MacRumors

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.

Those anxiously awaiting Steam for Mac can get started downloading now. The client download link is now live at the following url:

http://store.steampowered.com/public/client/steam.dmg (direct download)

Unfortunately, it appears that the Steam service itself is not ready for users and is still restricting logins to beta participants:

Steam for Mac is supposed to officially launch today so we expect that restriction will be lifted soon.

Patently Apple details a recent Apple patent application that describes a system by which customers can use their iPhone as an electronic wallet and payment system.

Apple's patent is directed to various techniques for conducting peer-to-peer financial exchanges using a handheld, portable electronic device - which for the sake of simplicity is represented throughout several transaction-based patents - as the iPhone.

The iPhone may integrate several functionalities for performing peer-to-peer transactions, including the storing information representation a user's payment accounts and crediting accounts, acquiring and sending payment information, and obtaining payment authorization.

Apple suggests a number of possibilities on how to initiate transactions including the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Apple even names the app "Transaction" in the patent application and details how it might be used. This flowchart shows how one might pay for a bill at a restaurant using the application:

The patent applications for this system were originally filed in late 2008.

Tinhte provides more high quality photos as well as a hands on video with the latest leaked next generation iPhone. According to a rough translation, they did try connecting it to a Mac but with no luck getting iTunes to recognize it.

Here's a hands on video:

From analyzing the photos of the teardown, it seems clear the processor in the new iPhone is A4-based as it shares the same markings as the processor from the Apple iPad:

Finally, a couple of readers have been trying to analyze the images and seem to believe that the new iPhone does have a higher resolution screen based on some basic analysis:

We're not sure why Apple is having such a hard time holding on to these next generation iPhones, but a Vietnamese forum Taoviet.vn has posted more photos (cached) of the previously leaked 4th generation iPhone. They've posted a large gallery of shots making it clear that they have a unit in their possession. There seems to be little new information posted, though the individual who submitted the link to us stated a Vietnamese businessman had bought it in the U.S. together with an iPad.

There are a few interesting aspects to these images that were not seen in the original leak. The case design is identical, but notably, the back shows that this is a 16GB model. The previous leak showed "XXGB" written on the back.

Next, it appears this unit actually has been turned on:

It appears to say "Inferno" on the screen with some text on the bottom that indicates the battery life is at 24%. It's hard to say for sure, but it could represent some sort of firmware diagnostics that we have previously seen on prototype iPhone hardware. This one appears to be called "Bonfire!".

There are also no screws on the bottom of this unit:

Teardown photos:

What appears to be the processor. Apple branded.

According to data obtained from AppShopper, iPad users are disproportionately interested in productivity apps, while iPhone and iPod Touch users seem to love buying games.

The following graph shows the relative percentages of each app category with respect to its distribution in the Top 100 Paid Apps and All Apps in the App Store:

Despite the fact that games only represent 15% of the over 200,000 iPhone/iPod touch apps, games currently make up 54% of the Top 100 Paid apps in the App Store. The findings are likely reflective of the large iPod Touch population that make up nearly half of the 85 million iPhone OS devices out there. Apple has pushed the iPod Touch as gaming device in their advertising.

In fact, Apple has been so successful that Nintendo sees Apple as their biggest threat in the future.

Meanwhile, amongst iPad-specific apps, games make up a more representative sampling of the Top 100: 29% for Top 100 vs 25% of all iPad apps. Instead, productivity apps for the iPad are proving to be very popular representing 19% of the Top 100 while only making up 5% of all iPad apps:

The findings aren't particularly surprising given the older demographics for iPad owners. It also reflects the added functionality that a large-format device offers over a handheld device.

The Wall Street Journal reported tonight that Verizon Wireless and Google are working on a tablet computer to take on the iPad. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam revealed the plans in an interview:

"What do we think the next big wave of opportunities are?" Mr. McAdam said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "We're working on tablets together, for example. We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience."

Bloomberg confirmed that the new device will run Google's Android operating system. While neither Verizon nor Google had more to add at this time, details will apparently be announced later this week.

IDC analyst Al Hilwa believes "everyone is going to have a device that is going to compete with the iPad" and that Apple has created and legitimized the tablet market. Apple's iPad has already sold over 1 million units in the first 28 days on sale.

This public Verizon/Google partnership has cast some doubt on the possibility of an Verizon iPhone in the next month, but Business Insider's Dan Frommer suggests that this announcement was simply a negotiation tactic by Verizon who may be still be in talks with Apple about the next iPhone.

MobileCrunch speculates on some changes they've seen in the upgrade eligibility dates on AT&T's wireless site. One of their readers claimed that their upgrade eligibility date recently moved up from 11/21 to 6/21. Of course, the speculation leads them down various theories, though we suspect they are reading too much into it.

Upgrade eligibility has been a hot topic whenever Apple introduces a new iPhone, so it's no surprise that customers are already looking ahead in anticipation of a new iPhone release. Like most wireless carriers, AT&T subsidizes the cost of the iPhone when customers sign up for a 2 year contract. Because of this up-front discount, customers are expected to stay with the contract or alternatively pay an early termination fee. The "upgrade eligibility" date is simply the date that the customer is released from this obligation, and will again qualify for a new subsidized phone without penalty.

Last year, AT&T explained what factors go into determining how long before a customer becomes eligible again.

Importantly, we want our customers to better understand our wireless device upgrade program. Like most U.S. carriers, we offer a variety of phones that we sell below our actual cost when customers agree to sign service agreements. In general, the more a customer spends with us, the quicker they become eligible for a price break on a new device. For example, iPhone customers who spend more than $99 a month per line with us generally are eligible for an upgrade between 12 and 18 months into their contract.

So those who are paying the higher monthly plans will become eligible earlier. The earliest that AT&T offers iPhone 3GS customers a chance to upgrade without penalty is June 21, 2010. The significance of this date is simply that it is 12 months (to the business day) following the launch day of the iPhone 3GS.

Current eligibility dates are listed in your wireless AT&T account, though we caution getting too worried about it at this time. Last year, AT&T modified the eligibility dates at the last minute to accommodate more customers.

Apple is widely expected to announce the next iPhone at WWDC 2010 in June.

We're giving Valve Software's Steam launch a lot of coverage here at MacRumors -- but for good reason. Steam may do more to attract game developers to the Mac platform than Apple has ever done. Steam has announced that the Mac client will become available on Wednesday, May 12th and that new games will be released every Wednesday.

Valve's own Portal (above) is one of the launch titles as well as Runic Games highly acclaimed Torchlight.

"We're very excited to be bringing Torchlight to the Mac," said Max Schaefer, co-founder of Runic Games. "Having Steam for the Mac solves so many problems for us as a developer. We look forward to our future games coming out on the Mac as well."

While Torchlight had been previously planned to come to the Mac anyway, the developers are clearly pleased that Steam will be available on the Mac.

Read our first impressions and explanation of Steam for Mac.

Crunchgear claims that a company called Landor Associates is already working on an ad campaign for Verizon's upcoming iPhone launch.

Ladnor has been working on Verizon branding since 2007 and is, according to a tipster, now hard at work preparing for the iPhone HD launch.

The rumor seems to be consistent with persistent rumors that Verizon will finally get the iPhone this year. We have to assume the original 2012 exclusivity contract with AT&T has since been renegotiated.

Historically, Crunchgear has been an unreliable source of Apple-related rumors, though leaked information through Verizon's ad agency seems plausible, especially given the number of Verizon rumors that have been circulating.

Square has updated their app to provide universal support for both iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch devices. Square is an interesting mobile payment processing application for Apple's mobile devices that allows anyone to accept credit card payments. While other mobile credit card processing apps already exist, Square is targeted at both individuals and business -- small or large -- and does not require a merchant account.

Square is a free app that interfaces with the Square credit card reader which plugs into the headphone jack of your mobile device. Square will send the reader free to anyone that signs up. Square then charges a percentage of the sale plus 15 cents. There are no monthly minimums or setup costs. More information is available at SquareUp.

Apple recently updated a support document detailing current solutions to Wi-Fi connectivity issues surrounding the iPad. There have been several distinct Wi-Fi issues reported on various discussion forums. The new support document lists a few possible workarounds, but also states that "Apple will also address remaining Wi-Fi connectivity issues with a future iPad software update."

The workarounds listed include:

- Updating Wi-Fi router firmware
- Using WPA or WPA2 wireless security
- Adjusting screen brightness
- Renewing IP address

Issues with the iPad Wi-Fi include weak signal, forgotten passwords, and more technical networking issues. According to Apple, only a "very small number" of iPad users are affected.