Sony vs. Geohot Judge: Why Is This In California?

A couple of weeks ago, former iOS jailbreaker and current PS3 hacker, George Hotz aka “Geohot”, released (in coordination with the fail0ver team) code to crack the PS3′s hardware and software encryption thus allowing home brew software to be installed and run. Sony naturally wasn’t all to happy, and just recently responded with a lawsuit asking for unspecified monetary damages as well as the complete removal of any and all traces of Geohot’s crack from the internet (good luck with that Sony).

With that said, today began the first in a series of court appearances for Geohot and Sony in a California court, with the focus of this morning’s early meeting being to determine whether or not Geohot had to surrender all of his electronic gear as the case moves forward. Thankfully, common sense did play a small role in the court room today, with the presiding Judge Susan Illston questioning Sony’s argument that the case should be tried in California because Geohot (from New Jersey) received funds from PayPal (located in California) and posted the hack and code on Twitter and YouTube (also from California). Illston said that if Sony’s argument were taken seriously, the entire world’s problems and legal battles would be under her jurisdiction. As such, she put off any pending decision on Geohot’s electronic devices and further trials in California on hold until a later, unconfirmed date.

Score 1 for common sense. 0 for Sony.

Lawsuit Filed Over Samsung/T-Mobile Delayed Vibrant Updates.

Over the last few months, Samsung has been in hot water within various user forums for their slow to non-existant updates for their in-house Android devices. The Samsung Behold II/Android 1.6 fiasco was a large blemish in Sammie’s past. And the latest device, the Samsung Vibrant, appears to be another developing one with an XDA forum member by the name of MicBeast launching a class action lawsuit against not only Samsung, but T-Mobile as well.

The case: Samsung and T-Mobile are deliberately delaying Android updates to push people towards upgrading hardware sooner (at higher costs).

It will be interesting to see how far the case actually gets. Expect Android fragmentation, custom skins, and other update-related topics to move to the forefront of Android forums and the tech world as a whole if the case moves forward. We’ll be following this closely and report to you as it unfolds.

More Upcoming Hardware Revealed Via iOS 4.3 Beta.

Often times, iOS beta firmwares are the best way to get an early sneak peak as to what Apple is currently working on and what we could see in the near future. With that said, we’ve already seen the full changelog of 4.3 re-published many times over, but there’s another gem hidden with that is just coming to light. For the first time in iOS code, evidence of Imagination Technologies’ POWERVR SGX543 GPU is present, meaning a much more powerful iPhone in the not too distant future. Specifically, the 543 is claimed to pump out 7 million more polygons per second than the current 535 GPU in the iPhone 4. On top of that, OpenCL is supported bringing with it various special features including GPU processing for general tasks/applications as well as added multi-core support.

The Verizon iPhone is great and all, but the upcoming iPhone 5 looks like a beast on paper. We’ll see in just a few short months.

Leaked: Windows 7 Service Pack 1

Hopefully Microsoft wasn’t hoping to surprise anyone with their Service Pack 1 release for Windows 7 and Server 2008 — because it has been leaked online. The version number comes in at 7601.17514.101119-1850, features both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and packs mostly bug and performance enhancements. Full spec sheet after the jump…

Angry Birds Plush Toys Now Available In UK.

For several weeks now, the U.S. has had access to one of the greatest creations ever — Angry Birds plush toys. Unfortunately, that’s where the fun stopped. The Angry Birds plushies weren’t available anywhere else. But thanks to a website by the name of Firebox, UK Angry Birds aficionados can finally get in on the action. In total, there are three different lines of toys being offered: 8″ toys for £9.99, Sound-making plushies for £4.99, and backpack clips for £3.99.

Any UK residents taking the plunge?

Rumor: Spotify Partnering With Two Major Labels For U.S. Launch.

We’ve talked about Spotify a time or two here at Gadgetsteria, though for good reason. It’s an awesome music streaming service — over in Europe. Thus far, Spotify and major U.S. music labels have been unable to come to any agreement regarding licensing and payments. Spotify, if you didn’t know, thrives on the freemium + ads model. The labels on the other than want large up front payments and aren’t too keen of Spotify’s preferred freemium design. But things could finally be coming together.

An article posted by The New York Post earlier this morning highlights “two industry sources” who claim to know one of Spotify’s two partnering U.S. music labels — Sony. As previously stated, the second partnering label isn’t known at this point.

While good news to Spotify hopefuls who have no doubt waited impatiently over the last couple of years and through several promised deadlines, some would simple say “who cares” at this point. Spotify debuted in Europe in 2008 — nearly two and a half years ago. The U.S. market has seen its own fair share of streaming success stories such as Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker, and so on. Is Spotify really different or unique enough to dethrone anyone? Hopefully we’ll be able to test that theory in the not too distant future on our very own.

Apple Announces $10,000 iTunes Gift Card For 10 Billionth App Download.

Tired of hearing your parent, significant other, or spouse hounding on your for spending too much money in the App Store? Well lucky for you, Apple is holding another app download-based contest in which the best app aficionados can score a $10,000 iTunes gift card, according to the Cupertino-based website. This time, all you have to do is be the person who downloads Apple’s 10 billionth app (or, if you don’t want to purchase/download anything, point your browser here and fill out the form). No matter how you slice it, $10,000 grand is a massive amount of money for Apple’s App Store. How could possibly say no?