Stories by Ian Paul

The $US99 Palm Pre is back

The Palm Pre is going for less than a hundred bucks again, and this time you only have to rush over to your closest Web browser to get it. The online cellular retailer LetsTalk.com is offering the Palm Pre for $99.99, after a combination of mail-in and instant rebates. That means you'll pay $199.99 at the checkout, but once (or should I say if) you send in Palm's mail-in rebate you'll have bragging rights to the $99 Pre.

Is this the iPhone Nano? I hope not

Rumors that Apple is working on an iPhone Nano are spreading -- again. The latest batch of rumors began when an Apple patent was rediscovered.

Second RIAA piracy trial starts

The Recording Industry Association of America may have decided not to pursue further file-sharing trials as a policy, but one last case is set to get underway today and promises to bring a dash of the theatrical into the courtroom.

Best Buy briefly sells Palm Pre for $US99 - oops!

There were some happy shoppers coming out of Best Buy over the weekend after the big box retailer slashed the price of the Palm Pre by fifty percent. The only problem was it may have been a mistake, as other Palm Pre retail outlets including the Sprint Store did not drop their prices.

Dear Vista: it's time to part ways

Vista, I have to tell you something, and I thought it would be easier to say in a letter. Microsoft's newest operating system is on its way; Windows 7 will be here on October 22. So, I know this is kind of awkward, Vista, but I'm going to have to ask you to get your things ready and start packing up.

Microsoft tweaks ad after Apple complains

Remember last week when Microsoft was so ecstatic about Apple's complaints over the laptop hunter ads? Well, the software maker may have been overjoyed that it finally agitated its rival, but Redmond has quietly complied with Apple's complaints.

Could you be hacked like Twitter?

The French hacker who broke into Twitter's Google Apps and stole more than 300 private company documents has revealed in detail how he did it.

Mobile apps: What's in your future?

More predictions about the future of mobile devices are coming out of the MobileBeat Conference in San Francisco. Ilja Laurs, the head of GetJar -- a mobile device app store that boasts 14 million downloads monthly -- recently said that mobile phone applications "will be as big if not bigger than the Internet," according to the BBC. That statement is in direct contrast to last week's declaration by Google's vice president of engineering, Vic Gundotra, who said it's not the apps, but the browser that will be the future application platform for the mobile device.

Twittergate is lame

The revelations from the dubiously named Twittergate have been about as exciting as watching wet paint dry.

Twitter hacked, secrets to be revealed?

Alleged internal documents and sensitive information from Twitter and its employees might be posted today on news sites and other Web outlets. The source of this information is a French hacker who goes by the name of Hacker Croll. The cybercriminal claims to have accessed personally sensitive information for several Twitter employees including personal accounts on PayPal, Amazon, AT&T, MobileMe, Facebook, business Gmail accounts, and the Web registrar account for Twitter.com, according to the French blog Korben.

Verizon's app store plans likely to irk phone makers

Verizon wants to use its muscle as a major U.S. carrier to pull smart phone applications into its own online application store. To that end, Verizon is hosting a Verizon Developer Community Conference on July 28 to encourage developers to design software for the carrier's phones.

Is Your Office Wary of Windows 7?

Windows 7 pre-orders may be burning up the charts, but many users are apparently still reluctant to switch over to Microsoft's newest operating system. This is particularly true for businesses that are a little upgrade-wary after investing in Vista, while others are reluctant to give up on Redmond's classic XP system. Compounding the temptation not to switch was news earlier this year that Microsoft wasn't making life easy for XPers migrating to the new OS.

Microsoft Office vs.Google Docs: A Web Apps Showdown

The future may be the cloud, but it also may be Microsoft that ushers us into that realm of possibility and imagination. Today, Redmond unveiled as a part of Office 2010 a suite of Microsoft Office Web apps that will compete directly with Google Docs. While Microsoft isn't letting anyone play around with the apps just yet, on paper, Microsoft's Web apps look like they could blow Google's online services out of the water -- beta or no beta.

Does Google know too much about you?

Do you trust Google? If you use its multitude of online services on a daily basis you might, but is that assumption wise? For some, Google is a wonderful company with a broad selection of useful online tools that make life easier, but for others Google is a looming, unregulated monster just waiting for the moment to drop the 'don't' from the company's unofficial motto, "Don't be evil."

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