Apple

Look for an update to iTunes sometime today or very soon. The Apple web site even talks about it (check the bottom of the page).

A set of iPhone prototypes from 2006 briefly made the eBay rounds this morning, with bids running more than $2,000 for the two phones (one non-working) before Apple managed to get the listing yanked sometime during the day. The seller also made a YouTube video documenting the features on the phone -- while that too was pulled down due to Apple exerting its copyright, Engadget managed to salvage it and now has it up on its site.

We love ourselves some iTunes Store cards, they're the only super legit birthday/holiday gift you can give and not have people think you're lazy or unimaginative. Or maybe people think we're jerks just because we're still giving out Circuit City gift cards. Meh, the company could still rebound, c'mon! Regardless, the popular iTunes cards have now come under a vicious setback in China, where hackers have cracked the algorithm that generates the iTunes Store gift cards, allowing them to produce and sell working cards for literally pennies on the dollar.

A report from Taiwan that Apple is developing a new netbook with touch-based panels has caused another flare-up of discussion on Apple boards and blogs, even though the company has repeatedly said it's not interested in entering that low-cost, low-end segment of the PC market.

Despite public statements to the contrary, Apple did lay off around 50 enterprise salespeople last week, CNET News has learned.

Sources who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal confirmed reports by Valleywag and 9to5Mac.com that roughly 50 salespeople were let go by the company for "business and economic reasons," according to one source. An entire sales group based in Austin, Texas, was let go as well as workers in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple is headquartered. Those affected were given severance packages and the opportunity to apply for other jobs inside Apple.

In spite of the fact that more than 20,000 apps have sprouted in a matter of months and many developers have become rich virtually over night, there’s a pungently vocal minority that thinks that Apple has got it wrong.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a pair of virtual storefronts — Cydia Store and Rock Your Phone — selling software to iPhone users will soon open. Quite naturally these unofficial outlets — Cupertino probably thinks of them as illegal — will only available to folks that have jailbroken (see Pwnage tool) their Apple-branded handsets.

Your iPhone can make calls, access the internet, send and receive emails, and even tell you what the weather is like in Kuala Lumpur, but, thanks to the App store, it can do so much more besides.

And so we decided to put together this list, highlighting those apps that can transform your iPhone into a television, a plumb line, an atomic clock and more - showing you the fun and possibly unknown uses for this, the most innovative product in Apple's line-up.

Shortly after Apple's 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro began making its way out to early adopters, small legions of owners have reported all sorts of bizarre graphical glitches. While we first assumed that it was NVIDIA's GeForce 9600M causing all the mayhem, further investigation has led us to believe that faulty fan controls could be the culprit.

China Unicom's chairman Chang Xiaobing has confirmed that the company is in talks with Apple over an option to sell the iPhone handset in the country. He did not elaborate on the talks, citing confidentiality agreements.

China Unicom is a distant second to China Mobile in subscriber numbers, but the iPhone is already hugely popular in the country thanks to gray-imports and being the official carrier is expected to be able boost the operator subscriber growth markedly.

A widely reported interface overhaul making its debut in early betas of QuickTime X Player distributed with pre-releases of Apple's Snow Leopard operating system this week is reportedly not much to write home about.