Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Friday:

$540: Wall street analysts had been predicting that Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock would break the $400 barrier since early 2010. Now that the milestone has been passed (although shares are down to $366 with the market’s recent tanking), what’s the next goal? According to Needham analyst Charlie Wolf, the new target is $540. Quoted in a report at Apple Insider, Wolf raised his 12-month price target for Apple to that level from $450. The reason for the boost is Wolf’s greater expectations for Mac and App Store revenue, as well as a major increase in iPad shipments in 2012. Wolf believes that Apple will ship more than 54 million tablets next year.

Your Battery Isn’t Dead, Just Hacked: Tech hacker Charlie Miller claims he can remotely shut down a Mac laptop’s battery or maybe even cause it to explode. Miller gave a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas and broke down just how vulnerable Apple’s products are to malicious attacks. The aforementioned battery manipulation can be accomplished by simply changing how the computer itself and the chip that activates battery charging interact. Miller went on to say that he believes Macs are now more secure thanks to the new Lion operating system. Nothing like the threat of explosions to boost sales.

TouchPad Gets Cheaper: Hewlett-Packard‘s (NYSE:HPQ) iPad competitor is having a slow start, and after just one month on shelves, the 16-GB TouchPad has dropped in price to $399 from $499. The 32-GB model, originally retailing at $599, is being sold by outlets like Costco (NASDAQ:COST) for just $479. Can beating Apple on price help H-P’s tablet get off the ground? Maybe.

As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.