MacRumors

Back in June, department store chain J.C. Penney announced that it had named Apple retail boss Ron Johnson as its next Chief Executive Officer, with Johnson set to take the new job as of November 1st. Johnson has played an instrumental role at Apple over the past decade, overseeing the company's entire retail store initiative since joining Apple from discount retailer Target in 2000.

As part of its efforts to find a replacement for Johnson, Apple has reportedly extended its reach internationally with the hiring of search firm Egon Zehnder to assist with the search, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who's now on medical leave, was extensively involved in the decision to use a search firm and chose Egon Zehnder mainly because he wants to consider executives who are based abroad, one person familiar with the situation said.

Apple's hiring of the global recruitment firm suggests that the company may be seeking an executive with international retail experience. That makes sense given that it has been focusing most of its recent retail expansion in international markets.

Apple's emphasis on international retail stores over the past several years has seen the international component of the company's retail arm grow to nearly 30% of the over 325 total stores. Apple currently operates retail stores in ten countries beyond the United States, and is in the midst of a significant push to open 30 more stores before the end of September.

Apple's "Greater China" market of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong has been a major focus for the company over the last year or two, although Apple has been relatively slow to open new stores there as the company currently operates only four stores in the country, all of which rank among the busiest in the company's chain. Apple last year announced plans to open up to 25 new stores in China during the following 24 months, but the company has opened only three locations since that time as it has worked hard to identify the best locations and to make plans for larger and more iconic stores than originally anticipated.

One of Intel's major new initiatives has been to push its processors down into more energy-efficient designs over the next few years. The first step in the process was introducing a new class of laptops dubbed "Ultrabooks". The first Ultrabook demoed was an ASUS model that bore a close resemblance to the MacBook Air, and Intel feels that these ultra-thin and light laptops could make up 40% of the consumer laptop market by the end of 2012.

DigiTimes reports, however, that manufacturers are having trouble pricing their new machines under Apple's MacBook Air, raising concerns about their prospects for market success.

The sources pointed out that the new MacBook Airs are priced at about US$999-1,599 with rather strong demand in the US; however, designing an ultrabook based on Intel's technical suggestions will still be unable to reduce the machine's price level to lower than the MacBook Air's unless Intel is willing to reduce its prices, which already account for one-third of the total cost.

Intel's effort to match the MacBook Air's thin profile has seen the company push forward its new platform with more components integrated directly onto the machines' circuit boards and using non user-replaceable batteries, mirroring Apple's own steps. Those requirements have, however, pushed up the cost of those components beyond that of the modular ones typically used in PCs, resulting in Ultrabook pricing coming in at the same levels as Apple's MacBook Air.

Building on his earlier claims that Apple is preparing a subscription video streaming service to take on Netflix, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek today issued a new report claiming that Apple already has deals in place with the major video studios and TV networks to support such a service.

Apple might be ready to roll out its own video subscription service similar to Amazon and Netflix, Peter Misek at Jefferies reports in a note this morning.

Specifically, he says, "As part of Apple's roll-out of cloud video services (and eventually an iTV), we believe Apple has unannounced deals with all/most of the studios/TV networks that are similar to the subscription streaming deal between Amazon and CBS."

Apple earlier this week expanded its nascent iCloud service to include the re-downloading of purchased TV shows, including allowing Apple TV devices to stream the purchased content directly from the cloud. And with another claim today suggesting that Apple may finally be preparing to launch its "iTunes Replay" service that would fold the cloud-based TV show offerings in with a similar program for movies to support re-downloads and streaming, Apple appears to be making a significant push into bringing video to iCloud.

Back in 2009, AppleInsider reported that Apple was developing an on-demand video service that would allow users to stream their purchased iTunes movies and TV shows from Apple's servers for playback on personal devices. The service was called "iTunes Replay", and would eliminate the need to store large media files on your iPod or iPhone.

AppAdvice now claims that they have been able to confirm that Apple is about to finally launch this "iTunes Replay" service to customers.

In a nutshell, iTunes Replay is an extension to what Apple is already doing with iCloud and free re-downloads of previously purchased music. As Apple secures the remaining rights, TV Shows as well as Movies in iTunes will be given little arrow indicating whether they’re “iTunes Replay eligible”, that is, available to be downloaded subsequent times.

Apple has just recently started allowing users to re-download television shows to their Mac and iOS devices, and allowing Apple TV owners to stream previously purchased content. So, it's no stretch to believe that Apple might start allowing the same for movies.

AppAdvice indicates that there may be a re-download limit of 5 times for some content and they seem uncertain how streaming counts against this limit. Apple would certainly have had to renegotiate with content providers for this change in service, and may explain why it is only launching now.

In the weeks prior to WWDC, countless reports had suggested that Apple was in deep negotiations with Movie providers about offering a "digital locker" of streaming content. From May:

In the past several weeks, Apple executives have stepped up their attempts to convince some of the major Hollywood film studios to issue licenses that would enable Apple to store its customers' movies on the company's servers, two sources close to the negotiations told CNET. Apple began discussing a cloud service with the studios over a year ago.

When iCloud was officially announced, there was no mention of this sort of "digital locker" streaming service that had been so heavily rumored. It seems perhaps the negotiations for the service had not yet completed in time for a WWDC launch.

Engadget publishes a hands on with iCloud.com and the iWork beta. iCloud works as we described, acting as a replacement for MobileMe with Mail, Contacts, Calendar and Find My iPhone interfaces.

They go into a little more detail about how the iWork interface works on the web. iWork in iCloud is primarily a sync and download service, rather than an editing service:

You can't create iWork files using the iCloud web interface, but if you've enabled sync on your iOS device, documents you create will appear almost instantly on each app's respective webpage. From the Keynote tab, you can view and download each presentation as a Keynote file, PDF, or in PowerPoint format. Pages documents can be downloaded as Pages files, PDFs, or in Word format, and Numbers spreadsheets can be exported to the desktop version of Numbers, PDF, and Excel.

The following video show iWork editing and creation between the iOS apps and the iCloud web interface:

One interesting addition, however, is that users can upload documents to iCloud/iWork. This lets you quickly upload documents that will instantly sync back via iCloud to your iOS apps.

AppleInsider also notes that Apple is actively recruiting for an iWork web developer which could indicate they are working to further expand their web support for the iWork suite.

Back in June, it was reported that the iPhone 5 was in carrier testing, with high-level executives at Apple and some of its carrier partners said to be carrying the device around for testing purposes.

In addressing a new claim that the next iPhone won't debut until October, later than the September timeframe that has been the focus for some time now, The Guardian offers some details on the carrier testing process that is said to indeed be underway.

My carrier sources tell me that the boxes in which the new iPhone hardware is encased have been transported to carriers for testing. This is an important step in the release cycle for any phone. ... The next iPhones go for their testing inside locked and sealed boxes so that the carriers can carry out checks on their network compatibility in their labs. It's very high security, as you could guess; my understanding is that barely anyone inside the carriers gets to open those boxes, and even when they do the hardware is encased in a dummy body which means there's no clue to what the actual phone will do.

The report suggests that with the iPhone 5 now in final carrier testing, a process that should take only weeks, Apple is in prime position to ramp up manufacturing to meet a September launch.

Other sources are also skeptical of the October launch claim, with RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky noting that Apple during its last earnings conference call noted that it would be experiencing a "future product transition" affecting the current quarter, which ends in late September. Abramsky also cites channel checks that continue to point to an August/September build ramp for the new iPhone to meet a September launch, as well as increased retail staffing and vacation blackouts at Apple and its carrier partners for the September timeframe.

Rumors regarding the iPhone 5 continue to fly fast and furious, and a couple of reports from earlier today are making the rounds with more claimed details on the next-generation device.

Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu today reported in a research note related by AppleInsider and Business Insider that the iPhone 5 update looks to be "bigger than expected", with the device said to be bringing a larger display and thinner bezel in addition to a dual-core processor. The form factor is said to otherwise be "similar" to the iPhone 4.

What is different is that in addition to a dual-core processor that we have talked about before, our supply chain sources indicate that it will sport a slightly larger display than the current 3.5-inch retina display that is already industry leading. We are picking up that it will retain a similar form factor and size but with thinner bezel. We believe this makes sense to improve the iPhone experience without making it too bulky as we have seen with models from competitors.

Consistent with other reports, Wu says that the iPhone 5 will not offer 4G LTE compatibility, as chipsets of acceptable size and power draw are not yet available and network coverage remains low.

Wu does not have a terribly good track record when it comes to iPhone rumors, and some of the case designs floating around and said to have been designed based on the iPhone 5's form factor instead show a slightly teardrop shape with rounded or tapered edges, with the latter feature much more akin to earlier iPhone models than the iPhone 4. Those cases also suggest that the iPhone 5 may be slightly longer and wider than the iPhone 4, supporting the notion that the device could see a larger display.

Meanwhile, BGR reports that a "reliable source" at Canadian carrier Telus has revealed that an internal document at the carrier lists an October 1st release date for the iPhone 5. While the listed date could simply be a placeholder, BGR and its source believe that the date could actually be a genuine one given that listings for other upcoming devices do appear to be specific ones rather than placeholders. The report also notes that October 1st is a Saturday, reported to be the busiest day of the week for mobile phone retail stores.

We have significant doubts about this speculation, however, and find the October 1st date to most likely simply be a placeholder given that the date is merely a convenient first of the month and that Apple has not been known to launch new iPhones on Saturdays. In addition, Apple works very hard to keep its carrier partners in the dark about its device plans, with even senior executives at Apple's biggest carrier partners not being clued in to the details of the company's roadmap.

Continuing a months-long trend of improving shipping estimates for the iPad 2, Apple today finally reach its quickest possible turnaround time for the device, moving to "within 24 hours" for shipping through the company's online stores for the United States and Canada. Adding engraving bumps the window out to 1-3 business days.

Shipping estimates in Apple's online stores for most of its other markets appear to remain at 1-3 business days, although they too may be updated in the near future to shift to the faster turnaround.

Apple's online store shipping estimates for the iPad 2 quickly ballooned to 4-5 weeks just as the first deliveries of the device began back in mid-March. Estimates slowly dropped over the following months as Apple began to catch up with demand, finally moving to 3-5 business days just under a month ago and then 1-3 business days the following week.

Apple launched its iCloud.com beta tonight. The beta is intended for developers to test their iCloud syncing functionality, though there has been some confusion about who exactly had access. Early on, it seemed that Apple inadvertently allowed access to more than just developers, but we now hear that Apple has started shutting out these non-developer users.

iCloud is Apple's upcoming syncing and storage service for both iOS 5 and OS X Lion. iCloud (the service) stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents and keeps it in sync across multiple devices. iCloud.com (the website) represents Apple's MobileMe website replacement that gives users online access to their Calendar, Email, Address Book, Find My Phone and iWork data. The entire interface borrows heavily from iOS and Lion and incorporates many nice graphical flourishes and animations.

This quick walkthrough video by helpfulmactips2010 shows the different pieces in place:

Apple has also revealed the pricing for additional iCloud storage. iCloud comes with 5GB of free storage, and the additional pricing is as follows:

• 10GB Additional, $20/year
• 20GB Additional, $40/year
• 50GB Additional, $100/year

Apple has said that purchased music, apps, and books, as well as Photo Stream, don’t count against your free 5GB storage.

Much more about iCloud should be revealed as the launch nears. Apple has promised that iCloud will launch this fall alongside iOS 5. OS X Lion will also need an update to fully support iCloud.