Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

Hit the jump to see bonehead moves from Apple, Google, T-Mobile, SanDisk and Motorola…

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If you are headed to the beach, pick up Microsoft’s 10-K filing with the SEC for some light reading.  It’s filled with characters you know and love and their almost comic book struggle to restore peace in the galaxy bring profitability to Microsoft.  If you follow the report carefully, you’ll learn Microsoft is, in fact, a software company.  And what software company doesn’t want to get their applications on the hottest mobile computing device going?

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Gadgetell exclusive: last night I was contacted by a couple of developers, each shut out of the beta program.  Both, I might add, have fantastic application ideas but Apple hadn’t even looked at thier app until yesterday.  Or so it seemed.

Both developers got notification they were accepted into the program.  Word is a couple of weeks and wham, bam, boom - they are in the App Store.

As I’ve said before, I found the launch of the App Store a little underwhelming but do believe it will snowball into some amazing Apps for us to enjoy.  How about you, got an app you can’t live without now?

I also got to thinking this morning, Apple just created a way for them to add productivity to current applications while getting us to pay for them.  Things like a video camera, MMS, copy and paste.  Things that we all think should just be in there, Apple can now collect revenue for.  Nice.  Well, for them anyway.

One question I and others have is if I buy from the App store and then later decide to upgrade to the 3G iPhone, will these apps transfer or do I have to buy Monkey Ball all over again?  Knowing how much Apple likes to sell things, I presumed the answer to be me digging into my pocket again.  But, no!

The consensus seems to be thanks to Fairplay, just like music, you can sync the apps to the new device using iTunes.  This is good news for those with the original iPhone who upgrade to 2.0 and can’t resist playing around with some new applications...it seems as if you can do so without fear of having to buy them all over again once you get a 3G.  And you know you will, every time you access the net over EDGE, you’ll feel slow and the short-bus is honking it’s horn just for you.

Read [Apple forums]

Keeping true to their priority of being significant hubs of the community, Boost Mobile opened its first three retail stores, they are located in Huntington Park, California, Hialeah, Florida and Houston, Texas. In addition to the new retail locations the Boost Mobile prepaid products have been and will remain available to consumers at Wal-Mart, 7-11 and a huge number of other retail outlets.

More than just a place to buy goods, Michael Lanzo, Boost Vice President of Sales and Marketing says, “our stores have a great vibe and highlight the best we have to offer.” Contrary to the common shops, Lanzo adds, “they’re much more than just retail spots aimed at attracting customers—the stores are centers for community connection.  Becoming an integral part of these neighborhoods is a priority for Boost, and we are actively engaging local civic officials and giving back to charities in the communities where our stores are located.”

Boost seems determined to cultivate a ‘community’ image. The stores aim to exude a green vibe, filling the stores with furniture and decor made of recycled materials.

Via [MobileCrunch]

Blackberry users will have something to look forward to next month. Puretracks, a Toronto-based digital music company is bringing DRM-free music to blackberry devices via its online music store. The online music store for Blackberry devices was announced during the SWSX meet a couple of days ago.

Although this is something that Blackberry users should be happy about, there are some limitations however to the digital music tracks that Puretracks will be offering starting April 1. First, the Blackberry music store will only be available for RIM’s Pearl, Curve and 8800 series handsets. Second, the Blackberry music store will only be available for the US market, although Puretracks promises to bring it to Canada and other markets soon. 

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Sprint is planning on closing all of their stores, to include licensed dealer locations from 9am to 11am PST today. During this time all partners, owners and employees will watch a webcast. While this is most likely just some employee training, we can always hope for something good, possibly some news of the rumored $60 unlimited calling plan?

Lets just hope the closing of the Sprint stores offers us geeks a little more exciting news than the Starbucks closing. All things considered better coffee is a good thing, but we were hoping to hear something a little more tech friendly.

Via [IntoMobile]

We recently learned that Palm was planning on closing all of their retail locations, that fact was even later confirmed by Palm, but it seems there may have been a little confusion. It turns out that those airport retail locations will indeed remain open, it seems they are not actually owned by Palm but by Airport Wireless.

Now rest assured next time you are stuck in that airport you will still be able to drop in and pick up that overpriced accessory or play with kill time with the latest Palm device until your flight leaves. There was a mention of the stores seeing some re-branding, so it may not be an official Palm store, but the stores will still remain.

Via [Engadget Mobile]

Palm has confirmed the latest rumor regarding the closing of their retail locations. Initially the news of the store closings made it seem like Palm had finally hit the dark tunnel at the end of the line, however their statement regarding the closings gives us a little more hope for the future. According to Palm the store closings will allow them to “focus on its next-generation smartphone platform.” Still a little skeptical, but we would like to trust them.

As for the store closings, Palm will be closing all of their eight branded stores in California and all 26 airport locations. They will be keeping just one store open which is located at their headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The closings will all take place over the next five weeks. Sad to see the closings, but hopefully this will allow Palm to deliver that magic device we are all waiting to see.

Via [RCR Wireless News]

According to a user over on the TreoCentral user forums, Palm is preparing to close its retail locations by January 31, 2008. At this time, there has not been any official confirmation, however with all the recent trouble that Palm has been having it has a ring of truth to it. The user “treoneo” of course cannot reveal his “source” so time will have to tell on this one.

With all the recent popularity of the Centro, Palm’s troubles have been getting pushed into the back of our minds a little bit. I do mean a little bit though because I am sure its not hard to remember all the delays of Palm OS II, not to mention the recent employee layoffs. Its sad to say but it seems like the end is getting closer for Palm.

Read [TreoCentral] Via [EngadgetMobile]