With news yesterday that trapped Chilean miners will be given PSPs for the four months it will take to drill an escape shaft, my mind got going about what I would want to have in a similar situation.

Obviously a MASSIVE drill would be a huge advantage, but in terms of what is realistic to be sent down, what would make the time down there a little better?

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Apple has started off the week on a slightly sour note, first by being accused of ripping off customers for iPhone repairs, before also hearing news that a Chinese inventor has found a way to hijack the iPod Touch and turn it into a phone.

A mixed start to the week for Steve Jobs, let’s leave him to some quiet time with his iPad.

Starting with the news the repairs kafuffle, it appears that Apple has been taking exorbitant amounts from consumers to repair simple, problems; at times adding £100 (about €122) to a job as simple as replacing a cracked screen.

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Now, like most of you, I’ve been tempted to blast through the speed limit whenever my iPod shuffles on to the ‘Miami Vice’ theme. However, being the law abiding – and only recently qualified to drive – citizen that I am, I try to concentrate on the road and leave the tunes running quietly in the background.

However, it appears that many motorists, and indeed pedestrians, are prone to falling into ‘iPod oblivion’, causing numerous accidents and injuries. The Telegraph reports that the AA in the UK has said it has seen a number of incidents recently where motorists were “so plugged in to music in their cars that they drive inattentively”.

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Apple acolytes do try to defend the company at every turn but iPhone 3G owners will have a hard time standing behind the Cupertino-based company today after it was confirmed that it is not including iPhone 3G users in its latest mobile gaming network plans.

Jobs and Co have taken the decision not to offer support for the Apple Game Centre (which is Apple’s Xbox Live-esque project for online gaming) for the iPhone 3G, while the 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch and iPad are all included in the plan.

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It’s been rumoured for a while, but now a “reliable Apple source” seems to have confirmed that the company is soon to lunch a cloud version of its iTunes software.

Wanted by its users for quite some time now, the move was first reported by the well respected Boy Genius Report which claims that a source has “filled us in on some of the company’s iTunes plans, and they’re exciting”. Continue Reading

Apple’s iPod Touch has remained divested from the company’s iPhone line by not only a lack of cellular communications, but its lack of a camera, something that many have hoped Apple would change over the years.

This time last year, there had been suggestions that Apple was gearing up to release a camera-enabled version of its iPod Touch, a device whose popularity has only grown since then. Given that the hardware is already a part of the oh-so-similar iPhone, many had considered that we’d see a camera added to the iPod Touch a practical certainty. Strangely enough, the device that ended up seeing a camera added was the refreshed version of the iPod Nano.

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In an unsurprising turn of events, it appears that the release of the iPad in the US meant that fickle consumers there turned their backs on the iPod, with Apple’s MP3 player showing a year-on-year drop in sales of 17% in April.

While the iPad seemingly affected iPod transactions, the Mac had no such worries with figures from the NPD Group showing a more than healthy 39% bump in sales compared to April last year.

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It’s been reported that in the US, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple’s new policy of requiring software developers who devise applications for devices such as the iPhone and iPad to use only Apple’s programming tools.

Apple lawyers may need a strong coffee or two before facing the Dept of Justice or Federal Trade Commission.

The New York Post claims that “a person familiar with the matter” has told it that the official bodies are “days away” from deciding who should launch the inquiry. Though rumours are beginning to filter out from Apple sources that the company may try and head off any investigation at the pass by revising some of the terms of its developer agreement.

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Apple’s most recent firmware release for its mobile operating system, which brought the iPhone OS up to version 3.1.3, has been cracked, with the release of a ‘jailbreak’ application yesterday.

We'll be curious to see what an unlocked iPad can do...

Until now, iPod Touches or iPhones running the latest firmware version had been modified using what had been called a ‘tethered jailbreak,’ which required the user to restart their devices while connected to their PC with the software running, failing to do so would result in the device booting into the usual iPhone OS, rather than remaining jailbroken. The other downside was that that method didn’t work with the iPod Touch 3G or the iPad itself, something that this latest crack can handle.

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Somebody’s gonna get himself some new turtle neck sweaters. Steve Jobs will be in celebratory mood this morning having announced that Apple has seen a 90% bump in profits compared to this time last year while shares in the company have reached record highs as well.

Jobs is promising “several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year”.

Jobs said that the first quarter results for 2010 represent the company’s best non-Christmas period figures in its 34-year history. The iPhone was the driving factor behind an increase in Apple’s profits from $1.6bn to $3bn and revenue was up 48% to $13.5bn.

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Apple has filed a patent for electric specs that will allow you to watch 3D movies on the move. The sunglasses-type device lets users watch content without the need for a TV.

The patent says the image would be equivalent to high definition quality.

Already the predictable nickname ‘iSpecs’ has been spreading across the web, while ChannelNews adds that users of the device will simply hook up their iPod or iPhone to the head-mounted gadget and be able to watch a 3D movie. A special “smart” lens in the iSpecs projects the image from the screen so that the user can watch the movie on the move. Continue Reading

Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is doubling the size of its fund for iPhone application developers, as it eyes new opportunities arising from the launch of the iPad in the US over coming days.

The iFund has invested in popular app companies such as Shazam.

KPCB – which is focused exclusively on investment early-stage ventures – said its so-called iFund investment pool now totals $200 million (€148 million). The firm said the new money was not carved out from other funds, but instead “represents fresh capital”. Continue Reading