MacRumors

Hardmac reports that Intel's new 6-core Core i7-980X is due to become widely available in March, leading to speculation that Apple may once again be able to gain early access to the new processors and release updated Mac Pro models as early as later this month.

The name of this hexacore CPU is now know, Core i7-980X, another cheaper (and slower) model should also be available, Core i7-970. According to difference sources, this new CPU should become available in March. So, if Apple and Intel are still engaged in a tight partnership, Apple might have the exclusivity of such CPU (as for the Nehalem Xeon) for a couple of days or weeks.

Hardmac has been keeping a close eye on upcoming Mac Pro revisions using the new processors, reporting in mid-October that Apple was likely to gain temporary exclusive access to the six-core processors as it did last year for the Nehalem Xeon processors. Preliminary performance numbers for the new high-end processor surfaced in late November, with additional technical details appearing soon after.

Update: Doubts have arisen as to whether Apple would utilize the upcoming Core i7 processors in its Mac Pro models when Intel is set to release new server-class 5600-series Xeon processors at the same time. The Xeon processors will similarly be available in six-core configurations and are part of the same Gulftown family. Regardless of which chips do appear in the next-generation Mac Pro, however, the similar release timelines and Apple's history of temporary exclusivity for the processors used in its Mac Pros likely mean that an update is due in the near future.

Apple has issued a new firmware update today to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering. Earlier today reports had indicated that Apple may have even stopped production of the 27" iMac due to this persistent issue.

Updates the display firmware on 27-inch iMac systems to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering.

The 27-inch iMac Display Update will update the display firmware on your iMac. Do not disturb or shut off the power on your iMac during this update.

Apple had previously issued a graphics firmware update in December with little success. Today's firmware update appears to address the Display hardware itself. The 27-inch iMac Display Update Firmware is 294KB in size and can be downloaded from Apple's site. Installation instructions are provided here.

After just five days free of Apple tablet rumors, it has begun again. TechCrunch claims that they have heard that Apple is working on a second larger tablet that will be "much more like a Mac than an iPhone."

But the information were hearing is that Apple is thinking much larger for another version of the product, maybe all the way up to the 15.4″ size that it currently uses for one version of the MacBook Pro. If you think that would be way too big for an iPad, were also hearing that this other tablet would be quite a bit different from the one revealed last week. Namely, it could run a version of OS X much closer to the traditional version that runs on Macs.

In the wake of the iPad launch, the possibility of Apple also pursuing a Mac OS X-based tablet seems strange. While some iPad detractors have been hoping for a Desktop-OS-on-Tablet experience, variations these products have existed and have simply not gained traction.

TechCrunch claims such a device would be launched within the next year. If true, we'd expect Apple to introduce more multi-touch friendly changes to Mac OS X itself. The rumors of a 22-Inch Touch Screen iMac could well tie in with these rumors.

Top: iPad frame, Center: Camera, Bottom: MacBook Frame

The photo above is particularly convincing as the iPad frame is compared to a MacBook frame which does house a camera. The holes seem identical. Even if this is all true, Apple ultimately chose not to include a camera from the first version of the iPad. The iPad will begin shipping in late March.

Betanews reports on data from market research firm NPD showing that, of computers priced at $1,000 or more sold in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2009, 90% were Macs. The data demonstrates Apple's continued strong performance among the high-end personal computer market as average selling prices for Windows computers continue to decline. In addition, Apple doubled its share of the $500-$1,000 computer market year-over-year from 5% to 10% based on sales of the Mac mini and MacBook.

The data is startling confirmation -- at least for the United States -- about Apple's success establishing the Mac as a premium brand. More significantly, the data shows how discounting has lowered consumer expectations about Windows PCs and brand equity for companies like Dell or HP. Additionally, gains below $1,000 indicate there is demand for lower-priced Macs, which during 2009 Apple satisfied with the $999 white MacBook and $599 Mac mini.

The data should be considered with several caveats, with the most significant likely being that NPD's data does not cover all sales channels, primarily focusing on brick-and-mortar and major online retailers while not addressing the direct-to-business sales channels responsible for a significant portion of Windows PC sales. Apple's growth in the $500-$1,000 segment was also obviously enhanced by continued declines in average Windows PC selling prices, which slipped to $475, down almost $100 year-over-year. Apple's prices did decline slightly from $1,499 to $1,361 as the company cut some prices on the high end of several of its computer lines, but still remained well above Windows PC levels.

Betanews reported last July that Apple had surged to claim over 90% of the revenue of the $1,000+ computer market, but today's report focusing on unit sales instead of revenue offers a clearer picture of Apple's performance in the segment. As has been raised in similar reports in the past, however, the question remains about how much growth space is left in the $1,000+ market as overall selling prices continue to decline and the $500-$1,000 price range becomes the new "premium" market. Apple observers can of course point to the company's record revenue, profit, and Mac sales last quarter as evidence that its business model continues to succeed, but doubts will certainly continue to surface.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that it has received information from Clayton Morris of FOXNews.com claiming that Apple and Verizon are still in talks to bring the iPad to Verizon's wireless network. An Apple-Verizon partnership for the iPad had been the subject of many analyst claims and rumors in the months leading up to the device's introduction, and many observers were surprised to see that only AT&T was announced as a cellular data provider for the iPad.

Apple is working with Verizon on a version of its iPad tablet, despite Apple only announcing an AT&T partnership, according to Fox News Channel's Clayton Morris, who just spoke with a Verizon source.

No additional details are given, although Morris is reportedly in the process of preparing an article for publication on FOXNews.com.

Morris has become a relatively frequent commenter on Apple and the iPad, having claimed confirmation of Apple's media event as early as late December (albeit off by one day) and noting that it would be focused on the "mobility space". His source was incorrect, however, in its claims that the media event would include discussion of iPhone OS 4.0 and iLife 2010. Just days before the event, Morris' source claimed that both AT&T and Verizon were in last-minute discussions to offer service for the iPad.

Hardmac reports that Apple has halted production of 27-inch iMac models pending a fix for several display issues that have been affecting the machines.

According to one of our sources, the company completely stopped the iMac 27" assembling lines, the production will not resume before Apple has finally found a reliable and definitive fix for the remaining past (flickering and flashing display) and new issues (yellowish panel and flickering display) affecting those models.

In mid-December, shipping lead times for the 27-inch models slipped to two weeks amid complaints of flickering screens amid other issues with the machines. Apple quickly offered a firmware update designed to address the issue, although users have continued to report similar problems even after applying the update. While reports have suggested that Apple is working on a second fix for the flickering screen, more recent reports of yellowish screens have surfaced, with an internal Apple service memo indicating that the company is aware of the situation.

While shipping times for the 27-inch models did improve to one week around the holidays, they slipped back to a three-week margin earlier this month, with speculation centering around continued display issues as a cause for the delays, although Apple has indicated that it has simply had trouble keeping up with tremendous demand for its iMac line.

MacRumors has received a number of reports from readers who have seen their 27-inch iMac orders delayed in recent weeks, although we did receive a report yesterday of several orders that had been delayed until mid-February for which Apple had just issued shipping confirmations, suggesting that production may already be getting back on track.

DigiTimes reports on comments from Scott Lin, president of the Taiwanese division of netbook market leader Acer revealing that the company has no plans to compete with Apple's iPad tablet device. Lin noted that while an iPad-like product would be relatively simple technologically for Acer, such a device does not fit into the company's business strategy. In addition, the iPad's iTunes Store/App Store integration offers a key differentiating feature that other hardware manufacturers can't match.

Lin pointed out that designing an iPad-like device would not pose any technical challenges for Acer, but said such a product does not fit into Acer's business model.

Apple is able to support the iPad through its iTunes ecosystem, while few other makers, including Acer, have comparable experience in operating an online store, Lin noted.

Lin also pointed to the closed nature of Apple's iPhone/iPad ecosystem, which makes it difficult for other companies to replicate. Lin believes, however, there is likely to be little overlap between the iPad and traditional notebook and netbook markets, suggesting that Acer does not view the iPad as a significant threat to its business.

During the iPad's introduction, Apple CEO Steve Jobs built the case that a product targeting the space between smartphones and notebooks needs to do some things better than either of those types of devices, pointing to browsing, email, photos, video, music, games, and eBooks as examples of tasks at which such a device might want to excel. In addressing the current popularity of netbooks, Jobs claimed that netbooks "aren't better at anything" and are just cheap notebooks, opening the door for the iPad to define the new product category.

With the launch of the Apple iPad, we can finally put to rest long running rumors of the Apple tablet. We've been talking about the possibility of an Apple tablet for nearly a decade with an early MacRumors forum poster from 2001 even labeling a rumored Apple PDA at the time the "iPad". Most surprisingly, this rumor predated the launch of the iPod by 6 months.

Given the large number of tablet predictions leading up to the iPad launch, we aren't going to bother rehashing every single report. Unsurprisingly, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal had the most specific and reliable information about Apple's plans, while analyst reports remain widely varied and unhelpful.

Here are a few of the more interesting reports that turned out to be correct:

- Apple must be behind the Delaware corporation IP Application Development, LLC (IPAD) which applied for international trademarks on the term "IPAD" in the weeks leading to the launch. Given all the media attention on Apple, the company is clearly making efforts to hide its moves with dummy corporations.

- Alex Albrecht of Diggnation may have been right that the Apple tablet was priced "shockingly low". A somewhat vague, but memorable rumor that seemed to come true with the launch price for $499 for the iPad.

- Mobile Analytics firm Flurry's analysis that approximately 50 iPhone OS based tablet devices were in testing was correct. They pinpointed iPhone OS 3.2 as well as the ability to run existing iPhone applications. We had some doubts about their conclusions at the time, but it turns out they were right.

Finally, with all the rumors about a 10-11" screen for the Apple tablet, only one report accurately pinpointed the fact that the iPad actually houses a 9.7" screen. China Times predicted that Apple would launch a 9.7" device by the end of January. While this fact alone may only be of passing interest, the same article reported that Apple is also preparing to launch a 22-inch touchscreen iMac in the second half of this year.

So, if we believe they knew about the 9.7" iPad, then we should also believe that multi-touch will be coming to the Mac line later this year.

Apple's iPad made a surprise appearance at tonight's 52nd annual Grammy Awards when Stephen Colbert pulled out an iPad to read the nominees for song of the year.

Even before the launch of the iPad, there had been rumors that Apple was working with publishers to allow them to set their own prices for ebooks. This could result in bestselling ebooks being priced as high as $14.99 vs the current selling price of $9.99 on Amazon. Jobs was even questioned by Walt Mossberg about this possibility after the media event. Steve Jobs said that Amazon and iPad ebooks would be priced "the same".

Macmillan publishing found itself at the heart of the debate when the company had found its ebooks had been pulled from Amazon late last week. A message from Macmillan CEO John Sargent confirmed the disagreement and explained that they wanted to adopt an "agency" model for book pricing:

Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.

Today, it appears that Amazon has relented with an announcement today, but placing the blame fully on Macmillan for the higher prices:

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.

Amazon claims that they don't feel that other publishers will take the same route as Macmillan and that consumer demand will decide the matter in the long run.

Steve Jobs held a town hall meeting with Apple employees late last week following the iPad launch. Wired reports on what was said at the meeting by Steve Jobs. Two of the biggest topics included Google and Adobe.

On Google, Jobs confirms the much-reported competition between the two companies.

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them, he says.

As for Adobe, Jobs said they are lazy and Jobs blames Adobe for a buggy implementation of Flash on the Mac as one of the reasons they won't support it.

Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

Those are the main points covered by Wired's article. We had received a more detailed report of the Apple meeting, but hadn't been able to corroborate it until now. Many of the details of the Wired report were identical to our anonymous submission, so we believe it to be accurate. Some additional key points that we learned:

- Apple will deliver aggressive updates to iPhone that Android/Google won't be able to keep up with
- iPad is up there with the iPhone and Mac as the most important products Jobs has been a part of
- Regarding the Lala acquisition, Apple was interested in bringing those people into the iTunes team
- Next iPhone coming is an A+ update
- New Macs for 2010 are going to take Apple to the next level
- Blu-Ray software is a mess, and Apple will wait until sales really start to take off before implementing it.

OmniPlan for Mac OS X

Remember how Macintosh was intended to be the computer "for the rest of us"? That's what we feel Apple's iPad is: the best computing device for most of the things people use computers for. (Or, as Apple puts it, "the best way to experience the web, email, and photos.") It's the computer people can sit down and start using immediately, without training, whether they're 2 or 92.

We're really excited about Apple's iPad, and we want to make all of our products available for it as soon as we can.

The Omni Group started life as NeXTStep developers back in 1989. The company made the transition to Apple when Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 and made NeXTStep the basis for Mac OS X.

Omni Group had only previously brought OmniFocus to the iPhone which won a Best of Show Award at Macworld 2008. Obviously, their iPad commitment is far more significant which includes applications which range from project management, diagrams/flowcharts, outlines, and personal task management. Their plans to aggressively move to the iPad will actually delay some future Mac versions of their software.

The iPad promo video originally had mocked up scenes showing the iPad browsing the New York Times complete with visible Adobe Flash content. The finding generated some hope and speculation that Apple might incorporate Flash in the future. In response to the confusion, Apple has replaced the video now showing the broken Flash plug-in icon that would show up in real world use.

Apple's decision not to incorporate Flash into their iPhone OS has been a controversial one, but a stand they've remained consistent with over time.

LA Times reports that Apple has confirmed that it is now allowing the iPhone and newly released iPad to make voice over IP (VOIP) calls over AT&T's 3G cellular network.

"We revised our Program License Agreement in conjunction with our updated Software Development Kit for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Apps," wrote an Apple spokesperson.

Skype reportedly has a 3G-enabled version of their app ready to submit once they get final clarification from Apple. In the meanwhile, Fring has already enabled Skype calls over 3G in their application.

This also means that new iPad users will be able to make outgoing phone calls with just the 3G data plan. An unlimited 3G data plan for the iPad will cost $30/month.