Customers are annoying. You have to figure out what they want and then figure out how to avoid angering every one else in the process.  Mozilla gets its funding from a competitor so they can give away something for free — that competes with, wait for it… the competitor. Publishers try to make money, please the customers and avoid upsetting the authors. Amazon found a tiny opening with the Kindle Fire — and, maybe, waits for the Apple shoe to drop. Apple may have to navigate some tricky HDTV seas. Microsoft buys a product that’s generally distributed for free, then tries to avoid upsetting its partners as it deploys it. And poor Siri has a hard time just delivering a Scotish sandwich. Times are tough.

Want to shoot panoramas? With your iPhone? You’re in luck! This week in Free on iTunes Vern Seward takes a look at three free apps that will get you shooting pans like a pro. PanoStitcher, PanoMinute, and TourWrist.

Apple CEO Tim Cook spent part of a recent Apple town hall meeting touting his company’s charitable donations, according to a report from The Verge. If true, it marks a new direction for the world’s wealthiest technology company, where previous Apple CEO Steve Jobs either didn’t bother with many corporate or didn’t bother talking about it.

Apple changed the wording on the iBooks Author end user license agreement (EULA), clarifying the company’s restrictions on what can be done with content created with the software. The clarification specifies that Apple is restricting what can be done with the company’s proprietary .ibooks files, and is not claiming the content.

Apple is quite comfy selling high end smartphones at a solid profit, and feels no need to venture deeper into the low end of the smartphone market, according to Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner. The analyst met with Apple executives and released his thoughts on that meeting in a research note to clients.

Apple’s Airport Utility, version 6.0 introduces a graphical look that mimics that of the iPad version.  But it also loses some functionality compared to the 5.x version.

The Deal Brothers found a deal on the refurbished MacBook Pro 2.2GHz quad-core Intel i7 for $1,699. This system was originally released in February of 2011, and it ships for free.

In what’s turning out to be a day dominated by new of Apple and Motorola’s patent fight, Apple has managed to get an injunction suspended that had blocked the sale of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 with 3G support in Germany. Apple pulled the devices from its online store in Germany earlier in the day to comply with the injunction.

Apple hasn’t jumped onboard with wireless NFC credit card payment support with the iPhone yet, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t planning on adding the feature in future models. Today TMO readers are talking about how Apple could implement NFC and credit card payment support with the iPhone and how Siri voice control could fit into those plans, too.

The Mannheim Regional Court in Germany ruled on Friday that the push email service in iCloud and MobileMe infringes on Motorola Mobility patents and awarded the company an injunction blocking Apple from using the feature, as well as blocking any devices that take advantage of the feature. Assuming Motorola chooses to act on the injunction, Apple would have to stop offering push email service through iCloud and MobileMe in Germany.

Apple has stopped selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 through its online store in Germany following a ruling that the company is violating wireless communication patents owned by Motorola. Apple’s online store also stopped sales of the iPad 2 with 3G support.

For power users, the Terminal is indispensable. It can help you figure out permissions problems, change settings that you couldn’t otherwise, and tinker with all kinds of invisible goodies, even if you’re not a powerful sysadmin who uses it to administer hundreds of machines. In this article, Melissa Holt will show you her favorite ways to make using the program an easier, more pleasant experience. 

Apple is still ahead of PC competitors Dell and HP in customer satisfaction when it comes to its telephone tech support, but the company’s numbers have been slipping over the last 18 months, according to a new report from Vocallabs.  Bryan Chaffin breaks the numbers down.

Apple overtook LG Electronics in the 4th quarter of 2011 to become the world’s third largest mobile handset, according to research firm IDC. In a report released Thursday, IDC said that Apple grew its December quarter shipments 128% year-over-year, while LG’s shipments declined by more than 42%, allowing Apple to slip past the Korean consumer electronics firm.

Apple has seeded Safari 5.1.4 to developers, a release that includes improvements to JavaScript and asks developers to test printing PDFs and zooming in and out with plug-in content.

The Deal Brothers found a deal on the Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera for $709, $80 less than the previous best price. It ships for free.

Avid released its Avid Studio video editing app for the iPad on Thursday. Along with video editing, the app includes animation support along with several effects.

Apple may be planning on introducing the iPhone5 during its annual World Wide Developer Conference this year, according to Daiwa Securities. The firm goes on to say that Apple will host the event in June even though an official announcement hasn’t been made yet.

Former Xbox Live marketing manager Robin Burrowes in now on Apple’s payroll heading up marketing for the App Store in Europe. His involvement in Microsoft’s gaming platform has raised speculation that Apple is ready to make a stronger push into the mobile gaming market.

Apple’s product documentation states just how much RAM each Mac model can use, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t install more memory than the computer officially supports. Today TMO readers are talking about bumping the Mac’s RAM above Apple’s listed limits.

Jumsoft announced the immediate availability of Book Palette 1.0 on Thursday. Book Palette is a collection of templates for Apple’s new iBooks Author interactive book layout application for the Mac.

As if rumors of pending iPad and iPhone refreshes aren’t enough, a new rumor claims that Apple is planning a media event for early February. Instead of calling the even “special,” however, this event is being called “strange.”

Apple released security update 2012-001 for Snow Leopard on Wednesday which corrected a number of vulnerabilities across several applications and file types.

Facebook officially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday. The company said in SEC documents that it is seeking to raise US$5 billion in the IPO, a placeholder number that outside observers said is likely to change. When all is said and done, the IPO could value the company between $75 billion and $100 billion, making it the largest tech IPO in history.

Apple lost a request for a preliminary injunction in Germany against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1N and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone on Wednesday after a German court ruled that the patent being asserted by Apple is likely to be found invalid.

Apple updated Apple Remote Desktop, the company’s remote control solution for the Mac, to version 3.5.2 on Wednesday. The update includes security improvements and a bug fix for Macs with multiple displays.

Apple updated Mac OS X “Lion” to version 10.7.3 on Wednesday, an update that includes several bug fixes and changes to Lion’s Directory Services. The update also includes Safari 5.1.3, which itself includes bug fixes—the Safari update apparently requires Mac OS X 10.7.3, as it is not being offered as a separate download.

The list of things that Apple does that make us worry is getting larger. That’s natural when a company becomes a superpower.  But there are some subtle things that Apple could do to make things better.

The Deal Brothers found us a deal on the refurbished iMac 21.5-inch 3.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor for $1,269. This system was originally released in July of 2010, and it ships for free.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says Apple is currently negotiating with what he called a major television component supplier for parts for its rumored Apple TV, not to be confused with the AppleTV set top media player.

The popularity of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac has been helping Apple make a slow but steady push into the enterprise market. Today TMO readers are talking about Apple beyond the consumer market and whether or not the company is making a serious push into the enterprise world.

Apple has filed an appeal with the courts in China in hopes of overturning a December ruling that gave the iPad trademark to display maker Proview Technology. The court ruled against Apple after Proview claimed it hadn’t been involved in the negotiations to transfer the iPad name rights when Apple arranged the deal in 2010.

If you’ve used word-processing applications a lot, you may be familiar with the concept of invisible characters and how they can skew formatting every which way. If you’re not sure what that means, though, this tip’s for you. Melissa Holt will make a few terrible jokes, but she’ll also talk about what to do with hidden stuff in Pages if it’s a problem. Your part? Read this tip and be mildly entertained.

The death of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs has slowed Apple’s efforts to move online music to high-def, according to rock legend Neil Young. During News Corp.’s D: Dive Into Media event on Tuesday, the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer said he had been in discussion with Apple, including Steve Jobs personally, about improving the quality of digital music.

Taiwan-based Foxconn is rumored to have plans to build five new factories in Brazil to produce iPads. The factories are expected to have about 1,000 employees each and are in addition to the already announced plant to produce liquid crystal displays.

Shares in Apple Inc. (AAPL) set another closing high on Tuesday, ending the day at $ 456.48, a gain of $3.47 (+0.77%), on moderately light volume of 14 million shares trading hands. That puts the company’s market capitalization at $425.6 billion, lengthening Apple’s current lead as the world’s most valuable company.