Author: Kat Hannaford

Huge billboards of FBI’s most wanted have already been hoisted up in Times Square, but unfortunately that’s not the only crim-soaked corner of the globe. Buildings across the UK are splashing scary mugs on them too, like the one above.

It’s not just criminals apparently, with monuments and buildings proving to be the 21st century version of a milk carton, projecting images of missing people on them too.

A £3,000 ($4,841) projector is being used in Hampshire for ultimate exposure of the nasty wrong-doers’ faces, though the brand is unknown. Anyone know? [Daily Mail]

Laugh/cry about Nokia all you want, but when it comes down to cold, hard figures, they’re still performing well. They’ve seen a 65 per cent increase in net profits for the last quarter, shipping 126.9m units in the period.

Those 126.9m units shipped in the fourth quarter are 12 per cent more than the previous year, no doubt helped by their recent N900 and N97/N97 Mini launches, which went down a storm in Europe and Asia. Americans still aren’t embracing Nokia like the rest of the world though, with only 3.8m of those 126.9m units being sold in the States.

Giving away Ovi Maps with turn-by-turn navigation for free should help those numbers rise even more, but they’ll be needing to work on some solid hardware launches to reel in the punters. Reports of cutting smartphone launches in half just don’t help matters, Nokia. You’ve still got to get your act together. [TechCrunch]

British wit and tech maestro Stephen Fry has—rather predictably—scribed a 2,180 word essay about the iPad, after we spotted him skulking around with the whiskey-drinking Jonathan Ive. If only he’d written it on an actual iPad.

Infamously purchasing the second Mac to be sold in the UK (after Douglas Adams), Fry has admitted yesterday’s event was the first time he’s “joined the congregation at the Church of Apple for a new product launch.”

Sticking with the religious metaphor, he described the launch:

“Like the first iPhone, iPad 1.0 is a John the Baptist preparing the way of what is to come, but also like iPhone 1.0 (and Jokanaan himself too come to that) iPad 1.0 is still fantastic enough in its own right to be classed as a stunningly exciting object, one that you will want NOW and one that will not be matched this year by any company.”

Looking towards the next generation of iPad:

“In the future, when it has two cameras for fully featured video conferencing, GPS and who knows what else built in (1080 HD TV reception and recording and nano projection, for example) and when the iBook store has recorded its 100 millionth download and the thousands of accessories and peripherals that have invented uses for iPad that we simply can’t now imagine – when that has happened it will all have seemed so natural and inevitable that today’s nay-sayers and sceptics will have forgotten that they ever doubted its potential.”

While he’s quick to point out his adoration of the iPad, he’s not blinkered to its shortcomings:

“There are many issues you could have with the iPad. No multitasking, still no Flash. No camera, no GPS. They all fall away the minute you use it. I cannot emphasise enough this point: “Hold your judgment until you’ve spent five minutes with it”. No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address, no list of features can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects.”

Listing the reasons to buy one, he admits the Apple badge is reason enough:

“2. It is made by Apple. I’m not being cute here. If it was made by Hewlett Packard, they wouldn’t have global control over the OS or the online retail outlets. If it was made by Google, they would have tendered out the hardware manufacture to HTC. Apple – and it is one of the reasons some people distrust or dislike them – control it all. They’ve designed the silicon, the A4 chip that runs it all, they’ve designed the batteries, they’ve overseen every detail of the commercial, technological, design and software elements. No other company on earth does that. And being Apple it hasn’t been released without (you can be sure) Steve Jobs being wholly convinced that it was ready. “Not good enough, start again. Not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough.” How many other CEOs say until their employees want to murder them? That’s the difference.”

His diatribe goes on for several pages, so if you’ve got enough time it’s worth a read—if only for his sparkling sense of humor cutting through the many gushings of adoration. [Stephen Fry via T3]

Bad luck, non-US countries. iBooks won’t be available from launch in any country other than the US. That could mean Apple’s still to finesse the licensing details with book publishers in each country, or you’re just plain out of luck.

While I doubt they could write off one of the most attractive features of the iPad that easily, it’s disappointing that there’ll be a delay in other countries. Apple’s Australian website is one of the first sites to have any trace of the iPad, which confirms the lack of ebooks.

I’ll be busy pressing F5 every 10 minutes on the UK Apple site, looking for any sign of the iPad, as I just can’t believe Apple could launch the device without ebooks from the get-go in the UK, considering Penguin’s a British publisher, Hachette a French one, Macmillan originally Scottish but now German, and Harper Collins a British/American company. [Apple Australia via Engadget]

Walmart’s told the Christian Science Monitor, of all people, that they won’t be selling the Nexus One through its Walmart Wireless arm, despite a product page saying otherwise. That page has now disappeared, and blamed as a “technical error.”

It could be seen as good news, or bad news. Giz commenter Aja175 summed the leaked product page up neatly with “Wow, there goes the nerd exclusive club. Nexus 1, coming to a trailer park near you!” after hearing the news two days ago, but there’s no denying what Walmart’s reach would’ve given Android.

Walmart’s Ravi Jariwala told the Christian Science Monitor:

“Sorry to disappoint but we have no plans to carry Nexus One in Walmart stores or online at Walmart.com at this time. Due to a technical error, this item erroneously was displayed on our site. We’re working with our partner Let’s Talk to have it removed as quickly as possible, and apologize for any confusion.”

The page has now been taken down, so if you’re wanting that animated-wallpaper-packing Nexus One in the States, your only options now are T-Mobile or straight from Google…until Verizon gets it, anyway. [Christian Science Monitor via Wireless Week]

[Thanks, Carlos!]

Leaked photos of the BlackBerry Magnum (aka, a cross between a Bold 9000 and Storm, aka, my DREAM BlackBerry) didn’t manage to illustrate that touchscreen well, but how ’bout a video fondling?

While The Cellular Guru’s Magnum was just a prototype, lacking in a working OS, he was able to demonstrate the touchscreen display and Bold 9000-type aesthetics. As someone who’s owned both the 9000 and 9700, I’ve got to say I’m pleased to see a return to the more premium build quality, though I’m hopeful the back will be made with the same leatherette finish (the prototype in the video was missing the back cover).

Other notables are the larger keyboard, optical trackpad and micro USB port. It remains to be seen whether the touchscreen will improve on the first and second-gen Storm’s efforts, but here’s hoping it’ll be more responsive. I don’t think my little heart could take the pain of having a touchscreen QWERTY ‘berry with a buggy display.

Check out the video for the intimate fondling of the Magnum (and comparison between the 9000 and 9700), and with any luck we won’t have to wait too long for this device to get the official nod, with Mobile World Congress just weeks away. [The Cellular Guru]

3DTV is hitting the UK earlier than expected, with a football (translation: soccer) match screening this Sunday. It’ll be the first sports event broadcasted in 3DTV, and will be on show in nine pubs (translation: bars) across the country.

Sky’s actually launching their 3D channel properly in April, with this Sunday’s Arsenal vs Manchester United match being the first stop-off on the multi-dimensional tour. It’ll mostly be of use to pub-goers, with few people expected to be snapping up the first wave of 3DTV panels when they go on sale, but Sky’s 3D service will be available to all Sky+HD box owners.

It’s not yet known whether the beer-swilling pub-goers will need to bring their own 3D glasses, or if the pubs will supply them, but one thing is for certain: after a few pints, glasses won’t be needed to see in 4D, let alone 3D. [Sky via TechRadar]

What a curious day for Olympus to launch a teaser campaign for the E-P3. Their next micro four thirds camera has been glimpsed through a few fat fingers, but hey—at least we know it exists!

All we can determine from the few millimeters of surface area seen behind that rudely-placed hand is that there’ll be a flash hotshoe and it’ll come in a nice steel-grey color. The Olympus site says “you can’t hide innovation,” but evidently you can. [Olympus Teaser via Electronista]

When we first heard the rumor of a kickstand for the tablet, we laughed. But actually, Apple’s case/kickstand makes sense. It’s made from leather, and works as both a case and stand, optimizing your movie viewing.

Really, it’s taking the Kindle’s leather case and one-upping it with the kickstand functionality. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say that this is definitely worth buying, if you want to protect that $499 investment. But inevitably, the third-party accessories ecosystem will provide many more, cheaper cases.

Thought you could get away with spending just $499 on the iPad? Oh no. There’s going to be an official Apple keyboard dock for easier typing, which Jobs himself demonstrated the need for earlier with his few typos.

The keyboard looks just like the normal Apple keyboard, and actually makes the iPad stand upright, so it’s like a mini iMac set-up. Really, this is probably the safest way of typing we can see—far better than the alternatives we suggested, which included a stylus. Gulp.

After eyeing up renders, this caught-in-the-wild snapshot of the HTC Bravo comes accompanied with information on its Android partner the Legend, which hasn’t been salivated over quite as much as it should, considering it’s supposedly packing a unibody aluminum casing.

The photo above is of the HTC Bravo, which was first outed in the leaked HTC roadmap. According to the Polish site Komorkomania, who got hands-on with the two phones, it still features the four buttons and optical sensor trackpad, and will go on sale April. Specs include a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Wi-Fi, GPS, 512MB RAM, Dolby for Mobile audio, 5.0-megapixel camera with 720p video recording and will run Android 2.1 with HTC Sense.

While they couldn’t take photos of the Legend, Komorkomania said that during their hands-on with it, they were made aware of the unibody aluminum casing (HTC taking design cues from Apple?) with plastic inserts so the cover can be removed easily for access to the SIM card, microSD and battery. That was made evident during the leaked roadmap, but supposedly it’ll also come with a 5.0-megapixel camera, AMOLED screen with 480 x 800 pixels, and optical sensor trackpad just like on the Bravo.

I must admit, I’m dead excited for these two phones to be officially announced. The Hero was a great device, but these two pack more weight—and will hopefully come with a later version of Android than the 2.1 they’ve been spied with. [Komorkomania via Electricpig]

Archos’ first Android tablet, the Archos 5, didn’t quite live up to its promises,but a second leaked Android tablet from the French could prove more feature-some if realized, with a front-facing webcam and new 7-inch size.

Thanks to a slip-up by the UK retailer Data-Mind, we’ve got photos and specs of the tablet, which will apparently go on sale in March for £149.99 ($242). It’ll have 8GB of onboard storage, a webcam, and 7-inch LCD screen with 800 x 480 pixels. That’s 2.2-inches more than the Archos 5, with the storage being the same.

It’s not just hardware which will be upgraded between the models, with the software being upgraded too. Song lyrics support, and compatibility for the APE file format will be included, and ArchosFans, which were eagle-eyed enough to spot the leaked product, are speculating about the missing Archos Media Center widget from the homescreen.

Hey, I realize it’s difficult to get excited about a non-Apple tablet today, but try and show a little enthusiasm for this potential leaked device? Hmm? [Data-Mind via ArchosFans via ArchosLounge]

On the cusp of the Apple event, new patents have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, showing a proximity-sensing multitouch screen amongst other features. It could be a patent for today’s product announcement, or The Future.

Patently Apple dug up the goods for 13 patents, all of which have been authorized by the USPTO for Apple to use, some years after Apple first filed for them. The timing is worth considering, with the closeness to today’s event either being a deliberate hype tactic for whatever’s announced today, or coincidental (and for future products.)

The 13 patents include an Automatic Detection of Channel Bandwidth, Color Management System,
Apparatus and Method for Rotating the Display Orientation of a Captured image, a
Video Conferencing System, Interface for Providing Modeless Timeline Based Selection of an Audio or Video File, but none are quite as telling as the Proximity Detector for Tablets.

For the full descriptions of each patent, including diagrams, mosey on over here. [USPTO via Patently Apple via Engadget]

A MacRumors forums member has posted a screengrab of the iPhone Dev Portal which updated the terms and conditions yesterday (supposedly) with the line “need to update this for the 27th launch.” So there’ll be a new iPhone OS, hmm?

MacRumors forum member Withnail explained the screengrab he pasted on ‘The Apple Tablet Rumor Roundup’ thread:

“I had let my developers license lapse, and I wanted to renew it today. I noticed that the portal went down for a while with the “We’ll be back soon!” placeholder.

When it was back up, I went in and renewed my account. I thought the Ts&Cs were a bit funny.”

This adds further weight to Flurry Analytics’ claims just days ago that they detected up to 50 different Apple Tablet-like devices testing apps, traced back to the Cupertino HQ of Apple. They were apparently running OS 3.2, suggesting the tablet would merely be a larger version of the iPhone, and not a completely different platform. [MacRumors forums via 9 to 5 Mac]

Its poor little punched-out eyes blink red with the horror of having LEDs shoved in them, every time it makes a data transfer. Video of the post-life torture after the jump.

Sad thing is, it’s not even the first dead mouse to be outfitted with LED eyes 🙁 [Zackaholic’s Flickr via MAKE]

This isn’t just a mug with a barcode painted on, it’s the packaging as well—the barcode can be scanned by a cashier. Designed in Britain, it should be going on sale (and scanned) shortly. [DesignBoom]

After getting bogged down in sand, and damaging its two right wheels, all is not looking good for the Mars Spirit Rover. Nasa’s admitted it will be stuck in its rut for all eternity, with little hope of moving it.

Part of the massive $900m Mars Exploration Rover program, the little Spirit Rover hasn’t had much luck on the planet, but Nasa is still hopeful it can collect data from the soft patch of sand it’s bogged in. It’s powered by the solar panels on its back, but due to the angle it’s stuck in the sand, the Spirit Rover must be turned slightly to catch some valuable sun rays over the coming months of hibernation, waking up in August to start collecting information on its surroundings.

While it can’t zip across Mars’ surface anymore, it could still provide details on the level of movement Mars makes on its axis, which would suggest whether it contains a solid or liquid core. [BBC]

Gizmodo helm-man and keen snowman Brian nearly creamed his pants when he heard about RealSki’s augmented reality iPhone app, and rightly so—the app uses the camera, accelerometer, compass and GPS to map ski-trails of over 80 US mountains.

You’ll need to be running at least OS 3.1.2 on your iPhone 3GS to use RealSki, and to make it work you move the phone around you on the ski-trail, so it can map the location. Then, digital overlays will appear within the app, showing you where the lifts, lodges, restrooms and restaurants are, as well as trails (and their level of skill) and any other parks or features of that resort.

The free download will provide maps for five of the major resorts, but if you’re going off-piste and need other maps, you can purchase additional ones (there’s 80 available) from within the app. Here’s hoping the RealSki app is intelligent enough to bolt you to the chair lift when you decide to conquer the difficult Black Diamond course. [RealSki on iTunes]