Another 100,000 Sony batteries recalled
A voluntary recall has been issued for another 100,000 Sony batteries that power notebooks from HP, Toshiba, and Dell.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall yesterday for approximately 35,150 laptops in the US and said another 65,000 were sold worldwide. The Commission said there have been 19 reports of these batteries overheating, 17 of which described overheating to the point of incineration.
Napster Mobile comes to select AT&T handsets
Today, AT&T and Napster announced that more than 13 million AT&T customers spanning 25 different model phones now have access to Napster Mobile.
Owners of six different BlackBerries, including the Curve and the controversial Bold, the AT&T Quickfire, Samsung's Access and Matrix, and many more can now enter the "AT&T Music" menu under "Shop Music," and access Napster Mobile along with eMusic Mobile. The only other U.S. cellular carrier that supports Napster Mobile is CellularONE.
EA loses $310 million, announces layoffs
Video game giant Electronic Arts released its second quarter fiscal 2009 results, and announced that as a cost-cutting measure, it will be eliminating 6% of its total workforce.
"Considering the slow down at retail we've seen in October, we are cautious in the short term," said EA's CEO John Riccitiello in a statement. Because of this, the company has cut its holiday forecast, typically the strongest quarter of the year.
AT&T revives free iPhone Wi-Fi hotspot access
UPDATE:: According to AT&T statements today, the free Wi-Fi hotspot offer is not limited to iPhone users, but also users of the BlackBerry Bold, Pearl 8120, and 8820.
AT&T today said that on November 4th, some 17,000 hotspots will be open to "select smartphones," which includes several BlackBerry models. The company has plans to offer the service to more devices in the future.
Apple quietly refreshes MobileMe
Yesterday, Apple pushed out an update to its MobileMe service, promising an overall enhancement in performance.
MobileMe, Apple's e-mail synchronization service, had an extremely problematic launch this summer, with numerous outages, rashes of lost e-mails, and cases of surreptitious installations in Vista. Many users complained that "it just doesn't work."
Intel and Asus collaborate on open source 'dream' PC hardware
Today, Intel and Asus unveiled a collaborative project which they hope will yield the first PC designed by "crowdsourcing."
WePC.com has been created to give consumers a place to discuss ideas and designs for three styles of PC that Asus will eventually build with Intel Atom, Centrino 2, and Centrino 2 Extreme processors. The three categories are: Gamer, Notebook, and Netbook.
High-definition Netflix streaming coming to Xbox 360
A highly-anticipated aspect of the "New Xbox Experience" dashboard upgrade for Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the addition of streaming Netflix content. Today, it has been revealed that the content will include some 300 high-definition titles as well.
Though Xbox Live Primetime has been delayed until next spring, the November 19 upgrade to the Xbox 360 dashboard includes a beau geste from Netflix: exclusive access to the service's streaming HD content.
Linkedin gets app platform, sticks to productivity
Linkedin, the social network for professionals, has taken a cue from Facebook and MySpace and has included its own applications platform. In keeping with the site's ethic, the launch applications are largely productivity-based.
Unlike the other popular social networks with applications platforms, Linkedin's do not include time-wasters and other such frivolities. Amazon, Google, Tripit, WordPress, Box.net, SixApart, and Huddle.net all have provided apps for Linkedin that help move the Site from personal data and resume sharing into a more project-oriented collaboration tool.
Phoenix gets embedded DVD player for HyperSpace
California's Phoenix Technologies, the company most famous for its BIOS, has announced an upgrade to its HyperSpace virtual Linux environment that will allow a system's DVD player to be accessed independently from the core OS.
Phoenix's HyperSpace is essentially an embedded Linux OS that accompanies the system firmware or BIOS that acts as an instant-on platform upon which applications can run, no matter what the status of the main operating system may be.
MTV enters the forgotten realm of music television (online)
Finally delivering in full the product which originally brought it to prominence, MTV Networks has opened MTV Music, a destination site for music videos, delivered in a fashion similar to YouTube.
MTV broke ground as the first channel dedicated strictly to airing music videos in the early '80s, and broke further ground as the first network to air reality television in the early '90s. It may be a little late to the party when it comes to social video, but the Viacom property purports to have more than 16,000 classic videos and exclusive MTV performance footage. By focusing the brand on that for which it's known best, MTV music stands to outpace YouTube in music video content.
Google Labs bundles apps into Gmail
Yesterday, Google Labs announced new experimental features that can add other Google apps into the Gmail viewer.
The three new features found under Settings > Labs add new boxes in the left navigation panel in Gmail. One is a dedicated Google Calendar gadget that shows upcoming appointments and gives alerts when a schedule event occurs. Another is a gadget dedicated to Google Docs, which makes all of your documents searchable and accessible from within Gmail.
Sony finally metes out keys to Home for PS3
Sony's PlayStation3 metaverse Home that was unveiled over a year ago is finally approaching the beta phase, and subscribers to Sony's online magazine Qore are receiving the first keys outside of private beta to test the service.
In March 2007, when Home was officially unveiled, a large-scale beta was expected to take place "in April prior to the final launch." Then, at the Tokyo Game Show six months later, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai announced the service would be delayed until spring.
Microsoft .NET Micro Framework 3.0 now available
The 3.0 version announced today enhances secure connectivity, with Wi-Fi integration, USB support, SSL and support for a FAT32-compatible file system. Both touch and gesture support has been added to user interface options.
The .NET Micro Framework is designed for embedded systems, extending the .NET platform to handheld devices and smaller. Developers working with .NET MF can utilize higher level programming languages to control resource-limited devices.
Ubuntu 8.10 officially launches Thursday
Canonical today announced that the 8.10 version of its popular Linux distribution Ubuntu will be available for free download on Thursday, October 30.
Both the desktop and server editions of Ubuntu 8.10 will be available for download on the official Web Site, and on FileForum.
