ACER BETS ON ULTRABOOKS TO TACKLE APPLE

Acer will cut its product line by 66% in 2012 and focus on simplifying its portfolio, company chairman JT Wang recently said according to reports. Wang expects the narrowed focus to be fine-tuned over the next two to three years, DigiTimes reports, but the sharper vision will have an immediate impact on sales — Acer thinks revenue will climb 10% in 2012 as Acer attacks the ultrabook market while shifting away from low-margin netbooks. The Acer boss also sees another upside to the advent of ultrabooks: the rise of slim Windows and Intel-powered notebook computers will weaken Apple’s growth over the next two years. As ultrabook prices begin to fall to the $699-range in 2012, their rapid adoption will slow sales of more expensive Mac laptops.

APPLE MAC APP STORE HITS 100 MILLION DOWNLOADS

At just under a year old, Apple's Mac App Store is celebrating a fairly significant milestone, hitting the 100 million download mark, a fact the company celebrated with a customarily self-congratulatory press release. The desktop store hit the scene in January of this year, just ahead of CES -- at present, it's home to "thousands" of apps, according to Apple. Granted, these numbers pale in comparison to the some 18 billion app downloads for Apple's other App Store, but still, not bad for a year's work.

MAC APP STORE APPLICATIONS MUST BE SANDBOXED BY MARCH 2012

As of March 1st, 2012, Apple will require all apps available in the Mac App Store to be "sandboxed," which Apple says is "a great way to protect systems and users by limiting the resources apps can access and making it more difficult for malicious software to compromise users' systems." The other side of that coin is that by limiting access to said system resources, applications are also more limited in what they can do, which has left some developers facing a tough decision: either comply and get in the App Store, or go it alone. They will be able to request access to some resources, but they'll have to provide a justification for it to Apple as part of the submission process. Apple had actually intended to implement the requirement this month, but it's apparently decided to give devs a bit more time to get used to it.

APPLE INTRODUCES iCLOUD, REPLACING MOBILEME

Apple today introduced iCloud, a breakthrough set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all your devices. When anything changes on one of your devices, all of your devices are wirelessly updated almost instantly.

“Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.”

The free iCloud services include:

The former MobileMe® services—Contacts, Calendar and Mail—all completely re-architected and rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. Users can share calendars with friends and family, and the ad-free push Mail account is hosted at me.com. Your inbox and mailboxes are kept up-to-date across all your iOS devices and computers.

The App Store™ and iBookstore℠ now download purchased iOS apps and books to all your devices, not just the device they were purchased on. In addition, the App Store and iBookstore now let you see your purchase history, and simply tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10 devices) at no additional cost.

iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up your iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when you charge your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data. If you replace your iOS device, just enter your Apple ID and password during setup and iCloud restores your new device.

iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all your devices. When you change a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all your devices. Apple’s Pages®, Numbers® and Keynote® apps already take advantage of iCloud Storage. Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup—which is more amazing since the storage for music, apps and books purchased from Apple, and the storage required by Photo Stream doesn’t count towards this 5GB total. Users will be able to buy even more storage, with details announced when iCloud ships this fall.

iCloud’s innovative Photo Stream service automatically uploads the photos you take or import on any of your devices and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices and computers. So you can use your iPhone to take a dozen photos of your friends during the afternoon baseball game, and they will be ready to share with the entire group on your iPad (or even Apple TV®) when you return home. Photo Stream is built into the photo apps on all iOS devices, iPhoto® on Macs, and saved to the Pictures folder on a PC. To save space, the last 1,000 photos are stored on each device so they can be viewed or moved to an album to save forever. Macs and PCs will store all photos from the Photo Stream, since they have more storage. iCloud will store each photo in the cloud for 30 days, which is plenty of time to connect your devices to iCloud and automatically download the latest photos from Photo Stream via Wi-Fi.

iTunes® in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices. In addition, music not purchased from iTunes can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match, a service that replaces your music with a 256 kbps AAC DRM-free version if we can match it to the over 18 million songs in the iTunes Store®, it makes the matched music available in minutes (instead of weeks to upload your entire music library), and uploads only the small percentage of unmatched music. iTunes Match will be available this fall for a $24.99 annual fee. Apple today is releasing a free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud, without iTunes Match, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users running iOS 4.3. iTunes in the Cloud will support all iPhones that iOS 5 supports this fall.

Apple is ready to ramp iCloud in its three data centers, including the third recently completed in Maiden, NC. Apple has invested over $500 million in its Maiden data center to support the expected customer demand for the free iCloud services.

Pricing & Availability
The iCloud beta and Cloud Storage APIs are available immediately to iOS and Mac Developer Program members at developer.apple.com. iCloud will be available this fall concurrent with iOS 5. Users can sign up for iCloud for free on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS® X Lion with a valid Apple ID. iCloud includes 5GB of free cloud storage for Mail, Document Storage and Backup. Purchased music, apps, books and Photo Stream do not count against the storage limit. iTunes Match will be available for $24.99 per year (US only).

APPLE GIVES UP TRYING TO TRADEMARK 'POD'

Apple, like any other high-profile brands, tries very hard to protect the product brand names it uses. That means iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac etc. are all trademarked words no one else can use without permission. But there is a gray area around some names, one of which is the word “Pod”.

For many years Apple has been trying to secure the trademark for the word Pod. In doing so it would stop third parties from using that word as part of other names which could cause confusion around Apple products. For example, a company may start selling Apple iPod accessories under the name ePod or 1Pod. Without a trademark on Pod, Apple could do nothing legally to stop such a thing happening.

But that now looks to be possible as Apple has thrown in the towel trying to secure the trademark. The proof of this can be seen on the trademark application form (see image above) which now lists the status as “ABANDONED” as of April 13, 2011.

Apple originally tried to get the Pod trademark on July 29, 2004. What followed was a lot of revisions and amendments over the course of the next seven years, none of which convinced the IP office to award the trademark. The last such correspondence happened on the 26th March this year.

AVG LAUNCHES COMPETITOR TO DROPBOX

AVG launched an online storage, backup and syncing service named LiveKive. LiveKive is a serious competitor to the granddaddy of online services DropBox. AVG describes LiveKive as a "reliable and sophisticated alternative to archiving.” In reality it’s a service that allows you to store any and all files in the cloud while keeping a local copy synchronized on your device, be that a Windows or Mac PC, or some portable device running Android or iOS.

LiveKive not only lets you backup and sync files across multiple computers, it also allows you to share files securely with others just like Dropbox’s Public folder. AVG calls its version a Share Room and rather than sharing download links you share a room link, with the recipient being able to download anything you put in that room.

here’s a free 5GB account available to everyone as well as two paid tiers. The first is $49.99 a year and gets you 25GB of storage. The second is $79.99 per year and comes with unlimited storage. Checking the fair use policy confirms that unlimited actually means 500GB, and that this estimate of an upper limit could be revised at any time.

RUMOR: NO iPHONE, iPAD OR MAC HARDWARE ANNOUNCEMENTS AT WWDC 2011

Apple released the invitation for WWDC 2011 this morning and it only mentions software, specifically OS X Lion and iOS 5 previews. Nowhere on the invitation does it mention any hardware. Rumors are running rampant that this confirms earlier rumors that the iPhone 5 would be delayed into the fall or even until 2012.

Apple’s apparent focus on software in its WWDC announcement backs up what "sources" are saying about the annual conference. That is, expect a software show in 2011, not a hardware event.

At past WWDCs, Apple might show off a new piece of hardware, but Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg warns about getting too caught up in the past.

“You get caught up in patterns, and it holds true, until it doesn’t,” Gartenberg stated. “There is no reason for Apple to follow a predictable yearly pattern, and it keeps their competition off guard a little bit.”

APPLE POSTS RECORD $26.74 BILLION IN REVENUE

As expected Apple released its fiscal first quarter results and the news was very good. The financial results cover the fiscal first quarter of 2011 which ended on December 25th last year. Revenue was at an all time high with Apple’s highly popular devices and associated App Stores making up the bulk of the $26.74 billion generated. Net quarterly profit was $6 billion.

Compared to the same quarter last year it’s a massive gain. Revenue has increased over $11 billion ($15.68 billion in the year-ago quarter), and profit has increased by $2.62 billion ($3.38 billion in the year-ago quarter).

Steve Jobs is always looking to the future, and simply commented:

We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales. We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.

Here’s a breakdown of the devices Apple sold during the quarter (percentage gains are on the year-ago quarter):

• Mac: 4.13 million (23% increase)
• iPhone: 16.24 million (86% increase)
• iPod: 19.45 million (7% decline)
• iPad: 7.33 million

We also can’t forget the 30% cut Apple takes on every app sale in the App Store, as well as the profit generated from sales of content on iTunes away from apps. With the Mac App Store recently coming online that area of revenue stream will only grow in the future.

APPLE TO LAUNCH MAC CONFIGURATION SERVICE

According to 9 to 5 Mac Apple will soon implement a configuration service for Mac computers purchased in store. The new service, performed by Apple Store employees, will "help you setup your e-mail accounts, walk you through the Mac App Store, setup an iTunes account for you, and show you the basic pointers of owning a Mac.” The new configuration service is expected to launch tomorrow, January 11th.

MAC APP STORE LIVE; OS X 10.6.6 AVAILABLE

Apple's new Mac App store is now live.  It is similar to the iOS App store, except for the laptop/desktop crowd.  The store comes bundled with OS X 10.6.6, which is available now.  There are over 1,000 free and paid apps available, with that number increasing daily.  The update is 151.2MB in size.   The release text states:

The Mac OS X 10.6.6 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. It also includes the Mac App Store, the best way to discover and buy new apps for your Mac. The Mac App Store, a new application you’ll find in the Dock, includes the following features:

• Discover Mac apps: Browse featured apps, top charts, and categories, or search for something specific. Read detailed app descriptions and user reviews, and flip through screen shots.
• Buy and install: Easily purchase apps with your iTunes account. Apps install in one step and are quickly available from the Dock.
• App updates: The Mac App Store keeps track of all your purchased apps and notifies you when free updates are available.

To learn more about the Mac App Store, visit: http://www.apple.com/mac/app-store.
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4459.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

AMAZON TO LAUNCH TABLET SPECIFIC KINDLE APPS FOR ANDROID AND WINDOWS

You can read your Amazon-bought ebooks on your Kindle, your PC, your Mac, your mobile, and even on your iPad. Now, it's time to have them, contained in a tailor-made application, on your Android and Windows tablets as well. Amazon has just announced its intention to introduce a free app for reading Kindlebooks on devices running Google and Microsoft's operating systems, which will expand its device compatibility list as the year goes on. Amazon specifically notes that these apps are intended for upcoming devices, which probably foreshadows the sort of tablet-heavy year we're going to be having. [Engadget]

BLACKBERRY DESKTOP SOFTWARE 2.0 RELEASED FOR MAC

Wintel users have been enjoying the spoils of WiFi music sync on their BlackBerry handsets for the past few months now, but if you're still stickin' with RIM (through the thick and thin), and you just so happen to roll primarily on OS X, there's a new piece of software that you should consider. BlackBerry Desktop Software 2.0 for Mac OS has just been let loose, and it's a pretty substantial update. Aside from supporting WiFi music sync in official fashion, there's also a new device switch wizard and the ability to import and sync photos and videos with iPhoto and iTunes. [Engadget]

OPERA 11 RELEASED; ADDS GESTURES, TAB STACKING AND EXTENSIONS

Opera has released version 11 of its popular browser in Windows, Mac and Linux flavors. This updated browser now includes the ability to add extensions, tab stacking and right-click navigation gestures.

You can check out all the updates at the Opera 11 website. Or, you can download the browser and start using it right away. [Gizmodo]

VERIZON WORKING ON CDMA TO LTE HANDOFF ISSUE; MAC DRIVERS

According to a spokesperson, Verizon Wireless is working on a fix for a hand-off delay that some users are experiencing on the company’s new Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. The delay, which can last up to two minutes, occurs when the USB data stick attempts to switch from CDMA to LTE — the modem is not responsive during that time. The issue has been reported by several members of the press and early device testers.

In the same breath, Verizon also noted that it is actively working on Mac drivers for its LTE hardware. Although no specific timetable was given, the spokesperson did say that the software would be available “relatively soon.” [BGR]

SKYPE 5 BETA FOR MAC AVAILABLE

Skype hasn't forgotten about all the Mac users out there. They have just released a beta version for their popular application for Mac. The big draw is still the group chat, just as in the Windows version that has been out for a few months now. But it also has been retooled to mesh more closely with the look and feel of the Mac OS. There is a new cover-flow like contact window and a new pop-out call control bar that can be moved anywhere on the screen or be kept open while in another program. It will even integrate your Mac address book and when you place or recieve a call it will mute your iTunes for you. This is still in beta, so some things may not work properly or not be in there at all, like Facebook integration. [Engadget]

OFFICE 2011 FOR MAC ARRIVES

Microsoft announced this morning that Office 2011 for Mac is now available.  The software suite features a number of enhancements including the return of Visual Basic scripting.

In addition to Word, Excel and Powerpoint, which are pretty much the standards for company word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, the suite also includes a new version of Outlook.  Outlook is a combination email, calendar and contact management application.  This new version of Outlook for Mac can now connect to Microsoft Exchange enterprise email servers, allowing corporate Mac users the same abilities as Windows users and help cut down on the number of email software supported by IT departments.

Additionally, Office 2011 supports Microsoft's online collaboration tools such as Windows Live SkyDrive, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Office Web Apps. Office 2011 users and Office 2010 users on Windows can simultaneously edit documents from any location with an Internet connection. The return of VBA scripting means complex documents with special forms, macros, and other features from Windows colleagues will be completely accessible. And, new photo editing and layout tools also make it easier to create visually rich documents without having to rely on other apps.

General manager for the Office for Mac team, Eric Wilfrid, noted that about three-quarters of all Mac users install and use Office. "Some people choose Windows, and some people choose Mac. That conflict tends to get a lot of attention, but I deal in the reality that there are customers who love their Macs and also love using Office," he said. "The vast majority of Mac customers [are] counting on Microsoft for a critical piece of their computing needs."

Office 2011 for Mac comes in three editions: Home & Student, Home & Business, and Academic. The Home & Student edition includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and includes license keys for up to three computers. Home & Business also includes the new Mac version of Outlook. The Academic version includes all four suite applications for a discounted price with a limited academic license.

Office 2011 for Mac is available to purchase today from Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, MacMall, or directly from Microsoft. Home & Business has a suggested retail price of $149.99, Home & Business is $279.95, and the Academic bundle is $99.95 (though some schools have arranged for special pricing from Microsoft). [Geek]

APPLE RESPONDS TO MISSING FLASH IN MACBOOK AIR

Apple's recently launched Macbook Air is shipping without Adobe Flash pre-installed.  According to Apple spokesman Bill Evans, we better get use to it.  While Macbooks support Flash, Apple wants to make sure users have the most up to date version.  Evans states "We're happy to continue to support Flash on the Mac, and the best way for users to always have the most up to date and secure version is to download it directly from Adobe."

This will apparently be the norm from now on across the entire Mac lineup, although there may be some devices in the channel with Flash pre-installed.  What do you think about this?  Let us know in the comments section. [Engadget]

MACS TO INCREASE ENTERPRISE MARKET SHARE

The Enterprise Desktop Alliance has just released the results of a survey of IT administrators.  The results show that Apple will make more headway into the corporate environment.  Apple is expected to increase their share from 2009's 3.3% to 5.2% in 2011, a 57% increase.  Most of the increase will be in environments that already support Macs.

Overall Macs are expected to see an increase of 23% in 2011.  That is not a bad number considering overall computer growth is softening from 6.1% in 2010 to 2.9% in 2011. [Geek]

GOOGLE CHROME 7 RELEASED

Google has quietly released Chrome 7 today for Mac, Linux and Windows.  Chrome users should automatically get the update, but if you want to download the newest version head on over to the Chrome download page

The update fixes hundreds of bugs and support for HTML5 File API, which allows sites and apps to read the content of local files.  Chrome 7 also adds the ability to upload entire folders from the users PC.  This will be huge boon for photo sites, although the number of sites supporting HTML5 forms is very low at this time.

Applescript support in the Mac OS X release.  This allows the user to script Chrome or use it with OS X's Automator tool. [Ars Technica]

APPLE'S "BACK TO THE MAC" EVENT TODAY

Apple is holding their "Back to the Mac" event at 1pm ET today.  Check back this afternoon for a full roundup of the event.