Despite all the technical and server snafus, AT&T has sold out of the company’s allotment of iPhone 4 pre-order units and isn't taking any more orders. And Apple has bumped its shipping date for the iPhone 4 from June 24 to July 2. AT&T said in a statement that June 15 “was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history.” That's when pre-orders for the iPhone 4 began. It also says that "pre-orders for iPhone are temporarily suspended." As for Apple's online store, those buying the new phone is now told Apple will start shipping their examples by July 2. Only the 8GB iPhone 3GS is still due to ship on June 24. The iPhone 4 is priced at US$199 for the 16GB model, and $299 for the 32GB model, based on a two-year contract. It's initially available in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K.

Peavey Electronics and Agile Partners are joining forces to launch AmpKit, a guitar amp and effects iPhone application, and AmpKit LiNK, a high fidelity audio interface for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The AmpKit LiNK is a high fidelity iPhone, iPod touch and iPad interface for electric guitar, bass, or any line level source, with an output that can be connected to headphones, powered speakers or a PA. AmpKit LiNK's CrossTalk Eliminator is designed to solve the feedback problem inherent in existing unpowered iPhone interfaces. The interface can be used with any recording, processing, or tuning application, including Agile Partners' GuitarToolkit. The AmpKit application is a real-time amp and pedal studio for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It's available for free from the Apple App Store. The AmpKit LiNK guitar interface will be available for pre-order from the Peavey online store as well as from dealers, distributors and retail stores for US$39.99. Details can be found at http...

In a note to clients, Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes says that Apple -- or at least its executive team -- needs an attitude adjustment, according to "Fortune" (http://macosg.me/2/dy) "We are watching these developments carefully, and believe that Apple has to be more careful about how its comments and actions are portrayed --rightly or wrongly by regulators -- now that it is the largest tech company by market cap in the world," he writes. "Apple still seems to have an 'underdog' attitude and it was only a few years ago that investors were calling for it to adopt the strategies of tech laggards like Microsoft and Dell. While the underdog attitude keeps the company driving for growth and over-achieving -- we believe the world no longer thinks of the company as an underdog at all."

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6.4. It's a 315.5MB download. You can obtain it via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X System Preferences app. According to Apple's release notes, Mac OS X 10.6.4 includes Safari 5 and general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that: ° Resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive; ° Resolve an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening; ° Address issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers; ° Improve reliability of VPN connections; ° Resolve a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing; ° Resolve an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view; ° Improve compatibility with some braille displays.

Ergonis Software has released PopChar X 5.0 (http://www.ergonis.com), an update of the tool for finding and typing special characters. The upgrade lets users collect frequently used characters in a custom "Favorites" group and a new hotkey feature. PopChar X 5.0 also contains lots of improvements "under the hood" that lead to much faster display and scrolling of the character table, faster and more reliable reaction after changes to the installed fonts, and improved dynamic updates of special cases for specific applications, according to the folks at Ergonis. There's also a simpler technique and an improved visual representation for the menu attached to the status item. PopChar X costs US$46 for a single-user license; however, version 5.0 is a free update for for anyone who purchased PopChar in the last two years. For info about purchases, including enterprise licenses, volume discounts, and upgrade pricing offers, visit the Ergonis web site. Instead of purchasing PopChar by itself (...

Tension Software has updated Invoices (http://www.pomola.com/products_invoices/invoices.html), a native Cocoa application to create and manage invoices in Mac OS X, to version 2.6.3. It's a maintenance release with some bug fixes and performance tweaks. Invoices (US$40) allows you to create a new invoices with all data without using the keyboard, only with the mouse and all from a single panel view. You can make two different type of invoices, Plain and Table, where description of sold goods and services can be managed in a different way. Invoices automatically calculates totals and taxes, in accordance with the set-up the user specified using his own country's rules. Invoices requires Mac OS X 10.4. It's Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Yazsoft has introduced Playback Media Server 1.6 (http://www.yazsoft.com/products/playback/information), an update of their zero configuration media server for Mac OS X 10.5 and higher. The upgrade sports a redesigned media management system. Version 1.6 also improves Spotlight query performance. iTunes, iPhoto, and Aperture integration has been completely overhauled. The "playback_discovery" process has been eliminated. And version 1.6 adds support for Adobe Lightroom 3. Playback can share media stored in folders or even make entire disks available to a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. No configuration is required. By default, it will share almost any content on the users system. And Playback automatically integrates with iTunes, iPhoto, and Aperture. Users can share all content from these applications transparently or choose specific playlists and albums. Those who like to tinker will appreciate Playback's built-in Access Control List (ACL) and bandwidth throttling. The ACL allows users...

Noise Industries has announced the release of development partner PHYX's latest plug-in, PHYX Cleaner, for the FxFactory platform. Designed to work inside After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion and Apple Final Cut Express applications, the new PHYX Cleaner plug-in provides digital artists and editors with an advanced palette of tools for repairing and enhancing the visual quality of raw digital footage. PHYX Cleaner's video enhancement regimen includes the ability to effectively rebuild pixelated chroma (color) channels, restore lost information in gradients while increasing e color depth, convert fields into progressive comb-free frames, buff-out skin blemishes, and remove high and low frequency jagged noise. 3D artists and filmmakers can also convert harsh 8-bit images to high-bit depth smoothness. PHYX Cleaner is available for US$199 via the Noise Industries web site (http://www.noiseindustries.com). A trial version is also included with the standard FxFactory installer.

Chronos has released iScrapbook 3.0, an update of its digital scrapbooking application for Mac OS X. New features include: Smart Templates; Cover Flow previews; a font preview; a comments section; advanced image placeholders, text placeholders, support for 10,000-plus photos in iPhoto; faster page and album loading; and 16 free iScrapkits (an US$96 value). iScrapbook is a scrapbooking kit and includes everything users needs to design and print scrapbooks. It comes with specialty photo corners, background papers, photo frames, pre-designed templates and 100+ Super-Masks for designer effects.   A fully functional 30 day trial version can be downloaded from Chronos' web site (http://www.chronosnet.com). iScrapbook costs US$49.99 for a single-user license. A family pack is also available for $89.99. Registered iScrapbook 1.x and 2.x customers can upgrade to version 3 for $29.99. iScrapbook requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later.

When it comes to web consumption attributable to the manufacturers of mobile devices, Apple's iPhone OS (from now on to be known as iOS), but the biggest winner is clearly Google's Android, according to Quantcast (http://www.quantcast.com). Android continues to capture more share, and if the recent launch of the HTC Incredible on Verizon and Sprint's HTC Evo 4G is anything to go by, Android will continue to rapidly gain share, according to the company, which "measures and organizes the world's audiences in real-time." In the past year Android has taken market share from all parts of the market, and noticeably so from Apple's mobile operating system, says Quantcast.

Daniusoft (http://www.daniusoft.com) has released a professional version of Video Converter, available for Mac and Windows. It lets convert between popular video and audio formats (HD video also included) and rip DVD to video and audio in any popular formats. A variety of multimedia devices are supported, including the iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, PSP, Android phone, BlackBerry etc. What's more, it lets you trim clips, crop frame size, add effects and watermark and adjust the output parameters. Daniusoft Video Converter Pro for Mac is priced at $49,while Daniusoft Media Converter for Win is $39.95 for a single user license.

Buffalo Technology (http://www.buffalotech.com) has announced what it says is the world's fastest external Blu-ray writer: the MediaStation 12x External USB 3.0 Blu-ray Writer. It offers 12x Blu-ray write speeds and is designed for users who want optimal playback and writing performance of Blu-ray discs, DVDs, or CDs on their PCs or notebooks or for those who want to archive content to optical discs. The MediaStation 12x External USB 3.0 Blu-ray Writer connects via USB 3.0 or USB 2.0. Cyberlink enables full HD and Blu-ray 3D playback and upgrades consumers' in-home movie experience with 3D movie playback or HD upscaling for standard DVD discs and video files. Unfortunately, this doesn't work with Mac OS X as it doesn't support Blu-ray playback. The MediaStation 12x External USB 3.0 Blu-ray Writer supports the following media formats: BD-R SL 8x Read / 12x Write, DVD –R SL 16x Read / 16x Write and CD-R 40x Read / 40x Write. It will be available later this month at estimated street...

Apple has introduced a new Apple Store app which lets US customers purchase Apple products, including the new iPhone 4, from their iPhone or iPod touch. The Apple Store app is available as a free download on the App Store beginning today. The new Apple Store app lets US customers with an iPhone or iPod touch find an Apple retail store near them and make reservations for retail services including free tech support and advice at the Genius Bar, hands-on workshops, Personal Shopping appointments and personal training sessions through Apple’s One to One program. Customers can also shop the full selection of more than 1,000 products and accessories available from the Apple Online Store, get the latest Apple product news, read customer reviews and get answers to their product questions.

Falkon Ware (http://www.falkonware.com) has updated its SerialMailer bulk email app for Mac OS X (10.4 and higher) to version 7.0. The upgrade adds a database manager, personalized attachments, test runs with separate databases and TLS support. The date of the last successful mail delivery is saved for each recipient and tools for e-mail address verification were added. Data imported from the AddressBook now includes all available data fields and the support for CSV files has been improved. The software helps with sending mass communications to large groups like customers, students, employees, family or friends. The full version of SerialMailer costs US$34.95. The update to version 7.0 is free for everyone who registered an older version of SerialMailer after April 1, 2010. Otherwise it costs $14.95.

Hamrick Software has released Vuescan 8.6.37, a new version of the VueScan software for Mac OS X that's designed to let users produce better digital images from color snapshots, negatives, slides and documents. The new version changes maximum dust spot size from 64 to 32 pixels for performance improvements. The Standard Edition of VueScan costs US$39.95 and the Professional Edition is $79.95 for a single user license. Multi-user licenses are available. A fully functional, trial copy of VueScan is available for download from the Hamrick web site (http://www.hamrick.com).

Mapdiva has updated Ortelius (http://www.mapdiva.com/), its map illustration software for Mac OS X, to version 1.0.9. Mac users can now make custom tourism and recreation maps with the full set of U.S. National Park Service (NPS) recreation map symbols included with Ortelius cartography software. Ortelius is a vector-based drawing program made especially for (though not limited to) map design and presentation. Through its drag-and-drop interface, Ortelius offers a solution for floor plans, landscape plans, scaled drawings, and a variety of custom maps. Ortelius allows you to draw directly with features such as roads, rivers, coastlines, buildings, symbols, and contours. It's designed for reports, presentations, books, research papers, invitations, magazines, web sites, brochures, public displays, and new media applications with professional-level results. Every drawing feature supports map attribute information, such as those imported from geographic information system (GIS) map data...

Another day, another lawsuit. Online ad firm Innovate Media Group of Costa Mesa, California, has filed suit in the US District Court of the Central District of California, charging that Apple has knowingly usurped their rights to the term iAds, reports "The Register" (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/14/innovate_media_sues_apple/) "It appears that Apple's strategy with respect to Innovate Media and the 'iAds' mark is just another sequence in a pattern of conduct by Apple, of ignoring and trampling the intellectual property rights of others," the suit reads. "As a result of Apple's refusal to acknowledge Innovate Media's 'iAds' marks, and blatant and willful infringement of those marks," the suit reads, "Innovate Media has been left with little choice but to file this lawsuit seeking injuntive relief, damages and other relief." Apple will debut its iAd mobile advertising network on July 1 on iPhone and iPod touch devices running its iOS 4 software platform. iAds combine the emotion...

Starbucks (http://www.starbucks.com) says that, on July 1, there will be a better Wi-Fi offering at all U.S. company owned stores. Better, as in free. That’s right, free Wi-Fi with just one click. No Starbucks Card will be required. No username or password will be required. And there will be no time restrictions. Also announced today, to launch later this fall, is a new digital content offering called the Starbucks Digital Network. Customers will have access to an array of premium and exclusive content -- available, naturally, only when connected to Wi-Fi at Starbucks.

T.C. Gou, whose brother is is chief at Apple supplier, Foxconn Technology Group, plans to open 100 stores to sell Mac computers and iPod music players in China, reports "Bloomberg" (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-14/foxconn-chief-s-brother-plan...). Gou’s Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co. jumped its 6.9% limit in Taipei trading after the company confirmed plans to open its first Apple retail outlet in Shanghai by the end of 2010. Taipei-based Cheng Uei aims for 100 stores in China within three years, investor relations spokesman T.P. Liu told "Bloomberg." The component-maker’s plan may help Apple add market share in China, where retail sales jumped 18.7% in May and which is forecast to be the biggest computer market by 2013, the article. Foxconn is an assembler of iPhones and was founded by Terry Gou.

Comm-Unity Networking Systems has released MMQuery 1.1.1 (http://mmquery.cnsplug-ins.com/), an update of the plug-in for FileMaker Pro that lets you work with your data through the calculation engine. This is a maintenance update which imports core plug-in updates from other CNS Plug-ins. Version 1.1.1 also adds a preference to always use the new FileMaker Pro 11 SQL interface.   MMQuery allows you to perform SQL queries on your own database or use the helper functions in the plug-in to do the same types of queries without actually having to know SQL. MMQuery requires FileMaker Pro 7.0v3 and above to function properly. The plug-in won't under previous versions of FileMaker Pro. If you have FileMaker Pro 7.0 but have not updated to 7.0v3, you can obtain a free update from FileMaker, Inc's web site. A single-user license for the client version of MMQuery is US$35. To use the Server Edition of MMQuery, you'll need to purchase at least a 10-User license. A 10-User License is $172. If you...

A Scottish church has converted to HTML5, and is now streaming its services in a form that iPads and iPhones can understand, as well as to Flash-capable devices. St Andrew’s Parish Church in Bo’ness, West Lothian, believes it is the first to stream its services in real time to iPhones and iPads, and more than doubled its normal Sunday attendance with online participants, reports "eWeek Europe" (http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/scottish-church-streams-services-to-ip... ). The church has had a Flash stream for a while, but added an iPhone-compatible stream for mobile devices for its service on June 13. HTML5 is being developed as the next major revision of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the core markup language of the web. It's touted as the next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML and is designed to to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.

AT&T said on Sunday it would cooperate with law enforcement in any investigation of a security breach of Apple Inc's iPad that exposed personal information of the telephone company's customers, reports "Reuters" (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65D0GI20100614?feedType=RSS&feedNa...). In a letter to customers, the company said it would "prosecute violators to the fullest extent of the law." Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a probe into the security breach. The breach took place when a group calling itself Goatse Security hacked into AT&T's iPad subscriber data, obtaining a list of email addresses that also included celebrities, chief executives and politicians. AT&T, which has exclusive U.S. rights to carry the iPad and the popular iPhone, has acknowledged the security breach but said it had corrected the flaw and that only email addresses were exposed to hackers who identified a security weakness, notes "Reuters."

The US International Trade Commission will investigate HTC's allegations that Apple is infringing its patents. Its answer could see the iPhone banned from American stores, according to "The Register" (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/14/apple_itc/) -- although I personally can't see this happening. The ITC's investigation is in response to HTC's complaint, filed on May 12, that Apple is in breach of various patents owned by HTC. The company TC Corp. filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the U.S. HTC says Apple is infringing on five of its patents. "As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America...

Beginning June 15, Best Buy Mobile, the mobile specialty retail unit of Best Buy, launches its pre-sale of iPhone 4 from Apple. Pre-sale orders can be placed at any Best Buy or Best Buy Mobile standalone store nationwide. The iPhone 4 will land in Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores June 24. “Offering the iPhone 4 to consumers is just the latest example of how Best Buy Mobile has become the place to go for the best smartphones. It’s exciting to have an opportunity to launch this iconic device with this pre-sale,” says Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile. “Adding the iPhone 4 to our stores alongside other great smartphones like the HTC EVO from Sprint and HTC Incredible on Verizon, gives customers a great opportunity to view each side-by-side and get the mobile phone that works best for them.”