Hasta La Gadget!

Remember glassgate? We covered it back in October of last year. It was something of a less successful sequel to the much more widely covered antennaegate. Glassgate, essentially, surrounded the ease with which the glass on the phone cracked. The story as we covered it back then, involved the rear glass on the device. When dirt or other particles worked their way in between the iPhone 4 and a case, scratches led to a shattered phone.

Glassgate is rearing its ugly ahead again, this time in the form of a class action lawsuit. Donal LeBuhn, a California resident, filed the suit after his daughter dropped the phone from three feet, shattering it, despite the presence of a protective bumper (a result, no doubt, of the aforementioned antennaegate)–and despite Apple’s claims that the material on the phone is “ultradurable” and “the same kind used in the windshields of helicopters and high-speed trains.”

LeBuhn took the phone to a non-Apple repair shop to save $50, voiding the warranty in the processes. The irritated iPhone owner is suing for attorney’s fees, monetary damages, and to force apple to replace damage glass and refund the cost of replacement.

Parents, start forwarding this to your kids. Apple’s hiring. As we know, a lot of college students are stuck with the same menial jobs their older siblings had years before them: working at a sub shop, coffee shop, Foot Locker, etc. Besides long hours and no time for homework, these aren’t exactly the type of jobs that give you benefits either. But wait! Apple is offering what sounds to be a dream job for students who are sick of asking customers if they’d like fries with that. 

Apple’s customer support group, known as AppleCare, offers a program for college students that allows them to work from home on a flexible schedule, and with benefits and perks. As an Apple At-Home-Advisor, you would help customers with technical support for Apple’s products and accessories — both software and hardware. We’re talking a full scale of products from iPhone to Apple TV.

These advisors don’t have to be a computer science major to apply for this job. Apparently, all college majors are considered for the year-long opportunity. And, good news: you don’t even have to be super smart — at least GPA-wise. You simply have to be enrolled in classes at a desginated college and have a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher.

Of course, salaries are determined on qualifications and experience, but we hear it’s about $10 an hour. Apple will provide you with a free iMac and telephone, and will reimburse you with up to $50 a month to pay for your Internet and phone service. You’ll also receive full health benefits. That’s a pretty good deal considering you can work in your pajamas, which you’ll probably end up wearing to class anyways. 

It certainly feels like the iPad 2 is coming in the next few weeks? In the wake of CES’s massive tablet lovefest, we’ve seen a parade of iPad rumors, all seemingly pointing to the fact that Apple would be unveiling something soon. And besides, Apple’s fairly regular release schedule pointed to a late January event (the first iPad was announced on January 27th of last year).

Here’s another interesting little potential hint. In the second beta of iOS 4.2, a thumbnail seems to actually give away the release date of the new tablet. In the past version, the iOS, the old calendar icon had a big “27” on it–the day in January that the last iPad was released. The new icon, meanwhile, spots a big “9.”

Could Apple be releasing the new iPad on the 9th of February? Seems like a long shot, sure, but in the world of Apple rumors, everything is fair game.

Apple doesn’t want you to fix your own gear–it would much rather have you walk into a Genius Bar for repair, or just buy a new gadget altogether. The company has made that painfully clear all along, with non-removable batteries and other safety guards in place to assure that you don’t open up your devices. And now it has another trick up its sleeve.

The company has begun using Pentalobe-screw heads on its devices. The screws apparently first started popping up on MacBook Pros in 2009, assuring that no one could get the pesky battery out of the thing. Next up, they began appearing on last year’s MacBook Air, keeping the whole inside of the ultraportable off limits.

The screws were in place on a certain number of international iPhone 4 units, but not any of the ones that arrived in the first shipment of US handsets. Now, it seems, Apple has begun to install them on more recent phones.

Why is Apple going through all of the trouble? Simple–Pentalobe screwdrivers are hard to come by. iFixit, those perpetual gadget fiddlers, are offering a solution–the iPhone 4 Liberation Kit. It’s basically two screwdrivers–something approximating a Pentalobe and a Phillps–and all of the requisite screws, so you can remove the old one and stick in much more easily removed versions.