Reuters

BEIJING–Apple Inc said on Tuesday it had launched an online shop selling second-hand Apple products in China, offering discounts of up to 22 percent, as it looks to beef up its business in the country.

These are products that were previously sold and returned to Apple and have undergone quality tests, the company’s website said.

The refurbished products available on Apple’s Chinese website ranged from a 308 yuan ($44) iPod shuffle to an iMac computer costing more than 14,000 yuan ($2,047).

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

APPLE CEO Steve Jobs won’t be delivering the keynote in this year’s MacWorld event (January 5 to 9).

The iconic Apple CEO has recently confirmed the cause of his weight loss, disproving speculations that it was due to cancer.

In a letter, Jobs said everyone can relax and enjoy the MacWorld event, as he stressed that doctors have found that a hormone imbalance has been causing his continuous weight loss.

He wrote:

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

He called for the Apple community to support him in his recovery.

To read his full letter, click here.

I’ve seen fast, but this takes the cake.

The guy behind ZiPhone, the turnkey app that simplied iPhone unlocking and put it within the reach of everyone for free (and putting lots of would-be hack-trepreneurs out of business in one fell swoop), claims that his software can already do the same for the new iPhone 3G on his blog ZiPhone Status. We don’t know how he can do that, given that the new iPhone won’t be out until July 11, but we’ve seen stranger things before.

Zibri himself said on the blog on a post dated June 10 that he was still waiting to get his hands on the 2.0 software and a unit, but two days later posts that he’s already patched and unlocked the firmware baseband. He also says all the carriers are supported already (and even adds our own Globe Telecom to his long list).

We’ll see. In the meantime we’ll order a large grain of salt to go, please.

Remember the pic of the box from the previous post? Apparently they succumbed and opened it. Less than 24 hours to go before the deadline and the keynote announcement, and they go and open it—and a website has the pics.

Sheesh. Some heads are gonna roll.

We can’t vouch for the pictures’ veracity; for all we know it may be another iPhone 2.0 hoax, but it seems real enough. Does it look thinner and wider to you? I’m intrigued by what seems to be a front-facing camera on the upper right corner. And the color! But we’ll all know if this is real later, won’t we?

Link to the site here.

This is the kind of attention-grabbing nonsense reportage that gets picked up and passed around the net so much because of its amusing nature that it enters the public consciousness and becomes common knowledge despite not having any basis in actual fact, changing the image of the subject forever. That said, this one’s too good to pass up, so we mention it here too. Heh.

I’ve read reports that complaining of the harsh edges of its top case, but this is a first. Someone actually got cut by the sharp edge of, allegedly, a Macbook Air.

This used to be one of those well-worn jokes going around after the MBA was introduced, but somehow it’s actually happened. A user named Bajuware from a German Mac user group reported that his arm got cut up by the edge of a Macbook Air, although it doesn’t seem too clear if it was really an Air or a regular Macbook Pro that attacked him, which changes the whole issue from poor design to just a defective user. (The original post is here, if you sprecken sie Deutsche.)

This now brings up a wonderful opportunity for reactionary alarmists to try and get the Air banned or taken away from, say, kids and clumsy German Mac users.

The fact is, anyone can get cut by anything, if he tried hard enough. I mean, a No.2 pencil can poke an eye out, but it’s still in the hands of billions of children the world over, right?

Even if the Air is eventually deemed dangerous for public use, I think I’ll risk it. Mainly because my Mac is my main tool for breadwinning these days, and I’m not about to let it go. Besides, it’s also great to know that I can actually slice the bread with it as well.