More Psystar news for you. We now know that the Florida-based company will have to pay Apple $2.68 million in damages over its little Hackintosh business. (That’s a partial settlement, not court-mandated or anything.) Go ahead and go to its Web site: everything is out of stock!

Some more Psystar news for y’all. You’ll recall that the renegade company was more or less shut down last week, slapped with an injunction and expected to pay Apple an awful lot of money. Put all of that aside for a minute, for there’s new news: Apple and Psystar have struck a deal! The deal, which ends a 17-month-long legal battle, means Psystar will stop selling computers pre-loaded with Mac OS X. This ends our long, national nightmare.

It’s just as Rob over at BoingBoing says: you don’t have to be mean, negative, or hip to make a good point. The Sun and its ilk are still worthwhile and will continue to be so for at least a few years. Don’t forget what years of experience, local contacts, and a nice big tabloid layout can do for you.

Check out the short video inside.

Apple has been fighting for a permanent injunction against Psystar, preventing the company from selling Hackintoshen and their Rebel EFI software. The company has been accused of “trafficking in circumvention devices.”

There’s no real cause for alarm here, but it might be a good talking point (or at least something to be aware of) that Windows 7 is nose and nose with OS X for install numbers, according to stats published by Net Applications. This isn’t really significant in and of itself, as it was sure to happen at some point or another.

The fun part is that both sides can use it as ammunition: “We sold more copies in a month than you’ve sold in ten years!” or “A month later and only 5% have upgraded? Either Windows 7 sucks or you’re all stupid, or both.” Good points all around, guys.

DING! The school bell rings. Time for recess at Mobile Industry Elementary.

Tension is high. During the last break, Verizon took a swing at that little Apple boy by pointing out all the things his toys could do that Apple’s toys couldn’t. The hallways erupted with a deafening “Ooooooooh!”; all of the kids began to form a circle around the two. “Fight, fight, fight, fight!” they clamored.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, is back on his one-man crusade to defend the App Store from the latest wave of criticism pointed in its direction.

This time, Apple is having to battle the news of Facebook’s all-star developer Joe Hewitt quitting the platform, more high profile app rejections, and the rise of Android as an increasingly viable alternative to the iPhone. Schiller has granted BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl what the publication says is his first “wide-ranging interview on the matter”. Unfortunately, Schiller doesn’t really say anything to quell the growing unrest in the developer community — instead, he’s offered some finely-tuned PR-speak that will placate the vast majority of iPhone users, who are only vaguely aware of the App Store controversies and just need a reminder that Apple is still one of the good guys. But it may only make developers angrier.

It seems that a few Apple warranties have been deemed void due to the fact that the owner was a a smoker, and consequently their Macs were contaminated. The Applecare contract says nothing about this, and the list of toxic materials includes other such dangerous household items as talcum powder and isopropyl alcohol. There’s a long discussion of consumer rights and nanny laws and all that sort of thing just waiting to be pulled out of this story, but let’s not and say we did.

The Little App Factory seems to have a big problem on their hands. The company received a letter from Baker & McKenzie, representing Apple, asking that The Little App Factory change the name of one of their most successful applications. Why? It has the word iPod in it.

iRip (formally known as iPodRip) was originally written in 2003 at the MacHack developer conference in order to fulfill an obvious problem with the iPod. Basically, iRip lets your copy and transfer your songs from iPod and iPhone to your computer. The app itself has been downloaded more then five million times, and has helped users transfer more then one billion songs to their computer.

Oh, iTablet. When will you ever come out? At this point, it might be better for Apple if it was never released and the company keeps leading everyone, including shareholders, around. But according to DigiTimes, the Apple Tablet is real and was delayed until the second half of 2010 so that it could use a 9.7-inch LG OLED screen in one model. I know, the Internet has cried wolf too many times.

Thieves in Willebroek, Antwerp cut a hole in the roof of an electronics warehouse and stole 3,000 to 4,000 iPhones, one of the greatest heists of its kind in history. The phones were headed to Belgian Mobistar and are estimated to be worth $3 million.

The news article noted that the thieves made a hole directly over the iPhones which suggests they knew exactly where the phones were being kept.

OMWOW! Pocket-Lint has some red hot pix of the iPod Touch used in Apple Stores to enable on-the-spot check out. It’s a standard Touch with a barcode scanner and credit card reader but it replaces the old EasyPay systems from Microsoft they were using until now.

These days, when people aren’t talking about the Apple Tablet, they’re talking about how Apple’s next target is the Big Three gaming companies. The iPhone will topple them! The iPhone is a revolutionary gaming device! Well, certainly a little optimism is warranted; the iPhone has inarguably changed the landscape of mobile phones, personal media players, and to a lesser extent personal computers. Why shouldn’t Apple extend its holy sovereignty to gaming?

It already has, in fact. But Apple has come kicking and screaming the whole way. The iPhone, you understand, was not meant to be a gaming device, and in Cupertino, Apple’s intentions are paramount. Apple could never accidentally create a platform for gaming; if it wasn’t meant for gaming (or enterprise, or medical use, or reading e-books, etc.) from the beginning, Apple doesn’t want it happening at all. Because if Apple didn’t intend it, it’s outside of the bounds they set into the platform (regardless of how well it works, much like tethering) — it breaks the mold and, ironically, that’s the last thing Apple wants. And there are plenty other reasons not to expect Apple to jump into the gaming arena any time soon.

Clearly this is either an old patent or a Macguffin because whatever this thing is it’s not the iPad. Basically you’ve got some sort of tablet app for recognizing pen input in phrases instead of in “chunks.”

There were rumors out there that the iPhone would be coming to authorized resellers soon, and we’re finally starting to see it showing up. Surprisingly, The Shack will be the first one out the gate.

Apple seems to have bought some keywords on Google including, most interestingly, “download windows 7.” That’s right: every hax0r out to download Win7 will see a little ad from Apple saying “Upgrading to Windows 7? There’s never been a better time to switch to a Mac. Find out why.”