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Several MacRumors readers have forwarded us a “member only” email from Ideal-case.com claiming to show the antenna band for what would seem to be the “iPhone 4S” based on the current iPhone 4 design. While the antenna band was partially visible in a casing leak from last week, the new photos show direct comparisons between the new antenna band and both the GSM and CDMA iPhone 4 bands.

The iPhone 4S antenna band is essentially a hybrid of the two earlier designs, showing the same four breaks as the CDMA iPhone 4 but with a SIM-card slot as in the GSM iPhone 4. In the photos, the GSM iPhone 4 antenna band is on top (labeled “4G”), the iPhone 4S antenna band is in the middle (labeled “5G or 4GS”), and the CDMA iPhone 4 is on the bottom (labeled “CDMA”).

Interestingly, this is not the first time this particular design for the antenna band has surfaced, as a similar part appeared as long ago as early January, before the CDMA iPhone 4 had even been unveiled. That part was the first to show the shift in the antenna breaks that also necessitated a slight shift in the position of the mute switch on the CDMA iPhone 4, but also contained a SIM-card slot.

A number of parts appearing very similar to their iPhone 4 counterparts have surfaced in recent weeks, with the suggestion being that these could for a low-end “iPhone 4S” model being developed by Apple. The company has also been rumored to be developing a more significantly updated iPhone 5 offering a thinner design, although little has been seen of this design beyond third-party cases based on a claimed leaked design document.

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New Zealand’s TechDay.co.nz claims to have exclusive date on the New Zealand launch date for the iPhone 5.

Now, with fans clamouring for news of the iPhone 5, Techday has learned from a source within Apple that the device will be launched here in New Zealand on October 9.

Early October has been the recent rumor consensus on when the iPhone 5 might actually become available to customers. There has also been talk of a late September launch.

TechDay.co.nz hasn’t been the source of any previous Apple rumors, so we can’t tell if they are trustworthy. October 9th falls on a Sunday, which seems a strange launch day. Last year’s iPhone 4 launch was on a Friday in New Zealand. We’ve posted it on our iOS blog for interest.

CNet reports that Apple has finally contacted Carl Frega about a prototype laptop that he had put on sale earlier this month. The laptop appeared for sale on eBay where it received bids upwards of $70,000 before it was pulled at the request of Apple.

The 2007-era MacBook Pro featured a Magsafe Antenna and SIM slot that suggested it was an early prototype of a 3G-capable Apple laptop. CNet reports that Frega was contacted by Apple this afternoon to have someone pick it up.

It seems the laptop had a strange journey before ending up in Frega’s hands. He originally picked up the machine off someone on Craigslist. He repaired the machine and tried selling it again on Craigslist. The new owner brought the machine to an Apple Store Genius Bar, where the machine was opened and determined to have non-standard parts. The repair invoice describes the reason they refused repair.

Opened machine to observe that nearly every internal part was 3rd party; main logic board, optical drive, display, hard drive, top case, and others. Machine number (W8707003Y53) is also not recognized as a valid number.

Proposed Resolution: Denied services; machine has been modified by unauthorized providers beyond repair.”

As a result of these “3rd party” parts, Apple’s store refused service. That second buyer took Frega to small claims court thinking the machine was a fake, after which Frega had to accept the machine back and refund the money. It was only after that that Frega tried to sell the laptop on eBay.

Due to the publicity surrounding the eBay sale, Apple has contacted Frega and asked to set up a time to pick up the machine. No word on when it is expected to be returned to Apple.

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Apple has removed the Financial Times app from the App Store after the FT refused to acquiesce to Apple’s updated guidelines regarding in-app subscriptions.

Instead, the FT launched a well-regarded HTML5 web app in June, designed specifically for the iPad and iPhone, to provide a similar service to the now-defunct app. An email announcing the switch said the “new app is now the focus of our development efforts and we’ll be adding a series of new features, including special reports, over the coming months.”

PaidContent notes that 10 percent of new digital subscriptions to the FT were taken out on the iPad. However, the publisher felt that owning data about its customers was more important to it than Apple’s 30 percent cut of subscription fees.

Yesterday, we reported that the developer beta of Apple’s iTunes Match appeared to show options for both streaming and downloading content from the cloud to a user’s device. But some questions have arisen about just how the service functions, as a new report from AllThingsD shares word from an Apple spokesperson that the service is not actually a streaming one.

While a video making the rounds today makes it seem as if Apple’s upcoming iTunes Match service will stream music from Apple’s servers to a user’s device, that’s not the case. An Apple spokesperson confirms that any music you want to access from your cloud-based “locker” will still need to be stored on your iPad, or iPhone, or whatever device you’re using to listen to the song.

The difference appears to be one of semantics, however, with Apple’s claims of the service requiring tracks to be downloaded actually related to local caching of streamed tracks.

Traditional streaming services maintain constant connections, buffering only a small amount of the currently-playing track at any given time. Apple’s streaming solution appears to download each track in its entirety once streaming begins. Upon tapping on the track to begin playing without initiating the full iCloud download process, the track begins playing immediately just as with other streaming services. But in reality, the full track appears to be downloaded to a local cache on the user’s device, allowing for fast access to any portion of the track.

Once the track has been fully played, it remains available in that cache and can be re-accessed without needing to re-stream, but it is not considered permanently downloaded and is not counted as being in the device’s music library. A video from Jeff of iDownloadBlog demonstrates a streamed track being replayed after the device is put into Airplane Mode.

As shown in the video, switching away from the cached track while in Airplane Mode appears to empty the cache, and the device is unable to replay the track if the user returns to it.

The result is a service that acts just like a traditional streaming service, but one which may provide a better experience for users, especially in areas of unstable network coverage for those on the go. As noted by AllThingsD, the reason for Apple’s implementation appears to not be due to any lack of a license for full-fledged streaming.

Instead, says music executive X, this is a philosophical/design issue on Apple’s part.

Part of it is that Apple doesn’t trust the current telecom ecosystem to handle on-demand streaming of library files every time someone wants to use them — look how much trouble AT&T has had with the iPhone to date. But the other part is that Apple wants its users to think of entertainment as something they consume on Apple device — as opposed to the Google and Amazon approach, which lets consumers grab anything they want on any device with a browser.

Apple has officially remained vague about just how the service works, but it certainly appears that the company has employed a streaming service with expanded caching capabilities allowing for storage of an entire track. Users also have the option to download tracks directly by tapping on the iCloud icon associated with each track.

Thanks to @insanely_great for assistance and clarification.

Update: This YouTube video walks through the streaming vs not streaming debate.

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CNN reports on details of Apple’s anti-counterfeiting efforts centered in China, noting that the company has had difficulty winning the cooperation of Chinese authorities to investigate and shut down those responsible for the fake Apple products. The details were revealed in documents from U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks last week.

The technology giant eventually organized a team in March 2008 to curtail the explosion of knockoff iPods and iPhones, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008.

Yet, three years after Apple moved to crack down on widespread counterfeiting and put pressure on China, progress has been slow. Gadget piracy isn’t a high priority for the Chinese government, the U.S. reports and experts say.

The reports note that Apple’s efforts have been led by vice president for global security John Theriault, a former FBI special agent and Pfizer vice president who was hired by Apple after he led a campaign against production of counterfeit prescription drugs. Theriault was joined at Apple by his Pfizer associate Don Shruhan, who now serves as a director with Apple’s security team in Hong Kong.

Counterfeit Apple store in Kunming, China

Despite putting the anti-counterfeiting task force together, Apple has had only limited success as Chinese authorities have been reluctant to respond to Apple’s requests for assistance. Apple has tried to convince authorities to take a more active role by citing the potential dangers of exploding batteries in counterfeit products and the loss of tax revenue associated with the knockoff products, but Chinese authorities have cited their own reasons for not pursuing the claims.

The arguments weren’t very effective. China’s government declined to investigate a facility in March 2009 that was manufacturing imitation Apple laptops because it threatened local jobs, says a cable dated April 2009. A different arm of China’s government scrapped plans for a raid on an electronics mall in the Guangdong province because it could have driven away shoppers, the cable says.

Last month, several counterfeit Apple retail stores in China gained significant publicity after being highlighted by a popular blog. Two of those stores were closed over permit issues, but dozens more stores have since been discovered. Apple has also sought to crack down on knockoff products in the United States, having recently filed suit against a pair of businesses in New York City selling such goods.

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Steve Jobs has been famous for his willingness to interact with customers via email, issuing terse and sometimes surprisingly candid answers to users’ questions and complaints on occasion. With Tim Cook now officially taking the reins at Apple, some have questioned whether he has any interest in similar interactions with customers.

Cook has clearly been flooded with emails over the past few days, many of which have offered him congratulations on his new position. Notably, Cook does seem to be taking the time to respond to those emails, suggesting that he may indeed be interested in personal communication with Apple customers. Most of the responses so far seem to have been of a simple nature thanking the senders, although some have included a bit more detail relevant to the senders’ content.

One example given in a comment thread on an article at iDownloadBlog comes from a customer who mentioned that he used Apple products to communicate with his family from Iraq, to which Cook responded thanking him for his military service. Another example comes via an Auburn University fan, who connected with Cook, an Auburn graduate and devoted fan himself, over the school. Cook included in his reply a mention of Auburn’s famous “War Eagle” battle cry.

Apple has historically paid close attention to emails sent to Jobs, and will likely continue to do so with Cook. One example of Apple’s tracking of executive email contacts has been provided to MacRumors, showing Apple’s efforts to respond to early criticisms of its MobileMe service, which experienced a series of missteps at its mid-2008 rollout. According to an internal Apple presentation highlighting the status of MobileMe support issues in early 2009, Apple closely tracked on a day-by-day basis the 242 MobileMe complaint emails sent to Steve Jobs over the first six months of the service’s history.

Apple support staff analyzed each of the 242 MobileMe-related emails sent to Jobs over that period, categorizing them by “root cause” in order to better understand where customer complaints were coming from.

Jobs of course remains as Chairman of Apple’s board of directors, and his email address presumably will remain active. It is unknown, however, if he will continue to answer customer emails sent his way now that he has stepped down. Jobs does not appear to have answered many emails, if any, in recent months, and thus he may have already stepped away from that communication channel.

And while customers hoping that channels to the chief executive remain open under Cook may be heartened by his recent responses, it remains to be seen whether he will continue to engage with customers via email once the flood of congratulatory messages passes and the emails become more focused on questions and complaints.

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Apple released a developer beta of the iTunes Match system this evening. The system is described by Apple as follows:

iTunes Match stores your complete music library in iCloud, allowing you to enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or computer.

Insanely Great Mac provides this nice walkthrough video which shows you how the service works. It also shows that this is both a streaming and downloading service.

For the $25 yearly fee, iTunes Match will scan your existing iTunes music library and allow you to access it from any of your iTunes-linked Macs or iOS devices. Songs that already exist in Apple’s iTunes music store will be streamed straight from Apple’s master copy (at 256kbps bitrate) without a need to upload the songs yourself. Songs that don’t exist in iTunes will be uploaded to iCloud. Either way, all your music (up to 25,000 songs) will be accessible from your various computers and iOS devices.

iOS 5 Music App streaming a song. iCloud button allows you to download locally.

What wasn’t clear before is the fact that music can be either streamed or downloaded locally to any of your computers or devices. While the video only shows the service on a Mac, we’ve confirmed it works the same way on iOS devices. So, essentially, you will have instant access to your entire music library from all of your Macs, iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches for only $25/year. This ability on your iOS devices means your music library won’t need to take up valuable space on the device itself, as long as you have some sort of internet connection.

iTunes Match is expected to launch alongside iOS 5 this fall.

Update: Insanely Great Mac has now posted a video showing how it works on an iOS device:

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iTunes Match was released to developers today in an email from Apple:

In the email, Apple notes that beta subscribers will receive an additional 3 months free with their $24.99 paid subscription to cover the beta plus the standard 12 months after launch.

Apple also advises customers to maintain a local backup of their iTunes library and any music they add to iCloud. “Apple will periodically reset your iCloud library during the beta and it is critical that you backup your music regularly. Some features and optimizations of iTunes Match will not be available during the beta.”

iTunes Match will give users the same benefits for their downloaded and ripped music as those purchased from the iTunes Music Store, up to 25,000 songs, for $24.99/year.

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Flapcraft is a gorgeously drawn one-off game from the developers of Pixelmator. In it, users control a “Flapcrafter” — a Viking who, in the absence of any wars to fight, tries to fly by standing on a log (and upgrading it with wings, rockets and other improbable things).

The developers note that they aren’t getting into the game business — on the contrary, they made Flapcraft as a way of beta-testing the version 2.0 of Pixelmator, the image editing software.

Oh, and just to make things clear: We are not going into the game business anytime soon. If you try to get the business logic behind Flapcraft… don’t; there is none. Flapcraft was developed during beta testing of Pixelmator 2.0—well, of Pixelmator’s 2.0 painting engine, to be more precise. We found that testing Pixelmator 2.0 by creating game graphics was very effective. What’s more, we made ourselves comfortable with many of those great iOS technologies in the process. In fact, we handled everything ourselves in the building of Flapcraft—no third party was involved.

The game is a little short, but the artwork is phenomenal and the gameplay is quite challenging.

Flapcraft is a universal app, for both iPhone and iPad, and is $1.99 on the App Store. [iTunes]