Foxconn said on Monday it had no plans to take legal action although the programme had hurt its reputation.“Our corporate image has been totally ruined. The point is whatever media that cited the programme should not have reported it without confirming (with us),” said Simon Hsing, Foxconn’s spokesman.

Apple:

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, will host a conference call to announce the outcome of the Company’s discussions concerning its cash balance. Apple® will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash.Apple will provide live audio streaming of its conference call using Apple’s industry-leading QuickTime® multimedia software. The live webcast will begin at 6:00 a.m. PDT on March 19, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/call31912.

Short version: “We have a buttload of cash. Here’s what we’re going to do with it.”

CNET:

The iPhone and iPad are truly elegant designs, but they are the rare exceptions in the rather drab world of consumer electronics. Most cameras, printers, computers, home theater receivers, and speakers are pretty sedate, but there is one product category that stands out: turntables. I’ve picked a choice selection that represents remarkable achievements in industrial design, and they’re highly functional, exquisitely engineered products.

If you have to check Wikipedia to find out what a “turntable” is, please ignore this article.

Apple posted a support document on how to setup AirPlay Mirroring.

BBC:

Europe-based software writers have posted hundreds of comments on the company’s forums, saying their February fees had not been received on 7 March as scheduled.

Oops.

A person at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, who has not been identified or charged in a broad U.S. insider-trading probe, was caught on a wiretap leaking secrets about Intel Corp and Apple Inc, a lawyer for accused former Goldman board member Rajat Gupta said in court on Friday.

Many thanks to Oomph Software with Sidekick for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.

Sidekick is a stealth little Mac app that automatically updates laptop settings based on where you are. It takes care of annoying tasks so you can focus on what you need to do.

By controlling a huge variety of settings, Sidekick makes your laptop more secure, efficient, portable, and personalized. It can automatically change your default printer, connect to a server, run a command in Terminal, lock the keychain, change the system location…the list goes on. Visit the Sidekick website to learn more.

Try Sidekick 4.0 for free. It’s super powerful and very easy to use.

Use the coupon code THELOOP to save 20% on Sidekick.

Reuters:

As Apple’s third-generation iPad went on sale on Friday, accompanied by the now traditional scenes of fans queuing round the block , Dell’s chief commercial officer Steve Felice said the tablet market was still wide open.

I kid you not, I actually laughed out loud reading this. How many times does Apple have to lay the smackdown on Dell before they finally go away.

Marco says it’ll be ready in 7-10 days.

Colin Crawford talking about IDC’s predictions for iPad and Android tablet growth:

While I’ve a lot of respect for IDC’s ability to identify key market trends, especially in the Enterprise IT market…

Wait for it…

…but I’m not convinced they have their finger on the pulse of the Apple iPad market nor Apple’s iOS strategy.

Translation: Ass clowns.

Not ready for mass adoption yet, but still.

Web Designer Depot:

Don’t be mistaken though, CSS3 and CSS can’t do everything but, ironically enough, I doubt most of us are aware of its limitations or what pushes the very edges of its possibilities.Well, today we are here to find that out. So let’s dive right in to what certainly will be an interesting and fascinating journey of discovery for all of us that are fans of CSS3 and CSS.

Rob Schmitz for American Public Media:

Apple got a lot of attention recently over conditions in the Chinese factories that make its iPhones and iPads. The public radio show “This American Life” aired an electrifying account of one man’s visit to several factories. The man was Mike Daisey, a storyteller who is widely credited with making people think differently about how their Apple products are made.…Daisey told This American Life and numerous other news outlets that his account was all true.But it wasn’t.

Mike Daisey is a goddamn liar.

This is a bombshell, and if it gets more than slight coverage compared to the stories about Apple’s supposed exploitation of Chinese workers, I’ll be surprised.

I still like Letterpress. I can’t help myself, I think I’ll always like it.

FOSS Patents:

This morning, Apple’s second slide-to-unlock case was stayed for the duration of a parallel proceeding before the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (German Patent and Trademark Office) that could lead to the revocation, in whole or in part, of Apple’s slide-to-unlock utility model. Judge Andreas Voss said that the court was unconvinced of the validity of that intellectual property right in all respects, with particular concern about the broadest group of claims.

It’s a setback for Apple, which had sought to prevent other phone makers from using the familiar “slide to unlock” UI mechanism.

Based in bonny Scotland, with a team of whisky enthusiasts, we wanted to create something to allow people a simple way for them to own a unique bottle of blended Scotch whisky (or blended malt Scotch whisky) One which they’ve not only had a say into how it tastes and what it’s called but also to have a little bit of fun in the process.

You blend your own Whiskey and they ship it to you. You gotta love the Scots.

[Via Harry Marks]

Wade Meredith:

Like smart phones and point and shoots, iPads can com­pete or best the con­soles on hard­ware specs while absolutely whip­ping them on plat­form flex­i­bil­ity and porta­bil­ity. I don’t know the con­sole equiv­a­lent of on-device photo edit­ing  — but between app, acces­sory and periph­eral sup­port for iPad, the con­soles have their work cut out for them (Kinect was a good start, Playstation Move was not).

I don’t know if it will ever happen, but this was a good read.

For a seventh consecutive time, Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones in customer satisfaction. Apple achieves a score of 839 on a 1,000-point scale and performs well in all factors, particularly in ease of operation and features.

AppleInsider:

In a letter to Tim Cook on Wednesday, members of a U.S. Congress subcommittee requested that Apple send a representative to Washington to brief government officials on what the company is doing to protect the personal information stored on iOS devices.

A new section that Apple put on the App Store.

This is a pretty good list. The mafia mind control guy will always be my favorite.

Bad Astronomy:

On Google+, Michael Interbartolo — who worked for ten years on the Space Shuttle Program in Mission Control in Houston — just posted about this amazing video from cameras mounted on the Shuttle solid rockets as they rode into space.On the upper left is elapsed time, and on the upper right is the air speed as calculated using on board instruments. Watch as the speed increases… and then the increase increases!

This is very cool. Certainly doesn’t fit for The Loop, but it would for many other sites.

iFixIt:

Is it “The New iPad?” “iPad HD?” “iPad 3?” Who cares? All we know is this: It’s here!Our CXO flew to the Telstra store in Melbourne, Australia and was first in line to get the iPad 3 for our deconstructive pleasure.

For your geeky pleasure, here is the traditional iFixIt abuse of a brand new Apple product.

Ed Baig for USA Today:

Still no Adobe Flash…

How can this possibly be a drawback? And since Adobe killed mobile Flash last year, how could anyone in their right mind expect any product would support it.

Shawn Blanc posted his thoughts on iA Writer and Byword. Ben Brooks wrote something about them yesterday as well, which was very humorous.

Personally, I prefer Elements. Quick, easy, uncluttered and uses Dropbox for storage.

Dealnews:

A reader survey discovered 55% of current iPad owners said they would update to the third generation.But what about consumers who are currently tablet-free and finally ready to jump aboard the slate train?78% of non-tablet owners who are planning on buying their first device said they’ll spring for the newest offering from Apple. And, of the people who aren’t buying the new iPad (the remaining 22%), almost half will buy a previous generation — specifically, 60% plan on buying the iPad 2 within the next six months. Why? Because the iPad 2 is now cheaper.

Certainly an unscientific, self-selecting survey but it is most likely indicative of desire and demand among potential first time tablet buyers.

It seems that every time a new tablet comes on the market, people compare the hardware to Apple’s market leading iPad and wonder if this is the one that will dethrone it. The problem with this thinking is that the iPad isn’t just about the hardware and specs, it’s the experience.

This is my first bi-weekly column for Techpinions. I’m joining Ben Bajarin, Tim Bajarin and Steve Wildstrom on the site where I’ll write opinion articles on the world of Apple.

Matthew also posted a review of Sparrow.