One thing which has always been frustrating about signing up for wireless service in the U.S. is that if you ever switch carriers you usually can’t bring the mobile phone you already purchased with you. The latest announcement by MetroPCS Communications will change all that through a new service called MetroFlash.

MetroFlash will allow subscribers the ability to use their existing CDMA handsets on the MetroPCS network. This will eliminate the need for customers to purchase a new handset if they don’t want one. Those signing up for the MetroFlash service pay just US$40 a month in addition to a US$30 fee to receive unlimited local, long distance, text messaging and voicemail. Another incentive for subscribers is that MetroPCS does not require a signed contract.

Considering the customer segment that MetroPCS is marketing to; there is a huge incentive not to make them have to purchase new hardware just to use their network. This move by MetroPCS may lead many wireless carriers in the United States to consider a similar service to attract customers.

Of course, the downside of supporting handsets from other carriers has always been the ability to maintain technical support for the phone in addition to ensuring continued quality for calls.

Read more from the MetroPCS press release.

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 4:16AMThe price isn’t the only thing swelling on ASUS’ Eee PC. According to DigiTimes’ proven ASUS sources, bigger Eee PC 904 and 905 models are cueing up for release. In a return to the Eee PC salad days of the big bezel, the new models will slot the same 8.9-inch display found in the 901 into a larger, Eee PC 1000-esque chassis with proportionally larger keyboard. Decisions about battery and storage have not yet been finalized although the new models would be priced similar to the 900 and 901 which they would ultimately replace.

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Ever since Apple shifted the Mac line to Intel processors, its computers have been getting more and more PC-like in their capabilities. First up was Boot Camp, which lets you run Windows (or Linux) on Mac hardware. Now it’s the turn of the overclockers: ZDNet has release a software overclocker for the Mac, called simply ZDNet Clock.

In typical Mac style, the application is simple. You slide the slider to the right to increase the CPU frequency (and also increases the memory clock speed). ZDNet says that an overclocked 2.8GHz Mac Pro will out perform a stock 3.2GHz model, thus saving you $1600 (ZDNet Clock is freeware). However, it’s not quite so simple. If you don’t do some fine tuning, there could be some serious problems:

If you push the slider all the way to the right, to the maximum frequency, and click on the “Apply” button, the computer will certainly crash.

The tool only works with Intel 5000 or Intel 5400 chipsets, so it’s Pro or Xserve only right now. Which is probably a good thing: I don’t think my poor MacBooks fans could take all the extra work, and future generations of Sorrels depend on keeping the family jewels cool.

Exclusive: ZDNet overclocking tool enhances performance of Mac Pro [ZDNet. Thanks, Kai!]

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So asks the headline at website Asylum. So far the poll shows 77% of respondents consider a little robot-love to be guilt free, something I’d agree with – after all, an all-singing, all-dancing (and all-sucking) robot doll is just a better featured vibrator, right?

The Lady, whom I always consult in matters sexual and sartorial, agrees. “Do you think using a vibrator is having sex?” she asked me, “I do. It’s having sex, but it’s not getting laid.”

But what about the partner left at home? Because these dolls are so human, waving goodbye to your man as he heads off to the cyber-brothel might not be so easy. The erotic part of sex, after all, occurs in the mind, and the only reason to use a full sized fake woman is to pretend you are with a real woman.

In the mind of the John, is there a difference between the two? Is it the high-tech equivalent of getting up on the job, closing your eyes and pretending you are actually having sex with a celebrity (or as I have done in the past, drawing the face of Queen Elizabeth on a paper bag)? And if it is done illicitly, without the knowledge of your other half, is that deception is worse than the sex itself?

We suppose that there are advantages. No viruses (unless the girl runs Windows), and no payoff money if you happen to be a high profile, blackmail-able celebrity (a Gadget Lab blogger, for instance). For me, it comes down to price. If it’s cheaper than dinner and a movie, I’m in.

Barroom Debate: Is Having Sex with a Robot Hooker Cheating? [Asylum]

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These homemade specs could be straight out of Cory Doctow’s latest (and possibly greatest) new novel, Little Brother . The simple hack consists of mounting two infrared LEDs into the frames of a pair of sunglasses and running the cables to the earpieces, where they hook up with a couple of button batteries.

Putting on the glasses presses the wires against the batteries and the lights glow protectively, unseen by the human eye, but bright enough to obliterate your image from security cameras. It’s a variation on the CCTV-busting infrared headset we featured a while back, only a little more slick. Aside from helping San Francisco’s teenagers bring down the DHS, we’d guess that – if these were built into Armani sunglasses – the paparazzi plague would go away overnight.

The original Metacafe video has been taken down. For now, you can see it at Abrutis, link below.

Lunettes anti paparazzi [Abrutis. Thanks daa dee!]

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You know, when I got a MacBook with an 80GB hard drive it seemed huge. But after about five minutes of BitTorrent shenanigans, I realized my naiveté. I also realized that offloading files, especially music files, to an external drive is problematic.

The point of a notebook is portability, and hooking up a USB drive just to listen to podcasts in the kitchen (what can I say, Danny, Jose and Dylan; your soothing voices stop the mayonnaise splitting every time) is a pain. What I need is something like Maxtor’s Central Axis, a one Terabyte NAS (Network Attached Storage). It has a gigabit ethernet connection to keep speeds up near those of a local drive, and two USB ports to add further storage when you need it.

And even if you are not hooked into the network via CAT5, you can still get your media wirelessly when whipping together eggs and oil in the evening (via a Wi-Fi router). It’ll even stream movies to your X-box or PS3 without a computer in between. The price is a not unreasonable $330, available July.

Product page [Maxtor via Uncrate]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 7:26AM
Matrox just announced er, last week, it’s new M-Series of graphics cards powered by the industry’s first QuadHead GPU. All the PCIe X16 cards offer 512MB of graphics memory and support up to 4x widescreen monitors (DVI or analog) simultaneously as one large desktop or as independent resolutions. The cards can connect a pair of monitors at a max digital resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 or just 1,920 x 1,200 if you’re looking to go quad. What, you’re not still getting by with just a single display are you? Look for the M-series to go retail before September is through.

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Small business owners who have domains registered through Yahoo! are in for an expensive shock come July. The company have decided to up their annual fees by 350% taking them from US$9.95 to US$34.95.

Yahoo! hasn’t hidden the fact the fees are increasing and has sent e-mails to those coming up to renewal at 90, 60 and 30 day intervals before payment is due. The reason for the increase has been put down simply to cost. Yahoo! are putting prices up to match how much it actually costs them to offer the service.

Comparisons with GoDaddy.com and other competitors are also being laid to rest by Yahoo! saying that it is not their core business and therefore can’t match those lower prices. But, in order to continue to attract new customers Yahoo! will offer first year fees at US$9.95 increasing to US$34.95 after that.

The decision has predictably been met with anger by some, with one blog called “The Big Yahoo Domain Rip-Off” repeating the wording of the e-mails Yahoo! are sending round to customers. It does clearly state the fact the price is going up, but also contains the following:

Please note that the billing center will not reflect the new $34.95 domain-renewal price until July 1. Until that time, you will continue to see the old renewal price next to your plan.

Meaning some users who do not read the e-mail, but do check their account, will not realize the new charge is being applied.

Read more at CNET.com

Matthew’s Opinion
That is a huge increase Yahoo! are applying and their reasoning, if true, means they have been making significant losses on their registration business for some time.

To argue that it costs them more because it is not their core business also seems like an excuse. With Yahoo! being the size that they are the business they get from domain registration must be significant. They should be able to compete on price with competitors and really it should be a case that if they can’t, why can’t they? Then the department handling domains should solve the problem.

Domain registration can lead to businesses spending more money with the company they use to register. This move by Yahoo! makes it look like they really aren’t interested in this area and the introductory lower price of US$9.95 will backfire when customers leave after a year.

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 8:46AM
Sony hasn’t forgotten about you loyal mylo 2 (er, COM-2 mylo) owners just yet, as a recently rolled out software update provides a nice list of extras for those who care. Revision 1.201, which is only available for the latest of mylos, adds support for video recording, provides a new menu for “easier photo and video uploading,” adds a function for formatting Memory Stick Duo media, adds support for 16GB MD Duo cards and improves Flash playback of YouTube videos. The upgrade also adds support for WMV files and the SHOUTcast widget while improving “system stability.” The download is slightly hefty at just under 60MB, so head on down and get the new stuff headed your way.

[Thanks, shanne]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 3:37AM
It’s here kids, in-game XMB demonstrated on a firmware 2.40 PS3 for the first time. Yup, that’s the clock and date displayed upper-right with a quick hit of the playstation button. Sony also reveals that the 2.40 firmware update will deliver the Google search bar (like the PSP update last week) and the ability to play and control your own music stored on the hard drive in-game. See that and more in the video after the break.

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