The April 3 release date for the iPad is fast approaching, and a new report finds that Apple is starting to temper their own expectations for the device as they struggle to get content deals inked. MacRumors has the details on the new report from The Wall Street Journal , which finds Apple backing off of their previous high expectations as they rush to finalize deals with content providers for the April 3rd launch of the iPad. The report finds that Apple is setting aside television content and iPad-specific content such as newspaper, magazine and textbook deals to focus on what they can lock by the deadline. “Yet the company is still negotiating with media companies for a price cut on TV shows that people can download onto the device, said people familiar with the matter,” the report reads . “Apple also hoped to work closely with newspaper, magazines and textbook publishers on new ways to digitally present print content on the iPad, but has for now put the effort on backburner in favor of focusing on other content, said one of those people.” As previously reported here and elsewhere, many potential content partners have been reluctant to sign up under Apple’s terms — as much as they want to bring their content to new devices such as the iPad, they’re wary about risking future revenue streams under Cupertino’s terms. MacRumors notes that e-books have likely received most of Apple’s immediate attention, since the iBooks app will debut alongside the iPad — or rather, be available to download as soon as new owners boot their device. The new iBookstore is surely one of the key focus areas for Apple in their race against time. The good news for Apple, if reports are to be believed, is that the company is rumored to have already sold “hundreds of thousands” of iPads since the preorders began last Friday — that means the device has the potential to outsell the original iPhone in the first three months of sales. Not bad for a device that many were quick to dismiss when it was unveiled in late January, eh?

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With iPad Content Deals Up in the Air, Apple Begins to Temper Expectations

Filed under: Apple A new Apple patent is going around that offers up something called “iGroups” functionality — it seems to be a kind of location-based social networking, including an ad-hoc currency functionality between a crowd of Apple devices. It’s pretty interesting , though it sounds more like an idea Apple is playing with than an actual service they’re going to debut. They specifically mention rock concerts and tradeshows (including WWDC), with the plan that someone would start up a “group,” and then individual group members in the same location (determined by GPS) would be able to hook into that group and/or exchange contact info or “tokens” with other members of the same group. Not quite a Foursquare or Facebook competitor (this definitely seems like a much more local service), but a new kind of ad-hoc network based on the idea that everyone in the area who is using an Apple device can connect up in new ways. The “token” idea is interesting, too — it adds a gaming element to the situation that seems very un-Apple. That, more than anything else, is what makes me think this is Apple just covering their bases rather than securing an idea that they plan to put into action. Still, a lot of Apple’s services ( MobileMe , iWork , and so on) tend to be more traditional rather than innovative — they innovate on hardware and often play catch-up on software — they do it well, of course, but their specialty is polish, not necessarily. Diving into a newer arena like social networking would be an interesting move for Apple. iGroups patent suggests Apple is looking at social networking originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . iGroups patent suggests Apple is looking at social networking originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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iGroups patent suggests Apple is looking at social networking

Man, Apple’s been coming down pretty hard on third party vendors lately. First it was the sexy apps, then the WiFi sniffers, then the book-only apps. In the latest round of purging, Apple takes it to the physical world. Whether it’s just because they want more store space for their own products or they’re cooking up their own screen films or they really think their oleophobic glass screens are all that tough, Apple has told screen protector vendors that they’re quits as far as the Apple Store and the website goes. Whaaat? Rumors are abounding that Apple has contacted vendors and told them they won’t be stocking anymore screen protectors. 9To5Mac links to Dan Frakes at Macworld who says he’s heard from multiple vendor sources about the heave-ho. And it’s not even confined to straight up screen protection. Even sleeve protector products that contain cling films are being asked to step outside. Image Source: iphone-products.com Personally, we don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a screen protector for their iPhone. In fact, we bought one the day we got our iPhone and put it on the moment it was registered, and the handy little cling film has never been off since. While we go out of our way not to put keys or any other hard metal objects in the same pocket with our iPhones (and many women we know have a dedicated pocket for it in their purses), we’d still never go without our screen protector. Even worse, we’d never even think of picking up an iPad with its four times as large screen without some serious cling action to protect our baby from scratches. So far, as is typical with everyone’s favorite computer company, Cupertino’s being a bit tight lipped about the whole thing

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Apple Thinks Their Screens Are Plenty Tough

Apple continues to release developer seeds of Mac OS X 10.6.3 for testing, but judging from those using it, the official release may be getting close. On Tuesday, Apple made Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D571 available to developers, and MacRumors managed to get the details , courtesy of website iPhone in Canada . Cupertino has asked developers to “focus their testing on Graphics Drivers, iChat, Quicktime and Fonts.” Among the two biggest issued addressed with the new developer seed: – Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling – Issue resolved that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly A known issue affecting Software Update has also been documented, and to test the problem, Apple is having last week’s Safari 4.0.5 update offered again in the new build. It’s been 11 days since the last developer build of Mac OS X 10.6.3 was seeded, and MacRumors is predicting “a final version to the public in the relatively near future.” While Apple’s update schedule can be a slippery fish to catch, as developer seeds get released at a faster pace, it’s a good sign that development is winding down on a particular release. Apple released the final Mac OS X 10.6.2 update in early November and began seeding 10.6.3 to developers in early January.

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Mac OS X 10.6.3 Gets One Step Closer to Reality

(Image courtesy of Engadget) From today’s “Take this with a grain of salt” files: An Australian tech journal has some new Apple ads up which appear to show the usual Mac Pros, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs — but with higher than usual pricing. So what’s going on? According to Engadget , the confusion stems from Apple ads on Australian tech publication PC Authority which display “some rather peculiar price tags for its flagship mobile and desktop computers.” Clicking the online ad takes the viewer to the usual Australian Apple website — but with lower prices. Specifically, Apple Australia’s online store lists the MacBook Pro starting at A$1,599, the MacBook Air at A$1,999 and the Mac Pro at A$3,599, while the “official-looking” ad incorrectly lists the prices as A$1,899, A$2,399 and A$4,499 respectively. The question is, has Apple lost its mind? Is this an unfortunate sign of things to come, or just a slip? There’s no real way to know at this point, although rumors have been swirling that Apple’s laptops will gain Intel Core i7 processors soon, while the Mac Pro has been rumored to gain the Core i7-980X. But it would be out of character for Apple to raise the prices so much for new models, especially at a time when they have so much money in the bank and they’ve been slowly creeping prices downward to continue the good fight against Windows. We figure we’ll find out soon enough…

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Australian Ads Foretell Higher Mac Pricing?

We first reported rumors of the Dell Streak back in January, but details were very limited. Now, 9to5mac reports that Dell has pulled back the curtain–at least a little–to give us a better look at what’s coming. The new Mini 5 (its internal codename is the Streak, but the final name hasn’t been released yet) is an Android device with a 5-inch 800×480 touchscreen. It includes a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, plus a front-facing VGA camera for video chatting. Dell is reaching out to the style conscious, offering a wide variety of "premium finishes" and even allowing the buyer to personalize colors. They have also reached a content partnership with Amazon, including a link to the Amazon store backed up by a Kindle app for the new device and support for Amazon MP3 and Amazon video on demand. That also means 3G data support, something missing from the iPod touch.

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Dell’s New Mobile Device Aimed at iPod Touch Audience

The web is buzzing today with reports that multitasking will be coming to the iPhone OS at least by version 4.0, and just maybe in 3.2. In fact, Just Another iPhone Blog shows a screen shot with an allusion to multitasking in a javascript comment block. The iPhone OS has always supported multitasking; otherwise you wouldn’t be able to receive a call while listening to music! That’s also how you can continue listening to music from your iPod app while playing many games. But Apple has limited it to their own applications in the past. (Unless, of course, you did a jailbreak on your phone and ran an app like backgrounder.) To be fair, there were some good reasons why Apple hasn’t enabled multitasking of third-party apps in the past. First, apps that can run in the background without the user’s knowledge are a potential opening for malware. Second, once you start loading multiple tasks at once you’re going to see a real hit in battery life–which was a sticking point for many iPhone users already. Third, once you have multiple apps running, you have to give the user a new interface to switch between them–likely with additional utilities to allow the user to balance resource usage. Fourth, multiple tasks slow the system down and the processors in the iPhone won’t stand up to too great a load. In general, the lack of multitasking hasn’t been a serious issue for most (other than Pandora users). The size of the screen doesn’t lead a user to be thinking in terms of multiple windows anyway. But the iPad runs the iPhone OS, and with its larger screen and faster processor there will be much more demand for multitasking. It may be called the iPhone OS, but this upgrade is pointed primarily at iPad users.

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Rumor: Multitasking Coming to iPhone OS 4.0

Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines! iPad preorders for the United States begin today. TUAW is reporting that “ The Apple Store is currently down in the U.S., the U.K. and the rest of the world.” Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan with your neighbor Osama, you probably know that iPad preorder sales begin this morning. But did you know the exact time? We didn’t think so. iPad preorders at apple.com begin at 8:30 am EST (that’s a bleary-eyed 5:30 am for our West Coast MacLife staff & readers!) Before you start palming your credit card, remember that come April 3rd, only the Wi-Fi model will be available. We presume that any preorders from today through April 2nd will be scheduled to arrive via FedEx on April 3rd, as is customary for Apple product launches. However, if you have your heart set on a 3G-enabled iPad, you’ll have to wait until an unspecified date in late April — exactly when, Apple ain’t saying. There were also some new, last-minute rumors on Thursday that we might see refreshed MacBook Pros and Mac Pros today, so keep an eye out for those as well when The Apple Store springs back to life.

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It’s March 12th — Do You Know Where Your Credit Card Is?

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says. Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip

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Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says. Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip

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Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]