Apple has begun offering a stripped-down 13" MacBook Air to educational institutions purchasing in bulk, replacing the two-year old white plastic MacBook offering the company recently discontinued . Apple had ceased sales of the MacBook to consumer customers back in July of 2011. The new educational-exclusive MacBook Air is a 13" model with the same specs as the entry-level consumer 11" MacBook Air : 1.6GHz i5 processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB flash storage, and the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chipset

The flurry of iPad 3 part leaks continues today following yesterday's interior photo of the rear shell and some follow-up photos of the exterior of the shell and the Smart Cover magnets. Among the most prominent additions today are new photos of what may be the iPad 3's display. Japanese blog Macotakara points to a posting by repair firm iLab Factory showing a 9.7-inch LCD panel from Sharp that is said to be a 2048x1536 high-resolution display set for inclusion in the iPad 3

Apparently, iPad 3 enclosures are easy to come by these days. Earlier today, Repair Labs posted a photo of the interior the iPad 3 rear shell. They concluded that there were some minor changes that suggested a larger battery and redesigned logic board.

( Click here for larger version) RepairLabs reports that it has received a photo of what is claimed to the inside of the rear shell of the iPad 3, comparing the part to the corresponding version found on the iPad 2. The iPad 3 version demonstrates a few minor changes compared to the iPad 2, with one of the most notable being an apparently narrower logic board that could make room for an expanded battery. A

Sprint today became the last of the three major U.S. iPhone carriers to report earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011, disclosing that it sold a total of 1.8 million iPhones during the quarter. While well below the 7.6 million activations reported by AT&T and the 4.3 million activations reported by Verizon , Sprint's iPhone surge helped it achieve a new record high subscriber base of 55 million customers.

In December, an apparent bug appeared in Apple's iMessage service that allowed iMessages to be sent to a stolen iPhone. Earlier this week, Gizmodo reported that a customer who went to Apple's Genius Bar began receiving iMessages to and from the Genius who helped fix their phone. It appears that the Genius took his personal SIM card and inserted it into the customer's iPhone as part of a series of unofficial and unapproved diagnostic efforts to fix the customer's phone.

More: Apple Sneaks by Android in Fourth Quarter U.S. Smartphone Sales

Back in June of last year, IHS iSuppli reported that Apple had become the world's largest buyer of semiconductors in 2010, jumping past HP and Samsung to top the list with $17.5 billion in spending. Apple's lead was expected to grow in 2011 on continued strength of the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air, all of which contain substantial NAND flash memory, which has become a primary driver of semiconductor markets due to the booming mobile device landscape. Research firm Gartner is out today with a new report that appears to utilize a somewhat different methodology in calculating semiconductor expenditures but which now comes to the same conclusion as IHS Suppli's earlier report.

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TomTom unveiled a new version of its iPhone and iPad app at CES 2012 that utilizes data from social networks like Facebook and Twitter to provide users with enhanced navigation to friends, places, and events. The press release does not provide much information on exactly how TomTom is using social network data, but the company claimed it would be a source for turn-by-turn navigation features baked into the current iOS apps. TomTom will obviously have to avoid user-generated data that might be inaccurate, but it is unclear what specific data the app will access