Find My Friends. A new app that lets you locate family and friends who agree to share their location with you on a map. This is included free in iCloud, and you have lots of controls over privacy, including setting specific times for sharing.

Find My iPhone. Introduced under MobileMe, it’s included free with iCloud. Lets you track your registered devices should they get lost. Now works with Macs, too, under Lion.

Free email. iCloud borrows the Me.com domain from its predecessor to provide free email addresses to anyone who wants one.

Contact, calendar, reminder, bookmark, note syncing. Automatically, in the background, all the content listed as well as email will be synced across iOS 5 and Lion devices, so long as you’re signed in, have an active network connection (Wi-Fi or 3G) and have syncing turned on.

Photo Stream. View photos taken from your iPhone automatically in your iPad’s image gallery, or in iPhoto on the desktop, or on your Apple TV. Basically, take a photo once and have it everywhere. Photo Stream automatically takes your 1,000 latest photos and keeps them on iOS devices, plus you can opt to keep them in your Camera Roll permanently.

Documents in the Cloud. Shared libraries of cloud-based document storage will make it easy to start a document in an app on your iOS device and continue it on the desktop, or vice versa. This will gradually make its way out to third-party apps, too.

Backup and automatic downloads. You can now restore purchases of apps, books and music (U.S. only for now) to devices associated with your Apple ID, and also set them up to automatically download content you purchase elsewhere. Finally, you can back up your device’s settings, data and apps directly to iCloud and then restore from that should you need to do a fresh install.

5 GB free; storage upgrades available. Everyone gets 5 GB of iCloud storage (including your email, backups and other data) free, but if you need more you can pay to get it. $20 per year gets you an additional 10 GB of storage, $40 gets you 20 GB more and $100 secures 50 GB for a total of 55 GB.

iCloud will be available to all iOS 5 users when that update arrives on Oct. 12, and to Mac owners running OS X Lion at the same time.

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The iPhone 4 currently comes in only 16 GB and 32 GB storage capacity options, but according to a growing number of reports, the iPhone 5 is due to be released sometime in the next two months. When launching a new device in the past, Apple has kept the previous-generation iPhone around with less storage as a lower cost option for consumers.

Some thought (based on Apple’s own statements, as well as other reports) that Apple might introduce a different, low-cost model of the iPhone to enter emerging markets. It is possible that this 8 GB version of the iPhone 4 is that device, but I don’t think that’s likely; this is just the equivalent of the iPhone 3GS which Apple still sells alongside the iPhone 4.

Still, it is a good sign that the iPhone 5′s release is imminent. Reuters also reports that Apple is aiming for an end of September launch for the new iPhone, and that the device will have a bigger screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera, but will otherwise resemble the iPhone 4. Sources told the news agency that Apple manufacturing partners Hon Hai and Pegatron will produce up to 45 million iPhone 5 units altogether as part of Apple’s initial order, although no time frame for production of said units was given.

A late September launch could still fit in with reports of an early October shipping date for the iPhone 5, since Apple is said to be preparing a media event to announce the iPhone in September.

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The BGR report says that an AT&T VP told several employees that the iPhone 5 is “slated to launch in early October,” and that he also told a group of managers to “[e]xpect things to get really, really busy in the next 35-50 days.” This is in keeping with recent reports that we’ll see the iPhone 5 announced in late September, with a release a little later in early October. AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski was the first to claim assertively that October would be the iPhone 5′s launch month, based on information from an anonymous source.

Jim Dalrymple also seems to have confirmed the October launch in a brief post today quoting the BGR report and adding simply “Yep.” Dalrymple is known to have solid connections either at or close to Apple, and has a good track record with product predictions. AllThingsD is also well-connected at Apple, so the October timing seems like a pretty solid bet at this time based on the information available.

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Generally speaking, when someone in the tech world says a product is launching “within” a certain period, it’ll come at the end of that range, at the earliest. Apple is pretty good about hitting its own deadlines, but I still wouldn’t have expected to see a Mac App Store arrive before January. However, an “inside source” speaking to Appletell claims it could arrive as early as next week, and, in fact, Steve Jobs was pushing for it to launch today or even earlier.

The Mac App Store is a software marketplace and distribution platform designed to centralize the sale of OS X apps, in the same way that the original App Store manages iOS applications. Unlike the iOS App Store, however, the Mac version won’t be the sole source for Mac software.

Jobs wants an early release badly, according to the source. Cupertino had reportedly told developers to have their apps ready to go for a launch as early as Monday, Dec. 6. Though his original preference of today likely won’t be met according to Appletell’s source, Apple is still said to be on schedule for a pre-Christmas release.

It makes sense Apple would want to have the Mac App Store up and running before Christmas. We’ve seen in recent years that the iOS App Store posts its highest sales volume by far on and around Christmas, as new iOS device owners break in their devices and iTunes gift cards find their way into stockings everywhere. Apps experience a 1,000 percent increase in sales on Christmas Day, and generally enjoy higher sales volumes around November and December.

Bottom line? If it’s at all possible for Apple to launch the App Store in December, it will. OS X 10.6.6 beta seeds are already making the rounds, with a second version released last week. That build includes support for the Mac App Store, and should see release either shortly before or coincidental with the Mac App Store’s launch, so watching its progress will be a good indicator of how close Apple is.

The second factor that could affect Apple’s launch plans is content. It needs a healthy library for consumers to choose from if it wants to capitalize on the holiday app rush. I think Apple will be happy with relatively few third-party offerings so long as it can get its iWork ’11 suite prepped in time for day one sales. If the marquee products on the App Store at launch are Apple’s own, it stands to gain even more. But since developers will also want to reap the benefits of a pre-Christmas release, I don’t think Apple should have much trouble filling the shelves.

Of course, if Steve Jobs isn’t happy with the product, we won’t see it released. He gave himself and the company 90 days to get everything right, and he’ll take all of that time and more to make sure the Mac App Store is up to his exacting standards. I hope it does arrive early, though, since it’ll make shopping for stocking stuffers that much easier.

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Little things like Bluetooth Keyboard support and tap to focus for video. And medium-sized things like the introduction of folders. Home screen wallpapers I could actually take or leave, but everything else sounds pretty awesome. Including gloating to my iPad-toting friends when I get the features well before them.

iPhone OS 4.0 comes out for the iPhone and iPod touch this summer, as new iterations of the OS generally do. But iPad owners will have to wait until the fall to see the same features implemented on their devices. The operating systems must be fairly different to merit such a gap between the two release dates, although at least a few of the end user-targeted features introduced are iPad originals.

Developers will no doubt be excited about OS 4.0′s new APIs, including full video/still camera access, support for in-app SMS, calendar access, in-app SMS, 5x digital zoom and carrier info access. But that’s not what’ll really have devs salivating. That’d be Apple’s new iAds platform, which aims to revolutionize mobile advertising. iAds promises to provide a much more interactive advertising experience, right from within apps, and without leaving them. It certainly has a lot of potential, but it remains to be seen whether users will bite. Apple will be using an industry standard 60/40 revenue split for iAds, with devs getting the lion’s share.

Another new intriguing platform-wide feature is Game Center. It looks to accomplish what OpenFeint and Plus+ do now, but across all games (that use the API, I imagine). It’s bad news for those fledgling gaming networks, but it promises to be a much more unified and comprehensive game ranking and matchmaking system for iPhone end users. And it’ll have achievements, too.

It wasn’t all good news for iPhone owners today, though. Owners of 3G and older model iPhones, and of second-gen and older iPod touches are going to be a bit sour following the announcement. They’ll get some of the benefits of iPhone OS 4.0, but not all. The hardware isn’t up to the task of multitasking, for instance. Apple’s probably not losing too much sleep over this, since it provides a mighty nice upgrade incentive.

Many more details will no doubt emerge as the summer go-live date approaches, both about the iPhone OS and about new iPhone hardware. I know I’ll be keeping an eye out for new features as I explore the developer preview.

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Two Taiwanese companies are cited in the report as having received the contracts for the aluminum casings and the touchscreen panels that the upcoming Apple slate will use in its construction. If true, this means that the tablet will indeed sport an aluminum enclosure, and I’d expect something akin to the unibody construction process used in the MacBook Pro casing to be applied here. Imagine the build quality of that machine, without a hinge as a point of weakness. It’ll be quite hardy.

AVY Precision Technology is said to be the supplier for the cases. The company manufactures covers for various electronic devices. The cases haven’t yet begun production, though they will very soon, according to Reuters’ sources:

“Production of the cases will begin in February, so everything points to a second-quarter launch right now,” said one of the sources. “It doesn’t take that long for the company to assemble the PC together, but a second-quarter shipment date is what we’re looking at now.”

As for the touchscreen panels, the sources cite TPK Solutions as yet another supplier for that component of the devices. It joins Wintek, which is reportedly already producing panels for the tablet, too. Apple seems to be preparing for a fairly ambitious initial production run. The panels have reportedly already begun shipping.

The timing of the orders and shipments implies a second-quarter 2010 launch for the device.

I’m of the opinion that this new rumor is fairly reliable, for a few reasons. First, at CES last week, many manufacturers took the opportunity to try to steal some of Apple’s tablet thunder by unveiling slate-type computers and media devices themselves, Microsoft and HP being the most notable among them. Second, in the wake of the Mac Observer piece by a former Apple marketing manager revealing the internal workings of and purposes behind Apple’s intentional leaks, this latest rumor seems to fit the bill pretty well.

Stoking the rumor fires with relatively inconsequential information about parts suppliers manages to draw some of the attention back to Apple and away from competitors, while not really revealing any major new details about the upcoming device — except for the aluminum casing thing, which could actually be pretty cool.

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Should these latest rumors prove correct, we can expect to see this tantalizing Apple fanboi fantasy by February of next year. Pricing should fall between $799 and $999, which will net you a 9.6-inch touch panel device powered by a mystery P.A. Semi-engineered chip, with a super-long-lasting battery by DynaPack International Technology.

The battery pack order size provides a rough estimation as to what Apple’s expected sales for the new device will be:

Outbidding its Taiwanese counterpart Simplo Technology Co., Ltd., DynaPack International Technology Corp. has been exclusively contracted to supply up to 300,000 units of long lasting battery packs a month for Apple’s newest tablet PCs.

In addition, the tablet will reportedly contain a 3G HSDPA modem, which seems to indicate it would be designed to operate on AT&T’s network. If true, it’s possible that consumers will see some decent discounts on the hardware, so long as they purchase data plans from AT&T along with an Apple tablet.

The full supplier list from the Taiwan Economic News also includes Wintek for the capacitive touchscreen, Wanshih Electronic Company for cables, and Mag. Layers Scientific-Technics Co. Having such an extensive parts supplier list is of course no guarantee that the rumors are accurate, but similar lists appeared before the launch of the iPhone 3G and the 3GS, and both turned out to be accurate.

As for the February date, it does seem a likely candidate for a new product introduction, if only because it will coincide with the new Macworld Expo. Apple, of course, won’t be participating in Macworld this year, but it has traditionally used the keynote of the event to announce new products, so even without participating, it makes sense for it to stick to its established product release schedule.

Steve Jobs, freshly returned as the public face of the company, also dropped some very oblique, but very tantalizing possible reference to a tablet recently in statements made after the Rock and Roll event to David Pogue of the New York Times. He is rumored to be the driving force behind the tablet initiative, if it does exist.

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By now, we’re no stranger to rumors of a new iPod touch model complete with a built-in camera and microphone. Even without sources backing up these claims, it just seems like the logical next step for Apple to take with the device if it wants to keep providing consumers with an incentive to upgrade. The latest word is not only that these rumors are accurate, but that the device in question is already on the assembly line in China.

The source, a “well-connected” one talking to Wired.com, claims that circulating rumors about the camera and microphone are both spot on. They even confirm that the camera included in the new iPod touch (which was last updated at the beginning of September in 2008, making this the longest interval between model changes) will indeed be able to capture both images and video. And it will include an external mic, in addition to the external speaker and headset support included in the current iteration.

As Wired points out, this will make it an ideal device for use with existing Skype applications already available in the App Store. The combination of the two could make the iPod touch a viable home phone replacement for those who already only use their landlines for long distance anyways. They also note that combined with a Verizon MiFi, it basically becomes an iPhone without the cruddy AT&T network and attendant charges.

I’d long suspected that Apple was holding off on including these phone-like features in the iPod touch to differentiate between it and the iPhone in order to avoid cannibalizing sales, but my own experience has been that touch owners are much more inclined toward an iPhone purchase than not. I think Apple has realized this “gateway drug” phenomenon has little to do with hardware features and a lot to do with a constant data connection and cell phone features.

Which leads me to believe that they only reason they’re pacing the release of the rest of the iPhone’s extra bells and whistles to their portable media player platform is for differentiation between models, not across product lines. That means there’s hope for GPS integration in future versions, which I think we’ll see if turn-by-turn apps on the iPhone become a significant success. Also don’t forget that the iPod touch was actually the first to get built-in Nike+ support, so expect to see at least one surprise when this device does launch, which should be in two to three months, if Wired’s source is accurate.

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What we will see June 8, if AppleInsider’s source is to be believed, is a major developer update to Snow Leopard that will be the first release to be “feature complete,” including all interface changes and functionality additions withheld from prior builds. In other words, they’ll be able to show off a product at WWDC that will look pretty much like what consumers will be getting two months later.

Between now and then, there should be one more build, which will bring “major updates” to what we’ve already seen. Then, after the release at WWDC, we should see one more release prior to the Gold Master build in order to work out any remaining kinks.

All of this means you won’t be able to get your hands on Snow Leopard until late summer or fall of 2009, when Apple generally releases hardware updates. Which in turn means that if you’re waiting to pull the trigger on a new computer purchase, you have to be willing to wait almost 6 months. It also means that Snow Leopard will drop much closer to the projected release date of Windows 7, so we could be in for quite the OS grudge match.

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We knew we weren’t going to have to wait too long for Snow Leopard (10.6) to make its appearance on store shelves, but according to MacRumors, things just got a little more specific courtesy of a slide from a conference presentation.

Apple’s Director of Engineering for their Unix Tech branch, Jordan Hubbard, spoke at the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference last week, and his slide deck included the gem pictured here. His topic was the evolution of OS X from large servers to embedded platforms, which featured the release schedule pictured, with a fairly specific (compared to vague “one year” timelines talked about when Snow Leopard was announced at WDC 2008) Q1 2009 date of arrival.

If Snow Leopard does indeed arrive in the first quarter of next year, it will have beat the anticipated one year timeline by a considerable margin. Given that the upcoming version of OS X is primarily focused on delivering stability and performance improvements, rather than an extensive list of new features, it is quite possible that we could see it reach release in the first few months of 2009. Current Mac computers have a degree of untapped hardware potential that Snow Leopard will take full advantage of. A sped up timeline for the OS could then be an attempt to quell or distract from some very vocal early disappointments regarding Apple’s new notebooks, over things like the lack of FireWire on MacBooks, trackpad issues, and most recently, HDCP problems.

The earlier release might also be a direct response to Microsoft’s decision to aim for a 2009 release for Windows 7, which had previously been expected in 2010. Leopard’s release followed Vista’s by almost a year, which ended up in Apple netting a lot of dissatisfied Windows customers. This time around, Apple may be trying a different approach, trying to beat Windows 7 (essentially a Vista upgrade) out the gate with Snow Leopard (essentially a Leopard upgrade). It’ll work especially well to be first to market if Windows 7 disappoints, since it will give the impression that Cupertino can issue better improvements faster than their Redmond competitors.

Will you be first in line for Snow Leopard if it drops early next year, or do you plan on getting a little more mileage out of Leopard?

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Today Apple officially announced that their next version of OSX, Leopard, will go on sale at 6 P.M. on October 26.

Leopard is also available for pre-order with a guaranteed delivery date of October 26.

Taking the usual jab at Microsoft, Steve Jobs made the following comment of Leopard pricing:

…everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.

Be sure to check out all of the new features Leopard has to offer.

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This gives Apple a matter of a few weeks to declare a Gold Master, produce a significant number of copies and get them to retail stores. It’s a time crunch for sure.

I don’t remember the exact timeline of things with the release of Tiger, but if memory serves me correctly Apple had atleast a month or two of pre-ordering Tiger on their site…which hasn’t been the case of Leopard. Maybe Apple will be ditching the pre-order and just surprising us one morning with Leopard being available.

Only time will tell.

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