In the wake of a new report out over alleged Apple sweatshops in China, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield spoke with chief business correspondent Ali Velshi about what Apple knew and when they knew it. “Steve Jobs — he seems like the kind of guy who never, when he was alive, would have allowed any of this to go on,” Banfield observed. “Did he know? Did he not know? Did he not care? Do we know?”

Curious 12-year-old Charlie Le Quesne just innocently wanted to know how many people there were in the world when he happened to be chewed out profanely by the iPhone app Siri in a Tesco –a British superstore, similar to Target– located in Coventry. “Shut the f*** up, you ugly tw*t!” exclaimed the foul-mouthed app.

Thursday evening, CNN’s John King reported on the Saga of Siri. For those of you who require a recap: Siri is the personal assistant the iPhone 4 uses to help you answer your questions, find directions, make you feel loved, etc. Siri’s inability and/or apparent unwillingness to provide information about nearby abortion facilities caused a [...]

Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to the controversy and questions swirling around Siri’s apparent unwillingness to point users in the direction of abortion clinics in their areas. Siri, as you’re likely aware, is the iPhone 4′s “personal assistant” function, which responds to users questions and requests.

Siri! Everyone loves Siri! For those who are unfamiliar, Siri is the voice recognition technology utilized by the iPhone 4 to help you, say, find the nearest gun shop, or diagnose the questionable patch of hair forming on your belly. What Siri will not do, apparently, is point you in the direction of the nearest abortion clinic.

Apple has been wildly successful in creating more than simply a demand or desire for its products; it has created a veritable cult of consumers who view Apple products as status symbols and absolute necessities. Because like, what, you’re going to attract a hot freelance graphic designer with just the right amount of fair trade coffee breath if you’re using a VAIO? I laugh at you.

Samsung is hitting back, however, by poking fun of Apple-obsessed zombies with its new ad.

There is something about creativity that tends to bring out the worst in certain people. Maybe this is because the pursuit of a personal vision tends to be isolating and not particularly conducive to sharing or collaboration, or maybe this is because success requires often off-putting qualities like aggression and ruthlessness or the need to set impossibly high standards. In either case: Getting to know the personalities behind bold names can be an exercise in frustration, as Malcolm Gladwell‘s New Yorker piece on the late Steve Jobs aptly demonstrates.

As evidence of Jobs’ sometimes difficult nature, Gladwell offers the following revelations from Walter Isaacson‘s well-timed biography on the driving force behind Apple.

The new biography on late Apple co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs offers an interesting look at one of Jobs more high-profile and possibly unexpected friendships — that with News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch.

On Tuesday’s edition of Fox News’s Your World, Neil Cavuto interviewed Scott Martin, CEO of a diversified financial services company and conflated news of Apple’s earning report with footage of Occupy Wall Street protestors using Apple iPhones. “We noticed that plenty of the protesters railing against capitalism on Wall Street, they use a lot of Apple products. Can they have it both ways?” Cavuto snarked.

It was only a matter of time. With publisher Simon & Schuster moving up the publication date of Walter Isaacson‘s Steve Jobs biography by a month in light of his passing this week, Sony has acquired the film rights to the book, it was reported yesterday evening.

Fans of Stephen Colbert know that he is a big fan of Apple; his constant begging for and then showing off of the latest Apple products has been a recurring bit on his show. So when news broke on Wednesday that Apple founder Steve Jobs had died, some probably wondered how the fake news man would report the news. Last night this question was answered, when Colbert showed a highlight-reel of past bits that were both funny and a fitting homage to the Apple products he loved.

There’s a kind of jokey, lack of seriousness to a lot of what Rush Limbaugh does that I find appealing. Even when he says something seemingly offensive, it’s hard to get too angry since it always feels like the worst bits are just a put on and you can imagine Limbaugh half-laughing as he says them. In fact, some of the few times we actually thought he was being sincere, we’ve quickly been called fools for believing him.

That’s why it’s refreshing to hear Limbaugh drop all pretense and deliver a truly touching tribute to Steve Jobs, a man he clearly respected an enormous deal.

When Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO this past week, it became clear just how much he meant to so many people. Some respected him as a brilliant innovator, some saw him as a sign that America could still lead the world, and some acknowledged just how much easier his products had made their lives. Therefore, it’s unsurprising just how saddened many people were to see a photo posted on TMZ yesterday that purports to show a gravely ill Jobs looking frail and needing support to walk. It’s also unsurprising, however, considering just how secretive Jobs always kept the specifics of his illness and its effects, that many are now debating whether or not the photo is real.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has stepped down from the top position at his corporation in a resignation letter to its board of directors today. While not giving a reason for stepping down, it is widely rumored it is related to the mogul’s ailing health, though he is expected to remain as chairman of the board of directors. Jobs will be succeeded by Apple COO Tim Cook.

Unfortunately, the country is now so broke that I believe they’re now only serving ramen in the House cafeterias (they’re calling it Freedom Ramen to keep up appearances). You know who’s not having that problem at all? Apple. A new report from the BBC declares that Apple now has more cash on hand than the United States.

Too bad America’s never invented any amazing new operating systems that make scrolling work backwards (yeah, I haven’t really figured out OS X Lion yet).

As we all know, there are many stages of grief a person goes through when someone dies. There’s Anger, Denial, Acceptance, and, of course, eventually An Attempt to Profit Financially. Which is why it’s surprising that so many people are angry over an official Microsoft public relations Twitter account asking followers to “remember” the late singer Amy Winehouse by purchasing one of her albums from them. Maybe they just got to that stage a little early?

Ever the cool kids in class, the gang at Conan have found the funny in a subject You’ll Just Never See On Leno. In case you haven’t been swept up in the uproar over Apple’s latest version of its massively popular video editing software Final Cut Pro, Conan O’Brien set it up for you: “Apple just released a new version of their famous editing software Final Cut Pro, but apparently it’s so different from the last version of Final Cut, video and film editors all over Hollywood are having a hard time adjusting to it.” Ah, but not the whizbang editors at Conan! They love Final Cut Pro X!

So here’s the situation; imagine you’re at a concert seeing the latest, uh – what do the kids like? – let’s say…MGMT show. They’re still cool, right? Anyway, you’re watching them and you know your best buddy’s favorite song is…I don’t know…”Time to Pretend” or whatever. So, when the band kicks into it, you pull out your phone to video tape the song so you can show your friend a fuzzy version with unbearable audio ostensibly to share the experience but mostly just to make him jealous. Anyway, the instant you hit record, technology in your phone recognizes your taping a concert and instantly shuts the recording down. Crazy? Not if a reported patent filed by Apple goes through.

Some people just really love their Apple products. In China, a 17-year-old boy returned home one day with a new laptop and iPad 2. His mother asked him how he’d gotten them and eventually he had to reveal the big, red scars going up the side of his body. Yep, he’d sold his kidney for an iPad.

An online petition signed by some 100,000 people is attempting to convince Apple to pull an app designed by Exodus International.

The group, founded in 1976, originally claimed to help “cure” participants of their homosexuality through the power of Christ. Over the years, the group has decided to alter its mission statement and no longer claims that a “cure” is guaranteed.

Last night Stephen Colbert took on The Daily, the much ballyhooed iPad application jointly produced by Apple and News Corp. Colbert railed on Fox News editorial decision to eschew breaking news of the Egyptian revolution for promoting the new iPad product before lampooning a leaked memo of Daily EIC Jesse Angelo.

The Los Angeles Times‘ Company Town blog has, as it does at the start of every new year, turned to its various sources to come up with a few predictions about what the near future might have in store for several big names in media. Let’s take a look at a few of their predictions before weighing in with our own thoughts, shall we?

Good morning, sunshine! Does the light out your window look particularly bright? Do you feel way more well-rested than you expected to be? Well, if you use your iPhone’s alarm to wake yourself up in the morning, that could be the cause as, for the past two days (and for many, today as well) a glitch caused by the calendar year changing has kept non-recurring alarms from going off. That’s right. It’s time to forward this article to your boss.

Perhaps you cool kids have noticed that ABC’s World News anchor Diane Sawyer now keeps her iPad on the anchor desk during the evening news. And maybe you saw her using her iPad during that news bonanza interview she did with Janet Napolitano (“24/7, 364″) and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (Um, London, you say?)

Are you a busy, on-the-go professional who wishes there was a way to access top-secret government documents and diplomatic cables from your smartphone? As of last Friday, there was an app for that. But last night, Apple decided to pull the WikiLeaks App from its AppStore, joining Amazon, MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal as companies that have distanced themselves from the Julian Assange-led organization.