Nasdaq sent a letter to Apple: you may be kicked out of Nasdaq. This would be very harmful for Apple's finances because Nasdaq is the stock market that lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other market in the USA.

Why is Nasdaq threatening to ax Apple? Nasdaq requires the quarterly profit report (or 10-Q); if you don't file your 10-Q, then it's goodbye stock listing.

But Apple announced that it would delay filing its 10-Q because its outside legal counsel is not yet done investigating what may be irregularities in the company's accounting of stock options for employees. This investigation was announced by Apple back in June 29. They will, of course, be reporting their findings to the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC, the US government body that watches over such things).

And the SEC has been busy investigating people over stock options for employees (basically like what's happening with the SEC investigating THQ for its options grants).

Several other companies are under investigation, and some of their executives have even been indicted for options-related fraud.

Apple has notified the Security and Exchange Commission that it will miss the deadline for filing the quarterly report detailing its financial figures for the most recent period. Unfortunately, delaying this report might be the most insignificant problem facing the company if the SEC launches an investigation into the recent stock option post-dating scandal that is still unresolved.

Amid rumors of financial irregularities, Apple launched an investigation of its stock option granting practices. Recent allegations suggest that numerous companies (including Apple) have come to rely upon the practice of post-dating stock options for favored executives in order to get them more compensation.

Apple has also admitted that it will have to restate earnings reports for the past 15 quarters and is conducting a probe that might end up causing Apple to restate earnings all the way back to 2002. Speculation at Apple has been that their investigation will uncover substantial discrepancies that will need to be accounted for in the revised earnings statements.

It seems as though many of our corporate leaders are trapped in a pattern of illegal behavior. First it was Enron, using offshore shell companies to hide and accumulate bad debt. After the good folks at Enron got burned, people realized they needed to find a new scam that would fool everyone and allow them to rake in the cash.

This time, Apple and other companies promised massive blocks of stock options (sometimes a large percentage of the company) to top level executives for the excellent work they do every day. The problem is that they allowed these executives to pick the day they wanted the stock purchase orders to go through at the end of the year, when it was simple to look back and choose the day with the lowest price to buy your personal shares.

The folks at Apple had to know better than that, so why did they do it? Apple certainly isn't the only one guilty of trying to jump on the stock option post- dating bandwagon, but many (like myself) imagined Apple to be different than most companies. It is possible that the post dating episode was an oversight and that there was no irregular financial activity going on, but the whole thing just smells bad.

As usual, this WWDC is generating a minor controversy (for Apple newbies, the WWDC is the World Wide Developers Conference where Apple shares some love with developers and the media).

Apple announced that it has opened its kernel source for the OS X Intel build to developers. For those not in the know, the kernel is the core of most operating systems like OS X, Windows, Linux, or Unix; the kernel "sits in the middle" and manages the back-and-forth between hardware (especially the CPU), software, and the system's resources; in short, the kernel is very, very important.

The source that Apple is opening up to developers is not the source of the entire OS X. The source is only for the kernel of Mac OS X 10.4.7, but this is still big news for developers. Why? Because looking at the kernel for the Intel version of the OS X will allow software developers to make more stable programs for the OS X Intel version. The kernel source for the OS X for the PowerPC was made available a while back, but the source for the Intel version wasn't made available (even though Apple started switching to Intel processors after the transition to Intel was announced last June, 2005).

What's the controversy? Well, it's only a minor one. We just notice that this news reopened the debate in various forums between those who like open source and those who fear that this will lead to a whole slew of crappy software that will just end up crashing the OS X. And since the "crash-proof-nessity" of the OS X is a major selling point against Windows, the anti-Windows faction fears that this will make the OS X into "another Windows." In my humble opinion, while this may be a valid concern, history has shown the opposite to be true: everyone ends up happy with the resulting software, software sales increase (or at least remain stable), and people become happier with all the alternatives and software that become available for the OS (of course, that's just my opinion of the general nature of things; please don't hunt me down if you disagree, ha ha, but feel free to flame me, ho ho).

There's more big news: Apple announced the next major OS X release: Leopard, scheduled for 2007. It looks like Apple is looking forward to how opening the open source will boost development. However, there's not much more we can say about the Leopard because Steve Jobs is keeping all the important details secret.

And a bit more open source news: Apple has launched Mac OS Forge, a website that should allow Apple developers to work more closely together. You can find the kernel sources there. In fact, Apple is so behind this idea that they even included the instructions on how to build from the kernel sources. And the really geeky Apple fans will be glad to know that Apple is releasing the sources for iCal Server, Bonjour, and Launchd.

Let's see how it all works out! Check back for us for more details!

WWDC is a conference for Apple developers that gives the company a chance to show them some love while disseminating important information about the next-gen hardware on Apple's launch horizon. There is no live stream coming from the event floor, so minute to minute coverage (complete with pictures) is all there is until Apple makes the footage available after the event.

Mannymix03, a member of our forums, has been kind enough to make up to the minute posts about the event to keep us all informed about the latest happenings at WWDC 2006. So far, so much information has come out of the event that it would be impossible to detail it all here. I will do my best to give you a brief rundown of the important finds that have been discovered thus far.
 
In his usual style, Steve Jobs kicks off the conference with his enthusiastic rundown of what Apple has in store for us in the near future. He began with his usual optimism by quoting record sales figures and mentioning the unprecedented level of penetration that the company is experiencing in the OS market.

After stroking the developers egos by detailing how much of their work Apple sold the previous year, Jobs goes on to discuss the move to utilize Intel chips and the upcoming move into the next generation of Intel chips known as Core 2 Duo. While all the information about new chips and the smart architecture of the new Mac Pro kept folks interested, the news that kept many on the edge of their seats was about Apple's upcoming OS.

After giving Microsoft some of the spotlight by highlighting the ways the Redmond-based giant has appropriated technology from Apple in the past, the details about the OS (Leopard) were released. Along with 64 bit compatibility at the UNIX layer, meaning you can run both 32 and 64 bit applications smoothly and without the aid of emulation, there was mention of a built in backup feature for the OS called Time machine that backs up "everything" in real time. This new feature is not as cut and dry as it seems however. Apparently, with Time machine you get a robust backup system that is capable of full system restores as well as an ala carte system that allows you to bring back just the files that you need.

When integrated with the Finder disk searcher, we are one step closer to having all of our information stored in a searchable database that is backed up in real time. So now you can search for, and find, a file even if you have already erased it! Wonderful! Even I couldn't lose data if I had a set up like this! One of the things that I found a bit surprising was the fact that every copy of the new OS will ship with Time Machine, Bootcamp, Photobooth and Front Row and Spaces. Each one of these modules provides functionality, like a virtual desktop (Spaces), photo editing and sharing (Photobooth), music, video and other media (Front Row), that is not included with other operating systems like Vista.

Spotlight, Core Animation and Universal Access are additional applications in the works at Apple. Spotlight allows you to search the drives of all of the Macs in your home from any one of them. Core Animation is a powerful program that allows you to deconstruct media into its various parts (video, music,ect) and manipulate it into a new creation. Universal Access is designed to allow all people, whether blind, or otherwise disabled, to use their new Mac with ease. With all the new software being developed and hardware changes galore happening at Apple, you'd think that they would be the ones with all the delays and shoddy releases instead of Microsoft!

Mail, Dashboard and iCal have also been updated and changed! Stationary, Notes and To Do's to mail have been integrated into the new email system that will come with the new OS. Dashboard has over 2500 widgets and with Dashcode users can easily create their own customized widgets. With Web Clip and Dashcode you can turn any part of a website into a widget that will update every day keeping you in the know with your favorites on the web. Then there's iChat and iPhoto, which are integrated and will offer multiple logins, invisibility, animated buddy icons, video recording and tabbed chats.

This is near information overload here so I suggest that you digest this as quickly as you can then can come back and get some more! The conference is more than three days long so you can be certain that Jobs and Co. will continue to hit us with surprises well into this week!

Finally, for those with short attention spans, here is a brief list of the key innovations that were revealed this morning:

• 64-bit
• Core animation
• Universal access
• Enhanced parental controls (who cares about that?)
• iCal
• The complete package
• mail
• Spotlight
• Dashboard
• Web Clip and Dashcode
• Announcing Xcode 3 at the afternoon session
• Spaces
• Time Machine
  

Keep an eye out for updates to follow. For those who got their appetites whet and are looking for ways to satisfy their "Apple" craving, check out the video of the conference's Keynote Address delivered by Apple top honcho, Steve Jobs.

Business Week reported that Apple's brand value went up by 14% last year raising its position in the magazine's Best Global Brand Survey from No. 39th to 41.  According to Business Week, the company continues to be "the style master with its expanded family of iPods and Macs. Its latest hit: the MacBook line of laptops."  Apple's brand equity is currently valued at $9.13 billion.

The annual BusinessWeek/Interbrand rankings measure an elusive but crucial quality known as brand value. This year's list includes Coca-Cola (No.1), Microsoft (No.2) and IBM (No.3). Other brands that made the cut are Motorola, Hyundai, Google, and McDonald's.

Merrill Lynch upgraded Apple stock from a 'neutral' to a 'buy' and raised its price target to $72. This came after the company acknowledged plans to build the iPhone. In addition, Merrill analyst Richard Farmer said the slowing down of  iPod sales is waning with monthly growth rates stabilizing.

Apple announced it had sold 8.1 million iPods while its US marketshare with a 16% jump in the second quarter. The company's laptop marketshare surged to 12% in June, almost double that of January. Farmer also said it is unlikely the company will be affected by the pending action from the SEC and federal investigations.

The figures are in and looks like Apple's ears are still ringing from busy cash register action. The Company posted revenue of $4.37 billion and a net quarterly profit of $472 million, or $.54 per diluted share for the fiscal 2006 third quarter. Last year's figure for the same quarter were revenue of $3.52 billion and a net profit of $320 million, or $.37 per diluted share. We did the math and that comes to a 30.3% gross margin (up from 29.7%).

If you're wondering where all the money came from, Apple shipped 1,327,000 Macintosh computers and 8,111,000 iPods during the said quarter which is a 12% growth in Macs and 32% growth in iPods year-over-year. Looks like every one's happy over at Apple.

Â?WeÂ?re very pleased to report the second highest quarterly sales and earnings in AppleÂ?s history, resulting in year-over-year revenue growth of 24 percent and earnings growth of 48 percent,Â? said Peter Oppenheimer, AppleÂ?s CFO. Â?Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, we expect revenue of about $4.5 to $4.6 billion.

Another happy guy is Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Â?WeÂ?re thrilled with the growth of our Mac business, and especially that over 75 percent of the Macs sold during the quarter used Intel processors. This is the smoothest and most successful transition that any of us have ever experienced," he said. Â?In addition, iPod continued to earn a US market share of over 75 percent and we are extremely excited about future iPod products in our pipeline.Â?

"Redmond, start your photocopiers", "Redmond, we have a problem". Just some of the jib-jabs that Apple has thrown at the MS camp over the years, actually to be really specific, these statements were seen on Apple posters during the 2004 annual developer's conference in San Francisco, when its Tiger operating system was unveiled and its fiercest rival, Microsoft, was working on its next-generation Windows operating system, Vista, known then as "Longhorn.''

Now, with the delayed release of the Windows Vista and the unveiling of the Leopard this August at the World Developers Conference, it won't be surprising if Apple is again up to some serious psychological war - in the form of posters, sidecomments, taunting and all that. Which makes me think, what other blows could Apple dish out to the Bill Gates camp?

And if you think MS is ignoring these, no they aren't. According to Greg DeMichillie, senior analyst with Directions on Microsoft, "there will be another round of, 'Why can't Microsoft get Vista out?' which Microsoft would just assume not happen...It's a bit of an embarrassment for the company". It seems that Apple's well-honed and innovative marketing strategy could be the tech version of a slow striptease. With that, let's see what other tricks and wisecracks Apple has for MS.

We've not heard much about Apple's high-profile legal effort to unmask whoever leaked details of Apple's yet-to-be released music accessory - a FireWire audio interface for GarageBand, codenamed "Asteroid". Well, we'll probably hear the last of it as Apple acknowledged in a court filing that the company will not take its fight to the California Supreme Court.

Back in May, Apple's attempt to subpoena records and emails from Jason O'Grady creator of PowerPage.org, and Kasper Jade, publisher and editor-in-chief of AppleInsider, had been rejected by the state appeals court on grounds that web reports are also protected by the California journalist shield law. The case drew national attention as it was one of the first to "set the rules of how the rights of uncredentialed online journalists should be balanced against the rights of trade secret holders".

Apple's decision not to appeal would serve as a legal precedent that would encourage journalist and leakers in the future. Kurt Opsahl, an attorney defending the Web publishers, said that the "issue is likely to come up in other jurisdictions."

Apple could very well be thinking of a more aggressive internal investigation about the issue. Court documents have shown that 29 employees who had access to the confidential document have already been investigated.

Amidst all the lawsuits, factory controversies, and the product woes that consumers have been reporting, you might think that Steve Jobs' Apple Computers is poised for financial failure? They may be inept socially (with the slight mishandling of consumer problems and the Chinese iPod factory issue), but financially, they are as strong as ever, and this could be backed up by a recent surveys' result.

According to a survey conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, Macintosh computers showed a big increase in the past month, and industry leader, Dell, is taking all the blows of this situation. When generally compared to all computers, Dell is not as bullish as before. It still holds the #1 position at 41%, but this is down a bit from the registered 48% in May and 55% in April. Apple and Hewlett-Packard tied at 11%.

In another research conducted by Harris Interactive, market analyst Charles Wolf concludes that AppleÂ?s home market share in the United States is set to triple. He based his analysis on the difference between what buyers tend to say they will do versus what really happens. Also, he mentioned that the increased interest in the Mac is due to its ability to run Windows applications and due to the unquestionable success of the iPod.

Although, we should note that all these findings are based on gathered data from potential buyers since both studies are designed to predict future consumer behavior, therefore, this is not based on what the consumers are actually buying. So, it may not be the last hurrah for Dell.