This week was filled with new additions, anniversaries and, unfortunately, more class action lawsuits for Apple.  Let’s start with the bad news:

Another Class Action Lawsuit for Apple

Apple is included in another class action lawsuit, this time they are named along with their American bosom buddy AT&T as defendants in the suit.  Earlier this week, a lawsuit brought on Apple and AT&T regarding an alleged illegal monopoly over American iPhone consumers was bumped up to class action status by a Northern California district judge.  Essentially this means, anyone who has ever purchased an iPhone in America is now included as a plaintiff in the suit.  Looking at the extreme popularity of the phone since it’s release this lawsuit will include millions of “plaintiffs”.  Most likely we’ll see an out of court settlement occur and considering the sheer number of plaintiffs, iPhone customers shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for any substantial compensation.  However, this suit may shed some light on the elusive terms of the exclusivity contract between Apple and AT&T which would be a nice piece of information for those who are holding out for Apple to switch carriers.

Tiny Apple Touchscreen

We were treated to photos of a new Apple component this week.  It’s a small, 1.18″ square touchscreen.  People are speculating this may be anything from a new display for the next generation nano to an ‘iWatch’-type device.  It comes from Apple.pro a website that has provided us with pictures of pre released white iPhone 4 cases and MacBook Pro unibody enclosures.  Now don’t get too excited, many times we have seen patents, images of components and heard rumors about concepts Apple is working on that never see the light of day so for now file this in the “wouldn’t it be cool if Apple made a…” file.

Shanghai Store Opens Doors

The highly anticipated opening of the new Shanghai Apple store took place earlier this week.  Among those in attendance was Apple’s VP Ron Johnson.  The store itself is a thing of beauty.  The store is similar to the New York 5th Ave store with an above ground 40 ft glass structure (this time in the form of a cylinder boasting the world’s largest curved glass panels) with a magnificent silver Apple logo hanging from the center.  Walk through the glass doors, go down a winding stair case and you’re presented with one of the largest Apple stores carrying the demo gadgets in any store.  This marks the 2nd store in all of China.  Early store patrons received a special edition Apple shirt (I want). From the videos of the store opening the energy was similar to an Apple product launch time 100.  So if you’re ever in Shanghai stop by, from the looks of it, you won’t be disappointed.

App Store Anniversary

Yesterday, July 10th, the Apple App Store celebrated it’s two year anniversary.  It’s hard to believe that just two years ago we were introduced to the electronic store that would give developers an avenue to create and disseminate an app for anything.  If you remember, the app store sold more than 1 billion app downloads within it’s inaugural year.  Now, two years, 225,000 apps and 5 billion downloads later the App Store is still going strong.  This concept, developed by Steve Jobs, has truly revolutionized the way developers reach consumers and, even more so, the way consumers use their smart phones.  To mark this anniversary a group of developers created “Appsgiving“.  To learn more about this Apple fan holiday click here.

While the buzz over the most recent class action lawsuit seems to be much lower than last week’s, the fact is, Apple is still facing two significant class action lawsuits.  Obviously these lawsuits have not distracted Apple from their daily bouts of genius, opening one of their largest retail stores and celebrating the wild success of their App Store has kept Apple on top of their game this week.

Josie is an avid tech junkie and Apple fangirl who loves writing about anything related to Web 2.0, social media, gadgets, and, of course – Apple.  You can read more of Josie’s work on her website, Geekulous and on Twitter – @geekfab.

Happy Appsgiving day everyone!  What’s that?  You don’t know what Appsgiving is?  Well let me enlighten you.  This year a group of developers   came up with a pretty brilliant idea to celebrate the anniversary of the App Store while simultaneously boosting their sales.
So what is Appsgiving exactly?  Appsgiving is the brainchild of the developers of the not-yet-in-store iWishApp, an app dedicated to creating and sharing wish lists of iPhone and iPad apps. Essentially, it’s a day for people to ‘gift’ their favorite apps to friends and family.  Not that this can’t happen every day but today people are especially encouraged to give .  Here’s what they’re saying over at Appsgiving.com:

We all love apps.  Your friends and family love apps too.  Did you know that you can gift apps to them?  There is one special day when you should make someone’s day with an app.  Appsgiving day is celebrated the official day the App Store was born.  Celebration is in order!  Give and bring more joy to the world one app a time!

For a short tutorial on how to gift an app head on over to Appsgiving.com.  They have a Twitter account (@appsgiving) with a few followers and,-this being it’s inaugural year-that’s to be expected but, hopefully, we will see this really catch on.  What better way to celebrate the store where we can find an app for ANYTHING than to give our friends and families apps we love?  So circle July 10, 2011 on your calendar so we can keep this new tradition going.

Happy birthday App Store, thank you iWishApp developers and Happy Appsgiving everyone!

Well this week in Apple has been dedicated, surprise, iPhone 4 issues.  The week went from Apple looking for a few good antenna engineers, to apologizing for the reception issues to attempting to dodge class action lawsuits.  Needless to say it was another busy week for Apple but unlike weeks prior this one seemed to be all about damage control. Wanna know more?

Apple – Wanted: Antenna Engineers

In the wake of the many complaints made by iPhone 4 customers regarding antenna and reception issues, Apple has started looking for a few good antenna engineers to join their team.  Obviously nothing (design-wise) can be done with the current iPhone but maybe this new talent can help sort out some of this generation’s blunders so next generation we won’t have to worry about holding our phones with two fingers and a foot in the air just to make a phone call.  Good luck to those who get the job, talk about pressure!

Class Action Lawsuits?

It seems some people are not content to complain about their new devices on the forums.  Earlier this week we found out there were a handful of angry iPhone 4 customers who decided to take legal action against Apple claiming breach of warranty and various forms of misrepresentation.  The class action lawsuits popped up in both Maryland and California.  The general premise of the lawsuits is that Apple knowingly falsified advertisements for the iPhone 4 and that the antenna issues presented by holding the phone in the “death grip” prevents users from using the phone the way one would normally expect to use it.  Finally, included in the lawsuit is a complaint about the 10% restocking fee Apple charges for returning it’s hardware.  No official word on how Apple is responding to these suits however we have seen some other interesting public gestures made by Apple.

Apple Apologizes

On July 2, Apple released a letter to the public stating they are aware of the reception issues and that they are related to software not displaying the correct number of reception bars based on actual signal strength.  Throughout the letter they make sure to let us know that not everyone is experiencing this issue and they maintain that the iPhone 4 is still the best phone they have created (I have to agree).  Also included in the letter is a solution:

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

Hopefully this software update will be the fix that everyone is looking for.  Personally, I just popped a case on mine (which everyone really should do anyway) and my reception problems disappeared.  While the apology was a nice gesture, the consensus is that it might be too little too late for some iPhone 4 customers.

New Return Policy

Included in the “apology” from Apple was a statement indicating they will be waiving the 10% restocking fee for returned iPhones and are extending the return window from 14 days to 30 days for those not satisfied with their new devices.  I’m not sure if this really solves the problem and I doubt many consumers are interested in returning their phone for a complete refund, instead I’m pretty sure people just want to have an iPhone that “just works” (the way all other Apple products do).  Nevertheless the change in policy is a nice gesture, I wonder if I can take back my black phone and return it for a white one.

So it was damage control all over the place this week.  Fortunately, damage control isn’t anything new to Apple and they really are pros at public relations and customer satisfaction so I have no doubt this will all blow over soon.  Hopefully next week the focus will be placed back where it belongs – on the fantastic, innovative new features that make the iPhone 4 the best phone Apple has created to date.

How do you feel about Apple’s apology, was it sincere enough for you?  Are you going to return your phone with the new return policy in place?  Let us know in the comments.

Josie is an avid tech junkie and Apple fangirl who loves writing about anything related to Web 2.0, social media, gadgets, and, of course – Apple.  You can read more of Josie’s work on her website, Geekulous and on Twitter – @geekfab.