24/7 Live Chat Support added to MobileMe’s growing list of features

Did you sign up with MobileMe and have had one, two, three, or more questions/problems that the written FAQ’s and other forum based topics couldn’t answer?  Good news English speaking users as Apple announced on this Monday, April 27th, on their MobileMe News Blog that MobileMe will now feature 24/7 Chat support (English only) to help you step your way through your issues no matter what time of day or night, and hopefully get you back on the straight and narrow faster and happier.  So turn that frown upside down and give the now voice powered support a shot.  Don’t forget to let us know how it goes!

Source: The iPhone Blog

Join the 4G revolution early using your iPod Touch

Mobile web browsing has become one of the most talked about areas of the mobile market with mobile browsers on cell phones constantly being made more of a prominent feature.  On the mobile front, cellular providers are also hyping up their transitions in the near future to faster, more efficient 4G networks.  Usually when we talk of 4G networks we then follow up with comments about devices that we dream about to take advantage of said networks and how they would look.  But what if you have been carrying around a 4G device in your pocket for the last 1-2 years?  Truth is you have.  *Gasp*

RapidShare now handing over users information to record labels [Uh-oh]

If you live in Germany and use RapidShare for anything but legal goods, you now have a new reason to look over your physical and digital shoulders.  It is now known that the german based RapidShare has started handing over users’ personal information to record labels in Germany due to the free reign in interpreting paragraph 101 of Germany’s copyright law.  What kind of personal information?  Well, remember that day early leak of Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” album that was uploaded on to RapidShare?  Apparently, the German user responsible for that upload had his personal information handed over compliments of RapidShare.  The information in question was his IP address.  The record labels then forced Deutsche Telekom to provide the personal information behind the IP address so that local authorities could take the matter further, meaning his house was raided for copyrighted materials and files on his computer.

Samsung i7500 in the plastic flesh

If you were on the fence about whether the i7500 was in fact real or merely the child of rampant speculation, several blurry and smudge ridden pictures have popped up on Mobile-Review showing us that yes, in fact, the i7500 is a real device and really does rock Android.  Physical keyboard users will be saddened in the lack of a physical keyboard, however in the move to touchscreens, the physical keyboard is becoming less a necessity as touchscreen technology improves.  Still, the lack of physical keys will keep some from picking up Samsung’s first Android phone.  Personally, the i7500 looks sweet!   I would definitely pick one up if I were in the market for an Android phone.  You?

Source: Boy Genius, Mobile-Review

EU bends over to copyright/record labels…extends musical copyrights another 20 years

The world is truly truly turning into a world run by the greedy few.  The sickness: The EU pressured by copyright holders and music labels to increase the current 50 year limit on copyrights has bent over and extended it by another 20 years for a grand total of 70 years.  The whole reasoning behind it is complete BS.  Those under the rule of the EU should consider themselves lucky however as the labels wanted to nearly double the term to 95 years.  However *slightly* cooler heads prevailed, in this case the UK, and refused the lofty number.  Eventually, a “compromise” was met and they all settled on 70 years.  Andrew Gowers of the UK looked at the issue in 2006 and found that there was absolutely no reason to extend copyrights longer than the 50 years they used to hold.  Another separate group and study lead by Prof. P. Bernt Hugenholtz of the University of Amsterdam also came to the same conclusion: that an extension on copyrights would be a bad idea, hurting “consumers, producers, and society as a whole”.  And boy is he right.  Of course, not to be deterred from making their pockets deeper, the copyright holders and music labels turned away from petitioning government and instead went to bed with the EU who again…bent over.  Hopefully this crap doesn’t come stateside.  Anyone with a clear mind…or any mind at all for that matter, can easily come to the conclusion that 50 years is more than enough time for copyrights to stick.  After that, the material you made way back when, if even talked about/used today, is anything but popular.  Wherever you are in the world, start writing your leaders voicing your opinions on the issue.  While one voice isn’t enough, the collective voice of many has some pretty amazing powers.  

Source: Ars Technica

Internet “Brown-outs” coming in 2010?

Run for the hills.  Save yourselves.  Hoard water, batteries, and goldfish crackers(?).  According to a report by Nemertes Research, a “respected American think-tank”, the internet and all it’s greatness will come to a screeching halt starting as early as next year, 2010.  Apparently the popularity of anything at your finger tips coupled with various ISP’s greed and reluctance to spend more money than they currently are to upgrade their networks will result in shortages of bandwidth.  What does that mean?  Expect browsing to be much more spotty and intermittent in the near future.  At first it will start with slow load times, often a few refreshes will get your page up and loading.  However as demand grows globally, the problem will spread to brown-outs where computers will be knocked offline for several minutes at a time.  Even with a “respected research group”, does it seem plausible that this is merely a PR/propaganda scare tactic funded by ISP’s to “force” customers into the whole tiered/capped internet plan?

XBerry Theme brings the box to your Berry

Several weeks ago, Elecite, a very popular Blackberry theme website that designs some simply stunning Blackberry themes, released a pretty stunning PSB theme modeled after the Playstation 3′s UI.  While it was all fine and dandy in the eye candy department, some people simply don’t like the PS3 and choose the Xbox 360 as their gaming console of choice.  Elecite recognizes this and has finally released the opposing sides theme so that it may grace Blackberries everywhere.  Dubbed “XBerry”, this theme will make your Berry look just like the Xbox 360 UI meaning you can carry that slick green look with you everywhere you go, being the envy of some and thorn in the side of your PSB Theme toting friends.  Xberry is a slick, wallpaper friendly theme, meaning pretty much any wallpaper your throw at it will blend in nicely.  If you have an 83xx, 88xx, 89xx, 9xxx, or 95xx, head on over to Elecite and pick up your copy of XBerry for $6.99.

Source: Berry Review