Additional Apple-related shenanigans from CNBC as they report on Apple stock "tanking" in January following Steve Jobs' poor health:

Apple's stock had tanked in January, falling as low as $78.20, when Jobs said he had a hormone imbalance and the company announced that its founder would be taking a six-month medical leave. It has since made a choppy comeback as concerns about his health persist.

Thing is, as John Gruber accurately notes with a simple Google Finance chart, that isn't entirely true.

To say this kind of odd Apple reporting from CNBC is "something new" would also be, of course, not entirely true. [CNBC via Daring Fireball via BBG]

Following iPhone 3GS/AT&T activation delays that were in some cases 48 hours long, Apple has allegedly responded with a $30 "We're sorry" gift that will be good at the iTunes Store on Monday.

Notification came by way of an email, which we've seen from Giz readers as well as around the Net this weekend:

Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you'll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

So, on the one hand you're going to get $30 in free stuff from Apple on Monday. On the other hand you could be one of the unlucky saps on the far end of this issue who's about to experience 96 hours without a phone. Worse still, your new iPhone 3GS could be singing to you right now too. [Thanks, Patrick, et al]

Following iPhone 3GS/AT&T activation delays that were in some cases 48 hours long, Apple has allegedly responded with a $30 "We're sorry" gift that will be good at the iTunes Store on Monday.

Notification came by way of an email, which we've seen from Giz readers as well as around the Net this weekend:

Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you'll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

So, on the one hand you're going to get $30 in free stuff from Apple on Monday. On the other hand you could be one of the unlucky saps on the far end of this issue who's about to experience 96 hours without a phone. Worse still, your new iPhone 3GS could be singing to you right now too. [Thanks, Patrick, et al]

In the wake of the digital TV transition that happened earlier this month, Lifehacker has posited upon us a cool roundup of DIY projects that make use of all those abandoned TVs. [Lifehacker]

Quick update on the Apple App Store approval process: Shaken babies are OK, but inevitable moneymakers like a licensed, legal Commodore 64 emulator are rejected.

Why the rejection, you ask? Here's Apple's take, form letter style:

Thank you for submitting C64 1.0 to the App Store. We've reviewed C64 1.0 and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it violates the iPhone SDK Agreement; "3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."

Right. All well and good, except that there are plenty of accepted apps floating around out there that do the exact same thing (including the Zork-tastic Frotz).

Worse still, the publisher, Manomio, had secured all the licenses to run such an app from Killoo Apps, the current owner of the Commodore 64 license. But that's not all. How about another kick in the nuts, just for good measure? You see, not only did Manomio have the license, it also had the blessing of Apple Europe, which was "really excited" about the app, said Manomio CEO Brian Lyscarz.

That blessing got misplaced, apparently, as Manomio learned this week. Lyscarz and others, myself included, still hold out hope that the app will be accepted in one form or another. [Touch Arcade- Thanks, Ponies]

From weird sounds to activation issues, we've heard a few things about the iPhone 3GS since it launched on Friday. Now we're curious, and want to know what is (or isn't) going on with your shiny new purchase.

As you'll see, we've offered a few broad choices that cover the range of issues we've become aware of over the weekend. Once you've weighed in with the poll, why don't you elaborate on these categories in the comments, so that we may all bask in your misfortune?

An enterprising hacker named Matthias has created a fun, legitimate way to get SNES ROMs onto your computer. As he explains in the video, trips to those shady Russian porn sites are a thing of the past.

The crazy thing is Matthias claimed this was his first attempt at such a hack, and that he was really surprised at how easy the project turned out to be. The commenters at Hack A Day were unsurprisingly excited about the ramifications of such an invention.

Six-slot multidrive reader featuring support for NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Game Boy, Genesis, and N64 ROMs, anyone? [Hackaday]

Amazon needs to work on its Kindle DRM policy, because the following story is ridiculous.

Basically, the way Kindle and the Kindle iPhone app are set up today, users have no idea how many times they can download a book, nor can they easily know how many devices can be used to read said book.

Making the situation even more confusing is the fact that the DRM information actually varies by publisher, and to find out how many times they will allow you to download a book you have to visit the legalese. Sometimes the info isn't there, either. The worst part is this was all confirmed by an Amazon tech support person:

"How I find out (sic) how many times I can download any given book?" I asked. He replied, "I don't think you can. That's entirely up to the publisher and I don't think we always know."

I pressed - "You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn't say ‘this book can be downloaded this number of times' even though that limitation is there?" To which he replied, "No, I'm very sorry it doesn't."

As the author notes, this isn't so bad if you're buying a beach book or something you'll read once and be done with it. Where it does get shitty is with reference books, which the author would like to read today, on his iPhone 3GS, and perhaps in a year, on the theoretical iPhone 4G, powered by unicorn tears. With certain books, you could be limited in such a way that your reading material does not follow your gadget's natural upgrade cycle.

At the very least Amazon should update its policy so this info is out in the open and easily accessible. The best case scenario would be to allow consumers to actually, you know, literally own the books they've just bought. [Gear Diary]

New tech products are often plagued with software bugs and the like, so it's no surprise that there's one with the iPhone 3GS. That said, this is the first bug I can remember that actively targets dogs ears: Updated

You see, it seems that some iPhone 3GS smartphones are emitting a high-frequency tone—something along the lines of 15KHz—that's triggered when the unlock sound, or SMS sound, finish playing.

BGR confirmed this bug with their phone, and others have piped in to say that they too have handsets that produced strange sounds only a dog could hate. This appears to be software-related, and patch is undoubtedly forthcoming.

Meanwhile, you might have this bug and not even know it, as the tone is apparently too high for some older folks to hear.

Update: Your dog is safe, but this tone is still annoying some people. [BGR]

A scene from my neighborhood: The "wall" the Coast Guard is protecting with their tiny little machine gun is actually the LNG tanker Suez Matthew. LNG tankers are a hot button issue in Massachusetts due to terrorism concerns. [Universal Hub]