Hasta La Gadget!

We can all empathize with Michael Bolton in Office Space when he beat the toner out of Initech’s problematic printer. But we can’t level with this incredibly stupid Cincinnati resident Daniel Goodrich, who told an Apple Store employee at Kenwood Towne Centre he was so mad at his iPhone he could “pop a 9mm at it.” He allegedly went on to open the right side of his shirt, revealing that he did, in fact, possess a black, 9mm handgun.

That’s when the Apple retail employee got her manager to call the police. Goodrich was charged with aggravated menacing and causing fear of harm to an Apple employee, according to WCPO. See the video below for the whole story.

Via Gizmodo

See Also:

• Video: Shoot out Your Road Rage With iGun for iPhone
• iPhone Critics Vote on Handset’s Most Annoying Flaws
• Angry Customer Starts iPhone Hater Web Site

Photo: respres/Flickr

Starting in November, use of your cellphone’s GPS navigation capabilities will be illegal for drivers on New Zealand roadways — dedicated SatNav devices without voice capability are still ok. In fact, use of your modern cellphone as an in-vehicle MP3 player, compass, etc. will all be illegal under Road User Amendment Rule 2009. Here’s how it reads currently:

“A driver must not, while driving a vehicle, create, send, or read a text message on a mobile phone or make, receive, or terminate a telephone call on a mobile phone or use a mobile phone in any other way.“

A law this broad would also make your car’s integrated cellphone entertainment system illegal. There are exceptions of course, one of which allows drivers to use a mobile phone to make, receive, or terminate a telephone call if the phone is mounted in the vehicle and the driver “manipulates the phone infrequently and briefly,” even though studies have already concluded that hands-free solutions are still distracting and thus, dangerous. Yeah, the whole thing sounds arbitrary, over-reaching, and completely unenforceable to us as well.

Update: Put down the pitchforks and torches, it looks like the law is already en route for amendment to allow cellphone “satellite navigation or music functions.”

[Via Stuff, image courtesy of joannapapa5100]

Filed under: Transportation

New Zealand making drivers with cellphone navigation criminals, hugs ok for now (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like smartbooks really are the new netbooks, after all. Aptly exemplifying déjà vu, German company Smartbook AG has issued a cease-and-desist to Netbooknews.de, claiming it owns the trademark and copyright on the term “smartbook” and that its use on the news site is damaging to the company’s reputation and credibility. The letter demands that within two weeks all instances of the word be stricken from both the German and English-language versions, despite the latter being hosted in the US, outside of German jurisdiction. Of course, the logical thing would be to go after a company like Qualcomm who’s been using the designation all along, and not the outlets who report on it, but why let a little common sense get in the way of some good ol’ fashioned internet drama, eh Smartbook? By our count, it was almost exactly six months between Psion sending out its first cease-and-desist on “netbook” to media outlets and its eventual acquiescence and settlement with Intel, so consider the clock here officially ticking.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Filed under: Laptops

Smartbook AG (the company) follows in Psion’s footsteps, issues cease and desist letter to website using the term ‘smartbook’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The New York Times has investigated the reported suicide of an employee of Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s iPhones in China. The most illuminating piece of the story is buried at the end, where the reporter discloses that a security officer threatened to “beat up” his translator if she persisted in questioning the victim’s family.

Taiwanese company Foxconn is under fire for the death of Sun Danyong, a 25-year-old employee who reportedly jumped from a 12-story building on July 16 after misplacing a prototype of the fourth-generation iPhone. Sun’s peers say they received e-mails from the victim, who complained Foxconn employees had beaten him, placed him in solitary confinement and searched his home for the missing iPhone.

Near the end of NY Times‘ piece, Sun’s father said he was still in shock that his son could leap from a building. But Sun’s brother said Sun had sent e-mails to his friends saying he “planned to do something big” to humiliate Foxconn — presumably, his suicide.

Most disconcerting is a paragraph describing a threat the reporter’s translator faced during interviews:

Soon after, a security guard, who was joined by two men wearing Foxconn shirts, threatened to “beat up” a journalist’s translator if she persisted in asking the family questions. Foxconn officials later said the guard was not on their staff and might have been with the police bureau.

However, NY Times interviewed 15 Foxconn employees, and only one admitted to being forced to work overtime above the legal limit; the rest said they were well treated by the company.

See Also:

• Report: Missing iPhone Prototype Pressured Chinese Worker to …
• Foxconn: We Got the iPhone Contract!
• China IPod Journos Speak
• After a Decade of Secrecy, Apple Reluctantly Tries Out …

Photo: Bert van Dilk/Flickr

What you are about to read is from an actual court filing. Gregory McKenna has filed suit against Apple, which he alleges is conspiring with the mob in an effort to coerce him to return to a New York-based modeling agency he quit in 2000. As explained in the 124-page complaint, an iPod shuffle he bought on eBay in 2005 and an iPod mini he bought new from an Apple store in 2006 — possibly a nano, as minis were discontinued a year prior — both contain receivers that have allowed the Mafia to send audio death threats that play in tandem with his music. The suit seeks $14.3 million total and lists ten defendants in all, including a local mechanic, a private investigator, the St. Louis Police Department, the FBI, and the US Department of Justice. While our initial reaction is to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, it’s hard not to feel sad for McKenna and his state of mind — of course, if by some stroke of fate he manages to prove it was all one big conspiracy perpetrated by the Mafia, well, guess we’ll be ending up with egg on our faces.

[Via TUAW]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Wireless

Lawsuit alleges Apple conspired with Mafia, put hidden receivers in iPods for transmitting death threats originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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