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AMD Fusion Coming To iMacs and Mac Pros?

Hardware Upgrade reports that AMD showed a couple of slides yesterday during the 2010 Financial Analyst Day which suggest that Apple might be included as a partner for future AMD Fusion releases. In the slides (which you can see below, or jump to the full presentation here) iMacs and Mac Pros are the Apple computers AMD’s slides are referring to.

As Hardware Upgrade also notes, rumors about deeper Apple / AMD collaborations have been floating around for months. Apple, of course, hasn’t confirmed any of them.

Apple Teams Up With Dentsu To Bring iAds to Japan

With a press release today Apple announced its exclusive partnership with Japanese brand agency Dentsu Group to bring iAds to Japan. The iAds following this partnership will be rolled out in Japan in early 2011 and Dentsu “will be responsible for the selling and creative execution”.

Dentsu subsidiary cci will provide creative production and media planning.

Check out the full press release below. Read more

Apple Confirms iTunes Connect Will Be Closed December 23-28

With a brief note on the iOS developer center, Apple informed developers that iTunes Connect won’t be available starting December 23rd through the 28th:

iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Thursday, December 23 through Tuesday, December 28 for the winter holidays. iTunes Connect access will be back online for use on December 29. If you choose to set an available date for your app to go live during the scheduled holiday shutdown, your app will not go live on the App Store until iTunes Connect resumes for business on December 29. Please plan your releases accordingly.

Previous rumors reported that Apple was planning an additional “lockdown” for the Thanksgiving week. Nope, that won’t happen. Developers, get your apps ready before Christmas.

Rumor: Apple Has Cancelled Support for AirPrint Through Mac and Windows

Update: Unlike many other blogs that linked to this post claim, the rumor isn’t about AirPrint being cancelled. It’s about AirPrint through shared printers on Macs and PCs.

When Apple released the first beta of iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, they also officially announced AirPrint, the wireless printing system that would work with specific HP printers and shared printers on Macs and PCs:

AirPrint is Apple’s powerful new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS—no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to an HP ePrint printer or to a printer shared on a Mac or PC.

We have been told from a few Mac developers that a few days ago Apple removed all the references to printing via OS X 10.6.5 and PCs both from Readme files and other online documentation posted in the iOS developer center. It seems like all that’s now mentioned in the release notes are the aforementioned HP networked printers, as if the shared printing option never existed. See here, here and here.

Read more

Saurik: “Even Software Should Have Screws” [Video]

In the following video, Jay Freeman (a.k.a. Saurik, Cydia’s creator and main developer) talks about the reasons behind software modifications and jailbreak at TEDx, an independently organized event.

The session is really interesting, as it provides some insight on how, after all, jailbreakers are really similar to those people who buy a car and start customizing it. If you think about it, it makes sense.

Steve Jobs Explains Why He Killed The Xserve [Video]

Well, it’s not exactly a direct explanation of why Apple pulled the plug on Xserves (at least not more than “hardly anyone was buying them”) but it gives you an idea of what Steve Jobs really thinks of the Enterprise market.

With excerpts from Apple’s January 2010 event (the iPad announcement, good times) and the D8 conference in July 2010, Steve Jobs clearly states that Apple is a mobile company and people in Enterprise don’t think with their own minds. Those who do are confused, Steve claims.

You can find unexpected revelations in old Steve Jobs videos. Let’s all go back to watching that iPhone 4 keynote and find some hidden Verizon clues in there.

Rumor: Apple Acquired Bluetooth Headphones Company Wi-Gear

According to a report from 9to5mac, who cites a reliable source, Apple acquired San Francisco-based company Wi-Gear two months ago for an undisclosed sum. Wi-Gear used to make Bluetooth headphones (called “iMuffs”) specifically meant for iOS devices, they were pioneers in the A2DP stereo audio field for iPhones and iPods – they even released an adapter for older devices that didn’t support the Bluetooth 2.0 standard.

9to5mac notes that Apple didn’t have that much of a success with its previous Bluetooth audio attempts and, for future iOS implementations, decided to acquire Wi-Gear instead of developing everything internally. Read more

Rumor: iWork ‘11 Is Ready, Will Debut In The Mac App Store

According to AppleInsider, iWork ‘11 is basically ready, but Apple doesn’t want to let it out of the cage. They received information from “people familiar with the matter” that the productivity suite was ready to be announced at October’s Back to the Mac event, but it was scrapped at the last minute.

It appears that Apple might hold it back until the grand opening of the Mac App Store, which should happen sometime next January.

People familiar with the matter say development of iWork ‘11 wrapped up this fall and the software was initially slated for an introduction alongside iLife ‘11 last month, but was held back at the last minute for undisclosed reasons.

Apple’s revised plans currently call for the company to launch the new productivity suite alongside the forthcoming Mac App Store, these same people say. The applications included in the bundle – Pages, Numbers and Keynote – will be available for purchase individually when the Mac App Store debuts.

AppleInsider also speculates that Apple might remove the retail box option for iWork ‘11 and sell the suite solely on the Mac App Store as single applications priced at $19.99 – pretty much like they do for the iWork apps for iPad. With the promise of the Mac App Store as the best way to discover and install applications on a Mac, the option surely seems likely.

Apple started accepting submissions for the Mac App Store last week. Promo material for the Mac App Store showed individual iWork apps sold at $19.99 each.