Following on the heels of our report from Wednesday about Apple's preparations for developer seeds of OS X 10.8.1, Apple has now released the first build of the Mountain Lion update to developers, according to 9to5Mac.
The release has a build number of 12B13 and Apple reports no known issues, but asks developers to focus on a wide variety of areas for their testing. The delta update -- where only items that have changed are downloaded -- weighs in at 36.4MB.
According to 9to5Mac, developers have been asked to test Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange in Mail, PAC proxies in Safari, SMB, USB, and Wi-Fi and audio when connected to the Apple Thunderbolt display.
The OS X 10.8.1 seed is available for download via the OS X Developer portal at developer.apple.com.
Industrial designer Don Lehman takes a look at the iPhone casing leaks that have surfaced so far, analyzing in great detail how Apple appears to have refined its iPhone with a new unibody design that should make the device stronger, lighter, and thinner than previous models.
In looking at the probable antenna design of the next-generation iPhone, Lehman notes how the antenna design evolved between the GSM iPhone 4 and the CDMA iPhone 4, the latter of which then carried over to the iPhone 4S. Following the "Antennagate" controversy with the original iPhone 4, Apple redesigned the antenna system in order to push the antennas to the top and bottom portions of the stainless steel band wrapping around the device, leaving the portions along the two long sides as structural and decorative pieces.
Lehman believes that Apple is using a similar principle for the next-generation iPhone, but has made the move to a "unibody" design in which the long side pieces and the large central section of the rear shell are machined from a single piece. The texture seen on the inside of the shell in leaked photos are in fact the tool marking showing how Apple machined the part out of a single block of metal.
The leaked design has three pieces of metal instead of four. It still has two U-shaped pieces at the top and bottom, but this time the two flat sides become one single piece of metal that also comprises the back of the device. That single piece of metal is the unibody backplate.
The same properties that unibody designs give to Apple’s laptops apply to this design as well: stronger, lighter, and thinner. You can see from this picture the tool path of the CNC machine that made the unibody backplate of this design. The tool path sort of looks like the lines that are made when a farmer plows a field. This started out as a single block of metal and the CNC carved that metal out until you have what you see here.
Lehman notes that even the bosses where screws for other components will attach are machined out of the single rear shell piece, increasing strength while reducing thickness and weight.
While Apple would certainly prefer to build the entire rear shell out of a single piece of metal, the realities of signal transmission mean that the company needs to use more transparent materials in locations where the antennas are. With the iPhone needing to send and receive Wi-Fi, cellular, GPS, Bluetooth, and perhaps NFC signals, Apple has pushed those hardware functions to the top and bottom of the device where they are the least shielded by other device components and the user's hand. Accommodating those functions has led Apple to adopt its new strategy of using a high-quality, thin metal shell wherever possible on the back of the device to increase strength and decrease size and weight while using glass or plastic windows for the antennas.
Lehman wraps up his post by addressing several other design aspects of the next-generation iPhone shell, including an examination of Apple's tinting of the metal on the black version of the device and placement of the rear camera with respect to the device design, as well as giving an overview of some of the other changes Apple has made for the forthcoming device.
Exactly one month ago, we noted the presence of a "MacBookPro10,2" entry in the Geekbench results database, suggesting that a 13-inch version of the Retina MacBook Pro is indeed in the works, as has been rumored for October. In comparison, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro carries a "MacBookPro10,1" identifier, while current non-Retina versions of the MacBook Pro carry "MacBookPro9,x" identifiers.
While much of the data presented to Geekbench by machines can be faked and many Hackintosh enthusiasts go to great lengths to match their machines' details to those of actual Macs, the details of the MacBookPro10,2 were consistent enough with expectations that both we and Geekbench developer Primate Labs believed the entry to be genuine.
Following the original entry, a second MacBookPro10,2 has now appeared in the results database, with the data bearing very strong similarity to the original entry but with some differences that suggest this entry may also be legitimate.
Like the machine that appeared first, the new machine runs a 2.9 GHz Core i7-3520M, the same processor found in the current high-end model of the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro. The machine's motherboard identifier also matches the previous machine, which itself matched a previously unaccounted for identifier seen in early developer builds of OS X Mountain Lion. And as would be expected for machines running the same specs, the two machines have very similar Geekbench scores of roughly 7800.
There are a few differences, however, with one of the key ones being a custom 12A2066 build of the unreleased OS X 10.8.1. Just two days ago, Apple gave the first indication that it will begin seeding OS X 10.8.1 to developers, but it has yet to do so. In addition, the four-digit build number suffix is sometimes used internally by Apple on its test machines, although such four-digit build numbers are sometimes also used publicly for special builds such as the version of OS X 10.7.4 that shipped on new 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro models.
In addition, this new entry reflects a MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM, in line with what ships paired with the Core i7-3520M on the corresponding non-Retina model. The previous MacBookPro10,2 entry showed a machine with only 4 GB of RAM. Finally, the BIOS string for the new entry appears to show an updated date code of July 18, 2012, compared to the previous one registering as June 11, 2012.
Geekbench results have on several occasions revealed upcoming Mac models, most recently in mid-May with the MacBookPro9,1 that turned out to be the non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro upon its release the following month. Notably, an iMac13,2 entry that also appeared to be legitimate surfaced around the same time, but Apple has yet to release updated iMacs.
French site Nowherelse.fr is continuing its string of parts leaks surrounding the next iPhone, sharing photos [Google translation] of what it has been told is the dock connector for the cable to be paired with the next-generation iPhone. The connector portion of the cable is shown next to the USB end of the cable, giving an idea of the size of the new connector.
The site notes that it can not confirm the validity of the images, but they do appear to show some features that could be consistent with what has been claimed about the new smaller dock connector. The connector shown in the images is considerably smaller that the existing dock connector, and the metal insertion piece appears to have 8 gold pins for making contact inside the corresponding port on the device. The insertion piece also appears as if it could be inserted into the iPhone in either orientation, as has been rumored.
Nowhereelse.fr had a poor track record of leaks leading up to the launch of the original iPad, but has been relatively quiet until earlier this month when it began sharing photos of next-generation iPhone parts. Those leaks are believed to be legitimate, as they are originating from Asian websites and are consistent with other leaks seen to date.
Update: Kyle Wiens of iFixit tells us the metal frame counts as a grounding pin, which means it's effectively a 9-pin connector. There has been some debate about it being an 8-pin vs 9-pin port, and this could reconcile those different claims.
The patent and design dispute between Apple and Samsung has continued to yield a treasure trove of information, with the latest revelations shared by AllThingsD revealing each company's United States sales of a number of their mobile devices.
While Apple reports its worldwide iPhone and iPad sales on a quarterly basis, the new document addresses Apple's U.S. sales specifically and includes number for the iPod touch, which Apple has traditionally referred to only generally as representing more than 50% of total iPod sales. Samsung's numbers are also of interest given that the company halted public disclosures of its device sales in mid-2010, citing competitive reasons.
Apple's numbers reveal that the company has sold nearly 86 million iPhones in the United States, or roughly a third of the company's total sales of nearly 250 million units worldwide. The data also reveals for the first time that Apple has sold 46.5 million iPod touch units in the U.S., having peaked in 2010 at over 13 million for the year. On the iPad side, Apple's sales of 34 million units in the United States represents approximately 40% of the company's total iPad sales of 84 million units worldwide.
Samsung's numbers include only those devices that are included in the lawsuit and thus omit a number of recent popular smartphones, as well as several tablet models, but they do reveal some interesting information on Samsung's sales patterns.
Perhaps most interesting are Samsung's tablet sales numbers, which include a total of just 1.4 million units sold through the second quarter of 2012 for the three devices included in the lawsuit: the original Galaxy Tab, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE. This is compared to a total of 34 million iPads sold in the United States since its original launch back in 2010.
On the smartphone side, Samsung's filing offers a complex picture of sales of two dozen models, although a number of them are simply carrier-specific versions of the same device. All told, the Samsung sold over 21 million of the smartphones included in the lawsuit, representing $7.5 billion in revenue.
Documents filed by Samsung lawyers on Thursday reveal that, from June 2010 through June 2012, Samsung sold 21.25 million phones, generating $7.5 billion in revenue. On the tablet side, the company sold 1.4 million Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices, producing $644 million in revenue.
In terms of individual phone models, the largest in units were the Galaxy Prevail with 2.25 million phones sold, the Epic 4G with 1.89 million phones sold and the Epic 4G Touch variant of the Galaxy S II, which sold 1.67 million units in the U.S. All told, Samsung sold 4.1 million Galaxy S II devices, when all models are included.
The report notes that these sales numbers are just some of the key internal data that both Samsung and Apple have been fighting to keep private but which have been brought into the open as part of the ongoing dispute. Overall, the trial has yielded quite a bit of interesting information on the both Apple's and Samung's mobile businesses, including some insight into Apple's early development of the iPhone and iPad.
Part photos of the new battery for the next generation iPhone have been posted by 9to5Mac. The part shows only a minor increase in capacity from 3.7V/1430mAh/5.3Whr in the iPhone 4S to 3.8V/1440mAh/5.45Whr in the rumored iPhone 5. No dimensions are provided to compare the size of the battery to the current iPhone batteries.
The next generation iPhone is believed to be a taller but thinner device. The increased height, however, is more than offset by the reduction in thickness which results in a decreased internal volume of the device as compared to the iPhone 4 and 4S. If this part leak is to believed, Apple hasn't been able to significantly increase the battery capacity on the new iPhone.
The new iPhone is expected to include LTE data networking for the first time. LTE has traditionally required more power than the currently supported 3G networks. Apple's Tim Cook has said that the reason that Apple hadn't used LTE in iPhones is due to the "design compromises" required to build such a device. This has widely believed to have referred to the increased power requirement of existing LTE chips. Qualcomm is poised to release a new LTE chip that Anandtech believes will "likely increase LTE battery life to reasonable levels".
Hidden files in the Mountain Lion version of Boot Camp appear to confirm the next generation of both the Mac Pro and iMac, according to information dug up by AppleInsider.
Within a Boot Camp configuration file lies information that tells the software what models of Mac can boot Windows from a USB-drive, a task that only Macs of a more recent vintage can accomplish. The file includes mention of the existing Mac Mini and MacBook Air, but also mentions iMac 13,0 and MacPro 6,0 models -- machines that don't currently exist.
Earlier this year, Geekbench 2 benchmarks for an unreleased iMac 13,2 model were discovered that appear to be legitimate and fueled speculation that the iMac would be updated soon. The current model iMacs have gone more than a year -- 464 days -- without an update, and are well overdue.
After the Mac Pro was given a quiet update this year, many were wondering about the future of Apple's desktop line of Macs. Both Apple CEO Tim Cook and an unnamed Apple spokesperson have confirmed that the Mac Pro will receive a full redesign for delivery sometime in 2013, nearly three years after the last significant update to the product.
Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo, today informed customers that their internal security network had been breached.
The company doesn't believe that financial information has been compromised but other data including email addresses for all non-China players and scrambled passwords were taken. The company believes it will be extraordinarily difficult for hackers to break into actual accounts, but is recommending that all users change their passwords.
Blizzard does offer the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator [App Store], an iPhone app that dynamically generates a new six-digit code every minute. Users can't log into any Battle.net account -- either through a game or on a website -- without the code. It virtually eliminates unauthorized access to the Battle.net account and it is recommended for all Battle.net accountholders.
Here is the letter from Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime:
Players and Friends,
Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.
At this time, we've found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.
Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.
We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.
In the coming days, we'll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we'll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.
We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.
As we noted earlier this week when iOS 6 Beta 4 was released to developers, one of the newest features in the release was the addition of a "Wi-Fi Plus Cellular" setting to the General/Cellular control panel.
The setting appears to allow apps to fall back on the iPhone's cellular data connection when having difficulties moving data via the Wi-Fi connection, something that can happen with a weak Wi-Fi signal or a temperamental Internet connection.
Less clear is the purpose of the series of controls below that. There are individual On/Off switches to use cellular data for iCloud Documents, iTunes, FaceTime, Passbook Updates and Reading List. Some believe these are a submenu setting for the Wi-Fi Plus Cellular control, allowing tasks such as downloading music from iTunes or syncing iCloud Documents to require the use of Wi-Fi -- forbidding some apps from connecting via Cellular Data while others are allowed to.
We've reached out to Apple for clarification and as it's still a beta release, restricted to 'developers', the settings could always change to be made more clear or removed entirely.
With a number of retailers and carriers beginning to drop prices on the iPhone as the introduction of Apple's next-generation hardware approaches, Apple has officially continued to maintain standard on-contract pricing of $199/$299/$399 for the iPhone 4S, $99 for the iPhone 4, and free for the iPhone 3GS.
But a source has now revealed to MacRumors that Apple's retail stores have been given authorization to match these discounted prices from approved major retailers and carriers. In all cases, Apple will discount iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models by $49.01 upon request to bring pricing down to $349.99/$249.99/$149.99 for the iPhone 4S and $49.99 for the iPhone 4. As with most price matching offers, consumers will likely need to cite the source offering the lower pricing in order for Apple to honor the price match.
Notably, the price matching policy applies only to Apple's retail stores and is not available for orders through the online store.
The settlement is part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts make sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers, and is the largest penalty the agency has ever obtained for a violation of a Commission order. In addition to the civil penalty, the order also requires Google to disable all the tracking cookies it had said it would not place on consumers’ computers.
“The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order,” said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC. “No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place.”
Google took advantage of a loophole in Safari's privacy settings designed to prevent placement of third-party cookies by default, using invisible web forms to trick Safari into thinking that users had interacted with Google's ads and thus allowing cookies to be placed on the device.
The FTC specifically charged Google with violating an October 2011 order related to a previous case of privacy violations. In the new Safari case, FTC commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the settlement, with the dissenting commissioner arguing against the settlement allowing Google to deny all liability related to the issue.
Following up on a fresh leak of claimed next-generation iPhone parts, Nowhereelse.fr now shares [Google translation] new photos from the same source that provide an interesting comparison between several of the new components and their predecessors found in the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4.
As shown in the top row, Apple appears to be returning to the rotational electric motor design for the vibrator that was used in the GSM iPhone 4 and earlier devices. In the CDMA iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, Apple has been using a larger drum-shaped linear oscillating vibrator that gives a softer feel and sound.
Apple's flex cable designs have also continued to evolve through the generations, with the company tending to group components on cables by function and physical proximity. With the move of the headphone jack to the bottom of the device and tweaks to the camera and sensor arrangements, it appears that Apple has in some respects been able to simplify its cable designs.
The second row of parts shows how Apple has modified the design of the volume control cable over time. While the part previously included the volume control button/mute switch assembly and the headphone jack, with the headphone jack having moved to the bottom of the device the cable now stretches across the device to also contain the power switch, consolidating all of the exterior button and switch functionalities on a single cable.
In previous iPhones, the power switch was included on the sensor cable, which also contained both the proximity sensor and the ambient light sensor, as shown in the third row of parts. But with the power switch now having been moved over to the volume control cable, the sensor cable has been simplified.
Not shown in these photos is the headphone jack and dock connector part. That part was one of the first to leak back in May, but the dock connector was initially misidentified as the earpiece before it was discovered that the headphone jack would actually be located on the bottom of the next-generation iPhone.
French site Nowhereelse.fr points [Google translation] to several new photos of what are claimed to be parts for the next-generation iPhone. While a number of the parts are similar to those that have previously been seen, including a SIM card tray leaked earlier this week that appears to have come from the same company, one notable addition in the lower left of today's photos is what appears to be the protection shield that will attach to the back of the new iPhone's larger 4-inch display.
Other parts include the home buttons and front panel that have been seen a number of times previously, as well as flex cables for the device's sensors and external buttons and switches at the top left of the photos.
Pixelmator 2.1 has arrived on the Mac App Store, bringing support for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, iCloud syncing and backup, and more. Pixelmator is a highly rated image editor that was one of the early successes on the Mac App Store. The app generated more than $1 million in revenue in the first 20 days of the Mac App Store's existence.
The Pixelmator Team today released Pixelmator 2.1, the newest major update of the inspiring, easy-to-use and feature-packed image editing software. Pixelmator 2.1 adds a new Effects Browser, several new effects—including Vintage and Miniaturize effects—new smart Alignment Guides and many other enhancements. Pixelmator 2.1 comes ready with support for OS X Mountain Lion, including iCloud, as well as support for the new MacBook Pro with Retina display.
The smart Alignment Guides are similar to the placement lines Apple uses in iWork, while the iCloud support backs up images to Apple's servers and keeps Pixelmator files up to date between Macs. A 30-day free trial is available from Pixelmator's website.
Pixelmator 2.1 -- codenamed Cherry -- is temporarily available on the Mac App Store for $14.99, a significant discount from its standard $59. [Direct Link]
Valve today announced that beginning September 5 it will expand its Steam store for digital distribution of gaming titles to include other types of applications. The expansion of Steam to other software categories could pose signification competition for other digital marketplaces such as Apple's Mac App Store.
The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.
More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.
Beyond simply serving as a comparable alternative for the Mac App Store, the Steam store could become a convenient distribution point for software that is not compatible with Apple's Mac App Store guidelines. Apple's limitations such as sandboxing requirements have resulted in some applications not being accepted for distribution through the Mac App Store or required that certain features be removed, and Valve's Steam store is likely to be more lenient in those regards.
Hints of an expansion for Steam appeared last month within the Steam app for Android, which briefly showed new categories of software for the store.
MacRumors has received word that Apple is making preparations to begin seeding builds of OS X 10.8.1 to developers. The release would be the first maintenance update to OS X Mountain Lion, which launched two weeks ago, and this new update will likely focus on squashing some of the more significant bugs that have been discovered in the original version.
The first maintenance updates for OS X releases tend to come fairly quickly after their initial debuts, due in part to a need to move some of the major bug fixes to the public as quickly as possible. Apple has also likely been working on OS X 10.8.1 since some time prior to the launch of Mountain Lion, as it seeded the final version to developers over two weeks ahead of the public launch and undoubtedly continued to find issues requiring attention after that time.
For comparison, OS X 10.7.1 launched 27 days after the debut of OS X Lion, while OS X 10.6.1 appeared just 13 days after the launch of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
As a reminder, Apple is also continuing work on an update to Lion with developer versions of OS X 10.7.5 having been released for testing.
Former Apple ad man Ken Segall was interviewed by Time editor-at-large Harry McCracken in a special presentation at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Segall published a book earlier this year about his experiences called Insanely Simple that posited "Simplicity" as the driving force behind everything Steve Jobs did.
Apple's unique advertising strategies have contributed greatly to the growth of the company in recent years and the discussion is worth watching for anyone interested in Apple's marketing. Segall and McCracken cover a wide variety of topics during the 1-hour discussion, including an extensive Q&A session at the end.
One topic that Segall addresses during the interview is his comments about Apple's recent 'Genius' series of ad spots -- TV ads that some felt missed the mark. He notes that there were a number of ads that Steve Jobs approved that were received poorly in the past, including the first iPod ad which featured a dancing iPod owner.
Ars Technica has been doing some testing after reports emerged that some Mountain Lion early adopters were experiencing degraded battery life after upgrading to OS X 10.8. A 46-page thread with nearly 700 replies has been growing over the past several weeks on the Apple Support Forums.
Ars writer Chris Foresman, after extended testing, discovered that the battery life of his Retina MacBook Pro review unit dropped 38% from its previous 8-hours. He was unable to narrow down blame for the battery loss to any particular bit of software or system process.
Our own testing revealed similar (and significant) drops in battery runtime after installing Mountain Lion. In previous tests, we were able to regularly achieve just over 8 hours of use by relying solely on our Retina MacBook Pro's integrated Intel HD4000 GPU. Performing the same "real-world" test using the same software applications and usage pattern, we never got the Retina MacBook Pro to run for more than a few minutes past 5 hours after a full charge.
[…]
Typically, the quad-core processor wasn't taxed beyond 5 percent capacity, except for occasional 10-20 percent spikes when loading webpages, reading or writing files, or other activities. Unexpected file system or network access, or less efficient use of the GPU, could cause additional power drain without showing significant CPU use.
One poster on Apple's support forums claims a company support representative told him that "an update will be issued via the [Mac App Store] as soon as they can work a fix".
Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo, today 
MacRumors has received word that Apple is making preparations to begin seeding builds of OS X 10.8.1 to developers. The release would be the first maintenance update to OS X Mountain Lion, which 
Former Apple ad man Ken Segall was interviewed by Time editor-at-large Harry McCracken in a 
Ars Technica has been 
