Here’s a fun little tidbit from a talk by Adam Lashinsky, author of Inside Apple, at LinkedIn’s headquarters. In it, Lashinsky and a member of the audience shoot back and forth about Apple’s rigorous interview process, which can last up to nine months or longer. They also touched on how Apple is able to maintain its (nearly) impenetrable veil of secrecy, a big part of which is hiring people they can trust. “But how does one prove their trustworthiness to Apple?” I hear you cry. By working on fake products.

According to Global Equities Research, Apple’s outing into the textbook market with iBooks 2 seems to be off to a good start with some 350,000 textbook downloads in a mere three days. Add to that about 90,000 downloads of Apple’s free textbook creation tool Author, the amazingly low cost for producers and consumers of digital textbooks, and it would seem that education is finally ready to jump the digital divide. Or is it?

Hiding dirty little gotchas inside of long, legalese agreements is nothing new. Companies have been doing it for ages. They’re starting to push the envelope more and more, however. Sony has used license agreements to prevent users from taking part in a class-action lawsuit (They’re being sued now). Not bad enough? Now it seems like Apple’s EULA for its iBooks Author publishing platform actually calls dibs on exclusive publishing rights to what you write with it, like if Photoshop laid claim to images you created with it. Needless to say, this severely affects your ability to sell your own work.

As part of an education event in New York City today, Apple announced iBooks 2 for the iPad which will attempt to use tablet technology to make textbooks better and more interesting. Naturally, iBooks isn’t going to be dealing with straight electronic representations of traditional several-pound, text-and-image textbooks. No, iBooks is all about the bells and whistles. Bells and whistles like 3D images, video, and multitouch gestures. No word on whether any of this actually makes reading for class fun.

Finally: A toilet that combines the functional elegance of Apple products with something you poop in. Created by designer and programmer Milos Paripovic, this concept for a sleek toilet is meant to play on the (rather tired) joke about the cost of Apple products. In his own words, “This toilet has exactly the same function as any other toilet and costs only twice as much for the same performance[.]” I disagree. If Apple were to make a toilet, it would surely cost an arm and a leg but it would be the most satisfying toilet experience imaginable. See more images, after the break.

So we’ve seen what Apple looks like when you compare its net worth to the value of various other things, but what happens when you do an in-depth comparison from Apple to apples? This infographic by MBA Online has you covered. Pun aside, it’s actually quite enlightening to see Apple products expressed in terms of actual apples. The iPhone 4S is worth about 20,000 apples, but weighs about the same as one. Interesting right? These are great things for mentioning at dinner parties, over apples maybe. Check out the full graphic after the jump for more tasty tidbits.

A recently leaked memo suggests that Apple, along with RIM and Nokia, may have made a deal with the Indian government, giving them a backdoor into software in exchange for market precense. The memo, sinisterly titled “Tactical network for cellular surveillance,” was leaked by The Lords of Dharmaraja, the group responsible for the recent hack of Symantec. The document states that RINOA (Rim, Nokia, and Apple) were involved in the decision to “sign an agreement with mobile manufacturers in exchange for the Indian market presence.”

That Steve Jobs action figure is pretty cool, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to have one? Apple apparently, and it looks like they don’t want you to have one either. According to the Telegraph, the company making the doll received a little letter from Apple, threatening legal action. The argument, it seems, is that Apple feels like it owns the rights to Steve Jobs. It’s worth noting that the Telegraph’s report of the legal trouble is cautiously worded and no sources are cited, so it might not be the real deal.

There seems to be no end of possibilities for Apple’s iPad tablet: You can explore stonehenge, Orangutans can play with it, cats can slice fruit with it, and you can fake a grievous bodily injury with it. Now, you’ll apparently be able to help run a government with one, too. At least, that’s the plan for British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is having a specially made “government dashboard” app developed especially for him.

While Steve Jobs is often remembered as the father of Apple’s iconic products, UK designer Jonathan Ive was the creative mind behind the look and feel of devices like the MacBook, the iPod, and the iPhone. In recognition for his contribution to art and design, Ive has been named a Knight Commander of the British Empire in the New Year Honours list.