MacRumors

AirPlay was announced during the iPod media event and allows you to stream music to your AppleTV or other AirPlay-enabled device. Apple also announced that AirPlay will be integrated into a number of 3rd party speaker docks, AV receivers and stereo systems.

Say you have one set of speakers in your bedroom, one in the office, and one in the living room. For the ultimate sonic panorama, you can stream your tunes to more than one room simultaneously, so youll never lose the beat, no matter where you are in the house.

AirPlay also sends along artist information, song titles and album artwork on supported devices.

Apple's AirPlay page only lists music compatibility for these third part devices, but Apple's upcoming iOS update will also support streaming video-out support to the Apple TV.

While the amount appears to be a significant sum at first glance, a number of companies committed more resources to Google search advertising than Apple did, with 47 companies registering more than $1 million in spending. Interestingly, the top spender was AT&T Mobility, which laid out over $8 million for the month.

By comparison, one of Google's top advertisers that month, AT&T Mobile, spent more than $8 million on AdWords in June, a big month for the company, which was supporting the launch of iPhone 4. (AT&T is the third-largest U.S. advertiser, according to Ad Age DataCenter; it spent $2.8 billion on measured media -- almost $1.3 billion on TV alone -- in 2009. The company declined to comment on its search spending.) Other big June spenders included Apollo Group, the company behind The University of Phoenix, online travel site Expedia, eBay and Amazon, which all spent over $5 million apiece on search.

The data obtained by Ad Age includes huge brands such as GM, Walt Disney, Eastman Kodak and BMW, which appear to have spent less than $500,000 in June. Tech rival Apple spent just under $1 million on search during the month, as did chip maker Intel.

It is unclear from the single snapshot obtained by Ad Age whether this level of activity is typical for Apple (and AT&T), as the end of June saw the launch of the iPhone 4 in the U.S. and several other countries. Having been introduced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, it seems likely that the iPhone 4 was the subject of relatively heavy promotion by Apple and AT&T, driving spending higher normal.

Apple announced new iPod touch, nano, and shuffle models at last Wednesday's media event, noting that all models would launch sometime this week. Some users receiving shipping notifications are seeing delivery dates of this Friday, September 10th, while others are being quoted as late as next week Tuesday, September 14th.

Customers in the U.S. and Canada still looking to order an iPod touch through Apple's online stores are currently being quoted shipping estimates of one week, while customers in many other countries are seeing estimates of 5-7 business days.

We know that there were 59.6 million iPhones sold through June (from SEC filings)

We also know that 3.2 million iPads were sold.

If we assume about 8 million iPhones and 4 million iPads were sold during August and July, the total number of iPod touch sold is 45.2 million.

Asymco had previously calculated the iPod touch as holding 41% of iOS device sales just as the iPad was launching, so it is unsurprising that the device's share has dropped slightly now that a third device has entered the mix.

The calculations are merely rough guides, as they are based partly on estimates and partly on vague claims from Apple and Jobs of milestones shared as "over X number devices" rather than hard data, but they do provide an interesting perspective on the relative performance of Apple's iOS devices. Apple does not officially break out iPod touch sales in its financial reports, choosing instead to lump it in with all other iPod models in a single line item. Jobs did note at last week's media event, however, the the iPod touch has overtaken the iPod nano as the company's best-selling iPod device.

The video demonstrates the results, but here they are in all their glory:

- Messages: iOS 4.1 Wins (By a Little)
- Maps: iOS 4.1 Wins (By a Lot)
- Photos: iOS 4.1 Wins (Just Barely)
- Safari: iOS 4.1 Wins (Just Barely)

While the speed advantages ranged from marginal to significant, iOS 4.1 clearly outperformed iOS 4.0. It's still significantly slower performance than you'll get from a 3GS or iPhone 4, and we're still not sure it's a big enough improvement that 3G owners will want to ditch iOS 3. The most obvious difference was UI responsiveness. The UI didn't get stuck nearly as much on an interface element or when trying to enter text. If you are set on using iOS 4, the upgrade is worthwhile for that alone.

In late July, Apple acknowledged that it was looking into reports of performance problems for the iPhone 3G under iOS 4.0, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirmed late last month in an email to a customer that a software update addressing the issuing was forthcoming.

At last week's media event, Jobs announced the release of iOS 4.1 set for this week, noting the iPhone 3G performance issue as one of the bugs addressed in the update.

Apple notes the vibration alert in their iPod Touch Accessibility page:

If somebody wants to start a video call with you, youll receive an invitation -- along with a vibrating alert -- on your iPod touch asking you to join. Simply tap Accept, and the video call begins.

Vibration has been an iPhone-only feature since the original launch in 2007. The vibration has been used for silent alerts as well as a form of force-feedback in many iPhone games.

No official announcement from the virtualization mavens at Parallels, but it appears that the next version of the company's Mac app for Windows virtual machines is already popping up at retail. Sharp-eyed reader Matthew Fern snapped this shot of Parallels Desktop 6 already on sale at Fry's Electronics in Roseville, CA.

Version 6 hasn't yet been officially announced yet, but apparently is undergoing testing. So, if you were on the market for a virtualization client, it may be best to wait a bit longer.

"One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing."

Ping has been receiving mixed reviews from users so far, as well as having to deal with several early issues involving a premature launch of Facebook Connect integration and a spam problem.

Wired reports that one user sent Jobs an email criticizing the new logo for its design and abandonment of the iTunes brand that has developed over the years.

Steve,

Enjoyed the presentation today. But...this new iTunes logo really sucks. You're taking 10+ years of instant product recognition and replacing it with an unknown. Let's both cross our fingers on this...

Despite all of the activity surrounding the media event, Jobs took the time to respond with another one of his brief, to-the-point emails:

We disagree.

Sent from my iPhone

While Jobs obviously provided no additional thoughts on why Apple prefers the icon design over the old one, it's clear that he is taking in users' comments and taking the time to respond rather than simply ignoring the feedback entirely.

The new icon is not the only visual tweak included in iTunes 10, as Apple also took the opportunity to move the "stoplight" buttons for closing and resizing the application's window into a space-saving vertical orientation from the standard horizontal orientation. The company also switched to a a more subdued, grayscale pattern for items in the application's left sidebar.

When you visit the page, your Web browser will ask to use your current location, after which it will display a small Google Map highlighting nearby theaters (you can also enter your own ZIP code or city and state).

Clicking on any of the theaters in the map (or on their entry in the list below the map) will show you a thumbnail grid of the posters for all the films playing at that location. You can even flip through multiple pages of theaters if the one you're looking for didn't show up in the top five. Hovering your cursor over any of the posters tells you when the next showing at that theater is.

Alternatively, clicking through the individual movies will bring up listings of theaters in the user's vicinity that are showing the film, along with showtimes highlighting showings with reduced pricing. Users can also click through to purchase tickets at participating theaters.

Apple's former custom ringtone editor, no longer present in iTunes 10

After looking around in the application, it seems that ringtone creation has been pulled from iTunes 10. We checked iTunes and were met with only information on how to sync ringtones from iTunes.

A support document outlining the process for creating a custom ringtone in iTunes is still posted on Apple's site despite the fact that the feature no longer exists in the updated iTunes.

You can create iPhone ringtones from many songs purchased from the iTunes Store on your computer. Personalize your ringtone by choosing up to 30 seconds of your favorite song with the easy-to-use iTunes ringtone editor. You can also fade the ringtone in and out, and choose how long to wait before looping the ringtone.

Created ringtones are only available for purchase from the U.S. iTunes Store on your computer.

Custom ringtone creation was added to iTunes in September 2007.

According to a new research note from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, Apple's manufacturing partners are now pushing out two million iPads per month, with Apple urging them to boost production to three million per month for the fourth quarter of this year.

Says Huberty, "Apple recently indicated to its suppliers a desire to move to 3 million per month in C4Q10. This implies a run rate of 36 million in CY11, close to the current 40 million supply chain forecast."

Huberty's comments suggest that the 2-million production rate is a new milestone, although a report from early July claimed that Apple was planning for about 2.3 million units that month. A few weeks earlier than that, Apple was claimed to have been shooting for production rates of 2.5 million per month by the end of the year, and today's report suggests that Apple has continued to increase its targets in order to meet strong demand for the tablet device.

Apple's increased iPad production has apparently finally helped the company to close the supply-demand gap, with shipping date estimates for orders placed through its online store dropping rapidly over the last several weeks before reaching the minimum "within 24 hours" level just last weekend.

The rapid decrease of shipping estimates had led to questions about whether increased production or sagging demand was driving the supply-demand ratio into balance, but it appears that Apple's continued increases in production are at least a major factor in achieving equilibrium.

"It's something to take note of when a mobile operating system passes something that's been around forever," said Vince Vizzaccaro, a Net Applications vice president, talking about iOS overtaking Linux. "Mobile's growth curve is strong, and mobile is becoming quite a phenomenon on the Internet."

Net Applications, which measures data from actual browser usage based on network of 40,000 websites that it monitors, found that mobile platforms accounted for 2.6% of the overall Web usage last month. The data also revealed much stronger Web usage for iOS than for Android, which clocked in at only 0.2% share.

Android devices made up just 0.2% of the operating systems that powered browsers Net Applications tracked last month. "Whatever the sales are, we're seeing iOS totally dominate the market on the Web," Vizzaccaro said. "iOS has nearly a 6:1 advantage over Android."

Besides multi-tasking and folder organization, iOS 4.2 also brings some brand new features including:

- Printing: Print mail, photos, web pages, and more directly to a printer on a wireless network.
- AirPlay: Wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos from iPad to the new Apple TV, and stream music to AirPlay speakers or receivers, including AirPort Express.

The iOS 4.2 release will be be released for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch in November.

All Things Digital now follows up with a report claiming that the disappearance is due to Apple's unauthorized usage of the Facebook Connect application programming interfaces (APIs) after the two companies failed to reach a deal regarding access.

According to sources familiar with Facebook's platform, the social networking giant essentially denied Apple's Ping access to application programming interfaces that would allow it to search for an iTunes user's friends on Facebook who also had signed up for Ping.

Normally, this API access is open and does not require permission.

That is, unless some entity wants to access it a lot. In that case, Facebook requires an agreement for reasons primarily centered on protection of Facebook user data and, of course, infrastructure impact.

With 160 million iTunes users, that could mean a possibility of a lot of impact.

With the two companies unable to reach a deal over Ping's access to the APIs, Apple apparently deployed the functionality anyway, but it was quickly blocked by Facebook for violation of its terms of service. Apple then removed the non-functioning feature entirely.

According to the report, Facebook and Apple remain in discussions about bringing Facebook Connect connectivity to Ping, so it may make a reappearance at some point in the future.

Additionally, there will be no software update to bring the new features to older Apple TVs. Older Apple TVs will continue to work as they have been working up to this point, and they will continue to be able to purchase movies and TV shows even though the new Apple TV is rental-only.

Apple first offered a sneak peak of the Apple TV, then known by its code-name of "iTV", in September 2006. The device was officially announced at Macworld San Francisco in January 2007, and began shipping as a 40 GB model in March 2007 with a 160 GB model following just two months later. The hardware had remained unchanged since that time aside from the discontinuation of the 40 GB model in September 2009, although Apple has offered several software updates over the years to increase the functionality of the device.

Apple continues its trend of weekly releases of Mac OS X 10.6.5 developer builds today by pushing Build 10H535 to registered developers. The release marks an increment of four builds since last week's release.

According to those familiar with the new build, Apple continues to ask developers to focus their testing on the same six areas as in the previous build: 3D Graphics, iCal, Mail, QuickTime, Time Machine, and USB Devices.

The one documented known issue from the previous build, involving issues with USB devices operating after waking from sleep on machines with VMware installed is still present, but has been expanded to also include machines running Parallels.

A date for the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.5 is unknown, as Apple's development cycle can be highly variable. Mac OS X 10.6.4 was released in mid-June, soon after Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.