So, when is the UK getting the Apple iPhone? British mobile provider O2 continues to flirt with the iPhone, dropping little hints here and there that it will be the UK home for Apple’s cellphone++. Apparently, the company’s CEO mentioned, you know, just casually, that the iPhone will help the company “maintain momentum” as it heads into the remainder of the year. Then, immediately afterwards, O2 denied that it actually won the coveted iPhone contract.
Loose lips sink ships.
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Tomatoflash! Tomatoflash!
It’s a USB key that kicks ass!
Uses microSD!
Can’t you see?
It’s really easy as 1-2-3!
Throw your card in the back
Just like that
Now you’re ready to ROCK
Yeah you’re ready to ROCK
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To celebrate the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, China Unicom is offereing its subscriber base film clips of the Korean War and pictures of weapons and/or military figures. So why is China Unicom offering such a strange variety of content to celebrate? According to company official Yu Peng,
“I believe it will be popular since we have so many military fans in China.”
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Apple doesn’t want you messing with the iPhone’s battery. Really, it doesn’t. When your iPhone’s warranty runs out, you’ll have to send it back to Apple to get the battery replaced for an exhorbitant fee ($79 + shipping). Yes it sucks, but there’s no other alternatives. Or are there?
In comes Asia, full of OEM batteries and plastic. For only $20, you can get a battery replacement kit for your iPhone that might work. But be careful, ’cause taking apart the iPhone, let alone replacing its battery, isn’t an easy or pleasurable task. Just ask The Boy Genius. He nearly destroyed his iPhone just trying to remove the back cover.
$20 iPhone Battery Replacement Kit [I4U]
Eminem, who peaked in 2000, has filed a lawsuit against Apple, which peaked on June 29, 2007. The lawsuit centers on the whether or not Universal Music, which publishes Eminem’s hot beats, can deal directly with Apple with regard to selling music online. It seems Em wants more of a cut of that sweet, sweet iTunes money and doesn’t like how Universal can make deals with Apple without his say. (Don’t record labels own the air musicians breathe, let alone their music rights?) Why, then, Eminem is going after Apple and not his label is unknown. It’s also stupid.
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Go ahead and hit play on the video above. It’s OK, I’ll wait while you gasp in total amazement. You see my friends, these are Chuck E. Cheese type robots from a kids place that are modified to sing and dance to rap music. I must say, Bubba Sparxxx’s “Miss New Booty” is a fantastic song for these robots to perform. What child wouldn’t love shaking his or her ass to a hot beat while friendly animals perform the best of Top 40?
I keep wondering how I can take life seriously after watching this.
Chuck E Cheese bots modded to play hiphop [Boing Boing]
Back in the day, Apple hit 1 billion songs sold on iTunes and the world exploded in celebration. Well not really, but the mood of the occasion was very jovial all around. Now Apple has gone the distance and has sold over 3 billion songs on iTunes. That doesn’t even include videos or games! Looks like Jobs & Co. has many more years of insane profits headed its way.
Apple says iTunes sales top 3 billion songs [Reuters]
It’s been a few days since I mentioned any new Samsung phones, but that changes today. Samsung’s latest is circling the Web and its features are rather impressive. The i550 is rumored to be GPS-enabled and run Symbian S60, which is a nice change from a Windows Mobile OS. It’s being touted as a smartphone and I’m inclined to believe that label is correct. It will supposedly run on 3G and have HSDPA, a 3.2-megapixel camera, 2.6-inch display, FM radio, 128MB of RAM, microSD and microUSB. The layout of the keyboard suggests dedicated GPS, MP3 player and Internet buttons. Unfortunately there is no official word on availability or which market the i550 will appear in.
Samsung i550: GPS smartphone [GSM Arena]
Yeah, he looks happy…
Maybe if the Far East regulated itself a little better, dogs wouldn’t have to spend umpteen hours in this oxygen chamber, which I think is called the Ownd Cafe. It’s from AirPress, and the same premise that applies to humans—it’s healthy, you’ll feel better, etc.—applies to Fido over here. Hand over you wallet and watch your pampered dog be all oxygenated.
Why? Just why?
Product Page (Kinda) [Air Press via Akihabara News]
Some music fans will rejoice as they flip open their AT&T phones this morning. AT&T is now offering DRM-free tracks from eMusic in MP3 format, meaning for once, you can actually download tracks on your phone and eventually transfer them to your PC. In addition to the non-DRM goodness, you’ll also find the largest selection of music downloads offered by a mobile carrier with over 2.7 million songs available for purchase.
However, tracks aren’t a peachy 99-cents per download. You’ll have to purchase five-packs of downloads for $7.49 per pack. To top it off, only a few phones currently run the custom app required to browse eMusic. If you have a Samsung A717, Samsung A727, Nokia N75, or Samsung Sync, then you’re in the clear. Otherwise, hit the PC and bust out that USB cable.
AT&T launches DRM-free eMusic Mobile [Electronista]
Blogging here in the morning, I’m either listening to house and/or trance mixes or to talk radio, be it NPR or the Norton and Friends show. If I lived in a DAB-friendly area, I might be using something like the Pure Digital EVOKE-1S. Not because it’s “revolutionary” or anything, but because it looks like it’s straight out of 1954. That’s not to say that the radio is mere eye candy, though. Evoke has the necessary inputs to connect a DAP, and Pure Digital throws in FM radio for good measure.
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Amp’d Mobile is most likely shutting down today, July 31, and a list of assets for sale shows where the $360 million in VC went that caused the MVNO to file for Chapter 11. Of course, there’s the additional $100 million Amp’d owes Verizon, but that’s beside the point. It seems a big chunk of change went towards the production of porn, which is prevalent when zooming through the Amp’d catalog. It’s soft-core at best, but you don’t exactly see other carriers offering such risqué content now do you?
UPDATE – We’re getting word that it may or may not have been porn. TC writes:
A correction printed at Venture Beat notes that these might not have been DVD’s, but some sort of X rated content Amp’d produced, they look like DVD’s and certainly we are unwilling to repeat the names of them here to prove the point. Aside from the still very valid questions about how Amp’d blew $360million in funding and ran up $100million in debt, there are now some interesting questions as to why a company primarily marketing to teens was producing X-Rated content.
It’s also been reported that the Amp’d CEO was gallivanting around in a black helicopter at the company’s expense as well as being extremely lax on credit checks for customers just to boost numbers. Pretty sure Adderton is screwed out of any upcoming jobs.
Asset List (PDF) [Venture Beat]
rumored Xbox 360 price drop due to happen on or around August 8th. According to a source at Best Buy, the $50 cut doesn’t include the Core model because it’s apparently being phased out altogether.
Word out of Redmond is that nothing’s set in stone regarding the Xbox 360 Core’s fate. So Microsoft’s either waiting to make an announcement, Best Buy has decided to drop the Core regardless of whether or not it’s going away, or the whole thing is a clever ruse worthy of the smarmiest of mystery dinner parties.
Rumor: Best Buy done with Xbox 360 core model [Joystiq]
iPhone envy is still abound throughout the US, but more so outside of the country and it’s quite evident by the video showcasing a virtual touch-keyboard on the Nokia N800. Coded in Python, the keyboard lacks predictive text, but chicks won’t know the difference if your pawing your N800 uncontrollably in public. You know you want it!
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Symantec has put out a warning to Mac users that an unpatched exploit found in Samba, an open-source file-and print-sharing software included with OS X, could leave your Apple open to hackers via the Metasploit hacking framework. The Samba community released a fix the day after the exploit was found, which was May 14, but Apple hasn’t released any fixes to Samba since March 2005.
A hacker can gain root access to a Mac if the user has checked off “windows file sharing”. Symantec recommends mac users uncheck this option until Apple releases a fix. Hey Apple, wake up! *Goes to shut off Samba*
Attacks Likely Against Unpatched Mac OS Samba Bug [via Macenstein]
In conjunction with the launch of two HD camcorders earlier today, Panasonic announced the launch of a 8GB Pro High Speed SD memory card today that features both high speed and high capacity. The RP-SDV08GU1K has a Class 6 Speed spec that equates to data transfer speeds of 6MB/s and it’s compatible with the SD memory card v2.0 standard. You can expect to store about two hours of HD content in AVCHD normal mode or somewhere in the range of 3,080 images. Look for the 8GB model in September for $159.99.
RingCube Technologies has announced the release of the MojoPac Enterprise Edition software that allows telecommuters, contract workers and road warriors the ability to store a virtual desktop onto a USB drive. I’m sure you’re thinking that this isn’t special in anyway and that Citrix does the same thing, but this is where you’re wrong.
MojoPac is distinctly different in that you don’t have to be connected to the network to run your applications. You don’t necessarily even need a USB drive because the software even works on your iPod, so anything that connects via USB is acceptable. It also runs on any Windows XP or Vista machine as a guest, so the host computer is oblivious to anything going on. All your corporate secrets are safe in the event your laptop is stolen, but that only holds true if you keep your USB drive someplace else when not in use.
Desktop on a USB drive ready for enterprises [Yahoo! News]
This fall will see many conventions around the country as companies gear up for the holidays and other fun times. This means a lot of travel for a lot of people, and you could be one of them. And that sucks.
Not that you have to take a trip — indeed, visiting new places should be a pleasant experience — but rather that air travel in America sucks. I was going to try to write this article without invoking the term “post-9/11″, but the sad fact is that since the “War on Terror” started, airports have sucked. But we’ve got a few tips to help you get through your day in style and comfort.
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I believe I’m on the verge of taking back every bad thing I said about the PS3 with news that Sony has signed an exclusive deal with Rockstar Games for the ‘next great franchise’. This is very exciting news, but let’s face facts for a moment. Any game that is developed for the PS3 from the ground up is going to be amazing. It will utilize all the amazing capabilities that we’ve heard about, but it’s still a long time away from now. If I were in the market for new console I really wouldn’t bother looking at the PS3 because of the lack of content and I’m not going to wait around another year to see what happens.
According to Gaming Target, the Wii has 113 exclusive titles while the Xbox 360 has 96 and the PS3 comes in at 47. It’s no surprise that the figures reflect the current state of popularity either. Also worth noting is that the PS3 does not have one game in the top 10 as reported by the NPD Group. The Nintendo Wii holds four, the DS holds two, the Xbox 360 boasts three and the PS2 has one. I just don’t understand why Sony would think it could compete in the current state it is in. Sony could really use a Red Bull right now.
Sony Inks Exclusive Rockstar Deal for PlayStation 3 [News Factor]
