Apple legal clears its desk

Are Apple's lawyers getting ready to go on vacation? For the second time in as many days, the company has agreed to settle a lingering class action suit.

On Thursday, it was a pair of complaints out of Canada that 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation iPods were delivering something like three hours of music, not eight hours as advertised. Although one case was granted class action status and the other wasn't, Apple (AAPL) agreed to settle both, according to the Montreal Gazette, offering $44 store credit to any Canadian who purchased one of the affected iPods before June 24, 2004. As many as 80,000 could be eligible. Hearings are set for May 26 in Montreal and June 20 in Toronto.

Then on Friday, according to the LA Times, Apple agreed to pay some 2.3 million Mac owners refunds of $25 to $79 to resolve claims that some of its power supplies were prone to fray and spark and self-destruct. Customers who bought replacement adaptors for PowerBooks and iBooks could be eligible for the refunds, according to documents filed in federal court in San Jose. A final court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Still pending, notes the Gazette, is the case filed against Apple Canada last fall by law student David Bitton who was surprised to discover that his 8GB iPod Nano held only 7.45GB. According to his lawyer, Bitton is asking for the full $220 purchase price, but will settle for 7.5%, plus court costs.