Gizmodo techies report that Solutions Research Group did a little number among the US populace, tracking down the general profile of the kind of person who would most likely want to pick up Apple's new hobby, the iPhone. And true, they didn't include ol' Stevie in the mix.

So who's going to line up when the phone-meets-PDA-meets-media gizmo struts it stuff on June 29? Gizmodo pegs that perfect specimen right on the dot: the guy to most likely pick up an iPhone at the end of the month is "a rich, college-educated guy with an iPod, probably living in New York or California, [who will] be ditching [his] cellphone carrier sometime soon."

Wonder how they got to that conclusion? Just check out the top 8 InfoModo numbers from Gizmodo, provided below. Remember to click the picture to view a larger version of the image. (Don't worry, it won't blow up as much, we promise!)

   
   

Rob Mead at Tech.co.uk shared some of the "secrets" that were revealed at the Apple shareholder's meeting at Cupertino, California.

Third-party apps for iPhone. First, it seems that the iPhone will be open to third-party applications. Apple CEO Steve Jobs had said that the Apple iPhone wouldn't be open to third-party applications, that it would be a closed system based on Mac OS X (the goal was to make sure that the iPhone wouldn't be buggy). But it now seems that Mac developers are free to make apps for the iPhone.

Leopard delay. Steve Jobs also said that the delay of the launch of the Mac OS X Leopard operating system, the next version of Mac OS X, was partly due to the iPhone. According to Jobs, the issue isn't money; the issue is talent. It seems that Apple has dedicated a lot of time and talent to the iPhone, and there just wasn't enough left over for the Leopard. "I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check," said Jobs. "If so, then Microsoft would have great products."

The smaller and innovative iPhone. It looks like there's a smaller iPhone on the way. Apple has made an application to the US Patent & Trademark Office for a sleek little device with a display on each side (patent number 0070103454). This "Back-Side Interface for Handheld Devices" has a rather interesting concept:

An electronic device uses separate surfaces for input and output. One of the surfaces (e.g. the bottom) includes a force-sensitive touch-surface through which a user provides input (e.g. cursor manipulation and control element selection). On a second surface (e.g. the top), a display element is used to present information appropriate to the device's function (e.g. video information), one or more control elements and a cursor. The cursor is controlled through manipulation of the back-side touch-surface. The cursor identifies where on the back-side touch-surface the user's finger has made contact.

In other words, the new iPhone is a dual-screen set-up with a touch screen. Hm. That reminds us of the Nintendo DS (over 40 million units sold worldwide).

Apple and the mobile phone market. Jobs also said that Apple really has to look deeper into the mobile phone market. In 2006, there were 135 million MP3 players and 200 million PCs sold. But in that same year, there were 1 billion mobile phones sold. That's a big market to explore.

If Apple thinks that the mobile phone market is worth exploring, then we at QJ.NET wish Apple the best. Several of us love our iPods, and if Apple's iPhone can do for mobile phones what the iPod did for "mobile audio and video," then we don't mind the Leopard delay at all.

In a move to have an amicable settlement between iPod maker Apple Corporation and British music label Apple Inc, the two companies met as equals and fostered a deal which would pave the way for the gadget company to use trademarks when necessary.

The two firms have been embroiled in a dispute for years now and have recently come to terms. Reports say that under the new deal, the California company can now legally use the word "Apple" on its products and iconography whenever needed.

Apple Inc, which handles the rights for proprietary Beatles music, has apparently allowed Apple corporation to use and peddle the digitalized content on its online music store iTunes.

The acts could mean a shift of custodianship as far as the Beatles music is concerned as the Atlantic counterparts sealed the deal through several meetings involving the US Patents and Trademarks Office and lawyer Thomas La Perle. Monetary details on the settlement has not been publicly disclosed so far.

 A few days ago, we covered a story about Jobs sparing no words in criticizing teachers and teacher unions. This has caused the California Federation of Teachers to invite Jobs to either attend an annual teacher's convention next month or to offer a public apology for his "insulting comments" to California's teachers.

Jobs, with rival CEO Michael Dell, shares a vision of delivering technology to schools and having "textbook-free" classrooms, but according to him, no amount of technology would ever improve schools until public school principals could fire bad teachers.  The CFT says they will create a new award specifically for Jobs, the "Rotten Apple" award, for the individual who best personifies the need to think differently about public education and teacher unions.

Educators reiterate by pointing out that Apple refused to recognize the Silicon Valley janitorial workforce in the 1990s until Justice for Janitors union sufficiently embarrassed the company and brought it around. CFT President Mary Bergan also cited Albert Einstein's support for the American Federation of Teachers, saying that the genius encouraged intellectuals to work together to be an influential political force. According to Bergan, the real problem in the education system is lack of funding.

Steve Jobs may be a pop-culture icon, but it's interesting to know if this former hippie has been too radical this time.

We've previously reported a few weeks ago that Cisco Systems gave the Cupertino-based Apple up to February 15 to respond to the Lawsuit that they've filed over the iPhone trademark. Well, here's an update to that situation, and from the looks of things, Cisco is one patient bunch.

Jennifer LeClaire of NewsFactor Network reports that Cisco is offering Apple yet another extension on its deadline to respond to a trademark lawsuit over the iPhone name.

The trouble between the two companies began when, on January 10, Cisco representatives filed a lawsuit at the District Court of Northern California "seeking to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco's registered iPhone trademark."

Cisco apparently obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of InfoGear, which previously owned the mark and sold iPhone products for several years. That was around a day or after Steve Jobs introduced Apple's iPhone to the world.

Perhaps Cisco felt that this was the appropriate way to let Apple know that any negotiations they had before weren't settled. Just how long is Cisco willing to wait? How is Apple handling this? We'll update you as soon as more information is made available.

Call it another triumph for the blogging generation. After Apple Insider and PowerPage were sent subpoenas by Apple for leaking information on a confidential product known as Asteroid or Q7, it seems the law supported the side of bloggers and online journalists in the end. In an additional twist, the Santa Clara County Court has ordered Apple to pay the blogs US$ 700,000 in legal fees.

The California Court of Appeal originally ended this suit in May, 2006, citing First Amendment protections, especially those of journalists' rights. Kasper Jade, publisher of Apple Insider, had this to say:

The court's ruling is a victory for journalists of all mediums and a tremendous blow to those firms that believe their stature affords them the right to silence the media. Hopefully, Apple will think twice the next time it considers a campaign to bully the little guy into submission.

All in all, it's a great thing to hear that even bloggers are getting recognition as a new means of offering news to the world. Hopefully, it also means that any potential whistle-blowers in the future may have the chance to inform the public through bloggers as well.

It seems that there is nowhere to go but up for the people at the Cupertino, California-based company, Apple. After being blessed with a 1, 222% traffic increase for iTunes this past Christmas, Goldman Sachs brings more good news to the company.

It was reported before that there are 1.8 million Macs sold last December. Analyst David Bailey also speculated a better than expected profit margin that would propel earnings of for US$ 0.79 per share on sales of US$ 6.38 billion. That's a lot of cash.

It seems that the iPod is not the only overachiever in the Apple family as the Mac line is also doing its share. Now on to some MacWorld fun.

Bailey is speculating that Apple is gearing for a "Macworld introduction and a [first quarter] release for the full-screen video iPod which is noticeably more innovative than the current generation and should not be considered as a simple refresh." Aside from that, a lot of aficionados are expecting for the launch of its iTV digital media hub. As for the much-talked about iPhone, he predicts it'll be released ready for manufacturing by April 2007 in time for a second quarter launch.

It seems that neither the Zune nor the Universal Music Group royalty fee deal won't stop Apple from coming up with more additions to its already big iPod family. There are murmurs being passed around that the Cupertino, California company is planning on introducing three new iPod models during the 2007 calendar year.

The first of the alleged new iPods is said to be a video-centric model that is a speculated replacement for the fifth generation iPod. The details for the two other models are still swimming on murky waters and could not yet be fished. But we suggest that you don't lose some sleep waiting for the rumored video-centric iPod, it's gonna take a while for it to be announced.

Why is that? Sources said that top Apple honcho, Steve Jobs is still unwilling to commit to the marketing and other necessary actions needed to bring it to the market as he still wants to assess reactions to their new iTunes movie service and their iTV set-top box.

Hopefully, we would be able to fish more info about Apple's plans when the annual Macworld gathering takes place on January. Until then, speculations and rumors are all we have.

The Barcelona-bound X06 rumor train carries word that Alan Wake is now fully playable. As the release is slated sometime in January 2007 already, we can actually believe as much as the rumors claim. Fortunately for all of us psycho-thriller fans, an unrelated event this morning unwittingly backs up the reports.

semiconductor company">Intel unveils the processor with codename "Kentsfield" today and name it Core 2 Quad. The California-based semiconductor company announces, "This Kentsfield, the Q6700, had been overclocked up to 3.73GHz, a 1GHz clock, with no issues." And to further demonstrate the new processor's power, they ran a demo of Remedy's unreleased follow-up to Max Payne.

According to Markus Maki, the developer's representative at the forum, "Remedy has coded the engine to take advantage of quad-core processors - the engine scales as you move from single to dual to quad." He also added that one whole core is used for physics calculations alone. This images taken from that very forum show environmental effects that are to say the least, stunning. We wonder if we would be soon hearing questions like, "What Unreal engine?"

  

Troll Touch successfully tinkers with the 24-inch Apple iMac and has now announced that it is now incorporated with the company's touchscreen conversion. With its PSR-1 touch technology, the touchscreen operates with any non-sharp pointing device, such as a stylus or a gloved hand.

Turning your Mac into a touch-driven kiosk system now is also made possible by the analog resistive touchscreen. Apart from that, you can also turn it into a point of sale system or other device that can benefit from touch-driven input rather then mouse and keyboard input.

If you want to have your iMac converted, you might want visit the company's facility in Valencia, California and shell out US$ 1,499. If, however, you want a brand new Mac you can avail of a 24-inch iMac with touch screen technology for US$ 3,499.