MacRumors

On-again, off-again, industry publication Digitimes is claiming that Apple's next iPad will enter mass production soon and will launch in March 2012. The catch is that according to their sources, this new iPad product is not seen by Apple as an iPad 3, but instead an upgraded iPad 2. Instead they say "the real iPad 3" won't be launched until the 3rd quarter of 2012 at the earliest.

The publication provides no distinction as to what qualifies as a "real iPad 3", but does claim that this interim iPad 2 upgrade will be thinner than the iPad 2 and offer longer battery life.

The most obvious distinction, though not mentioned in the article, could come from the use of a ultra-high resolution Retina display. Talk of a such a display has been ongoing for months, but the most recent reports indicate that Apple's suppliers are finding it challenge to produce such high density displays.

Digitimes has been particularly prolific in the past year with their rumors, but have become particularly spotty in their accuracy. While plans could have obviously changed, their previous iPad 3 report claimed a Fall 2011 launch. So, take this new report with some skepticism. That said, an ultra high resolution iPad-sized Retina display could easily be the production bottleneck for Apple's plans.

Apple has issued Beta 2 of iTunes 10.5.1 to developers tonight to provide further testing for the upcoming iTunes Match service:

iTunes 10.5.1 beta 2 is now available and includes a number of important stability and performance improvements. iTunes Match is also now available for testing on Apple TV.

iTunes Match stores your music library in iCloud and allows you to enjoy your collection from anywhere, any time, on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, computer and now your Apple TV.

iTunes Match is Apple's $25/year subscription service that will match your existing iTunes library with 256-Kbps versions in the iCloud. The service was expected to be launched at the "end of October", but has since missed that target.

Apple has provided no new estimate for a launch date for the iTunes Match service.

Apple issued a statement to The Loop's Jim Dalrymple about customer complaints of poor battery life with the new iPhone 4S and iOS 5:

A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

There have been a litany of complaints about iPhone 4S and iOS 5 battery life ever since their release last month. A number of solutions have been proposed by the community for this problem, including turning off Time Zone detection, Bluetooth and others.

Apple has already seeded developers with a 5.0.1 beta that is said to address the issue.

Apple just released iOS 5.0.1 beta to developers. The build number of 5.0.1 is 9A402.

iOS 5.0.1 beta contains improvements and other bug fixes including:
- Fixes bugs affecting battery life
- Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
- Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
- Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation
- Contains security improvements

iOS 5.0.1 beta introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations.

The last note about files addresses an iOS 5.0 issue raised by Marco Arment.

There’s no longer anywhere to store files that don’t need to be backed up (or can’t be, by the new policy) but shouldn’t be randomly deleted.

The iOS 5.0 policy introduced issues for apps that wished to store offline data. Apple appears to have addressed this issue in 5.0.1.

With the release of the new Siri intelligent assistant on the iPhone 4S, some users have been curious about how much data the feature uses given that most users are on limited data plans and that Siri must communicate with outside servers in order to function. Ars Technica has now taken a look at a set of common Siri tasks, determined that those specific queries used an average of 63 KB of data.

The testing was broken down into two groups of queries, with the first being local queries requiring data only to interpret the spoken input. Data usage on those queries came in at an average of approximately 36.7 KB.

We performed six tasks that would be considered to be local tasks. These queries included things like, "Set an alarm for 3 hours from now," "Make an appointment for 2pm on Friday" (and then telling Siri to cancel the task), "Remind me to file expense reports when I get home," and "What is the contact info for Ars Technica?"

These tasks added up to a total of 220KB of data usage, or an average of 36.7KB per query. The actual numbers ranged from 60KB down to 18KB, and we believe this is correlated to the complexity of the specific query and language we used to perform it.

For more complex queries bringing results back from the Internet via Wolfram Alpha or Google, the average was 94.7 KB, with a range of 23 KB to 187 KB.

Summing up the data usage, Ars Technica calculated that a user performing all eleven of the sample queries via 3G every single day would consume approximately 20 MB of data in a month. Informal surveys of typical Siri usage revealed that even high-use customers tend to come in at about fifteen queries per day, which would represent in the neighborhood of 30 MB of data per billing cycle depending on complexity of requests.

Most carriers offer customers easy ways to check their current and historical data usage, helping them gauge how much cap space they typically have as they consider how Siri usage will affect their data needs.

The Bookseller reports that Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs easily topped the best-seller list in the United States and United Kingdom during its first week of availability. Citing Nielsen's BookScan data for U.S. figures, the report claims that the book sold 379,000 copies, outselling second-place The Litigator by John Grisham by more than three-to-one.

Despite being on sale for just six days in the US, Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography is already the 18th bestselling book of the year. It sits one place ahead of John Grisham's The Confession (Dell) and one place behind Rick Riordan's The Son of Neptune (Hyperion) in the year-to-date BookScan US bestseller list.

The report notes that the debut was also the strongest for any book since November of last year.

Nielsen BookScan tracks book sales volumes at their points of sale, developing a picture that encompasses the vast majority, although not all, U.S. sales including those through major online retailers such as Amazon. BookScan data does not, however, include sales of eBooks.

Amazon announced just after the book's launch that it was poised to become the best-selling book of 2011 despite a release late in the year, and the title currently ranks #3 on Amazon's chart for 2011 sales.

Sony Pictures has already acquired the movie rights to the Jobs biography, and is reportedly courting Aaron Sorkin to write the screenplay.

Bloomberg briefly reports that Czech carrier Telefonica/O2 has apparently announced that it will cease selling all iPhone models, objecting to Apple's "business terms".

Telefonica Czech Republic AS won’t sell Apple’s new iPhone 4S and will end sales of all Apple’s models because of Apple’s business terms, Hospodarske Noviny reported, citing Telefonica’s local spokesman Hany Farghali.

No additional details on the reasons behind the fall-out have been made available in the Bloomberg report, and the original report from the Czech newspaper does not yet appear to be available online.

Dow Jones Newswires reported last week that Telefonica Czech Republic AS and Apple were still trying to reach a deal for the iPhone 4S, talks that have apparently ended without an agreement being reached.

"We haven't agreed with Apple on mutually acceptable conditions yet," Hany Farghali told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview.

...

Telefonica Czech, majority owned by Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF), is unlikely to add the iPhone 4S model to its pre-holiday offering, said a person familiar with the local mobile market who asked to remain anonymous.

Instead, the company will focus on already much higher volume sales of smart phones based on rival operating systems, including Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android and Nokia Corp.'s (NOK) Symbian.

Telefonica is not the only iPhone carrier in the Czech Republic, as both Vodafone and T-Mobile are also offering the device through their Czech units. Consequently, customers looking to obtain the iPhone in the country will still have options, but Telefonica's departure is an interesting one given the efforts other carriers around the world are making to win the right to offer the device.

The legal battle between Apple and Samsung continues to rage in a number of different countries, and Samsung is going on the offensive with recent attempts to obtain testimony from Apple senior vice president Jony Ive and other designers, as well as to receive access to the iPhone 4S source code and the detail of Apple's agreements with carriers in Australia.

Samsung's planned depositions of Ive and Apple designers Doug Satzger, Shin Nishibori, and Christopher Stringer are part of the U.S. proceedings, with the testimony originally scheduled to be taken by November 1st. But due to scheduling conflicts and other issues, Samsung has filed a motion seeking to extend the timeframe until December 1st. From the motion:

Mr. Satzger is a former Apple employee represented by separate counsel. He is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 because, during the month of October, his lawyer has a full deposition schedule in a separate class action matter.

Mr. Nishibori is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 because he currently is on a voluntary leave of absence from Apple.

Mr. Ive is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 for personal reasons.

Mr. Stringer is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 because of work and scheduling conflicts.

Meanwhile, ZDNet reports on Samsung's legal request to have sales of the iPhone 4S banned in Australia, an effort that has seen the company seek access to the iPhone 4S source code and Apple's specific agreements with Australian carriers in order to make its full case before the court.

In particular, Samsung is keen to find out the amounts of subsidies paid by Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to Apple for selling the iPhones on plans.

[Samsung lawyer Cynthia Cochrane noted:] "If subsidies [are] given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client's products."

...

[Apple lawyer Cameron] Moore also claimed that because Qualcomm developed the baseband chip in the iPhone 4S — the Qualcomm MDM6610 — and had licence agreements in place for Samsung patents, these agreements would apply to the iPhone 4S. Cochrane said that Samsung experts would need to see the source code for the iPhone 4S firmware to see how the chip interacts with the rest of the phone to determine whether the company's patent is being infringed.

Apple will certainly not give up the requested information willingly, viewing the source code and legal agreements as proprietary information. The judge in the case is Annabelle Bennett, who had previously awarded Apple an injunction barring the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and is now being asked to rule on a similar request from the other side.

Yesterday, we noted that Apple senior vice president for retail Ron Johnson had been removed from Apple's list of senior executives, in line with his previously-announced departure to become CEO of department store chain J.C. Penney. The transition occurred with no announcement from Apple regarding Johnson's successor.

Cult of Mac now reports that Steve Cano has been elevated to the position of senior vice president for retail, heading up the successful division as part of the executive leadership team.

Apple’s new retail boss boss isn’t just some suit, though. He’s one of the first retail employees Apple ever hired, a California surfer dude who has climbed from the sales floor to the very top rung of Apple management.

It’s a real rags-to-riches story that should be inspiration to every stressed out Apple Store sales associate or overworked Genius: your work can be noticed, and you too can go to the very top.

According to our source, Apple is replacing Johnson with his long-time lieutenant, Steve Cano.

According to the report, Cano began his career at Apple ten years ago as manager of the Palo Alto retail store, later moving to open the SoHo store in New York City. Consistent with previous reports of Apple looking for a candidate with international retail experience, Cano has spent the last seven years working on Apple's international retail efforts, first in Japan as manager of the Ginza store in Tokyo and then as regional director there. Cano then moved to London, where he has been serving as senior director of international retail for the last several years.

Update: Apple has issued a brief statement to Cult of Mac indicating that the search for Johnson's successor is still continuing.

Apple has gotten back to us a statement, reading: “The search for a replacement for Ron Johnson continues, and Apple has nothing to announce about this subject at this time.”

Last week, we noted that PBS is set to premiere a new documentary about Steve Jobs tonight, offering interviews with a number of prominent personalities with connections to Jobs. The documentary will also include brief clips from a rare 1994 interview in which Jobs talks about his views on life.

PBS has now released a pair of clips from the show ahead of its premiere, offering a glimpse at what viewers can expect later today.

In the first clip, author and Jobs' friend David Sheff describes a birthday party for Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, where Jobs presented Sean with one of the first Macinstoshes to roll off the production line. While the revolutionary computer was a hit with many of the high-profile attendees at the party, Scheff focuses on artist Andy Warhol, who spent a few minutes with the machine under the instruction of Jobs.

The second clip sees The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and tech columnist and early Apple employee Robert X. Cringley discuss the complex relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, focusing on the historic All Things D interview that saw the two men on stage together back in 2007.

Airing on PBS stations around the United States under the title Steve Jobs – One Last Thing, the documentary is scheduled to premiere at 10:00 PM Eastern and Pacific, although viewers should check their local listings for details. The documentary will also premiere tonight in the UK on Channel 4 at 11:05 PM under the title Steve Jobs – iChanged the World.

MacRumors had previously revealed some interesting changes coming to Apple Retail stores this Thursday. These changes include an expansion of the ability to pick-up online orders at Apple Stores as well as a surprising new self-check out capability. These new features will be released as an update to the Apple Store App in the App Store.

As reported on BGR, the new system works as follows:

Online Orders with In Store Pickup and Returns

- For standard in-stock items, the product will become available to pickup in about 12 minutes. This provides the system enough time to send the order to the store, and allow Apple Retail employees to set aside items for pickup. Customers will be able to skip lines, and simply have to sign for them and leave.
- For build-to-order, engraved devices or other out-of-stock items, Apple will ship the items to your local Apple Store for free. Customers will receive a pick-up date and a push notification to the App will let you know when it has arrived. Again, 12 minutes from the push notification, the order will be ready for pickup
- Apple expects the majority of customers will eventually use in-store pick up for buying products.
- Customers will be able to return items purchased online to retail stores.

Self Check Out

This is an even more interesting feature that Apple is deploying that will help streamline the Apple retail experience. Apple will be allowing customers to use the Apple Store app to buy smaller items such as accessories while in the store. Customers won't have to even talk to a retail employee:

Here is how this will work: after you find the item you want to buy, like an accessory, you launch the Apple Store app on your iOS device and there will be an option to buy a product in the store. You scan the product with the camera on your device in the app, click purchase, and it will charge whatever credit card is associated to your Apple ID. You then just walk out of the store.

According to BGR, Apple will not be manually verifying purchases.

Both In-Store Pickup and Self Check Out are expected to be launched on Thursday, November 3rd worldwide.

Apple has closed New York City's first Apple Store, SoHo, at 103 Prince Street for renovations, and opened a temporary store nearby at 72 Greene Street. The store, while "temporary", has the same look-and-feel of an Apple Store, with Covent Garden-style exposed brick and HVAC.

These pictures, published by Racked, show the inside of the store which is very busy, typical for an Apple Store. Racked has several more pictures of the store as well.

Beyond the cast iron portal, the crowd was thick, huddled around signature blond tables showing Apple's array of electronic goodies. Thoughts of chewy candy were erased, replaced by a deep desire for things digital. The look of this new emporium, where Apple fiends can get their jones on while the main store on Prince Street is remade, is raw and rustic. Imagine a very, very clean warehouse with lots of friendly spirits decked out in identical blue shirts.

Apple hasn't specified how long the SoHo store will remain closed, but with a full-featured Genius Bar and plenty of products on display, the temporary store looks capable of taking care of Apple's customers.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Tim Cook's first two months officially in the role of Apple CEO, noting some of the differences between his management style and that of Steve Jobs.

In recent weeks, Mr. Cook has tended to administrative matters that never interested Mr. Jobs, such as promotions and corporate reporting structures, according to people familiar with the matter. The new chief executive, 50 years old, has also been more communicative with employees than his predecessor, sending a variety of company-wide emails while addressing Apple employees as "Team," people close to the company said.

The report also points to Apple's new charitable matching program for employees as an example of Cook putting his stamp on the company.

Cook has reportedly also undertaken a significant revamp of Apple's education division, bringing it more in line with the operation of the rest of the company. The resulting reorganization, which puts additional responsibilities on executives Phil Schiller and John Brandon, has seen the education division split into marketing and sales divisions and then reintegrated with the company's broader arms focused on those aspects of the business.

The openness Cook has exhibited with employees and even customers may filter down further, as Cook seems to have moved rapidly to recognize existing expertise, such as with the promotion of Eddy Cue, and to encourage other executives to engage with customers. Cook has also suggested that he may be more open to other possibilities such as stock dividends or buybacks that have long been off the table for the company even as its cash and investments have soared.

Cook is widely regarded as a very strong operational leader, but some have questioned whether he has the product vision to guide the company as it moves forward without Jobs. Jobs reportedly worked hard to leave Apple with a pipeline of products for the next four years, but even so it appears that Cook is making sure to rely upon the expertise of other executives such as Jony Ive, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, and Eddy Cue to help forge Apple's path forward.

Regional U.S. carrier C Spire garnered headlines last month for its announcement that it would begin offering the iPhone 4S in the coming weeks, becoming the fourth U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone and coming ahead of several other larger carriers, most notably T-Mobile USA.

C Spire has now confirmed that it will launch both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on November 11th, alongside the iPhone 4S debut in fifteen other countries. Device pricing is in line with other U.S. carriers, and C Spire is taking pre-registrations beginning today.

iPhone 4S will be available starting at $199.99 for the 16GB model, $299.99 for the 32GB model and $399.99 for the 64GB model with a new two-year contract and data plan. In addition, the iPhone 4 8GB model is available for $99.99, also with a new two-year contract and data plan. iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 will be available at C Spire Wireless retail stores, online at www.cspire.com/iPhone and through the Telesales group at 1-855-CSPIRE4. C Spire customers can pre-register for iPhone beginning today at www.cspire.com/iPhone.

Most notably, C Spire will be undercutting service plan prices from the major U.S. carriers in some regards, with a low-end $50/month plan offering 500 minutes, unlimited SMS, and "unlimited" data. That $50 plan and a $70 plan also offering unlimited calling do, however, carry an interesting restriction that will not allow customers to "stream" data.

Additional details on C Spire's streaming policies are available on its plan description pages, which note that the company typically offers 30 minutes of free streaming of "videos, music and game broadcasts" in each 30-day billing cycle, although unlimited streaming is currently free through the end of the year. Unlimited streaming access is available as an add-on for $30 per billing cycle, or separate streaming passes can be purchased for $5 (two hours), $10 (five hours), or $30 (unlimited for 30 days) as needed.

C Spire Wireless is based in Ridgeland, Mississippi and focuses its service on Mississippi, parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, and the Memphis, Tennessee and Rome, Georgia areas. The carrier has approximately 875,000 customers and operates a CDMA network utilizing the same technology as Verizon and Sprint.