Apple This

While Apple is not happy with Sanho overall, their biggest problem is the use by Sanho of Apple’s trademark MagSafe power connector. The MagSafe power connector has been around since the introduction of the MacBook back in 2006 and has never been licensed out to third party accessory makers in all of that time. The MagSafe power connector is essentially like any other power cord except that it connects to the laptop through a magnet. By using magnets instead of fasteners, Apple guarantees that if the MagSafe cord is tugged on or tripped over it will release without harming the computer. Since it was clearly against the law to produce their own MagSafe connectors, Sanho took another approach and instead repurposed pre-existing MagSafe connectors.  When Sanho says repurpose, what they really mean is that they buy used MagSafe power cords and splice the connector onto their HyperMac batteries. For quite awhile this ingenious tactic kept Sanho flying well under Apple’s radar, but when Apple discovered what Sanho was really doing, they were quite upset.

Apple is also suing Sanho over their use of the 30-pin dock connector which Apple uses on a wide range of their products, including the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and various other iPods. While the 30-pin connector is licensed out to some third party accessory makers, Sanho is not one of them.

It is clear that Apple is probably in the right for this case, at least in a legal sense, but they may have a difficult time nailing Sanho for the use of their MagSafe connector. Since Sanho purchases used MagSafe power cords for their products, the power cords may be protected under the doctrine of first sale, meaning that since the product in question is used that Apple cannot protest it being sold. Either way the court case goes, it would be unfortunate to lose HyperMac batteries overall. They are incredibly useful devices that can power a MacBook for a whole day or charge an iPhone over long trips. It may be in Apple’s best interest to leave well enough alone in this case, but with a court track record like Apple has it is unlikely the monster of a company will back down.

The holiday shopping season will be upon us before you know it…and many have visions of apples –  not sugar plums – dancing in their heads…as in Apple’s iPad. But iPads are currently in short supply or sold out just about everywhere and Apple claims they are selling them just as fast as they can make them. Now comes word that the supply of the wildly popular tablet may not get better anytime soon because of a parts shortage.

According the the Wall Street Journal, sales of the iPad are only being limited by production issues specific to the supply of it’s LCD display. South Korean LCD-maker LG has acknowledged the problem and hopes to have supplies ramped up by the 2nd quarter of 2011. On Thursday, LG Chief Executive Kwon Young-soo said:

“Apple is ordering more and more displays but it isn’t something we can be able to respond quickly. I am not sure whether we can be able to meet orders from other companies for similar products, but we will be able to supply the displays without fail…by the second quarter of next year.”

Apple revealed during their earnings call this week that they’ve sold over 3.3 million iPads since it’s April launch, and plan to have it available in 19 countries by the end of the month. That kind of consumer demand doesn’t bode well for supplies of the highly sought-after tablet for the upcoming holiday season, which promises to see competition from both Android and Windows 7-powered tablets, and has already seen aggressive pricing competition from Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook e-readers.

LG says it will be investing $512 million to build new production facilities in order to meet increasing demands for the screens. But that plant won’t be operational until the 4th quarter of 2011. LG hopes that a recent fall in demand for LCD TV screens will allow them to cut production to those lines this fall in order to increase production of the highly-demanded smaller screens.

With more and more of these smaller, high-resolution screens being used in all walks of consumer electronics from cell phones to handheld games to cameras and picture frames, the demand isn’t going to soften anytime soon. But screen supply issues aren’t unique or limited to LG. Verizon has also recently attributed supply problems with it’s Droid Incredible smartphone to screen supply issues with Samsung.

So if an iPad is on your holiday gift or wish-list, you might want to get in line now.

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If you use an Apple Time Capsule wireless backup device, you may need to pay attention.   The company is currently recalling a number of them, offering to repair or replace them, or in the event that you already had yours repaired, they may issue a refund. 

Any Time Capsule purchased between February, 2008 and June, 2008, with serial numbers between XX807XXXXXX and XX814XXXXXX, could be affected.  You can find the serial number on the bottom of your Time Capsule.            

According to Apple, the power may not come on at all or may shut down unexpectedly.  A quick trip to Apple’s support site forums shows that several customers have been complaining.  Here’s an example of one user’s complaint:

“My Time Capsule was running just fine, then spontaneously just powered off by itself. All the other devices in the power strip were fine and I tried switching outlets, plugging it directly into the wall, and unplugging the TC and plugging the power cord back in. The network port lights in the back …, the network lights came on for a split second. I’m guessing that there’s a power connection fried”

For more information on the recall, including how to proceed if you think you received one of the faulty devices, visit support.apple.com.