Blowing Out the Dust: Morning Edition
• No AppleTV Support! – Interview with head of the XBMC port to OS X. [9to5Mac.com] [Prev.]
• Stealing Thunder – The Mac Superstore in San Luis Obispo, California uses Mac Plus and SE/30s as doorstops. [Cult of Mac]
• Hrm. – Apple files to protect their trademark with regard to "hand-held units for playing electronic games," other game-related terms. I am guessing this is just covering bases. They already have a game device. It's called "iPod." [Trademork]
• I Actually Squealed – Publisher announces sequel to Puzzle Quest. No details yet. [Game|Life]
• High Voltage! – Microsoft buys Danger, Inc., the people who designed and operate the back-end for the Sidekick. The Sidekick has one of the best mobile interfaces around but has been largely stagnant since its launch. It's also my impression (read: nebulous, vague inclination with no linkable source) that most of the real players at Danger have already left. [Microsoft]
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Danger made some good devices but damn were they unstable!
They had this habit of rebooting when you tried to use them for odd things like answer phone calls.
I also had 8 of them break on me in 16 months - either the screen flip would break, the battery would stop charging, or the processor would lose the ability to talk to the radio.
Other than that they were cool phones. Really neat UI, great keyboard, and pretty good battery life.
My source at Danger assures me that the platform is held back largely at the explicit request/threat of the wireless service.
After all, why should old phones get new features, when new phones require new service contracts?
Microsoft buying Danger and it's product Sidekick being primarily T-Mobile's is very interesting. Actually last I heard Tmobile would not allow Sidekicks sold unlocked nor would they provide unlock codes for the devices making them T-mobile or bricked. I also heard that Starbucks is shifting to AT&T WiFi and will no longer use T-Mobile's WiFi service called Hotspots. Are these shifts at the heart of it Mac vs. PC debates? Sidekick vs. iPhone?
Microsoft buying Danger makes perfect sense. After all, it's a stagnant technology, bound to one provider, that had its brief moment in the sun a couple of years ago. It's an excellent addition to Microsoft's innovation portfolio.
zPhone?
The founder of danger founded android, now a part of google. How much of the brains followed him I'm not sure.