Apple Puts Limits on iPhone Sales
In a move aimed squarely at reining in the growing "unlocking" market, Apple last week placed new restrictions on the sales of its popular iPhone.
The company estimates about 250,000 of the 1.4 million Phones it has sold since its launch in June have been sold to people who intend to unlock the device. Apparently, the company has some concerns that these sales could hurt availability for legitimate buyers.
Hulu Adds Partners, Launches Private Beta
NBC Universal and News Corp.'s long-awaited video service finally went into private beta on Monday, as the company announced two new partners.
Hulu signed on both Sony Pictures Television and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios to offer their programming beside homegrown NBC and Fox content. The service was made to a small group of testers on Monday as well.
BitTorrent Site Promises to Bring Back OiNK
The Pirate Bay said Friday that it was working on bringing back OiNK, a BitTorrent tracker that featured music files from "hundreds of thousands" of music albums.
OiNK was taken down on October 23 by police in the Netherlands and Britain in conjunction with the IFPI and BPI, and a message on the site's front page indicates that an investigation was ongoing into the "identities and activities" of its users.
The PS2 Turns 7, New Model on Tap
Despite its struggles with the PlayStation 3, Sony's PlayStation 2 business continues to press forward, with the company celebrating its seven anniversary Friday by announcing that more than 120 million consoles have been sold worldwide.
This is combined with sales of over two billion software titles, which makes the PS2 the most popular gaming platform ever released. Despite claims that it is cannibalizing PS3 sales, Sony plans to continue development for the PS2 into the next decade.
Mozilla Looks to Bring Web Apps to Desktop
Mozilla is working on a new application called "Prism," which will help to blur the line further between applications for the web and the desktop.
Prism lets popular Web services such as GMail and others be used just like a normal desktop application, without a need to open the Web browser. Prism itself will be built on Firefox, meaning any Web technology Firefox supports could also be used within Prism.
Sony Posts Profit, Gaming Loss Widens
Sony returned to profitability in its fiscal second quarter thanks to a weaker yen and strong digital camera sales, however its gaming and TV divisions -- including the PlayStation 3 -- continued to struggle.
The Japanese electronics company posted revenues of 2.08 trillion yen, up 12.3 percent from the year ago quarter. Operating profit came in at 90.5 billion yen, up sharply from the 20.8 billion yen loss Sony posted last year due to the battery recall and PS3 launch costs.
Samsung Cancels Blu-ray Player, Delays Dual-Mode Unit
Samsung confirmed Wednesday that it was canceling one of its Blu-ray players, while delaying its dual-format model until the end of the year.
The Blu-ray-only BD-P2400 was set to debut at a price point of $649 USD. However, the device was essentially the same as the $100 cheaper BD-P1400, save for the addition of HQV video processing.
Hackers Can Tap Into Vonage Lines, Says Security Firm
A security firm disclosed Wednesday that a security hole in Vonage's VoIP system could allow an attacker to reroute and effectively hijack phone calls.
"This leaves the Vonage customer subject to spam, social engineering vulnerabilities, and scams," reads a security advisory issued yesterday by Sipera Systems, a relatively unknown VoIP security firm out of Richardson, Texas. The company said it had alerted Vonage to the problem over a month ago, however it never received a response.
Rep. Boucher Asks Comcast to Stop Blocking BitTorrent
While Congresspeople have recently been quite vocal about their opposition to file sharing services, at least one has presented a contrarian view: Fair use promoter Rep. Rick Boucher (D - Va.) said in a CNET interview that Comcast should lay off BitTorrent.
"The inability of customers to (share files) significantly diminishes their ability to utilize the Internet for one of its most important applications, which is user-to-user content." Rep. Boucher told CNET, adding that Comcast's attempts at regulating Internet traffic were a mistake.
Apple Exceeds Expectations, Mac Sales Soar
Little was surprising about Apple's quarterly numbers surrounding the iPhone, as sales met expectations and forecasts. However, Mac sales surged to record levels and the company posted far better revenue numbers than expected.
The company, known to be conservative in its forecasts, had forecasted $5.7 billion in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter. On Monday, Apple ended up posting $6.22 billion in revenue, on profits of $904 million, or about $1.01 per share.
WiMax Adopted as Global Mobile Standard
A UN telecommunications agency has approved WiMax as a global standard for mobile devices, which will pave the way for widespread adoption of the platform as a method for next-generation cellular data transfer.
What the decision does is allow WiMax to use the same frequencies that are requisitioned for the standard known as IMT-2000. That framework provides the basis for all third-generation wireless communications.
Qualcomm Scores Win in Nokia Battle
Qualcomm may not need to worry about a new ban on phones with its chips included after a judge recommended that the International Trade Commission conclude its investigation into complaints lodged by competitor Nokia.
The judge sees the investigation as unnecessary due to the fact that the two companies are now in arbitration to settle the dispute. Unless the ITC reviews the judge's decision within the next 30 days, the investigation will terminate.
Next Up to Sue Vonage? AT&T
Battered and bruised from its patent fights with Sprint and Verizon over technologies used in its VoIP service, Vonage disclosed Friday that it has also been sued by AT&T.
The lawsuit was filed October 17 in US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. AT&T says Vonage is selling products that infringe on the company's patents surrounding 'packet-based telephony.'
EU Will Examine Google-DoubleClick Merger
The European Commission's antitrust arm will use the next four weeks to pore over the specifics of the merger between Google and DoubleClick to ensure that it falls within the boundaries of the EU's strict laws regarding monopolies.
A deadline of November 13 has been set for the EC to make the decision whether or not to approve the deal or open a wider inquiry. If it chooses the latter, a final decision on the merger may be delayed until the spring of next year.
iPhone #4 Cell Phone in US in 3rd Quarter
The iPhone was the fourth highest-selling handset in the US in the third quarter, according to data compiled by research firm Strategy Analytics.
About 1.1 million handsets were sold during the quarter, roughly in line with expectations, and sales since the handset first went on sale June 29 totaled over 1.3 million. The phone is about 13 percent of AT&T's overall sales, making it the carrier's top selling device.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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