iPhone Push to Be Delivered Alongside Snow Leopard? – Warning: this post is long, very involved, and pretty detailed. That said, it is very informative, and it presents a well-reasoned argument for why background push notification for third-party apps might be integrally tied to Apple’s upcoming Snow Leopard operating system. It better be.

Adobe eBooks Support Coming to Stanza – The Kindle 2 may have only just recently come out, and it looks like it may be a very nice little reading machine, but Stanza isn’t about to stand by and let it take back some of its many readers. They’ve just announced upcoming support for Adobe eBooks, which will broaden their huge library even more. Take that, Bezos.

Windows 7 Public Beta Starting to Shut Down – Microsoft opened up the initial pool of public beta testers for Windows 7 beyond their initial limit, but now they’re starting to shut down the servers that house the image file for download. All new downloads have already been cut off, and now they’re just letting those who’ve started finish up.

A Tale of Broken Networks and Broken Hearts – Over at GigaOm today, network head Om Malik has a post up about the end of his love affair with Apple’s iPhone. It wasn’t you, iPhone, it was AT&T’s network. Somehow, that doesn’t make it hurt any less.

Jailbroken iPhone Gets Turn-by-Turn, The Rest of Us Still Lost – A Cydia app called xGPS, which has been around for a while, just got a big update, which allows it now to deliver true turn-by-turn navigation, like the talking kind, on top of Google’s Maps app. If only that feature weren’t more lost than background push notification for legit phones.

PearC Starts Selling OS X Preinstalled, Backed by Law – Another company is challenging Apple’s belief in their unimpeachable right to be the sole company allowed to sell OS X on its computers. This time, the company is German, and they may have the law on their side. According to German law, Apple’s EULA for OS X is void because consumers can’t read it prior to purchase, since it’s inside the sealed box. We’ll see if that holds water in court.

Users Soon to “Prey” on iPhone – There have been rumors of fully functional first-person shooters arriving on the iPhone before, but Prey may be the first that’s playable and well-developed, if it does indeed come out in the next week or two like it’s supposed to. Watch for the non-accelerometer controlled interface, should be interesting.

Apple Asked Google Not to Use Multi-Touch, Google Agreed – Google seems less a competitor to Apple in the cell phone market and more a booster every day. First Google Sync launches on the iPhone, and now it comes to light that Apple politely asked Google not to use multi-touch tech in their Android OS, and Google politely complied. Then they had a tea party.

Leopard To Bring ZFS Support to Servers, Printer Drivers on Demand – If you get in your way back machine, you’ll find that Apple had originally planned to bring full ZFS file system support to the Mac with Leopard. Now, it’s looking like the desktop will again get passed up in Snow Leopard, although ZFS will come server side. Also, printer drivers will be on demand, so as not to add clutter.

Seinfeld, Microsoft Needs You – I liked the ads personally, and this article on CNET by Don Reisinger provides a stirring defense of the odd-ball Gates/Seinfeld team-ups.

iPhone in China Faces Yet Another Hurdle – It’s been a hard battle so far, and it doesn’t seem to show any signs of being resolved anytime soon. This time, the App Store is giving China Mobile pause. Apparently they fear that it will lead to the company “losing control” of their subscribers. Apparently they don’t like that they don’t get to handle any of the money that passes between customers and Apple.

Apple Surveying Customers About Apple TV – In an odd move from a company that seems to me to sometimes act in spite of customers’ wants, Apple today released a survey seeking information and feedback about the Apple TV. Some of the questions seem to indicate that Apple is after the market of customers who download or rip their movies, and wants to possibly enhance interoperability between Apple TV and other devices.

Finally, Minority Report Interface Becomes Real – MIT researchers have developed a new technology that would trump multi-touch, if it becomes much less geeky looking. It projects an interface onto pretty much anything, including your hand, or in theory, other parts of the body. Imagine the possibilities!

Apple Says Facebook Not Being Blocked – It was just in yesterday’s Daily Apple, but apparently it wasn’t true. Today an Apple spokesperson denied that Facebook was being blocked in Apple stores. They cite that iPhoto now has Facebook integration, which makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.

Microsoft To Compete With MobileMe, Too – Today we posted about Google’s new contacts/calendar sync service for iPhone users, but it looks like Microsoft wants to join the party too. They’re working on their own contacts/calendar/mail, etc. sync service, under the working title “My Phone.” Creative.

Snow Leopard to Have Location, Multi-Touch Features – Those who are privy to the latest build of Snow Leopard are reporting that it has some tools familiar to iPhone users. Core Location services, and additional multi-touch features are part of the new package. But wait, MacBooks don’t have GPS, so how does it know where you are? Leveraging existing network hardware and tech, that’s how.

Repair Support Being Phased Out By Apple for “Vintage” Products – I”m having second thoughts about picking up that 12″ Powerbook I was thinking about getting since Apple refuses to release a proper netbook, now that they’ve announced they’re dropping official repair support for the older portable, among others. Check to see if you’ve become obsolete.

Apple Tries Fourth Design for Georgetown Store – Fourth time’s the charm, maybe? It seems like Georgetown is becoming slightly more willing to play ball with Apple’s industrial design mavens. Three previous attempts were blocked, since the neighborhood really likes its heritage and heritage look-a-likes, which does not include a giant glowing white Apple symbol.

Court Upholds Ruling Against iPhone Exclusivity in France – We reported earlier when a watchdog group found France Telecom’s iPhone deal with Apple to be in violation of regulations governing competitiveness. Now, an appeal by the telecommunication company has resulted in the decision being upheld.

iPhone App Makes Up for Weak Built-In Camera – 2 megapixels is lame, and the iPhone camera, with its limited focal range, is not going to win any awards, even among other cellphone cameras. This new app for jailbroken iPhones does a little fancy footwork to double your resolution.

New Snow Leopard Updated Seeded to Select Group – A new build of the still experimental OS X Snow Leopard has been seeded to developers, but not to all. The app improves stability without adding any new big changes, which may be a sign that Apple is prepping it for public release. No info on why the testing pool is limited at this time.

Norway Okay With iTunes, Now That DRM is Gone – Norway’s consumer ombudsman has dropped his complaint against Apple now that they’ve gone DRM-free with iTunes tracks, according to CNET. They’re just one of many European groups to have lodged complaints against Apple for their protection, all of which will likely be dropped now that they’re no longer relevant or meaningful. Makes sense to me.

17-inch MacBook Pro Shipments Get Delayed – Apparently it wasn’t late January, like we reported earlier. In fact, its now early February, and users are receiving notices of delays instead of shiny new 17-inch MacBook Pros. The new ship date of 3-4 weeks puts delivery into March. Apple give the reason as “wrapping” difficulties. The new packaging must be amazingly complicated.

Samsung App Store to Launch With Over 1,000 Titles – Samsung, who makes a lot of phones, has decided to start up an app store of their very own for their devices. That officially makes the app store thing a full-fledged trend, since pretty much everyone is getting on board. Where’s yours, Nokia, or do you want to become as irrelevant as Motorola?

Take Out the “D”, Add In An “H, N, E” – That’s how your turn an iPod into an iPhone. Or, as the analyst quoted in this piece suggests, bundle iPhones with a built-in data plan. My way is easier, if less tangible.

Background Tasks Coming to iPhone – MacRumors is citing, well, I’m not sure what they’re citing, but they’re saying Apple is considering user-selectable background tasks instead of push notification support. As you probably know, Apple originally promised push notification long, long ago, and then pulled it, and then we haven’t heard anything. I just want to play Last.fm while checking my email.

More Tablet Rumors Stirred Up By Patent Application – I’m on a roll, with two patent mentions in two days. This one’s about an Apple tablet, rumors of which will never die because the thing is so many Apple diehards’ most tantalising fantasy. It’s not hard to make a good one, as Axiotron knows, so I don’t know what’s stopping them.

Kindle 2.0 Could Come from Amazon Early as Next Monday – Take that with a grain of salt, as its based on the research of a Citigroup analyst, and so constitutes little more than an educated guess. We’ll see if they make enough improvements to threaten the iPhone’s position as the most popular e-reader.

Lawsuit City for Apple Over 3G Speeds – Two more lawsuits have been launched against Apple and AT&T over the speeds of the iPhone 3G’s network. The suit claims insufficient hardware speed and infrastructure, which explains why both parties are to blame. I have no frame of reference, but I’ve never had cause to become impatient because of the thing. I think I just ruined my eligibility to cash in should a class action suit result in a pay out.

Twitter-Generated List of OS X Software – Blogger Darren Barefoot just recently got a Mac, and was looking to outfit it with apps, so he turned to Twitter. The result of his inquiry is a rather handy list of great apps for OS X. Check out part two, as well.

Blow-Controlled Mobile Phone Introduced – This might be an example of when avoiding infringement of Apple’s multi-touch patent might have gone too far. Korean mobile manufacturer Pantech is now selling blow-controlled “Sky Wind” phones. Why, with that tech, you could blow out virtual candles on a virtual birthday cake.

March 29 Could Bring New Mac Pro Processors – Not, I should note, the Mac Pros themselves, but the next generation Xeon processors that could eventually provide the brains of the operation. They have the same clock speeds, but are supposed to gain lots of performance power through the introduction of other new techs, including a replacement of the legacy “Front Side Bus.”

Music Industry Cowers Before iTunes’ Might – The New York Times has an interesting article about how tense relations are between Apple and the big players in the music industry, owing to Apple’s strongarm bargaining tactics and the industry’s fear of courting their disfavor.

Patent Points to Video Conferencing iPhone – Usually I don’t pay much attention to the myriad of patent applications Apple makes, because most of them seem to come to nothing. This one, though, is one I’m really pulling for. The iPhone needs video capabilities, and this shows Apple’s at least considering it.

Apple Market Share Up in January – To nearly 10 percent, according to data gathered by Net Applications and reported by Ars Technica. That’s a new record for Macs, and an increase for the iPhone as well. Windows slid over the same period.

Monochrome Keyboard DIY Job – Apple may be using a two-color scheme on most of their hardware these days, but Steve Essell likes his keyboards white, and only white. Hence this all-white masterpiece. It’s so cool, it doesn’t need key labels, and neither should you if you’re a Mac user worth his salt. Done using only spray paint, and without disassembly.

Apple News Week in Charts and Lists – Since I once dabbled in the desktop publishing trade, no one knows better than me the value of a nice chart. Here are five nice charts from CNNMoney’s Fortune blog, all detailing some different way in which Apple is awesome. The cumulative effect is a reassuring one, for those of us who were worried about the state of the company following Steve’s leave.

More Talk About Dell Smartphones – As early as next month, but maybe as late as never, Dell is (still) considering taking on Apple by releasing at least a few models of smartphone. The phones will be WinMo and Android-based, and at least one will feature a touchscreen. I wonder what Dell thinks they have that HTC, RIM, Palm, etc, etc. don’t?

17″ MacBook Pro Now Shipping – MacRumors noticed the disheartening acceptance of pre-orders has changed to the refreshing “Ships in 7-10 business days” at the online Apple Store. If I was buying one, it would be here in a little over a week. I’m not, but oh boy, if I was, that’d be sweet.

Rowmote: Like Your Hardware Remote Except Better – This handy little app just arrived in the App Store today. It turns your iPhone or iPod touch into an Apple Remote, capable of controlling all the applications on your Mac that the hardware version can, but it doesn’t need line of sight. Costs a buck, so a good deal if you didn’t already fork out when you ordered your new Mac.

Apple Brand Most Social of All, Crowds Top 20 – Using statistics concerning how many blogs (like this one) and micro-blogged comments make mention of brand names, and how often, social media services company Vitrue developed an index of the top 20 “Most Social” brand names. Apple took four of the spots, including number one. Microsoft was a distant second with two.

Useful Data Privacy Tips to Celebrate Data Privacy Day – Today, TUAW marked the “global initiative to highlight information security rights and practices” by providing seven tips to help you stay secure. Most of them are very common sense suggestions, which is exactly why they bear repeating. Your Mac may be tough, but it isn’t invincible.

Blackberry Storm More Expensive to Make Than iPhone – Say what you will about the Blackberry Storm, Research In Motion spared no expense when it came to putting the thing together. According to iSupply, the touchscreen device costs $203 to make, compared to just $173 for the iPhone. How much is better design worth, though?

More Rumors About Subsidized Apple Notebook - Like a broken record, rumors of an AT&T subsidized Apple notebook continue to surface. This time, the source is AT&T’s Emerging Devices president Glenn Lurie, who hinted about the prospect in an interview with Fortune magazine.

NVIDIA Update Gets Pulled, No One Knows Why – This was the patch released only earlier this week, that was meant to fix “cursor issues,” but that didn’t fix the screen distortion issues users were having when connecting displays via the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-DVI adapter.

Crazy Apple Concepts From 90’s, No Grunge Model Though – Here are some great Flickr photos of concept designs of Apple products from the early 90’s. Some of it is just bizarre, and others are not so different from concepts that continue to crop up to this day, which is a sad reflection on how badly we want a tablet Mac.

Android Has Malware Scare, Now Apple’s Iron-Fisted Rule Makes Sense – Apple gets a lot of flack for their App Store approval process, but Google recently had a near miss with a malware app that makes it look pretty reasonable. The app in question, MemoryUp Personal, apparently deletes memory cards and spams people. Good feature set.

NVIDIA Display Fix Doesn’t Fix Everything – Distortion issues on monitors connected to MacBooks via Mini DisplayPort to Dual-DVI adapters were not fixed via Monday’s update, says Gizmodo’s Jason Chen. The issue is an intermittent one that resolves after a few reconnects, but still, this isn’t amateur hour Apple.

Speaking of Concepts, Here’s a Whopper – A tri-fold Macbook design? Kooky. It’s a magic little MacBook Mini, or in other words, what an Apple netbook might look like. I often wonder what else these people designing Apple concepts do with their time. Maybe show little poor girls pictures of ponies they’ll never, ever have?

Steampunk-y iPhone Design… On a Shirt! – This thing is really cool. I like the pan flute part, and the compass-dial thingy where the Home button should go. Another wonderful, impossible device that I will sadly never be able to have.

iLife ‘08 Updates Land Along With iLife ‘09 – The big story might be the release of iLife ‘09, which features major additions to iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band, but iLife ‘08 also got some lovin’ from Apple. Those updates include stability improvements and minor issue resolution for both the iLife Media Browser and iDVD 7.0.3. Not as spicy, but at least it’s something.

iPhone Basically Is Mobile Independent Gaming Industry – Or at least the successful bits. According to Joystiq, via TUAW, iPhone games from independent developers occupy 11 out of 14 available spots on the finalist list for the 2009 Independent Games Mobile category. Highlights from the list include the popular Fieldrunnners and Galcon, the minimalist sci-fi conquest game.

Apple Issues iPhone Firmware 2.2.1 – This minor update to the iPhone 2.2 firmware brings little change, beyond stability improvements for Safari and bug fixes for an issue with photos downloaded to Camera Roll from Mail. I haven’t done it, since I just enabled Emoji the non-jailbreak way and don’t want to lose my cute little pictures, which could happen.

Papermaster OK to Work, May Be a Slight (Huge) Hitch – IBM and Apple have finally settled over Mark Papermaster’s sexy bones, but Apple might now have to preview their work to IBM in order to get the go-ahead. Sort of just like I said, in case anyone was wondering.

Fix for NVIDIA Graphics Issues Released – Users experiencing trouble with their Dual-DVI connected monitors can breathe a sigh of relief now that a fix has been officially released by Apple. The fix addresses cursor problems on DisplayPort enabled Macs, and HD playback quality on machines using newer NVIDIA cards.

Apple Nets Multi-Touch, iPhone Patents, Better Position From Which to Threaten Palm – A lot has been made of the threatening words spoken by Tim Cook during the Q1 2009 Apple conference call, in which he hinted that Palm’s Pre could be grounds for a suit(s?). Today Apple can further back that up, since they acquired the patent for multi-touch and the iPhone.

Apple Adds New Ad – A new iPhone 3G ad was posted today by Apple on their website, this one again featuring third party apps available in the App Store. The apps featured are Yelp, Osirix, and Classics, and the theme is reading. Because all of those apps require you to read something, see.

Zune Revenue Plummets 50% in 2Q – Microsoft should really just put the thing out of its misery at this point. It’s no good, and it’s doing terrible. For a frame of reference, consider that Apple’s iPod sales rose 3 percent in their own first fiscal quarter. Just kill the thing, for all our sakes.

One Analyst Thinks New iMac Soon, Also It Will Rain Someday In Future – At this point I think the odds are in your favor if you claim a new iMac is on the horizon. Especially when you suggest a whole bunch of logical reasons why they may be waiting, as this particular analyst does.

Apple TV “Take 3″ Update Next Month, Here’s a Wish List – TG Daily seems to be under the impression that Apple is in the business of giving customers their dream machines, so they’ve provided a list of exactly what it’ll take to propel Apple TV to the next level with their upcoming update. If they provide these things, I’ll buy one.

Six Bad Apples Don’t Spoil The Whole Bunch, Baby – PCWorld, eager to reaffirm the value of their own chunk of the market, are celebrating Apple’s 25th anniversary by printing a big smacking list of Apple’s notable failures. I still know a guy who uses number six, but the list doesn’t lie.

Removing the iWork Trojan From Your Ill-Gotten Gains – In case you somehow mistakenly downloaded iWork ‘09 from a Torrent site, and got stuck with the Trojan it came packed with, Mac.Blorge has produced this lovely guide on how to rid yourself of your unwelcome guest. Simple process, since it’s just a program designed to get rid of it.

Windows On Apple in ‘83 – Long before BootCamp, Parallels, VMware, or anything else came along, there was Windows on an Apple computer. It used a hardware emulator card to get it running, but there it is, in full green and black glory. Cost, on top of computer and Windows 1.0 purchase: $899.

Very Reasonable Suggestions Which Will Go Unheard – Here’s some business tips for Apple’s board of directors, from an Apple shareholder. Maybe when they’re done laughing, they will do exactly the opposite.

Don’t Pirate That iWork, And Not Just For Morality’s Sake – It might be tempting to go around abusing Apple’s decision to remove the installation key requirement from their recently updated iWork ‘09 suite, but it could also get you in more than just ethical trouble. CNET, among others, is reporting the recent discovery of a nasty Trojan in a pirated version of the software making its BitTorrent circles.

App Store Recreated for Those Who Hate iTunes – You might want to browse the ol’ App Store without firing up iTunes, or maybe you don’t own an iPhone and you just want to see what all the fuss is about. No problem, thanks to this fully rendered HTML version of the store, rendered in all its glory. Not sure if Apple’s thrilled about this one, but my money’s on definitely not.

Gizmodo Never-Ever App Photoshop Contest – While we’re on the subject of iPhone/iPod touch Apps, I came across this today in my daily travels. It’s one of Gizmodo’s regularly scheduled Photoshop contests, with the focus this time on creating fictional Apps that will never, never ever, never ever nev make it into the App Store.

Larry Magid’s Original L.A. Times Macintosh Review – An oldie but a goodie, this review of the first ever Macintosh computer will have you strolling down memory lane or thanking your lucky stars that technology advances at such a breakneck pace. I like where he talks about the Apple II, making reference to “stiff competition from Radio Shack,” which no longer exists here in Canada, having been replaced by soon-to-go Circuit City venture The Source.

Make Your iPhone Stand On the Super Cheap – I was very disappointed when I opened up my brand new 3G iPhone and didn’t find a little plastic bit that would hold it up on my desk while I watched movies (this happens all the time). Now I’m less disappointed, since I can prop it up using pencils and erasers.

iPhone Now Used to Help Stutterers – No simple app could accomplish it alone, but entirely reprogrammed iPhones are being used by folks at the Hollins Communication Research Institue to help treat people plagued by persistent, chronic stuttering. The software evaluates and scores coping behaviors taught in therapy.

DopeWars Makeover Brings it App Store Acceptance – Unsurprisingly, App Store reviewers didn’t let an iPhone optimized version of DopeWars make it into the App Store, but developers remained undeterred and took it back to the drawing board and came up with Prohibition 3: Candy Wars. You can probably guess what they changed.

Apple Hinting at Legal Action vs. Palm Over Pre? – Part of the Apple conference call, towards the end, has PC Magazine thinking that Apple may be planning to take Palm to court over their recently released Pre smartphone. In no uncertain terms, Tim Cook says they’ll hunt them down like dogs if it turns out they stole Apple IP.

Conference Call Summary: iPod/iTunes Success – Here’s a good breakdown of what the Apple Q1 fiscal conference call was all about, courtesy of The Washington Post. Also, retail is slowing. No big surprise in this economy. We’ll see next time around how the Steve Jobs

Because Sometimes You Have to Wait A Long Time for Your Mark – No more long, boring stakeouts for you would-be assassins. This handy iPod mount for your sniper rifle will let you watch some YouTube, play a game, or check out the scores at the game you’re missing because you have to kill this guy.

Mac Menus For Multiple Monitors – I use my TV as a second display for watching movies, playing games, etc. Which means that not having menus on either one or the other display really cramps my style. Thanks to jkOnTheRun, I now have at least one option, even if it’s not ideal (that would be a top menu on each screen).

Microsoft to Tango With MobileMe – If you want to cut in on a competitor’s territory, the best place to strike is where they’re weakest. Apple knew Vista was disappointing, so they targeted the OS in their ad campaign. Microsoft may have learned that lesson, since they’re set to release a MobileMe competitor.

Seagate Drives Prone to a Slight Case of Not Working – Barracuda series drives that are used in some Apple computers are developing a nasty case of the fails. The good news is that the data can be saved on failed drives. The bad news is that an application which could warn you of imminent failure doesn’t run on Macs.

Apple Now Selling Used Products in China – Apple computers aren’t selling like hotcakes in China, which now represents a major market, even with the global economic turmoil going on right now. They’re probably hoping that offering used/refurb deals will net some more customers.

Unlocked iPhone 3G Briefly On Sale in U.K. – It was only live for a second, but U.K. site Pixmania advertised today an iPhone for sale, unlocked and SIM-free for £499, which is pretty pricey. But that price buys you freedom to bring the phone to any carrier. The iPhone was pulled minutes later, and it’s not clear whether it’ll ever be back.

Apple Keyboard + iPhone Match Made in Heaven – Gizmodo posted this concept today that makes so much sense it’ll never ever get made. If, and this is asking for way too much, you could also use the keyboard as an input device for the docked iPhone, I would never ask for anything again.

App Store Over the Hill? No, Says One Blog – The more pessimistic folks in the crowd have been saying since Apple reached the 500 million apps downloaded milestone that the App store’s success has peaked. Apple 2.0 provides a nice counterpoint as to why that probably isn’t the case with this article.

The Cost of Exclusivity = $80 Million – Did Apple leave $80 million on the table when they wrote up the contract between themselves and AT&T that prevented them from selling the iPhone to gift-givers over the holidays? That’s the argument over at Ad Age, though they don’t really say Apple made the wrong move overall.

Apple Earnings Call Wednesday – Those who invest more than just time, effort, and emotion into Apple Inc. will want to pay close attention in two days when Apple holds their quarterly earnings conference call for Q1 2009. That’s 5 EST, 2 PST, for those setting their alarms.

Dan “Fake Steve Jobs” Lyons Goes After CNBC Tech Analyst - Wow, I don’t know if you saw this, but it was good television. Dan Lyons basically goes crazy, but he’s actually calling it like he sees it.

Intel-based Atom Mac Mini to Appear in March – Beware the Ides of March, for they could bring under-powered Mac Minis to the masses. They’d be based on Nvidia’s new Ion platform, which also uses the GeForce 9400M graphics card found in unibody aluminum MacBooks.

“OS X” Getting Trademarked Without “Mac” Before It – OS X. Just OS X. It makes sense, but it’s strange that until now Apple hasn’t found a need to do it. Ars thinks Apple wants to apply OS X to more than just Mac, and they’re probably right. iPhones, right? Perhaps beyond, as well.

“Knife Music” Finally Available After Bad Words Removed – It washed its mouth out with soap, and now it’s made it into the App Store via Apple approval. David Carnoy, the book’s author, decided the censoring required didn’t significantly affect the content of the story. Play me that sweet, censored Knife Music, Carnoy.

Stopwatch App Looks, Works Great – If you can get past the app’s Japanese-only description, this app turns your iPhone and iPod touch into a very effective stopwatch that’s accurate to the 100th of a second. It’s free, too, so the price is right.

One-chip 4G Radio From Infineon Might Make It Into iPhone – It’s called the SMARTi LU, and it’s the first single-chip solution to support Long Term Evolution (LTE) for 4G connectivity. It also supports 3G and 2G/EDGE standards, so it’s backwards compatible. Sounds like a good bet.

MPEG Surround Support May Come to iTunes – It’s not in the bag, but Ars is reporting on it, so it must be more than the usual rumor chaff. They’re a class act, right? Anyways, they’re reporting that support for MPEG Surround, which has been around for quite some time, might finally make it to iTunes via official means.

Nebraska State Senate Goes a Little Air Crazy, Budget Wild – Well, they didn’t agree unanimously about it, but Nebraska state senators will have around 70 brand new MacBook Airs to play with thanks to a recent equipment purchase. At least one naysayer felt they were spending too much. Response: But they’re just so cool!

IR Control Via Your iPhone – One thing I miss about my Palm Pilot is NoviiRemote, the app which allowed me to hide and forget about my thousands of remote controls. The iPhone can’t do the same thing, since it doesn’t have IR. But now it does, via an IR widget and app developed by University of Toronto students. Way to go hometown team!

Cost of New MacBook Pro Battery Replacement Revealed – Not too steep, when you consider how much it costs just to buy current replaceable batteries. Don’t like the exchange rate for CDN $, though.

New Line of Argument for Psystar – Switching horses once again, this time sort of back to their original position. They claim that once they bought the copies of OS X legally, they’re allowed to resell it on their machines, and to say otherwise is to violate the Copyright Act.

Microsoft Offers Songsmith to Challenge GarageBand – A new music creation app from Microsoft is trying to take on Apple’s GarageBand, since their products have a history of coming late to Apple’s niches and doing well (Zune, right?). Songsmith does offer the interesting feature of coming up with musical arrangements that go great with your terrible crooning.

Shareholder Proposals for Upcoming Year Denied by Apple Board of Directors – Yes, it’s true that they are responsible to the shareholders, but that doesn’t mean they have to listen to their wacky ideas. Not that some of them don’t actually make sense. Hit the link for the full list.

iPhone Firmware 3.0 to Support Multi-Core Processing? – They’re not saying that anything solid is in the pipeline, but this rumor does make a bit of sense, especially once you’ve read the details. The rumor is corroborated by Imagination’s announcement that they’re working on something that would suit this purpose.

Windows 7 Goes Public Beta, Then Goes On Hold – Thanks to our friends over at jkOnTheRun, I spent most of my morning hitting reset to try to get into the brand new Windows 7 public beta. Also thanks to them, I stopped. Let’s hope they start up those engines agains soon.

Box Set Has All The Hits for Less – If you’re just getting started with this whole Mac thing, this is the deal for you. Leopard, iWork ‘09, and iLife ‘09, all for $169. That’s a steep discount, considering that without the deal, they cost $300.

Apple to Crash the CES Party? – Macworld’s definitely out, but now it looks like Apple might be eyeing up the fair maiden CES. That’s according to a source telling tales to Cult of Mac. CES does garner more press when Apple isn’t dropping huge bombs like the iPhone.

Motorola Presents the Bottle Phone – Apple, you can claim to be green all you want, but until you start making the iPhone out of recycled cardboard or something, Motorola’s got you beat. They just unveiled this beauty, made of recycled bottles.