Apple has released a firmware update for its 24-inch LED Cinema Display that resolves a flickering issue that occurred when connected to the company's newer Thunderbolt-equipped Macs.

According to the company's notes included with the update, the 24-inch LED Cinema Display Firmware Update will only install when connected to a Mac with the Thunderbolt interconnect. Apple also warns that using a Mini DisplayPort extender cable may not resolve the issue.

Users are advised to disconnect non-essential USB and FireWire devices before applying the 926KB update. The firmware requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later.

According to MacNN, one customer has received notification of the update from Apple France along with the warning that the patch is still in testing. The publication noted that most other Cinema Display who were experiencing the issue report "complete success" after applying the firmware, rebooting the system and power cycling the monitor.

Last week, AppleInsider reported that Apple was looking into a fix after receiving numerous complaints about the issue. The problem first cropped up in February after the release of the early 2011 MacBook Pro, the first Mac to receive Thunderbolt.

Apple introduced the 24-inch LED Cinema Display in 2008, then discontinued it in 2010 in order to consolidate its monitor offerings.

 

In July, the Mac maker unveiled the $999 27-inch "Thunderbolt Display." The new display is well-equipped to serve as a docking station for Mac notebooks and includes a MagSafe charger, three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Thunderbolt port. Up to five Thunderbolt devices, including an additional monitor, can be daisy chained to the display.

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Apple on Thursday launched the iTunes Store in the 12 European Union countries that had yet to gain access to it, ending an eight year wait for what has become the world's No. 1 music store.

Users can now download and purchase music through iTunes in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Apple added new localized online stores last week, including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Apple has yet to open an official online store in Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia, providing only a spartan webpage featuring support or "where to buy" information for the iPhone. However, the three countries are available as selections in the standalone iTunes application.

Previous reports had claimed that only 10 of the remaining 12 EU countries lacking access to the store would be brought into the fold.

The introduction of iTunes across Europe should significantly improve Apple's reach as some of the territories gaining iTunes support this week have populations over 10 million. In June, Apple announced at WWDC that it had sold over 15 billion songs since opening the iTunes Music Store in mid-2003, making it the largest music retailer in the world.

In addition to iTunes opening its digital doors to the 12 remaining EU states, some countries that already have access to the service are now able to purchase or rent select movies from the online store. Currently there are about 270 titles from Fox, Universal and Buena Vista available to purchase or rent, though TV shows have yet to show up in most countries.

 

Landing page for the new Apple Online Store in the Czech Republic

Apple's iBookstore has opened to new EU markets as well, but a few countries not committed to the Euro have yet to offer content. Previously, free eBooks from sources such as Project Gutenberg were the only titles offered within iBooks in countries like Switzerland.

Some content owners looking to add books via iTunes Connect to non-Euro countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, have reported receiving notifications that they "do not have a contract in effect" for those territories. Previously, only the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia and Canada were listed as available markets for publishers on the iBookstore.

Apple's App Store has been available to more than a hundred countries around the world, including all 27 EU countries. Within Europe, licensing disputes and marketplace fragmentation have hindered a pan-European iTunes Store from being created.

There has been no official announcement from Apple regarding the launch or addition of content to iTunes throughout the EU, though the stores are available for selection within the iTunes software.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple has opposed Verizon's motion to file a brief in support of Samsung in a patent infringement dispute with the argument that the wireless operator waited too long to file its request.

The Cupertino, Calif., company's filed its objection on Tuesday, asking the court to either dismiss Verizon's request as untimely, or allow Apple to submit a response on Oct. 6, Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents reports.

Verizon submitted a request last Friday to file an amicus curiae brief in defense of Samsung. The proposed brief takes issue with Apple's request for a preliminary injunction on four of Samsung's products, arguing that any injunction would work against the public interest.

Apple first sued Samsung in April, then filed a request for an preliminary injunction on some of Samsung's newest smartphones and tablets. The products in question are the Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1.

"The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not provide for a non-party's submission of amicus briefs in district courts," Apple's filing read. Mueller agreed with Apple's assessment, pointing out that "in all of the many lawsuits" that he has monitored, this is the first attempt by a party to file such a brief.

Apple's filing does not yet address the wireless carrier's public interest arguments, objecting first to the tardiness of the request. Verizon's motion "would have been untimely by several weeks" if submitted in an appellate court, Apple argued. Given that Samsung filed its own reply to Apple's request for a preliminary injunction on August 22, Apple noted that Verizon's brief would have been due at the end of August.

The company points out that its request for an injunction was filed nearly three months ago, discovery closed about a week ago and its reply brief to Samsung is due soon. The hearing on the motion is scheduled for Oct. 13. The motion contains a footnote from Apple stating that "Verizon's counsel first sought Apple's consent for Verizon to submit an amicus brief on that same day [September 23, the day when Verizon filed its brief]."

Apple describes the timing as "disruptive to Apple's ability to present its positions to the Court in an orderly fashion," asserting that it doesn't leave enough time for an "opportunity to seek discovery (whether from Verizon, Samsung, or another company) to rebut Verizon's claim that a preliminary injunction is contrary to the public interest."

Mueller speculated that Verizon was "in a real hurry last week" preparing for the motion and suggested that the company may have taken "quite some time" to decide whether to get involved with the case. He goes on to posit that Verizon may have achieved its primary objective of "giving the impression of support for Google and Samsung," regardless of whether its amicus brief is accepted.

Verizon's decision to get take a side in the case has complicated an already difficult situation. The fact that Apple has a business relationship with Samsung as a customer, while also being bitter rivals, has made for a tense dispute. An executive for the South Korean electronics giant said last week that the company had initially held back out of respect, but will now become "more aggressive" in its legal battle with Apple.

Apple and Verizon became partners when they teamed up to bring the iPhone 4 to the Verizon network after more than three years of AT&T exclusivity in the U.S. Samsung and Verizon have shared a close relationship for several years as they've worked together to present Google's Android operating system as a viable alternative to the iPhone and iPad

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Hearst Corp., a big-name magazine and newspaper publisher, has announced that paid digital downloads of its titles have topped 300,000 per month, while a new study shows that tablet users have a higher e-commerce conversion rate than shoppers using a PC.

Peter Kafka of All Things D noted that Hearst had congratulated itself on passing the milestone while hinting that it will begin offering its titles on an Amazon tablet expected to be unveiled on Wednesday.

After pointing out that digital sales were spread across Apple's App Store, Barnes & Noble's Nook and the Zinio platform, Hearst President David Carey said on Tuesday that his company would “get a fourth distribution channel tomorrow."

The 300,000 downloads per month figure includes only paid downloads because the publisher has yet to offer print and digital bundles, Kafka noted. People familiar with the Hearst's operations said the company brings in an average of $15 to $20 in annual revenue per unit on a mix of annual subscriptions and individual sales.

Meanwhile, rival Condé Nast said its monthly digital circulation has reached 500,000, including 225,000 digital-only subscribers.

Hearst made its debut on Apple's iPad with the Esquire app last October. In May, the publisher reached an agreement with Apple to offer in-app subscriptions for some of its periodicals, including Esquire, Popular Mechanics and Oprah Magazine.

 

 

 

 

Facebook's highly-anticipated iPad application is reportedly set to launch at Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 media event after being delayed because of negotiations between the two companies.

Facebook will launch the iPad application and an updated iPhone app at the Oct. 4 event, Mashable reported on Monday. Recent reports suggested that Apple will announce the fifth-generation iPhone next Wednesday and that the event will be hosted on Apple’s campus, although the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has not yet issued press invites for the keynote.

On Monday, Facebook's former lead developer for the iPad app, Jeff Verkoeyen, revealed that he had left the social networking company in part because of personal frustrations at the slow progress made by the company after the project reached the feature-complete stage in May. The feature-complete phase is usually the final step before beta tests can take place.

In June, it was reported that the Facebook for iPad application would launch in weeks. iOS users even found access to the app hidden inside the current version of the iPhone app in July, but the social networking giant quickly blocked access to it.

 

The app’s repeated delays were explained by Mashable’s sources as stemming from a “combination of timing and strained relationship with Apple.” Recent disagreements over Facebook integration in iOS and Facebook Connect support in Apple's Ping social music service are believed to have contributed to the growing tension between the two companies.

Given that the original iPad was announced more than a year and a half ago, the fact that Facebook has yet to release an iPad app has been viewed by some as a slight to Apple. Several reports have suggested that the company held the native iPad app as leverage in negotiations with Apple.

The forthcoming update to the Facebook for iPhone app is expected to offer “design and speed improvements that mimic the iPad app,” the publication noted.

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Chipmaker Intel has confirmed that Apple's current lineup of Thunderbolt-equipped Macs will support fiber optic Thunderbolt cables when they arrive next year.

Intel spokesman Dave Salvator indicated to Macworld that the current generation of MacBook Pros, iMacs, MacBook Airs and Mac Minis will be compatible with the upcoming cables. The company's original specification for the technology, which was codenamed Light Peak, was to use optical cables to reach speeds of 100 Gbps.

But, when the interconnect was unveiled in February, the chipmaker revealed that the technology would first use copper cables at speeds of 10 Gbps.

According to Salvator, circuitry will ensure compatibility of next-generation Thunderbolt cables with existing ports. Current Thunderbolt cables feature internal firmware and transceiver chips on each end. Optical cables could be longer, up to tens of meters in length, as opposed to the three-meter limit currently imposed on copper Thunderbolt cables.

However, Intel's spokesperson did not specifically mention whether the optical cables set to arrive next year will be faster than current cables. It's also not immediately clear whether the Thunderbolt chips in current Macs would be able to take advantage of optical cables with higher throughput.

Currently Apple is the only computer maker to offer Thunderbolt-equipped machines. But, Acer and Asus have promised to ship Thunderbolt-capable Windows PCs in the first half of 2012.

 

Thunderbolt peripherals that take advantage of faster optical cables may take some time to arrive, as Intel has warned that fiber optic technology will be substantially more expensive. Adoption will depend on consumers' speed requirements "versus how much they would be willing to pay," Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, said during an interview at the Intel Developer Forum. According to Perlmutter, adoption could take years because of the cost limitations.

A range of products built to make use of Thunderbolt have slowly reached the market. In June, Pegasus released Thunderbolt-based RAID storage options starting at $999. Apple's Thunderbolt Display began shipping earlier this month. Last week, LaCie launched its Little Big Disk Thunderbolt hard drives, which start at $399.95 for 1TB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exclusive: With Intel's next-generation Core i-Series mobile platform not expected until the second quarter of 2012, Apple is reportedly preparing a refresh of its professional notebook line ahead of the holiday shopping season to better bridge the gap, AppleInsider has been told.

According to people with proven insight into Apple's future product plans, the late-2011 MacBook Pro refresh will deliver marginal speed bumps to the notebooks' Core i-Series of Sandy Bridge processors but will otherwise introduce no material changes over the existing models. 

While precise timing for the update may change, those same people say the Mac maker currently anticipates an introduction of the refreshed line before the end of the month, possibly following the close of the company's Back-to-School promotion, which ends on September 20th.

Word of the new models comes just one week after Intel quietly refreshed its Sandy Bridge lineup of processors, adding four new Core i7 chips suited for adoption by the MacBook Pro in addition to slashing prices on some other chips, while phasing out a handful of others.

In particular, the chipmaker introduced new 2.4GHz, 2.5GHz and 2.7GHz quad-core Core i7 processors that could replace the 2.0GHz, 2.2GHz and 2.3GHz versions offered in the current 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros, in addition to a 2.8GHz dual-core Core i7 that could serve as an upgrade path for the current 2.7GHz 13-inch MacBook Pro.

 

Intel introduced 4 new Core i7 mobile chips this month.

As for the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, Intel continues to list a couple of Core i5 chips at speeds of 2.5GHz to 2.6GHz that Apple could elect to use to bump 2.3GHz Core i5 MacBook Pro for little to no cost increase.  

 

The chips above are also well-suited for the entry-level Core i5 MacBook Pro.

In addition to these chips, which are listed on Intel's latest price sheet [PDF] dated September 4th, Apple may have discounted access to handful of older Core i5 and Core i7 chips that were introduced early this year, such as the 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz quad-core Core i7 models.

Although the new models may come as somewhat of a surprise for industry watchers given that there has been no indication that Apple is drawing down inventories of existing models, the refresh is likely geared towards assuring the Mac maker's top-selling notebook family remains competitive in the market until Intel releases its next-generation Ivy Bridge platform at some point in 2012.

Ivy Bridge was originally slated to debut in late 2011, but leaked documents from Intel surfaced in May and revealed that the next-generation processors are slated to arrive at some point in the first half of 2012. The Ivy Bridge chips are now scheduled to become available at some point in March or April of next year.

This week, Intel began to share details on its 2012 Ivy Bridge lineup, promising up to 60 percent faster performance with its integrated graphics. All mobile versions of the chips bound for Apple's next MacBook Pros will sport Intel's GT2 GPUs, known as HD Graphics 3000.

 

The MacBook Pro remains the bread and butter of Apple's mostly mobile Mac business, even as the newer, thin-and-light MacBook Air gains in sales. Apple's MacBook Pros are the only notebooks offered by the company that still offer discrete graphics, making them the only option for video professionals and power users on the go.

In addition, the MacBook Pro remains the only Apple notebook with screen sizes larger than 13-inches. While the MacBook Air (and now defunct white MacBook) max out at 13-inches, the MacBook Pro still comes in 15- and 17-inch screen sizes, with faster CPUs and graphics to accompany the greater screen real estate.

 

Apple last updated its MacBook Pro lineup in February, giving its entry-level 13-inch models dual-core Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 chips at speeds of 2.3GHz and 2.7Ghz. The higher-end 15- and 17-inch models gained quad-core Sandy Bridge Core i7 chips at speeds of up to 2.3Ghz.

The new notebooks, which are depicted in the chart above, were also upgraded to add Apple's new high-speed Thunderbolt data and video port. All of the early 2011 MacBook Pros sport discrete AMD graphics processors.

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Apple will reportedly use a more intimate setting on its Cupertino campus to reveal its next-generation smartphones to members of the media early next month, forgoing its historical practice of utilizing large exhibition halls in downtown San Francisco.

That's according to sources close to the company speaking to the Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog -- the same publication who claimed earlier this month that Apple would hold the event on Tuesday October 4th.

That said, it's not clear why Apple has chosen not to continue its tradition of renting out large venues like San Francisco's Moscone Center or Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). The rumored Oct. 4th date does conflict with Oracle's OpenWorld conference, which is being held at the Moscone Center and surrounding hotels from the 2nd to the 6th of October.

"Perhaps the release date was too much of a moving target to risk booking a large space like [YBCA], which has hosted a number of big product unveils in the past," said All Things D's John Paczkowski.

"Perhaps, the company felt a more intimate venue was best for newly installed CEO Tim Cook’s first media event," he continued. "Perhaps YBCA was simply already booked. Whatever the reason, the world will get its first look at the next iPhone at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium in early October."

Unlike the YBCA and Moscone Center, which can accommodate thousands of guests, the Apple Town Hall Auditorium is only fitted to house roughly a couple hundred. As such, space for the event and the number of journalists permitted to attend is expected to be extremely limited.

 

 

 

 

AllThingsD reports that Apple will be holding its highly-anticipated iPhone 5 media event on October 4th.

While Apple could certainly change its plans anytime, sources said that the October 4 date has been selected by the company to showcase the iPhone 5. Sources added that the plan is now to make the new device available for purchase within a few weeks after the announcement.

According to the report, new Apple CEO Tim Cook should play a prominent role in the event in order to assert himself as the new leader of the company, although it will almost certainly be a team presentation with other executives such as Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, and Eddy Cue leading portions of the event. It is unclear whether Steve Jobs will make an appearance at the event, with the report suggesting that a decision on whether or not he appears would be a last-minute one based on his health.

MacRumors noted yesterday that Apple is expected to also be introducing minor updates to its iPod line, and had pinpointed the first week in October for that introduction, with availability set for the middle of the month. Apple generally issues invitations to its media events about a week ahead of time, so we can expect official notice of the event to appear sometime around early next week.

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The EFF has announced that both Apple and Dropbox have joined the Digital Due Process (DDP) coalition which is focused on pressing Congress to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

ECPA was passed by Congress in 1986, before the World Wide Web was even invented and when cell phones were still a rarity. Yet to this day, ECPA is the primary law governing how and when law enforcement can access personal information and private communications stored by communications providers like Google, Facebook, your cell phone company or your ISP.

Specifically, the DDP is supporting amendments to ensure the government can't track your cell phone or obtain online content such as emails, photos, documents and backup files without first going to court to get a search warrant.

According to the EFF, the current version of the ECPA is vague on whether these documents and information -- including the tracking of your cell phone -- are presently protected from government intrusion without any form of warrant.

Other coalition members include Amazon, Intel, AT&T, Google and many more.