Police Investigate Lost iPhone Bought by Gizmodo Tweet

Looks like the police is investigating the circumstances surrounding the lost iPhone which was purchased by Gizmodo. Question is, will they find anything?

It’s been a wild week for Gizmodo. The popular tech blog got what could be considered the tech scoop of the year (and possibly of the past decade) when it laid hands upon a prototype fourth generation iPhone.

According to Gizmodo’s numerous stories on the topic, the phone was left behind at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a bar in Redwood City, California specializing in German suds. The person that found the phone tried to contact Apple directly in order to return the phone. The quest to find someone at Apple who could identify the lost prototype proved unfruitful.

Interestingly, the person who found the phone didn’t hand the lost phone over to a bartender or appear to try to contact the person that actually lost the phone. The name of the person was gleaned from his Facebook profile on the iPhone and all of his pertinent information was available — we know this because Gizmodo outed the Apple employee that actually lost the phone.

In the end, Gizmodo ended up paying $5,000 to the person that found the iPhone and ran with the story. Gizmodo later returned the iPhone prototype at the behest of Apple after it a finished a dissection.

According to Apple guru John Gruber, the iPhone in question is indeed a late prototype judging by its barcode:

One of the barcodes attached to the unit read “N90_DVT_GE4X_0493”. According to several sources (of mine) familiar with the project, “N90” is Apple’s codename for the fourth-generation GSM iPhone, slated for release this June or July. “DVT” stands for “design verification test”, an Apple production milestone. The DVT milestone is very late in the game; based on this, I now believe that this unit very closely, if not exactly, resembles what Apple plans to release.

Now, almost a week later, the police are involved according to CNET. Police in the Silicon Valley-area are now investigating whether the actions of Gizmodo and the person who found the phone were criminal and if there is enough evidence to file charges. The investigation is being headed by a computer crimes task force based out of the Santa Clara County DA’s office.

CNET also reports that Apple has been in contact with the authorities regarding the incident.

The boys over at Gizmodo and Gawker Media are probably sweating a bit now that the police are involved, but the Apple employee who lost the phone may actually have a free getaway to Germany waiting for him. Lufthansa has offered the unlucky fellow a free flight to Germany where he can continue his love for great beer.

“At Lufthansa we also noted with great interest your passion for German beer and culture,” said Lufthansa’s marketing director for the Americas, Nicola Lange. “We thought you could use a break soon–and therefore would like to offer you complimentary business class transportation to Munich, where you can literally pick up where you last left off.”

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5 Steps Restore Panels Disappeared in Xubuntu Tweet

Why are the panels disappeared in Xubuntu? This happens when I update the data and after that the panels disappeared from the desktop. This problem is certainly confusing to us who are still new as a linux user.

But you need not anxious because it has a solution, do step-by-step instruction as below:

1. Alt+F2                               (run program window)
2. rm -rf ~/.cache/sessions    (delete the Xfce4  saved sessions files)

3. Click on "Run"                    (or hit the enter key)
4. xfce4-panel                         (command to start panels)

5. Click on "Run" 

I use a five (5) step instructions above to display the panels in Xubuntu desktop. If you still have problems in using the instructions above to use this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/XubuntuPanels.

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Apple linked to £5.2bn purchase of ARM Tweet

Chipmaker denies rumours of impending merger.

Apple is rumoured to be in talks to acquire embedded processor developer ARM in a deal worth a reputed £5.2bn.

A report in the London Evening Standard suggested that the two firms are discussing a merger deal that would make ARM part of Apple.
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ARM executives moved quickly to squash the rumours, telling reporters that the company is happy with is current structure and business model.

"Exciting though it is to have the share price pushed up by these rumours, common sense tells us that our standard business model is an excellent way for companies to gain access to our technology," Warren East, ARM's chief executive, told The Guardian. "Nobody has to buy the company."

The effort did little to slow the speculation, however, and investors pushed ARM stocks to an eight-year high after the reports surfaced.

ARM's profile has risen considerably in recent years with the growth of the handset market. Manufacturers looking for sophisticated low-power processors to power new smartphone models in particular have favoured ARM chips.

If Apple were to acquire ARM, the deal would boost Apple's current mobile processor line. The company already produces chips for the ARM platform through its 2008 acquisition of PA Semiconductor.

Apple currently uses its own ARM platform chips in the iPhone, iPod and iPad lines.

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HTC HD mini review: Smart pup Tweet

Gsmarena have posted their review of the HTC HD mini. Here are the phones key features, main disadvantages and their final impression.

Key features:
* 3.2" 65K-color HVGA capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch input
* Compact body and bold industrial design
* Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional OS with Sense UI
* Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz CPU and 384MB RAM
* Quad-band GSM support with dual-band HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps
* Wi-Fi connectivity
* Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
* 5 MP autofocus camera with touch focus
* CIF video recording at 25fps
* microSD card slot
* Standard microUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
* Standard 3.5mm audio jack
* Stereo FM radio with RDS
* MS Office Mobile document editor
* Opera 9.5 web browser
* YouTube client, Facebook and Twitter integration
* Very good audio output quality
* Excellent loudspeaker performance

Main disadvantages:
* Poor display sunlight legibility
* Poor camera performance and sub-par video recording
* No dedicated camera key and no lens cover
* Card slot under the battery cover
* No DivX/XviD video support out-of-the-box
* Preloaded CoPilot Live navigation software is a trial version only
* No secondary video-call camera
* No voice dialing
* No handwriting recognition
* Unreliable Flash support in IE Mobile

The HTC HD mini is pretty much what a modern-day smartphone should be all about. We are not talking the ultimate of technology, a ridiculously expensive piece of gear to flash around and impress everyone around. We mean a handy working tool that can also keep you entertained.

Much more pocket-friendly than the HTC HD2, the HD mini offers a comparable (although admittedly inferior) performance at a lower price. It’s the ultimate speed and power against the friendly appearance and cheery attitude. It’s a matter of priorities of course, but the HD mini can be a pretty good deal.

Sense UI has done well to cover the WinMo user interface shortcomings and the capacitive multi-touch display adds value to the whole package. The youthful design (just not as childish as we’ve seen XpressMusic get) seems well suited to the target audience too.

The thing is, yet again, pricing is just steeper than most of the competing smartphone platforms out there.

The HTC Hero will gladly deliver for far less cash, while the HTC Legend will throw in AMOLED for the same asking price. The Galaxy Spica is also a comparable package within the same price range.

The Nokia X6 16 GB has had its price tag duly corrected and 16 gigs of internal memory do sound tempting. The Symbian touch user interface is nowhere near the Sense UI standards though, and the X6 CPU and RAM are less impressive. The Finn offers higher screen resolution and the audio quality to go with the XpressMusic background.

Within the very same PocketPC ranks, the HTC Touch Diamond2 will tempt you with WVGA resolution if you can live without the multi-touch capacitive screen. It comes with an earlier version of the OS and the Sense UI.

The Samsung Omnia II will take this offer to the next step by adding a much larger 3.7” AMOLED display, D1 video and faster CPU. Sorry for stating the obvious but the Omnia II will give you much more bang for your buck. It’s fair to note though, these two are not competing for the same kind of users.

So, the HTC HD mini is a great idea overall, and it has the advantage of packing the latest software available. The disadvantage is having to compete with too many equal (and stronger) rivals in the same price bracket.

Value for money is not its strongest point, and it doesn’t get any better when you put WinPho 7 in the picture. What we now know as Windows Mobile 6.5 will become Windows Phone Starter edition. No need to tell you Windows Phone 7 will be the pet project and the starter edition will be the entry-level alternative. We can only guess what the implications will be for the level of support – and we cannot say Microsoft are doing such a good job of it even now.

So, with that bit of warning, is the HTC HD mini good to go? We’d still say yes. Not because we did our job and it’s your responsibility henceforth. There’s just something about this kiddo.

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Samsung denies imminent release of Wave Tweet

Still on course for a June 2010 UK release date.

The Samsung Wave phone, the first to use the Korean's Bada platform, will not be landing in the UK later this month.

Samsung has contacted TechRadar to rubbish claims by third party online retailers that they will be stocking the phone in the next few weeks.

A Samsung spokesperson said; "We are delighted to see so much excitement and interest in the Samsung Wave, which will be the first mobile handset released on Samsung's new open mobile platform, Samsung Bada."

Looking forward

"The Samsung Wave is not currently available for sale in the UK, but we look forward to its launch in June 2010, at which time details of tariffs and stockists will be released by our operator partners," they added.

The new phone also boasts some nice specs in the shape of HD video recording, DivX compatibility and a Super AMOLED screen.

So, looks like the UK release date has been pushed back to June - lets just hope that date doesn't head even further into summer so we can properly test that new screen in direct sunlight.

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Samsung will end this year with Symbian device Tweet

Mobile phone maker Samsung later this year with a new Symbian phone. That says an employee of the manufacturer at Tweakers.net. In previous rumors suggested that Samsung would stop supporting Symbian.

SymbianEr is nothing known about the device, only that by the end of this year in the works. The latest Symbian Samsung model to date to the market, the HD i8910 in June last year the Netherlands became available.

Samsung has never said that making Symbian devices would stop, but rumors suggested that Samsung would turn away from Symbian to focus on the Bada own platform and the smartphone operating systems Windows Phone and Android.

Besides Samsung, other manufacturers have been developing for Symbian smartphones. Sony Ericsson recently released model Vivaz and perform around the summer with Vivaz Pro. Nokia has new Symbian models, such as E5, announced.

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Asustek Eee Pad to hit channel in July Tweet

Asustek Computer chairman Jerry Shen has announced, at a conference in Taiwan, that the company will introduce its tablet PC, the Eee Pad, at Computex 2010, scheduled between June 1-5, and is aiming to launch the device in retail channels in the third quarter of 2010, which sources from component makers revealed will be late July.

To compete against Apple's iPad, Asustek has strengthened the Eee Pad's industrial design and has cooperated with Google to adopt its Android platform. Asustek will also add features that iPad currently does not support such as USB, integrated webcam, and Adobe Flash, Shih noted.

As for the impact of tablet PC, Shih expects the device reduce overall netbook demand by 10-20%. The company is also monitoring the tablet PC and e-book reader markets closely to prevent related products stepping into each other's demand and will maintain flexibility to launch products that suit the fast-changing market demand.

The sources estimated that Asustek's Tegra-based Eee Pad will be priced at NT$15,000-16,000 (US$479-510) after bundling with telecom carrier services, and total shipments will reach 300,000 units in 2010.

In additional news, Micro-Star International (MSI) is also ready to launch its tablet PC, the M Pad, in the third quarter of 2010, but is conservative about initial shipments to prevent inventory buildup. MSI's current strategy is to observe Asustek's Eee Pad sales performance before deciding the strength of its shipments and marketing push.

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