MacRumors

Following the selection of Apple's proposed design as the new nano-SIM standard last month, Financial Times reports that European carriers have begun stockpiling the new nano-SIMs in expectation that Apple's next-generation iPhone will be launching using the new standard in the coming months.

Operators expect that the iPhone will feature the nano sim in a slimmed down design, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation, and have begun to store millions of the cards in warehouses in anticipation of high demand for Apple’s iPhone. Apple declined to comment.

Operators were caught off guard by the adoption of the micro Sim for the iPhone 4 as well as the original iPad two years ago, with some struggling to meet demand with their own micro-Sims in the first weeks of sale.

One informed person said that the major networks were keen to be ahead of demand this time, however. He added that the iPhone 5 was likely to be similar sized as the iPhone 4 although slimmer and with a fully metal body.

Apple's nano-SIM design next to current micro-SIM (Source: The Verge)

With today's release of iOS 6 Beta 3 to developers, Apple has revealed in the update's change log that it is beginning the first stages of transitioning users from the me.com email addresses and Apple IDs available under MobileMe to new addresses using icloud.com.

icloud.com email addresses are now available for iCloud mail users. Users signing up for new Apple IDs, or enabling Mail on their iCloud account for the first time, will automatically receive an @icloud.com email address instead of a me.com email address. iCloud users with @me.com addresses that have been used with iOS 6 beta 3 will receive an @icloud.com email address that matches their @me.com address.

Apple discontinued MobileMe in favor of iCloud as of June 30, although MobileMe users are still able to transition their accounts to iCloud for a limited time.

MobileMe and its me.com addresses were themselves transitioned in 2008 from mac.com addresses available under Apple's previous iTools and .Mac services, with MobileMe users able to send and receive email from mac.com and me.com versions of their addresses using either account.

Apple today released the third beta of iOS 6, the company's next-generation mobile operating system set to launch "this fall", presumably alongside new iPhone hardware in the September-October timeframe.

The third beta, which arrives as Build 10A5355d, comes three weeks after the previous developer version of Build 10A5338d.

We'll update this post with additional information on the new release as it surfaces.

Users are tracking new changes both in the forum thread associated with this article and in this thread. One key addition observed so far is a new section in the Settings app for Maps, allowing users to change the volume of the navigation voice, set distances to display in miles or kilometers, set map labels to display either in the local language or always in English, and set map label sizes to either "normal" or "large".

Other changes include:

- Roadwork and traffic accidents showing up in Maps app
- Answer and Decline buttons for FaceTime calls have returned
- iMessage on iPad now accepting phone number as valid contact info
- Greater 3D Flyover coverage in Maps
- Glyphs for bookmarks, Reading List, and history in Safari
- Auto-brightness changes gradually

Update: Also released today: Xcode Developer Preview 3 and Apple TV Software beta 3.

Late last week, we reported on the launch of a new method to allow App Store users to bypass Apple's In App Purchase mechanism and receive additional content free of charge. At the time, we noted that use of the method involved theft of content from developers and exposed iOS device users to dangers as their account and device information was being routed to servers under the control of the Russian hacker running the service, but we felt that reporting on the issue to bring it to light was the responsible thing to do in order to alert developers to the issue and perhaps spur Apple into action.

The Next Web now follows up with a report outlining some of the steps Apple has been taking to combat the issue, including issuing a copyright claim to have the original video showing the hack in action pulled from YouTube.

Over the weekend, Apple began blocking the IP address of the server used by Russian hacker Alexey V. Borodin to authenticate purchases.

It followed this up with a takedown request on the original server, taking down third-party authentication with it, also issuing a copyright claim on the overview video Borodin used to document the circumvention method. PayPal also got involved, placing a block on the original donation account for violating its terms of service.

The hacker, Alexey Borodin, remains committed to the service and has been working to skirt around the roadblocks being thrown up by Apple, in part by moving the service to a server in another country, but it is clear that Apple is working on the issue and addressing it through multiple routes in order to improve the security of In App Purchase content. For now, however, the service remains operational.

Apple.pro points [Google translation] to a photo posted to a Photobucket account that appears to show a white version of the next-generation "iPhone 5" front panel. This appears to be the first time that a claimed photo of the white version of the device has been seen.

Front (top) and back (bottom) of claimed front panel from white next-generation iPhone

The panel also shows a display with an aspect ratio of close to 16:9, in line with rumors of a taller screen measuring four inches diagonally. Overall, the front panel appears to match up closely to a previously-leaked design drawing showing details of the front panel.

Notably, the Photobucket account hosting the new photo is the same one that previously posted leaked measurement comparisons between the rear shells of the third-generation iPad and the iPad 2, showing roughly how much thicker the new iPad would be over the previous model.

Apple's set to release the latest version of OS X later this month. OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) is a $19.99 upgrade that will be available on the Mac App Store.

The latest Mac operating system contains a number of improvements and features. The list includes Reminders, Messages, Notification Center, Power Nap, Dictation, Gatekeeper and many more.

Apple has only said that the new version of OS X will launch in July, but 9to5Mac now speculates that Apple may be launching the new version of OS X on July 25th.

The reasoning comes from reports that Apple Retail stores will be performing overnight updates to stores on July 24th. Those updates could include the posting of marketing information and OS installations of OS X Mountain Lion to store computers.

While the exact content of the overnight updates aren't yet confirmed, the timing would also correlate with Vacation blackout days that MacRumors had heard from several employees at a thirty-party firm that offers technical support for Apple products.

The New York Times has added to the concerto of reports hinting at the arrival of an iPad with a 7.85" screen this fall. Two weeks ago, Bloomberg offered a similar report, also citing anonymous sources. iMore reported something similar back in May.

The company is developing a new tablet with a 7.85-inch screen that is likely to sell for significantly less than the latest $499 iPad, with its 9.7-inch display, according to several people with knowledge of the project who declined to be named discussing confidential plans. The product is expected to be announced this year.

Amazon has seen some amount of success with its 7" Kindle Fire, while Google recently launched its Nexus 7 tablet. A so-called iPad Mini, priced aggressively by Apple, could prevent other companies from flanking Apple with cheaper tablets equipped with a smaller screen.

In October of 2011, Tim Cook said on an earnings call that he was "very confident about our ability to compete and extremely confident in our product pipeline."

According to Japanese blog Mac Otakara, the next generation iPhone has already gone into production in China. Mac Otakara cites reliable Chinese sources for the information.

For reference, Mac Otakara also cited similar sources when they reported that the iPad 3 first went into production in January 2012. The lead time between production and launch for the iPad 3 was approximately two months with an official launch date of March 16th, 2012. That could suggest that we could see the new iPhone as early as September, though the production timelines for the iPad and iPhone may differ significantly.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal had previously reported that the iPhone 5 would begin production in June, and all signs have pointed to a September or October launch for the new iPhone.

Leaked iPhone 5 parts have suggested Apple will be adopting a two-tone backing with a central metal panel. Mac Otakara reports that in the production models the back panel have a naked aluminum surface and a partially glass covered portion. They also note that a small hole that was seen between the lens and flash in the prototype parts is now absent.

Yesterday, Apple reversed course on their decision to remove their products from the EPEAT Environmental Registry. In a letter recognizing the move as a "mistake", Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield reported that all eligible Apple products are now back on the registry.

The new Retina MacBook Pro was notably included in the "Gold" level status which represents the highest rating from EPEAT.

Retina MacBook Pro battery via iFixit

Kyle explains: "It's important to understand that the manufacturers grade themselves against the EPEAT criteria first, and then EPEAT conducts a review of this grading. That EPEAT review has not yet occurred. They can require the manufacturers to remove any product from the registry if it is not found to conform to the IEEE standard."

Kyle cites issues with required criteria for EPEAT's "Design for End of Life" which may prohibit the use of glue to attach the battery to the casing as has been seen on the Retina MacBook Pro.

A lack of EPEAT certification can have consequences as many government offices and corporations require certification for company purchases.

Last week, Apple notified the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) that it was withdrawing its products from the EPEAT registry, and would no longer be submitting its products for evaluation. EPEAT measures the environmental impact of electronics and is used by many corporations and governmental organizations as a yardstick on enterprise purchases.

In one well-publicized instance, the city of San Francisco said it would no longer purchase Macs without EPEAT certification.

In an unusual about-face, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield wrote an open letter reversing the decision to remove Apple products from the EPEAT registry.

We’ve recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT.

It’s important to know that our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever. Apple makes the most environmentally responsible products in our industry.

We've received word that Bob Mansfield is sending a copy of the letter, from his @Apple.com email address, to customers who had expressed concern over the EPEAT withdrawal.

A full list of Apple's EPEAT-rated products is available, and includes the latest releases of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

EPEAT CEO Robert Frisbee also wrote a letter confirming Apple and EPEAT's commitment to working together and hinting at future changes to the EPEAT judging process to work with Apple as it continues its cutting edge computer designs.

We look forward to Apple’s strong and creative thoughts on ongoing standards development. The outcome must reward new directions for both design and sustainability, simultaneously supporting the environment and the market for all manufacturers’ elegant and high-performance products.

An interesting question for EPEAT is how to reward innovations that are not yet envisioned with standards that are fixed at a point in time. Diverse goals, optional points awarded for innovations not yet described, and flexibility within specified parameters to make this happen are all on the table in EPEAT stakeholder discussions. And of course, timely standards development, as with newly created Imaging Equipment and Television standards, and the current refresh of the PC/Display standard, is critical as well.

Slate's Farhad Manjoo called the entire EPEAT situation a "really strange unforced error."

Earlier this year, environmental activist group Greenpeace made waves with a report taking Apple and other companies to task for not doing enough to eliminate the use of dirty coal-sourced power at their data centers. Apple quickly responded at the time to note that Greenpeace had greatly overestimated the power needs of the company's flagship data center in Maiden, North Carolina, thereby understating the impact of Apple's solar and fuel cell power generation occurring at the site.

In that statement, Apple refuted Greenpeace's estimate of peak power demand of 100 megawatts for the data center, revealing that power demand would actually peak at 20 megawatts. And a month later, Apple published additional details on its efforts to run all of its data centers on 100% green energy.

Greenpeace announced yesterday that it has prepared an updated report on Apple's energy usage based on the new information, but as noted by Data Center Knowledge's Rich Miller, the group still seems to be being overly critical in its grading of Apple, even continuing to make up its own estimates of the North Carolina data center's energy usage rather than believing Apple's public statements.

In its initial report in April, Greenpeace estimated Apple’s power use in North Carolina at a whopping 100 megawatts. The group has reduced that slightly to 81 megawatts, dismissing the company’s disclosure that it expects draw about 20 megawatts at full capacity.

Miller goes on to note that Apple has clearly disclosed in regulatory documents that it intends to install backup generators capable of producing 41 megawatts of electricity in an "N+2" configuration that keeps at least two generators as spares, meaning that Apple is only planning for peak demand of 35-36 megawatts at an absolute maximum.

Miller points to two possible reasons for Greenpeace's continued refusal to acknowledge Apple's statements and other official documents addressing the data center's power needs:

Greenpeace’s continuing use of this methodology, in light of Apple’s disclosure and permit data, raises several possibilities:

- Greenpeace is having difficulty developing estimates that accurately incorporate data center operations and power usage.
- Greenpeace is predisposed to cling to estimates that make Apple look less “green” because it generates more headlines for its awareness campaigns.

For its part, Apple has continued to stand by its earlier comments, issuing a statement to Forbes:

We’re committed to building the world’s most environmentally responsible data centers and are leading the industry in the use of renewable energy, including the nation’s largest private solar arrays and non-utility fuel cell installation,” Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokewoman, said today. “As we’ve said before, our North Carolina and California data centers will be coal-free as of February 2013 and our newest data centers in Oregon and Nevada will be designed to meet that standard from Day One.”

Greenpeace's revised report gives Apple no additional credit for transparency, despite the company having explicitly revealed the power requirements of the data center, and the group's insistence on sticking with an 81-megawatt estimate of peak power capacity brings Apple's usage of renewable energy at the site down to just 22% as opposed to the 60% figure explicitly stated by Apple.

Greenpeace is also reluctant to give Apple credit for its fuel cell installation, waiting to hear whether Apple will actually be using biogas to directly power the cells or if it will be using natural gas and instead purchasing biogas to be inserted elsewhere in the distribution system to offset the company's natural gas usage. But given that Apple's biogas commitment would have the same net effect on overall natural gas consumption regardless of where exactly in the distribution system it is used, it seems that Apple should be pursuing the most cost-effective strategy for deploying that biogas.

As noted by 9to5Mac, a Russian hacker has developed a relatively simple method to allow users to bypass Apple's In App Purchase mechanism on many iOS apps, allowing users to obtain the content for free.

Alternate In App Purchase confirmation button seen on hacked devices

The hacker has already been evicted from his original host and had reportedly moved to a new one, but the site is currently down. It is unclear whether it is down simply due to high traffic or if other steps are being taken to hinder his activities.

Developers can prevent the hack from working with their apps by implementing validation of In App Purchase receipts, something many developers have not included in their apps.

Update: The Next Web takes a closer look at the method developed by Alexey Borodin, which actually can not be prevented simply by employing receipt validation.

All Borodin’s service needs is a single donated receipt, which it can then use to authenticate anyone’s purchase requests. Many of those receipts have been donated by Borodin himself, who has spent several hundred dollars on in-app purchases testing and generating receipts. [...]

Because the bypass emulates the receipt verification server on the App Store, the app treats it as an official communication, period.

Addressing the issue will ultimately require changes by Apple, which could enhance the API used for In App Purchases to provide for uniquely signed receipts that could not be duplicated on a mass basis as with Borodin's service.

The Next Web also interviewed Borodin, who noted that he has turned over operation of the site to a third party in order to avoid trouble and will be deleting any information he obtained from running the operation. According to Borodin, over 30,000 in-app transactions were made through his service, and he netted just $6.78 in PayPal donations to help with his costs.

Update 2: Macworld also chatted with Borodin, who noted that he can indeed see users' App Store account names and passwords, as they are transmitted in clear text as part of the In App Purchase process.

“I can see the Apple ID and password,” for accounts that try the hack, Borodin told Macworld. “But not the credit card information.” Borodin said that he was “shocked” that passwords were passed in plain text and not encrypted.

According to [developer Marco] Tabini, though, “Apple presumes it’s talking to its own server with a valid security certificate.” But that was clearly a mistake—“This is entirely Apple’s fault,” Tabini added.

Update 3: Apple has issued a brief statement to The Loop acknowledging that it is aware of and investigating the issue.

“The security of the App Store is incredibly important to us and the developer community, Natalie Harrison, told The Loop. “We take reports of fraudulent activity very seriously and we are investigating.”

For the first time since its launch just over one month ago, Apple's Retina MacBook Pro has begun to see improvements in shipping estimates for new orders placed through the company's online store. The improvement has appeared first in Apple's Asia-Pacific markets, which have seen estimates move from 3-4 weeks to 2-3 weeks.

Shipping estimates in Apple's other main distribution regions of the Americas and Europe/Middle East/Africa remain at 3-4 weeks, but it is likely they will see similar improvements in the near future.

While Apple announced the Retina MacBook Pro as immediately available on its debut day of June 11, shipping estimates quickly slipped to 2-3 weeks by the end of the day and reached 3-4 weeks roughly 24 hours later. Estimates have remained steady at 3-4 weeks since that time until today's improvement in the Asia-Pacific channel.

Update: The improved 2-3 week estimates have now spread to the Americas and are beginning to filter into a number of European stores.

A few weeks ago, MacStories noted that Apple had told developers that a new Food & Drink category was coming to the App Store.

“In the next few weeks”, applications will be automatically migrated to the new category; currently, the App Store doesn’t provide a specific category for these types of apps, which have been typically listed under Lifestyle by their developers. According to Apple, the new category will include “apps that help users cook and bake, mix drinks, manage recipes, find new restaurants and bars, and learn what their friends like to eat and drink”. Food & Drink won’t include diet, grocery shopping, coupon clipping, or food-related game apps.

The new category is now live in the App Store [Link] and features over 2800 Paid and 4000 Free apps in the iPhone section and over 1200 Paid and 1000 Free apps in the iPad section. Apple has been contacting developers with relevant Food & Drink apps over the past few weeks to prepare for the new category.

A newly-published Apple patent application (via AppleInsider) reveals Apple's interest in exploring the use of the iPod nano's clip as a charging and docking mechanism, a move that would eliminate the need for a dedicated docking port on the bottom edge of the device as found in the current design.

By incorporating electrical contacts into the clip and using a dock adapter to provide compatibility with Apple's current docking stations, the clamping action of the iPod nano's clip could hold the device in position for charging purposes.

In some embodiments, a portable user device may include a rechargeable battery, and a clip member that is electrically coupled to the rechargeable battery. The rechargeable battery may be charged by electrically coupling the clip member to a receiving receptacle. In some embodiments, the clip member may provide a clamping force which aids in maintaining contact between the receiving receptacle and the clip member.

Apple's patent application also describes a number of other implementations for the clip-based charging mechanism, including the ability to clip directly onto a charging point on the bezel of another device.

The newly-published patent, originally filed in January 2011, is not the first time Apple has proposed a means to increase the utility of the iPod nano's clip. A May 2010 application proposed integrating a piezoelectric speaker into the clip, while a prototype device has hinted at plans to equip the device with a rear camera that would project through a hole in the clip.

A new rumor surfacing earlier this week claims, however, that Apple will be abandoning the current iPod nano design later this year in favor of an oblong design with a larger screen and a home button similar to that found on iOS devices.

Apple is also rumored to be bringing a smaller dock connector to its iOS devices later this year, a feature that could make its way to the iPod nano as well given that the device currently uses the same dock connector design seen in iOS devices.