A patent recently granted to Apple has got online observers predicting a future touch-screen MacBook laptop.

It’ll never happen. Before I tell you why, let’s take a look at the evidence.

Apple is being dragged into court over two separate class-action lawsuits filed last week. Both accuse Apple of violating the privacy of iPhone users.

If Apple loses the suits, it faces damages, plus possible changes in its privacy policy and enforcement.

But if Apple is the company being sued, why does Google care far than Apple does about what happens in court?

Go here to read the whole story.

(Picture courtesy of Funny Or Die)

We start the day with deals on iPad and iPhone apps, along with more reduced prices on Apple’s tablet.First up is a new crop of reduced prices on iPad apps from the App Store, including “GT Racing: Motoro Academy.” Next is a new series of iPhone freebies, including “QuickSocial,” a social media and messaging utility. We wrap up the deal spotlight with more refurbished iPads, including a 16Gb Wi-Fi model for just $429.

Along the way, we check out cases for the iPhone and iPad, along with hardware, such as iMacs, Mac Pros and MacBooks. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Following an analyst note blasting a tablet hoping to compete with the iPad, maker Research in Motion responded, saying its PlayBook tablet “offers superior performance with comparable battery life.”

Tuesday, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu told investors RIM’s tablet has a battery life of just a “few hours” compared to the iPad’s 10 hour lifespan or Samsung’s six hours. As a result, RIM has delayed introducing the PlayBook until later in 2011 for “a bit of re-engineering.”

Another analyst is fueling reports Apple will soon shift from the initial iPad design to the unreleased iPad 2. The Cupertino, Calif. company produced 1.6 million of the tablets in December, a sharp drop from the 2.1 million units created in November. The shift has also allowed Amazon’s Kindle e-reader to match iPad shipments.

Amazon’s ability to keep pace with iPad production in December is a sign that the Kindle “is going to mass market from niche market” and that the iPad’s erosion of Kindle’s market “is not obvious,” according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Equity Research.

2010 was a huge year for Apple news. As we close out the year, we look back at some of the year’s biggest stories and what they might mean for 2011.

Four senior Apple executives and company board members recently donated more than 10,000 shares of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s high-flying stock. The donations benefitted unnamed charitable organizations with early Christmas gifts worth over $3 million, according to government records.

Apple board member and former clothing executive Millard Drexler made the largest donation of 6,800 shares worth more than $2.1 million. Drexler is CEO of J. Crew and former chairman of The Gap. Drexler made the donation on Dec. 14, a day when Apple stock closed at $320.29 per share.

Apple’s new 11-inch Macbook Air with a 64Gb SSD drive is said to be very popular and flying off the shelves at Apple Stores everywhere and beyond. It represents  the smallest notebook computer that Apple makes and the default base model ships with the smallest system disk drive available in any Apple notebook. Therefore it makes sense for users to seek ways to optimize the way they use disk space on this tiny new notebook and it was the computer that inspired me to write this How-To — which actually applies to any Mac.

Even though he’s a pretty reserved and deeply private individual, Steve Jobs sure does churn out great lines every year. Here are the 10 Ten Steve Jobs Quotes of 2010

Just six months have passed since the iPhone 4 launch, so it may seems a little premature to be speculating about its successor. But given the long lead times involved, you can bet that Steve Jobs’ A-team is already hard at it, toiling away in a maximum security lab, under his close personal supervision.

But where next for the iPhone? What can you add to the smartphone that has everything? With the growing competitive threat from Android, I think that Apple’s roadmap for iPhone in 2011 will switch from adding new features to product diversification, targeting multiple consumer segments and price points.

Instead of the iPhone 5, Apple will launch the iPhone Play and the iPhone Air. Here’s why…

If you need to type a letter or create a presentation, the Apple iWork suite can help get the job done.  If you need to build a desk or fix the video projector, the Sears iWork toolkit might be a better choice.  Complete with 119 dedicated purpose hardware applets in a rugged portable utilities folder, this productivity suite requires no power and never needs updating.

It may not remain on sale for long, however, given Apple’s penchant for preserving their trademarks (and fonts).  A bargain now at only $39.99, who knows how much this may one day fetch on eBay?

[via Macenstein]

Skype’s official iOS client can now make video calls using an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or fourth-generation iPod touch. People using any of these devices can share real-time video between themselves and people using Skype clients on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. If you are using an iPad or third-generation iPod touch you can receive video from the other clients, but since you don’t have a camera you won’t be able to send video.

The new client supports video over Wi-Fi and 3G connections and with an installed base of clients greater than those currently using FaceTime it may give FaceTime a run for its money.

Skype version 3.0 for iOS offers the following improvements:

A burglar was caught red-handed in Denver this week, thanks to an iPhone app that shows the camera feed from a home computer.

A woman named Claire, who gave only her first name to the press, uses the app to keep tabs on her dog while she travels. But when she logged in Tuesday, she saw a crook going through her stuff.

Police arrested a suspect. But when they told Claire that he didn’t steal anything, she informed them that in fact she has iPhone video of the suspect stealing her iPad.

Go here to read the whole story.

When WIRED rolled out its first iPad edition, the publisher sold more than 100,000 copies. Everyone proclaimed the arrival of the electronic magazine at last.

Vanity Fair, GQ and Glamour also enjoyed healthy rollouts, though nothing near the WIRED debut.

But after initial success, iPad magazines are suddenly taking a dive. WIRED sales of subsequent editions have tanked to 22,000 and 23,000 for October and November, respectively. Other magazines have seen approximate 20% drops. Specifically, Vanity Fair dropped from 10,500 to 8,700 downloads; GQ from 13,000 to 11,000; Glamour from 4,301 to 2,775.

If iPad and electronic magazines are to gradually replace print, they’ve got to grow circulations, not shrink them. And they’ve got to at least do better than my Twitter feed.

Electronic magazine sales in general, and iPad sales in particular, will fail under the existing model.

We start out with some free iPhone applications and some reduced prices on popular apps for the Apple handset. First up is the latest crop of iPhone App Store freebies, including “iDestroy,” billed as a bug destroying game. Next is an assortment of price drops on iPhone apps, such as “Skeletal Anatomy,” a medical application. We wrap up our featured deals with an 8GB iPod nano for $120 plus free shipping.

Along the way, we make the case for cases, whether it is for your MacBook Air, your iPad or your iPhone 4. As always, details on these items, along with much more (such as as 64GB iPod touch or Morphie’s iPhone credit card reader) can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

While most of the Western world was wolfing down grammies Christmas pudding and singing Christmas carols, our gadget squad was quietly steeling itself (in between eggnog and unwrapping gifts, of course) for the onslaught of new tech at the monster of all gadget events, the annual Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

The madness kicks off early next week, and we’ll be smack in the middle supplying wall-to-wall coverage from the get-go. From advance information we’ve received, the really big news this year will be a dizzying acceleration toward  hardware that interfaces with iDevices, including what seems like a massive dose of app-enhanced gadgets — gadgets that are built to interface with an iDevice and come with their own app, basically making the iPad or iPhone an intrinsic part of the gadget.

In fact, we were pretty surprised and disappointed during last year’s CES when it seemed all we could dredge up of the promising new concept was a clock and an insipid speaker dock. But the concept had only just been made available (with uncharacteristically little fanfare from Apple) earlier that year, and it seems gadget makers have caught up — we’re seeing teasers for everything from an iPhone-connected thermometer, to a car stereo that integrates the iPhone as a display to, a little bizarrely, an iPhone-controlled ball.

Not quite as cool but wider in appeal is the vast assortment of new wifi and Bluetooth connected sound hardware that’ll be on display; there’s also an increase in gadgets that stream and/or communicate with the cloud. And of course, we’ll be covering all the usual suspects: portable audio, speakers, docks, storage, cameras, gaming hardware, peripherals — you name it. Stay tuned.

Ahead of next month’s CES, speculation is that the long-rumored iPhone announcement won’t be announced during the gadget-palooza. At least no announcement will come from the mouth of a Verizon representative, goes the thinking. Tuesday, the U.S. carrier announced its lineup of CES speakers would provide “a sneak peak of Android-based 4G LTE consumer devices” for a Jan. 6 news conference.

This shouldn’t come as surprise. We’ve talked about how Apple CEO Steve Jobs likes to control the message, including announcements of key products. Even Verizon’s own Chief Operating Officer has told the anxious press corp that any iPhone announcement won’t come from the carrier.

Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet is having trouble competing with the iPad’s 10-hour battery lifespan, an analyst told investors Tuesday. The delay is likely the cause of the Ontario-based RIM pushing back the PlayBook’s first-quarter of 2011 introduction until May.

Unlike the iPad’s 10-hours and the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s 6-hour lifespan, the PlayBook has a “relatively poor battery life of a few hours,” according to Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers. As a result, RIM’s tablet could “require a bit of re-engineering,” he added.

Usually, luxury mobile devices are simply tacky tat accomplished by taking a hot consumer product and rolling it in glue and crushed glass, but Gresso‘s latest product is surprisingly elegant. Called the iPad Gresso, it’s an iPad encased in 200 year old African Blackwood, with a logo crafted from pure 18K gold. No word on pricing, but it will cost you more than your skeleton is worth to buy, that’s for sure.

According to the always reliable Digitimes, Apple is preparing three versions of the iPad 2 for 2011… but if you think they mean 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, think again. Digitimes thinks it means WiFi, 3G.. and a Verizon iPad.

That little iPhone camera became a something of a big shot in 2010.

iPhone photography broke into art galleries, including an itinerant exhibit in Apple stores, and if Flickr statistics are anything to go by, the humble iPhone camera may sound the death knell for point-and-shoot cameras.

Cult of Mac talked to Knox Bronson, who helped get those iPhone pics in galleries, about how to take better iPhone pics and what’s ahead for iPhone shutterbugs in 2011.

He also shared with us a gallery of favorites from his website, Pixels at an Exhibition, which encourages the use of apps but doesn’t allow for any post-production clean-up with programs like Photoshop.

Apple’s deservedly racking up a lot of year-end awards as the New Year fast approaches — from the iPad being named Walt Mossberg’s gadget of the year to Steve Jobs garnering the Financial Times’ Person of the Year award — but you can end this one to the more ignominious trophy pile: CNN has just listed Antennagate as one of their ten biggest tech fails of 2010.

Intent not to repeat this year’s shortages, Apple reportedly is “overbooking” its supply of iPad components for 2011. Suppliers of the iPad’s panel display have received orders for 65 million of the components for next year, far higher than the 45-48 million previously projected.

The move “indicates that Apple is very optimistic about the tablet PC market in 2011, and may also mean that Apple is overbooking panel capacity,” a Taiwan-based industry publication reported Wednesday.

Flying’s a frustrating experience, and I think all of us have been tempted at one point or another to take that frustration out on an obnoxious neighboring child. Perhaps he’s kicking your seat rhythmically and incessantly: not one of us would blame you for turning around, dumping your soda all over his crotch, standing up and then loudly shrieking, “Look! The baby wet himself! Big baby!” over and over again until he burst into tears and the rest of the airplane burst into applause. That’s not vindictiveness… it’s just justice.

We draw the line, however, at actually hitting kids. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what 68-year old Russell Miller did on a recent flight heading to Boise, Idaho, after a neighboring fifteen year old refused to turn off his iPhone (which seems to have been in Airplane mode, and we being used to play games and music, not make calls),

It may not really run iOS, but the latest touchscreen Nano has been hacked… and that hack may very well imply jailbreaks to come.

The hack was achieved by dev James Wheaton, who managed to install an alternate Springboard file that allowed him to remove an app from the device.

This might sound like a simple task, but it’s not: to achive the feat, Wheaton has to figure out how to bypass the Nano’s cache comparison, which scans the Springboard file for changes and reverts the device to factory settings if any mods are discovered.

In other words, it’s not that Wheaton was able to load a modified Springboard plist file deleting an app that is the big deal… it’s the circumvention of the Nano’s own anti-modding tech. That means the next step might be bonafide jailbreaking.

Wheaton’s discoveries don’t end there: he also found hidden support for apps, vCards, calendar events and more lingering in the firmware of the device. Even if the Nano will never run custom apps, some of that functionality may very well be able to be unlocked.