Last month the stock index Nasdaq announced that it would be rebalancing the weighting of AAPL shares to better reflect the actual number of shares floating on the market. At the time, AAPL accounted for 20.5% of the Nasdaq. After the rebalancing today, AAPL now accounts only for 12.5% of the Nasdaq.

When Nasdaq made the announcement they issued a warning that the rebalancing might affect AAPL shares in the short term due to fund managers readjusting their holdings. However it seems that any negative effect on AAPL's share price was negligible. Apple closed down only 1.1% today to end at $346.45. Many see AAPL advancing to upwards of $540 a share by January and some even think Apple will be the world's first trillion dollar company.

Disclaimer: The author holds a position in AAPL. TUAW does not provide investment advice; consult an expert before buying or selling equities.

Last month we reported that Foxconn was in ongoing talks to invest US$12 billion in building manufacturing facilities in Brazil that would be used for the production of iPads and iPhones. The Brazilian president said the the deal was under consideration, but it appears that nothing is set in stone yet. This weekend Brazilian paper Folha de São Paulo said that Foxconn has issued a list of requirements the Brazilian government would have to agree to before they commit to opining the new facility. Those requirements include:

1. Large property to house more than one division of Foxconn.
2. High speed Wi-Fi.
3. Export priority shipping at São Paulo (and other unnamed) airports.
4. Financial support from the Brazilian National Development Bank, BNDES.
5. Government help in finding minority investors.
6. Transportation and logistics that permit quick delivery of goods to and from Foxconn facilities.
7. Office wired 100% with fiber optic cables.

As Macgasm points out, given that Foxconn is set to invest $12 billion in Brazil over the next five years, the list of requirements doesn't seem unreasonable. Brazil for its part also has a wish list it hopes to get from Foxconn, all of which seem very reasonable as well:

1. They want Foxconn to hire primarily Brazilian labor
2. They want Foxconn to respect Brazilian labor laws which include a "13th salary" -- or payment for a thirteenth month every year.

Let the negotiations begin!

A few days ago it was discovered that Apple is building in a new feature to Safari called Reading List. The feature works like Instapaper and allows users to save web pages for later viewing. Now Italian Mac site Melamorsicata.it has discovered another tweak set for Safari v. 5.1 in Lion -- a revision of the downloads window.

As you can see in the image above, Safari now sports a downloads button next to the Google search field (this button's location is presumably changeable, as are all Safari toolbar buttons). When you have an active download in progress, the button will show a blue progress bar, ala the progress bar found on app icons when you are downloading and installing them on an iOS device.

Clicking on the downloads button will bring up a new pop-up menu that displays all current and past downloads. This isn't an earth shattering feature, but it will make it easier for novice users who aren't familiar with calling up the downloads window to find it.

At just $0.99 in the US App Store, Zarik HD provides a great little software title for puzzle lovers. The concept couldn't be easier: you move dice into square outlines, each turn removing a pip from the front face.

The devil is, however, in the details. You have to get each die into a square using exactly the right number of moves. How you do so can take seconds, minutes, or hours to figure out. You won't win if your die is in the right place but with pips remaining.

With lots of clever add-ons including impenetrable blocks, pip-bonus power-ups, dice that can't be pushed by other dice, teleporting dice, and more, each level of this game offers a stand-alone challenge that will amuse anyone who likes these kinds of brain-teasing games.

The graphics are simple but very well done for the most part. That isn't to say I didn't have some issues.

I didn't like that on some levels the dice size seemed to shrink to accommodate more items on-screen. I was also not very fond of the undo button being on the bottom left, away from where most people have their primary hand in position. I also wish the settings were not linked to a "pause" button but had their own icon, because it just doesn't seem logical to me to combine them that way. Those are all fairly minor quibbles, however.

If you like thoughtful puzzles without obvious solutions, then Zarik is loaded to the gills with hours of fun. If you have a low frustration tolerance, you'll probably do best looking elsewhere for your iPad entertainment because these challenges can be fairly diabolical. I enjoyed working through the first forty-odd levels and am looking forward to playing more.

Of the many to-do apps available in the App Stores, one of the perennial favorites is Things from Cultured Code (US$9.99 for iPhone/iPod touch, $19.99 for iPad, $49.99 for Mac). While the cross-platform app has been lauded for its beautiful user interface and ease of use, there have been continuing complaints from users who want to be able to sync their To-Do tasks between devices. Other apps like Wunderlist (free) and OmniFocus have had cloud syncing for a while, and today Cultured Code has finally taken the wraps off of an implementation of cloud sync.

The beta is open only to registered beta users, so most Things users won't be able to get their hands on the service yet. The beta is meant to test the ability of the service to handle automatic cloud syncing. Rather than requiring the user to manually initiate a sync by tapping a button, Things will sync whenever you launch the app, switch from another app, or wake a device from a sleep state.

Cultured Code notes that their sync solution features encrypted transmission of data, so your top secret to-do items can't be intercepted in the clear. We don't know for sure when the Cloud Sync service will actually become available to all users, and given the slow rate of development from Cultured Code in the past, it's almost a certainty that user complaints will continue for some time.

Expect to peel off one more warning sticker when you buy an iPhone from Verizon Wireless. In a letter dated April 19, 2011, and addressed to U.S. congressmen Ed Markey and Joe Barton, Verizon detailed the processes it uses to protect customer privacy and revealed plans to begin adhering the warning sticker pictured here to any new device capable of tracking its owner's location.

In March, in response to a New York Times article describing how a German mobile phone company tracked one of its customers, Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, contacted the four major wireless carriers in the U.S. for explanations about how and why mobile location data would be tracked and used. The congressmen, co-Chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, published the four companies' responses on April 28.

Each carrier admitted to storing device location data for some amount of time -- from a few days to several years -- and all offered safeguards and disclosures detailing how personally identifying customer information is secured. However, the carriers could not guarantee the privacy of location data within third party applications, prompting Verizon to suggest its warning label.

Mobile customer privacy concerns exploded into a hot topic about two weeks ago when researchers announced the existence of a file in iOS 4 containing a history of the device's approximate location over time -- which turned out, according to Apple, to merely represent WiFi hotspots and cell towers up to 100 miles from the actual phone location. Although Apple's "locationgate" began after Verizon designed its warning labels, the wireless carrier's letter and forthcoming sticker are a coincidentally timely response to the growing brouhaha about consumer privacy and mobile devices.

[via CNN]

For most office-bound people, checking their calendar is one of the biggest chores of the electronic world. On the Mac we've got many great options for managing calendars, including iCal, but what about a fast way to check your schedule from your desktop? That's where CalendarBar comes in.

This little gem of a Mac app sits in your menu bar, ready to tell you what's coming up at a moment's notice. Click the icon and a menu showing all your up-and-coming appointments and important dates drops down for easy viewing. CalendarBar will integrate with iCal, meaning you can view any calendar you can sync with it.

Even if you're not an iCal user, CalendarBar can connect with Google Calendar and even Facebook for events and birthday integration. Clicking an entry will launch the appropriate application and take you to that specific event. In iCal's case, it'll launch and bring up the properties for the event. For things such as a birthday reminder from Facebook, CalendarBar will launch your default browser and show you the person or event of interest.

Tasks from iCal are also displayed, with the ability to limit them to a set time period and clear them right from CalendarBar. Reminders can be sent via Growl. The menu bar icon can show you the current date or display the number of calendar entries. The drop-down menu also has extensive customization options, with the font, style, width and dates all adjustable.

If you're someone who has all their dates, meetings, birthdays and reminders plugged into an electronic calendar, and you need fast at-a-glance access, then CalendarBar is an absolute no-brainer. It's small, simple, slick and fast for US$4.99.

Like your tattletale little sister in the passenger seat, State Farm is there.

The auto/home/life insurance giant has recently started advertising the new Driver Feedback app for iPhone. The free app uses the iPhone's sensors to measure your acceleration, cornering, and braking habits, then calculates a score based on how you've done. If you're famed in the family for your jackrabbit starts, high-speed two-wheel turns, and jamming on the brakes, chances are good that your score will be low. Drivers who take the Family Truckster out for a more sedate spin get a higher score.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your score) the company doesn't offer discounts or raise your rates based on your driving habits. The app also doesn't send information to State Farm. It's just a good way to see if you could improve your driving skills and perhaps keep yourself from potentially dangerous situations. A video about the app, featuring a father and teenaged daughter who had similar scores, follows on the next page.

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A flurry of reports over the weekend claimed the White iPhone was just a bit thicker than the standard black model.

Not true, said Apple's Phil Schiller in a tweet. Now, Consumer Reports has put the issue to a test. Using high quality digital calipers, the magazine's technicians found that both models were exactly the same size. Also, they determined that the white iPhone would fit in all iPhone 4 cases. Could it be that a different batch of white iPhones made it out slightly thicker?

It's hard to understand how the earlier size figures could have been spurious, considering how many people observed the phenomenon. We first heard about the story from a post by Ryan Cash. TiBP then performed some measurements that supported Ryan's naked-eye evaluation. Engadget posted a picture which certainly supported these claims. Wired.com reported that the new phone was 0.2 millimeters larger, but did not perform any tests. Interestingly, TiBP tested several cases and noted that they all fit, albeit somewhat snugly.

There was speculation that the extra thickness was for UV protection. As of now, "thickness-gate" seems to have ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

The popularity of Apple's iOS devices propelled the manufacturer to the top of the consumer microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors market. The millions of iOS devices in the wild are chock full of 3-axis gyroscopes, accelerometers, microphones, and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) duplexers. In 2010, Apple's purchase of these sensor components rose 116.7% year over year and climbed to a whopping US$195 million.

This figure is only $5 million behind market leader Samsung which purchased $200 million in MEMS sensors for its mobile phones and tablet devices in 2010. These numbers pushed Apple and Samsung above former leader Nintendo which ruled the industry when the Wii and the Nintendo DS were at their pinnacle.

Apple's influence in the MEMS industry is extensive, according to Jérémie Bouchaud, principal analyst for MEMS at iSuppli. Bouchaud suggests Apple created a new market for these sensors with the original iPhone which was one of the first handsets to include an accelerometer. Apple also revived the tablet industry, which relies heavily on MEMS sensors, with the debut of the iPad in 2010.