Just when you think you've heard everything, along comes an Apple lawsuit that simply defies reality.

Beverly Hills, CA resident Gregory McKenna has filed a 124-page complaint in a U.S. District Court in Missouri against Apple and a group of other defendants, including the F.B.I., the St. Louis County Police Department, and an auto mechanic. Why? Well, McKenna alleges that Apple conspired with the Italian Mafia to affix special receivers to an iPod shuffle he purchased on eBay and an iPod mini purchased in an Apple Store. These receivers were allegedly used by the Mafia to transmit threatening messages to the iPods.

Okaayyyyy. So, what were these messages? Well, first there was the time in 2008 where recordings of Mafia members saying "I'm going to kill him" were played in unison with a song on McKenna's iPod mini. The most serious message was apparently transmitted not only to his iPods, but also to an iBook G4, a PowerBook G4, and three vehicles including his mother's Honda Accord.

The "message" consisted of the word "herpes" being inserted into the song "Still Tippin'" by hip-hop/rap artist Mike Jones. Mr. McKenna alleges that this was done "to humiliate, degrade, and cause emotional distress" to him. While apparently the Mafia was using the messages to coerce McKenna into doing fashion modeling for them in New York City (I am not making this up), I'd speculate that it's probably Apple's way to get him to purchase newer equipment.

[via AppleInsider]

Update: The plot thickens: the phone also emits the noise just after recording video, and for a much longer period of time. An Apple discussion thread about the noise is here.

Are dogs unusually attentive to, or angry at, your new iPhone 3G S? The folks over at Boy Genius Report have an inkling as to what might be causing it: when a iPhone 3G S user sends a text message or locks the screen, the phone's speaker (the grille on the bottom left-hand side of the device) emits a high pitched sound for approximately three seconds. Many users corroborate the presence of the sound in the comments of the article.

This is an unusual response to these interactions, and further investigation has not yielded any other function that triggers the sound. To activate the sound with a lock, the phone must first be fully unlocked (waking the phone and putting it back to sleep will not trigger the sound). The phone does not emit the tone when the sound is switched off; likewise, when the volume is low, the sound is barely audible, if at all. To my 22-year old ears the sound is soft even with the volume all the way up, but noticeable once I became aware of it (and now a bit annoying).

Boy Genius Report estimates the sound to be in the 15 kHz range (here's a clip of a similar sound for reference), well within the iPhone's listed range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Your personal experience with the sound may vary, as higher pitched sounds become harder to hear as you age. Some users report hearing it loud and clear, while others must hold the speaker right up to their ear to hear it; some don't hear it at all. For this reason, it's hard to say whether the sound is endemic to the phone or an anomaly only occurring in certain devices.

A call to Apple's tech support revealed they had no previous knowledge of this issue. They directed me to do a hard reset (holding down the Home button + the Sleep button for ten seconds) but the sound remained. The representative speculated it was a hardware issue, and recommended I take the phone to my nearest Apple Store to get a replacement. Until then, if a rabid dog attacks me, all I have to do to confuse it is unlock and relock my iPhone (or, send a text message).

Can any of you hear this sound too?

It was there. And now it's... gone. What happened to iPhone 3G tethering app NetShare?

For a while it was live on the App Store, for a meagre ten bucks. Then it vanished. And now, it seems to have vanished from Nullriver's web site, too. Their news page has no mention of NetShare.

This smells of lawyers. NetShare was designed to let you share your iPhone's connectivity with your computer. Wireless freedom for all. And quite possibly something the telephony service providers in various countries would be alarmed to see on offer in the App Store, ten bucks or no. But wait -- the App Store is vetted, isn't it? Something like this couldn't just creep in through the ventilation shafts. This couldn't just be a ghastly mistake, could it?

You can't make software just disappear from everywhere. There must be some TUAW readers who managed to get hold of a copy before it disappeared. What do you make of it? Is it working?

For the record, we have asked NullRiver for comment, but not heard back from them yet. As soon as we do, we'll add an update.

UPDATE: And here it is. No word directly from NullRiver yet, but one of the NullRiver team pointed out in the comments that they did not have a web page for NetShare in the first place. Also, the following text has now been posted on the NullRiver home page (a fact that was also noted in the comments):

"We're not quite sure why Apple took down the NetShare application yet, we've received no communication from Apple thus far. NetShare did not violate any of the Developer or AppStore agreements. We're hoping we'll get some feedback from Apple today. Sorry to all the folks that couldn't get it in time. We'll do our best to try to get the application back onto the AppStore if at all possible. At the very least, we hope Apple will allow it to be used in countries where the provider does permit tethering."

AGAIN UPDATE: NetShare has now reappeared in the App Store, at least in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands, and probably in many other places as well. You can download and play with it to your heart's content. Thanks to all the commenters and tipsters who alerted us to this.

AGAIN AGAIN UPDATE: Now we've had a reply from NullRiver, as follows: "Hi, NetShare is back on the Apple Store, hopefully for good this time! We're not quite sure why Apple took down the NetShare application yet, we've received no communication from Apple thus far. NetShare did not violate any of the Developer or AppStore agreements to our knowledge. It is unknown how mobile phone carriers may react to using the program. Or if they are even in a position to tell. My personal advice is to not go NUTS just yet by downloading tons. Also be aware that contracts/carriers vary in what they offer from country to country, please be careful your service doesn't have a metered limit, that if you go over may incur extra costs for you."

Odd, is it not, that despite all the ups and downs their app has experienced during the last day or so, NullRiver has not heard anything at all from Apple? What's that all about?

Thanks to Zoli + everyone who sent this in.