Lion Watch for 7-11-2011

Lion draws nearer. Today, Apple sent a nice e-mail to Mac developers, asking them to submit Lion-specific applications for the Mac App Store to Apple. They also released updates to iLife ’11 to enable full-screen Lion support.

In other news, the World Wide Web Consortium has put out a request for “prior art” that would invalidate patents Apple got for parts of the HTML5 standard. W3C wants the HTML5 standard to be unencumbered by patent trolls or even members of the W3C (ahem, Apple!). Hence the family fight.

In a case of “get it before they ban it”, if you want a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable to hook your Mac up to a HDTV, hurry up and get it before they disappear. HDMI Org, the group that oversees HDMI specifications, has deemed Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables outside of its standard and will not allow them to be sold.

And finally, HP plans to take on the MacBook Air with an ultra-thin notebook of its own. Intel came up with the idea of “Ultrabooks” which would measure less than an inch in thickness and sell for under $1,000. Intel claims that ultrabooks will account for 40% of the chipmaker’s consumer laptop products by the end of 2012. Initially using existing “Sandy Bridge”, the market should heat up once the next-generation “Ivy Bridge” processors, with 3-D microprocessors, come on-line.