Monday, November 12, 2007

ndroid UI Screenshots [Android Screenshots]

android.jpg The SDK included an Android emulator. Here are some screenshots from the software gPhone. •There's a browser (no flash, but still better than the shipping Windows Mobile browser), address book, maps. •Missing are YouTube, Gmail and Calendar apps. •There are demos for OpenGL/3D, autocomplete, scroll bars, alarms, and pop-up notices with images. •You know you can download and run this yourself, right now, for free. Right? Go! •There's also a coverflow and grid type view for photos. [Android SDK]

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Dealzmodo: $20% off at Kmart Means PS3 For $319, Xbox 360 Premium For $279 [Deals]

kmart.jpgThe folks over at the Blu-ray.com forums found a great Kmart coupon that gives you 20% off on any one item. Being Blu-ray fans, they naturally threw their cash at the PS3, which will be $319 after said 20% discount. Not interested in the PS3? You can print out the coupon and try your hand at the Xbox 360 Premium ($279) as well, or even stuff like HD DVD or Blu-ray standalone players! Coupon works in store only. [Blu-ray - Thanks Dom!]

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T-Mobile's $18 Phone Upgrade Fee is Confusing, Stupid [Cellphones]

t-mobile.jpgAccording to an email shared by a source with our friends at the Consumerist, starting today T-Mobile will begin charging existing customers an $18 fee when they buy a new phone. Apparently the new fee will help underwrite the cost of selling subsidized phones to new customers. Now here's the confusing part — if an existing customer is upgrading their phone, but not extending their contract, the fee will not be assessed. Perhaps they feel that any potential anger resulting from this charge will subside after a fresh two year contract expires. Hopefully we will learn more when we receive some confirmation on this issue. [Consumerist]

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you can't get any more Darwinian than this - Circuit City vs Best Buy

this is on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets in New York City.

In thinking about retail ... this helps illustrate the tremendous challenges they face.

- online switching costs are pretty much zero -- just type another URL; these two stores are physically touching -- just walk next door

- they carry much of the same inventory from plasma TVs to computers to home stereo equipment to software, CDs, DVDs, etc.

- they both sell Apple iPods; consumers have already decided to buy an iPod for Christmas (for some reason), which store do they walk into? what differentiates the store with the blue awning from the one with silver letters? they both have "black friday" discounts but the price ended up to be about $1 from each other; both have geeks on staff, one called Geek Squad and the other Fire Dog

- and then there's Amazon.com which is tax free and offers free 2nd day shipping so you can shop from the comfort of home or in pajamas if you choose.

hmmm ... since I live on 38th and Fifth Ave and I can walk north to reach these stores, do I walk into the Circuit City because I reach it first and it's front door is about 100 steps closer than the Best Buy?

THIS is a challenging marketing problem for retailers such as the ones pictured!

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AFP Hack Gives Read/Write Access to iPhone, iPod Touch [Apple]

iphonefsGI.jpgAn iPhone hacker, known as Core, has managed to finalize an AppleTalk Filing Protocol hack that enables full read/write access to either an iPhone, or iPod touch, via Finder. Unfortunately, the work has just been completed, and as yet, it is not available via Installer.app. If you fancy trying it manually, you can find the complete instructions after the jump, courtesy of the great guys at TUAW.

To install by hand, use sftp to copy the tar file into /opt/iphone. Extract the archive on your iPhone or touch--the tar archive program is part of the BSD program; use tar xvf name-of-archive.tar--and run /opt/iphone/afp/startserver.sh &. The ampersand lets the program run in the background. (You will need to restart it after reboots.)

Once installed and running, go to Finder. Choose Go > Connect To Server, and enter the afp address for your iPhone, in my case afp://192.168.0.111. Just use the afp:// prefix with the local IP address of your iPhone. Enter your user id (root) and password (alpine) and your iPhone or iPod appears in the sources list for your Finder windows... To add new applications, just drop them into the Applications folder. To back-up your personal data, just copy /var/root/Library

To get cracking, hit the link to download the necessary file. Be sure to opt for the newer package, named afpd.with.registered.users.tgz. If you are not willing to get messing all up inside your iPhone or touch, wait a little while longer, as this awesomeness is bound to appear in Installer.app in the not too distant future. If you do give it a try, be sure to let us know how you get on. [Wickedpsyched via TUAW]

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