“Prompted by mounting complaints regarding “degrading and objectionable” content available through its App Store, Apple has recently culled some 6,000 software apps built on titillation or sexual suggestion…

However, the iPhone maker may be about to throw disgruntled software developers a lifeline by assigning such contentious content a specific App Store registration category of its own…

More pointedly, reports began emerging this Wednesday that Apple had briefly added a new ‘Explicit’ option to the list of defining categories developers must highlight when seeking to gain software approval and gain a place on the App Store’s virtual shelves.

Apparently spied by diligent industry watchers such as Cult of Mac and 9to5Mac, reports claim the category addition didn’t stick around for very long. ” (via thetechherald.com) By Stevie Smith

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“As of this writing the number one free app in the iTunes store was the game iDragPaper, inviting you to swipe at your iPhone touchscreen to see how fast you can unroll a virtual roll of toilet paper. Never mind that I can watch my three-year-old unravel a real roll at least twice a day. The app’s mindless fun and that’s fine. But it’s not the type of app you look for out of need. It finds you. When it comes to travel apps, sure, you might want a few silly ones to find you the next time you’re waiting to be patted down at the airport. But before that happens, here are five apps you ought to go find.

Best laptop guardian: Laptop Cop, $49.95 for app and 1-year license. Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

A laptop gets stolen every 53 seconds, according to an FBI statistic quoted by the makers of PC software app Laptop Cop. And if your laptop is ever one of them, you might be able to remotely access its files or recover your laptop if Laptop Cop’s installed on it. One catch: The thief has to have your laptop powered on as well as online for any of the app’s functions to work. But it’s better than nothing. Here’s how it might go down. After realizing your laptop’s been snatched, you’d get to a Web-enabled desktop or laptop — or smart phone, if it can run Adobe Flash Player 10 — log into your Laptop Cop online account, and click a button reporting your laptop stolen. At this point, if your thief is not yet surfing the Web, you can queue up any important files or compromising photos you’d want to retrieve or delete. As soon as the thief or the person to whom he’s already sold your laptop goes online, “the retrieval/deletion process automatically takes place,” according to a company customer service rep.

Best neighborhood watch: SpotCrime. Free Web app for all devices, iPhone optimized.

A free Web app available for the iPhone or viewable on any smart phone or laptop, Spotcrime lets you track crimes in virtually any neighborhood for which crime data is available. Wondering what crime is like near your hotel or a few neighborhoods away? Pick your destination city from a drop-down menu or enter a specific address and a Google map studded with “crime icons” appears. Fists indicate assault & battery, tiny menacing stick figures indicate thefts, and so on. If you’re using an iPhone you can tap the map icons to see the addresses and times of the crimes, which are also listed under the map if you’re touchscreen deprived. The plotted crimes are fairly current, in some cases having been committed the day you check. With many of the crimes you can click a “view source” link to see where Spotcrime got its information. Often the source is an online city police blotter, fascinating reading if you have the time.

Best in-flight education: iTunes University. Free apps for iPods and other MP3-enabled devices.

Remember in the very first “Superman” movie when baby Kal-El has to listen to all those educational tapes on the flight from Krypton to Earth so that he’s really smart by the time his escape pod lands? Sitting on a plane while listening to the free lectures available from iTunes University is sort of like that.

Looking for a get-rich-quick scheme? Download the Stanford University course on iPhone Application Development. Hoping to psych out a coworker? Listen to the Introduction to Psychology Course from Yale. Looking for something a little less Ivy League? Sample the “Bad Philosophy” lessons from Texas Tech University students who pontificate about everything from the origins of the universe to the meaning of all the apps that Google can’t seem to stop developing.

Best invention ever: Tether for Blackberry, $49.95

Have you ever nursed a bitter cup of coffee or overpriced sandwich just so you could connect your laptop to an establishment’s free Wi-Fi? Have you ever gone to sit in a hotel lobby and become enraged that other free-Wi-Fi users are hogging all the seats? If you own a BlackBerry with a flat-rate data plan, download Tether for Blackberry, formerly known as Tetherberry, and life will be different.” ( via foxnews.com ) by Paul Eisenberg

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“Disney, realizing that its shopping mall outposts are under performing, will soon join forces with Apple to make every visit an “experience.”…

So they’re calling on Steve Jobs…

Realizing that they’ve lost their edge as the world’s great evil empire, Disney has called on Apple overlord Jobs, who joined the board back in 2006, to help them steer a new path toward consumerist greatness…

And, to that end, Jobs gave Disney access to his Apple Store blueprints and encouraged engineers to “think bigger,” which means stores are no longer retail centers, but “Imagination Centers” that bubble with “Pixar-esque winks and nods.”…

There will be a scent component; if a clip from Disney’s coming “A Christmas Carol” is playing in the theater, the whole store might suddenly be made to smell like a Christmas tree. ” (via gawker.com ) by  Andrew Belonsky

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Great for traveling -various models and colors available

Some of the models offered

Refurbished iPod shuffle 1GB – Silver / $29
Holds up to 240 songs
Up to 12 hours of music playback

Refurbished iPod nano 4GB – Silver / $79
Holds up to 1,000 songs
Up to 24 hours of music playback
Up to 5 hours of video playback

Refurbished iPod nano 8GB – Black /$99
Holds up to 2,000 songs
Up to 24 hours of music playback
Up to 5 hours of video playback

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for Apple certified refurbished iPod. One-year warranty. Free Shipping

It’s a modern love poem from iPhone fans who just want to improve their iPhone.

Now anyone is free to go to this site and vote on problems that need to be fixed, or even add new wishes to be addressed, and to see all the wishes that Apple has granted. Every vote counts, so rally around the site and vent your frustrations and make your vote heard.

Scroll down to see what owners want fixed. There are also wish and fixed tabs to click on.

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click for Please Fix the Iphone website

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The iPod nano is smaller than ever with a sleek new design that comes in nine different colors!

New iPod touch is now even thinner than the original and it also comes with Nike + built in.

All models are available today.

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Conference Call Comment Reignites Longtime Rumors

“When it comes to Apple, it doesn’t take much to set tongues a-wagging. Rumors about a “tablet” Mac have been floating around for years, according to analysts and fans.

Now, after a mention of a mysterious “future product transition” on an earnings conference call, bloggers, analysts and die-hard Apple fans are focused on dissecting exactly what new products the company may have been vaguely revealing.
The comments came during a conference call this week involving Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer that discussed the company’s second quarter earnings. It was during that call that Oppenheimer reportedly mentioned the “future product transition, which I can’t discuss today.”
“We will deliver state-of-the-art new products that our competitors just aren’t going to be able to match,” he continued.

The brief, perhaps innocuous comment appeared on several blogs the next day alongside a rumor that analysts say has been floating around for years — that Apple would debut a touchscreen laptop.
Many die-hard Apple fans told ABCNews.com that they were excited by the prospect of a touch-screen anything from Mac.
“I would buy it in a heartbeat,” Matt Vreeland, a doctor in Pinehurst, N.C., said in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. “I have used Apple products since entering college in 1985 [the original Mac] and never regretted it. Every time I stray, I realize how well-designed Apple products remain.”

Thom Rouse, a graphic designer based in Trenton, N.J., said he would definitely buy a Mac tablet.
“When I go to make a purchase, they’re my first consideration — maybe my only consideration,” Rouse said in a phone interview.
Todd Mason in Los Angeles wrote: “It’s not so much a fad as a reality. The products are simply better and more people are discovering that fact.”
The rumor of “MacBook Touch” appeared on the blog MacDailyNews, attributed to an anonymous tipster.

“Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured Multi-Touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X,” the tipster wrote ” (via abcnews.go.com/Technology) by ASHLEY PHILLIPS / (ABCNews Photo Illustration)

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