MacRumors

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Apple and Facebook were in negotiations for at least 18 months about a music-focused social networking service, but that the two companies were unable to strike a deal before Apple decided to launch Ping as part of iTunes 10 earlier this month.

Before Apple launched Ping, its iTunes team was in talks with Facebook for 18 months or more, a source with knowledge of the talks tells us.

While we don't know the details of their discussions, it makes sense that Apple may have wanted to build Ping as a music-tracking and sales service on top of Facebook's social graph. This could have allowed Apple to get what it wanted out of the relationship -- more iTunes and iPod sales -- without having to build a social network from scratch.

When Ping first launched, it offered users the option of using Facebook Connect to find friends who had already signed up for Apple's new music-focused service. The feature quickly disappeared, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that the two companies had been unable to reach a deal due to "onerous terms" imposed by Facebook that Apple could not agree to.

A follow-up report claimed that Apple's initial usage of the normally-open Facebook Connect API was unauthorized due to the volume of traffic it was intended to generate, and Facebook consequently disabled Ping's access to the service. Apple was then forced to remove all signs of the functionality from the site, although the two companies have been said to still be in discussions about Facebook Connect connectivity for Ping.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that DVDs-by-mail and streaming service Netflix is set to make its first foray outside the United States tomorrow by announcing that it will bring streaming video content to Canada.

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings will be in Toronto Wednesday to launch an online video subscription service that allows Canadians to download their favorite flicks and TV shows for a monthly fee.

Netflix entering the Canadian market, its first foreign expansion, has local video distribution players girding for cutthroat competition as still more Internet content-streaming behemoths like Apple TV and Boxee get set to launch north of the border.

The service will initially be streaming-only, although the DVDs-by-mail service could obviously be added in the future.

Earlier this month, Apple introduced a revamped Apple TV device that supports Netflix streaming, although the device is not scheduled to begin shipping until around the end of this month, with new orders currently seeing shipping estimates of 2-3 weeks. We will likely have to wait until Netflix's official announcement tomorrow for confirmation, but it seems likely that the new Apple TV will support Netflix in Canada as soon as the service launches there.

Update: Netflix has officially announced the streaming-only service for Canada, launching immediately at a price point of $7.99 per month. The company also announced that Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch will be compatible with the service and that the new Apple TV will also offer Netflix streaming once the device becomes available.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) today released new data on the personal computer industry, showing consumers awarding Apple the highest scores for the seventh straight year with a record satisfaction score of 86. Nearly all other computer manufacturers came in with scores of 77, with HP's Compaq brand bringing up the rear with a 74.

CNBC spoke with ASCI about the survey and learned that, while customers continue to like Apple's products and retail store experience, much of Apple's two-point gain from last year's results appears to be driven by the inclusion of the iPad, Apple's highest-scoring product, in the numbers.

I called David VanAmburg, managing director of ACSI, to get a sense for what's behind the scores. He told me Apple's overall score was up slightly because people like its computers and the retail support experience - but he also mentioned that the numbers included the iPad for the first time.

He told me that the iPad, even at this early stage, pulled up Apple's overall numbers - which makes it the highest-scoring product Apple has, and therefore the highest-scoring product ACSI has ever tracked.

Apple's nine-point lead over its nearest competitors is the largest for any industry tracked by ASCI and matches last year's margin over second-place Dell. Apple's largest margin over its competitors came in 2008, when it held a ten-point lead over second-place Dell in a year where most Windows PC manufacturers saw significant declines in customer satisfaction, reportedly due in large part to complaints about Windows Vista.

Fortune reports on a new research note from Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley which compares Apple's performance in the mobile phone industry to that of some of the other major players for the first half of 2010. According to the report, Apple sold 17 million iPhones during the first half of the year, a minuscule fraction of the 400 million handsets sold by top manufacturers Nokia, Samsung, and LG combined. But when looking at industry profits, Apple snagged 39% of the pie while the other three companies combined to take only 32%.

We are also impressed with Apple's ability to monetize its innovative products through selling high-margin consumer products that drive strong earnings results and growth trends for Apple shareholders. A case in point is the mobile phone market, where most handset OEMs struggle to post a profit or even 10% operating margins (except RIM and recently HTC), while we estimate Apple boasts roughly 50% gross margin and 30%+ operating margin for its iPhone products.

Walkley goes on to note that Apple "leads the industry in every metric except for unit share".

The data points to a continuation of a long-standing trend in the mobile phone industry that saw Apple taking 20% of profits in 2008 and 32% of profits in the first half of 2009.

Credit Suisse yesterday released the results of a customer survey examining what current customers are likely to do once AT&T loses its exclusivity for the iPhone in the United States. Silicon Alley Insider shares some of the charts from the presentation, which suggests that 23% of AT&T's iPhone customers could defect to Verizon if the phone were to launch on the carrier early next year.

A new survey from Credit Suisse says 63% of iPhone owners will stick with AT&T, even if it loses the exclusive right to sell the phone.

Where would AT&T iPhone owners go if given the chance? 23% will join Verizon, while 3% will go to Sprint, and 2% will go to T-Mobile.

Credit Suisse views AT&T's surveyed retention rate of 63% as a positive, calling fears of the effect of the loss of iPhone exclusivity for AT&T overblown.

Following the same rationale as that used by Morgan Stanley earlier this year, Credit Suisse estimates that approximately 8 million current Verizon customers would move to the iPhone should it become available on the carrier. That figure is calculated by using the internal iPhone adoption rate for AT&T of 16%, multiplying it by Verizon's customer base of 82.5 million, and accounting for nearly 5 million former Verizon customers who have already moved to AT&T for the iPhone.

Finally, Credit Suisse's data predicts that AT&T will have 18 million iPhone subscribers by the end of this year, up from nearly 13 million at the end of 2009 and 6.6 million at the end of 2008.

CNET reports that the police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a lost iPhone 4 that subsequently made its way into the hands of Gizmodo appears to be nearing an end.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, Calif., told CNET today that police are close to wrapping up their theft investigation and could forward their final report to his office within the next few weeks. Wagstaffe will then review the information and determine whether to file criminal charges.

According to Wagstaffe, police interviewed a number of Apple employees, including CEO Steve Jobs, in connection with the case. No details on the results of those interviews have been revealed.

The prototype iPhone, which had been in the possession of an Apple employee for field testing purposes, was either lost in or stolen from a bar in Redwood City, California back in March and eventually purchased by Gizmodo. Police seized a number of items from Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's home in connection with the investigation into whether any wrongdoing was committed in the chain of events.

Gizmodo has claimed that its employees did nothing wrong, at least partially claiming protection under journalist shield laws. Others, however, have pointed to California laws regarding requirements for the handling of lost property as potential cause for charges to be filed against one or more of the parties involved.

Adobe today announced the launch of Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9, the latest versions of the company's consumer-grade photo and video editing software packages for Mac and Windows. It marks the first appearance of Premiere Elements for the Mac OS X platform.

Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 feature all the tools users need to make the most of their photos and videos. Adapted from Photoshop CS5's celebrated Content Aware Fill feature, the content intelligence in the Spot Healing Brush analyzes what's in the image and quickly de-clutters or repairs photos (like removing tourists from a crowded scene) with a swipe of a brush, magically filling in the background. Several new Guided Edit options walk users step-by-step through the process of achieving cool editing effects such as Out of Bounds, making an element of a photo appear to leap off the page in 3D, creating pop art masterpieces, or retouching made easy via the perfect portraits feature.

With Premiere Elements 9, users can create movies in just minutes with the help of intelligent tools that automatically fix audio problems, trim away bad footage, stabilize shaky shots and correct bad color and lighting problems. Any video can simply be turned into an animated film with Cartoon Effects, and optimized performance makes editing and viewing smooth, even in HD.

The releases launch today on Adobe.com and will begin appearing in retail stores and other sales channels in the near future. Suggested retail pricing is set at $99.99 each for Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9, or $149.99 for a bundle of the new packages. The company currently appears to be offering mail-in rebates to bring pricing down to $79.99 for the individual applications and $119.99 for the bundle, but the site has yet to be updated with details on the rebate program.

A "Plus" package is also available for an additional $49.99, providing users with 20 GB of online storage for automatic backup and sharing and ongoing automatic downloads of additional content such as tutorials, artwork and interactive online templates.

Earlier today, we reported that Apple and Rovi have signed a "multi-year agreement" for Apple to license certain portions of Rovi's intellectual property portfolio. While the regulatory filing revealing the deal offered no insight into which of Rovi's several areas of operation Apple is lining up to utilize, one analyst believes that Apple may be targeting Rovi's interactive television program guides as part of an initiative into live TV and DVR capabilities, possibly stretching as far as an Apple-branded television set.

The report comes from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster (via Silicon Alley Insider), who has long been a proponent of the theory that Apple will eventually launch television set products offering integration with the company's existing media services.

We believe this announcement is further evidence that Apple is developing live TV and DVR features for its Apple TV product, and will likely launch an all-in-one Apple Television in the next 2-4 years. Following its deal with Rovi, Apple would be clear to add live TV, DVR, and guidance features to its Apple TV product, which we believe is a critical step towards an all-in-one Apple Television.

We currently believe Munster's comments to be pure speculation, as we have seen no evidence that Apple has specifically licensed Rovi's guide technology, although that could certainly be the case. Interest in the new Apple TV and iTunes Store offerings have, however, been sparking interest in Apple's TV plans, and the possibility of Apple entering the live TV/DVR market and eventually the television set market have certainly already been on the minds of many.

Update: As 9 to 5 Mac points out, Apple is already a customer of Rovi, which reportedly provides metadata for iTunes Store content. Consequently, it is unclear whether today's announcement is even related to anything substantial or if it simply an extension of the two companies' existing agreements.

Earlier this month, we noted that an iPad version of the popular VLC media player had been created and submitted to Apple for inclusion in the App Store. Early previews of the application suggested that the application would be a solid and versatile offering despite a few limitations.

The application's developers, Applidium, now report that VLC Media Player for iPad has been accepted and has begun to roll out to App Stores around the world, making its first appearance in the New Zealand store.

After 2 weeks of review, VLC for the iPad is eventually available on the AppStore! The release date is set to Tuesday, Sept. 21, so depending on your timezone, it should be available pretty soon.

Users will be able to find VLC Media Player at the following link once it becomes available in their local App Store:

- VLC Media Player

Applidium also announced that it has begun working on a version of VLC for the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch. No release date for the iPhone version is yet known.

Update: VLC Media Player now appears to be available worldwide.

As part of a blog post discussing its "Google Atmosphere" conference on cloud computing and some new milestones relating to businesses moving to its Google Apps platform, Google reveals that it is preparing to roll out support for Google Docs editing on the iPad and on Android.

. . .today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.

Only cloud computing is able to deliver the whole package of productivity-enhancing collaboration, superior reliability and virtually unlimited scale at a price that's affordable for any size organization. Our Atmosphere event is a nice opportunity to step back and fully appreciate the power of the cloud with customers and future customers alike.

Google Docs compatibility on the iPad is essentially limited to viewing-only at the present time, so the new editing capabilities should bring a significant boost to the utility of the service for iPad users.

In other Google news, the company today updated its Google Earth application [App Store] for iOS devices, bringing native support for the iPhone 4's Retina display and both ocean surface and underwater content.

In a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, Rovi announced that has reached a "multi-year agreement" with Apple for access to Rovi's intellectual property.

Rovi Corporation (the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Apple Inc. whereby Apple shall license intellectual property from the Company. The specific terms of the license agreement are confidential.

Rovi, originally founded as Macrovision in the early 1980s, offers several technologies related to interactive television program guides and anti-piracy technologies. The company also maintains an extensive database of metadata on TV shows, music, and movies. No further information on Apple's interest in Rovi's technology has been revealed, and thus it is unknown what aspect of Rovi's business the deal covers.

According to a report [Google translation] from Mac1, Apple has acquired Swedish face recognition firm Polar Rose. The information appears to have been confirmed by Swedish news service Rapidus and sources for IDG News Service.

Company CEO Carl Silbersky would today not comment on the affair.

"I do not know what this is about," he says, and would otherwise not give any comments.

The same information comes from the company's Chief Technology Officer Jan Erik Solem. Other sources close to the Polar Rose, however, confirms that the deal is, if not completely, at least in the final stage. News Service Rapidus claims to have gotten over the board meeting from the beginning of the month in which it appears that Apple is now the sole owner of the company.

Polar Rose has developed several tools related to face recognition, including for server-side and mobile applications. The company currently advertises as its primary product its FaceCloud implementation for social networks and photo hosting sites to allow for streamlined tagging and face recognition. Polar Rose's mobile product, FaceLib, is a shared library for the iPhone and Android platforms that allows for face detection, tracking within video, and on-device recognition.

One example of Polar Rose's FaceLib technology is the Recognizr concept for "augumented ID" of which the company has been a co-developer. A video demonstrating the concept is available on YouTube.

Late last month, Polar Rose announced that it was shutting down its consumer-focused Flickr and Facebook tagging product, and followed that up by announcing just a week later that it would be shutting down its entire free face-tagging service. At the time, the company claimed that it was unable to keep up with customer service requests and needed to focus its efforts on its face recognition technology. It now appears that that decision was likely motivated by Apple's pending acquisition of the company.

Apple has utilized face recognition technology for several years in its iPhoto application, but its apparent acquisition of Polar Rose signals an expanded interest in using it for mobile and/or video applications.

Just last week, we discovered that Apple had acquired UK-based IM-Sense Ltd for its "eye-fidelity" technology related to color correction in images, particular for HDR photos such as those employed in Apple's new iOS 4.1.

Update: Citing "rock-solid sources", TechCrunch claims that Apple paid $29 million for Polar Rose.

Apple announced yesterday that the iPhone 4 would finally arrive in China beginning on Saturday, September 25th.

iPhone 4 will be sold in China through Apple's retail stores for a suggested retail price of CNY4,999 for the 16GB model and CNY5,999 for 32GB model without a contract. At China Unicom stores, iPhone 4 will be available for qualified buyers with a new two year contract, sold separately. For pricing and tariff information please visit www.10010.com.

MICGadget has an unboxing of the Chinese model of the iPhone 4 which does contain Wi-Fi. The iPhone was only recently allowed to ship with Wi-Fi in China due to regulations.

As we described before, Apple's loosened approval policies have opened the gate for several apps that were previously denied admission into the App Store. This weekend Apple has approved updated versions of C64, GV Mobile +, and GV Connect.

C64 is a fully licensed Commodore 64 emulator that was originally rejected due to the inclusion of a BASIC interpreter. The application was subsequently approved after the developers removed BASIC. Apple's rules changed earlier this month opening the door to interpreted code in certain circumstances.

Meanwhile, GV Mobile + and GV Connect were also approved this weekend and provide Google Voice functionality on the iPhone. Both Apps were pulled from the App Store, but have since seen a return with Apple's relaxed rules. We previewed GV Mobile + last week. Google Voice is a free US phone service that allows users with a US phone number that can be forwarded and managed in various ways:

Users may select a single US phone number from various area codes. Incoming calls to the number may ring simultaneously any of the user's configured phones or the account's Google Talk feature. Based on the calling number, or contact group (e.g., Family, Friends, Work), or on time of day, e.g., disabling a home phone during business hours and routing calls to mobile or business number, individual numbers may be configured to ring. The service also features voicemail with indexable automated voicemail transcription, accessible via a web browser, e-mail, or by phone. Google Voice provides automatic blocking of known numbers, e.g., telemarketers, the ability to switch lines in mid-call, differentiated voice mail greetings based on caller, SMS forwarding, and call recording.

Earlier this week, we reported on claims that Apple is preparing to launch support for digital newspaper subscriptions on the iPad, preparing to move beyond the very limited options currently available such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg today offers additional details on Apple's plans, which are said to involve launching a "digital newsstand" for newspapers similar to the iBookstore, possibly as soon as within the next few months.

Apple Inc. is developing a digital newsstand for publishers that would let them sell magazines and newspapers to consumers for use on Apple devices, said two people familiar with the matter.

The newsstand, designed particularly for the iPad, would be similar to Apple's iBook store for electronic books, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private. The newsstand would be separate from Apple's App Store, where people can buy some publications now, they said.

According to the report, negotiations are still ongoing over control of subscriber data, pricing, and revenue sharing, so it appears that significant work remains to be done before the store can be rolled out. While Apple apparently could launch the feature within the next several months should everything fall into place, sources say that it may wait until the release of the next-generation iPad early next year to introduce the newspaper service.

Still, Apple already seems to be putting significant resources behind the effort, with the report claiming that Apple is developing tools to assist newspapers with generating the digital-format content and deploying server technology to support pushing the latest content directly to subscribers.

The report also cites several publishers, including Time Warner and Next Issue Media, who are refusing to sign on under Apple's currently-offered terms, and there are still no publishers yet confirmed to have agreed to the plan. Publishers are also said to be in talks with Google about a similar venture to bring their content to Android-based tablets, a move that could offer them some amount of additional leverage in their negotiations with Apple.

The news that iOS 4.2 allows any standard iOS video playback controller to potentially stream content to their Apple TV is continuing to generate some excitement. Seth Weintraub suggests that this is a bit of a Trojan horse strategy that will allow iPad and iPhone customers to stream a huge amount of content from Apps and the Web to their Apple TV:

That means you can watch most Internet video on AppleTV over AirPlay. The day AppleTV is released, you'll be able to watch free SD clips of shows that appear on ComedyCentral.com like the Daily Show and Colbert Report via Airplay. You theoretially should be able to watch Hulu Plus so long as it is encoded in H.264 (and doesn't get blocked once the networks figure out what Apple has done here).

This streaming ability (so far) only seems limited to those Apps that play using the standard iOS video player. Examples beyond Safari included YouTube, iPod, BBC News and MLB apps.

Gizmodo shared the same sentiment last week when it called AirPlay Apple's "sneak attack on television."

Earlier today, we suggested that Apple was likely planning an App Store for the new Apple TV which is based on iOS. It seems Steve Jobs was actually very open about this possibility in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview earlier this month (via jaw04005).

What Jobs didn't say is that Apple wants to become king of the living room. He tells Bloomberg Businessweek that when the time is right, Apple could open an App Store for the TV that could do for television sets what all those apps have done for the iPhone.

An App Store for AppleTV-specific apps could increase the utility of what initially seemed a disappointing upgrade. Some are already excited about the implications that AirPlay will have now that it seems likely that any H.264 video application could stream content to the Apple TV.