MacRumors

CNET reports that the police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a lost iPhone 4 that subsequently made its way into the hands of Gizmodo appears to be nearing an end.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, Calif., told CNET today that police are close to wrapping up their theft investigation and could forward their final report to his office within the next few weeks. Wagstaffe will then review the information and determine whether to file criminal charges.

According to Wagstaffe, police interviewed a number of Apple employees, including CEO Steve Jobs, in connection with the case. No details on the results of those interviews have been revealed.

The prototype iPhone, which had been in the possession of an Apple employee for field testing purposes, was either lost in or stolen from a bar in Redwood City, California back in March and eventually purchased by Gizmodo. Police seized a number of items from Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's home in connection with the investigation into whether any wrongdoing was committed in the chain of events.

Gizmodo has claimed that its employees did nothing wrong, at least partially claiming protection under journalist shield laws. Others, however, have pointed to California laws regarding requirements for the handling of lost property as potential cause for charges to be filed against one or more of the parties involved.

Adobe today announced the launch of Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9, the latest versions of the company's consumer-grade photo and video editing software packages for Mac and Windows. It marks the first appearance of Premiere Elements for the Mac OS X platform.

Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 feature all the tools users need to make the most of their photos and videos. Adapted from Photoshop CS5's celebrated Content Aware Fill feature, the content intelligence in the Spot Healing Brush analyzes what's in the image and quickly de-clutters or repairs photos (like removing tourists from a crowded scene) with a swipe of a brush, magically filling in the background. Several new Guided Edit options walk users step-by-step through the process of achieving cool editing effects such as Out of Bounds, making an element of a photo appear to leap off the page in 3D, creating pop art masterpieces, or retouching made easy via the perfect portraits feature.

With Premiere Elements 9, users can create movies in just minutes with the help of intelligent tools that automatically fix audio problems, trim away bad footage, stabilize shaky shots and correct bad color and lighting problems. Any video can simply be turned into an animated film with Cartoon Effects, and optimized performance makes editing and viewing smooth, even in HD.

The releases launch today on Adobe.com and will begin appearing in retail stores and other sales channels in the near future. Suggested retail pricing is set at $99.99 each for Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9, or $149.99 for a bundle of the new packages. The company currently appears to be offering mail-in rebates to bring pricing down to $79.99 for the individual applications and $119.99 for the bundle, but the site has yet to be updated with details on the rebate program.

A "Plus" package is also available for an additional $49.99, providing users with 20 GB of online storage for automatic backup and sharing and ongoing automatic downloads of additional content such as tutorials, artwork and interactive online templates.

Earlier today, we reported that Apple and Rovi have signed a "multi-year agreement" for Apple to license certain portions of Rovi's intellectual property portfolio. While the regulatory filing revealing the deal offered no insight into which of Rovi's several areas of operation Apple is lining up to utilize, one analyst believes that Apple may be targeting Rovi's interactive television program guides as part of an initiative into live TV and DVR capabilities, possibly stretching as far as an Apple-branded television set.

The report comes from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster (via Silicon Alley Insider), who has long been a proponent of the theory that Apple will eventually launch television set products offering integration with the company's existing media services.

We believe this announcement is further evidence that Apple is developing live TV and DVR features for its Apple TV product, and will likely launch an all-in-one Apple Television in the next 2-4 years. Following its deal with Rovi, Apple would be clear to add live TV, DVR, and guidance features to its Apple TV product, which we believe is a critical step towards an all-in-one Apple Television.

We currently believe Munster's comments to be pure speculation, as we have seen no evidence that Apple has specifically licensed Rovi's guide technology, although that could certainly be the case. Interest in the new Apple TV and iTunes Store offerings have, however, been sparking interest in Apple's TV plans, and the possibility of Apple entering the live TV/DVR market and eventually the television set market have certainly already been on the minds of many.

Update: As 9 to 5 Mac points out, Apple is already a customer of Rovi, which reportedly provides metadata for iTunes Store content. Consequently, it is unclear whether today's announcement is even related to anything substantial or if it simply an extension of the two companies' existing agreements.

Earlier this month, we noted that an iPad version of the popular VLC media player had been created and submitted to Apple for inclusion in the App Store. Early previews of the application suggested that the application would be a solid and versatile offering despite a few limitations.

The application's developers, Applidium, now report that VLC Media Player for iPad has been accepted and has begun to roll out to App Stores around the world, making its first appearance in the New Zealand store.

After 2 weeks of review, VLC for the iPad is eventually available on the AppStore! The release date is set to Tuesday, Sept. 21, so depending on your timezone, it should be available pretty soon.

Users will be able to find VLC Media Player at the following link once it becomes available in their local App Store:

- VLC Media Player

Applidium also announced that it has begun working on a version of VLC for the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch. No release date for the iPhone version is yet known.

Update: VLC Media Player now appears to be available worldwide.

As part of a blog post discussing its "Google Atmosphere" conference on cloud computing and some new milestones relating to businesses moving to its Google Apps platform, Google reveals that it is preparing to roll out support for Google Docs editing on the iPad and on Android.

. . .today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.

Only cloud computing is able to deliver the whole package of productivity-enhancing collaboration, superior reliability and virtually unlimited scale at a price that's affordable for any size organization. Our Atmosphere event is a nice opportunity to step back and fully appreciate the power of the cloud with customers and future customers alike.

Google Docs compatibility on the iPad is essentially limited to viewing-only at the present time, so the new editing capabilities should bring a significant boost to the utility of the service for iPad users.

In other Google news, the company today updated its Google Earth application [App Store] for iOS devices, bringing native support for the iPhone 4's Retina display and both ocean surface and underwater content.

In a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, Rovi announced that has reached a "multi-year agreement" with Apple for access to Rovi's intellectual property.

Rovi Corporation (the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Apple Inc. whereby Apple shall license intellectual property from the Company. The specific terms of the license agreement are confidential.

Rovi, originally founded as Macrovision in the early 1980s, offers several technologies related to interactive television program guides and anti-piracy technologies. The company also maintains an extensive database of metadata on TV shows, music, and movies. No further information on Apple's interest in Rovi's technology has been revealed, and thus it is unknown what aspect of Rovi's business the deal covers.

According to a report [Google translation] from Mac1, Apple has acquired Swedish face recognition firm Polar Rose. The information appears to have been confirmed by Swedish news service Rapidus and sources for IDG News Service.

Company CEO Carl Silbersky would today not comment on the affair.

"I do not know what this is about," he says, and would otherwise not give any comments.

The same information comes from the company's Chief Technology Officer Jan Erik Solem. Other sources close to the Polar Rose, however, confirms that the deal is, if not completely, at least in the final stage. News Service Rapidus claims to have gotten over the board meeting from the beginning of the month in which it appears that Apple is now the sole owner of the company.

Polar Rose has developed several tools related to face recognition, including for server-side and mobile applications. The company currently advertises as its primary product its FaceCloud implementation for social networks and photo hosting sites to allow for streamlined tagging and face recognition. Polar Rose's mobile product, FaceLib, is a shared library for the iPhone and Android platforms that allows for face detection, tracking within video, and on-device recognition.

One example of Polar Rose's FaceLib technology is the Recognizr concept for "augumented ID" of which the company has been a co-developer. A video demonstrating the concept is available on YouTube.

Late last month, Polar Rose announced that it was shutting down its consumer-focused Flickr and Facebook tagging product, and followed that up by announcing just a week later that it would be shutting down its entire free face-tagging service. At the time, the company claimed that it was unable to keep up with customer service requests and needed to focus its efforts on its face recognition technology. It now appears that that decision was likely motivated by Apple's pending acquisition of the company.

Apple has utilized face recognition technology for several years in its iPhoto application, but its apparent acquisition of Polar Rose signals an expanded interest in using it for mobile and/or video applications.

Just last week, we discovered that Apple had acquired UK-based IM-Sense Ltd for its "eye-fidelity" technology related to color correction in images, particular for HDR photos such as those employed in Apple's new iOS 4.1.

Update: Citing "rock-solid sources", TechCrunch claims that Apple paid $29 million for Polar Rose.

Apple announced yesterday that the iPhone 4 would finally arrive in China beginning on Saturday, September 25th.

iPhone 4 will be sold in China through Apple's retail stores for a suggested retail price of CNY4,999 for the 16GB model and CNY5,999 for 32GB model without a contract. At China Unicom stores, iPhone 4 will be available for qualified buyers with a new two year contract, sold separately. For pricing and tariff information please visit www.10010.com.

MICGadget has an unboxing of the Chinese model of the iPhone 4 which does contain Wi-Fi. The iPhone was only recently allowed to ship with Wi-Fi in China due to regulations.

As we described before, Apple's loosened approval policies have opened the gate for several apps that were previously denied admission into the App Store. This weekend Apple has approved updated versions of C64, GV Mobile +, and GV Connect.

C64 is a fully licensed Commodore 64 emulator that was originally rejected due to the inclusion of a BASIC interpreter. The application was subsequently approved after the developers removed BASIC. Apple's rules changed earlier this month opening the door to interpreted code in certain circumstances.

Meanwhile, GV Mobile + and GV Connect were also approved this weekend and provide Google Voice functionality on the iPhone. Both Apps were pulled from the App Store, but have since seen a return with Apple's relaxed rules. We previewed GV Mobile + last week. Google Voice is a free US phone service that allows users with a US phone number that can be forwarded and managed in various ways:

Users may select a single US phone number from various area codes. Incoming calls to the number may ring simultaneously any of the user's configured phones or the account's Google Talk feature. Based on the calling number, or contact group (e.g., Family, Friends, Work), or on time of day, e.g., disabling a home phone during business hours and routing calls to mobile or business number, individual numbers may be configured to ring. The service also features voicemail with indexable automated voicemail transcription, accessible via a web browser, e-mail, or by phone. Google Voice provides automatic blocking of known numbers, e.g., telemarketers, the ability to switch lines in mid-call, differentiated voice mail greetings based on caller, SMS forwarding, and call recording.

Earlier this week, we reported on claims that Apple is preparing to launch support for digital newspaper subscriptions on the iPad, preparing to move beyond the very limited options currently available such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg today offers additional details on Apple's plans, which are said to involve launching a "digital newsstand" for newspapers similar to the iBookstore, possibly as soon as within the next few months.

Apple Inc. is developing a digital newsstand for publishers that would let them sell magazines and newspapers to consumers for use on Apple devices, said two people familiar with the matter.

The newsstand, designed particularly for the iPad, would be similar to Apple's iBook store for electronic books, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private. The newsstand would be separate from Apple's App Store, where people can buy some publications now, they said.

According to the report, negotiations are still ongoing over control of subscriber data, pricing, and revenue sharing, so it appears that significant work remains to be done before the store can be rolled out. While Apple apparently could launch the feature within the next several months should everything fall into place, sources say that it may wait until the release of the next-generation iPad early next year to introduce the newspaper service.

Still, Apple already seems to be putting significant resources behind the effort, with the report claiming that Apple is developing tools to assist newspapers with generating the digital-format content and deploying server technology to support pushing the latest content directly to subscribers.

The report also cites several publishers, including Time Warner and Next Issue Media, who are refusing to sign on under Apple's currently-offered terms, and there are still no publishers yet confirmed to have agreed to the plan. Publishers are also said to be in talks with Google about a similar venture to bring their content to Android-based tablets, a move that could offer them some amount of additional leverage in their negotiations with Apple.

The news that iOS 4.2 allows any standard iOS video playback controller to potentially stream content to their Apple TV is continuing to generate some excitement. Seth Weintraub suggests that this is a bit of a Trojan horse strategy that will allow iPad and iPhone customers to stream a huge amount of content from Apps and the Web to their Apple TV:

That means you can watch most Internet video on AppleTV over AirPlay. The day AppleTV is released, you'll be able to watch free SD clips of shows that appear on ComedyCentral.com like the Daily Show and Colbert Report via Airplay. You theoretially should be able to watch Hulu Plus so long as it is encoded in H.264 (and doesn't get blocked once the networks figure out what Apple has done here).

This streaming ability (so far) only seems limited to those Apps that play using the standard iOS video player. Examples beyond Safari included YouTube, iPod, BBC News and MLB apps.

Gizmodo shared the same sentiment last week when it called AirPlay Apple's "sneak attack on television."

Earlier today, we suggested that Apple was likely planning an App Store for the new Apple TV which is based on iOS. It seems Steve Jobs was actually very open about this possibility in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview earlier this month (via jaw04005).

What Jobs didn't say is that Apple wants to become king of the living room. He tells Bloomberg Businessweek that when the time is right, Apple could open an App Store for the TV that could do for television sets what all those apps have done for the iPhone.

An App Store for AppleTV-specific apps could increase the utility of what initially seemed a disappointing upgrade. Some are already excited about the implications that AirPlay will have now that it seems likely that any H.264 video application could stream content to the Apple TV.

Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter profiled a new iPad application called ABC's My Generation Sync that relies on technology from Nielsen to offer viewers an interactive experience while they watch episodes of the network's forthcoming show, My Generation.

Users who download the app can multi-task between the TV experience and the iPad, which will display polls, trivia and other content timed to be relevant to what is transpiring in the "Generation" storylines.

The app will also have a social-media element, enabling sharing, posting to Twitter, as well as "liking" to Facebook, though actual feeds won't be integrated until later iterations of the app.

While the episode is intended for broadcast to bring together as many viewers as possible, the app can also be utilized for those watching a DVR recording.

The application works by using the iPad's microphone to pick up on audio cues embedded within the TV episode itself, allowing the application to sync up with what the viewer is watching.

What Nielsen brings to the table is audio watermarking embedded in the broadcast that signals the iPhone through its microphone to trigger timed content. While the technology has always been used by Nielsen strictly for measurement purposes, a new mobile-friendly upgrade opened a new ancillary business for the company and Digimarc Corp., which is teaming up with Nielsen on what it has dubbed its Media Sync Platform.

Consequently, the application will be able to sync with the TV episode regardless of whether the viewer is watching in real-time as it is broadcast or on a recording - as long as the iPad can hear the audio from the episode, it can sync.

My Generation is a new fictional documentary from Disney and ABC that focuses on a group of students graduating from high school in the year 2000 and then again ten years later as they see where their lives have taken them and how they deal with returning home to visit. The show premieres next Thursday, September 23rd.

While the concept of iPad apps interacting with television content would seem to hold great potential in the area of live programming, the technical challenges of attempting to serve on-the-fly content relevant to the live action makes such an implementation a bit more challenging. So for the time being, Nielsen's technology is limited to taped programming, although the company expects to have more network partners brought on board by early next year.

Close on the heels of claims from Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn regarding the iPad cannibalizing sales of notebooks at the electronics retail chain by "as much as 50%", Fortune reports on a new research note from Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty offering visual evidence that notebook retail sales growth in the U.S. has not only slowed but reversed in August and early September. Huberty argues that "tablet cannibalization", obviously primarily driven by the iPad at this point, is responsible for the dramatic turnaround.

Her evidence:

- NPD data showing that after six months of decelerating growth, U.S. retail notebook unit growth fell 4% year over year in August, marking the first time those numbers had actually gone negative.
- Similar data for the first week of September showing that units fell 4% year over year again.
- BestBuy CEO Brian Dunn's widely repeated remarks in the Wall Street Journal that "internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent."

Notebook sales had been enjoying booming sales growth due to expanding markets and an ongoing shift in consumer preference from desktops to notebooks. What had generally been a 30% year-over-year growth rate in the second half of 2009 and early 2010, with a spike to 70% growth around the holidays, has quickly tailed off in the months since Apple introduced the iPad in the U.S., finally turning negative in August with a 4% decline in year-over-year sales.

It is unclear, however, how a variety of factors may have combined to result in the trend seen in notebook retail sales. Fortune's report does not specify whether netbooks are included in the "notebook" sales numbers, and if not, they almost certainly represent another source of "cannibalization" of traditional notebooks. In addition, other factors such as protracted economic weakness, hardware and software release cycles, and potential market saturation in some areas could be considered for their possible contributions. But Huberty's take is that the iPad, along with newer and forthcoming tablet devices such as the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab, will continue to "pressure" sales of traditional PCs.

A brief report from the Associated Press cites comments from Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer revealing that the company's refusal to join Apple's new 99-cent TV show rental program is based on pricing concerns and fears that individual show rentals will hurt sales of full-season packages.

Chief Executive Barry Meyer says Warner Bros. didn't participate in Apple Inc.'s plan to offer TV show rentals for 99 cents because the price was too low and would have hurt sales of full seasons.

Meyer made the comments Thursday at an investor conference hosted by Merrill Lynch in Newport Beach, Calif.

According to Meyer, Apple's pricing proposition was not seen as a good value for the content provider given its existing purchase-based offerings in the iTunes Store priced at $2.99.

Apple introduced the TV show rental program alongside the revamped Apple TV earlier this month, touting ABC and Fox as initial launch partners. At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that he expected that other content providers would quickly see the light and join the program. Rumors about the TV show rental program had circulated prior to Apple's announcement, with clear signs of divided opinions among the content providers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is in "advanced" talks with Apple, Google, and several other large tech companies looking to reach a settlement over an investigation of anti-poaching agreements made with each other.

Several of the U.S.'s largest technology companies are in advanced talks with the Justice Department to avoid a court battle over whether they colluded to hold down wages by agreeing not to poach each other's employees.

The companies, which include Google Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and Walt Disney Co. unit Pixar Animation, are in the final stages of negotiations with the government, according to people familiar with the matter.

The report notes that some of the companies are expressing more willingness than others to settle with the government over antitrust issues, but that all parties are hoping to avoid a court battle over the issue.

As the Justice Department was beginning its investigation last year, it was reported that Apple and Google had had an informal agreement not to cold-call each others' employees in efforts to lure them away, but that employee-initiated job moves between the companies were permitted. Apple CEO Steve Jobs had reportedly offered a similar proposal to Palm, which then-CEO Ed Colligan rejected.

The companies involved have argued that the no-poaching agreements are key for fostering innovation, as they allow the companies to collaborate on projects while offering some measure of reassurance that their partners won't seek to hire away their key employees. The Department of Justice argues, however, that even the banning of the cold-calling practice seen in the least restrictive of the deals between companies has an adverse effect on employee wages and job mobility, as such head-hunting is a primary method of hiring in the tech industry.

One of the most anticipated features in iOS 4.2 is the introduction of AirPlay for Apple TV. AirPlay will allow you to stream audio and video from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad directly to your Apple TV.

With AirPlay, you can stream it all from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, too. So if you feel like watching a movie you have on one of your devices, you don't need to rent or buy it again. Just tap to start playing content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then tap again to instantly stream whatever youre watching -- or listening to -- directly to Apple TV.

The just released 4.2 beta has some early support for AirPlay built in -- enough to generate some excitement about the possibilities.

Every standard iOS audio/video playback interface in Beta 4.2 now shows an AirPlay button that allows you to stream audio to an AirPlay enabled device. Forum user spimp31 successfully (audio) streamed the following apps from his iPad to his Airport Express:

- Safari (videos embedded from YT and Vimeo, audio files)
- YouTube
- Netflix
- Videos
- iPod
- BBC News
- MLB

As there are no shipping 2nd generation Apple TVs yet, no one has been able to confirm video playback from 3rd party apps yet. In theory, any streams that can play in the standard iOS video player should be able to be streamed/played to the new Apple TV (which also runs iOS). What's not so clear, however, is how protected content works such as Hulu. In additional, Hulu has been notoriously stubborn about allowing their content to be played anywhere other than their intended devices, so we expect they will limit this functionality if at all possible.

Also, since this is beta software, things could change drastically between now and release. One customer even emailed Steve Jobs if AirPlay will work for every video playback or just stuff from the iTunes library. Jobs simply replied "everything played in the Videos app."