GSM Palm Pre seen running around ‘Nam

Palm’s saving grace in the states hinged on Pre launch day. The phone and the network, Sprint, both needed this wonder device to sell like no other Sprint/Palm device before it in order to give them a fighting chance in staying relevant. So far, the Pre has being doing pretty well meaning at least Sprint can breathe a sigh of relief. Palm however is not quite out of the woods yet. While the Pre is doing pretty hunky dorey over here in the States, elsewhere in the world this odd, third cousin removed CDMA technology just won’t fly. Naturally, Palm is working on a GSM version to satisfy everyone else on this big blue sphere. Lucky for us, someone over in Vietnam has loose lips and has graciously taken the time to show us the GSM Palm Pre compliments of YouTube. Yup, the video goodness is right inside!

Pirate Bay becoming property of private company…legitimate business on the way?

In its current state, The Pirate Bay isn’t exactly a copyright holder/content owners dream. Quite the contrary. To those wrapped up in the world of pro-RIAA fair, TPB signifies the scum of the earth, theft, and all other sorts of baddies. Then of course you have the other side, the “outcasts” if you will. These people have long been neglected by labels, content owners, etc. in regards to the fair uses and freedoms one should have with their purchased legal content. The whole mentality is more or less, “If you can’t have it your way legally, why even bother…?”. Still, the TPB trial has changed the company in that it is even mroe determined than before to remain alive and profitable. In fact, TPB owners are looking to do one thing the labels and their mob buddies never thought would happen — they’re attempting to go legit.

Hard drive fail? No worries…boot from SD card.

In many computer users’ lives, the time will come when your computer isn’t acting quite as happy and peppy as it once did. The computer golden years aren’t as fond as the human variant not only in the demands required of aging technology, but also in the fact that “old” comes about relatively quickly in the tech world. With Apple’s latest addition of an SD card reader on the MacBook Pro line, new possibilities are now available such as actually reading SD cards without having to use some stupid adapter and the ability to boot form an SD card. In order to begin, an 8GB or larger SD card is needed. After that, the standard process of formatting, installing, and other common install procedures are needed. The full rundown of how to get your four legged, anti-pc, SD card loving action on is lined out in great detail over at Macworld. By the way, if you were hoping to run OS X straight from an SD card on a Windows machine, you’re out of luck. It won’t work. Happy Formatting!

Source: Technabob

Palm Pre firmware updated to 1.0.4 — Un-jailbroken homebrew goodness now but a dream

Palm Pre number counters who have a love for firmware newness may want to hold off if they are part of the group partaking in homebrew apps running on un-jailbroken devices due to an easily exploited security hole. In what is bittersweet, Palm has plugged the security breach in 1.0.4, however that has rendered un-jailbroken devices unable to install any more homebrew apps. One diamond in the rough if you will is the fact that previously installed apps will still work. So how long until .4 falls victim to the people? Any takers?

Source: Engadget, Palm, Image Source

When life hands you a used NES controller…make a doorbell

It never ceases to amaze me the clever and unique contraptions that geeks of yesteryear and today piece together from electronics and gadgets spanning many generations. Often times, these Frankenstein gadgets are more unique or innovative than that of most of what is currently available. Case in point: The NES Controller Doorbell. While the maker of this doorbell made all eight buttons sound the same chime, I would have gone down a different road and had them activate eight completely seperate chimes — you know, since I was setting up everything, might as well do it all at once. Still, this seemingly mundane and simple implementation of the herald NES controller is one that will surely inspire the geeks of today to be more creative with their old, used up gadgets. Time to get crafty!

Source: Gizmodo, TechEBlog

AT&T really trying to make you hate them [Streaming Drama]

With the onslaught the iPhone is unleashing on wireless data networks worldwide, coupled with the dramatic increase in online video streaming and available content, wireless networks of late have been touchy with allowing any streaming whatsoever to take place on their not so physical pipes. AT&T has been in the news repeatedly for less than kosher business tactics with one of the more popular instances being the on again/off again allowance of 3G streaming with the Slingbox iPhone app. (Now I’m singling out the iPhone and Slingbox app because it has garned the most media attention, but it is certainly not the only case)

Europe leading the charge – Micro-USB to be the standard phone charging port

I applaud our friends overseas in Europe for undertaking the massive amount of babysitting and back rubbing that it takes to get manufacturers of all walks of life to sit down and come to an agreement on a standardized phone charging port. Heck, even getting a few manufacturers to come together at all is no small feat. The players involve Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Motorola, RIM, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and Apple. While no specific date is other than “soon”, at least European consumers can find comfort in knowing that they will soon be able to easily swap chargers between friends and their phones like nobodies business.