Soldiers to Tweet the location of future enemy combatants?

Miniature qwerty keyboards have been popping up more and more recently across mobile devices of all types in a move by manufacturers to cater to the growing trend of texters, mobile emailers, and social butterflies. The military often treads a very different path. While their technology and gadgets are still top of the line and current, the gadgets themselves when based off of consumer electronics are often a few generations behind the curve. It seems the military is finally coming into the modern era with the iKey AK-39 snap on, wrist mounted qwerty keyboard. Fat fingered, glove wearing soldiers shouldn’t have a problem with this souped up keyboard that is built to take a beating. According to the manufacturer:

“The AK-39’s small-footprint design features essential components for military and public safety applications, including an integrated Force Sensing ResistorTM (FSR) pointing device with left- and right-click functionality, and adjustable green LED backlighting that is also available in a night vision (NVIS) compatible configuration. Designed with gloved users in mind, the AK-39’s snap-on faceplate eliminates accidental key strokes and can be easily removed to clean the pad.

One other notable mention includes MIL-461 compliance ensuring you precious military edition keyboard can take the harsh realities and punishments twittering on the battlefield will bring forth. Hip hip hooray!

Source: CrunchGear, iKey

Apple moving east. NC to be home of more iTunes servers.

Remember the last two years of iPhone launches which were followed by a few more days of staring at your precious iBrick that you couldn’t activate because of the mad rush of people mercilessly assaulting Apple’s iTunes activation servers? Well if everything goes to plan for Apple, those long waits and unhappy hours will be a thing of the past. According to the Charlotte Observer, the new North Carolina Apple grounds will be solely for iTunes and App Store support, offloading a significant portion from Akamai. A few other interesting tidbits:

• The data center will use about 20 megawatts annually – enough to power 16,000 homes.

• At $1 billion, it is the largest private investment in North Carolina, Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco said at the Monday night announcement.

• North Carolina provided incentives of $46 million. Apple will bring an estimated $10 million in extra tax revenue over the 10 years for Maiden and Catawba County. That does not include revenue on water sales to Hickory or about $200,000 a year to Maiden as a tax on power sales

It appears as if it will be a win/win for Apple and the fine citizens of Charlotte, NC no? All I can say is I’m glad that we can all activate future iPhones in a more timely manner.

Source: 9to5 Mac

Purple sn0w released…NOT to be confused with redsn0w, ultrasn0w or Dev-Team

Now, before you get confused and start mixing up developers, hacker groups and software, let me clear the confusion if any exists: Purple sn0w is developed by George Holtz, the same guy who brought us purple ra1n. The Dev-team brings us widely known pieces of work such as yellow sn0w, red sn0w, and ultrasn0w (3GS support). Why ‘ol Georgey boy picked purple sn0w isn’t too hard to guess. Still, you have to admire his determination to do his own thing…right? In regards to purple sn0w, it is an iPhone 3GS software unlock that accomplishes the dirty deed of unlocking your precious iDevice by patching a mere 3 tiny files without running any extra fluff to slow down you device or clutter it up. In George’s own words:

First off, what is purplesn0w? It’s a soft unlock for your 3GS that I’d actually use day to day. It’s not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn’t add a task to your baseband. It’s very close to a true unlock. All it does is patch three files, CommCenter, lockdownd, and your wildcard activation plist (which you need, activate w at&t sim first, no hacktivation support yet). That’s it, no other files are installed.

So there ya have it. For more info on purple ra1n or purple sn0w you can check out George’s Blog.

Source: Geeky-Gadgets, The iPhone Blog

As expected, Win7 upgrade not the greatest…

Those of you hoping for a rather seamless and smooth transition from Windows 7 RC to the full blown retail edition might come to find your fairytale world a little more gloomy than once thought. While Microsoft is being somewhat nice and giving us mortals the ability to “upgrade” from RC to the retail edition without first downgrading, after taking a deeper look one will notice it’s not really an upgrade at all. For example, upon using a Windows 7 retail upgrade disc, all of your old data, files, and programs will be stored in a folder called Windows.old meaning you’ll have to reinstall all of your stuff if you want to continue using it. Kind of defeats the purpose of an upgrade doesn’t it? Second, if you ever need to install from scratch somewhere down the line you’re going to have to pony up for the full blown copy. Sucks I know. But that is the way of the digital world all too often. Come October 22nd it would be a great idea to be a student, book store software discounts are might sweet.

Source: Gizmodo, Tech Blog

BlackBerry Storm 2 indeed the 9550

Number counters and those of you who long for the never tiring workhorse that is BlackBerry have something to celebrate this fine Tuesday morning. Claims and assumptions that the Storm 2 was taking the model number 9550 were correct. While it isn’t leaked shots of the hardware (which we’ve already seen) or images of a completely revamped OS (keep dreaming), it is a small victory none the less. With rumors and mounting confirmation of no more craptactic clicky touchscreen I can only say: “Bring it on!”

Source: Into Mobile, CrackBerry

Cable management comes to headphones via REW Mini Cassette Tape

Headphones come with cords in various lengths. Your standard run of the mill headphones often have shorter, more fragile cords that are actually the most tangle prone. More expensive headphones tend to give the user more cable to play with which is bitter sweet. While you have more range of motion and mobility, maintaining an orderly appearance with 5+ feet of cable dangling form your head isn’t the most idle situation. Likewise, having hair thin headphone cords just means you’ll spend more time untangling them than actually using them.

You could be like every other organized person in the world and use simple tactics such as twist ties or the $3 cable holder from your local gas station. But this is a site for gadget obsessed nerds and geeks. We want to stand out! The REW Mini Cassette Tape come to the rescue as a cool, geeky,and functional way to manage your headphone cables. Forget about having them spill out of your pockets or senselessly pounding against your body. The only downside is these little wonders of life won’t be available until the fall.

[Product Page]

Source: Nerd Approved

When will carriers learn…they suck at App Stores/software?

On device app stores while still all the rage are now coming off of their peak. Last summer with the arrival of the Apple App Store, several manufacturers and companies including RIM, Google, and Nokia just to name a few announced plans for their very own app stores. Carriers, the gatekeeper of the data pipe naturally want in on this extremely lucrative market. There’s only one problem, the innovation and features that keep customers happy and constantly purchasing never came from “the network” (carrier branded stores). Look at the small app centers that carriers have run for the last decade, from AT&T to Verizon to T-Mobile. You could access these pathetic excuses of WAP shopping goodness from practically any phone…but who actually did? I know I didn’t. The app selection was abysmal at the absolute best and apps and services were often overpriced. That isn’t exactly the best combination if you ask me. So, now that the App Store hoopla is starting to die down, who is trying to break in and steal the spotlight multiple months late?