The defendants knew that options were not granted on the dates that were disclosed to shareholders and falsified the company's records to create the appearance of illegality, and thus bear direct responsibility for their actions.

A previous suit was dismissed because the actions by Apple directors and executives in 2000 and 2001 were too old for courts to consider. We're not sure yet what's so different about this case, except that it's well-timed for bad publicity ahead of the iPhone 3G launch.(Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

The plan is for companies that buy into Allied Security to buy up unused patents, issue themselves nonexclusive licenses for a song and then sell the patents. While it's not clear if Allied Security is a nonprofit, former IBM veep Brian Hinman who heads up the organization asserts it's not a profit-making venture. IBM, of course, has done much to refashion itself as a promoter and producer of open-source software — something anathema to Microsoft's culture.

The same can't be said of Intellectual Ventures, which was founded by former Microsofties Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung, Intel's Peter Detkin, and Gregory Gorder of Seattle law firm Perkins Coie, which counts Microsoft as a top client. Myhrvold has been buying up patents left and right, and while his company has yet to sue anyone, he hasn't ruled it out. Microsoft executives have traditionally aped Bill Gates hard-line rhetoric when it comes to intellectual property, and there's little reason to believe Myhrvold and company are any different. While Google is also an investor in the fund (along with Apple and eBay), the Mountain View company must be worried enough about the fund's plans and ties to have helped create a potential competitor.

In other words, if Intellectual Ventures continued to aggregate patents in a competitive vacuum, it could become just as if not more dangerous a monopoly than Microsoft in the company's heyday by commanding premium royalties or denying access to patents entirely in order to hobble products and competitors. It's yet to be seen if Intellectual Ventures will carry water for the Redmond software giant in court, and for now, Allied Security is collection of legal documents and yet an actual owner of patents, but this could shape up to be one of the most boringly important battles in the coming years.

He scoffs at suggestions that the iPhone is about to become a mass-market handset because Apple has accepted mobile operators' pleas to subsidise it. "There goes the conspiracy again," he says of Apple. "You're declaring them a winner before they've earned it on the field."

The Verizon CEO is right. Until the second coming of JesusPhone starts working financial miracles, both here and abroad, the media should be a little more skeptical of the word of Jobs — we all know what happens to those who worship false idols. (Photo by AP/Dima Gavrysh)

Cook’s deep knowledge of Apple’s operations and ready command of detail has won him the respect of the board of directors and the investment community. A bachelor with a passion for cycling, he’s as steady and low-key as Jobs is temperamental.

Of course, as any Apple employee will tell you, "steady and low-key" doesn't strike the necessary fear into their hearts like Jobs' legendary tirades.

Jonathan Ive, the wildly talented designer and crowd favorite for the role, is apparently even more soft-spoken, and too shy to carry the yoke of showman that he would inherit. However, secret plans not obtained by Valleywag have revealed Jobs' succession plans: A top secret project begun by Jobs while still at NeXT to take back Apple by force if necessary has been quietly resurrected by Ive, with Apple engineers working only on small parts so as not to reveal the true goal — an indestructable cyborg assassin capable of verbally abusing ten times the employees in a single day while still finding time to ignore his no-longer biologically related daughter.

I, for one, welcome my new Robot Steve Jobs overlords.

So says Kate Sylvan at porn site Pink Visual:

Sylvan says many porn consumers access adult materials on their iPhones while traveling, because they're wary of using company-issued laptops or public computers to access adult entertainment.

Yes, major online smut shops are feverishly preparing for the launch of the latest version of the iPhone, too, as the handheld device may be the best porn delivery platform in history.

Almost 5'4" Book Trailer - For more funny videos, click here

A German study comparing the long-term effects of two variations of the Whipple procedure on 104 patients found an increase in diabetes and various degrees of gastric acid reflux, stomach ulcers, oily bowel movements, intolerance toward larger meals and aversion to certain foods.

It also lends credence to rumors Jobs is on a special diet, one that seeks to avoid or mitigate these symptoms. According to studies, 80 to 90 percent of patients who survive the surgery live at least ten years. Which means that barring some unfortunate complication, Jobs will probably be announcing products at keynotes through 2014.

Users got angry when Facebook dropped the News Feed on them out of nowhere in the fall of 2006. Developers are still grumbling about the pending redesign. Now, when Facebook introduces a change, it's announcement by slow drip — tremendously boring. Just like a Zuckerberg keynote. If Zuckerberg really wants to be like Jobs, he's going to have to stop worrying about the users, stop worrying about the developers, and start trusting his gut. Jobs displays utmost confidence in how his fans will receive his products — and that, not his presenting style, is what makes him so compelling.

(Photo by AP/Ruttle)

It's been suggested to me that I might take some time off this summer and focus on myself for a change. You know — do some yoga, take a calligraphy class, put on some weight

Fortunately, Fake Steve's lined up series of "heavy hitters" to take over the blog for the summer — Jerry Yang, Jony Ive, Mark Zuckerberg, Carl Icahn, J. Allard, Walt Mossberg, Robert Scoble, and Jonathan Schwartz. FSJ writes:

I know you'll miss me. I'll miss you too. Not really, but that's what I'm supposed to say, right? Ha! I'm joking. I really will miss you.

In perhaps related news, journalist Dan Lyons is leaving Forbes and taking Steven Levy's job at Newsweek.

Beyond vertically integrating yet another step in the process of making the popular devices, it would also keep the technology out of the hands of competitors, like the Samsung multitouch phone that looks strikingly similar to Jobs's pet project, and allow the company to keep an even tighter lid on leaks. The only thing Apple still won't do is fabricate the chips and assemble the devices, so while the boxes will still read "Designed by Apple in California," the devices inside will very much be "Assembled in China." (Photo by Chen Zhao)

A healthy Steve Jobs with a bad beard in 1998.

In 2003, Jobs could have used a "bro."

Secretly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, Jobs's weight loss was evident in 2004.

By 2005, he looked healthy again.

Notice the contrast between Jobs and Nike CEO Mark Parker in 2006.

By 2007, Jobs's frame verged on I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up frailty.

Jobs during Monday's keynote.


(Photos by AP/Susan Ragan, Richard Lewis, Mary Altaffer, Alastair Grant, Paul Sakuma)

No wonder AT&T is taking so many steps to make life difficult for people who try to buy an iPhone without a contract. Some bloggers are fussing about the fact that AT&T will no longer offer a prepaid plan for those with poor credit. What about those solvent enough to deserve an iPhone 3G? After AT&T and Apple get done with them, I wonder what their credit rating will look like.

85 percent of Mozilla's $67 million in revenues in 2006, the most recent year reported, came from Google, it's true. But Sullivan seems to think this is some kind of bribe, with Mozilla picking Google as the search engine because the company is showering the browser maker with cash.

Utter nonsense. Google pays Mozilla a cut of the revenue generated when Firefox users conduct Google searches. In Asia, Mozilla defaults to Yahoo, not Google, because Yahoo has a larger user and advertiser base in the region, making its searches more lucrative. It's all about the money, sure. But why shouldn't it be?

Mozilla could open up Firefox as Sullivan suggests. The end result would be a lot of annoyed users who have to go through an extra step as they pick their search engine, which would likely be Google anyway. Google doesn't need to bribe Mozilla; the superior economics of its business do the work for Google.

This, by the way, is also why nothing has come of the perpetual rumors that Google is working on its own browser. It could easily build one. But why bother? As long as Google's search ads are more profitable than the competition, there's no reason for Mozilla to send Firefox users elsewhere. A Google browser might hurt adoption of Firefox, which would do more to lower the number of Google searches than Google's own browser would do to raise it. Build a browser? Sure, Google might get to that after it finishes shooting itself in the foot.

Here's something I wonder: Why does no one ask the same question about Apple's Safari browser, which likewise defaults to Google? Google must be paying Apple a considerable amount of money every year, though not enough to break out in its financial reports; Google CEO Eric Schmidt serves on Apple's board, as does Al Gore, who is a senior advisor to Google. Apple has a monopoly on the browser installed on Mac OS X computers, and makes it harder to switch the default search engine; I don't hear anyone calling for Apple to free its browser search.

Which makes me think people like Sullivan are picking on Firefox not because they believe in open browser search, but because Mozilla, owned by a nonprofit, is a more easily pressured target. A familiar stratagem of attention-seeking activists. Let's not pretend that calling for open search is anything but a tactic for generating false controversy. And let's not pretend that Mozilla is doing anything except trying to make money.

Clever of Stone, in a post promising increased Apple-related Twitter usage won't bring the site down, to suggest that Twitter and Apple are up to something together. Especially after past hints of a Twitter-Apple collaboration had the companies' mutual fanboys so revved up.

• This year we will sell nearly 20 million [Windows Mobile] licenses. We sold more in the previous four quarters than RIM, and growth was greater than Apple’s iPhone.
• We give customers nearly 150 different phone choices — phones with full keyboards, touch screens, rich email, picture, music experiences, GPS, 3+ megapixel cameras, and voice activation. Features other operating systems have been slow to deliver.
• Customers can send instant messages or update their calendars in Brazil, Belgium, India, Italy.
• We deliver more than 40 different phones that run at 3G speeds, at prices that meet a range of customer needs.
• Windows Mobile customers have over 18,000 applications.
• Competitors are announcing upgrades we delivered to customers years ago.

They've got boxes overflowing into the parking lot. Some of them are iMacs, plainly marked. Many, many more boxes are totally unmarked. For all i know they're power cords, but why the f*** would they be working into the evening loading hundreds of boxes of power cords into FedEx freight trucks?

Forbes has a created a slide show, with additional details from Caulfield, for you Apple fanboys to study for further clues. (Photo by Forbes/Brian Caulfield)

Apple employees are leading the way in a challenge that started May 1, put on by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Cisco is a fairly close second, with Yahoo in fourth and Google not even fielding a team. But then at Google, employees can drive to work satisfied that the company is saving the environment with its vast fleet of three plug-in hybrids. (Photo by Richard Masoner)

Which strikes us as odd. Te program's intent is to entice young, well-educated potential customers to get used to working in the relative luxury of OS X. Wouldn't getting them hooked to a monthly bill, like those ubiquitous credit-card offers on college campuses, be a better idea? Especially considering that the company's still-minuscule market share in cell phones was reportedly down in the last quarter.

Seen over Memorial Day weekend, Apple built a full scale store on a sound stage at the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. On Memorial Day they proceeded to shoot a commercial that will be part of Steve's announcement on June 9, a la Steve's favorite team at TBWA/Chiat/Day. This was no small feat. This was a full scale and fully operable store, complete with laptops, iMacs, the kids pod, software and accessories on the shelf, functional genius bar. Everything you'd see at at the Apple store, was on the lot/soundstage (same one that The Perfect Storm was filmed on) in working order. The store took 2 days to build. Tear down was complete Monday evening (memorial day). Only a handful of people were allowed to stay for the shoot and no extras/actors were seen in the "store" when the shooting commenced.

(Photo by ifoApplestore.com)

Through its .Mac subscription service, Apple currently offers Mac-only versions of email, bookmarks, file storage, and photo sharing. Google offers all the same services for free, though it charges for extra storage. Apple might well hand its Web businesses over to Google, in exchange for a share of the revenue. Competing with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in online applications would seem like a fool's game.

Why it might not happen: Steve Jobs has long bragged about being the only company that "makes the whole widget," by which he meant hardware and software. Nowadays, the whole widget means hardware, software, and services. Apple has proved it can develop software for Windows with iTunes; ceding the Web to Google might be too much of a blow to the corporate ego.