Apple

Apple has long been criticized for the enclosed batteries in the iPhone and MacBook line of laptops. Because the batteries are sealed inside, the batteries are not removable and, in the event of diminished battery life, must be replaced by Apple.

Over the weekend it emerged that iPad users would also have to send their devices to Apple if they wanted a replacement battery. However, unlike iPhones and MacBooks, Apple isn't going to crack open your iPad and replace the battery, it's going to send you a new one.

Apple this summer will go a long way towards silencing critics and catering to one of the most prevalent demands of its iPhone user base, when it introduces a multitasking solution through the handset's 4.0 software update that will finally allow several third party apps to run concurrently and in the background.

The first rule of Apple's App Club is: You do not talk about App Club. Any developer who writes an app for the App Store is forbidden from making any public statements about the iPhone Developer Program Licensing Agreement.

Second rule of App Club is: Said developers also can't sell their apps to other app stores, even if that app is eventually rejected by Apple. Third rule of App Club: You can't reverse engineer anything having to do with the App Store software development kit (SDK) or the iPhone OS.

On the surface, the latest iPhone 3.2 Beta 4 SDK didn't have much new information. Diving a little deeper however, we find some very exciting news.

In the gestures folder, you'll see two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist) that are certainly not implemented in the current 3.1 iPhone SDK. Apple is likely allowing developers to use these capabilities in the next versions of the OS. We might even see these in the shipping version of the iPad.

Without an operating system – Mac OS X, say, or Windows XP – a computer is just a dumb box of chips, and even the most exciting application will have no environment in which to run. And, it's easy to forget that you have a choice of which OS you run.

In fact, as a Mac user, you're uniquely positioned because an Intel Mac is the only computer in the world that can legally run all three major operating systems, Mac OS, Windows and Linux. Indeed, you can, if you like, load all three on the same computer and pick which one you want to load when you switch your Mac on.

The computer giant, which manufactures the iPod and iPhone, has plans to replace the traditional door key with a hi-tech alternative.

It is developing technology, already being nicknamed the "iKey", which will mean that rather than carrying around a bunch of keys, people will be able to use a single electronic device to unlock their car, front door and gain access to their office. Users would simply have to enter a pin code and wave the device over an electronic pad fitted beside a door to open it.

Steve Jobs appears to have fired off a tersely worded email reply to a user in Sweden who asked whether the WiFi-only iPad could be tethered to the iPhone: "No."

Jezper Söderlund of the Swedish website Slashat.se reports that he sent Apple's chief executive an email identifying himself as an Apple customer before adding, "I'm also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question: Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?"

Wi-Fi hotspot detecting applications are the latest on Apple's list of verboten apps, and even developers are being left in the dark as to why.

Wi-Fi detection is something of a niche: there were never more than a handful of such applications in iTunes. But now even those have vanished as Apple decided they were using a "private framework", and has pulled them off the shelves without explanation or apology.

Fortune on Thursday released its annual list of the world's most admired companies and topping that list is Apple. Another tech giant, Google, placed second overall.

To collect its data, Fortune asked businesspeople to vote for the companies that they admired most, from any industry. This is the third straight year that Apple has taken the title of most admired company, but this year it also took the top position in the computer category. Last year, it was second in the category.

Apple's plans for cloud computing go beyond music. The company's representatives have recently spoken with some of the major film studios about enabling iTunes users to store their content on the company's servers, two people familiar with the discussions told CNET. That's in addition to streaming television shows and music.