MacRumors

In an apparent replay of a 2006 investigation into possible price fixing in the digital music industry dominated by Apple's iTunes Store, The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice is in the early stages of another antitrust inquiry focused on digital music sales.

The Justice Department is examining Apple's tactics in the market for digital music, and its staff members have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies, according to several people briefed on the conversations.

The antitrust inquiry is in the early stages, these people say, and the conversations have revolved broadly around the dynamics of selling music online.

In particular, the inquiry is said to be looking at claims that Apple has been pressuring music labels over their participating in Amazon's "Daily Deal" program in its MP3 download store.

The report notes Apple's dominant position in the U.S. digital download market, where it holds 69% market share. In overall U.S. music sales, Apple leads the pack with 26.7% of the market, more than double its closest competitor.

The new inquiry from the Department of Justice is the latest of a number of recent incidents involving Apple and regulatory authorities. The Department of Justice last year reportedly began looking into an informal agreement between Apple and Google not to poach each others' employees, while in recent weeks Apple has been revealed to be the subject of an Adobe-requested inquiry over its ban on Flash-to-iPhone compilers and additional scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission over its newly-announced iAd mobile advertising system.

VMWare has just launched the latest update to their popular virtualization program for the Mac. VMWare Fusion allows users to run Windows applications alongside Mac OS X applications on their Intel Macs. Version 3.1 represents a major update with a focus on performance. According to VMWare, the new version is 35% faster overall than the previous 3.0 release with 3D graphics seeing up to 5X speed boosts.

Take advantage of faster than ever end-to-end performance and improved 3D graphics. Greatly improved Windows Aero performance and OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 delivers up to 5X better 3D graphics performance. Experience faster application launching, more seamless scrolling, quicker resume from suspend, and better overall disk performance. Additional improvements to make your experience more simple and Mac-like include support for overlapping Unity windows in Expos and Dock Expos, as well as the new USB EasyConnect feature to easily assign USB devices to your PC or Mac.

A full list of new features can be found VMWare's site. The 3.1 update is free for existing 3.0 customers. Customers with an earlier version of VMWare Fusion can upgrade for $39.99 while the price for brand new customers is $79.99. A free demo is also available.

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Just a week after the last seed, Apple has delivered another new version of Mac OS X 10.6.4, designated Build 10F58, to developers. The build is the fifth to be seeded to developers since late April.

Like the last build, Apple lists no known issues with the new version and asks developers to focus their testing on Graphics Drivers, SMB, USB, Voice Over, and VPN. Those familiar with the new build note that Apple has not documented in the seed notes any additional changes since the previous build.

It is unknown when we can expect a public release of Mac OS X 10.6.4, as Apple's development schedule is unpredictable, although the fact that the new build offers no major documented changes and again contains no known issues suggests that Apple may be wrapping up work on the fourth maintenance update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

With Friday's launch of the iPad in nine new countries right around the corner, Apple and others are making preparations for the big day. On Apple's front, the company has announced that its retail stores in the launch countries will be opening at 8:00 AM to accommodate the expected crowds looking to get their hands on the company's tablet device. Eight of the nine countries seeing iPad launches on Friday have Apple-owned retail stores, with Spain being the only exception.

In the UK, a report from Times Online indicates that 139 retail stores owned by DSGi, including Currys, PC World, and Dixons Travel, will also be offering the iPad at launch

Meanwhile, UK wireless carrier 3 has announced two monthly recurring iPad 3G service plans priced at 7.50 (1 GB) and 15.00 (10 GB). Orange and O2 released UK data pricing earlier this month.

Numerous MacRumors readers who pre-ordered iPads in the nine new launch countries have reported over the past few days that their orders have shipped and are expected to be delivered on time.

A pair of announcements from Apple's competitors are making the rounds today, headlined by comments from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealing that the Kindle will remain focused on the e-reading market for now rather than branching out into multi-purpose devices like the iPad.

"The Kindle will compete with these LCD devices like the iPad by being a very focused product," Bezos said at the meeting, which was webcast. "Serious readers are going to want a purpose-built device, because it's an important activity for them."

When pressed on when consumers might be able to expect a color Kindle, Bezos noted that competitive color displays using the E Ink technology found in the Kindle are "still some ways out", indicating the company does not plan to move to LCD display technology.

Speculation regarding Amazon's future Kindle plans has been stoked by the company's release of a software development kit to allow developers to create applications for the platform and by its recent acquisition of Touchco, a company specializing in multi-touch technology.

Meanwhile, Dell today officially announced the Streak, a 5-inch mini-tablet running Google's Android operating system. A prototype of the Dell Streak was shown off at CES back in January, with the company now revealing that the device will initially launch in the United Kingdom early next month.

Dell has partnered with wireless carrier O2 to provide service for the device there, although device and data plan pricing have yet to be announced. The Streak is scheduled to come to the United States "later this summer".

The Dell Streak is a hybrid device that lives in the space between a smartphone and other larger tablets or netbooks that you might be using right now. We designed it to provide a wide range of users flexibility to do what they need with a mobile device.

With a 5-inch display carrying an 800 x 480 resolution, Dell positions the device has having a significantly better video and browsing experience than most smartphones. While the Streak may carry a physically larger display than a smartphone, those devices are increasingly coming with higher pixel densities that match or exceed the Streak, as the Motorola Droid shipped last fall with an 854 x 480 display and the next-generation iPhone's display has been rumored to offer as high as a 960 x 680 display.

The Dell Streak will also offer a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and flash, front-facing camera for future video chat functionality, microSD slot, 3G/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, and a user-replaceable battery.

DaringFireball's John Gruber appears to have slyly hinted that Apple may be planning to open the door to browser extensions on Safari at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) early next month. Gruber's comments come in the form of an apparent random musing that appears as part of a post on Google Chrome for Mac and Linux advancing out of the beta channel carrying support for thousands of extensions.

The other big thing that's missing (compared to both Chrome and Firefox) is a proper extension API. If only Apple had an imminent developer conference where they could unveil such a thing.

As is common with Gruber's hints, the tidbit is phrased more as a "what if" statement than an outright declaration that we should expect such an announcement, but it seems reasonable to guess that he may have some inside knowledge of Apple's work in this area.

Browser extensions are software add-ons designed to offer new functionality beyond that offered in the basic browser package or alter the way tasks are handled or content displayed. Application programming interfaces (APIs) for browser extensions provide a means for third-party developers to create their own add-ons, opening the door to significant modification of browsers' capabilities.

Apple has in the past used WWDC has a stage for Safari-related announcements. In 2007, the company announced the first beta versions of Safari 3, extending the browser onto Windows for the first time. A year later, as part of its early ramping of developer previews of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the company began seeding beta versions of Safari 4 during WWDC. And in 2009, Apple officially brought Safari 4 out of beta at the conference.

Google today announced that it has released its first "stable" version of its Chrome browser for the Mac platform, finally deeming the application complete enough and having undergone enough testing to promote a beta version to the top level of the company's three-tier development cycle. Chrome for Linux similarly made its first stable channel appearance today.

Today, I'm happy to announce that Google Chrome for Mac is being promoted out of beta to our stable channel. We believe that it provides not only the stability, performance and polish that every Mac user expects, but also a seamless native Mac application experience that Mac users will feel instantly at home with.

The release brings a number of highly-requested features that have been testing, including access to over 4,500 extensions, full-screen mode, bookmarks management, and bookmark and preference syncing across computers.

As noted in its broader blog posting on the Chrome updates, the new release offers support for a number of new HTML5 features, including geolocation and file drag-and-drop. The company also notes that the integrated Flash Player plug-in currently available in beta versions of Chrome has not been included in the new stable channel release, but will be released alongside the full Flash Player 10.1 when that becomes available.

Fortune notes that Intel's forthcoming Google TV hardware platform to be found in Sony TVs and Blu-ray players and in a standalone set-top box from Logitech utilizes the same PowerVR SGX535 graphics processor used in the iPad.

GoogleTV is manufactured by Logitech and Sony and contains a System on Chip (SoC) designed by Intel. The iPad's SoC is an ARM design made by Apple (though manufacturing is outsourced to Samsung). However, both of these SoCs use a PowerVR graphics processor from a small UK-based company called Imagination.

The same graphics processor is also used in the iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch.

Apple and Intel are both significant investors in Imagination Technologies, the company behind the PowerVR series of graphics processors, so it is not entirely surprising that both companies are tapping Imagination for their products.

Rumors and speculation, backed in part by a job posting earlier this year, have suggested that Apple is considering extending the iPhone OS to new platforms, possibly including the Apple TV. Hardware similarities between Google's television offering and Apple's mobile devices further reinforces the idea that such a transition could be relatively feasible.

Microsoft is continuing to push forward with work on Office for Mac 2011, issuing a third beta release of the productivity suite in advance of a final release scheduled for launch around the end of the year. With Office 2011's features and functionality becoming firmed up, Microsoft has begun putting more effort into some of the finishing touches that offer some obvious visual changes.

Some of those changes included in the latest beta version are new icons and splash screens for the Office applications, as well as minor tweaks to several toolbar and ribbon icons. Application interfaces otherwise appear largely the same as in earlier beta versions, although Microsoft is undoubtedly continuing to refine its flagship productivity suite with functionality fixes and enhancements.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for information on more substantial functional changes included in the latest beta as testers put it through its paces.

As predicted in a brief note yesterday, Apple has launched its annual "Back to School" promotion targeted at college and university students in the U.S. and Canada. The promotion offers customers qualifying to purchase through the company's education channel in those countries rebates of up to US$199 or C$219 for the purchase of a qualifying Mac and iPod on the same sales receipt.

New standard and build-to-order configurations of all Macs except the Mac mini qualify for the purposes of the offer, with a variety of rebates available for various iPod models. Refurbished Macs and iPods are not eligible for the offer, and no rebates are available for iPhone or iPad purchases.

Maximum U.S rebate amounts:

- iPod touch: $199
- iPod classic 160 GB: $199
- iPod nano 16 GB: $179
- iPod nano 8 GB: $149
- iPod shuffle 4 GB (stainless steel): $99
- iPod shuffle 4 GB: $79

The promotion runs through September 7th, 2010, and customers are limited to five rebates per household. Full details on the program are available in the Terms and Conditions for programs in the U.S. and Canada.

Engadget reports that Apple has already started filming new ads featuring the next generation iPhone. The new ads are reportedly being directed by Sam Mendes.

According to the site's source, the new iPhone is referred to internally as Mammoth / N90. At least one scene from the ad is said to be featuring a video chat conversation between a mother and daughter using the iPhone's new front-facing camera. Engadget also cites a few recent tweets from actors who have revealed they have been auditioning for the new Apple ads.

Video conferencing has been a long discussed possibility for Apple's iPhone, though it has not yet been a very popular feature across many other phones. We've put together this poll to ask how appealing a feature it really is for the next iPhone:

AP News reports that Wal-Mart will be cutting the price of the iPhone 3GS down to $97 with contract starting on Tuesday. The company presently sells the 3GS for $197.

Apple is widely expected to introduce a next iPhone on June 7th. Analysts have already predicted that the current iPhone 3GS will be discounted across the board to $99 while the new iPhone will slide into the $199/$299 price points. Earlier today, there had been reports that iPhone 3G stock has been running low, suggesting that Apple may be discontinuing the current $99 model.

Apple's yearly Back to School promotion is due to kick off tomorrow (Tuesday, May 25th). Apple will be offering a free iPod (up to $199 value) to students and faculty purchasing a qualifying Mac. Discounts do not extend to iPads or iPhones.

The promotion is expected to run from May 25th to September 7th, 2010. More details should be available tomorrow.

With just two weeks to go until Apple is expected to unveil new iPhone hardware, it appears that supplies of the low-end 8 GB iPhone 3G are beginning to run dry. According to Boy Genius Report, Apple has stopped supplying AT&T stores with the device, suggesting that the model is being phased out of production.

We've heard that Apple has stopped shipping iPhone 3G 8GB units to AT&T stores and orders are not being placed for the device. Could this mean we might see the iPhone 3GS drop to $99 and make way for a new model?

Meanwhile, several MacRumors readers have noted shortages of the iPhone 3G in other countries. In Australia, where Apple sells contract-free iPhones online at unsubsidized prices, the 8 GB iPhone is listed as "Currently Unavailable". Similarly, customers looking to order iPhone 3G models in the United Kingdom through carrier O2 similarly appear to be having a difficult time, with a drop-down menu on O2's iPhone ordering page showing only new and reconditioned iPhone 3GS options despite the menu's description noting an iPhone 3G option.

While Apple's exact plans for the next line-up of iPhone models are not yet known, many observers, including analyst Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley, have suggested that Apple may follow its existing pattern by introducing new hardware in multiple capacities while sliding the existing low-end iPhone 3GS down to the $99 price point currently occupied by the 8 GB iPhone 3G.

Update: Even Apple's U.S. online store appears to be out of iPhone 3G models, as the "Select" button has been removed from under the model's listing on the ordering page.

PocketNow offers a comparison of Web browsing speeds between Apple's iPhone 3GS and Google's new Android 2.2 "Froyo" announced earlier this week. Froyo is notable for Google's claims regarding browsing speed, but also for its support of Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 Beta, which will allow Android devices running the updated operating system to handle Flash content on the Web, unlike the iPhone.

PocketNow's lengthy video comparison seems to show that Froyo does in fact offer a speedy browsing experience, but that speed increase is canceled out by the need for it to load Flash content on many websites. The result means that users may be able to enjoy the benefit of seeing webpages rendered with Flash content included, but at the expense of slower page loading.

Furthermore, while the demonstration appears to show adequate ability to play Flash-based games, the browser's ability to deal with Flash content on a fluid basis as integrated into a webpage seems less impressive. Flash elements lead to stuttering while scrolling and zooming on webpages with Flash content, and even resulted in a low memory warning requiring the tester to actively manage the currently open applications on the test device. Commenters on the PocketNow article report that users have the ability to load Flash elements only on demand, but that even so the browser experiences some increased lag compared to Flash-free browsing.

While Flash 10.1 remains in beta form and will likely see improvements in both the software and hardware partners' ability to offer hardware-accelerated Flash performance on mobile devices, the current performance is not likely to sway Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who noted in his "Thoughts on Flash" open letter last month that he had yet to see Flash "performing well" on mobile platforms.

We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.

PocketNow is planning to completely uninstall Flash from its Nexus One handset running Froyo in order to more accurately assess the speed increase associated with the new Android browser when not being hampered by Flash content. Preliminary indications based on benchmarks suggest that its speed easily exceeds that of Android 2.1 and should significantly surpass that of the iPhone 3GS.

Update: PocketNow has now posted a follow-up video showing that, with Flash disabled, the Android 2.2 browser is indeed faster than Safari on the iPhone 3GS in many of the real-world tests shown, sometimes by a significant margin.

Elgato today announced the launch of its new EyeTV HD for Mac, offering users the ability to bring high-definition TV content to their Mac and stream it to iPhone OS devices using the dedicated App Store app.

Today, Elgato debuted the world's only DVR solution which provides full access to premium cable or satellite TV content on a Mac - EyeTV HD. Customers can now watch record, edit and enjoy cable and satellite in high-definition, including all their premium channels. EyeTV HD includes a unique dual-format capture mode that records in iPad and iPhone formats at the same time, allowing users to stream live and recorded TV to an iPhone or iPad using the optional EyeTV app.

EyeTV HD offers easy setup, simply requiring the user to connect the device to his or her cable box via component cables and Mac via USB. Simple configuration of an IR blaster for channel changing then brings the user's complete TV package onto their Mac, where Elgato's EyeTV 3 software handles navigation, editing, export, and streaming of content.

EyeTV HD also offers S-video and composite inputs to allow users to connect standard-definition sources such as VCRs and camcorders to video import and manipulation.

EyeTV HD sells for $199.95 with one free year of TV Guide service. Renewal service is available for $19.95 per year. Streaming to the iPhone or iPad requires the company's EyeTV App Store application, priced at $4.99.