Apple, trying to deflect some of the bad press from their iPhone 4 ‘antennagate’ debacle has posted videos over the past weeks showing how other smartphones also lose cell reception when held in the “death grip.”
The most notable video shows the new Motorola Droid X losing reception within seconds after being gripped tightly.
Beginning tomorrow, Motorola is striking back at the controversial videos, by placing a full page ad in newspapers mocking the iPhone 4’s need for a case to avoid reception issues.
Reads the ad in full: “At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn’t have to dress up their phone for it to work properly. That’s why the DROID X comes with a dual antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket. For us it’s just one of those things that comes as a given when you’ve been making mobile phones for over 30 years.”
Result for: mobile phone
Developer ZodTTD has added the first ever PS1 (PSX) emulator for the Android Market today, charging $6 for the app that will allow gamers to relive memories of the classic console.
Tested by the boys at Phandroid, it appears the emulator will run best on new Android devices, especially those using 1Ghz processors, as it lags on older devices.
“[Well], it’s not the smoothest on all devices - you’re definitely going to need a recent high-end handset to make the most out of the experience - but it’s definitely more than we could [have] imagined at this point,” says the site.
“[Still], I can’t help but [think] this won’t be the most elegant experience on a mobile phone: there are just not enough physical buttons on a phone to emulate the original analog stick-equipped DualShock, and the screen real-estate needed to implement a software-based solution might not be the best for everyone.”
Dubbed Psx4droid, the emulator’s features include:
Support for WiiMote.
Multiple save states.
Support for various file types.
Trackball used as d-pad.
And remember folks, you’ll need a PS BIOS file and ROMs in order to use the emulator.
Result for: mobile phone
New DMCA exemptions announced by the Librarian Of Congress make it legal, at least in the US, to jailbreak mobile phones. The new exemption also allows the rooting of Android devices.
The Librarian Of Congress found that jailbreaking is generally done to enable fair use under US copyright law and that the objections of mobile phone providers and vendors were based on business model concerns rather than copyright protection. The exemption for unlocking phones for use on different mobile phone providers’ networks was also renewed.
The exemption, which was proposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and strenuously opposed by Apple, could open the floodgates for iPhone apps from major software vendors which would never have been available otherwise.
In addition to the EFF, the jailbreaking exemption was backed by such big names as Mozilla Corporation and Skype.
Thanks to Apple’s use of encrypted code during the boot process it was previously a DMCA violation to reverse engineer the iOS. This has allowed them, through the App Store approval process and SDK Terms Of Service, to tightly control what apps were available for the iPhone and even what tools could be used to create them.
The new rules could result in Adobe either releasing Flash for jailbroken iPhones or placing new emphasis on the Adobe AIR Packager for iPhone, introduced in the recently released Flash Professional CS5. Changes in the iPhone SDK TOS earlier this year prompted Adobe to halt future development of the tool.
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