Reg Hardware's Tony Smith today looks at Apple's foot-in-mouth response to the outcry regarding its plans to charge $5.00, and then $2.00, to enable 802.11n on its Macs.

Apple's explanation for the just plain silly fee has been that it was in response to Sarbanes-Oxley requirements covering Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

But Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the SEC, says that doesn't make any sense -- in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Turner says GAAP has nothing to do with charging for updates. "You charge whatever you want," she says. "GAAP doesn't even remotely address whether or not you charge for a significant functionality change. GAAP establishes what the proper accounting is, based on what you did or didn't charge for it."

As Smith puts it, "Generally Ambiguous Accounting Principles, anyone?"

After its oooh-so-slick intro of the iPhone, this is one heck of an embarrassing mess for Apple...

More here from Ars Technica... here from Macsimum News... here from MacNN... and here from Wired.