Apple announced today that they had sold over 5 billion songs on iTunes. According to data from the NPD Group, iTunes remains the number one music retailer in the US. iTunes features the largest online music catalog with over eight million songs. 

Apple also reveals that customers are buying and renting over 50,000 movies every day making iTunes the most popular online movie store as well. iTunes now houses over 20,000 TV episodes and over 2,000 films including over 350 in high definition.

Apple first reported it had become the number one music retailer in the U.S. in April.

Apple announced the winners of their annual Apple Design Awards (ADA) tonight.

The Apple Design Awards, held at Moscone West during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, recognize technical excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in software development. With new categories for iPhone development, this year's Apple Design Awards will be more exciting than ever.

The ADAs feature categories in both Mac and iPhone categories this year. TheiLife reported the winners from tonight's presentation ceremony. The winners include:

Best OS X Student Project
- Squirrel (finance management) by Axel Peju
Best OS X Graphics and Media Application
- ScreenFlow (Screencasting) by Vara Software Limited
Best OS X Application
- ScreenFlow (Screencasting) by Vara Software Limited
Best OS X User Experience
- Macnification (organize microscopic images) by Orbicule
Best OS X Game
- Guitar Hero III by Aspyr Media, Inc

Best iPhone Web App
- Remember the Milk (task management) by Remember the Milk
Best iPhone Game
- Enigmo by Pangea
Best iPhone Entertainment App
- AOL Radio by AOL LLC
Best iPhone Social Networking App
- Twitteriffic (twitter client) by The Icon Factory
Best iPhone Productivity App
- OmniFocus (task management) by The Omni Group
Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness Application Winner
- MIM (medical imaging) by MIMVista, Corp.

The native iPhone winners, of course, are not yet available to the public. Runners up are also listed at TheiLife. The winners received two 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops, two 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays, one 16GB iPod touch, one 8GB iPhone, an ADC Premier Membership, reimbursement for one WWDC 2008 E-ticket including airfare and accommodations, and one 2009 ADC Macworld Expo Exclusive Marketing Package.

More sealed boxes are reportedly arriving at Apple Stores worldwide with Arstechnica reporting that the London Regent Street Apple Store has received "a single box that is padlocked, and under orders to be put in a safe until Monday."

The image of the above box was sent in anonymously and correlates to the box that supposedly was sent to some Australian resellers. Web-mobile.net claims to have photos of the open box, but the authenticity remains up for debate. These images are provided for interest only and are not necessarily felt to represent authentic images.

We've also heard that Germany's T-Mobile has already received subsidized rate plans for the iPhone coming in at a subsidized 99, 199 and 299 euros. These are prices for hardware with a 2 year contract, but may only represent two distinct models, as the amount of subsidy depends on what rate plan is chosen. For comparison, T-Mobile Germany currently offers 4 prices (99, 149, 199, 249 euros) for the 8GB iPhone alone depending on the rate plan chosen. Meanwhile, the current 16GB iPhone (499 euro) has not been eligible for any discounts regardless of rate plan. 

Finally, news is coming out of Spain that the new iPhone will be sold there starting at 99 euros by Corriere.it. 

Apple will be announcing their new products at the WWDC 2008 keynote speech on Monday, June 9th at 10am Pacific. We will have live web/photo coverage at MacRumorsLive as well as Twitter, SMS and Spoiler free coverage.

Engadget and Gizmodo have posted videos and screenshots of a "Proof of concept" version of the SlingPlayer for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The included video demonstrates how to stream video from your Slingbox, though not all options are presently enabled.

Once you connect to your Slingbox, you control channels with an on-screen remote whose buttons scroll horizontally at the bottom of the screen. There's also a scrollbar full of channel icons that provide shortcuts to specific stations. Video ran pretty smooth and looked good over a wi-fi connection. And it goes without saying, but Sling also has their fingers crossed for a 3G iPhone.

Sling Media sells the Slingbox which allows you to stream video from your home television over the internet to any supported device (Mac, PC, Mobile Phone). This native SlingPlayer port would bring that functionality to the iPhone. Unfortunately, Sling Media has not yet been accepted into the iPhone developer program, but they are targeting a "fall or winter" release. 

Apple is expected to detail more about the iPhone Developer Program and the iTunes App Store on Monday, June 9th. We are providing keynote coverage at MacRumorsLive.com.

USA Today provides some additional confirmation to the rumors that the next generation iPhone will benefit from carrier subsidies. According to the newspaper, the new iPhone will start at $199:

The price also will rock: $199, according to people with knowledge of the matter, down from the current $399 and $499. Sources declined to be cited by name or affiliation because Apple and AT&T haven't authorized anybody to speak publicly about pricing until after Monday's announcement. The $199 price is being subsidized, though USA TODAY could not confirm details.

Rumors of a $200 rebate first emerged in April alongside claims of GPS and a thinner design. Similar claims were again echoed just last week. 

Meanwhile Barrons has heard that the Foxxconn, Apple's iPhone manufacturer, has only shipped "several thousand" of the new iPhone and don't expect to ramp production up until the middle of the month. This would suggest an actual launch date closer to the reported AT&T blockout dates (June 15-July 15th). 

Apple is widely expected to announce the 3G iPhone at today's WWDC keynote speech which begins at 10am Pacific. We will be providing live coverage at MacRumorsLive.com.

Apple is about to kick off the 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference with their Keynote speech which takes place at 10am Pacific, June 9th, at Moscone West. We will provide live Keynote coverage at MacRumorsLive.com. We also have alternative coverage via SMS, Twitter, Spoiler Free. Also a reminder that iPhone users can visit MacRumorsLive and will be redirected to a specially formatted site. 


Keynote line - flickr/feria
- Attendees have already moved indoors, and one covered banner has been spotted. 
- Apple Store Japan, Hong Kong, Australia Korea are down.
- iPhone Dev Center is down.

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) will kick off on Monday, June 9th at 10 a.m. Pacific with a keynote speech given by Steve Jobs and his team of executives. There will be no live video or audio broadcast of the event. Once the event is complete, Apple will post a Quicktime stream of the keynote to be watched on demand. MacRumors will provide live coverage of the keynote speech with the following methods:

Web

MacRumors will provide near real-time text updates and photos at MacRumorsLive.com. All visitors to MacRumors.com will be redirected to MacRumorsLive during the event.

A special iPhone-optimized version of MacRumorsLive with support for text updates and photos will also be available if you visit the site through your iPhone or iPod Touch. (Screenshot of iPhone/Touch version.)

Twitter Updates

We will also try to provide live updates through Twitter. Individuals who already have a twitter account may 'Follow' us at the following addresses:

http://twitter.com/macrumors - Live keynote updates (10-20 updates per Keynote)
http://twitter.com/macrumorsRSS - Updates with every new MacRumors.com story
http://twitter.com/arnoldkim - arn's Twitter account

SMS Updates

For those who don't have or want a Twitter account, you can still sign-up to receive SMS updates straight from your phone.

Sign up from your mobile phone
1. Send "FOLLOW MACRUMORS" to "40404"
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Samsung today announced the L870 phone. 

Interestingly, spec sheets obtained byphoneArena.com specify that the phone uses the Apple Safari web browser.

The "Safari" designation, however, would seem to indicate some cooperation with Apple, as Safari is an Apple-registered trademark. 

Regardless, the move appears to be yet another win for the Apple-supported WebKit rendering engine. Recently, Adobe has announced that the Air platform is utilizing WebKit, and Dreamweaver CS4 will be using WebKit for its Live View feature

HBO programming will soon be coming to the iTunes store according to a report by Portfolio.com.

Apple is close to announcing it has signed a deal to sell HBO programs and movies on the iTunes website, according to HBO employees involved in executing the agreement. 

The deal marks the first time that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure for a content provider, one of the employees said. 

The HBO insiders said that the new service would be launched and announced simultaneously, most likely in a week or two.

The site speculates that the price structure could represent either a larger cut for HBO of the $1.99 price per episode, or perhaps a price above $1.99.

Portfolio.com notes that HBO has been slow in the past to provide content via new media, and this deal is due in part to pressure from HBO parent company Time Warner.

Apple Developing Wiimote-Like Controller?

Appleinsider reports on a new Apple patent application that was published today that reveals Apple has done research on a 3d remote similar to the Nintendo Wii remote.

The present invention can include multi-dimensional (e.g., 2-D or 3-D) remote control systems that can detect an absolute location to which a remote control is pointing in first and second orthogonal axes (e.g., the x- and y-axes). Remote control systems of the present invention also can detect the absolute position of the remote control in a third orthogonal axis (e.g., the z-axis).

The 3d remote could be used to manipulate objects and photos on the screen as well as zoom in and out based on user movements.

The patent application describes the use of fixed light sources as well as accelerometers resembling the implementation of the Nintendo Wii controller. The Nintendo Wii has been the surprise hit amongst the next generation gaming consoles primarily due to its innovative controller. Appleinsider speculates that Apple's version of the controller is intended for the Apple TV.

As with all patent applications, this may not represent technology planned for any particular project, though recent job descriptions have listed "remote controls" as one of the technologies Apple is developing. Apple currently ships the simple Apple Remote with their iMacs and Apple TV.

Today, Boy Genius Report publishes a memo that is again restricting vacation requests, this time between June 15th and July 12th 2008. The reason for the restriction is "to ensure adequate store staffing and to give everyone an equal opportunity to benefit from an exciting product launch." AT&T expects "heaver than normal customer traffic" in their stores due to an "exciting Summer Promotional Launch".

Of course, speculation points to Apple launching their new 3G iPhone during that time. The timeframe is consistent with that claimed that Apple was targeting "on or around June 27th" to approximately coincide with the one year anniversary of the iPhone launch. Meanwhile, the NYTimes believes that the European launch for the 3G iPhone will be "by the August summer holidays" according to a person close to the situation.

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference takes place between June 9-13th in San Francisco, and could serve as the launching ground for the next generation iPhone.

Why Apple is now worth four Dells

Apple has quietly included handwriting recognition for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) into the latest iPhone Firmware 2.0 beta. When you select Chinese input, you are given the option to use handwriting recognition allowing you to draw characters on the screen with your finger. As you write the character, four possibilities appear on the right side of the screen.

Wretch.cc (Chinese) details many screenshots of the new feature, and there is no support for English at this time.



Apple was one of the pioneers in handwriting recognition technology with their Newton Personal Digital Assistant. While the original Newton contained a 3rd party handwriting engine that generated some early bad press, Apple later deployed their own much improved handwriting technology known as Rosetta. Rosetta technology later found its way into Mac OS X under the name "Inkwell".

Apple recently started hiring for a new Handwriting Recognition Engineer, so it appears Apple is reinvesting in this technology.