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'S BOARD OF DIRECTORS BEGINS SEARCH FOR STEVE JOBS SUCCESSOR

Apple’s board of directors has been in informal talks with executive recruiting firms and has been discussing a successor to CEO Steve Jobs, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Reportedly, the board has also met and talked with “at least one” head of a “high-profile tech company” as a possible successor, although it’s unclear who that person is. The Wall Street Journal also noted that it wasn’t immediately clear if Steve Jobs had been aware of the search or if Apple has been looking behind his back, though he emailed The Wall Street Journal in response to their questions about the discussions: “I think it’s hogwash.” Steve Jobs has been on medical leave from the Cupertino-based firm since January of this year.

RSA ADMITS DATA STOLEN, OFFERS TO REPLACE TOKENS

RSA Security is offering to provide security monitoring or replace its well-known SecurID tokens—devices used by millions of corporate workers to securely log on to their computers—"for virtually every customer we have," the company's Chairman Art Coviello said in an interview.

In a letter to customers Monday, the EMC Corp. unit openly acknowledged for the first time that intruders had breached its security systems at defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. using data stolen from RSA.

Mr. Coviello didn't specify what happened to the tokens at Lockheed. But as a precaution, he said RSA will offer to replace nearly all tokens—millions of them used by government agencies and businesses ranging from Rolls Royce Motor Cars Ltd. to PokerStars.com.

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.

ALASKA AIRLINES FIRST TO USE iPADS IN LIEU OF PAPER FLIGHT MANUALS

The iPad has already gotten the go-ahead from the FAA as a replacement for paper flight charts and maps, and now Alaska Airlines has become the first major US airline to hop on board the paperless bandwagon. While it's not quite ready to ditch paper navigation charts just yet (though that is under consideration), the airline has announced that it will be replacing its traditional flight manuals with iPads, which will be loaded up with the GoodReader app and PDFs of 41 different manuals and other materials.

According to the airline, that change will result in savings of about 2.4 million pieces of paper, and it says the cost of the project will be offset by fuel savings from the reduced weight, and additional savings that are expected from "fewer back and muscle injuries caused by pilots carrying flight bags," which can weigh up to 50 pounds.

HP EXPANDS BATTERY RECALL

HP wants to make sure you don't get burned, literally. For the third May in a row, it's issuing another expansion of its voluntary battery recall on laptops produced from July 2007 to May 2008 -- frankly, we're considering a holiday to mark the occasion. May 2009 saw a recall of 70,000 batteries followed by an expansion to cover 15,000 in China, totaling 85,000 affected laptops.

It didn't end there though, as further expansion was put in place during May 2010 to cover even more models, and this time around, a sizeable number of lappies have been added to the ever-growing list. About five percent of the models from the aforementioned time frame could have problematic batteries, and HP will be providing replacements for those at risk of getting a little too hot under the collar.

If your machine was also part of the previous recalls, HP's saying those should be verified as well, even if you've done so in the past already.

T-MOBILE ELIMINATING FLEXPAY PLANS

Not a lot is known at this time, but T-Mobile will be phasing out its FlexPay plans. A tipster over at BGRis saying that T-Mobile should be announcing soon what, if anything, will be replacing these plans.

FlexPay allowed users to get "all the benefits of our best wireless plans, including our Unlimited and FamilyTime® plans—without deposits, activation fees, or overages. Plus you will never be surprised by big overage charges because you cannot go over your plans Whenever Minutes."

UBUNTU TO REPLACE X WINDOW SYSTEM WITH WAYLAND

Mark Shuttleworth keeps making surprising announcements regarding Ubuntu. Yesterday he announced Ubuntu would be ditching X Window System and going with Wayland for its GUI solution. Mark said "We don’t believe X is setup to deliver the user experience we want, with super-smooth graphics and effects. I understand that it’s *possible* to get amazing results with X, but it’s extremely hard, and isn’t going to get easier. Some of the core goals of X make it harder to achieve these user experiences on X than on native GL, we’re choosing to prioritize the quality of experience over those original values, like network transparency."

The aim of Wayland is to ensure “every frame is perfect, by which I mean that applications will be able to control the rendering enough that we’ll never see tearing, lag, redrawing or flicker.” It’s also important to note it uses OpenGL-ES.

Although still very young, Wayland has impressed Shuttleworth enough for him to commit early. Regarding timing of the switch Shuttleworth stated "Timeframes are difficult. I’m sure we could deliver *something* in six months, but I think a year is more realistic for the first images that will be widely useful in our community. I’d love to be proven conservative on that but I suspect it’s more likely to err the other way. It might take four or more years to really move the ecosystem." [Geek]

BIOS REPLACEMENT UEFI MAKES APPEARANCE

We haven't heard a ton about the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (or UEFI for short) since a rumor cropped up back in June suggesting that MSI would be introducing it on its Sandy Bridge motherboards, but Swedish website SweClockers has now actually gotten it hands on a motherboard with working version of the BIOS-replacing firmware, and delivered our first real look at it. The biggest difference, as you can see, is a significantly more user-friendly interface, but there's also a few other considerable advantages over a standard BIOS, including faster boot times and the ability to boot from drives bigger than 2TB. [Engadget]

APPLE UPDATES DEAD PIXEL POLICY

Apple recently updated its dead pixel policy according to BGR sources. The policy is used as a guideline for Mac Geniuses addressing customer issues that involve Apple displays. It essentially allows them to quickly and easily determine whether or not to repair or replace products with display defects. Apple provides its employees with a table showing the acceptable number of pixel anomalies for each product range. For example, iPhones and iPods with just one pixel anomaly should be repaired or replaced. MacBook Air models, however, can have up to three light pixels, up to five dark pixels or up to seven combined anomalies before they should be repaired or replaced. The table also outlines the allowable numbers of pixel anomalies for Apple’s MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac and Cinema Display lines.

Of note, Apple’s policy allows Mac Geniuses to offer exchange services even if pixel anomalies are within acceptable ranges. If the customer receives a replacement product with even more anomalies, but it is still within the acceptable range, further exchanges are not permitted. [BGR]

APPLE ENDING FREE iPHONE4 CASE PROGRAM

Apple will end it's program of giving a free case for the iPhone 4, when requested, on September 30th.  Any iPhone 4 sold after that date will not be eligible for the free case.  Apple instituted the policy back in June to help deal with the antenna issue some iPhone 4 users were experiencing.

According to Apple "We now know that the iPhone 4 antenna attenuation issue is even smaller than we originally thought. A small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case, and we want to continue providing them a Bumper case for free. For everyone else, we are discontinuing the free case program on all iPhone 4s sold after September 30, 2010. We are also returning to our normal returns policy for all iPhone 4s sold after September 30. Users experiencing antenna issues should call AppleCare to request a free Bumper case." [Apple]