UK Pub fined for Illegal Download on its WiFi

£8,000, a little over $13,100, was the number on the bill handed to a British Pub owner after someone used his public WiFi to illegally download content, leaving him with the copyright infringement charge. Now this isn't fair at all, to put the blame on this sole guy for the actions of others, but it has to be pointed out that it's common practice by ISP's and such to insert lingo as 'any illegal action done on your internet connection, public or private, is against the terms of service in which you are liable for any damages accrued by such activity.' So in reality, no matter how unfair it may seem, this guy by the contract is at fault and has to pay up.

Screenshots - HTC Hero running Android 2.1

Brandon Davenport Nov 30, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Applications, Design, Mobile, News, Pictures, breaking

HTC has been promising to bring Android 2.0 to the HTC Hero once it figured out the ways to go about mixing the HTC sense interface with Google's latest code, skipping Donut altogether, but now they are giving us something even better! Screenshots found today show a Hero running Android 2.1, in which the interface looks largely untouched from 1.5. Also, Google had teased a "minor update" to 2.0 before the end of 2009 back when it announced Eclair last month.

Read -- Engadgets Coverage

Splitting the Bill? Easy with the 'Dutch' device

We've posted about the SetGo Urban Bag and the ever popular Window Phone, but today we're highlighting another brain child of YankoDesign. Enter this sweet practical device that makes going out to dinner with your friends much less awkward and much more enjoyable.

New "iPhone3,1" Picture Spotted!

Nick Mahar Nov 29, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Apple, Design, Gadgets, Gaming, Hacks, Hardware, Internet, Mobile, News, Personal, Videos, Websites, breaking, iPhone

Photo taken on the iPhone 3,1

Reports of a photo taken by the "iPhone3,1" mysteriously popped up in the usage record of a Bay Area App Store developer. The "iPhone2,1" turned out to be the 3GS, so we may be looking at the next iteration of the iPhone. 

3,1 was first discovered in November by the iPhone app iBart, however, this isn't the first time the "iPhone3,1" name has shown up in data form. Back in August, the "iPhone3,1" was discovered hiding in iPhone firmware files, but MacRumors is reporting that this seems to be the first case of it out in the wild.

Also noteworthy is the timing of the discovery; In October 2008 Apple started testing the 3GS in and around the San Francisco area, so perhaps this gives us a bit of a time frame for when we'll see the next iPhone release?

-NM

[MacRumors via Gizmodo]

App of the Week: Words Free

Nick Mahar Nov 29, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Apple, Applications, Design, Exclusive, Gadgets, Gaming, Hardware, Internet, Mobile, Reviews, iPhone

This week a friend on mine led me on to a very cool app called Words. This app is basically a free version of Scrabble that you can play with anyone who has an iPhone at any time. The real win of the app is that you can chat and play at you own pase. The game could last an hour or how ever many weeks you want it to go.

Words free lets you make a move, close the app, and wait until your opponent gets a notification of his/her turn, makes a move, and get notified yourself of when you turn is up. The app is completely free and worth checking out for anyone who likes to play Scrabble with friends or unknown even if you don’t have the time to do so in one sitting. You can either search for users to play with using your contact list, or search by user name. If you don’t know anyone with the game yet, you can play a random opponent. Finally, Words With Friends also has a mode for local play if you want to play against a friend using a single device.

Either way, both games are free and supported via in-game advertising and Words With Friends has a premium version for $2.99 that you can buy if you want to support the developer and/or don’t like looking at ads. I haven’t had any problems with mine except crashing once but i get that many times even on my Facebook app. It’s a great free game and i guess it helps with you vocabulary too.

-NM

AT&T Bothered by White House Comments

It's no secret that the ISP's of America have been having an old fashioned sandbox fight like a couple of 5 year olds over what to do with Net Neutrality - being non-partial to all content on the internet, regardless of affiliation, beliefs, internet speed, or geographical location (as long as its legal content). Well, in the latest spat At&t called foul on some comments made by President Obama's deputy chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin

Magellan's iPhone/iPod Touch Car Kit Next Month

Nick Mahar Nov 29, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Apple, Applications, Design, Gadgets, Hardware, Internet, Mobile, News, Websites, iPhone

Earlier this month Magellan announced they were trying to one-up TomTom by creating an iPhone and iPod Touch GPS car kit of their very own. No price or release date was set though. Thanks to Amazon's new product listings, we have a clue to when it will be shipped and for how much. This is on compatible with the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touch as well as the iPhone 3G & 3GS.

The car kit comes with a built-in speaker, charging capabilities, a noise-canceling handsfree speakerphone, and it also works with any navigation or location-based app--not just Magellan's own $79.99 RoadMate program. The unfortunate part here is that Magellan has somehow managed to produce a cradle that's actually more expensive that the ludicrously overpriced TomTom variant, but those willing to part with $129.99 can place their order now and look for a December 11th ship date. I'm guessing it has it's own GPS in the cradle since the device works with iPod Touches which is really cool. No reports on how well it works but the device looks very sleek. 

This also won Editor's Pick in Best GPS & Navigation for 2009 at Amazon.com. For more information click the link Amazon.com.

-NM