MacRumors

NYPost.com writes what appears to be a mostly speculative piece about the possibility of games in the Apple iPhone.

Not much new information is provided, but in the past, there had been reports that Apple was courting game developers for the iPhone.

Specifically, Electronic Arts' mobile division had been quoted as saying that they had been talking to Apple about games on the iPhone. Electronic Arts would be a natural fit as they are already amongst the few developers who have been releasing new games for the iPod.

Meanwhile, independent development efforts continue on the iPhone with unofficial applications popping up daily. An NES emulator and non-playable port of Doom have been released for the iPhone. Due to the procedure required to install these applications onto your iPhone, these applications remain available only to interested hobbyists rather than the general public.

A new class-action lawsuit alleges Apple violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act, according to Information Week.

The act, amended in 2003, states that "No person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business shall print more than the last five digits of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the card holder at the point of sale or transaction."

The lawsuit alleges that Apple violates the act by printing credit card expiration dates on Apple Online Store receipts. In addition, the suit points out that the purchaser's full name, full home address, full phone number and full e-mail address are also printed, arguably increasing the risk of identity theft.

Like many big businesses, Apple routinely has lawsuits filed against them, most of which are later settled out of court. In this case, the lawsuit demands $100 to $1000 for each class member (which if certified as a class action, may encompass anyone who has shopped at the Apple Online Store in 2007) plus expenses, however a settled amount would likely be much less.

Updates 1 and 2: There is debate in the forums as to whether the lawsuit is actually seeking damages. The lawsuit does appear to be seeking damages along with an injunction, but does not seek "actual" damages since such damages would be impossible to quantify. Users who may have suffered actual monetary damages due to Apple's alleged illegal practices would have the ability to opt-out of the class and pursue their own legal action against Apple if they wished to pursue damages.

Raw Data (pdf links):
- The Lawsuit
- Fair Credit Reporting Act

Apple has released a web widget that allows users to embed their recent iTunes Purchases, iTunes Reviews and iTunes Favorites into their website, blog or social networking profile. The new service is called My iTunes

iTunes is giving you an effortless way to keep your friends up-to-date with your favorite music, TV shows, movies, and more. My iTunes widgets are simple, self-updating add-ons for your web page, social-networking profile, or blog.

Use My iTunes to share your top reviews, favorite artists, and new music, movies, and TV shows from the iTunes Store with anyone who visits your site.

To start, you need to log into the iTunes Store. From there you click "Enable My iTunes" from your profile and check off which features you want to display:

- My iTunes Purchases - The most recent music, music videos, TV shows, and movies you've purchased from the iTunes Store.
- My iTunes Reviews -Music, music videos, TV shows, and movies you've given a 4- or 5-star rating on the iTunes Store.
- My iTunes Favorites - The artists whose music you've purchased the most from the iTunes Store.

The end result is a Flash widget (Screenshot shown here):

Image links to live widget embedded in the comment thread
Musical taste of David Kirk (& kids) of Tech Recipes

NYTimes reports that Universal Music is planning to sell a significant portion of its catalog without copy protection (DRM) "for at least the next few months" according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Universal, the worlds biggest music conglomerate, is set to announce that it will offer albums and songs without the software, known as digital rights management, through existing digital music retail services like RealNetworks and Wal-Mart, nascent services from Amazon.com and Google, and some artists web Wites, these people said.

Universal is specifically not expected to offer DRM-free music through Apple's iTunes service.

This plan is described as a "test" and is expected to run from August 21 to January 31 to gauge user demand and to determine if there is any effect on online piracy. The exclusion of iTunes is seen as a push to leverage power away from Apple's iTunes which currently leads the digital music industry.

It was clear that trouble had been brewing between Universal and Apple, with the recent announcement that Universal would not renew their long term iTunes contract and instead be continuing "at will."

EMI was the first label to adopt DRM-free music distribution in a joint announcement with Apple. EMI's DRM-Free tracks are called "iTunes Plus" and cost $1.29/song for the DRM-free, but higher quality tracks.

According to the New York Times article EMI's sales results have been "promising". APNews reports that the tracks will be offered from Universal in MP3 format and expected to sell for 99 cents "in a variety of bit rates".

Apple has released yet another software update. The MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1 was released today:

This update provides important bug fixes and improves stability with Motion 2 and Motion 3. It is recommended for all 2.2/2.4GHz MacBook Pro models.

It requires Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later.

Apple filed for a continuation on a 2004 patent about a "wide touchpad" for a laptop.

The patent application, however, now gets an interesting perspective with the recent interest in multi-touch technology and the Multitouch dictionary described last week.

Apple notes in the patent application that as notebook screens become larger, there tends to be a larger space on the bottom half of the housing. Typically the trackpad is placed in the center to avoid unintentional taps and to provide space for palm rests.

They propose implementing an enlarged or wide touchpad which "may be a cursor control device having the capabilities of conventional computer mouse devices, such as the ability to point, drag, tap, and double tap objects on a graphical user interface, as well as more general purposes such as scrolling, panning, zooming, and rotating images on display screen."

The touchpad would be located in the area normally reserved for the palm rests and be intelligent enough to ignore unintentional contact (when being used as a palm rest).

Fingerworks, the multi-touch company that Apple bought in 2005, offered several multi-touch gesture pads and input devices before they ceased operations.

When questioned about the possibility of a multi-touch Mac, Jobs replied that it "doesn't make a lot of sense right now on the Mac" and they'd classify it as a "research project".

Arstechnica posts a review of the new iMac, and had an overall positive impression.

My biggest areas of concern with the iMac going into this review were the new keyboard and glossy display. Both take some getting used to, but the adjustment period was briefat least for meand after awhile the changes with the keyboard and monitor didn't really register with me.

Meanwhile, Apple has already issued a software update for the new iMacs. Apple released iMac Software Update 1.0 yesterday.

This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.

Update: CNet also posts a review of the iMac, and gives it an Editors Choice.

The bottom line: With its super-elegant new design and a strong configuration, Apple's new iMac competes with the PC desktop market better than perhaps any previous Mac to date. Unless you're a gamer or an upgrade enthusiast, we can think of very few reasons not to make an iMac your next desktop.

Apple has posted a firmware update for Mac Pro users.

"The SMC Firmware Update adjusts fan behavior in Mac Pro. The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder and will launch automatically. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the process."

After this update has completed successfully, your SMC Version will be:

- 1.7f10 (Mac Pro)
- 1.5f3 (Mac Pro 8-core)

With the new .Mac updates offered on Tuesday, it appears Apple is prepping an update to their Backup software.

Apple's .Mac Backup page shows a screenshot from a newer version of Backup which provides some new backup options called "Essential .Mac", "Complete Archive" and "iPod Safety Net".

iPod Safety Net appears to allow you to backup data to your iPod.