9to5 Staff

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Now we know why AT&T quietly raised its early termination fees even while its smiling CEO, self-confessed iPad addict Ralph de la Vega,  said he isn

Apple has opened up its annual

Apple’s lack of support for Adobe Flash has generated thousands of column inches online and in print.
There’s been harsh words between Adobe’s founders and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. We’ve seen huge ads appear in key publications as Adobe spends cold hard cash to counter Apple’s criticism of its fading multimedia star, Flash.
Now new tests suggests Steve Jobs is right about Flash on the iPhone...Read it here.

Interesting that jailbreaking the iPad has sort of gone mainstream.

http://g4tv.com/lv3/46033

surely a non-flash version exists somewhere? That’s what comments are for!

European iPad 3G data prices are beginning to emerge, even as the UK

Here

A group of Apple Genius workers have filed a class action lawsuit against the company alleging they were poorly treated and did not receive statutory rest periods.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2009 in San Francisco. Former employees are now being contacted in order to find out if they want to take part in the class action. The Loop reports.

From the lawsuit:

Heads may roll at Microsoft as the company moves to reorganise teams handling its games and mobile phone offerings in response to the damage the company has suffered at the hands of Apple and Google.

The division — which accrued $1.67 billion in sales in the first quarter, mainly on back of Xbox and games, includes Microsoft’s Xbox videogame business and Windows Phone.

The move also follows the (still unconfirmed) departure of long-time Microsoft boss, J Allard, the man behind the Xbox.

Excitement across the UK this morning on news Apple

Engadget has the scoop and some Tweets to back it up.  American Beauty, Jarhead and Road to Perdition director Sam Mendes is supposed to be directing an Apple commercial where a mother and daughter are video chatting via iPhones.

Here’s the mom?

Mendes is also slated to be the director of the next James Bond movie.

Thanks Denis!

I never understand why the upfront cost is such a big factor in smartphone purchases.  That $100 you save on the iPhone 3G vs. the 3GS is probably the same as your monthly bill (that you pay 24 times over) and you have to live with a previous generation iPhone for two years!  Dumb.

With that in mind, on the eve (OK, not really) of a new iPhone release Walmart announced that it was cutting the price of its iPhone 3GS to $97 with a two year plan this week.  Formerly, the 8GB iPhone 3G occupied this price point, but those look to be running out of stock.   We heard earlier today that the iPhone 3GS might stick around at this price point.

Plus those iPhone 4/HD’s are coming around the bend and it is inventory-reducing time in Cupertino.

Walmart currently lists the old prices for iPhone 3GS models and doesn’t have the iPhone 3G on its website any longer.

..and Blackberry Bold 9000…whatever those are.

According to a Consumerist Report, AT&T just settled a class action lawsuit by allowing any pre or post paid customer to unlock their AT&T phones unless that phone is bound by a 10+ month exclusivity agreement. 

Yeah, that means just about every phone they sell except Apple’s iPhone.  Verbiage below.

1) Customers with postpaid accounts who have completed a minimum of 90 days of active service and are in good standing and current in their payments.

(2) Customers with prepaid accounts who have provided a detailed receipt or other proof of purchase of the handset.

(3) Customers who own handsets for which AT&T has an exclusive sales arrangement with a manufacturer of less than 10 months will have to wait until the 10-month period expires before they can receive an unlocking code.

If you want to opt out of the settlement or object to it, you have until June 4, 2010 to post mark your filing. The final approval hearing will be held July 2, 2010. For more information, visitwww.attlockinglawsuits.com.

Though largely a symbolic milestone, Apple is now within 2% of Microsoft in market capitalization.  With WWDC announcements coming soon, Apple’s stock price could see some wild swings this month and has fluctuated more than the 2% gap a few times in the past month.

Shortly after Apple passed Dell, Steve Jobs sent the following email to employees:

“Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn’t perfect at predicting the future. Based on today’s stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.”

In what might be becoming a weekly, if not daily occurrence, some new iPhone 4/HD pictures are now floating around. These new pics show cloesups of the “unibody” piece which houses the main parts of the upcoming device. Also to notice is the inclusion of the screw holes on the bottom of the piece. You can see that and a few others after the break. 

via iSpazio

Alright listen up, ads on the iPad look likely to become something worth thinking about, with major Australian newspaper, The Australian, revealing that it has managed to sell three months of ads inventory so far.

That

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtGCaKyd_co&w=700&h=425]