APPLE WORKING ON REPLACEMENT PROGRAM FOR FIRST GEN iPOD NANOS DUE TO OVERHEATING ISSUE

Apple has opened up a replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano due to overheating issues. These affected units were sold between September 2005 and December 2006 and include a manufacturing defect sourced at a single Apple battery supplier for the first edition of ultra-small and thin screened iPods from Apple. Apple says the possibility of overheating is small, but since this iPod nano is over five years old, the likelihood of heating is higher than if the battery was younger.

Apple is telling users of the original iPod nano to stop using the product and get it replaced free of charge. The worldwide replacement program can be accessed through a special website that asks users to proceed by entering their iPod nano’s serial number. Replacement units for the original iPod nano are said to ship about six weeks after the replacement page is filled out by the customer and engraved units will be replacement with non-personalized models.

APPLE LAUNCHES REPLACEMENT PROGRAM FOR "SMALL NUMBER" OF iMACS

Did you purchase a new iMac between May and July 2011 sporting a 1TB Seagate HDD? You should probably know that the hard drive might be prone to failure. No worries though, Apple's announced it'll replace potentially faulty drives at no cost.

Owners of registered affected computers are being notified via email, but if you forgot to register yours, you can check the serial number on Apple's website. After confirming that the machine's eligible, you'll be able to drop it off at an Apple Store or authorized service center for the swap. It's also suggested that you back up the drive prior to bringing it down.

APPLE INITIATES MACBOOK BOTTOM REPLACEMENT PROGRAM

Per Apple’s support document, they will now fix the issue with the rubber bottom on the white unibody MacBook coming off due to issues with glue. This applies to any MacBook purchased between October 2009 and April 2011. The program is available free of charge via your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Providers.

A self service is available as well where you order a replacement bottom case kit online. The free kit includes a new bottom case, screws, a Phillips head screwdriver and instructions explaining how to remove the bottom case and install the new one.

The MacBook Bottom Case Replacement Program covers the affected MacBooks for two years from original purchase date, Apple says. They will also issue a refund if you have paid for a repair or replacement due to this issue. The program does not extend your standard warranty in any way.

LASTPASS POSSIBLY HACKED, URGES USERS TO CHANGE PASSWORD

Free password management program LastPass, a browser extension that manages passwords and automates form filling, has been subjected to an external attack which could see user email addresses, their server salt and salted password hashes stolen by attackers.

Posting on the company blog, the LastPass team explains that evidence of an attack was first noticed on Tuesday after the server logs were checked and anomalies identified and processed. Network traffic, over a period of a few minutes, spiked on one of the non-critical LastPass machines. Not able to identify the cause, the team noticed a similar traffic spike in the opposite direction, suggesting that the data on the machines was somehow accessed.

LastPass explains what it thinks might have been comprised:

We know roughly the amount of data transfered and that it’s big enough to have transfered people’s email addresses, the server salt and their salted password hashes from the database. We also know that the amount of data taken isn’t remotely enough to have pulled many users encrypted data blobs.

Users with a “strong, non-dictionary based password or pass phrase” should not be affected, LastPass believes that to gain access to passwords, attackers will need to brute-force its user’s master passwords to gain access to user data.

LastPass urges all of its users to change their passwords to counter the threat and has brought into place an additional level of security to identify if the user is accessing the site from an IP address they have used before, also requiring email address to be validated.

BEST BUY'S BUY BACK PROGRAM NOT VERY GOOD

Best Buy has been spending a lot of money lately advertising their new Buy Back Program on prime time television. In fact, you’ve very likely seen the ad, in which Ozzy Osborne is so befuddled by the rapid advancement of tech that he is soon replaced by a young Justin Bieber, who — being younger and not drug-addled — can keep up with the march of tech.

The idea’s this: when you buy any gadget at Best Buy, you can opt to pay them a fee that guarantees that when you decide to upgrade it in a year or three, Best Buy will buy it back from you. Let’s say, for example, you spend $2000 on a new iMac: for just $60 more, Best Buy will guarantee to buy it back for you next year at a fixed price so you can upgrade to the next model.

Sound too good to be true? It is. Let’s take our theoretical iMac: after a year, Best Buy will buy it back from you, sure, but they’ll only give you thirty percent of the price you paid for it. That’s only $666 dollars, far below what you’d get for the same computer on Craigslist or eBay.

It gets even worse, though. Best Buy won’t hand you cash: instead, they’ll pay with gift cards. That means that Best Buy’s effectively paying you even less money out of their pocket.

Now deduct the $60 fee. Getting the picture? When all is said and done, Best Buy’s paying far, far less for your computer than what you’d get if you sold it pretty much anywhere else… even if you decided to just take the first offer. Heck, at the end of the day, Digital Trends found that if you tried to sell your iPhone 3GS to Best Buy througg this program, you’d make $215 less for the handset than the going rates on eBay.

In other words, ignore the Biebers being thrown at you: Best Buy Buyback is just as much of a sucker’s deal as their warranty service.

CELL PHONE TRADE-IN PROGRAM COMING TO AT&T JANUARY 23RD

Starting on Monday, January 23rd, AT&T will begin a cell phone trade-in program. All devices, whether AT&T or from another carrier, will be eligible for this program.

AT&T will allow the user to take a credit on toward a new purchase from AT&T, a check or have AT&T make a donation in the trade-in amount to a charity in the users name. There are no details on the buy back price of devices at this time, we don't expect it to be very much.

VERIZON WIRELESS ENDING NEW EVERY 2 AND EARLY UPGRADE PROGRAMS

Some bad news is emerging for Verizon Wireless subscribers this evening, and the timing couldn’t be worse. Just ahead of the imminent wave of next-generation Android devices, 4G phones and the highly anticipated Verizon iPhone, the carrier is rumored to be ending two programs that countless customers have enjoyed in recent history. The first is the early upgrade policy, which allowed subscribers on two-year contracts to upgrade their devices after just one year of service. The second is Verizon’s New Every Two program, which gave customers up to $50 every two years to apply toward the purchase of a new phone. Both of these policies are set to come to an end on January 16th, according to what is alleged to be a leaked screen capture of Verizon Wireless’ training manual. New Every Two is simply kaput, says the slide, but the early upgrade policy will apparently stick around in a trimmed state — subscribers will be eligible for an early upgrade after 20 months of service on a two-year contract. [BGR]

BEST BUY TO BUY BACK OLD GADGETS

Best Buy is ready to launch an initiative where they will buy back your old tech gear at a percentage of its original cost. That means laptops, tablets, televisions and phones will all be returnable.

According to the documents on Boy Genius Report, you can sell your devices back for up to 50% of their original cost—if you do it in the first 6 months. Buy back percentages will drop every 6 months after that. Aimed at people looking to upgrade, you can only receive store credit for the gadgets you sell. [Gizmodo]