Kevin Lee, a senior at George Mason University, Virginia, has turned iPhone jailbreaking into a full-time job, hacking customers devices to earn an impressive $50,000 a year. Lee uses Craigslist to advertise his services, which include unlocking, jailbreaking, and customizing devices to a user’s preference.

Lee told The Washington Post that he started off with a mere 5 to 10 customers a week – most of whom were friends. Now he pulls in between 30 and 40 – performing relatively simple hacks that many people don’t like to attempt themselves. A recent customer from the Mongolian embassy wanted his device unlocked so that he could use it in Mongolia when he moves.

Lee’s interview with The Washington Post is rather short, and he has since declined to provide further comment, removing his advert and contact details from Craigslist.

Apple has been rumored to be working on smart bezels for its iOS device series for a long time. The idea is to make all of that empty black space actually do something by imbuing the bezel with all of the touch sensitivity of the display itself. The problem, of course, is how to convey to a user that they’ve just interacted with something in the bezel, as well as avoid accidental triggers.

An exciting new patent shows us exactly what Apple has in mind: bezel’s imbued not just with touch functionality but with an underlying electroluminescent display that would allow the bezel itself to light up with words and icons when needed.

Apple reportedly is putting the final touches on a deal that would open a retail location near the Kremlin in Moscow. The 16,000-square-foot site would be in a historic Red Square hotel alongside an international restaurant and gallery.

Although no contract has been signed, two executives from the Cupertino, Calif. company visited Moscow in March to review the two-story space in Hotel Moskva and a decision is expected soon, according to a news site which tracks Apple’s retail moves. If a deal is inked, the location would be the first Apple Store in any of the former Soviet Union republics.

According to a source for Boy Genius Report, Apple is working on the next release of iOS and planning to release the firmware to the public during the next two weeks. iOS 4.3.2 will include a few enhancements, address security issues, and fix several bugs that have effected some users.

Unfortunately the details handed over to BGR are a little limited, so we’re unable to report what enhancements or bug fixes will be made in the next iOS release. Although, issues with Wi-Fi that effects users with certain routers, and a problem with the taking photographs on the iPad 2, have been picked up in iOS 4.3.1.

BGR sources seem to have been consistent with their information in recent months, revealing on March 21st that iOS 4.2.1 would launch within two weeks – 4 days before it went live.

As always, we’ll let you know when iOS 4.3.2 is available to download.

A one month delay to the launch of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook may have been down to Apple’s high demand for touch panels for its iPad 2. The 7-inch PlayBook is set to launch on April 19th at $499, but shipments were postponed for about a month because RIM couldn’t get its hands on enough touch panels.

Citing sources from touch screen manufacturers, a DigiTimes report says the PlayBook setback was “due to a delay in software testing as well as shortage of touch panels because Apple already booked up most of the available capacity.”

Thanks to Apple’s abundance of cash reserves, the Cupertino company can pre-pay for components and get guaranteed priority from manufacturers. This means that RIM’s PlayBook – a tablet which aims to rival the iPad – won’t launch now until at least a month after the iPad 2 began shipping. It was originally scheduled for release during the first quarter of this year.

[via AppleInsider]

Kick to Pick is a unique new application for the iPhone that is designed to enable an unborn baby to pick its own name. Yes – you did read that correctly!

The $0.99 app lets you choose a gender-specific list of thousands of names for boys and girls. You then lie down, place the device on your bump (airplane mode recommended) and press the button to activate the countdown. Kick to Pick will begin cycling through the list of potential names until it detects that all important kick from your baby. Once your baby has chosen its name, you can have the final say and decide whether or not to accept the suggestion.

Kick to Pick, although a novelty, is a testament to what iOS applications can do with a little imagination – just as you thought everything your iPhone could achieve with apps had already covered!

Despite the short supply of iPad 2s, training materials for Toys ‘R’ Us staff have revealed that the children’s toy giant could be the next store to offer the device. Pictures sent into ModMyI show one of the questions featured in the employee training programme, and a product sheet for the device – both of which contain a Toys ‘R’ Us logo.

The badly-worded question was obtained during an employee training session and reads: “The iPad 2 features a what size LED screen?” Together with the branded product sheet, these photographs would suggest that a Toys ‘R’ Us launch of the device could be imminent.

Retro gamers can now enjoy 100 classic Atari titles on their iOS devices thanks to the launch of Atari’s Greatest Hits. The application is a free download that comes bundled with Pong, and through in-app purchases users can download additional game packs at $0.99 each, or the entire collection of 100 games for $14.99.

The collection of classic hits includes 18 Atari arcade games and 92 Atari 2600 games. But the fun doesn’t stop there; the app also boasts head-to-head multiplayer over Bluetooth and original cabinet and box art.

Check out the entire list of games available – and those that support Bluetooth multiplayer – after the break.

This is a guest post by Paul Lamere, an executive at The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company located in Somerville, Mass. It was originally published here.

For the last year we’ve heard rumors of how both Apple and Google were getting close to releasing music locker services that allow music listeners to upload their music collection to the cloud giving them the ability to listen to their music everywhere.

So it was a big surprise when the first major Internet player to launch a music locker service wasn’t Google or Apple, but instead was Amazon.  Last week, with little fanfare, Amazon released its Amazon Cloud Drive, a cloud-based music locker that includes the Amazon Cloud Player allowing people to listen to their music anywhere.

Amazon’s entry into the music locker is a big deal and should be particularly worrisome for Google and Apple.  Amazon brings some special sauce to the music locker world that will make them a formidable competitor:

We’ve been keen followers of developments at CloudEngines, the outfit behind the Pogoplug network-attached storage device, ever since we reviewed the first one back in late 2009. This month, a little over two years after the Pogoplug debuted, brings a whole raft of new offerings from the company — including one that may bring a big surge to NAS popularity in general.

This is all over Twitter today.

Grab your iThing, open Safari, and use the Google search box to search for “tilt”.

Your search results are… tilted.

Is this an easter egg? An April Fools gag that someone forgot to switch off?

We start off with three hardware deals: one desktop and two MacBook Pros. The desktop is an iMac with a 2.93GHz i7 processor, 27-inch screen, 16GB memory and more for $2,439. Next is a MacBook Pro powered by quad 7 processors running at 2GHz. The laptop has a 15-inch screen and is bundled with three years of AppleCare for $2,099. We wrap up the spotlight with a 2.8GHz MacBook Pro for $1,439.

Along the way, we also check out a 16GB iPhone 3G, more iPad cases and software for Mac downloading. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

The iOS 4.3 update enabled third-party applications to take advantage of AirPlay and stream content to the AppleTV and other compatible devices. Since it went live, developers have been updating their apps to include AirPlay support, and we’ve put together a list of the top 10 iOS apps that are currently AirPlay ready. We’ve chosen apps to keep you entertained, up to date with the latest news, and even one to help you workout.

Check them out after the break!

Was there insider trading involved in Monday’s sell-off of Apple stock just prior to news that NASDAQ would rebalance several tech stocks, including Apple? That’s the concern of some investors trying to understand why $4.2 (1.2 percent) was shaved off the high-flying Cupertino, Calif. company.

“Doesn’t it feel as if someone got a call regarding the Apple re-weighting at 2pm on Friday afternoon, when the stock was trading at $348 and change?” Fortune quotes one investor. Monday’s sell-off of Apple shares happened on a “day when the Dow was up and a couple analysts had just raised their Apple target prices,” the magazine adds.

According to Digitimes, iPad 2 supply might not be constrained by touch panels, but rather by the cover lenses needed for the touch panel modules.

Although Apple has reportedly sold between 2.4 to 2.5 million iPad 2s in March alone, and it’s thought that once supply ramps up, Apple may be able to ship over four million units per month through the coming financial quarter.

However, all of these plans could be stymied unless manufacturers ramp up their production of the necessary lens component. Right now, TPK Touch Solutions and G-Tech Optoelectronics are trying to produce more cover lenses for the iPad 2, along with competing devices… and many sales will be determined by their ability to cope with surprise demand.

At their EOY financial call, Apple COO Tim Cook made it clear that he thought Apple could have sold more iPads if they could have made enough of them to satisfy demand. He may very well be saying something similar at EOY 2011.

Could another flash memory crunch be on the horizon? The growing introduction of cloud-based services and talk of a high-capacity iPhone 5 later this year will catch NAND memory makers flat-footed if an iPad 3 is unveiled in the next six months. That’s the concern of one analyst who watches the memory sector.

Although memory manufacturing facilities were built with an eye toward greater use in cell phones, there was no “accounting for any potential detrimental impact from streaming services,” according to Matthew Bryson of Avian Securities. Both Apple and Google will join the push, with the Cupertino, Calif. company “leading the hardware/OS/cloud charge with a completely integrated product built around post-PC devices like the iPhone5 and iPad3,” he tells investors Wednesday.

Your doctor probably loves his or her iPhone for reading news on the go as much as you do. A massive survey of U.S. doctors found that while Android use is growing in the general population, physicians prefer iPhones.

Bulletin Healthcare found that iPhone mobile consumption of its subscription-based medical news climbed 45% between June 2010 and February 2011. The growth spurt was found in its 550,000 healthcare providers.

Although any official hint at how many iPad 2 tablets Apple has sold likely won’t come until later this month, when the Cupertino, Calif. company makes a financial announcement, there are plenty of leaks. If ‘follow the money’ is the mantra in Washington, for the Silicon Valley press corps, the equivalent is ‘follow the supply.’ A new report suggests Apple sold 2.4 million to 2.6 million iPad 2 units in March.

According to chatter heard by DigiTimes, between 4 million and 4.5 million iPads are being shipped monthly for 12 million during the three-month second quarter of 2011. The report, based on touchscreen suppliers, indicates the next-generation iPad 2 is selling at a much faster rate than the original tablet. The first iPad took 28 days before selling the first million units.

For some people, getting the chance to work for Apple seems like one of the coolest jobs on the planet. Being surrounded by everything Apple. Super discounts on iMacs. Talking to customers about how incredibly magical the products are. If that all sounds awesome to you, then go ahead and disregard the fact that it’s easier to get into Harvard University than to get a job at Apple.

Here is Cult of Mac’s first-hand look at how the Apple hiring process plays out.

Who’d a thunk? Consumer Reports says that the iPad 2 is the best tablet out there right now, compared to models from Archos, Dell, Motorola, Samsung, and ViewSonic.

Of course, since Consumer Reports still stupidly clings to its insistence that they can’t recommend the iPhone 4, which is still the best and most in-demand smartphone on the market, you know their recommendation of the iPad 2 is going to come with some backhanded compliments.

“So far, Apple is leading the tablet market in both quality and price, which is unusual for a company whose products are usually premium priced,” said Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor at Consumer Reports. “However, it’s likely we’ll see more competitive pricing in tablets as other models begin to hit the market.”

If CR is implying that other companies are going to undercut iPad on price, that’s not necessarily likely at all, at least soon. Apple controls a huge chunk of the tablet supply chain right now, and while that hold will loosen with time, right now it seems like Apple’s the only company out there who can really make a $500 tablet without selling it at a loss.

Either way, though, the iPad 2 did well in Consumer Reports’ estimation, and at the end of the day, they recommended the 32GB iPad 2 with 3G as the best value for the price. Hey, that’s the one I have!

For most intents and purposes, I’m really content with my Smart Cover (although I’d advise anyone not to get one of the more expensive leather ones, since the leather is cheap and they seem to scuff easily) but there’s always going to be people who want to stand out from the crowd and own an iPad cover just as eccentric as they are.

For those bright young things, perhaps this DIY 1945 iPad Case, made from the refuse of a basement: a few pieces of old wood, some old shorts for padding, a few screws, a luggage tag, a couple old kitchen magnets, some wood glue and wood stain. Pretty gorgeous, methinks.

Right now, the 2010 MacBook Airs are the only Macs that still boast the stinky Core 2 Duo CPU, compared to the much faster processors Intel has released since. Even though the Air is a speed demon thanks to its ubiquitous SSDs, Apple will have to update it at some point… and Intel may have just announced the Sandy Bridge processors that will probably go into the MacBook Air starting later this year.

According to a source speaking to 9to5Mac, when the Apple Store went down this morning, there was only one major change in the database when it came back online… the total elimination of the white iPhone 4 from Apple’s database.

Not only is the SKU gone from Apple’s system, but images that were once for the white iPhone 4 have now been tweaked to feature the black iPhone 4 instead.

Teens are increasingly purchasing or interested in owning an iPhone. That’s the word from one research firm that reports 17 percent of U.S. teens now own the Apple handset with more than a third expecting to buy one in the next six months.

Although that those expectant iPhone owners are sometimes overlooked, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggests this year’s survey finding of 37 percent suggests certain sales for Apple are on the horizon. “Historical data shows that the intent to buy translates into share gains,” he told investors Tuesday. In a spring 2010 survey of teens, Munster found 33 percent of U.S. teens planned to buy an iPhone, which translated to a three-point rise in Spring 2011 ownership.

Job listings for ‘Store Leader’ positions on Apple’s German site suggest that the company is opening a new retail store in Augsburg, Germany, which could be its sixth in the country following the recent opening of the Dresden store.

The listings were first picked up by German Mac blog Macerkopf.de (Google translation) after selecting the state of Bavaria in Apple’s online job search. It’s unclear where exactly in Augsburg the new store could be located, however, it’s expected it will end up in the biggest mall in that area – the City-Galerie Augsburg – around 40 miles from the Munich store.

Apple announced that it plans to open 40-50 new stores in 2011, around half of which would be located outside the United States. At the end of the company’s first fiscal quarter for this year, it had 236 stores in the U.S. and 87 internationally.

[via ifoAppleStore]