The first delicious rumors have emerged on what Sir Jonathan Ive is doing to iOS 7. 9to5Mac reported that unnamed sources have described the new look and feel for iOS 7 as "black and white and flat all over," a play on the old-school riddle about newspapers*. The sources also said that iOS 7 will focus almost entirely on this interface change rather than on new features.

Apple is working on an inexpensive iPhone model that will come in multiple colors, according to Japanese site Macotakora. The same story also said that Apple was working on the expected iPhone 5S, and that this device might also be available in different colors. Bryan Chaffin weighs the information.

Apple quietly dropped the prices on refurbished iPads with Retina Display (4th generation) and iPad minis. The company used to offer them at a 5-6 percent discount off retail, but the new pricing puts the entire at 15-17 percent off.

Judge Denise Cote said on Thursday that she expects the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will be able to prove that Apple conspired with publishers in the run-up to the release of the iPad. The judge issued a "tentative view" to attorneys representing the DOJ and Apple to that effect, adding that the opinion is based on reading through some of the evidence.

The Mac Observer Spin: This case drives us nuts. On the one hand, Apple mostly likely did act as ringleader in getting the publishers to shift to the agency model for pricing. At the same time, before Apple did so, Amazon had monopoly power in this market and was dumping books to gain that power and shut down competitors.

Microsoft is taking pot shots at Apple's iPad in its efforts to promote moribund sales of Windows 8 tablets. In a new series of commercials, the Redmond, WA company harnesses Siri to disparage iPad's one-app-at-a-time nature, and compares specs to show an Asus device is thinner and weighs less than iPad.

Apple released Fuji-Xerox Printer Drivers v2.4 for OS X on Thursday. The patch notes don't specify what's new, saying simply, "This download includes the latest Fuji-Xerox printing and scanning software for OS X Mountain Lion, OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard."

Apple has reportedly scheduled its keynote event for its 2013 World Wide Developer Conference on Monday, June 10th. We say reportedly, because while AllThingsD reported the date, Apple hasn't officially announced it and media invites have yet to go out.

Apple released three updates for its Windows products on Tuesday. The company released iTunes 11.0.3 for Windows and Windows 64, as well as QuickTime 7.7.4 for Windows. The iTunes update brings the new MiniPlayer features released for Mac last week, while the QuickTime update includes security patches.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer had a straight-forward and direct message for a Senate subcommittee questioning the company about its tax practices: we comply fully the law, we don't hide profits from the U.S., and if you don't like what we're doing, change the law. Note that in this analysis, Bryan Chaffin discusses the politics of the situation.

I've been wrestling with the right way to put this for weeks. There was something about Samsung that's been bugging me since the bizarro world GS4 media event, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Yesterday's news about the  Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013 helped crystallize it for me—Samsung has delusions of relevance.

Apple's chain of retail stores continue to be the most profitable retail outlets in the world on a square-foot basis. According to Asymco, Apple hit yet another record in the March quarter for dollars-per-visitor, getting US$57.60 on average from the hordes of ravenous Apple fans that frequent Apple Stores.

The Mac Observer Spin: Looking at these charts, it's hard to fit the Apple-hater narrative that the company is on some kind of downhill trajectory. Maybe we just need more time, and then surely it will come to pass?

A Senate committee investigating U.S. corporate tax rates has accused Apple of using a global network of complex subsidiaries to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. The accusation represents a rare bipartisan front in the U.S. Senate, with both Democrat and Republican senators issuing statements in the accusation.

TMO cofounder and copublisher Bryan Chaffin will be speaking Monday evening at the monthly meeting of the Silicon Valley Macintosh User Group. Bryan will be talking about Apple, the high noise-to-signal ratio in coverage of the company, and what we might expect at June's World Wide Developer Conference.

Apple released the testimony CEO Tim Cook will submit to a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, including some of the details of a proposal to overhaul the U.S. corporate tax system. In a 16 page PDF, Apple asked that Congress eliminate all corporate tax loopholes, lower the corporate income tax rates, and to implement a "reasonable tax" on foreign earnings.

Warner Music Group and Universal Music are both excited about Apple's planned streaming service, but Sony Music is apparently hung up on how much it gets paid for songs that are skipped. Bryan Chaffin is mystified by this kind of myopia and thinks that Sony needs to pull its corporate head out of its corporate behind.

The Pentagon approved Apple's iPhone and iPad for use on military networks Friday, a first for the Cupertino company. The U.S. Department of Defense approved Apple's mobile devices that run iOS 6, giving Apple the chance to play a greater role in future U.S. military information systems.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be using his time in a Congressional hearing to propose an overhaul to the U.S. corporate tax system. News that Mr. Cook would appear in the hearing broke early Thursday morning, but the leader of the world's richest corporation told The Washington Post that he will propose changes that make it easier for U.S. companies to bring profits back to the U.S. rather than holding them offshore.

Apple announced that its 50 billion download promotion is over, though the company has yet to announce the winner of the event. Announced on May 2nd, the App Store's home page now shows the simulator counter at 50 billion, and clicking through to that page offers the following image:

Google announced several new features to the company's products and services at Google I/O 2013, its annual developer conference. In addition to music streaming All Access service, Google announced enhancements to Google+ for sharing photos, Maps features, and a FaceTime competitor being rolled into Google Hangouts.

Google announced on Wednesday that it would be offering customers a version of Samsung's new Galaxy S4 (GS4) that has been stripped of Samsung's layered-on-top interface and other added software. At Google I/O 2013, the company's annual developer conference, Google said that it was "Google's take on Android"*, and that it would sell the device for US$649 direct to consumers.

How much is an hour with Apple CEO Tim Cook worth? Roughly a 2013 Lamborghini Aventador judging by the final results from a CharityBuzz charity auction. That auction closed Tuesday at US$610,000, tying CharityBuzz's previous record for the above-mentioned super car.

Apple released iMovie 9.0.9 for Mac on Tuesday. The update improves support for importing projects from iMovie for iOS. It also includes a bug fix and unspecified stability improvements.

A Florida woman has launched a class action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of knowingly and willingly selling the iPhone 4 with a faulty power button. Debra Hilton filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Jose, and she's seeking US$5 million on behalf of iPhone owners.

The Mac Observer Spin: It's easy to be cynical about class actions launched at Apple, but there do seem to be a lot of people concerned about this issue.

Shocked, we say. Shocked. We are utterly shocked*. Sales of the HTC First—the so-called "Facebook Phone—have reportedly been so bad that AT&T is ready to kill it. The device was announced on April 4th, but according to BGR, AT&T has sold just 15,000 units and is ready to pull the plug.

Samsung announced on Monday that it has tested a technology the company is calling "5G" that can transmit data at up to 1Gbps, a speed that is up to ten times faster than today's LTE networks. The company said that it could weaponize commercialize the technology by 2020.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was recently interviewed by Charlie Rose for 60 Minutes, and one of the topics of discussion was the late Steve Jobs. Mr. Gates became quite emotional when thinking back to his last meeting with Mr. Jobs, and he said he wished he had Mr. Jobs's sense of design.

China is digging deep in its efforts to use Apple as a political and economic pawn, demonstrating that merely apologizing for mistakes and then correcting them won't keep the company out of the Chinese government's crosshairs. Bryan Chaffin discusses the issues.

Apple has won a trademark infringement suit from Black Tower Press over the use of "iBooks." GigaOM reported that Judge Denise Cote granted summary judgement in Apple's favor, ruling that there was no chance of consumer confusion over Apple's iBooks service for iOS and Black Towers' "iBooks imprint."

The developers of Hike, an instant message app, have launched a brilliant promotion, offering US$100,000 in additional prizes to the winner of Apple's 50 billionth app download contest if the winning app is Hike.

Apple released Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.2, an update that, "provides stability fixes for Thunderbolt and Target Disk Mode." The update is for Macs equipped with Thunderbolt, Apple's next generation I/O interface.

New Zealand's parliament is considering a bill that rethinks software patents. The bill, while not explicitly banning software patents per se, instead declares software alone as not eligible for patent protection because there is no "inventive step" involved. Bryan Chaffin looks at the implications.

Apple and Samsung combined to claim 100 percent of hardware profits in the smartphone industry, according to a new report from Cannacord Genuity. While Apple still claimed most of those profits, Samsung has reached up to take more profits home to Korea.

A German court has invalidated eight clauses in Apple's user privacy agreement, highlighting the importance of privacy in that country. While Apple goes further than most tech ompanies to protect our data, the German ruling shows there is even more room for improvement.

Apple leapt nine spots to become the 6th rank company in the Fortune 500, Fortune magazine's list of the biggest companies by revenue. In 2012's rankings, Apple was ranked 17th, but revenues grew to US$156.5 billion, enough to rank it just behind fifth ranked Berkshire Hathaway.

The Mac Observer Spin: There is lots that can be gleaned from this year's list, but the point that will be more interesting to most folks reading this is that Fortune's list is an excellent demonstration of just how big a deal Apple has become.

The CharityBuzz auction for a coffee date with Tim Cook has risen to US$605,000. This is the first increase in the price of the auction in several days, and comes with eight days left in the bidding.

Apple is getting ready to retake control of the narrative, according to Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes. At the same time, that means that Apple lost control of that narrative in the first place, and Bryan Chaffin says that Apple can only blame itself.

Apple's iPhone took U.S. subscriber share from Android in the March quarter, according to new data from comScore. iPhone users accounted for 39 percent of smartphone subscribers during the period, up from 36.4 percent in the December quarter. Google's Android remained the top platform during the same period, but saw its share decline to 52 percent from 53.4 percent in the December quarter.

Apple has begun the countdown to 50 billion downloads from the company's mobile App Store, and the company is offering a US$10,000 Apple Store gift card to the person who downloads that stunning milestone app.

TMO veteran Jim Tanous has launched a new site called TekRevue, a broad tech news and tip site. Jim will be looking at OS X, Windows, mobile platforms of all sorts, games, gadgets, and hardware, with reviews and tips, too.