Although set for launch next week, it appears Microsoft has jumped the gun and begun selling the 64GB model of the Zune HD early.

The model sells for $349 USD, which is a $50 discount from the comparable iPod Touch model.

Additionally, Microsoft has dropped the price of smaller capacity models, with the 16GB model dropping to an MSRP of $200 and the 32GB model to $270. Of course, Amazon has the players for much cheaper, ($170 for the 16GB for example) but seeing the MSRP drop is a good start for other e-tailers.

Check it here: Zune HD 64GB model

Permalink | Comments

---

Crackberry has got the rumor mill in full spin today by saying that RIM could possibly be developing a BlackBerry tablet, and is already ordering 8.9-inch displays.

Says the report: "The source (of the rumors) is from a research firm that specializes in component supply chain information - and the company sent out a brief report this week touting "RIMM to Launch Own Tablet in Late 2010" which got the industry insiders buzzing. Three sources have confirmed that RIM has placed an order with supplier Hon Hai for 8.9" displays for use in a tablet."

If true, the move would be a stark contrast from RIM's old position on tablets. Just a few months ago CEO Mike Lazaridis said this about tablets: "I don't see the benefits of a tablet over a notebook... A lot of technology falls in the middle."

The report says the more likely use of the 8.9-inch displays will be for in-car touchscreen systems, especially given the company's recent acquisition of QNX Software, the "leading provider of superior realtime operating system (RTOS) software, development tools, and services for embedded design."

Permalink | Comments

---

The Mexican government, in an effort to fight crime, has been urging residents to register their mobile phones and identities, however it appears that over 30 million line still have not and those will likely be shut down in the coming weeks.

The law was passed in 2009 "to stop criminals from using cellphones for extortion and to negotiate ransoms in kidnappings," says Reuters.

Critics of the law have called it ineffective, as criminals will now be more likely to pay off poor citizens to register the phones under their names.

America Movil, which controls 70 percent of the Mexican market, will lose about $10 million USD in revenue daily if those 30 million unregisterd lines are shutdown. The company has been trying to get an extension on the deadline for registering.

Permalink | Comments

---

Microsoft is set to officially reveal their new mobile phone series on April 12th during a media event, introducing the phones that have been developed under the working title "Pink."

The "Pink" phones will feature social networking tools, and will be aimed at teens.

Today, one of the phones, dubbed "Turtle" by the media for its rounded shape, has been "seen in the wild."

The video clip is short and it's hard to see much, but it certainly does look like the MS Turtle mockup that sites have been floating around for months.

Permalink | Comments

---

Wi-Lan, the Canadian technology licensing company, has sued Apple, HP, Dell and 16 other companies over a patent related to Bluetooth technology used in mobile phones.

The Canadian company says all 19 companies are infringing on their 1996 patent, which calls for a "method for frequency sharing and frequency punchout in frequency hopping communications network."

Wi-Lan is looking for monetary damages as well as "triple damage" for "willful" infringement.

None of the companies sued have commented yet.

Permalink | Comments

---

There was a rant posted today by Lee Brimelow, a Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities on The Flash Blog and it's all aimed at Apple.

Reads the blog post:

[Adobe would like me to make it clear that the opinions below are not the official views of the company and are entirely my own.]

By now you have surely heard about the new iPhone 4.0 SDK language that appears to make creating applications in any non-Apple-approved languages a violation of terms. Obviously Adobe is looking into this wording carefully so I will not comment any further until there is an official conclusion.

[Sentence regarding Apple's intentions redacted at request from Adobe]. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple's devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. What they are saying is that they won't allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D.

I am positive that there are a large number of Apple employees that strongly disagree with this latest move. Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this. The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted.

Adobe and Apple has had a long relationship and each has helped the other get where they are today. The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone. This would be like us putting something in our SDK to make it impossible for 3rd-party editors like FDT to work with our platform. I can tell you that we wouldn't even think or consider something like that.

Many of Adobe's supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior.

Personally I will not be giving Apple another cent of my money until there is a leadership change over there. I've already moved most of my book, music, and video purchases to Amazon and I will continue to look elsewhere. Now, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting you do the same and I'm also not trying to organize some kind of boycott. Me deciding not to give money to Apple is not going to do anything to their bottom line. But this is equivalent to me walking into Macy's to buy a new wallet and the salesperson spits in my face. Chances are I won't be buying my wallets at Macy's anymore, no matter how much I like them.

Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as Speaking purely for myself, I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

Permalink | Comments

---

According to Mozilla's official "Metrics" blog, Firefox has seen a gigantic improvement in stability over the past five months, with the launch of v3.6 being a big reason why, especially compared to v3.5.

To get their number, they used the "Crash Reports" data as well as the "Aggregate View of FF Crashes" data, which can be viewed at the end of the article.

Says Ken Kovash: "As mentioned previously, improving Firefox stability was a top level objective of the Mozilla community during the last few months of 2009. That effort was led by a variety of folks across a wide breath of the community… people who saw the many complaints about crashes, collected the data, figured out what was causing the most pain, addressed those issues (sometimes in code, sometimes by working with partners) and saw product improvements."

Well done.

Permalink | Comments

---