Safari 4.05 is out. Hit Software Update or go here to update yourself.

Developers have been combing through the recent build of the iPhone OS SDK and have found new references to multitasking in a files throughout the SDK.  The below mention of a "multitasking dialog box" is but one example:

Many of Apple's built-in applications already multitask, including phone.app, iPod.app, Safari.app, Mail.app, etc. so theoretically, the dialog box in this case could refer to current functionality.

Thanks AL!

The interesting thing about Steve Jobs' $5.5 Billion (making him the 136th richest person, up from 3.6Billion/172nd richest last year) in assets is that only around $1 billion of that is from Apple.  His Pixar-sold-to-Disney shares are worth $4.2 billion, down from the original $7.2 billion at the time of the deal.

Jobs did completely cash out of Apple (at not a great time) after his first stint and used some of that money to buy and grow Pixar and start NeXT.  But, Apple's market cap has gone from $4 billion in 1997 when he started to over $200 billion this week.  That's 50 times the value if you've been sitting on AAPL Stock since then.  Considering Apple was in a death spiral at the time he returned, you can pretty much chalk all of the $200 billion up to the guy.  That is a lot of shareholder value.

So it is without much question, that he's been a bargain for Apple over the past 13 years.

Also, not a fan of that picture from AP/Forbes.

In a word, yes, although most people may just choose to bring their iPads when they drive rather than leave one mounted in the car.

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ZDNet reports that they've heard rumors that there will be a new Mac Pro next week:

I’m getting tips in from sources who claim that Apple is set to revamp its high-end Mac Pro line, adding a ‘hexacore’ Core i7-980x model to the line up.

All information points to this happening next Tuesday, March 16th.

The Core i7-980x is Intel’s first six-core part. Here’s the spec:

3.33GHz (TurboBoost to 3.6GHz), 6 cores / 12 threads, 32nm architecture, Socket LGA1366 130W TDP

Separately, we've heard there could be a release as early as Friday.  I'd rather see a Core i7 Mac Mini though.

In somewhat related news, Maya 2011 64-bit was released today.

The most recent iPhone SDK removes those VideoChat files we found in the previous version of the SDK.  The big question: Did Apple remove them for the big camera surprise or did they remove them because there ain't gonna be a surprise?  Don't get your hopes up.

vs. our previous post:

On the surface, the latest iPhone 3.2 Beta 4 SDK didn't have much new information.  Diving a little deeper however, we find some very exciting news.  

In the gestures folder, you'll see two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist) that are certainly not implemented in the current 3.1 iPhone SDK.  

Apple is likely allowing developers to use these capabilities in the next versions of the OS.  We might even see these in the shipping version of the iPad.    Thanks AL!

This Computerworld article sounds about right. Segmentation is Apple's friend in this case as all of the competitors are scrambling and confusing consumers to become #2.  Even though Apple is the 51st ARM tablet because the A4 is an ARM design, it clearly stands out from the pack as THE tablet.  The hype around the iPad is easily bigger than all of the other Joojoos/Slates combined.

I think the tablet game is going to play out like this:  You'll have the other ARM tablets on the low end (Dell, etc) that cost less than the iPad and pick up the audience that can't justify the $500 entry cost.  Then you'll have the Intel Atom tablets (JooJoo/HP) priced about the same as the iPad but with more "features" (cameras, Adobe Flash, etc.) that may appeal to a select few in the corporate market.  You'll also have the eReaders that will become marginalized because of their lack of important features and color screens.

Apple has a big head start on everyone both in mindshare and in OS maturity.  With weeks left until the launch of the "Year of the Tablet", its hard to see any competitors even coming close to Apple's iPad.

Update: Fortune has a similar piece

Quad-Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4850, SSD Drive all in a Mini body. Price: $1000.

Here's how...

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As a Mifi user already, I've decided to forgo the 3G version of the iPad and stick with Wifi.  The reason is simple.  I already use the Mifi to connect my MacBook Pro to the Internet when I am away from home/Wifi.  Why would I get another plan when I already have 5GB of data/ month on a much better wireless carrier (and an iPhone plan with AT&T)?   If I didn't have the Mifi, I'd be tempted to jailbreak my iPhone and use it as a Mifi.

Certainly there have to be a lot of people out there who need wireless data on the go and would rather be able to connect to two (up to five) devices?  That's what Verizon is thinking.

Engadget shows that Verizon is going after people like me with this internal Verizon iPad positioning document.  

AT&T's CEO is thinking people won't want the 3G iPad. He might be right. (or not)

Fortune reports that Apple is going after handset manufacturers over what it sees at infringement of its IP.  In January '09 Tim Cook said:

"we will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal."

Jonathan Schwartz (AKA My Little Pony), the recently ousted CEO of Sun, says today in his blog that Steve Jobs threatened to sue Sun for their Project Looking Glass and its graphical effects.

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”

That's when Schwartz had a Delicious Monster moment

My response was simple. “Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?” Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. Lighthouse built applications for NeXTSTEP, the Unix based operating system whose core would become the foundation for all Mac products after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration. “And last I checked, MacOS is now built on Unix. I think Sun has a few OS patents, too.” Steve was silent.

He also goes on to talk about Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and their Office protection racket. A great read.

Paul Bonanos today breaks out some information on the background of the iTunes LP story.  From his Apple sources, it sounds like Apple made a concession to the labels to build iTunesLP to get DRM-free music. 

I’m told by an industry source who preferred to remain anonymous that iTunes LP wasn’t Apple’s idea in the first place. Rather, it’s the result of the same renegotiations between Apple and the major record labels that yielded DRM-free songs and flexible pricing early last year, a concession by Cupertino to make a gesture in favor of album sales as consumers increasingly show a preference for digital singles.

There are now 29 iTunesLPs, up from 12 at launch.  Everyone thought that the tablet was going to be the perfect platform for the iTunesLP format but Steve Jobs only gave music a minute at the iPad announcement and none of that time was for iTunesLP.

Perhaps the reason for the slow uptake is the original high costs of producing in the format.  

One person who worked on an iTunes LP project said Apple subsidized the initial group of LP editions, which were created by the company’s handpicked third-party developer at costs of up to $60,000. All are issued in “deluxe edition” releases that feature extra tracks, typically priced a few dollars higher than iTunes’ customary $9.99. Neither Apple nor anyone else I spoke with was able to break out sales figures, but sources in various parts of the music industry agreed that the financial impact of iTunes LP on record sales has been tiny, if it’s had any effect at all.

iTunesLP development has recently been opened up for indie developers which should be able to build LP development price down from the first iTunesLPs.  That hasn't yet given iTunesLP much traction however.  That might require Apple's blessing, something a "concession" probably won't get.

The WSJ today reports that the big announcement that Cisco's been hyping all week is actually a faster router.  While that may not be as exciting a s a new tablet device (or it may be depending on your tastes), it will hopefully have some effect on Apple customers.  The WSJ profiled AT&T and specifically their wireless (read:iPhone) customers who are the major catalyst for new broadband:

AT&T, meanwhile, said the 100-gigabit backbone Internet network would support growing wireless and wired data and traffic "for years to come." In particular, AT&T has dealt with the explosive growth in wireless data, primarily driven by the Apple Inc. iPhone, among other smart phones.  The router "allows us to serve volumes of traffic that we need to serve," said Keith Cambron, CEO of AT&T Labs.

AT&T has stated that they are working hard on bringing up their wireless speeds but first must upgrade their backhaul.  That's where the Cisco CSR-3 would come in handy, delivering much more data over the same lines.AT&T have also stated that they don't anticipate much additional traffic from Apple's iPad - something we'll start to understand at the end of April.

Apple today released the iPad/iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 SDK.  The build 10M2144 is 2.5GB and can be downloaded from developer.apple.com/iphone.

The EFF today posts the "iPhone Developer Program License Agreement".  Normally, they wouldn't be allowed to reproduce the document because of the terms of Apple's SDK but since NASA created an app, they used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy for publishing.  They note that it is more restrictive than before and parts of it may not be enfodceable.

They note their concerns below:

Ban on Public Statements: As mentioned above, Section 10.4 prohibits developers, including government agencies such as NASA, from making any "public statements" about the terms of the Agreement. This is particularly strange, since the Agreement itself is not "Apple Confidential Information" as defined in Section 10.1. So the terms are not confidential, but developers are contractually forbidden from speaking "publicly" about them.

App Store Only: Section 7.2 makes it clear that any applications developed using Apple's SDK may only be publicly distributed through the App Store, and that Apple can reject an app for any reason, even if it meets all the formal requirements disclosed by Apple. So if you use the SDK and your app is rejected by Apple, you're prohibited from distributing it through competing app stores like Cydia or Rock Your Phone.

Ban on Reverse Engineering: Section 2.6 prohibits any reverse engineering (including the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as a fair use under copyright law), as well as anything that would "enable others" to reverse engineer, the SDK or iPhone OS.

No Tinkering with Any Apple Products: Section 3.2(e) is the "ban on jailbreaking" provision that received some attention when it was introduced last year. Surprisingly, however, it appears to prohibit developers from tinkering with any Apple software or technology, not just the iPhone, or "enabling others to do so." For example, this could mean that iPhone app developers are forbidden from making iPods interoperate with open source software, for example.

Kill Your App Any Time: Section 8 makes it clear that Apple can "revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time." Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple can remotely disable apps, even after they have been installed by users. This contract provision would appear to allow that.

We Never Owe You More than Fifty Bucks: Section 14 states that, no matter what, Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages. That's pretty remarkable, considering that Apple holds a developer's reputational and commercial value in its hands—it's not as though the developer can reach its existing customers anywhere else. So if Apple botches an update, accidentally kills your app, or leaks your entire customer list to a competitor, the Agreement tries to cap you at the cost of a nice dinner for one in Cupertino.

Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn. That's not unusual where end-user license agreements are concerned (and not all the terms may ultimately be enforceable), but it's a bit of a surprise as applied to the more than 100,000 developers for the iPhone, including many large public companies. How can Apple get away with it? Because it is the sole gateway to the more than 40 million iPhones that have been sold. In other words, it's only because Apple still "owns" the customer, long after each iPhone (and soon, iPad) is sold, that it is able to push these contractual terms on the entire universe of software developers for the platform.

In short, no competition among app stores means no competition for the license terms that apply to iPhone developers.

If Apple's mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition (or "generativity," in the words of Prof. Jonathan Zittrain) than the PC era that came before. It's frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads. If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord. Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.

In a post today, John Gruber says that the little iPhone widget-type apps that shipped on the original iPhone — Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Weather and Voice Memos — won't ship on the iPad.  And that blank key on the iPad keyboard?  It ain't gonna bring up no widget mode either.  

So they were scrapped by you-know-who[Jobs]. Perhaps they’ll appear on the iPad in some re-imagined form this summer with OS 4.0, but when the iPad ships next month, there won’t be versions of these apps. At least that’s the story I’ve heard from a few well-informed little birdies. (There is, alas, no secret “widget” mode for iPad in OS 3.2, either.)

While this would be a bit of a bummer, it does give developers some freedom to build better apps for the iPad's screen without worrying about Apple coming in and destroying their market.  Also, there's no shortage of apps that do these "default" functions already.  The original iPhone needed a few apps to get rolling, Apple might be tired of maintaining these low value apps.  The iPad won't have any problems getting all of this functionality and more from the development community.

Gruber's sources missed the mark last month by saying that the iPad release delay was software-related when such a delay wouldn't have caused further international delays.

AT&T's foray into Android phones seems almost like it is a marketing campaign for Apple's iPhone. It certainly doesn't seem to be very friendly to Google, anyway.

Last week, it was announced that AT&T was replacing the market-leading, Google search on the Google Android powered Motorola Backflip with Yahoo's search. WHAT?

That's like selling In-N-Out Burgers except taking out the meat and replacing it with hospital-quality "Beef-like" patties. That alone borders on sabotage!?

But AT&T wasn't done having their way with this poor Motorla Backflip.

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HP has a new product called the Slate that will be released "sometime this year".  Steve Ballmer briefly showcased the device at CES running the Kindle application.  It didn't impress many people, and that was before the iPad was announced.

Clearly, the one obvious advantage that it has over the iPad is its ability to play Adobe Flash and Air media. This isn't lost on HP or Adobe which have put together this video:

Here's the HP Slate techno remix:

They couldn't even get the gestures to work properly using CG.

HP via DF

CBS Interactive today released the 2010 March Madness application ($9.99 app store).  Big difference over last year?  3G streaming of games!  Press release from CBS below...

CBS SPORTS MOBILE ANNOUNCES NCAA® MARCH MADNESS® PRODUCTS FOR 2010
 
Free & premium NCAA March Madness on Demand apps available for iPhone and iPod Touch,
delivering live video, radio, & highlights over 3G and Wi-Fi
 
CBS Channel on FLO TV provides live video of the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship,
from the First Round through the Final Four®
 
LOS ANGELES, CA - Mar. 8, 2010 - CBS Sports Mobile, in partnership with CBSSports.com, CBS Sports and the NCAA, today announced new mobile products for the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Following up on last year's extremely popular NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) app, CBS is distributing both the premium, live-video app as well as a free "lite" version.
 
The NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) premium application offers live streaming video and video highlights of the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Coverage begins with the NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show on March 14 and continues with every game from the first round of the tournament through the semifinals and championship of the Men's Final Four. New this year, in collaboration with AT&T, the live video will be delivered over 3G, EDGE and Wi-Fi connections. Premium app users can also receive score alerts and listen to live game radio broadcasts from Westwood One throughout the entire tournament, starting with the Opening Round game on March 16.
 
In addition to the premium app, CBS Sports Mobile has also produced a free, "lite" version that is the perfect companion for any March Madness fan. The lite app provides on-demand video highlights from every game, live scores, and comprehensive news coverage of both the 2010 conference tournaments and NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
 
Both the free and premium NCAA MMOD apps feature an interactive tournament bracket that updates with real-time scores, plus news headlines and the ability to log into Facebook and Twitter and connect with your friends.  Fans can follow the Road to the Final Four®, with exclusive CBSSports.com Edge Matchup game previews, including team breakdowns and matchup comparisons. Users can also make their CBSSports.com bracket selections directly from the app, and track their progress throughout the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
 
Developed by CBS Sports Mobile with partner MLB Advanced Media, both the NCAA March Madness on Demand applications are now available from Apple's App Store on iPhone and iPod touch at www.itunes.com/appstore/ or can be downloaded by clicking here:

CBS Mobile is also offering live video of the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, through the CBS Mobile Channel on FLO TV. AT&T subscribers of the FLO TV service can watch live video of 63 games from the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, from the first round of the tournament through the semifinals and championship of the Men's Final Four.
 
The FLO TV™ service is currently available through AT&T, the Exclusive Wireless Partner of the NCAA and other wireless providers to more than 200 million consumers across more than 100 markets. The FLO TV service can be viewed on several handsets from LG, the Official Mobile Device of the NCAA and other manufacturers. For more information, please visit http://www.flotv.com/.
 
"The CBS Sports Mobile 2010 March Madness products appeal to both casual and diehard fans, keeping them connected to the action via live video and highlights, news, scores, and brackets," said Rob Gelick, Sr. Vice President and GM, CBS Mobile. "Last year CBS Sports Mobile witnessed a huge appetite for mobile video when we were the first to stream live sports events over the iPhone, and this year, by including Wi-Fi and 3G, we expect that appetite, and audience, to grow even more."
 
"The popularity of March Madness on Demand is matched only by the collective effort to make the platform even better," said Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president for basketball and business strategies. "Working with CBS to introduce new mobile products keeps NCAA Basketball fans on the cutting edge of technology -- wherever they are.  Providing fans with new mobile applications packed with high quality features makes it easy to stay connected and catch action day and night all the way through the Final Four."
 
NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) is the Emmy award-winning video player that provides live streaming video and audio of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. NCAA March Madness on Demand's standard video player will launch on March 10 with historical highlights from past NCAA tournaments and be available at NCAA.com (mmod.ncaa.com) as well as via MMOD links on CBSSports.com.