MacRumors

Earlier today, we reported on new photos of an iPod nano casing that appears to support a rear-facing camera. With similar photos having shown up in the past, it was unclear whether Apple was still pursuing the design for a future iPod nano.

M.I.C gadget now weighs in with claims that the pictured device is in fact a two-month old prototype but that Apple has been having difficulties with the 1.3-megapixel camera taking overexposed photos.

It’s real, and it’s a two-month-old prototype that has big problems. It comes with an auto iris lens that can be affected by diffraction and blurring when the iris opening becomes too small in bright conditions. Ok, I gotta say it simply, it takes overexposed photos.

According to our factory sources, Apple have problems with the lens aperture for the next-gen iPod nano, the iris is not functioning correctly to allow the advantages of the low aperture to be utilized.

Interestingly, the report claims that the user interface for the camera features is finished and that Apple is looking to launch the device late this quarter or early next quarter once it finishes working out the camera issues.

The release would be a significant deviation from Apple's usual iPod refresh timeline, which has typically seen updates come in the September-October timeframe. But with Apple shaking up its schedules in 2011 by pushing the iPhone back from its usual June release to take the iPod's place with an October debut, it is possible that other changes to the usual timeline are in store.

The iPods saw only very minor changes last October, with the iPod touch essentially gaining only a white option and a price drop while the iPod nano saw a price drop and a software update that was also compatible with the previous year's model. The iPod shuffle and iPod classic received no updates at all, making Apple's 2011 iPod updates by far the most modest in the company's history. Consequently, Apple could be looking to make more substantial changes to its iPod line, such as the release of a camera-equipped iPod nano, well ahead of the fall 2012 timeframe.

Update: Refuting M.I.C gadget's claim that the iPod nano shown in the photos is a two-month old prototype, Apple.pro's Anthony Tsai posts this screenshot showing that the photos were in fact originally posted to the Internet in August 2011:

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, whose long-standing claims of an Apple television set have been gaining steam in recent months as new rumors have surfaced in support of the idea, issued a research note late yesterday (via AppleInsider) discussing some new developments with Apple's work. Specifically, Munster notes that he had recent discussion with a "major TV component supplier" which disclosed that Apple had contacted the company to inquire about their products. The disclosure adds another data point to rumors from Asian supply chains that Apple has been working on a television set. The relevant portion of Munster's report is quoted by Barron's:

In Jan-12 we spoke with a major TV component supplier who has been contacted by Apple regarding various capabilities of their television display components. We see this as continued evidence that Apple is exploring production of a television. This latest data point follows Jan-11 meetings in Asia that led us to believe Apple was investing in manufacturing facilities for LCD displays ranging from 3.5″ mobile displays to 50″ television displays. In Sept-11 we met with a contact close to an Asian supplier who indicated that prototypes of an Apple Television are in the works. We believe TV hardware could be ready for a late CY12 launch, but the timeline and scope of a revamped content solution is more uncertain.

Observers have been looking for Apple's next major product line even as the iPad and iPhone experience booming sales and the Mac continues its resurgence with long-standing steady growth easily outpacing that of the overall PC industry. The rumor mill clicked into high gear on the topic of an Apple television set with Steve Jobs' disclosure in his authorized biography that he had "finally cracked" how to revolutionize television technology.

Rumors have since focused on an integrated television set involving iTunes and iCloud and controlled via Siri voice technology. One report has claimed that Apple design chief Jony Ive has a 50-inch Apple television set prototype in his design lab, although various sources have at different times claimed a wide range of sizes for Apple's TV set, from 32 inches to over 50 inches.

Sources seems to suggest that Apple is shooting for a launch of its television set later this year or early next year. What remains unknown is whether Apple will be able to make any revolutionary changes on the content side within that timeframe. The company has made several efforts to work with content providers on ideas such as "best of TV" packages that would be made available through iTunes and enable users to in some cases eliminate their cable television subscriptions, but the company has reportedly made little progress in those negotiations.

BGR reports that it has received from a source photos of what are claimed to be screenshots from Apple's iBoot development and debugging software for the bootrom showing details on an iPad 3. The screenshots, which show references to the known "J1" and "iPad3,1" code names, reveal that the device will indeed be using a new application processor carrying an S5L8945X identifier, presumably as part of a new A6 system-on-a-chip.

For starters, the model numbers are J1 and J2 (iPad3,1 and iPad3,2), and while DigiTimes reported this a few weeks ago, these two models are not different devices, just a single iPad available in two versions — one with Wi-Fi only and one with Wi-Fi and embedded GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers. Also included in the photos is, for the first time, confirmation of which processor Apple will be using in the iPad 3: an A6 processor with model number S5L8945X. For reference, the Apple A4 model was S5L8930X and the A5 is S5L8940X.

The report notes that the processor is expected to be of the quad-core variety, up from the current dual-core processor used in the A5 on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. The report also reiterates claims that the iPad will support LTE alongside GSM and CDMA 3G networks in a single device.

BGR offers no assessment of the reliability of the source of the photos, and iBoot output could be easily faked, but if legitimate the details bolster claims that the iPad 3 will be a major upgrade to the popular tablet device.

Last April, Taiwanese site Apple.pro posted a photo of what appeared to be an iPod nano with a hole in the rear casing that was said to be for a camera. A second photo showing the casing from the other side surfaced a month later, appearing to show a clipless design for the device and claiming that it would carry a 1.3-megapixel camera.

Apple ultimately made no changes to the design of the iPod nano in September of last year, instead opting to update the software and lower pricing on the 8 GB and 16 GB models. But the idea of a camera-equipped iPod nano was revived in November with the publication of a May 2010 patent application on speaker design that appeared to show a hole in the iPod nano's clip in the same location as the rumored camera hole seen in the leaked photos.

Apple.pro now reports [Google translation] that a series of new photos have surfaced showing this camera-enabled iPod nano casing in even more detail. The new photos clearly show the device retaining its clip-on design with a metal housing for a camera assembly protruding from the back of the main case and sitting flush with a hole in the device's clip.

The design would allow Apple to squeeze a camera into the current diminutive form factor of the iPod nano by moving much of the lens and sensor hardware outside of the main casing but still within the overall device envelope by utilizing a small portion of the gap between the device and the clip.

Given that this design for a camera-equipped iPod nano has been floating around for some time and did not make an appearance during last October's update, it is unclear whether the design is still in the works for Apple or if it has been scrapped for some reason. The company had previously introduced a low-resolution video-only camera on the previous iPod nano form factor, but removed the feature when it redesigned the device with a smaller, iPod shuffle-like form factor in 2010.

An Apple patent application filed in late 2009 also suggests that Apple has an interest in equipping the current iPod nano design with a camera, offering it as one example of an environmental sensor that could be used to allow the device to display screen savers and other content that relate to the device's environment such as the current weather or other factors.

MacRumors reader Tony Hart notes on his blog that after emailing Apple CEO Tim Cook with his thoughts on the company's selection of Dixons CEO John Browett as the next head of retail, he received a personal response in which Cook noted that Browett was "the best by far" among the candidates he talked with about the position.

Tony,

I talked to many people and John was the best by far. I think you will be as pleased as I am. His role isn't to bring Dixons to Apple, [it's] to bring Apple to an even higher level of customer service and satisfaction.

Tim

The selection of Browett has raised some concerns among those familiar with Dixons, which operates stores under a number of names including Currys and PC World, as the retailer does not have particularly good reputation in the UK. Browett has, however, been considered by some to be a rising star in retail after serving time leading operations at supermarket chain Tesco and then taking the reins at Dixons in 2007. Apple had also been expected to look internationally for its next retail chief as the company focuses its expansion plans on locations outside of the United States.

While Steve Jobs was known for occasionally responding to customer emails, usually with tersely-worded replies, Cook seems to have carried on that tradition even as he has moved to put his own stamp on Apple. A number of Cook's emails to the Apple team have made their way out of the company's offices, and he has on occasion, as in this case, replied to customer emails as well.

The slow trickle of new Thunderbolt products continues. Seagate has begun selling a $99 Thunderbolt SATA adapter for portable (2.5") external hard drives:

The GoFlex series is a set of external hard drives with interchangeable interface adapters that allow their hard drives to switch between different interfaces. Existing adapters include USB 3.0, Firewire, and eSATA. This new adapter offers Thunderbolt support for existing portable GoFlex customers. One reader notes that the interface is simply an SATA interface, so this adapter could be used with any bare 2.5" SATA hard drive.

Seagate first announced the Thunderbolt adapters at CES and is also planning on offering a desktop version of the adapter for $199 in February.

Macworld had a hands on with the portable unit and found it did indeed perform faster than Firewire 800 (and of course USB)

Using the new Thunderbolt adapter, we saw write speeds of 78.8MBps, or 40 percent faster than FireWire 800. Read speeds were about 79.3MBps, about 13 percent faster than FireWire 800.

The performance gains were only so big since they were testing against a single non-SSD drive. Previous Thunderbolt benchmarks have shown much larger boosts but only when using SSD and RAID configurations, eliminating some of the drive bottlenecks.

As it's aimed at the portable market, there are some other limitations with the device. The device only has a single Thunderbolt port, so it must be at the end of the chain. However, it is also bus-powered so no external power supply is required. (The upcoming $199 desktop model reportedly will have an external power supply and additional Thunderbolt port.) Also, the $99 price doesn't include a Thunderbolt cable which still runs $50 at the Apple online store.

So, the entire setup will add a $150 premium to your hard drive purchase, but is one of the few single-drive external Thunderbolt drive options available today.

Update: Note, that Seagate's GoFlex adapter is simply a standard SATA connector, so it could be used as a bare 2.5" SATA Hard Drive -> Thunderbolt adapter.

In an interview with AllThingsD, recording artist Neil Young revealed that he had discussed high definition music formats with Apple's Steve Jobs prior to his death.

The interview is summarized by CNet, in which Young claims that MP3s have just "5 percent of the data present in the original recording." Young is concerned that there is no suitable high definition available to consumers.

Higher definition music, of course, would require much larger files. Young reportedly approached Apple and specifically Steve Jobs about it:

When asked if Young had approached Apple about the idea, Young said that he had, in fact, met with Jobs and was "working on it," but that "not much" ended up happening to the pursuit.

Of note, Young made mention that Jobs was a vinyl fan, despite having helmed the company that would spearhead the way people listened to and purchased digital music.

Apple presently offers their iTunes Music store at a quality of 256 kbps AACs. Apple does support a lossless audio format that can be used on their iPods and iPhones, but these files take up considerably more space than standard AAC files, and are not sold on the iTunes store. Based on the interview, it seems there is no present interest from Apple in such an offering.

With stock trading for January coming to a close today, Apple's performance for the first month of 2012 has been notable, with the company's stock riding strong earnings to a monthly gain of over 50 points that has increased its price by nearly 13%. Much of that gain came alongside Apple's stellar earnings release one week ago, but Apple has continued to drift upward since that time and closed at yet another record high of $456.48 today after touching $458.24 early in the day's trading.

Apple's market capitalization now tops $425 billion, and a weakening of Exxon Mobil's stock price over the past week has enabled Apple to open up a nearly $25 billion lead in the race for world's most valuable publicly-traded company.

Apple's flirtation with ZFS, the file system backed by Sun, has been well-documented with rumors and speculation dating back to 2006. The interest was fueled in mid-2007 by a claim by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz that ZFS would supplant HFS+ as the file system for Mac OS X Leopard. While ZFS did not materialize in Leopard, Apple clearly continued to work on the project, with claims of some support appearing in marketing materials for Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard.

Optimism surrounding that development was apparently premature, however, as all mentions of the file system later disappeared from Apple's site amid claims that licensing issues had led the company to scrap the project. By late 2009, Apple had shuttered even its open source ZFS project site, indicating that it had abandoned all work on the project.

In March of last year, Ars Technica posted a lengthy profile of Don Brady, the 20-year Apple engineer who had helped transition to the HFS+ file system for Mac OS X and also headed up Apple's internal ZFS team from 2006 until it was disbanded in 2009. As the report notes, ZFS offers a number of advantages over HFS+, including a 128-bit structure to address large file and volume sizes, as well as features for simplifying data management and increasing data integrity such as copy-on-write technology to preserve the file system structure should errors or failures occur while new data blocks are being written.

At one time, there was a lot of hope that Apple might transition from HFS+ to ZFS as a more modern replacement. In particular, ZFS's automatic snapshot feature was believed to be the perfect fit for Apple's Time Machine backup tool. When Snow Leopard was first announced in 2008, it was slated to have full read-write ZFS support, at least in the server version.

But when WWDC 2009 rolled around, all mention of ZFS support was scrubbed from Apple's website. A patent infringement lawsuit was still pending between NetApp and Sun, with NetApp claiming that it held patents on copy-on-write. Furthermore, Sun's CDDL open source license was also believed to make ZFS incompatible with Mac OS X, and that Apple couldn't reach suitable license terms with Sun.

With Apple shutting down its ZFS project in 2009, Brady soon left the company to form his own venture, Ten's Complement, with a plan to bring ZFS to the Mac. Brady and Ten's Complement have been working on the project since 2010, with an extensive beta program having been underway for quite some time, and it now appears that the company is ready to begin rolling out its ZFS products under the ZEVO name. First off the line is the Silver Edition, which is now available for $19.95 and brings some of the basic advantages of ZFS to Mac OS X.

Z E V O's Silver Edition brings you sophisticated ZFS storage technology in an easy-to-use solution.

It's ideal for those wanting modern, reliable storage that is simple to set up, validate, and manage. Our Z E V O Storage Setup Assistant makes setting up a single disk for Z E V O a snap. In a few simple steps you'll be up and running.

The company will soon be releasing its more advanced products, including the $39.95 Gold Edition with such features as Time Machine-like rotating data snapshots and data redundancy. A forthcoming Platinum Edition carrying additional features such as RAIDZ support, data deduplication, and an advanced management utility is set to launch this spring, with pricing yet to be announced. Finally, the company is also working on a Developer Edition that will offer a combination of GUI and command line interface tools for complete system control.

Ten's Complement is not the only group to still be working on bringing ZFS to Mac OS X, as the MacZFS open source project continues to build on the foundation laid by Apple and Sun. But Ten's Complement seems to be the first to bring ZFS to the Mac in a commercial package to facilitate implementation and maintenance of the file system for users looking at options for securing the integrity of their data.

Late last year, research firm Canalys predicted that Apple might become the world's largest PC manufacturer during the fourth quarter of 2011 if tablets were counted alongside more traditional computers. With the major firms now having reported their sales numbers for the quarter, Canalys has pieced together the numbers to confirm that Apple has indeed taken the lead on the strength of the iPad.

Canalys today announced that Apple, after reporting stellar results, became the leading worldwide client PC vendor in Q4 2011. Apple shipped over 15 million iPads and five million Macs, representing 17% of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in Q4. Overall, the total client PC market, including desktops, netbooks, notebooks, and pads grew 16% year-on-year. Excluding pads, the client PC market declined 0.4%.

The report notes that tablets such as the iPad accounted for 22% of PC sales during the quarter, with the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook also contributing to the strong tablet performance.

Based on data from Canalys and other research firms, it appears that the iPad would have been able to top the list even without the help of the Mac, which itself achieved record sales during the quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, with Canalys, Gartner, and IDC all pegging non-tablet market leader HP's shipments between 14.7 and 15.3 million units.

Whether or not iPads and other tablets should be counted as PCs has become a vigorous debate as observers take differing views on how "personal computers" should be defined. But with Apple making the iPad "PC Free" by eliminating the need to sync to a computer via iTunes and increasing numbers of consumers relying on their iPads for everyday computer functionalities such as browsing, email and music, as well as a broad array of apps, lines between the two types of devices are becoming increasingly blurred.

Back in late December, reports surfaced indicating that Foxconn was planning a major expansion of its iPhone production capabilities in Zhengzhou, China, with the company reportedly investing $1.1 billion and working with the Chinese government to recruit 100,000 new workers to the facility.

M.I.C gadget now reports that the hiring notices have gone out and thousands of prospective employees have lined up to apply for the positions.

On the 30th of January, thousands of hopefuls stood for hours outside a labor agency located in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, the largest city of Henan province in north-central China. The lines stretched more than 200 meters along the road, and the people who were waiting in line with their applications just hope to get a job at Foxconn, as the electronics contracting giant ramps up its iPhone production at Zhengzhou plant.

The report cites articles from the Chinese media noting that many of the applicants have prior work experience, with some of them seeking to transfer from Foxconn's other facilities in southern China to be closer to home.

Apple is of course in the middle of booming iPhone 4S sales following the device's launch last October and is now turning its attention to the rapidly-growing Chinese market where the device launched on China Unicom earlier this month and is expected to launch on China Telecom as soon as late next month. The company is obviously also looking ahead to the next-generation iPhone hardware that most expect will debut later this year.

Foxconn and Apple have come under increasing scrutiny over the treatment of employees in Apple's supply chain, with Foxconn being the highest-profile target due to its employment of hundreds of thousands of workers focused on manufacturing Apple products. Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed concern over some of the allegations presented in recent media reports while also pointing to the company's continuing efforts on the workers' rights front including ongoing audits and outside monitoring of workplace conditions.

Following a report from Marbridge Consulting yesterday claiming that sources within China Telecom had revealed that a deal had been struck with Apple for the iPhone 4S, China Daily reports that China Telecom subsidiary Beijing Telecom has confirmed plans for an iPhone 4S release as soon as late February.

In a news release on Monday, Beijing Telecom Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Telecom, said the CDMA-version iPhone 4S is likely to hit the domestic market by the end of February, or at the beginning of March. However, no pricing details were disclosed.

"China Telecom has already started preparatory work for the launch of the iPhone 4S," according to the press release.

With the iPhone 4S being a world-mode device capable of operating on both GSM and CDMA networks, previous regulatory approvals that were required to allow the device to be launched by Apple's long-standing partner carrier China Unicom earlier this month helped pave the way for the device to make its way to China Telecom.

China Telecom currently has over 125 million subscribers on its mobile services, with over 36 million of those on its 3G network as of December 2011, nearly three times the 12 million 3G subscribers the carrier had one year earlier. The addition of China Telecom will leave China Mobile, the world's largest carrier, as the only one of China's three major carriers lacking the iPhone. Efforts on a China Mobile iPhone have been slowed by the carrier's use of TD-SCDMA technology for its 3G network, technology that would require specially-designed iPhone hardware to run on the network.

Following up on promises to bring support for major features such as multicam editing and XML compatibility, Apple today announced the launch of Final Cut Pro X v. 10.0.3 with a number of enhancements. The release follows another major update released last September and another minor one released in November.

Apple today released Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3, a significant update to its revolutionary professional video editing application, which introduces multicam editing that automatically syncs up to 64 angles of video and photos; advanced chroma keying for handling complex adjustments right in the app; and enhanced XML for a richer interchange with third party apps and plug-ins that support the fast growing Final Cut Pro X ecosystem. Available today as a free update from the Mac App Store, Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 also includes a beta of broadcast monitoring that supports Thunderbolt devices as well as PCIe cards.

Apple also notes that several third-party developers have also taken steps to expand the capabilities of Final Cut Pro X, including the new release of 7toX [Mac App Store, $9.99] from Assisted Editing to move Final Cut Pro 7 projects to Final Cut Pro X.

Final Cut Pro X [Mac App Store] is available in the Mac App Store and is priced at $299.99. The new 10.0.3 update appears to still be rolling out to the store and may not be available for all users yet.

- Multicam editing with automatic sync and support for mixed formats, mixed frame rates, and up to 64 camera angles
- Advanced chroma keying with controls for color sampling and edge quality
- Media relink for manual reconnect of projects and Events to new media
- Ability to import and edit layered Photoshop graphics
- XML 1.1 with support for primary color grades, effect parameters, and audio keyframes
- Beta version of broadcast monitoring with third-party PCIe and Thunderbolt I/O devices

Update: Apple has also released Motion 5.0.2 [Mac App Store, $49.99], bringing several enhancements to the effect editor that serves as a companion to Final Cut Pro.

- Improved speed and responsiveness of text editing
- Ability to automatically add animation keyframes when recording is disabled
- Keyboard shortcut for re-positioning animation curves or paths
- Ability to adjust the pan and scale of an image in a drop zone
- Enhanced look of the Keyframe editor for easier keyframe viewing and editing

Update 2: The updated version of Final Cut Pro X [Mac App Store] is now available. Apple has also released Compressor 4.0.2 [Mac App Store, $49.99], an update to the Final Cut Pro tool for project export.

- Markers set as chapter markers by default
- Addition of Uncompressed 8-bit and 10-bit 4:2:2 to export settings list
- Improved speed of transcoding from Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 to ProRes