MacRumors

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.

Apple today announced the launch of GarageBand for iPhone and iPod touch, making the previous iPad-only version a universal app.

“GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.”

GarageBand [App Store] is available in the App Store for $4.99, with the new version 1.1 bringing iPhone and iPod touch support and several other enhancements.

What's New in Version 1.1

- Universal app designed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
- Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
- Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
- Reset song key without transposing original recordings
- Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
- Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
- New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
- Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
- Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
- Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options

The update is just going live now and should be rolling out to all markets at this time.

At its "Let's Talk iPhone" media event early last month, Apple announced that it would be launching its iTunes Match service in the United States at the "end of October". That launch date was itself apparently a slight delay from Apple's original plans given that support for the feature had been built into developer builds of iTunes 10.5, which was released in mid-October to support iOS 5 and iCloud.

But with Apple apparently pushing back the iTunes Match launch slightly, the feature was removed from the public release of iTunes 10.5 and moved to a new iTunes 10.5.1 that was released for developer testing.

Sources have indicated that Apple is close to a launch of iTunes Match, with retail store staff having been briefed on the service in preparation for its debut. But with the calendar now having turned to November, Apple has missed its public launch target for iTunes Match. The company has not yet commented on the status of iTunes Match, leaving some questions about its plans even though a launch still seems near.

One group that may have been caught off-guard by the delayed iTunes Match launch is Apple's developers, who have been testing the service for a number of months. Apple has repeatedly wiped users' iTunes Match libraries during the beta testing process, with the most recent wipe occurring last Thursday.

But those developers who have continued testing the service are now discovering that their iTunes 10.5.1 betas have expired, leaving them unable to launch the application as of today with no public launch and no new beta release. Apple routinely advises developers to only install beta builds of its software on machines dedicated to development, but some users undoubtedly have installed iTunes 10.5.1 on their primary machines and may now be experiencing difficulties.

In line with his previously-announced transition, Ron Johnson has left his position as senior vice president of retail at Apple to take over as CEO of department store chain J.C. Penney. As noticed by 9to5Mac, Johnson has been removed from Apple's list of senior executives.

Johnson came to Apple from Target eleven years ago, overseeing the launch and strong growth of Apple's retail store segment. With other computer companies such as Gateway struggling with their own retail efforts at the time, Apple faced a significant amount of skepticism about whether it could make a viable stand in direct-sales retail.

Problem is, the numbers don't add up. Given the decision to set up shop in high-rent districts in Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, and Jobs's hometown of Palo Alto, Calif., the leases for Apple's stores could cost $1.2 million a year each, says David A. Goldstein, president of researcher Channel Marketing Corp. Since PC retailing gross margins are normally 10% or less, Apple would have to sell $12 million a year per store to pay for the space. Gateway does about $8 million annually at each of its Country Stores. Then there's the cost of construction, hiring experienced staff. "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," says Goldstein.

Apple has of course seen a tremendous amount of success in retail, leading all U.S. retail chains in sales per square foot while also serving to enhance brand awareness and offer direct support services to customers.

Apple has yet to announce Johnson's successor, with the company reportedly having been conducting a worldwide search as it seeks to increase its retail presence in international markets. The company has announced that it intends to open forty new retail stores during fiscal 2012, with 75% of those locations coming outside of the United States. Apple is also looking to expand or replace a number of its existing stores that are no longer able to handle current customer traffic levels.

Current Apple vice president for retail Jerry McDougal served under Johnson for over ten years, and has been viewed by some as a solid option to take the senior executive position with Johnson's departure. But it certainly appears that Apple is being diligent in its efforts to identify the best possible candidate to lead its retail operations, looking both inside and outside the company.

Net Applications has released its latest monthly data on Web traffic, revealing that Apple's iOS was able to ride the strength of the iPhone 4S launch and continued iPad momentum to surge past a 60% share of traffic. According to the data, iOS was responsible for 61.64% of the mobile Web traffic during October on a geographically weighted basis.

Apple's dominant share comes from its strong position across all three mobile device segments with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Google's Android operating is also seeing very strong growth in line with its rapidly-growing device sales, but Android's popularity has primarily been restricted to smartphones.

On the PC/Mac side, Apple is also continuing to increase its share of Web traffic, reaching 6.94% in October, a healthy increase of nearly half a percentage point over September and up nearly a percentage point and a half since April.

Apple today announced that its next round of international launches of the iPhone 4S will occur on Friday, November 11th. This next phase of Apple's rapid rollout of the new device involves 15 countries, including Hong Kong and South Korea.

Beginning Friday, November 11, iPhone 4S will be available in Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania and South Korea. iPhone 4S is available today in 29 countries around the world and will be available in more than 70 countries by the end of the year.

Pre-orders for this round of iPhone 4S debuts will begin this Friday, November 4th, although they will be limited to the following countries: Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania and South Korea.

Late last week, we noted that with pricing information on Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge E Xeon processors surfacing, Apple's options for a potential "Early 2012" Mac Pro have begun to clear up. The Mac Pro has not been updated since mid-2010, and delays in Intel's new chips have pushed their availability out from late this year to early next year.

But despite the new processors now being in sight, AppleInsider reports that Apple is reportedly "questioning" the future of the Mac Pro line and whether it will even release updated models.

Although the Mac maker has reportedly developed a revision to the existing Mac Pro that may or may not see the light of day, people familiar with the matter said management as far back as May of 2011 were in limbo over whether to pour any additional resources into the product line.

According to these people, the consensus among sales executives for the Cupertino-based company was that the Mac Pro's days -- at least in its current form -- were inevitably numbered. In particular, internal discussions were said to focus around the fact that sales of the high-end workstations to both consumers and enterprises have dropped off so considerably that the Mac Pro is no longer a particularly profitable operation for Apple.

The report's source indicates that with Intel's new Thunderbolt connectivity standard making its way across all of Apple's Mac products, those products now have enhanced flexibility to assume some of the tasks that have historically been handled the Mac Pro. Combined with a continuing shift towards notebooks that has seen the desktop share of Apple's Mac business fall from 70% ten years ago to under 30% today, the increasing power of Apple's other Macs has resulted in the Mac Pro becoming only a minor portion of Apple's product lineup.

Speculation in the report suggests that Apple could elect to offer higher-end versions of its iMac or Mac mini models in an attempt to appease those buyers looking for the power of a Mac Pro. Those smaller form factor machines are, however, unable to match a number of the Mac Pro's other features, although Apple apparently believes that Thunderbolt could serve as a means to bring some of that expandability from the Mac Pro to other Macs.

Earlier today, we noted that Apple is planning a number of enhancements to its online and retail store shopping offerings, perhaps most notably allowing retail store customers purchasing shelf-stocked accessories and other items to utilize a self-checkout option through the company's Apple Store iOS application.

One other enhancement that first rolled out last week is the ability for customers to place orders through Apple's online store and have them shipped to a local Apple retail store for pickup. The new feature is convenient for those who have difficulty receiving shipments at their homes or who wish to not utilize home or office delivery for some other reason.

The in-store pickup program launched as a pilot program at the three Apple retail stores located in San Francisco, but quickly expanded to include all sixteen stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As noticed by AppleInsider, the program has expanded yet again, now offering support for Apple's four stores in New York City: the iconic Fifth Avenue store as well as the Upper West Side, West 14th Street, and Soho stores. The Soho store is currently undergoing renovation and expansion, and Apple is operating a temporary store a block and a half away from the permanent Soho location in the meantime.

Apple has given no indication on exactly how quickly it will expand the pickup program to all stores in the United States, and perhaps internationally. But with the program already expanding to include 20 stores in less than a week, it's clear that the company is rapidly filling out the pilot program with an eye toward offering in-store pickup at as many stores as possible heading into the holiday shopping season.

Last week, Apple released its annual 10-K report, offering a summary of the company's financial performance and other items of interest for fiscal 2011. One interesting tidbit from the report is gaining some attention for its glimpse into the future, as GigaOM reports on a new research note from UBS analyst Maynard Um addressing Apple's planned capital expenditures (CapEx) for fiscal 2012. From the 10-K report:

The Company’s capital expenditures were $4.6 billion during 2011, consisting of approximately $614 million for retail store facilities and $4.0 billion for other capital expenditures, including product tooling and manufacturing process equipment, real estate for the future development of the Company’s second corporate campus, and other corporate facilities and infrastructure.

...

The Company anticipates utilizing approximately $8.0 billion for capital expenditures during 2012, including approximately $900 million for retail store facilities and approximately $7.1 billion for product tooling and manufacturing process equipment, and corporate facilities and infrastructure, including information systems hardware, software and enhancements.

The projected 74% increase in capital expenditures is evidence of Apple's commitment to both retail stores other infrastructure needs, many of which are related to Apple's cloud-based initiatives. On the retail front, Apple has noted that it is planning to open forty new retail stores during fiscal 2012, and is also planning to expand or replace a number of its existing stores that are too small to adequately serve customer demand. Other infrastructure needs include cloud-focused facilities like the North Carolina data center where Apple is building a solar farm and the new corporate campus in Cupertino.

Horace Dediu at asymco has taken a different look at Apple's CapEx within the context of iOS device sales, noting that sales have been been closely correlated with CapEx over the past several years. Dediu's conclusion is that the significant increase in budgeted non-retail CapEx points toward Apple expecting yet another year of 100% growth in iOS device unit sales.

(via Daring Fireball)

Apple has already begun work on the next major revision to Mac OS X which is being labeled as version 10.8.

Apple only just released the final version of OS X 10.7 (Lion) to customers in July. OS X Lion was the first version of Mac OS X to be distributed through the Mac App Store and it included a number of new features for the Mac. These included an iOS-like application launch screen known as Launchpad, full-screen apps, a new combined interface for Dashboard, Expose, and Spaces known as Mission Control, enhanced Multi-Touch gestures, and improvements to a number of core applications such as Mail.

While Apple has yet to announce plans for the next major version of OS X, evidence of 10.8 first began appearing in our web logs in August, and have since accelerated. This graph shows an increasing number of web visits from Mac OS X 10.8 users over the past several months.

While it is trivial to falsify these records, the requests originated from Apple, Inc. IP addresses and surrounding areas. Also, the overall clustering is consistent with limited internal testing. We saw a very similar pattern for the early OS X 10.7 requests which began in October, 2009:

Note that the first appearance of 10.7 was almost a full year before the first developer preview, and nearly 20 months before the public release.

So far, there have been no hints as to what we might expect to see in Mac OS X 10.8. Historically, Apple's major OS X releases are released every other year: 10.3 in 2003, 10.4 in 2005, 10.5 in 2007, 10.6 in 2009, and 10.7 in 2011. Based on this pattern, we expect Apple to preview Mac OS X 10.8 sometime in 2012, with the final public release happening in 2013.

Another question is what Apple will call OS X 10.8. Apple has been naming their major OS X releases after feline animals such as Tiger and Leopard. "Lion" naturally seems like it may be the end of the line for those names. While Apple had previously trademarked the names "Lynx" and "Cougar", the company has since abandoned those trademarks. It should be noted that Lion hadn't been trademarked until after their first public announcement, so the choice of name could still be wide open.

AirPlay Mirroring and iMessage are reportedly coming to OS X Lion, according to 9to5Mac's sources.

AirPlay Mirroring is a feature that first made its appearance on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. It allows you to wirelessly stream whatever's on your iPad or iPhone display to your HDTV via Apple TV. The Mac implementation is reportedly going to be similar, allowing broadcast of your desktop to your TV.

AirPlay Mirroring for the Mac will allow a user to wirelessly mirror exactly what is shown on their Mac’s display to an Apple TV connected to a projector, television, or external monitor. AirPlay video streaming is also being integrated into QuickTime X.

Meanwhile, iMessage is again being said to be coming to the OS X Lion. We had previously reported on iChat strings that have suggested work was already underway. Though it seems the decision to make iMessage a separate app or a part of iChat has reportedly not been finalized.

iMessage is Apple's new messaging solution for the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone found in iOS 5. It allows customers to send SMS-like messages over standard data connections rather than expensive text messaging plans. OS X Lion integration with iMessage would allow you to send iMessages to friends and family with iOS 5 devices from your Mac.