Apple Seeds iPhone 2.1 to Developers, Adds New Features

Apple fans deterred from the iPhone 3G because of some of the device's shortcomings will be happy to know that the company has handed out a beta build of the iPhone's 2.1 software. The new release will bring improvements to the phone's GPS capabilities and introduce the push notification service for developers.

The iPhone's CoreLocation service adds support for directional GPS and the ability to track speed, both of which are ingredients for a turn-by-turn application. These new features will theoretically give Apple, and third-party developers the power to create more accurate and more feature-rich applications.

The push service, which was formally announced at WWDC 2008, will allow developers to send notifications to iPhone handsets without running background processes, Apple's solution to save battery life and increase performance on the phone. The service was slated for a September release, so the firmware will likely be made available to customers by then.

Those with hands-on access to the beta 2.1 code at Gear Livenote that Core Location can now recognize the cardinal direction of an iPhone with GPS as well as its velocity, both of which are ingredients necessary to providing turn-by-turn directions.

Separately, AppleInsider has also confirmed that Apple is implementing a rough version of its background push notification service in the 2.1 firmware.

Source: Apple Insider

Yahoo! to Take DRM Music Servers Offline

Last Wednesday, Yahoo contacted customers telling them that the company would no longer provide support for the service, and  that customers would no longer be able to play their purchased music after September 30. Microsoft made a similar move to turn off its MSN Music service earlier this year, but postponed the shutoff to 2011.

Yahoo advised customers to make an effort to burn their protected music to a disc, effectively removing the copy protection, but such an action reduces audio quality and leaves customers with an impaired version of the purchased product. In an ultimate slap in the face, Yahoo reminds customers they can still (re)purchase their favorite songs from the newly-partnered Rhapsody download service.

The fear that your music can suddenly stop working certainly illustrates one of the major problems with DRM. The fact is, the users bought music from these services purely out of convenience, and turning them off enrages loyal customers and makes them even more unlikely to buy music in digital form online again. Even though Yahoo isn't performing as well as it could, freezing new purchases and keeping the server online would have sufficed.

This afternoon, Yahoo alerted customers of its erstwhile downloadable music store that it would no longer provide support after Sept. 30 (download the cheerful e-mail here). The upshot: starting Oct. 1, said customers won't be able to revive frozen tracks or move working ones onto new hard drives or computers, because Yahoo won't be providing any more keys to the songs' DRM wrappers. But hey, they can always buy MP3 versions from Yahoo's new partner Rhapsody!

Source: Los Angeles Times

July 25th Tech Roundup

• XFX GeForce GTX260 XXX Edition - Motherboards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 TOXIC 512MB - Elite Bastards
• PowerColor HD4870 512MB - Overclock3D

• OCZ Reaper HPC PC3 12800 4GB - Pro-Clockers

• LapLogic G800 & W800 Aerogel Extreme LapDesk - Top Review Shop
• Mighty Mouse 5 - I4U

• Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler - Mikhailtech
• Lamptron Fan-Atic Baybus Fan Controller - DreamWare Computers

• Hyper Type M Mk II 780W - Pro-Clockers

• Qpad Mousepad Givaway - Rbmods
• ASUS Eee PC 901 - t-break
• iPhone 3G - DragonSteelMods