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Apple CEO Steve Jobs will have to appear before federal investigators as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit against Nancy Heinen, Apple's former head lawyer, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

In April, the SEC filed suit against Heinen and Fred Anderson, Apple's former CFO, charging them with orchestrating the backdating of stock options at the company. Anderson agreed to settle his suit with the SEC at the time it was filed, but the proceedings are under way against Heinen. Bloomberg's report said that the SEC is not opening an investigation of Jobs with this move, but … Read more

Perhaps chrome isn't the new gold after all, where Macs are concerned. An outfit called Computer Choppers, which has gotten some attention recently for its Digg case mod on eBay, will also customize your Macbook Pro in gold plate and a diamond-encrusted Apple logo. If that's not enough, you can also choose sapphires or other precious stones to make your statement.

Luxist says pricing for the gold plate costs $1,200 to $1,500, though the diamond logo alone can run the bill up another $2,400. But remember, all of this is a drop in the bling … Read more

Mozilla today fixed a vulnerable in how Apple QuickTime Media-Link files contain a qtnext attribute that could be used on Windows systems to launch the default browser with arbitrary command-line options. Although the problem appeared to be resolved earlier this year, researcher Petko D. Petkov and others found recently that it could still be exploited.

A previous fix in July's Firefox version 2.0.05 was intended to resolve this issue, but, according to Mozilla, "QuickTime calls the browser in an unexpected way that bypasses that fix." Also, Apple's own fix in the release of QuickTime 7.1.5 … Read more

With Apple announcing its entry into the European cell phone market on Tuesday on the back of O2, the United Kingdom has officially rejoiced at the possibility of having the iPhone that Americans have been coveting for so long.

But amid the excitement and hype, everyone seemed to gloss over one important fact from yesterday's announcement: Apple's iPhone business model is second to none, and Steve Jobs really is smarter than the rest of the world.

The new deal with O2 highlighted two interesting points: first off, O2, much like AT&T, is more than happy to share revenue with Apple. Secondly, it displayed the naivete of O2 to actually believe that Apple will stand by it through thick and thin. Hasn't O2 watched any of the iPhone-unlocking news hitting the wire in the past few weeks? Steve Jobs doesn't care about O2; he only cares about profits. And with this new deal, Great Britain may become the best profit center Apple has ever seen.… Read more

With Steve Jobs' recent announcement of his intention to fight off the independent iPhone developers, the question that must be asked is how will Apple try to defeat the hackers: Frequent and disruptive software updates, or lawsuits? Will Apple risk losing its most frequently (ab)used legal tool, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to try to punish the developers of the iPhone unlocking tools?

The wait is over. After being teased over the past few weeks with rumors that Apple would turn a blind eye to iPhone hacking or *gasp* even encourage it, the news is in and it ain'… Read more

Correction: this story has been corrected to remove the implication that iTunes sells audio files in formats other than AAC. iTunes did begin selling DRM-free songs earlier this year, but those files are still in the AAC format. Other stores are selling DRM-less MP3s, but not iTunes.

In 1998, the European Commission began investigating Microsoft on grounds that it was illegally using its desktop operating system (OS) monopoly to squeeze into new markets. At some point along the way, RealNetworks complained that Microsoft was repeating its kill-Netscape tactic by bundling the Windows Media player into Windows. In 2004, the EC agreed, … Read more

Apple announced its first iPhone deal outside of the U.S. this morning, and might have made its second big mistake in the early days of its iPhone strategy.

The company announced an iPhone partnership Tuesday morning in London with U.K. carrier O2. CEO Steve Jobs made an appearance at the Regent Street Apple store to answer questions from the British press, who were curious as to why Apple decided to introduce the same EDGE phone that's on sale in the U.S. to the U.K. market.

Engadget's live blog reported that Jobs is still concerned … Read more

The official CNET review for Apple's iPod Touch is now live, joining the slide show we posted on Friday. I have to admit, this was a tough product to review. It's easy to get hung up on what the iPod Touch isn't (it's not an iPhone, and it's not a high-capacity PVP), and lose your objectivity on what the iPod Touch really is: a cool, innovative gadget.

After all, if you could put the iPhone genie back in the bottle and pretend it never existed, wouldn't a product like the iPod Touch seem breathtaking? … Read more

The problem with insidery satire is that you're leaving a good portion of your audience in the dark. Almost anyone who has worked in Silicon Valley over the past 15 years, however, will find something to laugh at in Options, the debut novel from Fake Steve Jobs due out November 1.

It's not The Bonfire of the Vanities or anything, but Daniel Lyons--the Forbes reporter behind the Fake Steve Jobs blog--has produced a delightful send-up of Valley culture, celebrity CEOs and the inscrutable mix of enlightenment and paranoia that's thought to inhabit the brain of the real … Read more