Apple has been slapped by a class action suit for allegedly not compensating employees with overtime pay and meal allowances. The case has been filed at a California court, and if Apple is proven guilty, it could be ordered to revise its policies and cough up some retroactive wages. More in the full article.

As Apple's MacWorld Expo draws near, more reports have been made regarding mysterious versions of MacBooks sporting a new "metallic-grey color" and were described to be distinctively  "thinner" than the laptop's usual models.

Is this our first glimpse into Apple's introduction for the MacWorld Expo next year? More details at the full article.

Event management organization IDG World Expo has confirmed earlier this week that next year's Macworld Conference & Expo will be bannered by no less than Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs.

The latest tally of exhibitors totals 350 companies transcending the fields of design, print, online, photography, broadcast, videography, and music. More details about Steve Jobs and Macworld via the "read more" link below.

In a lawsuit filed last April, Apple's head honcho - Steve Jobs - has been issued a subpoena by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to testify against the backdating option grants case of former Apple general counsel, Nancy Heinen.

Jobs is just one of several employees of the company who will testify during the trial. Heinen asked for at least 45 despositions for the case, however, the SEC is limiting the number to 12 per party.

An investigation last April found that Heinen and former Apple Chief Financial Officer, Fred Anderson, backdated more than US$ 20 million in stock options in 2001 for jobs, themselves and other executives. Anderson agreed to pay US$ 3.5 million in fines and disgorgement of profit to avoid any charges pressed by the SEC.

Cupertino, the California-based Apple stated in an internal review that two questionable options were awarded to Jobs, but found no other anomalies in the current management, including Jobs.

A recent WiFi - iPhone problem was resolved recently at Duke University. At first it was feared that the iPhone was causing a problem with the WiFi network in the campus by barraging the servers with thousands of media control access requests a second, effectively knocking out the wireless access points. As many as 20 to 30 WAPs at a time was knocked out because of the MAC requests.

Recently though, the problem was resolved and the Campus' wireless network provider, Cisco, fixed a glitch in their systems. Apparently, the problem lay within the network and not entirely on the iPhone. A statement released by Cisco stated that the wireless network at Duke University "experience[s] some minor and temporary disruptions in service" given a "particular set of conditions." The specifics of what this set of conditions entail was not enclosed with the statement.

Van Baker, research Vice President at Garter in California, believes that the problem was something unique to the system at Duke University. Other universities also use the the Cisco system using the same kind of infrastructure and they did not experience any problems similar to what Duke experienced. Baker surmises that the Duke system has an encryption system not incorporated in the iPhone and that caused the glitch in the system which caused the WAPs to get knocked out.

Baker further explains his theory by explaining that "Cisco's LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol) is an enterprise deployment not seen in the consumer market at all. The iPhone doesn't have a lot of the features you'd normally expect to see in an enterprise class phone."

People love the iPhone, or so according to recent surveys done to gauge overall consumer reaction to the groundbreaking gadget. And if we many add, the results of the survey are more than telling.

90% of 200 surveyed users - that's 180 people have voted either "extremely" or "very" satisfied with their newly-purchased iPhone.  And practically the same percentage also voted that they're "extremely" or "very" likely to recommend Apple's latest brainchild to their friends and families.

These figures are all from the online survey conducted and paid for by Interpret, a market researching firm based in Santa Monica, California. And of course, Apple's happy with these turn of events.

Apple VP Worldwide Marketing for the iPod and iPhone Greg Joswiak explained that positive word-of-mouth is critically important to any product's success. And he's right - not only does it build a circle of trust between Apple and its customers, it's free advertising.

There's also the added boon of the iPhone's success converting people into Apple consumers, what with 3 out of 10 buyers being first-time Apple product buyers. Definitely good news for Apple, as well as those of us still iffy on purchasing one.

Sure, the iPhone has its cons, what with the rather hefty US$ 599/499 price tag, but for quality that people love, the price may be just right.

The chairman of a House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet Rep. Edward J. Markey is very upset by the fact that the iPhone has a US$ 175 termination fee. He said that the phone essentially becomes a very expensive paperweight if owners decide to discontinue their AT&T plan.

To put things into perspective, he was quoted at saying that the phone has "Hotel California service. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leaveÂ?you're stuck with your iPhone and you can't take it anywhere." This entire argument started from a hearing regarding the cellphone industry's wish to pre-empt states from regulating wireless phone companies.

So far the state public utility commissions have no authority over the pricing of wireless plans but have control over the terms and conditions of wireless service agreements. Be that as it may a law professor at Columbia University Timothy Wu had another take on the entire system saying that our current cellular phone industry is a "spectrum- based oligopoly" and that we, as consumers, have already given up our property rights.

He gave a very good example on this: "Imagine buying a television that stopped working if you decided to switch to satellite or a toaster that died if you switched from Potomac Power to ConEd." Now it's time to ask yourself, is this the way we want things to be run? Or do we want more from the system.

There's no doubt that the Apple iPhone's launch was a runaway success, and new owners of the handset couldn't be happier. But Gizmodo reports some flimsy incidents that might dampen the parade a bit.

According to the report, AT&T might be cashing in on the launch by forcing consumers to buy two accessories if they want to get the handset. This happened in two stores in Seattle, one in California, one in New York and a weird variant of the act in North Carolina.

According to sources, consumers who waited in long lines to buy the iPhone were required by shopkeepers to purchase two of the product's accessories. If they didn't, they were simply denied the privilege of trading. In the New York branch, it took a man hollering that AT&T was doing illegal stuff to get them to sell without forcing accessories.

In one Seattle store, a source reports that AT&T had 20 units in stock and declared them sold out after 10 people entered the shop. However, they did offer the remaining people that they could get them handsets through "special deals" within a couple of days if they ordered two accessories along.

Gizmodo also reports that there are sources saying that AT&T personnel were required to sell products on a given quota. Unless they perform according to the company's benchmarks, they were subject to termination.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, accessories weren't forced on buyers but accessories were placed within the package of the iPhone. This way, the store was able to charge an additional 10 percent for restocking if the box was reopened.

And in the mobile world today, Steve Job's hobby - the iPhone - has just hit North America's east coast today, at a very prompt 6 p.m. launch as announced by the Cupertino-based company. People have lined up on Apple's retail outlets in New Jersey, Florida, New York, and Philadelphia, among some.
 
And while the west coast nears its launch window, Apple stores in California and Connecticut have already been prepping up for their share of the iPhone purchase craze. There are claims of people whisking past potential iPhone customers lined up, teasing folk with their iPhone.

The first iPhone owners have walked out of the official Apple stores with iPhone in-hand, although not one person has been named as the first official iPhone owner post-launch as of press time. Photo courtesy of Engadget.

Apple's iPhone won't be released before June 29 but certain individuals are already planning to develop web-based applications and optimize web sites for it. In fact, an event is being planned by BarCamp from July 6 to 8 in the Bay Area (that's in California) just for that purpose.

If you are not familiar with BarCamp, it is actually an ad-hoc gathering for people to share and learn in an open environment. So, attendees of this so-called iPhone Developers Camp will include web designers, developers, testers, and iPhone owners. The major objectives of the said event will involve:

• Create new web applications for iPhone.
• Optimize existing web applications for iPhone.
• Migrate Dashboard Widgets to web-based widgets for iPhone.
• Test and optimize web sites for iPhone.

If you are planning to attend, please take note that this is a "working camp". That means that being an iPhone owner is not enough to get into the developers camp. While it is free, you should be able to build and launch web-based applications and sites for the new mobile phone.

Our Read link will take you to BarCamp's official page for the iPhone Developers Camp. It will provide you with more details regarding lodging, things to bring, status of the project, and a couple of presentations. Also, please take note that this event is in no way related to Apple.