Apple topped tech headlines on Wednesday after word spread that the company agreed to issue refunds to new iPad buyers in Australia who are not satisfied with the device's "4G" speeds. The new iPad is not compatible with existing Australian 4G LTE and WiMax networks and therefore defaults to 3G speeds. The updated tablet, however, is still advertised as a "Wi-Fi + 4G" device in the country, which prompted a complaint from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In other Apple news, the company's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, was notoriously opinionated, and one thing he apparently didn't like was the name Siri, the voice assistant app on the iPhone 4S. Meanwhile, the App Store for iPad was home to 180,000 apps as of February, according to a new analysis from Dutch research firm Distimo.
European lawmakers this week also approved a deal that would put a cap on how much travelers could rack up in mobile roaming charges. The deal, approved Tuesday night by the Council of Ministers, would go into effect on July 1.
Back in the U.S, House Republicans defeated an amendment that would have banned current or prospective employers from requiring workers to hand over personal passwords as a condition of keeping or getting a new job.
Also making headlines on Wednesday:
- Rumors Swirl as Mark Zuckerberg Vacations in China: Facebook said Zuckerberg is just on vacation, but bloggers wondered if his visit might be a sign that China might get access to the social network.
- Box OneCloud: One-Stop Access for Mobile Business Apps: The offering is intended to bring together all your mobile business content into one cloud service.
- Windows Phone Smokes Android, But Can't Sell: The most stunning result from PCMag's huge Reader's Choice survey of smartphone users is how much people love Windows Phone 7.
- Study Estimates Billions of 'Habitable' Milky Way Planets: Scientists have eagerly been searching for just one habitable planet beyond Earth, but could there actually be billions?
- Amazon Intros Silk Browser Upgrade and More with Kindle Fire Update: Perhaps the most interesting new feature in the update, from a Web browsing perspective, is called Reading View for Amazon Silk.
- Adobe Flash Player 11.2 Boosts Gaming, Adds Revenue Sharing: From now until July 31, access to new, premium features will be free for developers, but starting Aug. 1, the premium option will require a license from Adobe.
- Mozilla's BrowserQuest Points to New Online Gaming Model: Have you tried BrowserQuest yet? It's a new "massively multiplayer HTML5 (WebSocket + Canvas) game experiment" from Firefox curator Mozilla.
- Gears of War Creator Licenses Game Engine to FBI, Other U.S. Agencies: Chalk this up as some pretty good PR for the video game studio behind the popular Gears of War franchise.
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