Often while reading product reviews you come across an entry so absurd and overenthusiastic, you just have to ask yourself if it wasn't a phony review left by someone on purpose.

It seems Apple has asked the same thing in regards to the App Store, and they've answered "yes" enough to warrant a major scrubbing on the part of the admins. The company has reportedly cleaned house and removed any review left by someone who had not actually downloaded the App.

Good idea by Apple, but it almost surely won't stop overenthusiastic developers or aspiring marketing execs to download the product and immediately leave a glowing (or skewering) review on behalf of their favorite products. Just another reminder not to trust everything you read on the internet, or the App Store.

On this day 54 years ago, one Steven P. Jobs was born.

As Jobs is now not only taking a break from the company, but also apparently unplugging himself from the internet entirely in an effort to regain his health from what has been only referred to as a "hormone imbalance," there's no word on what St. Steve and his family have planned for the occasion. One can imagine, however, that it would be rather low key and consisting of a fair bit of reflection on Jobs' own part.

It's hard to argue that over those 54 years anybody has done more to shape the consumer computing market than Jobs. While he and his company didn't invent the GUI, it was Jobs that saw its potential and spearheaded both the IP acquisition from Xerox and the development of the Macintosh.

His commitment to producing a small, elegant device for the masses to use was evident through the development of the Mac, iPod and now iPhone. While his personality has been much-maligned at times, there's no denying his vision.

Happy birthday to Steve Jobs and here's to hoping that if his 55th birthday doesn't find him back in the CEO chair at Apple, it at least finds him in better health than 54 did.

A former President of the United States of America has decided to put his entire library on the iTunes App Store for just $3.99. If you're a history buff, you'll be disappointed to learn that this former president is not Clinton, Bush, Carter or Reagan.

If you're a fan of modestly successful mid-90's novelty rock acts, however, you'll be happy to know that said former POTUS is Dave Dederer, guitarist for the band Presidents of the United States of America.

Dederer is now working for a tech startup called Melodeo and as a promotion for the company, he has put the band's entire catalogue online as a nifty little $3 App. In addition to the band's debut demo and 4 full-length albums, the collection includes a nice crop of rare songs and exclusive tracks.

Sadly the collection doesn't contain one of the band's best (and last) works; a rather stellar cover of 'Video Killed the Radio Star' recorded for the soundtrack of Adam Sandler's not-quite classic 'The Wedding Singer.'

And Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Timmy and the rest of the South Park gang! At least in the App Store.

The company has shot down a new proposed App from South Park Studios which would allow users to view show clips, download wallpapers, and load exclusive video files from the studio.

Unfortunately, the App itself got shot down. Apple turned down the studio's request to get the new South Park gizmo added into the iTunes App Store because it contained what Apple termed as "potentially offensive content."

Sort of odd reasoning, seeing as how Apple sells full episodes of the show in the iTunes store. Even more odd, seeing as how you can currently get such highbrow software as "Fart Lighter" and "Amazing Free Pick-up Lines."

Apple did offer South Park fans a bit of hope: the studio said that it was told by the company that its "standards" for offensive content were subject to change. Meaning if people complain loud enough, there's a good chance the app will be accepted sooner or later.

The decision by the mobile industry to sign up for standard phone chargers is great news for the environment, as it will cut down on electronics manufacturing and waste; and it's great for mobile users as it will cut down on the number of unwanted, old phone chargers clogging up their drawers throughout the house and office. (Watch this video to see how I feel about all the various chargers I've got - this guy feels about cables as I do about mobile phone chargers).

The announcement was made earlier this week at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, and it's long overdue from my point of view.

The GSM Association revealed that 17 leading operators and manufacturers - including Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson - signed up to a proposal to use a standard micro-USB charging connector last Friday. The two noticeable absences were handset maker HTC and Apple.

So while as of 1 January 2012, you'll be able to switch from a Nokia to a Motorola phone without requiring a new charging unit as part of that purchase, anyone splashing out on a new iPhone or HTC device from that point will find their chargers aren't compatible with those from other vendors.

I wasn't surprised to hear that Apple is one of the only handset makers that hasn't signed up to the agreement, having experienced first-hand Apple's approach to compatibility at the weekend.

I'm a big iPod fan, and am now on about my fourth or fifth model. I've recently switched from using one of the original nanos to the new curved design, and so far have been impressed with the latest version. That was until I tried using it in one of the many iPod speaker docks I've got dotted around the house.

Turns out Apple has updated the connector on the new iPod nano so it doesn't support Firewire charging anymore - but this also means my new iPod doesn't work properly with any of the different iPod docks I've already got, as they're all Firewire-based.

The JBL Radial model I've got works ok, as in I can hear music out of it. However, whereas my old iPod would be charging up while it was sitting in the dock, whether in use or switched off, the new version just comes up with the message: 'Charging is not supported with this device'.

I tried using another set of speakers by Logic3 to see if they could charge up my new iPod but they didn't work either and I got the same message. So halfway through cooking dinner, I had to run upstairs and dig through my cupboards and drawers to try and find a separate iPod charging unit, and then put the iPod on charge for a bit, and then switch it back into the docks to hear a bit more music. And that was on top of the fact that with the Logic3 speakers, the iPod kept losing its connection while sitting in the dock and the song kept cutting out - leading to me going backwards and forwards between the oven and speakers laden down with hot pans to shove the iPod firmly back into the slot. Not exactly a seamless audio experience.

So I've either got to find new iPod speakers that don't charge using Firewire, and splash out on them instead; or carry on using the existing lot but always make sure I've got my separate charger with me and be ready to shove the iPod back into place in the dock when the connection goes and the music cuts out.

Come on Apple, can it be that difficult to pick a standard and stick to it or to just go with the rest of the industry?

Posted by Madeline Bennett

A Canadian publishing firm is causing a bit of a stir by promising a new software release it is hailing as a "Kindle Killer" for the Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile.

Definitely an ambitious plan, and likely driven less by a powerhouse software offering than a desire to steal some spotlight from the release of the Kindle 2. But before we even get into that, the question arises as to whether the iPhone makes sense as an ebook reader in the first place.

Anyone who has ever tried to read a long article in Safari will likely tell you no. Computer screens in general aren't easy to read from, and though the iPhone is better than other handsets, it's still not easy on the eyes over an extended period of time.

There's also the issue with screen size. The iPhone screen is a fraction of the size of your average paperback, and any convenience of being able to fit it in your pocket will quickly be offset by the annoyance having to scroll after each paragraph.

There's also the economic issue. Though we seem to love them in the press, eBook readers remain a very niche market. Just about all of us don't have a problem with carrying a book around, and few people require instant access to a library of books the way we do music.

I'm sure at some point printing paper books will go the way of the 8-track, but it's still a very long way off. And the catalyst to do it won't likely be the iPhone as we know it.

While one Apple founder is doing everything possible to get out of the spotlight, the other seems to be doing all he can to get back in it. Steve Wozniak has been named as one of the contestants for the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars.

Unless they introduce a Segway-dancing category onto the show, Woz would appear to be pretty over-matched. Other contestants include gymnast Shawn Johnson, rapper Lil Kim, and NFL great Lawrence Taylor. That doesn't mean that he won't necessarily stick around on the show for a good long time, however.

Dancing with the Stars, like so many other reality shows, relies on phone voting to determine who stays and who goes. If enough determined geeks were to put an effort into voting for Woz, we could probably keep him on the show for a few weeks, or at least until he throws his back out while swing-dancing.

So, that being said, what dance would you like to see Woz perform?

Personally, I'd like to see him strap on the Adidas and go old school.

In January, Apple announced that they were going to all but destroy the DRM protections on iTunes. Now, that move is starting to pay some dividends, and not just in sales.

Norway has decided to drop its legal case against Apple over the management of the iTunes/iPod system now that DRM is out of the picture. The other EU countries are expected to follow suit shortly.

While settling legal complaints over the iTunes store in Europe is probably not at the top of the list of things concerning Apple's executive staff at the moment, it has to be a bit of a relief to get it out of the way.

One of the biggest gripes about the iPhone since its first introduction way back in 2007 was the lack of support for Flash.

Since then, rumours have surfaced off and on that Adobe was working with Apple on a version of Flash for the iPhone. The most recent of which came to a head on Monday when Adobe's CEO told Bloomberg that, "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."

Some took this as a signal that an iPhone port of Flash is in the pipeline. Others, such as long-time pundits John Gruber and Joe Wilcox were a bit more skeptical.

I have to say I'm with the latter. It's no great secret that Apple doesn't like handing control over iPhone content to just anyone. And it's even less of a secret that the company doesn't want anything running on the iPhone that could take cash out of Apple's pocket.

Adding Flash support will do both of these things: not only will it open up a new avenue for unauthorised software and another possible attack vector, but it will allow users to get to such media sites as Hulu which threaten to take money away from the iTunes store.

My guess is we won't see Flash on the iPhone until after Java comes to the iPhone. Java is, after all, a more commonly used component than Flash, and Apple has long developed its own virtual machine for OS X, meaning that the company has a lot more say over development.

Perhaps that will be the next big news at WWDC: Java and/or Flash on the iPhone.