Jake Smith

We already took a look at Hitachi’s G-Technology’s Thunderbolt solutions at CES in January but today they are finally available to the public. The Thunderbolt version features two Thunderbolt ports, rather than the eSATA, FireWire, and USB ports found on the regular version of the G-RAID. As for the hard drives inside, there are two SATA 3Gb/s Hitachi Deskstar hard drives, which can be configured in a 4TB, 6TB, or 8TB setup, each running at 7200RPM. All three versions of the drive are priced at $700, $850, and $1,000 respectively. You can see more technical specs below, as laid out by AnandTech.

With two Thunderbolt ports, these drives can be daisy-chained together to build-out the ultimate storage solution. Currently, the G-Technology competes against four other companies in the space: LaCie, Promise, Western Digital, and Seagate. The G-Raid is the only drive that features 8TB of storage, however.

We compared the drive during this year’s CES with a few others:

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Almost two weeks after the last release to developers, Apple seeded OS X 10.7.4 build 11E46 to developers this evening. The update features no known issues and asks developers to focus on the App Store, graphics, Mail, QuickTime, screen sharing, and Time Machine. If you are a registered Mac developer, you can grab the update from the Developer Center. Apple did not provide a public release date for 10.7.4. You can check out the full release note after the break. Cheers, Ralf!

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Apple finally commented late this evening on the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against the company. What did Apple think up with those extra 48 hours? Peter Kafka got the scoop from Apple’s Tom Neumayr:

The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

The civil antitrust suit alleged that Apple’s move to let publishers set their own prices—and it is a requirement that publishers do not sell their digital books for cheaper elsewhere—forced consumers to pay millions more for books than they should have.

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Today, Microsoft released Service Pack 2 for Office for Mac 2011, which features many bug fixes and a couple of new features.

We appreciated your feedback! As the newest member of the Office for Mac family, Outlook 2011 continues to get the most requests from consumers and businesses alike; therefore, our top priority for this release was Outlook, and this service pack resolves many of the most common requests. The more notable Outlook enhancements include:
• Sync performance with Exchange server,
• Performance improvements while deleting multiple items,
• Displaying email message content, and sending email.

Outlook performance is also improved in IMAP account sync and the database rebuild utility. New capabilities include:
• Scheduling resources in the calendar,
• Distribution list expansion,
• Day number display in the calendar.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have improved performance with additional modest improvements. For example, we updated PowerPoint to take advantage of full screen view in Lion, and we improved grammar checkers for Italian and German languages. We also made it easier to work with Office documents on SkyDrive and addressed several smaller issues in response to your feedback.

You can grab the update from Microsoft on its website or through Office’s built-in updater.

As promised, Apple just released a fix to remove the Flashback malware that is reportedly affecting 1 percent of all Macs.

This Java security update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware.

This update also configures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets. Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets.

This update is recommended for all Mac users with Java installed.

For details about this update see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5242

Go fire up Software Update and grab this 66.8MB update now.
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As we noted in February, “MLB.com At Bat 2012” launched to bring baseball fanatics scores, news, and analysis for free. The app also includes an in-app subscription of $14.99 (or $2.99 a month) that provides in-game audio. However, if you are a huge fan, you can pay the $120 a year subscription for in-game video.

MLB’s Advanced Media office announced today (via GigaOm) that the app reached 3 million downloads just a week into the MLB’s 2012 season. Seeing a ton of success, the 2012 version of the app was the top sports app on both iOS and Android for the past few weeks. There were also 800,000 audio and video live streams combined every day. It took four months for those numbers to be reached last season.

“MLB.com at Bat” is definitely a unique app, providing its fans with fair prices to follow their favorite teams. The NBA also offers a similar app for free with in-app subscription, so you can watch all the league’s games. The MLB and NBA also both have an app available on the Apple TV that allows you to watch games if you pay for each respective subscription.

The new user-interface and in-app purchase model is most likely why the MLB app is off to a great start. Moreover, with 800,000 streams going a day, it looks like a good majority of those 3 million users are paying for the app.

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At the Intel Developer Forum that took place yesterday, Intel’s Vice President and General Manager of the PC Client Group Kirk Skaugen revealed (14:30 mark) that Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge Processor is built for Retina display computers, “if OEMs choose to use it.”

“Retina display” is a marketing term coined by Apple to describe a screen where one cannot discern pixels at an average usage distance with 20/20 vision. It is curious that Intel’s VP used an Apple term to describe high-density computer displays for the broader market.

Apple is set to use Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor in its next line Macs, making it an opportune time to introduce its Retina display technology into the Mac line. The Ivy Bridge processor, without help from discrete graphics processors, can power 2560-by-1600 displays (as Skaugen said), which is four times the current resolution found in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. That would look pretty good on 13-inch displays of Apple’s Pro/Air.

Apple’s bigger, high-end notebooks have typically had help from discrete graphics processors. To make bigger displays “Retina,” Apple would likely need to add more GPU processing power.

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Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple and five other publishers over eBook price-fixing. The Department of Justice reached a settlement with three of the publishers in the suit, but Apple, MacMillan, and Penguin are standing strong (the U.S. is also after Simon and Shuster). Yesterday, MacMillan’s CEO released a letter on the matter and explained why the publisher chose not to settle. In the note, he said the Department of Justice’s settlement demands “could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had built before our switch to the agency model.” He also said it is “hard to settle a lawsuit when you know you have done no wrong” and called the agency model the future of an “open and competitive market.”

As CNET noted, the Department of Justice may have a more difficult case against Apple. For one, Apple does not have a strong-hold in the eBook market, because Amazon has the commanding lead with its Kindle sales. The Department of Justice has a case against the publishers rather—and that is most likely why three of them have already chosen to settle. Apple only holds open the store, while publishers are the ones who choose the prices to set.

The settlement reached with three of the publishers yesterday is said to give them “freedom to reduce the prices of their e-book titles,” which allows Amazon to go back to its previous wholesale model.

A key point that the Department of Justice is using in its lawsuit is when all five of the publishers met together at a hotel in London to talk over eBook prices. Apple was not present at the meeting, so this may give the Department of Justice a harder time to press the Cupertino-based Company. Of course, the Department of Justice could still come out victorious, but it may have to dig a little deeper against Apple than it did with publishers. We are sure there will be more out of this case as time goes on.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5cL60TYY8oQ

Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz is the second reporter ever to get an inside look at Foxconn, the manufacturing plant where Apple’s products are made. Today, Schmitz posted a video showing our first-ever look at the assembly process of an iPad as it goes down the assembly line at the Foxconn plant in Shanghai, China. It is interesting to look at how machines streamline some of the process. Schmitz also noted a few other interesting points, such as workers switching positions every few days while making $14 a day when first starting.

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Following suit with other carriers, Verizon Wireless announced this morning its plan to instate a $30 mobile device upgrade fee April 22. This means if you are an existing Verizon customer looking to purchase a new device on a two-year contract, you will have to pay $30. Thanks!

Verizon was the only carrier not to charge its customers an upgrade fee. AT&T and Sprint each charge their customers $36 to upgrade to a new device on contract, while T-Mobile charges customers $18 to upgrade. Verizon claims the reason is: “This fee will help us continue to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect which includes Wireless Workshops, online educational tools, and consultations with experts who provide advice and guidance on devices that are more sophisticated than ever.”

Since the fee covers “all mobile devices,” 3G+4G enabled tablets would also appear to be also under this window. You can check out the full press release after the break.

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The U.S. Department of Justice will sue Apple as early as tomorrow morning over allegations of fixing eBook prices with five major publishers, according to Reuters. The five publishers, which are also in question, will be looked at later in the week.

The Justice Department is investigating alleged price-fixing by Apple and five major publishers: CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc, HarperCollins Publishers Inc, Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson and Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.

A lawsuit against Apple, one of the parties not in negotiations with the Justice Department for a potential settlement, could come as early as Wednesday but no final decision has been made, the people said.

The news of a lawsuit comes just weeks after the Department of Justice launched a probe into Apple and the five publishers. We will keep you updated with any more news about this case.
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Apple announced in a support document this evening (via The Loop) that its plans to release a tool for detecting and removing the Flashback virus currently installed on 1 percent of all Macs. Furthermore, Apple also plans to work with ISPs across the globe to disable the computer servers that are hosting the malware.

Apple is developing software that will detect and remove the Flashback malware.

In addition to the Java vulnerability, the Flashback malware relies on computer servers hosted by the malware authors to perform many of its critical functions. Apple is working with ISPs worldwide to disable this command and control network.

Security experts over the past few weeks warned Mac users about the Flashback virus, which is now installed on roughly 600,000 Macs worldwide. Apple already released two updates to Java in the hopes of fixing vulnerabilities. While it has been patched, Flashback can be detected on a Mac through a free tool. Therefore, it is definitely worth checking to see if you have it. Luckily, it seems like Apple’s new tool will make things a bit easier for users. There is no word on when this will be released.

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Following the mockups of the 4-inch iPhone 5 this morning, one of our awesome readers, Spencer Caldwell, made this beautiful mockup (above). Spencer took this morning’s idea and added more pixels vertically, while keeping the pixels the same horizontally as the iPhone 4S (640-by-1152 pixels). As for the home button on the device, Spencer took the Photo Stream leak from last summer (below) and implemented it on the device. On a larger iPhone like this, it definitely looks better over the circular version.

The mockup fits the sixth-row of apps nicely. So the question comes 9to5mac readers: What do you think of a larger 4-inch iPhone (keeping in mind most reports point to a redesign)?

Cheers, Spencer!

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[slideshow]

A user over on The Verge forums did an interesting mock-up of the 4-inch iPhone. The shorter side’s size remains the same, while the longer side is increased (640-by-1152 pixels). Go over to The Verge for a few more screenshots.

What do you think? I especially like that extra row of apps on the home screen and the ability to better play widescreen videos. Current apps would need a re-write to take advantage of the extra pixels or else letterboxing would occur, so it is a bit far-fetched.

It would also allow current docking stations to work; although, the 30-pin connector is rumored to be a goner.

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