current single LED light bar used in the iPad 2 cannot provide enough brightness for the high-resolution panel, sources told the publication:

With the next-generation iPads expected to adopt LCD panels with resolutions higher than 2048 by 1536, the current single LED light bar designed for the iPad 2 has to be modified in order to maintain or strengthen the brightness of the panels, the sources explained.

One of the new solutions incorporates a single-bar form factor with two LED chips and the other allegedly involves using dual-LED light bars, one on the left and the other on the right side of the display. Apple is said to be interested in deploying the dual-LED light bar design because vendors have solved heat dissipation and battery consumption issues.

DigiTimes has had its share of hits and misses concerning the Apple rumor reporting. Last week, the publication called for a complete overhaul of the 2011 MacBook Air, iMac and iPhone product families. They also claimed last week that the Cupertino, California-headquartered company has two iPads in the works for the next year, one a minor update aimed for a first quarter launch and the other a more substantial refresh, apparently slated for the 2012 holiday season. Faster processors (Apple’s in-house A6 chip) and Retina Displays are being rumored for the next-generation iPad as well.

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From the Toys Section:

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Amazon offers Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Mac, model no. 65064073, for $149.99. With free shipping, that’s tied with our October mention of a downloaded version and the lowest total price we could find by $130. This photo editing software is designed for use with RAW files.

Adobe charges $89 to download Lightroom 3 if you are a student or teacher. More Adobe deals here including up to 80% off for Academics.
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In 2007, Loren Brichter built Tweetie, a lovely (and award-winning) Twitter client for both the Mac and iOS.  So lovely in fact that in April of last year, Twitter bought his company, Atebits and turned Tweetie into the official native Twitter clients for Mac and iOS.

Today via, yes…wait for it…Twitter, Brichter announced he was leaving the company to discover the next big thing.

Want to build an iOS app like Tweetie and sell your company to Twitter?  Check Brichter’s half hour Stanford developing iOS apps lesson, below…
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From 9to5toys.com:

Update: Drops to $987.99

MacConnection drops the price on the base MacBook Pro 13 inch from $1199 to $999 after a $50 rebate with free shipping.  Even without the rebate, it is the lowest price we could find on a Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro anywhere.  This model includes Intel 3000 Graphics, LED-backlit display, 802.11n wireless, full-size backlit keyboard, Multi-Touch trackpad, FaceTime camera, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Thunderbolt port, and up to 7 hours of battery life.

Note that this is last month’s  model with a marginally .1GHz slower processor and smaller 320GB HDD which were upgraded slightly a few weeks ago.

You can also pick this up for $929 factory refurbished or $1199 newat the Apple Store.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vejMDbyrj4]

From the Series Machine That Changed the World, The Program Paperback Computer. Via Openvault.

Another ‘lost interview’ is hitting movie theaters in a few weeks…
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