Apple Quietly Discontinues iPhone Bluetooth Headset

It's not like there aren't a huge number of possible models of Bluetooth headsets to use with your iPhone, or any phone, but it's interesting that Apple has apparently discontinued the iPhone Bluetooth headset it introduced with the original iPhone, as noted at their store (above).

Of course, it's been two years, and that's a long time for a Bluetooth headset. It wasn't exactly all that well-received, either. Praised for its looks, it only received 3 out of 5 stars in reviews on the site.

In reality, Bluetooth headsets are a pain, meaning it often takes several tries to find one that works "just right" with a particular phone. It can be as a result of the phone, the headset, or it can even be that the headset just "doesn't fit right."

If Apple is planning to introduce a new iPhone sometime later this year, a refresh of the iPhone Bluetooth headset would be a natural addition to that announcement.

How to Tweet Your Way Out of a Job Offer

Only a few weeks after a teenager lost a job because of a Facebook update saying her job was boring, a person with "foot in the mouth" disease may have tweeted his way out of a job offer. His update on Twitter:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

A fat paycheck, but work he hates and a rotten commute, eh? He may not get a chance to decide if he wants the offer, as Tim Levad at Cisco tweeted back:

Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Oops. It just goes to show you that you need to be careful what you publicly broadcast on Twitter or Facebook (or MySpace, or ...).

theconnor has since protected his status updates, but it's waaaaaay too late. Someone even spent the time and effort to create a site mocking him, CiscoFatty.com.

However, theconnor has put up a blog of his own, at which the first post addresses this whole issue. His post sounds like he may have turned down the Cisco job (his first paragraph says he turned down some job) before even sending that tweet, and that the tweet was meant for his followers, no one else.

Of course, that doesn't excuse the flippancy, but as he says:

Should Tim Levad have backed off? Not necessarily; it was crass of me to say what I did and I take full responsibility for the stupidity of my action. Instead of blaming him, let me use him to illustrate what I have learned: Tim Levad and @timmylevad are two different people. @timmylevad is defined entirely by the number of people listening to it. But whatever @timmylevad says is backed up by the subtle persuasive knowledge that somewhere back there, Tim Levad the person is pulling the strings.

Twitter isn't something I use (except for this site). Facebook on the other hand, I do. Which leads to other questions. A bigwig at a new company I work for sends me an invite. I really don't want him watching my updates. But if I don't accept I may upset him. So I accepted and limited his access to my status updates.

It's something to worry about in these days of the Web. Watch what you post, or you may be unemployed, or worse.

Facebook Home Page "Revolt Group" Passes 1.7 Million Members

Facebook just gets done defusing the huge blow-up about an updated Terms of Service agreement, when it rolled out a new Twitter-like Home Page, which has turned into just as big an issue, with a group, Petition Against the "New Facebook" with more than 1.7 million members.

The site says it wants to reach 2 million members. It says:

By now, most of us have realized that the Old Facebook isn't coming back. In fact, it seems as though Facebook is going to continue to make large changes without asking what the users want. (the "new facebook", the new terms of service, and the new homepage.) This is unfortunate, but it doesn't change our purpose. Although we can't make things the way they were, what we can do is petition Facebook to make small changes and make the transition easier to deal with. That is what our group is now about: principle. We stand by the fact that the new facebook needs a lot of improvements. Perhaps, with time, it can be more than an advertisement-monger.

That is where you, our members, come in. With your support, we can, perhaps, effect meaningful change. We still need members to make a difference, so continue to invite your friends! Only in numbers can we hope to change the "New Facebook" for the better.

It's pretty much the same argument as was made with regards to the "Terms of Service." Users liked the old layout, and many are not happy about not being consulted about the changes, or at least being given the option to switch their home page back to the old one.

Here's what Facebook says:

"The new Facebook home page is one step in the continued evolution of the site, designed to give people more ways to share and filter all types of content, such as status updates, photos, videos, notes and more. We are grateful to have 175 million people worldwide using Facebook to connect with the people and things they care about most, and we take their feedback very seriously. We are listening carefully to what people are saying about the new home page through a variety of channels - including through a popular application, built by outside developers on our platform, that allows users to vote and express their opinion. Also helpful have been the many comments we're reading on industry blogs, the Facebook company blog, Mark Zuckerberg's public profile, Facebook user groups, and through the link on the Facebook new home page tutorial. We encourage people to send us constructive, detailed feedback and are committed to using it to inform how we build and improve the site for everyone.

Even Facebook's own poll on the new homepage shows an overwhelming negative view of it. At the time of this writing, it's 76,414 for and 1,186,118 against, or 94% against.

At the same time, the Terms of Service comment period ends on March 27th, which is rapidly approaching.

Dell's New Smartphone Designs Flop as "Boring"

It's no secret that Dell, which dropped out of the PDA market years ago, has decided to get into smartphones. Unfortunately, Dell's initial designs have failed to wow the carriers.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu wrote that Dell's new entries in the smartphone field, both Windows Mobile and Android, have so far failed to wow the carriers.

"From our conversations with supply chain and industry sources, it appears that it ultimately came down to lack of carrier interest.

"Palm Pre has not helped, as it has generated interest from carriers as a viable competitor."

This probably isn't a good time for Dell to be looking to enter the smartphone arena. The recession has led to weakening handset sales, and Sony Ericsson offered a stark reminder of it on Friday, issuing a warning that it expected to sell only about 14 million phones during the first quarter of 2009, down 8.3 million phones from the same period last year.

The smartphone field is also already crowded, and both the iPhone and the Palm Pre are garnering the lion's share of the attention right now. A Dell entry just doesn't have buzz.

Wu added that Dell has not given up on a smartphone, though it has "gone back to the drawing board."

Autonomous Robotic Fish Being Built to Detect Pollution

A team of U.K. researchers have developed robotic fish that they plan to use to detect pollution. The researches plan a trial of five robotic fish in the northern Spanish port of Gijon. If successful, they hope to use the fish in waterways worldwide.

Unlike earlier models, which had to be remotely-controlled, these new carp-shaped robots are autonomous. They cost $29,000 each, and are equipped with sensors to detect potentially hazardous pollutants. Data will be transmitted back to the shore using wi-fi.

Before anyone says anything, yes, standard wi-fi such as you might find in a home or business, has a limited range. But the actual transmission of data will take place via wi-fi at the charging hub, which the fish will return to when their batteries are low.

Batteries need recharging approximately every eight hours.
Rory Doyle, senior research scientist at engineering company BMT Group, which developed the robot fish with researchers at Essex University, said:

"While using shoals of robotic fish for pollution detection in harbours might appear like something straight out of science fiction, there are very practical reasons for choosing this form.

"In using robotic fish we are building on a design created by hundreds of millions of years' worth of evolution which is incredibly energy efficient. This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end.

"We will produce a system that allows the fish to search underwater, meaning that we will be able to analyse not only chemicals on the surface of the water (e.g. oil) but also those that are dissolved in the water."

Scientists hope to put the fish "to sea" by the end of 2010. The five fish are being built by Professor Huosheng Hu and his robotics team at the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex. Professor Hu said:

"I am incredibly excited about this project. We are designing these fish very carefully to ensure that they will be able to detect changes in environmental conditions in the port and pick up on early signs of pollution spreading, for example by locating a small leak in a vessel.

"The hope is that this will prevent potentially hazardous discharges at sea, as the leak would undoubtedly get worse over time if not located."

Watch a short video that shows the motion of the fish.

Jacket to Add "Feeling" to Movies

I've written before about gaming helmets and vests that let you feel game impacts. But why limit it to games? How would you like to feel the impact of an on-screen explosion? This week Philips presented research called "A Body–conforming Tactile Jacket to Enrich Movie Viewing" at the IEEE-sponsored 2009 World Haptics Conference 2009, in Salt Lake City.

The jacket contains 64 independently controlled actuators arrayed in 16 groups of four and distributed across the arms and torso. The arrays are linked along a serial bus with each group if four sharing a microprocessor.

But the actual purpose for the jacket, according to the researchers, isn't so you can feel the pain when say, Wolverine gets slammed by Sabretooth, but rather, to investigate emotional immersion.

No, they want you to feel fear, anxiety, and other emotions during the movie. The jacket is capable of "causing a shiver to go up the viewer’s spine and creating the feeling of tension in the limbs." It can even simulate an elevated heartbeat.

Wait, but can't a good movie do that? I remember the first time I saw Aliens, I was on the edge of my seat, with my heart racing through several of the scenes. Don't tell me: this means even lame movies will be able to get my heart racing.

At any rate, there is an obvious use for this technology, that might require actuators in say, the nether regions of your clothing. The AVN, at least, might look favorably on this. When asked about possibly creating pants with the same features, Paul Lemmens, a Philips senior scientist said:

... no, but that the possible applications of this technology are limitless and that the emotion-inducing actuators could go anywhere.

$500 Apple Tax Buys You a Logo: Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has frequently commented on the so-called "Apple Tax," which is what is referred to as the premium people pay to buy Apple products. On Thursday, at the McGraw-Hill Companies' 2009 Media Summit 2009 in New York, Ballmer told people just what exactly that premium gets a consumer.

NPD noted that Apple retail sales fell 16% in February, with NPD analyst Steve Baker asserting that the higher prices associated with Apple products are hurting sales in these recessionary times.

It should be noted that these are retail sales (thus including Apple retail stores), but do not include data from direct sales.

So what does Ballmer say the "Apple Tax" gets you? He said:

"Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction. The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

Well, that's a bit of hyperbole there. Obviously, you could create a Windows box with pretty much the same hardware as a Mac, but to say that the only difference is the logo is a bit too much.

There's no doubt the higher prices are hurting Apple, though, and that same NPD report stated that, helped by netbooks, Windows PC sales rose 22% in the same period.

Palm OS Gets a Farewell Party

We already know that Palm OS has been showed the door, with no more new devices shipping with the old, old (did I say old?) platform, aside from perhaps Centros on different carriers. The Hong Kong PDA User Group (HKPUG) just held a farewell party in early March for the late, lamented OS and has posted some photos from the event.

Despite its current critics, Palm OS was, for a time, dominant among PDAs and smartphones. Palm's mistake was not keeping on top of things by creating a new OS to take its place.

As an previous owner of a PalmPilot 1000 (it's been so long, I'm not even sure that's the correct name for it), I have to wax nostalgic about the old OS. Still, the Palm Web OS and the Palm Pre are long overdue.

RIP, Palm OS. More pictures and details here.

Movie Releases Direct to DVD and BitTorrent Simultaneously

Don't consider this movie to be the quality of say "Titanic," but it does have an interesting twist. In addition to being direct-to-DVD, it's also direct-to-BitTorrent. The movie, Blank, written, produced, and directed by Rick L. Winters, released Saturday via DVD, streaming, and P2P.

According to the movie's site:

The concept behind the torrent sites is that people will watch the movie and if they like the film that they will go to a designated website or the official myspace website and donate or pay what they thought the film was worth to them.

At least on the movie's website (I didn't check MySpace), payments go through PayPal.

The DVD costs $14.99. The movie is described as follows:

Johnny (DAngelo Midili) is a young boy witnesses the violent death of his parents and older sister. Twenty years later he finds himself involved with organized crime with his adoptive father a small local crime boss. While watching a poker game with men who work for his adoptive father he overhears who murdered his family and the wheels start turning in his mind set on revenge. Over the next twenty hours he plans his revenge making it up as he goes through his day. He picks up his adoptive father from prison, solicits assistance from his stoner friend. On his journey he becomes unwittingly involved with a pair of serial killers JACK (Jason Adkins) and JILL (Darlene Sellers). Throughout his day he meets an array of characters living separate lives until their paths cross in a bizarre and shocking end.

It's nice to see a company embracing, rather than vilifying, P2P and BitTorrent. Winter was offered some distribution deals, but he turned them all down. He told TorrentFreak that when his first film was released, cast and crew didn't understand why the distribution company made all the money:

"I have seen firsthand the greed that lurks in the Hollywood corporate circles. This time around the fate of the cast and crew getting paid is in the hands of the audience who watch the film. No Hollywood bank accounts being filled to turn out more crappy remakes. The future of film is in the home market, through peer to peer distribution."

The Pirate Bay has the torrent here. Watch the trailer:

New iPhone to Have Video Recording Capabilities?

There was no mention of video recording at the iPhone OS 3.0 event, so if you want to be able record video on your iPhone, it looks like you are still stuck jailbreaking your iPhone. Or are you?

According to a report by AppleInsider, a "person who's proven extremely reliable" has told them the next generation iPhone will finally introduce video recording capabilities.

Heck, that's something that's I've been speculating about for some time. In fact, the discovery of strings for both "iPhone2,1" and "iPhone3,1" in the iPhone OS 3.0 beta firmware leads to speculation that Apple might be introducting more than one phone this summer, perhaps a lower-priced nano version, or more likely, an upscale higher-priced premium version.

Adding to the speculation over video recording capabilities was the discovery of a MobileMe setting that specified "Publish Video." If that capability existed, it could make good use of the rumored faster 3G on the new iPhone as well.

Heavy sigh. Looks like Apple's yearly refresh of iPhone hardware is set to continue. It makes the fact that AT&T signs us up for two-year contracts very annoying, even if the rumored trade-in program is real.

One thing, however. Even simple cellphones have video recording functionality. Apple may not feel that the iPhone as it currently exists offers the "optimal" video recording experience, but if a simple candy bar phone can have it, why can't the iPhone?

It shows how a closed system such as the App Store, with only approved apps being available for download / sale to iPhone users, actually encourages people to jailbreak.

Honestly, I might buy a new iPhone, if it comes this summer. But I might not. If not, I will at least consider jailbreaking it, to get that missing functionality (video recording, and more). Of course, Apple considers jailbreaking illegal, so I may not.

Netflix Considering Streaming to Nintendo Wiis, PS3s

It was over a year ago that reports emerged of Netflix surveying users about possible streaming to the Xbox 360 (which eventually came to fruition) and the PS3. New reports have arisen about Netflix asking the same questions, this time about the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii.

In email surveys sent to customers, reports indicate that both the Nintendo Wii and the PS3 would require a "Netflix Instant Streaming Disc."

A Netflix Instant Streaming Disc (one-time fee of $9.99). This disc must be put into your PS3 (or Wii) whenever you want to instantly watch movies and TV episodes from Netflix over the Internet

I can perhaps understand, with the rather limited storage on the Nintendo Wii compared to the other consoles the possible reason for a Streaming Disc, but one would think the PS3 could support this functionality with a firmware upgrade.

And at $9.99, you'd expect the disc to be copy-protected as well, which would tend to mean you'd better make sure you don't scratch the disc.

Of course, this is a survey. It doesn't mean the functionality will appear soon, if ever. Readers, would you want this on your console, and how do you feel about the $9.99 fee?

Google's Street View Starts Blacking Out Parts of the U.K.

I find this somewhat humorous because London has tons of surveillance cameras all around the city, but since the launch of Google's Street View in the U.K., dozens of photos have been removed after privacy complaints (and for other reasons, like one of a man relieving himself on a street).

Street View images can be removed via a simple process, as I've indicated before, by bringing up Street View Help, click a link, and select "This image infringes on my privacy," or any of a few other reasons (see above).

And that's apparently what's happening. According to a Google spokesperson, the number of removal requests has reached the "hundreds," but it had been "less than expected."

"We take privacy very seriously which is why when we announced Street View for the UK we explained our easy to use removals process for images people found inappropriate - simply click to report a concern and report the image."

One such image which was removed is above: a man exiting a sex shop. His face is blurred, but still. Google says its software automatically blurs '99.9 per cent' of faces and car number plates.

The British cities on Street View are Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea and York.

In Wake of Shootings, German Retailer Pulls Violent Video Games, Movies

German retailer Galeria Kaufhof is pulling violent films and games from its store shelves, starting in April, in the wake of last week's tragic school shootings at Albertville Secondary School.

Tim Kretschmer, 17, stole one of his father's guns last week and went on a murderous shooting spree, killing 15 people including students and teachers at his former high school, before eventually turning the gun on himself.

While not explicitly blaming gaming, sources such as the AP pointed out the fact that Kretschmer loved to play Counter-Strike. This was in reports of the incident, not analysis.

Aki said the two played poker together, both in person and online, as well as a multiplayer video game called "Counter-Strike" that involves killing people to complete missions.

"He was good," Aki said.

One can see the subtle implication. After the shootings, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated she was examining the possibility of tighter gun controls as well as limits on violent video games.

Galeria Kaufhof will no longer stock films or games sold with an 18-plus rating, which is material judged inappropriate for young people. That rating is usually reserved for material such as horror films and first-person-shooter games.

Stephan Reichart, managing director at German video game developers association G.A.M.E. said:

"I think (Kaufhof's decision) is a complete overreaction ... it borders on impulsive hysteria. It would be sufficient if retailers made sure their cashiers don't sell this material to young people."

True, but that's always hard to ensure. Even tobacco and liquor sales which are supposed to be sold only to adults are not always policed correctly. Still, it does seem to be an overreaction. What do you readers think?

Playboy Posts Free, Unedited Searchable Web Archive

It's sex. It's free. What more could you want?

Admittedly, it's soft-core, but Playboy and parnter Bondi Digital Publishing have unveiled PlayboyArchive.com. It's a 53-year archive, with one issue from each year, completely digitized (including ads), viewable and searchable.

Did I mention free?

If you've managed to avoid Microsoft's Silverlight to this point, you're going to have to install it if you want to view the archive, though.

The issues cover the years 1954 through 2007, Bondi Digital Publishing, who developed the platform for The Complete New Yorker, scanned and re-typed each of the issue of Playboy.

In the press release announcing the site, Hugh Hefner, Playboy Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer (as if I had to tell you that) said:

"Playboy has an incredibly rich history and an intensely loyal readership. This is the perfect opportunity to offer them something they have always wanted and also a great way to allow a whole new generation to easily explore the magazine."

I tried the site out (well, I had to, right), and while you can't expand the pages to full screen, you can zoom in and pan around the images. You can search for specific text (like say, Bo Derek), and there's a table of contents you can click through.

It's unclear if the issues will be changed from time to time, but that would make sense. Playboy says the issues currently at the site encompass many classic issues, and they include the famous issue with the interview with Jimmy Carter.

Jailbreakers Begin Work on iPhone OS 3.0; OS is "Breakable"

With the announcement of the iPhone OS 3.0 on Tuesday came the obvious question for many: can the new OS be jailbroken?

Since developers could grab a beta version of the SDK right away, the iPhone Dev-Team jumped right on it and has already stated in a blog post that indeed the iPhone OS 3.0 can be jailbroken.

However, they warned that those using the yellowsn0w software unlock to unlock your iPhone for any carrier need to hold off on trying to update to 3.0 as that will modify the baseband radio and destroy the ability for yellowsn0w to unlock the phone.

I know of at least one person who was considering jailbreaking his iPhone prior to the iPhone OS 3.0 announcement, mostly because of missing apps. Of course, the new OS didn't add all those apps that are missing, but it filled in many gaps.

On the other hand, there are still a significant number of applications that are only available for jailbroken phones. So for those interested in access to those apps, this is great news. Of course, you can expect some period of time after the iPhone OS 3.0 launches before a successful jailbreak occurs.

New iPhone to Have Faster 3G?

A report in the Silicon Alley Insider cites a "plugged-in source in the mobile industry," and states that the next generation iPhone will have faster "Internet" access.

Rumors until now have centered on CPU and video procssing improvement.

Note that the report uses the term "Internet," not 3G or wi-fi. This leads to speculation as to what the source really meant (what, they didn't ask for clarification?).

AT&T's 4G (LTE) network won't be ready for a year or more, so that's out. It could mean 802.11n rather than the 802.11g that the current iPhone supports.

However, Electronista believes that the change could be in the 3G chipset for the iPhone, using the chipset Infineon introduced last year that supports HSPA rather than the older HSDPA hardware. This could mean download speeds as fast as 7.2Mbps while the current iPhone 3G is tops out at 3.6Mbps.

They add that AT&T has been trialling 7.2 Mbps and can make the change to its cell towers via software.

Here's my take: I prefer stability over speed. It was bad, really bad, when the iPhone 3G first came out. If this new chipset is going to lead to that sort of nightmare again, I'd rather not have it.

And hey, you would think Apple might rethink its decision to use Infineon chipsets after that last debacle.

Pic above from what is rumored to be a leaked photo of the new iPhone.

Cisco Acquires Pure Digital and Its Flip Camcorders

I've written about Pure Digital's Flip line of camcorders several times now, and I have to tell you, though I know their initial products prior to to Flip were real misses, I love this line of camcorders, and so does the public: Flip currently says it has around 20% of the camcorder market. Thus, is was with trepidation that I saw the announcement Thursday that Cisco was buying the company, for $590 million.

While it obviously means that Flip has an infusion of cash, and that employees and VCs get a big payday, it's hard to see how this consumer business fits into Cisco's plans.

Going consumer has been done by Cisco before, such as when they bought Linksys in 2003, but that made more sense, as Linksys sells home and small business networking products. In 2003 it bought Linksys and its extensive line of home and small business networking gear.

In 2005, Cisco acquired Scientific Atlanta, a leading maker of cable TV set-top boxes, which once again really didn't make all that much sense.

Or perhaps it does: the WSJ notes that Cisco seems to be aiming for a presence in your living room. If you think about some of Linksys' products, like their Media Hub, combine that with set-top boxes and the Flip, there is a connection.

Still, how many times has some giant corporation taken over some great, innovative little company, and either done little or nothing with it or totally screwed it up? I'm hoping Cisco won't do that, and that Pure Digital's Flips continue to roll, but I'm still wary (I say as I turn on my Flip Mino to record my baby daughter).

Gmail Gets an "Undo Send" Feature

How many times have you hit "Send" on an email, only to realize you goofed. More often than you want to admit, right? Outlook has a recall feature that works on Exchange ... some of the time. But basically emails sent via the Internet, once you hit "Send," they're gone. Until Gmail's "Undo Send" feature, that is.

It's another Gmail Labs feature, so to enable it you have to go into Settings, Labs, scroll down to Undo Send and enable it.

It's the same thing as sending any other email via the Internet, though. Once it's gone, it's gone. What "Undo Send" does is hold your email for 5 seconds before sending it.

During that time, if you click the "Undo Send" link, it will not only stop the email, it will roll back the email to the point you were at in composing it before you hit "Send."

Why only 5 seconds? They didn't want to add significant lag to the emailing process. You know how people complain when they don't get something "right now." Still, they are taking feedback, and will obviously tweak it as necessary.

Will it save you? I tested it and it worked. Don't try to send yourself an email to test it, though. In that case the email still showed up. Sending an email to my wife, and hitting "Undo Send" worked great, however.

This isn't the first Gmail Labs feature set to save you from yourself. Google earlier introduced Mail Goggles which would keep you from sending an email if you were too drunk or groggy to answer a math question.

iPhone 3.0 Beta OS Points to New iPhone, iPod Touch Models

Because Apple puts model information in files in its firmware, every release will be poked over with a fine-toothed comb looking for info. And a look at the iPhone OS 3.0 files shows there may be at least one, maybe two new iPhones as well as new iPod Touches coming.

The file, /System/Library/AppleUSBDevice/USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, lists details about the USB configuration of the device models, as well as the device ID and names. In iPhone OS 3.0, the following are listed:

The original iPhone (iPhone1,1), iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2), and first- and second-gen iPod touches (iPod1,1 and iPod2,1 respectively). It also lists an unknown iPhone model, iPhone2,1, which we noted in the 2.2.1 version of the OS.

New to version 3.0 beta are iPhone3,1; iPod3,1; iFPGA; and iProd0,1. Why an iPhone 3,1 and an iPhone 2,1? Perhaps the 2,1 model is simply a revamped iPhone 3G with the same form factor but upgraded CPU, video, camera, RAM, while the 3,1 model is the nano we keep hearing about? Or perhaps there will be two models, one with premium features (sigh: video recording?) and one similar to what we currently have.

I mean, I would expect at some time Apple to move to more than one iPhone model.

And what the heck is iProd0,1? Perhaps the rumored tablet, while iFPGA could mean ... just about anything, though FPGA is a chip-industry term for a "field-programmable gate array" chip.

I'm waiting for the summer release of the iPhone OS 3.0 software (and new iPhones?) with bated breath.

Sony, Google Throw Down the Gauntlet at the Kindle

Sony and Google announced on Thursday a deal whereby 500,000 public domain books from Google's book digitization project will now be available for free for the Sony Reader Digital Book PRS-505 and PRS-700 devices.

Owners of the older PRS-500 readers are out of luck, however.

While this is a nice add for the two devices, which compete head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle 2, it loses something in the translation, at least in the U.S. Why? The lack of a wireless connection for the Sony Readers.

Of course, since the Kindle and Kindle 2 use Sprint's CDMA service, that means that Sony has an opportunity in GSM-only regions, and it needs to take advantage of that while it can.

To use the service, you need to install the Sony eBook Library software. Search the library and when you find something, load it onto your device.

The Kindle is sort of the iPod of digital e-book readers. They don't use the open ePub format, they definitely don't want you to buy books from somewhere else, and they sure are dominant.

Makes you wonder what would happen if Apple jumped in and started offering an e-book reader of its own, linked to iTunes. Of course, Steve Jobs feels that books are more or less dead.

In fact, here's a jab at Amazon.com in the press release. Steve Haber, president of the Digital Reading Business Division at Sony Electronics said (emphasis mine):

"We have focused our efforts on offering an open platform and making it easy to find as much content as possible - from our store or others - whether that content is purchased, borrowed or free. Working with Google, we can offer book lovers another avenue for free books while still providing a seamless experience from our store."

Just remember, these are public domain books, so while you can find classics like "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," and "Black Beauty," don't expect anything new.

In conjunction with this announcement, Sony lowered the price of the PRS-700 to $350, while the PRS-505 is $300.

Laugh --- and Learn --- While You Cry, with Layoff: The Game

The recession and its toll can be seen every time new unemployment figures come out. And a new game by Tiltfactor's Layoff: The Game, which lets you save companies untold billions by laying off sets of workers.

Layoff: The Game is very similar to Bejeweled. You swap worker figures to create matches of 3 or more, which then clear off the board. But bankers can't be laid off. And as you layoff people, more and more bankers appear.

If you match 5 or more workers, you get a corporate takeover (in other words, more cash than normally).

To make things more humanistic, if you hover your mouse over a character, you get a brief character description. This enables you to feel what many do not when they layoff people: rather than just a number, you are laying off a person. You learn their their hopes, dreams, fears --- and what will happen if they are laid off.

Additionally, Layoff: The Game displays depressing little factoids about the financial crisis in a scrolling headline running across the lower part of the screen.

Tiltfactor describes itself as follows:

The Tiltfactor Laboratory is the first academic center to focus on critical play–a method of using games and play to investigate issues and ideas. Our mission is to research and develop software and playful art that creates rewarding, compelling, and socially-responsible interactions, with a focus on innovative game design for social change.

Here's a comment that Tiltfactor Labs posted on their front page:

"Kind of a sad game if you start reading the personal info of all the people. They become real people and it becomes hard to lay them off. Maybe I just feel this way because it hits close to home. This week is my last week at my relatively decent and moderate good paying job before I get put on a 'indefinite' layoff.

Unemployment rate is 11.6% here so that means I probably won’t be getting another job anytime soon."

No-Commitment iPhone 3G Pricing Coming, But at a High Cost

According to internal documents obtained by BGR, AT&T is set to offer no-commitment pricing for the iPhone 3G (meaning no activation, no contact) starting March 26th. While this further gives credence to the "new iPhone" rumors, it's also true those new offerings will be quite pricey.

The new no-commit pricing will be $599 for the 8GB model and $699 for the 16GB model. Only existing customers can buy, and only one device per line, though the documents say there's really no way to tell if a customer has already purchased one.

Don't think you will get away cheap; if you activate on AT&T's network you will have to add a data plan.

While that gives you the opportunity to get a device with no contract, it's not unlocked, so I don't see much of an attraction. Personally, if I were in the market, I would just hang tight until the announcement of the new phone.

Will they sell? We'll see.

NVIDIA's PhysX SDK Now Available for Wii, PS3

Just two days after announcing a similar initiative for the PlayStation 3, NVIDIA on Thursday announced that it has been approved as a third-party tools solution provider for the Wii, meaning the NVIDIA PhysX SDK is now available to registered Wii developers.

Naturally, the Nintendo Wii has way less processing power than the PS3 or the already-licensed Xbox 360, and thus is expected to leverage the technology less.

In terms of the Wii, Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA said:

"Nintendo has reshaped the home entertainment and video game market with the success of the Wii console. Adding a PhysX SDK for Wii is key to our cross-platform strategy and integral to the business model for our licensed game developers and publishers. With NVIDIA PhysX technology, developers can easily author more realistic game environments for the evolving demands of a broad class of Wii gamers."

and in terms of the PS3, he added:

"NVIDIA is proud to support PLAYSTATION 3 as an approved middleware provider. Games developed for the PLAYSTATION 3 using PhysX technology offer a more realistic and lifelike interaction between the games characters and other objects within the game. We look forward to the new games that will redefine reality for a new generation of gamers."

In 2008, NVIDIA acquired AGEIA Technologies, who developed the PhysX technology.

Google's Street View Launches in the U.K., the Netherlands

Is it time to start a pool on how long it takes for the first privacy lawsuit against Google to be filed in the U.K.? Why? Because Google's Street View has launched in 25 cities.

Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth, and provides a 360° horizontal and 290° ground level view.

Here is the list of U.K. cities covered by the new U.K. Street View service: London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Bradford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby, Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Swansea, York, Newcastle, Dundee, Southampton, Norwich and Scunthorpe.

Also launching on Thursday was a version in The Netherlands; the number of countries covered is now nine.

Street View was already in other parts of Europe (France, Italy, Spain) as well as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Google's Street View launched in 2007, and has been the source of privacy concerns and lawsuits. It's even been banned from entering some townships. It's also been banned from U.S. military bases, and been the source of both humor and angst.

But it's also been used to foil a kidnapping.

Additionally, Google will remove images from the service if requested (see that little "Report a Concern link in the embedded map above?).

So, as it continues to roll out, what do you readers think? Cool toy, useful navigation tool, or privacy risk?

Internet Explorer 8 Set to Launch

Faced with a slow, downward spiral in the market share of Internet Explorer, Microsoft will launch its latest version of the browser, Internet Explorer 8 on Thursday.

The announcement was made at the MIX09 conference in Las Vegas for Web developers and designers as well as by press release, which noted that downloads of the final version of the new browser will be available starting at 9:00 AM PDT on March 19th, in 25 languages.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft said:

"Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser — safety, speed and greater ease of use. With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match."

This version of Internet Explorer is more standards-compliant. Ironically, this breaks many sites which had been written with the vagaries of older IE versions in mind. To get around this issue, Microsoft has added a compatibility mode, which uses both a preset, updateable list of sites requiring compatibility mode as well as manual activation of the setting.

Based on that fact, it could in fact be less "easy to use," if users run into a number of incompatible sites that aren't already noted in the preloaded list.

• Accelerators. Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Users can simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, share it, or more.
  

• Web Slices. Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the Web.
  

• Visual search suggestions. The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.

• In-Private Browsing. AKA "porn mode,"this keeps you from leaving your fingerprints around the Web as you browse the Internet.

Although Microsoft has tried to downplay the relative speed deficiencies of Internet Explorer 8 vs. some of the latest versions of its competitors, such as Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, it's true that most testing has shown IE8 to be feature-rich, and performance poor, meaning it's far slower than the others.

Thing is, slower in benchmarks doesn't mean perceptibly slower. On the other hand, I love my Firefox extensions, which keep me from moving to Chrome, and I'll use Internet Explorer only when necessary.

Still, the browser will have a major advantage over other browsers: Internet Explorer is built-into the OS, and will be in Windows 7, although there is an "off-switch" in Windows 7.

This relatively new option is likely a response to the European Union, which has said that it is considering sanctioning Microsoft for bundling a Web browser into its OS, a move that it says appears to violate EU antitrust law.

Watch a video from the WSJ's Walt Mossberg about the new browser: