Apple is again flexing its immense legal muscle today with a threat of legal action against a small Vancouver business school over the use of the Apple logo. The tiny Victoria School of Business and Technology, which may remind some of a certain Biblical character named David, adopted the Apple-esque logo in 2005. Apple Inc., which may remind some of an angry, Biblical giant named Goliath, has used its trademark apple icon for the past 30 years.

A letter from Apple lawyers said the VSBT logo, which depicts an apple and a mountain graphic from its sister company, northStudio.com, infringes on Apple's rights. The letter also alleges the logo is "falsely suggesting that Apple has authorized your [computer-software operation courses]." Some of those courses are conducted on Mac hardware.

If this tiny Vancouver school does not comply with Apple's request, legal proceedings could begin that would prohibit the school from using the logo. The VSBT could also be forced to repay legal costs and "damages."

The VSBT, for its part, is conducting a survey about the issue on its homepage. It doesn't take a genius to guess what the current survey results reveal.

Surprise! The school's president and CEO, Dieter Gerhard, is vehemently denying any infringement, saying the logo differs from the Apple logo in several ways:

• the acronym VSBT is part of the design.
• the logo incorporates a mountain graphic from its sister company, northStudio.com
• the school's apple has three bumps on top while Apple's design has two
• the logo is multi-colored while Apple's is not

Seems pretty cut and dry to us. Why all the sour grapes at Apple? [Vancouver Sun]

I really have no idea what the hell "Joe Six-Pack" means, but for the purpose of this post it will mean "people who make low or modest incomes." With that out of the way, the headline makes sense, and we can report that low-income consumers are buying up the iPhone at a much faster pace than rich liberal media elites, like myself, who live in piles of money in places like Massachusetts.

The revelation arrives with the publication of some ComScore surveys that sought to identify who, exactly, was buying up the JesusPhone 3G.

According to the surveys, iPhone purchases grew the fastest among consumers with an annual household income range of $25,000 to $50,000 (which is about what elitists such as myself spend at the App Store every month). This represents a growth rate of 48%, compared to 16% among people with incomes of $100,000 or more. Unsurprisingly, the rapid iPhone growth coincided with the day Apple slashed the price by 50%, and introduced the App Store.

That said, the iPhone crowd is still dominated by affluent males between the ages of 18 and 35. Nevertheless, the shift suggests smartphones are becoming a mainstream product, said ComScore Mobile analyst Jen Wu. [IT World]

This simple Wiimote hack reminds me of the days when the NES Advantage allowed for a little "turbo" fire when playing a Shmup like Life Force. It was kind of cheating, sure, but it made old games fun again. This kit does the same. I may rent House of the Dead 3 for my Wii now. Emphasis on "may."

As you can see, the hack adds a little flair to the Wiimote too:

[Acid Mods]

On Halloween, our spooky Mark "The Great Pumpkinizer" Wilson discovered $200 Eee netbooks were a distinct possibility next year. That's a great start, but there was also word this weekend that $99 netbooks could be around the corner too. Of course there's a catch, and anyone with a cellphone can probably guess what it is.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the catch is the netbooks will be subsidized. Instead of paying full price for an Asus Eee PC, the Dell Mini 9 or HP 2133 Mini-Note, customers will pay $99 and agree to a two-year broadband contract. The WSJ reports that HP is already well underway with talks with unnamed carriers. The paper speculates Dell and Asus are talking too.

Leading the rumor mill talk is AT&T, says the WSJ, which already has a deal with Lenovo and Ericsson to sell ThinkPads with a $150 discount (or, what the industry thinks a two-year broadband contract is worth). If you subtract that $150 from a netbook, well, you have yourself quite the little deal now, don't you?

This practice seems inevitable, but I'd like to gauge public opinion anyway: What say you to $99-150 netbooks, with a contract? [WSJ via Computerworld]

Today we can bring you early word that Circuit City is apparently on the verge of closing 155 stores and withdrawing from the consumer electronics business for good. Sister site the Consumerist broke the unverified news thanks to an insider tip, which has since been corroborated by a forum post over at Google Finance. Consumerist also reports that employees in certain departments, like car installation, will be unemployed within 48 hours (warranties will still be honored). Most closings are expected to be wrapped up by December 31, 2008. It's a sad day for everyone at Circuit City, but also an inevitable one, given the coverage we've seen over the past year. The Sony truck turnaround story from earlier this week was especially damning. [The Consumerist]

It's being claimed as a first for the industry: Sony Ericsson has teamed up with FHM to shoot a professional ad campaign using nothing but the camera in the C905 Cybershot handset. Rumor to be a five-figure deal, the ad spread will run in the December issue of FHM to promote the camera phone during the holiday shopping season. The advertorial makes perfect sense for the 8.1 megapixel camera-equipped mobile, which has done much to further blur the line between digital cameras. It's a topic we've hit here at Gizmodo is the recent past, including the LG panel convened in September to hawk the convergence of HD video, cameras and cell phones.

The new FHM ad campaign is the brainchild of Bauer Media, which developed the creative using professional lighting, models, makeup and an expert fashion photographer. It was exactly the same scene you'd expect from a pompous "lad mag" marketing campaign, but with a cell phone camera doing the heavy lifting instead of some high-powered DSLR.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Boston subway to take a few clandestine modeling pics with my iPhone 3G. [Mobile Marketing Magazine via Textually]

You might want to stay inside today, folks, because there's some space junk the size of a Buick set to reenter Earth's atmosphere and land, well, somewhere later today. After the spectacular disintegration of the Jules Vern earlier this year, this is the second time our earthbound space agencies have purposefully burned something up in the atmosphere. The trouble is, the Verne was carefully controlled and tracked by two planes (hence, the spectacular video). When this puppy breaks up in the atmo, at least 15 chunks of ammonia-soaked metal and other space station goodness are going to reach the surface. "If anybody found a piece of anything on the ground Monday morning, I would hope they wouldn't get too close to it," said a NASA spokesman.

Known as the Early Ammonia Servicer, or EAS, the tank was tossed overboard more than a year ago by NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, during a July 2007 spacewalk. It is the largest piece of junk ever tossed overboard from the ISS, and yes, you read that right. An astronaut threw a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant into the void, on purpose—but it's not as crazy as it sounds (we think). The tank was made obsolete by recent ISS repairs, and the ammonia-filled vessel was deemed to dangerous for a shuttle ride home. Tossing was the only option.

"As a matter of course, we don't throw things overboard haphazardly," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program. "We have a policy that has certain criteria we have to meet before you can throw something overboard."

Still, if you find a glowing chunk of space waste in your backyard this evening, please call local authorities. People outside the U.S. are encouraged to call the U.S. Department of State via diplomatic channels. And don't touch anything!

Bonus: You can track the space junk at Reentry News. [MSNBC via Slasdot]

As we become increasingly reliant on location-aware handheld devices, and on GPS or other map-based software services, claiming one's local search business listing on platforms like Google Maps becomes incredibly important. Why? Well, as was the case with Microsoft's Redmond HQ over the weekend, if you neglect to take local search seriously, you can easily have the listing hijacked and replaced with a Microsoft Escort Service, complete with a new URL and a fake "review." Something tells us the software engineers were very happy that day.

This is exactly what blogger Mike Blumenthal did recently, and if it doesn't seem like that big a deal to you now, know this: In September Blumenthal interviewed a San Francisco florist who had the same thing done to him. Business tanked to the tune of 30%, as customers were redirected or misdirected when searching for floral arrangements or those "sorry I boinked my secretary bouquets" that are all the rage today. That super-connected device you're carrying in your hip holster? It really is a weapon now, so be wary.

So Blumenthal, whose blog is dedicated to talking about Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search, "hijacked" Microsoft's listing to prove a point. Most businesses, big or small, have not yet warmed to local search, nor do they understand the power of that tool (see: the 30% anecdote, above).

Who else was guilty of negligence on the Google Maps front? Try Apple, Morgan Stanley, Coca-Cola, GM, Lehman Bros. and Wachovia (although those last two probably aren't worried about a 30% drop in local business). The ultimate irony is Google has not claimed its local listing either, although Blumenthal doubts this local search loophole will exist too much longer after his investigation.

The lesson in all this is be careful. Next time you pull out the ol' iPhone and do a search on local mega-powerful software companies (e.g. for a job interview), you might end up at the Bunny Ranch. [Blumenthals]

Dane-Elec, known for distributing the iPhone ripoff Meizu 8 and the M6, is ready to try its hand with a few PMPs of its own. The first four players in the new line are named pretty much for what they do. There's the Music Mediatouch, for molesting music and media files with a touchscreen. Then there's the Music Touch, which is similar to the first, yet smaller. Music Pix shows off music and, well, pictures. Finally, the "music" is attached to a lanyard so you can lug your MP3s to soccer practice or something.

Here's the official details on each player, as translated by the folks at PMP Today (via French site GMP3):

The Music Mediatouch - 4.3-inch (480

User: Unnamed  Source: Gizmodo

Gaming on the iPhone and iPod touch could be great with the addition of a gamepad handle: the promise of the iControlPad comes to mind. But the iPhone platform doesn't deserve two giant foam handles that do nothing but ruin the sleek lines of the device, providing no buttons, no extra battery life, and no added functionality. Hell, the thing doesn't even look comfortable to hold. It's available for pre-order now and costs a whopping $50. For foam. [Crunchgear]