Damian Koh  |  Nov 24, 2010
 
Apple is said to be targeting a iOS 4.3 release, which will enable subscription billing for applications as early as December 13, according to blog site MacStories. It is also believed that The Daily, a joint effort between Apple and News Corp, will be the first app to support a recurring payment mode.

Earlier reports had confirmed that News Corp was working on a daily tablet-only digital newspaper, which will cost US$0.99 per week. The Daily is expected to be unveiled in December with a launch slated for early 2011. Daring Fireball's John Gruber speculated that an update to the iOS may be required to support the subscription billing APIs. This would give developers and publishers the avenue to charge users for daily, weekly or monthly content updates.

In June this year, Apple announced it was building a server farm facility in North Carolina. Many in the media surmised that the data center, which is on schedule for completion year-end, will form the backbone for Apple's cloud services. This seems to corroborate with the release of the rumored iOS 4.3.

An anonymous source also told MacStories that Apple was already planning to release a new build of iOS 4.x in mid-December. This was even before the Wi-Fi issues on iOS 4.2 were discovered, which subsequently delayed the launch of the update. The source added that iOS 4.3 should include "bug fixes and maintenance of the code" and will likely address initial issues with the wireless streaming feature AirPlay.

The source also suggested that the new data center will lead to a "mass expansion of all services, iTunes, MobileMe, activations, retail services and any cloud services they [Apple] might go with in the future".

This could possibly allay future download hiccups, which some users experienced when iOS 4 was first released in June.

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This Apple-1 sold at a Christie's auction for $210,700.
(Credit: Christie's)
Talk about a smart tech buy. An Apple computer purchased more than 30 years ago has sold for 425 times its original selling price.
An Apple-1, one of only about 200 such machines built in Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' parents' garage, sold at Christie's auction house in London today for 133,250 pounds (about $210,700). The Apple-1, which didn't include a casing, power supply, keyboard, or monitor, originally retailed for $666.66 in 1976. Apple discontinued the model in 1977.
Christie's called the computer a "historic relic" and said the auction included all the original components, including its 8K bytes of RAM, in its original shipping box, as well as a signed letter from Jobs to the original owner.
The winning bidder was Italian businessman and private collector Marco Boglion, who made his offer over the phone, according to the Associated Press.
In a time when most personal computers were sold as self-assembly kits, the Apple-1 broke new ground as the first personal computer sold with a fully assembled motherboard.
Fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who attended the auction in London, threw in an autographed letter with the sale. Wozniak said he was proud to have his work auctioned alongside such technologically notables as an Enigma, the World War II German code-making machine, and documents from British mathematician Alan Turing, a pioneer of modern computing.
"Today my heart went out as I got to see things auctioned off like the Turing documents and the Enigma machine--and the Apple I," Wozniak reportedly told journalists after the auction. "It really was an important step, (even though) I didn't feel that way when I designed it."
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Apple is striking again…. They changed the way world used a Mobile phone… now they are all set to change the way world is using personal computer!!!

From the pictures I feel this is going to revolutionize the PC market.

Just got some pics and specification of the much talked apple tablet PC.

Specification is as follows,

• Display:
• 9.6″ widescreen multi-touch display (by WinTek)
• 1440-by-1050-pixel resolution at 489 ppi
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz
• Memory: DDR2 2 GB @ 667 MHz
• Video: nVidia GeForce 9400M
• Storage: 64 GB flash drive
• Optical drive: Apple SuperDrive with DVD±RW and CD-RW
• Wireless:
• Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• 3G: HSDPA (through AT&T)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Location tools:
• Assisted GPS (aGPS)
• Digital compass
• Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery (by DynaPak)
• Usage time:
• Internet: up to 6 hours on 3G
• Internet: up to 12 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: up to 12 hours
• Sensors:
• Accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor
• Colors:
• black with silver or
• white with silver
• Software:
• Mac OS X 10.6 with touch-enabled interface
• Price level:
• $899 USD, 799 EUR

Also Some nice pics (Collected from various websites using Google – no intentional copyright breaching):