gadget eyes

For those keeping up with Steve Jobs and Apple stock option backdating story:

Apple Computer said Friday that a special committee of its board had found that its chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, was not responsible for improper dating of stock options at the company.

Investigators, led by a committee of outside directors and the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges…absolved Mr. Jobs by concluding that there had been “no misconduct” by Apple’s current management team.

So that’s that. Wear your mock turtles with pride again. – Mark Wilson

Apple Panel on Options Backs Chief [nytimes]

Apple recently filed a patent for a “hybrid low power computer mouse”. What does this mean? Luckily, a certain barely literate Gizmodo weekend writer read through what looked to be the entire patent text so you wouldn’t have to.

Essentially, the “Mightier Mouse” will use two different mechanisms to track movement. The first, that we already know and love, is the optical tracking sensor. This will stay intact. The new feature will be the accelerometer, as you’ve seen in the Wiimote. The patent explains that motion detection is a far more energy efficient tool of tracking than older methods, and when periodically compared (even calibrated?) to the optical information, can function with accuracy.

I’m all for energy efficiency and the continuous innovation of the products we use every day. Plus, I just love the word “accelerometer”. We’ll see how this plays out. – Mark Wilson

Patent Info [via slashgear]

Okay, so now we see why iTunes sales numbers allegedly plummeted 65% since January of this year: Forrester Research wasn’t counting Christmas Day, when everyone who just got an iTunes gift card or shiny new iPod decided to download their favorite songs and videos at precisely the same time.

Online market researcher Hitwise said more than four times as many people (413%) visited the iTunes store this Christmas than the same day last year. All that traffic brought the site to its knees early this week, tossing out error messages to some while others were able to download music without incident.

Apple might want to consider other methods of moving digital content to customers if it’s ever going to consider HD movie downloads. BitTorrent anyone? – Charlie White

Music denied — shoppers overwhelm iTunes [CNN]