Taiwan is next to get unlocked iPhone 3Gs
As far back as last year, Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom said it was in the process of making an exclusive deal with Apple to deliver the iPhone 3G to the East Asian island. Over the weekend, the deal became official.
Prior to the device's Taiwan launch, CHT representatives said the iPhone 3G would only work on CHT's 3G network. But according to new reports, the device actually launched unlocked, with the ability to assign networks via SIM card.
Analysts: PC growth rate eclipses Macs in November
In a surprising twist, Windows PCs regained ground against Macs during the month of November, says a leading analyst firm. Yet regardless of a difficult economy, notebook PCs of both persuasions showed strong sales.
In somewhat of a reversal of recent trends, sales of Apple's Macintosh computers fell flat in November, with no movement either up or down, whereas those of Windows PCs -- specifically, PCs with Windows pre-installed, as opposed to Linux PCs -- increased to the tune of 7 percent, according to new statistics from analyst firm NPD Group.
Rise of complaints follows Apple Mac OS X 10.5.6 update
An unusual spike in comments posted to Apple's support forums since yesterday afternoon points to the possibility of certain problems in particular with the company's latest rollup to the Mac operating system.
The blue screen has typically been the unofficial Windows logo, at least in and around Macintosh circles. But this morning, users of Mac OS X have been reporting a number of problems, most of which fall into the same category, and some of which are leaving users' computers booting up with nothing on their screens but a field of blue.
Four-year-old Diebold bug bites a California election
An unusual project monitoring the accuracy of electronic voting in Humboldt County, Calif. uncovered a glitch that dropped or miscounted 197 ballots in the November election. The bug has been known to the manufacturer for four years.
E-voting's troubles are widely known by now, so much so that Humboldt County registrar Carolyn Crnich consented to work with a group of election integrity experts -- banded together and calling themselves the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project (HCETP) -- to find a way to double-check the results of the June 2008 voting in her county. Humboldt uses Diebold optical-scan units running, as it turned out, version 1.18.19.0 of the firm's Gems software.
Alcohol sales online: Wine not?
Seventy-five years ago this month, the US junked Prohibition. However, a remarkable number of states still fight bottle battles in one of the Web's longest-running e-commerce controversies -- one that pre-dates e-commerce.
About one-fifth of the US is substantially restricted from buying wine or other spirits online. Fifteen states, according to the Free the Grapes! site, prohibit consumers from doing business directly with wineries in other states; it's a felony in Kentucky, Tennessee and Utah.
Google Friend Connect now supports Twitter
Popular microblogging service Twitter, which has been used for everything from keeping track of jailed journalists to recording the kicks of an unborn baby, has integrated with Friend Connect, Google's open identification platform.
Now, users can join Google Friend Connect affiliated site with their Twitter login information. Users also have the option to use their Friend Connect profile to see if their friends on Twitter are also members of that site. If not, they can invite their subscribers by sending out a tweet containing a link to the new site. Very little is required of the invited users other than clicking through to the new site.
Yahoo launches its updated inbox
Yahoo has begun the final rollout of its new "smarter inbox" system -- which has been in beta since October -- adding redesigned user profiles, a now familiar Friendfeed-style activity monitor, and integration with third-party apps.
The path upon which Yahoo has taken its Web mail service is well trodden. Not two weeks ago, the company's one-time chief suitor Microsoft bundled its Windows Live services into a single portal through which both Live and third-party mailboxes are accessed.
TV.com to become video site in CBS Interactive re-org
CBS will reportedly be re-launching TV.com, a property it obtained through its $1.8 billion acquisition of CNET Networks, as a video portal where content comes from numerous providers, including Hulu.
The market is getting increasingly full of streaming TV sites. There are sites which encode and post their own intellectual property like WB.com, and abc.com, and there are sites which redistribute content from a number of networks like Hulu, Joost, and even YouTube. Then, there are sites like AT&T's VideoCrawler, AOL's Veoh, Sling.com, and Comcast's Fancast which catalog and link to content from those distributors, while providing their own reasons for users to sign on.
Windows Live Essentials re-emerges in an all-new beta
Download Microsoft Windows Live Essentials Beta installer from FileForum now.
Over two years since Microsoft's everyday online product suite entered its first round of testing, its "Wave 3" beta is complete, with the result being that the suite that includes its newest online mail client...is entering beta?
BitTorrent un-finances to the tune of $17 million
The gains of early summer were ghosts by winter for BitTorrent, which has both renegotiated its recent Series C round of financing and re-valued the company.
BitTorrent's new software may be looking good, but the company's visibly struggling. Layoffs last month eliminated (it is believed) 18 positions -- about half the staff -- and saw the departures of co-founder Ashwin Navin and CEO Doug Walker. (The former departure was in the works for several months, but Navin did take the November opportunity to announce that he was off to launch an incubator-type firm.)
Twones music service launched into beta
Twones, a Dutch start-up funded by concert giant Live Nation, is now heading into beta with a new service for tracking, storing, and sharing music across multiple Web sites.
The new Twones service tracks people's music usage both online and elsewhere on their PCs. In exchange, users are able to store their musical files with Twones, share them with friends, and receive "collectively filtered" music recommendations.
Acer netbook for $99.99, but there's a catch
Radio Shack is now advertising a $99.99 Acer netbook on its Web site. Yet to get the Windows XP-enabled device at that price, you also need to sign up for a two-year 3G wireless contract from AT&T.
The only catch in the deal for the Acer Aspire One netbooks is that you need to agree to a two-year contract with AT&T's DataConnect service, at a price of $60 per month.
Protest rally against Australian government plan to censor broadband
A new, left-of-center politician seizes power in a wave of change against an unpopular right-winger who supported the war in Iraq. With him comes sweeping new policies that could change the fabric of society. But this isn't America.
It's Australia, where a popular uprising is gaining strength against a plan to force that country's ISPs to disallow Web access to two government-maintained blacklists of sites, including some that are known to provide child pornography. The protest comes just two days after the Canberra government's new Minister for Broadband, Sen. Stephen Conroy (L - Victoria), put forth an ambitious plan that would effectively guarantee taxpayers' accessibility to broadband service throughout the country.
Virgin launches 50 Mbps connections in the UK
While ISP Virgin today launched its fiberoptic network, with the hopes of becoming the fastest network in the United Kingdom, the firm's throttling practices will likely remain in place.
Virgin has announced that its 50 Mbps tier will cost £51 per month alone, or £35 if paired with an £11 per month Virgin landline.
Analysts: Holiday shopping still not tanking
Web metrics company comScore has been tracking activity and spending on e-commercial sites this holiday season, and this year is on par with last year, indicating that the dreaded "r-word" is not having too negative an impact.
Before "Cyber Monday," comScore predicted the growth in online commerce for the holiday season would remain mostly flat, or with negligible growth. This prediction has thus far been fulfilled as holiday spending hit a slow patch last week.
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