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The invitations have been sent out (and posted to the Web), so it’s official: The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be from June 8 to June 12 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco.

Speculation about possible announcements is already running rampant on the Web, with predictions concentrated on three themes: The release of a new version of Mac OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard; an announcement of features and a release date for a new version of the iPhone; and the future role of CEO Steve Jobs.

Focus on Development

Longtime Apple watcher Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret, said that regardless of what Apple might have up its sleeve, the primary focus of the conference will be on software development.

“It’s a developers’ conference,” Gartenberg said, “so it’s going to likely be about things of primary interest to that audience. That means we’ll likely hear some more about the 3.0 iPhone release, and it would also be a good place for Apple to talk more about Snow Leopard and what it means for developers.”

That’s consistent with Apple’s own promotion for the conference. According to the splash page on the new WWDC site, the conference will “provide developers and IT professionals with in-depth technical information and hands-on learning about the powerful technologies in iPhone OS and Mac OS X from the Apple engineers who created them.”

Apple expects at least a thousand Mac OS developers to attend the conference and participate in “detailed technical sessions to teach you how to take full advantage of new foundation technologies to ensure your application is ready and completely optimized for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.”

Looking for Big Announcements

As enthusiastic as developers no doubt are about getting the inside scoop on OS features, attendees and the media will be eagerly watching to see if Apple…

In Wednesday’s highly anticipated keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata offered a list of positive developments for the company’s fans.

The big news was the continued popularity of the Wii platform. In the three years since the Wii was introduced, Nintendo has sold more than 50 million of the innovative consoles.

“Almost no one expected them to reach the current level of mainstream acceptance,” Iwata said. “It’s even beyond what we possibly hoped for.”

He said the Nintendo DS portable has done even better, selling more than 100 million units in 51 months, making it the most popular portable gaming device in history. One of the more interesting questions right now is how long the Nintendo DS will continue to hold that title, given the enormous popularity of Apple’s iPhone.

More SD Storage and Faster Launch

From a practical perspective, the most important announcement was that Nintendo has vastly improved the Wii’s storage capacity. At the same time Iwata was speaking, Nintendo announced the release of a Wii System Update with support for high-capacity SD cards (up to 32 gigabytes) in the console’s SD slot. Purchasers can now download games directly to SD cards, rather than the Wii’s surprisingly small two-gigabyte internal drive.

SD cards will make the Wii experience even more enjoyable for consumers. Nintendo estimates Wii users will be able to store as many as 240 games on a single 32GB SD card. Since games can be launched directly from the SD card, they will also load faster, which will improve the user experience.

New Titles Announced

In addition to the improved storage, Iwata announced several new titles for the Wii and the DS. The well-known franchise Zelda will appear for the DS later this year in a game entitled The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Beginning in May,…

Apple is all over the news this week, for better or worse. Two lawsuits have been filed against the company, a hubbub is brewing over the App Store refund policy, and a new application rolled out in the midst of it all.

First the lawsuits. Affinity Labs has filed suit against Apple for allegedly infringing on the 772 patent entitled Audio System and Method by “selling digital audio through the iTunes software application on a personal computer and through the iTunes mobile software application on the iPhone and iPod touch line of products.”

Affinity also alleges Apple has infringed on its patents that cover the System and Method for Communicating Selected Information to an Electronic Device and Content Delivery System and Method. Affinity is seeking financial recompense and a court order to stop Apple from violating its intellectual property.

iPhone Under Legal Fire

In a double whammy, Accolade Systems is also suing Apple. Accolade alleges that Apple is violating its patent indirectly by using CMOS image sensors in the iPhone’s camera. Specifically, Accolade says Aptina Imaging and Micro are violating its CMOS sensor patent. Apple uses those technologies in its iPhone.

Apple wasn’t immediately available to comment on the lawsuits.

“The fact that there are lawsuits against Apple is no surprise. If you want to sue someone, you go after someone with deep pockets, and it appears that Apple is the target of a lawsuit almost on a regular basis,” said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. “At the end of the day the courts will decide which, if any, of these suits have any merit.”

The App Store Refund

The next controversy centers on the App Store. Reportedly, the developer agreement could drive developers into bankruptcy if Apple decides to enforce it. News reports indicate a clause in the developer agreement concerning refunds. It seems…

Call it Round Two of the news conference, with a big Internet twist. President Barack Obama took questions from the White House press corps on Tuesday in a prime-time, East Room session that represented the most formal and time-honored of president-and-reporter interactions. On Thursday, he is taking to that same room for another public grilling — this time by regular folks armed with questions submitted via the Internet and in person, as part of a political strategy to engage Americans directly.

“It’s a way for the president to do what he enjoys doing out on the road, but saves on gas,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday.

By 9 a.m. Thursday, the White House Web site had already logged more than 100,000 questions.

Obama used the Internet to build a grass-roots movement that delivered the presidency and raised unheard-of money. Now in power, he is employing the same online network and style to speak — unfiltered — with Americans.

The president already has taken that tactic on the road, spending two days on the West Coast last week at town hall-style meetings and appearing on Jay Leno’s late-night talk show. It offered easier questions and a chance to get his message to the widest possible audience.

“It’s not a whole lot different than were we in California doing the meeting,” Gibbs said. “It’s just we’ll have people hooked up from a lot of different places all over the country, but he’ll be able to do all that from the East Room.”

Already, the White House is connecting the old-school press conference with the new-media event. It will be an easy contrast between skeptical reporters and supporter-selected questions.

Political operatives say the White House’s strategy is a way to reach a demographic key to Obama’s election.

“In the new world of online media, formal press conferences are just…

Copyright infringement on the Internet has been an ongoing problem, and Internet service providers have had to police such content to comply with infringement laws while also keeping customers happy.

Reports that ISPs, specifically AT&T, Cox Communications, and Comcast, are working with the Recording Industry Association of America to send out warnings, then threatening to close subscriber accounts have surfaced — and some ISPs say they aren’t accurate.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, every ISP is required to send out notifications to customers when there is a question of copyright infringement. But last year the RIAA began a more proactive approach by flagging ISPs whenever there is a question of infringement. RIAA sends a letter to ISPs when an incident is discovered.

No ‘Three Strikes’ Policy

Comcast said it’s not working hand-in-hand with the RIAA and it’s not threatening customers who may be unintentionally or intentionally committing copyright infringement.

“Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, video-game and other content owners to our customers,” said Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesperson. “This is the same process we’ve had in place for years — nothing has changed.”

Douglas said the company follows the law by sending out messages to customers through an automated process, but doesn’t threaten its customers.

“We receive the request to notify an alleged infringement from the copyright holder,” Douglas said. “We then pass it along to our customer either in an e-mail or letter.”

“While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy,” he added.

Liz Kennedy, a spokesperson for RIAA, declined to comment.

Process Is Unchanged

Cox also said nothing has…

The Great Firewall of China was activated earlier this week, as the eastern nation moved to block all access in the country to the online video-sharing service YouTube.

According to reports first published by the BBC, China shut off access in response to the posting of a video depicting a raid by hundreds of Chinese army soldiers on a Tibetan monastery. The video includes graphic footage of a man being beaten with batons and a group of men (including a monk) being assaulted while lying on the ground.

There is no information regarding when the film was shot or at what location.

YouTube Slowly Disappears

Following the posting of the video over the weekend, Google noticed on Monday that less YouTube traffic was flowing to China. As of Tuesday morning, traffic had stopped altogether.

According to Google spokesperson Scott Rubin, China didn’t inform the company that it was blocking YouTube, and hasn’t offered an explanation. “We don’t know the reason for the block,” Rubin said, “and [we] are working to restore access to users in China as quickly as possible.”

There has been limited direct comment from the Chinese government, apart from a statement at a news conference early in the week in which a spokesperson said, “We encourage the active use of the Internet, but also manage the Internet according to law.”

International Controversy

This is the second Tibet-related block of YouTube by China in the past year. In March 2008, a similar shutdown followed the uploading of video clips showing riots in the streets of Tibet.

The move to cut off access for Chinese citizens has been condemned by human-rights groups. In a statement to the BBC, the Center for Democracy and Technology accused China of failing “to live up to international norms.”

“China’s apparent blocking of YouTube is at odds with the rule of law and the…