MacRumors

The Daily Telegraph reports that ARM Holdings, the design firm behind the processors used in Apple's iPhone OS devices and the subject of recent rumors that Apple might be looking at an acquisition, has announced record sales, revenue, and profits for the first quarter of 2010. In particular, chief executive Warren East cited the iPhone and its stimulation of the entire smartphone industry as key drivers for ARM's growth, and pointed to the iPad as another opportunity for the company.

"The iPhone acted as a great stimulus to encourage competitors to develop products to beat the iPhone," he said. "The iPad looks like it has set the competitive bar again, and will stimulate people to do a lot of other creative things."

The report also notes that East "dismissed" the rumors of an Apple buyout, following up on comments he made last week arguing against the need for Apple or any other company to make an acquisition.

Research firm iSuppli yesterday also released its own fact sheet on the Apple-ARM situation, outlining several reasons why an acquisition of ARM makes little strategic sense for Apple.

"Just because ARM's IP plays an important role in mobile devices, that doesn't necessarily mean ARM is of strategic value to Apple," said William Kidd, director and principal analyst, financial services for iSuppli. "iSuppli thinks ARM would represent a costly acquisition with little in the way of true strategic benefits. The acquisition would not give Apple's products a competitive edge/differentiating value. iSuppli also doesn't buy into prevailing speculation that there could be significant value in denying other competitors access to ARM's IP, since the majority of the impact would be felt by companies like Broadcom, Samsung and Texas Instruments, which are not exactly Apple's biggest rivals. In any case, there would be no visible end-market impact seen for two years at a minimum.

iSuppli also expects that other bidders would be likely to appear should Apple make a serious effort at acquiring ARM, as many chipmakers rely on ARM's technology, which would be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to shift away from, and fear Apple's "inward-looking corporate style" could inhibit the freedom they currently have to work off of ARM's designs.

ACCOUNT_NOT_REGISTERED_MESSAGE = "This device has not been registered for video conferencing.";

The text files also contain the usual error messages involving lost calls or disconnected calls, as well as networking issues. What's interesting to note though is that at this time there are no error messages related to 3G or cellular connections, while there are several error messages related to Wi-Fi connectivity issues:

IMAVCHAT_COULD_NOT_CONNECT_NO_REMOTE_WIFI = "The video call could not connect because a remote Wi-Fi connection could not be established.";
IMAVCHAT_DISCONNECTED_NO_LOCAL_WIFI = "The video call disconnected because the local Wi-Fi connection was lost.";

We're not sure if that is significant or not, but many had hoped that video conferencing would be allowed over 3G networks.

Finally, it appears Apple will be integrating the Video Conferencing feature with its new Game Center. It appears players may be able to chat or coordinate calls with fellow Game Center participants. Several status messages relate to Apple's social gaming system:

IMAVCHAT_ERROR_NO_SUCH_PLAYER_ID = "No Such Player ID";
IMAVCHAT_ERROR_NO_SUCH_ACHIEVEMENT = "No Such Achievement";
IMAVCHAT_ERROR_UNRECOGNIZED_GAME_DESCRIPTION_HEADERS = "Unrecognised Game Descriptor Headers";
IMAVCHAT_ERROR_NO_SUCH_GAME = "No Such Game";

Leaked images of next generation iPhone

"There are both federal and state laws here in California that protect reporters and journalists from search and seizure for their news gathering activities. The federal law is the Privacy Protection Act and the state law is a provision of the penal code and evidence code. It appears that both of those laws may be being violated by this search and seizure."

While some have suggested that this may not apply if they were investigating Gizmodo for criminal activity, the EFF says it doesn't matter and the shield laws apply anyway.

But even if they are saying it was unlawful, the statute appears to say it doesn't matter. The crime that you're investigating cannot be receipt of that information or materials.

Based on a report by TechCrunch, it appears the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office is acknowledging that the shield protection laws may still be valid. The investigation has reported to have come to a pause as they reevaluate whether or not those shield laws do apply in this situation.

A total of 24 items related to the investigation were seized by officers, who broke down the door to Chen's unoccupied residence to execute the search warrant. Chen, who returned home from a dinner out to find the police in his home, notes that he discussed with the officers claims made by Gaby Darbyshire, Chief Operating Officer of Gizmodo's parent company Gawker Media that such a search warrant should be considered illegal under journalist protection statutes. Officers proceeded, however, with their search and seizure.

According to Gaby Darbyshire, COO of Gawker Media LLC, the search warrant to remove these computers was invalid under section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code.

Gawker has filed its objection with the police department and requested an immediate return of the seized items.

Update: TechCrunch provides some additional color on the situation, reporting that the authorities have temporarily put the investigation on hold as they study whether they agree with Gizmodo's claims that journalist shield laws should apply to the situation. Consequently, police have not yet begun to examine the evidence seized from Chen's residence.

I just spoke to Stephen Wagstaffe, Chief Deputy at San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, who told me that nobody has yet been charged in the case, and at this point it is "just an investigation". He says the investigation is "looking at any hand that touched or had something to do with this phone" but that the investigation is not currently targeting either Gawker or the person who originally found the phone -- rather, police are collecting every fact they can to present to the DA, who will then make a decision.

Last month, Valve Software announced that its Steam game distribution platform and its own library of games would be coming to Mac OS X in April. In recent weeks, Valve has kicked off a closed beta for Steam, and an extensive thread in the Steam user forums has led to a nice summarization of where things stand.

Steam itself will also be Intel-only and require Mac OS X Leopard, although individual games may require newer versions of Mac OS X. Reports also indicate that systems using Intel's X3100 or 900-series integrated graphics will not be supported for Source-based games, although testers have been able to get the Mac version of Portal running at 10-15 frames per second on lowest settings on these systems.

Other details coming out of the beta testing are confirmation regarding Steam Play, which will allow users to purchase a game only once and play it on multiple systems, as well as corroboration that Windows and Mac users will play on the same servers with the ability to join the same lobbies.

Beta users are reportedly still limited to Portal for testing, although word is that Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 will be added shortly. Other confirmed games for Mac include the remainder of the Half-Life series, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and the upcoming Portal 2.

Despite a refresh of the Steam client user interface released today, Valve has yet to announce a specific release date for the Mac version of Steam, continuing to hint only "coming soon".

As the name implies, the app promises a complete sync of your iPhone or iPod touch with iTunes without having to tether and looks pretty straightforward (and occasionally useful) based on the video demonstration found after the break.

According to comments from the developer, he believes that the application fully complies with Apple's developer rules and will be submitting it for inclusion in the App Store later this week.

The application requires a separate syncing application to be installed on the user's computer. The video shows a Mac OS X version of the application in action, and the developer promises that a Windows version is under development.

Longtime IGN columnist Matt Casamassina last week noted on his blog that he is leaving behind his role as noted Nintendo reviewer to take a position as "global editorial games manager" at Apple.

Beginning early May, I will join Apple as global editorial games manager, App Store. In a nutshell, I will be leading the charge for games on the App Store, so whether you browse through iTunes, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team. I couldn't be happier.

Casamassina was a founding member of the IGN, a popular news and reviews site for the gaming community. His early work on Nintendo 64 content was folded into IGN, where it became a mainstay for the site as Nintendo evolved with its GameCube and Wii consoles, as well as numerous portable devices, over the years.

Apple has been working hard to position the iPhone OS, and particularly the iPod touch, as a gaming platform. Recent data has shown some success for Apple, with iPhone OS devices reportedly garnering 19% of revenue for the portable gaming market in the U.S. in 2009.

- Steve Wozniak reports that he was shown a 3G iPad by an Apple employee the morning of the Wi-Fi launch, and that Apple employee was subsequently fired.

I can tell you that the test engineer who showed me an iPad after midnight, for 2 minutes, during the iPad launch was indeed fired. I opted to spend 2 minutes with Numbers on this iPad, trying some stunts I'd seen on Apple's website demo video. I was not told that it was a 3G model and I had no way to know that. I was told that this engineer had to wait until midnight to show it outside of Apple's secure area. And I'm an Apple employee who he was showing it to. My guess is that he was allowed to take the iPad outside of the secure area but still not supposed to show it.

- Israel lifts ban on iPad imports. iPads were temporarily banned from being imported after it was claimed that they did not follow normal wireless standards:

The tests proved the device identifies the Wi-fi access point in its surroundings and adjusts itself automatically, enabling the iPad to be operated without interfering with other wireless devices, the ministry said.

- Steve Jobs reassures one customer in an email that there will be no "Mac App Store" that mirrors the iTunes App Store. There had been some wild rumors that Apple might be considering an approval-required Mac App Store for future versions of Mac OS X, but this has been denied.

- German Airline Lufthansa has offered the Apple employee that lost the prototype iPhone a free trip to Munich to visit their new Bavarian Beer Garden Business Lounge to "pick up where you left off". The next generation iPhone was lost at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German bar in Redwood City, CA.

Two prototype iPod touches were listed on eBay for a short time this morning before they were removed. The listing was first noted on our forums with photos posted by 9 to 5 Mac before the listing was removed. According to a YouTube video by Bilsta57, the original eBay description was the following:

"Well..These were R & D units..One wont turn off and has some wierd OS...or lack of firmware So it will be dead when you get it,,,but will power up when you plug it in...The other won't turn on has a brown spot on the screen. Both have cameras"

Blista57 also reports that when questioned about their origins, the auction seller wrote "Sorry... Have no idea... I bought them from a guy at a flea market and he bought them from a live auction here in the Bay Area."

iPod touches with a back-facing camera had been extensively rumored last fall. Photos and 3rd party case designs of the devices both suggested the existence of the units. Ultimately, however, it is believed that the feature was removed at the last minute, and tear downs of the final shipping 3rd Gen iPod touches revealed an empty space where a camera might reside.

Note that these images seem to represent last year's prototype models of the currently shipping iPod touch, and not any future model.

Apple's Camera Connection Kit for iPad began shipping earlier this week and customers have started receiving the adapters. This YouTube video provides a hands-on demonstration using the kit to import photos directly to the iPad:

- USB headphone/headset will work on the iPad through the connection kit. Skype phone call was tested and "the quality was just terrific" - Tidbits
- USB keyboards can be used - TUAW
- iLounge had some early notes which revealed that the iPad emails pictures out at 2048x1536 resolution rather than the iPhone's 800x600 resolution, but if you copy/paste the images into an email, you can get full resolution images emailed out.
- Once you connect to your Mac, iPhoto brings in full resolution images with EXIF information intact. - iLounge

CNET reports that law enforcement officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding an Apple employee's lost next-generation iPhone that ended up in the hands of Gizmodo, which published details of the device earlier this week.

Apple has spoken to local police about the incident and the investigation is believed to be headed by a computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, the source said. Apple's Cupertino headquarters is in Santa Clara County, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.

The current focus of the investigation is said to be determining whether or not sufficient evidence exists for criminal charges to be pursued, although it is unclear whether the investigation is targeting the finder of the iPhone, Gizmodo, or both.

Gizmodo has admitted paying $5000 for the device, and many have questioned the legality of the entire situation.

Last month, Boy Genius Report released some screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming Office for Mac 2011, due for launch later this year. Among the featured items in the handful of screenshots was Outlook, which will replace Entourage as the email and calendaring component of Office for Mac.

Across the board, each application has had its UI completely overhauled as Microsoft has made the wise decision to redo the entire layout of the application suite. Instead of the awful configuration found in Office for Mac 2008, 2011 draws from both Office 2007 and Office 2010 for Windows. In fact, it did such a good job that we can't think of a reason why someone who is used to one OS wouldn't be able to jump into the other and get work done in Office.

In particular, the report points to Microsoft's shift to the "ribbon" toolbar display as being a tremendous improvement over the "toolbox" format used in current versions of Office for Mac. Fans of the toolbox format, however, should note that the option to use it still exists.

On the downside, the report suggests that the new Outlook component could still use some work. While calling it the "best and most powerful email client we've ever used on OS X," the report claims that simple tasks require too much effort to accomplish. Fortunately, Microsoft still has some time left to refine things as it moves towards the end-of-the-year release.

IDG News Service reports that Intel continues to struggle with shortages of its new Arrandale processors, causing price spikes for companies not under contract with Intel looking to buy the chips on the open market.

The shortfall is in Intel's new laptop microprocessors codenamed Arrandale, including some Core i3 and Core i5 chips. The shortage has caused chip buyers to bid the price of the microprocessors up to a 20 percent premium over contract prices on the open market, according to U.S. chip distributor Converge. The shortage hit in March and will last throughout April, the company added in a monthly research report.

Apple utilizes Arrandale Core i5 and i7 chips in its 15" and 17" MacBook Pro models released last week. Apple had reportedly planned to release the new models last month, but the Intel chip shortages resulted in Apple pushing back the launch to the middle of this month as it looked to firm up its supplies of the necessary chips.

For its part, Apple looks to have secured a steady supply of Arrandale processors through its contracts with Intel. The company continues to offer 24-hour shipping windows for all Arrandale-based MacBook Pro standard configurations through its online stores in much of the world, although the mid-range 15" model appears to be experiencing delays of up to 5 business days in Europe. It is unknown whether those delays are due to chip shortages or other factors, as other MacBook Pro models using the same processors are still showing quick turnaround times.

Custom orders of the 15" MacBook Pro have, however, been reported to be seeing some delays in many markets. Apple's new high-resolution display option on the 15" models seems to be a primary source of those delays, although even basic RAM upgrades are showing shipping windows of 5-7 business days for some models.

MacUser yesterday reported that Google has announced that it is bringing the free service to the United Kingdom on Android and continues to have plans to bring it to the iPhone and other platforms.

Google confirmed at a London press conference that it plans to bring free satnav to other smartphone platforms, including the iPhone, although it wouldn't say when.

According to PCWorld, however, Google has backpedaled on those claims and in fact seems to be distancing itself from the possibility of bringing the service to the iPhone.

"We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we've had it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms but did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all," a Google spokesperson told PCWorld.

While users continue to wait for Google to decide whether to make its service available on the iPhone, other companies have been stepping forward in the competitive GPS navigation market. In addition to paid options from such companies as TomTom, Magellan, and Navigon, MapQuest last month began offering free basic turn-by-turn directions.