Over the past few weeks, a number of “leaks” from Apple’s supply chain and retail operations suggested the company was on track to launch the next major version of OS X, Lion, alongside new Macs this week, more specifically yesterday, July 14. According to the rumors, Apple was gearing up to unveil new MacBook Airs, Mac minis and white MacBooks all featuring updated Sandy Bridge processors from Intel and Thunderbolt connectivity. Whilst rumors about Lion immediately sounded fairly accurate as Apple seeded the “Golden Master” version of the OS to developers on July 1 (unless major issues are discovered, the GM version usually matches the public release’s build number and codebase) and the company said at the WWDC Lion would be available in July, speculation about new Macs generated from a series of factors that had been capturing the interest of the tech press since February. (more…)

In another case of ‘patent troll with a terrible website design sues other companies’, Kootol Software LTD has sent notices to numerous companies who deal in making software around Twitter, whom happens to be at the center of the latest patent feud. Twitter itself has already been contacted according to Kootol’s news feed, detailing that they own products and services for, “A Method and System for Communication, Advertising, Searching, Sharing and Dynamically Providing a Journal Feed”. The patent revolves around being able to send and receive messages on a public feed by subscribing  to (following) other users in real time, which sums up Twitter in a nutshell. The patent includes being able to search for information in real time, which includes archival information.

Kootol has also announced that it has sent a [caution] notice to Twitter Inc, USA and has brought to their attention their accepted US patent application. They have also expressed concerns that Twitter Inc’s micro-blogging website ‘Twitter.com’, introduced around July 15, 2006 may violate their intellectual property. Kootol is in the process of examining this position and the purpose of serving this notice is to bring the fact to attention of Twitter Inc at the very earliest stage so that Twitter Inc gets a full opportunity to examine the matter.

Apple, Microsoft, Ford, Amazon, AOL, and smaller developers such as The Iconfactory, Yammer, Seesmic, and Ubermedia have all also been sent notices for patent infringement. Kootol has submitted around 60 patents related to real time communications, including news-feeds, ‘unified’ communication systems, and ‘service based’ social networks that are present in the US, EPO, Canada, and the companies home country of India. Though keyword is submitted: a lawsuit can’t take place unless these patents are granted, thus Kootol is trying to bank on early license deals.

Small developers have lately been targets of patent trolls looking to profit of their pool of patents — notably developers are currently dealing with the patent troll Lodsys for in-app purchasing, though Apple has motioned to intervene.

[Kootol via PR Newswire]

Note: While preparing our own post, FOSS Patents put out an elaborate post detailing the situation better than I ever could have. Florian Mueller also express the same worries as I for The Iconfactory in particular. I recommend checking out the post here:

Kootol (India-based troll with US and European patent applications) sends notices to many companies regarding Twitter/Facebook-style feeds

Apple has just released iOS 4.3.4 in iTunes. The new firmware should be available now if you check for updates, and it is supposed to fix an issue that allows jailbreaking an iOS 4.3.3 device through a PDF vulnerability. Apple describes the technical fixes in a  support document:

Impact: Viewing a maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A buffer overflow exists in FreeType’s handling of TrueType fonts. Viewing a maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

Users who have jailbroken their devices using JailbreakMe will obviously need to stay away from the update if they want to keep Cydia and other installed jailbreak tweaks — Apple had already confirmed a fix was coming to patch the PDF security hole that could allow for other malicious exploits, not necessarily related to jailbreak.

Here are the direct links for iOS 4.3.4:

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPad
• iPad 2 (also iPad 2,2 and iPad 2,3)
• iPod touch 3rd gen
• iPod touch 4th gen

Apple has also released iOS 4.2.9 for the Verizon iPhone, which you can download here.

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Following new regulations in Taiwan, Apple last month began offering those living in the country a seven-day period in which they could “return” any purchases from the App Store. As discovered by IDG News, Apple has now formalized that policy and has updated their terms and conditions for the Mac App Store, App Store and iBookstore.

You may cancel your purchase within seven (7) days from the date of delivery and iTunes will reimburse you for the amount paid, provided you inform iTunes that you have deleted all copies of the product. Upon cancellation you will no longer be licensed to use the product. This right cannot be waived.

Whilst Apple has on occasion refunded purchases when customers contact support, this move allows any customer in Taiwan to get a reimbursement for any app and without any grounds within the first seven days. Some may recall with the recent uproar over the new Final Cut Pro X, Apple actually publicly offered anyone who had purchased FCP X a refund but they made sure to note that it was only a “one time exception”. However as the above snippet from the terms and conditions note, the process for those in Taiwan is still fairly tedious with consumers having to email the iTunes support team and manually delete the apps.

[Via MacRumors]

A report from Reuters is claiming that Apple has begun trialling production of an A6 processor with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) ahead of an expected 2012 launch. If true it would be a movement away from Samsung, which for the A4 and A5 processor, has been Apple’s sole manufacturing partner.

Such a move would presumably be in part be due to the current legal battle between Apple and Samsung that began earlier this year. As for what the A6 brings, analysts are expecting the processor could be a quad-core chip, a jump from the current dual-core A5 chip and single-core A4 chip.

A final decision has not yet been made on whether TSMC would produce the commercial, high-volume quantities, but TSMC is well prepared for that – they are the largest contract chip manufacturer in the world. CNet notes that analyst Gus Richard told them this month that Intel could be an option as they have been aggressively seeking more business with Apple

[Via CNet]

LogMeIn, the powerful remote desktop sharing tool that offers a variety of other services for professionals and businesses, released a series of updates in the past week to enhance support for file management in Ignition, the iOS app we’ve reviewed here on MacStories, and bring full OS X Lion support to LogMeIn Free, Pro and Ignition desktop users. With a blog post this morning,  the company has announced a compatibility update that resolves the issues when trying to connect to a machine running Lion, rumored to be publicly released next week. I have tested the update (which can be installed by opening LogMeIn’s preferences, then About->Check for Updates) on my two Macs running OS X Lion GM and I successfully managed to log in (both via screen sharing and file manager) from my iPad, iPhone, and the web. (more…)

UPDATED: Included a discussion on various sales taxes to clarify some of sections of the analysis, also corrected a mistake regarding Denmark prices.

For those of you who aren’t located in the United States, Wednesday’s news of Apple re-adjusting their prices in the App Store for international stores might have been pretty big news. For many the headline was welcome news, indeed when I woke up Thursday morning and saw they had finally re-calibrated the iTunes ‘exchange-rate’ I was pretty happy about it. We first discussed the great disparity in global iTunes prices back in January and I was pleased to see Apple eventually act and restore some fairness for international consumers.

Unfortunately I soon figured out it wasn’t all good news; Apple had only adjusted the iTunes ‘exchange-rate’ for apps. For their other stores such as for music, movies, TV shows and books the prices remained unchanged. Nonetheless I have revisited my January analysis, updating that data and doing some further analysis of what the price changes actually bring, what it means for individual countries and who is better or worse off.

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Tweetbot, the Twitter client “with personality” we reviewed a while ago and followed as the developers introduced new features and fixes, has received a major update to version 1.4 that adds a new important functionality, highly requested by the app’s userbase: push notifications. Alongside various bug fixes, selected tabs now remembered when switching accounts, and lists from Twitter users viewable as tweets, Tweetbot 1.4 comes with a new Push Notifications service in the Settings that allows you to be notified about incoming DMs, replies, follows and unfollows, and so forth. The supported Twitter services are many, however the developers have decided to limit the rollout of push notifications for now, mentioning scaling issues and API limitations from Twitter. As Tapbots wants to ensure an optimal experience for everyone, make sure their push notification servers hold up to the new traffic (enabling push notifications for an app — especially a Twitter client — isn’t as easy as most people think) and avoid delays in notification delivery, the initial rollout of Tweetbot push notifications will allow 1,000 users to sign up on a first come, first serve basis. In the following weeks, the limit will be raised to 10,000 users. Please keep in mind that right now — the app has just started propagating in the iTunes Store — notifications might take a while to become active as Tapbots set up the new service. (more…)

It’s been a while since Apple’s embarked on a ‘Tech Talk World Tour‘, aimed at providing developers with additional sessions, presentations, and the opportunity to ask Apple engineers questions related to development. Macotakara via AppleInsider suggests that Apple may bring the program back online this year, offering additional seats for students at event locations, focusing on iOS 5 and iCloud integration.

The Tech Talk World Tours offer developers a more intimate setting and a second chance to meet engineers at Apple if they’re unable to attend the WWDC event — while Apple’s tours aren’t too extensive, they do try to hit major tech hubs in hopes of reaching out to the largest portions of the iOS developer base. Previous hotspots have been various cities including Seattle, Austin, and New York City. Apple previously ran the developer events in 2008 and 2009 as the iPhone saw a surge in development — new and groundbreaking technologies in iOS 5 would give Apple plenty of reasons to revisit the Tech Talk World Tours. The events would be likely held between October and December.

[Macotakara via AppleInsider]

Earlier this week, Apple informed registered Mac developers that they could start submitting apps targeting the new features of OS X Lion — coming this month — such as full-screen mode, sandboxing, push notifications and new Aqua interface controls. In the email sent to developers, Apple wrote: ”OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, will soon be available to millions of Mac users around the world. Submit your Lion apps for review now so they can be on the Mac App Store when Lion ships this month.” Whilst several rumors in the past had claimed Lion would be released today, July 14th, alongside new Mac hardware, such claims have failed to come true as the OS isn’t available to the general public yet. According to most recent speculation, minor issues with app resumes and restarts in Lion have forced Apple to “delay” the release — though it’s not clear how the company could delay something that was set for July, but wasn’t given a precise release date.

In the meantime, as first noted by OS X Daily, Apple has started approving apps updated for Lion. OS X Daily points out that Mac game WordCrasher was updated to support Lion’s full-screen mode and Resume; we’ve also found more Lion-ready app updates approved by Apple today. These updates either bring new features (as in the case of BusyCal) or minor bug fixes to ensure Lion compatibility.

WordCrasher

• Full-screen. Use the full-screen button or press CONTROL + COMMAND + F to toggle fullscreen mode under OS X Lion.
• Resume. Close WordCrasher at any time and resume your game right where you left it. Restart your Mac, and WordCrasher will resume straight away.

Harmony Worship

• [Bugfix] Fix datamodel for OS X Lion
• Include missing image in Mac App Store build

Shortcuts

• System actions with CMD and ALT now work on Lion
• User interface fixes

BusyCal

• Lion compatibility.
• Supports full screen mode on Lion.
• Supports trackpad gestures on Lion.
• Supports new scrollbars on Lion.
• Supports Address Book yearless birthdays on Lion.

The four apps above were existing Mac App Store apps that have been updated to receive Lion fixes and support. The fact that all these updates were approved today leaves us wondering whether Apple wants to quickly get the Store ready for a Lion launch next week by approving apps that take advantage of the new OS — Lion will be exclusively distributed on the Mac App Store and, after it launches, new users may want to spend some extra money to get apps that work nicely with it. Since Apple began accepting Lion submissions this week many wondered whether the new OS could really come out today — if history is of any indication, it usually takes a week for Apple to begin accepting app updates and actually releasing a new major OS. According to a series of fresh claims, Lion is on schedule for a launch next week.

Everyone may not have to share Macs and iOS Devices with others, but there are many of us that do. For the Mac, it’s easy and a great idea to set up User Accounts for times when someone needs guest access or has a different OS setup than what we normally use from day to day. A common complaint for iOS users is that there are no User Account options, only parental controls and such. Dave Caolo recently posted on 52 Tiger how to child proof your iPhone, which we recommend reading. He lists many ways to child-proof your iOS device but an easier way for Apple to do this would allow User Accounts on iOS devices.

iUsers for iPad is a Cydia hack for jailbroken iPads by Pedro Franceschi that gives you something close to having OS X’s user accounts. The hack is set up inside Settings.app >> Extensions >> iUsers. Add a user by simply tapping “Add User”, insert a name, passcode and choose whether they have admin rights or not. This means each user can have their own set of app positioning, home screen wallpapers, settings, etc. Now this won’t save your iPad from wondering fingers or accidental App Store purchases but it does offer some deal of restriction for your personal iPad setup.

According to the video, if you want to switch accounts once they are added, simply go to the lock screen and tap the Accounts button. The iPad does a quick springboard reboot (which could bother some people) after selecting the account you want to open and it even remembers apps states for each account. Obviously this is dangerous for backups, but if you want to try something like this, it looks cool.

This isn’t Pedro’s first Cydia tweak, back in May we showed you PhySwitch, which lets you cycle through apps with the volume keys. iPad Jailbreakers, if you want to try out iUsers, add the repo: cydia.iblogeek.com to see it in your Cydia apps.

Demo video after the break. (more…)