Apple Wins Dismissal of Suit.

Apple executives were jubilant today over the announcement that the company had won the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming its executives unfairly profited from improperly backdated stock options while investors suffered because of diluted share prices.

“Perhaps this will be a lesson to people in the future, said Apple’s newly minted general counsel Daniel Cooperman. “Mess with the bull… you get the horns.”

Cooperman then topped off his cliché by putting his index fingers up by his temples and jabbing his head at reporters several times.

Satisfied he made his point, Cooperman put his hands down and noted “Danny’s one for one, bay-bee! And there’s more where that came from, bee-otch!”

He then pantomimed riding a horse and slapped his own behind several times.

CEO Steve Jobs said “I’m thrilled that justice has been served in this case. Clearly, there was no intent to improperly reward ourselves. We have ever only had the interests of our investors and our customers at heart.”

Jobs received a hearty round of applause from the gathered members of Apple’s executive group as well as several investment analysts.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” Jobs said, “I’m going to go backdate the shit out of some options.”

Jobs then disappeared into a back room from which he could be heard to shout “June 12, 1996! November 6, 1990! September 23rd, 1981! March 8th, 1968! Oh, that was a good one!”

For their part, the plaintiffs indicated they recognized their case was an uphill battle.

“Admittedly,” said plaintiffs’ lead counsel Roger Fogelstein, “it’s a little hard to claim you were damaged by diluted stock prices when the company’s stock is at like a bazillion dollars a share right now.”

Apple stock rose even further on the news, then dropped back down when Jobs started backdating options and then rose again when someone saw a squirrel.

Apple To Update Cancelled Application.

In a rare capitulation, Apple announced today that it would be reviving an old standby, purely to silence to a small but noisy – and possibly insane – subgroup of customers.

The statement read in its entirety:

OK, god damn it, yes, we will create a version of HyperCard for OS X and update it in perpetuity!!! OK?! Now will you shut the hell up and leave us alone?!

In sure sign that no good deed ever goes unpunished, it was the release of Bento that was the final straw in the metaphorical camel’s back.

After yesterday’s announcement of Bento, FileMaker and Apple support were flooded with queries asking if it imported HyperCard stacks and if not, why not? And why not why not? And, well, just what was Apple’s continuity plan for HyperCard on Leopard anyway? And are you going to finish those fries? I know they fell on the floor, but they’re perfectly good and you wouldn’t want to waste them like you wasted the awesomest application ever and… hey, where are you going?!

“These people are relentless!” said an exasperated senior vice president of applications Sina Tamaddon. “They’re way worse than Newton users. They’re like zombies! These people show up at your house!

“I literally got down on my knees and begged [CEO] Steve [Jobs] to let someone spend a couple of hours to port it to OS X.”

HyperCard fans were typically self-righteous about the announcement.

“Apple has seen the error of its ways,” said Lester Poindexter, president of the HyperCard Users Group Of The World, As Represented By A Heavily Pixellated Image Of A Map Of The Globe In This Cool HyperCard Stack Where You Can Click On Each Country And It Will Show You Information About That Country And It Only Took Me Like Five Minutes To Make Because HyperCard Is That Easy And Cool.

Pushing his glasses up on his nose and hiking his pants to a height that usually requires submitting a flight plan to the FAA, Poindexter then insisted the rest of the interview be done through an interactive HyperCard stack it only took him “like five minutes to put together, tops.”

“Clearly, we were able to sway Apple with the logic of our argument that HyperCard is the bestest rapid development environment ever,” Poindexter’s stack said. “And all it took was hiding in Sina Tamaddon’s bathtub a few times to make it happen.”

This was followed by an animation of Poindexter’s head popping up from a bathtub.

Neither Poindexter or his stack were humble in the face of victory.

“This is just as my stack and I have been saying every five minutes for the last 15 years,” Poindexter said. “Isn’t that right, stack?”

The stack then emitted what sounded like a poorly recorded system sound of R2-D2 chirping.

HyperCard X is expected to be released really soon because Apple just can’t take this shit anymore.

Apple Offers New "Tour" Video.

Apple is offering yet another video introduction to one of the company’s most discussed products. Hosted by “John” of “Leopard Tour” fame, the “Tour of iPod Socks” was release late this afternoon to the bewilderment of many.

While instructional videos are generally considered a plus, Apple followers were at a loss to explain why the company would release one concerning nothing more than a knitted sleeve you slide your iPod into to protect it from scratches.

“I don’t even think they make iPod socks anymore,” said a confused Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal. “Do they? I hope not.”

At the time of publication, no one Crazy Apple Rumors Site reporters spoke with had been willing to waste the time to download the video, so no one was able to discuss why it was over a half hour long.

“You slide it in, you slide it out,” said Macworld associate editor Dan Moren. “What the hell could they possible have to discuss in a half an hour? How to launder them?”

Pausing momentarily and stroking his beard, Moren said “Hmm. It could be how to launder them.”

Sources at Apple defended the decision to waste their time to create this video and offer it for download from iTunes.

“Hey, there are a good fifteen or twenty people who’ve bought iPod Socks,” said iPod product marketing manager Stan Ng. “That’s well worth the, um, $100,000 we spent creating this video.”

Ng shuffled his feet uncomfortably for a minute.

“Actually, um, no it’s not. At a price per unit of $29 that’s just not possible. I realize that. It’s, um, it’s… I didn’t… er…

“It was Phil [Schiller]’s idea.”

Suddenly, Mossberg burst into the room and exclaimed “Oh, my god! They do still sell them! Does this make sense to anyone?!”

Mossberg was followed by Moren who said “You know, it could be that long to discuss how to strategically dry the iPod Socks in order to move down from the older units that used larger hard drives to new units.”

In the confusion of the appearance of Mossberg and Moren, Ng escaped through a side door.

Steve Jobs Offers Further "Thoughts".

In a bizarre misfiring of Apple’s usually spot-on PR machine, CEO Steve Jobs issued another in his continuing series of public blog-style posts on Apple’s web site. While other offerings covered digital music and third party applications for the iPhone, the subject of today’s missive was unexpected.

In a 5,000 word essay published today, Jobs offered his “Thoughts On Hotpants”.

Whatever happened to hotpants? Man, I really digged those. Those were awesome. Women should start wearing those again. I’m sure they couldn’t have been terribly comfortable – kind of like walking around with a permanent wedgie.

Why do some people say “wedgie” and some people say “snuggy”? Are those the same thing?

Anyway, man did they look hot! Hey, is that where they got the name?! “Hot pants”? Wow, I just thought of that.

Man, I am so baked.

Do brownies have animal products in them?

Eh, screw it. I’m getting me some brownies.

Some Apple followers took this as a sign that the company would be branching out into the realm of crotch-cutting women’s fashions.

“I’ve long thought that Apple should make sexy garments for fabulous babes,” said Your Mac Life‘s Shawn King.

“But I think that about a lot of companies.”

Apple spokesperson Cynthia McLaren refused to confirm or deny whether or not Jobs’ opining on the subject of hotpants indicated a new direction for the company.

“All I know is, I have to go out and get a big plate of brownies,” McLaren sighed.

Friday Feature: Crazy Apple Help Desk

Every Friday, the staff at Crazy Apple Rumors Site answers common help questions based on our vast experience with Apple products and our fervent belief that we know more than you do.
________________

Q: I have an SE that I need to connect through a LocalTalk network to an ethernet router and then to a wireless LAN. But I’m really more interested in getting answers to the big questions of life.

A: Oh, you mean like are we alone in the universe?

Q: No. I was thinking more like how does pudding work?

A: How does it work? What does that even mean? You just get a spoon and…

Q: Well, what color is air?

A: It’s not really a color…

Q: Why are there sheep?

A: Mutton, I’d guess. Tasty, tasty mutton.

Q: Who first made dirt?

A: I’m going to have to guess the Mesopotamians.

Q: Why is there no pork sushi?

A: Are you kidding me?

Q: And finally, what’s that thing in my ear?

A: Uh, that would be your finger.

Q: Ah. So it is.
________________

Q: I’m a long-time Mac user and I have a few favorites, but I was wondering if you have any suggestions for good word processing applications.

A: Oh, no, no. A few “favorites”? Right. I’ve seen this kind of behavior before, my friend.

Q: What?

A: I’m not going to validate your sickness.

Q: Sickness? What are you talking about?

A: You have an addiction to word processors.

Q: What?! No I don’t. I can quit any time I want.

A: Oh, really? Well, then, delete one of them.

Q: Fine. No problem. Pick one.

A: OK. Mellel.

Q: What?! No, no. I can’t delete Mellel. It’s got such a nice interface. Just, um, pick another.

A: OK. AbiWord.

Q: Uh…

A: C’mon. It looks like ass.

Q: Well, yes, but it’s open-source. I just really like to support open-source.

A: Sure you do. And I’m sure you like Mariner Write because you like to support small software developers.

Q: Um…

A: And you like Pages because it’s from Apple.

Q: Well, sure…

A: And you like Nisus because it has a jaunty icon.

Q: It is jaunty!

A: So, there it is. You can’t even delete one word processing application.

Q: Tell you what, I’ll delete Word.

A: Oh, jeez, talk about an empty gesture! Get some help, man!
________________

Q: Hey, I just installed the iPhone 1.1.2 update and it bricked my iPhone!

A: Oh, that’s a drag. Did you run jailbreak on it?

Q: [sigh] Yes. And the stupid thing is, I did the same thing on my last iPhone. I didn’t restore before running the update. Bricked it up good.

A: So you’re on your second iPhone?

Q: I wish. No, let’s see, there was iPhone number 1 – that one I lost in a mosh pit the day after the iPhone release in June…

A: Uh-huh.

Q: Then there was iPhone number 2 which was devoured by ravenous beavers.

A: That’ll happen.

Q: iPhone number 3 was the one I had the longest. And then one day it just exploded. Boom.

A: Really?

Q: Well… there was something of a mishap, shall we say, involving some, um, C4.

A: Right.

Q: And then there was iPhone number 4.

A: What happened to that one?

Q: Uh, I’d rather not say.

A: Why not?

Q: It’s lodged somewhere… personal.

A: You know, maybe you just weren’t meant to have nice things.

Q: I’m also starting to wonder if that’s not the case.