Could this be the best-looking Windows Phone 7 device yet? That’s open to some personal interpretation, of course, but Sammy’s alleged i8700 is looking like quite the beast — and it should assuage any lingering fears that the Omnia HD-based prototypes floating around would be influencing final ID for the company’s numerous WP7 launches later this year. If we had to venture a guess, we’d say this is probably that unnamed model we saw not long ago, identified by its sharp, squared-off edges and the button layout below the display. The about screen reveals 8GB of internal storage and the backside shows a camera of unknown resolution paired to an LED flash, so if you’re not tied to the idea of a physical QWERTY keyboard, this might be the Windows Phone 7 handset you’ve been looking for. Question is, what carriers?
Since Jeff is obligated to stay away from technology today, we’re inviting fan favorites Molly Wood and Caroline McCarthy to fill in, which means today’s show is exceptionally positive and hate-free! But first, a segment on actual tech news, which I believe is a first for our show.
In a statement issued Thursday morning, Apple says they’ve taken developer feedback to heart and relaxed restrictions placed on applications allowed in their App Store. The new review guidelines address user privacy, duplicated applications, offensive content, and the growing number of fart apps–seriously, they explicitly say “no more fart apps.”
The guidelines even go so far as to quote a Supreme Court Justice in response to what constitutes crossing the line–Apple says “you’ll know it when you see it.” Clearly Steve Jobs doesn’t listen to The 404 Podcast.
Until now, Apple has been nebulous about what is acceptable and what is not. According to Apple, about 90 percent of rejected apps are due to technical issues and bugs and 10 percent are turned away due to privacy breaches and inappropriate content–hence the statement re: fart apps.
Alternatively, if you don’t want Apple vetting what apps you run on your phone, we recommending checking out Google Android smartphones that let you run all the fart apps your heart desires.
Hey, dudes, if you ever doubted the science behind good dance moves, researchers and psychologists at Northumbria University in the U.K. just issued a study using 3D motion capture to map the rhythmic dancing of 19 sorry volunteers.
The results of the study were shown to 35 women to determine the sexual attraction associated to eight specific body movements including the neck, trunk, left shoulder, left wrist, and the speed of movement in the right knee. They also generated two videos to illustrate good dancing and bad dancing.
According to their findings, the good doctor believes that the majority of good dance qualities were influenced the most by various movements in the neck and trunk section of the male body. In other words: don’t be a stiff dancer; fluid movements and confidence seem to be the No. 1 attraction according to Molly and Caroline, and as it turns out, Wilson and I obviously have a lot to learn!
Finally, we turn our attention to the realstuff white people like, at least according to data aggregated from profile information on the popular online dating site OKCupid.com. We should note that this information is based on 526,000 randomly selected OkCupid users and absolutely does not reflect our personal opinions.
That said, the study presents compelling information about both sexes and their respective ethnicities. For example, white women tend to lean toward escapist hobbies like bonfires, boating, horseback riding, and thunderstorms, despite living in largely metropolitan cities. In contrast, Asian men typically choose “simple” as an accurate self-description and specifically state their exact country of origin, as opposed to just writing “Asian.” Not surprisingly, Asian men also list “software developer,” “mechanical engineer,” and “surfing the Net” as common hobbies. Guilty as charged, I suppose.
Tune in to hear the rest of OkCupid’s observations, with some of our own thrown in for good measure. And our apologies to everyone that got a “voice mail full” message yesterday–the line is cleared, so feel free to leave us a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) for a chance to make it on our show!
Barely 24 hours after Apple released OS 4.1, a hacker found an exploit that will allow for jailbreaking. The question is, do we really need this anymore? pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20015969-233.html” class=”origPostedBlog”iPhone Atlas/a/p
The debate rages on about the sound, or rather the lack of sound, coming from electric vehicles. Their relative quietude could make roadside-housing rather more tenable in the future, but, if you ask some people, will turn those cars into silent killers. We’ve seen some crude noisemakers attempt to make those cars a bit less lethal, but that just brings us back to the noise pollution issue again. ECTunes has what sounds like a solution that will better appeal to both camps: directional sound. The prototype Citroen pictured above emits tones only audible to those right in its path, straight ahead when traveling forward and behind it when in reverse, silencing altogether at 30mph when wind and tire noise is enough of a deterrent to those who can’t see oncoming traffic — or who simply choose not to. A solid, reasonable solution to the problem? Absolutely. Will it make those on both sides of those topic agree? Unlikely.
We’re still perplexed by the PSP Go‘s failure. Who doesn’t want to pay more for a device that lacks the hardware to play UMD games, only compatible with downloadable versions that release days or weeks later and then cost more to boot? Sony’s Andrew House stepped up in June to put a positive spin on the situation, saying the PSP Go helped them “learn more about what the consumer wanted” — something they obviously didn’t do before shipping the thing. Now Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai is giving a similar angle in an interview with MCV, addressing concerns of both price and content availability:
…we did get a lot of feedback, both good and bad. I think we need to make sure we have as many titles available to download as possible, to make the experience as easy as possible. But also pricing is perhaps an issue.
If nothing else the PSP Go has certainly generated a lot of consumer feedback, and encouragingly it seems like Sony is actually listening.
Okay, so we’ve given you about a day to download, install, and tear iOS 4.1 into microscopic shreds. What’s the end result? We’ve been tipped on a handful of troublesome nuances in the update, ranging from unsolved proximity sensor woes to a sudden onslaught of voicemails — and we’re trying to get a feel for how widespread they all are. Care to chime in? Follow the break!
Sony’s motion controller will need hard-core games and gamers in order to be a success, Heavy Rain creator David Cage said in a recent interview. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20015945-17.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Digital Home/a/p
File this under: we’ll believe it when we see it. It’s a crowded file these days, filled most with iPhone carrier rumors. They tend to surface in the lead up to Apple events, but really, they can happen when you least expect them.
The rumors usually involve Verizon–a logical choice, really, given the size of the network and the loyalty it tends to provoke. There are boatloads of Verizon customers ready to jump on the iPhone, the moment it comes to their network.
This time out, however, the rumor involves T-Mobile. And, unlike those out-of-nowhere rumors we hear all the time, it comes from a pretty reliable source–Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired.
A T-Mobile manager casually mentioned to me that they’re going to get the iPhone 3GS (but not 4, oddly) later this year. Common knowledge?
The comment is interesting on a number of levels. First there’s the whole T-Mobile/Verizon thing. Second is the “casual” part, as thought the wireless employee was saying something that everyone knew, rather than sharing a secret or just letting something slip.
Also fascinating is the idea that the network would only get the 3Gs, rather than the brand new iPhone 4. Perhaps there’s something in the fine print of AT&T’s deal that bars a competitor from selling the latest version of the handset.
Of course, this is all in the realm of pure speculation, and if Apple has its way, we won’t hear anything solid about the deal until the company is good and ready.
Of course, this press release from SRS Labs doesn’t actually say Netflix will use its technology to enable surround sound audio on Watch Instantly streams, but when you claim your tools add “easy and seamless” surround sound decoding to Silverlight apps then we have an immediate suggestion as to how they could be put to use. Whether you give any credit to (or have even noticed) the SRS stamp on a bevy of media playing software and hardware, its ubiquity certainly means that interested parties (like, say, Netflix) could be sure the audio would be supported across the multitude of platforms they stream video to. Microsoft and SRS have issued the tools for anyone (even Netflix) to support 5.1 streams just by adding this code to their apps and are demonstrating it at IBC 2010 and on a demo website, all we have to do is sit back and wait for the technology to be implemented. If only we knew of somewhere an upgrade to surround sound on streaming video was in high demand…
Here’s an interesting tidbit. Denon‘s admittedly pricey AVR-4311CI — which was introduced in late April — may very well end up being the first major product to gain iTunes AirPlay compatibility retroactively. Yeah, retroactively. According to an updated product listing, the AVR will see a “planned upgrade” in the fall of 2010 that will “provide Apple iTunes AirPlay compatibility [that will let you] stream your favorite music to the AVR-4311CI.” Now, we already knew that Denon was a partner of both Apple and BridgeCo (the enabling company behind AirPlay), but this is first mention of any existing product receiving a simple upgrade (firmware, we’re guessing) that would add support for Apple’s newly touted streaming feature. In other words, this may mean that hundreds, if not thousands, of AirPlay compatible devices are already on the market, and just as soon as Apple and / or BridgeCo green-lights the respective firmware updates, home entertainment systems everywhere may gain support for a protocol that wasn’t even public before last week. Here’s hoping, right?
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