Apple To Offer $100 iTunes Credit Instead Of An iPod For Back To School Promotion?

Apple’s ‘Back to School’ promotion is scheduled to start up again sometime very soon and if reports from today come true, the promotion could be a bit different to years past. 9to5 Mac is reporting that when a student purchases a MacBook this year, they will receive a $100 worth of iTunes credit rather than what has previously been an iPod Touch in recent years.

Launching three months before the September iPod event Apple seems to have every year, the ‘Back to School’ promotion was largely viewed as one way of clearing out iPod inventory ahead of the refresh in September. Previous rumors of this year’s promotion suggested that Apple was set to offer $200 off the price of an iPad.  As always, regardless of the bonus offered during the promotion, students get an education discount on the cost of any Mac they purchase.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Report: New MacBook Air In Late June

Rumored to be getting an update this week as part numbers surfaced online suggested Apple was planning to release new products on Wednesday, the much anticipated new MacBook Air models were replaced by unlocked iPhones today, but sources believe they’re still on track for a late June release with 380,000 - 400,000 initial shipments. As reported by Reuters quoting the Economic Daily newspaper, Apple is expected to sell new MacBook Air units in late June, with shipments of the old line and new models reaching 460,000 units this month.

As supplies dwindle worldwide and the new Airs are increasingly rumored to be refreshed in June or July, little is known about the actual specifications of the new machines. It seems fairly obvious that Apple would implement Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology as seen in the latest MacBook Pro and iMac updates, but there are no details on the CPUs Apple would go for in the Airs. A report from May indicated Intel was working on new ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors that would be a perfect fit for the Air, but sources haven’t corroborated the rumor since then.

It is believed, however, that the MacBook Air is becoming Apple’s crown jewel when it comes to promoting the Mac, and so the new Air would require a significant spec bump to be able to run OS X Lion smoothly.

Apple Settles With Nokia Over Patent Dispute


Nokia today announced that they have reached a settlement with Apple over a complex web of patent disputes between the companies that have been keeping both companies (and the courts) busy since 2009. The settlement involves a one-time payment as well as on-going royalties to be paid to Nokia by Apple – the size of the fee and royalties is undisclosed, as is the length of the agreement.

We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market. - Nokia Press Release

As FOSS Patents relays, the settlement of this dispute will free up precious resources for both companies – Apple in particular will need them whilst it battles three of the big Android device makers; Motorola, HTC and Samsung. The win for Nokia against Apple will be somewhat of a precedent for future potential patent battles, particularly given the veracity with which Apple had displayed in attempting to ‘win’ this lawsuit. In particular, it is very likely that Nokia will soon go after Android device makers and it is questionable whether they would fare any better than Apple did.

The price isn’t disclosed but FOSS Patents gives a brief opinion how sizeable it could be:

Theoretically, it could be a symbolic amount, but that’s very unlikely. I’m sure Nokia had to go down from its maximum demands because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a settlement. But the deal structure is very telling: a combination of a payment for past infringement as well as running royalties is a clear indication that there’s serious money in this for Nokia.

Updated: Could Nokia be earning €8/$11.50 for each iPhone sold? Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents thinks it is ‘plausible’ - in which case Nokia would be raking in something like $200m from today’s settlement.

[Via FOSS Patents, Picture via Engadget]

Apple Starts Selling Unlocked iPhone 4 In The US, GSM Model Only

One day earlier than was predicted, Apple has finally offered consumers the ability to purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 in the United States. At the moment only the GSM variety is available but you’re free to choose it in either white or black styling and in 16GB or 32GB variety.

Regardless of the color you choose, the iPhone 4 in 16GB variety starts at $649, whilst the 32GB is $749. It doesn’t come with a micro-SIM card so you’ll need to activate one yourself from any supported GSM carrier (worldwide). Whether you plan on using an iPhone extensively overseas or just on an alternative carrier, the unlocked iPhone may be your best choice – at least if you don’t want to go down the jailbreak and unlocking road.

You can purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 from the Apple online store here, and it is expected that Apple retailer stores will have them on sale from today or possibly tomorrow – we will update when we know for sure.

Wednesday Could Bring Unlocked iPhones in the U.S. Starting at $649

After everyone got their part numbers straightened out, it appears that unlocked iPhone 4s could be hitting American soil on Wednesday, possibly opening up the freedom of choice between carriers and allowing US consumers to easily grab a SIM overseas without incurring expensive roaming fees. This is big news for the United States, where unlocked phones aren’t typically sold in stores (while you can buy a phone in full, you’ll still end up being locked into a carrier). International travelers from the U.S. will finally be able to hot swap SIMs overseas, but could this be the only benefit? T-Mobile and AT&T run on GSM, but aren’t completely compatible with each other (they work on different bands), and Verizon is on its own with CDMA. The iPhone 4 does currently have a capable GSM-CDMA Qualcomm MDM6600 inside, although Apple currently hasn’t utilized the dual-mode functionality.

MacRumors reports that the unlocked iPhones have shipped to Apple Stores, and they’ll be available on store shelves starting Wednesday. They’ll cost you $649 an $749 a pop for 16GB and 32GB models: consumers who pay up front will have the benefit of avoiding carrier lock-in.

[via MacRumors]

Downgrade iOS 5 beta to iOS 4.3.3→

Downgrade iOS 5 beta to iOS 4.3.3

Apple said it couldn’t be done, but according to a many a Twitter user and OS X Daily, iOS 5 doesn’t have to a be a permanent fix if you’re just stopping by to see what’s new. Perhaps you are having lots of problems, or maybe you’ve decided you really need those apps that don’t work with your premature update. Well folks, lucky for you some kind soul posted all the details on how to get back to ground zero of things go south during your time in iOS 5, and it requires nothing more than a simple trip to DFU mode on the iPhone. I’m not accepting responsibility if things head south during the restore process, but hey, you shouldn’t have been installing iOS 5 when you didn’t need to!

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Funnel is an Expressive News App Based on Google News

Looking for all the hot topics of today? Patrick Rhone of Minimal Mac points to a very cool looking iPhone app called Funnel, which reminds me of Marcos Weskamp’s Newsmap, which provides a distinct way to view upcoming topics on Google News. While I haven’t visited the “Marumushi Newsmap” (as I called it when I was but a young teen) in a long time, provided you have Flash installed or you use Google Chrome, you can check out how news aggregates in real time. If we return to Funnel, it’s practically the same thing (which is great considering you can have Newsmap on the go). The bigger the news, the more popular that particular news item is. You can download it here (currently I’m having trouble pulling it up in the App Store). Let us know what you think if it’s available in your part of town.

[via Minimal Mac]

If you think WWDC wasn’t successful, you weren’t paying attention→

If you think WWDC wasn’t successful, you weren’t paying attention

Apple did a lot at WWDC, but one of the most important things was that they gave developers the roadmap for where they are headed (at least in the short term). That’s big for the end user because we are relying on those developers to make the apps that we use.

I spoke with countless developers last week and not one of them were disappointed with Apple’s announcements. Apple gave them hundreds of new APIs to work with to improve existing apps and to create new ones.

Jim Dalrymple from the loop tells it like it is. This year was a massive success by Apple at WWDC, and many genuinely see the distinction that make this month’s announcements revolutionary, and not evolutionary. And it’s not just about what was announced, but about what Apple does for its community.

Developers spent the week hunkered down in sessions with Apple engineers learning about the new code. That’s what WWDC is all about — code, apps, APIs, and more code.

WWDC is not about Apple releasing new products for consumers to run out and buy. It’s about educating developers so they can make great products for consumers to buy.

Apple is setting the precedent for some big changes, and I can’t help but feel there’s a lot of anxiety around the new announcements. I think this piece by August Mueller sums up the wide variety of emotions and feelings encountered at this year’s WWDC: Roll With It. Multiply the implications of what Apple is doing by the 5000 developers at WWDC, and you can imagine how serious this is. What Apple is doing might look like just an upgrade on the surface by and end user, but internally there’s going to be a lot of changes as Apple drives innovation, and heads in the opposite direction that Microsoft appears to be heading in. It’s all being done for us.

Whether you were a developer soaking in all that Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud have to offer, or a bystander witnessing the change in technology, WWDC 2011 was an event to be remembered.

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Fair Warning: OS X Lion Will No Longer Support Rosetta Based Apps

If you’re still running Mac apps that leverage Rosetta, prepare to lose that functionality when you install Lion. A main concern that TidBits recently expressed, is that the loss of Rosetta (which helped switch users from PowerPC to Intel based machines) would eliminate still perhaps frequently used software.

“Now, two major versions of Mac OS X later, it appears that Rosetta is going away. And if it does, it will be accompanied by a number of applications that I use frequently. Quicken 2007. Photoshop CS1. FileMaker Pro 8. Microsoft Word 2004. Among many others.”

Rosetta is a subject that often evades us since it’s optionally installed on Snow Leopard by apps that really need it. If you’ve recently purchased a Mac or only have purchased apps on the Mac App Store, you’ll never have to install Rosetta to use the most up-to-date applications. But for those still utilizing PowerPC compatible applications, it might be required that you simply don’t upgrade to Lion, or install it on a separate partition so you can continue using Snow Leopard’s provided functionality. MacRumors reminds us of this change today via a forum post at Macworld, where a user expressed worry over retaining a soon to be outdated version of Quicken. Macworld responded:

Broadly, you have a couple of options. One is to create a dual-boot Mac – one that can boot from two volumes. One volume contains Lion and another runs an older version of the Mac OS. When you need to spend some quality Rosetta time, you boot into the older OS. And yes, this is a pain.

The other option is to simply not update to Lion. Your Mac will continue to work just as well as it does today. How acceptable this is to you depends on how desperate you are for Lion’s features and iCloud (some of iCloud’s features will require Lion).

The changes in Lion will even affect current universal applications. From Charles Moore of Low End Mac:

There is an interesting element to Lion, such as “autosave”, which will only work on new programs coded for Lion, but won’t work on earlier Intel/Universal coded programs. It indicates to me that Apple will eventually run only post-Lion programs on their computers.

Apple doesn’t hesitate to cut old features. With the system requirements for Lion requiring the latest hardware, those who have older Macs will not only lose out on software they use, but will have to upgrade to a new machine as well. In our audience, how many of you still run Rosetta-based apps? Leave a comment below letting us know what the Lion upgrade means to you.

[Sources: MacRumors, Macworld, Low End Mac, TidBits]

image via Low End Mac