It seems AT&T wants iPhone users to use the right iPhone plan. Customers who simply bought an iPhone and used it with a non iPhone Data Plan are requested to change their contracts – thus forcing them to pay more.
Rumors in forums tell, 8GB iPhone are almost out of stock in the U.S. which might indicate a change of generations. The iPod Touch is already available as 32GB version. Moreover rumors tell, Apple might allow “home activation” of iPhones again.
Abstract
Are you tired of searching thru your installed applications on your Windows machine? There is no need to search anymore. You may simply find from the first moment using a key stroke launcher – like Launchy.
How does it work
After typing the first few letters, Launchy suggests the program you might want to start. As Launchy uses quite an interesting statisticial approach here, it determines the program you want to start almost exactly. No time consuming training is required. Launchy learns by the way in your everyday use of it.
After installation Launchy sets up a database that includes all executable and lauchable programs you previously installed on your computer. Launchy is set up as a service running in the background. At any time you may invoke it using predefined shortcuts (like CTRL + SPACE or ALT + SPACE). Configuration is fairly easy.
Alternatives
Another program for the Windows platform is known called Executor. It basically offers the same features, sadly it does not contain a statistical heuristic for the programs you run the most, but other options like fast command line execution. Anyway Launchy is intended for the average computer and we feel it does its job very good. Moreover it is open source software.
Download
It’s taken quite a long time. At least for the last two years Apple is transmitting their “Get a Mac” advertisements thru the internet. The story is quite simple: three guys are talking about computers and the stupid guy is the one to say “I’m a PC”. It’s taken quite a long time for Microsoft to react on this, but now Microsoft put their “I am a PC” ads on the air. On the campaign’s (“Life without Walls“) internet page people are encouraged to upload photos to show that they are PCs, aswell.
In the ad Microsoft deconstructs the stereotype of the Apple created PC guy by showing a cross section of the world’s society. Microsoft shows exponents of (almost) every societal stratum, but introduces them by saying: “I am a PC and I am not what you call hip.” and lets Deepak Chopra repeat almost at the end “I am a PC and I am a human being”. See for yourself here:
An update that has been distributed yesterday is likely to be the cause for sudden blue screens on Windows Vista 64bit. The yesterday update forces the user to restart, but after restarting, Windows Vista64 customers report that their system would not boot anymore. Instead a blue screen of death was shown.
Although the problem should be fixed now, many users still cannot boot. What you can do, if your system still hangs:
Safe Mode (hit F8 when Window begins to boot after the BIOS messages)Start -> all Programs -> Kaspersky Internet Security
right click on Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 to Run As Administrator
Update and choose to Rollback to previous Databases
Reboot your systemEnjoy…
Eventually the iPhone Dev Team released QuickPwn 2.1 for Windows. They really don’t seem to sleep never. It supports firmware 2.1. It jailbreaks, activates and unlocks iPhone 2G devices and jailbreaks iPhone 3G. It sadly still does not unlock iPhone 3G. Using is very straightforward. Kudos to the Dev Team :-)
» Download QuickPwn here (sha1 f8124d0e8f31f64ef3272de8fbc679e1dd1f93a7)
Starting on 1st of october, 2008, T-Mobile Germany is going to offer the iPhone 3G with a prepaid plan for 569€ including 100€ calling credit. Following features will apply:
The iPhone will still have the SIM Lock and will not work with other german or international carriers.
Storyline
The new game “Spore” by Electronic Arts hasn’t got much positive news since its release. In the first place potential customers would not buy it, because of its copy protection. Electronic Arts decided to combat potential piracy by applying a new version of the SecuRom copy protection.
Technical Details of the Protection
This new version requires to activate your legally purchased copy online. That’s nothing new. Many games and software applications nowadays require online activation. The point with this SecuRom protection is: it forces the players to re-validate their activation every 10 days. Thus meaning the stand alone game would not be playable for users being not connected to the internet.
The Reaction of the (potential) Customers
In the eyes of the customers this was unacceptable. Thousands of customers reviewed “Spore” with a single star on Amazon.com:
Anyway, by investigating this “Spore” issue a little bit deeper the german Golem.de (original article here, german only) found: people really like “Spore”, but they don’t like the copy protection. Within a week “Spore” has been transferred to 500,000 computers worldwide via the well known Pirate Bay Bittorrent Tracker. “Spore” currently ranks first on Pirate Bay downloads:
EA managers must feel this is real irony. Instead of protecting their investment into a very good game, potential customers are now downloading the already cracked copy without any protection from the internet for free.
Our Comment
Although we can’t tell from reality, we expect more people would have bought this game, if the protection wouldn’t have been so annoying to the masses. Anyway the “Spore” issue is one of the best case studies for the question how DRM is recognized by potential customers. In our opinion, media industry should begin to face four basic facts:
Otherwise the problem of the music industry will repeat itself for the movie industry and the gaming industry aswell. Protections will never stop people from cracking and distributing digital goods on the net, but that’s not the point here. Everything here with DRM in general is about a feeling.
If customers feel like they are taken seriously as partners of the industry and consumers of their products, it’s more likely that they buy something they feel it’s worth it. People will never feel something worth buying if the limitations are so big that getting it the illegal way is much more stressless
Finally Apple released update 10.5.5 yesterday. Features of 10.5.5 include Apple’s recent security updates, Addressbook bugfixes and lots of other fixes (read all details here). To sum things up: Apple recommends to apply this update as soon as possible. And yes we will obey.
All genuine Mac users can safely update. There are no reports about problems. You may do so using the Software Update App.
OSX86 user may wait some days, we are just examining the steps. Most likely best thing is to download the Combo Update from here and use our instructions here. People report broken audio drivers on ALC883 chipsets (AppleHDA patcher solved this). We’ll get back to you once we checked out all the details.
Abstract
Avatron Air Sharing allows copying files from and to the iPhone wireless, thus allowing to use the iPhone similar to a portable harddrive. The only condition is to use a WebDAV compatible up- and download program (find a list below the picture).
Supported File Formats
Air Sharing also allows to preview files on the iPhone itself. It supports the following formats as previews:
Prices and Availability
The software is available for free in the introduction phase. After 22nd of September, 2008 it will cost 6.99US$. So hurry up, guys :-)
WebDAV programs
Windows:
Linux:
MacOS X