MacRumors

iLounge spotted another physical iPad 2 model being used to demonstrate a docking system at CES 2011.

The shell, which has been marked by developer Gopod Mobile with iPad 2 and 128GB logos that would not appear on the actual device, is being shown paired with an iPad 2-specific foldable rechargeable battery pack developed by the company, and depicts the revised devices redesigned curves, ports, and cameras; it is said by Gopod to represent the actual appearance of the as-yet-unreleased thinner and slightly smaller iPad.

The iPad 2 model is complete with front-sided camera hole, enlarged speaker grill and a backside camera. It also follows the tapered edges with flat-back that has been depicted in numerous case designs.

Apple is expected to launch the iPad 2 in the first quarter of 2011 with some expecting an announcement within the next few weeks.

Orbotix was at CES showing prototypes of their robotic ball that is controllable through your iPhone or iPod Touch. The product is called Sphero and is still about 6 months away from market. The baseball-sized device connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth with a free downloadable app. On the CES show floor they had an area set up to test out the early models.

Orbotix sees Sphero as a development platform and expects that 3rd party developers will be able to create interesting new games and apps around the system. The company is working on an API to open up to developers for both iPhone and iOS. Developers could come up with games for use with one or more Spheros. Examples include soccer, bowling, or a king of the hill game. The Sphero controls took some getting used to, and also includes a short "boost" mode that gives an extra burst of speed (at the expense of controllability).

Sphero is expected to hit the market in late 2011 for a price under $100. A few free games are likely to be available for the device at launch, while 3rd party game pricing will depend on those developers.

Bloomberg reports that it has learned from three separate sources that Apple has approached Laurence Tosi of investment firm Blackstone Group about taking on the role of Apple's Chief Financial Officer. Tosi would replace Peter Oppenheimer, who has served as Apple's CFO since 2004.

Tosi has reportedly indicated to Blackstone management that he intends to remain with the investment firm, suggesting that Apple may have to continue searching for a new executive. But in addressing the claims, Apple has gone as far as to state that Oppenheimer is very happy with the company and that Apple is not conducting a search for a new CFO, leading to questions about exactly what is happening behind closed doors.

Tosi told Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman that he plans to stay, rather than join Apple, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, said the company is "not conducting a CFO search." Current CFO Peter Oppenheimer "loves the company and is extremely happy in his role," Dowling said.

A similar note provided to All Things Digital by Apple includes a statement that "Peter is not leaving Apple."

Oppenheimer, a fixture on Apple's quarterly earnings conference calls, has helped guide Apple to tremendous financial success over the past six and a half years, with Apple currently sitting on over $50 billion in cash and investments and registering as the world's second-largest publicly-traded company with a market capitalization of over $300 billion.

One of the major questions with the Mac App Store has been whether the same "race to the bottom" effect on pricing seen in the iOS App Store will carry over into the new Mac App Store. The pricing dynamic is even more interesting for the Mac App Store because it reflects a new distribution method for many long-standing Mac developers while also inviting over many developers who have experienced significant success with relatively low-price titles on the iOS side of things.

TUAW has taken a look at the Mac App Store's offerings in the UK, finding 959 unique applications appearing a total of 2,004 times, as some applications are tagged to appear in multiple categories. Today's press release announcing the launch of the Mac App Store cited over 1,000 applications, suggesting that the U.S. store may include a somewhat greater number of applications than in other countries.

TUAW's analysis of pricing in the Mac App Store does in fact reveal a disparity, with two general groups: a low-priced group ranging from free to $5 that carries a heavy emphasis on iOS titles ported to the Mac platform and a higher-priced group operating primarily in a range of $10-$50 and weighted toward existing Mac applications taking advantage of the new distribution method.

As you can see, apps broadly fall into a few pricing categories. Almost half of the apps in the Mac App Store are in the cheap-and-free sub-$5 bracket; an informal survey reveals a lot of ports of iOS games falling into this area. There's then a bit of a no-mans-land between $5-10; then huge numbers of apps in the $10-50 brackets. Again, informally surveying the store, these appear to be mostly traditional Mac software packages that have been ported over to the store and broadly maintained their price points.

Finally, we have a small -- but significant -- number of apps above the $50 mark -- price points almost unheard of in the iOS App Store. It will be very interesting indeed to see how sales of these apps go, assuming any of the developers are willing to share that data.

With developers having for the most part set their initial prices without knowledge of what their competitors are doing, it will be interesting to see how the pricing dynamic plays out over time, particularly as the worlds of iOS developers and Mac developers become increasingly enmeshed.

In what should not be regarded as a surprise, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and other presenters during his keynote address at CES 2011 this morning made no mention of the possibility of the iPhone coming to Verizon. Seidenberg's role as the primary keynote speaker for the event had sparked speculation that the forum could be used to introduce a Verizon iPhone, although most observers have long thought that such an introduction would take place at an Apple-controlled event headed by Steve Jobs.

Seidenberg's presentation instead focused on Verizon's LTE and FiOS networks from the perspective of an integrated data access environment, and included the appearance of executives from Time Warner, Motorola, and Google to demonstrate such concepts as "TV Everywhere" that would allow customers to view their video content on a variety of devices over a number of different connections, as well as next-generation mobile devices and software that can take advantage of Verizon's LTE network speeds.

A CDMA version of the iPhone compatible with Verizon's network is still widely expected to make its debut early this year, possibly within the next few weeks, but we have yet to hear word of any Apple media event that would presumably accompany the introduction.

On a separate note, with Apple's iPad experiencing great success in 2010, tablets are unsurprisingly a major focus of this year's CES. Among the developments on the tablet front:

- Android 3.0 / Motorola Xoom: Google has released an intro video for its upcoming Android 3.0 software, "Honeycomb", an updated version of the company's smartphone operating system now said to be optimized for tablets. Meanwhile, Motorola has followed up on its "Tablet Evolution" teaser video with the introduction of the Motorola Xoom. A brief hands-on, however, reveals that the Xoom is still to be in the early stages of development.

While this sleek little device is still running a very early build of Honeycomb, we were able to sneak some peeks at the stuff Google and Motorola don't actually want you to see just yet. The device was looping demo videos of the Honeycomb UI, but a little investigation on our part revealed a bare bones homescreen.

Xoom is expected to launch Q1 2011.

- RIM BlackBerry Playbook: The BlackBerry PlayBook has been highly touted as Research in Motion's answer to the Apple iPad, and early impressions have been very positive.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is surprisingly polished and responsive at this stage, even though RIM says it has a lot of work to still left to do.

With the initial PlayBook model set to launch early this year, a 4G (WiMAX) PlayBook has also been announced for a summer debut on Sprint.

With the Mac App Store having gone live earlier today, users have now had a chance to play around with the store's features and offerings. And while the Mac App Store is fairly straightforward and very reminiscent of the iOS App Store, there are a few items of note that are worth mentioning.

Gizmodo offers a brief walkthrough of the Mac App Store purchasing process and some of the accompanying changes in Mac OS X 10.6.6, which include the use of existing iTunes Store accounts (and thus any corresponding gift card balances) for Mac App Store purchases and the previously-noted unknown filetype search integration in Mac OS X. Other interesting notes:

- Applications installed outside the Mac App Store: The Mac App Store automatically recognizes when a user already has Apple apps such as iLife '11 and iWork '09 installed on his or her system, showing an "installed" note in place of the purchase button in the store. The same does not appear to be true for third-party applications, however, as our previously-installed copy of TextWrangler was not picked up by the Mac App Store.

- Discounts on Apple software: The three components of Apple's iWork productivity suite are offered individually through the Mac App Store for $19.99 apiece, for a total of $59.97. In addition to offering the flexibility of purchasing only select portions of the iWork suite, the overall Mac App Store price is considerably below Apple's $79.00 price for iWork on physical media. In addition, Mac App Store purchases can be used on multiple machines controlled by the user, making the Mac App Store version more like the $99 iWork family pack.

Even bigger discounts can be had on a couple of other Apple software products. Most notably, Apple is offering Aperture 3 through the Mac App Store for only $79.99, a tremendous savings off of the $199 price for the version shipping on physical media. Apple is also offering its Apple Remote Desktop software through the Mac App Store for $79.99, a format that might be more appealing to some consumers than the company's standard offerings of a 10-system license for $299 or an unlimited license for $499.

iLife '11, however, is a slightly different story which sees the individual iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand components priced at $14.99 in the Mac App Store, for a total of $44.97. Apple sells iLife '11 on physical media for $49.00, a package that also includes iWeb and iDVD. But considering that all new Macs ship with the full iLife suite and that iWeb and iDVD were not updated with iLife '11, most users should already be essentially up-to-date on those applications.

Update: Users are reporting varying levels of success with the Mac App Store recognizing previously-installed third-party software as already being on their systems, with applications such as Coda, Transmit, and Things being recognized. Other users are also noting difficulties with the Mac App Store picking up iWork as being installed. One potential solution has been to log out and close the Mac App Store application, or even logging out of the user's Mac OS X account entirely.

AT&T today announced that, effective tomorrow, it will lower the price of the 8 GB iPhone 3GS to $49 from the current $99 price point. The press release suggests that the pricing could also be available through Apple sales channels, although a footnote states that pricing is determined by Apple.

AT&T today announced a new price for the popular iPhone 3GS - $49.00 - available beginning tomorrow, Friday, January 7, for both new and upgrade-eligible existing AT&T customers. The offer will be available online at www.att.com/iphone, across more than 2,200 AT&T retail locations nationwide and through AT&T business channels, as well as Apple channels.

While several vendors offered the iPhone 3GS at discounted prices (including as low as "free") in limited promotions before the holidays, AT&T's offer sets a new bar for standard pricing.

CNET yesterday reported that it has received information from a source claiming that Apple has limited vacation time for its retail store employees over the next two months, ostensibly in order to handle crowds from a new product presumed to be the CDMA iPhone widely expected to come to Verizon. The source also indicates that Apple appears to be planning a media event for next Tuesday, January 11th, in order to introduce the device, although the window of time for an announcement of such a media event is already becoming extremely short.

During this weekend's 2011 CES, he says, Apple will steal some thunder by announcing a product-launch event on Tuesday, January 11. (That's 1/11/11, if you're into numerology.) At that event, the company will finally announce the long-awaited Verizon iPhone. (Cue "Hallelujah" chorus.)

Alas, this is all just hearsay, and while a lot of it seems reasonable--likely, even--there's still no official word from either Apple or Verizon.

My tipster, citing a close relative who works high up the Apple food chain, said the new iPhone will be CDMA-based (no surprise there) and ship in February. He also noted that Apple was limiting staff vacation time for January and February, ostensibly to handle a sharp increase in sales and service traffic.

We received a similar tip a few days ago claiming a January 11th announcement for the Verizon iPhone with availability set for February, although we have been unable to confirm its accuracy. With the rumored event just five days away, time is running short for Apple to notify members of the media in time to make travel arrangements, and we are thus somewhat skeptical of the claim at this point. Apple typically offers approximately one-week notice regarding its media events.

In support of CNET's claims regarding restrictions on Apple retail sore employee vacations, AppleInsider reports that it has heard similar rumblings, with the vacation blackout apparently spanning the last week of January and the first two weeks of February.

People familiar with the company's retail plans say Apple has issued a "blackout" period spanning three weeks, during which retail employees without seniority will not be allowed vacation time. That blackout period is said to begin the last week of January and continue into the first half of February.

Apple is also said to have retained many of its temporary holiday employees for its retail stores in anticipation of continuing strong business in their stores.

The reason for Apple's vacation blackout is not yet officially known, although the Verizon iPhone is likely the strongest candidate with a second-generation iPad also registering as a possibility.

Apple today announced that the Mac App Store has opened for business with over 1,000 apps available at launch. The Mac App Store requires Mac OS X 10.6.6, which is now available for download via Software Update.

Apple today announced that the Mac App Store is now open for business with more than 1,000 free and paid apps. The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard users through Software Update as part of Mac OS X v10.6.6.

"With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps."

- Mac OS X v10.6.6 Update (143.59 MB)
- Mac OS X v10.6.6 Update Combo (1.06 GB)

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.6 Update (143.50 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.6 Update Combo (1.15 GB)

Among the Apple apps available through the store are iLife '11 applications priced at $14.99 each, iWork applications at $19.99 each, and Aperture 3 at $79.99. Apple also highlights the inclusion of applications from Autodesk, Ancestry.com and Boinx.

We'll have continuing coverage of Mac App Store developments as users have time to explore the store.

Bowers Wilkins announced an AirPlay revision to their Zeppelin speaker system. The new Zeppelin Air offers the traditional dock connector to attach your iPhone, iPad or iPhone touch directly, but also allows you to stream via AirPlay wirelessly. The Zeppelin Air will debut in March 2011 and cost $599.99.

Those looking for more inexpensive AirPlay speakers, iLounge reports that iHome is planning on releasing other AirPlay-compatible speakers targeted at the $200 range.

Meanwhile, SnapStick is offering an interesting approach to computer-TV integration. They have developed a hardware device that connects to your television that allows you to view videos and other web content through your TV. What makes it different is that you first find the content on your iPhone or computer, and then "snap" it to your TV. The process of spanning content involves transmitting the URL to the SnapStick device which is itself a web browsing device.

The use case seems to be for those who regularly find themselves browsing web content on their mobile devices but wish they could easily transmit it to their TV. Pricing has not yet been announced.

RazorianFly has outed a screenshot of the Mac App Store which shows an official Mac twitter client.

Were pleased to announce we have an exclusive look at the next version of Tweetie (Twitter) for Mac, version 2.0. While we cant go into too much detail, just know that Twitter for Mac version 2.0 will launch with the Mac App Store, tomorrow.

The release should look familiar to fans of Atebits's Tweetie for Mac. The future of Tweetie had been in question after Twitter acquired the developer back in May. The primary reason for the acquisition had been for Tweetie for iPhone, but it seems they have now rebranded Tweetie as the official Twitter client for Mac.

The Mac App Store is expected to launch at noon eastern on Thursday, Jan 6th.

Apple today released iWork 9.0.5, a maintenance update for the current edition of the company's productivity suite. In particular, the update expands support for iWork.com, which has remained in public beta for nearly two years now.

This update contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

- Adds support for playback of Keynote presentations on iWork.com public beta, with over 15 animations and effects, when using the latest version of Safari.
- Adds support for Keynote Remote 1.2, including high-resolution slides for the Retina display.
- Addresses an issue in Keynote with ruler numbers when moving or resizing a shape or scrolling.
- Addresses an issue when exporting a Keynote presentation to iTunes/iPod when iTunes 10 is installed.
- Improves the readability of ePub documents exported from Pages.
- Includes public sharing and private upload document sharing options for iWork.com to Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.

Full details on the update, which weighs in at 67.06 MB, are available in a support document associated with the release.

As suggested in the update description, Apple has also updated its Keynote Remote iOS application [App Store], bringing a number of fixes and improvements to the application for controlling Keynote presentations.

What's New in Version 1.2

- Optimized for the Retina display, including support for high-resolution slides.
- Support for iOS 4 multitasking.
- Improved handling of alerts (such as push notifications, text messages) received while controlling a presentation.
- Improved handling of loss of connection with Keynote '09
- Fixed networking issues, including recognizing a new Wi-Fi network if it was connected after launching Keynote Remote

There have been hints that Apple may launch a new iWork '11 alongside the Mac App Store tomorrow, and we have heard from several sources that the release may only be available through the Mac App Store and not on physical media, although we have been unable to confirm those reports.

Boy Genius Report points to a YouTube video from smartphone parts firm Global Direct Parts claiming to show a comparison between parts from the iPhone 4 and an unreleased iPhone model that the company suggests may either be the CDMA iPhone 4 rumored for release in the near future or a fifth-generation iPhone. Due to the presence of a SIM-card slot, which is not required for CDMA phones, it would appear more likely that the device in question is a fifth-generation iPhone if it is indeed legitimate. It is of course possible that the part is either from a well-done fake iPhone 4 or perhaps an alternate design for the iPhone 4 that was ultimately not used.

The video highlights a number of similarities and a few differences from the current iPhone when it comes to interior parts and cables. A look at the "middle plate" that contains the stainless steel band that wraps around the edge of the device and provides the device's antennas that have been the cause of such controversy on the iPhone 4 reveals a few differences between the two devices : the break points in the frame between the two antennas have been moved to different locations, indicating that the antenna design has been tweaked despite a very similar overall appearance for the new iPhone. The shift in antenna design has also necessitated a slight adjustment in the location of several other physical features, most significantly the mute switch.

The video concludes with a teaser claiming that more information on LCDs and motherboards is coming on the company's site, with additional information to be released next week.

Update: The YouTube video showing the comparison has been removed, citing a copyright complaint from Apple. Global Direct Parts has also removed its parts listings for the device.

According to The Loop, Apple is apparently planning to open the Mac App Store at noon Eastern Time tomorrow, bringing a variation of the company's integrated application purchasing system for iOS to the Mac OS X platform.

The Mac App Store will officially launch on January 6, but nobody has been able to nail down a time when the service will be publicly available.

According to my sources, the Mac App Store will be available at 12:00 pm (noon) ET on Thursday. That puts it at about 9:00 am PT where Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif.

The Loop's Jim Dalrymple is a veteran Apple-focused journalist who early last month accurately claimed that the Mac App Store would launch in January, despite several rumors circulating at the time claiming that Apple would open the store before the holidays.

Just yesterday, we noted that several high-profile iOS developers are bringing Mac versions of their applications to the Mac App Store in the initial wave, generally opting to price their offering inline with the corresponding iOS versions.

One of the major questions about future iPhones has been at what point Apple will choose to offer "4G" LTE compatibility. With Verizon only just beginning to roll out its own 4G network, rumors have indicated that the CDMA-based iPhone 4 widely rumored for a launch early this year will not support 4G. The bigger question has been whether Apple will support 4G in the fifth-generation iPhone presumably set to debut sometime in the middle of the year, with several reports indicating that Apple will skip 4G compatibility at that point as well.

In covering a CES keynote address by AT&T's Ralph de la Vega, Boy Genius Report notes that de la Vega's comments suggest that a 4G LTE iPhone is in fact not coming until 2012.

De la Vega included Apple in his list of manufacturers set to launch LTE devices in 2012, implying that AT&T will launch a 4G LTE-compatible Apple iPhone next year

De la Vega reportedly also confirmed AT&T's plans for an accelerated timetable for deployment of its LTE network, looking to launch sometime this year with completion set for 2013. He also noted that the HSPA+ improvements that have already spread to much of the company's network already come relatively close to 4G speeds.

While many observers have been hoping that Apple will be an early adopter of LTE technology to support the ever-increasing data demands of iPhone users, past history has suggested that Apple will sit on the sidelines until the LTE service becomes more widespread and has had time to mature. Despite the fact that AT&T offered a 3G data network at the time of the iPhone's initial launch in 2007, the first-generation device did not support the technology and operated only on the carrier's slower-but-more-widely-available EDGE network.

Update: Boy Genius Report has updated its article to note that AT&T has officially denied that de la Vega confirmed an LTE iPhone for 2012. It appears that the confusion has stemmed from AT&T's decision to call both its existing HSPA+ network and its forthcoming LTE network "4G" for marketing purposes.

Well, AT&T's ridiculous decision to call both HSPA+ and LTE "4G" is already causing problems -- AT&T contacted us to let us know that no iPhone-related LTE announcements were made. Apparently the "4G" mentioned alongside de la Vega's mention of Apple did not refer to LTE "4G".

Earlier this week, Intel officially unveiled its next-generation "Sandy Bridge" processor architecture, marking a significant performance improvement, especially for notebook computers. Apple is expected to utilize Sandy Bridge in upcoming revisions of a number of its Mac computers.

Unwilling to wait for Apple to make the move to Sandy Bridge, Hackintosh fans have already managed to successfully install Mac OS X Snow Leopard on systems with Sandy Bridge hardware. By using a patched Darwin kernel, users are able to bring Mac OS X to Sandy Bridge, although the technique is obviously officially unsupported and may result in system instability.

The good news is, we've already successfully installed Mac OS X Snow Leopard!

The bad news is, until Apple uses these CPUs, it's a bit of a science experiment, as you'll need to use a "patched" non-standard Darwin kernel in order to boot the system.

A report from early last month indicated that Apple is preparing to initially make the leap to Sandy Bridge on some of its smaller notebook computers, opting to use the all-in-one platform with much-improved graphics performance compared to the company earlier offerings. Unsatisfied with Intel's earlier offerings, Apple has continued to use older Core 2 Duo chips paired with custom NVIDIA integrated graphics in its smaller form factors where discrete graphics have not been an option due to space constraints.

With cases claimed to be for the next-generation iPad appearing over the past few weeks, observers have been examining the cases in detail in their attempts to get an idea of how the second generation of Apple's tablet will differ from the original version. Based on those cases, it has been noted that the next-generation iPad appears to be slightly thinner than the current model and carries tapered edges more akin to the iPod touch than the current version's flat sides and rounded back.

As noted by Engadget, however, one case manufacturer exhibiting its wares at CES has taken things one step further in aiding our visualization of the next-generation iPad by putting together a physical mockup of the device made out of machined aluminum.

It [the case] was so intriguing that we asked to put our own iPad inside, which is when we were told it wouldn't fit, since the case was designed for the next iPad. Indeed, the mockup that we found inside the case was a tad bit slimmer than the first-gen iPad, with a taper leading to the edges that reminds us of the iPod touch, and a home button positioned nearer the bottom edge. We found all the typical cutouts on the case, and their mirror on the machined mockup, including a large square for the speaker.

The rumored physical details of the next-generation iPad of course depend on the case mockups being based on accurate information, although such details have generally been fairly accurate in the past as the case manufacturers have been able to obtain advance design information through leaks in Apple's supply chain. A number of the claimed cases have been pulled since their existence was made public, possibly suggesting that Apple has been stepping in to limit access to accurate details of its future products.

The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show officially kicks off this week, and the press releases and events have started. Here are a few interesting Apple-related products that have already appeared. We'll provide limited CES coverage over the week.

iHome Airplay

iHome Audio has unleashed more information about their iW1 AirPlay wireless speaker system. The wireless speaker supports Apple's AirPlay technology to stream music throughout the house from iTunes.

Using AirPlay, users can wirelessly stream music from iTunes, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch over Wi-Fi to the iHome iW1 speaker system and enjoy music in any room of the house. AirPlay requires iTunes 10.1 or later and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.2 or later.

The iW1 comes with a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery, allowing you to place it anywhere in the house. Multiple speakers are supported to play music in several locations and it also doubles as an iPhone dock that allows local playback.

Eye-Fi Direct Mode

Eye-Fi announced an upcoming "Direct Mode" for their Wi-Fi enabled storage cards that will allow you to transfer photos directly from your camera to your mobile device.

With Direct Mode, photos taken with your digital camera can immediately be sent to your smartphone or tablet. They can be viewed, used with myriad apps on the device, or uploaded and shared.

Eye-Fi cards are regular SD cards that fit into your digital camera, but also incorporates Wi-Fi to transfer your photos to your computer. The Direct Mode will presumably bring this support to wirelessly send photos to your iPhone or iPad in realtime rather than to your computer.

Fling Game Controller for iPad

TenOneDesign announced their game controller accessory for the iPad that allows you to place an analog stick directly on the screen. TouchArcade took a first look at the device:

The Fling is a cleverly designed device with two suction cups on one side connected to a plastic ring. Inside of the plastic ring is a spiral that suspends an electrically conductive joystick in the center. This spiral works like a spring, always returning the joystick to the center, and providing more resistance the closer you get to the edge of the plastic ring.
....
If you're playing a game with floating virtual joysticks like most dual stick shooters, all you've got to do is position it wherever is most comfortable to you, press down both suction cups, and you're ready to roll.

Fling is expected to ship in late January and costs $24.95 for one, and $38.00 for a two-pack.