Procrastinators and haters of fluff rejoice: iPhone/iPod Touch getting Cliff Notes app(s)

While procrastination is often frowned upon as teachers would prefer students spend vast amounts of time reading through ungodly amounts of useless information, the fine folks at CliffNotes realize that this is stupid. Why read through 100 pages when the main message, what you really need, is a mere page and a half long? Thankfully CliffNotes is going digital. Forget having to thumb through pages of CliffNotes, marking pages and highlighting sentences. Instead, flick through them with a single finger effortlessly and quickly. Currently there are 5 CliffNotes apps in the Apple App Store with a total of 40 being planned so far. If you’re one that procrastinates or simply hates reading a bunch of excess fluff, you may want to go all in on this one.

Source: Into Mobile, Just Another iPhone Blog

Caperpillar USB drive ensures kids have plenty of holes to jam things in

Gadgets aimed towards the younger years of our lives are becoming more common place as increasingly complex electronic circuits make their way into said gadgets. While you, a 42 year old individual may not have the slightest clue about gadgets/computers, chances are your 4-year old grandson could wipe the floor with you in regards to geeky knowledge. What better way to reward little Jimmy than to give him something that will allow him to connect a good number of his gadgets all at once: The Caterpillar USB Hub. This cute little hub has plenty of holes for dear little Jimmy to hook up his latest geeky toy, or simply see how many gummy bears he can cram inside. Hopefully for your sanity and your wallets sake, he uses his feeble little mind and chooses the former. Don’t worry about going bankrupt to fund your geek in training’s addictions. This little gem can be had for as little as $11. If you must, a couple more pictures are inside for those of you who just don’t like looking at these letter things.

Panasonic going all Apple-esque on cusotmers – locking out third party batteries

Gadgets bring with them the initial wave of happiness and excitement that one normally gets when handling a new electronic for the first time. While the honeymoon can last several hours to several months, at some time it does come to an end. One way we try to maximize that honeymoon is buy purchasing accessories for our digital addictions in hopes that it will shed a new light and start a new chapter in our lives. 3rd party accessories make the world go ’round and often make up for faults or some sort of lacking on the manufacturers part. However, Panasonic apparently could care less about your happiness or consumer choice as they are locking out 3rd party batteries. Yup, you heard that right. Out of all the things to lock out, they choose batteries. *scratches head*. I can understand part of their logic — maybe for safety’s sake, to avoid a battery spewing itself everywhere in violent spouts of rage, taking your camera and possibly even you with it. Still, the real motive is money…plain and simple. They can’t hide behind the false claims of “safety” as we all know they could care less about your safety. Oh well, time to start finding away around this one folks. (Oh I know! Just buy a different camera)

[Press Release]

Source: Gizmodo, Slashdot, Image Source

Best Buy: “We want your mobile dollars”

Since the original iPhone debuted a little more than two years ago, mobile internet usage has sky rocketed. Naturally, resellers want to get in on this lucrative market and make put a few bennies away in the bank. You may have noticed in recent outings to the well known electronics giant, Best Buy, that their mobile phone section got a relatively large boost in size. It is all part of their grand plan to open 40 new, standalone mobile phone stores in hopes of capturing a bigger chunk of all U.S. mobile phone sales, 15% to be exact. In case your inner cat had a case of curiousness, Best Buy currently accounts for roughly 3% meaning they’ve got to have improvements upwards of 500% — no small task to say the least. Though the goal is lofty, no date has been set as to a “goal date” in which to reach that goal. Slow and steady always beats fast and rushed everytime. Now if only Best Buy would drop the ridiculous and infuriating habit of using nothing but dummy phones…

Source: Phone Scoop, WSJ, Image Source

BlackBerry Tour coming soon – shows up on Verizon rebate form

Crack addicts your addiction will soon be given a shot of new life. The BlackBerry Tour is now showing up on Verizon rebate forms with “valid dates” from June 28th-August 1st. We could see the Tour drop anytime within that window. Obviously, we’re all hoping it’s closer to the 28th, but we’ll just have to wait and see. What are you doing in the meantime to pass the time?

Source: CrackBerry

The never ending battle that they will never win

While some may see me utter the much hated name “RIAA” and think to themselves, “Oh god…not another article about them”, fret not as I didn’t write it, Mike Masnick of Tech Dirt did, and a fine article he did write. After Jonathan Lamy (RIAA spokesmen/blog write) posted a blog article about a previous article Mike wrote, I was once again convinced just how incompetent, retarded, clueless, and irrelevant the RIAA is becoming. While Jonathan does an admirable job sticking up for his band of brothers, it is no match for Mike Masnick’s rebuttal, which for lack of better words, wipes the floor with the RIAA’s article meticulously picking out every argument ‘ol Johnny outs and again, proving how mindless and misguided they are. John and any RIAA supporter can claim they’re God’s gift to mankind as long as they’d like to believe. Doing so will only push consumers and artists further and further from this despicable organization. Mike’s article is a very good read. I suggest everyone who cares anything about copyrights and consumer rights not just pertaining to the Performance Rights Act, but to all of the injustices the RIAA supports and pursues read his article and come away more intelligent and wiser.

Mike’s Article on Tech Dirt: RIAA has a blog? And they used it to read my mind?

Image Source

Newspapers failing…Create a tax to help them fail more *Good Idea*

It’s no surprise that newspapers are going through tough times. With too many employees, a too harsh view and support of the internet, and an overall lack of good business practices have caused the unraveling we are seeing today. While they may claim until they’re blue in the face that it is the internet and “copyright violations” that are stealing their content and revenue, it is something themselves getting destroyed from the inside out. The whole basis of a free market economy is the birth and death of businesses and business models. When one fails, another stronger, more efficient, and overall better replacement comes to fill the empty space. Apparently the Netherlands missed that briefing as they have somehow come up with the dumbest solution I’ve ever heard: Imposing an “Internet Tax” and taking the proceeds to exclusively fund the failing newspapers that can’t compete in order to “help them out”. While there is already strong opposition and no real assurance it will pass, it still leaves me worried that someone could even think this was an acceptable solution. You simply can’t fix an amputated leg with a glue stick. Fix the core problem, the the results of said outcome.

Source: Tech Dirt