by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 23rd 2008 at 12:47PMSony and Microsoft may have sorted things out with Anascape (otherwise known as the self-proclaimed ruler of all analog sticks) before things got too out of hand, but Nintendo has been busy fighting it out with the company in court, which resulted in them being ordered to dish out a hefty $21 million earlier this year — a ruling that Nintendo naturally appealed. The big N is now facing another setback, however, as a US District Judge has rejected Nintendo’s request for a new trial, which could potentially result in a ban on sales of Wii Classic Controllers, WaveBirds, and GameCube controllers (not to mention GameCube systems). To avoid that, Nintendo will apparently either have to post a bond or put royalties from the controllers into an escrow account. For its part, Nintendo seems to be remaining defiant, saying that it “was already planning to appeal this case to the Federal Circuit court,” and that this new ruling “does not impact that decision.”

[Via Slashdot]

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People aren’t done complaining about iPhone 3G. This time, it’s the 3G network that’s grinding people’s gears.

Hundreds of peeved iPhone users in Apple’s support forums say they’re experiencing problems with the 3G network. Some Gadget Lab readers have written in echoing similar concerns. And CNET editors say they’re receiving e-mails about 3G issues, too.

The problems vary. A few readers said they can only stay on 3G for a few minutes before their iPhone switches over to the slower EDGE network — even in areas with rich 3G coverage. Some forum users said they’re getting poor reception (e.g. two bars) everywhere they go.

It’s unclear as to whether it’s a network or hardware issue, and we’re still waiting for AT&T and Apple to return our calls. * But a Gadget Lab reader said AT&T assured him it was a problem with the phone. 

"I work in Midtown Manhattan, probably the most 3g covered area, and indeed I get 5 full glorious bars of broadband goodness at my desk — for 2 minutes," the reader wrote in an e-mail. "Then iPhone switches to EDGE, still full bars mind you, and back to 3g for a hot second. All day. Apart from draining my battery this make me type this very email on EDGE when I just racked up 550 bucks for the phone since I was not elegible for an upgrade. Called AT&T. They told me my phone was defective and that of course it was not the network. Bad 3g software ? Bad chip?"

AT&T spokesperson Brad Mays said iphone 3G is "performing great."

"Customers in 300 major metro areas in the U.S. and 350 by the end of the year are experiencing the fast network connectivity that our 3G network provides," Mays said in an e-mail interview.  He explained that user experiences depend on a wide range of factors, such as distance from the cell tower, congestion in urban areas and weather. He added that "speeds are impacted when multiple users are contending for the resource."

There must be some thick clouds in the sky, and those cell towers must be hiding in corners of the world — because otherwise 719 replies (as of this writing) in the Apple support thread don’t have me convinced that these factors are causing the problem.

As for multiple users contending the resource — that’s a valid point, seeing as iPhone 3Gs are practically sold out all over the U.S.

"We have anticipated the influx of users and have reported that the strength of the network can, does and will continue to support that," Mays said. "Without knowing the specifics of the particular case, it’s hard to say which of the factors may be influencing it."

*Updated at 2:27 p.m. PDT with a response from AT&T. 

iPhone 3G network issues frustrating early adopters [CNET]

(Photo credit: magerleagues/Flickr)

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Relationships are an extremely complicated thing - there are plenty of times in your life, I’m sure about it, that all you would like to do is leave a message for someone without having to take the trouble of holding a conversation. MobileSphere empathizes with such a feeling and has recently rolled out Slydial, a free service (everyone loves something for nothing) that enables users to leave a voicemail for another person without having to risk the intended party to actually pick up and answer the phone. All you need to do is to dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425), spend some time going through a concise history of Slydial and reasons for using it, endure a short advertisement and enter the person’s phone number. When done, the Slydial service will automatically hook up to the person’s voicemail just like a regular phone call.

so far, initial tests have shown that it works perfectly fine with the following mobile carriers - Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel, where each test took less than a couple of minutes in total. According to MobileSphere, Slydial is efficient enough to function flawlessly with all wireless phone carriers operating in the United States. There is a drawback, however, as Slydial cannot leave voicemails for landlines as well as those rocking to prepaid cell phones regardless of the carrier. That’s not too big of an issue to contend with since most people are already carrying at least one cell phone, and landlines are all but dead.

The service might be free to use, but those who want to do away with those short advertisements will, as usual, have to cough up a token amount. There are several options to choose from, including paying $0.15 each time a call is made to the service, $4.95 per month, or $29.95 for a one-year fee. Will you sign up for any of these plans?

Product Page via BetaNews

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Gemei has a new PMP called the X780 which is similar to another one of their PMP’s called the X760. This one is the newer and more improved model, and comes with a few improved features.

One of the main features in Gemei’s PMP’s are the gaming-like qualities. Gemei’s previous PMP’s, the X900 and the X590 featured gaming emulators, but weren’t iPod Touch knockoffs at the time. However, with the X780, Gemei seems to hope to create something similar to the ipod Touch, and they sacrifice gaming support to achieve this. Some features include a 3-inch WQVGA touch screen, TV out and FM tuner.

The X780 also has support for a wide variety of media formats to include MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, RM, RMVB, FLV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, DAT, ASF, WMV, VOB, 3PG, MP4, JPG, BMP, GIF, and PNG.

Unfortunately, no word on pricing or availability at this time.

Via [PMP Today]

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You’ll be able to kill someone softly with this gun.

The U.S. army is funding toy manufacturer Lund and Company Invention to develop a gun that fires bullets at variable speeds, allowing shooters to wound, bruise or kill their victims. Soldiers would use the weapon, called the Variable Velocity Weapon System, in crowd-control or combat situations; they’d toggle between lethal and non-lethal shooting modes with a simple adjustment of the muzzle. 

In an interview with NewScientist, Bruce Lund, CEO of Lund and Company Invention, explained the gun mixes a liquid with gas and air in a combustion chamber behind the bullet. The variation of this combination would determine the explosive capability and thus the bullet velocity. Terrifyingly neat stuff.

A toy company designing a gun, though. Huh. The irony is delicious.

Toy rocket inspires variable-speed bullets (New Scientist)

(Photo credit: auraelius/Flickr)

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Some will be sad to see it go, but at the same time many are wondering why its still around. According to a spokesperson from Verizon, the Palm Treo 755p will be phased out over the remainder of the year.

The first thing you will notice is the now much lower price, they have dropped it down to just $99, which of course comes along with a rebate and two-year contract. In addition Verizon will be removing the display units at many of their retails stores and also beginning to reduce the available inventory.

They were also quick to point out that while its being phased out the support will continue for those who either currently own, or purchase the device.

Personally, if I were looking for a Palm device at this point, this may be a good time to react, because as compared to the Centro, which is also $99, I would much rather have the Treo 755p.

Via [TreoCentral]

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As US toy manufacturer, that’s right I said toy manufacturer, has been tapped by the Army to design a new rifle that can be set to deliver rounds at lethal or non-lethal speeds. The company called, Lund and Company Invention, is the maker of rockets powered by hydrogen created from electrosized water and now the same tech for these toy rockets will be used for a new type of firearm system.

The new gun technology will be dubbed the Variable Velocity Weapon System (VWS) and lets soldiers switch the gun from lethal to non-lethal modes for combat or simple crowd control. They way it will work is that a combustion chamber in the gun will mix fuel with air to create the explosion needed to carry the a payload like a standard bullet or non-lethal rubber bullet. The chamber can be adjusted allowing the mix to be altered, controlling the power of the explosion, and thus the velocity of the bullet can also be adjusted.

The current system has been designed around a .50 caliber rifle, but the toymaker says the VWS can be put to use from guns measuring from a, “handgun to Howitzer.” Production of the VWS could go full steam in 18 months, but demos of the variable velocity gun system could ready in as little as 6 months.

Read more at New Scientist via DVICE.

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IPhone users can stop complaining about their handset’s lack of voice-recognition capability: AT&T is going to deliver it. Sort of.

More interestingly, AT&T isn’t writing a speech-recognition software app. Instead, the company is developing a web-based platform called Speech Mashups that sends your speech to a remote server, which translates your commands to control your handset. Since the platform is web-based, most browser-equipped AT&T handsets, as well as other wireless devices and TV set-top boxes, will be able to utilize this technology.

"The primary driver for applications like this is reducing complexity for users," AT&T Labs wrote in an e-mail. "As devices simultaneously become smaller and more capable, the challenge of inputting larger volumes of information becomes more complex. Speech recognition holds a lot of potential in enabling users to more easily tap into advanced applications on wireless devices." 

One big catch: Since it’s a web feature, it works with web-coded applications, meaning it won’t work with native applications on iPhone. That’s right — as sophisticated as Speech Mashups sounds, you can’t use it for something as simple as voice dialing.

Here’s an example of how you could use Speech Mashups: In an AT&T research video, a demonstrator shows off using Speech Mashups with Yellow Pages; he dictates a city and business type, and Speech Mashups does the rest of the work.

Why not program this function into a native application? It’s clear AT&T is starting big — programming a solution to bring voice recognition to several web-enabled devices. Perhaps after Speech Mashups solidifies into a success service, AT&T can tackle something smaller (cough, voice dialing)?

AT&T Labs representatives emphasized that the Speech Mashups platform is still in the early stages of development, and thus there are no promises of a product or service release. (But judging by the video they provided, it’s looking like they’re making good progress.)

And even if AT&T or Apple don’t fully deliver voice-recognition for iPhone, there’s an alternative in the works. Fonix Speech is currently developing iSpeak, an iPhone application that the company promises will bring voice activation to iPhone 3G — voice dialing, ipod control, you name it. No details are available on a release date or price yet, but we’ll have updates.

Revised 3:16 p.m. PDT with clarifications and a quote from a member of AT&T Labs Research.

AT&T developing voice-controlled iphone apps (video) [AppleInsider]

Speech Mashups [AT&T Labs Research]

Fonix iSpeak™ Brings Personalized Voice Services to the Apple iPhone (press release)

(Photo courtesy of AT&T Labs Research)

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DelFly Micro has released an image sensing mini dragonfly that tips the scales at just 3 grams, and you will be able to manually control it to capture video images that will be transferred back to your PC when it returns to its nest of operations, which is located at your desk. It makes me wonder how this functions in breezy areas, as something this small will certainly fail to go up against strong gusts of wind. It will be interesting to see what kind of range the DlyFly Micro has, but folks who love gossiping ought to be more wary from now on as such technology pervades society. After all, you wouldn’t want to be caught bad-mouthing your boss now, would you?

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We’ve all had to make phone calls we wish we didn’t have to make. Secretly, while the phone is ringing, we pray that the person doesn’t answer so we can simply leave a voicemail message with the news. In fact, you kinda wish you could just simply bypass the person’s phone all together and go directly to their voicemail.That’s exactly the service which is being offered by slydial. Slydial is a service owned by MobileSphere which allows a caller to go directly into the voicemail for a landline or mobile number. Best of all, the service is absolutely free and no sign up is required to use the service.

The service works by simply dialing 267-SLYDIAL or 267-759-3425 and entering the U.S. phone number of the person you want the service to dial. You will then be placed directly into their voicemail to leave a message. If you do register with the slydial service then you will be able to take advantage of advanced features including dial by name and the ability to slydial contacts from the web.

Read more from the slydial website.

Brian’s Opinion

If anybody reads about this service and says they would never use it they’d be lying through their teeth. Sometimes the desire to go into someone’s voicemail is simply so you can leave some quick information and get off the phone rather than talking to the person for a good five to ten minutes. Of course, there are other situations not as innocent that allows you to take advantage of slydial.

The website even lists some situations the slydial service would be good to use for. One of my favorite is creating the illusion of communication. Another good one is using voicemail to tell “your side of the story” without the concern of being berated by the other person.

I know I’d be lying to you guys if I didn’t admit I can see myself using this service in the near future. Of course, one disadvantage of writing for a website is a lot of people know what you may be thinking. That being said, I promise to not use this service with anybody I am going out with. Yet, I get the impression that if someone breaks up with me there’s probably a good chance I am going to get the news through voicemail now that I have introduced them to this service.

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