MacRumors

The patent wars in the technology industry are heating up again, with Motorola today announcing that it has filed suit against Apple over alleged infringement of a number of patents by a broad range of Apple products, including the iPhone, iPad, "iTouch" (presumably iPod touch), and certain Mac computers.

Overall, Motorola Mobility's three complaints include 18 patents, which relate to early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas found on many of Apple's core products and associated services, including MobileMe and the App Store. The Motorola patents include wireless communication technologies, such as WCDMA (3G), GPRS, 802.11 and antenna design, and key smartphone technologies including wireless email, proximity sensing, software application management, location-based services and multi-device synchronization.

In addition to the multiple lawsuits, Motorola has also filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking to prevent importation and sale of the infringing products.

The suit comes just five days after Motorola found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from Microsoft over alleged patent infringement with its Android-based smartphones.

AppleInsider reports that its daily tracking of Mac availability from a number of third-party resellers is showing signs of dwindling supplies of Apple's MacBook Air, suggesting that a refresh may be approaching in the relatively near future, perhaps as early as next week. According to the report, nearly every retailer has run out of stock of the low-end MacBook Air model, while several vendors are also showing no stock of the high-end model.

This marks the first time that AppleInsider has witnessed this abnormal trend in regards to the Air since it began tracking availability of Apple's Mac line on a daily basis over two years ago. Still, the drought didn't manifest over night. For weeks now, the websites of certain resellers have indicated that inventory of the low-end MacBook Air was on the verge of depletion, urging shoppers to "order soon," as only a handful of units remained in stock.

What's more, people familiar with the buy side of operations for big box retailers like Best Buy and Amazon.com say that Apple has indicted to them that it will not replenish supply of the notebooks until Oct. 12 through Oct. 16 at the earliest. Such expansive delays on low volume products like the MacBook Air are common only when Mac maker is preparing to overhaul the product line, these people say.

As noted in our Buyer's Guide, the MacBook Air is long overdue for an update, having last seen a refresh in June 2009. The extended interval since the most recent update has offered ample opportunity for speculation about updates, with the most recent rumors suggesting that Apple may be preparing an even smaller 11.6-inch MacBook Air for launch. An 11.6-inch "MacBook", which could be the new MacBook Air, has even been claimed to already be in production.

For the past several years, Apple has offered refreshes of at least part of its notebook lines in the October-November timeframe, suggesting that we may yet see something similar this year as Apple seeks to set its lineup for the holiday season.

Update: TUAW is now reporting that it has received information that Apple is pulling all stock of the MacBook Air SuperDrive accessory from its retail stores, possibly offering a further hint at changes to the MacBook Air.

Barron's reports on a new research note from JMP Research analyst Alex Gauna, who has used evidence that regular shipments of the new Apple TV to Apple's retail stores around the United States are selling out almost as soon as they arrive to estimate that the device is selling at a rate of at least one million units per quarter.

Gauna believes Apple TV is selling at a pace at least one quarter to one third that of the iPad, or at least 1 million units a quarter. He says the $99 price point "is resonating with consumers."

Gauna's report relies on checks with over 20 Apple retail stores around the country, with anecdotal evidence from other customers supporting that observation.

With the new Apple TV having been available for only a week and shipping estimates in Apple's U.S. online store currently at 1-2 weeks, it is difficult to gauge true demand for the device beyond the initial surge and Apple's efforts to ramp up production to meet that demand. One million units per quarter would, however, appear to be a relatively significant improvement over the original Apple TV based on analyst estimates of that model's performance over the last several years. Apple does not provide data on Apple TV unit sales in its quarterly earnings release, so firm estimates of the device's performance since its 2007 introduction are not available.

Apple today released a new television commercial for the iPhone 4, highlighting the device's high-resolution Retina display.

This is the highest resolution phone screen ever. So, every freckle, every wrinkle, every letter, every word, every tweet, tune, battle, and memory looks more beautiful than ever before.

The new ad, entitled "Every", is also featured in Apple's iPhone 4 TV ad gallery.

The new iPhone 4 commercial is the first to debut in the U.S. since an original batch of four commercials featuring FaceTime video calling was released in mid-July.

Businessweek reports on new data from research firm iSuppli estimating the component costs for the new Apple TV at under $64, representing a 35% margin on the new device before accounting for such expenses as research and development, software, patent royalties, marketing, and distribution.

According to the report, the most expensive component in the new Apple TV is the A4 system-on-a-chip that powers the device, clocking in at $16.55. Close behind is the 8 GB NAND flash memory chip from Toshiba at $14.00.

While the new Apple TV's 35% margin is significantly lower than the 50% or greater margin Apple frequently sees on its other iOS-based devices, it is much higher than than the 20% margin seen on the original Apple TV at its launch, although the difference in price points between the two devices ($99 new vs. $299 old) means that Apple's margin was greater on a dollar basis with the older model.

Following a price cut on the original Apple TV to $229, Apple saw its margins cut even further to an estimated 10% on the cheaper model.

Update: iSuppli has now posted a press release with more complete information on the study.

Following on this weekend's announcement, Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 for Mac is now available through the Steam store. Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first person zombie shooter.

Through the Steam Play functionality, existing Windows users can download the Mac version for free. New customers can also play on either platform while purchasing only once. Steam also launched their new "The Sacrifice" add-on pack for the game.

"The Sacrifice" is the prequel to "The Passing," and takes place from the L4D Survivors' perspective as they make their way South. In addition to advancing the story, "The Sacrifice" introduces a new style finale featuring "Sacrificial Gameplay" where players get to decide who will give their life so the others may live.

As a launch promotion, Valve is offering Left 4 Dead 2 at 66% off, with a single license priced at $6.79 and a four-pack priced at $20.39.

CNBC reports that the iPad has become the most quickly adopted non-phone consumer electronics product in history, topping the DVD player, which shifted only 350,000 units in its first year on the market. Apple sold over 300,000 iPads in its first day, and took just 28 days to reach one million units sold.

iPad sold three million units in the first 80 days after its April release and its current sales rate is about 4.5 million units per quarter, according to Bernstein Research. This sales rate is blowing past the one million units the iPhone sold in its first quarter and the 350,000 units sold in the first year by the DVD player, the most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product.

While many products have quickly reached sales into the millions of units, Bernstein appears to be focusing on consumer electronics categories, where the iPad has seen unusual success as the launch product in a segment as it has been jumpstarted by its connection to the rest of Apple's iOS ecosystem.

Perhaps more interesting is Bernstein's observation that the iPad is set to become the fourth-largest consumer electronics category in 2011 with over $9 billion in sales.

At this current rate, the iPad will pass gaming hardware and the cellular phone to become the 4th biggest consumer electronics category with estimated sales of more than $9 billion in the U.S. next year, according to Bernstein. TVs, smart phones and notebook PCs are the current three largest categories.

Bernstein's Colin McGranahan also suggests that the iPad is likely to be "cannibalizing" even TVs and digital cameras, noting that customers who make $600 iPad purchases are likely to delay purchases of other electronics due to financial considerations.

In a sign that Apple's supply crunch for the iPhone 4 may be beginning to ease, shipping estimates for both the 16 GB and 32 GB models have improved to 5-7 business days on the company's U.S. online store. Shipping estimates in stores for other countries remain, however, at three weeks.

Analysts had noted as early as mid-August that Apple's ramping of iPhone 4 production should enable the company to ease shortages by the end of September, a prediction that does appear to now be beginning to come about.

DigiTimes briefly reports that an executive from Sintek Photronics has denied claims from late last week that the company has shipped samples of touchscreen panels to Apple for testing in a touch-capable iMac.

Barry Wu, VP and spokesperson of Sintek Photronics has denied reports that the company is sampling projected capacitive touch panels for Apple's iMac.

Rumors and an Apple patent application have suggested that the company is at least toying with the idea of a touch-capable iMac. While it is unclear whether Apple would attempt to create a fully touch-capable Mac OS X, it has been suggested that the company could instead offer iOS as layer on top of Mac OS X, allowing both operating systems to coexist on the same machine.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has paid a North Carolina couple $1.7 million for their modest home on one acre of land in a deal to enable the company to build its $1 billion data center in the town of Maiden. According to tax records, the house and property appear to have been assessed at a value of $181,700.

Apple Inc. needed land owned by Donnie and Kathy Fulbright for a $1 billion data center in rural North Carolina. The couple showed no interest in moving out of their home of 34 years in the town of Maiden.

The Fulbrights say they spurned one offer, then a second. Finally, they agreed to sell for $1.7 million, county records show, opting to leave the single-story house on the less than one acre of land they purchased for $6,000.

The Fulbrights have used the proceeds of the sale to purchase a 4,200-square-foot house on a 49-acre property.

Meanwhile, Apple appears to be continuing to ramp up staffing for the new data center, with nine new job postings going up earlier this week, primarily focusing on weekend shift positions. Apple made a hiring push earlier this year as it sought to line up staff in advance of the data center's opening and has continued posting occasional job listings in the intervening months, but this week's batch seems to be the largest in many months.

Apple announced during its July earnings conference call that the new data center will be operational by the end of the year. While the company has not announced what the new capacity will be used for, observers have speculated that it may be used for cloud-based storage of users' music and video content, as well as for streaming of video content such as on the new Apple TV.

As reported by Gizmodo, developer Steven Troughton-Smith has discovered that iOS applications can in fact be installed on the new Apple TV with only slight modification of the applications required to identify them as Apple TV-compatible.

While the discovery is an important next step in developers' quest to run applications on the device, the applications are not yet usable, as the Apple TV lacks any sort of application launcher that would be required for an app to function.

According to Steven, while you can install apps after modifying its type, you just can't launch them. There's no built-in facility to do that, so someone has to do it. I bet the first ones will be the jailbreakers (hello, SNES and PlayStation 2 emulators!), but Apple will follow soon.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has hinted that Apple could launch an App Store for the Apple TV when the time is right, but many users are understandably interested in hurrying that process along, especially as Google prepares to launch its Google TV service offering several integrated applications at launch later this month and compatibility with Android Market applications by early next year.

Google today launched an extensive mini-site dedicated to the Google TV, the company's service announced earlier this year designed to integrate TV watching and the Internet.

One of our goals with Google TV is to finally open up the living room and enable new innovation from content creators, programmers, developers and advertisers. By bringing Google Chrome and access to the entire Internet, you can easily navigate to thousands of websites to watch your favorite web videos, play Flash games, view photos, read movie reviews or chat with friends - all on the big screen.

While an exact launch date and pricing for the hardware (a standalone Logitech box and Sony TVs and Blu-ray players with hardware integration are the launch products) are not yet known, Google new site provides a good look at some of the service's features, especially when considered against the new Apple TV. Hardware supporting the new service is said to launch sometime later this month.

In particular, Google is highlighting apps that will be available on Google TV, noting that it will ship with applications from the likes of Netflix, Twitter, CNBC, Pandora, Napster, NBA Game Time, and Amazon Video On Demand, with compatibility for Android Market apps set to come to Google TV early next year. The ability to run applications is seen as one of the key differences between Google TV and the new Apple TV, which is currently unable to run iOS applications, although hints have suggested that Apple may enable the functionality at some point in the future.

Google TV will also allow users with iPhones or Android phones to serve as remote controls for their Google TV, including voice search capabilities and the ability to link multiple phones with a single Google TV. The service will also incorporate a "Fling" feature similar to Apple's forthcoming AirPlay feature, allowing users watching content on their phones to send the content to their Google TVs.

Bloomberg reports that Apple is challenging a verdict issued in a patent lawsuit last Friday that has seen the company hit with a penalty of as much as $625.5 million for infringing patents with its Cover Flow, Spotlight, and Time Machine technologies. The jury verdict in favor of Mirror Worlds LLC saw Apple hit with a $208.5 million judgment for violation of each of three patents.

Apple asked U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis for an emergency stay of the Oct. 1 verdict, saying there are outstanding issues on two of the three patents. Apple said patent owner Mirror Worlds would also be "triple dipping" if it were able to collect $208.5 million on each of the patents.

The patents at the heart of the dispute are the work of Yale professor David Gerlenter, who spun off Mirror Worlds Technologies from the university in 1996 and filed the patents in 1999. The current Mirror Worlds LLC entity involved in the lawsuit is a patent holding company based in Tyler, Texas, the location where the federal lawsuit is filed

Davis also is considering Apple's request, filed before the verdict, to rule the company doesn't infringe two of the patents. The judge said that if he granted that request, he'd strike the amount of damages attributed to those two patents.

The federal judge overseeing the trial has asked lawyers for both sides to submit arguments addressing the issue of the damages awarded in the case.

As noted by 9 to 5 Mac, Apple appears to have dropped support for AirPrint in iOS 4.2 on the second-generation iPod touch. When Apple initially announced the feature on September 15th, the second-generation iPod touch was listed as a compatible device for the service, but as soon as two days later the press release had been modified to note support for only the third- and fourth-generation iPod touch.

- Original text: "AirPrint will work with iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (second generation and later)."

- Revised text: "AirPrint will work with iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (third generation and later)."

The second-generation iPod touch and iPhone 3G have always been on the edge of compatibility with iOS 4, with Apple making some features unavailable on one or both devices as it seeks to maintain acceptable performance within the devices' hardware limitations. This also does not mark the first time that Apple has shifted device compatibility mid-stream, as Game Center support was dropped at one point for both the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch, only to be restored for the second-generation iPod touch (but not the iPhone 3G) for the public launch of iOS 4.1.