MacRumors

A newly-awarded Apple patent addressing parental controls for text-based communication is receiving a considerable amount of attention from the mainstream press today for its ties to the hot-button issue of "sexting", the sending of sexually-explicit messages that is of growing concern to many parents.

Apple's patent, which was filed in January 2008 and first revealed in July 2009 when the application for it was made public, addresses the means by which a filtering system could be used to block messages such as emails and texts containing objectionable material according to user-defined criteria.

The invention, in various embodiments, addresses deficiencies in existing attempts at solutions by providing systems, methods and devices that enable an administrator to control the text-based communications of a user of a text-based communications device through an administrative mode of an intelligent text-based communication control unit or application. The text-based communication control application filters incoming and/or outgoing text-based communications based on administrator-defined criteria.

An entire message identified by the filter could be blocked, or the objectionable content could simply be stripped out while the remainder of the message is allowed to be sent or received.

Apple's focus extends beyond that of simply addressing objectionable content, noting that the feature could be used in an educational enviroment to encourage proper spelling and grammar or usage of certain vocabulary words, or to set quotas for usage of foreign words by a student studying a new language.

Engadget reports that Apple has issued invitations for a special media event to be held next Wednesday, October 20th at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. The invitation for the event, which is to be held at the company's campus in Cupertino, California, carries the tagline "Back to the Mac".

The invitation also contains an image of what appears to be a lion peeking out from behind the Apple logo, hinting at discussion of Mac OS X 10.7. "Lion" has been one of the most commonly-suggested "big cat" names for the next-generation operating system.

As shown in our Buyer's Guide, much of Apple's notebook line with the exception of the entry-level MacBook is due for a refresh, and Apple has refreshed at least a portion of its notebook line each October or November for the last several years. Apple's desktop offerings have all been updated relatively recently, suggesting that the company's media event may focus on notebooks if new hardware is included on the agenda.

TheStreet reports that, during Wal-Mart's annual meeting this morning, executives announced that the retailer will begin carrying the iPhone and iPad in its Sam's Club warehouse club chain, marking yet another significant distribution point for Apple's mobile devices.

A timeframe was not provided for when the devices would hit the warehouse club. Sam's Club said it is attempting to increase the quality in its consumer electronic categories, as well as its fresh food and health and wellness divisions.

Sam's Club is membership-only warehouse chain of approximately 600 stores in the United States, competing against the likes of Costco and BJ's Wholesale Club. The three major warehouse clubs have long offered iPods in their stores at a slight discount from Apple's retail prices, but today's announcement marks the first time one of the chains has landed the iPhone and iPad. Pricing for the devices has yet to be announced.

The news comes just as Wal-Mart is rolling out sales of the iPad in many of its retail stores, following recent retail expansion to all Best Buy Stores, as well as Target and Amazon, as Apple's constrained supplies have begun to ease.

Update: AppleInsider is reporting that Target is also planning to sell the iPhone as part of its partnership with Radio Shack to deploy mobile phone centers in its stores.

In something of a psychological milestone, Apple's stock opened for trading today at just over $300 per share, having risen 25% since late August and 42% since the beginning of the year.

Apple has passed several stock-related milestones so far this year, including blowing past $200 billion in market capitalization back in March and passing Wal-Mart in market capitalization just a few days later. In April, Apple's stock topped $250 for the first time, and by late May Apple had passed Microsoft to become the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, trailing only Exxon Mobil.

Since that time, Apple has expanded its lead over Microsoft in market capitalization to nearly $50 billion, although it has been unable to close the gap on Exxon Mobil as the energy giant's stock has also performed well over the last few months.

Apple is due to release its earnings report for the June-September quarter next Monday, with some observers predicting that the company will reach $20 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in its history and surpass Microsoft in revenue for the first time in 15 years.

Neowin.net reports that Oded Ran, a Microsoft executive in charge of Windows Phone marketing in the UK, today posted a tweet suggesting that the company's Zune software will be making its way to the Mac OS X platform in support of syncing for handsets using Windows Phone 7. The tweet, which has been deleted, promised that more details would be coming soon.

Microsoft's Zune software has not been offered on the Mac platform since the company's line of MP3 players launched in 2006, despite continued growth by the Zune platform to include music and video content across computers, phones, and Xbox LIVE.

Media-focused devices from Microsoft such as the discontinued KIN phones have used small helper applications to enable syncing for Mac users, but Ran's tweet appears to reveal that a more substantial Zune experience is coming to Mac OS X alongside the new Windows Phone 7 handsets introduced yesterday.

Update: Engadget reports that Microsoft has issued a one-line statement confirming its plans for Mac syncing software, although it is unclear how extensive its feature set will be.

Later in 2010 Microsoft will make a public beta available of a tool that allows Windows Phone 7 to sync select content with Mac computers.

Reuters briefly reports on a note from Citibank analyst Chang Kaiwei claiming that Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn and its parent company Hon Hai are preparing to raise the prices they charge to their customers for manufacturing devices such as the iPhone.

Hon Hai, the world's largest electronic parts maker, will raise prices from October for some clients, including Apple, according to a Citibank analyst, a Taiwan newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The move, said to be designed to boost quarterly profits for the firms, is also said to affect Nokia, Microsoft, and Sony Ericsson.

It is unclear how much of a price increase Hon Hai is targeting, and thus whether Apple will be able to maintain its existing pricing for its customers or if it will be forced to pass along some of the increase. Apple will presumably make every effort to maintain its current price points, and its healthy gross margins should offer the company some flexibility in this regard, although any change in Apple's cost situation would likely have an effect on Apple's forward-looking financial guidance and investor sentiment.

HDBlog.it and AppAdvice detail the changes found in the latest iOS 4.2 beta that was released earlier today. Beta 3 appears to improve performance and fixes a number of bugs, but also introduces some small new features.

- New tones for SMS
- iPad: Enable/Disable alert sounds for New Mail, Sent Mail, Calendar Alerts, Lock Sounds, Keyboard Clicks
- Minor graphical changes

We've heard that Apple has removed the AirPlay feature from various spots in this build. This may be a temporary removal, and we could see it return in the final builds.

We've received word that Apple has released the third beta version of iOS 4.2 and the associated Software Development Kit for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch to developers. The release comes two weeks after the release of the second beta version.

There is no word yet on changes included in the new version, but we'll update with any significant revelations.

Update: iTunes 10.1 Beta 2 is also out. Changes from the previous beta version are similarly unknown at this time.

Apple's list of major markets with carrier exclusivity for the iPhone continues to dwindle with today's announcements by Vodafone and O2 that they will soon begin offering the iPhone 4 in Germany, breaking T-Mobile's longstanding exclusivity for Apple's handsets in that country. For the time being, the two new carriers are only offering information pages to allow users to register their interest in the device, with phone and service plan pricing and launch dates to be announced later.

Apple noted in its April earnings conference call that the U.S., Germany, and Spain were the three remaining "major" markets where single carriers held the rights for the iPhone. Since that time, Spain and now Germany have gone non-exclusive, leaving AT&T in the United States as the primary exclusive relationship for Apple and the iPhone. Several other large markets, including Japan and China, also have exclusive-carrier status for the moment, but Apple has not chosen to include them in its citations of its most significant markets.

AT&T's exclusivity may not last much longer, however, as increasing numbers of reports are pointing the launch of a CDMA-based iPhone on Verizon early next year.

Consumer electronics warranty firm SquareTrade today released the results of a study it has performed comparing accident rates for the iPhone 4 with those of the iPhone 3GS in the early months of ownership. According to the study, which is based on SquareTrade's extensive customer base, the iPhone 4 is generating an accident rate 68% higher than that of its predecessor.

Our data shows that iPhone 4 owners are reporting accidents 68% more frequently than iPhone 3gs owners. 4.7% of iPhone 4 owners reported an accident to SquareTrade in the first 4 months of ownership, almost 70% higher than iPhone 3gs owners, 2.8% of whom had an accident over the same time period.

When looking at cracked glass, which is responsible for about 80% of all warranty claims through the service, the gap increases to 82%, presumably due to the iPhone 4's use of glass on both front and back surfaces as opposed to the front-only glass of the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4's glass back has been rumored to be a source of concern for Apple, with some customers reporting that dirt trapped between the glass and slide-on cases has caused scratching and shattering of the glass back.

Multiplying the accident rate with the cracked screen distribution, we find that 3.9% of iPhone 4 owners reported a cracked screen within 4 months, as opposed to just 2.1% of iPhone 3gs owners.

While our data doesn't identify which broken screens resulted from dirt trapped behind a slide case, at least a quarter of the broken glass claims involved the back screen. With 82% more cracked screens reported, the evidence suggests that the iPhone 4 is more vulnerable to physical damage than its predecessor.

Despite the apparent propensity for accidental damage, SquareTrade's data for non-accident related incidents of "normal" failure shows the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS demonstrating similar rates of under 0.5%, which compare favorably to other handsets on the market.

Coming after our report late last week on Wal-Mart's preparations to begin offering the iPad for sale in the retail giant's stores, The Wall Street Journal has now confirmed (subscription required) the company's plans for an official launch on Friday. As we previously noted, however, some stores are already seeing iPads put on display and stock set out for sale.

The Bentonville, Ark., retail giant said that what it lacked in timeliness it will make up for in sales heft. It vowed to slowly ramp up the number of U.S. stores carrying the iPad to more than 2,300 by the height of the holiday season in mid-November.

There will also be no Wal-Mart "rollback" price cut on the iPad: The tablets will sell for Apple's suggested retail price, which starts at $499 for the cheapest version with 16 gigabytes of storage and wireless internet access but no 3G mobile connection.

Wal-Mart will also offer online ordering for the iPad, but only for in-store pickup and not for delivery, a policy similar to that employed for other Apple products offered by the retailer.

The iPad will also be featured in an "interactive display" alongside Apple's other products in Wal-Mart stores, serving to draw customers' attention to the device and demonstrate its capabilities.

In a sign of the increasing size of the iPhone app business, early App Store success story Ngmoco is set to be acquired by Japanese social gaming firm DeNA for $400 million.

DeNA, the Japanese social game giant, said Tuesday that it would acquire Ngmoco, a Silicon Valley iPhone game developer, for $400 million - one of the largest deals ever involving an iPhone application developer and another sign that the iPhone is fast becoming the hottest game device on the market.

DeNA's pursuit of Ngmoco comes as the Japanese firm seeks to rapidly expand its existing focus, which includes a dominant mobile social gaming platform in its home country, to an international and cross-platform scale.

Though the company is little known outside Japan, DeNA's projected revenue for this year is already on par with estimates for Facebook. DeNA booked sales of about 48 billion yen, or $575 million. Ms. Namba said it was on track to double that figure this fiscal year to more than $1 billion.

DeNA has purchased or invested in several other U.S. gaming firms in recent months, but the deal for Ngmoco marks by far its largest foray into the market.

Ngmoco was one of the initial recipients of money from the high-profile $100 million iFund venture capital pool offered by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company had some early App Store success with the likes of Topple and Rolando, but has since become more focused on social gaming with such titles as its We Rule/We Farm/We City series.

At a media event today, Microsoft officially unveiled its Windows Phone 7 operating system, along with nine new handsets from a variety of manufacturers that will run the new operating system. Windows Phone 7 saw its first introduction back in February.

"We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. "Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience - one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a 'glance and go' format."

One of Microsoft's launch carrier partners in the U.S. is AT&T, which has announced three new Windows Phone 7 devices: the HTC Surround, the LG Quantum, and the Samsung Focus. The Focus is set to launch on November 8th, with the other two handsets following suit by the holidays. T-Mobile is planning to launch the HTC HD7 in mid-November, with the Dell Venue Pro also set to ship by the holidays. Verizon and Sprint will begin offering Windows Phone 7 devices in 2011.

Centered around "hubs" that allow users to quickly see a variety of pieces of information related to such topics as People, Music, Photos, and Office, Windows Phone 7 will also accommodate third-party apps such as Twitter, eBay and a library of gaming titles from EA, in addition to apps from smaller developers facilitated by Microsoft's developer program for the platform. In a departure from the icon-focused user interface used by Apple and others, Microsoft has chosen to utilize a flowing interface of flexible "tiles" that can each represent various pieces of information depending on the type of data required to be presented.

As noted by TUAW, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is moving to approve a registered trademark for Apple's much-used advertising tagline for the iPhone and App Store: "There's an app for that."

Apple initially filed for the trademark in four separate classes in December 2009, and was granted initial allowance for the mark in May of this year, although the company was still required to provide evidence of its use in commerce for the registration to become finalized. In August, Apple moved to divide the trademark application into two separate applications of two classes each, and also filed the required "Statement of Use" evidence that it was using the trademark in commerce for one of those divided applications.

Late last week, the USPTO granted Apple's request to divide the application and by Friday the government attorney in charge of Apple's application had signed off on the Statement of Use and authorized the trademark for final registration in the following classes:

035: Retail store services featuring computer software provided via the Internet and other computer and electronic communication networks; retail store services featuring computer software for use on handheld mobile digital electronic devices and other consumer electronics

042: Maintenance and updating of computer software; providing information concerning computer software via the Internet and other computer and electronic communication networks; providing search engines for obtaining data via communications networks; providing temporary use of computer software and online facilities to enable users to access and download computer software; providing online non-downloadable computer software that generates customized recommendations of software applications based on user preferences

While Apple has used the tagline extensively in its own advertising, the slogan has also been mimicked and parodied by a significant number of outlets, perhaps most notably by Verizon in its "There's a Map For That" ad campaign targeting AT&T's 3G network coverage.