As we wrap-up 2006, rumors regarding Apple for 2007 are making their rounds. Recent reports suggest that Apple might release a widescreen iPod to replace the 5th-generation version, though that depends on how customers (dis)like iTV. If the response is negative, Apple may decide to kill the widescreen iPod altogether for 2007. In addition, Apple will add more content to the iTunes Movie Store and may also release a 16GB flash video iPod.

Other than that, the company will mainly focus on iTV, an updated Mac Pro, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and iPhone in 2007. Shuffle and Nano may remain unchanged until the end of 2007 when Apple might decide to release an updated version of one or both for the shopping season.

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Ho, Ho, Ho.. ‘tis the season to be jolly. For those of you with the Christmas (or Holiday) spirit in you, this might be a fun, little gift that you might want to pass along to friends or family members. It’s a Special Edition Christmas flash drive. The drive is USB 2.0, compatible with all OSes, driverless and available in 128MB/256MB/1GB/2GB flavors. There’s no brand attached to the drive, so you will miss out on warranty and other bells and whistles, but it should be pretty cheap.

No word on pricing or availability.

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While I support Dell in our previous lawsuit installment (not for what Dell did, but the way customer tricked the legal system into winning and thus encouraging other customers to do the same), I think this is a frivolous lawsuit at best.

Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry, is suing Samsung for its newly released smartphone, the BlackJack, for the “Black” in its name.

Um, seriously guys, trust me when I say this, no one who is looking for a smartphone is going to confuse BlackBerry with BlackJack. Sure, they may have the “Black” in their name, but they are on a completely different spectrum from two different companies.

And if someone does confuse himself with the name, you probably don’t want him buying the BlackBerry anyway. That’s just too dumb of a customer that I think you would rather skip on. But in all seriousness, who would confuse the two devices? And because of that, I think you, RIM, are trying to score a few dollars out of Samsung. Obviously, I would tell you how wrong you are, but you probably already know that.

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This is a funny one. Once upon a time, a Dell customer had his notebook malfunction, and he sent it to Dell for a repair. Dell lost his notebook, but ultimately returned the hard drive (I would love to know how that happened.). The company attempted to fix the problem by offering him a refurbished model without the added warranty. The customer gets mad, and sues Dell in a local court. But instead of sending the legal notice to Dell’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas, he gets creative and sends them to a local Dell kiosk in a mall. Obviously Dell HQ doesn’t get the notice in time, doesn’t send anyone to represent the company in the court and loses the cases by default; in result, losing $3,000. In addition, the court orders authorities to shutdown the kiosk and seize all accessories if the damages aren’t paid. Dell ends up settling out of court with the plaintiff.

What’s the moral of the story? You, too, can get creative like this and sue the company; thereby, increasing your chances proportionately of winning by default. And for companies, I hate to break it to you, but you need to send your small stores warning letters, so the managers can drill this important tidbit (i.e. to take all legal notices seriously and pass them to the company HQ) into their employees. Oh, and get ready for an onslaught of lawsuit-happy customers who will try to pull a fast one on you in hopes of winning a small lottery.

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