Stories by Brennon Slattery

Windows Phone 7 flying off store shelves

The HTC DH7, one of the first smartphones featuring the Windows Phone 7 OS, has sold out, one day after its release. This instantaneous success can be credited either to HTC's impressive track list of making great smartphones or the public's strong interest in Microsoft's revamped mobile OS. Either way, it's a good day for Microsoft -- though there's a long road ahead.

Dell ditches RIM: BlackBerry's bad year just got worse

Dell dumped RIM's BlackBerry as its business smartphone and announced that it would be supplying 25,000 of its employees with the Windows 7-powered Dell Venue Pro. The move is yet more gloom for RIM that has already been having a stinker of a bad year.

Report: Apple working on fix for MacBook Air screens

Some of Apple's new 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air notebooks have been suffering from screen problems, including horizontal and vertical lines appearing across the screen, color changes, and blank and gray screen crashes. Others have reported odd kernel problems (essentially the Blue Screen of Death). So far the only Band-Aid for the screen defects is a CPU reboot.

Facebook tightens control of social Web with Bing, EA Deals

Facebook and EA Games inked a five-year "strategic relationship" that makes Facebook Credits the sole payment method for microtransactions in EA's Facebook games, which include two in the top 10: Pet Society and Restaurant City. EA's licensed products, Scrabble and the upcoming Monopoly, also strive to tap into the real-life pockets of Facebook's 200 million-strong game-playing population.

Climb Everest, make 3G calls

Scaling Mount Everest is a great accomplishment, a feat of human endurance. And now, thanks to the Nepalese telecom firm, Ncell, you can brag about your triumph over 3G. Is this awesome, or an example of technology plundering nature?

Windows 8 coming in 2012?

Just as you were getting comfortable with Windows 7, it looks like Windows 8 is coming in the next two years. In a post celebrating the one-year anniversary of Windows 7 -- the fastest selling OS in history -- Microsoft's Dutch Web site briefly mentioned the construction and release of its successor:

More Android 3.0 'Gingerbread' details revealed

Mere months after the launch of Android 2.2, discussions about the impending release of Android 3.0, or "Gingerbread," are gushing. Android 3.0 is rumored to be released sometime in the next few weeks, and will be a significant overhaul of Google's market-dominating smartphone OS -- and may be the first truly tablet-ready iteration of Android.

Firefox 4 for Android greeted with cheers and jeers

Mozilla's release of Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Android (and Maemo) phones brought with it some cheers -- and some jeers. Though Firefox 4 Beta 1 showed improvements in some areas, it stumbled in others, leaving users yearning for speedy future enhancements. Here's a rundown of what's new with Firefox and what requires more of Mozilla's attention.

The five pros and cons of a Facebook phone

Is Facebook building a phone? The company won't say for sure, but for some the idea of a Facebook phone is social networking overkill. To social butterflies, a Facebook phone is a dream come true. Here is a look at the pros and cons.

UK pricing of Galaxy Tab hints at high price In US

Are consumers ready to dig deep into their wallets for Samsung's Galaxy Tab as the economy struggles and more affordable tablets, namely Apple's iPad, exist? According to Amazon's U.K. site, after currency conversion, the Tab will cost $US1067 unlocked in England.

Google gets serious about social networking

After purchasing handfuls of social networking-centric companies -- including socialDeck for online games and Jambool for virtual currency -- Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company's social networking project will debut later this year.

Verizon V CAST app store to compete against Google

Verizon has been accepting submissions for its forthcoming V CAST Android app store, which is rumored to be unveiled at the VCD Conference on 21 September. The V CAST app store was originally said to be an extension of the official Android app marketplace, but according to the blog Android and Me, the shop will be totally independent of Google.

Has Digg dug its own grave?

Some people just don't like change. Less than a week after Digg released version 4 of its social news-sharing site, fans have rebelled, flooding Digg with links from a rival sharing site, staging a "Quit Digg Day," and prophesying a major drop-off in traffic if the site doesn't return to its roots. Has Digg dug its grave, or is this yet another kneejerk neophobic reaction?

The next Facebook: Scoop?

Imagine a social networking site geared specifically toward connecting college students with their on-campus academic and social communities. Sound familiar? Those are Facebook's roots -- before the site ballooned into a worldwide phenomenon with half a billion registered users. They're also the roots of Scoop<, a forthcoming mobile social app.

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