Now that the iTunes App Store is officially open, BetaNews has pushed aside the dozens of card games and social network companion programs to look at those apps that best take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities.
A viral video which was immensely popular not long ago featured two iPhones and a Nintendo DS creating improvised ambient music, the first "iBand." Of several apps available adding to the quiver of instruments for the budding iMusician, the most comprehensive is Band from Moocowmusic. This app offers touchable drums, piano, guitar, bass, and even applause which can be recorded, mixed and sequenced into full songs. This $9.99 app is already among the top ten most downloaded.
Today at the SINO Consumer Electronics show in Qingdao, China, a set-top box was launched by WhereverTV promising over 2,000 channels of international programming.
Content that can be watched on Wherever.tv, which consists of simulcasted regional stations and broadband-exclusive TV channels, can be watched through the WhereverTV receiver with just a high speed connection and a television.
Personal data from over two thousand clients of a Virginia investment firm was obtained through a Limewire backdoor and made available for over six months before coming to light.
It took a reader of the Washington Post's Security Fix blog to point it out last month, finally alerting Wagner Resource Group that their clients' personal data had been leaked. Of the 2,000 clients listed, about 700 entries contained a name, birth date, and Social Security number; the rest of those listed had slightly less information. Affected clients include several "high-powered lawyers," and Clinton-appointed Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
Google yesterday launched Lively -- its own version of the 3D, Avatar-based virtual world -- as an embeddable gadget. But social data barriers remain between Google and Facebook, which is granted separate but equal access to Lively rooms.
A Lively browser plug-in must first be downloaded for either Internet Explorer or Firefox, and Windows XP or Vista is required. Once running, the service asks for a Google ID or Gmail username and password to begin. From there, the user can create his own avatars and Lively Rooms (think of them as more of a series of graphically-enhanced chat windows than a cohesive metaverse.) which can then be embedded in other sites, such as Facebook.
Despite earlier complaints from EA that the FTC was being "unnecessarily broad" in its requests for more information about the merger, yesterday it announced it had complied.
The US Federal Trade Commission now has until August 21 to complete its investigation of the proposed merger between Electronic Arts and takeover candidate Take-Two Interactive, maker of Grand Theft Auto IV. In an SEC regulatory filing, EA said it would not proceed with the acquisition before that date.
German electronics and engineering company Siemens was rumored end of June to be preparing a large-scale workforce reduction. Today the company announced the precise number who will be affected.
Over 16,750 jobs will be cut worldwide, shrinking the company's workforce by about 4%. It is estimated that this will save Siemens about €600 million a year until 2010, or €1.2 billion.
A recent LA Times article is already mourning the loss of battery-powered handheld mini televisions, although the future of mobile television actually appears brighter than ever.
The Los Angeles Times' Jim Puzzanghera suggested in an article yesterday that battery-operated handheld or portable TVs will be a casualty in the transition to digital broadcast television. In an almost elegiac tone, he noted that because these little TVs have not received a similarly little battery-powered DTV converter box, they will become so much junk when the switch from analog is made next February.
Another minor privacy upgrade to Google came yesterday afternoon to Gmail, the ability to check activity in the user's mailbox.
Over the weekend, Google added the "privacy" link on its main search page, bringing it up to speed with California law, and providing users with important information regarding their search data. Now, Gmail has received a minor feature upgrade that allows users to see recent activity in their mail accounts.
Amazon.com has rolled out deferred billing as an option to customers, realizing an agreement made with Bill Me Later in the beginning of 2008.
As the largest online retailer, Amazon's stock is not limited to items that are normally purchased in one lump sum. From a 6.21 carat diamond for $384,000 to full playground apparatus for $35,000, there is demand for financing on Amazon, and an affiliated partnership currently expedites the process.
Last week, Sony pulled its PlayStation 3 firmware upgrade (v2.40) after users began to report that it "bricked" their consoles. An updated update has been made available.
First promising that a fix was coming some time "midweek," in Playstation.blog, the new firmware upgrade is reportedly available worldwide already.
Nokia's Ovi portal has added a fifth service called Files, offering subscription-based cloud storage for exchanging files between PCs and mobile devices.
Ovi launched with three services: Nokia's reborn N-Gage mobile gaming platform, Nokia maps, and a music store that is currently available in 10 countries (UK, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, France, Sweden, Spain). The service then grew with the addition of Share, the document-sharing service (still in beta) originally developed by startup Twango.
The freeware version of Antivirus software AVG 8 was released with a feature called LinkScanner at the end of May that was found to create massive amounts of fake traffic, enraging webmasters, and skewing site rankings.
Download AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0.138a1332 from FileForum now.
On Google's main page, one of the few places on the Internet where a dearth of content is beneficial, it's easy to notice when a single word changes, especially when it's one as hot as "privacy."
Where it once said "©2008 Google" at the bottom of the page, it now says "©2008 - Privacy." The change was announced on Thursday before the Independence day holiday as a word-for-word identical passage in blogs by Marissa Mayer Search Products and User Experience Vice President and Pablo Chavez, Senior Policy Council.
Released several months ago as a part of Netflix's increasing emphasis on all-digital content delivery, the Netflix set top box by Roku will soon be streaming content from other providers.
Roku's set-top box definitely hit a sweet spot with consumers, at no additional fee to Netflix Ultimate subscribers other than the $99 cost of the hardware, Roku reportedly sold out of its initial shipment of devices in just three weeks. Though the Roku box delivers sub-DVD picture quality, and only 10% of the Netflix catalog is available for streaming, its popularity appears to follow a common theme in consumer electronics: If a device is cheap enough, people will be willing to sacrifice quality.
The latest beta update to Flash Player 10 has been made available, adding performance enhancements and many community-suggested features.
Download Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta 2 for Windows from FileForum now.