Nokia N8 Oficially Announced

Nokia has finally accepted and acknowledged the existence of its next generation Symbian smartphone - the N8. The phone has had its specifications leaked just a day ago and it seems, Nokia has had enough. The company has announced the phone officially. The N8 has been in the news lately and it was just yesterday that the first reviews of the handset surfaced. Just a few hours later, a document detailing the phones spec sheet was revealed.

Now that the phone has been made official, let's see what it has in store for you the potential buyer. The N8 happens to be Nokia's first 12 megapixel camera phone - complete with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that, according to Nokia, rivals those found in compact digital cameras. The N8 is also the first Nokia device to support HD Video recording. The N8 also features a built-in video editing suite - the effectiveness of which we're unsure of. The phone supports Dolby Digital Plus surround sound and users can connect it to their home theatre system. Contrary to the expectation that it would come with 64GB of internal memory, it will ship with "just" 16GB of in-built storage space. With MicroSD slots, the memory is expandable up to 48GB.

Unlike the last Symbian based flagship, the N97, the N8 runs the latest version of the Symbian OS - Symbian ^3. While they share quite a few visual cues, S60 Version5 and Symbian^3 are two different operating systems. Symbian^3 supports multitouch (although as of now we're unsure if it has been used effectively on the N8), flick scrolling and pinch-zoom. The Nokia N8 also offers multiple, personalizable homescreens which can be loaded with apps and widgets. The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture in the platform takes full advantage of the Nokia N8's hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Symbian^3 also raises the bar in performance by delivering greater memory management allowing more applications to run in parallel for a faster multi-tasking experience. It remains to be seen how much of an actual enhancement does Symbian^3 bring to the end user experience.

The N8 is fully social networking ready. Users can update their status, share location and photos, and view live feeds from Facebook and Twitter in a single app directly on the home screen. Calendar events from social networks can also be transferred to the device calendar.

The phone has a 3.5-inch capacitive screen with a 360x640 resolution. While the resolution might not be very high compared to Android based devices, the AMOLED display will make it look quite impressive. The device in its prototype avatar had a non standard sized HDMI port, we seriously hope this has been rectified in the final version. Even with all these features, the phone manges to stay quite slim at just 12.9 mm thin!

The N8 will be available in select markets during the third quarter of 2010. It is estimated to be priced at around the EUR 370 (Rs. 22,000) mark. This is the price minus taxes or subsidies. Also, it would be outright foolish to expect this phone to be priced below the 25k mark in India - so don't get your hopes too high.

Three New BlackBerry Phones Launched

RIM has announced the launch of three new smartphones at the 2010 WES event in Orlando, USA. The new smartphones in question are the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 and 9105 compact devices and the Blackberry Bold 9650.

Blackberry Pearl 3G

We will start with the new Pearl 3G series in which both devices boast of more or less, the same features except for differences in their keyboard layouts. The 9100 has a 20-key hybrid QWERTY SureType keypad, as the ones seen on prior Pearl models. The 9105, on the other hand, has the traditional RIM proprietary keypad design in a 14 key alphanumeric layout. Both the phones are amongst the most compact devices ever released by RIM. However, the reduction in size hasn't resulted in compromise on the features front. Both the Pearl 3G models measure up at 108mm x 50mm x 13.3mm (4.25in x 1.96in x 0.52in) and each feature a high-res 360 x 400 pixel display. At 93g, the devices are also amongst the lightest devices from RIM. Both the phones boast of a 624MHz processor and come with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera (with video capture), an optical trackpad controller, GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), and a high-capacity microSDHC memory card slot.

These Pearl phones also pack in a fully features media player and Bluetooth support. Both the devices are powered by a 1150mAh battery that should stay put for 5.5 hours of talk time on GSM/EDGE and HSDPA 3G networks. The devices are expected to be available for the average Joe starting May.


Blackberry Bold 9650
The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is RIM's latest offering for the CDMA platform. It supports the 3G (EVDO) networks in North America and (HSPA/UMTS) elsewhere and has a full-QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) support. The BlackBerry Bold 9650 also includes 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC cards. It comes preloaded with a 2 GB card.The Bold 9650 boasts of a large (2.44-inch) high-resolution display (480 x 360 resolution at 245 ppi), a 3.2 MP camera with flash, variable zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording and an advanced media player for videos, pictures and music.

It also comes with a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and A2DP support. The Bold 9650 also features a Full HTML web browser and supports streaming audio and video via RTSP. For businessmen on the go, there is full GPS support as well. It boasts of a 1400 mAhr battery that should suffice for 5 hours of CDMA talk time. The Bold 9650 too, like the Pearl series, is expected to be on sale starting next month.

Kingmax Launches PD-02 USB Flash Drive

Kingmax has launched a new USB Flash drive - KINGMAX PD-02, which is the advanced version of the KINGMAX PD-07. While it keeps the streamlined appearance, it adds the slide USB connector and anti-scratch surface.

The slide USB connector design of PD-02 makes it slim and the cap-less feature makes it more convenient to use. Also, because of its special scratch resistant material, users no longer have to worry about the USB drive getting scratched or damaged.

The PD-02 is currently available in four capacities: 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB, which are all in compliance with USB2.0 high-speed transmission. It comes in a sleek design -- 59.5mm (L) x18mm (W) x9.6mm (H). This new pen drive will be supported by Windows 7, Vista READYBOOST technology.

The PD-02 comes with a five-year warranty and its 16GB model is available for Rs. 1,700. The prices of the other capacities have not been disclosed by Kingmax as yet.

Vodafone Brings World's Cheapest Mobile to India

It was on the eve of the Mobile World Congress 2010 that we first heard of Vodafone's plans to storm in to the ultra low-end mobile phones segment. Back then, they had showcased two handsets, the Vodafone 150 and the Vodafone 250 - both priced below the Rs. 1,000 mark.

Almost three months down the line, a recent The Times of India report states that Vodafone is on the verge of bringing the Vodafone 150 to India. It will retail at an ultra low-price of Rs. 700 - making it by far, the cheapest handset you can buy in India. This is an impressive feat considering there are already multitudes of low-cost phone manufacturers in the country and that a multinational has managed to outsmart them and launch a device that's cheaper than the cheapest low-end handset out there.

Now, if you thought the low-price tag was a perfect excuse to leave out several "important" features, the Vodafone 150 MIGHT just surprise you. The phone offers expected voice and SMS services and packs in quite a few features you wouldn't expect in such a low-priced phone. The 150 supports mobile payment services, has a miniUSB connector, alarm clock, a torch, calculator a currency converter; 2 embedded games; and memory for up to100 entries in phonebook plus SMS storage. Not bad for a sub-1k phone! The battery is rated at 500mAh and offers standby time up to 400hrs and talk time up to 5hrs.

Vodafone had also, back in February, confirmed that it will maximize the availability of the handsets by providing an extensive logistics infrastructure across countries with sizeable and isolated rural populations. With this, Vodafone expects that the phone will reach 60 percent of the population in India. Marten Pieters, MD and CEO, Vodafone Essar, told The Times of India, "The average user in rural India does not spend as much as mobile consumers in Delhi or in Mumbai. Though the majority still make a revenue stream for mobile operators, the idea is to make mobile phones affordable and achievable for everyone."

The Rs. 700 Vodafone 150 will be sold across the country even though the rural areas will be the primary focus.

Details About Another Mid-range Nokia Phone Leaked

While the world is busy discussing the pros and cons of the just announced Nokia N8, a bunch of product leakers were busy giving finishing touches to the latest story that was to be released. A few hours later, the bloggerverse was filled with images and stories regarding Nokia's next mid-range handset, the C2. Folks over at Ciao Mondo were the first ones who came across images of what is said to be the C2.

The C2, if ever released, will be a younger cousin to the current C-Series from Nokia (that includes the recently launched C3, C5 and the C6) and is likely to run Nokia's S40 OS. That said, the most interesting factor about the C2 is its form factor. The C2 is somewhat similar to the good old Nokia 6800 which was a weird handset with a split QWERTY keypad. In fact, the C2 takes the 6800 design to a completely new level. Instead of the small screen which adorned the 6800, the C2 will have a largish QVGA sized touchscreen. The keyboard is rumoured to boast of using e-ink technology. You can also fold the keypad and make the phone absolutely normal looking in a matter of a few seconds. As for other features, it is expected to come adorned with a 2MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics. As of now, this is all we know about this new handset.

Nokia 6800

What we can guess is that the phone is likely to be a S40 device since it is positioned below the C3 which too runs S40. As of now, we will need to wait and watch if these renderings eventually turn out to be true.

Windows Live Messenger App for iPhone due in June

After Yahoo Messenger was introduced for the iPhone Platform in August last year, Microsoft bucked up and has now launched Windows Live Messenger app for the iPhone Platform. Neowin, a technology news portal, got lucky to get the exclusive first screenshots of Windows Live Messenger app for iPhone OS. Microsoft is planning to release Windows Live Messenger for iPhone in June this year just after releasing Windows Live Wave 4 suite.

Though Microsoft is busy working on the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, the company ensures that iPhone OS based device owners also get some MSN services. At this moment, owners of iPhone and iPod Touch devices make use of third party multiple-login-at-once apps to connect with their Windows Live contacts.

The new Windows Live Messenger app for iPhone would essentially be a stripped down version of Windows Live Messenger for desktop. File sharing wouldn't be available but users would be able to upload photos. The Windows Live Messenger app will have a Social tab that will show up the status and activity updates of the user's contacts. And then, there would be Friends list and Chat tab. Photos get a separate tab for viewing, uploading and sharing.

Yahoo has a standalone Yahoo Messenger for iPhone while Google Talk is available as a web app. We ought to wait till June to get our hands on the Windows Live Messenger app for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

HTC PC70110 Slider Spotted at FCC's Test Labs

Though HTC might be on touchscreen smartphone rampage, it won't phase out full QWERTY slider smartphones. At the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Test Labs, HTC PC70110 slider smartphone was spotted. It is alsolisted at the FCC site. The button configuration on the handset indicates that it might be yet another Android handset.

The HTC smartphone model PC70110 was tested for both GSM and WCDMA network modes. HTC PC70110 is a slider with full QWERTY keyboard. The Home, Menu, Back and Search keys on the front panel suggest that the phone will have Android OS. The sky blue panel suggests this may be the smartphone for the fashion frenzy. However, we are sure HTC would give this model an attractive name to join its recently released Legend and Desire Android phones.

Corsair 800DW PC Cabinet Now in India

Inspan Infotech has launched Corsair CC800DW cabinet - the first ever from the company. This is purely a high-end case designed for enthusiast and not meant for beginners. It's priced roughly at Rs. 25,000 which is a huge amount. In fact, you can actually build a full PC with that money.

What makes this case stand out though is its feature set which is why it demands such a premium. This full tower case comes with three bundled 140mm case fans with the ability to add upto four more 120mm fans. There are also plenty of pre-drilled holes for cable management and the hard drives are arranged in such a way so as to facilitate efficient air flow throughout the chassis. The case is divided in to three separate cooling chambers for the hard drive, graphics card and power supply. The entire chassis is built with a steel structure and aluminum face plates and can accommodate ATX, m-ATX and EATX motherboards.

If you're an enthusiast, you should keep your eye on this one now that it's going to be made available in India.

Opera Arrives on Mac Platform

Opera has just released Opera 10.52 web browser for Mac OS X systems. This new Opera 10.52 is claimed to be 10 times faster than the Opera 10.10 version. So Firefox and Chrome for Mac already have a tough competition in terms of speed. Opera 10.52 features native Cocoa integration, multi-touch trackpad gestures support, and Growl notification support.

Visit http://www.opera.com/browser/download/ from your Mac OS X's Safari/Firefox/Chrome to download the Opera 10.52 browser.

Opera has built the new 10.52 web browser on native Cocoa framework and hence it appears to be more responsive. New 10.52 version brings along HTML5 Video and SVG support. Also the new Carakan JavaScript engine and new Vega graphic library play a major role in boosting the speed of this browser.

The design of Opera for Mac has been overhauled and the browser also supports multi-touch gestures on the glass trackpad of MacBook Pros. Opera has also added Growl notification support and so you'll get certain notifications if your download is complete or pop-up is blocked, etc. Opera also brings Turbo compression technology in this browser which allows surfing even in slower or congested networks.

BlackBerry 9670 Clamshell Images Leaked

Looks like we have an overload of Blackberry OS 6.0 related stories today! Anyway, it definitely is a welcome change from the iPhone 4 and OS 4.0 related stories that we've been bombarded with of late.

After the leak of OS 6.0 screenshots, it's time to see images of what might just be the first of the OS 6.0 laden devices. Now, just as interesting the Blackberry OS 6.0 is, the device that is slated to run the OS too turns out to be interesting. What we are seeing in the images below is now known as the Blackberry 9670, the first full QWERTY keypad laden flip phone from RIM. Yes, there have been flip phones from RIM earlier as well, with QWERTY keypads too, albeit not the full ones.

According to Folks over at BGR, who came across the pictures of the device first, the features of this flip phone includes;

• 5MP Camera
• Wi-Fi
• 360x480 internal display
• External display
• Trackpad
• OS 6.0
• MicroSD
• Bluetooth

The phone will also sport a microUSB port and a microSD card slot. Another interesting thing about this device is that it is purportedly CDMA. However, there is a chance that we could see a GSM version of the same as well. As of now, there is no word on the pricing or exact release date.

INTEX Launches Dual SIM, QWERTY Phone IN 2020

Intex has announced its latest QWERTY keyboard laden, dual SIM phone, the IN 2020 in India. The phone is touted to be an affordable, dual SIM, QWERTY mobile phone. It supports GPRS and WAP as well. The 1.8" screen is large enough for online-chatting and texting. The IN2020 has a long lasting battery, good for about 11 hours of talk time and up to 336 hrs on stand-by.

It features an audio/video player, equalizers and wireless FM radio as well. The handset also features Mobile Tracker- SMS based facility to track the phone if at all it gets stolen, and Black List- an in-built feature to block 10 callers of your choice.

A powerful five LED torch light, present on the top panel, makes it a sturdy and handy gizmo for towns with long power cuts. The phone supports two languages- Hindi and English, and has an interesting Auto Call Record function, which of late is coming up as a very useful feature for professionals and citizen journalists. The IN2020 also features memory expansion up to 2GB. The phone is priced at Rs. 2200, which makes it one of the cheapest full QWERTY handsets you can buy in India today.

Replace iPod Shuffle's Faulty Headphones for Free

Apple has announced a worldwide free replacement plan for Apple headphones used with third generation iPod Shuffle. As per Apple's notice, some owners of iPod Shuffle (third generation or 3G) faced issues with Apple headphones due to remote malfunctioning under certain conditions. Apple noted that a small percentage of iPod Shuffle (3G) manufactured between Feb 2009 and Feb 2010 were affected. Even Apple earphones with remove-mic and in-ear headphones with remote mic working intermittently or totally non-responsive also fall under this program.

The third generation iPod Shuffle was delightfully small but brought along the new Apple headphones with remote to control the playback functions. However, it was the new Apple headphones with remote that had a mysterious control chip that was the heart of the iPod Shuffle 3G. But certain users faced issues while using these and hence Apple came up with a replacement program for free for two years from date of purchase.

The Apple headphones replacement is meant for the iPod Shuffle 3G models that have the following issues:

- Controls are non-responsive or work intermittently

- Unexpected volume increase or decrease

- Unexpected playing of voice feedback

Check whether the serial number of your iPod Shuffle 3G falls under this range:

xx909xxxxxx to xx952xxxxxx

xx001xxxxxx to xx004xxxxxx

Here's the quick guide to check the serial number of your iPod Shuffle. In case your iPod Shuffle shows the aforementioned symptoms and also falls under the serial number range then head to Apple's Online Service Assistantpage and enter the relevant details.

Seems like the control chip inside the remote of the Apple headphones is just acting wonky and it's good time to get it replaced.

Windows Phone 7 Architecture Details Leaked

While we eagerly await the first Windows Phone 7 device, more details about its architecture got leaked. Tweakers.netgrabbed a leaked document that contained quite a lot of information about Microsoft's next generation mobile operating system. However, that information is tentative and may change when Windows Phone 7 handsets actually come out later this year.

The leaked document talks mostly about the technical internal working of the Windows Phone 7 architecture like two different file systems would be used. System files would be stored on IMGFS file system while user files stored on memory cards or internal flash storage will use TexFAT file system. Also, if the memory card containing some important files is removed, the phone would become mostly a paper weight.

Just like Apple has restricted the iPhone OS to iTunes and Google has confined Android only to other Google services, Microsoft will bind Windows Phone 7 to Windows Live ID. The Marketplace would be accessible and would be the only place to get apps by using Windows Live ID. Furthermore, the Windows Live ID would serve as the authentication key for data synchronization with Microsoft's servers.

Updates for the Windows Phone 7 devices would be distributed by Microsoft update system and would be downloadable via Over-The-Air or through the Zune software on PC.

Microsoft Tiles will exist despite the flexibility offered to mobile operators and manufacturers for adding custom tiles. Mobile service providers can also add up to 6 custom applications that would be pre-approved by Microsoft first.

One of the interesting details is the default search engine which usually would be Bing. However, service providers would be able to choose other search engine if they have exclusive deals one like AT&T has with Yahoo.

BlackBerry OS 6.0 Images, Details Surface

Earlier in February it was reported that Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS 6.0 was in the making. Now, BoyGeniusReport has acquired the first screenshots and some details of the OS. A redesigned homescreen, multi-touch gesture support for touchscreen handsets, and system-wide kinetic scrolling are few of the many features unleashed in the major upgrade. RIM is expected to reveal BlackBerry OS 6.0 at the WES 2010 symposium starting April 27, while it will be released sometime in June or July. Hey, that's when the iPhone OS 4.0 update is expected too!

BlackBerry OS 6.0 is expected to be a nifty upgrade to the existing 5.0 version and will bring new set of features. The BGR guys were shown the working of BB OS 6.0 and also given some screenshots for reference by one of their sources at AT&T. RIM has finally implemented system-wide kinetic scrolling, which was recently made available to Symbian S60v5 users as well. Kinetic scrolling over touchscreen BlackBerry handsets gives a fluid experience while browsing through lists, emails, webpages and so on.

Another major addition is system-wide multi-touch support like in webpages, photos app, media player and so on. Of course, multi-touch means you can pinch-and-zoom the small fonts on webpages for it to appear larger and the same gesture works even for photos. The new decked up browser built with WebKit offers tab switching and favorites options for better mobile web experience. The tab switcher comes with transparent display.

Homescreen will also undergo major changes and will be customizable with pages. Just like Android phones, you can have pages full of applications on left and right of the main screen. At the homescreen, you get to pull up the apps menu and then scroll it sideways to access other pages like Favorities, All, home, etc.

One of the most interesting features is the modal pop-ups with gestures that will work well with touchscreen BlackBerry. When the BB OS 6.0 loaded touchscreen BlackBerry phone is tapped and held for a moment, nine icon groups appear on the center of the screen like a context menu. So you basically get to outdo the normal menu options and get more visually-contextual menu icons. The photo application draws quite an inspiration from the iPhone's photo app.

All this info will bring many touchscreen BlackBerry owners to the edge of their seats. However, it looks like it's going to be just a few months wait until BlackBerry OS 6.0 is released.

StarCraft II Beta for Mac Coming Up Next Week

Now although StarCraft II beta's close beta is running for Windows, Mac users need not feel outcast. Chris Sigaty, lead for StarCraft II, revealed to Kotaku that Blizzard will be releasing StarCraft II Beta for Mac users sometime next week. Apart from that, developers will also release Map Editor for the existing Windows-based StarCraft II beta testers.

Blizzard's sci-fi real-time strategy game StarCraft II had impressed Windows-based closed beta testers. These beta testers will receive a massive update that will now bring the much demanded Map and Mod Editor. This means that beta testers will have fun customizing it by next week. StarCraft II Beta is based on Battle.net architecture.

Last month Blizzard confirmed its plans to introduce StarCraft II beta on Mac platforms sometime in April. And now Sigaty has revealed that the beta for Mac is due next week. So all Mac users, stay glued to this space and also get a Battel.net account at - http://www.battle.net.

The final version of this real-time strategy game StarCraft II is expected to release within the first half of this year. But Blizzard is known for delaying and doesn't compromise on quality or finishing. So we won't be surprised if this game is delayed by a month or two.

EA Releases New Strategy Game; Lord of Ultima

Electronic Arts has launched a new browser-based free-to-play strategy game called Lord of Ultima. This strategy game is set within the universe of Ultima and has 'innovative' social features like advanced trading, creating alliances, online chat and community forums. Developed by Phenomic, this new strategy game is targeted at beginners as well as hard core fans of strategy games. Do note that this is an online strategy game and hence you'd require an Internet connection to play it.

Lord of Ultima involves mastering the arts of trade and diplomacy along with a knack of military activities. You need to act as a spy, and then conquer the enemy territories. The game puts a player in the world of Caledonia as an eager conqueror in the early stages of raising an empire. The player needs to first develop a village and then evolve it into a customized capital.

Players can choose to play as merchants, who trade resources over land and even in sea, or as feared conquerors who create mighty armies consisting of knights to defeat the enemies.

As mentioned earlier, this game is free-to-play and doesn't require any sort of registration. However, if you want to access Wiki, Forums or chat online you need to register. No download or installation is required to play this game and we suppose it should work in all recent builds of different web browsers.

This game is available in English and German and can be played at www.lordofultima.com/en.

Farmville for iPhone, Android Phones Soon?

Farmville, a widely played social game, may come for iPhone and Android based smartphones as well. Supererogatory's Tumblr page had details about a few Farmville sites having the same address - that of Zynga. As per the details, Zynga has plans to introduce Farmville on iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms soon. Won't you be happy to water your crops using your mobile while you are travelling in a crowded bus?

Farmville is a classic example of social (network) gaming phenomenon and obviously the creators must be looking to take it beyond Facebook. Bringing Farmville to Android won't be any issue since it supports Flash. However, it would be a major issue to make Farmville work on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. As per the new evidence found, the Farmville owners have following sites registered to their address:

http://whois.domaintools.com/farmville.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
DNStination Inc.
303 Second Street Suite 800N
San Francisco CA 94107
US

http://whois.domaintools.com/farmvilleandroid.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
DNStination Inc.
303 Second Street Suite 800N
San Francisco CA 94107
US

Created on: 2010-04-14.
Expires on: 2012-04-13.
Record last updated on..: 2010-04-14.

http://whois.domaintools.com/farmvilleipad.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
DNStination Inc.
303 Second Street Suite 800N
San Francisco CA 94107
US

Created on: 2010-04-14.
Expires on ..: 2012-04-13.
Record last updated on..: 2010-04-14.

http://whois.domaintools.com/farmvilleiphone.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
DNStination Inc.
303 Second Street Suite 800N
San Francisco CA 94107
US

Created on: 2010-04-14.
Expires on: 2012-04-13.
Record last updated on..: 2010-04-14.

http://whois.domaintools.com/farmvillesms.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
DNStination Inc.
303 Second Street Suite 800N
San Francisco CA 94107
US

Created on: 2010-04-14.
Expires on: 2012-04-13.
Record last updated on..: 2010-04-14.

While the iPad, iPhone and Android sites are obvious that respective platform version may be under works while SMS site kind of puzzles us. We think SMS may be used as payment or upgrade gateway for micro-transactions on Farmville. When Joystiq contacted Zynga, the company said, "Zynga plans to expand to various mobile platforms, but unfortunately, we cannot provide additional information at this time."

If Farmville comes for iPhone, iPad and Android based phones, you can always tell your wife or girlfriend to water her crops any time she wishes.

You Want Porn, Buy Android Phone: Steve Jobs

Apple has been in troubled waters ever since the App Store review bench has been banning and allowing myriad style of Apps. Mark Browing, an Apple customer got a reply from Apple CEO Steve Jobs saying that folks who want porn can buy an Android phone, reported TechCrunch. Obviously this snide comment comes due to the tense war-like situation between Google and Apple. This came up after Apple banned Mark Fiore, a Pulitzer prize winning satire cartoonist's application on the grounds that the app ridiculed public figures. However, Fiore was asked to resubmit the app and the App would be reviewed again.

Mark Fiore is a famous independent satire cartoonist for San Francisco Chronicle had submitted his NewToons application to App Store back in December. An email citing reasons why Apple didn't approve this app read:

"(it) contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states: Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple's reasonable judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory."

This email was reprinted by Laura McGanna at Neiman Journalism Lab.

Obviously Apple had stepped on the wrong side. Banning Fiore's app certainly caused big unrest in the news and media publication community and Apple didn't want to cause more damage. Hence it thought of considering the application, but only after certain cartoons were removed from it.

A concerned Apple customer Mark Browing wrote an email to Steve Jobs:

Steve,

I was converted to Apple products with the announcement of the iPhone 3G. (My friends have been trying to convince me for years.) Since then I've purchased 4 iPhones, 2 computers, several routers, and miscellaneous other items. Unfortunately, I'm really starting to have a philosophical issue with your company. It appears that more and more Apple is determining for it's consumers what content they should be able to receive. For instance, the blocking of Mark Fiore's comic app (due to being political satire) or blocking of what Apple considers to be porn.

I'm all for keeping porn out of kids hands. Heck - I'm all for ensuring that I don't have to see it unless I want to. But that's what parental controls are for. Put these types of apps into categories and allow them to be blocked by their parents should they want to.

Apple's role isn't moral police - Apple's role is to design and produce really cool gadgets that do what the consumer wants them to do.

Thanks for listening

-Matthew

Browing is yet another person like several others who believe that Apple shouldn't put on the moral police coat and provide appropriate control features instead. However, this was Jobs reply to Browning.

Fiore's app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and Android phone.

Just to clarify, the 'and' before Android phone is a typo and it's supposed to be 'an'. Google's Android platform has been ridiculed for potential porn source by Apple CEO. However, Apple fails to see the fact that the more Android gets bragged, more developers get interested in the platform. However, though Apple tries to take a strong moral stance, it continues to sell elite pornography content providing PlayBoy app. Fickle's fight isn't going to fetch us anything but yeah, better apps with appropriate parental controls would.

See what the Real iPhone 4G will Look Like

Since last two summers, we've been constantly spotting grainy images of the next iPhone model of corresponding year and we did spot a few pictures of the iPhone 4G as well. Engadget has now posted what it calls "the real iPhone 4G photos". Though many pointed out that even these were fake, prolific blogger and tech pundit John Gruber did some research and concluded that this bunch of iPhone 4G photos is real.

Back in late January, Engadget had leaked images of Apple iPad prototype from Weiphone.com, a mysterious Chinese forum. That photo was rumored to be taken in Apple's Test Labs and had a glimpse of iPhone 4G prototype. Engadget has managed to grab clearer photos of purported iPhone 4G through Twitpics, an image uploading service for Twitter. Engadget said an unnamed 'source' confirmed the authenticity of these images.

So what can we conclude from these "real" images? They show that the iPhone 4G model has different build than the existing iPhone models. The iPhone 4G prototype model carries aluminium-like rims, glass screen with a front camera and iPhone 3G-like back panel. The back panel also carries an FCC number starting with BCGA and an IC number from 579C. These numbers also exist in iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

Apparently, Apple hasn't used the aluminum enclosure just like the one used in MacBook Pros. More internal shots of iPhone 4G were available from theWeiphone forum.

John Gruber pointed out that back in 2006, Apple registered a patent for using ceramic enclosures and according to him, aluminum enclosures don't get strong radio signals. Several sources told Gruber that the back enclosure is high-durability fancy glass. This new glass-like enclosure would be stronger to survive falls, scratch resistant and also radio waves friendly.

So far, we're contented with what Gruber points at and are totally geared up to see the new iPhone 4G officially. We should not forget that iPhone's yearly product life cycle suggests that iPhone's refresh is due this year as well in June as Phil Schiller senior vice president of marketing, told David Pogue, a technology columnist with The New York Times.

Transcend's New Shockproof Portable USB 3.0 HDD

Are you always unsure if that bumpy ride to your workplace or school today might have disrupted the data in your backpack?

You can now relax as Transcend has has introduced new 'shockproof' USB 3.0 portable hard drive - StoreJet 25D3 with 500GB capacity. Obviously, the USB 3.0 interface offers faster transfer speed leverage over USB 2.0 drives. This StoreJet 25D3 has internal suspension technology to survive shocks on its piano black finish bearing chassis. This is the same HDD shown at the CeBIT 2010 trade show last month.

New Transcend StoreJet 25D3 features advanced anti-shock design that saves the data on drive from getting damaged. Its piano black case has a shock dampening system inside incorporating suspension technology to survive shocks. This drive has been designed to go into power-saving mode automatically if it stays inactive for ten minutes and thereby saves energy by 40 percent.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface that promises real-world transfer speeds of up to 90 MB/s. And of course, it is backward compatible with USB 2.0. Apart from that, this drive offers 256-bit AES encryption level for files and folders with the help of software bundled along. Being USB powered, there's no need for external power source and has multi-color LED lights for various indications.

This portable drive is compatible with following operating systems: Windows 7/Vista/XP, Linux Kernal 2.6.31 or higher and Mac OS 10.4 or higher (only USB 2.0 support at the moment.). We'll update this space as soon as we get more information about its Indian pricing. Finally, USB 3.0 bearing devices are making way into the market.