MacRumors

Apple seems to have opened up the iCloud Beta on iCloud.com. Notably, the login page is nearly identical to a leak from the days before the original iCloud announcement. We were doubtful of the screen at the time, but it appears to have been legitimate.

There's some mixed reports about people being able to login. We have reports of both developers and non-developers having success and trouble logging in.

iWork Beta with iCloud support was also seeded to developers:

Swedish 3D mapping company C3 Technologies appears to have been acquired in July. Saab AB announced last month that it had completely divested itself of its 57.8% stake in the company for approximately $150 million US dollars. Meanwhile, C3's website has since been completely shut down though portions of it remain in Google's cache.

Nyteknik.se reports only that the buyer is a western company.

We have promised not to say who the buyer is. But there are no Chinese or other Asian companies. It is a company in the Western world, says one of Saab today after the deal is worth 1 billion.

That opens the door to one of many companies, but certainly the big players such as Apple, Microsoft and Google are the prime candidates.

C3 Technologies made a big splash in January at CES 2011 when it began demoing its technology on both Android and iOS devices. The company uses formerly classified missile targeting technology to achieve its impressive 3D mapping effects.

As described by Technology Review.

C3's models are generated with little human intervention. First, a plane equipped with a custom-designed package of professional-grade digital single-lens reflex cameras takes aerial photos. Four cameras look out along the main compass points, at oblique angles to the ground, to image buildings from the side as well as above. Additional cameras (the exact number is secret) capture overlapping images from their own carefully determined angles, producing a final set that contains all the information needed for a full 3-D rendering of a city's buildings. Machine-vision software developed by C3 compares pairs of overlapping images to gauge depth, just as our brains use stereo vision, to produce a richly detailed 3-D model.

"Unlike Google or Bing, all of our maps are 360° explorable," says Smith, "and everything, every building, every tree, every landmark, from the city center to the suburbs, is captured in 3-D—not just a few select buildings."

This is one of their promo videos that remains on YouTube demonstrating how the technology may be used on an iPad:

Other even more impressive videos include a 3d map of Hoover Dam, and Flythrough of Oslo.

Unfortunately, we don't actually know which company has purchased the technology, though with the complete removal of C3's website, it seems the buyer has uses for the technology beyond just supplying app developers an SDK for its use. We were only able to find one possible link with one Nyteknik.se commenter claiming that they "happen to know it was Apple!".

Apple would be a good fit for the company, as they have already admitted to be working on their own turn-by-turn direction GPS service, and we've also found evidence that they have licensed map data from a number of companies. It would also reduce their dependance on Google's mapping solution which presently is used on iOS devices. Apple previously purchased mapping company Placebase and has been aggressively hiring for their Geo Team to take Maps to the "next level".

The first subscriber numbers for Condé Nast's iPad experiment are out, and The New Yorker has 100,000 readers, according to the New York Times:

Offering the first detailed glimpse into iPad magazine sales since subscriptions became available in the spring, The New Yorker said that it now had 100,000 iPad readers, including about 20,000 people who bought subscriptions at $59.99 a year.

Additionally, more than 75,000 people have taken advantage of the magazine’s offer to allow print subscribers to download the app free. Several thousand more people, on average, buy single issues for $4.99 each week.

The article's numbers are a little confusing, mostly because of the word "additionally", but here's how we see it breaking down:

- 75,000 readers who already subscribe to the New Yorker print edition.
- 20,000 readers who subscribe to the annual iPad-only edition for $59.99/year.
- 5,000 readers who buy individual issues for $4.99/week.

The New Yorker's reader count is the highest of any of Condé's iPad titles, which includes tech-savvy Wired magazine. The New Yorker has more than 1 million print subscribers.

All the Condé Nast titles are available via in-app subscription, with Apple taking 30% of sales. Apple has collected approximately $360,000 from The New Yorker's 20,000 annual subscribers.

Condé reported today that it has 242,000 digital readers (PDF) across all its titles, with 106,000 of those being new readers without print subscriptions.

Alongside today's Apple TV software update that brought the ability for users to stream TV episodes they had previously purchased through iTunes, Apple has also expanded the "Purchased" section of the iTunes Store as accessed via Mac, PC, and iOS to include re-downloads of purchased TV content.

The change adds TV shows to Apple's early-stage iCloud offerings, bringing the TV content in line with music purchases that received the same treatment back in early June following the iCloud announcement at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. With the change, users now have the ability to download purchased television content at-will to their various devices as long as they are linked with a single iTunes Store account.

Apple has also updated its iTunes Store terms and conditions with new text covering the changes, and summarizes the change as follows:

Notification of an additional type of previously-purchased content that may be subsequently downloaded to certain computers and devices as an accommodation to you, subject to existing association rules; and that such content may be played back on certain devices that are not subject to existing association rules, with limitations.

The majority of the relevant changes appear to be covered in the section entitled "Automatic Delivery and Downloading Previous Purchases Beta", which outlines two classes of downloadable content: "iTunes Auto-Delivery Content", which covers music and music videos and which can be automatically downloaded to associated devices; and "iTunes Eligible Content", which covers TV shows that must be downloaded manually.

Users have long been responsible for backing up their own content, with Apple only allowing limited re-downloads of lost content on a case-by-case basis. But with the move to iCloud storage of users' purchases, they will be able to freely delete and re-download episodes to whichever devices they wish to view the content on. Such a change generally requires that licensing deals with content providers be renegotiated, and thus Apple has had to work carefully toward deploying re-downloads for each media type and in each market.

Despite the new feature, Apple does still point out that users are responsible for backing up their own content, noting that all previously-purchased content may not be available for re-download at all times.

A number of MacRumors readers are reporting that Apple has just pushed out a new iOS software update for the second-generation Apple TV bringing support for several new features including streaming access to purchased TV shows and support for video service Vimeo. Daring Fireball's John Gruber explains the TV show feature:

You can buy — not just rent but buy — new episodes directly from your Apple TV, and access and stream any TV show episodes you’ve previously purchased using your iTunes account. (I’m not quite sure if it has all episodes — but it’s showing me all the TV shows I can remember buying from iTunes.)

According to one report, however, the feature may be U.S.-only for the time being.

In addition to the purchased TV show support, the update also brings support for Vimeo video content and reportedly adds YouTube playlist support.

With the update, Apple TVs now report a software version of 4.3 (2557), while Apple's servers refer to the update as Build 8F455 of iOS 4.3.

Update: Apple has also added TV shows to the "Purchased" sections of iTunes on both iOS and Mac/PC applications. The addition allows users to freely re-download previously-purchased TV show content in the same way that Apple enabled the feature for music alongside its iCloud announcements in early June.

Update 2: Apple has now updated its Apple TV support document with information on the two main changes included in the 4.3 update.

- TV show purchases: Purchase TV shows on Apple TV. Shows purchased on Apple TV can be re-downloaded on other iOS devices. Shows purchased on other iOS devices or with iTunes automatically show up as available to play on Apple TV.
- Vimeo: Browse and watch millions of user-uploaded videos found on the Vimeo service, for free.

Adobe today announced the launch of an early preview version of a new application called Adobe Edge, which is designed to allow web developers to easily create animations and other motion-based content using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.

Calling Edge a "fast and lightweight professional-grade tool", Adobe is positioning the new software as a complement to its Flash and Dreamweaver offerings for Web-based content production.

The Adobe Edge preview works natively with HTML. It enables users to add motion to existing HTML documents without hampering design integrity of CSS-based layouts, and it also enables users to easily create visually rich content from scratch, using familiar drawing tools that produce HTML elements styled with CSS3. Users can import standard Web graphics assets such as SVG, PNG, JPG and GIF files and style them using CSS3. The design stage utilizes WebKit to enable design, preview and manipulation of content with incredible fidelity. The innovative timeline feature is both familiar for creative professionals and breaks new ground in animation productivity to enable users to define and customize motion applied to HTML elements with extreme precision.

Adobe is pushing out Edge in a pre-beta version, earlier than usual in order to allow users to offer maximum feedback to help shape the final product. Adobe Edge is free to download during this preview period.

Apple has famously refused to offer support for Adobe's Flash technology on its iOS devices, instead encouraging developers to turn toward newer standards-based options such as HTML5. For its part, Adobe has worked to embrace HTML5 and other standards, introducing a Flash-to-HTML5 converter and building out HTML5 development tools into its other software products.

Bloomberg reports that the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung has taken another interesting turn, as Samsung has agreed to delay the launch of its forthcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia until a lawsuit filed by Apple in that country is resolved.

Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, agreed to stop advertising the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and not to sell the device until it wins court approval or the lawsuit is resolved, according to an accord reached by lawyers during a break in the hearing. Should Apple lose its patent infringement lawsuit, it agreed to pay Samsung damages, which weren’t specified.

According to the report, Samsung's Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is slightly different than the U.S. version, and the company has agreed to provide Apple with access to the Australian version at least seven days before launch so that Apple can review the device as it pertains to the infringement lawsuit.

Apple had requested an injunction in Australia after Samsung began making announcements of an "imminent launch" of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 nearly two weeks ago. The two sides then negotiated the agreement delaying the product's launch.

While the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung spans numerous lawsuits in a number of countries, today's news marks what appears to be the first tangible effect of the dispute on Samsung's device sales.

AllThingsD offers some disappointing news for those waiting for an iPhone 5. According to the site, Apple won't be launching the iPhone 5 in September as rumored. Instead, the iPhone 5 will launch in October, according to "a source familiar with Apple's plans".

So, when can we expect the company to uncrate the iPhone 5?
“October,” the source said, while declining to offer a hard launch date. Other sources said it will be later in the month rather than earlier.

There are no other details about the specs, and they suggest it could end up launching late in October.

AllThingsD tends to be well connected with industry sources, so there is reason to believe their rumors. It still seems possible that Apple may pre-announce the iPhone 5 for some small period. Historically, Apple has held their fall media event in September.

Months before the iPhone 5 is expected to launch, Chinese counterfeiters have already started producing an iPhone 5 knock-off partially based on the leaked designs.

According to GizChina, this particular "iPhone 5" is being sold for $108 USD with a JAVA based OS, MP3 and MP4 playback and Wi-Fi.

The images show a tapered edge design similar to the leaked case designs, though it's not exact. This "iPhone 5" doesn't have the mute switch moved to the opposite side as seen on the case designs. It also retains the usual look of the home button rather than an elongated design.

The body of the device is only 7mm thick while the iPhone 4 comes in at 9.3mm. The device is indeed being called an "iPhone 5" in its sales material, which we tracked back to Chinese online store Taobao.

A similar sequence of events happened last year after the iPhone 4 was extensively leaked. Early manufacturers shipped iPhone 4 clones/counterfeits well before the official launch. Counterfeit of Apple's products and even Apple Stores have been a common problem. The knockoffs have become increasingly sophisticated in emulating iOS and could deceive unsavvy shoppers.

Apple is expected to release the actual iPhone 5 sometime in September. Case leaks have already begun in China. These design documents are good enough to create mock products as we saw with the iPad 2. This design isn't exactly like the specs but does seem somewhat inspired by them.

VillageTronic has started work on a Thunderbolt version of its ViDock PCI expansion chassis that allows laptop owners to use PCI Express graphics cards on their computers. They lay out the following usage scenario:

Imagine using your thin and light laptop PC during the day on the job, at school, or at the local café then arriving home, or dorm room, plugging it into your ViDock and firing up your latest PC game on a large format monitor. Just plug in one cable into your laptop PC and you instantly have a powerful 3D workstation with a big display, a big keyboard and your pointing device of choice. You are ready for gaming, video transcoding, photoshop, 3D design, watching full 1080p HD movies, and more!

The ViDock presently interfaces through laptops using an ExpressCard slot, but we've heard that development has started on a Thunderbolt compatible version. ExpressCard slots are a rarity on Apple's laptops, presently only available on the 17" MacBook Pro. By offering a Thunderbolt version of this expansion chassis, even 11" MacBook Air customers could theoretically drive an external graphics card.

Villiagetronic originally posted a feeler for such a device on their Facebook page, promising to pursue development if there was enough interest. They've also discussed the possibility of adding USB ports, Ethernet and other ports to the expansion dock. Separately, we've heard the chassis itself will adopt an aluminum "Mac" look, unlike the presently shipping ViDocks (pictured above).

Sony had previously introduced a similar but proprietary dock system for their upcoming ultra-thin 13" notebook. It's no surprise that companies are starting to work on similar solutions for the broader market, and Villiagetronic isn't alone with a similar Sonnet device also having been announced.

Global Equities Research's Trip Chowdhry issued a research note to investors indicating that Apple is planning to launch three HDTV models by March 2012. The report is relayed by AppleInsider:

He said his "converged view" of data from various developers is "probably" 75 percent accurate, and that it will "probably" be launched in March of 2012, with developer sessions at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Apple's televisions would reportedly come in 3 different models and 3 different price points.

Chowdhry compares the concept to the Bose VideoWave which tries to simplify HDTVs by reducing clutter, though Apple's implementation is expected to be improved. Apple's HDTV will reportedly carry 16 speakers giving a "complete surround sound experience" and be one-third as thick as the VideoWave's 6 inches.

We should caution that Chowdhry also claimed last year that Microsoft's Steve Ballmer would speak at Apple's 2010 WWDC conference. A claim that was quickly refuted by Microsoft and never came to pass.

Still, we have been hearing some increased chatter about an Apple television. The rumors were revived early this year with some additional claims from Smarthouse pinpointing an Apple and LG partnership. Meanwhile, we've heard some unverified whispers of the same.

Apple television rumors have a long history with the earliest claims as far back as 2006. Apple does have their Apple TV set top box but has always downplayed its significance. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has also been vocal about the challenges of infiltrating the television marketplace suggesting there are too many industry hurdles and too much fragmentation to overcome.

Xinhuanet reports that Foxconn will be replacing some of its workers with 1 million robots in the next three years to cut rising labor costs and improve efficiency.

The robots will be used to do simple and routine work such as spraying, welding and assembling which are now mainly conducted by workers, said Gou

The company currently has 10,000 robots and employs 1.2 million people. It's not clear how many jobs will be replaced by the robots.

Foxconn is Apple's primary partner in assembling the popular iPod, iPad, and iPhone lines and has been criticized for poor working conditions that may have contributed to a series of suicides at the plant.

In April, Engadget had previously pointed to this concept model FRIDA by ABB as the likely models for Foxconn, though the new report doesn't specify.

Apple has started refunding users who were charged multiple times for their Lion purchases. We reported last week on a user whose checking account was drained of nearly $4,000 when he was charged 122 times for Lion. The email above was sent to a user who was charged 8 times.

John Christman, the user who was charged 122 times was eventually made whole:

Apple kept me on a very need-to-know basis all along, but once I confirmed the money was in my PayPal account, he then asked for a list of fees to review. Once he saw the fees (very minimal), he offered to pay them and give me a bit extra to pay any additional fees I incur.

Other users who were double charged may see similar emails soon.

Apple seems to have extended iTunes song previews to 90 seconds internationally. Apple first rolled out 90 second previews in the U.S. back in December, 2010. International song previews had been stuck at 30 seconds.

According to a number of reports, the new preview lengths are available in at least Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK and parts of Europe. As with the U.S. launch, not all songs will have 90 second previews.

In the U.S., Apple had made the change unilaterally in an email to labels telling them that they would automatically extend previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds in the iTunes Store in the U.S. It's unclear what was the reason for the delay for international markets.

MICGadget reports that the early iPhone 5 cases are "now everywhere" in China. The site has posted another gallery of these case designs, which show a mute switch on the opposite side of the device.

The design is also said to be slightly larger than the existing iPhone 4 and has a slight tapering from top to bottom in thickness. This particular design was originally reported by ThisIsMyNext back in April. At the time, we had expressed doubts about it due to our own tipster about the validity of the design. But now, with the influx of these case designs, we have to reconsider.

It's clear that some Chinese case manufacturers are confident enough in these designs that they are starting to mass produce these cases. As we've said before, there is a massive financial incentive for companies to have case designs for new Apple products ready on launch day. In fact, three people were sentenced to prison in China for leaking details of the iPad 2 case design prior to its launch.

As frequent as these case leaks are, it's notable that they have been remarkably accurate in the past. The iPad 2 cases, of course, were quite accurate. iPhone 3G cases were real, as were 6th Generation iPod Nanos, and 5th Generation iPod Nanos. Not all case leaks turn into actual products, however. The iPhone Nano never came to be, and the iPod Touch with Camera cases were legitimate but the product was canceled/delayed.

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5 in September of this year.