Some rumblings from Daring Fireballall's John Gruber on a Branch thread this evening point to possible delays in iOS 7 and perhaps subsequently OS 10.9.

What I've heard: iOS 7 is running behind, and engineers have been pulled from OS X 10.9 to work on it.

As he points out, Apple had this problem/solution before. In 2007, Apple had to devote some Mac resources towards getting the iPhone out the door. The press statement at the time read:

iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team. As a result, we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us.

However, the Wall Street Journal says:

Apple is also expected to ship the next version of its iOS mobile operating system around midyear, other people familiar with the matter have said.

MG Siegler adds:

Since we're talking whispers, the one thing I've heard multiple times now is about some sort of biometric scanner on the new iPhone. Perhaps not surprising given the AuthenTec buy - but surprised it would be this soon. Still, have heard it could be a big part of not only authentication, but payments of some sort (maybe even through Passbook) down the road. The most intriguing whisper: that Apple could charge a fee for devs to use it.

Gruber points out that Apple engineers carrying iOS have protective screens on them so it is hard to see the OS, something we've heard has been common practice for some time.

The Macintosh marketed as Mac, is a line of personal computers (PCs) designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is targeted mainly at the home, education, and creative professional markets, and includes the descendants of the original iMac, the entry-level Mac mini desktop model, the Mac Pro tower graphics workstation, and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops. Its Xserveserver was discontinued on January 31, 2011. The first Macintosh actually introduced itself.

Apple Inc.'s then-chairman Steve Jobs introduced the first Macintosh on January 24, 1984. It became the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface, rather than acommand-line interface.  The Apple II saw success through the end of the decade, though popularity dropped in the 1990s as the personal computer market shifted toward the "Wintel" platform: IBM PC compatible machines running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. In 1998, Apple consolidated its multiple consumer-level desktop models into the all-in-one iMac, which proved to be a sales success and saw the brand revitalized.

Production of the Mac is based on a vertical integration model. Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system that is pre-installed on all Mac computers, unlike most IBM PC compatibles, where multiple sellers create and integrate hardware intended to run another company's operating software. Apple exclusively produces Mac hardware, choosing internal systems, designs, and prices. Apple uses third party components, however, such as graphics subsystems from nVidia and ATi. Current Mac CPUs use Intel's X86-64 architecture. The earliest models (1984–1994) used Motorola's 68k, and models from 1994 until 2006 used the AIM alliance's PowerPC. Apple also develops the operating system for the Mac, OS X, currently on version 10.8 "Mountain Lion". The modern Mac, like other personal computers, is capable of running alternative operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and, in the case of Intel-based Macs, Microsoft Windows. However, Apple does not license OS X for use on non-Apple computers.

Apple is slated to announce the fruits of its labor on improving the use of technology in education at its special media event on Thursday, January 19. While speculation has so far centered on digital textbooks, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Ars that Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the "GarageBand for e-books," so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.

Along with the details we were able to gather from our sources, we also spoke to two experts in the field of digital publishing to get a clearer picture of the significance of what Apple is planning to announce.

So far, Apple has largely embraced the ePub 2 standard for its iBooks platform, though it has added a number of HTML5-based extensions to enable the inclusion of video and audio for some limited interaction. The recently-updated ePub 3 standard obviates the need for these proprietary extensions, which in some cases make iBook-formatted e-books incompatible with other e-reader platforms. Apple is expected to announce support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks going forward.

GarageBand for e-books

At the same time, however, authoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand.

Our sources say Apple will announce such a tool on Thursday.

And Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis agrees that such a move would be very likely. MacInnis previously worked on education projects at Apple before leaving the company in 2009 to pursue his own ideas about creating interactive digital books. Inkling currently offers a variety of digital textbooks with interactive features, including the ability to share notes with classmates and instructors, via an iPad app.

"When you think about what Apple is doing... they are selling tens of thousands of iPads into K-12 institutions," MacInnis told Ars. "What are they doing with those iPads? They don't really replace textbooks, because there's not very much content on offer," he said.

Don't expect that content to come directly from Apple, however. "Practically speaking, Apple does not want to get into the content publishing business," MacInnis said. Like the music and movie industries, Apple has instead built a distribution platform as well as hardware to consume it—but Apple isn't a record label or production studio.

But what Apple does provide is industry-leading tools for content production, such as Logic or Final Cut Pro, to help create content. The company also produces tools like GarageBand or iMovie that make such production accessible to a much wider audience.

Will Apple launch a sort of GarageBand for e-books? "That's what we believe you're about to see," MacInnis told Ars (and our other sources agree). "Publishing something to ePub is very similar to publishing web content. Remember iWeb? That iWeb code didn't just get flushed down the toilet—I think you'll see some of [that code] repurposed."

Mobile, social learning

Technology-in-education expert Dr. William Rankin also believes digital books will expand with tools that will enable social interactions among textbook users. Rankin, who serves as Director of Educational Innovation of Abilene Christian University and has extensively researched the use of mobile devices in the classroom, was one of three authors of a white paper on the effects of digital convergence on learning titled "Code/X," published in 2009.

In that document, Rankin and his colleagues laid out their vision for the future of learning, which included an always-on, always-networked digital device called a "Talos." That device turned out to be very similar to the iPad that Apple announced just six months later.

"What we saw coming was a change in the kinds of places that learning would happen," Rankin told Ars. Since the device would always be with the student, it would give her access to information anytime and anywhere. "For that, you need a different kind of book."

Such digital texts would let students interact with information in visual ways, such as 3D models, graphs, and videos. They would also allow students to create links to additional texts, audio, and other supporting materials. Furthermore, students could share those connections with classmates and colleagues.

"What we really believe is important is the role of social networking in a converged learning environment," Rankin told Ars. "We're already seeing that in Inkling's platform, and Kno's journaling feature. Future digital texts should allow students to layer all kind of other data, such as pictures, and notes, and then share that with the class or, ideally, anyone."

Exactly how what Apple announces on Thursday will impact digital publishing isn't certain, however.

"Think about how meaningful simply authoring and publishing to an iPad will be for K-12," MacInnis said. "However, it might not be great for molecular biology."

MacInnis sees Apple as possibly up-ending the traditional print publishing model for the low-end, where basic information has for many years remained locked behind high textbook prices. Apple can "kick up dust with the education market," which could then create visibility for platforms like Inkling. This could then serve as a sort of professional Logic-type tool for interactive textbook creation complement to Apple's "GarageBand for e-books."

"There will be a spectrum of tools and consumers, and we will continue to fit on that spectrum," MacInnis opined. "I don't know if the publishing industry will react to it with fear or enthusiasm."

Steve Jobs' pet project

We know that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was working on addressing learning and digital textbooks for some time, according to Walter Issacson's biography. Jobs believed that textbook publishing was an "$8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction."

According to our sources close to his efforts, however, Jobs' personal involvement was perhaps more significant that even his biography purports. Jobs worked on this project for several years, and our understanding is that the final outcome was slated to be announced in October 2011 in conjunction with the iPhone 4S. Those plans were postponed at the last minute, perhaps due to Jobs' imminent death.

Despite the delay, however, ACU's Rankin believes the time is right for a change to happen in the field. "We're headed toward a completely digital future at ACU," he told Ars. "A recent study showed that 82 percent of all higher education students nationwide will come to campus with a smartphone. We need to have resources and tools ready for these mobile, connected students."

Apple's anticipated full-fledged television set could offer Internet-based content subscriptions with customized channel lineups, if the company has its way.

Customized programming is said to be one of Apple's most desired features for its rumored television set, according to analyst Shaw Wu with Sterne Agee. In Apple's vision, customers would choose whichever channels or shows they want for a monthly subscription fee.

"This is obviously much more complicated (than current offerings) from a licensing standpoint," Wu wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday. "And in our view, would change the game for television and give AAPL a big leg-up against the competition."

Hardware and technology are not the issues holding back Apple from releasing a television set, he said. Instead, Apple must negotiate unique content deals that will allow the company to differentiate its product from other televisions on the market.

"Today, iTunes has a rich library of movies and TV shows but it is mostly for downloads and only movies are available for rentals (TV shows once were but were terminated in August 2011)," he wrote. "What's missing is live broadcast television."

He said the obvious way Apple could allow this is to integrate with a cable or satellite subscription already offered to customers. But the more revolutionary way would be to deliver live content via the Internet or IPTV, a method that would be more in line with the company's existing iTunes and iCloud services.

Apple's interest in expanding its content offerings has been known for some time, as the company is said to have pushed for more options and greater flexibility in negotiations with content providers. In November, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves revealed his company was approached by Apple about a potential streaming TV deal that would share ad revenues, but the network declined Apple's offer because it prefers licensing its content.

Wu previously noted in October that Apple's plans to build an HDTV have been held up by content providers who are reluctant to allow Apple to offer subscription-based plans to customers. Rumors of an Apple-built HDTV began to pick up steam earlier this year, when it was revealed that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told his biographer that he had "cracked' the secret to building an integrated, easy-to-use television set. He said the device "will have the simplest user interface you could imagine."

If Apple does release a full television set, Wu believes it would be wise for the company to continue selling its existing Apple TV set top box. This would allow Apple to continue offering existing HDTV owners the benefits of Apple TV, while an integrated TV set could offer a complete easy-to-use solution like a Mac, iPad or iPhone.

Rumors have pointed toward a 2012 launch of an Apple television with Siri voice control technology built in, and the company is said to have already built prototypes of the anticipated device. The latest rumor this week suggested suppliers will begin preparing materials for an Apple-branded television in the first quarter of 2012, with the device debuting in the second or third quarter of the year.

Discovery has ordered a documentary on the life of the late Steve Jobs, with theMythbusters duo on board to host. The network is teaming with NBC`s Peacock Productions foriGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World, a one-hour special. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who celebrate the spirit of innovation on Discovery’s hit Mythbusters, will host the show.

“Someone once said that to follow the path that others have laid before you is a very reasonable course of action, therefore all progress is made by unreasonable men,” Savage said. “Steve Jobs was an unreasonable man. He didn`t simply give the public what they wanted, he defined entirely new ways of thinking about our lives in the digital space: productivity, creativity, music, communication, media and art. He has touched, directly and indirectly, all of our lives.”

The special has already lined up interviews with several key names to talk about the Apple co-founder and CEO, including: Lee Felsenstein, founding member of the Homebrew Computer Club, Daniel Kottke, who traveled to India with Jobs and who later become an early Apple employee, and John Draper, an engineer who gave Jobs his start. Musicians Stevie Wonder and Pete Wentz will talk about how Jobs` innovations impacted their careers.

The documentary premieres Sunday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. and will air across Discovery`s portfolio of networks in 210 countries and territories.

 Steve Jobs, the visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon Valley garage, built it into the world's leading tech company and led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.

The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet -- all of which changed how we consume content in the digital age.

Fortune: Ten ways Steve Jobs changed the world

His friends and Apple fans on Wednesday night mourned the passing of a tech titan.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives," Apple said in a statement. "The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

See reactions from Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and many others

More than one pundit, praising Jobs' ability to transform entire industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo Da Vinci.

"Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism," New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August. "His intuition has been phenomenal over the years."

Jobs' death, while dreaded by Apple's legions of fans, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could "no longer meet (his) duties and expectations."

Born February 24, 1955, and then adopted, Jobs grew up in Cupertino, California -- which would become home to Apple's headquarters -- and showed an early interest in electronics. As a teenager, he phoned William Hewlett, president of Hewlett-Packard, to request parts for a school project. He got them, along with an offer of a summer job at HP.

How Steve Jobs grew up

Jobs 'set the agenda' for tech industry

Jobs dropped out of Oregon's Reed College after one semester, although he returned to audit a class in calligraphy, which he says influenced Apple's graceful, minimalist aesthetic. He quit one of his first jobs, designing video games for Atari, to backpack across India and take psychedelic drugs. Those experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future," he told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005. "You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

View a time line of Steve Jobs' work

While at HP, Jobs befriended Steve Wozniak, who impressed him with his skill at assembling electronic components. The two later joined a Silicon Valley computer hobbyists club, and when he was 21, Jobs teamed with Wozniak and two other men to launch Apple Computer Inc.

It's long been Silicon Valley legend: Jobs and Wozniak built their first commercial product, the Apple 1, in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976. Jobs sold his Volkswagen van to help finance the venture. The primitive computer, priced at $666.66, had no keyboard or display, and customers had to assemble it themselves.

The following year, Apple unveiled the Apple II computer at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire. The machine was a hit, and the personal computing revolution was under way.

Jobs was among the first computer engineers to recognize the appeal of the mouse and the graphical interface, which let users operate computers by clicking on images instead of writing text.

Timeline: Steve Jobs' career

Apple's pioneering Macintosh computer launched in early 1984 with a now-iconic, Orwellian-themed Super Bowl ad. The boxy beige Macintosh sold well, but the demanding Jobs clashed frequently with colleagues, and in 1986, he was ousted from Apple after a power struggle.

Then came a 10-year hiatus during which he founded NeXT Computer, whose pricey, cube-shaped computer workstations never caught on with consumers.

Jobs had more success when he bought Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas before the company made it big with "Toy Story." Jobs brought the same marketing skill to Pixar that he became known for at Apple. His brief but emotional pitch for "Finding Nemo," for example, was a masterful bit of succinct storytelling.

Share your memories and images of Steve Jobs

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, returning Jobs to the then-struggling company he had co-founded. Within a year, he was running Apple again -- older and perhaps wiser but no less of a perfectionist. And in 2001, he took the stage to introduce the original iPod, the little white device that transformed portable music and kick-started Apple's furious comeback.

Thus began one of the most remarkable second acts in the history of business. Over the next decade, Jobs wowed launch-event audiences, and consumers, with one game-changing hit after another: iTunes (2003), the iPhone (2007), the App Store (2008), and the iPad (2010).

Review Jobs' top moments as a showman

Observers marveled at Jobs' skills as a pitchman, his ability to inspire godlike devotion among Apple "fanboys" (and scorn from PC fans) and his "one more thing" surprise announcements. Time after time, he sold people on a product they didn't know they needed until he invented it. And all this on an official annual salary of $1.

He also built a reputation as a hard-driving, mercurial and sometimes difficult boss who oversaw almost every detail of Apple's products and rejected prototypes that didn't meet his exacting standards.

By the late 2000s, his once-renegade tech company, the David to Microsoft's Goliath, was entrenched at the uppermost tier of American business. Apple now operates more than 300 retail stores in 11 countries. The company has sold more than 275 million iPods, 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads worldwide.

Jobs' climb to the top was complete in summer 2011, when Apple listed more cash reserves than the U.S. Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world's most valuable company.

CNNMoney.com: Apple stock under Jobs

But Jobs' health problems sometimes cast a shadow over his company's success. In 2004, he announced to his employees that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. He lost weight and appeared unusually gaunt at keynote speeches to Apple developers, spurring concerns about his health and fluctuations in the company's stock price. One wire service accidentally published Jobs' obituary.

Jobs had a secret liver transplant in 2009 in Tennessee during a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple. He took another medical leave in January this year. Perhaps mindful of his legacy, he cooperated on his first authorized biography, scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in November.

Jobs is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and four children, including one from a prior relationship.

He always spoke with immense pride about what he and his engineers accomplished at Apple.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he told the Stanford grads in 2005.

"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."

Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reports [Google translation] that Apple is set to launch the iTunes Music Store in ten new European Union (EU) countries. While the exact timing of the launch is unknown, sources have indicated that Apple could launch the services `at any time`, possibly as soon as next month. 

The report names Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic as countries set to receive new iTunes Music Stores, but the additional seven countries are not specified. Of the 27 European Union member states, twelve currently do not offer iTunes Music Store services: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Speculation suggests that Cyprus and Malta could be the two EU countries left out of the launch, due in part to geographic isolation and their status as the two countries having the smallest populations among those currently without music stores. 

The iTunes Music Store is currently available in nearly two dozen countries, making an increase of ten countries a substantial addition to Apple's offerings, although only Poland (38 million) and Romania (22 million) out of the candidate countries have populations substantially above 10 million. Apple's App Store is active in many dozens of countries around the world, including all 27 member states of the EU, but access to the music portion of the iTunes Store is considerably more limited at the present time due to the difficulties of licensing content in each market.

Apple on Tuesday officially announced its iPhone 5 launch event. According to the invitation received by The Loop, the event will be held on October 4 at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus. The event will begin at 10:00 am PT.

We’ve been pretty envious of the Logitech Solar Wireless Keyboard that has been selling for months now for Windows PCs (though it does work on Macs with key mapping).   Amazon reviewers give it overwhelmingly positive feedback on the PC, it is thin and goes for three months without light.

Today, Logitech announced that a Mac version is on the way.  As a bonus, it is available in 5 colors including black, white and 3 different admittedly ugly pastels.  Interestingly, Logitech is selling it for $20 less than the list price of the $79.99 PC version at $59.99.  So much for the Mac Tax?

Besides the pastels, this product looks like a winner.  Sign us up.

Additionally, Logitech launched a $50 back mounted iPad speaker earlier this week.  It has batteries which last about as long as an iPad and also charges via USB.  I’m not immediately sure if I like this idea or more importantly, the implementation but, there it is:

Today brings good news for all you tablet users out there: The new Logitech Tablet Speaker is here to help you enjoy and share stereo sound on your tablet, no matter where you go!

A rubberized clip lets you securely attach this compact speaker to your iPad or other tablet device. Once you connect the audio cable to the headphone jack, just sit back and enjoy—perfect for an impromptu dance party or a movie on the go.

To keep the party going, the speakers charge via USB and have a battery life of up to eight hours. So you can watch a show you missed, play games for hours or just fall asleep to your favorite music.

The Logitech Tablet Speaker is the perfect way to share with your friends and extend your tablet experience into the world around you.  It also comes with a travelling case, so it’s great for last minute summer travel. Tell us what you’d use the Logitech Tablet Speaker to listen to in the comments.

According to a note from MF Global FXA Securities outlined by Reuters, Apple may invest $1 billion in Sharp to secure displays for future devices; namely iPads and iPhones. We think it is highly possible that Apple will make an investment in Sharp’s Kameyama plant to the tune of around $1 billion in order to secure stable supply of screens for iPhones and iPads, analyst David Rubenstein said in the note.  Notably, current Apple-foe Samsung supplies display components for the company’s popular iPad 2. Samsung only recently became Apple’s iPad 2 screens supplier after a fallout with LG.

Kodawarisan offers the first specific date for Apple's fall media event. According to the Japanese site, Apple is planning on holding their usual iPod-announcing event on Wednesday, September 7th. 


Apple has traditionally held their Fall media events in the first part of September with the past three events taking place on September 1st, 2010, September 9th, 2009, andSeptember 9th, 2008. Last year's event introduced new iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod shuffle models. This year's event, however, has been widely expected to also incorporate the rumored iPhone 5 announcement. We confirmed with Kodawarisan that the date was not the product of guesswork, but came from a source in the know. 

In previous years, Apple has updated the iPhone in the summer during WWDC, leaving the iPod to wait until this September media event. This year, however, without an iPhone upgrade at WWDC, all eyes are on this September event for the launch of the iPhone 5. Apple's suppliers are said to begin shipments of the iPhone 5 in September but AllThingsDhas suggested the iPhone 5 won't actually be released until October. It's not clear if that gives Apple room to pre-announce the iPhone 5 in September, or if it means Apple will let September pass by with no mention at all of the next iPhone. 

Kodawarisan has been a longtime Apple site that we first referenced back in 2002. We haven't seen many rumors from it in recent years, though notably, in 2009, they did correctly pinpoint the launch date the launch of a new Mac mini. 

Steve Jobs’ crusade to rid Apple products of all traces of Flash continues with word that Lion, the new Mac OS X, has many issues with Adobe programs, including disabled Flash Player hardware acceleration.

In the past, Jobs has publicly derided Flash and suggested that the platform is in decline. iOS has not supported Flash since its inception, so it’s not surprising that Lion — which pushes the Mac OS closer to iOS — offers less support for Adobe.

It’s also possible that Adobe simply hasn’t caught its products up to speed with the changes in the Lion OS yet. Anytime a new OS is released, software developers have access to beta versions of the OS to get their software in order, and Adobe is no different. Still, the sheer amount of issues related to Adobe’s products, the history of the two companies, and the fact that many users will be affected makes this significant.

Just a few years ago, Apple and Adobe had a close relationship. So close, in fact, that it would be unheard of for a new version of the Mac OS to break a feature in Photoshop, one of the most popular Adobe products.

On Adobe’s support page chronicling known issues with Lion, it notes this specific problem:

Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video. Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration.

Apple did not respond immediately to our questions about this issue.

On top of hardware acceleration issues, Adobe listed other Lion-specific problems with Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, Illustrator, Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.

In some cases, older programs do not work at all. Adobe lists non-current versions of Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst as programs that “will not work on Mac OS X 10.7.” Abobe said it “does not intend to update” these products. That could definitely cause developers trouble if they upgrade to Lion while still using older versions of these programs.

Some affected programs like Photoshop and Illustrator are significant to the design community, which has an affinity toward Apple hardware and software. In Photoshop CS3, CS4 and CS5, Adobe says the “droplets” feature does not work. And in Illustrator CS5, the option to save or export is disabled from the Save As or Export dialog window when trying to save to the desktop.

Adobe did not respond to queries we had concerning the incredible amount of issues specific to Lion. However, in early June, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said the company would work around any “arbitrary obstacles” that were put in its way concerning Apple. I bet the company is looking into doing just that when it comes to Lion.

Do you think Apple’s treatment of Adobe is fair? Have you had any Adobe-specific problems when using the new Lion OS?

Update: The article now has more information about incompatibilities between Adobe products and the Lion OS and the software development process.

Update 2: Adobe sent us a message saying Flash hardware acceleration was, in fact, not disabled in Lion. The company declined to talk about all of the other problems mentioned in this story. Here is the company’s official statement:

The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz told investors Tuesday that shares of Apple stock remain a strong buy with plenty of gas in the tank for upward movement, in spite of recent volatility.

In a note to clients early Tuesday, Moskowitz said he expects Apple to beat both his estimates and the Wall Street consensus when it reports its third quarter of fiscal 2011 results next week. He attributed the stock's recent fluctuations to the change in investor expectations as a result of iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4-plus soothsaying and the speculation over iPad 2 shortages.

According to the analyst, concerns of shortages are overdone, as the firm's research indicates that most Apple stores are fully sourced. He also pointed to therecent shift in Apple's lead times for the iPad 2 from 1-2 weeks to 3-5 days as evidence that the company's supply woes have improved. 

The firm's iPhone estimate for the June quarter stands at 17.5 million units, though Moskowitz suggests there is upside potential to the prediction. The analyst sees Apple selling 6.7 million iPads in the most recent quarter, also with upside potential. Finally, he notes that his Mac estimate of 3.9 million units may also be on the low end. Apple may also post better than expected results given the improved component cost environment,excepting Hard Disk Drives.

Moskowitz and his colleagues believe Apple will release an iPhone 4-plus in August or September, holding off on the so-called iPhone 5 until 2012. They also agree with recent evidence of an upcoming refresh to the MacBook Air line and suggested that the new ultra-portable Macs will see a price cut.

J.P. Morgan sees recent downtrends as bottoming out relatively soon, while noting that Apple is expected to remain a top pick for offsetting low expectations and macroeconomic issues. The analyst attributes recent weakness among technology stocks to the Japanese supply chain disruption and rising commodity cost. After a large earthquake and tsunami struck Japan earlier this year, some suppliers and component manufacturers were affected, though Apple has said the disaster did not have a meaningfully impact iPad 2 production.

 Our view is that these negative factors have partially faded, which could lead to improving global production activity, Moskowitz wrote. He believes that investors will soon regain confidence in technology stocks, which will pick back up as issues decline.

Shares of Apple fell 1.59 percent to $354.00 on Monday. The stock has bounced back from a year-to-date low of $315.32 on June 20.

While Apple has publicly acknowledged that they are tracking a summer release window for their upcoming Mac OS X Lion release, sources have indicated to 9to5Mac that Apple may surprise customers with a Tuesday, June 14 launch of the next-generation Mac operating system. Our sources could not confirm with certainty that the launch will take place that day, but due to a mixture of chatter from several sources we believe the June 14th date is a strong possibility.

Apple is said to be planning one of their product launch-indicative “visual updates” for the morning of Tuesday, June 14th. Sources tell 9to5Mac that this particular overnight will feature a new store-front window in addition to other signage-related changes within the retail store. These particular changes are different than the ones planned for Tuesday, June 7 – the day after WWDC. While we do not know what June 7′s changes are, we think the launch of Apple’s 2011 back to schoolpromotion is a strong possibility.

One particular piece of evidence that leads us to believe in a June 14th Lion launch is that Apple will be minimizing software presence in their retail stores on that day. Possibily meaning the removal of Snow Leopard from Apple’s retail outlets. This may mean a mid-June Final Cut Pro Xlaunch as well, but that is purely speculative. Apple removing software from their retail stores is not exactly an issue for Mac OS X Lion customers as this particular software release will come through the Mac App Store.

Separately, Mr. X has told 9to5Mac that Apple’s supplies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard are dwindling and a mid-June launch for 10.7 Lion makes sense based on past trends. Again, we need to emphasize that this June 14th Mac OS X Lion launch is unconfirmed. We do, however, believe that based on the mixture of information detailed above, a June 14th Mac OS X Lion launch is a very good possibility. We will hopefully know all on June 6th when Steve Jobs talks Lion at WWDC.

iCloud could be the name of Apple's new cloud storage system

Many tech giants have either launched, or are in the process of launching cloud-based storage services for music, media and documents. Fierce competition has moved to the digital world in regards to music especially, and none of the big players want to be left behind. 

Amazon released its Cloud Drive and Cloud Player in March, which offers 5 GB of online storage for free. It also saves MP3's from Amazon's store automatically to the cloud along with other uploaded files like music, photos, movies and documents. Amazon customers can also upgrade to 20 GB for one year through the purchase of an MP3 album from Amazon.com. But Amazon encountered legal issues with record labels when it failed to obtain new licensing rights. Amazon has since met with these labels to discuss legal matters.  

Google was expected to launch a cloud storage service as early as last Christmas, but held off due to its licensing-related search for a subscription service. Currently, Google is still in talks with Warner Music Group, EMI Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. In addition, reports have noted that a change in upper management may be contributing to the delay. On April 1, Larry Page, co-founder of Google, became chief executive while Eric Schmidt was moved up to executive chairman.  

Now, Apple is stepping into the cloud storage ring with a completed online music storage locker that reportedly will be released before Google's cloud system, and reports are saying that Apple will call it iCloud. This tip comes from the rumor that Apple may be the recent buyer of the domain iCloud.com.

Apple's online music storage system will allow iTunes users to store music on a remote server and access it from several different devices.

ICloud.com was originally owned by Xcerion, which is a Sweden-based desktop-as-a-service company. Recently, Xcerion renamed its service CloudMe and bought the domain CloudMe.com on April 5. 

The anonymous source, who is close to Xcerion, said Apple bought the domain iCloud.com from Xcerion for $4.5 million. 

Mobee's Magic Bar brings inductive charging to your Apple bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad

The wise folks who brought us the inductive Magic Charger for the Magic Mouse are now back with a new trick up their sleeves. This time we have the Mobee Magic Bar, which can energise either an Apple Wireless Keyboard or a Magic Trackpad thanks to their identical dual AA battery compartment. To get some wireless charging action, simply install the supplied battery cylinder to either device (presumably extra cylinders will also be available for purchasing), and then slide the protruding part into the charging dock. Of course, the nature of this setup limits the number of compatible devices (unlike the flat Magic Charger), but this is still more convenient than unscrewing the lid every time you run out of juice. If this Magic Bar tickles your fancy, you can pick one up around end of June for $59.90 -- pre-order starts on May 15th.