Verizon Announces 49 New LTE Markets For 1H 2011

There’s nothing like hearing of some new LTE love coming to town compliments of Verizon. Today, the CDMA-turning-GSM carrier announced 49 new markets that will receive LTE by the end of 1H 2011. Even better news is that an additional ~50 markets will go live in 2H of 2011 per Verizon’s goal of 140 markets by the time 2012 rolls in. While Verizon is arguably just as stingy with anti-consumer policies as AT&T, you have to admit that they deliver when and where they say they are going to, and in a timely fashion. List of new markets after the jump…

Nokia Ending Bundled Comes With Music Service In 27 Countries.

Nokia’s bundled “Comes With Music” music download service is another example of DRM killing a product. Ever since the service’s launch back in 2008, adoption has been pathetic at best. With that said, a total of 27 countries will see the included and free Comes With Music service discontinued. Current users will still be able to make use of said service until their subscription runs its course. Meanwhile, Comes With Music will continue to live on in China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa in 12-month and 6-month subscriptions.

Adding insult to injury, a Nokia spokesperson told Reuters in that “The markets clearly want a DRM-free music service”. *facepalm* The market has only been telling major labels and music providers this for close to a decade now. Where has Nokia been getting their information from? (Probably the same place that tells them Symbian is awesome…)

PS3 Hacker George Hotz Interviewed.

George Hotz is one of the biggest news items in the tech world in there here and now. He is the little guy, a small time hacker who took down the iPhone, and has now taken down the PS3. Sony is a multi-billion dollar company who doesn’t like Geohot’s tinkering. A fight for generations to come for sure. The legal battle has already begun, with a recent court appearance ending with the judge questioning why the lawsuit was in her California court room. (George Hotz lives in New Jersey.)

But as we wait for the legal proceedings to…um…proceed, hop on past the break to check out George on camera as he was invited to speak on G4′s “The Loop”. In the interview, he goes over the basic concept of his PS3 jailbreak and reveals something pretty astonishing — he actually designed it specifically to block pirated games and similar content. So why is Sony suing him? Good question. Video after the break…

Steve Jobs Takes Another Leave Of Absence

Is Steve Jobs having recurring health problems? If a claimed internal email is to be believed, then yes. News of Steve’s medical leave is spreading like wildfire this morning, with even larger publications picking it up leading to the claim’s authenticity. In the email, Steve once again singles out COO Tim Cook as the new man in charge for day-to-day operations. Steve, however, will remain in the loop for “major strategic decisions”. Whether this new medical leave is a result of recurring illness from his last medical leave or new altogether, we wish him the best. Email below.

Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

[Update] Apple Requesting Feds To Rethink Legality Of Jailbreaking.

A new article published by NBC highlights Apple’s continuing (and futile) attempt to prevent people from jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone. If you recall, the recent DMCA revisions made explicit exceptions for “jailbreaking” cellphones in general — basically, it is 100% legal to jailbreak and unlock your cellphone no matter what Apple says or wants. But that isn’t stopping the Cupertino giant. They are using the same old, tired, and repeatedly defeated claim of “copyright infringement” as a scare tactic to get the U.S. Copyright office to do their bidding.

Current jailbreak technologies now in widespread use utilize unauthorized modifications to the copyrighted bootloader and operating system, resulting in the infringement of the copyrights in those programs

While there are many people who jailbreak just to pirate apps, the majority do it to unlock the full potential of their phones and to customize it as they see fit. Everything from free tethering to a fully skinned iOS is possible with jailbroken iPhones. And let us not forget, the term “jailbreaking” as it is being used in the article is meant to classify Apple’s own iPhone. But in reality, the DMCA uses it as a more generalized term to encompass all cellphones.

In the end, Apple can continue this cat and mouse game as long as they’d like, however, they will never win. Regardless if it is “illegal” or not, people will continue jailbreaking *their* phones whether Apple likes it or not.

Update

After Jordan’s tip below, a trip back to the story source, trek though the comments, and final stop at the real source, we have to admit that this story is less believable. Looks like an old quote recycled for news. (And we fell for it…)

Fail0verflow Releases Full Suite Of Tools And Resources For PS3 Hacking.

Perhaps the Fail0ver team had a bad night, lost a few too many rounds of poker, or maybe, just maybe, they are retaliating to Sony’s BS lawsuit over PS3 jailbreaking. (I’m going to go out on a limb and focus on the latter.) Regardless, the fail0verflow team has made their entire suite of tools available online and has even gone as far as to ask people to copy/download/redistribute/mirror said tools for future use. Looks like Sony is rattling the hornets nest.

LEGAL TOOLS that do not contain any keys or any SONY software created by the team fail0verflow (please clone this respositoy and avoid to the big fish eats the small fish using the money and the recurses of one Multinational against talented people that seeking new hombrew uses in the PS3 console and the return of Linux)

iPad 2 Will Feature 2048×1536 Display?

When the iPad was first released, it was haled for it’s crisp, vivid display. But after the world was exposed to the iPhone 4 and it’s Retina display, the iPad’s slab of glass sort of lost its luster. With that said, countless rumors have been circulating the last several months pointing to a new, updated Retina Display on the iPad.

Thanks to @Xuzz, it appears we now know what Apple has in store for the iPad 2′s display. The most surprising aspect — it isn’t actually a “retina display” in the 300ppi sense. Instead, it’s a simple pixel-doubling from 1024 x 768 to 2048 x 1536, which works out to roughly 260ppi. Why simply pixel double instead of going for an actual “Retina Display”? Developers. Expanding by a perfect 2x size gives developers a much needed break. If Apple does go with a real 300+ppi display, however, it will mean developers will have to take extra time in designing applications and how they will appear on the different sized screens.

As for the image above, a recent update of iBooks spilled the beans. Unfortunately, Apple has since removed the offending images and locked us into secrecy once again. Just be glad the iPad 2 is slated to launch in the not too distant future. In the meantime — Do you think a 2048 x 1536 iPad 2 will be enough to fend of this year’s onslaught of non-iOS tablets, or does Apple need to try harder?