MacRumors

Amidst the growing excitement over the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) release, we've overlooked news of Apple's ongoing progress with a final update to Mac OS X 10.4.

Apple has continued with frequent seeds of Mac OS X 10.4.11 to developers. The most recent seed was released to developers last week on October 9th, bringing the development seeds up to builds 8S2161/8S161 for Intel/PowerPC.

The latest updates provide additional bug fixes to Webkit for Dashboard, but there remain some issues with existing Widgets.

Apple has also been hard at work on the final version of Mac OS X Leopard which reached Gold Master candidate last week and should reach Gold Master this week.

Former Vice President and Apple Board member, Al Gore, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Apple.com's homepage updated with a tribute to Al Gore:

Al has put his heart and soul, and much of his life during the past several years, into alerting and educating us all on the climate crisis. We are bursting with pride for Al and this historic recognition of his global contributions.

Al Gore joined Apple's Board of Directors in 2003.

Apple has been rumored to be targeting Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's release on October 26th. More evidence of that comes from Apple's own online store.

While Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is not yet available for pre-order from Apple, Apple still sells Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). If you try to order Tiger now, the estimated ship date is coincidentally also October 26th, 2007.

Update: Apple has updated their store and changed the ship date for Tiger back to "Within 24 hours".

Apple had expected to declare their upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Gold Master this week. "Gold Master" status is given the final shipping version of the software which is sent to duplicators for distribution.

Based on our sources, Apple had not quite reached that goal, but today released an internal "GM candidate build" which could represent the final version of Mac OS X Leopard, if no other issues are found.

Apple has been working against the clock to get Leopard duplicated and shipped for an October release. October 26th has been noted to be planned ship date, and Apple has already been training support staff in anticipation of its release.

The Build number for the latest GM candidate is said to be 9A581.

Businessweek details the plans of Universal chief Doug Morris to take on Apple's iTunes music service.

Morris was once a proponent of Apple's iTunes music store, but has since changed his tune. According to Businessweek sources, Morris is joining forces with other record companies to launch an "industry-owned" subscription service.

Representing 75% of music sold in the U.S., they would ask hardware makers or cell carriers to pay them a $5/month subscription fee. In exchange, consumers of their products would get unlimited music at no additional cost to them ("free"). Music companies would get the $5/month and hardware companies would theoretically sell more units.

Of interest, Businessweek notes that despite these efforts to undermine iTunes, Universal can't afford to simply pull their music from iTunes, which holds a 70% marketshare in music downloads.

AppleInsider explores the new Time Machine backup feature in the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Time Machine is one of the most visually prominent new features demonstrated in Mac OS X Leopard, even if the core idea of backups is as old -- or perhaps older -- than the concept of having any data worthy of being restored. Here's a look at what's new and different about Apple's approach with Time Machine, why backups are a problem to be solved, and how well Leopard's new Time Machine actually works in practice.

The article goes into some depth as the workings of Apple's backup solution. Apple also discusses Time Machine on their site and provides a QuickTime video demonstrating the new feature.

Mac OS X Leopard is expected to be released later this month. Gold Master was expected to be declared this week, but we've not yet heard an update on this status.

Gizmodo points to a Youtube video and New Scientist article which detail and demonstrate a technology called "LucidTouch" developed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs.

The prototype video demonstrates a user using the back of the device as a touch surface to manipulate objects on the screen. The prototype uses a mounted video camera to provide visual feedback on screen as to where the users fingers are. By using this "see-through" interface, it attempts to solve the issue in traditional front-touch screens where fingers may obstruct the view of the screen itself.

Apple has also been researching this technology which was revealed in a patent application from January 2007. The patent application was titled "Back-Side Interface for Hand-Held Devices". Apple's implementation did not go so far as to depict the users fingers, but instead opted to display a pointer or cursor to show where contact was being made.

As a followup to our early Preview of WireTap Studio, today Ambrosia Software released version 1.0 of WireTap Studio.

WireTap Studio is a rewrite of the Wiretap Pro application and is aimed as a mid-range solution for anyone who records audio.

What we tried to do with the editor is make something that did 90% of what people do with recorded audio extremely well. We're not competing with Peak or other high end audio products. Again through interviewing people, we determined what things people did with their audio. We then set out to make an audio editor that was really, really good at the things these people did most of the time.

Perhaps most impressive new feature is the real-time audio encoding (QuickTime demo). The product sells for $69.00 with $30 upgrades for existing owners of WireTap Pro, Audio Hijack Pro, or Fission. Free downloadable version is available for trial.

Fortune's Apple 2.0 Blog reports on an analyst research note by Berstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi Jr that reframes some of Apple's notebook marketshare numbers.

In breaking notebook shares into 5 separate price ranges (quintiles), Sacconaghi found that Apple's marketshare amongst the most expensive quintile of notebooks was as high as 29%. Of course, also based on his data, Apple lost marketshare amongst the bottom three quintiles (cheapest notebook sales).

Unfortunately, these numbers by themselves are near meaningless. However, the most interesting tidbit of information gleaned was when they excluded business sales: Apple's 29% notebook marketshare rose to 46% when counting only consumer + educational sales.

This may confirm anecdotal reports that Apple's marketshare appears to be booming amongst college campuses. As a result, Apple's consumer marketshare could be substantially higher than the traditional 5-6% marketshare numbers would suggest.

Apple has launched a directory of web-based applications designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch at http://www.apple.com/webapps/.

Applications are divided into a number of categories, including Calculate, Entertainment, Games, News, Productivity, Search Tools, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities, and Weather. Developers are invited to submit their own applications for inclusion in the directory.

Despite rumors of expanding application development options from Apple, the launch of this directory appears to underscore Apple's commitment to web-based applications.

MacRumors readers can visit mobile.macrumors.com for an iPhone/iPod Touch friendly browsing experience.

Sharp recently made some headlines with the demonstration of a prototype LCD that doubled as a scanner.

The 3.5" LCD screen integrated an optical scanner that could be used to scan business cards, but also be used as a method for multi-touch input.

The screen, on show at the Ceatec exhibition, features an optical scanner for each LCD pixel, and could also be used to recognise fingers or other objects.

The prototype is expected to see commercialization in the first half of 2008.

While not directly linked to Apple, the technology is very similar to an old patent application from Apple which described an "Integrated Sensing Display". Apple's patent described possible uses in video conferencing and photos, but could have also been used for a multi-touch display. Of course, Apple has since come out with the iPhone which offers a multi-touch display. The iPhone, however, uses a capacitance-based touch screen, rather than one based on image capture.

Apple continues to research and develop various touch-based technologies. Their most recent patent applications include pressure sensitive input technology on existing touch screens.