Apple is set to report earnings after the close of the stock market today. Meanwhile, the company has issued a new Safari build for Windows and made changes to .Mac syncing. Also, readers point out that Apple on its website has redacted references to accessing Leopard notes on the iPhone.Fourth quarter earnings today
Following market close today, Apple will announce results from its fourth fiscal quarter of 2007. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect the Cupertino-based company to report earnings of 85 cents per share on sales of $6.05 billion, compared to a profit of 62 cents a share on $4.84 billion in revenue in the year ago quarter.
Apple will follow up the earnings release with a conference call for analysts and members of the media beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT/5:00 p.m. EDT. During these quarterly calls, members of the company's leadership sometimes make forward looking statements about future product intentions.
Check AppleInsider in the early evening hours for its usual comprehensive coverage of both the earnings and the call.
Safari for Windows Build 310A18
Apple recently updated Safari for Windows to Build 310A18, which offers significant improvements in performance, stability and compatibility.
More specifically, the release corrects issues with page footers in the print preview, downloads that require HTTP auth, favorite icons, inadvertent link activation in Flash movies, the "show all bookmarks" function, alt and shift based modifiers, horizontal scroll-ball scrolling, RSS preferences, and more.
Safari for Windows runs on XP or Vista, and requires at least 256MB of RAM and a 500Mhz Pentium-class processor or better.
.Mac synching upgrades
Due to improvements made to .Mac Sync on October 19, 2007, Apple recently issued a email to users noting the following changes:
Mac OS X version 10.4 Tiger users:
To ensure uninterrupted service, you must be using Mac OS X version 10.4.10. To check which version you're running, select About This Mac in the Apple menu. If you are not running version 10.4.10, click the Software Update button and install the update to 10.4.10.
Mac OS X version 10.3 Panther users:
To accommodate new enhancements, .Mac Sync will no longer support syncing of calendars between a Panther-based Mac and a Mac running Tiger or Leopard. Syncing calendars between Mac computers running Panther is unaffected.
"These changes will help enable .Mac Sync to do more than ever," Apple said.
iPhone note synching reference removed
AppleInsider recently reported on evidence that Mac OS Leopard would allow users to sync Mail notes to their iPhones. In revealing additional details of Leopard last week, Apple appeared to second this notion, and had posted the following blurb to its Leopard features page:
Write handy notes you can access from anywhere -- including graphics, colored text, and attachments. Group notes into folders or create Smart Mailboxes that automatically group them. Your notes folder acts like an email mailbox, so you can retrieve notes from any Mac or PC or access them from your iPhone.
To dismay of many, a few eagle-eyed readers have pointed out that Apple has since altered the aforementioned description to omit any reference to accessing Leopard notes on iPhone:
Write handy notes you can access from anywhere -- including graphics, colored text, and attachments. Group notes into folders or create Smart Mailboxes that automatically group them. Your notes folder acts like an email mailbox, so you can retrieve notes from any Mac or PC.
This could suggest one of several things, including the possibility that Apple may be delaying the feature. It could also mean that Leopard notes may not sync to the iPhone's Notes application and instead be available only via a mailbox in the iPhone's Mail app -- as Leopard notes are essentially specifically formatted emails. However, the latter would still not explain the omission.
Leopard pre-sales double that of Tiger?
Meanwhile, some solution providers say pre-orders of Leopard are more than double the volume for the same time prior to the last major Mac OS release, and point to new features and dissatisfaction with Microsoft Vista as key drivers.
Indeed, Leopard on Monday continued to dominate the Top Seller list over at online retailer Amazon.com, where the single license version maintained the No. 1 spot and was followed closely at No. 2 by the five-seat family pack.
Amazon.com, which does not charge sales tax for most US residents, is offering an instant $20 off Leopard single license and $10 off the family pack, bringing the costs down to $109, and $189, respectively.