The fake story submitted to CNN’s iReport site that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack was the work of an 18-year-old, according to a report.

Bloomberg is reporting that investigators have determined that the teenager planted the story on CNN’s user-generated news site. But they have found no evidence that the suspect attempted to profit from the sharp drop in Apple’s stock that occurred after Silicon Alley Insider picked up the CNN posting and published it before verifying whether it was true. The suspect was not named, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has been trying to determine if the story was planted with the idea of making money in the stock market, which would be a crime.

Apple Inc. touched up its line of laptop computers Tuesday with a minimal nod to the economic turmoil that might push consumers to be more frugal this holiday shopping season.

Apple did lower its least expensive laptop, the existing version of the entry-level MacBook, by $100 to $999.

But in the updated versions of its MacBook and MacBook Pro machines, Apple focused mainly on adding features. Some had been in the svelte MacBook Air, including thinner laptop casings and a “multitouch” track pad, which, like the iPhone, understands gestures for spinning and zooming.

An investigation by Apple shows some MacBook Pros may have faulty Nvidia graphics processors after all, despite Nvidia’s earlier assurances to the contrary, the computer maker has announced.

Apple said it will repair at no charge MacBook Pros where the Nvidia GPU has failed, or fails within two years from the purchase date. Problem signs include distorted or scrambled video, or no video on the screen though the computer is turned on. Models that might be affected are 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros with Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors. The computers were made between May 2007 and September 2008.

On Thursday, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to vote on a request by the National Music Publishers Association to increase the royalties paid to its members for online music sales. Artists are currently paid a royalty of nine cents and want the CRB to increase it to 15 cents.

The move is opposed by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Digital Media Association, a trade group of online music retailers that includes AOL, Apple, MusicNet, Napster, RealNetworks and Yahoo.

The CRB’s decision will be the first to address the sale of digital music and will establish royalty rates for publishers and artists for the next five years.

Apple said Wednesday that it was dropping a controversial non-disclosure agreement that software developers who wanted to create applications for the iPhone mobile telephone had been forced to sign.

The non-disclosure agreement, or NDA, prevented software developers seeking to take part in the iPhone Developer Program from discussing their work, even with colleagues.

Apple’s move to drop the NDA came just days after Internet search giant Google jumped into the mobile telephone market with a handset powered by Google’s open-source Android software.

The ability of outside developers to freely write applications for the phone, the T-Mobile G1, which Google developed with telecom carrier T-Mobile, is seen as a major selling point by Google and its partners.

Quite a bit has been made lately over Apple’s treatment of developers who want to create apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The company has consistently played games with developers by keeping them in the dark and ensuring that each time an app is rejected they’re given as little information as possible.

Of course, this doesn’t come as a surprise to those of us who have followed Apple all these years. The company has always been suspect of third-party developers and has consistently failed to do the right thing even when it’s faced with a PR firestorm. After all, if the mainstream doesn’t pay attention, who cares?

But it’s that kind of mentality that could get Apple into trouble. Sure, it worked fine for the company with Mac OS X and it has every right in the world to stop apps from getting into its store if they’re undesirable, but that doesn’t stop the onslaught of complaints that Apple is acting in a way that’s more than a little “wrong.”

Apple has stayed quiet on what it takes to gain entry into the App store, the company has given poor reasons why it won’t accept apps, and now it’s believed that Apple’s rejection letters are covered under its non-disclosure agreement, which means developers won’t be able to help each other gain admission to the store.

All the while, developers across the globe are wondering why they thought Apple would do the right thing, given its history.

For all its troubles, the App Store is still being flooded with applications: Russell Beattie found 450 new applications in the store in just one week.

That number may seem high, but given the outcry from developers, I’m willing to bet that the number of applications denied could be much higher. Once again, Apple won’t spill the beans.

So what can developers do? After investing time and money into an application only to be told by Apple that it’s not admitted into the App Store can be a bitter defeat. But now that Android is finally shipping in T-Mobile’s G1, why not jump to Android?

Unlike Apple’s draconian policies, Android is an open platform and Google and the rest won’t spend time trying to stop as many third-party developers from producing apps for the platform.

But the main problem with developing for Android is that the hardware isn’t uniform. Some Android-based phones will sport touch-screens, while others will not. That makes developing applications far more difficult, considering the possibility of dealing with a wide array of hardware. But then again, who cares? Rejected iPhone app developers can still create touch-screen Android apps and for those that don’t have a touch-screen Android phone, well, they’re out of luck.

But perhaps the most compelling reason why developers should defect to Android is because it will finally wake up Steve Jobs and company. Right now, I don’t know why Apple should even care about all these developers crying about their beloved apps. The way I see it, they need Apple; Apple doesn’t need them.

But if they defect to Android and the Android market becomes a real powerhouse, the whole game will change. Suddenly, Apple will need to take notice and realize the error of its ways.

AP reports that Apple Inc. is putting on sale unlocked iPhone 3G in Hong Kong, allowing people to use it with any mobile phone carrier.

The move seems to depart from its previous strategy of introducing the popular device capable of 3G, or third-generation, through specific service providers in 22 nations.

On its Hong Kong Web site, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is advertising direct sales of iPhone 3G, saying people can “buy directly from Apple” and choose their own carrier.

“Phone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier,” it said on the site.

Offering free shipping, the 8-gigabyte phone goes for $5,400 Hong Kong dollars ($695) while the 16-gigabyte version costs HK$6,200 ($798).

Apple Inc. on Friday advised iPhone 3G users in many countries to replace the device’s power adapter following reports that metal prongs broke off and stuck in power outlets, creating a risk of electric shock.

Apple said it will exchange the ultra-compact USB adapters for a redesigned model, without charge, in retail stores and online starting Oct. 10.

In the meantime, iPhone 3G users who received the tiny USB adapter with their phone or who bought it separately should immediately stop using it. Apple said iPhone 3G owners should use its standard USB power adapter, which has fold-up prongs, or charge the device by plugging it into a computer.

A serious new flaw was disclosed on Thursday that affects the latest versions of Apple’s QuickTime and iTunes applications.

The National Vulnerability Database entry CVE-2008-4116 describes a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability within Apple’s QuickTime 7.5.5 and iTunes 8.0 programs.

To infect a computer, a maliciously coded long-type attribute within a QuickTime tag might be placed on a Web page, or within a .mp4 or .mov file. This could allow remote attackers to crash the applications (known as a denial of service) or possibly execute arbitrary code on a compromised computer.

The announcement comes one week after Apple patched nine security flaws in its media player and fixed Windows Vista problems within its recently updated online music service.

At the moment, there is no recommended workaround or patch available for the code exploit.

Apple Inc. updated the software that runs its iPhones on Friday in hopes of decreasing dropped calls, improving battery life and cutting the time it takes to synchronize the device with a computer.

Shortly after Apple made the new software available on its iTunes online service, some users offered positive feedback on Internet forums, saying it appeared the device was getting faster at handling key tasks. In contrast, an August update that was supposed to improve the iPhones’ connectivity to high-speed data networks drew mainly negative responses claiming it didn’t work.

Apple also said the new update “improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display” - meaning the phone would show more “bars” on the connection meter. However, the quality of the connection was not necessarily affected by the update.

Yahoo on Wednesday released a preview version of a free new iPhone application called OneConnect that can centralize communications and social-networking activity.

“OneConnect allows everybody to keep connected to the persons they care about. It’s a socially connected address book,” said said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Yahoo Connected Life, in a speech here at the CTIA Wireless show. “The address book now comes to life.”

Yahoo is racing against Google and others to bring more applications to mobile devices in an effort to tap into the growth of mobile Internet use. Previous Yahoo applications such as OneSearch and Go compete against Google applications including Gmail, Search, and Maps.

A thin and smiling Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs launched a much thinner, curved iPod nano music player and joked about the state of his much-discussed health on Tuesday.

But shares of Apple fell more than 4 percent after the presentation, which had no major surprises for investors, amid a broad decline in the stock market. Apple last week invited reporters to a music-related event, stoking expectations of new players. Some had hoped for new computers as well as iPods, but that did not happen.

Jobs appeared thin but jaunty as he walked around the stage in his trademark outfit of jeans and long-sleeve black shirt in front of a screen that flashed “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” — a quotation borrowed from Mark Twain.

Jobs introduced a curved aluminum and glass nano — the best-selling iPod — for $149 with 8 gigabytes of storage, $50 less than the predecessor model and a 16-gigabyte version for $199, capable of playing back 24 hours of music or four hours of video. He also showed off a thinner, $229 version of the Web-connected iPod Touch with rounded edges and 8 gigabytes of storage. At the high end, Apple is charging $399 for 32 gigabytes.