All 4 Toys

If there’s one thing we can decisively say about iPhone users — and everyone else, for that matter — it’s that they shouldn’t see naked people, even if they want to. Ever. Apple agrees, and it turns out that they were responsible for the removal of the Hottest Girls app after all, contrary to a statement by its developer that the app had tapped out his server which supposedly forced him to ask Apple to pull it while he ramped up capacity. Apple released a statement today confirming this, but here’s where it gets interesting: the company says that “the developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed” — in other words, the guy pulled a bait-and-switch on Apple by serving different content to his app after it had been approved using more PG-rated content. Look, we’re all for filling our iPhones with gigabytes upon gigabytes of stuff that would make us especially anxious to trigger the Remote Wipe feature if we were to misplace it, but we’ve got to admit — the dude went about it the wrong way here, Apple caught him, the world keeps turning. Come on, it’s not like you don’t have thousands of naughty pics in a folder cleverly named “recipes” that you can just sync anyway. Read more »

We’ve got some good and bad news… mostly bad, though. First, the good news: HTC is looking into finding a way to bring its new Sense UI — the one featured prominently in the new Hero — to its non-Google branded Android devices, such as Canadian carrier Roger Wireless’ Magic. Unfortunately, and this is the bad news, even that’s not a sure thing, and as you can probably guess from the wording, any phone that’s got the “with Google” branding, like T-Mobile USA’s G1 and myTouch 3G, won’t be getting a chance at all due to the same licensing terms that prevented Microsoft Exchange clients on those same phones. Them’s the breaks, folks, but we’re sure some hacker with enough know-how will bypass the silly restrictions and do it anyway. Read more »

When it comes to claims of being the world’s first or fastest, there’s a big difference between announcing product and actually delivering it for retail. So let’s be clear, SanDisk might be announcing the world’s fastest 32GB SDHC card today, but it won’t be shipping until August. It’s not even the first 32GB class 10 SDHC card announced since Panasonic did its unveiling more than a month ago — and this is where SanDisk’s speed claims get confusing. That “class 10″ logo is supposed to be a standard means of identify the card’s speed as rated by the SD Association. Yet SanDisk claims a max read/write speed of 30MBps whereas Panasonic claims a max of just 22MBps. Guess we’ll have to see head-to-head benchmarks to know the truth. Regardless, it is fast and that makes it suitable for capturing 160 minutes of full HD (1920×1080 pixels) video recorded at 24Mbps.

Filed under: Storage

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It’s hacky and requires some fiddling, but EOS 5D Mark II owners interested in maxing out their video abilities will want to check out the new Magic Lantern firmware developed by Trammell Hudson. The new code adds a tons of features, including on-screen audio meters, audio and video gain control with the option to disable the auto settings, zebra stripe masking of overexposed areas, and on-screen aspect ratio overlays — and what’s more, it’s billed as an “open platform,” so there should be many more plugins and tweaks forthcoming. Caveats apply with this early release, though: you need to reload the firmware if the camera so much as goes to sleep, and battery drain appears to be an unresolved issue. Still, we’re certain these problems will be fixed over time, since we’re guessing there’s gonna be tons of interest in this — if Canon would just throw us some autofocus in addition to those new manual exposure controls, we’d be all set.

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Apple’s new iPhone 3GS and OS 3.0 offer plenty of new features, however you can only choose either black and white colors, just the iPhone 3G, its predecessor. And now… ColorWare is offering their custom colors for the iPhone 3GS for the ulimate in personalization. You can choose solid and metallic colors, including the earphones to match. The process will start from the back-plate of the phone, then you can customize the normally-chrome bezel, the home button and the SIM holder. ColorWare charges $180 for the service; $150 for the back, $20 for the bezel frame and button, and $15 each for the SIM holder and earbuds.

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Have at it kids, the iPhone Dev-Team’s Ultrasn0w unlock for legacy iPhone 3G owners is ready. The unlock works with the original iPhone as well but not the iPhone 3GS; for that you’ll have to be patient. Hit the read link to get started on your eight-step program to carrier independence. No donuts or coffee but at least it’s free.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Read more »

Recently, Engadget editors Thomas Ricker and Chris Ziegler received Nokia N97s just days apart from one another. Already established pen pals, the two immediately began to correspond across the Atlantic via carrier pigeon, discussing their very different experiences using Nokia’s most powerful smartphone to date. This is a recounting of those letters.

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Starting from today, folks who residing in the U.S can expect to purchase the Sony Vaio NW notebook PC that comes include a Blu-ray combo drive, allowing more and more people to add the ability to playback Blu-ray movies on their notebook PC for less than it costs to buy a dedicated Blu-ray player for a home theater. The Vaio NW is configurable with an Intels Core 2 Duo processor up to 2.1GHz, 4GB RAM, 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics, a maximum 400GB hard drive, and a 4X BD-ROM optical drive. There also a 15.5-inch XBRITE WXGA LCD display, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n support, HDMI output, ExpressCard, SD and Memory Stick Pro card slots, and 5.5 hours of battery usage. The US Sony Vaio NW is available in white, grey, and dark brown colors and the price will start from $880 upwards.

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You might’ve noticed this already, but for those out there who share our lust for Olympus’ E-P1 “digital Pen,” but haven’t done too much digging, consider this a public service announcement. The retro-chich micro four thirds camera is now available for pre-order from a handful of online retailers, with several different packages to choose from based with various body color (silver or white) and lens color (silver or black) combinations. Looks like it’ll still cost you about $750 if you want body only, but really, at this point we don’t know why you wouldn’t pay an additional Ulysses S. Grant and grab a lens with it. Ready to smash that E-P1 piggy bank a bit early? You’ve got plenty of retailers willing to help you out there, but don’t feel too pressured, there’s still a little bit of time to decide before the July launch.

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