At Apple’s September 9, 2009 event reviewers and fans alike were surprised by what was thought to be an inevetability#&151;The iPod Touch would be blessed with a video camera and/or still camera. And when the iPod Nano (the Touch’s little runt kid brother) got a cool new video camera, it was thought to be an absolute lock. But it didn’t happen and Apple fanboys around the world went bat sh#t.

So, the iPod Touch doesn’t have a camera. *shrugs*  Now the naysayers are claiming that the Zune HD, which was released earlier this week, may get a foothold in the media player market. Even after the original Zune devices barely put a dent the size of a pebble in Apple iPod sales numbers, the talk persists. Now Archos has upped the ante with a media device that threatens to turn more heads away from iPod’s once and for all.

Let’s take a look at the stats, shall we.

Archos 5 stats courtesy of 9to5mac.com

• It runs Android which has a working apps store and Google behind it.  Included apps: Webbrowser, Email, Contacts, DroidIn™, Ebuddy™IM, Twidroid™, Deezer™, Dailymotion™, QuickPedia, ThinkFree Mobile, Moov, CraigsPhone, Pages jaunes™ (only for France), High Paying Jobs (only for US & Canada), Alarm clock, Calculator.
• Built-in GPS, built-in DVR, 802.11N, FM receiver AND transmitter (to broadcast music into car stereo)!!!!! - Game changing functionality
• 800×480 screen 3X compared to Zune’s 480×272, over an inch larger
• Up to 500GB Hard drive version, MicroSD card slot for an additional 32GB of Flash storage
• Bluetooth keyboard support
• Flash 10 support in 2010
• the Archos 5G has 3G wireless built-in. !!!

Fr3K 0ut!

The hackers have done it again. The Dev Team hackers have been working hard to PWN the iPhone 3.0 software and it seems their domination of the latest and greatest iPhone software is near complete. This installment of the jailbreak is called redsn0w:

redsn0w is an easy to use, multi-platform, multi-device jailbreaking and unlocking (iPhone 2G only) tool for the iPhone 2G (original iPhone), the iPhone 3G (but not the 3GS) and also the iPod touch (first and second generation). Currently it is available for Windows and Mac OS X (there are some issues using redsn0w with OS X PPC, please use an Intel Mac until we have this problem resolved).

Read more here before you even think about jailbreaking. This is not for unlocking the phone, so if you use T-mobile for example, and you want to get the iPhone version 3.0, THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT FOR YOU. You’ve been warned.

I plan on jailbreaking my iPhone 3G in a minute. Stay tuned for the vid:

via Apple iPhone School

The verdict: This version seems more spappy than version 2.2.1, Apple’s last update of the iPhone software. I have to say, I’m pretty giddy at the prospect of creating blog post and tweets with the addition of copy/paste. And the spotlight feature is right on the money for launching apps and search emails, notes, and calendar items. Below are a few screenshots Video to come later:

Spotlight Search: Swipe to the right a the iPhone software displays a universal phone search. Search contacts, notes, mail, calendar events, music, etc.

Notifications: New to version 3.0 are app notifications. Apps like AIM IM service can now notify you when you have a new IM. Be notified via Sound, Message or App badge.

Voice Memos: Not sure if I’ll find any use for this but my be great for enterprise folks. It’s just cool looking.

Youtube Logins: Login to your Youtube account and retrieve subscriptions.

Notes: Linkable phone numbers, email address and urls launch respective apps.

Itunes: Now download movies, TV shows or music vids.

Copy/Paste/Select/Select All: Select and copy text, links, images, etc. ZOMG! Finally!!!

The folks over at the Apple IPhone School got great news. Poster Douglas received a notification from AT&T trumpeting that he would in fact be able to upgrade to the all new IPhone 3GS. Hooray!

Great news for those of us who were supposed to pay $399 for the iPhone 3G S 16 GB. As of today, you may also be eligible. As you can see from the text message below, Yesterday I was not eligible, but today I am. Remember, you can call *639# on your iPhone and you will get a text message reply with eligibility info or visit AT&T’s website…

Unfortunately, I can’t share in his happiness. I dialed *639# to check my eligibility for the upgrade. I soon received a text message telling me to scram. Says I won’t be eligible until December 2009. That sucks.

Read it at Apple Iphone School

The Palm Pre hits stores tomorrow. For those unaware, the Pre is the latest smartphone to hit the block from the beleaguered Palm Corporation. Palm became the early leader in this space after buying Handspring’s Treo line of smartphones.

The Pre is touted as an iPhone competitor. Much like Sprint’s Instinct, Verizon’s Voyager, T-Mobile Google Android T1 and the Blackberry Storm, cellphone carriers and phone manufacturers are looking to take financial bite out of Apple’s iPhone market share. Thus far, the iPhone had sold upwards of 37 million iPhones, even with a recent drop in sales.

Well, the technology reviewer trinity has spoken and the word is very favorable. The few drawbacks are the cheap hardware feel, tiny keyboard and pilthy pickings in Palm’s app store. However, don’t expect lines around the mall for the new Palm Pre. That’s Palm’s take, not mine.

Reviews:

Wall Street Journal - Walter Mossberg

USA Today - Ed Baig

Pre is 3.9 inches high by 2.3 inches wide and two-thirds of an inch thick — shorter but thicker than the iPhone. The compact, slightly curvy design results in a screen that’s a tad smaller than the iPhone’s. It is by no means obvious that there is also a hidden, slide-out physical keyboard, a nod to consumers who don’t fancy the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard. The Pre has a virtual dialing pad for tapping out phone calls, but there’s no virtual keyboard to complement its physical equivalent. At times, I would have liked the option: You don’t always want to slide out the keyboard.

Like the iPhone, Pre has an excellent browser that displays Web pages in their real layouts. Sprint’s 3G network was pretty snappy in decent coverage, though Wi-Fi when available is obviously faster. The browser doesn’t support the Adobe Flash video standard. Palm and Adobe hope to deliver the capability in the future.

Pre poses no immediate challenge to the iPhone when it comes to robust apps. Only a dozen or so are available at launch, including Pandora Internet radio, Citysearch, The New York Times and Classic, an emulator that lets you run old Palm (Treo) programs.

New York Times - David Pogue

For a detailed review, head on over to The Boy Genius Reports for their take. Here’s a crude scorecard of the review:

• Screen: Thumbs up
• Keyboard: Thumbs down
• Feel: Mixed
• OS: Thumbs Up
• Multimedia: More Info Needed
• Browser: Mixed
• Applications: More Info Needed

With all the smoke I’m really interested to see if customers will jump ship to Sprint like many for the AT&T and the iPhone. What about the 3G service? Most importantly, will developers come out for the Pre? We’ll see June 5th.

Those crazy aliens at Hulu have released a desktop version of their popular video service. Don’t know who runs things over there, but in a year or so, Hulu’s progress has been real incredible. Are you listening Google? Only issue with the app: crashed on me a few times. It’s all good, I’m happy with my Apple TV powered by XBMC and Boxee.

Hulu Desktop

And the world snoozeed…

Microsoft is releasing the Zune HD. Are you feeling this?

Zune HD Video Hands On from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Pre-mature?

The Palm Pre may be available to Verizon users come 2010. On the news the Wall Street Palm readers saw the stock surge today. This is all for a phone that has yet to hit the streets. The so-called “iPhone killer” is highly touted but it’ll be interesting to see if developers are clamouring to create apps for the handset and if many will be willing to switch over to Sprint. How are the T-Mobile G1 and Blackbery Storm or the numerous Sprint iPhone clones doing anyway?

Palm Pre

Q: I’ve been burned in the past with viruses on my PC. I just bought a new Macbook. Should I buy virus protection software?

A: Call me foolish, but for my personal Macbook, I’ve never had virus protection and I’ve had it for 3 1/2 years. Don’t let me be your example though. If there ever is a threat, it’s likely most Mac users will be totally defenseless.

You’ve seen the ads. According to Apple, Macs are virus free compared to Windows PCs.  There was some controversy recently when a Apple knowledge base article appeared on the company’s support site. Apple noted that the article had been updated and then quickly removed the offending piece. In addition, Apple released this statement:

The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.

I’m a Apple fanboy, but even my Apple delusions forbid me from denying that viruses are still a possiblility on Macs. It’s true. The Macs Unix based operating system keeps permissions tight and out of the box, the Leopard’s firewall restricts alot of Internet traffic from getting through. It wouldn’t hurt to invest in some protection. Both Symantec and McAfee offer software packages to protect your Mac.

Have a single Ethernet connection? Instead of fighting with your friends, spouse or kids about using the only connected PC or Mac, in less than three minutes you’ll be using your Macbook or late model Macbook Pro to share the good times.

Here’s what you do:

On you ethernet connected Mac, go to System Preferences. Select Sharing. Next select Internet Sharing. Change your option to share from Ethernet from the drop down menu. Click Airport option and then give the nifty network you just made a name and password. Lastly, turn on Internet sharing. That’s it! Enjoy!