The article says the company is buying equipment from SunPower Corp and startup Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina, near its core data center. Once up, the solar farm will supply 84 million kWh of energy annually. The sites will employ high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system. Later this year, Apple also intends to build a third, smaller, bio-gas fuel-cell plant. The two solar farms will cover 250 acres, among the largest in the industry, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told "Reuters." Apple plans on using coal-free electricity in all three of its data centers, with the Maiden facility coal-free by the end of 2012, the article adds. Last year it was announced that Apple would build a data center in Catawba County on the outskirts of Maiden. Maiden and Catawba County agreed to US$7.3 million in incentives for Apple in order for them to build the center there. The company will build a 500,000-square-foot...

In a recent court filing noticed by Total Telecom, Kodak accused the Cupertino company of trying to interfere in its upcoming patent auction in order to avoid paying US$1 billion in penalties and royalty fees, reports "TUAW" (http://macte.ch/6JM6U). According to the court document, Kodak says Apple shouldn't be allowed to claim ownership of a key Kodak imaging patent that describes a method of previewing a photo on an LCD. Kodak argues that the International Trade Commission and a US District Court have denied Apple's ownership claims, the article adds. Apple, however, continues to assert that Kodak misappropriated its technology to get the patent. Apple sued Kodak in April 2010, about three months after Kodak accused Apple and Research In Motion of infringing a patent related to ways of previewing images. Apple's countersuit said Kodak devices copy the technology that it uses in Macs, iPhone, iTunes and Photo Booth involving image processing, energy management and memory design.

"The Next Web" reports that Apple has won its dispute over the iPhone5.com domain, after it took its complaint to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The WIPO recently posted to its website that the domain has been "terminated," with the domain owner expected to have relinquished ownership, the article adds. The iPhone5.com domain is now being held by brand protection agency Corporation Service Company, "which may have been used by Apple to take ownership," says "The Next Web." Before this development, the domain was active and hosted a discussion forum devoted to smartphones. Apple may have the domain name, but it seems more likely the next gen iPhone will simply be called "the new iPhone." For more info go to http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/05/17/apple-wins-dispute-over-iphone5-c... .

Viaden Mobile has launched the Mac version of its All-in Fitness application. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher, costs US$1.99 and is available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Health & Fitness category. All-in Fitness is an app for working out, scheduling fitness sessions and activities and tracking all kinds of fitness progress. Starting off with the creation of a fitness plan, it involves the user in a regular sports and activity routine. Users are free to choose one of the ready-made workouts or create one themselves with the help of All-in Fitness' exercise database. One-time and regular activities can be included into the fitness schedule.

Lusso Cartella (http://www.lussocartella.com) has expanded its line of luxury cases with a case for the 15-inch MacBook Pro 15. The handmade leather sleeves feature Artisanal leathers. The sleeves are available in the following colors: Confidence Mocha / Suede Dark Brown; Confidence Brown / Suede Medium Brown; Confidence Black / Suede Cobalt Blue; and Confidence Black / Suede Red. Pricing starts at US$139. "We are delighted to announce our exciting new line of MacBook Pro 15-inch cases," says Sharon Cantwell, vice president of Marketing for Lusso Cartella. "So many of our iPad Customers requested sleeves for their MacBook Pros that we could hardly say no. Like our other product lines, the MacBook Pro series offers a wide range of both classic and fashion finishes, that is sure to delight our current customers while attracting new ones." Lusso Cartella has announced a limited time, "Like Us on Facebook" discount. Go to their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/lussocartella), like...

Today's special deal is Porthole for Mac OS X. It's being offered for US$7.99; the regular price is $13. To take advantage of this special pricing go to http://www.mupromo.com/deal/1867/6603/porthole . Porthole is a tool that lets you stream the music from your favorite music player such as Spotify or Pandora to your Airplay speakers, Apple AirPort Express and Apple TV. The setup wizard will have you going in no time.

Job listings for Apple Retail store leader positions in Shenzhen and Chengdu hint at the company's plan to expand its retail operations to new cities in China, reports "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) In 2010, Apple reportedly revealed to its shareholders plans open a total of 25 brick-and-mortar stores over the course of two years. However, as "AppleInsider" notes, the company doesn't appear on track to meet that goal, as it currently has just five retail stores on the Chinese mainland -- two in Beijing and three in Shanghai. According to a job listing for a "Store Leader" posted to the Hong Kong version of the JobsDB website, Apple Asia is looking to capitalize on the China opportunity with retail expansions to two new cities. Also, a mall in Dalian China has begun advertising that it will soon have "Apple's world's biggest flagship store." However, reports have disagreed on whether the business will be an official Apple Retail store or a reseller, notes "AppleInsider."

Trams (http://www.trams.co.uk/) has joined the Enterprise Device Alliance, (http://enterprisedevicealliance.org/). The EDA is an organization designed to provide information to IT managers and administrators about the ways they can leverage their Windows infrastructure, management tools and expertise to easily integrate Macs into their organizations.  Mike Saunders, business development manager at Trams, says the company has joined the EDA to help further the organization's goal of making it easy to deploy, integrate and manage Macs, iPhones and iPads in a Windows environment. Trams will co-host a range of EDA programs, including a  June 19 luncheon for IT professionals and a webcast of industry experts from the EDA and WindowsITPro exploring the challenges and solutions for integrating, securing and managing personally owned (BYOD) devices into Windows environments. Established in 1990, and the largest B2B Apple Reseller in Europe, Trams is an IT Solution provider that offers service...

Skyport Wi-Fi Key (http://www.venstar.com/Thermostats/) for the ColorTouch residential thermostat.  It connects to Venstar’s Skyport Cloud Services, which, when used with Venstar’s new mobile application, allows users to remotely monitor and control their home thermostats. Compatible with iOS devices, the Mac, Blackberry, Android and PCs, the ColorTouch residential thermostat with Skyport Wi-Fi Key is priced under $300 (estimated consumer cost).   Using the ColorTouch mobile application on their smartphones or tablet computers over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G, or over the Internet, users can control their energy usage and reduce energy costs from any location, at any time. The ColorTouch thermostat Wi-Fi Key transforms the thermostat into a Wi-Fi device that allows users to monitor and control their home thermostats from any compatible mobile device or computer via Skyport, saus Steve Dushane, president and CEO of Venstar. The new ColorTouch residential mobile application allows users to...

Here are the latest incremental updates for Mac OS X apps. Noise Industries (http://www.noiseindustries.com) has updated its free Pan and Zoom plug-in to offer support for Apple Final Cut Pro X, alongside Motion and Adobe After Effects. The Pan and Zoom generator allows editors to create the effect made popular by Ken Burns. Users can achieve stunning animations without a single keyframe. Pan and Zoom is supported in Final Cut Pro 6, 7 and X, Final Cut Express 4, Motion 3, 4 and 5 and Adobe After Effects CS4, CS5, CS5.5 and CS6. Teorex has announced a new version of Inpaint, its solution for quick removal of unwanted objects from digital photos. The new version's Multi View feature is based on a conceptually new method, enabling the users to make a "perfect" picture out of several shots of the same scene. Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has released InPreflight Pro 2.10, a compatibility update to its document preparation solution for Adobe InDesign. The new version makes...

Apple has responded to those participating in a class-action suit accusing the company of deceptive advertising around Siri‘s capabilities, arguing the complainers are simply out to make money, reports "SlashGear" (http://macte.ch/6zTrF). Siri is Apple's voice-activated "personal assistant" that was introduced with the iPhone 4S. Here's Apple's description of Siri: "Siri on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back." In a new, filed motion to dismiss the suit, Apple suggests that rather than having legitimate issues with the accuracy of the “beta” virtual personal assistant system on the iPhone, those taking part in the class-action motion can only give vague indications of how Siri has let them down, notes "SlashGear." In March a man named Frank Fazio sued Apple, claiming the voice-activated Siri...

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2% decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to the latest data from the Gartner research group (http://www.gartner.com). The data also shows that, although Apple only sells smartphones, it represents almost 8% of all worldwide mobile phone sales, making it the third-largest handset maker. "Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region," says Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. "The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia, which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year." Samsung became the world’s top mobile handset vendor during the quarter, displacing Nokia which had held the No. 1 spot since 1998. Samsung’s mobile phone...

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin will adapt "Steve Jobs," a motion picture based on the best-selling biography of the Apple co-founder by award-winning journalist Walter Isaacson, it was announced by Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures. The project is being produced by Mark Gordon, Scott Rudin and Guymon Casady. Published late last year, "Steve Jobs" was Amazon’s best-selling book of 2011. In
addition, the biography ranked #1 among bestselling hardcover books by a 2:1
margin, with sales of 2,246,569 in 2011, according to "Publisher’s Weekly." Sorkin won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work
on "The Social Network." His other screenplays include "Moneyball," "Charlie Wilson’s War," "The American President," "Malice, and A Few Good Men."

WaterField Designs (http://www.sfbags.com/) has introduced the CitySlicker, an urban MacBook Air case with an old-world spin made with modern material. Designed to enhance the Air's lightness without adding bulk, the CitySlicker is compact, even with accessories, according to Gary Waterfield, WaterField Designs founder. The design combines three layers of protection using impact-resistant plastic, high-grade neoprene, and a padded liner to keep the Air safe from unexpected dings. The CitySlicker MacBook Air Case combines ballistic nylon with a distressed, leather flap that snaps into place, giving the ultra-modern case its old-world twist. The flap covers an accessory nook with four stretchy pockets to keep items snugly in place. A back, semi-opaque pocket with a self-locking zipper stows thin items or accessories. You can opt to tuck it under an arm, or to add a handle, a strap, or both. The CitySlicker is available exclusively at the SFbags dot com online store in four colors:...

Samson’s (http://www.SamsonTech.com) Carbon 49 USB MIDI Controller, designed with the iPad in mind, is now available for US$89 . 
The Carbon 49 offers players a semi-weighted keyboard comparable in feel to that of pro-level instruments, according to the folks at Samson. Its 49 velocity-sensitive keys allow you to capture the full dynamics of a performance. In addition, the Carbon 49’s dedicated Transpose and Octave buttons, as well as its classic Pitch Bend and Modulation wheels, allow you to expand the keyboard. The Carbon 49 boasts an assignable data encoder and volume slider. For editing, players can use the shift key to adjust up to 14 performance-related control parameters. Also, the Carbon 49’s 3-digit, 7-segment LCD, displays the behavior of every function in real-time. For added versatility, the Carbon 49 includes traditional MIDI out, sustain pedal input and USB connections. The Carbon 49 features an integrated iPad slot and can be used with your favorite MIDI apps via Apple’...

Sorenson Media (http://www.sorensonmedia.com) has announced the immediate availability of Sorenson Squeeze 8.5. This latest version of Squeeze is the purportedly the fastest version yet of the encoding and transcoding application. It provides speed increases, based on process improvements in the Squeeze video encoding engine, including: ° Single output acceleration: Full Squeeze 8.5 optimization for each of the major output formats, including MP4, QuickTime (MOV), WebM and Matroska (MKV). Parallel rather than sequential processing now drives the Squeeze engine. A significant re-architecture enables the application to systematically break decoded, compressed video files into separate content chunks and partition these simultaneously across multiple CPUs for processing. ° Intel Quick Sync optimization: Sorenson Media has collaborated with Intel engineers to optimize Squeeze 8.5 for Intel’s Quick Sync platform and codec, including optimization for Intel’s Second Generation (Sandy Bridge...

Today's special deal is Thumbs for Mac OS X. It's being offered for US$6.99; the regular price is $9.99. To take advantage of this special pricing go to http://www.mupromo.com/deal/1858/6603/thumbs . Thumbs is a "personal assistant" for movie stills and thumb sheets. It lets you generate images for your media collection. Thumbs is designed for web developers, videographers, artists, and, well, anyone who wants to spend more time focusing on their art and less time with the task of making thumb sheets.

A federal judge has denied petitions by both Apple and a group of five major publishing houses to dismiss a class-action lawsuit accusing the companies of collusion in e-book price fixing, reports "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com). Judge Denis Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handed down the e-book price-fixing suit's first substantive ruling, the article adds. In the ruling, Cote cites several examples of possible collusion between Apple and the publishers. Last month the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York district court, claiming collusion over eBook pricing. Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books, the article adds, quoting unnamed "people familiar with the matter." The companies will reportedly...

"Bloomberg" reports (http://macte.ch/3139P) that Walt Disney's ESPN sports network is talking with Apple about including the WatchESPN application on the Apple TV, according to network executive, Sean Bratches. ESPN subscribers with AppleTV would purportedly gain access to the network’s Internet service on their sets. The sports network, which today announced programming for the TV season starting in September, said a deal isn’t imminent, according to "Bloomberg."

In a note to clients -- as reported by "The Mac Observer" (http://www.macobserver.com) -- Sterne Agree analyst Shaw Wu says Apple is scaling back production of the iPhone 4S due to a fall refresh of the smartphone. He thinks Apple will ship 26-28 million iPhones during the current quarter. "We have picked up from our supplier checks that build plans for current iPhones have been reduced significantly. We are hearing a magnitude of down 20%-25% Q/Q from 35.1 million units in the March quarter," Wu writes. "From our understanding, the reason for the reduction is not demand related but rather due to the upcoming 6th generation iPhone refresh likely in the September-October timeframe. It appears that Apple is opting to be conservative with its suppliers to factor in a potential two-quarter pause ahead of the refresh and also to manage inventory."

At Adobe’s annual Digital Publishing Summit, Adobe (http://www.adobe.com) announced a series of new features for Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) that will purportedly allow media companies and corporate publishers to deliver unparalleled reach and monetize their content in new ways. New features include: ° Content Viewer for iPhone, which allows media and corporate organizations to target digital publication delivery across iPhone and iPod touch devices in addition to the iPad, Kindle Fire and Android tablets. ° New social sharing capabilities that encourage readers and customers to share articles on Facebook, Twitter and via email directly from within their Digital Publishing Suite applications. ° Extended font embedding rights -- Digital Publishing Suite customers can now enjoy extended rights from a select portion of the Adobe Type Library. ° Alternate Layouts in Adobe InDesign CS6 -- design and production teams can save time and accelerate workflows by using Alternate Layout...

The results are in, following a 12-week pilot study by Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine’s Health Sciences Library to train and track users of iPads to determine the effectiveness of the device and applications as a tool for medical education. The reviews by students were overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of participating students reporting that the iPad saved them time, gave them easier access to educational resources, improved ability to take class notes and to share information with other students, and helped organize their studying. Students and faculty anonymously listed the iPad’s top strengths as its portability, the ease of accessing materials and the note-taking and annotation capabilities. Weaknesses included a difficult-to-use on screen keyboard and the inability to view Flash content. "It made life easier," said one student who participated in the study. "Overall, the iPad was useful in that it allowed me to study while on the go and saved time by...

Intel (http://www.intel.com) has announced the expansion of the Intel Xeon processor portfolio with new products "designed to address a broad and emerging set of server requirements and provide IT managers with additional choice and flexibility." Could they appear in an upcoming refresh of the Mac Pro (assuming Apple has such a refresh planned)?   The company introduced 28 processors across three product families: eight processors from the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family and nine processors  from the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family designed to complement the already available Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family. The company also announced availability of eleven processors from the Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v2 product family.   In quantities of 1000, the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family ranges in price from US$551 to $3,616, Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family ranges from $188 to $1,440 and the Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v2...

StarTech (http://www.StarTech.com) has launched a new line of Thunderbolt cables with a variety of lengths including .5m (1.6ft), 1m (3.3ft), 2m (6.6ft), and the first 3m (9.9ft) Thunderbolt cable available. Keith Rodrigues, senior product manager for StarTech's cables product line, says each of the cables are constructed using the active components required to support the full, high-bandwidth capability of the Thunderbolt interface: 10Gbps (bi-directional), for inter-connecting devices such as Thunderbolt-equipped external RAID enclosures and other applications such as daisy chaining Thunderbolt devices. The cables will be available for purchase from technology resellers including CDW, Amazon.com, Newegg.com, Tiger Direct and PC Connection. The cables will also be distributed by Ingram Micro and SYNNEX Corp. Pricing starts at US$48.99.