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While Sprint’s launch of the dual-mode BlackBerry 8830 doesn’t come as a surprise — we knew it was only a matter of time before it hopped into Sprint’s portfolio — subscibers may raise a cheer if looking for some worldwide phone action.
For only $199 (with a new two year agreement and data plan, of course) Sprint subscribers will be talking in 170+ countries and surfing in more than 70 — which makes RIM’s 8830 device just a wee bit handier than a GSM set.
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As an added bonus, Sprint has served this thing up SIM unlocked, which, for the GSM uninitiated, means you can buy a local SIM card when abroad, pop it in, and take advantage of local calling tariffs. This thing has launched on carriers everywhere and seems a no-brainer if you travel in areas only serviced by GSM and can’t survive without RIM’s finest at your side.
More information [Sprint]
It’s no secret that we’ve got a freakish love of keyboard shortcuts around these parts. If you share the same love, then you’ll quickly take to Mashable’s cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts for popular web apps like: Gmail, GReader, GCal, Google Maps, Google Video, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Netvibes, Wikipedia, Blogger, Remember the Milk, Pandora, Yahoo! Mail, and WordPress. Ditch the mouse!
230+ Keyboard Shortcuts for Top Web Services [Mashable]
The basic version of the FeedBurner RSS service was always free, but there were some advanced features you had to pay for. Now that the tool’s been acquired by Google, FeedBurner is completely free (and existing pro account users will not be charged from this month onwards). The features made free are:
* The statistics of how many people viewed, or clicked an individual post of your feed (this was part of what FeedBurner called “TotalStats”)
* The “Read” stats, which are an estimation of how many subscribers interacted with your feed on a given day
* A feature called “MyBrand” which allows you to set up a FeedBurner feed right on your domain
The FeedBurner blog writes, “We suspect this will be welcome news to the 450,000+ of you using many of our other free services, but understanding that your feed is your feed, you will need to activate these newly freed-up services in order to partake in their awesomeness.”
More information [Google System]
unPlugged-2.0 writes “An Australian developer blog writes that the iPhone root password has already been cracked.
The story outlines the procedure but doesn’t give the actual password.
According to the story: ‘The information came from an an official Apple iPhone restore image.
The archive contains two .dmg disk images: a password encrypted system image and an unencrypted user image.
By delving into the unencrypted image inquisitive hackers were able to discover that all iPhones ship with predefined passwords to the accounts ‘mobile’ and ‘root’, the last of which being the name of the privileged administration account on UNIX based systems.’ Though interesting, it doesn’t seem as though the password is good for anything.
The article theorizes it may be left over from development work, or could have been included to create a ‘false trail’ for hackers.”
More information [Slashdot]
Despite its maiden voyage at 6AM on Sunday, the first public N700 drew quite a crowd. 1300 passengers enjoyed the 342 mile trip to Tokyo from Shin-Osaka Station, and in only two hours and twenty five minutes—five minutes shorter than previous trains. If that doesn’t impress you, bear in mind the N700 covers the ground almost half as fast as an airplane. Without limiting its speed, the N700 is capable of 186mph. Come inside for some gallery love. We got a shot of the cockpit!
They sound like quite an experience for train buffs, as the duck-billed bullet train actually leans into turns, tilting the cabin slightly. The N700 trains are scheduled for eight trips a day, with plans to increase that number to thirty by the end of March.
Also, it looks like the two different classes of seating—the luxury green cars and the standard economy cars—will feature free Internet and trays that fold out for a place to work. The green seats keep all of the hookups confined to the armrest, while the cheaper plugs are located in the wall, near the floor.
Update: Since we seem to have quite a few train lovers visiting, bear in mind that the extra five minutes saved is just from Shin-Osaka Station to Tokyo, and that certain routes have areas with speed limits. The N700 isn’t always traveling at top speed. Also, the N700 is the first new bullet train in eight years, so there’s more than just a faster train to consider. New amenities as well.
Type N700 bullet train goes into service [Japan Times via Tokyo Mango]
VISTA USERS SIGNING up to Microsoft’s EULA are allowing the Vole to snoop on them in a multitude of ways, according to a report.
Softpedia says more than 20 little routines in Vista are busily gathering information about your habits and transmitting data back to Vole central.
It says an additional 47 Windows Vista features and services collect user data but not all phone home to Microsoft.
Microsoft says it doesn’t identify Vista users when gathering the information. It could if it wanted to – or if forced – however, the Softpedians point out.
More information [Softpedia]
