MacRumors

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.

Boy Genius Report now offers a hands-on review of the beta version of Office 2011, along with a "massive" gallery of over 50 screenshots highlighting the upcoming productivity suite.

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.

Last October, Google announced free turn-by-turn GPS navigation capabilities for its Android 2.0 operating system in the United States, launching the feature on the Motorola Droid handset the following month. At the time, Google vice president Vic Gundotra revealed that his company was working with Apple to bring the feature to the iPhone, noting that the implementation required more work than a simple App Store submission due to the built-in nature of the Maps application.

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.

iPhone in Canada reports that Apple is set to begin seeding builds of Mac OS X 10.6.4 to developers in the near future, moving development forward on the next maintenance release for Snow Leopard.

This week, in less than a month later since the last OS X release, Apple seems to be pushing forward with plans to update Snow Leopard. We have received reports that Apple is preparing to begin testing of the next main revision of Snow Leopard, version 10.6.4.

Apple began seeding the now-current Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers in early January, but it remained in that stage of testing and refinement for nearly three months before being released to the public in late March. Apple's timeframes for developer seeds can be highly variable, however, and we are thus unable to predict when Mac OS X 10.6.4 might make its public appearance. Mac OS X 10.6.2, for example, spent only about a month in its developer testing phase.

Michael Tsai reports (via Daring Fireball) that Apple has posted a new technical note describing how third-party developers can tap into hardware-accelerated decoding of H.264 video on compatible graphics cards.

The Video Decode Acceleration framework is a C programming interface providing low-level access to the H.264 decoding capabilities of compatible GPUs such as the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M. It is intended for use by advanced developers who specifically need hardware accelerated decode of video frames.

The move appears to provide Adobe with the means to implement hardware acceleration in its Flash Player, a feature that is utilized in Flash Player 10.1 for Windows to improve performance, but not included in the Mac OS X version due to Apple's refusal (until now) to allow third parties access to the required APIs for implementation.

Flash performance on the Mac has been widely shown to be inferior to that on Windows, a deficiency that Adobe has noted it is working to address. Apple's offer of access to the tools necessary to implement hardware acceleration for video decoding appears to offer Adobe another avenue by which it can work to bring Flash performance on the Mac up to that on Windows.

The technical note appears to have been first posted on March 29th.

Yesterday, rumors began to circulate that Apple is preparing a bid to acquire ARM, the chip design company at the root of processors used in the iPhone, iPad and many other mobile devices. Reaction to the rumors has been mixed, with many observers noting that there is little reason for Apple to purchase the company, given its existing expertise in chip design and its licensing arrangements with ARM.

The Guardian follows up with similar comments from ARM CEO Warren East, and while East does not directly discount the rumors, he does argue that there is no reason for Apple or any other company to purchase ARM to get what it needs for its products.

"Exciting though it is to have the share price pushed up by these rumours, common sense tells us that our standard business model is an excellent way for technology companies to gain access to our technology. Nobody has to buy the company," East told the Guardian.

The primary question seems to be what the advantage Apple would receive if it were to purchase the company. With existing licenses to ARM's technology, it seems at first glance that an $8 billion purchase of the entire company would not offer much more to Apple in that regard than it already receives. Others have argued that Apple could use its ownership of ARM to hamstring other mobile device manufacturers by cutting off access to ARM-based designs, but it is unclear whether such a move would be allowed by regulatory agencies and even if so, how effective it would be as other chip designers moved in to fill the void.

Since the leak of a next-generation iPhone earlier this week, questions have been raised about how closely the device in question matches what ends up being the final shipping product, expected to be launched later this year. Apple undoubtedly creates a number of prototypes of its products as it seeks to settle on designs that will achieve its technical and aesthetic goals, and while one might expect that Apple would wait until a nearly-final design had been reached before sending Apple employees out into the wild with the devices, time constraints and other issues could result in Apple sending out devices for performance testing while continuing to redesign other aspects.

In a lengthy post analyzing the circumstances of the lost iPhone, Daring Fireball's John Gruber notes that it appears that the device closely resembles, if not matches, the final design for the public launch.

According to Gizmodo, one of the barcodes attached to the unit read "N90_DVT_GE4X_0493". According to several sources (of mine) familiar with the project, "N90" is Apple's codename for the fourth-generation GSM iPhone, slated for release this June or July. "DVT" stands for "design verification test", an Apple production milestone. The DVT milestone is very late in the game; based on this, I now believe that this unit very closely, if not exactly, resembles what Apple plans to release.

Gruber's thoughts echo those of iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens, who noted earlier this week that the device appeared to be close to the final shipping version.

It's closer to production than I was expecting. I'd say this thing is very very close.

While the evidence does not preclude Apple from making last-minute feature or design changes to the next-generation iPhone, it does indicate that Apple believes it has essentially a final design in hand.

The Los Angeles Times reports that television streaming site Hulu is preparing to launch a "Hulu Plus" paid subscription service as soon as May 24th, pricing the service at $9.95 per month.

Under the proposal, Hulu would continue to provide for free the five most recent episodes of shows like Fox's "Glee," "ABC's "Lost" or NBC's "Saturday Night Live." But viewers who want to see additional episodes would pay $9.95 a month to access a more comprehensive selection, called Hulu Plus, these people said.

While the report does not specifically address the iPad, earlier reports have claimed that the company has been planning to roll out the subscription service for Apple's new tablet device as a means of testing the subscription model, suggesting that we may see an iPad version of Hulu on or soon after May 24th.

The London Evening Standard reports that there have been rumors in London's financial district that Apple may be interested in acquiring ARM Holdings. ARM's shares shot up today based on the strong financial results from Apple yesterday. ARM provides the CPU designs for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. ARM, however, also provides the chips for a broad range of mobile phones including Android and Palm devices.

"A deal would make a lot of sense for Apple," said one trader. "That way, they could stop ARM's technology from ending up in everyone else's computers and gadgets."

The Register reports that the takeover offer is rumored to be in the $8 billion range, which would consume almost 20% of Apple's $41.7 billion cash reserves. While a substantial portion of Apple's reserves, The Register accurately points out that this would "send shockwaves" throughout the industry, as Apple would be able to withhold such chips from its competitors.

In the wake of this week's leak of the next-generation iPhone after an employee left the device in Redwood City, California bar, much has been made of Apple's tight security standards regarding its unreleased products. One tidbit of note shared by Bloomberg today is that the list of Apple personnel authorized to carry pre-release products like the iPhone in question is personally overseen by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs personally monitors the so-called carry list of staff members allowed to take pre-release devices off the company's campus, according to the former employee. Approved staff members must sign an additional confidentiality agreement, the person said.

Industry observers suggest that Apple may tighten its security due to this incident, further restricting access to high-level executives. The iPhone has proved to be a unique challenge for Apple's security, as the need for it to interface with cellular networks across the country demands that it be subjected to field testing in a variety of locations and settings.

Prior to the launch of the original iPhone in 2007, a team of 200 AT&T technicians supplementing Apple's own team had access to the device in order to put it through its paces and ensure that the cellular network was ready to handle the device. The iPhone itself had, however, been introduced in January of that year, and thus its design and features were well-known, limiting the risk of putting it into the hands of others.

A DailyFinance article discussing the legality of Gizmodo's acquisition of a next-generation iPhone left in a bar last month has been receiving a bit of attention today. The report outlines the series of events that led to Gizmodo receiving the device and examines whether its possession of the iPhone constituted a violation worthy of either criminal charges of possession of stolen property or civil charges regarding misappropriation of trade secrets.

At heart is the question of whether the person who found the phone made "reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him," as required by the California penal code.

The report notes that while Gizmodo claims that the iPhone's finder apparently "asked around" at the bar on the night the device was left behind and attempted to call several Apple support numbers the following day to no avail, the person failed to take several basic steps to reunite the device with its owner.

What he never did, however, was notify anyone who worked at the bar, according to its owner, Volcker Staudt. That would have been the simplest way to get the phone back to the Apple employee who lost it, who "called constantly trying to retrieve it" in the days afterward, recalls Volcker. "The guy was pretty hectic about it."

Nor did the finder report it to the Redwood City Police Department, says Sgt. Dan Mulholland.

The question becomes whether Gizmodo, which paid $5,000 for the device, had an obligation to verify whether the seller was in legal possession of the device. Nick Denton of Gawker Media, Gizmodo's parent company, claims that the authenticity of the device was in question until they had purchased and disassembled it, and notes that they intended to return the device to Apple if it was verified to be an Apple product.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will take any further action beyond requesting the return of the device, whether it be in the form of legal action or other means such as restriction of invitations to Apple media events. Apple has remained silent on the issue despite multiple media requests from a number of sources, and company officials were not questioned about it by analysts during the Q&A portion of yesterday's earnings conference call.

AT&T today announced financial results for the first quarter of 2010, revealing that the carrier activated 2.7 million iPhones during the quarter. The number is down from 3.1 million in the previous quarter, despite Apple announcing yesterday that it had sold 8.75 million iPhones overall during the quarter, an increase of approximately 15,000 units over the prior quarter.

The results illustrate that international growth is a primary driver for the iPhone as AT&T begins to experience a slowing of its portion of the overall growth. The iPhone's ability to attract new customers to AT&T has also begun to slip, as the company noted that "more than one-third" of its iPhone activations for the quarter came from customers new to the carrier, down from a 40% figure the company has consistently cited in past earnings releases.

Signs of slowing iPhone growth for AT&T are likely to add to the clamor for Apple to extend distribution to additional carriers in the United States, with market leader Verizon having received the most attention in recent years despite the requirement that Apple offer specialized hardware to operate on the carrier's current network. For its part, Apple executives noted during yesterday's earnings conference call that the U.S., Germany, and Spain remain the company's three major markets where the iPhone is offered in exclusive carrier relationships. Despite that fact that the company has seen increased unit sales and market share in countries where it had moved to a multi-carrier model, however, it is not convinced that that dynamic would play out everywhere. Consequently, Apple continues to evaluate its carrier relationships on a country-by-country basis.