MacRumors

The Next Web summarizes several reports from the Brazilian media claiming that Apple is preparing to launch its iTunes Music Store in Brazil and perhaps throughout Latin America on December 8th. While users in many of these countries currently have access to the App Store, they have been unable to purchase music through iTunes.

According to the weekly Brazilian magazine Veja, the launch of iTunes Music Store even has a date, being scheduled for December 8th. While it seems very soon, Apple has been getting ready beyond the scenes and already closed deals with Brazilian music labels, Veja said.

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Veja followed up on its initial piece today, declaring that the Store will launch all across Latin America on the same date, except in Mexico where it is already available.

The report notes that the iTunes Music Store, like the App Store in these countries, will offer pricing in U.S. dollars rather than local currencies, requiring users to hold international credit cards for paid purchases. According to Veja, local currency pricing should arrive for Latin American countries in about six months. The situation is reminiscent of the one in China, where Apple initially required payment in U.S. currency for the App Store but recently began accepting the local renminbi currency.

Apple appears to be taking significant steps to increase its presence in Brazil and the broader Latin American market, working with manufacturing partner Foxconn to launch iPhone and iPad production in Brazil in order to avoid high import taxes that have so far hampered adoption of Apple's products there.

Update: The Associated Press reports that Brazil's major music publishers organization is close to a deal with Apple, setting the stage for an iTunes Store launch by the middle of December.

Executive Director Michaela Couto of the Brazilian Union of Music Publishers tells the O Globo newspaper that negotiations with Apple Inc. are at an "advanced stage" and that iTunes could be launched in Brazil by mid-December.

Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian court has lifted the ban of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, reversing a previous injunction.

The full bench of the Federal Court - Justices John Dowsett, Lindsay Foster and David Yates - today unanimously reversed a Federal Court judge's ruling last month that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 be banned from sale in Australia.

"Samsung will be permitted to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia provided it keeps accounts of all transactions involving that device in Australia," the judges wrote in their judgment.

Apple, however, was able to extend the ban until Friday at 4pm while it prepares for an appeal to the High Court.

For those who have been following the legal battles between the two companies, Apple has been trying to ban Samsung's Galaxy tablet in a number of markets due to similarities to the iPad design. In this case, Apple had previously obtained an injunction preventing Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. The Galaxy Tab had also been blocked in Germany.

Apple today released Safari 5.1.2, bringing several bug fixes and other enhancements. Most notably, it addresses issues with PDF viewing and pages "flashing white".

This update contains various improvements, including fixes that:

- Improve stability
- Address issues that could cause hangs and excessive memory usage
- Address issues that could cause webpages to flash white
- Allow PDFs to be displayed within web content

Apple seeded a version of Safari 5.1.2 to developers for testing earlier this month.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that Apple has filed a request for a preliminary injunction that would bar Samsung from selling its new Galaxy Tab 10.1N in Germany. Samsung launched the 10.1N earlier this month as a design-tweaked variant of the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 that is already barred from sale in Germany under an earlier injunction.

Apple has requested a preliminary injunction, and the Duesseldorf regional court has scheduled a hearing on the matter on Dec. 22, a spokesman for the court told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.

The move has no effect on sales and distribution of the product, Samsung said in an emailed statement, while Apple repeated earlier comments that it intends to protect its intellectual property.

Samsung slightly tweaked the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 hardware to create the 10.1N, resulting in a frame that wraps around slightly onto the front of the device along its two short sides. Apple clearly feels that this design is not sufficient to overcome the ruling that the Galaxy Tab design infringes upon Apple's designs for the iPad, and is thus pursuing the new injunction.

Galaxy Tab 10.1N (top) vs. Galaxy Tab 10.1 (bottom)

The Daily reports that Microsoft is "actively working" on bringing its Microsoft Office suite to the iPad, looking to take on Apple's iWork applications for the popular tablet device. The report also says that Microsoft is working on a updated Office for Mac suite, with the new version said to be targeted for a Mac App Store release sometime next year.

According to sources, the tech giant is actively working on adapting its popular software suite for Apple’s tablet. With the iPad making up over 80 percent of the tablet market and millions of people worldwide using Office, that could mean big bucks for the tech giant based in Redmond, Wash.

In addition to an iPad-ready version, a new edition of Office is expected for OS X Lion sometime next year. The current version of the desktop package, Office 2011, officially supports [Mac OS X] versions up to Snow Leopard. A Lion version, likely available via the Mac App Store, is widely expected.

Microsoft acknowledged just after the iPad's introduction in early 2010 that the company was "looking at" the possibility of bringing Office to the iPad, but by the time the device actually launched a few months later the company was saying that it had "no current plans" for such an offering.

Fortune summarizes a pair of analyst reports out today suggesting that Apple may be experiencing some supply constraints on the iPhone 4S during this holiday quarter. The company has obviously been working hard to demand for the device as shipping estimates through iPhone carrier partners and even Apple itself have at times been lengthy, but beyond high demand the new reports suggest that Apple may be having some trouble meeting its own production goals for the device.

The first report, from Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, cites shortages of an unidentified "key component" for the iPhone 4S that is holding back production.

In a note entitled "Limited near-term upside for iPhone," Rodman & Renshaw's Ashok Kumar alerted clients that low yields on an unidentified "key component" is likely to constrain production of the iPhone 4S this quarter.

Including an estimated four million iPhone 4S units that were manufactured but not shipped in the prior quarter, Kumar says that Apple could sell 30 million iPhones this quarter, still a healthy number but leaving Apple without the ability to completely satisfy consumer demand.

The second note comes from Susquehanna Financial's Jeff Fidacaro and similarly cites "supply constraints" as the reason behind his reduction in quarterly iPhone sales of about three million units, moving from 26-28 million units to 23-25 million units. He notes that demand appears to remain strong but that Apple is having a hard time producing enough iPhones to meet that demand.

Tether has issued a statement explaining its interpretation of Apple's removal of the iTether app from the App Store, hours after it went on sale. Apple, which has not had any public comment about the app, explained to Tether that the data use resulting from the app was too burdensome to carrier networks.

Around 12PM EST, Apple called our head office to let us know they were going to go ahead and pull our app iTether from the App Store. They stated it was because the app itself burdens the carrier network, however they offered us no way to remedy the solution… We were very clear when listing the app what the primary function was and they even followed up with several questions and requested a video demo then they approved the application.

We strongly disagree that it burdens a carrier’s network, as from our own data history on more than 500,000 users we know the average user consumes less than 200 MBs of data per month on Tether. In comparison, one TV show streamed from Netflix, an approved Apple App, could easily be in the 300-400 MBs range. Sure, there are some users that will consume way more than the average however that’s the case with any of these types of products.

Our team is very disappointed in Apple’s decision; as we strongly believe we help carriers better monetize their data stream by pushing customers into new data tiers further increasing their bottom-line. It is very anti-competitive to not allow any Tethering application to enter into this space to innovate. Our team has created a lot of innovative solutions for the BlackBerry product, which we were hoping to port over to the iPhone like end-to-end encryption, compression, website filtering and port filtering.

According to Apple, users who purchase iTether before it was pulled will continue to be able to use the product.

Our team is evaluating all of our options… Stay tuned.

Tether's website has been slow and unresponsive since the app launched last night.

Thanks Victor.

Just hours after becoming the top-grossing app on the App Store, tethering app iTether has been removed by Apple. The $14.99 app, which went live on the App Store last night, allowed users to share their iPhone's internet connection with their Mac or PC computer over USB. With iTether, users could bypass a $20/month service offered by cellular providers for tethering services.

In 2008, Apple briefly approved another tethering app called Netshare but, as with iTether, quickly pulled it from the App Store. The approval of iTether may have been an oversight by Apple, but there has been no official word yet on the reason for the removal. As in the case of Netshare, it should continue to work for those who bought it before it was pulled.

Late last week, The New York Times took a look at Apple's retail store software for responding to customer requests for assistance, offering a relatively rare public glimpse of one of the company's internal applications.

The internal app responds to both assistance requests from the iPads that serve as information displays at products on the sales floor and notifications from customers who have placed advance orders for pickup and then signaled their arrival by launching the Apple Store iOS app.

The iPod Touches of Apple employees show these customer requests and give employees the option to respond to them. The app then shows an illustration of the shopping floor and highlights the customer’s location in red.

According to the Apple retail employee who demonstrated the app's capabilities, sixteen customers had used the functionality to pick up orders at the Palo Alto store that day, only a tiny portion of the total customer load for the busy Black Friday shopping day. But Apple has reportedly indicated that it eventually expects a majority of its retail store customers to eventually take advantage of the new services such as in-store pickup and self-checkout using the company's iOS app.

This feature allows shoppers to ask for assistance when they feel comfortable doing so, unlike in other retail stores where customers are hounded by employees eager to make a sale, [retail store employee Diego] Aguirre said.

“It’s more toward customer experience,” Mr. Aguirre said. “We don’t want to feel like we’re hassling our customers to shop. We want them to feel at home.”

Apple has been working hard to build out capacity to meet customer load at its retail stores, which rank among the most profitable retail sales locations in the world. In recent years the company has been putting a significant focus on building larger, more iconic stores and also building out its international retail presence. But with the retail chain's oldest stores now approaching ten years old, the company is also looking to replace or renovate a number of these stores in order to keep up with the company's continued growth in popularity.

The progression of iPhone product numbers are as follows:

iPhone1,1 - Original iPhone
iPhone1,2 - iPhone 3G
iPhone2,1 - iPhone 3GS
iPhone3,1 - iPhone 4
iPhone4,1 - iPhone 4S

iPhone5,1 clearly represents the next generation iPhone that Apple is working on. Rumors have suggested the next iPhone will carry a 4" screen rather than the usual 3.5" screen found in all previous iPhone models. The new iPhone is also believed to have been prototyped with a tapering design in the past, though the most recent rumors suggest the actual release iPhone will not resemble the mockups.

The iPad3,2 reference has been previously seen though iPad3,3 appears new.

Tether.com has somehow gotten App Store approval for their iPhone companion application "iTether". The $14.99 App Store app allows users to share their iPhone's internet connection with their Mac or PC computer over USB.

Tether is an application that allows your Mac and PC to take advantage of your smartphone's data plan, providing you access to the Internet on your laptop anywhere there is cellular coverage from your smartphone.

Tether is easy to install, easy to use, works practically anywhere, and is very cost-effective.

To download the PC software visit:
http://tether.com/i/Tether-iPhone.exe

To download the Mac software visit:
http://tether.com/i/Tether-iPhone.dmg

Tether offers companion applications for the Mac and PC. Mac version shown here:

Running both apps on your iPhone and your Mac allows your Mac to use your iPhone's internet connection over a USB cable (no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth support). Apple has traditionally not allowed such applications to become available on the App Store due to agreements with carriers.

Back in 2008, Apple briefly approved another tethering app called Netshare but quickly pulled it from the App Store. Instead, users have been expected to pay additional fees to U.S. carriers such as AT&T and Verizon who offer tethering as an add-on service for $20/month. The approval of iTether may have been inadvertent by Apple again and could be pulled at any time. It is presently available in the App Store for $14.99. As in the case of Netshare, if Apple does pull the app from the App Store, it should continue to work for those who bought it.

Tether offers a similar app for both BlackBerry and Android platforms and has been reviewed in the NYTimes and Entrepreneur.com.

We should note that excessive unauthorized tethering has previously resulted in warnings from AT&T to users about their usage. In many of these examples, however, the unauthorized use was dramatic and on unlimited plans. Still, it is good to be aware of that possibility. [App Store Link]

[via 9to5Mac]

Update: Tether's website is presently down due to the traffic, which means you can't download the Mac/PC apps and it also appears the iOS app verifies with Tether.com on each run, so it won't work while the main website is down.

Update 2: Tether claims "We were very clear with Apple what our app did. They asked us a bunch of questions and then approved us." So it may not be getting pulled.

The current iPad carries the following number designations, which show differences based on the type of cellular antenna, if any:

iPad2,1 - Wi-Fi iPad
iPad2,2 - AT&T iPad 2
iPad2,3 - Verizon iPad 2

Naturally, "iPad2,4" could represent a Sprint supporting variant of the iPad 2 that has been previously rumored. Apple was reportedly considering a Sprint iPad launch before the holidays, though it seems less likely at this late date.

At this stage, it's not clear if and when Apple might introduce such a model or wait until the iPad 3 launches to introduce Sprint compatibility.

Apple has seeded developers with the first version of iOS 5.1 Beta and Xcode 4.3.

iOS SDK 5.1 provides support for developing iOS applications and includes the complete set of Xcode tools, compilers, and frameworks for creating applications for iOS and Mac OS X. These tools include the Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool among many others.

With this software you can develop applications that run on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5.1. You can also test your applications using the included iOS Simulator, which supports iOS 5.1. There are two Xcode iOS SDK 5.1 images, one for installing on a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.6.7 (Snow Leopard) or later, the other for installing on a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion).

BGR provides some release notes which presently list some known issues but are otherwise unrevealing.