As we know, Apple is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to upcoming releases. The strategy of making everyone wait until the big announcement from Steve Jobs at a carefully-timed event has paid off well for Apple over the years, with relatively few foul ups. That's why it's especially shocking to see the iPhone 4G hardware leaked not once, but twice.

By now most people are aware of the details surrounding the iPhone 4G left at a bar by an Apple engineer and the aftermath at Gizmodo. After a fire drill like that one, I would never have expected it would happen again. Yet now we have new photos and video from Vietnamese forum Taoviet, showing the iPhone 4G with further refinements and proof that the device uses the same A4 processor used in the iPad. Check out the photos and video over at AppleInsider.

Thinking back to all the Macworld Keynotes (and later Apple events) I have covered, I can't think of one where something was leaked beforehand to the extent that the iPhone 4G has. Maybe someone reading this can refresh my memory, but it seems like this is the biggest yet. In any case, the photos and video have definitely made me want the new iPhone even more, so if this is some kind of secret Apple marketing strategy, it's certainly working on me.

This week's apps include a full-featured dictation recording app and a popular console skateboarding game that's now available on the iPhone.

HT Professional Recorder is a dictation recording software with several useful features for recording your thoughts and comments. Though the iPhone comes with a voice memo app, with HT Professional Recorder you get tons of options for serious dictation recording. The interface has a unique swoosh-like design with buttons across the top for creating a new recording, starting your recording, playback, and pause. There also are buttons to advance or "rewind" the playback in 5 second increments so you can scan for specific parts of your recording. On the bottom of the swoosh design, you also can use a slider to get to any part of the recording you want. Useful tools let you cut out periods of silence, speed up or slow down the recording, and bookmark specific parts. Recordings can be just for a few seconds if you want to give yourself a reminder, for example, or you can record up to 30 minutes of continuous audio.

People who prefer to record their thoughts and ideas will appreciate HT Professional Recorder's management system for storing the audio files. You can browse the library by most recent or you can name recordings so they're easy to find later. There's a folder system so you can group specific recordings together and you can playback from the folder screen if you want to make sure you have the right recording. You can even share your dictation via e-mail or a WiFi Web Server if you want to send your dictation to an assistant or make it available for when you get to a different location. Overall, if you're a person who likes to record thoughts and ideas for later use, HT Professional Recorder has all the features you need.

Skate It is the handheld version of the popular EA game Skate that most will recognize from console versions. On the iPhone, your control system includes using the accelerometer to turn your skater, a couple of buttons for kicking and grabs, and various swipes of your finger to pull off tricks. Having played the console games quite a bit on the XBox 360, I was amazed at how many of the original locations are available on the iPhone version. The graphics are predictably not as good as on console versions of Skate and my older 3G seems to struggle to keep up at times, but Skate It still manages to look and play (mostly) better than other skateboarding games at the iTunes app store.

Skate it comes with 20 locations, that all will be familiar (though a little watered down) to those who have played the console version. Each of the areas are unlocked by completing challenges in Career mode which usually require you to pull off specific tricks so a magazine photographer can get a good shot. Getting tricks just right is often the most challenging part of the game, but thankfully there is a trick library that shows how to do all the various grabs and flips required to complete challenges.

Like many games of this type on the touch screen, you'll long for a real joystick for some of the more complicated maneuvers, but I was able to get the control system down pretty well after about an hour of playing. Overall, if you like skateboarding or have played Skate on consoles, Skate It offers a ton of locations, a unique and effective control system (with practice) and plenty of challenges to keep you coming back for more.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Can you think of another hardware or software leak in the past that compares to what's going on with the iPhone 4G? Do you have a better dictation app? What do you think of the control system in Skate It? Let me know in the comments!

In an Australian marketing campaign, Microsoft is urging those using Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade already.

"You wouldn't drink nine-year-old milk, so why use a nine-year-old browser?" asks the Web site urging IE6 users to upgrade to something closer to the front of the fridge.

The shelf life of software and dairy products is not often considered to be in the same range, but leaving that aside, Microsoft does offer a good reason to upgrade: better security.

"When Internet Explorer 6 was launched in 2001, it offered cutting-edge security--for the time. Since then, the Internet has evolved, and the security features of Internet Explorer 6 have become outdated," the site said, showing scary statistics about online fraud and enumerating various advantages in Microsoft's preferred alternative, IE8.

IE6 is scorned by technophiles not just because of its security vulnerabilities but also for its nonstandard or nonexistent implementation of various Web standards. Web developers have plenty of pains supporting the diversity of browsers on the Internet, but IE6 is a particular problem given its continuing, though dwindling, widespread use.

According to research from Net Applications, IE6 accounts for about 17.6 percent of browser usage worldwide today, with No. 1 IE8 recently picking up steam as people upgrade.

One reason for IE6's continuing use is that it's built into Windows XP, which remains in widespread use. Windows 7--which, unlike in-between Vista, is showing signs of catching on--comes with IE8 built in. Convincing corporations to change operating systems can be harder though, especially those with in-house applications designed to run specifically with IE6.

IE's future is looking brighter. Microsoft has lit a fire under its IE development team to come back with a strong IE9. One big selling point of the new browser, which is available only in a developer preview version for now, is support for Web standards.

IE9 is emerging in the midst of a highly competive browser market, with four primary competitors: Opera, a small, scrappy company with a long history of going up against Microsoft; Google, a relatively new contender but one with serious Web skills and a strong brand; Apple, with a major incentive to improve browsers as a replacement for Adobe Systems' Flash; and Mozilla, whose Firefox browser is in second place after IE.

Via IStartedSomething.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

A federal court judge has likely dealt a death blow to LimeWire, one of the most popular and oldest file-sharing systems, according to legal experts.

On Wednesday, CNET broke the news that U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood granted summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which filed a copyright lawsuit against LimeWire in 2006. In her decision, Wood ruled Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and engaged in unfair competition.

"It is obviously a fairly fatal decision for them," said Michael Page, the San Francisco lawyer who represented file sharing service Grokster in the landmark case, MGM Studios, vs. Grokster and also represented Lime Wire's former CTO in the company's most recent copyright case. "If they don't shut down, the other side will likely make a request for an injunction and there's nothing left but to go on to calculating damages."

With an injunction, the RIAA can force LimeWire to cease file-sharing operations. Music industry sources who spoke to CNET on condition of anonymity said the RIAA, the trade group representing the four largest music labels, is considering whether to seek an injunction prior to a status conference Wood scheduled for June 1. If that happens, LimeWire may have little room to maneuver and the company could be forced to shutter operations within weeks. Representatives for the Lime Group did not respond to interview requests. An RIAA spokesman declined to comment.

While Wood's decision won't come close to killing online piracy--there's still BitTorrent and plenty of other ways to share files--she likely has scuttled a peer-to-peer service used by nearly 60 percent of the people who download songs. She also may have ushered out the era of large, well-funded file-sharing services, at least the kind that help distribute mostly copyright-infringing content. By making Gorton personally liable for damages, Wood served notice that operating these kinds of businesses is now a very risky financial endeavor. If the RIAA gets its way, Gorton, Lime Wire, and Lime Group will collectively be responsible for paying damages of $450 million.

The other side of the LimeWire ruling is that it could thwart the development of technologies that one day might provide legitimate benefits to media companies, said Jack Lerner, a USC law professor.

"The problem is that some of these services may be the most efficient distribution technologies ever created," said Lerner, a former attorney with the tech-focused law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. "It may take years and years before these technologies can fully be developed because they're being shut down. When these technologies are in their infancy you see a lot more infringement, but as they mature they may be able to be put to good use."

"It may take years and years before these technologies can fully be developed because they're being shut down."

--Jack Lerner, law school professor

That kind of reasoning is unlikely to find many sympathetic ears in the recording industry. For a decade now, file-sharing companies have promised to help label execs make money and for years music execs have watched as piracy has gone up and music sales have gone down. Even after a long list of favorable court rulings forced a litany of peer-to-peer companies to either change business models or shut down, it always seemed like plenty of new services were willing to buck the odds: Napster, Scour, Audiogalaxy, Aimster, Kazaa, Morpheus, and, of course, Grokster.

The MGM-Grokster decision was supposed to have won the argument for the entertainment sector. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside two lower court rulings that favored Grokster and unanimously found the file-sharing service could be sued for inducing copyright infringement.

Supreme Court Justice David Souter wrote in the court's opinion: "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."

Many copyright owners hoped that case would kill off illegal file sharing. It didn't. Plenty of companies continued to challenge big music labels and film studios. Unlike most of the other services that tangled with the entertainment industry, Lime Wire had the financial resources to fight an extended legal battle. Sure, Lime Wire became the largest music-sharing service, but the company stands out mostly for its ability to stick around.

'Shut him down'
Lime Wire claims to have amassed more than 50 million unique monthly users since releasing the software in May 2000. LimeWire is free peer-to-peer software, but the company also sells a premium version called LimeWire PRO for fees of up to $35 a year. In her decision, Wood noted that Lime Wire grew annual revenue from $6 million in 2004 to $20 million two years later.

In August that year, the music industry filed its copyright suit against Lime Wire. The case dragged on, but in her finding Wood made it clear there was plenty of evidence to support her decision. She found that Lime Wire was aware of substantial infringement; made efforts to attract infringing users; enabled and assisted users to commit infringement; and depended on copyright infringement for the success of its business.

"By letting Gorton continue you are allowing him to cause more harm. Get the injunction. Shut him down."

--Chris Castle, entertainment lawyer

According to USC's Lerner, Wood's decision is just a continuation of a long-running trend.

"You had to see this coming," Lerner said. "Courts are increasingly hostile to P2P services when a massive percentage of files on their networks are infringing."

He noted that the absence of significant filtering technologies and legitimate notice-and-takedown policies (which enable a copyright owner to alert service operators of the existence of pirated content on their sites) can hurt file-sharing services in these kinds of copyright cases. Lerner said that YouTube, which is being sued by Viacom for copyright infringement, is an example of a "good actor," a company that has set up filtering systems and takedown notices. It must be pointed out that Viacom thinks differently.

When it comes to Lime Wire's case, most of the experts say that an appeal won't likely prevent the RIAA from being granted an injunction.

One way out of the mess is for Lime Wire to cut a deal with the record companies. One scenario would be for is for Lime Wire to turn itself into a legal music retail store, said Chris Castle, an entertainment lawyer who represents artists and indie labels with a long history in technology. But based on Gorton's record, Castle doubted the Gorton has any interest in creating a legitimate business. For that reason, Castle applauded Wood's decision and said he hopes the RIAA goes for an injunction as soon as possible.

"I believe in injunctions in these cases," Castle said. "When you are dealing with someone with a lot of money, you want to stop the behavior. You don't want to put these people in a position where all they have to do is write a check or keep appealing. By letting (Gorton) continue you are allowing him to cause more harm. Get the injunction. Shut him down."

Originally posted at Media Maverick