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The first jailbreak solution for Apple’s iPhone 3GS smartphone has been released by George Holtz, a young developer who also unlocked the original iPhone. Called “purplera1n,” the latest hack is currently available for Windows XP and Vista users only, and requires the latest iTunes installed as well as an iPhone 3GS with the 3.0 firmware. A Mac version is promised to follow shortly.

Holtz cautions that purplera1n is in beta and recommends a full backup of the phone is made before running the software, but the procedure seems pretty straightforward. As detailed on his blog: “Connect your iPhone normally. Click ‘make it ra1n.’ Wait. On bootup, run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app.” This will allow iPhone 3GS users to install any application directly onto their device, including those not sanctioned by Apple, but it won’t free you from your current carrier. The ultrasn0w tool should take care of that.

You can find a download link for purplera1n here and additional details on Holtz's blog, including some crash reports on the comments that you’ll probably want to sift through before taking the plunge.

For the past few days, users of the new iPhone 3GS have been complaining through various blogs and forums about heat related issues with the device. It’s not clear how severe or widespread the problem really is as Apple has not issued an official comment on the reports. While not admitting to any flaws, however, they have posted advice on keeping the iPhone 3G and 3GS within acceptable operating temperatures. This includes not leaving the phone in the car or exposing it to direct sunlight for extended periods.

Of course, this applies to just about any electronic device, but they also suggest avoid using certain applications for too long. Furthermore, according to reports around the web, the iPhone’s internal and ambient temperatures can spike when performing multiple functions simultaneously. Some examples of this include using the iPhone while it’s charging, using Wi-Fi during phone calls, and accessing data services during phone calls. In the case of the white model, the heat has been enough to cause discoloration.

If you happen to own Apple’s latest and greatest smartphone, let us know your thoughts in the comments. Is the 3GS really that prone to overheating or is this issue getting blown out of proportion?

Just when it seemed like it was all over for Psystar, the infamous Mac-clone maker is reportedly set to emerge from bankruptcy and “again battle Goliath.” In an email newsletter sent to subscribers today, the company said Chapter 11 protection was critical to their daily operations, and suggested it plans to continue churning out products despite its legal and financial troubles.

In fact, the company just unveiled their new Open(7) system, which pairs an Intel Xeon CPU with up to 24GB of RAM for a fast OS X experience starting at $1,500. Psystar also announced a new bootloader, called the Darwin Universal Boot Loader (DUBL), and mentioned plans of an open source release. More details regarding the future of its business are expected soon, as the Chapter 11 process nears completion.

The lawsuit will likely continue in the meantime, which makes me wonder if Psystar folks are unusually valiant for releasing a new Mac-clone, have the financial backing of Apple’s competitors as it has been previously speculated, or are just poorly advised.

While for the most part the release of iPhone OS 3.0 has gone over successfully, there have been problems reported here and there. Without mentioning specific fixes, Apple has been preparing the 3.1 update for customer devices to address certain issues. A beta has already been released for developer perusal, with a public release hopefully available soon.

For those that have access to the beta, there are several tweaks worth noting – improved voice control, enhancements to the user interface, paste capabilities in the dialer application and more. There are also changes to MMS functionality, even though the majority of iPhone customers in the U.S. currently do not have access to such feature.

That might change soon, however, with AT&T expected to enable MMS access when 3.1 debuts. One issue that remains unclear, besides a specific launch date, is whether or not Apple will be fixing the 3G S overheating issues or any of the reported battery life issues across numerous models.

Shortly after declaring bankruptcy, Psystar received an automatic stay on Apple's legal actions against them while they reorganized and worked out internal issues. Naturally, the Cupertino company wasn't content with this, claiming it was just a stall tactic to avoid legal proceedings, and filed a motion requesting that the stay be lifted. Turns out, after considering testimonies from both sides, the courts agree with Apple and gave them green light to move forward with their case.

That's very bad news for Psystar, who is obviously already on shaky financial ground. After suffering numerous setbacks in their legal fight against Apple, their only hope was to get Apple out of their hair long enough to prepare a stronger defense. At this point, it doesn't appear that they will be given that liberty. They can still file an appeal but, according to Ars, it seems more likely that Psystar will be unable to pay for its legal defense, and may end up settling the dispute before the matter goes to trial on November 9 as planned.

Psystar may be doomed, but the Mac clone market isn't done yet. There are numerous other Mac clone manufacturers seemingly flying under Apple's radar. One of them, Quo Computer, announced just about a month ago their intentions to open a retail store specializing in Mac clone hardware.

No doubt after taking down Psystar Apple will continue to attack these companies. Looking at the situation from a historical standpoint, one can't help but draw parallels to this modern-day scenario and the numerous legal battles that IBM fought when manufacturers began developing IBM PC clones – which spawned the modern desktop computer that is so ubiquitous today.

With over 6 million downloads since its release a short time ago, Apple's new iPhone OS 3.0 update is certainly proving popular. If you’ve read any iPhone 3G S reviews, you also know that the new firmware is designed to take advantage of the latest hardware, but works with the original and 3G iPhone as well. There are scattered reports, however, that the picture isn't as rosy when paired with these older models, with users complaining that it is causing the battery life on their phones to take a nosedive.

The reports aren't isolated, and some users are even reporting that the update causes their phone to run hot on top of having a shortened battery life. During the iPhone OS 3.0 beta, there were a few reports of battery life drops, which were primarily attributed to debugging software. Given that this is a final release, you wouldn't expect the two to be related. Nevertheless, if there is an issue, hopefully we'll hear from Apple soon on potential resolutions. The newer-hardware 3G S is apparently unaffected.

Apple has made quite a few announcements in recent weeks. While most of the focus was on the iPhone 3G S, the company also refreshed its MacBook Pro line during this year’s WWDC, with several upgraded features on the 15" model and a re-branding of the 13" model. Unfortunately, for some reason, Apple also decided to downgrade their SATA II drive interfaces to the original SATA specification in the process.

The move didn't affect the performance of traditional platter-based hard drives, which are rarely fast enough to saturate the 1.5 gigabits per second link SATA allows, but may well affect users who upgrade to a Flash-based SSD. However, following a flood of complaints on Apple’s support discussions and elsewhere, this artificial cap appears to have been removed with the new MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7.

Affected users can download the firmware update here, which is 3.35MB in size and requires Mac OS X version 10.5.7. We should note that since the extra speed can only be seen with drives that Apple itself doesn't use, the company warns that it can’t provide official support for drives that take advantage of this patch.

Apple has beat analyst expectations for the launch of its iPhone 3G S, according to a recent press statement, in which CEO Steve Jobs announced more than one million units were sold globally during the weekend. To put that number into perspective, it took Apple 74 days, or approximately two and a half months, to sell its first million iPhone back in 2007, while last year’s iPhone 3G launch also saw a million devices moved in just the first three days.

Lines may not have been as long as last year, but Apple and AT&T’s pre-sales strategy was certainly a success. The companies doubled sales expectations of 500,000 units for the opening weekend and outshined Palm’s much-hyped launch of the Pre smartphone – which is still off to a solid start with about 100,000 units sold in the U.S. alone. In addition, Apple said that in the five days since it debuted, the iPhone OS 3.0 has been downloaded by more than 6 million customers.

The announcement also represents the first public comment from Apple’s Steve Jobs in a while. The executive has been on a leave of absence since January to deal with lingering health issues, and may have received a liver transplant two months ago, if recent reports are to be believed.

For iPhone and iPod touch owners who want the benefit of the recently released 3.0 firmware, but also want to run jailbroken applications, the iPhone Dev Team has just released an updated PwnageTool for Mac OS X systems. There are quite a few caveats and qualifications at this stage, such as the fact that it won't work with second-gen iPod touch devices or the new 3G S phones, but updated tools should arrive shortly.

Furthermore, if you have previously unlocked your phone for use with a carrier other than AT&T (or the authorized carrier in your country), you are advised not to use this version of Pwnage as it will jailbreak your phone but also relock it back to the original carrier assignment. Those looking to unlock their 3.0 phones will have to wait until Ultrasnow is available for this – which should be anytime now. Full instructions, along with download links and a few other things to consider, are available at the iPhone Dev Team blog.

As promised, Apple’s much anticipated iPhone 3.0 software update was officially released today. The 230.1MB download, available through iTunes, is said to contain over 100 new features and enhancements, including the oft-requested copy and paste functionality, MMS, Internet Tethering, full Bluetooth support, turn-by-turn GPS navigation, a kill switch for lost handsets and more. This update is exactly the same as the golden master leaked last week.


The new firmware is designed to take advantage of the latest hardware in the iPhone 3GS, which arrives to Apple and AT&T stores this Friday, but older iPhones will get most of the new features as well – notably missing is MMS and video recording from first-gen models. The 3.0 firmware is free to all iPhone owners and will also be available for the iPod touch priced at $9.95.

Along with the update, it appears that the NDA rules governing product reviews of the new iPhone 3G S has been lifted. You can check some hands-on impressions over at Engadget, CNet and Wall Street Journal.

Although Apple already promotes the iPhone and iPod touch as very capable gaming devices, the recently-announced 3G S handset will offer even more potential for more elaborate titles in the coming months. At least that’s what many are hoping following reports detailing its souped-up innards. According to Anand Lal Shimpi from Anandtech, Apple has made the jump from a 412MHz ARM11 processor core to a 600MHz ARM Cortex A8, and added a PowerVR SGX 520 graphics processor supporting OpenGL ES 2.0 along with double the amount of DDR memory at 256MB.


The company claims real world performance of the iPhone 3GS can be up to 2x faster than its predecessor. Additionally, however, Anandtech says the new graphics core has 7x the geometry throughput of the iPhone 3G and 2.5x the fill rate. Sure, it may not hold a candle to your desktop gaming rig, but it will certainly be interesting to see what these extra capabilities will allow in terms of games. Interestingly, the just-released Pre uses the same CPU/GPU configuration as Apple, so Palm fans won’t have to feel outclassed.

Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 has been leaked to torrent sites ahead of its official launch on June 17 – not surprisingly given that the so-called “golden master” (build 7a341) was just made available to developers. Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo first reported the leak, which I verified on a couple of torrent sites, and went on to describe the fairly simple installation process.

This is the actual build used at WWDC'09 as well as the build Apple plans to distribute next week. The file weighs in at around about 230.1MB and takes around 45 minutes to install; covering the update process itself as well as restoring previous data, copying and updating applications, and transferring songs back to the device.


Gizmodo claims that the new operating system works without any glitches, bringing with it much-awaited features like landscape keyboard orientation in apps other than Safari, copy-and-paste functionality, push notifications, improved calendar support and more. Needless to say, as with any other unofficial release, download at your own risk, and remember to backup your device first just in case something goes wrong.

WWDC has revealed all sorts of interesting tidbits today, including Apple’s plan for bringing official tethering support to the iPhone. While the technical aspect of it has been known for a while, it wasn’t until recently that Apple revealed tethering would become a possibility on iPhone OS 3.0, and now AT&T themselves have confirmed the functionality will be available as an option for their customers in due course.

They don't make any mention on whether they will lock out older phones and only allow the newer iPhone 3G S model to use tethering, but we'll assume for now that any model running OS 3.0 will have this feature. Given Apple’s relationship with AT&T, we can also probably assume the carrier will want to sell tethering plans – they have long tried to separate data usage directly on your phone with data usage on a tethered laptop. Hopefully the companies will make a firmer announcement soon to clarify how tethering will work on the iPhone.

As expected, Apple has unveiled a new version of the iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference today. Officially known as the iPhone 3G S, the design of the device won't change much from its predecessor, but it's what's on the inside that matters. This version sports a faster processor, longer battery life, improved camera with video recording, and a digital compass. It also comes with larger capacities, going all the way to 32GB.


Although it lacks the often rumored front facing camera, squashing hopes for video calls as a result, the new iPhone does have a 3 megapixel camera with auto focus, auto white balance, auto exposure, and a nifty tap to focus feature. Additionally, the camera is capable of recording 640x480 resolution video at 30fps with audio, allowing some basic editing as well in a similar fashion to iMovie.

The new iPhone will also be able to access 3G data connections of up to 7.2 Mbps, where available, and support a number of new features like built-in hardware encryption for data security and integration between the digital compass and mapping applications to automatically orient the map to the direction the user is facing. Apple added built in voice control as well to start calls, find songs, and other information on the phone.

The iPhone 3GS will run the upcoming 3.0 software and should be available June 19 in 16GB and 32GB flavors for $199 and $299 respectively. Those who don’t find these updates enticing enough may be interested to know that the current 8GB iPhone 3G will remain available for $99 with a two-year contract.

During this year’s WWDC Apple announced a significant breath of life to their MacBook laptop series. The changes bring a completely revamped 15” MacBook Pro, and upgrades to the 13” and 17” models. Also, undergoing a name-change, the 13” MacBook is now officially a member of the MacBook Pro family.

All of the models now include a built-in battery, which provides up to 7 hours of battery life – a dramatic 40% increase. Other mutual features include an LED-backlit display with improved color intensity, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire 800 port and Nvidia graphics.


The 13” model kicks things off with base components including a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, an Nvidia GeForce 9400M and a 160GB HDD. Pressing forward, the stock 15” MacBook packs a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, a GeForce 9400M/9600M and a 250GB HDD. At the head of the pack, the 17” features a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 9400M and 9600M with 512MB VRAM, and a 500GB HDD.

Prices have come down across the board. The 13” starts at $1,200, the 15” at $1,700, the 17” at $2,500 and the MacBook Air at $1,500 – all of which are available now.

First announced at the WWDC 2008, Apple has finally given Snow Leopard a ship date and a price at this year’s Keynote address. The next major update to Mac OS X will be available in September, according to the company, and will be available to current Leopard users for just under $30. Apple says it has refined 90% of the operating system, and simply by installing it on their Macs customers will reclaim a whopping 6GB of hard drive space.

Much of the focus with Snow Leopard has been behind the scenes. It includes a rewritten Finder; performance improvements to Mail, Time Machine, and Safari 4; and a new version of QuickTime called QuickTime X that brings hardware acceleration, HTTP streaming and color synchronization. Snow Leopard will also take better advantage of 64-bit and multi-core processors and introduces OpenCL technology, which will let Macs use their otherwise idling graphics cards to process normal applications.

The company couldn’t help itself from taking a few jabs at Microsoft as well, claiming Windows 7 is fundamentally just another version of Windows Vista with “even more complexity.”

Apple has released the latest versions of iTunes and QuickTime, bumping them up to versions 8.2 and 7.6.2 respectively. In addition to other updates, the new releases address a series of vulnerabilities plaguing the software duo.

The latest version of iTunes brings support for the much-anticipated iPhone 3.0 operating system, which will deliver long-desired features including copy-and-paste, MMS and notes sync. Version 8.2 sees a fix for a stack overflow in parsing “itms:” URLs which can result in a DOS or arbitrary code execution. Apple has stated that the program has also received accessibility updates.

QuickTime 7.6.2 patches 10 vulnerabilities, all of which seem to prevent certain malicious content from crashing the program or leading to arbitrary code execution. It seems that most of the bugs affect both Windows and Mac users, so grab your downloads here (or via Software Update).

Addressing what is obviously an all too common flaw with older Nvidia chipsets, Apple has extended the special repair warranty on certain laptop models from two to three years. The issue was first acknowledged by Apple last October and is believed to be an inherent defect in all GeForce 8400M and 8600M graphics processors, based on Nvidia’s choice of non-eutectic contact material in the graphics chips, which leads to overheating and eventually presents itself in the form of distorted or a total lack of visuals.

Potentially affected machines include those with Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT processors, including 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pros manufactured between May 2007 and September 2008. Additionally, AppleInsider notes that the GeForce 9600M found in newer unibody MacBook Pro laptops may share the same material that led to the failures, but such claims have so far been denied by Nvidia. If you own one of these potentially affected machines, here’s some more info that might come in handy.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is facing a securities lawsuit for allegedly concealing the existence of a serious thermal defect in its graphics chip line, as well as one from purchasers of laptops with faulty graphics.

Unable to cope with the increasing legal pressure and supposed loss of their financial backers, Mac clone manufacturer Psystar ended up filing for bankruptcy earlier this month. For fans of Mac machines that aren't fans of high prices, that was a bit of a downer – it seemed for a while that Psystar might be the modern-day equivalent of the IBM clone manufacturers that truly set the PC free years ago. Not all hope is lost, however, as a new startup apparently wants to take the place of Psystar.

Quo Computer is planning to open their first retail specialized in selling Mac clone hardware. The company says their machines will try to match Apple's offerings as closely as possible, albeit at a much lower price. Rather than doing it out of defiance, Quo claims they want Apple to see the value in what they are attempting, which is to provide both quality of hardware and customer support.

Of course, what Apple values and very dearly is their intellectual property, so no matter their intentions it seems Quo is just asking for trouble. I predict that the company will not only face serious legal threats from Apple over selling their software, but also face other legal threats over having a retail presence.

When Apple works as hard as they do to avoid releasing information about upcoming products, speculation is all what the media has to go on. Such has been the case with the next iteration of the iPhone, which is currently expected and all but confirmed to be a 32GB model, thanks to some recently leaked information from various sources.

T-Mobile Austria, Rogers in Canada and Vodafone Australia have all, in some fashion or another mentioned the existence of a 32GB iPhone. The most interesting note comes from Vodafone, which has marked the 16GB models as “end of life,” suggesting it is about to be replaced by a newer 16GB iPhone or another model with double the capacity.

Now, we all know that increasing aspects like storage and performance are just par for the course as hardware matures, so why is Apple being so silent on what they have in store? Then again, it’s not uncommon to see Apple relying on rumors for generating hype about upcoming products.

Apple has bumped the specs on its entry-level white MacBook with a faster Intel processor, memory architecture and more hard disk space. The update was announced quietly on the company’s online store, which now has the aforementioned laptop at the same $999 but featuring a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor, up from 2.0GHz, in addition to a 160GB hard drive and 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM; up from the 120GB hard drive and 667MHz memory on the previous model.


Apple also advertises up to 5 hours of battery life, a small increase over the previously advertised 4.5 hours. Otherwise all is the same, including the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics with 256MB RAM, built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 400 port, a Mini-DVI port, built-in iSight camera, and an 8x SuperDrive.

In addition, the new white MacBook is eligible for Apple's just-announced Back-to-School promo, which offers up to a $229 rebate good for a free 8GB iPod touch to qualifying education individuals who purchase the media player along with a qualifying Mac on the same receipt before September 8th.

Apple, who is somewhat notoriously elusive, is supposedly planning to build a new server farm in the US that may cost as much as $1 billion. It would effectively dwarf the former WorldCom/MCI data center it purchased in 2006. According to the Associated Press, an official, but anonymous leaked memo, suggests that the state of North Carolina is attempting to coax Apple into constructing the server farm in their territory.

The bait is apparently a $46 million tax break. The break applies to companies with a significant portion of their US property and payroll taxes located in NC – something which no company presently qualifies for, the memo notes. If Apple were to build its conceptual server farm in the state, it would have to spend the $1 billion within 9 years to be eligible for the discount. North Carolina offered Google some $100 million in tax incentives over 30 years if the search giant agreed to build a $600 million data center in the state back in 2007, a deal which the company accepted.

Skynet, here we come. I kid – but really, what could Apple possibly need a billion dollar server farm for? Obvious suggestions include more muscle for their continuously growing list of services such as iTunes, MobileMe and the App Store; though, isn’t $1 billion worth of servers overkill?

Having surpassed the one billion downloads milestone recently, you’d think Apple is raking in big bucks from its App Store. That may not necessarily be the case, though, when you factor in the amount of free apps available and the percent that Apple actually takes from paid programs.

According to the latest estimates from Lightspeed Venture Partners, the amount of free downloads outnumber paid downloads by anywhere from 15:1 to 40:1; which translates to something in the range of 25 to 60 million paid apps. If Apple gets a 30 percent cut of all of those apps, which sell at a median of $2.65 according to recent O’Reilly survey, the company has made somewhere in the range of $20 to $45 million.

While that is certainly nothing to sneeze, it’s not exactly an astronomical number for a company whose last reported financial results saw revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion. That said, Apple has always maintained that the App Store isn't meant as a profit generator but rather as a means of attracting customers to the iPhone and iPod touch, where the majority of the profit are.

For all its popularity, the iPhone has not been one of the most accessible smartphones around. To the contrary, it has seen a fairly limited market exposure, typically being available only through AT&T or Apple retail stores since the 3G version was launched. As online ordering became more of an option, new iPhone owners still had to find and travel to an actual retail store to pick it up. The company has slowly seen the light of additional sales mechanisms and has apparently now made complete online ordering a possibility.

At long last, users can buy an iPhone 3G via the online Apple Store and have it delivered straight to their doors. That doesn't mean Apple has ditched AT&T as the sole iPhone service provider in the U.S. – you still will need to sign up to an AT&T rate plan. Furthermore, only new customers can have their iPhones delivered, while existing AT&T customers can go through the sign-up process online but will still have to pick up the device at a retail store.

Apple has announced some details of its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, revealing that it is set to kick off on June 8 and will be led by the company’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller. Some had hoped that Steve Jobs, who announced a five-month leave of absence back in January 2009 to focus on his health, would make a return to the company in time for the event – but apparently that won’t be the case.

Being a software-centric event for developers, one of the headliners for WWDC '09 will obviously be Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X. According to the press release, attendees will receive a developer preview of the new OS designed to show off the new QuickTime X version, multi-core and GPU processor support, and accessibility enhancements.

However, what most people are actually anticipating is the launch of a third-generation iPhone and perhaps even an “Apple media pad” of sorts. Several sites have also pointed to the conference keynote as an opportunity to debut a refresh to the company’s desktop and laptop lines, but of course Apple is providing no details there.

Apple has just issued the latest update for its Leopard operating system, Mac OS X 10.5.7, bringing with it a variety of bug fixes along with security updates and expanded hardware support. Although there's nothing groundbreaking in this release, with Snow Leopard already on the horizon, some of its highlights include improved video playback on newer Macs with Nvidia GPUs, additional RAW image support for a number of newer DSLRs, and better Finder search results for network volumes that don't support Spotlight searching.

The update also addresses problems related to logging into Gmail, printing to third-party printers, syncing notes in Mail, and various other small things. Mac OS X 10.5.7 is available via Software Update or as a standalone download, with sizes starting at 442 MB for people upgrading from Mac OS X 10.5.6, and going all the way up to 729 MB for a combo update compatible with any version of Mac OS X 10.5.

You can read more about the update and get a full list of changes here. It might be wise to wait for some feedback before taking the plunge, however, as several people have already reported troubles with the update.

Even though Apple has claimed they are working to improve their App Store submission process, developers are still finding themselves blocked for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Recently, one developer found himself at the receiving end of rejection letter from Apple due to his app being related to torrents. Though any tech worth their salt knows that torrents have come a long way from nothing but pirated content, Apple seems to believe otherwise. As a result, they rejected the “Drivetrain” application on the grounds that it may be used to infringe third-party rights.

The information from iLounge is still somewhat limited, and more specific details about the situation aren't yet available. At the surface, though, it seems that Drivetrain, which is merely a remote control for the Transmission torrent client on Macs, is currently on Apple's blacklist. If Apple wants to go that far, they might as well restrict torrent apps on the desktop or say that VNC clients aren’t allowed, since they could be used to remote control pirating machines.

Ultimately this is all coming back to the same point: Apple wishes to retain total control over the iPhone, which they see as their phone – not the user’s phone. It is a pity, as they have crafted one of the most unique and important modern computing devices. Why impose artificial restrictions on yourself or your users?

In an email sent to developers yesterday, Apple has warned that all new iPhone applications submitted to the App Store must now be compatible with the 3.0 OS as well as the current 2.2.1 OS that is in widest circulation. The announcement came as it released the fifth beta for the upcoming firmware update, which was revealed during a press event back in March.

Apple also disclosed that any existing application not running properly under 3.0 may also face deletion from its App Store once the update launches. Unsurprisingly, many developers have expressed concern over this move. Not only are they being forced to tweak their existing code without knowing an official release date for 3.0 (probably around Apple’s WWDC event in June), but also must spend time testing their apps against an unfinished OS base.

The company does note in its email, however, that most titles in the App Store are likely to run on the new operating system without modification – although there are some developers that beg to differ.

Whether it is defending itself or attacking others, Apple is probably used to spending a lot of time in the courts. Recently, they are coming under attack – not for the first time – due to their MagSafe power adapter. The idea behind it is certainly a sound one: greatly reducing the chance of a pricey MacBook being damaged by a stray foot. Unfortunately for Apple, the hardware involved has come under scrutiny once again for supposedly being negligently designed and manufactured, making it susceptible to fraying, sparking and premature failure.

The suit is primarily concerned over Apple's apparent inaction, claiming the company is aware of the issue but has done nothing to fix it. Because of this, the suit asks for one of two things: a redesign of the MagSafe, or a full refund on the purchase price of laptops involved. You'd think that lawsuits, coupled with poor user ratings, would convince Apple to at least consider a redesign.

One of the most controversial aspects of Apple's App Store has been their steep entry requirements and their readiness to reject any app at any time, for varying reasons. The more popular the store becomes, the more we hear stories of a developer getting shafted or a seemingly innocuous app being censored, along with stories of tasteless apps having no problem getting past the gates.

The issue was brought up again this week following the rejection of a music app backed by a well-known music artist. Part of the problem stems from the automated approach Apple often takes. That may soon change, however. Following yet another app rejection, it was tersely revealed that Apple's upcoming parental controls for iPhone OS 3.0 might give developers the chance to resubmit rejected applications and perhaps have their content rated as unsuitable for minors.

There's certainly a benefit to that approach. If Apple has rejected many programs based on content, as opposed to some other function, adopting and enforcing parental controls would be a mechanism to get those apps on the market. I'm sure a developer would rather be able to sell their program rated as “18 and up” as opposed to not selling it at all.

Even with mechanisms in place to allow apps with “questionable content” the chance to appear on the App Store, it wouldn't alleviate concerns of unfair competition where Apple restricts the sale of software they feel too closely mimics their own in-house features. It's their store, and they certainly can choose to offer only software they approve. It becomes an issue of concern, however, when they seek to shut down third-party software sites. It seems to me that their fan base would be happy with app store restrictions if there were third-party options – a compromise between controlling software and still allowing users to use their iPhones as they see fit.