Mac aficionados that also enjoy a pack of Marlboros every now and then might want to keep their smoke as far away from their computer as possible for it appears Apple doesn’t take kindly to the habit. Yesterday, Consumerist ran a story about two customers that were denied warranty repairs to their MacBook and iMac by Apple (both had purchased extended AppleCare warranties) simply because the machines were exposed to second-hand smoke. Both appealed to the office of Steve Jobs to no avail. The strangest thing, however, is the explaination that one received from someone at Jobs’ office: the nicotine released from cigarettes is classified as a bio-hazard by the Operational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and as such, Apple employees are within their rights to refuse to work on a machine that has been in contact with the chemical. The only suggestion Apple offered was to take the computers to be fixed somewhere else on their dime. Obviously these two cases are an anomaly, but the question still remains: should Apple be able to walk away from its obligation as set out in the AppleCare agreement because of a little bit of smoke? Just to be clear, there is nothing in the AppleCare fine print that even comes close to singling out smoking as being prohibited.

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Looks like Virgin Mobile Canada is ready to break its iPhone hymen. Yesterday they announced that they will be offering both the iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS in retail stores in “the coming months.” Oh Sir Richard, how we love thee. We suppose you want details, but we don’t have any — the press release is a blistering 31 words and 198 characters long, hell if they had been a bit more succinct they could have just tweeted it — as Virgin Canada’s website has yet to be updated with the news. We’ll continue to follow this one as it develops.

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We can file this one under rumor of a rumor — you’ve been warned — so please, proceed with caution. DigiTimes is reporting that Apple’s yet to be announced tablet device will be delayed until the second half of 2010 due to a last minute design change, specifically, the use of a 9.7″ OLED LG display. The report goes onto say that the delay is a strategic move by Apple due to the current cost of the OLED panels, which currently wholesale for around $500 a pop. The price of LG’s panels are expected to drop significantly in late 2010 as they revamp their production line with newer equipment. The report is oozing with speculation on release dates, price, manufacturer, and potential future models, so we’ll let you check out the dirt for yourself.

[Via Gizmodo]

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One of our connects just hit us up with some intriguing Apple information. According to them, what you see detailed above is a shot of Apple’s yearly Black Friday deals. It’s reported to be something Apple will email out shortly. This time around, it looks as if Apple will be offering up to 30% off on all iPods (Update: excluding iPhone and iPod shuffle, sorry), up to 25% off Macs, and up to 15% off all accessories as well as Apple software and hardware. The deal is only good for the day of November 27th and if that’s not good enough, “select” Apple stores will open at 6AM. This is unconfirmed but it doesn’t seem too unrealistic. Thoughts?

Earlier this week, an Australian coder by the name of Ikee wrote an interesting iPhone worm targeting users with jailbroken iPhones — specifically those users who had not RTFM and changed their root password. The worm was programmed to scan the 3G IP ranges of the Telus, Optus, and Vodafone networks in Australia. Once a vulnerable iPhone was found, the exploit would change the wallpaper of said device to…Rick Astley. Respect. In an interview Ikee explains that his worm was designed as more of a warning shot than an attempt to compromise user data. Ikee had hoped users would be motivated to change their root password, which is set to “alpine” by default post-jailbreak, after seeing the consequences of a compromised root password. Fast forward to today, and a new anonymous coder has modified Ikee’s worm, and this new variant has less of that public service announcement feel to it. The modified strain, dubbed “iPhone/Privacy.A” by the online security firm Intego, is programmed to do several things: act silently and retrieve e-mail messages, SMS messages, calendar appointments, contacts, photos, music files, videos, along with any other data recorded by your iPhone apps. Currently details on where the worm is uploading the farmed data is scarce, and the threat of being infected is low. What’s our recommendation? If you have a jailbroken iPhone, change the root password. Maybe this is why Apple’s looking to secure their incredibly unsecure mobile operating system…

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Perhaps it would be better to rename it the iPhone 3G$? Do you see what we did just there? Today, Reuters is reporting Apple overtook Nokia as the handset company with the highest total operating profit in the September quarter; the last time Nokia did not hold this title was Q3 of 2007. What does this mean? The iPhone generates a lot of revenue for the Cupertino computer maker. Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in the July to September quarter to generate sales of $4.5 billion, Nokia on the other hand sold 108.5 million handsets and generated sales of $10.36 billion. Apple nudged out Nokia in revenue mainly due to other financial obligations and the economic downturn. You don’t need an abacus to figure out the iPhone is a huge part of Apple’s earnings. No panic out of the Nokia camp however, with the release of the N900 they’re confident in their ability to take back the top spot on the podium. One thing is for certain, we’ll be purchasing several of these Linux powered, A8 processor havin’, numbers. How about you?

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Here’s a bit of an odd one. The iPhone has been on sale in the UK since November 2007 when O2 began exclusively offering the original iPhone. But it was only today the record for single day sales for a sole handset was shattered as Orange began selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. The specific number sold has yet to come out as the day is not yet done, but as of 4pm local time, nationwide sales surpassed 30,000 units. Why is this? Orange thinks it is all to do with its network which it says offers far greater coverage and reach than its competitors and is the focus of a new multi-million pound ad campaign entitled “You’re Covered,” as well as its Orange Wednesdays app which offers perks like 2-for-1 movie coupons. Of course we’re still waiting for Vodafone to start selling the iPhone as it announced it would in September, so we’re quite interested to see how long this record last. One more thing for UK iPhone users. As of today, O2 will legitimately unlock your phone provided that you adhere to the following conditions: Pay Monthly users can unlock at any time but must continue to pay until O2 for services until their term is up while Pay Go subs must have had their iPhone for 12 months and pay a £15 fee. If anyone is interested in this, just visit http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/unlockmyiphone.html to get this process started.

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A few days ago AT&T filed suit against Verizon for its “There’s an App for That” ad campaign. Verizon’s response? Welcoming the iPhone to the Island of Misfit Toys in a new commercial that embodies the Christmas Spirit. Hit the break to check out the main attraction as well as two side shows.

We all knew that the iPhone was going to start hitting more third-party retailers at some point, but we just didn’t think it would be this soon. RadioShack, or The Shack, has announced that it will be carrying the iPhone 3G and 3GS in select stores in Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City at the end of this month. The company expects to have the iPhone available nationwide in 2010. So, for now, you’ll have to settle with Apple Stores, AT&T retail locations, Wal-Mart or Best Buy if you want to nab one. Come to think of it, there really is no shortage of suppliers so if you’re finally going to be eligible to upgrade or you want to pick one up on a whim, you can add another to the list of iPhone retailers to choose from. But just remember where all this Shack nonsense started, ok?

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We don’t think we need to go over what an insanely huge day today is for Canada, but in case anyone is feeling particularly thick, we’re going to spell it out plan and simple — Rogers is no longer the only HSPA game in Canada. Bell’s 21Mbps HSPA network has at long last gone live. As with any network launch, a few awesome handsets, data cards and a few Canadian-style rip-off plans have come along for the ride. So hit the jump and check out what’s new.

Smartphones

• Apple iPhone 3G – $99.95 / 599.95 (3-year contract / no strings attached)
• Apple iPhone 3GS (16GB) – $199.95 / $699.95
• Apple iPhone 3GS (32GB) – $299.95 / $799.95
• BlackBerry Bold 9700 – $229.95 / $599.95
• BlackBerry Bold 9000 – $249.95 / $599.95
• Samsung Omnia II – $199.95 / $549.95

Non-Smartphones

• LG Xenon – $89.95 / $289.95
• Nokia 2730 – $27.95 / $119.95
• Nokia 6350 – $49.95 / $249.95
• Samsung Impact – $79.95 / $279.95

Data Sticks

• Novatel Wireless U950 – $24.95 / $174.95
• Novatel Wireless U998 – $74.95 / $174.95
• Novatel Wireless X950 – $24.95 / $174.95

SIM Cards

• $0 / $5

As for price plans, not all that much has changed (the $6.95 SAF is staying for now), but Bell did introduce some iPhone specific plans which are as follows:

Combo 45 for iPhone

• 100 anytime local minutes plus 50 bonus local minutes
• Local Fab Five: Unlimited calling & text to and from five local numbers of your choice
• 500 MB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Combo 55 for iPhone

• 300 anytime local minutes
• Local Fab Five
• 1 GB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Combo 75 for iPhone

• 400 anytime local minutes
• Nationwide Fab Five: Unlimited calling & text to and from five local numbers of your choice nationwide
• 2 GB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Combo 95 for iPhone

• 500 anytime local minutes
• Nationwide Fab Five
• 2 GB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Now to sit and wait for TELUS’ day in the sun to see what, if any, surprises it has in store beyond what we already know.

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About a week ago, geohot released an update to his iPhone jailbreaking software dubbed Blackra1n RC2, and while that was all well and good for all you AT&T guys, it did leave those of us who need a baseband unlock on our iPieces wanting more. Enter blacksn0w. Demoed on YouTube, the blacksn0w exploit will provide a baseband unlock of the 3.1.x firmware allowing your iPhone to run on your preferred GSM carrier. Blacksn0w will be released to the jailbreaking baseband unlocking masses on November 4th and can be loaded onto your device directly from Blackra1n. Boo ya. We’re curious, how many of you iPhone fanatics rely on a baseband unlock to have a functional iPhone? We’ve got the video all queued up for you after the bounce.

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Who’s ready for some statistics? This September ChangeWave Research conducted a poll of smartphone users in an attempt to gauge the market share impact (if any) of new and announced devices from Apple, Palm, and RIM. We’ve combed over the article and picked out some juicy tidbits for your reading pleasure. According to ChangeWave, 39% of people polled currently own a smartphone. Of that sample, 77% own either an Apple, Palm, or RIM branded device (I know, we’re curious about the other 23% as well). RIM polled the largest portion of U.S. market share with 40% followed by Apple at 30% and Palm with a measly 7%. Apple did top the customer satisfaction poll as 74% of iPhone users described themselves as “very satisfied” with their purchase; compare that with RIM at 48% and Palm at 33%. The iPhone also ranked first in future purchases plans of those polled who did not currently own a smartphone, but plan to purchase one in the next 90 days. Also 36% indicated a preference towards the iPhone, 27% towards the BlackBerry, and 8% towards Palm. Any BGR peeps out there with plans to upgrade to a smartphone in the near future? What are you leaning towards? D-D-D-DROID?

[Via The iPhone Blog]

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Our favorite iPhone outlaw, geohot, has released an update to the iPhone jailbreak software blackra1n. Dubbed RC2 the update addresses several issues including:

• Fixes 3G signal issues
• Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB iPod touch 8GB and new 3GS’
• Fixes issues with package software”Icy“
• Versions for both Windows and Mac now available

No need to rerun blackra1n if you already applied RC1 successfully, but for those of you who have not been able to crack into your iPiece take RC2 for a spin. Let us know how it goes!

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We just got an an email from one of our connects and we’ve got some great new for all you iPhone-lovers. We’ve been told in just a couple hours, Canada’s TELUS will officially announce that its nation-wide HSPA network will go live on November 5th. Not only that, but on that very date, TELUS will start selling the Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. The iPhone pricing structure for TELUS will be the same as it is for Rogers (and Bell, for that matter) with the 3G going for $99.99/$599.99 and the 16 and 32GB 3GS going for $199.99/$699.99 and $299.99/$799.99. Beyond that, TELUS doesn’t appear to be in any rush to come forward with specifics on its plan pricing and other handsets. All the presses hints at is “TELUS will offer a number of exciting new devices from HTC, Huawei, LG, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, and Sierra Wireless in time for the holidays, including some on an exclusive basis.” That’s more or less in line with the line-up we’ve already told you.

Things always get a little chippy between Apple and Microsoft when Microsoft one company is preparing for a large OS release, and with Windows 7 it has been no different. Justin Long and John Hodgman have been all over our televisions throwing subtle digs at the newest OS to come out of Redmond. However, Apple is — from a support standpoint — singing a different tune as the Mac maker has announced plans to fully support Windows 7 in its Boot Camp software before the end of this calendar year. The announcement (if you can call it that) came via a knowledge base article on Apple’s support website and states a software update to the Boot Camp software and an Intel Mac will be required. All this bickering reminds us of a scene in The Dark Knight where the Joker explains to Batman, “I don’t want to kill you! What would I do without you? No, no, NO! No. You…you…complete me.”

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Nokia makes the world’s most widely-used handsets — by a wide margin — and they went on the offensive to defend their technology announcing a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. The claim, filed in Delaware district court, alleges 10-counts of patent infringement for technologies used in all iPhones produced since 2007. Nokia’s press release states, “Apple’s iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards.” No other specifics about the suit have been released. After Apple’s recent earnings blowout announcement we can guarantee you one thing: if these claims have any merit Apple will be settling.

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Its been a while since Apple updated their consumer line of Macbooks and iMacs — don’t even get us started on the Mac Mini — so it comes as no surprise that when the store when down this morning there was some new hardware hiding behind the curtain. The updated Macbook now has a thinner form factor, familiar plastic body construction with cleaner beveled edges, multitouch trackpad, and will feature a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The biggest performance increase would have to be in the graphics department, a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR2 SDRAM (shared) is now powering the 13.3″ screen. The revamped iMac will still have its svelte, familiar form but will now pack a 21.5-inch LED back lit display and sport a 3.01 or 3.33 GHz Intel C2D processor. Not fast enough for you? Upgrade to the 27-inch LED display and you can rock out with the quad-core Intel i5 running at 2.66 GHz or the i7 running at 2.8 GHz. The iMac will have 4 DIMM slots and support up to 16GB of memory. The Mini got a pathetic quick refresh in March but hasn’t seen any major form-factor or feature upgrades in recent year (yes, years). The new Mac Mini, gets the same neglect.  Although it does get the same 256MB 9400M NVIDIA chip as the new Macbook the thrills pretty much end there.  Upgraded hard drive storage and L2 cache just aren’t that exciting. Last, the best always comes last, the Mighty Magic Mouse. How about some gesture-based GUI navigation for your carpal tunnel? The Magic Mouse supports two fingered scrolling, swiping, and other advanced gestures all without the use of buttons.  Check  out the hotness!

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Today’s earnings call with Apple has blown the minds of analysts as the Cupertino based company showed another strong quarter. Predictions for revenue was around $9.4 billion, but Apple topped it with $9.87 billion in revenue and a quarterly profit of $1.67 billion. Earnings per share is $1.82 where the consensus was at about $1.42 and whispers of $1.65. Strong sales pushed these substantial increases in profit: 3.05 million Macs (17% increase from last year), 10.2 million iPods (eight percent decrease) and 7.4 million iPhones (seven percent increase). Elated by the September quarter results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer says, “For the full year, we grew revenue by 12 percent and net income by 18 percent in extraordinarily challenging times. Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.70 to $1.78.”

Is anyone really surprised? Amidst a recovering economy, Apple has been pulling impressive numbers and showing some solid growth.

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Looks like EyeTV pulled a fast one on the quality assurance peeps in Cupertino. Our friends from Electricpig in the UK are reporting a quick and easy workaround that allows the EyeTV app to stream media over 3G on the iPhone.

“Tap the OK button, and the app will act as if it can’t receive broadcasts. However, tap the text of the warning message instead, and the Eye TV app will stream live TV over a 3G connection.”

Doesn’t seem like Elgato was trying very hard to hide their little secret, and we’re fairly certain Apple isn’t going to find it very funny. Will Apple go all Google Voice and pull every media streaming app in their catalog? Probably not — however we’re thinking that this particular version of EyeTV isn’t long for the AppStore.

Thanks, James!

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To be perfectly honest we’re surprised it took this long. Reports are surfacing that Apple is now shipping a new bootrom with the iPhone 3GS that is resistant to the 24kpwn exploit used by the Dev-Team and others to jailbreak the iPhone. DevTeam member MuscleNerd confirms that the bootrom update, dubbed iBoot-359.3.2, would make jailbreaking new iPhone’s “impossible” for the time being. Man, does Apple hate when people muck with the iPhone or what! Your move Dev Team — and godspeed. Or maybe our ninja GeoHot can find a way around it? We’ll see!

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In case you thought you were imagining things before, Bell Canada will definitely be adding the iPhone to its lineup following on the heels of the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Bold. Canada’s largest network has a splash page in place but no release dates have been leaked just yet. Where are our Canadian connects at? We’ll keep you updated as usual when there’s more to report.

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This bug report has some serious teeth. Apple’s discussion boards have a growing number of reports claiming that user home folders are being automatically deleted when utilizing Snow Leopard 10.6’s “Guest” account login feature. Apparently one wrong click and a log in to the guest account can end in your actual user account folders being wiped out. Yikes. So far the only recourse has been for those who have recent backups on external media. There has been no acknowledgment of the issue from the Cupertino fruit company yet. We also apologize to any Sidekick, Mac OS X users, who log into Guest accounts — you’re having a tough week.

[Via iTWire]

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Following up on the success of purplera1n, iPhone hacker extraordinaire geohot has released a jailbreak solution for OS 3.1.2 dubbed blackra1n. Currently only being offered to Windows users, blackra1n works on all generations of the iPhone and iPod touch, although the 3rd gen iPod touch needs to be tethered. The installation method for blackra1n is unchanged from that of its predecessor meaning that all you really have to do is download and install the app to your PC, plug in your device and make it ra1n. Good luck!

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Schiau Studios, for this weekend, has raised the price of their game Alchemize to a whopping $39.99 from $2.99. You might be thinking that’s probably not the best business move, but there’s a really good reason behind the huge price increase — to tell everyone to bugger off and stop complaining about application and game prices. We’re not sure how many people have bought the game at the higher price, but again, it’s meant as more of a protest than anything else. If you can’t afford to buy an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android application for a couple bones, or incessantly bitch about the pricing, you really should stop complaining about it. Or get a job. Or a higher paying one.

[Via TouchArcade]

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iPhone users should boot up their desktops / notebooks and fish out their USB cables because iPhone OS 3.1.2 has just gone live in iTunes. Other than restricting fixing random issues, Apple highlights the following as the three major changes:

• Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming

We’re installing the new software on our entire iPhone armada and will report back if we find anything huge, but in the meantime, how about you guys let us know how the upgrade works out for you. Sound good?

UPDATE: Looks like there’s a carrier update as well which brings AT&T to 5.6.

As of this week, it’s no longer business as usual for NVIDIA as the company has halted the production and development of its nForce line of chipsets until its legal issues with Intel are sorted out. Although the two companies have played well so far in Mac hardware, Intel brought a lawsuit against NVIDIA earlier this year to prevent it from making Intel-compatible chips. Not a very nice move from Intel, but NVIDIA has been making a pretty penny at Intel’s expense. We’re hoping this gets sorted soon because Apple’s use of Intel processors isn’t going to end any time soon, and it’s clear that the Mac line has done well with NVIDIA GPUs. Robert Sherbin of NVIDIA has this to say:

We firmly believe that this market has a long healthy life ahead. But because of Intel’s improper claims to customers and the market that we aren’t licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we’ll postpone further chipset investments.

In the meantime, what’s a chipmaker who won’t be making chips supposed to do?

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After being ousted from the Great North by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2007, Google has been given a reprieve in some Canadian cities. Greater Toronto, Montréal, Metro Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and other large communities now have Google Street view data available both in the browser and on the iPhone in the Maps application. According to CBC News, Google continued to film some of Canada’s major cities while trying to address the privacy concerns of the Commissioner. Sneaky, sneaky. If you want to get your Street View on, it’s available for use as of today.

[Via The iPhone blog]

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After receiving approximately 100 emails on the subject, we obviously obliged. Like we said yesterday, the iPhone is coming to both Bell and TELUS next month. The price of the handsets, the plans that they require and specific release dates have not been mentioned. Those partial to TELUS can click here to sign up for an emailing list that we’re sure will be neither prompt nor informative, while those who are all about Bell will have to wait until Bell updates its website. For one stupid reason or another they’re still hyping up the Palm Pre. Smooth.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

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Could today have been a more exciting day? AT&T certainly thinks so, which is why it just announced it’s informing both Apple and the FCC of its network’s readiness and willingness to allow VoIP apps to operate over its 3G network. IPhone included. Wow. That’s a pretty awesome move, and totally out of left field. Hit the jump to check out AT&T’s press release.

AT&T EXTENDS VOIP TO 3G NETWORK FOR IPHONE

DALLAS, October 6, 2009 – AT&T today announced it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on iPhone to run on AT&T’s wireless network. Previously, VoIP applications on iPhone were enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity. For some time, AT&T has offered a variety of other wireless devices that enable VoIP applications on 3G, 2G and Wi-Fi networks. AT&T this afternoon informed Apple Inc. and the FCC of its decision.

In late summer, AT&T said it was taking a fresh look at VoIP capabilities on iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network, consistent with its regular review of device features and capabilities to ensure attractive options for consumers.

“iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets. “Today’s decision was made after evaluating our customers’ expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer.”

AT&T allows customers to download or launch on their wireless devices a multitude of compatible applications directly from any lawful Internet website. Additionally, because AT&T uses GSM technology, the most pervasive and open wireless technology platform in the world, we support customers using any GSM phone that works on AT&T’s frequencies.

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Not super excited about the November launch of Bell’s HSPA network? Fair enough, but we think you’ll change your mind once we tell you what The Globe and Mail is reporting: both Bell and TELUS are going to be selling the Apple iPhone next month. Apple, Bell and TELUS declined to speak to the matter when asked, but the fact remains that not only does this make sense considering the fact exclusivity deals are already starting to fizzle out in the UK, but for the simple fact that if The Globe and Mail says its going to happen you can confidently bet your bottom dollar that it will happen 99 times out of 100. If not, we’re going cancel our subscription for our Canadian office. Rogers, we are awaiting emails from your PR people.

Thanks, Scott, and everyone else who sent this one in!

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