Today’s heart warming story is a result of an iPad 2 return. Now what exactly would cause someone to return Apple’s latest and greatest must have gadget? Reviews have been solid, so it’s doubtful the customer didn’t like the device. Maybe this person was experiencing the leaking backlight, but then you’d expect an exchange. Alas, neither of these were the premise to today’s story. Today’s story starts out with an iPad 2 and a note that reads: “Wife said no.”

Time to move on from iPad 2 rumors to iPhone 5. If a Chinese source is to be believed, Apple may be preparing to abandon the gorilla glass backing of the iPhone 4 for an aluminum casing instead. This would bring the design full circle, back to where Apple began with the original iPhone. But is this source to be believed? Will Apple abandon a complete redesign so quickly?

If unconfirmed rumors are to be believed, Apple may be planning a special event to announce the iPad 2 sometime in March. The only other information offered by the source is the image here, which appears to be a bezel for an iPad like device. Is it a rumor backed in truth, or is it just an educated guess?

If you’ve been waiting for iOS 4.3, your wait may be coming to an end. We now have ample reason to believe that Apple will be releasing iOS 4.3—which will include the in-app subscription and personal hotspot features—in less than two weeks. Not only that, but AT&T may even support the personal hotspot feature on their network along with their recently announced increasing data caps for tethering plans just before Valentine’s Day.

It appears Apple is having a hard time keeping their signature death grip on all of their prototype next generation iPhone units. This one surfaced on a Vietnamese forum called Taoviet.tn. The only real differences from the Gizmodo iPhone are the 16GB label instead of XXGB and the lack of screws near the dock port.

Word on the street says that the next gen iPhone won’t be quite the upgrade that we (and by we I’m totally just talking about me) wanted to see. If anonymous sources are to be trusted, you can expect a minor bump upwards to all interesting components.

It seems perhaps Apple is poised to release new Mac Minis and iMacs, not on March 24th, but as soon as tomorrow, March 3rd, 2009. This rumor surfaced on two separate websites, at least one of which is fairly trustworthy. The rumor started on HardwareMac.com, a generally trustable source, and was further backed up by OneMoreThing.nl. Not only do they say they that Apple will be releasing new Mac Mini and iMac models tomorrow, but they also have model numbers and specs on the hardware.

We reported on the new Mac Mini image that hit the internet Thursday that had 5 USB ports and a Mini DisplayPort connection on it. I was fairly convinced that it was a pretty good Photoshop job, but now there’s new evidence to back up the original image. Take a look.

It seems the MacBook refresh may have brought a new feature to OS X in the form of GPU accelerated h.264 video decoding. Currently, improvements to CPU load can be seen with new MacBooks, but the feature could find its way on to a Mac with appropriate hardware near you.

Some MacRumors forum members have been talking about how the new MacBooks handle HD video content.

Today on the MacRumors forums, a user posted this image that could be the case for the new MacBook Pro. As you can see, this goes along with the current aluminum brick manufacturing rumor since it looks to be a solid piece of aluminum. The holes for the speakers seem to be very small, and more »