Apple uses a jailbroken iPhone in patent application

Uh oh Apple -- it looks like even your attorneys are dirty, thieving jailbreakers. Tipster a|e§ was poring through that iPhone biometric security patent application we posted earlier and noticed that the images show a jailbroken phone, complete with Installer.app, SMBPrefs, and the iWood Realize theme from the iSpazio repository. We're guessing the fine folks at Kramer, Levin Naftalis & Frankel are going to have some 'splainin to do on Monday morning -- but at least they get to run apps in the background.

Update: To those of you saying that this is in reference to one of the claims of the patent, we're not so sure -- there's no reason for Apple to use images of a jailbroken phone to make that specific point. Remember, somebody drew this picture, they didn't have to use these specific icons or this theme to illustrate Springboard variations

(Original Post: www.Engadget.com)

The Perfect MacBook Mini: Leak, Concept, or Fake, We Love It Anyway

I don't know what this is and I don't care. It may be a MacBook Mini concept. Or a crazy leak. Or just a perfect fake. Whatever it is, it's beautiful. I want one badly.


According to a 9to5 reader, this perfect rendering, photoshop, or whatever the hell it is came inside a Russian magazine. My knowledge of Russian doesn't go beyond "hey, wanna dance?", "cheers," and "you have beautiful blue eyes, let's go back to mine" so I don't have a clue about what this page is saying. If you speak the language of Dostoyevsky, drop me a line because I want to know.

Whatever they claim it is, I don't care. It just looks too good and perfect to be true—which is why I want it to be real: It's exactly as I can imagine it will be. And with the perfect, dream technical specs to boot:

• 10.4" WXGA display.
• 1280 x 768 pixel with LED backlighting.
• NVIDIA MCP79
• Intel Atom Z740 1.83GHz with 1MB L2 cache.
• 2GB DDR3-800.
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
• 64GB Solid State Drive.
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
• 1 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Mini Display Port
• Battery Li-Ion 5100mA

According to them, it will come sometime in 2009 for $899. You know, delivered to your door by ten flying Russian mail order brides, all of them virgin. Or something like that. [9to5]

(Original Post: www.Gizmodo.com)

Videos of the Week!

!&CK Shot!


Cock Shot from Invisible Engine on Vimeo.


Watchmen & WALL-E Mashup Trailer



Kill Bill in 1 Minute!

Watch Kill Bill In One Minute and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

R2D2 casemod is affordable, convincing evidence of our continued love for old sci-fi epic

We'll let you in on a little secret: we find the constant stream of Star Wars-inspired you-name-it to be a little, shall we say... played? That said, this R2D2 casemod is totally, impressively rad. Made from a grabage can, it's obviously a labor of love, and the results are insanely "real" looking -- yup, that's Artoo-Deetoo, hanging out in that guy's humble abode. This droid's got a webcam, speakers, LEDs -- all the good stuff you'd expect from a highly detailed piece of nerdery, and if you're action-oriented, you can make one of your very own for roughly $150.

Best Buy Staff Paid Bonuses to Deny Legit Guaranteed Price Matches

Best Buy, like many other stores, has a public "price matching" policy. But HD Guru reports that according to internal docs, personnel are trained to deny price-matches and even paid bonuses for shutting them down.

This all comes out of a lawsuit that was just granted class action status. Internal documents, plus depositions from past and current Best Buy employees reveal just how evil Best Buy is. A price match is when, say, Circuit City advertised a Sharp HDTV for cheaper than Best Buy, Best Buy's public policy is to match that price.

But Best Buy actually trains employees in New York how to deny legitimate price match requests, and the average Best Buy store denies 100 price matches a week. You even get paid bonuses based on how many price matches you deny!

Here's how it works, according to Phil Britton, a member of Best Buy's Competitive Strategies Group:

What is the first thing we do when a customer comes in to our humble box brandishing a competitor's ad asking for a price match? We attempt to build a case against the price match. (Trust me, I've done it too). Let's walk through the "Refused Price Match Greatest Hits:
"Not same model? Not in stock at the competitor? Do we have free widget with purchase? Is it from a warehouse club (they have membership fees, you know)? Limited Quantities? That competitor is across town? We've got financing! Is it an internet price? It's below cost!….."

If you live in NY state, and you've been screwed by Best Buy's anti-price matching, HD Guru has further info on the attorney to contact so you can take a piece out of Best Buy. What a bunch of scum.

(Original Post: www.Gizmodo.com)

Metal Gear Solid Touch Out Now!

With its intuitive multi–touch interface, Metal Gear Solid Touch is a game that can be easily picked-up and enjoyed. Based on the propounded story-line of Metal Gear Solid 4, MGS Touch, features the unique foes of MGS4, including the beautiful, but deadly members of the dreaded B&B corps. Whether you are an MGS4 fan or a new-comer to the MG series, MGS Touch is a rhythmic touch shooting game that everyone can enjoy.
Known for they high innovative game quality, Kojima Productions drops you into the middle of a war-zone filled with beautiful graphics and impactful sound effects.
Experience the satisfaction of defeating your enemies, and feel the tension of ducking for cover behind walls to avoid attacks.
Kojima Productions' trademark creative touches also shine through the number of unique functions, like shaking your console to brush off dust and debris off of your screen.
Packed with a variety of elements to enhance replayability, MGS Touch will keep you coming back for more!

iPhone 3.0 listings show four all-new iPhone, iPod touch models

Tucked within Apple's iPhone 3.0 beta firmware are hardware strings that mention not one but two unreleased iPhone models as well as similar changes in store for the iPod touch.

An exploration of device strings by the same source that correctly leaked MMS and tethering ahead of Apple's iPhone 3.0 preview event now finds that there are at least four and as many as six new devices in the pipeline that would share OS X iPhone as their foundation.

Again speaking to Boy Genius, the insider notes that the previously discovered iPhone 2,1 has been joined by iPhone 3,1 as well as iPod 2,2 and iPod 3,1. As Apple always uses the first number in these device identifiers to refer to major revisions, the naming schemes allude to a second major reworking of the iPhone in testing at Apple as well as a minor revision of the current iPod touch and a third-generation overhaul.

The original iPhone shows in these listings as iPhone 1,1, while the iPhone 3G appears as iPhone 1,2 -- a minor upgrade to an existing design. The first- and second-generation iPod touch show as 1,1 and 2,1 respectively.

What an additional iPhone revision would involve isn't clear. Despite persistent claims of a smaller and lower-cost iPhone, Apple has publicly embraced a one-size-fits-all approach and has shot down rumors when brought up by one analyst in its latest fiscal results conference call.

Potentially more intriguing are two new devices that don't fit into either the iPhone or iPod categories. One, referred to as iProd 0,1, is a complete mystery and suggests an early prototype rather than a finished device. An iFPGA device doesn't include any model revision numbers but appears to reference a field-programmable gate array, or a chip whose functions can be reprogrammed either by the user or the manufacturer after it's created.

It's unclear whether these are actual placeholders for future products, references to individual components for other devices, or else serve an entirely different purpose. However, the sudden ballooning of device string entries hints that iPhone 3.0 may be used as the foundation for a much larger platform expansion rather than a simple upgrade for Apple's existing handhelds.

(Original Post: www.Appleinsider.com)

Video of the Week!

Best Prank EVER!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

iPhone 3.0 Beta OS Walkthrough Video

(Original Post: www.Engadget.com)

50 Jokes (Yes...actually 50 jokes)

Apple previews iPhone OS 3.0, frees developers to push, map and talk to hardware

As promised, Apple just debuted its upcoming iPhone OS 3.0, and we'll be fleshing out all the details in the forthcoming minutes. Improvements include:

App and developer functionality (more here)
Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping.
Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.
Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps, and can also finally bring Apple-blessed turn-by-turn to the phone.
Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now, such as a blood pressure monitor -- or perhaps a keyboard? Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth.
Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won't run in the background.
Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.

(Engadget)

Crisis of Credit Visualized by Jonathan Jarvis

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

LiveFire Multiplayer FPS for iPhone

The Dell Adamo

(**cough** Macbook Air **cough**)

I guess if you can't innovate, you just copy.

Bluetooth Handgun Handset for iPhone: iGiveUp

Apple touch-screen netbook in Q3?

Boom: Apple netbook in Q3 -- that's the rumor being spread by the Commercial Times / DigiTimes tag-team of electronics tattlers. Apparently, Wintek will supply the touch-panels to Quanta computer who'll be tasked with assembling Apple's netbook. Take this one with a grain of salt though -- while these two Taiwan-based magazines tend to be accurate with insider info related to Taiwan-based companies like Acer and ASUS, they can often be wide of the mark with rumors related to foreign companies. Unless of course we missed the launch of the Blu-ray Xbox 360 and G5 PowerBooks.

(Original Post: www.Engadget.com)

iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, preview on March 17th

We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It's going down March 17th. Apparently, we'll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we'll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog. Apple's calling this an "advance preview of what we're building," so we're not expecting anything ready to go as of the 17th, but hopefully this will allow developers to start building toward future functionality (hey, how about some push notifications?), and presumably users won't have too many months to wait after that for the real deal.

The Beatles come to 'Rock Band,' instruments and all

Do you love the Beatles? Do you love Rock Band? Are you ready to totally lose it? If you said yes, that's good -- because MTV Games and Harmonix have just announced a partnership with Apple Corps, Ltd. to bring the band's music and instruments to the Rock Band universe. According to the PR, the game (which apparently lets you do all kinds of awesome Beatles-related rocking) will also premiere with a set of new hardware "modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career." Right now they've just got a holder page up with a launch date of September 9th, but as soon as we get our eyes on the gear, we'll let you know.

http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/

More Info at: www.Engadget.com

(Original post: www.Engadget.com)

Sixth Sense Technology May Change How We Look at the World Forever

I can't really fully describe Sixth Sense—a system that projects information over the real world, giving you information about it—or its potential in a line. Or at all. You have to, you must watch it:

(If you have the time, you can go through the whole video and Pattie Maes' explanation. If not, go to minute 3:10, where the cool demonstrations begin. There, Pranav Mistry—the MIT student who has implemented Sixth Sense—shows how it works)

Billion Dollar Batman

After months of teetering on the brink of $1 billion in worldwide box office revenue, The Dark Knight has officially reached the milestone, distributor Warner Bros. announced today. The Batman sequel is the fourth movie in history to hit the mark, behind Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Breaking the worldwide gross down, The Dark Knight has made a phenomenal $533.1 million domestically and $468 million overseas. It's the only movie in the Top 20 of the all time worldwide chart where the domestic gross exceeds the foreign gross, which is a common trait among comic book-based pictures. On the all time domestic chart, The Dark Knight ranks second to Titanic, while it stands at No. 22 on the all time foreign chart. Warner Bros. noted that The Dark Knight's total includes the highest-grossing two-dimensional re-mastered IMAX release ever at $49.6 million domestic and $15.3 million overseas.

Live iPhone musical performance

'Watchmen' tops, but below expectations

The "Watchmen" pot never boiled.

Warner Bros.' much-watched release of the epic-length actioner "Watchmen" wound up topping the domestic boxoffice with a weekend haul estimated at $55.7 million for an opening in the far lower end of pre-release projections.

Directed by Zack Snyder, there had been much speculation over whether "Watchmen" would bow higher than the helmer's ancient Greece actioner "300," which debuted with $70.9 million in March 2007. "Watchmen" had a field free from other wide openers following a high-profile courtroom battle between Warners and Fox for the right to release the cult comic-book adaptation.

Fox will share in up to 8.5% of boxoffice under terms of a court-supervised settlement. Co-financier Paramount holds foreign rights on the pic.

(Original post www.hollywoodreporter.com)

Man holds woman hostage for 10 hours... with a Sega light gun

We always thought the Sega Master System's stealth-black Light Phaser was cooler than our blaze orange NES Zapper, but we never thought it could actually mistaken for a real weapon -- it's pretty obviously plastic, after all. Yeah, we were wrong: a Brazilian man apparently held a 60-year old woman hostage at, uh, phaserpoint for 10 hours until surrendering to police. Next time? He's taking down a bank with a Super Scope.


(Original Post: www.Engadget.com)

Apple introduces compact wired keyboard with new iMacs

Accompanying updates to Apple's line of desktops Tuesday is a new compact, wired keyboard with no numeric keypad. It's included with each new iMac by default, but can be swapped out for one that does include a numeric keypad at no additional cost when ordering online.

Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad ($49)



Apple Keyboard ($49)



Apple Wireless Keyboard ($79)

Videos of the Week!

Museum Dinosaur Interacts With Kids



Microsoft Office Labs Vision 2019

The New Mac Pro

Many quad-core processors are composed of two separate dies, which means some cached data has to travel outside the processor to get from core to core. That’s an inefficient way to access information. Enter the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor. Its single-die, 64-bit architecture makes 8MB of fully shared L3 cache readily available to each of the four processor cores. The result is fast access to cache data and greater application performance. Combine that with the other technological advances and you get a Mac Pro that’s up to 1.9x faster than the previous generation.

The New iMac

Photos, movies, games, videos, and applications with palettes. Anything you see on the 20- or 24-inch glossy widescreen display will be a pixel-perfect experience. iMac features a flat-panel LCD screen with 1680-by-1050 resolution (20-inch) or 1920-by-1200 resolution (24-inch), giving you vivid colors and breathtaking high-definition clarity. And there’s nothing quite like seeing your life’s events on the big screen, thanks to the new iLife ’09 built into every iMac. Even more eye opening, the 24-inch iMac starts at just $1499.

The New Mac Mini

With a more powerful system architecture, Mac mini is faster than ever. The 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a blazingly fast 1066MHz frontside bus, and 3MB of L2 cache come standard. Which means every square inch of the 6.5-inch square runs at full force.

New machines Tuesday?

Hardmac and OneMoreThing.nl (via Macrumors) are reporting on new iMac and Mac Mini specs to be released tomorrow.
The new iMac models and their corresponding references:
- MB417: Entry level model
- MB418: "Mass market" model
- MB419: high-end model
- MB420: ultimate model
- one 20" model, three 24" models
- 20" 2 GB DDR3 memory, 24" 4 GB DDR3 memory (max 8 GB)
- 1x Display port
- Intel Core 2 Duo (not a quad core): 2.66 Ghz, 2.93 Ghz and 3.06 Ghz
For the Mac mini, the references are the following:
- MB463: entry-level model
- MB464 high-end model
- 5x USB
- 1x FireWire 800 - 1x mini DVI - 1x Display port - Nvidia chipset (like the newest MacBook)
- starting at Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz
- 1 or 2 GB DDR3 memory (max 4 GB)
- 120 GB hard disk (max 320 GB)

Exclusive First Look: 'Watchmen: Justice is Coming' iPhone MMO

This Friday, the film adaptation of Watchmen will hit the silver screen and change the way we look at comic book movies forever. As a companion to the film, Warner Bros. has partnered with Last Legion Games to bring the Watchmen experience to the palm of your hand with the new game Watchmen: Justice is Coming; the first casual MMO of its kind developed exclusively for the iPhone.



(Original Post: www.G4TV.com)