Hasta La Gadget!

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is starting to build a bit of a reputation for accurate Apple rumors, so you may be able to take this with a slightly smaller dose of NaCl: Kuo told AppleInsider that Cupertino’s allegedly ordered 380,000 of those new MacBook Air models with Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors on board, to be completed within the month. Of course, if Apple’s got its heart set on distributing silica scaffolding, it has to phase the existing Core 2 Duo variants out, and so the company’s reportedly finishing a final production run of 80,000 units now. If you happen to notice that your entire state is out of aluminum-clad ultralights, you know who to call!

Update: iPhone hacker Chronic claims the MacBook Air refresh could appear as soon as Wednesday morning.

Update 2: Never mind — Chronic says his sources were mistaken about the MacBook Air on Wednesday.

Apple boots Sandy Bridge-based MacBook Air into mass production? (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Jun 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several 9to5Mac readers noticed a rather peculiar phenomenon this last week — their freshly-ordered Verizon iPad 2 units shipped all the way from China just fine, only to boomerang back to sender right before delivery time. Now, Reuters has the official word: Apple’s recalling an “extremely small number” of Verizon iPad 2s which were flashed with a duplicate MEID code. Should they have been delivered, users would probably have found themselves unable to connect to 3G, or booted off before long, as Verizon reportedly can only have one device with that unique identifier on the network at once. We’re not sure whether to applaud, but it’s good to see manufacturers taking responsibility for their hardware before it hits shelves.

Update: We spoke with Apple about this, who wouldn’t give us much beyond the official quote — which is, for the record: “Duplicate MEID codes were flashed onto an extremely small number of iPad units for the Verizon 3G network.” That said, we were able to confirm that a few of these 3G iPad 2s sneaked through and got into the hands of customers. Apple is, of course, replacing those free of charge, so if you’re in possession of a brand new iPad that was never able to get on 3G… you know who to call.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Apple returns a few Verizon iPad 2s to sender (updated: some got through) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone rides Atlantis into space, where no one can hear its ringtone scream originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Music collectors in the US will be able to subscribe to Apple’s iTunes Match service this fall, but it looks like our friends across the pond will have to wait a little longer before lofting their libraries up to the cloud. According to sources within the British recording industry, licensing negotiations between Apple and the country’s major labels have only just begun and likely won’t be concluded until 2012. A spokesman for the Performing Right Society, an organization that protects the rights of musicians and songwriters, likened the situation to the launch of iTunes, which only spread to international markets some 14 months after launching in the US. Speaking to the Telegraph, Forrester Research vice president Mark Mulligan echoed these predictions, while offering some insight into the industry’s approach:

“Apple’s cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time… For one thing the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything.”

Neither Apple nor any of the major labels have commented on the negotiations, but if things drag on we’d be willing to share our cloudy iTunes in exchange for a crack at Spotify.

iTunes Match not coming to the UK until 2012? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple files motion to intervene in Lodsys patent lawsuit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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