Apple has scheduled a press conference on September 1st in San Francisco where the company will use the event to make at least three major announcements.

The first announcement will be that iTunes users will be able to rent TV episodes provided by content providers for $0.99 per episode for a two day period.

The content will be served without advertisements, but the content will only be available for only a two-day period.

The content will become available in iTunes one day after the television broadcast date.

Users would be able to watch the shows on their iPhone or iPad devices during the rental period.

Rumored content providers include ABC, NBC, NewsCorp, and Fox, which will include many popular prime-time shows, including “Lost”, and “Family Guy”, among other popular shows.

This new direction from Apple will help solidify its market position as chief rivals such as Netflix Inc. expand their delivery capabilities across more mediums such as direct streaming from the top gaming platforms such as Microsoft’s X-box 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console.

The second big announcement: Apple is expected to unveil the next generation iPod Touch, that is expected to be the same as the iPhone 4 in all aspects, but it is unknown of the device will also include the front-facing camera and FaceTime support.

The third announcement the company is expected to make is that it would offer Apple TV for $99, which could be used to stream content, including the TV show rentals from iTunes, directly to your home theater system.

The Apple stock (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trading down half a percent at $238.8 per share with three-hours remaining in today’s trading session.

The once top retailer of music CDs, HMV, has struggled in recent months facing intensifying competition from digital retailers, and peer-to-peer Internet networks where people illegally share their music free of charge.

The result has been a significant decline in earnings for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, such as HMV.

The HMV stock (LON:HMV) has lost a significant amount of its value in recent months, reflecting slumping earnings and lost market share.

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During Apple’s held press conference yesterday that explained the antenna issues with the latest iPhone 4, the company alleged other smartphones also have similar connectivity issues if the devices are held in certain ways.

Apple specifically made these claims against Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry, including other top phone makers like Nokia, Samsung, and High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC).

Today, both Nokia and RIM published statements debunking Apple’s claims against their products.

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Update: Apple says 0.55% of all consumers who purchased the new iPhone 4 have called the company about reception issues. The company went on to say only 1.7-percent returned their iPhone 4, compared to a 6-percent return rate for the iPhone 3GS. The company said all smartphones have a weakness and that they are not perfect, and that less than 1-percent of the iPhone 4 devices have the reception issue. To remedy the issue, Apple will not conduct a recall, but will offer free cases. In order to get your case, simply fill the registration form on the Apple website starting early next week.

In about one hour’s time, Apple will deliver a press conference where the company is widely expected to discuss attenuation issues found in a significant number of new iPhone 4 devices.

Over the last few days, consumers who exchanged their faulty devices reported the issue was no longer present, though that information has yet to be confirmed.

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NTP Corporation today announced it has launched new lawsuits against numerous technology firms for alleged patent infringement related to eight patents held by the company in wireless email delivery.

NTP has filed suit against LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Apple, Google, High Tech Computer (HTC) Corporation in a U.S. District Court in Virginia.

NTP has already successfully sued firms for infringements on the same patents it is filing suit for today.

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The California, Cupertino-based tech giant, Apple Inc., today gave some insight into sales figures for its new iPhone 4 device.

The company says it has sold 1.7-million iPhone 4 devices in only three days after it started selling the phones on June 24, making the iPhone 4 the most successful product launch in the firms history.

The iPhone launched in the United States, among select European nations, including Germany, France, and the United Kingdom on June 24. The iPhone 4 is set to launch in Canada some time in July, as confirmed by Apple, where the phone is also hugely anticipated and also expected to top previous sales records.

The preceding iPhone model, the iPhone 3GS, thought to be hugely successful, sold 1-million devices in seven days.

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Google Corp. is planning to launch an online music store, simply named Google Music; with the service launching as early as by the end of next month.

The new product will be in direct competition with Apple’s iTunes music store, which is the biggest online music web store in the world.

Google Music works by allowing consumers to make purchases from the Google Market from their web-based PC, with the DRM-free music files being automatically pushed to their Google Android powered mobile device.

Google will also be offering a local application on your PC that would allow you to stream music from your Android device to your PC.

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has completed an inquiry into the Google AdMob acquisition; after concerns fearing competition in the mobile advertising realm would decline given AdMob has the highest market share in the mobile advertising market.

The FTC said in a statement, “[it] was concerned about the loss of head-to-head competition,” given Google has about 65-percent of the global online search market, and is also the market leader when it comes to online advertising.

The FTC said its decision to clear the acquisition was based on Apple announcing it would enter the space with iAd, and its acquisition of Quattro Wireless.

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Apple is now the most valuable technology company in the United States, with a total market capitalization of 222.07-billion, edging out Microsoft that has a current market cap of 219.18-billion.

Apple more recently overtook Wal-Mart’s second position with the higher market capitalization. Wais about 187-billion.

Apple shares today closed nearly at par at $244.05 per share.

Microsoft remains in the third position, just marginally behind Apple, with a 219.18-billion market cap as at 4:30pm New York City time. Microsoft shares (NASDAQ:MSFT) closed down today just over 4-percent to $25.01 per share.

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The largest retailer by volume in the world, Wal-Mart, has announced it would lower the price of the iPhone 3GS to $97 coupled with a two-year contract in the United States.

The new price marks a $100 discount from the regular price. As of right now, Wal-Mart will be the only retailer offering the iPhone 3GS at that lowest price available.

The price reduction at the world’s largest retailer signals Apple is readying the launch of the iPhone HD 4 and is attempting to sell off remaining quantities of the iPhone 3GS.

Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs will likely unveil the next-generation iPhone during a keynote speech that will be delivered at WWDC 2010 on June 7 at 10am.

The new iPhone is rumored to include video conferencing, HD quality camera recording, a 1GHz processor, increased memory, a higher resolution display (960×640 pixels), the new OS 4, among other features not yet disclosed.

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