Earlier this month, we reported on Hong Kong company In Icons, which was attempting to release a realistic-looking Steve Jobs figurine.

Bloomberg briefly reports that Apple's manufacturing partners have indeed begun on production of the iPad 3, with a ramp-up to full capacity taking place by February ahead of a March launch for the device. The report corroborates circulating rumors that the iPad will offer a quad-core processor and sport a high-resolution "Retina" display.

Reports coming in from M.I.C gadget and AppleInsider claim that Apple's Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S is not going particularly smoothly, with violence breaking out ahead of the opening at Apple's Sanlitun retail store in Beijing. According to reports, the violence has resulted in Apple delaying the planned early opening of the store by at least an hour, with the company potentially having canceled today's launch there entirely

The Loop reports that Apple has sent out media invitations for an "education announcement" to be made at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Thursday, January 19. Word of the event first surfaced last week , and sources have indicated that the announcement will relate to publishing , with digital textbooks perhaps playing a major role.

With the launch of the iPhone 4S, T-Mobile USA is now the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not offer the iPhone , due in large part to the carrier's use of the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum band for its 3G network, a situation that so far would require Apple to develop specific hardware compatible with the network. Some had hoped that the situation would be rectified over time by AT&T's planned acquisition of T-Mobile, but that deal has fallen apart in the face of scrutiny from regulators.

Back in 2010, an Apple patent publication was published revealing the company's concept for an iMac supporting both mouse-driven and touch-based input with a hinged display arm allowing the screen to transition from an upright position to a horizontal surface.

Last August, we reported that Village Tronic was working on a Thunderbolt version of its ViDock PCI Express expansion chassis that serves as a docking hub complete with external graphics card for high-end performance. With Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals making a big splash at CES this week, it should come as no surprise that progress on the expansion hub concept is continuing. AnandTech reports that MSI is the latest entrant into the category, showing off an early demonstration model of just such a product with its GUS II

Apple has posted its 2012 Proxy Statement ( PDF ) on its investor relations page . The proxy statement is released ahead of the annual stockholders meeting, and details voting procedures, background and compensation information on the company's directors, and information about executive perks and compensation, amongst other items. This year's shareholders meeting will take place on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 10:00 a.m

A new app has been submitted to the Mac App Store that allows you to see changes that have been made in photos.

Last week, we noted that Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs had become Amazon's top-selling book of 2011, a feat all the more notable due to the fact that the book was not released until late October. But that ranking only encompassed print sales, and with digital books now representing a majority of book sales at Amazon, rankings including Kindle e-book sales need to be included in order to generate a more complete picture of overall book sales. Amazon has done just that today, releasing its list of best-selling books of 2011 , and Isaacson's Steve Jobs once again topped the list