Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
You know the drill. Days before the official consumer release on the 29th, out pops the final version of Windows XP SP3 on torrents, usenet, and warez sites. We haven’t confirmed it for ourselves but we’ve received multiple reports that this final, unmodified version features a legit Volume Licensed Key which handles that pesky WGA check without breaking a sweat. Should you be brave enough to install it then by all means drop us a line in the comments about your experience. Then again, why rush? You’ll likely have until 2012 to perform the update.
[Thanks, Chris]
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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
You know the drill. Days before the official consumer release on the 29th, out pops the final version of Windows XP SP3 on torrents, usenet, and warez sites. We haven’t confirmed it for ourselves but we’ve received multiple reports that this final, unmodified version features a legit Volume Licensed Key which handles that pesky WGA check without breaking a sweat. Should you be brave enough to install it then by all means drop us a line in the comments about your experience. Then again, why rush? You’ll likely have until 2012 to perform the update.
[Thanks, Chris]
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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Yep, we’re mandating that this one be filed in the rumor folder for now, but according to a report from ThinkPanmure, AT&T Mobility is planning to move up to 7 million femtocells acquired from UK-based ip.access. As the story goes, AT&T inked a contract with the aforesaid firm for up to half a billion dollars in femtocells over five years, and it’s supposedly aiming to sell each to end users for “as little as $100.” As expected, spokespeople for AT&T and ip.access weren’t around / didn’t care to comment on the matter, but a dame from the former did admit that it was “examining the potential benefits of femtocells through lab tests and planned to conduct a trial later this year.” Of course, AT&T wouldn’t be the first US carrier to offer the boxes, but it’s not like Sprint’s $49.99 Airave set any sales records or anything when it launched late last year.
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Filed under: Transportation
We’re surprised this hasn’t been though up before, which means it probably isn’t as simple as it sounds. MIRA’s got a new plug-in hybrid in the works that skips the whole plug aspect. Instead of plugging the whole car into an outlet, you can pull out any of the three battery packs in the trunk and hook ‘em into the wall. That means the car doesn’t have to have direct access to a plug to be able to juice up, you just take the batteries to where the power’s at and commence charging. They’re calling the system H4V, and are powering the unit on lithium ion phosphate batteries. MIRA expects the retrofit to an existing car to cost about £2000 (around $3950 US).
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Filed under: Handhelds
We’ve already seen Google’s Android mobile OS get shoehorned onto Nokia N810 tablet, but it looks like the Internet Tablet OS is about to get even more flexible with ports of Ubuntu and the Qt toolkit. Nokia is acquiring Qt developer Trolltech, so it’s no surprise the Qt is making the jump, but it looks like it’ll be mostly a third-party-targeted framework, with the ITOS interface and bundled apps still using GTK+. Nokia told Ars Technica that it’s exploring cross-platform possibilities between ITOS and Series60, and that it wants to see if GTK+ and Qt can coexist on the tablets like they do on the Linux desktop. That’s pretty ambitious for a low-powered tablet, but we’re all for more flexibility — which seems to be in the cards with the Nokia-sponsored port of Ubuntu to ARM. Several pre-Hardy Heron versions have been ported and run off SD cards, if you’re feeling adventurous — we’re not sure what the advantages are, but it’s nice to know that Nokia’s keeping things wide open.
[Via Digg]
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Filed under: Handhelds
We’ve already seen Google’s Android mobile OS get shoehorned onto Nokia N810 tablet, but it looks like the Internet Tablet OS is about to get even more flexible with ports of Ubuntu and the Qt toolkit. Nokia is acquiring Qt developer Trolltech, so it’s no surprise the Qt is making the jump, but it looks like it’ll be mostly a third-party-targeted framework, with the ITOS interface and bundled apps still using GTK+. Nokia told Ars Technica that it’s exploring cross-platform possibilities between ITOS and Series60, and that it wants to see if GTK+ and Qt can coexist on the tablets like they do on the Linux desktop. That’s pretty ambitious for a low-powered tablet, but we’re all for more flexibility — which seems to be in the cards with the Nokia-sponsored port of Ubuntu to ARM. Several pre-Hardy Heron versions have been ported and run off SD cards, if you’re feeling adventurous — we’re not sure what the advantages are, but it’s nice to know that Nokia’s keeping things wide open.
[Via Digg]
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Filed under: Gaming
Besides being infuriated with leaving over a billion dollars on the table this past holiday season, Nintendo of America is also “passionately upset about the lack of product relative to demand.” Those words came straight from Mr. Reggie Fils-Aime himself, who noted that North America was the only Wii-serviced territory where supply and demand were still out of sync. Reportedly, some 40-percent of the 1.8 million Wii consoles manufactured each month are making their way over, but even after 17 months on the market, the average Wii sits around on retail shelves for “just an hour before [it is] purchased.” Unfortunately, we’re no closer to being able to clone the consoles in order to meet the insatiable appetite.
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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Transportation
Nothing shows your complete and unwavering devotion to a handset maker like buying an ultra-rare vehicle with its logos on there, wouldn’t you agree? Those vigorously nodding up and down (well, those vigorously nodding up and down in Brazil) can get set to grab a limited edition Renault Sandero, which will come “fully equipped with Nokia’s navigation system and [undisclosed] car add-ons.” The super-special Sandero will come stocked with an N95 and cost around €17,650 ($27,693), but you’d better hurry, as only 1,000 of these niche motorcars are being built. It’s like Nokia heard your cries for letting the chance to nab one of those co-branded Twingos slip through your too-busy-texting thumbs or something.
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
CompUSA died a sputtering, inglorious death, but Ohio-based Systemax (which owns TigerDirect) didn’t shell out $30M to pick up the pieces for nothing: it’s just announced that it’s re-opening 15 US stores and opening a new one, 13 of which are in Florida. We’re not sure why the Sunshine State faces the brunt of CompUSA’s angry zombie wrath — do retirees enjoy being ripped off?* — but Texans and Puerto Ricans can join in the fun with four stores of their very own. These are all apparently open now — anyone brave enough to check out the scene?
*Rejected asides: “Is this punishment for that Pitbull record?” “Guess you don’t need braiiiiiins to pay these prices!” “Screw you, Mickey!”
[Thanks, Steven]
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Filed under: Home Entertainment
DISH Network and News Corp’s satellite subisdiary NDS Group in California have been involved in an industrial espionage lawsuit for years now, but there was some big drama in court today: a hacker by the name of Christopher Tarnovsky (who used the handle “Big Gun,” among others) testified that NDS hired him to create a device called “the stinger” that could reprogram DISH Network access cards. DISH lawyers say the plan was to flood the market with hacked cards, which would cost the satellite company $900M in revenue and repair costs. Unsurprisingly, NDS (which supplies DirecTV, among others), says that it hired Tarovsky only to reverse-engineer DISH’s cards for competitive reasons, and Tarnovsky himself says that he believes “someone is trying to set him up.” Sure, sure — but no one’s explaining why he was mailed mobile electronics from Canada with $20K in cash stashed inside, or why he was officially on the payroll of HarperCollins, a totally different NewCorp subsidiary, for more than 10 years. Sketchy sketchy — and we thought satellite hacking was dead.
Read - Reuters article about Tarnovsky’s testimony
Read - 2002 article about Tarnovsky and NDS
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