OS X Lion Already Nearing “Golden Master” — Release Around WWDC?

It has been one month since Apple unveiled a developer preview of their latest operating system, OS X Lion. And while the initial deployment was a bit rocky, Apple appears to have worked through their initial Mac App Store distribution issues. And now another update looms — and it’s potentially a big one.

Specifically, Apple is gearing up to deploy an OS X Lion update to developers that they may be classifying as the “GM1? release, we’ve heard. “GM” or “Golden Master” is a title reserved for software that is complete. But from what we’ve heard, this is only the initial Golden Master candidate. In other words, don’t get too excited just yet.

Apple has been working through many OS X Lion bugs and performance issues as they move towards the stated Summer release date. Given that GM candidates are already nearing, they definitely appear to be on schedule.

With OS X Snow Leopard, Apple released the GM version to developers just a few weeks before the actual software launched to the public. Presumably, if there were no bugs in this first GM candidate for Lion, they could stick to a similar timetable. But there probably will be, so instead I’d guess that a June timeframe will be more likely.

That would still mean an early Summer release — and potentially one before Summer technically even begins. After all, early June would line up nicely with the June 5 to 9 timeframe that Apple’s WWDC event is likely to take place this year. We’ll see — but work is clearly progressing quickly.

[photo: flickr/cheetah100]

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Readability Tries Again With Apple — Has The Subscription Policy Already Shifted?

A couple days ago, Readability was pissed off. In an open letter to Apple, they noted that the new subscription policy “smacks of greed”. And they threatened to abandon Apple’s platform in favor of the open web. This message resonated with many, as there’s a huge amount of unease about Apple’s new policy in the developer community. But now, just two days later, Readability has re-submitted their app to Apple for review. And apparently, a “love letter” to the company is forthcoming.

So why the change from war to peace? Has Apple’s policy already changed? Well, no — not yet, anyway. Readability’s Richard Ziade said his tweet was a “joke” and had this to say:

We did re-submit to Apple with an explanation of why we think they should approve Readability. We did not speak to anyone at Apple. We have no idea if they’ll approve it. We just explained ourselves as best we could through the appeal process.

So no good news yet, but there may be hope.

The reason for Readability initial outburst was because Apple rejected their app on the grounds that it didn’t use their in-app purchase system — the one that would require them to give 30 percent of their revenue to Apple. The company thought this was unfair and didn’t make a lot of sense because they think of themselves as a software as a service (SaaS) company that doesn’t actually sell content, but a service.

This matters because an email supposedly sent by Steve Jobs shortly after this incident claimed that the subscription rules were meant for “publishing apps, not SaaS apps”.

This is a bit of a gray area because Readability does sort of serve up content, but it’s not their content, it’s re-purposed content. Still, Apple taking 30 percent of their revenues would drastically alter their business model, and could have forced them to shut down, or simply not do an iPhone app.

How Apple approaches the app now post-Jobs comment will say a lot about their intentions for the policy going forward. As Ziade says, “stay tuned!”

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Google Unveils Android Market Webstore. It’s Already Live!

Today at their Mountain View headquarters, Google held an event to show off Honeycomb, the latest version of the Android operating system. After some demos of the OS itself, Android engineering director Chris Yerga took the stage to show off a big new feature: the Android Market Webstore. Yep, the Market just hit the web. Finally. And it’s already live. Find it here.

Yerga notes that up until know, the only way to find and install apps was via the Market on your phone. But now users can simply go to their browser. And it’s more seamless than something like the iTunes native app because when you select an app, it can be set up to download automatically to your Android device. “There’s no wires, no syncing with computers. None of that sort of nonsense. Everything is connected,” Yerga says.

There’s also a social element in that users can email links to the Market to one another. And you can easily share links to apps on Twitter.

The new web version of the Market also features better filters for finding apps. And there’s a nice device and app manager.

Update: As numerous people have pointed out in the comments and on Twitter, while the Market itself is live, you cannot sign-in. I just tried as well — no luck. So, it’s more like live-ish.

Update 2: And now the Market appears to be fully live. You can sign-in and see your app downloads, and manage your account.

Related:

Honeycomb Is The First Shot Fired Along Apple’s Bow

Here’s What Pulse Will Look Like On Android Honeycomb

In-App Purchasing Finally Coming To Android; Disney Brings Tap Tap Revenge To Take Advantage

Android Honeycomb Livestream Is Happening Now

Live From Google’s Android Honeycomb Event

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The Beatles Have Already Sold More Than 5 Million Songs on iTunes

Two months after making their iTunes debut, The Beatles are setting some significant records in the digital music realm.

iTunes representatives say more than 5 million tracks and more than 1 million albums by the Fab Four have been sold worldwide. As Entertainment Weekly notes, 2 million of those songs and 450,000 albums sold in the first week alone. The Associated Press reports that the current best-selling Beatles album in the U.S. is Abbey Road, while the top song is “Here Comes the Sun.”

The Beatles’ music finally appeared on iTunes this past November after a decades-long dispute that prevented the catalog from being sold via the music service. Now, all 13 of the band’s remastered studio albums appear on the site, along with the “Past Masters” set and the “Red” (1962-1966) and “Blue” (1967-1970) compilations.

Meanwhile, even though The Beatles’ music is still popular in the form of digital files, the band’s works also continue to thrive in old-school formats. As Consequence of Sound points out, Nielsen SoundScan reports indicate that in 2010, Abbey Road was the best-selling album — on vinyl — for the second year in a row.

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Clear iSpot discontinued already

By Chris Ziegler posted Dec 30th 2010 5:13PM Well, that certainly didn't last very long, did it? Looks like Clear is already sending its unusual iSpot product to the great WiMAX network in the sky less than five months after its introduction. As a refresher, the iSpot's claim to fame is that it was designed to work only with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads -- and in exchange for the crazy restriction, Clear would charge you less than $100 for the hotspot itself and just $25 a month for unlimited 4G access capped at 6Mbps down. Of course, it's easy to understand why Clear would want to forget the iSpot ever existed: its MAC address filtering was easily defeated and plagued with reports that even approved devices were being denied access, suggesting that the concept probably wasn't a solid one in the first place. For what it's worth, Clear retail stores are still selling through remaining stock if you're interested -- and the company will maintain a supply of units for warranty replacements -- but otherwise, you're out of luck.

[Thanks, rand]

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