Syabas has announced July 23rd as the shipping date for the highly-anticipated Popbox media player.

Pre-order began in May with a July 4th tentative release date. The company decided to delay the launch to work on some final tweaks for the Popbox software.

Among the first Popapps to ship with the box are Picasa, YouTube, Photobucket, Twitter, Next New Networks and Revision3.

The interface also includes a cover-flow-esque visual thumbnails selection for videos, music and other data, as well as universal search.

More notably, the interface can handle Flash, Java and QT meaning Netflix will be available eventually. Also available in the future is Hulu, CBS and ABC content, which can now include the in-video ads required for playback. Facebook Shoutcast MP3, and other Popcorn Hour content will rollover to the new box eventually, as well.

For video, full 1080p at 100Mbps is now supported, along with the standard MPEG formats, H.264, VC-1, WMV, MKV, XviD and other containers. The player can also support most subtitle files, including Microsoft's proprietary one. For streaming, the Popbox can recognize iTunes via Bonjour, and DLNA and UPnP sources.

At launch, the device will cost $130 for a wired version, or $150 for a Wi-Fi version.

Permalink | Comments

---

Apple has waived the 10 percent restocking fee for iPhone customers who return their phones, following the revelation that their devices have had a flawed signal strength indicator for years now.

The company added buyers could return the smartphone for a "full refund" within 30 days if they were not happy with it.

Until the announcement, Apple was charging $20 for a returned 16GB iPhone 4, and $30 for a 32GB model.

The decision to drop the fee is likely in conjunction with a recent class action lawsuit filed by angry customers who say the company shipped defective iPhone 4s and have been collecting on the restocking fee.

Says the suit: Apple is willingly selling defective products and consumers "are unable to return the phone without incurring a substantial restocking fee."

In general, Apple is facing a growing number of complaints about signal strength, and dropped calls, which appears to occur when you hold the phone in the lower left corner. Apple even had the audacity to tell buyers to purchase a case for their phone to avoid the problem.

Apple will update iOS 4.0 in the coming weeks with a new strength indicator algorithm that should show an accurate reading.

Permalink | Comments

---

Droid-Life has gotten an early build of Adobe AIR for Android, along with some early apps that can be used with it, and posted it to their site.

AIR allows developers to create applications or tools that can then be used on multiple operating systems.

Explains Adobe: "Adobe Air will let you publish ActionScript 3 projects to run as native applications (.apk) for the Android OS. These AIR applications can be delivered to Android devices through Android application stores such as the Android Market.

Developers can write new code or reuse existing web content to build AIR applications for the Android OS. Because the source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes, Adobe AIR and Flash Player, it also gives developers a way to more easily target other mobile and desktop environments."

Download it here: Adobe AIR for Android

You can try a few apps for AIR here: Droid-Life

Permalink | Comments

---

According to a new metrics report from mobile advertising giant AdMob, the Motorola Droid is the most popular Android device, followed by the HTC Hero.

It is important to note that the data is based on 12.7 million Android phones as of May 31st. The MyTouch 3G Slide and HTC EVO 4G were released in early June and are therefore not included.

The Droid, which launched last November, has 22 percent market share, with the Hero having 16 percent. Rounding out the top 5 are the HTC Magic, Dream (G1) and Droid Eris, each with between 8-10 percent share. Google's flagship Nexus One has just 2 percent share.

Next month, the metrics report is expected to show the HTC EVO 4G creeping into the top 5, given extremely high sales in its first month.

Currently, Motorola and HTC control 83 percent of the hardware market, and both companies have already promised a plethora of new devices for the rest of the year.

Pics via Wired:

Permalink | Comments

---

While still unconfirmed, the latest rumor has Verizon rolling out Android 2.2 Froyo for the Motorola Droid starting in two weeks, making the device the second smartphone to get the update, behind the flagship Google Nexus One.

The leaked Verizon memo shows the roll out starting July 13th, which makes sense given the increase in stable versions of 2.2 floating around the Web currently.

Motorola's Droid remains the best selling Android device of all-time.

There are many new features that most users have been expecting and wanting. The main two are the addition of Flash (built-in) and the addition of Wi-Fi tethering. Additionally, Apps2SD, desktop to handset music streaming and a "one-handed camera UI" are part of the update.

On the performance end, a new Dalvik JIT compiler will give 2.2 users a 200-500 percent performance boost over those using 2.1. The HTML-5 supportive browser will give 300 percent performance boosts for JavaScript.

Read our full report on Android 2.2 here: Introducing Froyo

Permalink | Comments

---

In December of last year we reported that a 22-year old woman was arrested in Chicago for recording three minutes of the newest "Twilight" film with a digital camera at the movie theater, and was forced to spend two days in jail awaiting a hearing.

Samantha Tumpach faced up to three years in jail after being charged for criminal use of a motion picture exhibition.

Making the situation worse was the fact that Tumpach wasn't filming the movie and was instead taping parts of her sister's birthday party, which was taking place at the movie theater. Although the movie is in the background in clips, there are longer clips of family and friends singing happy birthday to Tumpach's sister at the theater. The situation was met with justifiable outrage from almost everyone who read about it, including the director of "Twilight: New Moon," who said the woman should have the charges dropped.

Fortunately, a week later, the prosecutors tossed out the case against her, and apologized for the time she had to spend in a holding cell.

This week, Tumpach has filed a civil suit, claiming the theater, the local police and the MPAA all recommended arresting her.

Tumpach is claiming emotional distress and malicious prosecution by the theater. The MPAA pays out a $500 award to any employee that catches consumers filming a movie with cameras, camcorders or phones.

One of the clips captured by the young lady was 85 seconds of her "favorite actor taking his shirt off."

Tumpach is seeking $50,000 in damages.

Permalink | Comments

---

The 25-year old Best Buy employee who posted a viral video spoofing iPhone 4 and HTC EVO 4G zealots has been suspended from his job this week, and says he expects to be fired after the July 4th holiday.

Brain Maupin, a long-time employee at a branch in Missouri, posted the two YouTube videos in late June, and the first video has over 2 million views.

Each video slams fanatics of the two popular smartphones, but neither video even mentions Best Buy.

"They felt it disparaged a brand they carried (iPhone/Apple) as well as the store itself and were fearful of stockholders & customers being turned off to Best Buy Mobile," said Maupin.

Maupin was asked to quit, but refused.

"I issued a statement to them explaining that the video was intended to be comedic and hence, not taken seriously by them or all these stockholders & customers they are worried about [being] turned off to buying from them due to the video," Maupin added.

Permalink | Comments

---