Prankster Gets Verizon's CEO Private Address, Visits Him to Discuss Privacy

John Hargrave tracked down Verizon CEO's private address and cellphone number. Then he went to his home—megaphone in hand—to ask him to stop Verizon's lousy privacy policies. The video is quite funny and his message is clear:

When we don't have privacy, then freaks with bullhorns start showing up. Keep our phone numbers unlisted. Keep our cellphone records private. Keep us safe in your loving arms, Ivan.

So damn right. To give you an idea about how easy it was to get this information, the only thing that John did was sign up for one of those "free cell phone records" listings and scan it for the cells and home addresses of the CEOs from the big three: Randall Stephenson of AT&T, Dan Hesse of Sprint Nextel, and Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon. There were a lot of Stephensons and Hesses, but only one Ivan Seidenberg. He confirmed the information and off he went in his car, ready to deliver his message about how important privacy is by showing him exactly how these awful information keeping policies could affect us.

New LG Chocolate Shown on Video, Crazy-Long Design Confirmed

Well, there goes the rest of LG's annoyingly gradual tease campaign: the next generation LG Chocolate BL40, with a 4-inch, 800x344 (21:9!), multitouch screen has been revealed in full in a leaked promotional video.

On top of the display, we can see a few more of the rumored specs confirmed: LG's in-house Active Flash UI, Wi-Fi, 7.2mbps HSDPA, a-gps, and a 5mp camera with flash all make appearances, and we get a healthy look at the phone's software, glimpsing the onscreen keyboard, browser, Google Maps app, card-based contact system, scheduler and email app.

In terms of usability, the ultrawide screen is the obvious wildcard, but the OS will be a equally—if not more—important factor. In combination with the promise of a multitouch glass capacitive touchscreen, the simulated screen images in the video inspire confidence, exhibiting smoothness, thoughful navigation and an eye-and-finger-friendly UI in most places, although without a proper smartphone OS, the Chocolate will still be a dumbphone at heart.

As for when we'll actually find out if this thing has the wherewithal to match up with its ostentatious wackiness, all we get is a vague "coming soon," which according toprevious reports, means August—though it's not clear if that's the official unveiling—which is pretty much ruined now—or the date of actual availability.

[LG Chocolate via Engadget]

iPhone 3GS takes plunge in pool while shooting video... and lives to tell the tale

Now, we're hoping this isn't some elaborate hoax perpetrated on the kind citizens of the internet, because if it's real, it's amazing. Here's the deal: a man capturing video poolside with his iPhone 3GS somehow loses control of the device and ends up dunking the entire phone... while filming. Miraculously, he manages to fish out the handset and it's still rolling. We don't know what the lifespan was / is beyond this clip, but obviously long enough to upload the video or transfer it to a computer. Impressive stuff, though we strongly suggest you don't test this one out on your own. Check out the full video after the break.

Apple moves one million iPhone 3G S units in a weekend -- just in time for Steve's retur

Worried that Apple might not be doing so well? Concerned the company will have to start breaking open the collective piggy banks to keep the lights on? Well rest easy, friends, as the folks in Cupertino have just issued a compelling piece of PR that will surely put your mind at ease -- one stating it managed to move a million iPhone 3G S units over the weekend. That's right, in a fashion not completely dissimilar to last year's iPhone 3G launch (though with far less hiccups), bucketloads of happy buyers flooded Apple's coffers with sweet, delicious cash money for the new smartphone. The buying frenzy was apparently even exciting enough to rouse recovering CEO Steve Jobs from his convalescent state. The seemingly-now-returned honcho is quoted (for the first time in months) in the press release as saying "Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning." Winning indeed Steve... and welcome back

Apple's iPhone 3G S sports chip with 720p HD video capabilities

With Apple's new iPhone 3G S hitting store shelves in Europe overnight, the device was thrown within minutes onto the operating table and gutted, revealing a Samsung-branded system-on-a-chip (SoC) featuring a multi-format codec with untapped HD video playback and capture capabilities.

The Orange wireless boutique in Paris, France held a midnight launch of the new Apple handset, allowing the folks at Rapid Repair to be amongst the first in the world to purchase the device at roughly 6:30 p.m. Thursday Eastern time.

Wasting no time, the solutions provider took the iPhone to one of the shop's back rooms, busted out their tool kit, and began tearing the device down with the intent of comparing its internals to the iPhone 3G and identifying some of its more prominent components.

The biggest news to come out of the tear-down thus far is a positive identification of the handset's primary SoC, said to be the Samsung S5PC100, a chip that -- true to previous rumors -- is based on ARM's Cortex A8 reference design running at 600MHz. A brief check of Samsung's website, however, reveals it can run even faster.

"The S5PC100 enables the integration of various functionalities, such as, wireless communication, personal navigation, camera, portable gaming, portable music/video player, mobile TV and PDA into one device," the South Korea-based electronic maker says in a PDF published to its website. "The S5PC100 adopts a 32-bit ARM Cortex A8 RISC microprocessor and a 64/32-bit internal bus architecture, and operates up to 833MHz."

Apple appears to have chosen run the chip, which is rebranded with the following markings, below its maximum clock speed for optimal power consumption. But the additional 233MHz aren't the only capabilities of the S5PC100 that Apple has chosen to forgo in the iPhone 3G S.

Samsung 339S0073ARM K2132C2P0-50-F 0N1480911 APL0298 N1TVY0Q 0919


An Apple iPhone 3G S torn down and laid out to dry | Source: Rapid Repair.


Samsung also notes that its chip sports a high definition multi format codec enabling higher resolution multimedia functions at low power consumption. Specifically, it states that the S5PC100 "features a built-in, 720p multi format codec (MFC) video Engine which ensures smooth 30fps video encoding and playblack at low power consumption, and supports three types of TV out interface (NTSC/PAL/HDMI)."


A block diagram of the iPhone 3G S's primary SoC | Source: Samsung.



An incomplete component comparison of all three iPhone models and the Palm Pre | Source: Rapid Repair.


Apple has thus far decided not to take advantage of these HD capabilities for video recording, as the iPhone 3G S video camera will only capture clips in VGA-quality. Early reviews of handset were mixed in their assessment of the resulting video quality, with some saying it pales in comparison to that from the popular $229 Flip pocket camcorder, while others called it "quiet decent" and said the quality was "impressively smooth and natural."


An iPhone 3G S with its top case removed | Source: Rapid Repair.



The iPhone 3G S logic board (left) compared to the iPhone 3G logic board (right) | Source: Rapid Repair.



A close-up of the iPhone 3G S logic board | Source: Rapid Repair.


Some of the other components identified by the tear-down include Toshiba NAND flash RAM, an Infineon baseband controller, and a solderless, easily replaceable battery that looks very similar to the one inside the iPhone 3G. Markings on the NAND (1), baseband (2), on-board system memory (3), and battery (4) are as follows:

1) NAND Flash Memory - Toshiba TH58NVG702ELA89 IA8816 TAIWAN 09209AE
2) Infineon - 36MY1EE A9177314 Z171033
3) System Memory - 337S3754 CMA G0919 5Y930788
4) APN: 616-0434 VPN: APPLE-08-003-01(GG) Li-ion Polymer Battery: 3.7V 4.51Whr

Additional discoveries are likely to be made throughout the day and upcoming weekend, especially given that iFixit also plans to tear-down an iPhone 3G S shortly.