Wife Said No But Apple Says Yes And Gives Guy Free iPad 2

In what is quite an amusing tale, one of the iPad 2’s returned last week was owned by a guy who was unfortunately told to return it by his wife. Because Apple had been troubleshooting returned iPad 2’s his iPad was discovered with a post-it note reading “Wife said no.” According to MacRumors, this was escalated up the Apple hierarchy as somewhat of joke, eventually reaching two VPs.

Those VPs decided it was only fair to send the guy an iPad 2 and add a note that said “Apple said yes.”

Genius.

[Via MacRumors]

Steve Jobs Ordered By Court To Answer Questions In Class-Action Lawsuit

Steve Jobs has been ordered by a US Magistrate to answer questions in court in relation to a class-action lawsuit regarding the iTunes Music Store and monopolistic behavior by Apple. Bloomberg is reporting that yesterday US Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd authorized lawyers representing consumers in the complaint to engage in limited questioning of Jobs.

The limited questioning is quantified as two hours of questions and only on the topic of changes that Apple made to their iPod software in October of 2004 that disrupted RealNetworks’ Harmony software. Harmony enabled users to transfer songs purchased from the RealNetworks store, to the iPod. When it was released the software caused considerable controversy and Apple quickly accused RealNetworks of using “the tactics and ethics of a hacker” and in a subsequent iPod update Apple stopped the Harmony software from working with iPods.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by Thomas Slattery in 2005 and alleged that by requiring customers use an iPod to listen to music purchased from the iTunes store, Apple had violated federal antitrust laws as well as California’s unfair competition regulations. David Kiernan, who is representing Apple, said that “any deposition of Mr.Jobs would be repetitive, at best.”

[Via AppleInsider]

Angry Birds Rio Flies Into The App Store

Angry Birds Rio, the collaboration app between Rovio and 20th Century Fox as part of the marketing of the new movie ‘Rio’ has just been released today. In principle this new foray in the Angry Birds series of apps is the same as before but with a different story based on the premise of the movie. The app also features new achievements, ‘special hidden fruit’ and a total of 60 levels across two episodes but with more promised to arrive over 2011.

What happens when everybody’s favourite fierce fowl get caged and shipped to Rio? They get very angry!

In Angry Birds Rio, the original Angry Birds are kidnapped and taken to the magical city of Rio de Janeiro, where they eventually escape their captors and set out to to save their friends, Blu and Jewel – two rare macaws and the stars of the upcoming Fox motion picture, Rio. Angry Birds Rio will pair the physics-based gameplay of the original game with unique twists based on the film.

Angry Birds Rio is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch for $0.99, on the iPad for $3.99 and on the Mac App Store for $4.99

Watchlater: iPad App That’s Like Instapaper For Video

Instapaper is one of my favorite apps ever made for iOS: it allows me to save any article for later, and enjoy it in an uncluttered view on the iPhone or iPad without the stress of the web browser. Offline access makes sure I can read everything even when an Internet connection is nowhere to be found, and the recently introduced social sharing capabilities enable me to stay up to date with items liked by people I read and trust. Instapaper is a great tool, but it works for text. And besides text, I happen to consume a lot of online video, too.

The idea of an Instapaper for video always came back to me as an intriguing experiment someone had to try: just like Instapaper, you hit a bookmarklet and the video is saved in your online account. You fire up an iOS app, the videos are automatically retrieved and cached, and you can watch them whenever you like. Without the anxiety factor offered by Youtube’s website design or, again, the information overload of the desktop browser. Just video.

Watchlater, a new iPad app available at $2.99 in the App Store, wants to become the “Instapaper for video” on iOS, and admittedly it’s a pretty neat application. I’ve tested the app over the past months, it’s got lots of potentialities and still a few issues to fix / missing features. But it is available now, and allows you to collect videos from Youtube and Vimeo in a single place. Read more

Apple Sues Amazon→

Apple Sues Amazon

According to a brief note posted by Bloomberg, Apple is suing Amazon over the use of the “App Store” name. The popular online retail is indeed about to launch its own “Amazon Appstore” for Android devices, a marketplace to distribute and download apps. Yes, pretty much like Apple’s App Store – which counts more than 400,000 apps for iPhones and iPads and generated more than 10 billion downloads since its launch in Summer 2008.

Apple, in a complaint filed March 18, accused Amazon.com of trademark infringement and unfair competition and asks for a court order to prevent the company from using the “App Store” name as well as for unspecified damages.

Recently, Apple had a similar dispute with Microsoft. Clearly the folks at Cupertino aren’t happy with everyone using the term “app store” these days, and they’re now taking action against Amazon.

Update from Bloomberg with Apple’s statements:

Amazon has unlawfully used the App Store mark to solicit software developers throughout the United States.

We’ve asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will confuse and mislead customers,” said Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple.

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iPad 2 First Impressions: Is This The iPad I Was Waiting For?

Today I got my iPad 2. A WiFi 16 GB Black model, bought in the United States and shipped through UPS’ Worldwide Saver Express. After a bit of trouble with the Italian customs (luckily, I didn’t pay additional clearance fees) and a missed delivery because I didn’t wake up in time this morning (hey, I stayed up until 6 AM last night reading Instapaper), I finally managed to get my hands on the iPad 2.

Before I share my thoughts: this is not a review. I’ve had the device for less than 6 hours and I’m just getting started with it. Rather, this is a collection of thoughts from a blogger who waited 10 days for the shipment of a device he had to write about regardless of the lack of availability in his country. I watched the unboxing videos, read Cody’s articles, saved dozens of reviews in my Instapaper queue. But getting one, in spite of the fact that I basically knew everything about it, is different. Read more

Google Latitude for iPhone Gains Check-In Capabilities

With an official announcement on the company’s blog, Google unveiled a few minutes ago a new version of Latitude for iPhone. Google Latitude, also available for Android devices, uses the iPhone’s GPS functionality to display your current location on a map and allows you to see what your friends are up to. The new 2.1 version, available here, lets you “check in” places and automatically be checked out if Latitude is set to update your location in the background. In this way, your friends will not only see your location, but know exactly what you’re doing – say drinking coffee at a nearby Starbucks. A huge Check In button in the app makes the process easy, and privacy settings let you share the check in with everyone, your friends only, or make it entirely private.

Tap the “Check in” button to start checking in at nearby places. Keep checking in every time you visit your favorite places to start gaining special status there. You’ll not only progress to become a Regular, VIP, and then Guru at your favorite places, but if you’re near Austin, Texas, gaining status lets you unlock check-in offers at over 60 places.

Just like with sharing your location, you can control your Latitude check-in privacy. Checking in is 100% opt-in, and you can choose to share any check-in with your friends on Latitude, publicly on the web and your Google profile, or just yourself.

With this update Google is clearly trying to create an alternative to popular check-in services like Facebook Places and Foursquare, which have become the de-facto standards for sharing your location and earn points or badges. We don’t know whether the new Google Latitude will take off or not, but you can check out the app here and tell us what you think. It’s a free download.

Mac OS X 10.6.7 Now Available [Direct Links]

Apple just released Mac OS X 10.6.7. The new version is available now in Software Update (or through the direct links below) and weighs at around 300 MB. The new build includes a series of fixes for Back to my Mac, SMB servers and the new MacBook Pros.

The 10.6.7 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

Improve the reliability of Back to My Mac

Resolve an issue when transferring files to certain SMB servers

Address various minor Mac App Store bugs

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4472.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

We also appreciate this very specific Mac App Store fix:

Resolves an issue in which clicking the Updates tab in the Mac App Store could cause the Mac App Store to become unresponsive.

Additional improvements after the break. Download links:

- Mac OS X 10.6.7 update

- Mac OS X v10.6.7 Update Combo

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 Update Combo

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 Update

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#MacStoriesDeals - Monday

If you didn’t already know, we’ve set up a new twitter account for Deals, it’s @MacStoriesDeals - please follow for Deals-only posts. We’ll tweet the daily deals there as well as exclusive weekend deals too. Help spread the word! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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