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The public Apple Store has recently become a little chattier with the seemingly quiet introduction of a new "chat now" feature to its product pages

Apple Store has a new "chat now" feature - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

The long-rumored arrival of a hybrid mobile phone and iPod music player from Apple Computer Inc. has morphed from a question of "If" to "When" among fans and analysts.
Since Apple's introduction of the iPod five years ago, the company has sold more than 67 million of the devices and more than 1.5 billion songs from its iTunes online music store.
Now, Chief Executive Steve Jobs and Apple are poised to roll out what has been dubbed the "iPhone," perhaps as soon as January next year at the Macworld conference that kicks off every new year, analysts say.

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Mac fans buzzing about expected Apple "iPhone"

Designed by ‘Organic Minimalist’ Ross Lovegrove, this garden lamp needs no wires, just stick it in the ground in a sun-drenched area. The sensors in the lamp will detect when darkness falls and automatically switch on three high power red LEDs. The bud resists to UV, rain, snow and needs no maintenance.
Entirely solar powered, this lamp saves both on energy and installation: no need for electricity, no need for wiring. Lighting elements are long lasting, high power LEDs. The lamp is also fully recyclable.

Futureproof/ed•sustainable products/design

An iPod screen glowing in the middle of the night from thick underbrush led rescuers to a mushroom picker lost in the woods.
The search leader said Pini Nou, 25, of Vancouver, Wash., was on his first outing and got separated from his mother, an experienced mushroom hunter. At nightfall, she called Benton County authorities for help.

iPod glow leads to lost mushroom picker - Yahoo! News

Justin Long, the Mac guy in Apple's Get a Mac ads, reportedly will appear in another round of ads before the holiday season.
According to his agent, David Guillod, Long is in the midst of shooting Mac's holiday campaign with John Hodgman, the PC Guy. Shoots took place Monday and Tuesday, and more are planned for next week.
But, a rep for Long confirms that his days as an Apple pitchman are over: "Every ad you see Justin in is for that previous time period only," she tells Radar. "There's no long-term deal with him." She adds, "Justin's a movie star, not a commercial guy."

Fresh Intelligence : Radar Online

Disney President and CEO Bob Iger remarked during the company’s recent fourth quarter earnings call that Disney has sold nearly 500,000 movies through the iTunes Store, since the service launched movie downloads in mid-September, 2006.

Playlist: Disney CEO: Almost 500,000 movies sold via iTunes

Apple today unveiled its new line of MacBook consumer notebooks that now include Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Just one-inch thin, the new MacBooks are up to 25 percent faster than the previous generation and feature a built-in iSight video camera for on-the-go video conferencing, Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter that safely disconnects when under strain, and iLife ‘06, Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications.

Apple Unveils New MacBook With Intel Core 2 Duo Processors

FairGame will take the songs you purchased from iTunes and convert them to an unprotected format. It uses the iTunes Default encoder and keeps the metadata, lyrics, and artwork.

Apple today announced the launch of iTunes Latino, a dedicated area within the US iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) featuring top Latin music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks and podcasts. iTunes Latino offers hundreds of thousands of Latin and international music tracks, including exclusive tracks and albums available only on iTunes.

Apple Announces iTunes Latino on the iTunes Store