MacRumors

As noted by MacStories, Apple has discontinued its free trials of Aperture and iWork, directing users to the Mac App Store where the apps are available for purchase.

The discontinuation of the Aperture trial is not particularly recent, as discussion forum reports indicate that it has been missing for at least a month, but the removal has gone mostly unnoticed. It is not entirely clear when the iWork trial was taken down from Apple's U.S. site, but it appears to still be available from some international sites such as the UK site. Other international sites also suggest that the iWork trial is still available, but attempts to download the app simply lead to the Mac App Store.

Since the launch of the Mac App Store in January 2011, Apple has moved all of its major software products to the marketplace, which does not support free trials. The company advises Mac App Store developers wishing to offer free trials of their software to host the downloads on their own sites, but Apple appears to have decided that this option is no longer worthwhile for most of its own apps. Apple does, however, continue to offer a free 30-day trial of Final Cut Pro X, so it has not yet abandoned trials entirely.

Aperture is priced at $79.99 in the Mac App Store, a significant cut from the $199 price of the boxed software it replaced. In a similar fashion, the three iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) are available through the Mac App Store at $19.99 each, less than the $79 price for the boxed version containing all three applications.

ifoAppleStore shares some photos of a newly-revamped Apple product display section in an Arkansas Walmart store near the retail chain's headquarters. Coming with dedicated wood display surfaces and lighted signage, the new displays mark a distinct improvement over the previous Apple product displays that had simply been integrated into existing display shelving.

The displays feature tall, double-sided, back-lit graphics, a clean-looking wood table, live display products and under-table accessory storage with security glass. The new look updates previous Apple product displays within Walmart stores that have been notoriously small, invisible and poorly maintained.

Walmart has long been a close retail partner with Apple, and the company has served as a launch-day source for a number of high-profile Apple products. The chain was even the first store to begin selling the new iPad in many locations in the United States, with a number of the company's stores offering select models of the device at 12:01 AM local time on launch day, eight hours ahead of Apple's own retail stores.

Apple has been rumored to be partnering with Walmart to bring store-within-a-store concepts to the retailer's Sam's Club warehouse stores, and it seems that the companies are also at least exploring expanding their partnership in the more plentiful Walmart locations. Apple has also committed to bring 25 dedicated Apple shops to Target stores, signifying the company's interested in expanding its presence at mass market retailers with a broader reach than its own retail store network.

While Apple has received much publicity for its partnership with the Fair Labor Association to audit working conditions at several of its manufacturing partners' facilities in China, Financial Times reports that the company has now also partnered with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) for an environmental audit of a supplier's facilities.

Apple has agreed to a jointly monitored audit of pollution controls at a supplier's factory in China, in what activists see as a breakthrough in their efforts to persuade the world's most valuable company to address environmental concerns.

A maker of printed circuit boards for the Silicon Valley company is due to be inspected in the next few weeks by auditors, with Apple and the China-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) jointly monitoring their efforts.

According to the report, Apple and the IPE have been in discussions for months about a partnership, culminating in a five-hour meeting in Cupertino last October that set the stage for a formal relationship. Following this initial audit, the IPE hopes that it will be able to partner with Apple on audits of thirteen other facilities in China that are already being monitored by Apple.

The IPE is led by Ma Jun, an environmental activist who just today was announced as one of six winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize.

In October, the activist and author met with senior Apple executives in San Francisco and Cupertino to discuss his report, published a month earlier, on health hazards caused by pollution in the company's Chinese supply chain.

Ma will be at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco on Monday to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize for "bringing unprecedented environmental transparency and empowering Chinese citizens to demand justice." His work has prompted the Chinese government and multinational corporations, including Apple, to more seriously confront the issues he has long been raising.

As part of its environmental disclosures, Apple has noted that it focused on 14 suppliers for environmental audits in 2011, and the company is expanding its efforts in 2012 to include additional facilities, work more closely with governmental and nongovernmental agencies such as the IPE, and increase training on environmental responsibility throughout its supply chain.

Kotaku reports on claims [Google translation] from Chinese web portal NetEase regarding Apple's plans for the launch of a smaller "iPad mini" in the third quarter of this year. According to the report, Apple is planning to launch with six million units of the device at a price of either $249 or $299 in order to combat forthcoming Windows 8 products, although smaller Android tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire have also been viewed as targets for Apple.

NetEase claimed that the device will be released around the third quarter of this year to "counter attack" the upcoming Windows tablets. The report further claims that the devices will cost anywhere from US$249 to $299 and that there will be an initial 6 million units ready for launch.

The well-connected John Gruber has claimed that Apple has a 7.85-inch iPad in its labs, but he does not know whether the product will ever make it to market. Various claims of Apple moving closer to production of the smaller iPad have also been surfacing as rumors continue to swirl.

Last December, we posted a paper mockup showing what a 7.85-inch iPad would look and feel like, coming to the conclusion that onscreen elements would remain usable even as the standard iPad resolution of 1024x768 was squeezed into a 7.85-inch display rather than a 9.7-inch screen. A 7.85-inch "iPad mini" display with a resolution of 1024x768 would carry a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch, exactly the same density as the non-Retina iPhone and iPod touch models. Consequently, content meeting Apple's interface guidelines would display at acceptable sizes on such a display.

Apple today officially announced two more rounds of launches for the new iPad, with the first round coming on Friday, April 20 and including twelve markets led by South Korea. The second round comes on Friday, April 27 and includes nine more countries.

Apple today announced the new iPad, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, will arrive in South Korea and 11 additional countries on Friday, April 20. [...]

In addition to South Korea, the new iPad also will be available beginning on Friday, April 20 in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Beginning on Friday, April 27, the new iPad will be available in Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.

Apple has moved quickly to launch the iPad in markets around the world, beginning with a 10-country launch on March 16 and following that with debuts in 25 more countries just a week later.

One key market that has yet to see an announcement regarding availability of the new iPad is China. Regulatory authorities have approved at least the Wi-Fi version of the device, but Apple is apparently not yet ready to launch the device in the country.

Apple met with video consultant and trainer Larry Jordan on the eve of the 2012 NAB show and shared some upcoming plans for Final Cut Pro X. The following features are expected in Final Cut Pro X in 2012:

- Multichannel Audio Editing Tools
- Dual Viewers
- MXF Plug-in Support
- RED camera support

Jordan goes into some light details about some of the new features. FCP X will be able to read MXF files directly without the need to convert to QuickTime. The same can be said for RED camera support whose files will be able to be edited natively. Finally, Apple explains that Dual Viewers is analogous to Source and Record monitors and that they will try to do it better than has been implemented in the previously.

While those are the only features officially announced, Apple indicated that they wouldn't be the only new features coming this year. Jordan also asked for hints about upcoming hardware, but Apple didn't provide any information.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference kicks off this week in Las Vegas. Apple has not held a major presence at the show in recent years, but did use the venue last year to introduce Final Cut Pro X. Apple again appears to have a presence at the show and is at least meeting with some prominent figures. The NAB runs through April 19th.

Following yesterday's release of fresh Java updates to remove the Flashback malware system from Macs running OS X Lion and Snow Leopard, Apple today released a standalone Flashback malware removal tool to clean infections from OS X Lion systems without Java installed.

About Flashback malware removal tool

This Flashback malware removal tool that will remove the most common variants of the Flashback malware.

If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will be presented notifying the user that malware was removed.

In some cases, the Flashback malware removal tool may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.

This update is recommended for all OS X Lion users without Java installed.

While the most dangerous method of attack for Flashback exploits a security hole in Java that Apple has now patched, various versions of the malware have also used social engineering and other tricks in attempting to gain access to users' systems.

With OS X Lion not having Java included by default, users of Apple's latest operating system who have found themselves infected through other means and do not have Java installed can use the new tool to clean their systems without needing to install Java.

The update weighs in at 356 KB and requires OS X Lion without Java installed.

Apple has seeded OS X Lion 10.7.4 Build 11E46 to developers this evening.

The latest build reportedly has no known issues and focus issues include the App Store, Mail, QuickTime, Screen Sharing, and Time Machine. The first developer build of 10.7.4 was seeded in March. 10.7.4 may be soon due for release.

Development on OS X Lion (10.7.x) is presumably winding down as Apple has already pre-announced the next version of OS X. OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) has seen two developer builds and will introduce a number of new iOS inspired features. 10.8 will become available sometime in the late summer.

MacRumors has learned that Apple has bought out two performances of Cirque du Soleil's traveling show Totem, currently playing in San Jose, California. According to our source, Apple purchased the entire block of 2,500 tickets for each of two shows yesterday and today for employees and their guests, with Apple also picking up the tab for food and drink.

Scanning Twitter and other social networks, we see that a number of people associated with Apple did mention being at Cirque du Soleil yesterday, supporting our source's claim of an Apple-sponsored event.

It is unclear what the reason for the event was, whether it was a simple perk offered to company employees or if there was a specific product milestone or other reason associated with the occasion.

In the wake of a claim from French designer Philippe Starck that he has been working with Apple on a "revolutionary" new project, Apple has issued a statement to AllThingsD specifically denying the assertion.

Reached for comment, an Apple spokeswoman said the company is not working on a new product with Starck. And while she declined to speculate about what the designer might have been referring to when he told France Info Radio that he and Apple “have a big project together that will be out in eight months,” there’s a good explanation for the remark.

The report goes on to explain that the project mentioned by Starck appears to be a yacht being built for the Jobs family and mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs. French site igeneration had speculated as much [Google translation] earlier today, knowing that Jobs was working with Dutch shipbuilder Feadship and that Starck had also worked with the company on other boat designs.

The report from AllThingsD seems to confirm that Starck has been involved in the design of Jobs' yacht, and would explain why Starck is continuing to travel to Cupertino to meet with Jobs' wife Laurene as the project moves along.

AppleInsider reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook paid a visit today to the the headquarters of Valve, the video game firm behind the Steam digital distribution platform and a number of popular PC and Mac games. While the purpose of Cook's visit is unknown, his presence at the company's headquarters in Bellevue, Washington suggests that it may have been of some importance potentially relating to collaboration between the two companies.

Just over two years ago, Valve made a splash by leaking a set of teaser images to MacRumors and other Apple and gaming sites revealing that it would be bringing its Steam game distribution platform and a number of its own titles to the Mac platform. Steam for Mac launched in May 2010 with over 60 titles, and Valve now offers over a dozen of its own games for Mac through the store.

Earlier this year, Valve released a Steam companion app for iOS, allowing users to browse the Steam marketplace and even purchase games for later download and play on a PC or Mac.

It is unclear just what Apple and Valve might come up with in terms of an expanded collaboration if one is in the works, including whether it would extend in some form to iOS or remain limited to gaming on the Mac platform. Valve has been rumored to be working on its own hardware offerings related to Steam services, and the company has just posted job openings related to hardware engineering for such projects.

IDG News reports that Sharp has announced the start of mass production of new ultra high-resolution displays based on IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) materials. Early rumors had suggested that Apple might use the IGZO displays in the new iPad, but whether due to later-than-expected availability or other considerations, Apple elected not to do so.

Apple has, however, also been claimed to be considering IGZO for its rumored television set, which analysts are expecting to debut late this year or early next year.

Sharp said the new technology allows for twice the detail of existing panels at the same transparency, which means high-resolution devices can be designed that require less power and space for backlighting. The company said the new displays cut power consumption by up to 90 percent versus those currently in use.

Less lighting and smaller battery requirements allow for thinner devices, and analysts have said Apple will use IGZO displays in its upcoming products, including its highly-anticipated entry into the smart TV market.

In its press release, Sharp gives several different examples of displays at different sizes being manufactured using IGZO materials, including 7-inch tablet screens running at 1280x800 (217 pixels per inch), 10-inch notebook screens running at 2560x1600 (300 ppi), and 32-inch LCD monitor screens running at 3840x2160 (140 ppi).

Apple's current Mac products typically register at roughly 100-130 ppi, and a rumored 2880x1800 15-inch MacBook Pro would come in at 220 ppi. Sharp's examples of a 10-inch screen at 300 ppi and a 32-inch screen at only 140 ppi don't exactly match up with the pixel density expected for Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro, but it seems that Sharp may be well on its way toward accommodating such a display while embracing the benefits of the new IGZO materials.

Back in February, Apple announced that it was suspending push functionality for iCloud and MobileMe email users in Germany following a victory by Motorola Mobility in a patent lawsuit. As noted by Dow Jones Newswires, an appeals court has upheld that ruling, requiring that Apple continue to refrain from offering push email in the country and that the company pay unspecified damages to Motorola.

The Mannheim regional court backed an earlier court decision that banned Apple from offering the service for synchronizing emails on devices in a patent proceeding brought by Motorola Mobility.

The court said Apple must pay damages to Motorola Mobility, but didn't specify the amount.

FOSS Patents notes that the decision is not unexpected given the history of the case, which has seen several previous decisions as the claims against Apple itself and its Irish subsidiary Apple Sales International were split and adjudicated separately.

The report also notes that Motorola continues to push for a ban on 3G-enabled Apple products in Germany. Under an earlier ruling, Apple was forced to briefly pull all 3G-capable products with the exception of the iPhone 4S from its German online store, although they were restored a few hours later and a follow-up decision a few weeks later offered Apple extended protection from enforcement of a ban while it appeals the original decision.

Motorola is currently the subject of an antitrust investigation by the European Commission over its use of the standard-essential patent in question in attempting to bar sales of Apple's products. But the company continues to press forward with its claims that Apple's licensing offers have not been adequate and its efforts to have Apple's products barred from sale over the issue.

As noted by Mac4Ever [Google translation], legendary French designer Philippe Starck revealed on a radio show today that he has been working with Apple on a "revolutionary" new product, with the product set to launch within the next eight months.

French newspaper Le Figaro has more on Starck's comments [Google translation], noting that he met with Steve Jobs monthly for seven years to talk. Starck also notes that he will be heading to Cupertino to talk with Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, suggesting that he is indeed a relatively close friend of the family.

As for the identity of the product in question, speculation naturally turns to an Apple television set, which has been rumored for a launch late this year or early next year. On the electronics side, Starck has experience in speaker and headphone design, with his Parrot Zikmu wireless speaker with iPhone/iPod dock being sold through Apple's online store in some countries. Starck's Parrot Zik headphones are also due for release later this year. Consequently, it is unclear from his brief comments whether he is working on an actual Apple product or something else for which he is coordinating with Apple.

An Apple spokeswoman has officially responded to the lawsuit filed yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice over the Apple-backed agency model of e-book pricing.

In a statement to All Things D, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr:

The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

Legal experts commenting on the case said the Justice Department has a steep hill to climb to catch Apple on antitrust charges. Some experts suggest that even amid claims that the publishers met to discuss a shift to an agency model being championed by Apple, the publishers may not be found guilty of antitrust violations.