Briefly: iPod battery replacement, July the 7th event, Apple to become a phone company?

MacRumors' readers noticed today that Apple has dropped the price of the iPod battery replacement program to $59 from $99. Apple was critisized for the quality of its first iPods and on the price of the battery replacement program during the first year of the existence of the device.

Last week we mentioned French Mac-centric sites that claimed to have received invitations from a press event organized by Apple on July the 7th. Reports claimed this event indeed hapenned but wasn't the occasion of any announcement.

Forbes makes a quite crazy but senseful speculation that Apple could become a phone company in the near future. The fact that the company struggled signing with major telecom operators for the Apple-Motorola iTunes phone could have given the crazy idea to Steve Jobs.