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Ellen: Mock iPhone ad prompts Apple scolding

Everywhere one turns nowadays it seems that Apple is being accused of being too touchy.

First, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" ridicules Apple after police stormed the home of a Gizmodo editor who had acquired a lost iPhone prototype. Then Apple allegedly fires one of its engineers for showing an iPad before the device's official debut to the very threatening Steve Wozniak--one of Apple's three founders. Later, Wozniak chided Apple for not being nice enough.

Now, comedian Ellen DeGeneres says she received a scolding from Apple for her send-up of the company's iPhone … Read more

The 404 573: Where seriously, whose iPhone 4G prototype is this? (podcast)

We're all wondering what's going on with the story of the Apple iPhone 4G prototype found in a Redwood City, Calif., bar and its subsequent sale to Gizmodo. CNET News Senior Writer Greg Sandoval drops by the studio to fill us in on all the latest developments, including who exactly found the phone, how it eventually got into the hands of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, and why it's never a good idea to purchase anything you know for a fact is stolen! Unfortunately, "finders keepers, losers weepers" only holds water on the playground.

Wired published an article last week outing Brian J. Hogan as the person who found and sold the iPhone prototype to Gizmodo, but CNET also learned that he had help finding a buyer for the device from Sage Wallower, a UC Berkeley student who attended Santa Barbara City College with Hogan.

The investigation is still ongoing (San Mateo County police still have Chen's computers), but Greg tells us felony criminal charges are still a very serious possibility since a California law specifically states that "any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year."

We also have a collection of silly stories to even out the show in the second half, including a very discomforting story about an unlikely pairing between a 59-year-old Chinese man and a 20-inch long eel. We can't go into much detail, but there's a very important lesson to take away from it all, and that is to never, ever pass out in front of your friends.

Finally, Roger Ebert has written an open letter to the public decrying the concept of 3D movies as a way of life. His points are direct and address many of the issues we've already discussed with David Katzmaier, senior editor of TVs and home theater for CNET.

Ebert claims that the 3D element, even in popular movies like "Avatar," add nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. It also doesn't help that these movies often cause nausea and headaches for people who just want to be entertained for two hours, not to mention the inflated surcharges that theaters tack onto already expensive tickets. Listen in to hear our take on the future of 3D movies and home theater.

Big thanks to Greg for taking time out of his schedule to join us on today's show. If you have a question for us or simply want to comment on the show, give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET or e-mail the404(at)cnet(dot)com. Thanks for listening!

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The people involved in sale of lost iPhone revealed

The saga of the lost prototype iPhone started with a 21-year-old Silicon Valley resident who says he regrets not trying harder to find its real owner, according to a published report.

Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, Calif., is the person who found the iPhone and was paid by Gizmodo, according to a story published on Thursday by Wired.com.

Hogan's lawyer issued a statement to Wired and said Hogan was in the bar with friends when another patron handed him the phone after finding it on a nearby stool, asked around if anyone owned it, … Read more

Apple requests return of lost iPhone prototype

Gizmodo said Monday evening it is making arrangements to return an errant device that is believed to be a prototype of the next iPhone, following a request from Apple's legal department, which Gizmodo calls verification of the device's authenticity.

The tech blog site had revealed early Monday that it was in possession of a device it concluded to be a prototype of the unreleased and as-yet-unannounced iPhone 4G. The next-generation device was reportedly found last month on the floor of a San Francisco Bay Area bar after it was apparently left by a customer identified as an Apple employee. … Read more

Your hoodie just updated your Facebook page

Sure, you can "poke" a friend or "like" a status via your mobile phone. But that's sooo last season.

Ping, a "social-networking garment" from Seattle-based user experience designer Jennifer Darmour, is a concept hoodie that links to your Facebook account wirelessly and lets you connect to your minions by performing basic gestures.

Take off the hood, and you poke a friend. Tie the waist bow to accept a friend request. What's that? A vibration on your shoulder? You just received a new notification.

Darmour, the brain behind Ping and the site electricfoxy, … Read more

No iPad for case; make fake iPad

When the iPad is released on April 3, that wonderful cottage industry known as the accessories market will swing into high gear and try to capitalize on the popularity of Apple's hot new device. But unless you're Stephen Colbert at the Grammys or a few other select people, you're probably not getting anywhere near a working iPad until it starts shipping. So, how do accessory manufacturers manage to have their wares ready to go on launch day?

Well, they make their own iPads.

At least that's what Hard Candy Cases, which is known for its laptop … Read more

Dell says, 'Wait, we're doing a slate PC, too!' - plus hands-on impressions

Update: Hands-on impressions added below.

LAS VEGAS--At its Thursday morning CES press conference, Dell briefly announced plans to release a slate-style tablet PC, in the same vein as the rumored Apple Tablet or the HP/Microsoft prototype tablet shown earlier in the week.

Details are scarce, but the 5-inch device would be smaller than rival ideas coming from HP and (presumably) Apple. Describes as a "tablet concept," there's no guarantee the product would ever reach the public in its current form.

Update: We had a chance to check out the device behind closed doors after the press … Read more

Oops! Facebook jumps the gun on 'Prototypes'

It looks as if Facebook was a little premature in using its Twitter account to announce "Prototypes," a Google Labs-like operation that lets members beta-test new features for the social network and offer feedback.

The tweet offering a screenshot of Prototypes was swiftly deleted--but props to The Next Web for snagging it before it was pulled.

So what are the "prototypes" in question? Facebook seems to be experimenting with desktop notifications, content discovery, and upgrades to its Events invitation service. Next to each test feature is a star-based rating system through which, presumably, users can … Read more

Irex prepping new wireless e-book reader

Just got an image of a mock-up for a new e-Reader from Irex that's due out this holiday season. Not much info on this thing but it's larger than the Kindle 2 and just-announced Sony Readers.

Here's the little we know:

8.1-inch display 3G wireless connectivity (no carrier announced) Touch screen with stylus navigation Fall 2009 release

Until now Irex, one of the early e-reader pioneers (you remember the iLiad, right?), has mainly offered more business-oriented readers that are rather pricey and sold primarily to European customers. However, this model is a consumer model that will … Read more

New iPhone OS 3.0-based prototype discovered

Ars Technica reports that the latest version of the iPhone OS 3.1 beta 3 seeded to developers recently holds a configuration file that references two mysterious products known as iProd0,1 and iProd1,1. iProd0,1 was previously referenced and initially spotted back in March in a version of the same configuration file in iPhone OS 3.0 beta. References to iProd1,1, however, are completely new.

According to Ars: The iProd1,1 device has been assigned a new productID of 4762 (versus 4757 of iProd0,1) and assigned a different ConfigurationDescriptor of "standardMuxPTPEthernet." iPhone models also … Read more