iOS 4 purportedly references CDMA iPhone 4, next-gen iPad

A new report claims that the source code of iOS 4 references new hardware from Apple that is about to begin field testing, including a two revised iPhone 4 models potentially compatible with the Verizon network, and a next-generation iPad.

With a screenshot of the alleged source code to bolster their claim, Boy Genius Report reported on Monday that an "intriguing" piece of code found in iOS 4 indicates that new hardware is set to begin field testing. The source code is said to reference three products: "iPhone3,2," "iPhone3,3," and "iProd2,1."

"Our source says that the code queries the device, and if the device is either a CDMA iPhone or iPad 2, the device will auto-activate, thus bypassing the need for iTunes," the report said. "We're told this block of code has appeared every year consequently before a major iPhone / device release, removed right before launch. This allows the products to be field tested by carriers (or partners) without having to activate the handsets or devices."

Last year, a mystery device known as "iProd" began showing up in beta builds of iOS 3.1. The hardware eventually became the iPad, announced in January of 2010. The "2,1" distinction allegedly found in iOS 4 would suggest that it is actually a revised, next-generation version of the iPad in testing.

Apple always uses the first number in these device identifiers to refer to major revisions, the naming schemes allude to a second major reworking of the iPhone in testing at Apple as well as a minor revision of the current iPod touch and a third-generation overhaul. The original iPhone is seen as iPhone 1,1, while the iPhone 3G appears as iPhone 1,2 -- a minor upgrade to an existing design. The first- and second-generation iPod touch show as 1,1 and 2,1 respectively.

The two iPhone models said to be referenced in the source code carry the same "3,X" suffix, which likely means that the devices are not a complete revision from the existing iPhone 4.

Another tipster reportedly told BGR that CDMA iPhone is code-named N92AP, while the platform for the next-generation iPod touch is N81AP.

Boy Genius Report has had a respectable track record in forecasting AT&T and iPhone related announcements, but some of its Apple rumors have been less than accurate. Last year the site incorrectly indicated iTunes 9 would add Blu-ray support and said Apple would create a social media consolidation application, both times citing a "reliable" source. In January, the site also inaccurately hinted that a Verizon announcement would coincide with Apple's introduction of the iPad.

In June, the site claimed that a Verizon-compatible CDMA iPad with 4G LTE was being tested. It said that a CDMA iPhone and iPad would likely arrive "very soon." And in July, the site claimed that a cloud-based iTunes service was "definitely happening soon," but was quickly disputed by insiders contacted by CNet.

Apple's public relations also recently denied a purported email exchange between a customer and Steve Jobs that was published by the site as being "100% legitimate." The most sensationalist remarks attributed to Jobs, telling a customer to "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it," were mistakenly attributed to Jobs on accident.

Original Article.

RIM, T-Mobile Announce BlackBerry Curve 3G

The BlackBerry Torch just came out last week, but RIM has already moved on to the BlackBerry Curve 3G. The midrange Curve 3G - which will get an upgrade to the new BlackBerry 6 OS - is coming out from T-Mobile in the next few weeks, the carrier said.

The Curve 3G replaces T-Mobile's Curve 8520 with a faster 624-MHz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11n, and 3G HSDPA Internet connectivity, although it keeps the relatively low-res 2.4-inch, 320-by-240 screen and 2-megapixel camera. Interestingly, the Wi-Fi is noted for "data and voice," which means that this phone will work with T-Mobile's unheralded (but much loved) Hotspot@Home voice-over-Wi-Fi system.

There's not all that much exciting in the Curve 3G's hardware. The exciting part is that promised BlackBerry 6 upgrade, which will bring a new Web browser and lots of new media features to the phone. RIM and T-Mobile's announcement didn't give a date for the BlackBerry 6 upgrade.

T-Mobile didn't announce a price for the Curve 3G, but it will probably be pretty inexpensive; the Curve 8520 debuted at under $50 with contract. The Curve 3G's appearance also reminds us that the Torch probably doesn't have a very long exclusivity period with AT&T, as the Torch and Curve 3G complement each other quite neatly to provide low-end and high-end options from RIM.

original article.

Rumors of a Verizon iPhone get louder

Two new reports give some heft to oft-heard rumors that the iPhone may be coming to Verizon Wireless, possibly as soon as January 2011.

The first report is based on AT&T's quarterly filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, in which the company talks about reducing its dependence on "any single handset," with carrier's exclusivity arrangement with Apple in the United States due to end sometime in the near future.

The second is from a TechCrunch report which says that "sources with knowledge of this entire situation" say that Apple has submitted orders for Qualcomm CDMA chipsets "for a Verizon iPhone run due in December. This production run would likely be for a January launch."

These two items provide creedence to a Bloomberg report from last June saying that the Verizon iPhone would indeed be shipping in January.

The iPhone, which came out in 2007, runs on AT&T's GSM network; CDMA, another technology, is used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint. However, both AT&T and Verizon Wireless are moving to a fourth-generation wireless technology known as LTE in the next year, although that rollout will take a few years to complete. There could be a combination CDMA/LTE chip for the iPhone, or perhaps the CDMA chips being ordered by Apple could power another of its devices, such as the iPad tablet.

In its SEC filing, AT&T noted its need to branch out even more with its offerings — and AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega helped unveil Research In Motion's newest BlackBerry, the Torch, last week.

"We offer a large variety of handsets, including at least 18 smart phones (including Apple iPhones, our most popular models) with advanced operating systems from at least 7 manufacturers," AT&T said in the quarterly filing.

original article.

How BlackBerry developed its mobile phone and networks

The decision of the United Arab Emirates to ban BlackBerry email, messenger and web browsing services goes to the heart of the way in which the handheld devices operate – itself a consequence of the mobile market in which they were born.

When the first BlackBerry appeared, over a decade ago, mobile phone networks were far more basic than they are today. The most innovative service the majority of users had seen since mobile devices first appeared in the 1980s was the introduction of text messaging.

In the US, many mobile users were still making calls on analogue networks, while in Europe the new digital operators were only just introducing data services. But the sorts of speeds possible over networks such as Orange and Cellnet in the UK were pitiful. Speeds of 9.6Kb per second – less than 1% of the average speed available in the UK today, according to recent research – meant the networks had to resort to offering a pared-down version of the internet using Wap (Wireless application protocol) technology. Using a mobile phone to receive email, let alone access the "real" internet was almost unheard of.

By the mid-1990s, Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) was already working with partners on a messaging device that would work on a new wireless data network, which its owners hoped would be rolled out across Europe and the US. It was not much of a success – although the UK network that used this technology eventually became Turbo Dispatch, which now sends mechanics from local garages to help millions of stranded motorists every year.

As a result, RIM switched to working with the existing mobile phone companies, but to squeeze emails across their networks meant using compression technology. RIM also needed to be able to persuade jittery corporate IT departments their emails would be safe, which required encryption technology. To create such a lean and secure service required an end-to-end solution, with both the device, the BlackBerry, and the server hosting the user's email being able to understand each other. However, RIM wanted to be able to offer its devices on any mobile phone network.

As a result, it created the Network Operations Centre (Noc), which seems to have created such a headache in the Gulf. Every mobile phone operator that wants to offer BlackBerry devices has to have a connection to a Noc: – there is apparently one based in Canada to cover the Americas and one covering Europe and Asia. A company that wants to offer BlackBerrys to its employees, meanwhile, has to install software within its own IT systems that can communicate with the Noc.

When a user's inbox receives a new email, that software securely communicates with the Noc, which then connects securely to the BlackBerry over a mobile phone network to deliver the email. It uses compression technology to make sure the email can be squeezed over even the most congested network. Numerous research reports over the past year have suggested that BlackBerrys are at least five times more efficient at email and attachment viewing than any other platform.

RIM has since opened its network up to consumer email services such as Gmail and Hotmail, which together with the introduction of a range of stylish devices aimed at the consumer market has created a boom in usage of BlackBerry phones among teenagers. Opening up the RIM network to the web has also allowed internet browsing, which is also apparently faster on a BlackBerry than other devices. They are three times more efficient than other carriers, according to a recent report by Rysavy Research.

But there is another side-effect to the way that RIM's network architecture is configured and it has been seized upon by cash-strapped teenagers: BlackBerry Messenger. Because RIM knows every BlackBerry device in use, regardless of which network it is on, and they are all directly connected to its Nocs, BlackBerry users who have devices with the right software can communicate with each other without incurring the network interconnection and roaming charges associated with text messages.

Text messages and telephone calls, meanwhile, are routed solely over a mobile phone network, so neither will be affected by the UAE's decision. That also explains why when there is a problem with RIM's network – which has happened in the past – BlackBerry users can still make calls.

The first BlackBerry appeared in the late 1990s and was effectively a two-way pager. The first full email device – the 5810 – appeared in 2002.

The name, incidentally, was created by the company's brand agency, which looked at the trademark small buttons on the device's keyboard and decided they looked like the pips on a strawberry. That name, however, sounded too "slow". Blackberry sounded punchier and it stuck.
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Google will stop selling Nexus One phones in U.S.

Google's Nexus One phone, touted as a "super" phone by Google and a key iPhone competitor when it launched in January, is now history in the United States. The search giant said it will no longer sell the phone via its website once existing stock is depleted.

"Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google," the company said on its blog. "Customer support will still be available for current Nexus One customers. And Nexus One will continue to be sold by partners including Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea, and possibly others based on local market conditions."

The Nexus One got high marks from reviewers, and is considered a signature Android phone, using the operating system that Google helped create. But it has struggled to find a market. The advent of other high-profile Android phones — including those built by HTC, which makes the Nexus One — have marked stiff competition, and lessened the need for Google to sell a gold-standard phone of its own. Notable models include Motorola's Droid, Droid X and HTC Droid Incredible running on Verizon Wireless, Samsung's Galaxy S, which will appear on a variety of carriers, and the HTC Evo, which runs on Sprint's high-speed 4G wireless network.

Sales of the phone were also hurt by Google's novel and early efforts to sell the phone only via its website, with spartan customer support in the first weeks after the $529 phone became available.

"With only a small percentage of handset sales going through the Web, it was difficult for the Nexus One to gain much momentum," said Ross Rubin, NPD Group analyst. "Google may have backed into such limited distribution to avoid competing too directly with its (Android) handset partners."

Customers could order the phone to be used on T-Mobile's network, and pay $179 for it with a two-year contract. The Nexus One also runs on AT&T's network, but the carrier does not subsidize the cost of the phone, as it does with most others. Sprint, which had indicated it would run the Nexus One, later changed its mind, with the company saying it would instead concentrate on the new HTC Evo. (Verizon Wireless also quietly backed away from supporting the Nexus One.)

Then, in May, Google said it would stop selling the Nexus One on its website "once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores." That did not happen.

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.While Google has not released sales figures for the Nexus One, "it's likely in the hundreds of thousands, not millions," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and technology analysis at Interpret, LLC.

"It was an experiment in retailing that might not have succeeded, but it also redefined the standard for Android devices and that was successful," he said. "Google managed to drive hardware partners to better designs, specs and features in order to stay competitive."

The Nexus One, with its 3.7-inch touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera, "remains one of the best Android devices on the market," Gartenberg said.

The phone is the second high-profile one in a month to be abandoned by its creator. Microsoft's Kin, a social networking phone carried by Verizon Wireless, was discontinued in June after only six weeks on the market. (Msnbc.com is an NBC Universal-Microsoft joint venture.) Some attributed the failure not to the phone's sticker price but to the fact that Verizon decided to charge customers for a full smart-phone data plan, in spite of the phone's limited functionality.

Google's Nexus One announcement came Friday, the same day Apple CEO Steve Jobs held a press conference about the iPhone 4 and its antenna issue, saying iPhone 4 owners will get free bumpers to deal with the reception problem caused by how the phone is held.

"Earlier this year, we announced that we will be closing the Nexus One web store," Google said on its blog. "This week we received our last shipment of Nexus One phones. Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google ....

"To ensure our developers have access to a phone with the latest Android OS (operating system), Google will be offering the Nexus One through a partner for sale to registered developers."

© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints

original article.

Android Gets a Build-Your-Own-App App

I think the Android phones are doing great with marketing and appealing to all their customers, and i wish APPLE would open their contract to all mobile carriers so i can get an Iphone! haha but until then maybe an ANDROID phone wont be that bad. short sweet and simple article.

Got an idea for a smartphone app? If you've got an Android phone you might be able to build it yourself, thanks to App Inventor for Android, a new Google Labs program for Windows, OS X, and Linux that's designed to make building Android programs as easy as piecing blocks together.

Steve Lohr's story in the New York Times makes it sound sensational; here's a video from Google showing a lady creating her first App Inventor app:

App Inventor is in closed beta at the moment, and Google says it'll let folks in "soon" -- you can sign up here. As you'll see if you fill out the sign-up form, Google sees the program as an educational tool of particular interest to teachers and students.

It's an exciting idea that's more than slightly reminiscent of HyperCard, the brilliant visual programming tool that was a big deal on the Mac more than twenty years ago, and which is missed to this day. HyperCard or something similar would be a boon on the iPhone -- even Steve Jobs has says he thinks so, although Apple apparently doesn't have any interest in building such an application itself, and new restrictions in the iOS developer agreement prevent apps developed with the HyperCard-like RunRev from being distributed on the App Store.

(More and more, I think that the surface similarities between Android and iOS are less interesting than the fundamental differences in emphasis and philosophy -- and the more different the two OSes get, the more interesting they'll be.)

I still have a cranky-old-man rant about PCs getting boring when they stopped coming with BASIC and normal people therefore stopped learning how to write their own software. I can't wait to get my hands on App Inventor -- and to see whether it's capable of creating programs that anyone other than their inventors will want to use . .

original article.

Apple App Store Suffers Hack Attack

Apple said Tuesday that it removed a seller from its online applications store after discovering that he gamed the store's sales ranking system to make it appear as though his e-books accounted for 42 of the site's top 50 electronics books.
Apple said the hack was carried about by a developer named Thuat Nguyen.

"His apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns," Apple said in a statement.
The company did not provide details about how Nguyen managed to rig its sales data. Some observers are speculating that he merely manipulated sales figures, while others believe Nguyen may have actually gained access to App Store user accounts to make unauthorized purchases.


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Nguyen listed his Web site as "mycompany", an Internet address that reportedly leads to a domain name parking page.

Apple insisted App Store or iTunes users' information is not at risk as a result of the incident. "Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded," the company said.

Still, Apple cautioned its customers to be vigilant for suspicious transactions.

"If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about cancelling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions," Apple said.

"We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately," Apple added. Investors shrugged off news about the breach. Apple shares were up .69%, to $248.65, in midday trading Tuesday.

original article.

Reiner Says Verizon May Sell 12 Million IPhones in 2011: Video

When is the Iphone going to be Universal! i want one and i have tmobile seriously APPLE consider it.. you'll make twice as much money come one! i want an IPhone! i mean i feel like literally everyone i know has one, dont get me wrong i love my blackberry but ive had BB"s for as long as i can remember and i really want an iPhone.

Yair Reiner, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., and James Ratcliffe, an analyst with Barclays Capital, discuss the outlook for Apple Inc. iPhone sales by Verizon Wireless when the carrier begins selling the device next January.

AT&T has had exclusive claim on the smartphone in the U.S. since it was introduced in 2007. They speak with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg


original article.

Hands on with iOS 4 folders

It seems like everyone i know has an Iphone, and i seem to be the only one with a blackberry these days lol but either way i still love the iphones i just don't have the right company and actually i think when my contract is up i will be going to at &, anyways its neat that you can update the software on your phone but still keep the same phone. i lovee that idea.

When the iPhone first debuted, all its apps could fit on a single Home screen. But it didn’t take long—especially once the App Store opened up shop—for even the most novice of iPhone users to require multiple screens. And once you started downloading new apps regularly, as many iPhone owners have done over the past couple years, you ended up with screen after screen after screen of apps to swipe through, with more than a few users exhausting the 180 visible slots. (Or, to put it another way, filling up 11 pages of 16 spaces, plus four in the dock).

iOS 4
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The result was a cry—OK, maybe it was just a gentle plea from most people, but it was a cry from us app-hoarders—for a better way to access and manage apps. Rob Griffiths put this wish into specific terms back in 2008, asking for Home-screen folders. With iOS 4, we get just such a feature, even if it’s been much slower in coming than some of us might have hoped.

Folders in a nutshell
A folder in iOS 4 is a group of apps you access by tapping a single icon on your iPhone’s Home screen. When you tap a folder—which sports an icon that includes miniature versions of the icons of the apps inside, along with a name intended to describe the folder’s contents (more on that in a moment)—the dock fades and slides down, and the main Home-screen area fades and slides up to make room for a view of the folder’s contents. This view shows the name and full-size icon of each app. Tap on any app to launch it, or tap anywhere outside the folder area to close the folder and return to the Home screen.



A new install—not an update—of iOS 4 includes a folder containing a few of Apple's apps.
If you’re using an iPhone 4, or if you’ve restored an older iPhone or iPod touch to iOS 4, you’ll see a stock folder named Utilities that includes Apple’s Clock, Calculator, Compass, Voice Memos, and Notes apps. If you’ve updated an iPhone or iPod touch to iOS 4 from an older version of the iPhone OS, you won’t have any folders until you create one yourself.

A folder can contain up to 12 apps. When you consider the 180 icon spaces on the iPhone’s 11 visible Home screens—yes, you can even place folders in the dock—iOS 4’s folders feature lets you view up to 2,160 apps! You can still install more than that number, but, as before, those that don’t fit on the 11 visible screens will be accessible only via Spotlight search. (No, you can’t place a folder inside another folder to gain more visible slots. If you feel the need to install more than 2,160 apps on your iPhone, you may have bigger problems than accessing apps.)

While iOS 4’s folder icons, which squeeze up to nine tiny app icons in the space of a standard-size icon, may seem less than useful at first, I found that, even on an iPhone 3G or 3GS, the mini icons are surprisingly identifiable, especially for apps with icons that are already familiar to me. I suspect this will be even more true on the iPhone 4’s higher-resolution display when that phone arrives later this week.

I also like how Apple has handled status badges, those little white-on-red numbers attached to the corner of an app's icon that indicate, say, the number of unread messages in Mail or new articles in your RSS reader. If a folder contains one or more apps with a status badge, the folder gains a badge displaying the sum of those badges. In other words, if you've got 12 unread e-mail messages in Mail, 37 new articles in Reeder, and three new notifications in Boxcar, a folder containing those apps will sport a badge displaying 52.

Creating and editing folders
So how do you create a folder? First, enter iPhone’s standard Home-screen-editing mode by tapping and holding any app icon until app icons begin to shake and you see the delete (x) button in the upper-left corner of non-stock apps. Then drag one of the apps you want to include in your folder onto any other app you want to include. The Home screen will fade and you’ll see a folder display—still in editing mode—containing both apps.

You’ll also see a folder-name field. This field is automatically filled based on the App Store category of one of the first two apps in the folder. If you’d rather use a different name, just tap in the name field (while still in edit mode) and then edit the name. When you’re done, press the Home button to exit edit mode.

To add another app to the folder, enter editing mode again and then drag the desired app onto the folder icon. Repeat until you’ve added all the apps you want—up to 12, remember—and then press the Home button to finish editing. Note that if you drag an app onto a folder and hold it there for a couple seconds, the folder will open, still in edit mode, letting you place the new app exactly where you want it within the folder.



Editing a folder's contents and name on the iPhone
To edit a folder itself—its name, its contents, or the layout of the apps inside—you can either enter editing mode normally and then tap the folder to edit it, or, if the folder is already open, just tap-and-hold any icon inside. You can then tap the folder name to edit it, drag app icons around within the folder to rearrange them, drag an app out of the folder (and onto the surrounding Home screen) to remove the app from the folder, or tap an app’s delete button to completely delete the app from the iPhone.

Unlike apps, a folder doesn’t have a delete button. To delete a folder altogether, you must remove all the apps from it. Once you drag the last remaining app from a folder—or delete that app outright—the folder simply disappears.

Overall, folders are easy to use, create, and edit and are a welcome addition to the iPhone. However, they do need some fine tuning that I expect will happen in future iOS 4 updates. For example, when trying to rearrange app icons on your Home screens, it’s too easy to accidentally create a new app folder, or to add an app to an existing folder, when all you really want to do is to position an app between two items.

Taking advantage of folders
Although one benefit of folders is that promiscuous downloaders can now see more than 180 apps at a time, even casual app users can reap rewards from this new feature. For example, you can now group similar apps in ways other than screens—the more obsessive-compulsive among us no longer must agonize over which combination of 16 apps best fills a particular home screen. Instead, you can place, say, all your transit and transportation apps in one folder, your travel guides in another, and your food apps in a third—and use up only three spots on a Home screen in the process.



Finally, a way to hide the stock iPhone apps you rarely use
This example also illustrates another folder advantage: condensing your most frequently used apps into just one or two screens. Instead of having to swipe across five or six (or more) Home screens, accessing your favorite apps is now a matter of locating the appropriate folder on just one or two screens and then launching the desired app. Since I started using folders extensively, I’ve found that, whereas I used to regularly access nearly every one of my iPhone’s 11 visible screens, I’m now using mainly the first few.

And, of course, folders provide an alternative to one of the most requested—but still missing—iPhone features: the ability to delete the stock apps you never use. I don’t see Apple providing such a feature any time soon, but you can now stick all those unused stock apps into a folder and put that folder in the boondocks of your iPhone’s Home screens.

Managing folders in iTunes
The capability to create and edit folders isn’t limited to iOS 4 itself. Just as you’ve long been able to manage your installed apps when you sync with iTunes on your computer, the newly released iTunes 9.2 lets you organize your iOS 4 apps and folders using your mouse and keyboard.

When your iPhone or iPod touch is connected to your computer, the Apps view in iTunes 9.2 looks and functions much as it did before, letting you choose which apps to sync to your iPhone, as well as decide how synced apps are organized on and between screens. But drag an app onto another app, and after a slight delay, a folder is created—just as if you’d performed the same action on the iPhone. You get the same editable folder name, and you can rearrange icons within the folder. The main difference is that, of course, you can use iTunes to manage folders only when your iPhone or iPod touch is connected to your computer. On the other hand, you don't need to click-hold to enter the jiggling-icon editing mode; you just click and drag at any time. Similarly, to edit an existing folder, you just double-click it. And my favorite advantage to performing this task in iTunes is that you can Command-click several apps and drag them onto another app or onto an existing folder all at once.



You can also create and edit app folders in iTunes 9.2.
Oddly, creating and editing folders in iTunes suffers from the opposite challenges of performing those tasks on an iPhone or iPod touch itself: Instead of too easily creating or adding to folders when you’re trying to simply rearrange apps on the screen, I find that iTunes’ Apps view too often moves app and folder icons out of the way when I’m trying to create or add to folders. Somewhere in between the sensitivity of on-iPhone and in-iTunes Home screen editing would be just about perfect.

And I did experience one issue where, after creating a number of folders in iTunes, and then syncing my iPhone with iTunes, all the folders disappeared and my apps were rearranged (on the phone) in alphabetical order—an incident that required quite a bit of time and effort to recover from. Thankfully, this didn’t happen again.

Next up, fixing iTunes
The capability to organize apps into folders is a great new feature that’s been a long time coming. It’s sure to be a favorite among those who, like me, have far too many apps. It doesn’t solve all the issues with managing your apps, especially within iTunes, but it's a big step up from swipe, swipe, swipe

original article.

Radio Shack to Sell Apple iPhone 4 with Sweetened Deal

The Apple iPhone 4 will go on sale at Radio Shack, as well Wal-Mart, Best Buy, AT&T and Apple online and retail stores beginning June 24. Radio Shack will also begin taking pre-orders June 15 and allow customers to trade in older electronics toward their iPhone 4 purchase.


Apple has added Radio Shack to its small cadre of retail partners who will begin offering the iPhone 4 June 24.

Following Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ June 7 introduction of the iPhone 4, Apple announced that newest smartphone will begin selling in Apple and AT&T retail and online stores, as well as at Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. For those wanting to assure they have an iPhone 4 in hand June 24, Apple’s Online Store will begin accepting order reservations in the United States, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom on June 15.

AT&T and Wal-Mart will also begin taking pre-orders June 15, and as of June 14, Radio Shack had also gotten in the action. According to PC World, a Radio Shack in Boston will begin taking pre-orders at 7 a.m. — making it a good bet for getting on the list.

On June 24, Radio Shack will additionally be sweetening its iPhone deal with a device turn-in program. Consumers purchasing an Apple iPhone 4 can bring in older electronics and put the devices’ estimated values toward an iPhone 4 purchase.

At a Brooklyn-area Radio Shack, a sales representative named Shaquana told eWEEK that only some electronics trade-ins will be allowed in-store, and others will have to be arranged online. Devices that one can safely trade-in at the store, she said, include “phones and game consoles, chargers, old cameras and camcorders.”

While the iPhone 4 will retail for $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model, at Apple and AT&T online and retail stores, AT&T announced June 7 that it will be offering its “best pricing” to current iPhone customers who are eligible for an upgrade anytime in 2010.

“Individual iPhone voice and data plans now start at just $54.99 per month (was previously $69.99) and FamilyTalk voice and data plans with two iPhones start at just $89.99 per month (was $119.99). Our data plans all include unlimited usage at more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the U.S.,” Bridges told eWEEK in an email.

The exact language for upgrades, she added, is: “Any existing iPhone customer eligible for an upgrade between [June 7] and the end of this year will be eligible for our best pricing for iPhone 4, $199 and $299, with a two year term commitment.”

The difference, she added, “is that what’s important is iPhone customers’ current upgrade date…not when their contract expires. That’s better for customers, since many customers are upgrade-eligible well before their contract expires.”

To check upgrade eligibility, iPhone owners can dial *639# or visit www.att.com/iphone.

On June 24, Apple will also begin offering its 8GB iPhone 3GS for $99, and AT&T will offer the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3GS for $159 and $199, respectively — with a two-year commitment plus voice and data plans.

original article.

WOW... see the Internet has weird ways of impacting your life.. i can semi relate to this story and its not because i was kidnapped or anything but i haven't spoken or seen my mom in like 13 years and then maybe about 2 yrs she found me on myspace and i had the same response.. i was content with my life and i know now that the father has been arrested its going to be even harder for the children to build a relationship with their mother.. read on to find out more about the article.


A San Bernardino mother whose children were kidnapped 15 years ago was able to finally track them down using Facebook.

San Bernardino’s Deputy District Attorney says it’s the first time his office has handled a case like this one. But in this digital age, it may not be the last.

Faustino Utrera, father of two toddlers, a boy and girl, vanished with them in 1995. Their mother reported them missing and 15 years passed. "At the time, they were 2 and 3 years old. So they’re now 17 and 16," said Kurt Rowley, San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney.

But in those years, the Internet exploded and social networking sites revolutionized the process of tracking people down.

"The mother got on to Facebook and typed in one of the children’s names and hit a Facebook page," said Rowley.

It was her daughter, and they started corresponding. The mother even sent the teenager a family photo, dating back to before the split. But the relationship stalled. "The teenager said, 'Not interested in a relationship. We just have a happy life. Leave us alone,'" said Rowley.

The teen’s Facebook page disappeared. The mother, who still lives in San Bernardino, contacted Rowley and his investigators. They tracked the Facebook profile and the girl to Orlando, Fla.

Utrera was then arrested and is now charged with two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of violating child custody orders.

As for the mother and her children, they will have to build a new relationship.

"There is no relationship there," said Carrie Hoeppner of the Florida Department of Children & Families. "You don't have that immediate joyful reunification. If in fact that is what will progress, it will take time. These children will have to build a relationship, and that is something that will not happen overnight."


original article.

Intel to Sell Version of Atom for Tablet Computers (Update2)

(Adds closing share price in the final paragraph.)

By Ian King

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, is producing a version of its Atom processor for tablet computers, trying to head off gains by mobile-phone chipmakers.

Intel will begin supplying the chips, which use half the power of other models, in early 2011, the Santa Clara, California-based company said. The new version of Atom, the most common processor in scaled-down notebook computers, or netbooks, is called Oak Trail.

Apple Inc.’s iPad, which went on sale in April, has stoked interest in touch-screen tablet computers, a category that had declined to less than 2 percent of overall PC sales. The iPad and other similar devices announced by Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. are based on chips more commonly found in mobile phones, using technology from ARM Holdings Plc.

“We’re very excited about the tablet segment,” Matthew Parker, a general manager of the company’s Atom division, said in a telephone interview. “We see it as an opportunity for Intel to extend its business.”

Oak Trail will support multiple operating systems including Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7, Intel’s own Meego and Google Inc.’s Android. It will have components that let it handle high- definition video and connect with large displays.

Separately, Intel will introduce an update of Atom for netbooks that contains two processors built into one piece of silicon. So-called multiple-core chips are better at running software programs simultaneously. The company will showcase a version of the chip that has been adapted to fit into netbooks as narrow as 14 millimeters, Parker said.

Intel will give more details of the new products in speeches at the Computex show in Taipei this week.

The company’s shares fell 24 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $21.18 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They have gained 3.8 percent this year.

--Editors: Elizabeth Wollman, Margot Slade

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Julie Alnwick at jalnwick@bloomberg.net

original article.

Study shows why overhearing cell phone calls bugs us so much

Study shows why overhearing cell phone calls bugs us so much

A new study to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science purports to reveal just why overhearing cell phones calls, on the bus, on the subway, or wherever, apparently bother us so much.

The study, by Cornell University, suggests it's not because, as many have noted, many people on cell phones shout into their handsets as their is no sidetone. Rather, the study suggests that human brains simply don't like one-sided conversations.

The study tested 41 college students to see how their results on a series of cognitive tests on a computer were affected by either silence, a monologue, a conversation between two people, and half a conversation (called a "halfalogue," such as overhearing a cell phone call). It was the "halfalogue" which lowered participants' scores on the tests.

The study showed that a one-sided conversation draws more attention and drains concentration from listeners. Researchers believe that we are unable to tune out a "halfalogue" because unlike a monologue to a two-sided conversation, listeners try to make sense out of the half they hear and predict what speakers will say next.

Lauren Emberson is a co-author of the study, along with Michael Goldstein. "When you hear half of a conversation, you get less information and you can't predict as well," she said. "It requires more attention."

The researchers noted that while talking on a cell phone is already known to distract drivers, listening to a passenger's cell phone conversation may also be distraction. Further study should be done, they indicated.

original article.

Facebook Fight Calls For Flight

Just as smokers are advised to select and work towards a quit date, the Web site QuitFacebookDay is encouraging frustrated Facebook users to cut the chord with the powerful social networking site on May 31.
Founded by technologist Joseph Dee and systems designer Matthew Milan, QuitFacebookDay is asking prospective ex-account-holders to sign their email or Twitter ID to a pledge list. Monday morning, there were 2,635 "committed Facebook quitters," according to the website, up about 70% from the May 15 count of 780.

For a lot of people, quitting Facebook revolves around privacy. This is a legitimate concern, but we also think the privacy issue is just the symptom of a larger set of issues," wrote Milan and Dee. "The cumulative effects of what Facebook does now will not play out well in the future, and we care deeply about the future of the web as an open, safe and human place. We just can't see Facebook's current direction being aligned with any positive future for the web, so we're leaving."
Dee and Milan are not alone in their efforts to organize a mass Facebook exodus. The "Quit Facebook Day" page on Facebook is liked by more than 1,500 people -- or less than 0.00375% of the site's more than 400 million users.

Numerous technologies including deduplication may have a role to play in managing burgeoning corporate storage requirements

Guide To Making The Right Data Deduplication Decisions

FacebookProtest.com -- which as 1,212 followers on Twitter -- plans a June 6 boycott of the Web site. "Be sure to log out of Facebook in all of your browsers no later than the evening of June 5th. On the 6th, be sure to not use Facebook connect or click any “Like” buttons: basically refrain from all Facebook related activity," the site said.

Facebook recently added two privacy tools, but account deactivations are gaining attention.

Some well-known industry names have made much-publicized cuts to their Facebook ties. Google's webspam chief Matt Cutts deactivated his Facebook ties on April 22, according to comments he made on Twitter. Peter Rojas, Gizmodo and Engadget founder also tweeted about his decision to cut his Facebook ties.

Changes to Facebook's privacy policies are spurring concerns about the site. In the last five years, Facebook's privacy policy has grown from about 1,000 words to today's 5,830 words, according to the New York Times.

The site's complementary FAQ is 45,000 words. It is now longer than the U.S. Constitution, the Huffington Post found. In fact, there are 4543 words in the original, unamended Constitution, including the signatures. The Declaration has 1458 words.

original article.

Followers vanish as Twitter squashes bug

Glitch allowed users to ‘force’ other users to follow
By Helen A.S. Popkin
updated 47 minutes ago
The Twitpocolypse is upon us! Earlier today, as the microblogging site attempted to fix an embarrassing bug, follower lists suddenly disappeared. As the Twitterverse panicked and "Follower 0" rose to the top of it's trending list, Twitter assured its users via the company's own Twitter feed that the issue would be rapidly remedied.

“Follow count display is set to 0 and follow/unfollow is temporarily offline while we fix a bug,” Twitter’s own Twitter account reported at 1:02 p.m., confirming that everyone, from Ashton Kutcher to Justin Bieber bloggers, was affected.

Earlier Monday, the microblogging network was beset by a bug that allowed anyone to force other Twitter users to follow his or her account. Social network news site Mashable reported that one alert reader e-mailed the details of the glitch Monday morning, writing “[tweet] accept [username]” then the [username] immediately starts following you.”

original article.

Facebook's new features raise privacy concerns

Those are three examples of how Facebook is moving quickly to make the Internet one big personalized social network, setting up the Palo Alto firm as the default communications platform for what some observers are already calling Web 3.0.

The possibilities are exciting to marketers and Web site operators - and alarming to digital privacy advocates.

"Facebook wants to be the center of the social Web," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst for the research firm eMarketer Inc. Whether the company succeeds, "we're going to have to wait and see," she said. "The biggest question to me is whether consumers and companies are going to want to cede the social Web to Facebook. And maybe some privacy concerns will come out that we haven't even thought about yet."

Last week at its developers conference in San Francisco, Facebook Inc. introduced an ambitious plan to export the Facebook experience to all Web sites, using "social plug-ins" like a new "Like" button to link news stories, restaurant reviews, movie data, product information and other content to a Facebook user's network.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision of linking the "social graphs" of the more than 400 million Facebook users to the rest of the Internet, creating an efficient, interconnected Web of social interactions.

Companies jump in
Numerous companies are already on board with the plan, including Yelp, CNN, the New York Times, IMDb, Time Inc., Fandango, the National Hockey League, USA Networks, Levi Strauss, Univision and ABC-TV.

They hope that tapping into a beehive of social activity yields a wealth of customer data that leads to more product sales or advertising opportunities. And combined with Facebook's growing reach into the Web, "marketers realized they needed to fish where the fish are," Willamson said.

Job searches
For job search firm Simply Hired Inc., integrating Facebook into its Web site with just a few lines of computer code will provide useful tools for job seekers, said Dion Lim, the Mountain View firm's president and chief operating officer.

original article.

RIM unveils rejigged BlackBerry models

TORONTO/VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Research in Motion is launching variations of two existing BlackBerry smartphones, the company said on Monday, and its co-chief executive hinted that much-anticipated announcements on a new operating system and browser are also on the way.

Technology | Media

But its stock fell as the news fell short of what many investors were hoping the company would announce to counter growing competition from rivals like Apple Inc and Motorola Inc, especially in the consumer market.

"RIM does not have a competing product for the retail space and that is very, very negative for anyone who's buying the stock today," said Barry Schwartz, vice-president and portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.

RIM unveiled the new versions of both devices on the eve of its annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium, a three-day event that officially runs from April 27-29 in Orlando, Florida.

A CDMA version of the high-end BlackBerry Bold device will ship in May to both Verizon and Sprint Nextel - two of North America's largest wireless carriers that run CDMA networks, the company said in a statement. The BlackBerry Bold is already available to carriers that operate GSM networks.

GSM and CDMA are the two main types of mobile technology used by wireless carriers across the world. CDMA lost the battle for global dominance but it still has a strong position in some markets.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is also taking the wraps off a new 3G version of the Pearl, which is the smallest of its range of BlackBerry devices. The new GSM device will allow for faster data downloads on newer 3G networks.

But the market was hoping for early news about an improved BlackBerry operating system and browser for navigating the Internet, which even devout fans say is not as easy to use as Apple's iPhone and Motorola's Droid.

Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie hinted that fellow co-CEO Mike Lazaridis could reveal more details in a presentation later on Monday as well as throughout the WES trade show.

"You are going to hear a lot about our web strategy this week," Balsillie said in the opening address at the event.

"I won't steal any of Mike's thunder," he said.

Analysts hope the software improvements will allow RIM to compete more effectively against the iPhone, Droid and a slew of other smartphone devices that have been nibbling away at RIM's market share.

A growing number of analysts argue that rival smartphones could keep taking market share from the BlackBerry, especially in North America, unless RIM delivers an improved operating system and browser.

Balsillie took a more optimistic view of the BlackBerry's outlook. "I think the North American market will continue to grow, and grow quickly for us," he said.

Consumer-friendly enhancements, such as more powerful in-phone cameras and an easier-to-navigate display, are also in the offing, he said.

"You are going to see very powerful extensions on our part. I don't think you have to be too patient either," he said.

RIM's apps store, which analysts say falls far short of Apple's applications' offering, is growing fast with downloads doubling in last 120 days, he said.

RIM on Monday also announced an upgraded version of its mobile voice system (MVS) technology, which allows for the seamless integration of a customer's office landline and BlackBerry device. The technology currently allows the two devices to work as one and a user can route all outgoing calls through his office landline device.

The latest upgrade to the MVS technology will allow users to make and receive phone calls from their BlackBerry devices over a Wi-Fi connection.

RIM's stock fell as much as 2.9 percent to C$68.50 on the Toronto Stock Exchange early on Monday. By late morning, the stock was off its lows at C$69.33, down C$1.23 or 1.7 percent.

On Nasdaq, it was down 1.8 percent at $69.37

original article.

Facebook's 'Like' Button: What We Know So Far

For Facebook's next act, the social networking site will break free of its domain and let you "like" things all over the Web, according to two news reports.

The New York Times and the Financial Times tell a similar story based on unnamed sources: Facebook wants to expand beyond its core site with a "like" button that Web developers can embed in their pages. Yes, it's yet another media sharing tool in the style of Digg and Reddit -- it just happens to be aligned with the second-biggest Web site in the United States.

A Digg Killer?
A lot of sites already use a "share" button to connect with Facebook, letting users post links to their news feed, but a "like" button seems more in line with the simple interaction offered by Digg. In other words, your commitment starts and ends with a simple thumbs up. It also could allow interaction with non-editorial sites, as the New York Times suggests Yelp could use the "like" feature to show users how many of their friends enjoyed a restaurant or business.

That said, we don't yet know exactly how the concept will work. Does liking a page automatically create a news item for your Facebook friends, or is there some other way for Facebook to determine which liked stories get shared?

The rise of Twitter and Facebook have hurt Digg's popularity, but part of the site's allure is its anonymity, and sharing among random strangers. Facebook is all about interacting with your friends. Still, the sheer volume of people using Facebook could quickly cement the "like" button as the premiere way to share Web content.

Privacy Issues, Of Course
It seems like any time Facebook does anything, privacy is part of the discussion. That's likely to be the case here, as some marketers tell the Financial Times that they'll use "like" information to target ads at users. Analysts tell the New York Times that privacy concerns are possible as shares more details about users with external Web sites, though that seems like a more general issue than a specific flaw in the "like" service.

Facebook denies that it will use the service to track users across the Web, saying that it bases ads only on information users fill out in their profiles. "We have no announcements or changes planned to our ad offering and policies," a Facebook representative told the Financial Times.

More "Like" in More Places
Back on Facebook.com, "like" will be implemented in advertisements, replacing the "become a fan" functionality for brands, says the Financial Times. It's not clear what this means for the messages and news postings you get in exchange for brand fandom. Again, liking something seems more casual than becoming a fan, so I'm a bit skeptical that one feature is completely replacing the other. We'll see what happens at F8, Facebook's conference on Wednesday where it's expected to announce the new features.

original article.

Apple iPhone 4G Arrival Won’t Create as Much Buzz as the iPad?

morning!!
well ive been wanting an iphone for forever! and i don't have at&t soo.. i have to Wait for them to come out with one for my phone company. anyways the 4g is out but i agree with the article I'm sure the ipad will get more buzz.

The iPad arrival already sent shock waves across the globe jolting other tablet manufacturers who were hoping to cash in on the iPad failure. The Apple tablet created a rage at Apple stores but the big question is-will the next generation iPhone 4G be able to create the same magic? There have been times when people talk about Apple products being purely applications centric and that is eventually the reason they succeed, given the hefty app count.



But, what people also find adoring about all Apple products is that they are feature rich and these features give the users the opportunity to eventually use those applications
. Therefore, Apple products do well because of the apps and the features they offer.

This is where the next product from Cupertino could be a problem. The world will already know that this iPhone has 4G merely in the name and it is not going to support 4G speeds. The apps are sure there to help but then, this iPhone will require those ‘features’ the most.

The only thing we know about (hopefully) is that the iPhone 4G will come with a front-facing camera and nothing more. Most of the touted features will be improvements over the current generation models. Novelty is the only thing that will save Apple the blushes as Cupertino isn’t accustomed to failure in the recent history.

The iPhone 4G is seemingly more of a face-lift than a feature-lift and if Apple is conscious about the fall of the iPhone regime, it has to shock us with a real stunner of a smartphone.

original article.

Rumor: Verizon Nexus One To Be $20 More Expensive Than T-Mobile?

Rumor: Verizon Nexus One To Be $20 More Expensive Than T-Mobile?
April 4, 2010

Dear Friends,

Rumor: Verizon Nexus One To Be $20 More Expensive Than T-Mobile?

No one knows when Google's in-house-developed phone, the Nexus One, will be available on any carrier other than T-Mobile, but apparently the price may vary with the network.

The Nexus One launched earlier this year at the affordable price of $180 (with a new or renewed T-Mobile contract). It is widely considered to be the premiere Android phone because this one, unlike all the others on the market, was actually developed by Google, allowing them to tailor every centimeter of the device to its own operating system.

As such, Google wants it available to everyone, not just people who happen to be T-Mobile customers. Because AT&T runs on the same kind of service as T-Mobile (GSM), there is already a Nexus One model that works with AT&T.

For the other major carriers, Sprint and Verizon, Google is making headway. It's expected that Verizon will be the first to bring CDMA service to the Nexus One, but it may come at a higher cost.

According to Brighthand.com, a teaser for Verizon's version of the phone was on Google's Web site with a note that read "$200," but that has since been removed.

Verizon, which has a larger 3G coverage area than any other carrier, currently offers the Droid as its flagship Android-equipped smartphone.

Nexus One sales haven't been anything spectacular since it launched in January, due in large part to the fact that Google is not offering it in any brick-and-mortar location. Users can only buy it online at Google.com/phone

Posted on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:00:46 CDT |
by Mark Raby

original article.
category: DVD Television On DVD
Featured Product on Bayho:Sex And The City Essentials: Romance

Total folly? Opera submits Mini browser for iPhone approval

well apparently opera has or is creating a browser for iphone.haha i basically repeated the first sentence f the article. but the Truth is i only skimmed through it. so read on.

Total folly? Opera submits Mini browser for iPhone approval
We admit it: when we first heard that Opera was creating a browser for iPhone, we wondered if the browser company was bluffing to prove a point, namely, to pressure Apple into accepting a browser to compete with Safari. Yet Opera followed through on Tuesday, submitting Opera Mini 5 to the iPhone App Store. Before Opera submitted, we got a chance to play with the final version of Opera Mini on one of Opera's iPhones.



No lie: Opera Mini 5 running on the iPhone.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
Opera Mini 5 running on an iPhone looks and behaves almost identically to Opera Mini 5 on other mobile browsers, like Java and BlackBerry. The one major exception is the addition of session restore for iPhone, which will reload browsers from the previous session if you need to close and restart the browser. This is an important feature for a platform that runs only one third-party application at a time. Page caching was also notable on the demo version of Opera Mini for iPhone. Pressing the back arrow quickly surfaced the previous page without reloading it from scratch.

As interesting as these details might be, the real elephant in the room--the question perhaps being asked by those who follow Apple's submissions and rejections--is why Opera would go to lengths to submit a browser that has a high chance of never making it into the app store. Apple isn't known for approving browsers that aren't based on Webkit, which Opera Mini absolutely is not. Like many other iPhone apps, Opera wrote the back end of Mini using the Objective C programming language, Opera's founder and former CEO Jon von Tetzchner told CNET, and developed the front end "in our own little language."

Von Tetzchner has high hopes that Apple will accept Opera Mini, citing the browser's merits of speed, high compression rates that lead to rapid loading, and bookmark-syncing. What's more, he said, users should have plenty of choice when it comes to browsers, especially if Opera Mini is in high demand. But Opera's conviction would hardly seem like a compelling enough reason, and we can't imagine it would sway Apple.

More on the mark, perhaps, is the argument that Apple shouldn't nix Opera Mini because it may not actually violate rules laid out in Apple's software development kit (SDK). Unlike other Web browsers (including Opera Mobile,) Opera Mini is a proxy browser that delivers Web pages through Opera's servers. It isn't a standalone HTML browser that interprets and executes code on its own. This loophole is the more realistic justification for how von Tetzchner and the rest of the Opera team hope to get Opera Mini through the golden doors.

"The way we read things, we don't violate anything with [Apple's] SDK license," von Tetzchner told CNET. "From our perspective, there's no reason why Apple would not allow Opera...It brings something really different to iPhone users."

Again, we're not convinced that will be reason enough for Apple's application approval team, but if it is, acceptance could signal a sea change that would make Opera Mini the most notable browsing alternative to Safari on iPhone

original article.

Tricks to Keep Your Device's Battery Going and Going

Finally an article that really helps me! i know I'm not the only one who hates when there phone battery dies and its funny because we get mad if we need it yet we are the ones who didn't charge it. even tho some of the tips on here are obvious I'm going to go ahead and post it anyways.

If you're a recent convert to smartphones, you're probably still discovering all the amazing things that your new BlackBerry, Android phone or iPhone can do. But one thing you most likely found out right away: the more you do, the shorter your phone's battery lasts.

While a standard cellphone's charge can easily go three days or more, many smartphone owners are dismayed to learn that their new mobile toy requires charging every 24 hours, or even more often. It was great that I could use one device — my iPhone — to check my calendar and respond to multiple incoming calls during January's Consumer Electronics Show, but I paid the price when its battery died at 2 p.m.



More from NYTimes.com:

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• Gadgets in Emergency Vehicles Seen as Peril

• Starbucks Fans Can Become 'Baristas' on Foursquare




The answer was not to desperately search for an electrical outlet to recharge the phone (though I've done that) or to consider giving up the phone (done that, too), but rather to figure out a strategy to reduce energy consumption while still having it available for essential tasks. Whether you're using a laptop or a smartphone, the devices can be tweaked to get the most out of its lithium–ion batteries.

Reconsider Your Network

All things being equal, the C.D.M.A. mobile standard used by Verizon uses more power than a G.S.M. network, principally used by AT&T and T–Mobile. If battery life is critical, you might want to consider G.S.M. as long as its coverage meets your needs.

Dim It

The brighter your screen, the more juice you're using. If you're in a dimly lit room, turn down your LCD screen's brightness. If your device has an autodimming feature that detects the light in a room, use it. Similarly, if you use your smartphone or laptop to play music, lower the volume.


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If you have a BlackBerry, the company's holster will automatically turn off the screen when you insert the phone.

Stop Searching

It is great that you can use Bluetooth technology to connect your smartphone to a headset, or use Wi–Fi to speed up the downloading of e–mail messages. But when you're not using that headset or not near a Wi–Fi hot spot, turn off those features on the phone or laptop.

The reason is that portable devices will continue to look for Wi–Fi or a Bluetooth headset, using power.

Similarly, put your phone to sleep when it is in standby. On an iPhone, you do so through the "Settings" icon. On a BlackBerry, use the "Manage Connections" icon.

Skip a Generation

Your smartphone is also continually looking for a cellphone signal. If you're in a weak signal area, your phone must work even harder to find one, decreasing battery life. If you know that there is no coverage in your area, turn off your portable device's mobile capabilities.

If your G.S.M. 3G network is not available or the signal is weak, the battery will drain faster looking for one. Consider turning off the phone's 3G network or using the slower EDGE network instead. It will make Web access slower but won't affect phone call quality.

Check Mail Manually

Mobile smartphones can check for e–mail messages and instant messages automatically. Or they can be set to "push" notifications as soon as they arrive in your server's mailbox.

Both strategies can be power hogs. To increase your battery life, turn off push and increase the interval between when the phone checks for new messages. Or better, set up your phone to check for messages manually.

Turn Off Everything

The simplest way to cut power to a minimum is to put your smartphone into "airplane mode." You turn your BlackBerry or iPhone into a music player and personal organizer, and you won't be able to receive e–mail messages or make or receive phone calls, but you will stretch your battery.

"In airplane mode and running just the alarm clock, your iPhone battery will last up to a week," said Kyle Wiens, co–founder of ifixit.com, an online iPhone and Mac laptop repair company.

Disable the Animations

The hotter your laptop feels, the more battery power it is using. And one of the biggest users of power is Flash animation, the technology behind many online videos and animated ads. To improve battery life, disable Flash when not using wall power. BashFlash and ClicktoFlash for Macs and Flashblock for PC are programs that will automatically restrict Flash.

Get an App to Aid You

There are a number of applications that can help monitor battery life and shut off various functions that cut down on a mobile device's effective power.

Battery Go and myBatteryLife tell iPhone owners how much charge they have left and how that power translates into minutes of talk time, music, video and Web surfing.

NB BattStat alerts BlackBerry owners to the amount of battery charge remaining, as well as the battery's temperature. (Hot batteries lose power more quickly.) The device can be set to vibrate or sound when a predetermined low battery level is reached.

Radio Saver will monitor your BlackBerry's mobile coverage and shut off the device's mobile circuitry when you are out of range of a cellular signal.

Best BatterySaver allows owners of mobile phones using the Symbian operating system (including models from Nokia and Sony Ericsson) to create battery–saving profiles. For example, certain features can be automatically turned on when the phone is connected to a wall plug, or Bluetooth can be automatically disconnected when the battery charge drops below a certain level.

For laptops, programs like Battery Health Monitor (Mac) and Laptop Battery Power Monitor (PC) keep track of battery charge and estimate how many more times you'll be able to recharge your battery.

Realize the End Will Come

The older generation of nickel cadmium batteries suffered from memory issues; if you didn't fully charge and discharge one, it would hold a progressively smaller amount of juice.

Today's lithium–ion batteries don't suffer from memory loss, so it is safe to top off a battery.

Lithium–ion batteries cannot be overcharged; a device's circuitry cuts off the power when they are full. However, manufacturers still recommend that a laptop not be continually connected to power once the battery is at its capacity. If a laptop won't be used for several months, it should be stored with the battery in a 50 percent charge state.

All batteries can be fully charged and discharged for a fixed number of cycles; lithium–ion batteries typically last between 300 and 500 cycles. Information on the number of cycles can be obtained at manufacturers' Web sites, or at batteryuniversity.com.

No matter how well you husband your battery's resources, there comes a time when you'll need to send your battery to its final resting place.

Like most things nearing the end of their life, your battery will stay awake less and sleep more. "If your battery lasts only an hour after you've charged it," said Anthony Magnabosco, owner of Milliamp.com, a battery replacement company, "you know its time is up."

original article.

iPad!

Technically its not a "cellular+ mobile" but i think the ipad is really cool and i saw this commercial last night when i was watching the award shows.

It's lights, camera, and almost "action" for Apple's iPad tablet. During Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony Apple trotted its iPad down the Hollywood red carpet (so to speak) launching a television advertising campaign. According to reports Steve Jobs himself joined the roster of stars attending Sunday night's event in person.

According to the commercial, Apple's iPad device will launch on April 3. Pre-orders for the iPad will start on March 12 for the Wi-Fi only version in the U.S., and 3G enabled versions will come out later in April.

The iPad ad (embedded below) uses an upbeat song in the background (The Blue Van - There Goes My Love) and was aired immediately after the motion picture "Up" from Disney/Pixar won the Best Animated Film award. Jobs is on Disney's board of directors and used to be Pixar's Chairman before Disney bought it in 2006.



The ad shows a man using the iPad on his lap, going through various features of the devices, such as photos, videos, e-books, and Pages. The ad matches in style previous iPhone and iPod TV spots. Time will tell whether Apple enlists the "Get a Mac" duo of John Hodgman and Justin Long for a "Get an iPad" ad campaign. Maybe we'll see one of those ads if (or when) Microsoft launches its Courier tablet PC.


original article.

New EU Limits on Mobile Roaming Begin

My phone doesn't allow me to make calls when i roam. i think i set it up that way because overages charges.. not good! anyways this makes sense and i think in the long wrong it will benefit a lot of people.
article below like always.


New regulations in Europe starting Monday will put a halt to out-of-control bills for mobile Internet use while roaming.

The new rules require mobile operators to offer customers a cut-off limit. When customers roam, the operator must send them a warning message when they hit 80 percent of the limit. Once they hit the limit, customers won't be able to use mobile Internet services on their phones or laptops.

The cut-off limit can be for any amount the customer chooses. Customers who do not choose a limit by July 1 will get a default €50 (US$68) limit.

Exorbitant roaming bills have been an issue in Europe for years. The European Commission cited an example of a German traveler who in 2009 received a bill for €46,000 after downloading a TV show while roaming in France.

The commission has limited the fees that operators charge each other for roaming customers who use data to €1 per megabyte, a fee that will fall over the next two years. That falling fee is expected to reduce charges to end-users for roaming Internet use as well, the commission said.

original article.

Cell phone ban goes a little too far

GOOD MORNING!
actually i wish i was back in bed I'm literally yawning here and finding it very had to keep my eyes open.. considering its all quiet and i don't have my ipod with me right now.. anyways.. cell phones, cell phones, cell phones.. we all love them.


The 2010 legislative session was one-third over last week, with legislators considering many possible laws. Among ideas being bandied about is a complete ban on the use of mobile telephones while driving.

Anchorage Reps. Mike Doogan and Bob Buch rolled out House Bill 257 last month. Drivers' mobile telephone use has been on people's minds since cellular technology intruded into the Americans' lives and the devices became ubiquitous. Cellular telephones vastly increase our ability to contact and be accessed by others all the time. With this benefit comes changed behaviors, necessitating new rules and societal norms.

We should be cognizant of the need to silence portable communications devices at the beginning of meetings and theatrical performances, and ought not to talk when it rudely intrudes upon those about us. But what is the intrinsic harm in talking in the privacy of our own cars?

Some states have banned the use of a hand-held telephone while driving but still allow the use of "hands-free" technology. Many places proscribe cellular use by newer, younger drivers, but not by adults.

In fact, there is another bill (House Bill 15) before the Alaska Legislature banning cellular use by minors, introduced last year. This bill made it through two committees before stalling in the House Finance Committee. Its failure to move may have helped spur the new, more draconian legislation. House Bill 257 would completely ban making a call on a cellular phone except in an emergency. No other jurisdiction in the nation has adopted such a law that makes no distinction between when and where a person would use a cellular.

On an isolated road, with no traffic, you would be breaking the law for placing a simple call, which seems a little extreme. Supporters of banning or restricting drivers' mobile usage cite studies that such activity distracts drivers and leads to accidents. This makes a little sense, but telephone usage can hardly be pointed to as more distracting than many other things that occur in cars every moment of every day. Loud music, adjusting a radio station, eating, talking to others in the car and applying makeup are probably every bit as distracting as the safe and prudent telephone use while driving.

Banning drivers' mobile telephone use unfairly targets one potentially hazardous activity while ignoring a host of others. Anyone who has ever followed a motorist pulling out of a drive-through restaurant window has seen the car ahead swerving, suggesting the application of sauce to a French fry. If we're going to ban all cellular use, we probably need to consider making it illegal to eat while driving, and perhaps even the sale of food to drivers.

While both cellular-ban bills would impose relatively light penalties of $300 and points leading to license suspension or revocation, they still would criminalize behavior that's not always dangerous, certainly in comparison to other behaviors that would remain completely legal and are highly likely to remain so.

I was just on O'ahu, Hawaii, where the municipal government has made it illegal to talk on the telephone while driving. It was the first time I'd spent much time operating a car in a place where it was illegal for me to use my mobile phone, and I didn't like it. I obeyed the law and didn't use the telephone while cruising down the road. When I was merging into fierce traffic on the H-1, I didn't feel constrained, but at other times, in a completely rural, bucolic setting, it made no sense for me not to be able to make a call.

Opponents of the ban on drivers' cell phone use cite statistics showing that less than ½ percent of accidents in a five-year period in Alaska implicated cell phone use, and a disproportionate share of those were caused by younger drivers. It's more reasonable to ban cell phone usage by younger drivers and not everyone on the road, but these motorists already face numerous restrictions on their ability to drive.

Still, a ban on use by younger drivers would create the opportunity to see if it yielded beneficial effects while policy-makers consider imposing similar restrictions on the full population of drivers.

There is a further matter in the debate on banning cell phone usage as to whether the law would allow for "primary offense" stops by law enforcement officers. Just as when seatbelt use was mandated by the Legislature, lawmakers have the option to legislate that one would have to be pulled over for another reason before being cited for being on the telephone. This distinction does not affect the larger policy choice about trying to make people safer by disallowing them from one discrete activity while leaving them free to engage in all sorts of other distractions.

I want to be as safe a driver as I can, and I want our roadways in Alaska to be as free as possible from collisions, injuries and other accident-related unpleasantness. But I also like to multitask and get things done as time permits. I believe that the best way to achieve my desired outcome is for me to be a safe, conscientious, alert motorist, which means exercising common sense when it comes to engaging in distracting activities while driving.

If we're going to try to increase driver safety, perhaps we ought to look at much more stringent screening when we issue driver's licenses, perhaps testing proprioception and kinesthetic-response ability. Maybe there needs to be an essay test or an interview to weed out drivers lacking the mental wherewithal to drive safely. Driving is a privilege, not a right, but that doesn't mean an arbitrary ban on one particular type of activity is going to make the world a better place.

I applaud the legislators who have attempted to advance the common good by increasing driver safety, but I respectfully suggest they need to find another means of accomplishing this end.

original article.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Top 10 kids’ toys for 2010


Pretty boring i will admit.. but hey i have to do one for this seemed to be the top search for " games" on google.
anyways its seems long but its just a list of toys and their pictures which will not be on here so as usual i will post the original article.


1.Guitar, Drum and Amp by Paper Jamz
Suggested retail: $19.99-$24.99
Age: 5 and up
Available: June 2010

Paper Jamz are amazingly innovative, affordable instruments featuring Active Graphics TechnologyTM. This technology makes it possible for our children to rock out by touching the circuit-embedded paper surface on the Paper Jamz Guitar and Drums. Jam on the guitar or the drums in three modes, playing along to hit songs or creating your own music. The instruments have built-in speakers with volume control and a line out for kids to use their own earphones or speaker accessories. They have a rocking amp to blast out the jams as well.

2. LEGO games
Suggested retail: $14.99-$34.99
Age: 6 to 8 and up
Available: March 2010

LEGO is introducing 10 new LEGO games in 2010. My kids and I are love building the dice, the game boards and even some of the characters for the buildable LEGO games. The game play, continuous building, strategy and reconstruction are a blast. Check out LEGO Minotaurus, where, after children build the game board, they work to get their heroes to the secret temple while attempting to avoid LEGO walls and the evil Minotaur. Also try LEGO Creationary, where children roll the LEGO dice, select one of four exciting building categories and test their building and guessing skills. Finally, don’t miss Lava Dragon, where your children will race to be the first knight to climb to the top of the volcano while trying to avoid the lava and summon the dragon.

3. Sing-a-ma-jigs!
Suggested retail: $12.99
Age: 3 and up
Available: May 2010

Sing-a-ma-jigs! are adorable plush characters that treat us to sweet musical fun and silly chatter sounds with an easy squeeze of their bellies. As soon as your little one squeezes the Sing-a-ma-jigs! belly they will giggle endlessly at the sight of their mouths opening, revealing their cute little teeth. Play with one Sing-a-ma-jig at a time or play with them all together to hear them sing together in harmony. The first four Sing-a-ma-jigs! will be out in May and each one will be a different color and sing its own song. The Sing-a-ma-jigs! are simply irresistible.

4. Spy Net Video Spy Watch
Suggested retail: $49.99-$54.99
Age: 8 and up
Available: Fall 2010

The Spy Net Video Watch is real working spy gear that is finally available in the toy aisle. This watch will record video with its built-in camera and microphone and play back video on its built-in 1-4” screen. Our children will be able to upload their video and audio files onto Spy Net, the cool supporting Web site. Our children can also download missions from the Spy Net HQ and receive those missions directly on their watches for more spy fun. This product will be one out of a whole series of cool spy products that will interact with one another, brought to us by Spy Net, so keep your eyes open and your guard up.

5. Toy Story Mania!
Suggested retail: $49.99-$54.99
Age: 8 and up
Availability date: Fall 2010

Toy Story Mania! is an adventure-filled TV video game that simulates the new Toy Story Mania! attraction at the Disney theme parks. Once our children see the much-anticipated “Toy Story 3” movie this coming June 2010, they will be searching for ways to interact with their favorite characters. The Toy Story Mania! game plugs directly into the TV and doesn’t require an additional gaming console so our kids can just plug it into the TV and play. The Motion TV Games Technology in this game makes it a blast, because to move in the game our kids have to grab the control and get moving in real life.

6. Air Hogs Vectron Wave
Suggested retail price: $24.99
Age: 8 and up
Available: Now

The Air Hogs Vectron Wave is a UFO about the size of a hand that has a built-in sensor allowing it to detect objects below and adjust its height accordingly to float in the air above them. The Vectron Wave’s flight is guided by a wave of your hand. My kids and I marveled at the Vectron Wave because we had never seen a flying toy that we could interact with that didn’t have a remote control.

7. Tonka Garage Ricochet RC Vehicle
Suggested retail: $79.99
Age: 8 and up
Available: Fall 2010

The Tonka Garage Ricochet RC Vehicle is an amazing double-sided stunt vehicle that is designed to tackle nearly every type of terrain. It drives, and if it flips over, no problem — it keeps on trucking. I was wowed by the machine's Monsterlift Suspension Technology, which lifts the vehicle into a tough-looking monster truck. The RC vehicle comes with a three-channel remote for excellent steering control.


8. AVATAR vehicles and action figures
Suggested retail: $8.99 and $26.99
Age: 6 and up
Available: Now and new items will arrive in the Spring

“Avatar” the movie is a box office smash hit! My son, his best friend and I loved the movie. Kids are already clamoring for these great toys, and collectors are standing in the toy store right next to the kids, grabbing everything they see. The Avatar toy collection includes Avatar vehicles like the AMP Suit, RDA Grinder and Scorpion Gunship. The collection also has a wide variety of highly detailed and articulated action figures and creatures, all created to the scale of their likeness in the film. Each Avatar toy comes with its own unique i-TAG, which will create a 3-D, augmented-reality image of the toy on a computer screen when held up to a webcam. The animated 3-D image will then “come alive.” To download i-TAG software and find out more information, visit www.avataritag.com.

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cheese Touch Game
Suggested retail: $24.99
Ages: 7 and up
Retail availability: Fall 2010

If you have a reading-age child, you have surely read or heard of Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series. I have loved reading these books along with my kids, and we are counting down the days until the 20th Century Fox movie based on the series makes its debut in Spring 2010. This year our children will be able to play along with their favorite characters from the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books in its first board game, which encourages creativity and social interaction. Players move their game pieces, including Greg, Rowley, Fregly and Manny, around the game board, facing different challenges and measuring how well they know each other. Correct answers move them closer to finish. Wrong answers can give a player the cheese, and if you have read the books, you know how hard it is to get rid of the Cheese Touch!

10. Kung Zhu
Suggested retail: $7.99-$24.99
Age: 6 and up
Available: June 2010

Kung Zhu is the next generation of 2009’s hottest toy, the Zhu Zhu Pets. The Zhu Zhu Pets now have their own special forces to help keep everything happy and peaceful in the Zhu-niverse, the land where the Zhu Zhus live. Check out the new good and bad Zhu Zhus in the Kung Zhu line. You will love the Ninja Hamsters, the Delta Forces, the Rangers and the Dragon Tribe, and may need to scatter away from the Bad Skull Tribe. The accessories are absolutely hysterical and add loads to the play of these furry warriors.

original article.
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars announced – due out fall 2010 [News]


well i remember playing with Lego's when i was younger and i know lot of you guys play the Lego star wars games. i actually have never played the game so i cant really give more insight except for the fact that the new one is due out in fall.. which is actually awhile from now if you think about it haha.
I'll post the article here and then the original in a link as usual. enjoy :]

Publisher LucasArts and developer TT Games have announced the next installment in the LEGO Star Wars video game series, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, due out for Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360, and PC in time for the holiday season later this year.

Andrew posted this entry on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 9:39 pm. Posted in the category LEGO, News, Star Wars, Video Game You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


Original article.
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Lost: Previewing Season 6 Premiere


morrrniinnngg! hope everyone has a great weekend. well today i didn't really want to look for a video game and i figured that alot of ppl watch LOST so I'm sure someone who read these blogs will appreciate this post lol.
if you already didn't know.. LOST premieres tonight. not sure on the time lol but its the 6th and final season.

It's been that long, but we're finally here: the sixth, and final, season of Lost.

I can't really imagine how it feels for all of you who've been around for six years, watching each episode multiple times, breaking each scene into crumbs, and arguing every possible explanation for the intentions of the DHARMA Initiative, or the Island, or the survivors themselves. After all, I'm just new to this game, having started watching the show last September--but, of course, I'm just as excited (and confused) as you are in finding out what this whole thing has been all about.

Last time we're here, we were in the brink of a breakthrough. Jack's plan to detonate Jughead so time will be reset was finally implemented, but not without a pretty significant toll--Juliet's down in that hole, possibly dead, and Sayid's also seriously wounded. The obvious question: did the bomb work? All indicators say that it did, but now what?

But that's just half the story. Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid wouldn't have detonated the bomb if they haven't successfully returned to the Island via Ajira 316--but they're in 1977. Sun's stuck in the present time, finding a way to reunite with her 1977-bound husband Jin, and unwittingly being a witness to Locke's efforts to kill Jacob. Well, she didn't see the actual murder: that privilege goes to Ben, who did the actual deed, because he was abandoned by the great Island deity despite his loyal service, or so the argument goes. And then we realize that Locke is still a dead body onboard 316, and the Locke inside the statue is someone else...

It's been almost two months since I finished catching up, and it's annoying having a theory in my head, only to realize five seconds later that it's not exactly airtight. So time was reset, and everything is all right, but isn't it more or less delaying the inevitable--the trip to the Island? So that proves Daniel's variables theory a bit wrong, right? Or is there really just nothing they can do?

And why are they supposed to be on the Island? Why these particular people? Is it some special quality, like being touched by Jacob? (Sayid and Hurley are the holes in that logic.) Is it their need for redemption? Because really, if that's the case, then we should all be in the Island. What was Jacob up to, and what is the Man in Black planning to do with it? What's Locke and Christian and Claire got to do with it?

Is this season really the beginning of the end, or just the end of the beginning?

Yes, I know, I missed some explanation entirely, but that's why we're here now: we'll find answers together... and maybe fight about it a few weeks from now. Lost has 18 hours left, and I won't be surprised if something pops up from out of the blue and steers this whole thing in a different direction.

Lost takes over ABC's entire primetime schedule tonight, with an hour-long recap show from 8pm, and the two-hour season premiere, "LA X", from 9pm. Here we go, folks. Plane's crashing back to the Island. No bailing out. No turning back.

original article.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 Hits Stores in North America Today


good morning all!
how everyone had a great weekend, if not .. well there's always next weekend ha ;]
anyways.. video games have never been my speciality so i basically just google new releases.. if you happen to be a video expert and want to send me some tips or maybe websites or games. send them! would be much help. in the mean time.,.

biowares article.

Few games live up to the hype during the wait before release. If you were watching the NFL NFC Championship game on Sunday you saw the special 2 minute trailer for Mass Effect 2. The trailer looked fantastic and just added to the hype and the early reviews have been very high for the sequel. Mass Effect 2 is in stores everywhere in North America today for the Xbox 360 and the PC. The game will hit Europe and Australia by the end of the week. Featuring an all-star cast and amazing graphics Mass Effect 2 is certainly taking its place as the must have game of 2010. Remember those who buy the game new get free access to the ‘Cerberus Network’ BioWare’s new online server for DLC and news for Mass Effect 2. Also free is the first DLC add-on that allows gamers to take Commander Sheppard back to the Normandy crash site. For those wondering if you buy the game used you will need to buy access to the ‘Cerberus Network’ for a one time fee of 1200 MS points. Watch for my review in the next day or two of this fantastic game. I must say this is certainly a great title to kick off 2010!

original article.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Video game sales drop 8% in 2009


Apparently video game sales are down this year.. well last year since it is only January of 2010. so yes im going to read it as soon as i post it so hopefully its not boring because i didn't pre read it first.


PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.—US video game sales slipped 8 percent in 2009, according to market research firm The NPD Group, despite record sales in December.



The year’s $19.66 billion tally included sales of video game software, portable and console hardware, and accessories, helped by a December sales performance that “broke all industry records,” according to Michael Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association.


December's results were helped by the best sales month ever for the Wii console, according to Nintendo, with 3.8 million units of the recently discounted console sold. The company's DS Lite and DSi handhelds combined to sell more than 3.3 million units during December, the second biggest month for the company’s handheld business, Nintendo added.

Aside from portable hardware, which experienced a 6 percent increase in revenue in 2009, all video game categories experienced declines for the year, with the largest decline coming from console hardware (-13 percent). Console software and portable software both experienced declines of 10 percent, while video game accessories experienced a 1 percent decline.



Retail sales for computer (PC) game software also experienced declines, with revenue down 23 percent to $538 million in 2009, NPD added. Combined video game and PC game software sales were off 11 percent for the year, to $10.5 billion.


The results slammed shut a long run of gains for a historically cyclical but generally upwardly mobile video game market that thrives whenever new hardware is launched. 2009 was not one of those new hardware fueled years.


"[In 2000] when we started the last decade, video game industry sales, including PC games, totaled $7.98 billion," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "In 10 years, the industry has changed dramatically in many ways, but most importantly it [grew] over those years by more than 250 percent at retail alone. Considering there are many new sources of revenue, including subscriptions and digital distribution, industry growth is even more impressive."



ESA’s Gallagher noted that December’s strong sales were “a very strong way to transition into 2010. I anticipate these solid sales numbers to continue upward through 2010 with a pipeline full of highly-anticipated titles.”

original article.
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reaches milestone with $1 Billion in sales


hellloooooo! good afternoon all :]
hope all of you had a great weekend, and since it is humpday.. the weekend is only a few more days away. dont party too hard haha :]
COD news. read below.

There has got to be a party going on right now over at Activision Blizzard and Infinity Ward studios, and if there isn’t there should be. Certainly both the publisher and the developer have a lot to be happy about concerning the major success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. After all, they have over one billion reasons to be celebrating.

This is because Modern Warfare 2 has surpassed another major milestone by reaching over $1 billion in retail sales since the first person shooter hit store shelves back in the Fall of last year.

When the combat game was released on November 10, 2009 it did not take very long for the title get noticed as sales for the video game were smashing major records in less than a week. In fact, during the first five days alone, Modern Warfare 2 took in a total of $550 million, not only breaking video game sales records, but also breaking entertainment records as well.

As previously reported, Modern Warfare 2 surpassed the first five days of box office income for the films Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Dark Knight. This major accomplishment signified that video games are indeed a strong market force to contend with in the entertainment industry.

orginal article.