news

News anchors break from the script

Nearly three million people have watched on You Tube as Mika Brzezinski refuses to report on the Paris Hilton story; until yesterday I was not one of those people. I had heard about the encounter and rejoiced in her defiance, but I only stumbled onto the clip after reading Taking the Lead over at the Stop Big Media blog which is published through Free Press. Actually watching the event unfold went well beyond reading about it, and I was shocked to see the rest of the news team's reaction to her actions.

Despite the way Joe Scarborough mocked his colleague for taking the initiative, Jack Cafferty at CNN's the Situation Room has followed suit. During a recent broadcast, Cafferty asked the operator of his teleprompter, "I wonder if we can get the Lindsay Lohan DUI arrest out of the teleprompter and put my script in it, is that possible?" Seconds later Cafferty concluded, "Apparently it's not."

What does MySpace news about removing 29,000 sex offenders mean for parents?

MySpace has quadrupled its estimated number of registered sex offenders posting profiles on the site, from its May estimate of 7,000 to a current tally of 29,000. The pages of identified offenders have been deleted. What does this news mean for parents? How do we assess risk and keep it in perspective, and what best practices should be implemented on family, corporate and societal levels to keep kids safe?… Read more

Apple: iPhones in Europe next quarter, Asia sometime in 2008

During its third quarter conference earnings call, Apple revealed that it plans to bring the iPhone to a "few major countries in Europe next quarter," other European countries in early 2008, and into Asia sometime in 2008.

Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.

270,000 iPhones (and related products and services?) sold in two days of 3Q

UPDATE: In the earnings conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer repeatedly referred to "270,000 iPhones." As such, it appears Apple may have sold 270,000 actual iPhones, not accessories and iPhones lumped. Still, the wording on the actual financial statement is very unclear.

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In the one and a half days that it was on sale before Apple's fiscal third quarter ended, Apple sold 270,000 "iPhones and related accessories" according to the company's earnings report which neglected to divulge specific numbers. A footnote on the report says that number (270k) "consists of … Read more

Convert any page (with images, JavaScript, etc.) into a locally stored iPhone app with new script

We previously reported on a method for storing an entire set of HTML in a bookmark on the iPhone (in effect allowing "Web apps" to live locally on the device) by utilizing the data: URL. All page content is stored in bookmark data, and can be accessed when no network connection exists â?? even if the iPhone is in Airplane mode.

Now, developer Kee Hinckley along with the folks at Somewhere Inc. have created an enhanced perl script that will take any entered URL and convert the entire page (including any images, JavaScript, CSS, etc. -- the previous … Read more

Bid from your iPhone: eBay certifies Web app

eBay has certified iPhoneAppLab's "iPhoneMyeBay" iPhone-optimized Web app for use with its services. In the words of the developer:

"eBay has put the application through rigorous QA testing and said that it meets it qualifications for working with eBay APIs and providing users of the applications all the benefits available."

Most importantly, however, this means that users can now actually bid on eBay items through the Web app. The bidding words on all auction types, and you can use a regular bid or "Buy It Now."

AppleCare for iPhone debuts -- $69

Apple has begun selling an AppleCare extended warranty plan for the iPhone. The plan extends hardware coverage to two years from the date of iPhone purchase. It covers the iPhone and iPhone Bluetooth hands-free headset as well as included accessories.

The company says:

"Should your iPhone need service under the plan, Apple-authorized technicians will repair it or provide a replacement using genuine Apple parts. We recommend that you purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan with your new iPhone to take maximum advantage of the coverage the plan provides. This plan is available for iPhone within its one-year limited warranty, used … Read more

Underscores are now word separators, proclaims Google

I got to enjoy Matt Cutts live and in person on Saturday speaking to the WordPress bloggers and fans at WordCamp 2007. Matt was in top form, witty as ever. The session was blogged by numerous folks. The sessions were all recorded, so, we hope, we should see a video of Matt's session surface online pretty soon. Matt said he'd probably be posting his Powerpoint to his blog, assuming he gets approval from Google's PR department.

One key development that Matt shared with the audience was that underscores in URLs are now (or at least very soon … Read more

Custom iPhone ringtones from MP3s on Windows

Efiko Software has released a version of its RingToneMaker software for the iPhone that lets users create custom ringtones from MP3, WAV and OGG files under Windows 2000, XP or Vista. The tool, priced at $10, allows ringtones to then be transferred directly to the iPhone -- no doubt with the aid of work done by the iPhone Dev Wiki.

We haven't had a chance to try out this software yet, but if you have, please let us know how it works.

The iPhone's biggest security pitfall: All applications run as root

A few weeks ago, Rixstep posted a piece titled simply "Effective UID: 0," pointing out the fact that (as revealed by iPhone crash reports -- see this article on deciphering) expressing concern the iPhone runs most (all?) of its applications/processes as root (superuser, UID 0). This means that they enjoy full system rights -- a huge concern with regard to security, since any compromised application has the highest possible privilege level.

Today's divulgence of a purportedly successful iPhone exploit appears to be manifestation of these concerns. In its paper on the exploitation, discoverers states:

"[...] there … Read more