Apple appears to be exempt from China’s mandate that a controversial Internet filtering program be shipped with all computers sold in the country. Computers that do not meet the software’s technical requirements are excluded from the mandate, according to one PC maker. China in recent weeks ordered foreign and domestic PC makers to package Green Dam Youth Escort, a program that blocks pornography and some sensitive political content online, with all computers sold in the country. While China postponed the requirement from its original deadline this week, state media cited an official as saying the mandate will still eventually be enforced….. Read more…
Sprint’s bringing out the big words by boasting to Unstrung it’ll be beating everyone to the market with its 3G femtocell solution. Company VP of device and technology development Mathew Oommen is pretty light on some of the finer details — like actual release date, hardware supplier, pricing scheme, and pretty much every other piece of information we’d want — but he did imply there’d be multiple options available for the CDMA EV-DO Rev. A extender, including a device more tailored for enterprise use….. Read more…
Designer Tryi Yeh from Taipei (Taiwan), inspired by a bottle of wine, has come up with a personal mobile device that apart from presenting a unique design also harnesses green energy to remain juiced up for a longer duration. Dubbed “Cheers,” the mobile phone generates power from a green Alcohol-Cell, which provides a more efficient way of saving the battery’s energy, adding a meaning to your prolonged chats. The eco-supportive phone also features a bottle cap-shaped fast function switch on the top, together with a high-resolution touchscreen….. Read more…
ZTE, the Chinese handset maker who makes devices for operators world wide and has a nice chunk of market share in China, has submitted the Coral 200FM to the FCC for approval. It’s a budget device, but the thing that stands out is the solar panel on the back. Digicel is known to provide low-cost and free portable solar chargers in many markets. Now, Digicel’s new concept of launching the Coral-200-Solar with an integrated, built-in solar charger, is expected to lap up most of the market sales. There are an estimated two billion people worldwide, who have little or no access to electricity. In such markets, the idea of a mobile handset powered by solar energy will be greatly appreciated. Solar-powered handsets are clearly the way to meet the needs of power-challenged users across the globe….. Read more…
The folks at Facebook don’t seem to be taking much downtime this summer. After announcing a revamped approach to user privacy control this week, the Facebook team is now preparing to launch a new and improved Facebook application for the iPhone. All the changes come as Facebook makes big gains in the social media world. The site just recently overtook MySpace for the first time as America’s most popular social network. Add onto that the company’s upcoming Xbox integration and recent high-profile personalized URL addition, and things certainly seem to be going Facebook’s way….. Read more…
Google made a few updates to various Apps services this week, including one that lets users within an organization share templates with each other. Google already has a template gallery for Google Docs where people can share templates such as presentation designs and spreadsheets. But now, Premier and Education Edition Apps users can share templates privately, only with other people in their domain. Co-workers can sort, use and rate the templates. Apps Gmail users have also gotten an improvement to the Contacts list search function. Now, when Apps users search in Contacts in Gmail, they’ll also receive results from their company’s entire global address list, in addition to people that they’ve added to the list and people they’ve previously e-mailed….. Read more…
While Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is something which many people are aware of, there are still significant numbers in the UK who have never heard of this particular technology or what it can do for them. In simple terms this is a technology which allows voice communication over the Internet thereby reducing phone chargers for all consumers. So how does it work? The main provider of VoIP services in the UK, and around the world, is Skype (owned by eBay) which offers the potential to call anywhere in the world using a Skype headset, or a traditional looking telephone, for a minimal monthly charge. The ability to integrate your telephone services with the Internet is not a new phenomenon but the cost structure related to VoIP services is something which many people have never even considered. There is the potential to save tens of pounds, if not hundreds of pounds, a month depending upon your telephone use….. Read more…
Apple is reportedly working to fix an SMS message handling vulnerability in its iPhone that could be used by an attacker to run unauthorized code with full access to the device. According to IDG News Service, Apple has been notified about the vulnerability and is working on a patch that’s planned for release prior to the Black Hat USA security conference later this month. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But iPhone vulnerabilities are not unheard of: The company’s recent iPhone 3.0 software release included 46 fixes for security vulnerabilities….. Read more…
The social networking giant Facebook is attempting to make privacy simpler — that’s right, simpler — by rolling out changes to its privacy settings aimed at giving users more control of their personal information as it competes with microblogging site Twitter. The privacy setting changes were launched in beta July 1 to a beta group of 40,000 and will become available to all Facebook users over the next few weeks. Previous to the launch, Facebook included a corresponding privacy setting every time it added a new feature. Apparently this became way too complicated, said Chris Kelly, Facebook chief privacy officer, in a company blog post. Subsequently, Facebook is streamlining its 40 privacy settings, spread out over six Web pages, into one, simplified privacy page….. Read more…
Apple published a set of guidelines to help iPhone users ensure that their devices remain at proper operating temperatures to prevent overheating and related issues. Moreover, Apple released the tips the day that many of the initial reports surfaced, last Thursday, June 25, so it’s unclear whether or not the two are connected. But the following information could be valuable to any iPhone owner concerned with possible overheating. “Burned” iPhone 3GS (via NowhereElse.FR) with iPhone Overheat Warning Screen….. Read more…
