Palm seems in dire straights. Cannaccord Adams has cut its estimates following word AT&T may delay launch of the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. Now other analysts are suggesting Palm’s 400 handset patents could spark a bidding war between Apple and Google. Cannacord analyst Peter Misek said Tuesday he’d “recently

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Gizmodo reports that Stephen Vale has filed suit against Apple on five break-of-warranty counts and one claim of unfair competition. Why? He perspired so heavily that the headphone inline controller shorted out. According to the filing, Vale perspired heavily during a workout session and the moisture ran down the cord into the inline controller. He took it to his local Apple Store, and they gave him a replacement cord–presumably without handling the original unit. Apparently the new cord didn’t work, which got Vale worked up into a…well, you know. Vale’s point is that Apple advertises the Shuffle as being perfect for "working out," "running" and "on the road"–which he says is false. The filing also states that when he went to the Apple Store, "Plaintiff was told it was alright to exercise with the music player, but not to sweat." The class action suit is filed in the state of California, and seeks unspecified damages for Vale and other sweaty Californians who join the class.

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CNN Money and Fortune Brainstorm Tech reported that a new analysis from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster continued to advise clients to invest in Apple. He pointed to Mac and iPod sales as reasons for optimism. Wall Street estimated a 22% increase in Mac unit sales for the first quarter of 2010, but January and February numbers show a 39% increase over 2009. The iPod models have turned a corner in sales as well. After sales drops for 16 months in a row, January and February revenue was up 7%. Munster points out that the increases are skewed somewhat by the fact that the beginning of 2009 was the midst of the recession, so sales were down. In addition, the average selling price of both Macs and iPods is down, meaning people are looking for lower priced models. DailyTech considers the Mac numbers surprising because of the age of Apple’s lineup. "Apple’s computer lineup, with the exception of the new i7 iMacs, is rather dated.  The problem is particularly severe in the MacBook Pro series, whose hardware currently trails even drastically cheaper models from competitors like ASUSTek." There’s room for even more optimism considering the future. The iPad launch in April should be a huge shot of revenue, and an iPhone update is expected this summer.

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All Things Digital reported today that some major content providers, like National Public Radio and The Wall Street Journal, are hurrying to put together new versions of their websites optimized for the iPad. The main difference–no use of Adobe Flash. NPR is actively working on an iPad-optimized version of their iPhone app, but they’re also redesigning the site so that if the site detects that a visitor is using an iPad it will display a different version. NPR’s digital media head Kinsey Wilson says they have redesigned their site to make it easier to support multiple versions. He also said that NPR has a sponsor signed up for both the iPad app and the iPad version of the site. Of course the fact that NPR uses very little advertising is an advantage; sites accustomed to selling lots of Flash-based ads will have a more significant transition. That may be part of the reason The Wall Street Journal isn’t committing to an entirely iPad-friendly site. Their front page will be customized, but not all video associated with articles will necessarily be converted from Flash format…at least for now. Clearly this is an indication that they’re expecting a huge iPad audience, or they wouldn’t go to the trouble. Advertisers will also want to avoid having to create multiple versions of their ads, and will likely start using tools other than Flash. Another interesting comment in the Media Memo was a quote from NPR’s Wilson about the anticipated audience. He sees iPhone apps as a "very intentional experience" where the user is going for something specific. On the other hand, he also thinks the iPad will be a "lean back device"–which sounds a lot more like the way we think of a television than a computer.  

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At least two major news media outlets aren’t going to let the iPad’s lack of Flash support keep owners of Apple’s latest creation away from their content. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and National Public Radio (NPR) are working on iPad-specific versions of their websites, set to launch next month alongside the official ship date of the iPad. The websites will launch automatically whenever someone navigates to either NPR.org or WSJ.com, and will replace the standard sites, both of which feature pretty significant quantities of Flash content. Peter Kafka at MediaMemo also notes that this workaround ensures that iPad owners will be able to access content from the two news sources without the organizations having to rush out a dedicated iPad application. According to Kafka, NPR is in the process of developing such an application, but it won’t necessarily be ready in time for the iPad’s launch. Also, having two options available for iPad owners means that no matter what a customer’s preference, they should be able to access all of NPR’s content. Just after the device hits the streets, consumer frenzy will probably be at its most heady, so anyone ready to go on day one stands to benefit the most by way of picking up new readers and/or customers. The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

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Task management apps exploded with the introduction of the iPhone App Store, and leading the pack was Cultured Code’s Things , which earned an Editor’s Choice award from us back in late 2008. The iPhone version of Things had been adapted from the previous Mac iteration, and though it successfully distilled the essence of the popular program into a portable package, Cultured Code had to significantly simplify the way Things worked to fit it on the iPhone/iPod touch screen. But now, with the iPad and its glossy 9.7-inch screen on the horizon, Cultured Code is closing in on a version of Things that’ll find the happy middle ground between the two versions, pairing a touch interface like that of the iPhone with the screen real estate of a much larger device. "We have the desire to show users more information. Now with the iPad, we have much more screen space available, so now the information can be displayed again," says Werner Jainek, co-owner of Cultured Code and developer of Things for iPad. "We think it’s a huge advantage with the bigger screen." Jainek says getting the iPad project off the ground initially was a snap, since the shared OS between the two devices allowed them to reuse much of the core code from the iPhone version. This has allowed Cultured Code to focus on refining the user interface to take full advantage of the large iPad screen, which eliminates the need to drill in and out of menus as you would on the iPhone. As such, Things users will be able to pop between multiple lists with ease, utilize the new popover windows (which you’ll be seeing a lot of within iPad apps), and even access additional navigational controls when using the iPad in landscape orientation. Without actual iPad units in their hands during development, Jainek admits the biggest challenge has been developing an intuitive user interface, though it’s not for a lack of trying. "It’s pretty hard to actually see how Apple has designed user interfaces for its applications," he admits. "We have mined them all — we have looked at every screenshot in very much detail to figure out exactly how they did it." "We really don’t want to make any mistakes, and [want to] follow in the path that Apple has led," Jainek continues. "Not having a real device to play with is a limiting factor, definitely. For example, the iWork apps — I would be very interested to see how they solved certain problems, UI-wise, so that we can actually copy that for our application, or at least be inspired by it and see what we can come up with." However, despite having to work from screenshots and secondhand impressions, Cultured Code says they were greatly inspired by what Apple showed of its own iPad apps, especially with the Calendar and Contacts, which Jainek says use "real-world metaphors in [the] user interface." "Apple really put forth that paradigm that what you’re looking at are really objects behind a piece of glass that you’re manipulating with your finger," explains Jainek.

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Apple seems to be changing its tune on VoIP apps for the iPod touch. Less than a week after it was submitted, Toktumi’s Line2 VoIP app has been approved by Apple. The $14.95 a month app turns the iPod touch into a fully-featured telephone. “Interesting was how quickly it was approved — less than a week

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We’re not sure what exactly is going on in this photo (below), so we’re asking you to tell us. It’s one of our favorite shots captured at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Show us how funny and clever you can be by writing a caption for this image (keep it clean, please!). As usual, the Mac|Life editors will pick our favorite and send the winner the excellent prize pictured below. Good luck! (Your caption here!)   WIN THIS! Elgato EyeTV One ($119.95, www.elgato.com ) delivers digital over-the-air TV channels straight from your antenna to your Mac.   Include your full name, email and mailing addresses, and phone number with your entry. Send us your best caption in the body of an email to contest@maclife.com with the subject line “Panda Says… Challenge.” Deadline for entry: March 31, 2010. Contest results will appear in the Jun/10 issue.  

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A new survey by research firm Crowd Science brings bad news for BlackBerry maker RIM , and some good news for Apple. The company that comes out best of all, though, is Google, whose Android operating system seems poised to see some major growth in the near future. The survey, which Crowd Science performs semi-annually, addresses smartphone brand loyalty. This time around, it found that iPhone and Android customers were well satisfied with their choice of smartphone, but that BlackBerry is hemorrhaging users badly to both of those primary competitors. A little over 90 percent of both iPhone and Android smartphone owners plan to stay with that OS when they purchase their next device, while nearly 40 percent of BlackBerry owners said they would opt for an iPhone next time around, and 34 percent said they’d go with Android instead of a RIM device. It’s bad news for the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry maker, and this latest survey shows that Apple isn’t exclusively to blame for the company’s steady decline. According to Crowd Science CEO John Martin: These results show that the restlessness of Blackberry users with their current brand hasn’t just been driven by the allure of iPhone. Rather, Blackberry as a brand just isn’t garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems

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In case you haven’t seen our banners — above this post, to the right of it and down along the bottom of the page — or noticed the custom wallpaper, it’s worth repeating: Pro2 for Mac is here! We’re so excited we even made a little video about it. So if you’re the type of person that wants to go anywhere and do anything, at anytime, without worrying that you’re leaving something behind — if you want to be free to be you — try Pro2 free, today .

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