Karen Haslam

Apple has already announced many of the new features coming in the new version of OS X this summer, but if beta code tidbits are being correctly interpreted, Siri-like dictation may be a secret feature coming to the Mac in Mountain Lion.

The latest seed of Mountain Lion, includes a reference to a new keypress combination (cmd-cmd) that would "Start Dictation".

IBM has caused a stir by banning Siri from staff iPhones.

The company claims that it is concerned that Siri will leak confidential information and has disabled it on staff iPhones.

A new Nvidia platform is in the works that could enable Android tablets to be priced at just $199, $200 less than Apple's entry-level iPad.

According to Nvidia vice president Rob Csonger, speaking at the company's shareholder meeting last week, the graphics card company is working on Kai, a low-cost quad-core platform based around the Tegra 3.

Worldwide sales of mobile phones saw a 2 percent decline from the first quarter of 2011 due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region, but the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half of the year in Western Europe and North America, according to Gartner. The report also notes that Apple's sales in China were "particularly strong" despite people holding of sales in the hope of an iPhone 5.

As a whole the market saw a decline, notes the Gartner report: "Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 percent decline from the first quarter of 2011."

If you are collecting Steve Jobs books, there's another one to add to your collection, although this one is aimed at children.

'Who was Steve Jobs' is penned by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso and includes illustrations by John O'Brien. It's available on Amazon for £3.10, but not as a Kindle version, and it's not on the iBook Store.

As we reported earlier, Apple's hatred of jailbreakers lead it to censor the word jailbreak on the iTunes Store, including the song "Jailbreak" by Irish rockers Thin Lizzy.

The company has now set things straight again and all content on the iTunes Store - including music and apps - now displays the word "jailbreak".

Apple is hoping to dismiss a set of class-action lawsuits accusing it of falsely advertising Siri.

The initial lawsuit was filed in March by a iPhone 4S owner who claimed the iPhone 4S's voice activated assistant feature doesn't work as advertised. A second lawsuit accuses the company of misrepresenting the iPhone 4S's voice assistant feature in its advertising campaign.

From 16 May it will not be possible to ship iPads, iPhones or laptops overseas from the US using the United States Postal Service (USPS).

USPS believes that lithium batteries - which feature in devices including the iPad, iPhone, MacBooks, and other smartphones, laptops, and tablets - pose too great of a risk to be shipped overseas. An amendment to the company's documentation states: "lithium batteries are not permitted in international mail."

Apple will not launch its smart television in 2012, according to an analyst. However, the analyst thinks that a "full-fledged" TV is on its way and could arrive in 2014. In the meantime we can expect great things from the Apple TV set top bow.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote a note to investors saying his research: "Does not indicated any looming TV-related product launch."

Apple has responded to a New York Time report that criticized its tax practices, claiming that it uses offices in states other than California, where it's headquartered, and countries outside the U.S. to help minimize its overall tax burden. Apple claimed that is it "among the top payers of U.S. income tax" and also that it is among the top creators of American jobs.

The report claimed that Apple employs "a handful of employees" at a small office in Reno, Nev., where the tax rate is zero, to avoid paying California's 8.84 percent corporate tax rate. By doing so, claimed the report, "it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states".

Combining a MacBook and an iPad would never work, and that's why Microsoft's plans to push Windows 8 out to both tablets and laptops will be a disaster, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Cook compared Microsoft's plans for Windows 8, which will run on personal computers, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs, with the idea of combining a toaster and a refrigerator. Cook thinks that in order to make Windows 8 power everything some tradeoffs will have to be made.

Apple is looking into WiFi problems with the new iPad that have surfaced in Europe, Australia, and Asia. WiFi issues include an inability to pick up local WiFi networks, connection drops, slow download and upload speeds, and more, according the this 'Poor WiFi reception on new iPad' thread on Apple forums discussing the problems. Apple is investigating WiFi problems with the new iPad - an AppleCare document circulated internally, indicates that it is investigating the issues.

Owners of new iPads are also experiencing problems connecting to and maintaining connections to 3G networks. Discussions on the Apple Support Communities suggest that the new iPad 3G connection issues are mainly being experienced in Europe, Australia and parts of Asia, with only a few people in the US experiencing problems. The new iPad loses connection to 3G. The best solution, according to forum posts, is to turn the iPad on and off. Apple is yet to comment on this issue.