Steve Jobs was on top of the world early this week as he debuted the new iPhone and Apple TV in front of a crowd of adoring Mac fans. However the end of the week brings a post party hangover as new questions arise in the Apple Stock Options Back Dating Debacle.

It appears that investigators are focusing on shares granted to Jobs in October of 2001 that were later back dated causing the options’ value to raise to $20 million. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) along with California prosecutors are looking into the legality of the accounting maneuver.

According to The Recorder, it appears that a cover up was under way at Apple. A young lawyer named Wendy Howell had created bogus papers to cover up the …

Within 24 hours of the release of the Apple iPhone announcement by Steve Jobs at Macworld earlier this week, Cisco filed a law suit against Apple for the use of the iPhone name, despite talks between the two companies that had apparently fell through. Cisco had owned the iPhone trademark for a number of years, and Jobs’ announcement with the name was what many are calling a bold move.

Many speculations have been floating around about what the result of the lawsuit will be, one of which is that both companies will be able to use the somewhat generic term “iPhone” in conjunction with their respective products, branding one the “Apple iPhone”, and the other the “Cisco iPhone” or “Linksys iPhone”.

A dual ownership would be a good potential outcome for Apple according to Bruce Sunstein, …

Everybody is gaga over the iPhone. It’s sexy, it’s sleek, and it’s definitely all Apple design all the way. Steve Jobs wowed us with his presentation of the iPhone. However, that could have just been the effect of the famous Jobs Reality Distortion Field. The question on our minds is: Is the iPhone a contender in the cut throat mobile phone arena? We look at a few issues that may hinder the fledgling iPhone on its first flight out of the Apple Aerie.

Price

At $500 to $600 the phone is incredibly expensive. You could buy a Nintendo Wii, a few games and still have money left over a good night on the town. Considering some wireless companies give phones away with their plans it might be hard to convince a consumer to part …

The moment Steve Jobs announced the name of the new mobile phone from Apple at MacWorld on Tuesday we all looked at each other in surprise due to the iPhone name. Until that point we were with the understanding that it was already trademarked by Cisco for a phone from Linksys and Apple would have a different name for their new hybrid mobile device.

To no surprise for us here at SlipperyBrick, Cisco has announced that it’s suing Apple for trademark infringement on the “iPhone” name. The lawsuit filed in California seeks to prevent Apple from “infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark”. Shares of Apple stock had risen $4.43 to $97 in Nasdaq today, and the suit was filed after the close of regular trading.

The trademark for the iPhone was transferred to Cisco …

Although greatly overshadowed by recent releases of the Apple TV and the iPhone, the new Apple Airport Extreme Base Station was also recently released by Apple and probably deserves a little more recognition than it’s gotten so far.

The new Airport Extreme is an upgrade from the previous version in multiple ways. The design changed to a square look, similar to that of a mini-Mac or the new Apple TV, with small dimensions of only 1.3 inches high and 6.5 inches square. The wireless capabilities are the other major upgrade which now covers the new 802.11n standard, but is still backwards compatible with the 802.11b and 802.11g technologies.

“The new Airport Extreme is the most powerful and easy to use Wi-Fi base station that we have ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide …

The announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV drove Apple’s share price up over $7 today to close at $92.57. This price was close to a 50 week high for the computer maker turned consumer electronics juggernaut.

That transformation has some investors wondering if the traditional computer manufacturer can handle the transformation of its business model from selling computer hardware and software to selling ultra trendy and ultra popular consumer electronics.

Palm, Research In Motion Ltd. (Blackberry maker) and Motorola shares were all down on the news of Apples entrance into the somewhat crowded market. Apple dominates that mobile audio player category and may try to do the same in the mobile phone arena.

Cingular, an AT&T company, is the exclusive wireless provider for the iPhone. Whether this limited availability will hurt the adoption of the iPhone remains to be seen. Also, …

Apple added some iPhone pages to their website today after Steve Jobs’ keynote speech was completed. Now that the dust has settled a little bit, here are some additional detailed specs to go along with the iPhone release information we posted earlier today.

The new Apple iPhone has a 3.5 inch Multi-touch screen with a resolution of 320 x 480 at 160 ppi. The Multi-touch screen works by finger touch, not a stylus and can track multiple fingers moving on and across the screen to perform tasks such as resizing an image. It has a 2.0 megapixel built-in camera and a battery that allows 5 hours of talking, watching videos or browsing the web, and up to 16 hours of listening to music.

The service will be provided by Cingular with Quad-Band (850, 900, 1800, 1900) GSM, EDGE, Bluetooth and WiFi. …

Today at MacWorld in San Francisco Steve Jobs unveiled the highly anticipated Apple TV, dubbing it the iTV multiple times during his keynote speech. The Apple TV was overshadowed and did not come with as many surprises as the Apple iPhone, but nonetheless has many impressive features.

The Apple TV connects directly to a television to allow viewing streamed iTunes content such as movies, photos, TV shows, and music directly on the TV, from up to 5 different PC or Mac computers at a time. There is also a feature to auto-sync the content of the hard drive to one computer which would allow your content to be easily updated.

Apple TV contains a 40GB hard drive to store movies and other media content as rumored, and plays the video at 720p high-definition. The box is of …

In a move that has surprised absolutely no one, Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPhone during his MacWorld keynote address. The device looks like a PDA and has no permanent buttons.

The iPhone as anticipated by many, and its introduction has raised Apple’s share price.

Jobs made a point to mention how smart phones aren’t very smart because of the fixed keyboard and the space that this wastes on most phones. Jobs also mentioned the fact that you can have visual voice mail, meaning you can view your voice mails like your email inbox.

The phone is a Quad-band device using GSM + Edge and also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capable. Supposedly, the internet integration with Wi-Fi is very seamless.

Jobs demonstrated the context based screen that changed based on what task was being completed, it would show a dial pad …

Today was the opening day of Consumer Electronics Show 2007 (CES). As you’ve no doubt noticed we’ve been bringing you coverage and news from the show.

The three day event hosts close to 3,000 companies and about 150,000 people. The show is centered at the Las Vegas Convention Center but it also spills over into surrounding casinos.

The event features speeches by notables such as Michael Dell and Bill Gates. Gates, Microsoft Chairman, gave a keynote that sounded to some like a late night infomercial for Vista, the Zune and its partnership with Ford. Microsoft has positioned Vista to be the center of a home entertainment web that includes Zune and the Xbox 360 which will get the ability to download and and record Television shows.

Microsoft is eying the juicy entertainment section just like its arch rival Apple Computer. …

There is much anticipation in the tech industry this week looking forward to a key note speech from Steve Jobs of Apple and announcements of the rumored possible latest and greatest gadgets from Apple.

Rumors have been running for months about a new mobile iPhone (or so it’s been called) from Apple. The actual iPhone name turned out to be owned by another company launching a VoIP line of phones which came as a disappointment for some, but the anticipation has again grown as we come closer to to the Macworld conference. Talk of a phone from Apple brings ideas of a mobile device with all the digital audio player capabilities of the popular iPod along with voice connectivity and of course the invaluable “coolness” that Apple provides along with it’s products.

Another rumor that has surfaced and adds some …

According to rumors on AppleInsider.com, the Apple iTV (or whatever the name ends up to be) may start shipping as soon as late January or early Feburary, but detailed information about the iTV and it’s release does not sound like it will make the MacWorld Expo next week in San Francisco.

What we have heard so far is that the iTV is intended to “bridge the gap” between the PC and the living room and standard television by delivering content streamed from a PC with iTunes to the television, such as movies, music and pictures. The multimedia device is also expected to have a host of connection interfaces to support WiFi, ethernet, USB, HDMI and standard component video and audio jacks.

An additional “small hard drive” is also rumored to accompany the Mac OS in the iTV according to quotes from Robert Iger, Walt …

Former Vice President Al Gore, an outside director of Apple Computer Inc., chaired a committee which recently cleared several Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, of any wrong doing in a recent scandal over Apple’s stock-options practices.

Stock options have come under scrutiny following concerns over the practice of back dating options. Back dating is common practice among many companies. It involves changing the grant date of options to a date on which the stock price is lower. Options work by giving the holder an “option” to buy the stock at a specific price, called a strike price, after a certain period of time has passed. Usually the great the difference between the price at the time of the granting of the option and the price at the time the option is exercised (used), the more money …

After some misinterpreted data on falling iTunes sales earlier this month, recent reports from CNN.com are saying that this iTunes sales continue to do quite the opposite.

According to reports, over the holiday season the iTunes store was receiving so much traffic that users were experiencing delays and at times where even unable to download music from the iTunes website. According to Hitwise, iTunes had received four times the amount of traffic during Christmas than it did at the same time the previous year.

“What you’re seeing is the tremendous success of the iPod,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director with JupiterResearch. “No doubt it was a very, very popular gift, and no matter how well you plan on the server side of the equation, there are always times when you get caught short.”

Although many people had reported having trouble …

The iPod has created such a flurry of excitement that the number of iPod accessories and compatible devices have been overwhelming. Here is a compilation of some of the more interesting iPod accessories that the Slippery Brick editors have come across this year. We’ll add more as they come in.

T.P. iPod Dock

Hey, you can play games in the bathroom, so there is no reason why you should not be able to listen to your music in the John, too. The TP iPod dock just adds some convenience to listening to your music no matter where you are and what you’re doing.

iDisguise

If you are a little paranoid about losing your iPod to theft you can disguise your iPod nano or …