ITU-R reviews “4G” technologies: LTE Advanced and WiMax 2 now officially 4G.

A couple of months back, you may recall a couple of carriers getting a bit peeved at T-Mobile USA for calling their HSPA+ 4G and “Like 4G”. But T-Mo persisted. Along the same lines, Sprint has also marketed their WiMax network as “4G”, as has AT&T with their ongoing LTE build out. Mind you, the current LTE spec being adopted by US carriers isn’t technically a 4G technology. But before we go further, perhaps we should actually do a quick review on what 4G really is…

MyTouch 4G’s House of Colors.

While we could talk of the MyTouch 4G’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.8″ display, 5 megapixel camera, or HSPA+ capabilities, we’ll focus instead on it’s flashier, prettier face. Specifically, the MyTouch 4G will come in four…um…flavors — white, black, red, and plum. The usual white/grey/black of consumer electronics is becoming less of a standard, as manufacturers and carriers are increasingly requesting and providing more colors, albeit at times being a bit gaudy.

Hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer. The release is still shrouded in mystery. If you’re looking for something more concrete, November/December sounds ’bout right.

“Diminished Reality” removes objects from video in real time!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you didn’t exist? Perhaps something a little less deep — what if that hub cap on the car wheel were different? What if the building didn’t have some garish box jutting out of the side? Thanks to some researchers at Germany’s Technische Universität Ilmenau, now we can answer at least two of the three questions above. (Sorry, we can’t help you with questions regrading your existence at this point and time.)

The technology has the nickname “Dimished Reality”, and essentially works much like augmented reality. Except, the only difference (and it’s a big one) is that the process is all live, in real time, using video. The image above gets the point across. The video inside causes your shirt to turn into a drool rag. So get clickin’…

The most comprehensive GPU history chart you’ll see today…

Having every graphics card from 1995-2010 color coded, listed in chronological order, and ‘splayed alongside relevant games of the year is pretty much the coolest, nerdiest thing ever. But not only is it interesting to the more mature readers there (who remember way, way back into 1995, newcomers can appreciate the humble origins of ’95 too. The picture above is obviously severly downsized. If you want to see the full 14,000 pixel-wide gigantor image showing graphics cards and their changing hardware over the last 15 years, head on over to Overclockers.com

The iPhone Horn Speaker: Rock out like it’s 1903

The usual iPhone dock does things such as charging, syncing, and playing back music via built in speakers. But have you ever seen an iPhone dock modeled after early 1900′s tech? The iPhone Horn Stand Amplifier does just as the name suggests — amplifies the audio coming from your iPhone 3G/3GS/4 with a horn. The same type of effect can sorta-kinda be reproduced by cupping your hand underneath the speaker, which redirects the audio up at you. Of course, the iPhone Horn does that in a much more dramatic way.

Skepticism is a given with “gimmick” gifts such as this. Perhaps the video inside will change your mind…

Angry Birds: Halloween Edition.

Angry Birds is pretty much the greatest game ever for iOS and Android. There’s no point in arguing or debating. It’s fact. Unfortunately, I’ve already beaten Angry Birds on iOS and have now started going back and trying to get 3 starts on all of the levels. The “new factor” is gone. But for another week or two at least, I can get that “all new” feeling with Angry Birds once again.

Beginning October 21st, Rovio’s Angry Birds: Halloween Edition will be available in the App Store (Sorry folks, no Android plans) for $0.99 ($1.99 for HD iPad version). At first, paying another buck for a second version of the game sounds kind of crappy. But take into consideration that the Halloween Edition features 45 new levels as well as plenty of new music and graphics. Even if there was one extra level, I’d still buy it. I’m addicted, what can I say.

As previously mentioned, there are no plans to bring Angry Birds: Halloween Edition to Android. Perhaps next year.

**Screenshots after the break…

Whoopsies: FaceTime bug allows account/password theft.

If you’re one of the uber paranoid, the new FaceTime for Mac beta is probably something you want to avoid like the plague. You see, there’s a reported bug with the new beta, and it’s actually pretty serious. The way the story goes is that when you log into FaceTime, you can see all of the Apple User ID’s personal account information. Even worse, when logging out, the password is cached/stored in the password box and isn’t wiped, allowing the next person to sign in as you and potentially ruin your day.

The discovery comes by way of German Mac website, MacNotes.de:

Once you’ve logged into FaceTime you can have a look at all the account settings of the used Apple ID. Username, ID, place and birth date are shown as well as the security question and the answer to it – in plain text, without another password request…

…When you choose “Log Out” from the top menu, the password remains in the password field, even when restarting the application. That shouldn’t be the case tho: Applications should remove passwords from the password field as soon as the application is closed.

Seeing as this is a beta, expect this flaw to be patched pretty quickly. On a sidenote: anyone tried the new FaceTime beta yet?