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Cheap Package Design Tricks People Into Dropping Motorola Droid On Floor
The Motorola Droid is a sweet phone, but the box it comes in is a case study in bad package design. Where every other gadget these days comes in boxes with lids, or boxes designed to be opened in a specific manner, the Droid box can easily be opened so that the brand new phone falls to the floor. More »
Smoking Near Apple Computers Creates Biohazard, Voids Warranty
Unless you've just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost. More »
Federal Judge Rules Against Scrappy Mac Clone Manufacturer Psystar
Sorry, Mac OS lovers who don't love the price tags on Apple hardware. Apple has emerged victorious in their copyright lawsuit against Mac clone manufacturer Psystar. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that Psystar is violating Apple's copyright as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by selling computers with a modified version of OS X pre-installed. More »
MacPadd Inventor Drinks With Wife, Brags About Education, Curses, But Does Not Provide Tracking Number
Some people should never go the entrepreneur route. Meet David Free, the man behind QMS, a company that sells and sometimes even ships an aluminum mousepad called the MacPadd. When the guys at TomsHardware.com started asking why theirs hadn't arrived, they discovered that Free does business his own way. Or sometimes not at all: More »
You Will Probably Never See A Blockbuster SD-Card Kiosk
Here's an idea: When your top rivals are renting dirt-cheap DVDs from ubiquitous kiosks, or streaming thousands of films as a free bonus to customers who rent mail-order rmovies, what do you do? If you're Blockbuster, you start a trial run of kiosks that will allow consumers to rent DRM-protected videos on SD cards, and play them back using a proprietary box that will do nothing else. Yeah, that'll show 'em. More »
Direct Dial AT&T Senior Tech Support
If you have an unresolved technical issue that regular AT&T Wireless customer service doesn't seem to be able to or be interested in helping you, this is the direct number for their senior tech support: More »
iPhone App Developer Sued For Stealing Users' Phone Numbers
For secretly stealing users' phone number by exploiting a backdoor iPhone vulnerability, app developer Storm8 got slapped with a class action lawsuit. More »
Chart Compares Total Cost Of Ownership For Popular Smartphones
You may think that buying an iPhone with AT&T service is an expensive commitment, and you'd be right. But as this chart from BillShrink shows, your total cost of ownership (TCO) for any of the latest smartphones is going to exceed 2 grand over a 24-month period. In fact, the highly-praised new Motorola Droid on Verizon works out to exactly the same TCO as the latest iPhone. More »
Apple Store Manager Gives iPod To Soldier Who Mangled His In Afghanistan
Remember Aaron, the Marine who wrecked his 120GB iPod Classic in Afghanistan by accidentally letting it get run over by a Humvee, then slamming it in a Humvee door? More »
Marine Declares War On iPod, Which Lives To Tell The Tale
If you thought it was impressive that an iPod could survive a nine-story fall into the Pittsburgh G20 riots, just wait until you hear about the perils that befell an iPod belonging to Aaron, a Marine deployed in Afghanistan. More »
iPod Survives Nine-Storey Plunge Into G20 Riots
While leaning out her dorm window to watch some riots — hell, what else is there to do in Pittsburgh? — Bob's daughter's iPod decided it'd had enough of this world and took a swan dive into oblivion. More »
Skype On iPhone Gets Thumbs Up From AT&T
If you've been waiting for a chance to use Skype on your iPhone over AT&T's network to save on international calls or supplement your calling plan's minutes, your day has come. After a little nudge from the FCC, the company has reversed its ban on VOIP apps on its data network, and will now let you Skype away until you run out of people to call or things to say. More »
More Ways To Buy A Non-Apple Mac OS X Computer
Since last year, a small company called Psystar has been selling Mac clones that, in some cases, are more powerful than Apple's own computers in the same price range. Now, the company has hit on another way to spread the OS X love: It will begin licensing its software to other companies that want to build and sell ersatz Macs. There are just a couple of problems that potential buyers might want to be aware of: Apple hasn't given Psystar permission to do this, and is in the process of suing the company for copyright infringement. Oh, and Psystar is also in Chapter 11. More »
Apple Bites Down On Aussie Grocer's Logo
When is a "W" not a letter? When Apple Inc. says it's a piece of fruit, that's when. The iPod-maker and self-declared ruler of all things pomaceous has decided that the stylized W adopted by Australian supermarket chain Woolworths as its logo looks a little too much like Apple's own logo, and that's reason enough to claim trademark infringement. More »
New Blackberry Desktop Manager For Mac Still Worse Than Windows Version
If you're one of the approximately three Mac users who uses a BlackBerry instead of an iPhone, today is an exciting day. BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac OS debuted this afternoon. CNET had an early copy and has checked it out for us. More »
You Paid Your Bill 3 Hours Early? Then It's 30 Days Late
John's fiancee bought an Apple computer earlier this year, financing it with a Juniper Visa account, then paying the account off early. That's the responsible thing to do, right? Not according to Juniper, which branded her as a filthy, filthy deadbeat. The bank marked the payment she sent in as "late" for arriving three hours before the end of the billing cycle. More »
Call Drop Rate For iPhones In NYC Is 30%, Says Apple Genius
Hey AT&T, maybe you should offer some sort of congestion pricing on your iPhone plans in places like New York City. We've heard/read all sorts of anecdotal reports on dropped calls before, but today Engadget reported that an Apple Genius said a 30% drop call rate is average for the area. If that's true, it seems like false advertising to charge for a full-time calling plan that you can only use about two-thirds of the time. More »
Zipcar Launches iPhone App With Magical Car Unlocking Powers
The San Fran/NY-servicing Zipcar car sharing service has finally launched their iPhone app. Besides the expected seamless reservation system, it has a pretty sweet extra feature: It turns your iPhone into a keyfob capable of locking and unlocking your car, and honking its horn. Not owning a car just got awesomer. More »
AT&T Keeps Calling To Say I Qualify For Free Upgrade From My iPhone 3GS?
AT&T has called me repeatedly over the past few weeks and months for some mysterious reason. More »
