Apple is beginning to reveal more information about its suppliers in China as part of its . Published on Friday, Apple's latest report (which comes in the form of several PDFs) reveals the for the first time, and discusses the results of its regular supplier audits—meant to reveal practices like juvenile worker violations, unfair hiring practices, and safety concerns. The company says it conducted more audits than ever before throughout 2011, and the numbers in the report indicate that Apple found fewer major violations than it did in 2010.

It's January 13, which means that Chinese iPhone buyers in China should already have new iPhone 4Ss in their grubby little hands. That is not the case, however, due to a disastrous launch day that generated safety issues, forcing Apple to suspend the launch in all of its mainland China stores. As it turns out, our description of the Chinese iPhone launch being a "" wasn't too far off.

The story started off exactly as we expected: there were huge crowds outside of Apple's five mainland stores full of prospective buyers (plus scalpers)—like the iPhone lines in the US, many had waited overnight to get their hands on a new 4S. When the stores didn't open exactly on time, however, the crowds started getting rowdy, causing store employees to become concerned for their own safety and that of the customers. At that point, according to several accounts (covered by and the ), police reportedly ordered that the stores not be opened, and Apple announced over a megaphone that the launch was cancelled. As a result, some members of the crowd began pelting the stores with eggs and a number of kerfuffles broke out.

Apple has begun to send invitations to members of the press for a media event in New York City on Thursday, January 19. The announcement is being described as an "education event" and will take place at the Guggenheim Museum at 10am Eastern Time.

No further details were revealed in the invitation, but to Apple planning some education-themed changes to its iBooks platform. Our own sources indicated the announcement could involve support for the EPUB 3 standard, enabling a wider variety of multimedia and interaction features that are useful in a teaching environment. One source in particular suggested that Apple may make some changes to iBooks that are directed specifically toward the academic set.

No hardware-related announcements are expected for this event, though in true Apple fashion, few details are available as to what might actually be announced next Thursday. Stay tuned for our coverage of the announcements come January 19.

The ability to toggle between 3G and EDGE could be making a comeback for iPhone users in the next update to iOS 5. Apple released the third beta of iOS 5.1 to registered developers late on Monday, which hails the return of the "Enable 3G" switch within the device's network settings. Additionally, other evidence found within the beta indicates that Siri may eventually show up on the iPad and iPod touch.

Apple removed the Enable 3G toggle when it released iOS 5 to the public in October. Previous to this change, users took advantage of the switch in order to save battery life on their devices; switching 3G off would help extend the battery a bit longer in situations where 3G wasn't necessary, or the 3G network wasn't working properly. The loss of the switch irked a number of iPhone users, so its triumphant return—assuming Apple doesn't remove it before iOS 5.1's final release—will certainly be a welcome one.

That's not all that's contained within the latest beta. As noted by , a reference to dictation has appeared for the iPad and iPod touch, causing some to conclude that Siri is coming to those devices soon (we are slightly skeptical on this point, but we're willing to wait and see). And, as posted by , the iOS 5.1 beta 3 also introduces a new API to developers that will let them mark certain types of content that they don't want to be backed up, which should save on syncing time.

As we get settled into the new year, Apple news is beginning to ramp up again. In the past week, our top Apple news included interviews with developers about what they want to see out of Apple in the coming year, rumors about an upcoming iBooks-related Apple event, Stanford's Apple history archives, and more. Join us for the weekly roundup:

: The iOS and Mac App Stores may have offered developers new opportunities to expand their market and skill sets, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Leading devs tell us what they'd like to see from Apple.

: Top reality TV producer Bunim/Murray won't be upgrading to Final Cut Pro X. Instead, the company is migrating to an Avid system because unlike Apple, Avid appears to understand the studio's "long-term needs."

That new and improved antenna in the iPhone 4S is apparently helping its users download gobs of data. In fact, according to a new report from network management firm Arieso, iPhone 4S owners use twice as much data as their iPhone 4-using brethren, and nearly three times as much as iPhone 3G users. The data is part of an overall trend of growing data usage among smartphone owners, with Arieso warning that data congestion issues among cell networks will worsen throughout 2012.

Arieso used the iPhone 3G as its baseline for comparison throughout 2011, just as it did . iPhone 4S users downloaded 276 percent of the data used by iPhone 3G users, and uploaded 320 percent. A couple of Android phones made an appearance in the list too, with the Samsung Galaxy S downloading 199 percent of the data used by iPhone 3Gs. The Galaxy S didn't make a showing in the uplink list, but the HTC Desire S did, at 323 percent of the data uploaded by iPhone 3G users. Clearly, the smartphone owners of 2011 are making an effort to watch as many cat videos on YouTube as they possibly can.

In addition to the smartphone data, Arieso pointed out that overall data use is increasing dramatically, and the top one percent of smartphone users now consume half of all downloaded data. "Without adequately preparing networks to support the new generation of smart devices, operators risk spiralling and misplaced operational expenditure and delivering a sub-par quality of experience to customers," Arieso CTO and the study's author Dr. Michael Flanagan said in a statement. "It’s critical that operators redouble their efforts to limit the impact of this inevitable squeeze."

Rumor-mongers start your engines, because it's January and the beginning of iPad rumor season. The next-gen iPad is well on its way, according to sources speaking to , with upgraded cameras, a higher-resolution display, and a launch date early this year—likely in March or April as with the past two iPads.

The next-generation iPad (which is widely being referred to as the "iPad 3," but in reality, no one knows) has long been rumored to carry a high-resolution, "retina" class display like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. In June of 2011, that implied the iPad's screen would be able to support images that were twice the normal size in each direction—1536x2048 instead of 768x1024—adding fuel to the fire. Other than the display and the , however, we have heard very little about the iPad 3, making iLounge's info even more interesting.

According to iLounge, both front and rear iPad cameras will get an upgrade, with the front-facing camera going HD and the rear-facing camera possibly matching . Because of these upgrades, however, the body of the iPad will supposedly get thicker—"1mm give or take," according to iLounge—and the curvature on the back will change slightly. More interesting is the claim that the current iPad 2 will remain in the lineup at a lowered price point of $399, while the newer iPad will claim the current price points of $499 and up. And although there have been some unrealistic rumors of an iPad launch this month, these sources insist that Apple will likely stick to its original iPad launch schedule, which has happened around March or April for the last two years.

Following the  launch of Apple's completely revamped video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media has (hat tip to ) that award-winning TV production company Bunim/Murray is dropping Final Cut Pro in favor of a complete Avid makeover. Going forward, the company will use Avid Media Composer and Avid Symphony for editing along with an Avid ISIS 5000 networked storage system to replace its current Final Cut Pro workflow.

"Due to the large volume of media generated by our reality shows, we needed to re-evaluate our editing and storage solutions. At the same time, we were looking for a partner who would understand our long-term needs," Bunim/Murray's SVP of post production Mark Raudonis said in a statement.

The message between the lines is that Apple's latest offerings simply won't (ahem) cut it anymore. Earlier this year, Apple Final Cut Pro X from the ground up with a new, modern media handling framework as well as 64-bit support. In doing so, however, it that editing pros had come to rely on in their workflows. Apple also dropped its Final Cut Server product after phasing out its and storage products over the past few years.

The decision has left many working pros  anymore. And, while the company has promised to , those promises apparently weren't enough for Bunim/Murray and others who have since migrated to competing solutions from Avid and Adobe. Let's just say we don't expect this to be the last we hear about major production companies making the switch.

A judge has denied Apple's request to keep certain court documents sealed in its copyright infringement case against Mac clone maker Psystar. In a late Tuesday filing, US District Judge William Alsup ordered that portions of the parties' summary judgement be unsealed and filed publicly without any redaction. The ruling came after another judge's comments in September, who argued that Apple had failed to articulate specific reasons for the documents to remain sealed.

Apple and Psystar have been engaging in a legal battle since July of 2008, with Apple arguing that Psystar was violating Apple's copyrights by selling non-Macs with Mac OS X installed. Psystar attempted to defend itself by arguing that the OS X licensing agreement was an "unlawful attempt to extend copyright protection to products that are not copyrightable." Apple , as well as , but Apple maintained that its summary judgements should stay sealed for fear of publishing trade secrets about OS X's functionality.

As part of the appeals ruling in September 2011, Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder wrote that Apple had not provided sufficient reason to keep the documents sealed, vacating and remanding that part of the original ruling for further consideration. And now, it appears that Judge Alsup agrees: in his ruling from Tuesday, Alsup noted that Apple's own VP of Core OS Software admitted that third parties "may have accurately deduced and published" the information that remains under seal, and that Apple itself is aware that some of the information is publicly available.

"It is unnecessary to go through the entire record and list every instance where Apple is seeking to seal information that is publicly available. There are too many examples," Alsup wrote in his ruling. "Apple cannot have this Court seal information merely to avoid confirming that the publicly available sources got it right."

Welcome to 2012! If you're a consumer, you're likely getting ready for another year full of new products, drama, and intrigue from the tech world. If you're a journalist, you're cowering in fear of the upcoming CES trade show. And if you're a Mac or iOS developer—well, as always, you're wishing for bigger and better things out of Apple and its community.

While the iOS and Mac App Stores exploded in popularity in 2011, there's still plenty of room for improvement on the developer side. When we spoke with a number of iOS and Mac developers about their wish list for 2012, they didn't hesitate to let us know about changes they would like to see.