Recently Wall Street Journal reported that Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz is going to equip its forty dealerships with iPads for more effective selling and leasing cars. The devices will have company's Advantage app installed on. That will enable dealers to have a quick access to the latest rebates and discounts and complete credit applications on the go without the need of leading the customer to a desk with a PC.

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Yesterday Associated Press reported that a 19-year-old Li Hai, who had worked for only 42 days in Foxconn, which is responsible for iPhone manufacturing, jumped from a building and died on Tuesday.

This is a tenth death in a row for a last year among Foxconn workers. This and eight other suicides were commited at Foxconn's plant that situated in the southern city of Shenzhen. That was also the place for two feeble attempts when the workers have survived.

Terry Gou, who is a Foxconn Chairman, told reporters on Monday (beofre the tenth death):

"Foxconn is not running a sweatshop. We are confident we'll be able to stabilize the situation soon."

Last week Southern Weekend reported that employees are signing "voluntary overtime affidavits" to earn more than $132, which is a local minimum wage that a worker can earn through a 36-hour workweek. One of the employees explained:

"Without overtime, you can hardly make a living."

Days later, on Friday a 21-year-old Foxconn employee jumped from a 4-story building.

One of the heart-rending stories reveals a suicide committed in July of 2009, when one of the workers jumped from a 12-story building because he was allegedly responsible for one of the sixteen next-gen prototype iPhones disappearance.

Yesterday Dell officially announced its first 5-inch Android tablet. The announcement was made on the company's official blog.

So the device is now called the Streak. Previously it was shown at Consumer Electronics Show 2010 as a concept and called the Mini 5. The tablet has a 800x480 pixel capacitive multitouch screen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, VGA front-facing camera for video chatting, 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash, removable battery, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and MicroSD-card support. The Streak runs a customized version of Android OS with multitouch support and "Dell UI enhancements".  The system allows accessing to 40,000  apps in the Android Market, navigation with Google Maps, support for Google Voice and Microsoft Exchange Connectivity.

Blogger from the Round Rock company in Texas Lionel Menchasa thinks the Streak may be very perspective:

"I've been at Dell for 16 years, and I don't think there's ever been more buzz around a single Dell product than this. In my view, that's for good reason. Hardware and design-wise, this thing impresses. Add the ever-increasing capability that Android brings to the equation, and you've got a mobile device that offers a ton of flexibility while looking cool in the process."

The device will be shipped to the UK on June 4 and will be exclusive to the O2 network. Still there is no information on prices, data plans and American partners, but Menсhasa said everything will be soon announced.

In a video above one of the device developers Kevin Andrew tells and shows how useful the Streak may be in the everyday use.

Yesterday Apple officially presented its new back-to-school promotion. This is an annual sale, when school faculty and students can purchase a Mac and get a 8GB iPod touch for free. Apple claims on its website:

"Take a free 8GB iPod touch to school. Along with tons of other great features, iPod touch has built-in Wi-Fi for downloading thousands of games, movies, songs, apps, and amazing, free educational content from iTunes U."

If you have an education discount, along with acquiring new iPod touch you can save $50 on a low-end MacBook, $100 on a MacBook Air and iMac desktop and $200 on a MacBook Pro. Such educational discounts are available to staff and faculty of K-12 schools, and to students, professors and staff of any college.

The deal applies between May 25 and Sept. 7, 2010. Those who doesn't want to get free iPod touch can receive a $199 discount for purchasing 160GB iPod classic or a higher-capacity iPod touch, a $179 discount for a 16GB iPod nano, $149 discount for a 8GB iPod nano, $99 discount for a stainless steel 4Gb iPod shuffle, and $79 discount for a regular 4GB iPod shuffle.

Customers can use their educational discounts in an Apple online store, retail stores, authorized campus stores or call 1-800-MY-APPLE.

Scoopertino.com had recently posted another "unreal news" report, where it is revealed that Apple made a Flash-compatible version of iPad. It's called iPad XL and made with a support of Honda. Just insert your iPad into the XL's side-mounted pocket and that will make it possible "to run the flashiest and most tasteless Flash sites on earth” as quite as never before - only at 96 decibel.

Full story can be found here.

Recently posted report from Associated Press reveals that a local team of the New York Yankeees, decided to ban the iPad from the world-famous Yankee stadium because of a security and safety issues. MLB Advanced Media Chief Executive Officer Bob Bowman said Business Insider that the real reason is that the Yankees don't want people to get distracted because of iPad and then getting hit with a ball. But IntoMobile notes that people will still have an ability to bring their iPads anyway.

"If you've got a loose-fitting jacket or some monstrous pockets on your blue jeans, you might be able to smuggle the tablet inside”.

It is interesting that the Yankee Stadium is one of the most tech-savvy parks with computer screens in their lockers.

Popular TV-channel G4tv had recently aired an episode of "Attack Of The Show" where the jailbreak for iPad is discussed. Looks like jailbreak goes mainstream!

Today Apple started sending emails to its customers telling Apple Retail Stores will open for iPad at 8am on Friday. Currently we know that Italy and UK customers have already received these letters, where it is said:

"The Apple Retail Store is the best place to experience the iPad. Have one of our Specialists show you all the amazing things it can do. If you buy one, we’ll even help you get set up and running."

Also it is known that in the UK Dixion Group has a 60-day exclusive deal with Apple to sell iPads at its own stores PC World and Currys.

Few minutes ago we also received information that one of the Italian users of iPadevice.com named Ricky have already received his iPad. He posted a video of unboxing it (under the cut), where you can note the European plug. Macstories.net assumed Ricky ordered the device using UPS Saver, which provides faster shipment than the American one.

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According to Engadget, new Apple's commercials will be shot by Sam Mendes, who is an Academy Award Winning director that is widely known for his work on "American Beauty".  Website's editor Joshua Topolsky says the ad will show new video chat abilities of iPhone:

"A trusted source has confirmed to us that the ads will feature at least one spot where a mother and daughter are having a video chat conversation using the new front-facing camera that's been spied on the face of that iPhone floating around Vietnam and Northern California".

Engadget also found people in Twitter who will perform in Apple's commercials. One actress is from New York, and another actor is from California (his tweet can be seen above).

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WpPrKuUghw

For those who doesn't like iTunes for its restrictions and lockdown on music and files a new solution has been delivered to the BigBoss repository and it’s called PwnTunes.

PwnTunes allows copying files from iPhone or iPod touch to PC just after plugging the sync cable. There is no tethering for only one PC, so you can use your device anywhere you want. Other features include:

• Music files are normally named after the original filenames on the PC and without gibberish encoding.
• Deleting songs and any other type of files directly via USB (iDevice works as USB device)
• Loading cover.jpg/folder.jpg from same folder as cover
• Album name is taken from folder's name if no album ID3 tag found, artist name is taken from parent folder's name if no artist ID3 tag found

The app currently is currently compatible only with Windows (XP/Vista/7), but the developers promise the Mac support to be delivered soon. The price is €9.99. No additional software on PC is required, you just need to launch Cydia on your jailbroken iDevice and install PwnTunes from Data Storage Section. When installed, connect you iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad via USB and the app will ask you to buy License or download it if you have already purchased one.

According to CNNMoney Walmart will sell 16 Gb version of iPhone 3GS starting today only for $97. The price reduction refers to a Memorial Day weekend. But such a deal requires a two-year contract with AT&T.

New price for iPhone 3Gs is more than $100 lower than Apple's one. Senior category director in Walmart  Mehrdad Akbar explained it:

"It is our commitment to always lead on price".

The price reduction may be explained by iPhone 4G presentation that will expectedly be held on June 7. Last year Apple lowered the price for 8GB-version of iPhone 3G to $99 because of iPhone 3GS release.

Today Katy Huberty, who is an analyst at Morgan Stanley, revealed a survey for investors that found out interesting forecasts about Apple. It is said that 58$ of all iPhone customers are going to upgrade their mobile device in 2011. In 2008 there were only 18% of them. That means that Apple will sell 18 million more iPhones in 2011. Such a big demand in turn can cause a 50$ drop in prices or $20 in case of service plans costs.

Morgan Stanley also predicted that Apple stock will rise to $310 and even to $400 if Apple is going to be more aggressive in its pricing policy.

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The Taiwanese Internet resource Apple.pro has posted pictures of black and white next-gen iPhones that are very similar to those prototypes that have been leaked. As you see the color took up both the front panel and the recessed home button. Some time earlier the same site posted the photo of the white panel separately, so we can assume it was simply put on top of the rest iPhone just to show how it can look like.

Today Apple announced that its annual WWDC conference will start with a keynote from Steve Jobs on Monday, June 7 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. It is rumored that Apple CEO will finally introduce iPhone 4G.

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Austrian company UrbanTool that sells super-hip gadget holsters, slings and bags has recently presented very interesting stuff - the PocketBar and the SlotSkin for an iPad.

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