World of Apple

MacDailyNews is going out on a limb and republishing a unconfirmed rumour sent to the site from the same source who tipped the site last year about the iTunes Wi-Fi store prior to its launch on the iPhone.

Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured Multi-Touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X. This is why they bought P.A. Semi. Possibly with Immersion’s haptic tech. Slot-loading SuperDrive. Accelerometer. GPS. Pretty expensive to produce initially, but sold at “low” price that will reduce margins. Apple wants to move these babies. And move they will. This is some sick ****. App Store-compatible, able to run Mac apps, too. By October at the latest.

MDN notes that this is a rumour, and none of the information has been independently confirmed at this time.

AppleInsider is today reporting on a note sent by investment firm Piper Jaffray to clients based on Apple’s outlook for the rest of 2008 and 2009.

During yesterdays financial conference call Apple stated that it expects gross margins to be down from 34.8% to 31.5% in the current quarter (Q408) with a further decline to 30% for fiscal 2009.

While Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray acknowledges that Apple is always conservative in its outlook, he also expects Apple to cut prices of existing products to maintain sales.

“We believe there is an 80% chance Apple will introduce redesigned MacBooks and possibly new MacBook Pros at lower price points,” the analyst wrote. “Specifically, Apple may re-enter the $999 price point (currently $1099) with the MacBook, or test the $1,799 price point with the MacBook Pro (currently $1999).”

Munster also spoke about iPods, he expects a “slightly redesigned iPods” that will include “lower-cost touch-based iPods” just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Piper Jaffray maintains a buy rating on Apple with a price target of $250.

During today’s financial conference call, Apple’s chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer noted that Apple will make a “product transition” during the next quarter.

The comment came after concerns that Apple predicted gross margins of just 30% down from 34.8% in the June quarter. According to Apple a future product transition will cause a drop in gross margins.

The chief was short on details but did explain that price will be a significant driving factor. He continued that Apple often introduces products with new technology at a high price, but seeks to drive the price lower over time.

When referring to the unnamed product the CFO described the product as having “technologies and features that others can’t match”.

In today’s press release Steve Jobs spoke of “several more wonderful new products”.

Apple is widely expected to be revising the MacBook Pro and MacBook in the coming quarter. In addition the company is rumoured to introducing a multi-touch tablet sometime in the future.

AppleInsider reports that QuickLook will be making its way to Finder icons themselves in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

The detail which was revealed to the site by a person familiar with the future Mac OS X release. The site writes that hovering the mouse pointer over an audio file in Snow Leopard’s Finder will trigger a triangular ‘play’ button to appear on the icon. Hitting the button will trigger the audio to play without opening any applications.

The process also works for video files.

AppleInsider reports that other files such as Pages, Keynote and Number files also cause the Finder to show navigation buttons on its icon to allow navigation of the document.

Apple is beginning to exhibit signs that a notebook refresh may be close, previous reports have pointed towards Apple revising the MacBook in calendar Q308.

The Chinese publication, Commercial Times is now reporting that Apple has increased orders for “notebook-use printed circuit boards” by up to 2% for the forthcoming quarter (July - September).

In addition to this Mac Rumors is noting that Apple has told Best Buy that they will have limited MacBook shipments over the next two weeks.

It has emerged that Apple appears to be testing a newer version of the iPhone 2.0 software which was officially released to the public last Friday. Boy Genius Report is noting that its server logs point towards users visiting the site using a version of the iPhone OS numbered 2.0.1. Two builds are said to be in circulation, 5B101 for 2G iPhone and 5B103 iPhone 3G.

The server requests are said to come from the San Francisco Bay Area, near the Cupertino headquarters for Apple and Atlanta, AT&T’s home.

As the software appears to be internal, very little is known about what the minor update fixes. But AppleInsider appears to have got its hands on a screenshot (see picture).

AppleInsider has revealed what is said to be the next major re-design of the MacBook Pro. The image of a case was originally published by a Chinese blog last Saturday but its reliability was questioned.

AppleInsider is now confirming that the photo “appears to be a dated prototype”.

The new casing for the MacBook Pro is said to be more tapered at the edges, similar to that of the MacBook Air. Also visible in the leaked image is a rectangular recess on the bottom casing. This is said to be the latch that will release the notebook’s long and narrow battery cover.

AppleInsider does not divulge when it expects the new look MacBook Pros to ship but does note that Apple could include some “additional surprises”.

Gizmodo has posted photos of iPhone 3G store displays, the units are very similar to last year with the giant oversized model iPhone showing a video of the devices functions.

Mac Rumors reports that AT&T stores are due to get the displays tomorrow:

Beginning July 8th you will receive the new iPhone 3G demo devices at your store to enhance your sales process. These devices will be used the same as your 2G demo devices in your sales process but now you can demonstrate the additional capabilities of the iPhone 3G including the App Store

Apple Stores in the US are rumoured to be opening at 8am to mirror AT&T stores, iPhones will be activated within Apple stores and cannot be paid for with cash.

It should also be noted that iTunes 7.7 which is required for iPhone activation should be released sometime Tuesday, just in time for the New Zealand iPhone launch.

PC Advisor is reporting that “secret plans” for the UK launch of the iPhone 3G have been revealed to the publication.

The publication claims that a local Carphone Warehouse disclosed the information which stated times and details of the iPhone 3G launch on July 11, these included VIP passes for those who pre-order the iPhone.

Contrary to previous reports the publication notes that O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores will open at 7.02am and as of Monday July 7 customers will be able to pre-order the iPhone online; although O2 has confirmed that iPhones will be available on a first-come first-served basis.

According to the report customers who pre-order will receive a “Welcome Pack” and “VIP ticket.”

CEO Hans Arentsen of Dutch company PaperFoam confirmed today that Apple has ordered “millions of paperfoam packages” for the new iPhone 3G.

The Dutch company which was founded in 1998 and makes use of potato starch in the injection moulding process allowing a 90-percent reduction in carbon footprint in comparison to plastic. The product consists of 100-percent natural resource, either potato starch or Tapioca starch.

The company CEO didn’t give away much information but did state that the iPhone 3G will ship in a cardboard box with a fully-recyclable starch tray on the inside.