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French Law Means Unlocked Apple iPhones

October 17th, 2007 by iDunzo

The price is unconfirmed, but Orange, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in France, will have to offer an unlocked version of Apple’s device to comply with French law.

According to Orange’s French website, the company is obligated to sell an unlocked version of any handset which is also sold as part of a subscription package.

The International Herald Tribune reports on the law “passed in 1998 barring network operators from locking new devices to a network for more than six months”.

It’s unlikely that even Apple will be able to squirm out of this, so expect a libere iPhone sometime next year.

It looks like France could become the hub for GodPhone exports (expensive, $560 exports, but exports nonetheless.)

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Napster Overhaul Adds Web-Based Music Client

October 16th, 2007 by iDunzo

Napster is re-inventing itself yet again as it attempts to compete with iTunes and others in the online music business.

The new Napster 4.0 sees the company ditching its desktop application in favor of an browser-based client in an effort to expand its market.

That should be good news for Mac and Linux users who have, until 4.0, been locked out of Napster’s Windows-only model.

Napster’s service will remain subscription-based, with prices at $10 to $15 a month. You can still listen to samples for free, but you’ll only get 30 seconds worth.

The new web-based player sits in a pop-up window and behaves more or less like clients from Last.fm or Pandora.

The web-based client means you can access your music from a wider range of devices — at the very least you can fire it up from any computer.

Christopher Allen, chief operating officer at Napster, tells Reuters:

“with this new platform Napster can easily be integrated into consumer electronics devices or integrated into other Web sites such as social networking sites.”

Is Napster headed for your Facebook page? Certainly sounds like it, though no further details have been announced.

Napster claims around 770,000 subscribers, but lags far behind industry leader iTunes and with Amazon now in the digital downloads game, the market is increasingly crowded.

Napster tries to offer the best of both worlds — allowing streaming audio in the new web-client and subscription-based downloads but clearly most people seem to prefer the iTunes/Amazon buy-single-tracks model.

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Videogame Systems Top ‘Planned Gift’ Lists This Year

October 15th, 2007 by iDunzo

According to research by the Consumer Electronics Association, sales of consumer electronics are expected to top $22 billion this holiday season, with video game systems topping the list of gifts people intend to give to others.

Though consumers are expected to cut down on expenses like home decorations and travel, they’ll still be spending plenty on gifts.

Not surprisingly, video games made the top five most wanted items for teens, along with clothes, computers, MP3 players, and cell phones.

Adults who were hoping to get some kind of electronic gizmo for the holidays put game systems on their wish list beside MP3 players, laptops, TVs, and digital cameras.

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Record Your World in Conflict Exploits With Broadcast Tool

October 15th, 2007 by iDunzo

A new add-on for the RTS title World in Conflict will allow players with Vista and DirectX 10 to broadcast their WiC matches, TV-style.

You can use pre-set or follow cameras and even some telestration if you want to point out something especially fascinating to your viewers.

You’ll also be able to create a movie of the broadcast, to share later with friends and loved ones. The free broadcast tool should be available some time today from Sierra.

Hopefully, developer Massive will make up for delaying the 360 version of World in Conflict by using the extra time to include this new recording feature. It’s the least they can do.

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Apple iPhone Delayed in Canada

October 14th, 2007 by iDunzo

In the U.S., the iPhone trademark is owned by Cisco. Apple chose to work out a deal with them and avoided legal torpedoes.

Apple did manage to get the trademark elsewhere, with filings in Singapore and Australia bearing fruit.

In Canada, however, the mark has long been owned by Comwave, a telecoms company in Ontario.

Apple tried and failed to register the name there—but Comwave, unlike Cisco, won’t play ball on sharing the name.

“The force they put into marketing would quickly make the brand Apple’s and not ours. Co-existence is not possible.”

-Yuval Barzakay – Comwave president

Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Yuval Barzakay added that it would effectively be hijacked by any such agreement:

What he’s saying, of course, is that is that everything has its price, but only if you want to buy it and he’s right.

Can you see Apple renaming the iPhone, or missing out on a market the size of California?

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Today in History: Thrust Beats Sound – Twice

October 13th, 2007 by iDunzo

October 13, 1997: Ten years ago today, less than three weeks after topping 700 MPH in the jet-powered Thrust SuperSonic vehicle, British fighter pilot Andy Green smashed the sound barrier along a one-mile course in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

Under the guidance of former land-speed record-holder and Thrust team leader Richard Noble, Green hit 764.168 MPH, or 1.007 percent above the speed of the sound.

Sixty-one minutes later, Green swept across Black Rock at a speed 1.003 percent faster than sound.

Unfortunately, however, because the second run came one minute late, the Thrust team wouldn’t own the official record until two days later.

On October 15, 1997, the Thrust hit 759.333 MPH on its first run and a stunning 766.109 MPH on its second pass, about thirty minutes later.

It’s worth nothing that October 14 is the date in 1947 when Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier, in the rocket-powered Bell X-1 aircraft.

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