Apple

If you blinked, you might have missed it: one day after Apple released an update to the iPhone OS 3 beta, hackers have already jailbroken the OS 3 beta 2 release.

A new version of QuickPWN for Windows only (direct download link) has been released. This version should work with all versions of the iPhone or the iPod Touch. We have not yet tried the jailbreak, but our sources have not reported any trouble with the hack. (As usual, however, download and use QuickPWN at your own risk.)

Jailbreaking is competitive in the hacking community. The Dev Team, the favored … Read more

Intel's Atom is proving to be a very popular chip. But is it too low-rent for Apple?

First the news. iSuppli reported Monday that Intel gained share, based on revenue, in the global microprocessor during every quarter of 2008 to finish up with 80.5 percent of the total processor market--a 1.6 percent gain over rivals--partly due to the success of its Atom chip in Netbooks.

"Intel's low-priced Atom has become increasingly popular as the Netbook market has gained steam," Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli, said in a statement.

Worldwide unit … Read more

At GSMA in February, Yahoo announced it was working to improve consumers' ability to use Yahoo from their mobile phones. The company has made significant improvements to its Yahoo Mobile service on the Web and it is promising a new Yahoo Mobile app that will be available in the second quarter of 2009.

Now, Yahoo has released a sneak peek video showing what Messenger for the iPhone has to offer:

Yahoo Messenger for the iPhone demo video from Yahoo Messenger on Vimeo.

Update: Yahoo! has released their new iPhone app today and it is now available in the iTunes App … Read more

In what could possibly be the coolest MacBook cover ever, Flickr user LubeckerJung put a picture of Snow White holding the Apple logo. For those not familiar with this fairy tale, Snow White bites into a poisoned apple and falls into a coma, awakened only by some prince later on. The one thing that would make this mod even better was if she was standing on the right, so the bite would be on the correct side.

We don't have the details for this bit of art--whether it is a vinyl sticker or painted on. And it looks like … Read more

Apple's engineering department isn't sparing the horses for iPhone OS 3.0. It has released beta 2 to developers along with the green light for developing applications with push notifications. Beta 1 was released only two weeks ago.

Like most Apple updates, the new beta 2 includes several stability and performance enhancements that might make the beta more pleasing to use if you are testing it. We've heard from some early beta 1 testers complaining about the number of issues they were experiencing with the first release.

Stability is good, but now there are reports cropping up … Read more

The third-gen Apple iPod Shuffle and the SanDisk Sansa Clip are two of the smallest, least expensive, and most-talked-about MP3 players on CNET. Both devices share a clip-on design, but otherwise, Apple and SanDisk take very different approaches to their MP3 players, demonstrating a tug of war between form and function.

You may already know which MP3 player you'd choose, but when push comes to shove, which of these minuscule MP3 players is preferred by our CNET editors? Find out in our iPod Shuffle vs. Sansa Clip CNET Prizefight.

In cubicles all around Silicon Valley, geeks will be weeping Wednesday.

Yes, despite the best efforts of every possible method of social networking, Steve Wozniak was eliminated, ejected, rejected and thrown into the tango trash by the cruelty that is the voting process of "Dancing with the Stars."

A theory had wafted through the danceosphere that techies would hijack the online voting process and project their lovable, but not entirely ego-free, hero to the sinuous summit.

The fact that he was sent home suggests three possibilities.

One, the producers, deeply depressed at having their integrity besmirched by Woz'… Read more

Several iPhone users are experiencing visual feedback lags when attempting to type messages on their iPhones. Symptoms include key animations not activating when keys are touched. The issue does not appear to be for a specific letter or area of the keyboard and is generally considered intermittent, though many users report a consistent problem while typing in the SMS application.

Apple Support Discussions user Delapidator relays their experience with this issue:

"On the iPhone keyboard. You know when you touch a key on the keyboard and as you touch the letter it pops up but larger? Well, occasionally when … Read more

Struggling with the economic downturn, the biggest names in PC makers seem to lag on staying clean.

In the March issue of the Guide to Greener Electronics, released Tuesday, Greenpeace decided to knock a point off of Dell's, HP's, and Lenovo's green scores for procrastinating their commitment to eliminate toxic substances from their products by the end of 2009.

The toxic substances in question include vinyl plastic (widely known as PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Lenovo has delayed its deadline by one year, while HP and Dell have yet to set a new timeline.

The NGO praised Apple and Acer for being the only ones firmly committed to phase out these substances. Apple has already met its commitment to have all of its products free of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008. This is with one exception, which is a technical challenge: getting certified PVC-free power cords.

To Greenpeace, Apple is now the example for other PC makers to follow. "If Apple can find the solutions, there should be no reason why the other leading PC companies cannot," said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner. "All of them should have at least one toxic-free line of products on the market by the end of this year." … Read more