Back in May I posted about an impending change from the TSA to allow some laptops to be screened without having to remove them from their bags, like the rest of the modern world does it. Well, today’s the day.
The TSA even offers some “helpful” comments about the new policy, including this gem:
Given TSA’s use of random screening protocols, TSA reserves the right to re-screen any bag or laptop regardless of the design of the bag.
If you’re shopping for a new bag anytime soon I’d definitely consider a model that meets these specifications, but I still haven’t seen one that is actually nice and meets the requirements.
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Dell will be holding a press conference tomorrow to announce some “new and exciting products”. One of those new products is most likely going to be their Mini Inspiron, which will be the first Dell Netbook.
The rumored specifications point towards a $299 Linux powered sub-notebook with an Intel Atom processor, 512MB of memory and a 4 or 8GB SSD drive. Beefier models will add more memory, Windows XP (or Vista) and a spinning hard drive.
All models are rumored to be equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an Expresscard slot.
It’s no secret THAT they’ll be introducing these machines, it’s just a matter of WHEN, so tomorrow seems as good a time as any, just in time to squeeze some more cash out of parents in the wacky “back to school” sales frenzy.
In my opinion, the Dell lineup, along with the recently announced netbook from Lenovo will probably deal a serious blow to firms like Asus, Everex and MSI who have been dominating this market for the past months.
Source: CNN Money (Image from Engadget.com)
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Last week all hell broke loose. An Apple iPhone developer went digging in his phone, and found several lines of code referring to “phoning home”.
The code linked to an Apple URL that contained a blacklist. This blacklist is at the heart of a lot of outrage over even more “big brother” involvement by Apple.
Today, Steve Jobs went on record admitting the kill switch, and explaining that Apple had no other option. The app blacklist feature was designed so rogue apps could be killed by Apple, if they started displaying bad behavior, like hacking into your contact list or sending your personal information to a third party.
Of course, Apples claim that they had no other option seems pretty bogus to me; Windows Mobile has done without this for years, and it has never been an issue. But then again, Windows Mobile users can install whatever they want, from any source, without having to go through an official Apple sanctioned repository of applications.
The funny thing, is that the iPhone has had access to applications since last year, albeit through an unofficial source; installer.app. Despite 100’s of applications being uploaded to installer.app without any third party controls, there have been no incidents of rogue apps.
On Blackberry devices, things are even tighter; but everything stays under the command of the device owner. The Blackberry application firewall controls every aspect of an application. When you install an app, you can allow or disallow anything from interaction with the phone book, to outgoing connections.
But once again, Apple shows it doesn’t trust its users, and implements something akin to parental controls on the cable box. It’s your phone, with applications YOU paid for, but they still want a little bit of control over what you do. Add that to the DRM already in place on these apps, and the DRM on your music and videos, plus a very vague and restrictive NDA for developers, and you’ll understand why many iPhone owners are not as happy as they were with the first iPhone.
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There is no turning back for T-mobile now. They have finally turned on a second city where they’ll be offering their 3G service. After paying billions for the licence’s, and subjecting customers to hopelessly slow EDGE data for years, Las Vegas has become the second official city where 3G is offered.
This means residents and visitors to Las Vegas and New York can benefit from faster speeds on their devices. Of course, since T-mobile barely has any compatible 3G devices in their lineup, it might be some time till anyone actually gets to enjoy it.
By the end of the year there should be 20 major cities with 3G coverage, so expect more of these announcements as more cities are “turned on”.
The rollout of 3G in Las Vegas apparently cost them $28 Million. Assuming most other cities will need twice as much infrastructure, T-mobile has close to $1 Billion in investments lined up.
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Several days ago, a “developer”, loaded a $999.99 application onto the Apple iPhone app store. He called it “I am rich”, and it was supposed to be for anyone who wanted to show off just how rich and impressive they are. Apparently, the ability to waste $1000 on an application that does nothing more than show a red orb is a good way to show how loaded you are.
So far, so bad. The app has already been pulled by Apple, but not until some idiot actually thought it might be funny to click the “buy now” button, just to see what would happen.
Of course, most people know about the Apple 1-click system, where, as the name implies, you click once, and the purchase is completed.
Needless to say, the system worked perfectly, and the guy got his $1000 useless app downloaded directly to his iPhone. Now he’s trying to find a way to wiggle his way out of it. Good luck with that.
Via Valleywag
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Tmonews has become a pretty reliable source of T-mobile news, so when they report on the upcoming official launch of 3G I’m going to assume they are correct. 3G on T-mobile already launched in New York City, where it is being tested with several “unnamed” 3G phones.
The October 1st launch should coincide with the launch of 3 or 4 new 3G enabled phones, including one 3G smartphone and a 3G enabled Blackberry.
All I can say is “it’s about frikkin time”.
Source: Tmonews.com
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It had to happen sooner or later, I’m bringing you more insane news about the Apple iPhone. This news is a little different though, and might bring a smile to the face of anyone who has been trying to get their hands on the new iPhone in the past weeks.
For some reason, Amazon.com has the new phone listed on their site, despite not actually being one of the 2 distribution partners of the phone, or actually having any in stock. It could have been an overenthusiastic developer, or just a way to get even more traffic to their site.
There were already some rumors out there of Apple adding multiple resellers over time (including Radio Shack), so perhaps this is a sign that something will change when Apple is finally able to produce enough of them to go around.
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How terribly sloppy. Gmail, arguably one of the worlds largest email services is currently using an expired SMTP security certificate.
I’m also not the only one getting this error; Google Groups
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It has been less than three weeks since the new iPhone app store opened its doors. Apple envisioned the app store as a place where developers could sell their programs and iPhone users could buy stuff without the usual hassle most Windows and Blackberry customers have to go through.
Of course, the app store also wraps the applications in the Apple Fairplay DRM, which was intended to restrict people pirating iPhone apps.
As of today, all those restrictions are meaningless, because creative minds have once again found themselves one step ahead of Apple.
There are currently 2 ways to “re-use” an application; one involves using iTunes to copy the app onto another iPhone, just like music can be copied onto multiple iPods. The second method is more complicated, and actually involves removing the DRM completely. The first app to be shared with the community is the hugely popular “Super Monkey Ball”. Of course, the target iPhone has to be “jailbroken” and you’ll need to perform a couple of magic tricks to actually copy it onto the device.
It was inevitable, yet I’m sure it will be a disappointment to developers that their stuff has been hacked so quickly. I’m sure many of them will be sending their Apple contacts a nasty email this afternoon once they see their (no longer) DRM protected apps pop up all over the web.
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First light bulbs, and now netbooks? This months Tiger Direct catalogue shows an Everex Cloudbook rebranded as a “Sylvania G Netbook Notebook PC”
The only difference I could find was the 1GB of ram in the Sylvania compared to the 512MB in the Everex. This isn’t the only other version of the Cloudbook out there, Packard Bell sells it in Europe as the “Easynote”.
Of course, in true Tiger Direct fashion, they managed to mess up the specs by claiming the machine has a VIA C7-M and an Intel SL7100 Core2Duo CPU.
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