Apple continues posting warning signs around their stores, cautioning customers that unlocked and modded iPhones fall outside their warranty. And at the same time, Apple Geniuses around the country quietly are reportedly accepting bricked iphones, slipping into the back and returning with functioning units.

We're not sure whether they're doing a low-level reflash or just swapping units out. We have reports of at least four customers who walked in with iBricks and walked out with iPhones. It is unclear at this time whether these customers unlocked their iPhones or not--we're also receiving reports of iBricks from people who never unlocked or modded their units.

Thanks to Ronald Ishak and "Martyn".

Update: Bolding added to existing text for clarity and emphasis.

Apple premiered a new iPod shuffle ad today (I saw it while watching Heroes). There are no dancers in sight, in fact all you see are torsos putting on different pieces of clothes and attaching an iPod shuffle to them. All of this whilst Who's Gonna Sing? by The Prototypes is playing in the background. The ad ends with the slogan, 'Put some music on.' Oh, so clever Apple!

Apple is known for savvy product placement deals, particularly on TV. Its prominence in Aaron's Sorkin's "Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip" is both well planned and widely known (in 2003, Sorkin helped promote PowerBooks in an Apple product introduction video). Macs, particularly laptops, have also appeared extensively in shows like "Veronica Mars". So why was I so surprised to see Apple credited on a recent episode of NBC's "Heroes"? Because as far as I know, I have never seen an Apple product on that show. Yes, the show is available at the iTunes store, where it sells well, but have any of you readers seen actual Apple hardware placements in the show itself? Let us know in the comments.