Lala Closing on May 31st. Credits transferred to iTunes

Lala will be closing it's music streaming services on the 31st of May and wouldn't be accepting any new users. Very disturbing for those of us who have enjoyed their services for a long time. Anyway, we can take solace in the fact that unused web songs and credits will be transferred to Apple iTunes.
Farewell Lala

Steve Jobs Publishes Thoughts on FLASH

Steve Jobs just posted an open letter of sorts explaining Apple's position on Flash, going back to his company's long history with Adobe and expounding upon six main points of why he thinks Flash is wrong for mobile
devices. HTML5 naturally comes up, along with a few reasons you might not expect. Here's the breakdown:

It's not open.
"While Adobe's Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system." Man, that's some strong irony you're brewing, Steve. Still, we get the point --
HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript are open web standards.

The "full web."
Steve hits back at Adobe's claim of Apple devices missing out on "the full web," with an age-old argument (YouTube) aided by the numerous new sources that have started providing video to the iPhone and iPad in HTML5 or app
form like CBS, Netflix, and Facebook. Oh, and as for flash games? "50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are
free." If we were keeping score we'd still call this a point for Adobe.

Reliability, security and performance.
Steve hits on the usual "Flash is the number one reason Macs crash," but adds another great point on top of this: "We have routinely asked Adobe
to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it." You've got us there, Steve, but surely your magical A4 chip could solve all this? Battery life. "The video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software." Steve Jobs is of course H.264's #1 fan, and it's hard to blame him, since he cites 10 hours of H.264 playback but only 5 hours with software decode on the iPhone. Still, those "older generation" sites that haven't moved to H.264 yet are pretty much the exact same sites that aren't viewable with HTML5, which means we're being restricted in the content we can access just because some of it doesn't perform as well.
Touch. Steve hits hard against one of the web's greatest hidden evils: rollovers. Basically, Flash UIs are built around the idea of mouse input, and would need to be "rewritten" to work well on touch devices. "If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern
technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?" That doesn't really address the Flash-as-app scenario (that's point #6), but it's also a pretty silly sounding solution to a developer: your website doesn't support this one UI paradigm exactly right, so why not rewrite it entirely? The most important reason.

Steve finally addresses the third party development tools situation, but it's really along the lines of what we were hearing already: "If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools,
they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features." We doubt this will end all debate, but it's clear Apple has a line in the sand.
He concludes in saying that "Flash was created during the PC era – for
PCs and mice." Basically, it's for the olds. And you don't want to be old,
do you? Follow after the break for the whole thing in brilliant prose
form.

Courtesy: Engadget

HP acquires Palm

At long last after all the speculations and uncertainties about the future of Palm and its innovative webOS, HP appeared out of the blues to take over the company for a $1.2bn fee which translates to around $5.70 per share. Guess we're in for a lot of sweet devices from HP. Nothing has been mentioned about the "Palm" brand name yet, so we don't know whether to expect a full rebranding or not

Final Demise of the Floppy Disk

Sony has finally decided to pull the plug on 3.5 inch floppy disks and says the disks won't be manufactured or sold by 2011. Sony pulled it off the international market but has concluded to stop selling it in Japan. This is sure as a result of increased competition from other storage options

Part Inventory of Gizmodo Editor's House Raid

Part of the items that were seized from Chen's house over the raid

Police Raid Gizmodo Editor's House over Missing iPhone Prototype

Gizmodo's acquisition of an Apple iPhone 4G prototype has stirred a lot of waves in the past week, but things have taken an ugly twist after Gizmodo editor, Jason Chen's house was raided by California's REACT Computer Crimes Taskforce. The raid was carried out with the authority of a search warrant and his computers and other items were seized.
Gizmodo had earlier paid $5,000 to a guy who had found the device, took it apart and published pictures.
Under California laws, paying for found property is a crime, but the finder had tried to return the device to Apple and the desk support staff (knowing nothing about R&D) turned it down saying it was an imitation from China.

Windows HomeServer 'Vail' beta nowavailable fordownload, bringsimproved UI andstreaming options

Microsoft has
revealed today its public beta of
the next version of WHS, code
named "Vail." The primary
upgrades / changes include the
extension of media streaming
outside of the home or office,
improvements in multi-PC backup
and restore, simplified setup and
user experience as well as
"significantly" expanded
development and customization
tools for partner. Beyond that, the
company's playing things pretty
close to the chest, but you can feel
free to grab a 64-bit copy of the
beta starting today and dig in
yourself. 'Course, Microsoft
recommends that you install the
software on a secondary (read: not
important to your livelihood)
machine, and on the development
front, it's introducing a new SDK for
those who wish to "create add-in
applications using Vail's new
extensible programming model."
So, whatcha waiting for? That
download is calling.

Courtesy Engadget

Adobe Sidelines iPhone Code Tools

Adobe has finally decided to stop making
software tools that allow
Apple's iPhone and iPad to use
its popular Flash technology.
The decision is in contrast to an earlier
statement in which it said it would help
get Flash working on the gadgets.
Flash is the most widely used media presentation application used on the
web and many sites use it to power
animations, media players and Videos
and yet, Apple devices don't use the technology.
Apple has widely criticised Flash, but funny enough, even according to Mike Chambers of Adobe and other critics of Apple's decisions, Apple ain't the only game in town. So, Apple can stick their heads in lime and abandon Flash while other platforms continue supporting the application

iPad Camera Kit Shipping Already

Reports are coming in that
the iPad Camera Connection
Kit has finally shown up on a
couple buyer doorsteps, and
that the pair of white
dongles may actually have
been worth the wait. While
one is a simple SD card adapter
that adds one-touch image and
video import (including RAW,
complete with EXIF data) to the
iPad, the second provides a USB
port with some exciting new
functionality. TUAW reports one
reader could type on an iPad via
USB keyboard, and those rumors
about USB audio were true, too:
TidBITS was actually able to make
a Skype call after connecting a USB
headset. Before you get too
excited, however, please note that
the USB and SD image transfers are
one-way, and not all peripherals
are supported -- for instance,
TidBITS' iPad sneezed at an
external hard drive. Also, according
to the Apple Store, Camera
Connection Kit shipments are still
two to three weeks out, so don't be
surprised if it still takes some time
to get yours. For now you can
make do with the video after the
break.

Courtesy: Engadget

Sharp's 4 Colour HDTV

Sharp's latest
and greatest LCDs are showing up
at retail, including this 40-inch
Quattron model for $1,599. We have also spotted 46- and 55-inch
versions as well

Dell Lightning, Windows Phone 7 Slider under Way

From all indications, it appears Dell's Lightning, a Windows
Phone 7 portrait slider is on the way. With a 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon
processor, WVGA 4.1-inch OLED
display, AT&T and T-Mobile 3G, five
megapixel autofocus camera, 1GB
of flash with 512MB RAM plus 8GB
of storage on a MicroSD card (non-
user-replaceable, we're assuming),
GPS, accelerometer, compass, FM
radio, and full Flash support
including video playback, it appears this device is going to be a huge stunner in the Windows Phone 7 series. Shipping is set at at Q4, indicating this
is a WP7 launch device, and
Microsoft's told us Flash won't make
it into the OS initially. There are also indications this thing is
getting an upgrade to LTE in Q4 of
2011.
Fingers crossed

Microsoft Pink to Be Released Today

Well. Its finally going down today. What might eventually be a competitor to the iPhone from another full fledged software companY is being released today.
Microsoft is set to unveil its Microsoft Pink phone today. Although there are not too many leaks about the turtle type device, one thing we'll like to strongly believe is that the device will be spotting Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. Keep your fingers crossed till the end of today though.

Inbrics M1 gets Android 2.1, 1GHz processor

It looks like a smartphone, it has a
smartphone's form factor,
operating system, and an extra-
slim slideout QWERTY keyboard,
yet Inbrics still insists on calling the
M1 a Mobile Internet Device
instead. When the company's not
busy sinking its own battleships, it
appears to be doing actually
beneficial stuff, such as cramming a
new 1GHz Samsung CPU inside its
device. The original 800MHz unit
was the thing that worried us most
during our otherwise praise-filled
hands-on experience with the M1
at CES, so it's a good sign to see it
getting a bit of extra brawn ahead
of launch. The software has also
moved with the times, with
Android 2.1 being the current OS on
tap, which should look rather nice
on that 3.7-inch OLED display. The
M1 will have WiFi, but no cellular
connectivity is planned just yet. It's
all dependent on having a Western
vendor pick up the hardware and
infuse it with its own requirements.
Although at CES we were told to
expect the M1 in March, the current
timetable is for a July launch in
Korea and US availability by the
end of the year, provided Inbrics
finds a partner for the device.
Netbook News have also finally
squeezed a price out of the
company and have been told to
expect it in the "low $200" range.
Sounds kinda promising, don't you
think?

Intel Set to Release Six-core Core i7-980X Processor

Most of us run dual core processors on our laptops and a privileged few even have quad core processors. That ain't enough for you? Intel would release its six-core Core i7-980X Extreme Edition 'Gulftown' processor in a few days in Germany.
This beast is expected to have a price tag of €1049 ($1420) which isn't too high if you wanna be the dude with the highest braging rights in town.

Acer Designing Slim Intel Calpella Laptops

Acer is currently working on some sleek laptops that will run on the new Intel Calpella processors.
The Intel Calpella processor was expected to feature on Apple's MacBook line but there's not been word on that yet.
Acer's laptops are expected to come in 13, 14 and 15 inch variants and won't be more than an inch thick
[Gizmodo]