MacRumors

Last week, a report that video site Hulu might be making its way to the iPad generated a significant amount of interest, with many users excited about the prospect of free access to television content on Apple's forthcoming tablet device. MediaMemo reports, however, that iPad access to Hulu is more likely to come as part of a paid subscription package than as free access like the computer-based version of the site.

Hulu and its owners -- three of the big broadcast TV networks -- want to bring some version of the Web video service to Apple's device.

But the most likely scenario is one where access to Hulu on the iPad comes as part of a subscription package, multiple people familiar with the company tell me.

Hulu has in the past noted that it is looking for a way to introduce paid content to its offerings, and today's report indicates that company executives may be thinking that the best way to achieve that goal while preserving the free experience for computer-based users is to charge for mobile-based content such as that which would appear on the iPad.

And while you could argue that the iPad isn't necessarily a mobile device, since 3G Internet access is an optional feature, Hulu and its owners are likely to classify it as one. Like many other content owners, the video service sees the device as an opportunity to charge for something it has been giving away for free on the Web.

Aside from the previously-documented hurdle Hulu faces with its current video player being Flash-based and Apple's mobile devices not supporting the standard, the company would also need to secure mobile rights from content providers before being able to offer such a service to the iPad and other mobile platforms.

Consequently, the report concludes that Hulu for the iPad is unlikely to launch alongside the device itself next month, but users can probably expect in some form, likely paid, in the future.

AppleInsider reports that it has received information that Apple is planning an enhancement to its next-generation MacBook Pros that will allow for automatic switching between integrated and discrete graphics processors based on whichever is the more optimal technology (power consumption vs. performance) at any given time.

Since October 2008, Apple has offered two NVIDIA graphics processors in its 17" and higher-end 15" MacBook Pro models, one discrete processor and one integrated processor. Users of these machines have been able use the Energy Saver pane in System Preferences to select whether they prefer "better battery life" with the integrated graphics or "higher performance" with the discrete graphics, although switching between the two requires users to log out of their accounts temporarily.

Apple's rumored plans appear to be based on NVIDIA's Optimus technology, which allows for seamless switching between graphics processors based on automatic software settings. NVIDIA reportedly developed the technology in response to a dispute with Intel over NVIDIA's ability to build chipsets for Intel's latest processors, a dispute that has led to NVIDIA exiting the chipset business. NVIDIA's Optimus technology offers computer manufacturers an enticing means to pair NVIDIA's well-regarded discrete graphics processors with integrated processors provided by Intel as part of its chipsets.

Today's report notes that the source is not 100% certain that the change will be made in time to appear in Apple's next-generation MacBook Pro, which is widely expected in the near future. Apple's pressing need for a solution to the situation presented by the Intel-NVIDIA dispute, however, makes it very likely that the technology will be included in the forthcoming models.

iPhone developer ChilliFresh posted (via TechCrunch) that they received an email from Apple tonight indicating that their iPhone app Wobble iBoobs had been pulled from the App Store. The email revealed that Apple was now removing overtly sexual content due to customer complaints:

The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately.

We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you believe you can make the necessary changes so that Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored) complies with our recent changes, we encourage you to do so and resubmit for review.

Sincerely,
iPhone App Review

A search of other similarly adult themed apps on AppShopper shows that many (but not all) have already been removed from the App Store.

ChilliFresh's app had been well known and generated over $260,000 in its App Store lifetime. The developer points out that his app actually ships with no images and simply uses user supplied images. Meanwhile, at least one other developer seems to have accidentally gotten caught in the crossfire with his Invisible Girl book being removed despite the developer's insistence that the ebook contains no sexual references. Of note, Playboy's official app remains on the App Store at this time.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has been kept busy with claims involving Apple recently, as the company has found itself involved in several high-profile disputes with major corporations over claims of patent infringement. Just a day after the agency agreed to investigate claims made by Kodak against Apple and Research in Motion regarding possible patent infringement, Bloomberg reports that the ITC has granted Apple's request to review actions by Nokia regarding intellectual property.

The ITC is a government agency whose job is to protect the U.S. market from unfair trade practices, including patent infringement. It could complete the investigation in about 15 months.

The battle between Apple and Nokia kicked off last October when Nokia sued Apple for infringement of a number of Nokia-held patents regarding various cellular and Wi-Fi technologies, a suit against which Apple vowed to "vigorously" defend itself. In mid-December, Apple did just that by filing a countersuit addressing Nokia's claims and claiming infringement of 13 Apple-held patents by Nokia.

Nokia responded with a request to the ITC in late December asking for a ban on the importation of "virtually all" Apple products. Apple fired back with its own request to the ITC a few weeks later similarly looking for a ban on importation of Nokia products as the dispute between the two companies continued to escalate.

The ITC granted Nokia's request for a review last month, and has now agreed to consider Apple's request, setting the stage for an independent examination of both companies' cases. As noted yesterday in our report on the Kodak case, the ITC typically grants requests for review, meaning that its decisions in the Nokia cases were not unexpected and any restrictions on the importation of goods from either country are unlikely. The ITC's reviews will, however, offer regulatory perspective on the various claims and the threat of possible importation restrictions will certainly encourage the companies to settle their dispute prior to any official trade-related measures being implemented.

Apple is rapidly seeding new versions of Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers as they prepare for its release. The latest version was released to developers today and represents build 10D558. Changes listed are detailed by iPhone in Canada:

- Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic
- Addresses compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
- Includes changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and enhance security
- Improves printing reliability and compatibility with 3rd party printers
- Addresses issues that cause background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
- Issues that caused machines using BTMM and Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly
- Issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to Exchange servers

The list of changes is identical to the previous build, so the actual changes are likely much less notable. We'd expect Apple to be releasing Mac OS X 10.6.3 to end users in the near future.

A company called Trade Privacy (via Fortune) reported today that Apple has successfully blocked public access to their shipping freight import records in preparation for the iPad launch.

As the arrival of Apple's new iPad approaches, industry competitors as well as the media will be unable to acquire early intelligence on arriving Apple products from overseas manufacturers. Apple, well known for their operational secrecy, continues to show leadership in the technology industry by protecting the iPad and future product shipment records.

Apple is said to have made efforts to protect their shipping records after the exposure of shipping records back in 2008 related to the iPhone 3G. Apple is apparently the only major electronics company to have done so. Microsoft, Sony, and Google continue to have publicly accessible records.

The iPad is expected to first launch in late March, though Apple hasn't yet provided any details about pre-orders or a specific launch date.

Building on comments reportedly made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at a town hall meeting for company employees last month, Valleywag claims that Jobs focused a significant amount of effort during his recent visit to The Wall Street Journal on selling newspaper executives on the need to move away from Adobe Flash for digital content.

Jobs was brazen in his dismissal of Flash, people familiar with the meeting tell us. He repeated what he said at an Apple Town Hall recently, that Flash crashes Macs and is buggy.

But he also called Flash a "CPU hog," a source of "security holes" and, in perhaps the most grevious insult an famous innovator can utter, a dying technology. Jobs said of Flash, "We don't spend a lot of energy on old technology."

According to the report, Jobs then shared a list of technologies such as floppy drives, data port standards, and CCFL-backlit LCDs that Apple had helped computer users abandon in favor of newer technologies.

In his arguments against Flash, Jobs reportedly claimed that including Flash support would have decimated the iPad's battery life, bringing it down from its claimed 10 hours to the neighborhood of 1.5 hours. Jobs also claimed that abandoning Flash in favor of other tools would be "trivial" for The Wall Street Journal, suggesting that they embrace H.264-encoded video has one means toward that end. He apparently did not address, however, the steps that would be required for the paper to entirely redo its entire Web-based content in iPad-friendly technologies such as JavaScript.

Just yesterday, Adobe Chief Technical Officer Kevin Lynch defended Flash's reputation on the Mac and noted that increasing numbers of smartphone operating are supporting the standard. Based on his comments, Lynch appears to remain hopeful that the adoption of Flash for mobile platforms will convince holdouts like Apple that it can be supported.

MacRumors has received reports from several readers noting that the download cap for iPhone applications installed via 3G has been increased to 20 MB, a change that also appears to apply to iTunes Store content. Previously, users attempting to download content over 10 MB in size were prompted to connect to a Wi-Fi network or use a computer to obtain the applications. With the ceiling now increased to 20 MB, developers trying to stay under the cap limits in order to avoid frustrating users unable to install their applications while on the go should have significantly more flexibility for their applications.

The change is particularly significant given the impending launch of Apple's iPad tablet device, with 3G-capable models due to be released in April. The increased screen size and capabilities of the iPad will allow developers to create more sophisticated applications that will tend to be larger in size than iPhone applications.

A pair of Apple patent applications published today have been generating a bit of attention for their disclosure of Apple's behind-the-scenes work on its products. The first application covers methods for addressing variations in individual digital camera lenses by capturing images of known color and calibrating the software driving the lens to compensate for any non-uniformity in the lens with respect to a reference standard. While the technology could certainly be useful for ensuring consistent camera lens performance across devices in spite of manufacturing variations, AppleInsider noticed that images accompanying the patent application depict a front-facing camera on the handheld devices.

This is not the first time that Apple has included product images in its patent filings showing front-facing cameras, despite that fact that none of its handheld products have yet to be released offering such a feature. Conflicting reports prior to the iPad's introduction disagreed over whether the device would contain a front-facing camera, and one was not included in the official introduction. An inspection of claimed iPad parts, however, reveals an empty space in the bezel that appears to exactly match that used to house iSight cameras in Apple's notebook computers.

A second patent application, detailed by Patently Apple, describes a mouse input device with a convex bottom and gyroscopic sensors that would allow users to control their computers by rocking or turning the mouse. Such actions could be used for horizontal or vertical scrolling or for rotating items on a computer screen.

The patent application appears somewhat similar in at least general line-of-thinking to one published last month that describes the use of force and velocity sensors to allow for gesture-based input on mice.

Several MacRumors readers have reported that Apple's shipping lead times for its 27-inch iMac models in its online stores have improved today, with the U.S. and Canada now seeing lead times of 5-7 business days instead of 2 weeks and European stores seeing improvement to 2 weeks from earlier 3-week estimates.

Apple has continued to face lengthy shipping times for its 27-inch iMac models, with the company claiming that the delays have stemmed from high demand. The company has also been struggling, however, with several issues related to the displays on the machines, including flickering and yellow tinting. The company has issued a pair of firmware updates to address the flickering issues for existing customers, while it apparently continues to investigate the tinting issues.

The New York Times reports that recent shifts in the eBook publishing industry, spurred by Apple's entrance into the market, to allow for higher prices and greater publisher control over their content may offer more flexibility in pricing than previously thought. The "agency model" being promoted by Apple and pushed by many book publishers has been looking to break Amazon's stranglehold on the eBook market with its $9.99 pricing for best-sellers by allowing publishers to set retail prices on such releases, rumored to be targeted to sell at $12.99 to $14.99.

But according to at least three people with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke anonymously because of the confidentiality of the talks, Apple inserted provisions requiring publishers to discount e-book prices on best sellers -- so that $12.99-to-$14.99 range was merely a ceiling; prices for some titles could be lower, even as low as Amazon's $9.99. Essentially, Apple wants the flexibility to offer lower prices for the hottest books, those on one of the New York Times best-seller lists, which are heavily discounted in bookstores and on rival retail sites. So, for example, a book that started at $14.99 would drop to $12.99 or less once it hit the best-seller lists.

Moreover, for books where publishers offer comparable hardcover editions at a price below the typical $26, Apple wanted e-book prices to reflect the cheaper hardcover prices. These books might be priced much lower than $12.99, even if they did not hit the best-seller list.

The switch to an agency model is seen by publishers as a means to create a more sustainable eBook industry as a whole, countering Amazon's strategy of selling eBooks at a loss in order to build market share and spur sales of its Kindle devices. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on research from Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang, who expects that Amazon's share of the eBook market will fall from its current 90% to only 35% by 2015 as Apple and others enter the industry.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) on plans from other PC makers to tackle Apple's iPad head-on, and HP is looking at undercutting the iPad on pricing as a significant component to that strategy.

In the next few weeks, executives from Hewlett-Packard Co. will meet in the U.S. and Taiwan to tweak prices and features on an upcoming keyboardless computer dubbed the Slate, said two people familiar with the matter.

H-P has discussed selling a version of the Slate -- similar to the iPad in size and features, and including a cellular connection -- for a price below the $629 Apple charges for an equivalent iPad, one of these people said.

While HP's Slate was briefly demoed at CES in Las Vegas a few weeks before Apple announced the iPad, the company has refrained from offering details on the specs and pricing of the device as it waited for Apple to tip its hand so that it could make adjustments to respond competitively.

Dell, Acer, and Sony are reportedly all developing iPad competitors in one form or another, with Dell opting to pursue a smaller form factor with its initial foray into the market. Microsoft has also been rumored to be developing its own booklet device, codenamed "Courier".

There's still plenty of skepticism about whether PC companies have the right products to compete against the iPad. Many of the products risk being seen as "computers without keyboards," in part because many of them run an operating system, Microsoft's Windows 7, which is primarily aimed at traditional PC functions, said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. In contrast, the iPad's software, which borrows heavily from the iPhone, is more tailored for consuming media on the go, he said.

Wi-Fi-only versions of Apple's iPad are set to launch in late March beginning at $499, with 3G-capable models following in April beginning at $629.