MacRumors

World of Apple reports that Apple has seeded a new version of Mac OS X 10.6.4, termed Build 10F50, to select developers. According to the report, the update now weighs in at 581.3 MB and contains one documented minor issue.

Apple has also revised the seed notes accompanying the release to highlighting what it considers the most significant fixes brought in the update so far, including addressing issues with keyboard/trackpad unresponsiveness, Adobe CS3 application launching, and photo editing in full-screen mode on both iPhoto and Aperture. The notes also report that Apple has made improvements to VPN reliability, VoiceOver compatibility with iMovie and GarageBand, and braille display compatibility.

According to today's report, Apple continues to ask developers to focus their testing on the same five areas documented in the previous build seeded last week: GraphicsDrivers, SMB, USB, VoiceOver, and VPN.

Not entirely surprisingly, Wi-Fi Sync has been rejected from the App Store. We profiled the app in April. Wi-Fi Sync enabled users to wirelessly sync their iPhones with their computers via a local Wi-Fi network. The developer had submitted it to Apple with hopes that they would approve it for sale through the iTunes App Store. As many suspected, Apple rejected the app. Engadget cites the explanation the developer received from Apple.

"While he agreed that the app doesn't technically break the rules, he said that it does encroach upon the boundaries of what they can and cannot allow on their store. He also cited security concerns."

The developer is now distributing it outside the App Store on jailbroken phones for $9.99.

Most people seemed to expect that Wi-Fi would be rejected by Apple due to the unconventional nature of the app, but many were hoping to finally add wireless syncing as a feature to their iPhones.

The reason everyone is so interested in the leaked Apple iPhone goes beyond natural interest in the product. It's just that Apple usually does such a good job at keeping the their hardware under wraps. The lost iPhone(s) are easily the largest leak in the company's history.

Of course, Apple's labs are always brimming with activity, and many of these prototype designs eventually fall into the hands of collectors in the years to come. Here are a few interesting ones that were successfully designed behind closed doors.

A clear-case Prototype Apple Mouse apparently given to some Apple employees. It's labeled "Prototype" on the bottom and lights up when the it's plugged in.

A metal industrial design prototype of the Apple Macintosh G4 Cube. The production cube was, well, closer to the dimensions of an actual cube. The final Cube design was actually leaked prior to its release, though there were a lot of doubts about its authenticity at the time.

Apple's tablet efforts go back a long way. This PenLite design is from 1992 and represents a pen-based Mac built from a Powerbook design.

Patently Apple points to a newly-published patent application from Apple describing temporary proximity-based or location-based applications that could appear on a user's iPhone or other mobile device when in a specific area. Content would be managed by a central server that would pair a device's location as relayed by Wi-Fi connections or other means and deliver appropriate applications based on that location.

The idea is simple. Deliver a location based service to information savvy iPhone users that wish to receive temporary retail and service-based applications. Imagine standing at the entrance of a restaurant and viewing their menu on your iPhone or entering a public library and being able to access their database. The minute you leave the library or the front of that restaurant, the app disappears so that you don't clog up your iPhone with hundreds of local business apps.

In the patent application, Apple offers several examples of how this technology might be used:

- Restaurant: The patent application describes two possible uses of location-based temporary applications that could prove useful to a user approaching a restaurant. The first is a "Wait Time" icon that would automatically tell the user how long the current wait is to be seated at the desired restaurant. A second "Place Order" icon could allow users to access a restaurant's menu on their device and submit their food orders electronically.

- Public Library: Upon entering a library, a user could see an application automatically appear on their device that would allow them to search the library's digital database of books and other content without having to secure a position at one of the library's linked computers. The application could then automatically disappear from the user's device once they exit the building.

The patent application is solely credited to Apple engineer Scott Herz and was filed in November 2008.

It was almost getting absurd. We posted a link to BeGeek who posted some new images of the leaked 4th Generation iPhone. As it turns out, they simply obtained those images from the Vietnamese leak on Taoviet.vn.

That means there were still "just" three leaked 4th generation iPhones that we are aware of: Gizmodo's, Taoviet's, and an early Twitter leak.

Interesting to note is that these three devices are distinct. The Gizmodo model was labeled "DVT", the Taoviet model "PRO2", while the original Twitter leaked model is labeled "EVT1". All these models are presumably from different stages of development.

Silicon Alley Insider reports on a blog post that briefly appeared on the site of television streaming service Hulu announcing a number of new features for the service. In addition to announcing the new features, the blog post, which has since been pulled for unknown reasons, also revealed that the company has decided against adopting HTML5 for the time being, preferring to stick with its existing Flash-based player. The decision means that iPhone and iPad users should not expect to see Hulu in their browsers in the near future. This doesn't eliminate the possibility of an iPad or iPhone app.

When it comes to technology, our only guiding principle is to best serve the needs of all of our key customers: our viewers, our content partners who license programs to us, our advertisers, and each other. We continue to monitor developments on HTML5, but as of now it doesn't yet meet all of our customers' needs. Our player doesn't just simply stream video, it must also secure the content, handle reporting for our advertisers, render the video using a high performance codec to ensure premium visual quality, communicate back with the server to determine how long to buffer and what bitrate to stream, and dozens of other things that aren't necessarily visible to the end user. Not all video sites have these needs, but for our business these are all important and often contractual requirements.

That's not to say these features won't be added to HTML5 in the future (or be easier to implement). Technology is a fast-moving space and we're constantly evaluating which tools will best allow us to fulfill our mission for as many of our customers as possible.

Rumors of Hulu on iPhone OS devices have been somewhat popular, beginning with an April 2009 claim that an iPhone version would be appearing "within a few months". The iPad's arrival set off a new round of rumors, with suggestions that the platform could serve as a testing ground for a Hulu subscription service apparently set for introduction later this month.

A new image (cached) posted by Vietnamese site Taoviet.vn shows what appears to be the prototype iPhone running iPhone OS 4. Few details are provided about how this might have been accomplished.

It seems likely that the poster to Taoviet.vn is the mobile phone dealer identified in the Associated Press article as the owner of the leaked iPhone.

The Associated Press managed to track down Tran Manh Hiep, the mobile phone accessory salesman in Vietnam who posted a hands on video of the next generation iPhone earlier this week.

The trail seems to end there, however, as Hiep isn't the owner of the device. Hiep reportedly rushed down to a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City after he heard someone was showing off the unauthorized device. He believes the phone is authentic, and said "when I plugged it into a Mac, it recognized it as an Apple product".

The actual owner of the device is another Vietnamese mobile phone dealer. Hiep said he did not know how the man got the iPhone.

Bloomberg reports that Wal-Mart is expecting to begin offering the iPad for sale in its stores sometime "later this year", building on the company's existing offerings of the iPhone 3GS and various iPod models.

"We anticipate being able to have the iPad later this year," Gary Severson, senior vice president of entertainment for Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, said in a telephone interview. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company isn't prepared to provide specifics on the timing and pricing of the iPad, he said.

Apple declined to comment specifically on the report, noting only that it has not made any announcements on new iPad retail partners since the device was introduced. U.S. distribution is currently limited to Apple's online and retail stores and Best Buy locations offering the Apple "store-within-a-store" concept.

Apple has been struggling to keep up with customer demand for the iPad in the United States, even as the company this week began taking pre-orders in nine new countries for delivery later this month. Customers looking to order the iPad in those new countries have already seen Apple burn through its launch quantities, with shipping estimates for new orders being pushed out beyond the May 28th launch date.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that a "plugged-in source in the mobile industry" has indicated that Apple is building some form of Facebook integration into iPhone OS, with a possible introduction next month at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference.

Our source tells us that Apple is at least going to build Facebook contact syncing directly into the iPhone software, so you can pull Facebook contacts into your iPhone's phonebook. This is a no-brainer, and is already a feature that some of Apple's competition offers, so it makes sense to include on the iPhone.

Other possibilities include syncing of Facebook photos, Facebook Connect integration, and perhaps Facebook messaging.

Apple has added support for minor Facebook integration to several of its products, including photo uploads in iPhoto '09 and information sharing in iTunes 9. Apple has also been rumored to be adding more Facebook integration in iTunes by deploying Facebook Connect, which would increase possibilities for social aspects of the platform.

Adobe today went on the offensive regarding the controversy over its Flash platform, pressing its support for openness on the Internet and responding to some of the comments made by others about the platform in recent weeks that it believes are incorrect.

We believe open markets that allow developers, publishers, and consumers to make their own choices about how they create, distribute, and access content are essential to progress. That's why we actively support technologies like HTML4, HTML5, CSS, and H.264, in addition to our own technologies.

Adobe has also published an open letter from founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock noting the company's history of publishing open specifications for its standards and arguing that it has attained its dominant market position by out-innovating competitors.

We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web -- the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.

In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody -- and everybody, but certainly not a single company.

As noted by Engadget, Adobe has also rolled out an advertising campaign in online and print media taking the angle that Adobe loves Apple, but doesn't love its choice to restrict how users can develop and experience Internet content on its devices.

Apple has announced that they are introducing the beta of an all new MobileMe Mail web application. Customers may apply by logging into MobileMe mail and clicking on the "Request Invitation" link found on the bottom left of the screen.

The new MobileMe beta introduces a number of new features including:

- Widescreen and compact views. When reading your mail at me.com, the new widescreen view lets you see more of each message with less scrolling. Choose compact view to hide your folders or classic view to see more of your message list.
- Rules to keep your email organized everywhere. Mail rules help you reduce inbox clutter by automatically filing messages into folders you select ahead of time. Set them up at me.com, and your rules organize your incoming email on the web and everywhere else -- on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
- Single-click archiving. Click the Archive button and the selected message is quickly filed into the Archive folder where it's always available for future reference.
- Formatting toolbar. You can create great-looking email messages using formatting buttons to bold or italicize text, change font color, insert images, and more. You can even create formatted web links to hide long URLs.
- Improved performance. Mail at me.com loads your inbox and messages faster. And with interface refinements such as the ability to scroll through your entire inbox without having to manually click to load the next set of messages, you'll be able to work more efficiently.
- Increased security with SSL. With the MobileMe Mail beta, accessing your email on the web is more secure than ever. Your inbox is protected to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on your webmail. As always, you receive SSL protection when you use your MobileMe Mail account on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.

A Beta FAQ is also available.

Apple started airing a new iPad ad tonight called "What is iPad?". The Ad seems to be a departure from their recent ads with a bit of a gruff narrator walking through what the iPad is. However, it struck me as strangely familiar and I realized that Apple had reincarnated one of the original Apple Newton ads called "What is Newton?" from almost 20 years ago:

If Apple keeps up with the theme, we should be seeing a "Who is iPad" ad and "Where is iPad" to mirror Who is Newton and Where is Newton.

The Apple Newton was the first Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and was released in 1993. The Newton featured handwriting recognition which received a significant amount of bad press on launch. The recognizer improved significantly in the subsequent releases but it was never quite able to shake the bad reputation. The Newton line was discontinued by Steve Jobs himself after his return to Apple. While most people still carry a negative connotation with Apple's Newton, it was an ahead-of-its-time sort of device that had a hardcore fan base in its day.

A new report (Taiwanese) seems to identify Pegatron as the manufacturer for a CDMA-compatible iPhone. Translation via Electronista:

Pegatron has been contracted to make a CDMA iPhone, insiders claimed today. The scoop is short but would have the ASUS manufacturing arm building phones that would likely go to Verizon and possibly other carriers as well. A deal would help Pegatron take off as a major supplier, DigiTimes said.

But this is not the first time Pegatron has been singled out as the manufacturer for a Verizon-compatible iPhone. The Wall Street Journal first revealed that possibility back in March.

The CDMA iPhone model is being made by Pegatron Technology Corp., the contract manufacturing subsidiary of Taiwan's ASUSTeK Computer Inc., said these people.

While there have been a lot of conflicting rumors over the past few months about the possibility of a Verizon iPhone, we consider The Wall Street Journal a reliable source for rumors, so place their predictions head of all the other conflicting reports. What's also telling of their accuracy is that the March 30th article also described the new iPhone as "thinner" with a faster processor. This report was well before the leaked images of the next generation iPhone which did reveal the thinner form factor.

The WSJ believes that the next iPhone will launch this summer, but the CDMA (Verizon) iPhone won't begin manufacturing until September.

Steam for Mac has officially launched. The Steam store is now featuring Mac content with over 60 launch titles. Customers can browse the Mac store from their web browsers: click to browse. The actual Steam client will need to be downloaded to purchase and install games.

As part of their launch promotion, Valve is offering their highly acclaimed game Portal for free until May 24th.

Even if you don't consider yourself much of a gamer, we highly recommend giving Portal a try.

iFixit confirms that the processor revealed in the leaked 4th generation iPhone is an Apple A4 processor. iFixit was also able to confirm the Samsung DRAM part number indicating that the next generation iPhone will have 256MB of RAM. This is the same amount of RAM found in the iPhone 3GS and iPad.

The new device was also labeled as "N90 PRO2". N90 is the product id number for the next generation iPhone, though we aren't certain what "PRO2" means. The Gizmodo prototype phone was labeled DVT which is said to stand for "design verification test". We can only speculate at this point that PRO could stand for prototype or production.

Here are translated impressions by forum reader lincolntran of the Tinte post originally written in Vietnamese:

iPhone 4G has a totally new design in comparing with previous generations of iPhone. Not only looking stronger (aluminum and glass) when holding in your hand, you will be surprise to think that it was put together by several separate parts because it feels like a solid block. Because of the square/block design, it feels a little uncomfortable in your hand in comparing with the previous generation of iPhone. You can feel the sharp edges come in contact with your hand.

There is no longer a metal bezel on the front, only a black surface. The back design is also the same, a single piece of glass convering all the Logo, camera, flash, and other information...look very classy. We can see that the front and back are pieces of glass that were attached to the aluminum frame. When looking at another angel, people will see that aluminum frame was brilliantly made; a lot of attention to the details, thing like speakers, earphone, mic.... Beside the only home button in the front, there is another small camera right on the left of the speaker, under the glass surface.

The 4 edges contain the same buttons with the same functions as the previous iPhones. The volume buttons are now separate and are round. Next to the headphone plug and power button, there a small hole, which looks like a mic's hole. It's possible that this is the noice canceling mic. The SIM card has been moved to the right side, like on the iPad.

Dimension: iPhone 4G is thinner than the previous iPhones (about 2.5mm), the width is also narrower, about 3.5mm (this is because of the aluminum frame), the height is about 1mm higher. These changes have made the new iPhone looks longer or higher.

When turning on the iPhone, only the inferno screen is showed and some information that look like command lines. Perhap this screen showed up not because of Apple remotely locked the machine but the phone is locked locally after a time interval without the user entering a certain code.

HTC Corporation today filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the United States. HTC claims five HTC patents are being infringed on by Apple.

"We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones."

The move is in response to a lawsuit filed by Apple against HTC in March. Apple claims that HTC is infringing on 20 Apple patents related to iPhone technology.

HTC is a prominent supplier of Android phones. The original lawsuit was seen as a move directly against Google's Android operating system by Apple. Apple is also currently involved in lawsuits with Nokia over iPhone technologies.