Hasta La Gadget!

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got an 8GB Kingston Technologies SDHC Video card on offer. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Big thanks to Kingston for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Kingston Technologies SDHC Video card.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, June, 26th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Announcements

Engadget’s recession antidote: win an 8GB Kingston Technology SDHC card! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has confirmed rejecting an iPhone application that displayed photos of topless women, despite the software developer’s claims that the app was temporarily “sold out.”

The app, called Hottest Girls, was the first app in the App Store to show nudity, according to developer Allen Leung. However, the app disappeared from the App Store on Thursday morning. Leung posted on his web site that he pulled the app to mitigate server overload, as Wired.com reported yesterday. But a subsequent statement from Apple refutes his claim.

“Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography,” an Apple spokesman told CNN Thursday afternoon. “The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.”

Leung then updated his web site to remove his false explanation.

It’s not surprising that Apple chose to deny the app, and it’s unlikely we’ll see a porn app again in the App Store — lest developers wish to be banned. When Steve Jobs introduced the App Store on June 9, 2008, porn was at the top of the list of content that would not be allowed in apps.

“There are going to be some apps that we’re not going to distribute,” Jobs said. “Porn, malicious apps, apps that invade your privacy.”

More interestingly, Hottest Girls reveals a vulnerability in the App Store: Developers can update their apps with prohibited content and cross their fingers that Apple won’t notice. In May, Wired.com reported on a developer who was able to sneak profanity into his karaoke app Lyrics by hiding it in an Easter egg, easily unlocked with a secret code (swiping downward three times in the app).

In that same article, we highlighted the issue that Apple doesn’t have the manpower to police the entire App Store. There are currently more than 50,000 apps in the App Store, according to Apple, and the role of gatekeeper will get more difficult as the App Store continues to expand. Hottest Girls is another example of a developer who tricked the gatekeeper — but only temporarily.

Prohibited content such as porn and dirty words are only a minor concern compared to the idea of a developer updating his approved app to later include malicious code. Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Forensics: Recovering Evidence, Personal Data, and Corporate Assets, explained to Wired.com that the iPhone’s API is mostly secure. But a few areas where users’ privacy can be violated include audio, the camera and the address book.

For example, a malicious audio app could potentially allow a developer to record a user’s conversations without him or her knowing. And a harmful photo app could snap photos with a user’s camera even when the user is not pressing the shutter button. Third, a malicious app can steal your address book contacts.

The greatest concern is malicious code isn’t something a developer would try to publicize (like Leung did with Hottest Girls), because that would result in getting caught and thus failing to steal users’ information. We’ll continue looking into this issue to keep you informed.

See Also:

• Porn Comes to the iTunes App Store
• Apple Relents, Adds ‘Pornographic’ E-Book Reader to App Store …
• Want to Fool Apple’s App Store? Plant an Easter Egg
• E-Reader iPhone App Rejected Because Users Can Download Kama Sutra …

Louis Vuitton Japan has created an original game for mobile web SNS and game portal site Mobage Town by DeNA. The free game, called Precious Cargo, will have a limited run from June 25th to July 7th. The simple puzzle game features a backdrop of the brand’s iconic monogram. Players try to line up the boxes with matching designs to clear the boxes, score points, and reveal images of Louis Vuitton products. The debut of the game is timed to follow up the opening of the Louis Vuitton “/underground/” concept shop that opened last month in Ikebukuro’s Seibu department store.

Trend Potential
Young potential consumers are given an opportunity to literally play around with the brand’s classic monogram. For many, the Precious Cargo game may be their first interaction with the brand—and Louis Vuitton endeavors to make it a positive and fun one.

ZINNET, a company we’ve mostly seen hocking digital converter boxes to old-school broadcast TV owners, has just announced the brite-View line of media devices for digital download fans. The CinemaCube ($89.99) plays media from either an attached USB hard drive or over your home network, supports RM, RMVB, MP2, AVI, H.264, VOB, MOV, MKV, DivX, Xvid, and WMV video files up to 1280X720 HD (720p), and sports its own bittorrent client. Air HD ($399.99) is a wireless HD transmitter and receiver kit that supports up to 1080i@60Hz, 1080p@24Hz HD picture quality / 30Hz HD quality with less than 1ms latency, up to 70 feet. We’ll be interested in seeing how these guys stack up against some of the other players out there — in the meantime, peep the gallery below.

Gallery: ZINNET debuts brite-View line of multimedia devices

[Via I4U News]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

ZINNET debuts brite-View media players, streamers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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