July 03 - 02:05pm EDT   Trichotomy Media is complaining that its Naughty Loaded Dice iPhone app has, possibly, been quietly rejected by Apple. The app has yet to receive an approval or a rejection after a month, and should therefore still be sitting in Apple's queue. The company notes that although the app does focus on bedroom activity, it still stays clear of any profanity or explicit images. [full story]

July 03 - 12:20pm EDT   imeem is gradually building its own music store that may afford it independence from Apple's iTunes or Amazon MP3, an investigation has found. Normally, those buying permanent copies of music from the site must go through an Amazon or iTunes link and buy it off-site; quietly, however, the company has been adding direct-download MP3 purchases of its own for certain artists, such as Iron and Wine. The payment system is direct and uses either credit cards or PayPal. [full story]

July 03 - 10:10am EDT   NVIDIA on Friday has purportedly denied recent claims of a conflict with Apple. Insiders believed close to NVIDIA claim that the two are still "just fine" and that the graphics company's chief Jen-Hsun Huang is personally happy with the current situation. Apple is still understood to be ordering chipsets as usual. [full story]

July 03 - 09:20am EDT   Demand for notebook hard drives should lead to a shortage of disks throughout much of the summer, integrated circuit producers GMI Technology and Weikeng Industrial warned on Friday. As sales agents for hard drives from Hitachi, Toshiba and Western Digital, they tell DigiTimes that their clients hadn't anticipated demand and didn't adjust until it was too late. Hitachi and Western Digital were fiscally conservative due to the economy and didn't expand until early spring, while Toshiba is simply seeing very high demand for a single-platter 250GB drive. [full story]

July 03 - 08:15am EDT   Only Windows PCs may be required to carry China's controversial Green Dam Youth Escort content filtering app, computer makers said on Friday. Although the government officially requires every computer sold in the country to have the software included, any system that can't install Green Dam, including any of Apple's computers or Linux PCs, doesn't have to bundle it. The exemption also applies to any computer that doesn't meet the "technical requirements" for an install, according to one anonymous PC vendor. [full story]

July 02 - 07:45pm EDT   Apple has provided a set of guidelines to help prevent users from overheating their iPhone 3G and 3GS handsets. Although the support page does not directly acknowledge the widespread reports of excessive heat with the new 3GS model, the company suggests the handsets should be operated in temperatures below 95℉ (35℃) and stored in areas that do not exceed 113℉ (45℃). [full story]

July 02 - 02:15pm EDT   An investigation of Microsoft's licensing for Windows 7 has revealed today that the company plans to introduce a Family Pack bundle for the new OS when it ships in October. Kristan Kenney has found installation rights for "qualified" Family Pack owners that give owners of that special copy the option of installing it on two extra PCs without encountering activation problems. The Family Pack only appears for the Home Premium edition's license and not for Professional or Ultimate. [full story]

July 02 - 12:20pm EDT   In some good news for local cell phone manufacturers, the European Union's plan to introduce new taxes for handsets sold throughout Europe has been scrapped, says a Wednesday report. The new taxes would have raised prices customers pay for new phones and most likely lowered the sales numbers of an already falling market. The decision came from Sweden, which hosts the rotating presidency of the EU, and will mean the Customs Code Committee will continue to treat cell phones as duty-free items. [full story]

July 02 - 11:55am EDT   Sales of the Palm Pre have cooled off to where supply is keeping up with demand, JPMorgan analyst Paul Coster said in an investment note today. He believes that about 270,000 Pres will have shipped in the first month of sales but that waiting lists have largely been reduced, revealing a near-ideal balance in what Palm ships each day. About 40,000 of the smartphones are estimated to now ship each week through Sprint directly, while more should also arrive through Best Buy and Radio Shack. [full story]

July 02 - 11:10am EDT   LG is developing a new designer phone that would specifically target the iPhone, the company's wireless chief Ahn Seung-kwon told Korea's Yonhap today. Only providing a teaser, he says the future device would ship in the fall and come within Black Label series that has so far been reserved for LG's best non-smartphones, such as the Arena and Viewty. [full story]