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The world's largest record label wants to develop its own version of Hulu, NBC Universal's free online-video portal. It would be a place for professionally produced music videos, original programming, and a more polished platform for the label's top artists, according to sources close to the company.

Also in today's podcast: Microsoft thinks it knows what it needs to do to catch Google in search, TellMe develops an application for the iPhone, Nokia is set to launch its own touch-screen phone, and CNET explores just how exposed we are to cancer when we use our cell … Read more

We're waiting to get our hands on the delayed CherryPal PC, an innovative and inexpensive desktop meant to connect you to the cloud, but it's not the only mini PC vying for your attention.

Earlier this month, we reviewed Acer's Aspire X1200 and HP's latest Pavilion Slimline, two relatively full-featured desktops shrunk down to a small form factor. The Acer is the better deal on paper, though it may require some mucking about with drivers and settings before it's fully operational. A few tweaks and a BIOS update were required before we had video and … Read more

Recently, I asked iPhone 3G owners to tell me if the 2.1 software update had fixed the widespread issues with dropped calls, short battery life, and faulty 3G connectivity. Now, just over a week later, I've wrapped up your comments.

At the time of this writing, we received 56 comments (I had to discount a few because they weren't on topic). While this is an entirely unscientific survey, almost half (48 percent) reported significant improvements in all areas, 20 percent reported no positive changes, and 32 percent said that it fixed only a few issues while leaving other problems unchanged. I've included a sampling of comments after the break.

As for me, I have to fall in the neutral camp. On the upside, backups on our iPhone 3G review model are quicker, contacts load faster and application crashes are nonexistent. I never had many dropped calls, so I didn't see a change there, but the keyboard lag has improved as well.

On the downside, however, I haven't seen much a battery life improvement at all. Still I can only get a day's worth of battery, even if I leave it resting on my desk for a few hours. Though one satisfied reader said he was happy that his iPhone 3G now lasted a full day rather than a few hours, I still think that's unsatisfactory.

What's more, I'm still wondering exactly how the update changed the 3G feature. In its release notes Apple promised that 2.1 would bring "improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display." So what exactly does that mean? Like my colleague Dong Ngo, I've seen a few more bars on my display but the 3G reception seems to be about the same.

Finally, some readers said that after the 2.1 update their iPhone started fetching e-mail far less frequently. I've haven't seen a change in that area so please tell me if you have.… Read more

Apple won't have to deal with a lawsuit filed over the iPhone battery.

Bloomberg reports that a judge in Chicago has dismissed Jose Trujillo's lawsuit against Apple claiming the company deceived him regarding the user replaceable status of the iPhone battery. The judge simply read the packaging on the iPhone, which described the battery has having "limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by Apple service provider," and ruled that was sufficient warning prior to purchase that the battery had to be replaced by Apple or a third party.

Trujillo's lawsuit never … Read more

Nokia is preparing to enter the touch-screen cell phone market next week, with the debut of its first finger-sensitive phone, according to a Reuters report.

The European handset makeris planning to take the wraps off its touch-screen phone, code-named "Tube," during an event Thursday in London for analysts and the media, according to Reuters, which cites two unnamed sources. (For more, including a photo, see "Hold the phone: Nokia's Tube is the Nokia 5300!")

The Tube will join a field that has been getting crowded since Apple debuted its popular iPhone a little over a … Read more

While flying from SFO to Newark last weekend, I repeatedly ran into a Mac OS X system pop-up telling me that the "Connection Failed." The cursed box repeatedly interrupted applications, including the QuickTime movies we were using to distract our toddler from flipping out on the six-hour flight.

After five days of punishment, I finally found the root cause: MobileMe.

If you are not a MobileMe user (I'm not), then you may/may not know that your credentials are stored in two different places: the MobileMe control panel and your user account.

During my trouble-shooting process, I fixed permissions, deleted old server connections, and deleted libraries. But nothing fixed the problem. Then I finally noticed that I had an iDisk icon on my sidebar (but nowhere else). When I tried to drag it to the trash, my laptop went into an endless loop and I had to finally reboot.

Having never used the iDisk and not having any applications that I was aware of using an iDisk, I started searching and figured out that it might be part of MobileMe. But when I checked the MobileMe control panel, the information was blank. Back to square one. … Read more

Everyone knows that Mac is safer than Windows because almost all malicious software targets Windows. But every rule has exceptions, and in this case, the exception has been Java.

Java is unusual in that any company can write a Java runtime environment for any operating system. Microsoft, at one point, provided one for Windows, but those days are long gone. ThinkPad laptops still come with a Java runtime developed by IBM. Netscape used to ship its own Java runtime as part of the Navigator Web browser. Today, most Windows users get their Java runtime from Sun Microsystems, the company that … Read more

The Interwebs are atwitter with a single blurry cell phone shot of what may or may not be one of the newly redesigned MacBook laptops we've been reading about.

The pic briefly showed up on a French Web site, and just as quickly vanished, but not before several sites (from Valleywag to Wired) were able to grab copies of the photo. (The original post is now up again.)

Some Apple faithfuls are crying "fake!" while others think it's the real deal--we should all know for sure at Apple's next big press event in mid-October.

We … Read more

The MacBook redesign is just around the corner, and further proof has surfaced that it's going to look a lot like its siblings.

AppleInsider reports that new MacBooks and new MacBook Pros have been spotted by people-in-the-know, and that as expected the new systems will get aluminum-based exteriors similar to the ones found on the MacBook Air and iMac. This will give Apple some consistency across the Mac notebook lineup entering the holiday shopping season; for years, the MacBook has had a distinct look separate from the MacBook Pro.

One interesting part of the report also suggests that Apple … Read more