The rumor comes from AppleInsider, which cites “people familiar with Apple’s roadmap”. The publication reports:

This will include new, ultra-thin unibody enclosures that jettison yesteryear technologies like optical disk drives and traditional hard drives in favor of models with lightweight chassis that employ flash-memory based solid-state drives, instant-on capabilities, extended battery life, and rely on digital distribution for software and media.

“They’re all going to look like MacBook Airs,” one person familiar with the new MacBook Pro designs told AppleInsider. Meanwhile, existing MacBook Pro designs are expected to be phased out over the course of the year.

The late Steve Jobs was known for his focus on design, sometimes at the cost of functionality (see Antennagate). It sounds like design is still a vital part of Apple’s mentality under CEO Tim Cook so far.

The iPhone and iPad might be the sexier Apple products these days, but Macs continue to sell quite well too. Apple’s Q1 earnings report indicate that Mac sales were up 26%, having sold 5.2 million Macs in the quarter. In addition to that, over 100 million apps were downloaded from the Mac App Store in less than a year.

Interestingly, however, iOS has eclipsed Mac OS X in web market share, according to a recent study from Chitika.

During Apple’s Q1 earnings call, the company said there are 1.5 million iPads in use in educational institutions. Apple is expected to sell at least 48 million iPads this year.

Last month, Apple unveiled iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and the iTunes U App. Apple sold 350,000 textbooks in just 3 days.

OnlineTeachingDegree.com released the following infographic looking at iPads vs. textbooks:

Created by: Online Teaching Degree

Now one YouTube user has created a video showing (almost) every product from Apple’s three and a half decades in thirty seconds. There are no words and no labels on the products, so you’ll have to see which ones you can recognize on your own. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

As the above graph shows, the two operating systems’ web market share almost perfectly mirrored each other during the period from August 2011 to February 2012. This suggests that perhaps OS X lost its web market share to iOS directly. The data for the study was gathered by Chitika, an advertising-centered analytics company. The authors of the study theorize that the simultaneous growth of iOS and decline of OS X in terms of web share may have to do with the lower price point of Apple’s iOS devices compared to their computers. They also suggest that the reversal may be a sign of the increasing mobilization of users’ lifestyles.

What do you think? Do you spend more time browsing on your phone or tablet than on your computer? Let us know int he comments.

Apple has filed another suit in Germany against Samsung today, citing infringement of a patent relating to list-scrolling and display manipulation behaviors on a touchscreen display. This suit was filed as an extension to a prior complaint. The older complaint centered on a similar patent relating to scrolling within a photo gallery.

At the same time, a Swiss company called SmartData has filed suit against Apple for patent infringement. SmartData claims that the AppleTV, Remote app, and iPhone all infringe on SmartData’s lone patent, which “concerns a pocked-size computer comprising a central unit, an input device, a communication interface with a remove network and display and/or sound reproduction means.” According to SmartData’s website (whence comes the description I just quoted) the patent is for a product of theirs called Zukero. Interestingly, the website contains no option to purchase Zukero, nor any more details than a description lifted from the patent abstract and an animation purporting to show Zukero in action.

The “news” section of SmartData’s website consists of six items. The most recent item, dated May 5, 2008, says that “Smartdata is looking to license Zukero (modular computer) patent rights” and offers would-be licensees an email link. Otherwise, SmartData’s website is virtually barren.

All in all, SmartData smells like a troll. Their complaint, which was filed in U.S. Federal court in San Jose, accuses Apple of willful infringement on SmartData’s patent. SmartData asks for a permanent injunction barring the sale of the offending products, a percentage of royalties from the sale of the infringing products, and that all damages be tripled due to “the willfulness of Defendant’s infringement.” The complaint also asks that the court order Apple to pay SmartData’s costs and attorney fees.

If you’re someone who loves your iPad, but just hates how big it is, the following may excite you. Technology Buiness Research analyst Ezra Gottheil tells the Chicago Tribune that there will in fact be an iPad 3 mini this year.

“I believe that’s always been in the plan,” Gottheil said. “Actually, that’s a good form factor for some users, and although they will also charge a premium above other similar-sized tablets, they want to protect that price flank.”

The iPad mini would be a 7-inch tablet, a full 2.7 inches smaller than the iPad 2.

As we’ve previously pointed out, rumors of a smaller, 7-inch iPad are pretty much perennial. People have always speculated that Apple would release a tablet that would bridge the gap between the iPhone and the original iPad. Every time there’s a rumor, it gets shot down pretty quickly. The last major iPad 3 mini rumor surfaced at the end of 2011.

And of course, there’s that thing that Steve Jobs said about the iPad size being the minimum size for a tablet. He didn’t want a tablet to feel like a giant smartphone.

Gottheil says that the iPad 3 mini would hit sometime later this year, well after the regular iPad 3 launch. The latest rumors have put the iPad 3 launch event occurring during the first week of March. Supposed leaked images of that device are already making the rounds.

If Apple began producing a 7-inch iPad, it would obviously become a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which is also 7 inches (although maybe not in price). The Kindle Fire has been a bestseller for Amazon since its launch last year – the most sold product during the holiday shopping season.

Although people are buying, a recent study suggests that Kindle Fire owners aren’t quite as happy with their product as iPad owner. Only 54% reported being “very satisfied” with their device, a substantially lower satisfaction rate than iPad users (74%). Of course, we can’t say how the screen size impacts these figures.

And what about Google, who’s also been rumored to be getting back into the tablet game in a big way. Could we eventually have a three-headed 7-inch tablet monster?

Would you want an 7-inch iPad? Or do you agree with Jobs, that it would just feel like an oversized smartphone? Let us know in the comments.

Today the court ruled that Apple’s devices do not, in fact, infringe on Motorola’s 3G patents at all, and dismissed the case. According to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, Motorola’s claim centered on the relevant patent being industry essential, rather than on demonstrating that Apple had actually infringed the patent itself. Judge Voss of the Mannheim court did not agree that the patent was essential, and ruled that Apple had not violated Motorola’s specific patent, and so dismissed the case.

This is not a total victory for Apple however. Motorola also won an injunction last week concerning push notifications for Apple’s iCloud service. As that is a separate case, the injunction still stands and Apple must continue to move forward with the modifications to iCloud in Germany.

As an iPhone 4S owner myself, I’ve noticed that I’ve been using Apple’s voice assistant less and less as time goes on. It’s not that Siri wasn’t useful on many occasions – because she was. It probably has something to do with being set in my ways. My first thought is always to just do something manually – set a reminder, look up something – before I even think about poor Siri just sitting there, waiting to help me.

For their part, Apple is still pushing Siri as the main draw of the iPhone 4S. They’ve just released two new TV spots, both of which highlight some of the various ways that Siri can be rather useful.

The first ad, called “Road Trip,” shows all of the things that Siri can help you with while you’re, well, on a road trip. The users ask for directions, nearest gas stations, facts about Orion, and even “where are we” when they get lost. Check it out below:

The next ad, entitled “Rock God” is probably the best of the two. It also stars Siri, but this one is about an aspiring musician. Siri helps him locate a guitar, learn how to play a couple of classic rock songs, and even text some girls about his garage show. Check it out:

As you might have caught, both ads feature Siri calling up Wolfram Alpha in order to fulfill her requests. That partnership has been particularly beneficial to Wolfram Alpha, as they recently said that Siri accounts for about 25% of their queries.

[Hat tip to Slashgear]

Then the focus shifts to the price. When the dorky iPad owner points out to the hot, bikini-clad Kindle owner that he can watch movies, she points out that her kids can do the same on their Kindle Fires, and that her Kindle and their Kindle Fires together cost less than his iPad.

Whatever your feelings about the iPad, the Kindle Fire, Amazon has taken pretty much the only option open to them from a marketing standpoint. A recent survey showed that the iPad ranked much higher than the Kindle Fire in terms of customer satisfaction. In fact, the feature Kindle Fire owners said they were most satisfied with about their device was its price tag.

What do you think of the commercial? Check it out below and let us know in the comments.

According to an internal NOAA memo obtained by The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, BlackBerry will officially be struck from the rolls of NOAA’s supported mobile devices on May 12 of this year. Joseph Klimavicz, NOAA’s Chief Information Officer said that new employees will begin receiving the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2, each running iOS 5 or higher. There is no word on whether employees will be allowed to supply their own devices.

This is another blow to RIM, which has been practically hemorrhaging market share to Android and iOS over the past several years. While BlackBerry once owned the mobile enterprise market, they have never managed to properly respond to the threat posed by the extremely popular iOS and Android devices.