Apple fined for bad air, Apple TV trademarks, Adobe betas

Breathe, breathe in the air.

Apple has agreed to pay $43,200 in penalties to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District for an air quality violation that occurred at its Elk Grove facility in April 2006, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

"When a business neglects to observe air quality regulations the health of our citizens is jeopardized," district executive director Larry Greene said in a news release.

It's reported that the violation occurred over several days as Apple operated its emergency standby generator for a purpose other than maintenance or emergency power. The penalty was agreed upon by both parties as part of the Sacramento district's voluntary settlement program designed to prevent litigation.

Apple's Elk Grove facility was at one time a manufacturing plant tasked with churning out models of the company's bulbous bondi blue iMacs and Power Mac systems. After relinquishing production completely to the Taiwanese in the late 90's, Apple shifted Elk Grove into a general purposes facility, which now handles, shipping, sorting, returns and an assortment of other corporate tasks.

Apple TV trademarks

Meanwhile, Apple in recent days filed for two separate trademarks covering its Apple TV wireless media hub. The first, filed April 9th, was for the word mark "Apple TV," while a second, filed two days later, covers Apple TV as a "[Apple logo] TV."

Both filings lists Apple TV as goods or services under the following categorizations: "Computer hardware; computer networking hardware; set top boxes; digital electronic devices for recording, organizing, transmitting, receiving, manipulating, playing and reviewing text, data, image, audio and video files; computer software for use in organizing, transmitting, receiving, manipulating, playing and reviewing text, data, image, audio, and video files; computer hardware and computer software for the reproduction, processing and streaming of audio, video and multimedia content; computer hardware and software for controlling the operation of audio and video devices and for viewing, searching and/or playing audio, video, television, movies, photographs and other digital images, and other multimedia content."

Of note, neither filing makes reference to Apple TV as a gaming platform.

Adobe offers high-end betas

Alongside its announcement Monday that it has begun shipping Creative Suite 3 Web and Design bundles, Adobe announced free public previews of Premiere Pro CS3, After Effects CS3 Professional and Soundbooth CS3.

The professional video applications are components of Adobe's Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Master Collection bundles due to ship later this summer.

The public betas of Premiere Pro CS3 and After Effects CS3 are available through the Adobe Labs website.